Hank

The Caravan practices some, at many locations, then flies once. Practice amount is highly variable between pilots. Blues practice hours a day for weeks before the season starts, and continue to practice between several dozen shows. Each show has double or triple the flight time of the Caravan. There is no comparison . . . .

Don't worry about that, Clarence. Even you can't afford the fuel to fly your beast that far . . . .

I'd still check that. The Owners Manual for my C says 18.2 gph at sea level, WOT / 2700; I can't imagine that your J is happy with less fuel, since it's supposed to make 10% more power.

WAR EAGLE!!!

As technology improves to make an activity (choose one) safer, the humans doing that activity modify their behavior to include more risk, resulting in little to no safety improvement. Welcome to the discovery of Human Nature!

The point trying to be made is that even some of the stupid pilot tricks are recoverable / can be saved without pulling the chute. Rather like the Cirrus guy who got in a kerfluffle, pulled the red handle, fired rockets, deployed drogue then recovered and landed at an airport with the still-bundled-up chute dragging on the runway behind him. Every chute pull would not have been a fatal accident without the chute.

My bladder isn't what wants to get up and walk around! I get restless and cramped after a while.

No extensions for GA because we're all rich airplane owners. But airlines with 8 or 9-digit quarterly profits all get extensions just by asking . . . .

That's respectable right there! I try not to go much over 4 hour legs, may need to redo the seats if it gets regular since there's no aisle to walk around in.

It all depends on your flight path. KAUO-->33A is right over KATL, going around the Bravo adds ~25 mins. Since it goes to 13K, over the top isn't much of an option in my C. VFR: "stay out of the Bravo" (NOT "remain clear".) IFR: it's always HEFIN or CINKA (sometimes Approach is nice and lets me choose which one). Like the rest of Atlanta, there's too many transplanted Yankees in ATL Approach . . . .

Some of us aren't planning to equip. ATL won't let me i side the Bravo anyway, unless my destination is there (hasn't been so far . . . ). Since I already can't play, I'm not gonna pay to keep not playing.

@carusoam, the second link in both of your posts returns "Server Error in '/' Application", followed by a screenful of tiny writing. That's why I looked for the link. Maybe your link only works for i-things and not my 'droid?

So which facts are wrong? Does the Caravan fly more than once a year? Does the whole group practice together, in the air, before going to Osh? I did study up on the pre-formation-training Caravan, as i had a decent shot at attending when based in WV. Now scheduling is somewhat more difficult . . . And the timing interferes with the CFO's annual family confab at the beach [tyoically 50-60 people]. Oh, I did discover that it's 61nm KMSN-KOSH, so 30 minutes is pretty close, takeoff to touchdown. With all the ground time, pilots probably log an hour, more so for those at the back. But the flight itself is still only about 30 minutes. This reminds me of a friend who invited me to join the Masons. I said "what do you do?" His answer, like yours, was "join and find out." My answer was "I don't have time to join every group I hear about to find out what they do and if I'll enjoy it. I find out first; if it sounds like a good fit, I'll go visit; if it's good, I'll stay and join." So thanks for your kind offer to join up and find out what it's like, but I don't have time to join even every flying group that I hear about to see what each one is like and if it's a good match for me . . . .

Scroll tomthe bottom of any page. Under the bright white "MORE INFORMATION" heading is a tiny little word "shop." That's the Mooney swag link to the Speed Shop. Real obvious and easy to find, isn't it? I thought I had seen it before, but had to look to find it now.

FTFY!!

In an emergency, just screw in a socket head cap screw [used with Allen wrenches], the tip of the jack will fit into the hexagonal hole in the bolt. Take a tie down ring to the hardware store to match thread size [5/16-18 x 1" should work], but I would not get inside the plane while jacked this way . . . . The bolt head is too small and will allow rocking, which could be disastrous! But you can work on tires, brakes, gear legs, doors.

The Blues and Birds fly lots and lots of practice with each other, then they have several dozen shows. Caravan participants fly some practice, not necessarily with who they are paired with to Osh. The actual Caravan is once a year., Madison to Osh the weekend before the Show. As for length, I'm sorry, is it a 30-minute flight? I'm not saying Caravanners don't practice, but they practice in small groups, not the elements they will fly in, and never as an entire formation. The Blues get hundreds of hours together before Air Show season starts. There is no comparison, and trying to do so is silly.

My wife bought two new seat cushions that tie onto chair seats. She's 5'3" and sits on both. Shoot, I'm 5'11" and sit on a tapered 2" gel cushion, which lets me see the tip of the cowl and greatly improved my landings.

Wow! It's the rare Twin Mooney! Performs like a small Twin Mustang, I've heard . . . .

Think how much they could have sold at Osh . . . .

We call ours "the Mooney" or "the plane." Not "da plane!", just "the plane" without the funny accent . . . 'cause we dont have Tattoo . . .

The left nose wheel door arm broke on mine, helpfully pointed out by the lineman while parking. Flew home gear down, called A&P on Monday, ordered new one from Lasar. The shiny new part:

The groundspeed envelope for my C, at altitude with pretty much the same power settings and IAS [usually 140-145 mph], is 68-186 knots. According to my owner's Manual, I should expect 158-164 mph [137-142 knots]. So neither GroundSpeed nor Indicated Air Speed is any good for determining performance. Thus the need to determine True Air Speed. Without scrolling, clicking and hoping to get everything right [my OAT is in ºF but the GPS wants it in ºC], there's a quick way to estimate TAS: just look at your Airspeed Indicator and add 2% for every 1000' shown on your altimeter. For 144 mph at 7500 msl, that would be 2 x 7½ = 15%, so 144 + 15% = 165.6 mph with a calculator, or 144 + 14 + 7 + a smidge = 165+ using my head. Close enough. Try this and see how it compares to your Performance Charts. Another neat thing about 7500 msl--the 15% conversion is also the same as mph-->knots, so 144 mph indicated at 7500 is also 144 knots True Air Speed. Makes the math easy.

My GPS gives groundspeed, unless I go to a back screen and enter altimeter setting and OAT. Such is life with steam gauges . . .

The Thunderbirds, like the Blue Angels, fly in dozens of shows around the country every year, each an hour or so long, and sometimes purposefully a fraction of a wingspan apart. The Mooney Caravan flies once a year, about 20 minutes, and they plan to be 1/2 mile apart until final when they shorten up to still be more than a wingspan apart to land. Not quite a good comparison . . . .