A64Pilot

The thing that has amazed me is how many people set up camera’s and video themselves going through life. ‘Why for example would anyone set up the go-pro and video a cross country flight? But seemingly many do. But just as confusing to me is that they will post that on You tube or wherever for the world to see. Someone posted a video of people in a Cessna 210 who crashed, to me that whole video was bizarre

I’ve never seen the same serial number component comeback from Garmin, we were a Garmin dealer and installed quite a few Garmin radios etc., and had more faults from new equipment than I would have expected. We never had a bad Bendix/King, but I’d guess the little sl30’s, 40’s, GTX 327’s etc maybe 10 to 20% had some fault right out of the box. ‘It wasn’t unusual to get a new radio as opposed to an overhauled one as a replacement, especially if it was a newly released product, assumption is that there just wasn’t many returbs available ‘Garmin has a employee discount that can’t be beat, there is some paper work and it has to be bought with a personal credit card, and shipped to your house, but the discount price is significantly lower than what the dealer pays. I believe you can only buy two of whatever radios etc per year and they track that serial number forever, so don’t even think of reselling, you can of course sell it, but I would suppose if you bought it today and it went in for repair next month with a different owner, there would be a problem. ‘If you have a problem with the radio, when you call and they ask for the serial number they know immediately it was bought with an employee discount, and even the repair price is seriously discounted. ‘Now I don’t have any experience with the real expensive stuff, just rack mounted lower priced stuff, and with that there is no getting it repaired from Garmin, whether it’s a $2 switch or the whole thing is fried by lightning or something, it’s the same price. ‘The good thing another the exchange is you get your replacement radio fast. ‘If you have the money to keep your airplane upgraded with new equipment as it becomes available, and your the type that likes shiny new stuff and color displays etc. then Garmin is your company. ‘If your the type that trained on a mechanical OBS and an HSI was the hot ticket, and as your familiar with it, 40 year old avionics as long as it’s good and reliable is really all you want or need, then Garmin is not your company. Especially if your OK with keeping your Pubs updated, but don’t want to be constantly updating your avionics I’m old school, retired and can’t pay $20,00o a year to keep up with the latest greatest avionics and honestly am at an age to where I don’t want to.

We cooked the pizza on the boat, we learned a trick in Brunswick Ga. ‘We both prefer very thin crust, and we learned to use a tortilla as the crust, so a pizza then is simple, tortilla, sauce, cheese and toppings, about as much work as making a sandwich. Pigs of course got left overs. If they see the food, they will swim out to the boat, sometimes quite far, I’ve seen them swimming in the anchorage, maybe 100 yds off shore. People frequently get bit etc by being stupid with the pigs, but as far as I know no one has been seriously injured. ‘I thought this might turn bad, but the Momma Sow I guess was in a good mood and it didn’t.

There are other ways to deal with adverse yaw other than a rudder, fries ailerons, spoilers, and simple drag devices like most flying wings, not sure if they should be called spilt ailerons or not. Adverse yaw really isn’t much of a problem for an aircraft efficiency wise, because how much time does one spend turning? If it were I’d assume multi engine transport category aircraft would use asymmetric thrust as opposed to opposite rudder, and I don’t think they do? But there is a lot more to a rudder than adverse yaw correction, try a crosswind landing without one for instance, or how good is yaw stability without one? Ask a Bonanza pilot how well an aircraft with less than optimum size of rudder flies in turbulence. Plus an airfoil at zero lift still has drag, that rudder we seem to want to get rid of for instance. ‘It’s all interesting of course, back in the I guess it was early 70’s and I was young, if you had asked me I would have told you that within 10 years that Canards would become the dominant design, as. they were clearly more efficient, but other than the Beech Starship, what happened with Canards? Beech got rid of the Starship for reasons other than it being a Canard I believe, not so sure I buy the avionics being it either. You can take a standard aircraft and with aileron rigging wash out the end of the wing and likely get close to zero lift in cruise for the last few feet. I know a crop duster with its ailerons deflected up a few degrees is lighter in roll and has a quicker response and faster roll rate, and if they are deflected down a few degrees the opposite is true. So what I’m saying is this is interesting, I would expect to see it applied to ultra high performance sailplanes etc, but wouldn’t expect it to become mainstream

