dkkim73

Pinecone be showing off his sweet panel again...

Actually this brings up a question... IIUC the power lever on the cirrus does composite setting of parameters, rather than independent controls like Mooney.. i wonder how different installations and operations practices affect things.

Ouch. With respect to the bearing shift problem, is that due to poor bolt torque/tension preservation during cylinder swap, or a different issue?

Welcome aboard! I think your goals are laudable. There is a lot of assistance and "smart approaches" to everything you mention including weight loss. We look forward to your first landing there as a private pilot.

Yes, I was getting at some encryption. There would be ways to provide a moderate level of security. Unfortunately, that would require different software which would effectively require "different" approved installations and not be free. There are advantages to openness in a benign environment, for sure.

While I appreciate the convenience of Flight Aware for tracking random flights, it is not clear to me why some obfuscation or encoding couldn't be applied to limit data sharing with entities not operationally involved in the flight. Eg other planes see you, but generic types show up, if anything, to the general public. One could always do correlation analysis etc, but it would prevent some leakage. OTOH revenuers will push for exemptions/access. Probably needs to be fought legislatively or in the courts.

1. What's ironic is that children were grossly underserved by that whole response. This is one of the most anti-child corporate-government regimes in my memory. 2. At root, GA as we know it is fundamentally a private, conservative, almost libertarian thing. It's a form of freedom of movement. Like the old "American road trip" ideal of decades past, free access to roads and movement as a form of assembly. Once the core value of such activity is devalued or "ceded" to practical concerns, it is just a matter of time. It's not hard to envision a pitch that "The State will determine what pilots are needed, and provide training according to State selection criteria, and (blah blah insert central planning language here)". "Why should you be allowed to fly a plane?!? You're not an *expert*!". There are a lot of little chisely techno-rent seekers looking to make a buck by automating a process for squeezing out every last transactional dime. "We're adding effiency!". Yeah, sure you are. Real societal net good. Completely optimized society with individual pricing. They know the price of everything, but the value of nothing.

If you're near Houston, these folks did a good job for me many years ago: https://www.harveyrihn.com/ Both basic tailwheel and aerobatic/upset training. Can tailor to your goals. Co-founded by an aerobatic competitor. There is a guy at Cody WY that has an AT-6 who was doing upset training for TBM guys in Billings recently. Cody is an easy place to get in/out of and you could make a vacation out of it.

Not cheap, Ray; "inexpensive". Actually with the discussions on other threads and boards about the possibility of a "leaded fuel-ban avgas apocalypse", I've kind of wondered (as a mental wargame) what would be the thoughtful step up to a turbine. A lot of singles seem higher-end, for lack of a better phrase, than many twins. e.g. PC12, TBM, etc. Fair number around here... BTW there is a TBM training operation/consultancy here at KBIL if relevant to @Dreamscape But cost is what made we wonder about a King Air. If capital werent an issue, a single is simpler than a twin. But the King Air is ubiquitious, so some advantages in terms of field operational support etc. I get the impression that the TBM, in a way like Cirrus, has certain things that "just need to be done" and there is a more captive market. Please correct me if I am wrong. One of my airline friends told me the hot-section work on both sides of a King Air would kill me.

Data point: BTW I mentioned above electively replacing cylinders. The shop found two in-stock Continental-branded new cylinder assemblies for $250-500 more than estimated overhaul cost, shipped out next morning, vs. 4 week wait for overhaul. So I was pleasantly surprised by the supply situation in this case.

