cliffy

Confidence increases with skill level. Keeping active in flying and training helps. Don't be complacent about anything in flying Even with 55+ years in this game I still go out and go roundy round at the airport to keep my pattern skills up there. Don't accept sloppy flying. Work hard to make the perfect flight (it will never happen). VFR or IFR it doesn't matter Work at being professional in every aspect of aviation. It all contributes to confidence. Now being older and wiser I don't take the "chances" I once did. No night SE for me In fact I have limited myself to day VFR. Just personal choice on minimums I've got nothing more to prove, I've got all the time in the world to get there so stopping if I don't like something ahead ain't no big deal. Bear in mind that if you are UNDER CONTROL when you touch down (no matter on or off field) you will in all likelihood survive. It happens every day.

Where does your CG sit for this speed run?

A good wax job will net another 10 kts TAS ! :-)

My Mooney is in the same shape with ALL the old wiring removed and the HDX install about 70% complete as of today,

Then why is Cirrus $800,000?

What I am passing along is what I was told by one of the top managers at Mooney at the time Not a low level worker but right from the top.

The BIG Gorilla in the room- Manufacturer's Insurance!!!!!! How many pieces (market) vs cost of insurance? Remember this is an airplane EVERYONE sues airplane manufacturers! What does one gear up cost if "your" spring that you sold to someone breaks? The only way around it as I see it is OPP (reverse engineer) WITH a DER then the liability slides to the owner who is part of the manufacturing process.

How many pilots would jump from a suckm-up to a bolted down airplane of the same make and forget which they were in?

Again here is the crux of the matter - It has to be an "approved part" to install it on a certified airframe. Approved only gets approved in a couple of ways FOR SALE TO THE PUBLIC - The "part" itself has an approval to be installed and The company making the part IS APPROVED to make it (PMA approval) Certain parts are acceptable to be installed, AN, Space Qualified, etc as they are for sale to the general public Just because some company overseas can make something that LOOKS like the part won't make it available to be sold over the counter to the general public. The part has to be made to the exact specs that the original one was and traceable back to the original design. It needs some sort of design paperwork to verify its design. and the overseas company has to hold a PMA to sell the part over the counter. Another way to get approval is again Owner Produced Part but you still need some kind of reference back to the original part on how to make it- material, sizes. heat treat, etc. You as the owner can approve the part but you can't just make it up out of thin air AND your installing A&P still has to be convinced that the part is OK to be installed. He's the final authority AND the one on the hook if it isn't legal 9to be determined later by your wonderful FAA) Another way is to hire a DER and have a new part professionally engineered and approved by him for installation. One might go the route of taking the DERs design and having it made as an OPP, That might be a way forward. I need to look into that some more.

Speaking of landing gear- They had at the time of the composite shell design actually told me they had run numbers for a fixed gear version and found that with proper design they would only lose about 2-3 MPH. A low drag fixed gear could have been also developed.

Widening the fuselage also entails changes to the aerodynamics of the entire airframe hence a full set of flight tests would be required.

Yes they probably did to Mooney's request (it may have been an off the shelf item) They would have made the spring to their initial design which Mooney adopted into their "approved" package -the TYPE CERTIFICATE In the Type Certificate every part is called out and substantiating data is kept on the exact make up of each part by TC holder and parts are inspected incoming to the airframe manufacturer to verify that they conform to the type design. This then becomes the "traceability" factor to the part being an approved part that can be installed on a certified airplane. The part has to be :traceable" in design and manufacture back to its birth - the data package in the drawer. Does the part CONFORM (note not just look like) to how it was originally approved in all aspects? Now let's go back to how a part can be approved to install on an airframe- First they part itself has to be designed and made and approved for installation on an airplane THEN In order to make the part and sell it the manufacturer has to hold a PMA for the part (Parts Manufacturing Approval) signifying that they have a process or system in place to prove that how they function internally to make the part conforms to the approved design. Traceability then goes back to the original design paperwork where every aspect of that part is specified. SO not only does the part have to have its own approval to go on an airplane but the manufacturer has to have a separate approval just to make the part to be sold to the general public (PMA) This is where the installing A&P has to determine if the part can be installed on a certified airframe (the best way is an 8130 certificate) Another way to have a certified part is the OPP (Owner Produced Part) route but that still has to have a reference to the original part and how it was made. Catch 22! Another way is to hire a DER (Designated Engineering Representative) to design a part conforming to all the regulations and physics of the part and then get the FAA approval for the DESIGN of the part.