Laminar flow is notoriously difficult to actually occur, even dead bugs will trip flow into non laminar, it’s exceedingly difficult to get a manufactured metal wing in laminar flow for more than a small amount of its chord. This is where a composite material wing, if and only if it’s molds are nearly perfect have us beat, but maintaining molds to that level takes an artist ‘My airplane has a lot of leading edge paint damage from rain, so I assume it’s almost all non laminar, yet I get what’s most often quoted as realistic cruise speeds for a J model, roughly 155 kts true at 65% power. ‘Decades ago, I believe it was NASA that built an aircraft with thousands of slots in the wing, the idea was to pull a vacuum and suck boundary layer air into the wing to maintain laminar flow, it worked and reduced drag drastically, sort of proving how difficult it is to achieve laminar flow On edit, apparently the suction method has a whole lot more history than I was aware of, even back before WWII https://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/pdf/88792main_Laminar.pdf

Short, low power flights, and cold weather maybe. Some aircraft like my little C-140 you just can’t get the oil up to temp in cold weather so all you can do is shorten the change interval. All my airplane flying has been in warm weather, I don’t do icing for example. Sure I’ve been as far North as the Article Ocean, but in July. ‘I tell people that I’m allergic to cold and equate cold to pain, so I just don’t have airplane cold weather experience. ‘I’ve flown in cold weather, just not piston airplanes ‘What kind of Cessna?

It’s not all that uncommon for an engine that has been making metal for the crank and cam to be worn beyond the limits that they can be turned down to, unless caught early and not all are Its similar to brakes on a car, if you change the pads before there is metal to metal, then it’s just changing the pads, but if you don’t, then it’s disks and pads. ‘Now I don’t know this but used to be if you bought a zero time motor from the manufacturer you didn’t get your core charge back until they tore down and inspected and deducted of course for any unusable parts, but it’s my understanding that they don’t do that anymore, if it was running when removed, your getting the full refund. If that’s true and I don't know that it is, and if your planing on running one until it’s making metal, then maybe that’s for you. It’s not all that hard to get to what Continental charges for a zero time motor or more if you have to replace the cam and crank, and you don’t have a factory zero time motor either. Maybe I’m just more sensitive to parts prices as I don’t have to pay labor

I’m theorizing that’s it’s just a tiny bit of water, emulsified with just a tiny bit of oil. I’ve seen it, but not frequently, usually when it’s cold and you go fly just enough to change oil etc.

Oh,and silicone hose and petroleum products like oil don’t mix well. Unkess of course they are Viton lined, not real common, but Viton is pretty much impervious to just about anything.

Oil and fuel for that matter will always have some water in it, called entrained I think. ‘An excess of water in oil will emulsify in the oil and turn it milky, just a little water will have milky strands in the oil. ‘I’ve never seen crankcase oil get that much water in it except for a liquid cooled engine with a blown head gasket or a farm tractor left out in the rain or something, so it just shouldn’t be possible for an air cooled airplane motor to get excess water in the crankcase to the point that it turns oil milky. The crankcase breather tube is metal, and if it’s cool enough from cold weather or hasn’t heated from a short flight, it’s possible for it to condensate moisture from combustion , then that little bit of oil and water can mix and turn milky. ‘Oil and water don’t mix normally, but water can be emulsified in oil from being hot or excessively agitated, like a crankshaft beating it into a mixed state, so hot oil mist and hot moisture can come out of the breather tube and condensate together into an emulsification. ‘The white milky looking coolant you’ll see in a machine shop is often a water / oil emulsification. The test method is to pull the dipstick and look to see if it looks like you have a milkshake in your crankcase, but I don’t think you will ever see that in an airplane

I’ve only really gotten into real ice accumulation once in an airplane, freezing rain, in a C-210 on approach, and what worried me was I couldn’t see through the windshield. I was going to open the window and stick my head out some, but the freezing rain turned into liquid rain and it was gone quickly, but when it was freezing, it was accumulating fast. ‘So what do you do on a low wing airplane with an iced up windshield? Honest question

I would go dark as you can in the back, especially since your down South., I’d also go as thick as you can for the windshield, going to a thick windshield can really quieten things down, and is good for birds too. Actual clear is uncommon, my C-140 door windows are clear as I made them, the windshield looks clear but if you put a white piece of paper behind it you can see it’s slightly green. ‘I personally don’t like the green, smoke is much better in my opinion. ‘when looking at a airplane, often your looking through two windows so it looks darker than it is.

