Jeff_S

How do people attach thumbnail images to a post? I can't seem to figure this out, probably making it too complicated. I have only figured out how to add a photo to my gallery and then attach that to a post. I'm sure this is something easy but I searched the Help and forums and couldn't find this anywhere else. Would appreciate some enlightenment. Thanks!

My prop (3-blade) usually stops with the top blade vertical, although sometimes bottom vertical. I always rotate it to top vertical because otherwise the blade gets in the way of the Power Tow I use to push it back into the hangar. Even when I'm parked outside, I usually rotate it top vertical because it seems like this would just shed water better, and maybe be a slightly less- interesting bird perch.

I don't know nuthin' about acro, but from a layman's perspective I think Matt may be right. It looks for some reason like the pilot lost spatial awareness in the maneuver and panicked, with no margin for error. We may never know the full reality of it. It's a haunting video.

Yeah, I'd be curious to know a few more components of this. What RPM? I assume you were WOT. At 6500' 10.5 gph puts you right about best power setting. Also, how did you calculate TAS? Using the temperature adjustment on the ASI or do you have a digital air computer?

I've got a GNS480 (WAAS of course) and a fully-coupled S-TEC55 with GPSS. So I'll take the LPV any day. I can literally let the A/P fly it all the way in and just manage speed through power settings. The ILS is almost as simple, but once on final approach I have to hit the APR button on the S-TEC because the GNS480 will automatically switch over to the ILS signal which the GPSS won't read. While it sounds like a simple thing, I have forgotten to hit that little APR button and then wondered why my plane didn't capture the GS and just kept truckin' straight and level.

I was not able to access either link that was provided. They both said "page not available." Can someone remind me when this occurred so I can find the NTSB report?

I don't generally have a strong need to fly at night, and down here in Atlanta it's pretty easy to avoid night flight even starting as early as March. But I generally go out for night training at least once each year in springtime just to brush up, and I actually enjoy flying at night because of the smooth air, good visibility, great sunsets, etc.

Was thinking about it. That's the one up near Nashville, right?

And here's one to think about when flying in the Southeast in April and May. Various things can turn an otherwise VFR day into IFR, and quickly. In my case, I had taken off from PDK on an IFR flight plan down to Sun n' Fun. For reasons that I won't bother to go into (nothing dangerous, just a long story) I decided to turn around at Macon and go home. Well, the departure from PDK was VMC and not predicted to change, so imagine my surprise when they gave me the JRAMS3 Arrival to end in an ILS21 approach...due to pollen! Yes, so much pollen had kicked up in the hour that I was gone that they airport had gone IFR with low visibility. And truly, even though the sky was clear, I couldn't really see the ground from 4000' below the yellow haze. That was one for the record books, literally. It was the worst pollen day of the season with counts over 8,000!

+1. My wife was a steadfast refusal to fly with me until she learned how easy it is to get to practically any beach on the Southeast coast. Once she realized that then flying was no problem for destinations. But going out for the $100 hamburger has no appeal for her. To me, that's probably the best of both worlds. She sees enough value and utility in the plane so there is no pressure to get rid of it, but I get my "man time with friends" to do the fun flying as well.

So, just what type of "little fun" were you having? Was that Fight Club fun? Or did you have your eyes somewhere they shouldn't be?

I don't care what you say...that's real talent in my book. (All my books.) And how about that judge who looks like a blonde Sandra Bullock!

That's an eye-opening video for sure. Seemed like they were in good shape until they actually hit the DA and then all hell broke loose. Good to keep in mind that this can happen, and not take things for granted.

The thought of spending more than 4 hours in my cockpit without a break is not appealing, or appetizing. I do take along some PB&Honey sandwiches to eat at ground stops, though.

I got the oximeter from Sporty's for Christmas last year, and finally remembered to use it last week on flights to and from Amelia Island. I just hadn't been at altitude long enough on any other flights for it to matter. But on the way down, after 45 minutes at 9000' my blood oxygen showed 91% and my pulse was 85. On the way home at 8000', my blood oxygen was at 96% and my pulse was in the mid 70's. 1000' altitude difference probably accounted for some of this, but I also think that since we had done so much beach walking and other activities while there, my body was just naturally in a bit better shape physically and I was processing oxygen better. I gotta' spend more time on the treadmill at home...but that's so boring!

