cliffy

Best article I have ever read! Hits the nail on the head as far as all the automation goes.

I was just in Payson AZ KPAN What a great city run airport! Fuel less than $6, clean ramps and good tie downs, tent camping area with FREE firewood for the camp fire. Jet A at $4.35/gal. It can be done. Bigger cities see the $$$$$ of the big jets and the BIG 3 build operations for them. We all pay for it. Most airline airports have SIDA requirements for access that requires locked gates and escorts if not a certified airport employee. There are new security requirements for maintenance facilities also (even when they are not located on the airport). These all cost money. Small GA is getting squeezed out slowly. Where does a kid from school go to look at airplanes anymore? He can't get on the airport like I did in the early 60s. I'd ride my bike to KVNY every day after school to wash airplanes for flight time. Can't be done today. In fact, at some airports you can't even wash an airplane. YA you touched a nerve. Rant over.

Resealing a wet compass has been one item that the FAA removed specifically from the abilities of A&Ps to do in the field (as we did for decades)and reserved for instrument shops only. I'm willing to bet that the number of compass repairs by instrument shops never went up after the FAA got involved as it is such a simple job (it actually falls as a maintenance function and should be signed off) and I guess they NEVER fail anymore. I doubt 1 in 20 ever sees an entry in a log book. :-) It makes for interesting reading when one goes to 43.13-1B Sec. 3 Chap 12-37 and reads about wet compasses. Anytime one is removed and re-installed a compass swing is required. Passing through a sever electrical storm (?), a hard landing, after any change to the electrical system, after being parked on one heading for over a year all require a compass swing. Interesting, very interesting.

Congrats! The best rating you will ever get. Don't go 90 days without practice (with a hood) or actual conditions with good ceilings. Get your feet wet slowly. If you do get a chance at an ILS with 500 foot ceilings practice staying on the gauges until mins anyway. Don't just give up when you go visual. HAND FLY a lot on ILS apps to keep sharp. Don't become an autopilot cripple. We had many of them at the airlines. I hand flew every third approach in the Boeing just to stay in the game. If you use your head and stay in practice you'll do fine and enjoy the learning experience. Remember 2 things- ICE KILLS YOU AND ALL ON YOUR AIRPLANE and as Dirty Harry said, " a mans got to know hislimitations!".

Looks like a good shop

RETURN TO LAKE POWELL fly-in. Our second VMG event here. Most arrive on Saturday morning prior to lunch at 12 noon sharp (donation). Group dinner with those who arrive on Friday. Meet on ramp of Lake Powell Jet Center, Last hangar south on taxiway. Nice fuel discount available to us. PM me if you need more info. Vintage Mooney Group to sign up but all are welcome.

Well lets try KSNA Orange County CA, KPSP Palm Springs CA, KTUS Tucson CA most are sewn up with the BIG 4 (or similar operations) and all are very expensive. Unfortunately I have to go to all of them. If I had any other alternative I'd use it. Also KVNY Van Nuys CA, All avgas is over $7/gal with ramp fees and high tie down fees. The city of Los Angeles used to charge a monthly and a 10% of gross fee to FBOs there. I don't know what it is now. Tucson closed its city run terminal and fuel service and has left it to the BIG 3 there. One notable FBO there is Tucson Jet Center that actually caters to me in my little Mooney. I now use them all the time after looking at the others. One small FBO there that I used 3 times after the city closure charged me $15 just to drop off my wife and have her walk through the building to a car(I was flying out somewhere else immediately) Obviously I no longer use them. For KVNY I use KWHP (Whiteman) just 6 miles away as the gas is over a $1.30 cheaper and no ramp fees. AOPA has not done enough, if anything, to bring this issue to the forefront and to seek solutions. Having run FBOs in a previous life and fully realizing that they make their monthlies buy selling fuel, I still find the current trend in consolidation of FBOs from the small operator to the BIG 4 disturbing and detrimental to small aircraft.

Im with 601rx dont need it. I push it in and the only time it comes back is on the decent

Back to the original question- They maybe can be made to work but would always be illegal to use. No FAA certification, NO PMA to manufacture them, NO nothing to make it legal. It's just the way "CERTIFIED" aircraft are. The aircraft and all its parts are made to a certain specific set of drawings and design with all parts called out by part number. No deviations allowed UNLESS accompanied by an STC, Field Approval, etc. As they say, That's the way it is in the big city! As was mentioned, go experimental and now YOU are the certifying agency and can do it any way you want. As I mentioned a while back, the #2 cause of accidents in Arizona last year was? Anyone? Bueler? Aircraft maintenance by non-certified mechanics (airplane owners!)going outside their legally allowed parameters (Private Pilot AND OWNER allowed (both in the same person doing the work) Preventive Maintenance) and using non-certified parts and techniques. Legally, this ain't your old 56 Chevy that you work on on weekends. If you're not an A&P but doing A&P stuff, then you have to accept the consequences of your actions.

