A64Pilot

Well that plus reduce weight, complexity by a lot plus move the bottom cowl way up because it doesn’t have to house a nose wheel, there by significantly reducing drag by quite a bit. LoPresti's Fury as an example, pretty sure it had a 200 HP Lycoming angle valve, but I believe he had the 540 in mind. Of course we won’t likely ever see anymore Mooney’s period, much less a taildragger, but I’d like one. This is all just dreaming.

I know it’s not going to happen about like wishing for a turbine M20. Just spit balling, but if there was a tail wheel M20 I’d prefer it over the nose wheel.

From your link The taildragger configuration has its own advantages, and is arguably more suited to rougher landing strips. The tailwheel makes the plane sit naturally in a nose-up attitude when on the ground, which is useful for operations on unpaved gravel surfaces where debris could damage the propeller. The tailwheel also transmits loads to the airframe in a way much less likely to cause airframe damage when operating on rough fields. The small tailwheel is much lighter and much less vulnerable than a nosewheel. Also, a fixed-gear taildragger exhibits less interference drag and form drag in flight than a fixed-gear tricycle aircraft whose nosewheel may sit directly in the propeller's slipstream. Tailwheels are smaller and cheaper to buy and to maintain. Most tailwheel aircraft are lower in overall height and thus may fit in lower hangars. Tailwheel aircraft are also more suitable for fitting with skis in wintertime.[2] seem to be lots of advantages to me, excepting requiring greater proficiency

Yeah, When I Retired we moved aboard a sailboat, the plan was to chase 80 degrees, if it got warmer head North, cooler head South. Always wore T shirt, shorts and flip flops. Would probably still be on the boat except for health (knees) and the Pandemic. I’ve just recently as in about a month ago transitioned to shoes having discoverd slip in ones. With a temp knee replacement it got hard to scrub my feet every time I showered which if you wear sandals you have to, and tying shoes is a no go and even without tying I had to have a stupid long shoe horn Even in Central Fl though it’s been cold lately requiring a coat that I had to buy. I think maybe I didn’t move far enough South, but S Fl isn’t an option as it’s apparently a Suburb of NJ and NY and I’m not from there. Probably should have stayed in Jax but hindsight is 20/20. Cmon on Global warming, shouldn’t we be toasty warm in Jan by now? Since the Oceans are boiling and all.

I think unconventional I outgrew tricycles when I was three or four maybe. I think a Mooney would be a perfect T/W. Less complex, lighter weight, faster due to smaller frontal area, and most important to me lots more leg room without that nose wheel well right in the center of the floor, and I think it would be easier to get into and out of with the trailing edge of the wing lower to the ground, more prop clearance making prop strikes less likely and less wear from rocks and sand. Might could even run a longer prop and be more efficient, even faster still. I think LoPresti was onto something with his Fury, would have been much better / faster if it had been an M20 though with the Laminar flow wing etc. Only draw back I see is it would require greater pilot proficiency.

I think 75% isn’t a magic number, I think they want you at the max continuous allowable power, and for most engines that’s 75%. In other words I’m going to guess that using the max power in your cruise charts is max continuous power and what I’d shoot for assuming you can’t answer your question. Because surely only continuous power settings are in cruise charts

Way I have always done it is to climb at full power to say 5,000 ft or whatever will give you 75% with prop pulled back a couple of hundred RPM and cruise at full throttle. I’ve never had a cyl head temp issue, but I run rich too. As your a Turbo full throttle ain’t going to work of course, you will have to pull it back or I guess go very high, I’d pull it back. I keep it very rich the first couple of hours, wasting fuel to keep temps down. I want decent altitude just in case, and I don’t like cruising at T/O RPM. I think high MP is what breaks in a cylinder more than RPM, cylinder pressure forces the rings against the cylinder wall and high MP of course creates high cylinder pressure. Note, I have NO turbo experience so I can’t help you with MP settings. I don’t go LOP until I think it’s broken in, in my case that’s always been 10 hours or less. I’ve been lucky I guess. Stupid rich is fuel wasteful but it does keep temps down. I also avoid long warm-ups, especially at first. You can glaze a cylinder pretty quick before it’s broken in, I think that is one reason why some take so long to break in and why maybe some never do, so pre-heat real good so you don’t need a warm up. I like to change oil and filter in a couple of hours too as almost break in metal occurs very quickly and I don’t want metal in my oil, but concede I’ve never heard of it killing a motor. Another opinion of mine is that temp cycles are important in the break in process, that overnight cool downs and flying again the next day help as opposed to one long flight. Plus I don’t want to be away from home if an oil leak or something pops up. Your charts don’t have a % power? Seems not

