Jeff_S

Thanks for the responses so far. From what I have been able to gather, both above and through making some calls, it is insanely difficult to just go get an inexpensive oxygen fill of an existing bottle. The FBOs seem most willing to do this, with prices ranging from $40 to $75/bottle. I couldn't find a medical supply place that would do this. I did talk to AirGas, but I would have to set up a business account with them, and they don't fill the tanks on-site but send them out for filling and then return. I wouldn't want my dinky little 15 cu-ft tank to be rattling around with all those big boys...who knows what condition it would come back in. I agree that setting up my own station would probably be cheapest in the long run, but that payback would be pretty lengthy based on how much I expect to use it. I guess for now I'll pay Epps their $55 for the convenience of getting it done quickly. I did call the place at LZU and they're a bit cheaper, but I have to weigh the cost of getting to LZU, so it evens out.

Hey all, I just picked up my first portable oxygen system to give that a try, see what it's like to use some O2 in my O3. I had it shipped empty to save costs, so I'm looking around for where to fill oxygen in the northern Atlanta area. Google doesn't seem to provide any obvious choices. Does anybody in this area have a favorite place for this? Tanks! (yes, pun intended)

My general recommendation is to have them back out of the plane. It's easier to use the handle and support yourself on the seat if necessary. However, this does require some leg strength to accomplish. For elder folks with less leg strength, my technique getting in is to have them sit on the front of the wing, scoot back along the wing walk and then swing their legs in. To get out, just do the process backward. It worked well for my 80 year old father with two artificial knees.

Here you go. I can't remember where I bought them but I'm sure you can just Google it and find some sources.You use the cleaner to get as much of the oil and grime off as possible, then use the spray touchup to give it that fresh, new wing-walk smell! Good luck. Jeff

I cleaned and painted the wing walk on my J several years ago. There was a special spray cleaner and paint that I used...can't remember the name of it but I'll check it out at the hangar tomorrow and let you know. The results turned out really well.

So here's a reply from someone who's been there, done that...bought way more than the T-shirt! I, too, found an Ovation that fit my personal criteria at the time, two years ago. I was looking for a G1000 model, preferably an O3, with A/C and w/o Oxygen. Found just such a beast at a wonderful price point, due to the prior owner having experienced two prop-strikes and a gear-up. It was an example of a pilot who really did just get too much airplane for him, so after the gear-up (which wasn't actually just a botched landing...he experienced some electrical anomalies which caused him to turn off the Master, and then he decided to land the plane rather than mess with the manual gear extension) he decided he wanted out. The plane was repaired with all new parts. The electrical malfunction was discovered to be a shorted battery (highly unusual) and that was also repaired. The engine tear down and rebuild was done by Zephyr in Florida, an excellent shop. And this plane was on the market for fully $60K less than comparable models with NDH. So after a thorough inspection I bought it. I have been very happy. Has it been maintenance free? No. During the first year I spent a bit of time diagnosing an intermittent gear warning light, not uncommon when they've had to do so much work under the belly. But it was never anything more than a limit switch that needed tweaking. I also replaced the main shock discs, and replace the exhaust stack, which can't really be attributed to the gear up. And there are always the little things that go wrong with airplanes that need attention. But overall the plane has performed very well and I love it. The one issue I've been waiting for has finally appeared...I found a slight fuel seep on some rivets inboard of the right landing gear. That is the only possible effect I was worried about due to the gear up, that it might have put some stress on the fuel cells and create some premature leaks. But heck, this is a Mooney, and we all face that music at some point. I've budgeted for it. So if you like the plane and it passes inspections by your trusted mechanics, I would encourage you to buy it. But one other thing...you say you are a fairly inexperienced pilot, so pay heed to what others have told you above. The Ovation is going to be a lot of plane for you initially, so please plan to spend a great deal of time with an instructor teaching you how to stay in front of it. And when landing, one thing to keep in mind....BACK PRESSURE. Keep applying back pressure on the yoke all the way to stopping on the runway. It does two things. First, it will help you avoid a porpoise and prop-strike...that plane has had enough of those. Second, it provides aerodynamic braking, always a good thing when trying to stop. Good luck! Feel free to reach out to me if you want to talk in person. Jeff

Is this what you think about on a Caribbean vacation?

