Ed de C.

+1 on the new car's worth of business this year. Plenty of doughnuts during the projects, life coaching for the young A/P asking about 529's (I hang out in the shop a lot when my plane is in), pointed out to the owner he forgot to invoice me for a load of fuel for the CIES calibration... Nonetheless, this thread reminds me I should send well-wishes to the shop (and the SAVVY account manager). God has blessed me and this community with the resources to have and maintain our planes. In the end, it's about people and relationships. In that spirit, Merry Christmas everyone Ed

I dug up my notes from last year's trip to the flight levels. Niko182 made it higher than I did (I went to FL220). My results were 200 fpm arriving at that altitude at 105 IAS at 2,700 rpm. I was light, probably around 3,000 lbs (me and middle fuel level). My guess is that if I had pulled it back to Niko182's 100 IAS, I might have seen his 300 fpm given the lightness. Vy is 105, but that's presumably at gross. I leveled off at FL220 and saw 164 KTAS (117 KIAS) on 10.5 gph, 12.3 MAP, 2,700rpm. Temp was -25C. Bood Ox through FL210 was 92 on the canula. The results in climb were a bit better than book (book is M20R 2GX). 310hp and Acclaim Type S prop. I was seeing 500fpm through 19,000 @ 105 KIAS. Even the naturally aspirated Ovation has very good altitude flexibility with a little patience. It would be interesting to see if we can duplicate the IAS performance (but do it down low) by matching the MAP and OAT. Ed

I have a vernier throttle on my Ovation. All of my prior flying was with push/pull. At first, I didn't like the vernier throttle. But as I got used to it, I'd say it's OK. I like the precision of dialing back MAP to set numbers on approach simply with a few twists. The downside is having to push the button to retard in the flair, or for WOT on the go-around. So, at this point, I wouldn't go to any effort/expense to change what's in the plane. Ed

My temps have always run low. CHTs on the above trip were something like 280F max (in cruise). My oil was running around 155F in cruise. Evidently the baffling and sealing are excellent, and all that without cowl flaps on the O. The oil temp is too low (I have installed a non-factory small oil cooler plate). I need to install the large (standard) plate, but even then, oil won't get much over 170 in cruise. We've checked the sensor accuracy and vernatherm. Highest I ever see is 200F right after runup. I have 250 hours on an overhauled engine. Even in summer, most I've ever seen is 380F max in climb out and that was only because I forgot to put the mixture all the way in prior to takeoff (grumble). Usually, this engine is maxing out in the mid-300s during summer climb (full rich on takeoff, followed by leaning to the white bar on the G1000 engine page, as I pass 1,000 AGL). That's a good point about % power and running a bit more fuel through the engine. I would definitely pick up a few knots. I, too, notice a noticeable surge of power when advancing the mixture from 50 LOP. So far, this engine seems to be a textbook example of George Braly's and Mike Busch's applied engine theory. Ed

I guess my O3 is porky. My useful load is <cough> 933 lbs. TKS, O2 (77 cu ft), G1000/GFC700 (no vacuum) Stormscope, Avidyne traffic, Amsafe belts, Hartzell 3-blade prop. I don't have my weight/balance in front of me, but I think it came out of the factory heavy and the few add-ons since eroded it further. I have no idea how you guys are getting those 1,000+ useful loads with similar equipment. Should I figure my plane has charlie weights in the tail and if so, roughly how much might they be? Ed

Recently, at 15,000 feet: 163 kts @ 2,500 rpm, 16.6 MP, 10.8 LOP (about 50 degrees LOP), Temp -19C. 3,100 lbs (2008 O3, 310 hp, TKS, 3-blade Hartzell with the newer blades). A little lower (9k - 12k) I can get 170 kts reliably at WOT, 2,400 rpm and 50 LOP (12 - 12.5 gph). I've run it flat out at 8k (WOT, 2,700) leaned to best power. Best I get is 185 kts. Book says 197 kts. I'm a good 10 kts off book at cruise settings. Probably all due to TKS. I've noticed some recent Mooneys have the TKS installed with black silicone edging that smooths the airflow (like all Cirrus). Planning to contact CAV to see if adding that would make a difference. Also wondering about flap gap seals (I believe the Acclaim has these). I was curious how loud the cabin is in cruise. The cruise conditions above measure 89 decibels on my I-phone app. I have nothing to compare that too yet. Ed

