A64Pilot

Could be, you never know until you try it. Next time I’m out without the Wife along I’ll try it in the Mooney, J model with factory prop. I believe our flat pitch setting is courser than average, I say that as it takes way less RPM for me to taxi up our slight uphill than my neighbors Bonanza. Of course it could be their flat pitch is finer than average too, or maybe it’s just the airplane weight? I won’t pull the pitch knob, I’ll leave it be. Once that engine stops it’s not going to matter, the prop is going flat in a short time, anyone who flies turbines shut down without feathering, by the time you get out most likely the prop will be in feather

You guys have good eyes

Everything other than a Concorde is a step down, now that’s an opinion of course but at least whatever you do don’t go with a wet battery that can leak acid and corrode things, it’s just not worth it, especially not for a new airplane like you have. An argument is, is the XC Concorde battery worth the extra money, I can’t answer that myself, but usually buy them Oh, and Concorde is a family owned completely US business, and the batteries are manufactured in the US, to me that makes a difference. If your curious there is a date stamp on the battery, but I’m not sure where, but feel sure there is one.

The Commercial stuff like this wears like Iron, think about how much wear an airline seat sees in a year for example.

I’ve honestly only done it once or twice, and then I had the upholsterer who was doing the work buy it, meaning I bought it from them. A good shop can of course buy hides for less than you can, and an honest shop will increase the price only by a reasonable amount, just like any shop. So Google prices for high quality hides, then you have an idea of the shop is marking up a reasonable amount or not, of course some may give you a good price on the upholstering and make their money on the hides. Funny thing with all the nonsense of Vegan leather etc. the price of hides is I believe at a low price, I guess these Vegans don’t realize cows aren’t raised for hides, they are raised for beef and the hides are sort of a by product, so going with plastic leather isn’t saving any cows? I’ve heard from the Wife that Women’s purses made from “Vegan leather” cost more than real leather. I’ve heard that the best hides come from South America where there is no barb wire. Argentina maybe? I like Ultraleather because it wore better for us on our boat that we lived on for four years than real leather would have, a boat is a tough environment for leather, just as an airplanes interior is. Some issues are for real leather hides it’s very possible for there to be imperfections from say barb wire injuries etc and quality and grading are very subjective, so you I’ve been told get some hides that have bad sections in them and that may be tough to work around. Which brings up “protected leather” AKA “corrected leather” which I think is what most Auto seats are made from, it has a plastic covering that does keep the leather from staining and hides blemishes. “real’ or unprotected leather will darken from your body’s oils etc when you sit on it. So if the shop buys it and isn’t happy with what they get I feel they are more likely to be able to exchange it. as They buy frequently from a supplier the you who will only likely buy this once. Actual real leather I’d suppose if you needed a Cert of some kind would take a burn test to do it, The article I gave a link to was a little incorrect in that it stated a Certified Repair Station is where to get the cert done. They may can do the burn test, but then so can a DER who has that rating. An IA could require a coupon to be sent off for a burn cert, as an IA myself I’d likely never think of it in a CAR 3 airplane, assuming it was well done I’d look at it and think wow that’s a nice interior as I know real leather easily meets CAR 3 standards, but knowing and proving are different things so to be super safe a burn Cert is the way to go. As an IA I’d worry more about the foam and any plastic panels than leather, some plastics go up like gasoline. Lot of rambling, sorry, but fake leather should come with certs if you ask as it’s a manufactured product, but I think real leather may have to be tested. I think I’d give Katskinz a call. I have seen super work from them on high end sports cars, surely they will do your airplane seats? My bee ena get them heated https://katzkin.com

Long read, but detailed, if it’s just TMI skip down to the CAR3 part https://www.aviationpros.com/home/article/10389164/interior-confusion

We don’t need burn certs, but if you want them anyway they aren’t expensive to get. I’d go for very high quality leather and get it certified if I wanted to as opposed to likely lower quality, overpriced “aviation leather” FAR 23 airplanes need burn certs I think. CAR 3 airplanes which I think we are only need a no smoking placard and the material doesn’t readily support combustion or similar verbiage, I’ll see if I can find it. I’d look real hard at Ultrafabrics Ultraleather, of course it comes in different grades like everything, but it wears and feels better than leather to me.