Well, I was delayed in response, having just been down on my knees thanking God there are still people like you in Canada. A non-aviation aside: Agree 100%. I had been circumspect in order to provide the advice neutrally, but yes, I get exactly what you are saying, in terms of specific data, analysis, and implicit preconditions. Rodent smells were evident in many areas. I will reach out separately as I am very interested in your international observations... I have some from Africa and read some European indie sources, but it's hard to get a sense of what people thought without a media filter. There is so much to say when it comes to the actual outcomes. AMA doesn't directly control us, though they do exact their graft in ways. Bigger issue is the "institutional capture" of multiple organizations that issue "guidelines" provides a soft power that can be used to club docs over the head. With a federalist system, some states are less persecutory... e.g. with regard to use of Ivermectin (which again I knew pre-COVID). Again, so much more to say. So caveat patientem. Relevant to the aviation aspect: Funny, it had crossed my mind that I'd misunderstood and you were worried about the logistical reliability of transport in the post-COVID era. Or the possible lower quality of trainees due to supply issues. Your concern is far more direct and salient. This is actually a great aeromedical question. I haven't seen any reviews of outcomes in that space, though I imagine publishing might be an uphill battle. I wonder, really wonder, how many pilots actually got the mRNA therapeutics. Some did not, for sure, in my conversations; I think it may have been somewhat company-dependent in terms of who stared down management. Many did certainly roll over or didn't question it. Probably more than half, though, at least enough to be relevant. Bigger aeromedical malpractice (IMO) was probably forcing it on younger people in the military, e.g. the warrant officer candidates in the Army who are generally younger, male, healthy, and have even more of an inverted risk/benefit ratio with regard to cardiac adverse events. At least one experienced flight doc in that community publicly fell on her sword over this issue. Odd that I'm also reading about the perennial "do we really need two pilots in large planes?" question again in the aviation lay press. Coincidence of greed, I think. On the topic of non-conventional solutions: I heard once that Richard Branson started Virgin Airlines because he couldn't get a flight to the islands. Went across the field, chartered a plane, and then walked through the terminal selling tickets to other stranded passengers. Maybe true, maybe apocryphal. I wonder if you could do some kind of co-op arrangement with other professionals working in South America? I would imagine a lot of US and Canadian people would happily cost-share and would want a private flight but maybe not afford or think of a fractional share. Also, thinking of some of the advice about getting a turbine above... not knowing your financial levers, but maybe a common plane like the King Air? Lower capex, higher opex vs. some of the single turbos, IIUC. Someone here would have a sense of current #s.

Thinking about Dan's comments, when I was looking at planes, I was shocked how little it took to get into a nice Baron with low-time engines. Now, ongoing expenses, that's another question...

