KSMooniac

I wanted to separate this topic from the other general OSH goodies thread... I talked with them last week and am excited about their product. If they can certify their 200 hp engine as planned next year, there will be a great option for all of us in my opinion. Their intent is NOT to enter the STC business for retrofit/upgrade business with existing airframes, and instead plan to rely on owner's groups or other companies to do the STC work. That is a very logical position for young company. They recently secured a contract to outfit Navy blimps with their engines, so that is a great vote of confidence in the product, and hopefully gives them a nice revenue stream to aid with the certification work. One guy in the tent mentioned they had spoken with a Mooney owner's group in the past. After learning that, I went back to the MAPA tent and Trey did not have any knowledge of any such discussions. Susan Harrison from MAC did not either, so I'm fishing around trying to see if anyone has already started work. LoPresti is apparently working on a Cirrus conversion first. I am very, very interested in developing an STC for the 180 and 200 hp Mooneys. My day job is a structural analyst in the aircraft industry, and I have aspirations of earning a DER certificate and eventually starting a composite fabrication shop. Such an STC project would dovetail nicely with those goals...so I want to do it! I have some DER friends and FAA offices local to me to assist as necessary. I would like to hear from anyone that is interested in such a conversion, or if they have knowledge of anyone already working on one. There are many advantages to such a conversion such as 100% power to 18,000 feet, better BSFC, likely higher cruise speed for a given power setting due to improved aerodynamics of a replacement cowl, longer range, fewer engine-related systems to maintain, etc. Engineering-wise, the firewall forward package should be very close to weight-neutral. It might be possible to retain the existing cowls and modify them appropriately, but I think a replacement cowl would be a better idea. I have no prediction regarding costs at this point, but looking at their experimental kit costs, it would be quite a bit more expensive than an IO-360, but very competitve with an IO-360 + Turbo Normalizer kit (more apples-to-apples comparison) and offer tremendous fuel savings over a TBO run. I'm not looking for any money either, so please post here if you have any interest and/or direct knowledge of someone else pursuing such an idea.

I'm going to start a new DeltaHawk thread...

DeltaHawk is offering a 200 hp variant, although the 180 hp will be the first to certify, followed by the 200 and 160 as ammendments. http://www.deltahawkengines.com/status00.shtml They are not working on any airframe STC directly and will be leaving that to others to develop. I'm contemplating working on a Mooney STC with the 200 hp version and am looking for interest from others and am especially curious if anyone knows of any other individual/group/company working on this. DeltaHawk says they only knew of an "owner's group" that was interested in it, but it isn't MAPA and the Mooney factory doesn't know anything either.

The IO-390 is a lot more money and requires the new Hartzell prop.

If that is the case, they should've done that solution long ago! Restricting a new, next-gen product to that size seems like a really dumb move to me, unless it is priced very low, like 4-5 AMU.

Looks great! Did you do an updated W&B?

dp

I demo'd the BeyerDynamic DANR headset and thought it was impressive. It is hard to tell in the booth, of course, compared to a real airplane, but their demo with piped-in cabin noise was neat. I listen to some BD studio headphones for music at work and think they make a great product. I'll be very tempted to give them a try when I get ready to buy my next premium headset.

I too went to B/K just for giggles and asked about the 770...turns out they DIDN"T EVEN HAVE IT ON DISPLAY! Seriously, they have pulled it back for major re-vamping and won't even show what they had, so I expect it will be some more years of waiting, and when it finally makes it to market, Garmin will drop the 430/530 replacement and make it instantly obsolete. I fiddled with the PFD 840 and thought it was just plain clunky. Poor interface, funky logic...I also think it is too big. The price has dropped to $12k from $16k or $17k IIRC when it launched...I'm guessing it isn't really selling.

Ken, I just returned from OSH yesterday and Wentworth had a 430W for ~$7400 and a 530W for ~$10200 if I remember correctly...not sure how those prices compare these days but they're pretty high IMO. Going for new is probably the best choice, and I'm sure you'll love the new capability.

Well, it continues to be a challenge! We relocated to FLD this afternoon before they closed, grabbed another hotel room, and shuttled to OSH for a few hours. OSH and FLD are closed to all arrivals as of this afternoon, but hopefully both will open at some point tomorrow. I'm anxious to get to OSH and make camp to avoid all of these logistical hassles, but oh well! We're making the best of it. All of the grass we walked on today from the main gate thru the exhibit areas and down to the vintage parking/camping seemed to be in great shape. The North 40 is very empty, save for a few planes here and there, and a tent city of Bonanza folks that trucked in their gear from wherever they tried to start their mass arrival. I wish we would have done that! Hoping for good news and some open grass in the morning...

Disappointing news...the Caravan and BBQ have been scrubbed. All grass parking/camping is closed through Saturday and unknown for Sunday at this point. About half the Mooneys have already scattered from MSN. We grabbed a hotel and will re-assess in the morning...hopefully fly to OSH, backup plan might be Fon du Lac since they allow camping. We need some dry weather, sun, and wind to help speed up the process!

WILCO, Norman! As long as Boeing keeps selling planes then you can keep flying recreationally. I'm heading to the airport now and will be off the grid for a few hours until I get to Madison, and hopefully OSH later today...

