Jetpilot86

Happy with the 440/540 combo I got to run my KFC150 & G600

At least I know what that hard spot is now.

Which one for the Bravo? My Lycoming FOH didn’t come with one.

1000 miles, 5:06 in the air a few days ago in my Bravo.

Which airport is the DFW MPP going to be at?

I'm not sure this is going as well as MicroKit hoped. Might have been better to stick to what their perceived advantages are, vs trying to run down an established, well liked, vendor here. Disclaimer, love my LHS.

The other Bravo I looked at before getting mine had an engine which had a stressed first 600 hours with two cylinders being replaced during that time. It had a JPI model with the downloadable data, the owner, an A&P, feigned ignorance of having the ability to download it, it's the one requiring a cable, nor could/would the prebuy MSC do so. Needless to say, when a 3rd cylinder showed up with a burned exhaust valve on the borescope during the prebuy at 700 SMOH, I was done with the deal, especially absent that data to review. As a paying customer of Savvy, I would definitely expect a direct request to share my identified engine data with anyone. Having said that, I'd also probably be including the data, just like logbooks, as part of my sales pitch to a prospective buyer; so if they subsequently shared it with Savvy again, the point is moot anyway. If I was using the free upload service only, I'd have less expectation of privacy because of getting the service "free", and might make the data less identifiable to my specific airframe as a result. Free is rarely "free", just free to you. The parallel, is GMail. They probably make everything other than my name identifiable to advertisers to make money from all the free services they give me.

While we're at it, is there a source for the labels for the overhead lights on a bravo, mine is plastic and warped.

Got on the list earlier in the week. I'm now committed to my new paint job and tail number changed since I'm having the new Tail number put on the tug.

Older and less bolder....

I'd call it Encore, Bravo, J. My 3 primary legs are 600, 800, & 900 NM solo, so the 118gal Bravo is filling my needs nicely. I can go non-stop on two of those, both ways, the 900nm is due westbound and in the mountains on the far end. When looking, I was always looking for K's with the Monroy's, 72gal for a 252 is just not enough for someone who like to run 70-75% cruise all the time. Had I realized what a rare gem the Encore was at the time, I'd have pounced. The extra 200# paired with the Monroy's is a very nice combo in a mid-body. If I didn't need the turbo, I'd probably be in a J and not quite as happy due to the leg length.

Add me into the fly it for a year club. I've got a KFC150, being driven by a G600 PFD/MFD, being fed by the Avidyne 440/540 Combo. Works good, took a month to get the G600 and the IFD's talking, but I would say definitely start stalking a bigger PFD/MFD. I looked at the Aspen's and I like the raw real estate of my G600 much better. I did make it easy because the G600 was already installed, and I swapped out the 430/530 that came with it. I did have a couple of swaps because the 440/540 didn't talk to the FS210 for ADS-B, but it will take the feed from the GTX345 I swapped in. Don't forget about the used market. My avionics guy has done a lot of wheeling and dealing for me in the secondary market, buying and selling. My 440/540 were factory OH with a New warranty, but all my other adds were used. So far, so good.

Pool noodles work well.

You’re welcome! My last comment will be since you are still wrapping up the PPL. The rest of the time you prep, be as exacting as possible, especially on airspeed. If your approach speed is 70k, then it’s 70k, not 72, 75 or 80. That will make the habits “required” to make a safe transition to a Mooney as quick as possible. If I get a bit feisty about this, it’s because one of the 252’s I was evaluating before I bought my Bravo in November, has already crashed with a fatality. Struck a little close to home. Good luck, have fun!

Re: My comment. No, other than being very slick airplanes compared to the candy bar wings of the Cessna's and Pipers you are in now, there are not any issues. But what you won't comprehend until you fly a Mooney is just how clean, fast, and non-draggy they are compared to those Cessna's and Pipers. In a Cessna, I never flew much Piper, high and hot, slip; not in a Mooney. 5k fast over the threshold in a Cessna, sloppy, but 95% of the time it doesn't matter. Do that in the Mooney and Runway will get chewed up at an alarming rate while you float along at 2 feet in ground effect. Get impatient and try to force it on? A pricey prop strike may be in your new maintenance budget. I do "slow" down earlier still to make sure I don't get behind, but I'm speeding back up every chance I get. You aren't buying this plane to go slow, just understand what you have to prep for to get the most of of her. I'm not trying to dissuade you, but until you make a few approaches in a Mooney, the longer the body, the worse it is, you simply cannot appreciate how precise you need to be on the approach, particularly speeds, to get the same results landing, as the other trainers. Mooney's in general, the Turbo's and especially the Bravo's in particular, are Thoroughbred's compared to the plow horse trainers, and have to be treated as such. Think Corvette vs Minivan. While new back to GA, I've got a ton of TT from my airline gig, and I have to fly my Mooney as precise as I'm trained to fly the Jet. Master the Mooney and I'm convinced you can transition to anything. It's all about the discipline, just another level than the trainers. I'm sure there are other HP singles, like the Cirrus, that are likely similar. If fast is your goal, it's a different mindset than the trainers. Not harder per se, not dangerous, but just a higher level of precision. Experience prior "helps" but is not the end all to make it work, rock solid procedures and airspeed discipline in particular are way more important in the Mooney's than the Cessna's. HTH.

