A64Pilot

I got ZERO tax credit, I’m against tax credits, at the time (nearly three years ago) with zero tax credits I paid less for our Model 3 than the average car in the US sold for. I think the credit is $7,500 not $12,500? End of this month Tesla goes down to $4,500 I think. The tax credits are essentially in my opinion nothing but additional profit for the manufacturers, look at what happened when GM and Ford got the tax credits when they came back. Pretty much overnight they jacked the price of the cars by the tax credit amount. However in those three years it’s cost all in about $50 a month to drive the car. That’s everything less insurance. Can you do that in a gas car? Maybe a Prius can come close, but the Prius isn’t nearly as capable. I know we had one for over 10 years, great car but it sacrifices a lot to get 50+ MPG. You see I can’t take advantage of the tax credits, Why? because I’m Retired and my retirement was set up so I’ve already paid taxes, in order to get the tax credit you have to have a substantial tax bill, and I don’t. That’s one reason I’m against these tax credits for Solar, cars etc. Seems odd that they aren’t for the little guy, you know the ones that live from paycheck to paycheck are actually the ones subsidizing new cars and lower electric bills, but only for the wealthy, not for themselves The theory of the electrician, plumber, etc. you know the working guy is supposed to pay for the Dr., Lawyer etc.’s College bill and buy them new expensive cars etc is I think wrong. The tax subsidies should go away. (my opinion) If you want to do them, then the way the Obama administration did the “cash for clunkers” is the way to do it, give the same subsidy to everyone regardless of income, not just the wealthy. Didn’t mean to sound political, just I agree with you, the tax subsidies are in my opinion wrong, they shouldn’t exist. IF EV’s are a superior technology, then they will take over from ICE vehicles, they won’t need Government help, if they aren’t, then we don’t need them, they will go away. Same for charging stations, we never subsidized gas stations, we don’t need to subsidize charging stations. According to Barons and other sources Musk is going to make 5 BILLION dollars from his Supercharger network this year, does it sound like a business that needs subsidies?

Yes I think when he said #1 had air leaking past the rings meant it was lower than 70. You can’t get much of a leak and have 70 psi on a leak down test. I have three cyl on my C-85 that are 68 to 70 and you can’t hear any leak, one is 58 and that one you can hear the leak by listening to the crankcase vent tube for instance. I need to pull that one and see what it needs because I’m fighting a high oil temp issue that I believe must be from blow-by. That engine was pickled and stored for three years but I think it had an open valve, anyway there is pitting on the top of the cylinder from I’m sure corrosion. Oil consumption of course isn’t always rings it can and often is worn valve guides, turbos of course add another possibility but then I’d expect all cylinders to show oil ingestion not just one. But the statement of no cross hatching and scratches running vertically to means the cylinder needed to come off.

My experience with cams is once they start wear is pretty rapid, not one flight certainly, but if I had to put a number on it less than 10 hours from start until it’s bad enough to make the engine rough and of course down on power. I also believe that an oil filter inspection will tell more than an oil analysis, but neither will detect an impending failure only one that’s begun.

I got that. I also understand that a gear up will total this C, and that will be one less C in existence, every day the fleet dwindles. I’d like to see the rate slow down. A LOT of people love and cherish their C, nothing wrong with one, pretty easy to argue the advantages actually. Training and experience will slow that rate. There is a reason insurence rates for the young AND the old are as high as they are. I know younger people now even more than ever desire immediate satisfaction, but really is one year to gain experience and training really to much to ask? Maybe two if the desire is Commercial / Instrument although personally I don’t see the need to be Commercial before buying a Mooney, but do think it ought to be an eventual goal. A kids first car shouldn’t be a 911, even an old one. Besides I can almost guarantee you that what WILL happen is that he will buy this cheap Mooney and in the first year get to fly it very little because it will live in the shop and both not be available but also eating up the funds that he could use to fly. IF he has enough money he will then be paying for a rental AND fixing his Mooney, but as he’s balking at the insurence rate for a newer J/K it’s likely he doesn’t have those kinds of funds. The really big difference between a beater car is you’re allowed to fix it yourself, and you can use coat hanger wire to tie the exhaust up etc. But you can’t a Certified airplane, it must be maintained by a Certified mechanic and to a set of standards. Yes I know there is sloppy work out there, but it’s not legal.