The larger an aircraft and faster it is, the more retracts make a difference, a small light especially tail wheel airplane it may not make much difference if the wheel and gear are faired in really well Retracts obviously do add weight, expense and complexity, other than the engine the retractable system is likely the most complex mechanical system on a small aircraft. A C-210 that nose gear doors close when the gear are down, and there are no main gear doors, drop the gear on one and it makes a huge difference in speed, so it’s not just doors or open holes, it’s the gear and wheels.

That’s another thing, surprisingly weight doesn’t hurt glide distance, but best speed of course increases with weight, and I believe rate of descent does too

Shingrix is supposed to protect you from post herpatic neuropathy, I sure hope so anyway. Wow did autocorrect have fun with that https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd/shingles/public/shingrix/index.html

So the shots don’t do much? I didn’t want to hear that. ‘I looked at the airplane, left side where the mike mount is won’t work, the iPad goes there, bad photo but it’s what I have now. I think a lanyard hanging from fresh air knob will work best, it’s close to the heater vent and that’s likely where if there is CO, where it’s going to come from

I think it’s more of an engine compression issue, local flying club in Ga had an old tired 172. We couldn’t get it to stop even in a full stall. My C-85 has relatively low time cylinders and even though a C-85 is not a high compression engine as you can see it stops and stays stopped. I’ve not stopped my J model but would hope with its high compression engine it would stop really well. I’ve not done it as it’s really sort of a stupid pet trick, meaning there isn’t really a lot of value in it in my opinion. more to satisfy curiosity. In the Video I was in downwind at Sylvester Ga airport and at an altitude that I’m sure would take a 360 to land deadstick, so yes if your going to stop a prop be at altitude and have a nice landing area picked out, even though I’ve never heard of one not restarting

Our props are single acting which means oil pressure is used to increase pitch and a spring decreases it. Double acting takes oil pressure to move in any direction. What this means is that anytime oil pressure is lost, the prop will go to fine pitch. In order to have oil pressure of course the engine has to be spinning, if the engine isn’t running on its own when it’s spinning, then of course the energy to spin the engine is coming from the aircraft, and that will decrease glide distance. Pulling the blue knob won’t do anything if the prop is stopped, and pulling full pitch on an idling engine may not give a realistic glide as well, the engine is still running. Best glide distance is achieved with a stopped prop, feathered if possible of course, but I assume most of us don’t have feathering props. Many aerobatic props work backwards, that is with oil pressure loss, they go to full pitch, reason is if the engine momentarily loses oil pressure it won’t go to very high RPM like it would with a normal prop, but again I doubt many have an aerobatic prop. Stopping a prop is really no big deal, just slow down with fuel or ignition turned off and it will stop, and if it’s a healthy engine it will take significant speed to get it going again so it will stay stopped at best glide speed. You can restart merely by lowering the nose and turning fuel or ignition back on. Of course unless your at real significant altitude, your not going to have time to do much except run the checklist and land if the engine quits for real. I wouldn’t shut down a “hot” engine myself, low power cruise with maybe cowl flaps open to drop the cyl head temp first. You have to look at the very end of the video, but on the 140 it took 120 mph, right at the yellow and way above best glide to restart. For a 1946 airplane a 140 is surprisingly efficient, 110 MPH on 85 HP, and with the prop stopped it glides very well, it’s actually way more aerodynamic than later Cessna’s. 2DD01869-5ADA-4CD9-841D-A59070FB1766.MOV

Speaking of Toyota, they were going to build GA aircraft at least three times that I know of, the last serious look was I believe I about 2002, first look was maybe 1980’s then again in the 90’s. First one was to use a Lexus based auto engine I don’t think anyone could argue that Toyota are fools, nor are they not masters of manufacturing, but Toyota still can’t make a business model of small airplane manufacturing being profitable. They keep looking, so it’s obvious that they want to. Four place retractable, complex airplane BTW. Honda for example had to team with GE to get their engine certified, and if you look it’s a GE / Honda, old man Honda is rolling over in his grave with GE being named first I’m sure. Speaking of jets, that part of GA is booming and has been for a long time. every new model of Gulfstream is sold out for years when they start production, some were smart and bought production slots of the 650 that they sold at a huge profit (think Superbowl ticket scalpers) as it was they only way to get one without waiting for over a year.

