Jeff_S

I was down at Amelia Island waiting it out all this week, hoping for a significant turn to the west. But when they issued the mandatory evacuation order for yesterday (Friday) at 6pm we decided to come back home to Atlanta. So we took off at about 10:30 yesterday...and joined a seeming conga-line of aircraft beating a retreat out of Florida! I swear, all the way from Jacksonville to Atlanta the radio was NON-STOP, could barely get a word in edgewise with passengers over the intercom. I've never heard it that busy; it was seriously like listening to controllers going into Sun-n-Fun or OSH, only for a full 250NM trip. But now the plane is safe and sound, and the hurricane has indeed made it's jog to the west and it looks like Amelia will be spared the brunt of it. I suspect the only casualty we'll have is the glass coffeetable-top that cracked when my wife was moving it away from the windows. At least, that's my hope...fingers crossed.

Just another example of the havoc that social media has wrought on society. Let's turn every know-it-all Twitter jerkwad into an expert commentator on what's safe to do in an airplane...or a car, or a boat, or politics, or anything else they feel compelled to critique. Can you tell I'm not a fan?

There is actually a software update for the GTX345. I got a notice from Garmin. I don't remember that this problem was mentioned in the release notes but my suggestion is to call Garmin Support and get their thoughts.

That's good info and does help interpret the results. My feedback on calculating max cruise CHT is based on my own operating parameters, so take this as a sample of one. But when I do level off for cruise, I actually keep both FF and RPM at climb rates until I hit my target TAS, generally around 175 KTAS. Then I'll pull RPM, let the engine stabilize for a few moments, then go into leaning procedure to find the LOP setting for that flight. All this definitely takes more than one minute, so that is no doubt why the max cruise CHTs showing in my report are much higher than my actual cruise CHTs. But if that is how the metric is derived, then at least I can use that info to interpret my personal results. Still, waiting a good 2-3 minutes would likely show a much lower median max CHT in cruise. Thanks again to the Savvy folks...y'all ROCK!

Geez, never one to mess with sensitive karma, I've changed the title to restore some semblance of mojo, but I still think the joke is sound. There are plenty among us who proudly wear the mantle of CBs, and that was the main intent. But perhaps the merriment of the article was lost in my summary of it.

So, if you haven't read this month's Flying magazine yet, Martha Lunken has a particularly hilarious column on aviation nicknames that she's found on the internet, for everything from planes to airlines to people. It's an article worth saving just to have a chuckle from time to time. I laughed out loud for the Diamond Katana: "the Flying Sperm". You gotta' admit, pretty good one. There are literally dozens of others so I won't bother to repeat them here, but feel free to add to the list with your own. One stands out, though. While Bonanzas have long been known as Doctor Killers, Mooneys get the nod for the more cost-conscious health professionals as Dentist Killers! I believe we have our own dentist on Mooneyspace...so far he has avoided this fate. Cheers!

Yeah, would be interesting to see your numbers for comparison. I'm curious how you can be keeping the CHTs down like you are.

Good data...thanks Russ. Seems like our engines are working pretty similarly. I also questioned the higher oil pressure but figured that my engine has been tested and worked on and rebuilt so many times (three prop strikes from prior owner) that if there were a problem somebody would have caught it. Also, that oil pressure range is right in the middle of the green on the gauge so I wasn't too worried about it. I didn't realize that the Acclaim has a range of 30-100 psi...it will be good to get input from Mooney on this.

Having read through this thread, the common foibles seem to be consistent. I've done them all at one time or another. The one activity that seems for me to lead to the most forgetfulness is any sort of landing followed by immediate takeoff. That's where you forget to reset trim, flaps, etc. because your thought process hasn't switched from "flying" to "ground ops" as much and you're likely to not follow the full checklist. For some reason, I went through a phase where I kept forgetting to turn off the fuel pump after start-up. With the big Continental, the fuel pump is really just for starting or emergency purposes, so if you leave it on during taxi and takeoff the mixture is really rich. Funniest (to me!) time was when we are ten minutes into the flight, heading south out of ATL airspace when I noticed the fuel pump was still on. I had leaned mixture out to normal fuel flows, so when I finally noticed the pump my first reaction was to quickly shut it off. D'oh! Of course the engine almost died because I forgot to enrich the mixture first. I knew what was going on but my wife nearly had a heart attack. (Sidebar...be careful when you say "Whoops!" as pilot-in-command.) So I'm with that crowd that says "don't sweat it" and just keep practicing. To quote Viper from Top Gun, "a good pilot is compelled to evaluate what's happened, so he can apply what he's learned."