Couple of charts for our car if anyone is interested, these charts are from Teslafi.com, third party subscription software that’s not affiliated with Tesla, but it queries the car and the car has apparently enormous amounts of information available. For those that aren’t I apologize for wasting your time, but I feel that many of us Mooney drivers may be interested, because of the Mooney’s efficiency as measured in primarily it’s speed vs fuel burn. Not much else can fly as cheaply as a Mooney, I was surprised when I ran the numbers that fuel per mile burn of a Piper Cub was at least twice that of my Mooney, when I was at economy cruise anyway. I’m frugal as in I like feeling that I get more for less than most, and I think many of us are, so I make these posts trying to dispel the myths that are prevalent out there like if it weren’t for Government subsidies that EV’s are much more expensive to drive, when my experience is just the opposite so far. These are of course my experiences for someone living in Florida which means that of course we never see sub zero temps, but as I have the car set so that it won’t allow temps in excess of 90F in the interior about 1/3 of the power consumption on a daily average goes into keeping the cabin temp cool so it may actually be representative of the average US conditions I don’t know. These charts are cumulative for almost three years and 30,000 miles so they ought to be about as accurate as they can be, most miles driven by my Wife to work and back as it’s her car. I assume these charts are only power consumed while driving and do not include the power consumed by the car keeping cool while it’s parked,( I think, that’s an assumption anyway) but you can of course turn that off, just it’s my belief the interior will last longer if it’s not heated daily to well in excess of 100F. Anyway if you look at the speed chart it shows watt hour per mile consumption, at the speeds the car spends the majority of its time at it consumers 210 WH per mile. But I think the average for the year is 219 WH per mile We pay 17 cents per KWH at home, if my math is correct and it may not be but that means to drive the car fuel wise at the speed it’s mostly driven at cost 3.6C per mile. Its going to be slightly higher at the overall average of 219 WH per mile but I didn’t calculate that, it’s a number I found on another chart. Lets take that 40 MPG car, although no gas car with the capabilities of a Model 3 exists that can get 40 MPG, let’s run those numbers anyway. Current price for gas here at Sam’s Club is about $3 a gl I think and it’s an easy number to use. So 300 divided by 40 is 7.5. I think that means it cost 7.5C per mike to fuel a 40 MPG car or roughly twice what it costs to fuel a Model 3. If we use the US average of 25.7 MPG then that’s 10.9 c per mile. Over three times what it cost to “fuel” the model 3. This doesn’t take oil and filter changes into account either. So I ask, where does this “it costs more to drive an EV come from”? Are the GM and Ford vehicles really that inefficient? Hard to believe they could be that bad. I only have valid numbers for our car. But bottom line, it cost us a lot less monthly to drive our Tesla, enough so that honestly I can fuel the Mooney for free or almost depending of course on how much I fly, I fly weekly, but not usually very far.

But can it haul over a ton in the bed? How is it off road? With an EV you can have all of that, plus be far cheaper to drive. You may notice that I’m not saying anything about CO2 emissions etc. I’m sure those exist but they have nothing to do with why we have a Tesla, in truth I’d have one even if it were a gas car, the EV part is just icing on the cake, the fact that in reality it costs less than 1/3 of what it would cost to drive a similar capability gas car is more icing. Internal combustion is hugely more complex, there are more moving parts in just the transmission than an entire EV, add in the engine to say nothing of the emission controls and you have a VERY complex machine. We had a Toyota Prius for over a decade, great car but a hybrid has all the complexities of both an EV AND and ICE car, but even that little economy car and nothing with a gas engine is more frugal than a Prius cost more to drive than a Tesla Model 3.