Great seeing what others are doing and why. My travel kit still evolving. I've had near disastrous experiences with passengers in turbulence, averted with a good barf bag. So, those are stashed at every seat along with wipe up microfiber towels and water at each seat. Dramamine is also in my bag and works well for my sensitive passengers (I don't need it). I now interview each passenger to check for sensitive stomachs. I experimented with a travel john recently on a Michigan to Florida (panhandle) non-stop flight and found the travel john midway down to be great (relief). It does not convert to a gel, it's still definitely liquid and the bag filled completely. Good seal. The flight back (5 hours both ways) I made with no travel john usage due to very light fluids before the flight. The travel john is a great range extender (inverse of a refueling tanker, I suppose), as this plane will make it from Detroit to Miami in one shot. I found the 5 hours in the seat to Florida to be very comfortable (more comfortable than a 5-hour drive somewhere), so a long trip is attractive (if it weren't for the bladder). I would not try this with my wife on board or passengers; I'll plan on no longer than 3-hour legs with them. A Mooney-experienced A/P commented once that drinks in the back seat spill and wind up in belly areas, leading to corrosion. He singled out sodas as particularly problematic and suggested only allowing water back there. I have on-board Oxygen which I use over 5,000 feet with the MH pulse controllers. My family has been fine with canulas. Spare AA batteries, blood oxygen tester, no food for me (I typically eat one meal a day). I have a tool kit, can or two of oil with filler spout, and for winter, just added a pump sprayer of TKS, snow brush, plenty of TKS in the on-board tank, plus a 100-foot extension cord for plugging in the engine heater. I've learned to cover the speedbrakes with 2-inch wide red plastic tape (have scissors) to keep the rainwater out of the units. My previous speedbrake intermittent inop problems have disappeared. Cowl covers, tow bar, wheel chock, Ipad, Sentry, spare battery to power ipad and phone, and device cables, headsets for all, flashlights, fuel sampler, handheld radio, tie down rings and rope, spare pen, reading glasses, gloves, are all checklist items either before I leave the house or at the hangar. I've experimented with podcasts on the i-phone but find the ATC muting of the i-phone feed makes podcast listening not really worth it (the iphone does not pause the podcast). In the northern latitudes, especially in winter, the sun stays low on the horizon, and some sort of sunshade is necessary. I use green patches from Sporty's that stick on the windows with static electricity. They work well and are dirt cheap, and better for me than the suction cup plastic shades that articulate. I almost never wear sunglasses, since I find the G1000 display is too dim with glasses (non-polarized). Most of these things were added as I realized I needed/wanted them on a flight. You'll build your kit thru the same process, I expect. On my to-do list is investigating some sort of over-water precaution kit (life vests, etc.) or simply plan on crossing the Great Lakes at a high enough altitude to glide to shore (generally glideable at 15,000). Also, some sort of survival kit for an off-field landing. I'm still weighing the probabilities and what makes sense for my trip profile. Ed

