FlyDave

Welcome home Joe

Dan, In my Bravo I only pull the yoke back for turns - makes for tighter turns. The Bravo has a little more prop clearance than the Rocket and I haven't felt I was going to hit anything going straight ahead. Dave

I certainly did when I watched that video last night

Yeah, I'm sitting in a bar drinking beer and now laughing so hard the fish and chips are all over the table. Thanks Chris!

Everything previously mentioned plus this: https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/appages/rescuetape.php

I had a Cherokee for 6 years that I kept tied down at KEMT. The interior got destroyed by the sun, the paint took a beating and the only time the avionics cooled down was when I flew the plane. Heavy rain will find any leak in door, baggage or window seals. In addition, If I didn't wash my plane every few weeks (and I didn't ) I had a layer of black soot that was a pain to remove. Another aspect of tiedowns is that some airports don't want you working on your plane on the ramp.

Tony, I put fine wires in my plane 150 hours ago and had no change in FF. The biggest change I noticed with the fine wires was little to no fowling of the lower plugs. I change my oil at ~25 hour intervals and some of the massives would be caked with lead. If I didn't clean them at every oil change it would get hard to start and run rough on the ground. With the fine wires I get almost no lead deposits and as long as I lean aggressively it runs smooth on the ground.

For reference, I run my plane as follows: 29/2400, 18.5 gph, 1,600 TIT, ~200 KTAS @ 17,500' 26/2400, 16.5 gph, 1,600 TIT, ~190 KTAS @ 17,500' My JPI probe has always read ~100 dF higher than the stock analog probe. I use the JPI as primary and check it against the stock. I think my TIT probe has ~600 hours on it. Does anyone change their TIT probe at certain intervals?

I had a J and now a Bravo. I think the 201 is the most increadible airplane ever built! The perfect balance between speed and efficiency! That being said, the Bravo ain't a bad ride.

Yeah, I agree Mike. I'm having him rebuild them this week.

We had the 500 hour inspection in 2015 and per the logbook entry they were cleaned, adjusted and test stand operated OK. Nothing was replaced. My mags now have ~630 hours since new and no replaced parts. The job is called a 500 hour mag "inspection". But what is the groups general consensus for the 500 hour "inspection"? Do you have all the parts replaced or just IRAN'ed? Also, what are your thoughts on rebuilt mags? Is a points kit the same thing? Is a rebuilt mag as good as a new mag?

See, this is what Jimmy Garrison does. He puts a great plane on the market for a great deal. You can't resist.....He's like a drug dealer who has what you want. That's that way it was 3 years ago for me and I've been very happy with my plane ever since! Just Do It!

For my Bravo, on a short turn/high heat soak I find that opening the throttle about 1.5 turns (to about 1300-1500 RPM), mixture full rich and no boost pump before or during start, my engine starts after about 6 blades. One thing I've found when I do this is I have to let the engine run at whatever RPM it gets to (1300 - 1500) and don't touch the throttle OR mixture - for about 20 seconds or it will die. On a longer duration shutdown a 3 second prime and full rich starts it in 3-5 seconds. Cold, as Carqwik states depends on OAT and, if mixture is guestimated correctly it starts in 1-2 blades.....amazing!

Paul, Congratulations on your new 252. One gets used to a turbo quickly - eh (one flight and you're hooked)? I have an EDM-700 in my Bravo. I set the "Index Rate" to 1 so the unit steps through each cylinder and other parameters every second instead of the 3 or 4 second default. I found this makes the unit much more usable as engine management on a turbocharged airplane is more critical on a turbo than normally aspirated. I prefer one of the units that show CHT's, TIT and FF all the time. Have you gotten any training on engine management? If not, I highly recommend it. Here's a quick video of a turbocharged engine (TIO-540 pushed to 400 HP) being run on a test stand: Dave

Tony, About a year ago I went halves on an Aerotrek A220 light sport tail wheel airplane - pic attached. I went in on this plane for the same reasons you state - Bravo is for traveling and the AeroTrek is for noodling around locally. It's a fun plane to fly but absolutely terrible in turbulence! I've see videos on YouTube of a guy landing a SuperStol on the side of a mountain on what looks like a 45 degree grade - AMAZING!! That guy is truly one with his airplane and makes it look so easy. You're going to enjoy the SuperStol - Congrats!! Dave

One way to keep the oil spilliage to a minimum is to run the engine to heat the oil and start it draining on one day, then come back the next day to replace the oil filter and finish up. The cooler oil will not run out of the filter as quickly as warm oil so you'll have less mess.