Greetings @Dreamscape and welcome to Mooneyspace! I've been on here for about a year, bought an Acclaim Type S shortly thereafter. Your aircraft questions feel familiar to me. You may find a couple of overlapping discussions in the archive, too; there was a related engine discussion a while back. Dan @exM20K brought up some concerns about the route(s), which occurred to me as well (though with much less knowledge than he [coffee trader, that's cool! I envision a Banana Republic ad from the 80's]). That idea of having a GA aircraft locally on the continent makes a lot of sense as a "split solution". Pressurization would help with comfort and fatigue on a long trip. My own look into this question (specifically with Malibus and P210's) kind of led to the same conclusion; it was asking a lot of the engine and adds a lot of systems reliability and maintenance concerns. On a tangent, the T210 might be a consideration though I am not really sure the 210's engine parts availability would be much better. Airframe parts, maybe, easier than Mooney. Anyhow, on your primary questions, Dan already made several main points, I would add: - to support your intuition, yes, I think both of these planes are in the "top band" of efficient, cost-effective commuting type GA solutions for regional travel in their price band (piston). At least in my experience, you can travel flexibly in the high teens or low FL's with pretty good speed and comfort. On well-known person in the community said "it's almost turboprop performance for piston prices" (he is a salesman, but a good one). If you're going alone, the range is shocking with even "standard" 100 gal tanks. - my discussions with owners and reading has led me to conclude that the TSIO-550G can achieve long service life with appropriate management (lower power settings, LOP). Surveillance (eg. checking monitor data, borescope, etc) will help a lot to prevent surprises. On the oil change question, several mechanics have advised me to do 50 hr intervals rather than 25 hrs. Again with keeping an eye on things. @Schllc has a lot of experience in this aspect, with several different Acclaims. - rotocoils are inexpensive to replace and not in short supply; AFAICT it's not like they fail that often, either - I am finally changing my two original cylinders at around 1480 hrs. The indication is "soft" and I had also addressed some problems with valve lapping/coil replacement previously. A couple of very experienced Mooney and 550 mechanics said it really was elective at this point. Not horrible service life. - random parts can be an issue but, talking to shops, the same thing is partly true for much more common aircraft when it comes to engines, common sensors, etc. I would think logistics and supply chain would be the issue in S.A., you could establish some relationships and possibly maintain local spares. - there are several folks here who've owned and flown both, they may weigh in shortly. - G1000 or no has been mentioned. Lots of discussion there, possibly a secondary question at this point unless you demand a six-pack. FWIW it is a very capable system that is thoughtfully integrated and is an easy point of display/integration for FIS-B, XM, and/or stormscope data. - I can't imagine you won't want TKS Lastly, if you'll forgive another unsolicited piece of advice (your intro implies you are seeking experience-based advice and what I would call "synthesis"): I would suggest you reconsider your risk calculus with regard to (A) significant negative effects of potential COVID-19 (SARS-nCov-2, specifically *current* variants) exposure on commercial flights vs. (B) composite risk of the GA mission you are proposing. I'm saying this as a physician who's practiced in different phases of the COVID experience, in terms of acuities, systemic approaches, etc, and with some knowledge of operational risk management in aviation operations. And with the caveat that I don't know you as a patient. It's probably not in scope for a longer discussion on this thread, but the low virulence makes individual health factors a dominant factor, just as with so many other diseases. I understand risk and fear are personal, I know people in the Midwest who are terrified of earthquakes and won't travel west, though they're more likely to die by slipping on the ice. And I'll never criticize you for flying because "it's dangerous", I'm just suggesting that if that's truly a major determinant, you might revisit it with a trusted physician advisor (not someone who will simply parrot CDC or Health Canada guidelines from 2 yrs ago). As a practical matter, if you're willing to fly the big iron down to S.A. you could use the suggested strategy of having a Baron down there. Respectfully, David

Not long ago, I had mine replaced the fuel distributor on my Acclaim due to similar symptoms. We got a rebuilt unit from a (fuel) repair station with an 8130, it was not crazy expensive, definitely less expensive than new (which were also not readily available). So you could return yours for an off-the-shelf rebuilt unit, or send it in for rebuild. At least one local mechanic indicated he would just handle it locally, and it sounds like there might be some DIY. FWIW the paperwork that came back it with had flow testing at different pressures, on all the distribution limbs. So that seems some additional peace of mind. HTH David

I just flew to western Montana this Sunday, south of Missoula. There have been multiple fire TFRs and I have had to go around them in the recent past when they blocked some instrument approaches, vectored until in a position to do a visual (or a contact approach technically a couple weeks ago). Limited visibilty due to haze. The first time I called the coordinating facility and discussed the situation to get some awareness. On Sunday, I figured it would be the same... they told me to expect the instrument approach... I queried to verify no TFR conflict. I got a clearance and descent, then a forget-that-hold-and-wait while they got a jet off. Then another. At this point, approaching the area, I realized I couldn't see any of the usual mountains due to smoke and more so haze...the clouds being fairly high. I slowed in anticipation and eventually got kind of a slam-dunk onto the initial (often an issue due to enroute terrain), which sped things up. Anyhow, it felt a lot more "real" than usual since I really did have obscured mountains, no visible horizon, limited fwd visibility, and the usual issues with losing speed and altitude in a Mooney. Compounded it by hitting the wrong switch, but took over manually and re-coupled after some careful review. What surprised me most was not seeing the runway until about 100-150ft above circling minima! I'd briefed the miss twice before that point as a matter of practice, so I was thinking, wow I'm actually going to go missed with a 10,000ft ceiling... It was uncanny how the slant range visibility was reduced, the intuition was different than clouds. This was in the context of having moderate familiarity with the area and landscape cues. Maybe not a surprise to those who fly these conditions a lot, but a caution to those more accustomed to dewpoint-related obscuration.