My range knob exhibited similar behavior on the MFD. Unfortunately the only fix seems to be to swap out the whole unit (e.g. your PFD) from Garmin. They have a standard $1500 fee for this, plus a bit of your avionics shop time. I tried very hard to see if there was a less expensive fix and was told "no."

@Txbyker Hi Russ. I'm not sure why you wouldn't see the reports, as long as your plane is identified correctly in the system. The only other thing I wonder is if there is a minimum # of flights needed to generate the report, and perhaps you don't have that number of flights. But more likely for some reason they don't have you classified as an M20R. It's a question for Savvy. BTW, how did you fare in the hurricane?

I understand that point. My question is at what time during "cruise flight" do they start to measure, because once settled into what I consider "cruise flight" those temps seem high. That's what I'm hoping to clarify.

Okay, here are some excerpts from my first report card. I'm posting them here to let others see how this works, but also to get some feedback from the group and from Paul and maybe help Savvy modify their algorithms. I think there are one or two places where the data is a bit bizarre. First, the title: I've got 33 flights in the system, so question #1 is how does the algorithm decide which ones to use for the report card? Presumably it has to be a certain duration with a cruise segment that is identifiable, but it would be good to know how that's derived. But you can see there are currently 48 M20 S/Rs categorized in the database -- we need more! Next is percent power: Guilty as charged, why have a Mooney if you're not going for meaningful speed?! However, I'm curious how the percent power is calculated. Does it take into account LOP operations, as that is how I always fly. That's a question for Paul and Savvy. Next is altitude: Apparently one of my flights is the outlier, as it shows my top end at 15,800 feet which is also the highest in the cohort. That was my trip back from Kerville to Atlanta. But this must be GPS altitude, as my indicated altitude was 15K. No big deal, just an observation. Next we have TAS, which is where one of my questions comes in: My speeds fall generally in what you would expect from an Ovation at normal cruise altitudes. I can't imagine anyone hitting a TAS of 221 knots in an S/R even with 310hp, so perhaps that is a ground speed number. That's a question for Savvy as well, but again, that's where having more data will help to normalize these results. Now things heat up with my bird, factually: and... Like many Ovation owners, I struggle with #5 CHT in climb because of the alternator placement. I haven't yet drilled the pixie hole, but it doesn't stay at 400° for long so I just watch that. I'm more interested in the data on max CHT in cruise, because this does seem abnormally high based on my in-flight analysis. Once I am in cruise I strive to keep the highest CHT at 350° or less and fly most legs like this, using LOP ops. So I don't know why my MEDIAN cruise CHT would be at 373°, meaning more than half the time that's where it is. I would say that it can't possibly be right, except I don't know how Savvy has defined the cruise segments. So that's another question for Paul and Savvy. And finally, this one: Here is where I question at least some of the data in the database (similar to my questions with TAS above). There shouldn't be any M20 S/R that is showing 35.7" MAP at any time, unless there is a faulty gauge or something. I wonder if there is some turbo data that got into the cohort that is skewing some things. There could be a reasonable explanation, but I point it out so the Savvy folks can dive into it. I didn't show all the data elements in this post, but I'll put the link here which I think will allow you to see it online if you like (not sure about their security): https://www.savvyanalysis.com/report-cards/get-report/11502. As I said, it's great to have this data and I'm sure as more gets put into the system, and as we learn how to use it better, it will be very helpful in managing our engines. Thanks again to the Savvy folks!

I've tested my report card...some interesting results for sure. I have some questions that I'll write up and post here. I was going to send them directly to Paul but figured it might be good to get some general feedback on them. My overriding question is that the report card seems to overstate how hard I am running my engine in cruise, at least based on my understanding of things. But let me study the data a little more and lay out my thoughts. Thanks to Paul and the guys at Savvy for working so quickly on this, though...I'm a bit of a data wonk so it's fun and educational to have this at my finger tips!

@jclemensThanks JC. I would presume the doors are all the same, but rather than send you mine I'll just contact you when I get down to Amelia next week and fly down there so we can chat.