Good evening folks - I thought I would share some interesting points about my flight today from Pontiac, Michigan (KPTK) to Philadelphia (KPNE). The weather brief was consistent for the prior few days: A strong low pressure above Maine with dense isobars promising a powerful tailwind for the trip. The specific forecast was about 75 knot tailwind at 15,000. Surface winds were gusty at both departure and arrival. The morning low temperature caught me a little by surprise (12 degrees F), as we had enjoyed milder temperatures so far this winter. Fortunately, the night before I set the SwitchOn to give me 5 hours of engine and cabin pre-heat prior to my planned 9am departure from Pontiac. By now, I've figured out the clothing needed to manage the in-hangar pre-flight and only open the hangar door when the plane is ready to drag outside. (This is my second winter season, but much of last winter had the airplane in the shop for one thing or another.) The arrival at the airport hangar was in bright (cold) sunshine with scattered clouds at 4,000 MSL. Gusty winds were nearly down the east/west runway. I packed the plane with gear I might need in Philadelphia (TKS hand sprayer, 100 foot extension cord for engine heater, tools, etc.) and pulled the plane out with my Sidewinder tug. Or tried to. There was a light coating of snow on the pavement outside the hangar, maybe half an inch, but a dry area for about 10 feet outside the door before the snow layer started. As I pull the plane out, I wait for wing to clear the door then turn the tug to the left to angle towards the taxiway. I got the plane partially out, cleared the wing and started the turn. When the nose wheel hit the snow, I noticed the sidewinder having trouble getting purchase on the snowy nose tire. Then, when the mains hit the snow, enough resistance built up that the sidewinder simply slipped on the nosewheel. Luckily, the tail was clear of the door so that it could be closed. The plane was at a 45-degree angle, so some prop blast would be towards the door, but seemed (and turned out to be) fine. If snow had piled up against the door, obviously I'd be doing some snow shoveling while guessing how the tires would track so that I'd only need to clear the track for the tires. I have a shovel in the hangar and all this dawned on me as I looked at the airplane sitting there at the 45-degree angle. The pavement slopes downward away from the hangar door, so gravity was working for me. Putting the plane back in, up the slope, in snow, may not be possible with the Sidewinder. I remember pulling a club Mooney a long time ago into a hangar with a winch at the back of the hangar. I need to figure this out. The runup, clearance, and take off were normal, albeit "sporty". Once the power was in, I glanced at the airspeed tape on the G1000 and saw 45 knots really quick. Cold and headwind. This plane has the 310hp STC. I push the go-around button before takeoff to set the flight director and prepare for AP engagement at 400 feet AGL. Tower was a little slow to pass me off to Detroit Departure, so I was able to engage AP at 400 feet and was about to select heading when Tower passed me over to Departure. As I was reaching to select Com 2, there was a massive jolt, as if the Fist of God had hammered the top of the airplane. My head (more accurately my Bose headset) hit the ceiling and I was momentarily stunned. Not physiologically, but mentally. You've experienced it: an event that shocks your system and takes a couple of beats for your brain to check in with body systems to assess damage. The Bose crackled a bit, seemingly unhappy with the ceiling impact, but I felt no pain. By the time I wondered about the airplane (a second or two later), my brain registered that the engine had not missed a beat and nothing abnormal was felt in the controls. Before I could think to worry about the structure, the plane was saying "don't worry about me". A few seconds later, I got it together and switched to Departure. Interestingly, other than that jolt, the rest of the climb through 4,000 MSL was fairly mild bumps up to the glass smooth air above the scattered layer. As I climbed, I looked at the seatbelt to cinch it tighter but realized that with the 3-point design, there's not a great way to get much more vertical restraint. Perhaps I can get the lap belt portion tighter. The rest of the climb out to the southeast was uneventful, other than the promising ground speeds that were developing. I filed for 15,000 to get the optimum tailwinds (about 75 knots according to Foreflight) but ATC held me at 9,000 until I cleared Detroit's airspace. Tailwinds were 24 knots at 9,000 feet, but Foreflight said the tailwinds jumped fast a little higher. Sure enough, as I continued the climb tailwinds exploded. By the time I got to 15,000, which happened at about 500 fpm at 120 knots indicated (FLC set to 120) I saw a max of 87 knots of tailwind. Ground speed maxed out at 254 knots. For much of the flight, there was an undercast broken layer and snow showed on the Nexrad display on the MFD. The descent started around Harrisburg and as I headed down at 1,000 fpm the top of the green arc came up and I pegged it there by varying the descent rate. Ground Speed hit 270 knots. The undercast disappeared toward Philadelphia, causing me to forget that there was probably a thermal layer nonetheless where turbulence would start. That happened as I descended through 7,000 feet, and it was pretty rough. ATC wanted expedited descent which I translated to 1200 fpm and speed builds quick into the yellow band. Speed brakes will quickly shave off 10 - 15 knots at a given power and descent rate, and the rest is done with power reductions. Turbulence seemed to exacerbate the tendency to creep into the yellow arc and once I saw the over-speed warning that seems to be triggered about halfway into the yellow arc. Speedbrakes and power management need to be jumped on early. I noticed the left speedbrake would not retract fully (about 1 inch proud of the wing surface) so it would seem some lube is needed. When I looked after landing, it was fully retracted. The arrival into Philadelphia (KPNE) was looking good with one of two crossing runways pretty well lined up with the gusty winds. The Tower cleared me to land from outside of the downwind on the visual approach. Then on the frequency, "Tower, this is Vision Jet XXX, we seem to have had a blowout or something." Tower asked if they could clear the runway and they couldn't. I knew what was coming and it wasn't going to be fun. I was rerouted to the crossing runway and I offered that I'd give it a go. It was a 60-degree crosswind at 17 knots, gusting higher. One of those where your base to final turn overshoots final by a lot. The landing was miserable, the crab and kick out worked OK, but gusts resulted in me plopping it down on the mains, in one of those sinking sensations where the runway is further away from your wheels than you thought when the wing stops flying. The LHS system didn't help much because the gusts interfered with how my mind processed the varying aural heights. The wide runway helped keep the plane from being blown off the downwind side. So, the tailwinds were wonderful, the fastest numbers I've even seen in a plane I've flown. But, there's likely going to be a price to pay at either end of the journey. Ed

