Ned Gravel

I have dropped my gear at speeds somewhat higher than Vle and Vlo (Johnson Bar) because the gear acts as a good speed brake. However, getting them tucked away at more than 100 mph is a real pain. But jerking the handle once it is in either the up block or the down block is a reflex action now.

If one knew the difficulty he had in getting that Caravan callsign, one might feel for him too...... maybe....

No G500/G600 for me. G5 (HSI) is what I recently installed next to my new-to-me GNS 480. A second one as an EFIS is what is needed to allow the GFC 500 to provide coupling of vertical component of an approach. My difficulty is finding a reason to change out my STEC 50 for a GFC 500. Coupling the vertical component of an approach is nice, but I am not certain I really need that as much as having the G5 do a hold for me in bumpy clag - which I have now confirmed it can do. The avionics shop tells me that my STEC is not providing as fine a correction as it could and they may have to install a resistor some where. Getting the second G5 has another advantage - no more partial panel caused by loss of vacuum pump. First G5 rid me of the need to continually correct for DG precession (now that I have a magnetometer) and it allows me to leave my STEC in HDG mode.

Isn't the Garmin GFC 500 coming in at close to 7 AMUs? Digital, attitude based, etc?

+1

Or you can get the Alpha Aviation seat belts with the latch that is not affected by swinging the gear.....

How about wired up to your transponder? Or to replace your tail strobe? Independent solutions with their own WAAS chip/antennae that do not require installation of a separate antenna. Just sayin’.

I bet that ADSB out solutions will be getting closer to 1 AMU over the next 12 months. There are two or three acceptable ones out there now that are very close to 2 AMUs. For me, that makes it both affordable and easy to install.

+1

HA. Your windscreen is cleaner than mine.

I just ran into the slowness of my own mini 2. So I went to Best Buy today and killed two birds buying a mini 4. First, I have a faster mini that fits into the same mount. Second, I have a decent backup EFB in my mini 2. Mini 4 only has aviation apps on it and no telephone network connection - only wifi. So no more cost from that standpoint. Took 10 mins to download all the foreflight stuff and bring it online. Ahhhh. Works for me.

Well the weather prevented us from making it to Danville from Ottawa, but Yves and I knew we needed to practice so we set up the first (hey!! I have been overseas a lot!!) training session where we form up off each other and use the Caravan procedures to practice just about everything. Too bad we are too small to create our own region... This time, and we will likely do this three or four more times before flying to Madison, lined up on Gatineau's 7000' runway and flew the briefing: element take off left turn out to the practice area, 2500', he starts as lead. Lefts and rights. change leads, cross-overs. more turns, change leads overfly his house (did not happen because of virga) his transponder on and talking to ATC the whole time City tour of Ottawa at 3,100' to stay clear of our restricted areas back to Gatineau, join the left hand circuit for 09, drop gear on downwind, turns to base and final and element landing on 09. (We had to use two pumps of flaps because of a 172 taking their time to clear the runway). Flight path on https://flightaware.com/live/flight/CFQKM/history/20180623/1415Z/CYND/CYND. Video here was a combo effort from Yves and myself and our right seaters (and I do apologize for my dirty windscreen) on youtube here: I am hoping to build the interface between our audio panel and the iPhone to collect all radio traffic from this idea (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLQsEtl6TR4) and make better videos of our next few sorties. I hear the folks in Danville had a very good set of flights and looking forward to see everyone in Madison on the 19th/20th of July.

+1

If you do a go-round and pull the nose up doing 120 mph, the gear will fight you through retraction. Don’t ask me how I know. Doable, but it takes work........ Be smart. Hit the FAF at 90 mph or less. Then, when you declare the go-round, the Johnson bar is one less thing to fight with. And you can concentrate on altitude, direction, and “where the heck is that hold?” Just sayin’

Every now and then, the discussion about a good doghouse comes up and I will throw this little picture in. In 2009, I underwent a major overhaul and when Clarence was done, this is how my doghouse looked. Temps on climb out on hot days do not exceed 360. In cruise at altitude, they are generally between 290 and 320.

Sitting around getting over a cold and did the flight planning for Danville. 4:20 of flying to get there. Clear customs at Ogdensburg (Yves’ idea). Then Hagerstown Capital (HGR) then direct KDAN. Should get there by 5:00 pm or so on Thursday. Looking forward to practicing RNAV approaches followed by making Lead look good!!! CHANGED!! 1:15 to Rochester with a 24/7 CPB operation and more runway than you can shake a stick at. Then 2:42 to Danville. Shaves 20 minutes off the other one and has only one stop. Sorry Yves. (Fledgling member of CB club - saving 20 minutes and 3.5 gallons of Avgas).

