Hank

Ahh, the dangers of night flight into fancy airports! Glad you recognized it and made corrections. "There's no place like home" applies to more than just the house. Wonder if AOPA would consider adding this to their Night Flight brochure of hazards to watch out for? At home, the pretty green lights are invisible until short final due to trees, and there are no pretty red lights [i'm guessing you saw a VASI or PAPI]. Lots of white lights spread 200' wide, with the 75' runway not centered between them, and the angled blue taxiway lights about 1/3 of the way down. Even so, it's a pretty sight, and I like admiring the edge of downtown with traffic, stores, signs, etc., on downwind--that's all part of the attraction of night flight. I still recall the magical feeling departing Charlotte Executive at sunset, northbound just under the Class B, admiring not only the city lights below but the streams of commercial traffic all lit up heading in/out of CLT. Absolutely beautiful! Then came darkness as I ventured into SW VA and eastern KY . . . When the sky is lit by stars more so than the ground by lights, that means I'm on my way home. And I learned coming back my first long trip at night, don't relax and stop flying in the flare just because it feels so good to be home again! Two surprise porpoise bounces, full power, cross fingers because it's dark and I can't see the trees, second time around I was alert and had a normal landing.

My 2-year-old Concorde has also never been charged [except by the alternator in flight]. No problems, she sure does spin fast when I turn-and-push.

SMOH tells how much it has been used. Equally important is how much have each been used recently? 300 SMOH ten years ago is sub-optimal, IMHO.

I found a spreadsheet that figures it, and draws the envelope, free. "Google is your friend." All I did was enter my empty weight & CG, and it did everything else. Now I have another page with various loads for quick reference, and for something unusual I can easily calculate the envelope and adjust loading or fuel as needed.

C's are great, Hector. You'll like it. Welcome to Mooneyspace, where we all share the same addiction--far, fast & cheap.! Er, Frugal! :-)

Every 50 hours, oil & filter. Why change the oil and leave most of a quart of old, dirty oil in the filter to contaminate the 6 quarts of clean oil you just put in? Have you ever changed the oil in your much less expensive car engine and left the old filter on? Lots of goop in the old oil, lubricants are broken down, it all needs to go not just most of it. How long does the oil stay looking clean when you don't change the filter?

Amen, brother!!

I've played with it in my C (1950 & 20") but it's too slow for traveling. If you need to loiter, it will give you a long time; if you want to wait for fog to lift, use it. Personally I would divert if possible and wait on the ground, but that's not always possible and sometimes forecasts are not accurate. Note that there are two definitions of 'fuel efficiency': 1) the furthest distance; 2) the longest time per gallon of fuel. This power setting gives the longest time. More people are interested in the former than the latter.

Not changing the filter is not a good idea. Many people do so in their planes, but not in their car even though the aircraft engine costs the same to replace as the entire car. Every oil change, in every engine, gets oil and filter. Car, truck, airplane, tractor . . . Do track make-up oil, and cut open your filters.

C'mon up and enjoy the mountains! I went to Yellowstone and back VFR, long trips are very possible. Even with an Instrument rating, you'll still have to watch the weather, just not as closely. A few clouds and some rain will not necessarily be a show stopper.

There's a page at the front of mine titled "Certificates, Ratings and Operating Privileges Earned" with spots for certificate numbers, dates, etc. There's no place for signatures, only dates. Then you will know which book to look in, if you ever need to check it later. Every page for logging flights has a row called "Previous Page," so that is another link to the previous book. If you're worried, write "Book #1" beside those. When you get a third book, write "Book #2" beside the new ones and "Book #1" beside the old ones. But what do I know? I'm still on my first logbook, Page 80; last available is Page 96, with ten lines per double page (lots of columns). I started on Page 8 in October '06, so I still have a while to figure it out.

My Concord is 2 years old, and it spins the prop fast enough to taxi with. Maybe after my carburetor overhaul, it will crank instead.

I love this magazine! It keeps getting better every issue.

Owner-assisted annuals are a great way to learn about your plane, how it's made, how it's put together and what shape everything is in. You will also gain appreciation for the work your A&P does for you, and how "snug" everything is in this plane to reduce frontal area and drag. Do you have small hands and thin arms? With any luck, you won't need to lay on your back by the rudder pedals and reach up under the panel, but removing the belly and wing panels always makes my shoulders tired--I'm just not used to working with my hands above my head. The two best things I've bought: a ratcheting screwdriver, and a new ergonomic creeper [$18 at Harbor Freight, molded to body shape instead of the old straight wooden one]

Sure there's a Bank Angle vs. Stall Speed chart. Below is the one from my Owner's Manual. What I don't get is why it does not apply just because the plane is at the edge of ground effect? Of course, 130 knots is well above stall even at 60º, at least in my plane. Of course, that's also approaching cruising speed.

