A64Pilot

I carry an RON bag, because well I may have to remain overnight for Wx and who knows, just underwear and toothbrush, cell phone charger etc. and my wallet. You should hydrate, air at altitude apparently is dry and that causes dehydration. Gatoraid bottles work well but I also have a travel John. Wife refuses such a thing so we make more stops when she is along than when I’m by myself. I’ve been told that Gatoraid isn’t good for rehydrating, can’t speak to that myself.

I would be real concerned with a discharge rate of 290 amps, even at 20V (hit a battery hard and voltage drops), that’s still 5,800 Watts, which is an awful lot as in enough to cause a fire. A bad battery should not have anything to do with a discharge, once running the alternator is providing current, not the battery, so in my opinion it’s most probable that you still have a problem, and I doubt the -290 amps is real or you would have smelled burning wires. A loose ground can cause all kinds of illogical problems, lots of things that just don’t make sense.

Oh, and one of my helmets has the Oregon Aero upgrade kits, which are WAY more comfortable, much better cushions, and I think the foam they use in the ear cups absorb even more noise than the stock foam does. They make their kits for headset too apparently, but I’ve not put a kit on any of my headsets, I guess you have to call and find out which kit fits your headset? https://www.oregonaero.com/helmet-upgrades/military-aviation-helmet-upgrades#!/~/search/keyword=headset+upgrade+kit

Roughly I’d guess about 8,000 of my hours are in noisy turbines, AH-64’s and Crop Dusters, Crop Dusters are loud as they have zero insulation, it’s all sheetmetal with a hole in the floor, that way you can hose it out every so often like old work trucks, and of course any Military helicopter is loud, but an AH-64 has an engine intake behind each shoulder and the intake is where the high freq comes from, and the transmission right behind your back. What works best is take a good passive system and add ANR, that gives you the best of both worlds. Attached photo is three of my helmets, one SPH-4B and two HGU-56P’s all three have ANR kits, one the battery box is on the back of the helmet, which didn’t work out as well as I hoped, the other two the box is between the two plugs. Headsets Inc makes the ANR kits, have them install them or install them yourself. https://www.headsetsinc.com Give them a call, they have been doing this for a long time and they can customize most anything. What Sux is they use 9v batteries that are expensive, to combat that I use rechargeable Li-Po 9V’s that recharge from a USB plug There is also a Headsets Inc headset, they used to take Peltier headsets and modify them, not sure if the newer ones are still Peltor or not but if not they are a clone, one of the new ones is in the Pic One good option is to take a good David Clark headset and put an ANR kit in, if you like David Clarks. If hearing protection is your concern, you’re not getting protection from ANR alone because it doesn’t block the harmful frequencies, but I don’t think our Mooney’s produce high freqs like a turbine can either. The low frequency drone that they do produce is fatiguing over time but probably not all that harmful, but a good passive set with ANR gives the most noise reduction as if ANR is faced with lower volume of the freqs it cancels it of course does an even better job, but there just isn’t the major difference between ANR off and on of course because the passive is so good. If you really, really want to protect your hearing have an Audiologist take a mold of your ear canals and make special tuned ear plugs, that’s what I did in the Military because ANR in my Military IHADDS helmet wasn’t an option then.

In all honesty I cant think of ever shooting an ILS to a short field, ILS as I’m old was my default in “hard” IFR. I don’t fly IFR anymore, I don’t have the need or desire and don’t maintain proficiency, so I just don’t. I’m one that believes proficiency and currency differ. Are there any ILS equipped short fields? I guess that depends on your definition of short? I normally land with full flap, because that gives me the lowest landing speed and a lower deck angle, but I think you should be comfortable landing with no flap, because eventually you will have to. A Mooney or any other GA aircraft will go around with gear down and full flaps, if nothing else an electrical failure is possible even if unlikely. But it won’t in every possible scenario. You can’t cover every possibility, if you try you will end up with a dog with no real range or useful load. However every GA aircraft I can think of climbs best with NO flap. Many won’t use flaps on takeoff because of this, rather than getting wrapped around the axle on something that likely isn’t real important, I use T/O flaps because the POH calls for it. I’ve participated in several accident investigations, both Military and Civil. If your the aircraft Commander it’s far easier if you were following the POH as opposed to give a convincing argument why the POH is incorrect. But in truth under normal circumstances it’s truly difficult to get a Certified GA airplane in a position it can’t fly, yet of course some do every year, we have all seen the videos of the airplane that gets off the ground but can’t climb because it’s in the region of reverse command. You just can’t build an idiot proof anything, there will always be a “better” idiot. As with everything else all this is opinion, there are many ways to skin a cat, and no single way is always the best, that’s why in my opinion you should be comfortable with every possible way. For example if light weight and near sea level the shortest T/O in my Maule was with 48 degrees (full flap), but my normal T/O was no flap. I think it was 48 degrees anyway, point is depending on conditions maybe there is no one best flap position, which flies in the face of always follow the POH. In my opinion you should do a couple of practice go-arounds full flap and gear down, learn it’s not anything to be afraid of, if you weren’t shown that then you should have, eventually you will need to go around on short final and scrambling to get gear and flap may not be prudent, possibly getting the aircraft climbing and you to settle down, then getting gear and flaps is a better idea. Watch some videos of Corsairs take off of a Carrier if you want to see a lot of flap, or watch the T/O film of the Doolittle raid, those guys did a lot of practice with getting a heavy B-25 off short, I’m sure they tried everything.