Hand mic spot seems best, I’ve put it in the front seat pocket anyway, odds of needing it are low. Got my second Shingles shot yesterday, and it’s got me feeling like crap, so I’ll likely look at it tomorrow, this shingles shot is worse than the Covid one, but I’veheard shingles is really, really bad.

It wasn’t for you, someone else sent me a PM pointing out my mistake, I’d like to blame autocorrect, but it may have been my mistake

There are two Moonies at our Airpark, my J model and one with a turbo IO-540, we both have lower gear doors and have no problem at all. We fly in and out weekly. However I learned this morning, things are much smoother with lower than spec tire press.

Excuse me, CO Mounts not the issue, I have the newer model that comes with a mount, it’s a place to fit it that’s the problem

I contribute that to there are a lot of people out there like me that really don’t want a plastic airplane, However if I had new airplane money, I’d want a Complex airplane, I don’t believe there isn’t a speed increase when you suck the gear up into a airplane, Sure a Cirrus is fast, because it’s a big motor in a small airplane, I bet it would be faster with the gear up, and yes I’ve heard about the RV built with retracts and didn’t gain any speed.

Some will, some won’t, some can’t. Insurence would be what would stop me, I’d have to be real sure that your insurence would cover me. Military world I would take the Phase team leader with me as a “Technical Observer” on a post phase test flight. A Phase inspection is pretty much an annual.

Other than the panel, where do you mount yours? I don’t have an open inch of space on the panel. I guess I’ll hang it from a fresh air vent knob, but there has to be a better place.

I don’t pretend to be any kind of expert,but it’s my opinion that Cirrus sold mostly because it looks modern, where most everything else doesn’t, Cessna, Mooney etc are your Grandfathers airplanes, sure they may have full color big displays, but still aluminum riveted together, Plastic airplanes look cool and Modern and the Cirrus interior is very much like say a Lexus interior. Mooney, Piper, Cessna etc are like trying to sell a 57 Chevy with new interior and maybe a big “infotainment” screen, but it’s still a 57 Chevy Many years ago I read an article that Cirrus pulled their sales people from the RV world, they were after of course wealthy, but not real experienced pilots, us old experienced types don’t go so much for plastic and parachutes for example, but newer pilots (younger) do. Don’t throw rocks at me because I’d love for someone to give each Cirrus, I’d sell it and buy an aluminum airplane, I got enough repairing composites in the Military. Aluminum is so much easier and more straightforward.

50 years ago there was the Meyers Interceptor 400, TC could I’m sure be easily purchased,and all the work is done, just start manufacturing. It is a Certified airplane, pressurized and may meet most realistic goals, but a Meyers is a heavy constructed aircraft as it’s fully 4130 tube out past the landing gear,but it’s Hell for strong as is one of the very few aircraft that’s never had an AD on the structure. Pics are of the piston D model at the Albany Ga plant https://www.flyingmag.com/interceptor-400-barn-discovery/ http://www.airbum.com/pireps/PirepInterceptor400.html https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2019/november/01/will-the-interceptor-400-only-live-twice

Nope, not at all. magnesium was one reason that had me shying from a Bo, but never seriously got interested, just tire kicking. Buy Army wise I spent over a million a year changing out magnesium gear boxes, many could be saved by being treated and the corrosion pits filled, but many couldn’t. Magnesium is lightweight and strong, but there is a reason why they quit building wheels from it a long time ago.

We were forming skins on our hydropress for some customer that had an STC, Beech control surface skins, were formed them I believe from .025 or maybe .020 aluminum, but not Bonanza elevators. It’s my understanding that those have to be magnesium, aluminum of sufficient thickness to get the required stiffness is apparently too heavy. I’m amazed at how many V tail Bo’s there are, I would have thought with all the magnesium corrosion problems we had in the military that they would have been long gone. How is it that they don’t corrode? As it seems many that own those aren’t financially constrained there must not be a market for Bo V tails skins, or surely someone would have made them by now, it wouldn’t be hard to make the tooling and assuming magnesium sheet is available, knock them out?