Thicker windshield is often more work to install, often requires a new retainer strip, but the one or two that I have installed I went with a new retainer anyway. I’m not an Airframe guy, licensed of course but avoid sheet metal work, have always had better than me accessible. Probably controversial but I go back with small screws not rivets, not much less work but I think the next guy will thank me. Nothing except maybe Lexan will stop a Turkey Vulture, actually Buzzard I think, even had one come through or it’s insides through an AH-64 windshield in Central Tx and those windshields are laminated glass like an automobile windshield. But the thicker windshield will keep lesser birds from breaking one, but the real value is a quieter airplane. God forbid but if you ever get one in the face there is a very real possibility of a serious infection that could even have you lose your eyes, so sayeth the 6th Cav flt surgeon anyway. So go to the Dr immediately even if you have no or minor injuries. I think a thicker windshield does more to quieten an airplane than a three blade prop does.

Bore polishing is what being worn down so the cross hatching is gone is called, it most often occurs from extended periods of sitting, the bore rusts when sitting, then the engine is run, the rust is cleaned off, aircraft sits, bore rusts, repeat. It often occurs in one cylinder if the engine stops with that cylinders valve(s) open repeatedly. Once the bore is polished it can no longer hold oil on its surface and wear proceeds rapidly, it’s not long until wear is out of limits, and vertical bore scratches are common. I’ve seen it often in aircraft, but not cars that are stored and can’t explain why, is it because cars have long intake and exhaust systems that hold considerable volume? I’ve got a couple of cars, three actually that have been stored for years at a time, infrequently run and exhibit no bore polishing, one even sat since before WWII and when I pulled the head off of it to replace its valves, the bores were seemingly perfect, not much cross hatching to be honest, but did 1923 engines have deep cross hatching? I don’t know. If it were a motorcycle or aircraft engine it would have been seized I’m sure from rust. There is a C-140 in the neighborhood that the owner has passed away, it hasn’t flown for a few years and I’ve been told that the engine is gone, all cylinders have rust, and it was hangared.

I’m not assuming it, he says it has excessive oil consumption In order for a cylinder to get to excess oil consumption from wear and be saved by a light hone and new rings means almost all of the wear has to happen in the rings, which is possible but unlikely if the cylinder has enough wear for the cross hatching to be gone. ”Overhauling” anything means different things to different people. To simply put a light hone in a cylinder and fit new rings isn’t in my book an overhaul, it’s a repair. One thing we don’t know is was the exh valve and guides replaced or not? Which should be done in my opinion to call it an overhaul. As I have posted before all that’s required to overhaul is disassemble, clean inspect and reassemble if everything meets serviceable limits. Then there are quality overhauls. Cylinders aren’t black magic, they are actually simple things. I’d bet money the rings didn’t seat due to sloppy clearances and or guides worn excessively and oil is coming in through there. The fix will be a good cylinder. Many cylinders are “freshened up” from prop strike inspections etc, ones that were good when disassembled but the wise decision was made to put a few bucks into one and greatly extend its life, often insurence money. These are the cylinders that can get a light hone and new rings, but the ones that are worn down to a smooth bore it’s unlikely that’s going to save one. I understand the attempt for cylinders like our angle valve Lycoming ones that aren’t available, but the Conti ones are readily available aren’t they? I’m afraid that the money that’s been spent on this one may be wasted, unless the shop that did the work will stand behind it

Please, get your PP and fly rentals, or buy a simple airplane to build some time on first. There is a logical reason why your insurance rate as a brand new private pilot in a complex airplane would be so high. I’d recommend in that year that your flying a simple airplane to get your instrument ticket too, then every flight should be on an IFR flight plan and significant IMC, then your insurance will be low enough and you will be proficient enough to step up to a complex airplane, one that you can fully use now that your IFR rated and proficient.

Years ago that was true, and I’ve heard but can’t verify that’s it’s true for the electric Porsche. Oh, and there is NO gas car that can do it even once, even the multi million dollar super cars that you never see, or I don’t anyway. Just like used to be the stupid performance level the Tesla Plaid is capable of it means the battery has to be pre-heated (several minutes wait) and performance degraded significantly as State of charge decreases. Apparently both of those issue have been addressed with the Cybertruck. If you’re really interested, watch this, this guy honestly understand the Engineering or is schooled by someone that does I don’t know which. Of course for those that want to continue to deny reality, I’d suggest don’t waste your time. I can’t afford the truck myself and aren’t sure I would want to drive something that outlandish looking, but it seems it continues to evolve Tesla automobiles.