If you're really analytical (I was!) you should create a spreadsheet for every plane you're interested in, presumably from Trade-a-Plane and Controller.com. The All American and other reputable resellers will all have their planes listed. On that spreadsheet you should track some basic stats like TTE and TTAF, asking price, Vref calculated price, etc. With these last two you can quickly get a sense of the delta between Asking and Vref prices which may help guide your decision. With this data in hand, some planes may jump out at you. You may see what appears to be a "prince" at "frog" prices which merits further consideration. You will definitely see some frogs at princely pricing, which you may choose to ignore unless you feel like negotiating a lot. But if nothing else, it will give you a feel for where the market is and what you're likely to spend to get what you want. Remember, there's really no such thing as a true airplane valuation...it's only worth what the seller and buyer agree on as the final price! My take on Mike's "have $40K to spend" was not related to an overhaul, but rather to have the money to spend immediately when you see a plane you really like. $40K is a good down payment for any plane, and could even buy you an older one outright. That's how I would interpret that advice, anyway. Yes, you also have to realize you're going to spend something else after you bought it, but I don't think you need to plan on an additional $40K right away unless you REALLY didn't do your homework and get a proper inspection done.

Hey all, While watching planes land at Clemson on Monday for the eclipse, a nice Ovation, N426WU swooped in. They had to park all the way at the end of the taxiway so I never made it down there to meet them, but by model and paint scheme we were kindred spirits. It's registered to an LLC in Petersburg PA. Any body here wanna' self-identify? Sorry we didn't get a chance to meet face-to-face. Cheers!

That video was a crack-up...you could tell it was from Oregon just by looking at the wing shapes. RV RV RV RV Bonanza Cessna....RV RV RV RV etc. A few twin engines, even a corporate jet and a few Mooneys including one toward the end of the line. But the biggest laugh was the RV going backwards in the line! I had to wonder about that one.

Hey folks, Those of you with Ovations and an engine monitor that outputs to a data log (which should be just about everyone, barring some of the early-generation G1000s that haven't been upgraded to WAAS) should open an account with Savvy Analysis (http://www.savvyanalysis.com) so you can load your engine monitor data up there on a regular basis. This has two benefits. There is no charge for a basic account, so you can load your flights up and use their online analysis tools to explore your own engine characteristics to your heart's content. If you choose to pay for the Pro service, then you can get Savvy's help with their expert analysis, but what's even better, is you can get access to their report card that shows you how well you are doing compared to others in your class on the most common engine parameters. But here's why we need more Ovations to join in. Right now they don't have enough Ovations in the system to form a "cohort" that allows them to do this group analysis. Strangely, they do have a cohort for Eagles, but I guess with the detuned HP of an Eagle they didn't feel they could lump Ovations into that group. So whether or not you end up subscribing to their service, you can help out the Ovation public at large by posting your data so they can form a cohort and start tracking our models across the board. And in case you're not aware of Savvy Analysis, another great feature of the paid service is that they will automatically run their Failing Exhaust Valve Analysis (FEVA™) on every flight you import, so that if their algorithm detects the potential for a failing valve they will trigger an automatic Alert out to your email so you can have it checked out. I am in no way affiliated with Savvy other than as a customer, but I do think this is a great service and I highly recommend it for anyone who has an engine monitor from which they can dump the data. It gives good insight into how to operate your engine. Also, one of our own MSers is one of the analysts who routinely helps me with my flight data (I won't "out" him in case he wants to remain anonymous!). But really, Ovation owners, start uploading your data! It's free and easy, and very insightful even if you don't pay Savvy a dime. Thanks!

If it's fuel you can definitely smell it. I have a small leak under the wing walk in the usual place, and it's bigger when the tanks are full. But in my case you just rub your finger on it and you can smell the avgas. Where yours is located, it's hard to imagine what else it could be besides fuel to produce that big a stain. Have you noticed a difference depending on the level of fuel you keep in the tank?

We had nothing but sunshine in Clemson, SC. Well, that is, until THIS happened!

I have no knowledge of the rules in Lithuania, but I'm assuming they are much the same as here in the US. Your primary options for the EFIS would be the Garmin G500 or the Aspen system. Both get excellent reviews and would tie into your GNS530. Another option that has recently come out is the latest Avidyne nav/com that would replace the 530 and has Synthetic Vision, but this wouldn't count as a primary nav display I don't think. I don't know anything about the KAP units as I've never flown with one. Somebody else can tell you more about that. Good luck with your purchase, though. I suspect most folks around here, myself included, would not even be aware that there's much general aviation in Lithuania. How vibrant is the GA community over there?

JC, I'd be interested in your plastic door if you can fabricate one for my O3. Right now I have the door out and Bluetooth is working fine. I'll be coming to our place on Amelia for the first two weeks in September so I could pop down and have you put that door in for me. Send me a PM with your thoughts and pricing. Thx!

Ah, Manfred Mann...what a perfect song. Am I the only one who in my youth didn't understand these lyrics and wondered what it mean to be "wrapped up like douche..."?!

What about X-Plane? I'm going to their website to look up and see if the support that platform.