That’s an old bush / Ag pilot belief. It’s predicated in the belief that an Aircraft manufacturer knew what they were doing when they set max deflection of the ailerons. Idea is they are set to cause the most lift as possible and that more travel adds more drag than lift, drag of course causes adverse yaw and that’s not desirable. Often with flaps there are three settings, first is mostly lift, second a mix of both increased lift and drag and full is mostly increased drag. However if there is enough thrust to overcome the additional drag takeoff roll will be reduced with full flaps, there are no absolutes, however if your really heavy first notch, or usually 15 deg will often match max down aileron deflection is best to get a struggling Ag plane off of the runway. Full flap on turbine Thrush aircraft was only 15 deg for this reason, with a turbine you can get drag from the prop so no need in flaps for drag. Oh, and for Certification at max gross weight an aircraft has to demonstrate capability to go around with full flaps. But hot day, high altitude etc., maybe not. On edit, don’t do what your CFI tells you, do what the POH says.

A problem with introducing something new is that often as much as you try it’s not possible to test for every possible interaction. I’m not saying that the Gami fuel has or will cause any problems, perhaps for example the seeming new leaks are actually from the change in weather. But while I can’t quote specific examples off of the top of my head other than from the Military but it’s really not at all uncommon for a new fuel or oil etc once it gets into the field to cause problems in a small percentage of aircraft, especially when they are operated in environmental conditions that are unusual or who knows what all the possible combinations of who knows what are. The only way to honestly know is to field something and cross your fingers. I was listening to a class sometime ago where a fuel cell manufacturer claimed that the aeromatics in some auto fuel was causing problems with fuel cells for instance.

The first Bose aviation headset was a heavy clunky thing with clear sections that you could see the electronics in, it had clear gel filled cushions, not black. Don’t know the model, that was maybe 20 years ago? The box was of course the first lemo type connector and the power supply. Not big about the size of an old fashioned match box. Heavy thing but comfortable, and it was a decent passive headset with ANR. It was in my opinion superior to what they sell now. There are several things I don’t like about Bose but primarily it’s that they don’t protect your hearing, the reason is because ANR at least Bose anyway only works from about 40 Hz to 300 Hz or so, yes that cuts out most of the annoying drone from our aircraft, but it’s not the frequencies that cause damage. Don’t believe me, I’m just some anonymous guy on the internet, look it up yourself. If you want to protect hearing you need to block primarily high freq’s, thats probably best done with a good passive headset, then add in ANR and you have a headset that knocks out the fatiguing drone, and protects your hearing. Bose quickly abandoned that for I think a couple of reasons, both marketing based. First for lightweight, but also if your headset doesn’t block much if any noise with the ANR off it’s magic when it’s turned on, I’m sure we have all been to a Bose booth where they are playing the low freq drone and you turn the headset on and off to experience the magic. But also largely because way back in the 70’s I have been an Audiophile, and Bose has always been in truth pretty poor speakers, using processing etc to give what seems like good sound, but it’s not, if you can set up an A+B switch to good speakers so you can switch back and forth you will hear how much is missing, then take a good look at many if not most of their Auto systems where they quote huge power numbers, but what they don’t tell you is that their speakers are 2 Ohm, not 4 or 8.