Depends on how you fly and what are your intentions engine source wise. ‘If you want to overhaul, I’d recommend not overflying TBO, the reason is if you TBO, the odds of your crankshaft and camshaft being in good condition are very good, if you wait until it’s making metal etc the odds are they will need to be replaced. It’s not uncommon at all for a first run motor for the crankshaft to check out to new, not serviceable tolerances. So if your the type that believes only fools overhaul at TBO, then budget for an overhaul / exchange motor. ‘The crankshaft as an example has a very hard surface coating, it’s pretty thin though, and as the bearings wear, clearances open up and if the hard surface of the crankshaft is worn through, wear at that point is very rapid.

Didn't watch much, my guess would be carb ice, and he hadn’t experienced it before. Couple of questions though, a comment on some carb heat doesn’t work? How? it’s checked on every run up isn’t it? likelihood of it failing after take off is low, but could happen I guess. ‘My C-85 is a real ice machine, I’ve learned to leave it on for 30 sec or so on run up just prior to take off cause it can ice on taxi. Second was air filter icing, carb heat bypasses the air filter, in fact on short final I go carb heat off, because I don’t want unfiltered air going into my engine on the ground. If you fly an airplane that is bad about carb ice (any little Continental) you get used to it, recognize it and pull carb heat on habit. At cruise power, it will work, it may not at very low power though, pulling it on, on final if you have been conducting a gliding approach it may not work, the reason is the exhaust may have cooled too much. ‘Isn’t a heated pitot a requirement for IFR?

That theory has sort of evolved over time, a newer theory is to trap a layer of air a few molecules thick at the surface and let the air molecules shear against themselves gives less drag than shearing against a smooth surface. I’m not sure where it came from, I believe maybe when Military aircraft began to be painted in rough and not smooth paint and didn’t slow down? Go feel CARC paint, it’s so rough it feels almost like sand has been added to the paint, the roughness is for IR suppression, no glare. An IR missile can lock on canopy glare for instance so shiny paints out. About 1980 jet ski racers roughened the bottoms of their skis and went faster. I think that was an independent discovery, discovered because you beach skis and that roughens the bottom of course. But all this is supposition. I’ve learned seen any papers on the subject

I do the same for my NA motor. for me it’s 22 squared and that’s less than 65%, above a altitude where 22” isn’t possible for every inch of manifold pressure decrease, add 1000 RPM, it’s not exact of course but close enough for me. ‘I’ll even use the mixture as a sort of throttle, if I’m just cruising around or traveling with slower aircraft instead of reducing manifold pressure, I’ll lean it out more, she will run smoothly at 6 GPH at 22 squared but not much less than that. ‘Once well LOP fuel burn determines power output

Understood, I’ve always done my own annuals and until recently I worked at an aircraft manufacturing plant, so all kinds of common hardware was free. ‘That’s come to an end and I’m still struggling with what do people do, buying a couple dollars of screws etc from Aircraft Spruce and paying $10 to ship an ounce is getting old fast.

It’s actually Garmin that’s built the company by acquisition, they got into aircraft avionics by buying Apollo, they bought Navionics to increase share in boating, and the Garmin inreach came about because they bought the Delorme product that name escapes me, they have acquired many companies, sometimes just to shut them down. Active Captain was a crowd sourced app that boaters would report everything, navigation hazards, anchorages, marina reviews, boat yard reviews, everything. It was hugely helpful. Garmin bought it, so guess what? ‘Garmin is buying uo the competition and one could argue they are better, but they have disturbing trends, the planned obsolescence is one, but for instance in boats all other chart plotters can use several different map sources, Explorer charts for instance are far away superior for the bahamas, but a Garmin chart plotter can only use Garmin maps. so you don’t have a choice if you buy a Garmin, it’s Garmin or nothing. ‘I’m sure you all know the Garmin story, who they used to work for, where the name came from etc. You can’t deny their tremendous, huge success, they killed giants, it’s sort of the American business dream

A 150 can accelerate and fly and even climb at lower density altitudes at gross weight and full flaps, although not well ‘However it can’t at high DA, many aircraft can’t. But the issue isn’t doing T&G’s, the issue is putting your self into a situation where a go around or missed approach isn’t possible, that should be avoided, try not to commit to an approach that there is no way out. If you can’t go around what’s your plan when there is a runway incursion? A LOT of cessna’s have 40 degrees flap. it’s not unusual, a 182 my Father had did for instance, Cessna went through all the trouble and expense to build those big Fowler flaps, it became sort of a trademark for Cessna to have real effective flaps. Maybe it was a hold over from the L-19’s 60 degrees of flap?

