Immelman

"Engine RPM". Apple/ios.

+1 on the iphone app. ....agreed with my A&Ps optical tach... ...agreed with multiple (new) vehicle tachs....

I do have an E, not familiar with what is under the cowl of other models. On mine, there is a hole (as I recall), in the left rear side of the 'doghouse' baffling. A ~1" scat tube is clamped to that and was routed to the fuel pump cooling shroud.

I ended up removing it and rigging scat tube to point at the pump. The darned shroud was shaking around doing damage to (cutting) the an AN fitting coming out of the pump. Screw that.

That's a beautiful installation. Thank you for sharing your progress on this project and I'm glad you're back flying again.

I hear you.... and agree the change isn't helping anything, but if that's all it takes you make you angry, frankly that doesn't sound very healthy. May I suggest some breathing exercises (see "square breathing" for example) or other relaxation/mindfulness techniques. As far as the aviation organizations go, that is why I posted above the reference to the AIH. The government in their wisdom decided to put forth this verbiage. Now if you'll excuse me I need to practice my ATC check-ins using "learner pilot" at the end of every initial contact.

Someone in the FAA is justifying their existence. The Aviation Instructor's Handbook is the FAA document that teaches [is that the correct term] instructors [hope I didn't screw that up] how to teach [again, my apologies if I messed it up]: https://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/handbooks_manuals/aviation/aviation_instructors_handbook/media/aviation_instructors_handbook.pdf A quick text search reveals that someone doing the editing forgot to remove the word student 3 times in their search-and-replace exercise (in the main text, not including references etc). Contrast that to learner. Guess they'll need to revise again...

I came on here to post with this idea but Andy hit it out of the park. Its no "accident" why the FAA wants 1200 hours to be PIC in 135 IFR ops... or 1500 hours for the normal ATP. That 500 hour confidence is where you tend to royally F-up. Even for higher-time pilots, I think its also true with time-in-type: That feeling that you've had a few hundred hours in the new machine and have it dialed.... use that as a queue to watch out!

I think you're due a free month's rent for your trouble. At least that's what I'd do if I were the manager. But I am not.

Yeah neither would I. If some gets in there by accident, kindly tell us how it went? But yeah I have to wonder: What is the basis? Has the testing been done, and they found 94 octane was not satisfactory, or has the testing just not been done? I was not aware of the IO-360-B being the parallel valve engine. But: same displacement, same number of jugs, same timing (I think I read the -B series also ran 25 degees BTDC). Slightly higher compression..... Is that slight boost in compression enough to doom our motors to require higher octane? The valve design? Just trying to understand the "why". And I agree a 100UL fuel would be best of all. Where can I buy that, and for what price? Dont think I can. And I am serious when I say I won't run the unapproved fuel, because I am not a chemist and do not understand the principles involved. I'd love to learn more!

UL94 is available locally and is now cheaper than 100LL avgas. The more I learn, the more I like it. I'm also kind of over having 100LL exposure to my child, and to my hands, when we go flying. I guess being a parent does that. Having an IO-360-A1A, it is not approved for that fuel. My question: What's in an approval? What is safe? Looking at the Lycoming bulletin, I see very similar engines that are approved, i.e. the IO-360-B series. The IO-360-A series in our Mooneys has an 8.7:1 compression ratio, the -B series 8.5:1. Is that the sole difference between engine variants that's allowed their approval of lower octane, or is there more to it? I am curious if our resident chemists can help me understand how such a small change in compression could lead to bad behavior if running the lower octane fuel? Put another way: What is the eventual likelihood of our engines being approved for lower octane fuel in the future? Is it an issue of physics or investment in testing?

Thanks very much I appreciate this!

Would anyone (preferably with an IO-360) who is happy with how their starter power wire is run share how it is secured and routed? This annual, found that my starter wire was just kind of hanging out, no supports but one small zip tie at the engine mount aft of the engine. Perhaps there was hardware in between that departed previously... upon further inspection, we found a small nick in the insulation. Time to fix! One IA suggested an adel clamp or two using the left hand side oil sump bolts. Seems a little suspect to me because the clamps would need to be drilled out to accomodate the bolt, bolt length issues, and nut access. Another alternative might be a pair of clamps securing the starter wire to one or more intake risers. Any other bright ideas? Or pics of a good solid installation?

