Matt Ward

I'm based at BJC and just went down to RYN for Thanksgiving. There are 3 basic ways to do it: 1) the northern route over the CO/WY border, 2) the direct route through the mountains (either over Rollins or Monarch most likely and then either through the Alamosa valley or west towards PGA), or 3) the southern route which is similar to what you've found. In the winter, the southern route you've described is going to be bumpy, I'd bet. The rotors coming off the rocks near ABQ and even on the east side near La Veta / Las Vegas are some of the worst I've seen in CO (consistently). The northern route is going to be far less technical and give you much better outs. The southern is likely the most tame of the 3 terrain-wise but riddled with MOAs and restricted areas. Plus, it seems like to me that area near Big Bend has a penchant to develop a lot of messy low pressure systems. Another note is the airspace around PHX seems to me to be some of the most congested, busy airspaces around. Flying east of PHX seems more direct but I always seem to get a diversion. And, again, few outs. I like the route west of PHX personally. Anyways, I'd probably prioritize the northern route as I think it's a good compromise between efficiency, outs, wx, etc. I tend to optimize for the windward side when I can. The mountain waves are no joke.

Hey everybody, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! I just took a nice flight from Denver down to Colorado Springs and back and noticed something in my EGT data that I've not seen before. The Savvy file is here: https://apps.savvyaviation.com/flights/4599237/f87a4cd4-5142-4d16-9175-0c6a837759a9 According to what I've read, a failing exhaust value will exhibit "A slow, rhythmic EGT oscillation (often on the order of one cycle per minute) is the unique signature of a failing exhaust valve." The FEVA algorithm wasn't tripped on my flight but it still looks odd. The part of the flight I'm interested in is from about 0:52 to about 1:08: During this period I was running LOP at 2400, probably about 21", 9500 feet, 8.6 GPH, TAS of about 147k which is my normal. Zooming in, you see something like this. The temperature delta is about +- 10 degrees but it is happening rhythmically on roughly a one minute interval. Anyone better than me at this stuff see anything interesting? Thanks!

Well done @hammdo. I agree - thread of the year! I’d love to find a way to get a high quality print some of these for my Super 21!

This is so good, thanks for sharing! It’s what this brand stands for: speed, value, and efficiency. The new owners would do well to remember that. Interesting to me is the competitive bravado. I guess that’s Texas marketing for ya! notice how in the Super 21 ad they mention the Mooney Twin.

it lets me long-click it on my pc and then edit; can't seem to do it on an iphone though.

Sold! not sure how to change the title on mobile.

I really hate to pile on, but, this is very amateurish. There are really simple errors that demonstrate a lack of attention to detail, is it "online" or "on-line", which do not bode well for conveying a leadership & credible position within a highly regulated industry such as aviation. But more to the point, I have no idea what the site is trying to do. It's really not obvious to me they're trying to support existing owners, they're not selling anything but shirts, and it really doesn't seem like they're trying to energize a secondary market. And I fully agree that any partner vs. build forum debate went the wrong direction. But really the killer to me is that they've lost any essence of what the brand stands for. I have no idea what that copy on the home page is saying. I don't fly a Mooney because it makes me feel like an "aviator", I fly one because they go fast on really low fuel burn. I bet many (most?) folks agree with something pretty close to that. It's a really functional benefit Mooney can own in the marketplace and it's got such a nice emotional attachment with the "Mooney Zoom", yet it's nowhere to be found. You see this a lot in product relaunches. Legacy brands get bought & sold and the essence of what made a brand great gets replaced by a newly minted MBAs impulsivity.

I'm sorry you've gone through this, but it's not a certainty a pre-buy would have found all the stuff you've outlined. As mentioned, there is no hard spec for what constitutes a pre-buy and many of those items sound a bit subjective. Pre-buys tend to be given a lot of weight, and hopefully they do help you avoid dumpster fires, but some of this is learning to be an airplane owner. If you haven't read the Mike Busch books, do. He talks a lot about maximalist and minimalist A&Ps, on-time and on-condition, etc. It's good stuff to know as you learn how to own - a challenging and unique skill from piloting. And unfortunately, maintenance doesn't stop. More items are going to wear and you're going to have to constantly make calls on what you can live with or alternatives: I just made the decision that an electric blanket is a better solution to a cold back seat than pulling a rear seat and re-taping! Vita doctrix, fellow owner, and congrats on the plane! BTW...don't ask your guy to look at your donuts...

