danb35

Certainly, and if you'd stated that upthread, I apologize for missing it. I'll amend my statement to "most of the nay-sayers". I have no personal experience with a planned, structured accelerated IFR course like PICs, but it's been my observation that most who do think very highly of the curriculum and the instructors (one recent student posted a lengthy account of his training on the flight training forum over on the AOPA boards; another student posted his account to AvWeb some years back, also very favorable). It's also been my observation that a lot of people don't think much of such programs, and most of those who post about it indicate that their feelings are based on preconceived beliefs on how training should be done, rather than on actual experience with the programs in question.

How far ROP is the setting you started with? It seems too obvious to mention, but if you started at 125 ROP and leaned to 20 LOP (probably not quite lean enough at 75%), your EGTs and TIT would by definition be 105 degrees higher.

Right, which is immediately followed by the recommendation for 50 ROP, which doesn't limit the recommendation to cruise. Did they mean for that recommendation to also apply to cruise flight? Who knows? That would suggest to me that the 50 ROP recommendation was for non-cruise ("we recommend peak for cruise, and 50 ROP for everything else"), but that makes even less sense. It sounds like you now agree, though, that this recommendation isn't restricted to NA engines, as you indicated a few posts up. Lycoming's recommendations on engine management are highly inconsistent at best, and utterly nonsensical at worst.

Since TIT only exists on a turbocharged engine, I'm going to have to say you're wrong about their referring to an NA engine. There's no reference in there to a limitation on the power setting, nor even to this recommendation applying in cruise. You may be assuming this, but they don't say it, or even clearly suggest it.

http://www.lycoming.com/support/troubleshooting/resources/SSP700A.pdf "For optimum service life, Lycoming recommends operating 50 degrees rich of peak EGT or TIT." Page 2, near the bottom of the second column. They admittedly don't address CHTs, though the chart included in that same publication confirms that they're highest at 50 ROP.

I note that all of the nay-sayers on the immersion-type courses appear to people who haven't taken one. I'd suggest the OP take that into account when considering their remarks about such courses.

I also have an Accutrak 2 in my '67 F, and it works very well. If your GPS has a CDI output, it should be able to drive the autopilot--mine is coupled to a Garmin 430W.

Owner-produced parts are already an option--there's no requirement that the factory be out of business. However, you need to show that the new part conforms to the type design, which can be difficult for more complex parts.

75% at best power is exactly the same horsepower as 75% at best economy--both are 75%, or 150 HP for our 200 HP engines. With the same amount of power, the aircraft will perform exactly the same.

I believe the LoPresti cowling improves access a bit, but I doubt that's worth $20k to you. Otherwise, if your C is old enough to be using screws all around, you might look into replacing them with cam-locks like the slightly-more-recent models have. This is one area where Brands B and P have a significant advantage over our Mooneys.

Oh, and the issue was raised about the AD and the SB. There's a service bulletin (M20-229) that "mandates" recurring inspections of the fuel caps. In the US, of course, for Part 91 operations, service bulletins are always advisory, no matter how "mandatory" they claim to be. However, there's also an AD (85-24-3). In the "compliance" section of that AD, it states, in full, "Within 100 hours time-in-service after the effective date of this AD or at the next annual inspection, whichever occurs first, unless already accomplished." There's no mention of any recurring requirement. The AD mandates that the fuel caps and tanks be inspected IAW SB M20-229 and M20-230, respectively. Some IAs take the position that by incorporating the "how" portion of those SBs, the AD also incorporates the "when". IMO, that's contrary to the plain meaning of the AD, but I wouldn't put it past some FSDO inspector to read it that way.

Well, Garmin was started by a couple of former B/K engineers... The story (at least Garmin's version; don't know if B/K would disagree) is that Gary and Min, working at B/K or whatever it was called back then, thought that GPS technology would be great for GA use. Their bosses didn't think so, so they left and formed Garmin. Turns out they've been eating B/K's lunch ever since.

UPS bought out IIMorrow, an established avionics company best known for their line of LORANs. So at least they bought an existing company rather than starting into avionics from scratch. As to why they did that, though, good question. I don't know that IIMorrow/UPSAT ever did anything that would have been useful to UPS's air fleet.

Here's a good write-up on changing the O-rings: http://csobeech.com/files/O-RingChange.pdf It's aimed at Bonanzas, but our Mooneys use the same caps. Here's some more information about the blue flourosilicone O-rings that seal better and last longer, with part numbers and sources: http://csobeech.com/o-Rings.html

We need to make sure we're comparing apples to apples. If you buy a used Sandel, you'll also need a King KG102 and KMT112, and then there's installation. The $3-5k you're mentioning would cover just the used 3500 from what I've seen--probably looking at $7-8k all in to get it installed. At that point, it's getting really close to an Aspen. If you know where I can get a current revision Sandel 3500 installed under $5k total (or even a 3308, closer to the $3k mark), I'd be very interested to hear about it.

More specifically, "Savvy reserves the right to decline to manage the maintenance of any aircraft manufactured prior to 1970. We do evaluate these on a case-by-case basis, with strong emphasis on determining whether or not the aircraft still has factory support and parts availability. For example, we will sometimes accept a 60s-vintage Bonanza or Cessna because those aircraft are still well-supported by the manufacturer and most parts are still readily available." See https://www.savvymx.com/index.php/faq/qualify#old_aircraft for more.

I've not used the Savvy Mx program itself. I've talked with Mike, and been to one of his seminars, and his philosophy on maintenance makes a lot of sense to me. I would see the program having value if you weren't otherwise very hands-on in your maintenance, or possibly for AOG situations.

Laser cutter is still CNC, as is water jet, or router. I had my panel cut with a water jet cutter at a local tech community college; I think it cost me about $20. If you really want to buy a new toy, though, and use the project to justify the purchase, something like the Fireball V90 should do the job: https://probotix.com/FireBall_v90_cnc_router_kit/

Fixed that for you.

Although I don't doubt there are people in AOPA making big money, I wouldn't trust Aero News (i.e., Jim Campbell, aka "Zoom") to tell me the sun will rise tomorrow morning. I also don't see any inherent problem with personnel of a non-profit organization earning large salaries, so long as they actually earn them.

How would eliminating the flight review save the FAA (or anyone else in the government) money?

No, the pistons are aluminum. The crankcase would be unlikely to have seen much additional heat from this event, but the head would almost certainly be damaged if that temperature reading were actually accurate. Like others here, I'm suspecting an instrumentation problem.

The previous model Vertex covers/ed the 2m band as well as aviation VHF, however they've removed that capability from the current 710 model. Of course, many 2m ham handhelds can be modified to receive (at least) and transmit (in some cases) on aviation VHF, not that it would be legal to do so...

OK, in that case definitely not the landing gear preloads. Kind of confusing when the bar is up for gear down.

I understand that SEM products (http://www.semproducts.com/) make paint and other materials specifically formulated for plastic. I've seen their stuff recommended in other discussions of refurbishing interior plastic, but have no experience with it myself.