Jeff_S

Hi Folks. Just want to put out a reminder about the SE Mooniacs Fly-In next weekend at Big Fork South Airpark. They are laying out some food and if the weather is good it should be a beautiful day. Heck, why not even tell your non-Mooney friends about it and get them out, too!

I used the Sporty's system for my ground training for IFR and it was quite good. The material is well-represented, it's fun to hear Richard Collins' take on the realities of light-aircraft IFR flying, and the practice test system they have is excellent. I only missed on question on my written. And while opinions do vary, I agree that taking some more time to practice the flight portion in different conditions, and letting it all absorb more slowly, will not only make you more confident in IFR but will also set the material more permanently in your brain. The short course can definitely get you to the point of passing the test, and if you're going to subsequently fly a lot of IFR "in the system" to reinforce that training then it's a good way to go. But if you're like most GA pilots who want the rating to become a better pilot, but don't really expect to fly a lot of IFR, then the longer training approach will yield more long-term benefit and retention of the material.

Quote: DaV8or

I only fly LOP at any cruise altitude. In order to stay outside the "Red Zone" as promoted by Deakins and the GAMI crowd, I will pull RPM to 2400 at altitudes below 5000', but anything above it I cruise at 2500 RMP always. Again, to keep HPs down for LOP ops I will keep MP below 24" if below 5000'. I find that to be about the point where my MP won't get more than 24" anyway, although this varies a bit with temps of course. So with those power settings a rule-of-thumb, once I get to cruise I use the JPI-700 to set LOP at the appropriate highest recommended EGT (again, as per the Red Zone chart...I tried to attach this but I can't seem to find it on my computer). My GPH goes from around 9.5 at the lower altitudes to around 8.5 at the higher altitudes, all else being equal. In general I can maintain 150 KTAS or even a little better at these settings, again depending on outside temps.

I resisted posting this because, well, it just seems like piling-on. But in the interest of education, I mentioned above about an acquaintance who lost his gamble with weather last week in Mississippi. The prelim NTSB report is below. It is a chilling illustration of the power that Mother Nature can display when pilots get to the wrong place at the wrong time. The plane was torn apart in the air, and the debris field stretched for 15 miles. One only wonders for how much of the return trip to earth they remained conscious. http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20101026X35112&key=1

So, coupla' things. First, the saying "when in doubt, don't" doesn't only apply to weather or not to take off (pun intended!). It's application is much broader than that, really. If you have a doubt about something, quit doubting and check it out. Not quite sure how much fuel you have? Visually inspect. Can't remember if you unhooked the ground cable after refueling? Climb back out and look, even if you're half-way through your pre-start check list. The point is, if you have a doubt about something then just do something to erase the doubt. This does not mean, of course, that you can erase all uncertainty, especially as it relates to weather. But there the trick is to replace "uncertainty" with "risk." A business prof once taught me that "the role of the entrepreneur is to replace uncertainty with risk." Casino gambling is like this, too. A bad gambler (me!) doesn't understand the tricks and is as likely to lose everything as win it. A good gambler knows the game, knows the odds in each situation, and by playing those odds correctly can increase them in his favor. That's how I always envision the weather briefing. You're never going to get rid of all the uncertainty but with knowledge and experience you can determine the risk of any situation and then determine if you're willing to accept it. And finally, to all those folks confused about the use of the term "survivor," I applaud you because this means you haven't yet started to read the Obits in your local newspaper with regularity!

Guys, this is simple. When in doubt, don't. My primary CFI taught me this and it holds true in many situations. It seems that the more experience you get, and the more capable the airplane, the harder it is to stay true to this philosophy. This was borne out last week when an acquaintance and his wife were killed in their turbo Bonanza trying to come back from Mississippi to Atlanta at the bottom of that massive low pressure system. Their FlightAware track is pretty telling...it appears that trying to poke through some weather they got caught in an express elevator to heaven that tore up the plane. It landed in pieces in a wide area.

I had posted a similar question on the Piper board and as I sorta' knew already, there are only two real options: generator, or power inverter that you plug into your car. The latter would require staying there with the car running so it's not a very efficient use of time/energy. But I hadn't found any generators that were within a reasonable price given how often I would expect to use it. But someon on the POS mentioned Wal-Mart as a source for cheap generators and in fact,it seems to be true. I haven't fully investigated yet, but I saw one on the web for $150 that would fill the bill. Something to consider.

Can't tell for sure but from your photo it looks like you've got a later-model J, like mine. Those original gauges are electrically driven by transducers that take the analog pressure reading from the oil, fuel etc. and convert it to a signal that drives the gauge. The point is, anything that may be causing havoc in your electrical system can make them do weird things. It's usually some bad ground somewhere, and since you say the problem only shows up when you have the landing light on, this would be a likely suspect. I know this because my fuel pressure gauge has a mind of it's own. Sometimes it works fine, sometimes it just goes dead, but a gentle pressure on the screw holding it in usually makes it come alive. And I flew with my A/P last week for a different reason but he noted that simply keying the mic often makes it go live if it's dead. So we have a grounding issue somewhere in the system, which can cost a whole lotta' money to ferret out. Since I'm comfortable that my JPI is giving me good readings, I haven't worried about it too much.