One question I've been meaning to ask, on all your long over water flights, it doesn't seem like you or your wife are wearing life vests. While I recognize it's not technically required, isn't that a good safety step? Or were you wearing them and I just didn't notice. I was too carried away watching you eat pretzels perhaps.

The sad fact is that we all have predominantly headwind flights. The general rule of thumb is that for a tailwind to be effective, it has to be within 60 degrees of dead-behind you. In other words, if you're traveling due North, the wind has to be from 120 to 240 degrees. Anything other than that means you'll have at least some amount of headwind component, as even in a quartering tailwind you have to be crabbing to some degree to maintain heading. Couple that with the fact that you always lose more time in a headwind than you gain with a tailwind, and you'll realize that we spend most of our time with headwind components. And at 100 KTAS, that makes it even worse! But hey, you're picking up good time in your logbook.

As a new pilot I was very concerned that there was a RIGHT WAY to do everything and strived very hard to do things THIS WAY. I suppose that's a good practice to start out with, if your primary instructor has been teaching good methods. As I gained experience and flew with more people, I realized that there can be much more flexibility in what could be considered the RIGHT WAY and that they can all work. There are definitely hard lines that cross boundaries of safety, but beyond that, I don't worry too much about how other pilots manage their birds. I've learned to recognize those situations that might actually put me in jeopardy, and thankfully they have been very few. But when I did see them, I didn't hesitate to point them out...tactfully!

I was waiting for the obvious follow-up scene to all that juice and Gatorade drinking. You and your wife must really enjoy the close quarters! (Although she was noticeably absent from the deplaning sequence...perhaps she had already run into the loo.)

I don't know the weather patterns in the NW as well, but seems like he was flying into the back side of a High so that's going to suck moisture off the ocean and into the mountains...a perfect recipe for what he found. Also, points out that XMWX METARs can be up to an hour old, and conditions change. On the glide-in, he said he kept raising the nose to keep altitude...a perfectly understandable reaction and one that I think we would all do. However, I think the real answer to clearing the blast barrier would be to actually lower the nose to gain airspeed, and then turn that back into altitude when needed to get over the barrier. Glider pilots can probably attest to this technique, or aerobatics guys. While I can sit here in my arm chair and say "I read about that in Stick and Rudder!" I realize actually doing it for real, without having practiced first, would be a real mental challenge.

Garmin is not helping you very much here. It's true that the 401.3 software doesn't support the airport directory, but it absolutely supports safe taxi and flight charts. Your bird is SN 29-0475, where mine is 29-0456 so you can definitely use this data. I don't know for sure which G1000 software came originally from the factory...you may need to upgrade to 401.3 if you're not on that version.

I'll be back in KC at the end of April if you want to take a ride in my Ovation. I fly into KOJC to visit family. Let me know...happy to take you up.

This guy didn't really pay attention to your Rule #1: http://www.amazon.com/Above-Summit-Airplane-Colorados-Fourteeners/dp/0692286136/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1459191442&sr=8-1&keywords=above+the+summit It's a great book...I have climbed many of these peaks, and it was fun to see them from a different perspective.

No one has really answered the "revival OP's" question about operations at 2700 RPM. While not perhaps recommended, yes, you could operate at 2700 RPM continuous as long as you are very careful to stay within mixture guidelines and manage CHTs correctly. Engines are rated to go to TBO at their full rated RPM. The performance charts in the STC clearly don't recommend this, but if you look through all the documents in the STC it does state that the engine is rated for 2700 RPM continuous. But it would be a stupid thing to do because you'll be burning a ton of extra gas for not much more speed, and the equivalent wear on the engine will be greater. So unless you were up high and needed the extra HPs, probably not a good choice.