I would get some numbers as in compression check and if it’s not real good I’d call whoever did the overhaul on the cylinder, ask them. I thought standard practice for a cylinder overhaul was a new piston? How can you oversize a cylinder without an oversized piston? Putting a light hone on a cylinder, fitting new rings on the old piston is I’m sorry to say a Redneck overhaul in my book. How does that restore clearances in what has to be a worn cylinder, based on honing worn off. Maybe I’m misunderstanding the scope of work that was done.

I took off the other day in my C-140 and right at takeoff heard a banging, kicked it out of trim and the banging stopped, obviously something was loose, quick check verified it wasn’t the seat belt. Flew the pattern and landed. Checked everything, couldn’t find anything it could be. Eventually looked on top of the wings, and yes there was the cap hanging by its metal chain. No marks or dents, but sure sounded like something was getting torn up.

I think it would work, heck a drill works and surely those chairs have more torque than a drill? I know a golf cart works, but won’t in soft ground, huge difference in soft ground vs pavement, and I’ve seen golf carts launch and retrieve boats on a boat ramp, but can’t pull my Mooney in soft ground. Ref loading the nose wheel onto a lazy susan, I was going to fab one for my golf cart, my idea was to chock the mains, then have the lazy susan have a ramp and using the golf cart simply push it under the nose wheel, then strap the nose wheel on. I know it would work, but ended up buying a Sidewinder as I’m lazy

I believe the TCDS takes precedence over anything else. However I agree with if there is a disagreement using the most conservative number until you get it clarified, regardless of which one it is, because more than once I’ve seen a TCDS to be incorrect. Shouldn’t happen but has.

Nothing is the panacea the loons claim. There exists no perfect airplane or car, house boat whatever, everything has drawbacks. Having said that personally I don’t care about environmental issues, Global warming or whatever. I believe the superior technology will rise to the top if we let it, and I believe since the development of Lithium Ion batteries electricity is it, it wasn’t with lead acid or NiMh though. I want an affordable, safe car for the Wife to drive and one that doesn’t break the bank to drive and own. Ideally one that’s fun to drive and to be fun for me it has to accelerate well and handle well. Ideally I want it to be US made and owned by a US company. I don’t have anything against Japan, Korea etc, but I’d prefer it if my money stayed in the US and didn’t enrich foreign Countries. Tesla fills all those wants or has so far. I still say talk to me in seven years, because I need a car to last at least ten years, twenty is better. I can no longer afford new every few years. But speaking of those Loons, I’m of the opinion that one of their agenda’s is to drive the price of fossil fuel as high as they can by whatever means they have at their disposal. In my opinion political pressure is the only reason fuel isn’t North of $6 a gallon and I don’t want to be in those fuel lines like I was in the 70’s, nor do I want to have to reset the fuel pump because it will only dispense $150 at a time like I had to not so long ago. Having an EV in the garage beside the gas car I believe covers me both ways, and the EV is far cheaper to drive than even a Prius. Let’s run the numbers on a car that gets 40 MPG. If it drives 12,000 miles a year then divide that by 40 gets you 300 gls of gas multiply that by $3 a gl gets you $900. We drove the Tesla about that milage for $600. If you use the national average of 25.7 MPG it’s $1,400 in fuel. Yet many are convinced without Government subsidies that it cost more to drive an EV, because they are told so. Where does that come from? My children may see viable electric aircraft but I don’t think I will, to be honest I think the writing is on the wall for an airplane that the common man can afford, as it is there are no Certified new aircraft that the common man can afford already. Only reason I can is I’m an IA and fly antiques that are older than my adult children, one is older than I am and I just qualified for Medicare. New is way out of my price range as I suspect it is for most of us on the forum.

