A64Pilot

I would love to see someone make a profit, altruism is rare and nothing wrong with making a profit. Just call it a tool rental program instead of s tool lending program. Let’s face it, if I’m paying my expectations are higher and I expect quick shipping etc., when your asking a favor, you take what you can get and better be appreciative too, even if it’s a week or two late and kind of beat up etc. Maybe one of the used parts sellers would be interested in tool rental? They already have a business set up to ship, receive payments etc. ?

A whole lot of things were sealed with fuel tank sealer on Army helicopters, like everything attached to the transmission or the gearboxes because they were magnesium and any water wicking in would cause corrosion. Corrosion-X had no effect, then we used fuel tank sealer on the chemical tank on the hopper on the Ag planes, because it’s darn near impervious to pretty much any chemical but to be fair something that Ag guys spray does degrade it over the years

Not a Mooney, but I’ve participated in replacing many Crop Duster lower spar caps. (They time out at 5400 hours.) on the old aircraft. Once the cap is removed find a way to exactly index a piece of strap or angle, then transfer the holes to it from the original cap, then use the piece of strap or angle as a drill guide to transfer the holes to the new cap. This may help some. Ideally you want a transfer punch, that’s a punch that’s exactly the same size of the hole with of course a centering point, it precisely marks the exact center, transferring the holes starts at #4 in the attached document. You’ll be surprised at how precisely you can transfer the holes, as you drill holes temp install some fasteners to keep precise alignment for drilling https://thrushaircraft.com/support/technical-publications/Custom Kits/ckag40-revision-a WING SPAR UPGRADE.pdf Use a drill press to ensure every hole is exactly straight. Shoot the heck bolts wet with epoxy primer, this prevents any water ingress and I believe prevents future corrosion.

For those making them from carbon, be sure to put a layer of anti-chafe tape between them and the aluminum as carbon will cause corrosion if you don’t.

PPO2 or partial pressure has a LOT to do with it, I think in fact it has everything to do with it I believe. Going just from memory a cannula is good to 18K, where you have to wear a mask, which is good to 25K, above that you have to wear a pressure / diluter mask, that not only supplies O2 but does so under pressure. I’ve never worn one but it’s my understanding that they are particularly obnoxious to wear. As PPO2 is the issue, just plain air and a pressure mask would allow some higher altitude than 12,000 I have no idea how much higher, but I believe we breathe O2 because the pressure mask is so obnoxious. Interesting to me is that at a water depth greater than 20 ft, the PPO2 of O2 rises to a level that’s toxic, breathing pure O2 deeper than 20’ can kill you. My chamber ride I didn’t do well at all, at the time I was worried it might wash me out, I don’t remember the numbers, but when they took the mask off I didn’t like the feeling and asked for it back.

You guys need to come down to Fl, where what I call the puppy mill flight schools are. Went to Deland the other day where it seems the Embry Riddle guys go, well Deland is busy, jumpers all the time etc. Really no place for just Soloed students. I turn final and have two ER 172’s cut in front of me, I have a couple more aircraft behind me. When they cut in front of me I’m thinking this is going to be interesting as they are at my altitude, which means too high to make the runway as they are in close, so I figure they will go around. Nope, when they figure they are too high, they do a 180 and head straight back up the approach path going the wrong way, so I get on the radio and ask what are your intentions, then request them to state their intentions, after awhile I guess they figure going the wrong way isn’t going to work and one turns 90 to the left for cross wind and the other goes 90 to the right I guess for downwind, but neither says anything. Then add in the constant request for traffic and airport advisories from students 10 miles out, and the idiot ten miles out in the 80 kt airplane that thinks he has to announce everything every mile. I swear I’ve heard a long dissertation of I’m going to do a 270 followed by a 90 to the right then another 90 to the left and enter a mid field left downwind. Sometimes it so messed up that it’s just inconceivable, how is it that there aren’t mid airs every week? But Society is breaking down, yes I know all old men come to believe that, but how else can you explain the rampant crime, school shootings, road rage, an incredible number of hit and runs where people and children on bicycles are run over and left for dead, how many supposed sexes there are now, the idea of being “assigned” a sex at birth, “trans” Men competing in Women’s sports and any number of things that ten years ago if you told me they would happen I would have laughed, no one could be that ridiculous, but it’s happening. So with all that going on in Society, sure some of its going to spill over into aviation.