Dave, Sorry to here you had this issue - it doesn't sound like fun in the air! How many hours on your engine/turbocharger? Any precursors you can think of prior to this failure? Please do keep us posted. Thanks, FlyDave

You asked for it. I used to fly XC in my sailplane with a group called "The Crystal Squadron" from CrystalAire (13 NM east of Palmdale) during the summer soaring season The goal was to fly a diamond distance flight (500 km straight line distance takeoff to landing) every Saturday. We usually went north across Mojave, Inyokern, and up the Sierra’s, across the Owen’s Valley and further north from the White Mountains into Nevada, Utah, etc.. My wife crewed for me meaning she would drive the 4-Runner towing the glider trailer to retrieve me whenever/wherever I landed. I love this woman! On one particular Saturday I launched and after about an hour of scratching around for enough altitude I finally headed north. I called her on the radio but no answer, so I figured she was indisposed. About ½ way to Mojave she calls me on the radio to tell me she’s on her way…nothing to worry about but she needed a little assistance to get on the road. She was a great crew – really understood that I needed to concentrate on flying and not worry about things on the ground. I get to Mojave and finally find some more lift (the day is getting better – Yippee!!) and call her with my next alternate (next place to pick me up if she doesn’t hear from me in the air again) and she responds “please land California City”. I say “the day is strengthening honey….I’m headed north” to which she says “LAND AT CALIFORNIA CITY”. I say “What’s wrong” and she says “LAND AT CALIFORNIA CITY! I’ll explain on the ground”. So I land at California City. She rolls in about 10 minutes later with no door on the back of the trailer….WTF? Someone hadn’t locked the door on the trailer after I launched and it “fell off” when she was pulling out of the airport. Another pilot’s crew helped her put the door back on and tape the handle in the closed position since the handle/lock got damaged when it “fell off”. As she was crossing a bridge over a dry wash in Mojave the wind was really blowing and the trailer was all over the road. She looked in the rear view mirror and “saw what looked like the trailer door fly away”. Zip...gone. She pulled over and confirmed the trailer door had vanished - poof. We put the ship in the trailer sans a door and head back into Mojave to the incident bridge. She says “I think it’s down there”. I say “you mean downwind of the bridge” and I get one of those looks. Now, I’ve sailed since I was a kid. I know what 15 knots of wind is. I know what 25 knots of wind is. I have a pretty good feel for what 35 knots of wind is. This was blowing 40G50. It was howling. I go looking for the door down in the dry wash and finally find it – just beat to shit. Now I have to carry it upwind in the dry wash. I get to the bridge and there’s only one way to get it to the car – up the opposite side of the bridge from where the car is. I get it up on the bridge and start across. This friggin’ door is 4’ wide and almost 6’ tall…shit I’m only 5’5”. Next thing I know we’re both headed for the edge. I wrestle it to the ground and catch my breath. The friggin’ wind is blowing so hard I can barely hold on to the door each time I pick it up. I try to hold onto the edge and keep it downwind but its sheet aluminum and there’s no good way to hold onto it. After 10 minutes of looking like the Flying Nun with an overgrown habit I finally get across the friggin' bridge, bend the friggin’ door so I can get it in the back of the friggin’ 4-Runner and home we went. It took almost a month to fabricate a new door.

Cool! My long XC in 2003 was EMT-BFL-SBA-EMT. My instructor told me to read up on clearance delivery for SBA - good suggestion! BFL may be a better choice than MHV for winds as it can absolutely HOWL at MHV (ask me how I know that.....). All this in a 152 with one NAV for BFL-SBA (learned a lot about VOR's that day) Best of luck - I'm sure you'll do fine. Dave

Follow up: My mechanic put a calibrated pressure gauge in the fuel line system and found that my fuel pressure gauge is fairly accurate to within 2-3 PSI. After he took the fuel system apart and T'ed his gauge into the system he was getting ~30 PSI on the mechanical pump and 55 PSI on the electric pump. He adjusted the pump output up a little and I'm now at 40 PSI in cruise on the mechanical pump and there is no drop in fuel flow when I turn the electric pump on. There must have been something in the fuel line or stuck in the pump vanes (it has vanes not not a diaphragm) because he didn't do anything but disconnect the fuel line and let the fuel drain out (He may have blown out or purged some of the lines). Anyway, issue resolved.

One thing that a CFI friend said to me when he experienced me landing my bravo was "Just hold it". I was chasing pitch in the flare and causing a bit of PIO (Pilot Induced Oscillation". This one tip helped make my landings much much better. Airspeed control (~75 KTAS short final) is key. If you're a little fast and don't let the plane settle on its own it you'll hav trouble. Best of luck! Dave

Wow! That SCARY!! I pressure check my exhaust system every 25 hour oil change except this last one when it was 10 hours after annual. But I know my mechanic is very thorough with the inspections (thats how he makes money!). My exhaust system is original and I don't think that part has been replaced. Per another post (I think it was AndyFromCB) I give my exhaust system a very gentle tug on the first preflight of the day .

Yup, me and heights do not get along! It always feels like my legs are going to throw me over the side of whatever. Even driving a car across a bridge makes me uneasy. But I've been to FL210 in both my glider and my Mooney without a problem. Weird, eh?

I keep a couple of SW Airlines barf bags in the plane for these occasions. I figured I've earned them over the years. I also keep some one gallon zip lock bags in the plane to keep the stink contained after the event. The one gallon bags are also large enough to hold half a chicken - just in case someone went crazy strapping on a couple of feed bags before the flight. Marauder - you may want some of the two and a half gallon bags for your girls.

Tony, I tried this one-man installation of the lower cowl tonight after an oil change. WOW, that was EASY! And I didn't have to explain to someone else how to do it and watch them mash the cowl around trying to get the top camlock on . Thanks for the videos! Dave