Ned Gravel

This outa be good. Who ever heard of bringing both a wife and a (aluminum) mistress on your honeymoon? Sent from my iPad

+ 1 Mine is a Victorinox Swisstool (better than a Leatherman in my opinion). I also carry a pretty good tool kit in a soft bag (usual wrenches, bits, sockets, jeweller screwdriver for radio knobs etc.) but I had to buy another copy of my multi-tool because I made the mistake of packing it in my hand baggage instead of my checked luggage prior to boarding a flight home. :-( Oh well...... Sent from my iPad

+1 I remember relieving my senior NCOs and junior officers during evening command post watch during exercises on the North German plain during the mid eighties while a well worn copy of Red Storm Rising was wending its way through the squadron. I remember thinking, "So this is how it will all come down" at the time. Sent from my iPad

I have one as well. I agree with Jose. Constant presentation to waypoints. Also connected to my STEC 50. Sent from my iPad

Thanks for the info Zane: You have given me two more tools for the decision-making toolbox. Temperature and wind (speed and direction) differentials across the front. If the conditions are good, I now feel confident to give it a go. However, unless these and the forecast for convection are negligible, crossing a front remains outside my comfort zone. I know folks that have picked their way through squall lines and lived to tell about it. But I am not them.

Rich: For my own education, can you tell me if it was a warm front, or a cold front?

I did mine today too Craig. Keep up the good work.

I received my Private license in 1987 and yesterday was the first time ever that I purposely and knowingly crossed a frontal system. Mind you, it was a "weak front" according to the briefer and it was also a cold front. I asked him the crucial question: "Any convectivity?" and he replied: "None." So I was good to go. See http://flightaware.com/live/flight/CFSWR/history/20131013/1400Z/CYKF/CYRO and you can see the two bands of precip. The first was completely benign. The second had very slight bumps - not enough to even call it "mild" or "light." The northerly circuitousness at the beginning was caused by ATC vectoring me around Toronto Class C before getting on track with VOR to VOR "own navigation" - I do not have an IFR GPS in my Mooney. At about the point where we turned left to a 060 track, we entered VMC with a "few" below us and a "broken" deck of cirro stratus above us at 20,000'. All the way into a visual approach to my home 'drome. Ahhh. PS: On my way to Waterloo out of Windsor two days before, another Mooney off to my left (never did see them) was in a climb to the flight levels doing 160 kts plus while I was in cruise climb mode (120 mph to 130 mph). Selfridge approach was our ATC and alluded to the difference in speeds. Me: "I guess some Mooneys are faster than others." Other Mooney driver: "By about 60 kts...." And I remember the words of Grover C. Norwood (circa 1969). ... Because I Fly, I envy no man on earth. No matter what kind of Mooney they fly...

I had one of the instruments (OBS) on that circuit so it was OK. But, yes an instrument incandescent needs to be on the circuit to work. My Nulites are on a different panel rheostat so there is no other dimmer overhead.

We finished the training in Chicago yesterday. Tomorrow we fly to my next appointment in Fort Wayne, IN. So today my girl and I walked the ground at Meigs. It was something I have wanted to do for a while, but it was a sad experience indeed. It is not even called that anymore. They call it North Island now. A personal regret is that I never got to land there before it was eradicated as an airport. Some of the old airfield buildings are still there, but the authorities have worked hard to plant grass where the runways and taxiways once were. And the greatest legacy of that patch of ground now? It is nearly hip deep in goose guano.

Ross: Yes, I was. If I had known you were interested, I would have let you know. I spent some time with Tom and his new-to-him Mooney (and gave him a chance to review the installation of his old KR-87 in my Mooney) before we rotated for home. We got to watch the Ford Tri-Motor do rides and the Navy blimp operate - so it was cool. Probably the best part of the trip was taking a few of my training participants up for a ride. I know it was a bucket list item for one of them. He may take up flying. When I am back, I will let you know beforehand. It may not be before next January though. I like "Fredneck." Nice ILS prior to entering the SFRA. Their FBO has been good to me.

I learned some things today. Never make the appointment to clear customs after a long flight. Weather forecast headwinds between 20 and 25 kts. So the flight was supposed to take 3.5 hours. Takeoff was set for 10:00 am. But we took off at 9:40 (just in case). I was supposed to be landing at KPTK (Pontiac) at 13:30 and by 11:00, Foreflight is telling me we would arrive at 12:55. This was not good. Customs doesn't like us showing up early. So, at 90+ degrees lean of peak and pulling 18" of MP, I slowed the plane to 105-108 kts and we finally arrived at 13:15 (whew!!). This was not the way to fly a Mooney!! But 3.5 hours of flying only took 31 gallons of gas - so not too bad. Next time I will fly the long haul to an airport close to the border and, after filing and getting eAPIS response, fly the 15 minutes to the port of entry. Something else I learned. Never fly into Chicago airspace on a VFR flight plan. Check out http://flightaware.com/live/flight/CFSWR/history/20131002/1829Z/KPTK/KPWK. Now for the good part. I flew 5 hours and 40 minutes in my Mooney today. Life is good.