When I decided to buy my first airplane a year ago, the first thing I did was sign up with SAVVY's free program to advise you how to make a purchase. I believe they looked over the logs of the candidate and gave me a thumbs up (or down) at no charge. They had advice on how to make an offer. After I decided to make an offer and got that accepted, I signed up for SAVVY's pre-purchase inspection program ($750 I think). This program helped arrange the pre-buy and disposition of findings and who should pay for what. Once we got through the pre-buy and the plane became mine, I signed up with SAVVY's maintenance management program to continue the service. If you like the idea of some hand-holding through the process, check out SAVVY's website for yourself. If you've done this several times, you don't need much outside help. My purchase was an import from Canada. Luckily, I was buying from a seller's broker in Canada who was very familiar with the export process to the US, and we negotiated that he would do all that work (customs, getting US airworthiness, etc.) Even then, I did a lot of research to figure out what had to happen. Your situation is easier (a domestic purchase). The nice thing about working with a broker of some sort is that you don't deal directly with the seller. The broker screens both seller and buyer to make sure both are serious. Of course, someone is paying for that benefit in the form of the broker's fee. It worked well for me. As others have said, a call into Jimmy Garrison is well worth it. I made such a call when I was thinking about buying an Acclaim. He said, "So, if flying in the flight levels frequently is you, then go for it. If that's not you, let me suggest you look at an Ovation. If you ever want to sell, the market is 3x larger." He knows things that you may not think about, and he's very easy to talk to. If he had the right plane at the time, I would have bought from him. Setting up an escrow account with one of the several firms out there is easy. You call them and they tell you what to do and they handle it. In my case, the selling broker gave me the contact info at an escrow company in Oklahoma which worked flawlessly. They even knew the rules about import. It'll be several hundred dollars depending on aircraft value (I think). Ed

For my M20R I bought the cigarette lighter adaptor sold by Mountain High Oxygen systems. Idea was to power the EDS modules and MH said the quality mattered. The unit is probably overkill at $55, but it works fine. I'll note that at night, the voltage display is too bright, so I yank it out. I think I have a cheap adaptor kicking around from my wife's car that also worked fine to power an i-phone. Mostly, it's my i-pad that needs power mid-flight and I plug that into my portable battery in the pocket by my left knee. Ed

+ 1 for the Switch On solution and setting it to come on 5 or so hours before flight. The Switch On app allows you to schedule the turn on time well in advance. I have the engine heater and Tanis cabin heater on the circuit to warm the interior (there's a thread here on the cabin heating). The Switch On unit was $249 and after a year you pay $50/yr for the cell service. I wouldn't fuss with anything else. Ed

When my Ovation was in annual, I noticed that the overhead vent tube is largely accessible through the main access panels behind the baggage compartment (where the oxygen bottle is.) In fact, I recall that the actuating valve was accessible too (well, at least it was visible). You might want to start there. Ed