To continue busting the myths, this one being the EV thing has run it’s course and aren’t selling. So what was the best selling vehicle in the world in the first quarter of 2023? https://www.motor1.com/news/669135/tesla-model-y-worlds-best-selling-car-q1-2023/

Carrying a heavy weight is the same as a heavy pax, but I think it might be prudent to put it on a piece of plywood to distribute the weight and protect the seat rails in the future. Pretty sure no harm was done just cheap insurence

Saw this video this morning at a neighborhood get together, for those that don’t really understand EV performance this illustrates it pretty good, we all know Porsche 911’s aren’t dogs, but watch this drag race against the Cyber Truck and a 911.

There is actually excellent evidence and has been for decades, this is actually Elon Musk’s first “master plan” written way back in 2006. He has published I believe three master plans It should be noted that the Model 3 even though it’s bigger than the roadster is even more efficient than the roadster that these numbers are predicated on. You say EVs are predicated on environment, maybe for most but for me not. I used to drive Diesels only based on economics, yes you paid more to purchase but as the fuel was much less than gas and they burned less of it, it was much cheaper to fuel than a gasoline vehicle. That ended of course with ULSD, and whenever possible I won’t have a Diesel now. Diesel now is on average about $1 a gallon more than gas. Anyway read this article and then tell me that there is no evidence that EV’s don’t have less impact on emissions, that no one has “run the numbers” because someone did nearly 20 years ago. https://www.tesla.com/blog/secret-tesla-motors-master-plan-just-between-you-and-me

Yes, and Ed was a very experienced pilot, flying eight to ten hours pretty much every day. I guess that day he didn’t check, what added to it is you taxi a Thrush hands off of the stick, because to unlock the tailwheel requires full forward stick, so you don’t usually touch the stick until lined up for takeoff. Maule has an AD, seems someone during the Annual swapped the elevator cables, the pilot on the post Annual test flight wanted to show off the Maules short take-off, steep climb and on pulled back hard on the elevator, being backwards this put the aircraft over on its back. FAA fix was you had to paint one cable end red. Yes correct especially after maintenance is very important. I doubt you could rig a Mooney backwards though, you can’t a Thrush which is also except for rudder push pull tubes. https://generalaviationnews.com/2022/07/11/plane-crashes-after-mechanic-incorrectly-rigs-aileron-control-cables/

Good friend that sadly died in an SR-22 crash showed up one day at Americus Ga airport in his Thrush with the left wingtip damaged and grass sticking out of the wheel between the tire and wheel. I asked what happened and he started cussing his loader that had left the aileron gust lock on. He took off with the ailerons locked flew a pattern turning with the rudder but ground looped it on landing, to keep wings level meant he wasn’t lined up due to a cross wind. Final test flight of the turbine Caribou, gust locks, these were internal as inside of the cockpit. Boeing actually lost the fly off for the B-17, the test pilots crashed the prototype during the fly off by not removing the gust locks (internal also I believe) but Congress apparently knew it was the superior aircraft and illegally ordered the Boeing also along with the Douglas https://mynorthwest.com/1166154/flying-fortress-forgotten-b-17-crash/

The C-85 engines if you have I think the Marvel carb you can’t kill with mixture, most have had the mixture either removed or disconnected anyway. I starve mine as you say by turning off the fuel because many of the carbs leak and don’t want it leaking in the hangar. So far as switching tanks before takeoff I think that silly, if you can’t feed from one tank for some reason switch back you should still have a lot of fuel left to find somewhere to land. My only rule is don’t switch tanks unless at cruise altitude, only problem I’ve had was I had the lever come off on me, as I was up high I had plenty of time to slide my seat back so I could see and put it back on, if I had been in the pattern maybe, maybe not. I’ve always wondered why switch tanks anyway. The Thrush crop duster always feeds from both tanks, only fuel selection you have is on or off, makes sense to me.

I guess but I don’t think our money should be spent that way, essentially gifts to very wealthy companies. An argument could be made for the airport saying at least the flying public will benefit from the money being spent. But I don’t see how anyone but Tesla and Pepsico could benefit from the gift of 31 Million dollars. My belief is both Tesla and Pepsi are strong financially and don’t need taxpayer money. Now if it were for city busses that were to be free rides then sure spend taxpayer money.

Yeah I was just reading about it. Apparently the CARB gave Pepsi 31 million dollars in a grant to buy the 21 trucks. ‘I would have thought that Pepsi could afford them