1. Generator failure (twice) 2. Radio failure 3. Attitude indicator failure 4. Flap failure (refused to stay pumped down) 5. Landing light failure 6. Spinner split in fllight

Put the accent in as a symbol in Word and copy it over to the post. Like this: était. Otherwise, you sentiment is entirely understandable. We use Macs too.

Tom: After all this time. We are finally at the same airport. I am departing Frederick this morning for Ottawa (near 11:00 am). If you look closely at the Mooney parked next to yours in front of Landmark, you will see a familiar KR 87.

I have an 810 and a Mk 12D. These radios are so dirty they they splash over into adjoining freqs and I had to change my Garmin 340 audio panel (because it is very poorly shielded) for a PS 8000. If I had my druthers, I'd rather use the Garmin SL 30. Of course, today most panel GPS come with either Nav or Com or both anyway.

I bought the LED kit from these folks. Draws less current. Never gets hot. Easier to point to the flap indicator and the Tach on the far right of my panel (and it does not have Nulites on it). ShoulderLightsAd.pdf

Update: Made it to Quakertown and Brian was a great reception committee. He even had a friend look at a COM 2 problem that turned out to be a disconnected coax. I took some of my course students (non-aviation-related training) up after class yesterday (pictures later) and they were thrilled. Doing the Mooney Ambassador "Fly it Forward." Now for a question. Have a look at how they modified my IFR flight plan as I was entering the Allentown sector on http://flightaware.com/live/flight/CFSWR/history/20130917/1800Z/KSYR/KUKT. What is with the deviation all the way out to ARD before heading for the NDB to commence the approach?

Yves: That was a cool picture, but I only recognised the three of you. Was this taken today too? At Gatineau? Put it up here and see what kind of comment you get.

So I get back into Canada from three weeks in Bangladesh and one week in Vietnam. Great tour. Got good work done and looking forward to accomplish more. Off the Cathay Pacific flight in Toronto and catch the ground shuttle to Waterloo. Need to rest up for my own flying the next day. I get to Waterloo airport at 07:45 and the pull the aircraft from the FBO hanger. The autopilot is WORKING!! And the GPS data card is loaded with the most recent data, but COM 2 is now totally kaput. Oh well. I can always bring it back. File the flight plan (IFR) to Rockcliffe (see http://flightaware.com/live/flight/CFSWR/history/20130915/1245ZZ/CYKF/CYRO) and the tracklog shows 170 kts and 180 kts caused by a tailwind. Made it in 1 hour and 35 minutes (tracklog is wrong) and landed 30 minutes before they closed the airfield for an airshow that covered both Rockcliffe (CYRO) and Gatineau (CYND). Vintage Wings of Canada was doing some display stuff and they had a special guest coming to Gatineau. It was Chris Hatfield (most recently the ISS Commander), but I saw him on the ramp at Rockcliffe where I landed (my home drome), waiting for one of the Vintage Wings warbirds to drop in and pick him up and fly him over. So I got out of my aircraft while the line guys fueled it up and walked over to the staff that were standing around taking pictures with him and I got one too. Perfect day!! PS: As I sit here writing this, a couple of CF-18s from his old squadron just did a low and over.

Thanks Bob: I appreciate the info. However, am really looking for MPH on the outer ring and the highest number should be between 200 and 220 MPH. Sent from my iPad

That was Clarence, owner of Tri-City Aero, an MSC in Kitchener, Ontario. He sold his E model for a Comanche 400. Sent from my iPad

BigTex: Can you tell me the part number of your ASI? I want one appropriate to our speeds but with the true airspeed window. Sent from my iPad

I bought an ICOM A6 three months into ownership in 2005 when the electrical system burped out the first time. Two years later, two generators, two batteries, two generator control units, one plane power alternator conversion and one rewiring of the subpanel bus, I probably don't need it. But I am prepared and it can be connected to my headset with the special connectors provided whenever I may need it.

My friend Clarence, who owned a tricked out E-model before he decided to get a whole IO 720 and bought a Commanche 400, went through the trouble of getting a three-bladed MT prop for his Mooney. I don't know why but it was noisy. Anyway, the speed bugged him so one day, while my plane was in his shop for some work (about three week's worth) he took the prop off of mine and tried it out on his. +6mph. He was shocked. So he did some more digging and eventually put a Top Prop on his E-model. In his opinion (all hearsay of course) was that it was quieter than his MT and gave as good in the climb and was faster in cruise by about 6+ mph. YMMV.