Hank

It happens to me from time to time, no idea why. PC, phone, ipad, all same same.

Jose, the report I read said he "dropped 1200 feet in two minutes," which isn't unreasonable. Really makes me wonder what happened . . .

Almost forgot the pictures. Staying low to avoid buildups above the layer for the first 50 nm, then climbing into clear skies. It was worth it to reach the beautiful North Carolina beaches!

Has anyone else heard about an electric AC?

Congrats in the purchase! I love my C . . .

This is what's in my Owners Manual about fuel burn in the climb (see §1):

Wow, 36" for takeoff . . . I usually see about 28-29" depending on the weather.

FTFY.

That's my thought, too. Check the parts catalog, I don't have it on my iPad or I'd look.

Yeah, that won't work for us C drivers--2200 is in the red zone (2000-2250 for me). i generally do pretty well at altitude. Need to dip the tanks and see what I used coming here at 9000 msl at about 25° ROP last night. It was dark and I was tired last night . . .

Uh oh, I've got a double whammy . . . Old English car, older American airplane . . . The car has already cost me more in maint/repairs this year . . . At least they are both fun!

Today's flight from today (Wednesday): Left after work, drove a few minutes (5? 8?) to the airport and cranked up at 5:47 CDT (2247Z). Flew 3:15 to the beach in NC, arriving at the little grass strip just after 10:00 EST (~0200Z). Watched distant lightning from Florence, SC all the way over; neither they nor Myrtle Beach showed anything on the radar. Talking to Wilmington, they showed precip right over my destination, and I saw much lightning but for whatever reason the durn StormScope was clear! Need to get that checked out . . . Anyway, found the field at 2000 msl, as low as Approach would let me go (elevation 40 msl). So I cancelled, circled back, found the field and entered downwind with Takeoff flaps and dropped the gear. Turned base and lost the (dim) runway lights. Passing through 300 msl I went around, crossing the field climbing back through 300. Second try I carefully watched the lights and found a large light near the field, lost them all on base and missed the field again. Third time around I watched more carefully, but had to drag my eyes inside periodically to check ASI and altimeter. Found additional nearby landmark lights, turned base, still saw the other lights, turned final and nearing 200 msl saw the runway lights on one side of the runway. Maneuvered for better alignment and the second side appeared, they're just in a narrow slot through the pine trees. Remembered the power lines in the pines on short final, going to the substation beside the runway and made sure to clear the trees well; landed not too far beyond the displaced threshold, taxied back and my wife helped me muscle the plane into alignment with the tie downs hidden in the grass since I pulled between two spots, I only saw one rope sticking out of the grass in her headlights. I'll put up a picture of typical southeastern haze tomorrow, my phone is charging. Now that the airport has lights and a gravel road (thanks, Life Flight, for basing there!), I need new airport pictures, too. They even painted the mailbox to put the $25/month tie down fees in. Mucho progress since my first flight down in '07, I even had an audience who came out of a house to watch, it was kind of hard to miss me going full power at 200-250 agl! But hey, I'm at the beach and life is good. Ya'll take care!

From Saturday. Somehow this disappeared then, and magically reappeared just now . . . I can sympathize with hot! I had a lovely 45-minute flight each way to Dothan, AL for an IMC Club meeting. Made a pit stop for gas on the way home at Tuskegee, home of the Tuskegee Airmen. Great fuel price! From there, it was 10.4 nm home, and 1500 msl put me about 1200 agl. Entering the pattern, the OAT was 91°, it was almost 1:00 and I was beginning to sweat. Landed, taxied to the hangar, unlocked and opened the door. Took me three tries to get the main gear up the little bump in the concrete . . . By the time I cleaned the windshield, I was really hot! Started the truck, turned AC to Max and made two trips carrying things out, including a half bottle of water from the fridge (it had been full when I pushed the plane in). By the time I drove home, my front side was pretty cool. Walked into the house and took off my shirt, the back was still sweat soaked. It was clean and dry at 0800 . . . No, I'm not ready for fall, I just need to fly earlier in the day. But I did manage a nice, long nap, then bagged another hour by accident after the alarm I had set went off.

That just looks wrong . . . No idea what happened. Was some crud inside the pump? Did you clean the tanks while they were empty? What would be left after running the engine for 20 mins??

Long body, Mid body, short body, Bird body! Looks like Mike and the Mrs. had a good time. Ya'll be careful now!

I see you've been well trained to be an airplane owner! We're all allergic to addition, even the Math professor with his Mooney Rocket. . .

Welcome, Jason. You'll find thenC is a pretty versatile plane. My useful load is 670 lb with full fuel, enough for over 5:30. Just tonight, I landed between the trees on a narrow grass strip at the beach. Took me three tries to line upmwithnthe runway, the lights kept disappearing on base leg,down behind the trees. Can't land when not lined up with the runway!

Have the letters on both sides lean towards the tail. So you will actually use both of these, but the second style will have the propellor to the right.

Oh, darn! Guess you won't make the Wednesday Lunch Group then?

Anthony-- I used many versions of AutoCAD over the years, including two versions of LT at home [which were frustrating when I had the big package at work!]. SolidWorks is a fancy 3D CAD program, and there is nothing "light" about it. It's what we transitioned to when leaving AutoCAD at my last job. Now I'm dabbling in ProE, which is what SolidWorks would be if you removed the intuitive user interface and just scrambled up all of the functions and put them in random menus. If you've ever played with Google Sketch, you know the power of 3D design. SolidWorks is incredibly sophisticated . . .and was a quantum leap from AutoCAD 2012 or 2014 or whatever I last used. May have to pick up a free version and see how it compares. Most unfortunately, I'll have to play with it at home using Winders 10 since my hard drive crapped out and that's what the Geek Squad put on the new one.

Where I used to live, there was a group of jumpers at a nearby grass strip without fuel. They bought a big elevated tank to refuel their 182, and drove avgas in 55-gal drums from our airport. They had a contracted price for the fuel, and stayed under the load limit where a CDL was required [200 gal? check your own state for the right limit]. It worked for them . . .

Summer is in full swing, and I'm now rotating at 75 mph instead of 70. Climb rate is down a little, but once I reach 6000-7000 feet, cruise speed is still there. High temps, high humidity = high density altitude in the ground! longer ground rolls! lower indicated airspeed. If the speed loss was sudden, look for induction leaks. It won't apply to you, but my carb heat butterfly hinge broke and it defaulted to Full Open. Climb rate fell to just 200-300 fpm in the winter, and the cruise speed was anemic.mfixed her up, added a new cable, and now she's 10-12 mph faster than anytime since I bought her in 2007. Also spent two annuals patching up and reinforcing my doghouse. Now I'm even happier than I was before, but I didn't appreciate the bills . . . Now I just don't think about them as I watch the ASI wind up!

When I took Driver's Ed, it was voluntary and lasted much less than 40 hours. It came with an insurance discount, though. In the car, we generally mess around with the radio, various music inputs, GPS, food & drink, and tend to not think of these as distractions. Folding/unfolding maps was routine and occasioned little discussion. On the other hand, away from the traffic pattern, we generally have time to do these things in our planes. Try letting go of your steering wheel and looking down for 30 seconds . . . On second thought, please don't try that in your car! Distractions are labeled differently, because the environment and capabilities are different. But neither should be used to play games.

Ooohhh . . . Hadn't heard about this one, just a C206 with collapsed nose wheel yesterday.

Congratulations, Peter! It's great to see personal growth in fellow pilots. Not too long ago you were trash-talking people who bought Mooneys with a gear up in their history. Hope this one is back in the air soon.