I bought my Maule years ago, it came with the original Bose headset and had a “box” installed in the panel that the single plug plugged into providing comms and power. Soon one ear stopped working, called Bose to see about getting it repaired, they said they don’t support it I would have to buy the new model, I asked well will you give me a trade-in or a little off? Bose said no. I asked well will the new model plug into the box mounted in the panel? Bose said no. I asked well will the new box fit the same hole in the panel? Bose said no. Ended up making a cover plate to cover the hole. Threw the Bose in the trash, which was a shame because it was the best working Bose made as it was a decent passive set with noise cancelling, newer models don’t have much if any passive attenuation. Last Bose I ever bought. I do have an A10 that I inherited I think it is, stored it for a few years, bought about the same time as my Zulu. Started flying again, both headsets needed new plugs etc as the rubber had deteriorated, called Bose, Bose said we don’t support that you’ll have to buy the new model, same song and dance about trade in etc.. Called Zulu and they said sure, for xx dollars we will rebuild it and upgrade it to the new model, which they did, but did so, so well that it just might be a whole new one, I’m not sure. Which one do you think was the better buy? Batteries are just too cheap and easy to carry spares plus my headsets will work in almost all other aircraft because of the standard plugs.

Ref parts, Thank God we can make our own via OPP, there really isn’t much you can’t build or have built, $$$ and time would be the issue. I have a friend that “restored” the only flying XP-82, takes money, time and skill, but one man built it, another can rebuild it. Not me though

Mine looks like that, on mine I think it’s a push rod tube leaking One day I’ll do something about it, and I second the 6 qt recommendation. Can be coming from the bottom of the filler tube too, lots of potential leaks

I don’t know if Cat will do aircraft engines, but in the rest of the world they are known as pretty much the best analysis people out there, but in truth I think there are all good from what I have seen. I don’t know what they cost either, currently I’m using Amsoil to determine a change interval on my motorhome based on soot load, because my engine pumps an abnormally large amount of exhaust into the intake for emissions and they include soot in their base analysis where many it’s an additional cost. A Diesel is very similar to aircraft in that you don’t change oil based on the oil breaking down you change it to get the junk out, Diesel is often soot but sometimes fuel, aircraft it’s often lead, but do any of the oil analysis companies tell you how much lead is in the oil? I’d be curious to see if LOP reduces it. I’m not necessarily a big fan of oil analysis as a tool for determining engine condition which is what it’s being marketed as, but it IS the best too in existence for determining the condition of the oil for determining oil change interval etc. It is after all called oil not engine analysis. The reason I’m not necessarily a fan of analysis is because for example your sample has elevated bearing metal, what is your course of action? What it usually is is excessive worry, but I’ve never seen an engine torn down based on analysis, but I’ve seen a great many from metal in the filter. It’s the filter in my opinion that’s the bird in the coal mine, not analysis.

The purpose of running an engine until the oil is hot before draining is to mix the sludge and junk that settles out over hours so it will drain with the oil. The drain is not at the absolute bottom, if it were then it might not be as important to get the oil hot first. Anyone that has ever pulled a constant speed prop has seen the sludge, unfortunately as the oil in the prop is a dead end without any flow the sludge builds up over time. Probably because of the lead, sludge is a real thing in our engines, even with a short change interval. 180F is plenty hot, because we don’t measure where the oil is hottest. This is what Lycoming says about oil temp. Remember everything in the engine excepting the heads and possibly the cylinder is oil cooled. Temps above 200 is not desirable

A few comments, do NOT use any kind of ferrous steel, brillo pad, regular steel wire brush etc to clean stainless steel, it will imbed ferrous steel in the SS and that will rust. Very often good grades of Stainless like 316 wire rigging on sailboats for example will appear to rust, but it’s from the steel tooling that was used that leaves steel behind that rusts. The answer is to “passivite” the stainless, that is use an acid that removes the ferrous metal and voila the rust stops. I’ve not read tge article but think considering the source it’s probably pretty good, Most any piping is drawn through a steel die and that contaminates it, then any bending process is another way https://www.mmsonline.com/articles/how-to-passivate-stainless-steel-parts. I’ve had decent luck with believe it or not but Citric acid on a sailboat, but usually nitric acid is used, but that’s nasty stuff to put on parts that can’t be removed like on a boat. The process is to remove the iron contaminate physically as much as possible, scratch brite on a die grinder is good, then passivate Titanium isn’t as expensive as you may think, I had Allied Titanium in Washington I think make me grade 5 Titanium chain plates on my boat for not much more than the 304L ones Island Packet used. Pic is one of eight chain plates made from Grade 5 Titanium, business card is just for scale

I don’t think it’s necessarily just a temp, it’s a temp PLUS how much water is in saturation in your fuel, unfortunately you don’t know that amount. If I were concerned, I’d add the alcohol, I don’t think it hurts, but I wouldn’t add it until pre flight myself. I’m suspicious of it sitting in there long term for a couple of reasons