I don’t understand, what would an Experimental do for you? Surely insurence isn’t any easier for one. You don’t have to have insurence, if and when I’m refused insurence, I’ll fly without it, I’ll still try to get liability if possible, but I’m not going to quit flying just because some insurence company won’t cover me anymore. ‘Now why some have to have insurence is because they owe money on the airplane, and if your not going to pay cash for the Rocket, I’d say stick with what you have as I assume it’s paid for and you don’t have to have insurence to fly it. ‘What I have heard is that at some age, likely 70, the insurence companies are going to require a full FAA physical. I’m actually in a running argument with my broker about that, she’s telling everyone in the neighborhood to keep their FAA med and don’t go basic med because when they turn 70 they are going to have to have one. ‘I don’t understand why keep FAA med and roll the dice year after year, if insurence requires it, and you desire insurence, then go get an FAA medical when you turn 70. ‘Basic Med has in my opinion been the best thing to happen for us older guys, and I’m not giving that up. Insurence has always been what mostly determined min qualifications, not the FAA, and they are going to do it with physicals too.

Oh and it’s been a long time since we dove there, but the Riding Rock Inn has world class diving, I mean especially the wall diving is among the best in the world. Small 6 pack boats usually with just 4 or 5 divers and two dive Masters, no Cattle Boats, there is a French Resort there with Cattle boats if that’s you thing. ‘San Salvador is of course the Island Christopher Columbus first landed at, it’s definitely an out island, the Resort wasn’t quite as nice as the pictures, but it was clean and good food, but it’s the diving that you’ll remember forever. The runway is huge, 737’s come in and out ferrying people to the French Resort I think. https://ridingrock.com

Did you see the pigs at Staniel? They swim up to the boat, this one wanted pizza. right next door at Compass Kay you can swim with and feed the Nurse sharks in the Marina, compass also has a runway I think but a water taxi from Staniel is easy too. We cruised the area extensively on our sail boat for three years

At low altitude on my pre-buy flight with everything pushed forward and burning take off fuel consumption of 19 GPH, I got an average of 168 kts ground speed. ‘I thought with mods, an F was just as fast as a J? I can cruise at 155 true or so, but I’m usually 22 squared and well LOP and 140 ish kts. I can get even at low altitude 135 kts burning 7 GPH, and while I enjoy speed and sometimes use it to beat weather or something, I’m usually going slower and burning a whole lot less fuel, plus Lycoming even says an engine operated at 65% or lower power will last longer. ‘I have old 1980’s avionics, but I do have a 430 for GPS approaches, but I’m dual ILS, dual comm, what would $20,000 or more of glass give me? The thing about any Mod is on sale day you won’t recoup most of your money, the converse of that is don’t buy an airplane with the idea of modifying it, buy one that’s equipped like you like, even if that means borrowing a little money, it will be cheaper in the long run

That’s with any airplane and some you could even damage the engine if you don’t, some have manifold pressure vs RPM limits ‘I go full prop and full rich on final, by doing it on final, the RPM stays the same, I was taught at a school that was meant to produce airline pilots and they start off of course in small aircraft, and they taught to not upset the passengers, so no warning horns were supposed to go off, no sudden revving up of the engines etc, of course that’s not possible on a turbine, the props are going to speed up. ‘But they did teach differently, for instance the second you got a hold clearance you were supposed to configure for min fuel consumption because of course the purpose of holding is to waste time, so save fuel while wasting time. Going around with prop at cruise settings like taking off on one mag, many will say they won’t, they always use the checklist, but fly long enough and you’ll eventually do it. Same with carb heat if you have one

A 150 even with 40 degrees of flap at certification altitudes would go around with full flap, even if marginally. I believe the 152 had a increased gross weight and the higher gross weight took marginal to ain’t happening, so the flaps were reduced to 30 degrees or so I was told. Of course there are some airfields at an altitude that a 150 or 152 can’t take off regardless of flap setting. ‘But flap settings are sometimes other things too, for instance the piston engine Thrush crop duster has 40 degrees of flap, but the factory turbine only has 15 degrees, the reason for 15 degrees is the excessive attitude change on a full power go around was excessive so the flaps were reduced, but there are STC’s that put a turbine on a Thrush that keep the 40 degrees of flap. You don’t need flaps to slow down on a turbine, the prop min pitch can be set flat enough so that it’s a huge speed brake, much more effective to slow you than flaps, and 15 degrees on that airplane is about where you get the most lift without a lot of drag.