I recently went to the Aero Club of Atlanta spring luncheon and Mark Baker was the speaker. While it may sometimes be difficult to understand what AOPA is doing behind the scenes, I concur with the above that there is a lot going on in that organization that you benefit from, whether or not you're a member. Mark was very confident that this is the year for 3rd Class Medical Reform, most likely in early summer through the PBOR2. That in itself will save you AT LEAST $95 every two years, and much more if you do have any sort of medical history to deal with. But I realize now more than ever how fragile our freedom to fly is and how it is being encroached from many angles even in this land of the free and home of the brave. AOPA is our barricade against that. So I wouldn't worry too much about the quality of the hats (they do sort of suck, actually) and the various doodads they may send out. They got some big fish to fry so we can keep flying!

For the record, I wasn't questioning the veracity of the tale. I just honestly wanted to know how they manged ground ops with the cardboard inserts. But now that this has been revealed, I have to say that there is no way I would let someone taxi and takeoff in MY plane in such a condition, FAA inspector or not. But perhaps when I was less experienced I wouldn't have been so bold as to refuse.

Explain to us how you taxied out and took off with the only visibility a small hole on the right side of the windshield? Or did your instructor take the cardboard down for land ops and then put it back up while in the air?

Speaking of Dutch Colonials, here's the house I lived at in Wakefield Massachusetts for five years in the late 90's. I planted that weeping cherry in the front garden 18 years ago...I'm surprised it hasn't grown much since then. Of course, I don't know when Google took this pic.

Ah, the Wash Park area...brings back many happy memories. I lived in Denver for many years, and my last house was at 13th and Hudson. My brother still lives at 12th and Grape, so we were Mayfair denizens. Back then I wouldn't have known Al Mooney from Adam!

Cuppla' questions. First, why did you fly at that extreme power profile? I mean, was there a specific reason, or just because you wanted to try it out? Were you testing for an upcoming Sport Air Race or something? Second, my immediate reaction to seeing your mount was to wonder how much ground clearance you had. Most Rs and TNs sit at a pronounced angle on the ground...mine is 5 degrees nose up. And my rear tie-down is pretty darn close to the ground as it is. Now, I have the A/C unit in my plane so I think that contributes to the tail-low attitude, but I'm curious how much clearance you had with the camera installed. I did notice a three-point landing...my stomach started churning a little bit, waiting for that nose wheel to hit first. You must have your landing attitude nailed in your sight picture to come that close.

USAirnet is really good and a quick way to get the most important stats. I also use the MAV/MOS charts which you can find here: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/mdl/forecast/graphics/MAV/ They are good graphical presentation of lots of different data that matter. Interestingly, these are the same charts that ForeFlight incorporated into their advanced weather briefing tools last year.

I admit that my experience and my above post was influenced by the dynamic balance I had done on my J, with a Lyc engine. Cody, if you're still around, on a Continental IO-550 with the Hartzel 3-blade prop, are there similar dynamic balance points that would preclude someone from drilling the spinner backplate? If so, then I may look into this again.

The O3 is an awesome climbing machine to the non-O2 flight levels and will give you all you want up to that point. I am in the southeast, so I have none of the mountain range problems you face and typically fly at the standard NA cruise levels between 8-11,000' depending on winds. I seem to be flying low a lot lately because of the typical strong winds in the later winter/spring. My most common trips are ~250NM with some longer 600NM trips to Kansas 2-3 times per year. At cruise levels, I flight plan 175 KTAS on 13.5 gph. I fly WOT/LOP all the time in cruise, and manage RPM between 2400-2500 depending on weight, headwinds, etc. I can get an extra 5-7 knots if I want to burn 5 more gph at ROP, but that math doesn't make sense to me. I did do a sport air race last year where I flew with minimum required gas (for weight) at 2000' AGL and averaged 185 KTAS over a 100NM course...which included time for initial takeoff climb and five course turns (one of which I botched horribly). I flew that whole thing at WOT, 2550 RPM and very very ROP! Just looking at the gauges, in the straight away segments I was over 190 TAS. (Sidenote: my plane has the factory A/C which adds an air vent to the belly and a pulley off the engine driving a compressor. The added drag and strain on the engine does probably rob me of 5 knots...but well worth it down here!) That said, I would think with your mountain flying profile, you would be more comfortable with the added power in the upper levels provided by the turbos in an Acclaim. As noted above, Joe Z will be your best source of info there.