AndreiC

I am planning on flying to KMDW (Midway, Chicago) tomorrow for some business that takes me there for 3-4 hours in the middle of the day. The weather is supposed to be nice VFR. Last time I flew there (about a year ago) I went IFR, and the approach controllers took forever until they got me sequenced in, etc. Moreover, the departure was a mess, they had a hard time getting my clearance without a file plan filed by a professional airline flight planning department, etc. So I am wondering if you guys would recommend just going VFR (with flight following) and hoping they let me quickly into the Bravo, or if that is bound to cause a lot of trouble (both with needing to have 10 pairs of eyes to look for the busy traffic around there, and potentially them keeping me a long time outside of the B). Or do you recommend that I go IFR, and just accept that I will be routed all around. Opinions, comments?

@donkaye I understand what you are saying, and it is helpful to know that the plane can handle 25-30kts of crosswind. But the purpose of a self-imposed limitation is so that I don't have to make a decision on the spur of the moment whether to go somewhere else or not. Yesterday I felt, after the fact, that I probably did exceed what I feel should have been my limits. As I said, I landed fine (especially since the wind quieted down a bit once down low, below the tree line), but it was uncomfortable and I would like to learn a lesson from this. Certainly I could have continued another 10 miles to another airport where they have a runway aligned much better with the wind, and I think this would have been a better decision. So I now know that winds gusting to 28 is too much. I am trying to gauge what others set as their minimums in this respect, whether I should set my minimum at <25mph gusts, or <22mph gusts, etc.

This is in line with what I do, I just used the wrong wording to describe my question. The question is roughly at what crosswind component do you end up not having enough rudder authority to keep flying in a slip on final and maintain centerline (with the upwind wing down, and the nose aligned with the runway centerline).

OK, I understand now what you guys are talking about. Rich must of course have landed using the crabbing method. I generally use the slip method, never tried to land crabbing (and straightening the steering wheel right after touch down). I should try it some time, but for now my question is how much crosswind can a short body tolerate for the slipping method (where the rudder authority is the limiting factor)?

I am curious what various people's personal limits are for crosswind component in a short body. Mine is a 1970 E. Reason I am asking is that yesterday I landed in what was reported (at a nearby airport, mine does not report) as 22G28 wind straight across the runway (3000 feet, good asphalt), and it was quite sporty, to say the least. I landed safely, but I wonder if perhaps I should have somewhat lower limits for myself. Honestly it was not so much the continuous crosswind, but the fact that while in a full slip at about 90 MIAS, stronger gusts caused me to sink quite abruptly and required rather big pitch control changes. (I increased the landing speed from my normal 80 MIAS to 90 MIAS to account for the gusts, and I am glad I did.)

Well, I talked to PermaGard and got some slightly better news. They said that their product is relatively easy to apply after the initial preparation and application (so just to maintain it), and for a small plane like mine/ours they would be able to sell it to me directly. They said that just watching a 1-2 hour video that is available on YouTube would be enough to understand how to apply their product, and that one could get a Mooney-like plane in a day of work, taking it relatively easily. So I can, with relatively minimal cost, do the yearly maintenance of the coating, and with that things should last a while. My concern was that I did not want to be stuck with having to pay a specialized contractor to do it every year for a large (~2 AMU) expense. @Marc_B: my plane needed paint correction anyway, the paint was old, badly oxidized and just plain dirty (with dirt embedded in the paint). So that is how I explain the high cost of what I got -- they needed to go over the paint at least twice with their buffing/polishing before applying the PermaGard product. Apparently GulfStream uses the PermaGard product for their planes. Maybe it's not so bad...

Some of you may recall that a couple of months ago I asked some questions about doing a paint correction (i.e., buffing) and ceramic coating my plane. Here is the bind I am in. After a lot of comparisons I found a shop nearby that was willing to do the job for 2/3 of the original quote I had gotten ($3500 versus $5000). However, maybe they did tell me and I did not register, or maybe they did not tell me and I found out only afterwards, but the product they applied is PermaGard, which from what I can tell is a polymer based coating, not a ceramic coat. The plane looks very nice now, but I wonder how durable this product is, and how I can proceed going forward. From reading on the internet, this product needs to be applied every year, or else it becomes useless after a year or two. (This seems to be in contrast to what ceramic shops told me, which was that their product was expected to last 3-5 years, and on the longer side if the plane was hangared.) Two questions: a) Is there a way I can maintain this polymer coating with products available to the general public, so that it lasts me a long time (without needing to pay $2000-3000 every year to get it commercially reapplied)? I know that a ceramic coating cannot be put on top of this without a new polishing and chemical stripping of the Permagard product. b) What products would people recommend using on top of the Permagard? Wax (like WashWax All), or some of the other coatings like Triphene or pther graphene based protectants from Amazon? I am pretty discouraged that I did not do a bit more research beforehand to understand the difference between the polymer and ceramic coatings... Thanks, Andrei.

It was this part https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/785-12TS15-7

I also was pretty confident that it was the motor, but luckily it was not. Trying to replace the switch is much easier. If the motor runs well in one direction and gets stuck in the other, it almost certainly is not the motor. Also, you should check which kind of motor/gear box you have. Mine does not have limit switches so if you keep the button "up" or "down" it will continue running past its stop and just make a clicking noise (when all works well). If you have the one with limit switches many people recommended cleaning those up with a spray of contact cleaner. (Mine was not of that type.)

I know that the owner (Rich Morey) of the smaller airport here in Madison (Morey Field) swears by them. Rich and his family have been in the aviation business for 3 generations, and know it inside and out, so I would guess that Skycom is very good. My impression of Skycom was the same, the one time I dealt with them for a small project: pricier than others, but do very good work.

Yes, I did. It was not the motor, which seems to be indestructible, but the switch. That very same switch was impossible to buy from anywhere, but a very similar one (same specs, just different shape lever) was readily available and my A&P had no trouble replacing it. Let me know if you end up thinking that the switch is the problem, and I can find you the exact part number that I installed.

I think a lot has to do with the higher price of fuel and especially the insanely high price of overhauls. The Missiles I have seen are all close to TBO. Once you factor 100 AMU or more on top of the purchase price, you're already in the league of Ovations or Acclaims.

I have no idea how you would check that, at least in the US all you see is annual inspections in the log books, which tell you how much it was flown in between but no other information (as in who flew it). You can look through ownership history, but that is pretty opaque.

In Wisconsin we pay no sales tax on aircraft parts or *labor*, which is nice.

Interesting. What would you figure the corresponding number would be for a 1977 airframe? I know for 1970 Jimmy puts only a $3.50 per extra hour valuation, but I don't have the modern Mooney price guide to look at.