Home field, 3000' asphalt with trees at the end: no flaps unless near gross. Nearby 2000' grass strip with trees at the end: Takeoff flaps, no heavy operations. Visiting 3500' grass strip: no flaps unless near gross. Commercial airports: standard, no-flap takeoff. See below for Owner's Manual excerpt. "As desired" is explained above. YMMV, check the Book for your model, etc., etc.

Hurricanes are not "lines" of thunderstorms. Imagine a 600-mile "line of thunderstorms" all bent into a circle, spinning around. Late-season storms like Sandy may not be very tall [i.e., only 30,000 ft or so]. The center of the circle, typically 20-50 miles across, is relatively calm and dry, but the next couple of hundred miles is far from either. The whole mass rotates counter-clockwise, so the strongest winds will be north of the eye when it hits land. Tornadoes are often spun off as the winds hit terrain. Pressures are very low, with pretty steep gradients. This has a nice side-effect--the weather is usually beautiful and clear after a hurricane, because they suck all the little weather into them. The P-3 Orions were armored on leading edges, critical surfaces, and had extra-thick windows. Apparently they've upgraded their equipment to C-130s. For lots of visible phenomena, watch a hurricane in August or September, when they are big and strong from all the warm water. This is the end of the season, and they rarely go so far north into cool waters. The last I remember was in the late 90s, we had a brush from a Category 3, and by the time it reached Long Island it had downgraded to a tropical storm. Category 1 is only 74 mph [sustained winds, not maximum gusts]; below that, it's not a hurricane.

From being on the ground as hurricanes come ashore, it is a huge mass of severe thunderstorms. The NOAA does fly through them, including the eye wall, using specially modified, armored, multi-engine planes. Please keep your Mooney away from hurricanes. I once left NC early because a mere tropical storm was about to come ashore. Now I no longer live in hurricane country so I don't worry as much anymore. Sandy is apparently a large storm, as central WV is expecting heavy snow (2 feet + in some places), but it's not a very strong one. Mixing with the cold front to cause snow is quite unusual, though. Seems AOPA Pilot had an article on the hurricane hunters last year?

Fluffy, you're courting disaster here, and encouraging others to do the same. TKS flow rate may be the same between inadvertent and FIKI systems, but even I know there are significant other differences. Look into the FIKI certification requirements, which start with two alternators and independent electrical systems. Meantime I'll keep my unprotected, normally aspirated Mooney away from ice, adjusting time or route or canceling as required.

I'll have to watch the needle the next time. But Cs only have a few PSI fuel pressure to begin with. I typically fly around 3½-4", and the green line stops at 6". Injected models are much higher. No pump tank changes are not a problem.

Why use the pump when changing tanks? It only takes a couple of seconds to move the switch. Never ran the pump, never thought about it, never had a burble or cough.

Takeoff speed doesn't change with flaps unless you like to takeoff at stall speed. My Owners Manual says rotate at 65-75 mph, with flaps at Takeoff or as desired. Stall speed varies from 54-64 mph depending on weight, configuration, etc. Flaps up, rotate ~70 mph, positive rate gear up, accelerate to Vx, climb over the trees, accelerate to Vy. Hold that to cruise altitude, CHT permitting. One change to make after throttle forward: gear up. Pitch for speed & trim as desired. Much less pitch change than taking off with flaps. Works well at my 3000' long home field.

828 is a North Carolina phone number.

My home field is 3000' with trees at both ends. My normal takeoff is Flaps UP, unless I'm heavy. Sometimes I still use Takeoff Flaps when leaving long [5000 or more] runways when heavy just from habit. "Heavy" meaning 4 adults, or loaded with the wife for vacation, not just an overnight trip. When I visit a nearby 2000' grass strip, I never go in or out heavy, and I use Takeoff Flaps. As noted above, the transition from ground to air is pretty seamless, smooth, with good authority.

But what about when coming in to land with high DA? Surely I don't need to try to find peak EGT in the pattern and richen up 150º or so? P.S.--my mixture, like prop and throttle, are levers on a quadrant, they don't turn. I already keep MP and EGT near cruise settings during descent. The day I went to KRAP I flew at 8500 msl; KRAP is ~3800 msl, calling DA of 6800'. Where do I put the mixture to land? No injectors, either--just an O-360 that I taxi leaned 50-60% back.