^this This is what I was getting at by saying have at least one layer of passive.

Probably this is increasingly relevant, however, due to the supply issues of certificated planes that have been discussed elsewhere.

Fear of other people's planes seems kind of like earthquake phobia to me, not really to be rationally addressed. Though public sentiment is probably increasingly on the side of banning disfavored minority activities. Meanwhile, anyone can drive, including recently-arrived randos, and there's a general aversion to actually enforcing laws against violent crime among the bien pensant. Next you'll read I've been crushed by a falling EZ...

BTW I watched American Made a few weeks ago. Makes me want an Aerostar...

Good data point on Clarity Aloft. Maybe I'll try that as a first experiment with civilian in ear rigs. I wonder if putting passive muffs on top would work well for you...? Or amplified shooting muffs like Peltor if you're not flying solo and want to hear in cabin sounds. IIUC a big advantage of pressurized cabins is noise reduction. I'll bet the noise reduction strategies are different.

This is a good suggestion. Certainly from a hearing protection standpoint it is a good idea. For maintaining occupational fitness (young pilots, military, etc) this is a very good idea. I'm personally skeptical modern ANR really decreases exposure; more so improves intelligibility in certain ranges. At the very least one layer of good passive attenuation seems like a no-brainer to me. Above idea is to double-cover with passive attenuation (so background noise further decreased), with the desired signal relatively higher as it goes through only one set of protection. You can modify this idea by using ear plugs with small channels (like shooting plugs which can pass higher frequencies for speech), or even in-ear speaker units, further boosting SNR. I believe a lot of piston-plane noise is lower to mid-range vs. turbine. To @Ragsf15e's example, I started with the exact same solution but saw the transition to in-ear plugs in the F-15. Those were the Westone ACCESS plugs, which aren't necessarily even the quietest, but the improvement in comms intelligibility was huge. There are a lot of civilian options on the market; I haven't tried any yet to comment. @Schllc , you mention a more specific issue with hearing. There are some pretty specific otologic conditions involving noise, speech discrimination, etc. Replying here in general, which might helps others, it occurs to me that you might: - do some experimentation with the above (affecting absolute vs. relative noise levels, frequency characteristics etc). - if relevant, try the Lightspeed Delta Zulu (which as I understand it allows building a specific frequency response curve). Physically great headset too, though others have reported quirks with all the fancy electronics. - find a thoughtful audiologist with a knowledge of some of these occupational-type issues and get a more individualized opinion, and see if there are any custom solutions HTH David

Funny, I was going to ask about a location in the future more amenable to the North/Northwest! Spokane would be great for me, reasonably weather-wise vs. the coastal locations. I will say Montana offers fine amenities I actually mentioned MPP to the local new entrepreneurial FBO where I board at KBIL. They had a TBM training clinic recently, do public events (flying kids, etc) and are generally oriented towards building up the scene. And, although we're about 3-3.5 hrs from Yellowstone, there are some nice "destination" type airports even closer for people want to make it a vacation. Still hoping to make it to the coming MPP at Ft. Worth!

Maybe would be great whiskers for a catfish paint scheme. Like the flying tigers only different... Smart idea though!

I wonder how proportionate the distribution of GA is to CA, by either population, land area, or GDP. It might be another spur to out-migration of those who can still afford GA electively. The same people who can afford to leave and leave due to large total tax burden, etc. In terms of "working GA", I do sincerely wonder what they'll do... The elites will mostly be burning Jet A and probably don't give a rip, or can pay the nuisance taxes. Though the other NIMBY factors will continue to nip at their heels (noise as you say).

Casperpedia for the win! Thank you. The "revised" circuit in that SB corresponds to what I see in the POH (with the 3 inline fuses). The breakers and placement are much better, thank you for confirming that!