Good evening folks – I thought I’d post some notes related to my first annual on my 2008 Ovation completed a couple of weeks ago. Might be useful for somebody. The backstory is that I purchased and imported this airplane a year ago from Canada. Some of you may know that the import process essentially requires an annual inspection be done at the time of import so that the DAR (inspector) will agree to give the plane a new US airworthiness certificate. In my case, this was done right after a pre-buy occurred and I agreed to buy the plane. So, I guess technically this is my second annual. Early on, I found a shop on my home field at Pontiac, Michigan and began working with them on some squawks and improvements. This shop is locally known to be thorough. My better decisions were to add the LHS landing system (love it) and GAMI injectors (can lean now to 100 LOP with no roughness). My new Whelen LED taxi and landing lights are fabulous. My mistakes included switching to CIES fuel senders when simply overhauling a troublesome factory sender would have done the job and factory accuracy was fine. That cost me $8k in parts and (lots of) labor. Fortunately, we have the CIES calibration dialed in well enough finally. I also had the shop do a couple of oil changes and had them troubleshoot (and IRAN) much of the fuel system to chase down some fuel flow anomalies. After all that, I figured the official annual would be “a walk in the park”. My report to the shop when I dropped off the plane for annual was mainly “just sort out the fuel senders”. Well, maybe I had a couple of additional items: 1) the EGT prob in the collector driving the EGT gage on the engine summary display was inop. This M20R chooses this 7th probe for the engine summary, whereas the detailed engine page shows the standard 6 EGT probes. The SAVVY data analysis calls this the TIT probe (M20R is normally aspirated). 2) Landing gear feels wobbly at high speed on landing. 3) The B/C standby alternator seems to be not charging as strongly as it once did (voltage at a given RPM, flashing low volts stays on) and it shows 29.9V at 2,500 rpm in flight (seems high). 4) The main alternator emits a distinct whine on the ground, not audible in the air. 5) The Stormscope displays spurious signals at the 12 o-clock and 6 o-clock positions. 6) Check the fluids and top off… (O2 and TKS) I like to hang out at the shop when my plane is there to watch and learn. I bring enough doughnuts to buy that access. The morning after I dropped off the plane, I got the bad news from the assigned A/P: “Hey Ed, we found something on the engine mount. It almost certainly means we’ll have to pull the engine and send the mount out for repair.” Boy, that sounded expensive and time consuming. Sure enough, the engine isolator on the front left side had a heat shield that was contacting one of the mount tubes and had rubbed a slot into the tube. Evidently, there’s a certain amount of section reduction allowed, and this exceeded that. The shop owner explained to me that the 3 options were to a) find a new mount, b) send the mount to a turn-key repair shop, 3) use the services of his local certified welder to patch the spot. I looked at the mount and the groove and said “I’m a recovering mechanical engineer. That structure there is plenty over-built to handle the loads. A patch weld is more than fine.” Well, the estimate for even that was $8k. One guy sand blasts the paint off, another welds the patch, a 3rd paints it. Then 40 hours of labor to take everything off and put it back on again. Sadly, my pre-buy photos showed this problem existed at least as far back as the pre-buy a year ago. Likely it was an installation error on the part of the shop that installed the overhauled engine 2 years ago. I also noted another weld on the engine mount done some time in the past. Seems this is not an uncommon occurrence. Lesson to all of us: have your pre-buy A/P check the engine mount carefully. Fortunately, the engine went back on with no glitches and 8 hours of flying indicate it has never run better. Lesson: pre-buys catch a lot, but they don’t catch everything. The rest of the annual involved a fairly long list of minor squawks and paperwork. All told, it came in at $20k, or about 5% of the purchase price of the airplane. It took 7 weeks. All agree that this 2008 Ovation specimen is very clean, a testament to the Canadian climate and quality of prior maintenance. It could have been worse. The lesson here oft-repeated: your first annual is painful. The SAVVY tech advised me through the process that the quote and invoice were reasonable for the work performed. Regarding my original squawks above, we solved the EGT problem with a new probe. Strangely, 2 of the other probes proved inop on the runup, but cured themselves later during a test flight. The wobbly landing gear was addressed with new bolts in the nose gear assembly. The B/C alternator was actually performing normally at 30V according to the service manual (and by that point I was fine to “defer”.) We left the main alternator whine alone for now. The Stormscope was deferred since I realized I needed to do some of my own troubleshooting (turns out the screen is clear when the strobes are turned off, so that’s where we’ll focus at some point.) The TKS panels all wetted out normally. Now, the plane is just about squawk free. I get an intermittent “GPS1 needs service” alert on the G1000, and I still have the alternator whine and stormscope noise to address. We’ll de-cowl at the next oil change and make sure all is good in the engine compartment. Best, Ed

Have you thought about an Ovation? It's normally aspirated but significantly more power at sea level than a J and will carry that up to the altitudes. I find 15k feet is achieved easily and 20k is doable, albeit slowly achieved. You get a few other advantages due to the more recent model years and it's a long body. Might be comparably priced to a 252/encore depending on year/condition. Of course, why stop there when there's the Bravo and Aclaim...

I use the sidewinder but with a 3-blade prop on my O. In my case the engine always stops with a blade vertical up and the two down to the sides. There is a lot of clearance between the sidewinder and the two lower blades, since the turning limits are pretty narrow. I would expect it to work fine with 4 blades, just like a manual tow bar would need to. If not, you can always move the prop a little.