To answer your question yes the stall warning can come on too early. If the vane gets bent it will switch over to turn on the horn at a different angle of attack. Similarly, the vane is not rigidly bolted in a fixed location but can be adjusted up or down if the screws are loose and thus calibrated. I would expect that would be something done at the factory but a lot can happen over the years. Was a repair made? Did the airplane get painted, and the vane removed/replaced in a different orientation? Did something bump it? Lots can happen in 50 years. Finally, its useful to know that the tones the stall warning make and the gear horn make are slightly different. Go flying, gear up, retard the throttle.... now you know what the gear horn sounds like. If it were me playing detective I would fly the airplane into the stall warning, noting airspeed/weight/configuration/gusts, and continue to decelerate to a stall buffet, again noting airspeed..... keep in mind if you are flying below maximum gross weight the wing will stall at a lower airspeed than what is painted on the ASI in unaccelerated flight. If not comfortable with this, its a good excuse for an instructional flight.

Nope! No intention to either. Landing fees are a real turnoff.

I've flown 121 for a living for a while so the fields with airline service were picked off mostly at work. The fun ones are small, in the middle of nowhere, and possibly without the luxury of pavement.

Been to plenty.... a constant habit? No. Is it good for the fuel tank sealant? Probably not. Will it stop me? No. Goal is to land at all public airports in CA... got most of 'em done. Some of the grass was so nice I go back and visit sometimes. Others would not want to make a habit of, better for a taildragger...

As with so many things it depends... My home airport, if I fly the approach to minimums/the missed approach point, requires circling and that is very common due to the nature of the local marine stratus. I've done it so many times it is second nature. Now going to an unfamiliar area... terrain? Obstacles? At night? Yikes... In a transport!!? Those factors complicate things immensely. In the B1900 they did train us to circle using the VOR-13 into JFK (lead in lights) which was kind of bogus, but it "checked the box". Doing it for real in the airplane was a real challenge. And that was a very pilot-friendly airplane. In a larger jet transport with high maneuvering and approach speeds, where things go really well if you're where you need to be, and not so well if you're more than a little off... no thanks.

Pirep from returning to the line and a trip that spanned west coast, latin America, east coast, over the western Atlantic a bit, over the western Caribbean, and the Gulf of Mexico: This is still predominantly in eastern continental U.S. phenomenon. And is pretty annoying. Had to violate the regs and turn off guard at times in order to maintain good communications with ATC and the other pilot.....

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the garbage bag trick. Loosen the filter until before it leaks, place garbage bag around, spin off, pray, and then either celebrate or cuss. 80% of the time it works great!

Let us do some unicorn math. Two people buy airplanes with mid-time engines (lets say, pre covid math), $50K each. The two owners each fly the airplanes for 10 years and put 1000 hours on them. Owner 1 does an owner-assist annual at a shop like the one in this thread, $2K of shop labor each year. To be clear, the "annual" is more like $1500, but there is some labor to fix defects squawks requiring professional attention and repair here and there. Just a ballpark average Owner 2 believes that this is bad juju, unicorns don't exist, and pays top-dollar for a $5K (or more) of labor for annual each year. After 10 years where does each owner and airplane stand? Are we buying airplanes to preserve in pristine condition "forever", or inspecting them and repairing as required to keep them in a safe condition to fly? I've had my plane for 14 years now. My annuals have been like the example in the beginning of this thread. I bet I could have easily dropped the entire purchase price of the airplane into expensive annuals in that time. Even if my airplane ends up scrapped to "the reaper" from some catastrophic defect next year (i.e. corrosion in a bad place) I've come out ahead. To be clear I believe my airplane is still airworthy and safe to fly. But it is 55 years old... and will only last so long. And I'm okay with that.

One other thing to point out, the rod end bearings (2 on each side) are wear items where the fastener passes through them. Periodically these need to be lubed/inspected for play/replaced.... there are quite a few in a Mooney, nose to tail. I would imagine uneven wear L/R could cause a slight flap asymmetry.

Personally I would suggest doing the ride in a rental and then going on from there. I am not a DPE and only an inactive CFI, though. I did my CFI initial ride in the right seat (no brakes) of my Mooney without any issues. Examiner and I swapped control as needed....different ball of wax.

My first 121 job... a flying frat house, turboprops getting paid peanuts.... did some interesting and juvenile things ON COMPANY FREQ, never on guard....A good fun culture. Here is my suggestion to any of us in how to minimize it: Do not respond, ever. The "yer on guard" police only egg these people on. Its like responding to a troll on the internet. Respond on guard only if someone needs help and you can render aid that ATC cannot.

As I say it (and this was my flying pre-pandemic, pre "Brandon") was heavily concentrated east of the Mississippi. Further west and the shenanigans faded. I bring this up because doing transcons you really got a sense of where it was happening more. Southwest's recent events (rolling coal, that PA, and some other things) are also revealing something about their culture...