They had to do structural analysis big time just to change a few pieces of steel tubing in the "cage" Recertification of the cage was a big drag on finances even for this "small" change. All above in A64Pilot applies BIG TIME to widen the cockpit area. Given the sales volume it was not something financially possible. The FAAs certification process is a byzantine and arcane process perpetuated by a bureaucracy very recalcitrant to change. hat seems like a small simple change in a part quickly becomes a monster in the room when working with the FAA.

A lot of engineering money went into that project. I was at the unveiling in Fredericksburg TX. Didn't quite save the company though which I blame on the marketing focus they had at the time. AND the fact that the first article had a God awful paint job design. Unfortunately their marketing was abysmal. I think if they had just looked at Cirrus and emulated what they did they might have done all right. With that they also brought out the composite fuselage skin shell fwd Made things a lot easier to build because they had access to the fuselage up until they wrapped it with the composite shell.

First off kiddies- Mooney didn't make the springs in-house. They were farmed out to a spring maker. The batch that was bad had cracking right in the bend of the tang from heat treating Springs can be tested for strength and rebound but they tend to fail suddenly for a variety of reasons. Mooney HAS the part drawing describing exactly how to produce the part. They have a drawing for EVERY part in any Mooney on exactly how to make it. But its called "PROPRIETARY INFORMATION" held by the certificate owner. There are dozens of file cabinets in Engineering that hold these drawings I saw them many years ago. The drawing will detail exactly what material to use, what the dimensions are, what kind of heat treat etc. Doing an OPP is not just reverse engineering the part. One actually needs paper work to support how the part is supposed to be made to make it match the "APPROVED" part. As an owner you can't just magically say "presto -chango" this is an approved part because I made it. You can't just say "I think this is how they made it" You need some kind of legal reference on how it was made OR a complete DER sign off.

Mine just keeps Rolling along like my Mooney

Just for fun- And then you have MMO and STP

What about the fat ladies?

Don Take a Mooney C with no autopilot and basic IFR with even an early GPS (say a 155 TSO) Now list out everything I would need to make the G500 work in that airplane and price it out. Don't think its going to happen for 15K Maybe I'm wrong but I don't think so.

You ae not measuring the wear for the doughnuts correctly. There is a collar at the top of each main gear (top center) that keeps the gear together, It is the gap between that collar and the plate below that is the place to check for the "wear" on the doughnuts (with weight on the landing gear). There is a gap dimension allowed before condemning the doughnuts although many years of use makes them harder rubber than when they wee new. Same holds true for the nose gear. You have to measure the gap in the correct place. "Tail droop" doesn't mean bad doughnuts. If you can raise the nose wheel off the ground correctly and try to move it each way like steering If it has more than a few degrees of loose play its time for a linkage rebuild. Your mechanic can actually order all the parts that wear out in that linkage and reassemble it himself. Might be cheaper. There are some extra shims that hen might want to order.

The other "wide body" you missed is the Aero Commander 114 coming in at 47 inches.

Boeing has had whistle blower concerns about quality control for many years.

BOY you hit it on the nose! I've been preaching that for years. An affordable A/P that has auto level features would save countless lives. Yet until the FAA gets their head out of the sand and stops designing all things from the top down (Part 121) and all others lower have to adapt to that thinking NOTHING will get done. Lame excuse. The Administrator just didn't want to go down with the sinking ship. (MAX problems, 787 problems, etc) Secretary of Transportation issues. Who would want to bank their career on a Cabinet position that has no knowledge of the entire department he oversees?

Why couldn't they have gone in and worked with masks and vaccinations like everybody else in the world? What makes them special? Even the President goes into the White House once a week! Everything they have to work on can be done remotely IF they wanted to do it.

Control tube cracking usually comes from seized external ball joints due to lack of lubrication I've found several aileron tubes totally frozen stiff because of lack of lube. Every few months I spray all my exposed control joints with 100% silicone spray lube and make sure that they will move a little with finger pressure by rotating them.