That was my point, even though my bike can pull 1500W, it’s not needed, except maybe steep hills? Wheel hub bikes only have one gear, but mid drive bikes use the existing power train so you can gear down for steep hills, or gear up to go very fast. Once you get to stupid levels of power the gear train is the limit, accelerated wear and you can break a chain. In Europe the max legal E bike is 250W US, the rules get more complex and differ by State, being in Florida my 1500W bike is legal, but the manufacturer includes stickers that claim it 250W for Europe I assume. https://quietkat.com/pages/united-states-electric-bike-regulations-guide I can’t imagine a case where a Cop is going to pull over an E-bike and ticket them though.

Helicopter scooter external load and Sun morning neighborhood breakfast crowd that’s moving to scooters. I think the scooters due to their size are worth considering, a folding bike is bigger, tough to get two in baggage I think and then there is the greasy chain. The scooters they are all buying are here https://gotrax.com I don’t know which model though

Ref loaning tools. We initially had a real problem doing that at the factory, even dealers were bad about returning special tools. So when I took over Product Support I started selling the tools, if you didn’t want to return them fine, after all you paid for them, but if you returned them in the condition they were shipped to you, I refunded you your money. People were very quick with returning tools, and once it was explained to them they were fine with the new program.

I think we are talking different cyclist, I’m talking about what I think the average Mooneyspace person is, which I think is an older US male, who as they are Americans are probably over weight as well as being older. I doubt there are many Cat 2 or higher cyclist, and surely those that are wouldn’t be caught dead on an E-bike. Not Cat 2 racers, not even close, average US person may have ridden a bicycle as a kid, but hasn’t as an adult, much less participated in Time Trials, probably doesn’t even know what one is. Those people are I believe doing good to maintain 250 W. 1 HP is 748 W from memory so producing 1/3 of the power of a horse from your legs ain’t bad at all for an older overweight beginning cyclist in my opinion. If it wasn’t for my age and infirmities with the knees, I wouldn’t consider an E bike myself, I doubt any serious cyclist would, even has been ones. Hell, I’ve been looking at lightweight folding wheel chairs as I can only walk about 100 yds and stand for about 10 min. No way could I go to Sun-N-Fun or Disney etc. without one. So I will ride an E-bike for the range of motion for my knees, as one is just a temporary Anti-biotic spacer, 20 miles or so on a E-bike I think isn’t bad, where I used to do Century’s. I’m putting my Lightspeed Ultimate back together, four years ago my Son got run over by a hit and run driver on it, and sadly it’s become obvious that there is no way I can ride with the Lightspeed handle bar stem, even with it raised up. At my age no way can I get a flat back or even close. I’m afraid I’ll either hang it on a wall or put one of those God awful tall stems on it, but I certainly won’t put an electric kit on it. But I might my Ran’s if I can figure out how to haul it around, I don’t have a truck anymore and it’s eight and a half feet long, and after my Son getting run over, I don’t ride roads anymore. I think the Screamer would be an excellent E conversion.