I've got one on the shelf you can have for a song. It would need to be rebuilt but it was working (weakly) when I replaced it.

Removed for panel upgrade. Worked great for me. Make offer!

Thanks so much @Bryan Kahl! I pointed the guy here from Facebook hoping you’d respond. @MikeOH I hope you’ll find this is abnormal. My experience, at least, has been these guys have the best service in aviation. I’m hoping there is just a miscommunication!

Recently did a trip with quite cold OAT at 12.5k and my family in the back froze! There is a lot of cold air that comes up from the left rear seat gap between the seat and the airframe. The heat was on. I know about the valve at the pilots knee - I assumed closing it would send hot air backwards, opening it would send hot air to my feet. Moving the valve didn't seem to matter. This may just be a byproduct of an old airplane but was curious of anything I could check (that wouldn't require major surgery). Thanks!

Speaking of KTEX...

OAT was about -2c so I’d guess DA and field elevation were quite close. Weight was about 2450 lbs.

FWIW, I measured my TO roll leaving KTEX today in my 66E and it was right at 2500 feet.

I am unaware of any horn related to the vacuum; the only two horns I know of are the stall horn and gear horn as indicated above. Your comment about the light got my attention. I have a suction gauge, high vac light, and low vac light. Occasionally on takeoff and through climb, the high vac light will come up. Once I transition out of climb, figure about 10 minutes, it goes away. I don't worry about it too much as the instruments work fine and the gauge indicates less than 6 (upper end of green is near 5). But I'm wondering if maybe you have some sort of non-standard horn wired to a vacuum condition. That's a wild guess and the other suggestions are likely far more probable.

Do you mean a high/low light? Is the suction gauge showing anything abnormal, if you have one?

“Best regards” is way off brand now that you have been gifted a new signature: Not a Chicago Manual of Style elitist or anything, just a jerk!

Quick update: It's working! Avidyne sent a reformatting SB to the dealer who applied it and it's working now. Fingers crossed!

You'll get a free one right off the bat with all three files from Jepp. Use that. Then you just need the Nav Data one on an ongoing basis. Look on the Avidyne forums as they have a link to special pricing for Avidyne folks.

I'm the farthest thing from a mechanic, but... If you don't see it coming out the breather, in the exhaust, and not overly evident on the belly, check the gasket covers. You'll need to remove the wings and probably the top cowling but rub your finger around them and see what you find. If the gasket covers are not the orange ones, if they're the cork ones, consider replacing them. Also while you're in there rub your finger around the filter and look for excess oil - double check the safety wire too. Just near the filter you'll see the prop governor (I think) and check for oil there too. If you see much in that part of the compartment take it very seriously.

I had a somewhat similar issue that was related to the wires behind the plugs not being grounded. Hard issue to diagnose but that was it after finally finding it!

Welcome to MS! There are many of us based at BJC - looked like the East Ts in the opening. How did you find LaVeta? That’s one I’ve not had occasion to do but have heard it gets spicy with rotors coming off the SDC range.

I think that's right. Their support people have been great to deal with so far. They think it's a compact flash issue. They have the dealer doing a reformat. If that doesn't work, I'll have to send it in for compact flash repairs.

I just had a used IFD540 installed in my M20E. I updated the DFS files from Avidyne to match my tail number and it seems to be working great except for one problem I'll try to explain: -Upon booting up, the unit takes about 5 minutes to get ready -When it's not ready, the primary part of the MAP view is basically all black with a white compass rose -During this period, the Status page for GPS shows full satellites but the Nav Mode is blank -Further, the Status page for the Databases shows Nav: Collecting Information -On the FMS FPL page, it says Loading Nav Databases -The GPS indicator (upper right of the screen) is yellow and the BT and Wifi are green After about five minutes, things seem to go to normal: -The Map page displays Terrain -The Database Status page shows Nav: Americas -The GPS Status page shows Nav Mode: ENRT -The FML FPL page is active too At this point, I'm ready to fly. But when I fly I am noticing that the critical aeronautical features don't display on the map. For instance, there are no airspace rings at all! I've been through the Map Options exhaustively and don't think it's a user setting I've inadvertently disabled. I refreshed all three Jepp databases tonight but the problem hasn't fixed itself. The software version is 10.2.4.1. I know there are a lot of Avidyne users on here so I figured I'd ask - I'll also ask on the Avidyne forum too. Thank you!