I think it’s more of a desire to modernize, electronic in theory should make starting easier as it has full voltage at a low RPM and it could lower fuel burn a little and it could be more reliable, I say could because when was the last time you saw a car with a failed ignition system? Maybe an occasional coil but that’s rare. However I’ve never had any starting issues on any aircraft I’ve owned with mags, and I strongly suspicion that any fuel savings are minimal at best and no matter how much you would fly, it would never equal the cost of going electronic. Some just want modern and like to spend money “improving” their toy, and there is nothing wrong with that, if it gives them pleasure it’s money well spent. I’ve also noticed an internet Forum phenomenon on other sites, one prolific poster posts how great XX is and many forum members buy it and post how great it is and how great life is now with XX etc. It’s just human nature to want to be in with the crowd, smart marketers take advantage of this of course, it’s I think the reason why “brands” are so important. A lot of three blade props are sold because they do look cool for example

A Phugoid occurs not necessarily because of any control movement it occurs if there is no control movement to dampen it out, normally a pilot dampens it out without any conscious thought. I think the long term is entirely normal and apparently so does the FAA. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aircraft_dynamic_modes#:~:text=Phugoid (longer period) oscillations,-Main article%3A Phugoid&text=The phugoid oscillation is a,which it had been disturbed. “Aerodynamically efficient aircraft typically have low phugoid damping.[3]: 464 “ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phugoid#:~:text=In aviation%2C a phugoid or,downhill" and "uphill". If you ever fly a helicopter, they are negatively stable in all axis, three phugoid cycles in an AH-64 is it, you won’t get four, it’s divergent Instrument flying in a helicopter is “interesting”, takes constant attention.

I’ve got thousands of hours wearing boots, 5,000 in Army boots, Stupid thick and heavy ones in Korea and Bosnia (Matterhorn’s) for the cold and mud, most of my Crop duster flying was in John Deere slip on boots. But both of those aircraft had big pedals spaced wide apart, pretty much shoulder width. A Mooney’s itty bitty pedals spaced real close together I can maybe see the point, except you really don’t do much with your feet in a Mooney, not like a Helicopter or tail wheel Crop duster anyway. Hardest thing people have with transitioning to a tail wheel is accepting the fact that one inch of pedal movement isn’t likely to be enough, they know to add pedal, just don’t understand how much may be required. But oddly people who learn in a tail wheel don’t have any trouble with a nose wheel, you have to have an endorsement for tail wheel, but not one for a nosewheel. Trivia but a tail wheel is known as conventional gear, so what does that make a nosewheel? I’ve done some recreational Auto racing, I think the thin soles primarily tell you that your feet are correctly placed and you didn’t inadvertently put them on the corner or something more than giving any feedback feel. You really don’t want your foot to come off the brake as you pass your braking marker. Motorcycle racing we wore really stiff boots of course, yet people can handle the rear brake, you don’t use it much though, but shifting isn’t a problem. So yeah I think it’s what you get used to, I had to fly wearing gloves in the Military but I think it would be silly to wear them in my Mooney, unless it was stupid cold maybe.

$100 an hour for an A&P, $180 an hour for Motorhome work, and that’s not at a big chain like Camping World, Lord knows what it would be there. This Motorhome has me thinking that flying isn’t all that expensive, it costs a LOT more in fuel to go the same distance, mechanics are almost twice as expensive, and even insurance that we all complain about is higher than my Mooney. But I get it, I was considering an electronic replacement until I heard how much work it was. I don’t particularly enjoy working on airplanes or I would build one. Neighbor is building two RV 14’s, he bought two Lycoming FI 390’s, they came with two E Mags and adapters in the heads to use Auto Iridium Nippon Denso plugs in them. Bt Emags I mean electronic I don’t know who makes them.