10.75 hours at Maxwell for my LHS. Very Happy with it.

I've been consuming everything on here and anywhere else I can find it, in order to validate the various engine operating techniques for the Bravo out there. I've got roughly 60 SFOH on an engine that had 10 SFOH when I bought it. Still waiting to get my new Insight G4 installed so I can seriously explore LoP, but I've gotten some good work in with my G2 with just CHT/EGT hooked up. Now, I haven't added GAMI as I'm at .5 gph in the sweep with the OEM injectors. I have added FineWire's. If anyone is looking for some low time Massive's, let me know, I've got a dozen currently stored in the old Tempest packaging. I'm able to run 30"/2200 with that setup, 50F LoP, smoothly. I've gone way leaner than that and was shocked at how low the flow got before I started running rough enough to care. I was running 166KTAS on 14.2 gph, in line with @Rick Junkin. That was 11500', ISA +6 with 335dF on my fiesty #6 EGT and a 1525dF TIT. I've got more work to do, higher, still, but I've got a baseline now. If your glass turns up missing, "I know NOTHING!" I'm currently working on reverse engineering a power chart from the POH/EOH combo, lets just say neither Mooney or Lycoming has made it easy. I'll share it on the board when I'm satisfied it's ready for MS scrutiny. It will confirm some things, and challenge others. What I'll say I've discovered so far is that if you're going to try LoP, I strongly recommend a 2200 RPM power setting. This helps with Red Box issues by allowing the combustion process to take a little longer, and creates a little less stress on the engine at the higher power settings vs the 2400 rpm settings. That info comes from some mixture of Busch and Deakin articles I've read. Don't recall the exact reference at the moment. Another thing to keep an eye on in the Lycoming Engine Manual attached, is that the HP's are dynamic with altitude, so at low altitudes some power settings may start clear of the Red Box, only to end up in the Red Box as you climb into the teens. There are some possible work arounds that I'm currently researching. For the new Bravo owners, the challenge it seems, when running this engine is that you simply cannot focus on one parameter, especially TIT for a "quick" set solution without knowing it's relationship to EGT, CHT and Oil Temperature, especially as you start getting above Key 50, or 28"/2200 and above if you don't know the key codes yet. I suspect that as you get above Key 53 or so, it becomes less possible to run the power setting at anything less than Full Rich on the mixture to keep away from the EGT's Red Box. Once you learn how those parameters all intertwine, then you can understand why the high time Bravo owners can run theirs off one number, TIT. TIO540-Engine Manual.pdf

I see Bob Fields doesn't include the Bravo on the list. Are there any differences in the Long Body doors vs the rest?

This is a plane I took an internet look at before ultimately ending up with my Bravo. Definitely got my attention. T&P to those involved.

On my G600, you can do all the DB's on one card or split between two. I can't remember offhand which goes on top in that scenario. This probably dates back to when the limiting factor was the SD Card capacity. My G600 doesn't seem to be picky about which FAT formatting is on there, but my Insight G2 engine monitor is VERY finicky about the FAT formatting of the SD card it gets. My initial suspicion is that one of the SD cards for your G1000 is not formatted like the G1000 wants it. Cheers,