For the price, and the fact it will fit in the airplane, that bike you linked to looks pretty good to me, awfully good, if I didn’t already have the URB-E’s I’d buy one. It cost me over twice that to convert my mountain bike and it’s not fitting in the Mooney, not even if I took the wheels off etc. Only thing I’d add about putting a bike into an airplane, I’d either remove and degrease and then wax the chain, or put the bike into some kind of bag. As an old Roadie, I’d wax the chain, it’s a better lube than oil anyway and it’s clean

They take an ordinary person and turn them into Greg Lemond or Eddy Merckx, really I can easily maintain a 20+ mph average on my old mountain bike. Two types, one is a torque sensor that actually measures the amount of power you make and adds power, then there are cadence sensors that so long as the pedals are moving power is added, you don’t have to even catch up with the bike just spin the pedals, but in the Bafang at least there are 9 different power levels so if you want you can work hard or not. The Bafang is programmable but I’ve not yet, group of old men I ride with only want to go 12 mph or so and my bike is faster than that even in its lowest speed so I stop pedaling a lot, so I do need to reprogram it to slow it down. There are issues with maintaining a proper chain line with the mid drive kits, out of the box my chain line was too far out so only the top three gears were usable, so I bought a $100 Luna Cycle chain ring that moved it too close, it hit the chain stay, so I had to shim it out by 5mm with bottom bracket shims, but now I can use the whole cassette. It cost me about $1500 all in as a guess, the 1000W kit is about $300 less and 3 lbs less, more actually as you don’t need as big a battery, which could save $$ too as well as weight. I believe my kit weighs 25 lbs all by itself, half that in the battery, so I bet my bike is pushing 50 lbs. Rock Hoppers weren’t particularly light. You can buy a good e-bike for what a good kit costs, but then your very much speed and power limited and most of the things just aren’t for real cyclists, they are more like old Huffy’s and Schwinn’s etc.

I’d think possibly your meter may be optimistic. This is what 700W looks like for an Olympic sprinter, remember the Bafang BBS-HD can pull 1500 for an extended interval, if you have a battery that can handle that.

They were there, if you look just behind the wings you can see the spray bars, just that’s a mist. Opening the gate box dumped 500 gls in about 4 sec. I tried over the years a bunch of silly things, like if I sprayed water in well below freezing conditions at altitude, would it create snow? I thought it would, but it didn’t. Even the Emergency dump at any significant altitude, no water ever reached the ground, I’m talking say 2000 ft or so, it evaporated I guess. Coming over the house at I’d guess 75 ft the water was like hard rain for a second, didn’t even soak them, the trees were at least 50.

I’ve not really dug into it at that level, for me conducting production test flights and Certification test flights, even though they were in a Restricted Category aircraft meant for 137 ops, I was flying under part 91. Part 137 for example is relieved from the 500’ rule of course, but if I’m flying under 91. I can’t buzz someone’s house. But in Summer I’d fly over the house, the kids would come out and I’d dump water on them, was that illegal? Probably, but as no one made a complaint I don’t think it ruffled any feathers. On edit to answer your question, it’s my opinion that the ferry part of an Agricultural flight is conducted under part 91, but once you get to the field, you operate under part 137, and the flight back your part 91 again. Now that’s my opinion, but just because I’m in a crop duster I believe I’m not allowed to fly very low level over people’s houses on the way to and from the field for example, but if the Farmers house is in the middle of his field, then yes we will.

Then you have this for FAR 137 (crop dusters) https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/14/137.42 I called it the Air Tractor rule, because for whatever reason they don’t install inertia reels, but if you had the harnesses on, average person couldn’t reach the switches on the instrument panel. So when your 10’ off of the ground moving at 140 kts, your shoulder harnesses are off. Wouldn't it be in the interest of safety if the aircraft were required to be designed so that shoulder belts could be worn in all phase of flight? Thats what I meant by rules being complex and often contradicting, for instance anytime an Ag plane is flown not dispensing, it’s being operated under part 91, so which shoulder harness rules apply? I read the above to say that in cruise flight I don’t have to wear any kind of belt, and don’t even have to occupy the seat. That’s what I mean by interpretation, it differs from one person to another.