Here are the results. Got off the flight from Hong Kong in Toronto and instead of taking the scheduled (booked and paid for) flight to Ottawa, caught a shuttle and spent the night in Brantford. Picked up my Mooney on Friday the 15th. Took it to Clarence's to fix an oil leak and purchase a used pair of K model yolks and then flew it home. Yolks and seat cams will be installed during the annual after Oshkosh. The checkride with the instructor in Brantford went well. I was prepared and he could see that. Basics on the use of the G5 with the 480 are OK. What needs tweaking is the sequence of buttonology which involves three instruments: G5, STEC 50 and 480. I filed IFR for the run home (in severely clear weather) for my own exercise. You can see that my track is not quite as straight as kpaul's. The guys in the shop were telling me that the STEC 50 course adjustments (at least on my STEC) are too course for the inputs provided by the 480 and G5. A resistor is needed in the line somewhere. They are looking. The shop did a one-time download onto the database card and I was good to go - fully compliant with both Tpt Canada and FAA IFR requirements. I am now /G!!! In the aircraft outside of Clarence's shop, I got the Wx briefing (Foreflight and Skew T charts), prepared a flight plan using RNAV routes, called my girl, filed my flight plan and then started up. Did the runup and asked tower for a clearance and got "approved as filed." Then things got interesting. One the way to the hold short point tower came back and told me that "Centre was not pleased" with the routing. OK. Instead of going north around the ins and outs of heavy iron into YYZ, they wanted me to go South. OK. Change 1. Change the Foreflight. Change the 480. Airborne off of 32, I contact Centre and they give me another change. Change 2. They are "not pleased" with the routing through Toronto terminal airspace and they have a new and improved routing. Guess where? You got it - North (almost as originally filed). OK. Change the Foreflight. Change the 480. (Are the quick readers here picking up a pattern?) In the middle of all that I forgot the take the GPSS off (or was it on) in the G5 we weren't headed where we should be. Plan B. Kick the 480 out of GPS instructions to the G5 and put it in VOR mode - take the GPSS off and set the heading bug so the STEC can at least follow something that is correct. Put it all back together when the flight plan in correct in the 480 and then turn it onto GPS instructions to the G5 with GPSS now engaged again. OK. Good. That is the perfectly aligned segment just north of Toronto. Lesson? Forget the Foreflight until after the 480 is back to sequencing waypoints, then play with Foreflight. Then, following T614 (the third of the routes they picked out for me to follow). Centre takes out two of the waypoints (that have turns in them that the GPS is correctly sequencing) and clears me direct to a third. 15 seconds later they ask why I have not turned on the new course????!!!!! Sheesh!!!! I swear someone told them that this was the maiden flight of my new setup. Remainder of the flight was relatively uneventful. Messing with the Ram Air (about 70 miles from Ottawa) turned my STEC off inadvertently and that raised the pucker factor some - until I corrected that. But I am getting better at EMRE for the 480 and I have learned that if it gets complicated, kick it out of GPS to VOR mode and take the GPSS off of the G5 so that the STEC can follow the heading bug until the new plan is in place and ready to Execute. In the meantime I absolutely love doing RNAV approaches with vertical guidance provided by the GPS. The STEC now almost never leaves HDG mode and the NAV functions are just between the 480 and the G5. Life is very good. But I will be checking with the shop about enhancing the fineness of the STEC outputs so that my track looks as straight as kpaul's. More pics. I have to find a way to power my ADS-B in, my iPad in a way that keeps the cables behind the instrument panel - and the coax for my handheld. Left side shows rock solid performance. Right side (notice the Sensorcon) shows the sequencing for T614. The 480 is waaaayyyy better than the 430 to fly. Next week, Danville, VA and the Mooney Caravan practice.

Update. Got this from the shop today when I sent them a request for a pic. They noted a couple issues while doing the install and asked if I knew of them and wanted to do something about them. 1. Fuel flow on JPI does not work. (My comment = OK - did not have it installed) 2. A/P tracking way off, in nav/app mode. (My comment = Hmmm, cause of the wandering track?) 3. Heading bug seems really lazy (My comment = OK - good thing I am replacing the DG with a G5) 4. Mk12D loose in its tray. This may be a simple adjustment of the set clips (OK - secure please when you move it down to put the 480 above it) 5. #2 Nav is not centred (5 deg at 0 and 180 deg) (OK - please fix) Small things. they are on top of things. Pic does not show much, but it alleviates any inherent lack of confidence. It will be ready by 14 June.

Yes, but do that from a distance.

Yves: I have been away and did not see this. Ute and I will be there and will make an appropriate contribution. I will e-mail that amount to you separately.

This is a great read. I also talked to Norman in the Mooney Caravan tent last year and he very easily convinced me to change my cruise climb speed from 120 mph to 130 mph for this reason. The science is sound and the numbers are sound. This is not a game changer for my engine. It is a game changer for my time enroute. I already pull the mixture back to the takeoff roll EGTs and at 1000' AGL, I switch the configuration from Vy (or Vx depending on conditions) to 120 mph cruise climb. I used to also drop from 2700 RPM to 2500 RPM at that transition point. Not anymore. Cowl flaps closed and CHTs are at 320 to 350 max anyway (I have a really, really good doghouse). So absolutely no strain on my engine to drop the nose ever so slightly and climb at 130 mph. No change in CHTs and mixture adjusted every two minutes or so for Takeoff EGT numbers. Keep the governor all the way in at 2700 RPM until TOC. From Rockcliffe that puts me well beyond my initial VOR fix and enroute, but it will shave at least 3 minutes off my time for almost any flight.

Kevin: It may be the autopilot or it may have been the lack of the autopilot. My Mooney tracks pretty straight if you leave it alone or if the autopilot is doing the tracking for you. Somewhere between these two is where I have run into trouble. Messing with needles while flying and not paying attention to things like the DG tend to cause the track to "wander." But that is just me.

Clarence: I noticed that too, but I figured I would ask Dan about it when I get back.

They are good. But I feel your pain. When the other shop installed my GMA340, they installed a Garmin product that was not designed with sufficient shielding to prevent interference from my Narco radios - known for being RF dirty. That shop hummed and hawed for two months and still never identified the problem or was able (or willing) to fix it. These guys told me in five minutes, and provided a slide-in replacement for my GMA340 with a PS 8000 unit that has the requisite shielding, with a trade in on the Garmin audio panel that paid back its cost to me. This shop meets both of my requirements. They are competent and they are honest. A Twink is being completed with the exact same conversion as mine. Lessons learned on someone else’s bird.....

Yup. Here now and about to crash for the night. Acclimation day tomorrow. Work the next day.