Reread my post, it’s a filter in the exhaust that filters particles, that good enough? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diesel_particulate_filter By whatever name it’s failure prone and expensive to replace, has caused fires etc

DEF is also Diesel Exhaust Filter (AKA DPF) (Diesel Particulate Filter) as well as Diesel Exhaust Fluid, I was speaking of the Filter, the huge can looking thing connected to the exhaust. All these Acronyms sort of illustrate the issue

Not too long ago and you just about couldn’t kill a Diesel not so long as you changed oil and filter, oil and fuel that is. I’ve seen the old straight six Cummins with mechanical injection that was used in the Dodge trucks last until literally the truck fell apart, and this in S Ga or N FL with no salt on the roads, then some shrimper would pull the motor out in the junk yard put it in a shrimp boat and it would drag nets for at least another decade or more. The old Mercedes mechanical Diesels would run forever. I loved Diesels back then drove them almost exclusively, and put up with them being heavy, slow, noisy and stinky because they were cheap to drive and own, once purchased that is because they weren’t cheap to buy. Then just around 2006 or so we got ULSD, fuel went from being cheaper than unleaded to costing as much as Premium unleaded, before it was cheaper to drive my 3500 Diesel Dually than a little truck, after not at all. It was a dry fuel and ate up fuel pump and injectors so we added things to it to try to compensate, Common rail came along and it was magic, except there were injector problems, a set for my Duramax was if memory serves about $5,000. Then along comes EGR and so much EGR is recirculated then we had to have EGR coolers that when they go coolant gets into a cylinder and may hydro lock it, around that time we got Urea injection, then maybe after that we got DOC and DEF after treatments to go with the Urea. Now Diesels are totally computer controlled, take enormous amounts of electricity to fire the injectors and the emission controls run into the thousands of dollars for each engine. Honestly I’m embracing electric as a return to simple mechanical, Computers are here to stay, average consumer want the toaster connected to their Wifi now, they aren’t going back, but from a mechanical perspective at least a Tesla is a very simple machine, very few moving parts, and no emissions controls.

Bushings if you can’t find one are easy to manufacture, most often just cut off a piece of steel tube, sometimes aluminum if not real structural, these are actually spacers not bushings. Only time I’ve seen bronze if it’s a bushing that something moves, usually rotates on in like some kind of roller. That’s usually oil impregnated sintered bronze for lubrication. But bronze would be fine as a spacer too Even Amazon is a source, and Grainger etc. If there is a “nut and bolt” store in your town they are excellent sources. I used to make them all the time from tubing

One day we will grow up and go tubeless and have sealed bearings too, tubeless is wonderful trust me. From what I’ve seen the majority of flats are from tube failures, and not all flats end well. I keep hoping for an STC, but I’m not holding my breath. Maybe with CNC 6061 wheels instead of magnesium, because that’s a whole lot cheaper in smaller quantity to manufacture. I think it could happen because I think our wheels are used on the majority of GA airplanes, not just a Mooney thing.

Not that my opinion means much but if anyone starts worrying about PMA, OPP etc, but as an IA my opinion is this is a standard part like a wire butt splice or terminal for instance and as such doesn’t require PMA etc. Again just my opinion but I can’t imagine a FSDO inspector being concerned about a Grainger sourced seat roller

I’m 99% sure my originals were phenolic, if you look at the Pic you can see they are silver colored, that’s of course aluminum from the rails, how much wear do they cause? I have no idea but as hard as those rails are to change any is too much. The one on the right is a Cessna roller, not sure why I put that in there it wasn’t installed in the airplane I think Delrin or Nylon won’t cause any wear, unless maybe they get sand embedded in them?

The Hughes 300 in the video was no piece of scrap, I’d love to have one, it’s what I learned in, in the Army. It has a Lycoming fuel injected HIO-360, we turned it at 2900 RPM I think, rated at 180 HP but it pulled that power for a long time It might even have been one the Army sold, they sold them off in lots late 80’s I think. Any Hughes is an excellent flying machine, the TH-55 which is the Hughes 269 / 300 and the AH-64 fly very similarly, both very agile if you will. We called them LOB’s for little orange bastards, but I loved them I enjoyed them more than the OH-58 (Bell 206) or the UH-1

Funny I worked at a Warehouse unloading trailers as a kid with a fork lift and often “spotted” trailers on the yard and moved them to the Warehouse for unloading etc. Even moved rail cars on the other side, lord help you if you let them go just a few ft too far, it was real work getting them back uphill.