Here is the late night update: Some of you (I among that group) questioned why we decided to stay with our 1:00 briefing Saturday even though the FAA told us that we would not be launching until Sunday at the earliest. Well it appears that the people at Oshkosh are trying to find a way to still get us in on Saturday. They are looking into ways to temporarily park us on hard surfaces until conditions are appropriate. This is by no means a certain outcome and it will be influenced by weather conditions over night (which are forecast to be less than great). They will be meeting first thing in the morning as will the Mooney Caravan Board at which time we hope to better know the likelihood of launching on Saturday vs. Sunday, vs... If you are not already here (25 airplanes have checked in and we had a fun evening at Pedro's tonight getting reaquainted)and want to participate, it is important that you be at MSN before the 1:00 briefing.

The Caravan sent out a message that all mass arrivals for Saturday have been delayed until Sunday at the earliest. More info after 6:00 tonight...

Eldon, are they parking any planes in the North 40 currently? I listened to LiveATC.net yesterday and heard an OSH tower controller say all of the grass parking was closed and "say intentions." The official word on the EAA site is quite ambiguous, which I'm sure is intentional so it won't discourage folks from coming. We haven't heard anything official from the Caravan yet, but it is probably too early to make a decision about tomorrow...

If it were me, I'd keep using the KX-155 until it gives up the ghost. I got my plane with a Garminized panel (340, 530, 430) plus the original KT-76 (not A!) xponder. I put the upgrade money into fuel tanks, paint, mods, etc. since the KT-76 kept on trucklin' until this year. Now I have a GTX-330ES and no more King stuff, and a better climb rate due to a much lighter wallet. Unless you think you can get some decent money in trade or sale of KX-155 I wouldn't do it just yet.

I believe the SL30 can be wired to a 530/430 to receive frequencies from the database without having to manually tune them. Minor functionality boost, IMO. The ability to monitor the stanby frequency with an SL30 is the best benefit over other comms.

Quote: Jeff_S Ha! Finally a time when the 3-bladed prop on an M20J can avoid being totally maligned! But I shall not be at OSH this year due to too many other commitments. Y'all have fun.

testing again from Firefox wow, it is working today...

Thanks for the PIREP Eldon! Please do your anti-rain dance as best you can and keep the monsoons away so that we'll all get a nice, firm parking spot.

I think the best bet for non-new is to cozy up to your favorite dealer and see if you can get a refurb from Garmin. It will at least come with a warranty. I bought a refurb xponder earlier this year.

I get the following error message in red: Oops! You forgot to type a message for your new post. This happens when replying, or trying to make a new post, and unfortunately my typing disappears from the window! I just lost 15 minutes of typing... grrr.

All, I wanted to start a new thread to tally our attendance, and see if we can organize a get-together or two during the week. Please reply here, and I'll monitor/update the top post as folks reply and then we'll see what happens. Hopefully a bunch of us will make the Sunday Caravan BBQ, and then maybe we aim for a Wed +/- lunch or dinner gathering. Please list days attending, Caravan (yes/no), Sunday BBQ (yes/no), camping or lodging location. Scott S+3 Sat-Wed/Thursday Caravan BBQ-Yes Camping with Mooneys/North 40 Sven +2 Sat-Thu No Caravan BBQ-Yes @Camp Scholler in a rented pop-up camper Mitch and Jolie Sunday - Monday No Caravan BBQ-Yes @private home near Wittman Ned and Ute Gravel Sat-Wed/Thursday No Caravan BBQ-Yes Camping with Mooneys/North 40 Ed & Stacey Ferguson Sat-Wed/Thursday No Caravan BBQ-Yes Camping with Mooneys/North 40 Quinn+1 Sun-Sat No caravan BBQ-no Camping in the North 40/private house Tues-Sat Carusoam + 2, Wed - Sat, no caravan, no BBQ, Camping GAC Eldon Wed- Mon No Caravan BBQ-YES Camping with Comm. Paul's Park Camp Scholler FlyingAggie (Alan) Mon-Sun Caravan-no BBQ-no Camping with vintage Bonanzas/North 40 Bryan+1 No Caravan BBQ-Yes DaV8or (Dave) +1, Sunday-Friday, No Caravan, BBQ Yes, Staying a long ways away in a hotel. MB_M20F (Morten) Sat-Tue/Wed, Caravan=yes, BBQ=yes, Camping with Mooneys/North 40 Wojo +1 (Justin) Sat-Wed Caravan-Yes BBQ-Yes Camping with Mooneys/North 40 It looks like Wednesday will be a good time to gather after the Sunday BBQ...any preference for lunch or dinner? I wonder if we could all gather around the campsite for dinner, but I have no idea if we could get enough provisions to pull it off. Suggestions?

I wear a Breitling B-1 currently, and really, really love it. The E6B is not real useful in flight, but fun for playing at the desk. I bought it used, but it is still expensive. I lust after several different Navitimers but doubt I'll add any anytime soon. Prior to this one, I wore a Seiko Aviator with a white face for 15 or 16 years. Nice watch with a similar E6B, alarm, stop watch, etc.