I'm still sorting this out so take with a large grain of salt. There is a thread around here that gives the fuel stick calibration for the 59gal tanks. It's good for my 118gal Bravo. FuelHawk stick is less than $20, get the 16" one so it's harder to drop in the tank! If the cockpit gauges worked, the Monroy POH supplement would tell you that above 22 gal, 1 gal on the gauge = 2 gal in the tank. Mine stick between 22-33 gal and are useless. I'm still working on the numbers for the wing sight gauges, but that same ratio is looking pretty good, 2 for 1 gal over 22 gal. I've yet to do the empty tank verification method yet. I'm within a couple of gallons between the two now. What I am doing to work on calibration is the reverse. Start with a full tank, log the burn on one side precisely, both is possible when completely full, and calibrate the digital fuel gauge by topping one side off after the flight to compare burn/stick/shadin(or other digital). The caveat on this one I've figured out is you can't just top off one side and forget about it. The plane will "roll" to the full side and when you put whatever you need in the other side, then you'll need to top of the "full" side again because the airplane rolled back a bit. Basically, I figure out what the "full" side will need to top off, then put whatever extra I want after that in the other tank. What I'm going to start doing is the reverse. Add the lesser tank fuel first, maybe not quite all of it, if I'm close to takeoff/landing limits; then top off the fuller tank to verify the burn, then go back and finish off the lesser tank until I'm happy with the numbers. Here is the thread with the 59 gal fuel stick calibration numbers: 6th post down on page 1. Cheers,

Definitely share your mission and we can narrow things down for you. I was in your place over the last few years as I decided if/how I was going to jump back into GA as I wind down the Airline pilot gig. While I have 5 figure TT, I might as well have been a 100 hr PP when I picked up my Bravo in November. Because of my TT, I was able to get myself back up to speed relatively quickly, but in hindsight, I wish I'd grabbed a 182 or such 4-5 years ago to jump back in to GA with, vs the Bravo, and I love my Bravo. I'm not going to say it's not doable as a low time pilot, but for the first few hundred hours or so in a K model and up, bring your A game every flight or we're more likely to read unpleasant stories about you. As it is, one of the turbo Mooney's I considered since last summer, has already become a fatality, along with it's owner. Humbling.... I looked hard at T310Q's and Turbo-R's and very nearly pulled the trigger on one, but just didn't like the numbers on the ones I'd seen. From what I have seen the 310's are basically "Twin-Mooney's." There are a few missions where I'll wish I had one, but 75% of the time the Bravo is perfect for what I do with her. I've got both long range and Rocky Mountain missions so for me, a Turbo was a requirement. Depending on where operating expenses fit into the parameters, if you are not running 500+ miles per flight, or have a high altitude mission, a J or less will do quite nicely. Unless you are getting to the upper teens on a regular basis, all a Bravo is, is a J model that burns double the gas at the J altitudes for the same speed. It's in the teens, especially the upper teens where the TAS difference you get for the same fuel burn brings the Bravo into her own. Good luck, lots of info here and in the Bravo specific section. Pay close attention to the engine discussions on the Bravo, operating by the POH can quickly become an expensive proposition.

Changed the oil from Shell to the Phillips X/C + Camguard last week. Found another small bulge in the new baffling on the left sidewall of the cowl and trimmed it to lay flat. Flew it a few days ago and after noticing something from the previous flight and decided to accelerate to 130kias minimum before setting Key 58 climb power. As a result, initial climb CHT's dropped from 400-415dF, to 380 and less, with the Cowl Flaps at 1/2, on the #6 Cylinder. Was able to run 50LoP at Key 52 and #6 CHT fell into the middle of the pack vs being the highest. Even at Power FF & Key 52, I was able to keep the #6 CHT under 380 with a bit of Cowl Flap. TIT was under 1550dF. This was at 11500' and ISA +6. Very pleased at how smooth she was running LoP with the factory injectors. Not sure if after 50 hours SFOH she finally broke in all the way, that last little bulge was the problem, if it was the change in oil since P X/C supposedly runs cooler, or I was just operating her better, but very pleased with the latest flight. Did some more comparisons vs the POH and am making the book numbers, probably the fresh wax job. Now that the sales tax window in FL has passed, looking forward to my first flight down there for Memorial Day.

This is the one I did my insurance checkout in at APA. Nice bird. Prop Deice but no TKS as mentioned. Clean airplane.

Agreed. As I was “out” of GA for nearly 30 years doing, and still doing the “pro” gig, it’s been easier to approach GA from the Pro side this round, at least to start. There are pluses and minuses to both, but mostly just differences. For all the stuff we’ll do in our jets, there is lots we won’t even think about doing, that y’all do without having to think about it. Among other things, punching a line of weather. Did that mostly in the clear in East Texas last month. Found the part that was only in the 20’s with good spacing between the cells and got through on top, between them at 16000. Center was reporting some other small plane running the same gap at 6000’. Gave me flashbacks or nightmares of my 135 days. I will say, the ForeFlight and ADS-B IN are game changers especially when you don’t have wx radar like on the big jet. So much more information at your fingertips than in 1995.