My battery does weigh 1,000 lbs, actually I think a little more, yet the car is no heavier than the two most closest cars size wise, and it does better in crash tests, so one has to assume the engine, transmission, exhaust, cooling system etc add up to quite a bit of weight. ‘But if 50 KWH = 1,000 lbs then if my math is correct then a 1 Megawatt hour pack would weigh 20,000 lbs. ‘I’m sure it’s not that simple and the huge battery won’t be that much, but it has to be really heavy

I know the performance metric they were shooting for was to keep up with automobile accelerations in normal traffic when loaded so that the truck wouldn’t hinder traffic or so I read anyway. Also I believe the regen braking is sufficient on all but the very steepest hills, and of course it’s nearly silent, tire noise I guess would be it’s noise. If it’s a mega watt hour battery it has to weigh several tons. I don’t think 5 tons is a crazy estimate at all, my guess is more, probably way more. However from memory, it’s been 40 years after all, but a class 8 trucks cargo capacity is in the 44,000 lbs range, the feast of the 80,000 lbs is truck trailer and fuel, so the truck may be 30,000 lbs or so. If I had to guess the Tesla just can’t get down close to the Diesel’s weight and might could be either be granted a weight waiver or simply just can’t carry as much weight. Most trucks on the road don’t gross 80,000 though, most cargo just isn’t that heavy, they run out of trailer before they hit the weight limit. According to this only a small percentage weigh out, majority cube out https://www.energy.gov/eere/vehicles/fact-625-may-31-2010-distribution-trucks-road-vehicle-weight

ALL small airplanes have a Phugoid although very few pilots notice it, it’s usually pilot damped. It however is usually slight and is not divergent, if it is divergent well then of course we have a problem. I guess I shouldn’t have said all, that was my mentor as a test pilots quote what he told me when I asked, but I’ve learned to never say all, there is an exception to everything. However 10 sec is pretty short period, I think mine is about three times that but I have never measured it, I just live with it because short of buying an Autopilot there isn’t anything I can do about it of course. I first ran into it certifying an aircraft for Canada, they have a requirement for an airplane to maintain level flight hands off for some time, I discovered the Phugoid that way, until then I had never noticed it For those that may not have heard about it, it’s why you can never really get the trim exactly perfect in dead smooth air, the aircraft will slowly climb and then descend in a slow oscillation of maybe 30 sec or so. It’s not much, most pilots may fly for many years and never really notice it, it may only climb and then descend 50 ft or maybe less or so.

I guess I’m lucky, mine has never given me any trouble, 10 years running one I guess, saying that of course will jinx me. Maxwell’s magneto overhauled my last one but I think he likely retired long ago. But I’ve never had a plug foul either, but last airplanes I ran fine wires and cleaned them every oil change too. I’m sort of conducting an experiment with the Mooney, they are massive and I’ve never cleaned or rotated them waiting to see when one will foul, it will of course happen just wondering how long it will take.

However let’s do some math, it seem an OTR truck gets about 7 MPG on average. To drive 500 miles it will burn 500 div by 7 = 71.43 gls of diesel Fuel cost is down, todays Fl average is 3.82 x 71.43 = $272.14 to drive 500 miles. Assume the Tesla truck battery is 900 KW, because that is what’s been released If they don’t get a break on electricity and every Commercial entity does, but I pay .17c per KWH at my house. Assume the battery is completely exhausted at 500 miles and you will use 900 KW to recharge it. 900 x 17 = $153 Seeing as how the cost to burn Diesel is almost twice as much one assumes if needed they can leave a little weight on the dock Check my math I make mistakes, but that’s worst casing everything for the Tesla truck so the actual fuel cost will be less I just looked it up Fl Commercial rate is 11.8 c per KWH So Fl Commercial rate for power brings the electricity cost down to $106 vs $272 for Diesel So roughly a little more than 1/3 the cost to charge vs burn Diesel