Kids still love airplanes. I know this from being on the static display for two years at our local PDK Good Neighbor day. You had to stand guard to keep them from climbing all over everything. The problem is there aren't many good avenues to translate this raw interest into meaningful long-term enthusiasm. EAA does as good a job as anybody with the Young Eagle program, but then you get to the other part of the equation which others have mentioned: cost. Most kids, no matter how enthusiastic, aren't able to maintain long-term interest unless they are part of a piloting family, or they pursue it as a profession. Also, as a country we've lost some of the adventure and motivation that I think also contributed to the "glory days" of GA. This all happened right about the time the space race was heating up, and people were setting air speed and altitude records, and all this was in the news to feed the general interest. Even just the advent of convenient jet travel helped fuel the passion. But our big national initiatives now are about...well, actually, I don't KNOW what our big national initiatives are about. That's probably the start of whole different thread.

What a great song to go with the footage, too. I'm sure we've all felt the same way about our airplanes at one point or another.

I'll give the seller the benefit of the doubt and assume it was a cut-and-paste error, with little proof reading. He did get the picture right, after all!

Speaking of the three (or four, in my story) C's of personal flying, I was at an FAA-Wings training seminar at Flight Safety in Atlanta a few years ago. I often kick myself for going to these things because most of the time there are a handful of older dudes (and yes, almost always dudes, very few dudettes attend) who hog all the conversation and show off how much they know. But I digress. In this instance, there was a quiet and very thoughtful professional pilot of many years, and he brought up what he called the "4 C's" of personal flying, relating to one's general experience level. The first is Cautious. Then Competent. Then Confident. And finally, Complacent. It's this last stage that I think does in the most GA pilots, or even more, the professional pilots who are flying GA. How many times do you have to hear about a 12,000 hour pilot flying into a mountainside at night outside Las Vegas in an otherwise perfectly good airplane? Too many other stories like this when you read the NTSB reports. I'm not blameless here by any stretch, as I often catch myself doing things I wouldn't have dreamed of when starting out. Sometimes these are legitimate actions because I am more familiar with the risks and have thought them through. Sometimes they're just dumb, and I file them away as "boy was I lucky that time." So far, very few of these latter, but I try to keep a watch out for them.

Hello all. I got an email this morning offering the APS course on engine management online for $395, a $100 discount if purchased before May 28. This is the course offered by the GAMI guys on proper leaning, engine management, etc. I know a few Mooneyspace people have attended the in-person course and found it beneficial. I've read all the publicly available material by the same folks and follow all those practices in my general flying. So, if I'm pretty confident in my leaning technique already and use of the engine monitor, is the other more in-depth material worthwhile, or better said, worth the money? If anybody has experience and can say "well, I learned about such and such a technique in the details of the course and it has saved me money, or saved my bacon, or otherwise given me great benefit" that would be very interesting. Thanks!

Here's another thing to consider. A friend recently had the Aspen installed in his 231, originally surface mounted. That was causing some physical interference with other buttons nearby, so he went back and had it flush mounted. That solved the physical interference, but then he realized that with flush mounting there was nothing to rest his fingers on to work the unit in turbulence, so it made that aspect more challenging. I think flush mount looks better, but if you don't think you'll have physical interference with other knobs/buttons, surface mounting may be somewhat easier to use.

Ozzie ozzie ozzie, oy oy oy! I lived in Australia for a time in the mid-80s, way before I ever thought about flying. Would sure love to go back there now and tool around in a Mooney. That would be "the bees knees!" (I hope that particular slang is still current and doesn't date me horribly.)

I was totally mislead by the title of this thread. I was expecting to see some, you know, beavers in Alaska, and all I get are some lousy airplanes! Whoops, sorry, forgot which URL I had gone to.