If I was visiting my son at Weiser (KEYQ) I'd come over but I'm in AZ Have fun!

AC 43-13 1B Chap 10-15 Procedures (g) shows how to calculate "Empty Weight" and detail it in the records. (CAR3 vs Pt 23). One must note in the W&B form if the empty weight is calculated with full or empty oil quantity

Thanks for joining in Bill!

You did a great job under trying circumstances. Don't second guess yourself. Congratulations on a job well done!

On CAR3 airplanes the "empty weight" is calculated with empty oil and only non-usable fuel in the tanks. On FAR 23 airplanes it is calculated with full oil and non-useable fuel. You can pull the sump plugs and drain both or have both full and calculate the empty tanks according to the TCDS sheet capacities. A/C must be level and scales must be calibrated and (if I remember correctly) readable to 1/2 pound for A/C under 6000 lbs. So on CAR3 airplane you add in your oil quantity when you do your pre-flight W&B (you lose useful load for oil) and on FAR 23 airplanes you've already lost full oil weight (from useful load) before you do your W&B.

Just try rwy 33 at KPGA on a moonless night. Once past the runway lights you are definitively total night IFR as there is no horizon at all. No houses, no roads, no lights, just black at 200' AGL for as far as you can see. Low time VFR pilots need not apply!

I'm not near my manual right now but I think it says nose wheel and rudder are 2 degrees different and the rudder is to the right when the wheel is straight. But do check it out. Also check for play in the nose wheel steering linkage at the top of the nose gear inside. Lift the nose wheel off the ground and turn it left and right. If it moves easily with 10 or more degrees of turn you need to rebuild the linkage. It shouldn't have much play. Also the caster angle maybe off (the wheel may be too far forward in relation to the gear pivot point). There is a SB on this available.

I didn't see a boat anywhere on the list of "must haves" or jet skis! At least with an ADF you can listen to "RUSH" Any time one changes to a "new" airplane the first 2 years of maintenance are double or three times what you'd think just playing catch up. There goes your "savings" in changing. Just like with RVs, every one has issues.

The AOPA has posted what the new rules could be if enacted by the Feds. Looks like they are trying a reasonable effort to allow "incidental" items in a hangar but get rid of hangars rented for everything BUT airplanes. I have a couple of questions on it but over all its not too bad. Airports that have used Feds funds to improve the airport will fall under this rule. There should be a differentiation between publicly built and rented hangars (city owned) with waiting lists and those built on leased airport land but built and owned by private individuals. A lot also depends on how each city/county interprets the National Fire Code as it pertains to aircraft hangars. It's complex and very restrictive.

Learn something new every day! Not a bad website at all! Thanks !

I've had 4 in my C 3 times in 14 years. Usually just the two of us. Had 4 grown men once for a 40 min flight. Tight is all I can say. Yes the smallest were in the back. My wife's record is 13 mins from gear up to asleep in the right seat!

Ditto to N201 reply Make sure your battery ground strap and your engine to airframe ground strap are both tight and clean of all corrosion at both ends of each one. Check all the connections on the alternator also. The EGT may be bad temp probe at the exhaust stack. Wiring issues can be very trying to fix. You might also try tripping and resetting all circuit breakers just to make sure they are all have clean contacts and seated good.

Ya all be careful out there with "non-approved" installs. I know of 1 aircraft owner facing over 200 violations right now (every flight is a separate violation) for hard mounting a non-structural bar in his airplane and mounting a Garmin 696 to it with screws (hard mounted) with no legal paperwork to show compliance with 43.13 or STCs or anything. All it takes is walk around by the Feds as our poster here will verify (Now my airplane is junk!).

O2 filling tips: Refill cylinders very slowly. Too fast and they get hot and you will get a false pressure reading. When cooled the pressure can go down several hundred pounds in the filled tank. Have O2 dedicated tools (wrenches, screwdrivers, etc) and clean them very well with soap and water to remove all traces of any oils or greases from them. Grease or oil in the presence of O2 can spontaneously ignite. It should go without saying (but I've seen it) NEVER LUBRICATE ANYTHING DEALING WITH O2 WITH ANY PETROLEUM PRODUCT! I hope you have a pressure gauge on the "filling" tank that can be monitored while filling to avoid over filling if you use tanks higher than 2000 psi to fill with. Be safe out there You can save a lot of money but do it right.

If its the typical "in the seat" O2 generator it gets very hot when making O2. It is classified as "hazmat" It is what brought down the ValueJet DC-9 many years ago in the Florida swamps. Be very careful with that in your airplane. BTW, the Captain on that DC-9 was my best friend.

Is there nothing describing your gear system in your Pilot Hand Book?