It has a note referencing FAR 23, but unless I’m mistaken we aren’t FAR 23 aircraft, but are CAM 8 aircraft. I’m going to go out on a limb here and think if there was an applicable FAR then Mooney would have listed it and not FAR 23. I’m not saying FAR isn’t a good idea and that it’s not a bad idea to follow FAR 23, like burn certs for example are a good idea, but not required for CAR 3 aircraft. The question was “what’s the regulation that requires it” There may not be one. For instance what the reg that requires us to wear a shoulder harness if equipped? There may not be one. Part 137 aircraft, there is the requirement to wear shoulder harnesses, unless they interfere with reaching required equipment, but no requirement to wear a helmet, but that requirement exists under a letter of exemption that allowed Part 137 aircraft to not do head injury testing, but it’s not in the FAR for whatever reason, should be, but isn’t. Same letter requires 5,000 lb seat belts when normal requirement is for 3500, but that’s not in the FAR either. The FAA often holds the manufacturers to higher standards, but doesn't back that up with the FAR’s Only bringing that 137 stuff up to show that it gets complicated, and unless you’re familiar and or dig pretty deep the answers are hard to find, and the FSDO guys can’t know everything either. The FAR’s are a mess, rules that have evolved over decades and aren’t clear and often conflict with each other. On edit, if it’s in the AFM it’s required, no FAR has to be quoted, AFM and Placards are mandatory

AFM IS regulatory. However as I don’t have a factory installed O2 system I doubt it’s in mine. I’m not arguing against wearing a mask, but understand the question of “what’s the FAR that requires it”? There may not be one, without stretching one of the cover all ones.

From a purely legal perspective, I don’t think FAR 23 is applicable to our aircraft

That’s the bottom line with pretty much everything, that is we Police ourselves. ‘I’ve only been above 180 a few times and then to 250, and wore the not inexpensive mask, nor very comfortable mask, and if you wear bifocals like me the mask may interfere with your vision. I didn’t check that before the flights. So I flew the flights looking through the bottom of the bifocals. ‘The only thing I’ll add to this conversation is when something happens that needs immediate action, like O2 failure at altitude, engine failure etc, contact ATC when able and inform them what your doing, don’t ask. If you ask it’s likely they will fumble around. I’ve rarely had to do it, but have never had them say no and have never had any issue.

I don’t know how they get in, remember reading a story a few years ago about one climbing out of the instrument panel in a Cessna or something, gave me the willies. How about one of these in the airplane with you? https://www.npr.org/2023/04/05/1168206000/snake-on-a-plane-cobra-cockpit-south-africa

Ref the Gami spread, who cares what it is, if the engine will run smoothly deep LOP?

Maybe it’s been repainted, paint can add more weight than you would think. Scales being digital and maybe wireless etc aren’t any more accurate, it’s the cell that determines accuracy and I don’t think they have changed. ‘Every scale I’ve seen used under wheels was actually originally made for weighing trucks etc. “Aircraft” scales use cells that mount on top of jacks, or the ones I’ve used do. These are the scales we used at the aircraft factory where I worked, sold as aircraft scales, but with the name road runner and the fact they look exactly like truck scales you have to wonder. http://www.scalesinc.com/road_runner_aircraft_scale.htm Accuracy was I believe .2% of rated capacity of each cell We weighed an aircraft three times, taking it off of the scales and re-leveling it each time, it was surprising how much variation there was between each weighing, we averaged the weighings.

Different engines are different as far as making ice, the little Continentals from A-65 to O-200’s are known as “ice machines” I’ve had my C-85 make ice on a 75 degree day in clear air. I’ve always been cautioned against partial carb heat, always been told full on or full off, unsure why? Can a Mooney climb to 14,000 with carb heat on? Everything I’ve flown carb heat really reduces power. I use it on every landing, but you need to get it in early. ‘Friend was sling loading some kind of commo gear off a mountain with a Bell 47, when he pulled carb heat on short final the engine quit when he pulled collective, figured since he was in a pretty steep descent pretty much an autorotation that the muffler had cooled so much that carb heat didn't work, so I now pull carb heat on turning base on my 140 instead of on final as I’m pretty much at idle usually by final.

Oh, and of course if your going down, open the door before landing, Ideally open it and while open close the latch