Full-rich mixture will definitely help keep CHTs down for all the reasons stated above. But it's overkill for most engines (assuming normal ops of all other components of course) once you start to gain altitude. You're just blowing it through because it starts to become too rich to burn. (For NA engines only, of course...doesn't apply to turbo.) Following all the other steps shown above (except I do dial back RPM to 2600 just because it seems a bit smoother) I will also start to lean out once I get above 3500'. Very slowly, and just so I see one or at most two CHT bars on the JPI. I know if I see three bars on any cylinder (and for some reason, #3 is most susceptible) I've gone too far so I just dial some back in and that keeps things in line. It's taken me awhile to find that formula so YMMV.

They may do excellent work, but I'm always skeptical of a company that puts those annoying, automatic full-sound videos on their home page. How do they expect us to surf their site when we're supposed to be working! ;-)

I, too, found the Mooney to be exceptionally heavy in control force when out of trim, compared to my Warrior. Over time it's become intuitive to keep my thumb pretty active on the trim control so that now it's a subconscious thing...but I know I need to go out and practice manual trim in case my electric trim ever goes out. That would be a very different experience!

Quote: jlunseth Ain't that the truth. You already need a law degree to carry the FAR/AIM in your flight bag. Engineering degree would be handy.

It has been a weird week for sure, but my wife has so far been a good luck charm passenger for me, weather wise. It seems like all the trips we take, the weather clears up just at the right time for our flights. (And yes, I just knocked hard on wood after saying that.) Last week we flew to KC from Atlanta, leaving on Wednesday morning as scheduled just after a storm front moved past and we had CAVU all the way (although 30 knots wind on nose!). The weather for our return on Sunday was looking dicey, but overnight Saturday into Sunday the fronts started moving north instead of east and we had a smooth trip (albeit some in the clouds) all the way home. That same weather later in the day became the series of fronts which eventually coalesced up into the Great Lakes and wreaked havoc everywhere! (In fact, killed an acquaintance and his wife trying to come home Tuesday from MS to Atlanta in their turbo-Bonanza). It has definitely been a bad week for personal air travel.

I believe what's happening is that when you copy/paste from a Mooneyspace photo album, you're actually copying the URL of that photo and that is why it works. Notice that clicking on any of these photos opens them up. But has anyone tried doing this from a photo OUTSIDE of Mooneyspace?

Transitioning from a Warrior, I too was concerned about how quickly I could slow down a J to landing gear, flap and threshold speeds. I spent a lot of time creeping down the glideslope in full landing configuration before I got the internal sense of just when I could apply all the various components and get to a landing speed at the right time. For me (J model, no speed brakes) I just had to memorize some numbers. Level flight at 20"/2400RPM will get me to landing gear deployment. Drop it back to 17" to get to initial flap speed.

Hey Everyone, Just want to get this reminder on your calendar for the Novermber fly-in at Big Fork South Airpark. The details can be found on the SE Mooniac Facebook page here: http://www.facebook.com/?tid=10150300203295717&sk=messages#!/event.php?eid=145858452119007 The leaves are starting to turn in the southern Appalachians so with a good Indian Summer day it will be a spectacular flight up there. We'll have a cookout and general meeting, and you can visit with the BFSA folks if your retirement or vacation home plans include any sort of airpark lodging. We had only a few folks show up for the October event at Gardner Aviation but we know that the air show was probably a deterrent. We hope to see more of our Mooney amigos next month. Saturday, November 13, KSCX. Be there!

The JPI 700 is a bit of a chore to learn, and this is coming from someone in the software biz who makes a living learning how to use and sell software. But once you get used to the basics it's not that bad, and the info is so nice to have that it makes learning worthwhile. The simplest thing is to remember that if you don't touch it, it will go into scan mode. If you have the fuel option, the first thing you'll need to do on startup is tell it whether or not you put any gas in. By default it assumes not, but if you filled it up, just push the right button once and then the left button. (This assumes you have it programmed where the second option is Fill to your full gallons.) If you did a partial fill, well, that gets a little more challenging so just read your manual and practice it a few times. I never mess with Percentage vs. Normalize view. I just leave it in Percentage all the time. It was in Normalize when I first got the plane and the bars moved around so much is scared the hell out of me until I figured out what was going on. Others' views may differ on that. In cruise, I just leave it in scan unless I want to lean. If your engine allows it, learn how to lean LOP because you'll save quite a bit of gas. Press the right (LeanFinder) button once, then press both buttons down and hold until LOP appears, then let up. Then begin leaning per the manual. It's pretty easy. You'll find through experience about what GPH and CHT/EGT settings generally get you the setting that you want, so that eventually you don't even need to use LeanFinder but can just lean out until you see those on the graph. That's pretty much it, unless you want to get fancy and start programming alarms and things like that. I haven't delved into that area much.

Quote: M016576 It's not getting to the crash site that the airbags are designed to help you with (that's pretty inevitable if you're airborne w/ and emergency)... it's what could happen when your wheels hit the deck. And I understand: you're saying that if you lose your motor, just fly (glide) to a prepared surface and land, then you don't need the airbags... but what if you can't make it to a prepared surface (and the right answer isn't: "well, I'll just never let myself get to that position" because, if you're like me, sometimes you make mistakes)? -Job

Yes, I've learned to enjoy the glide in the Mooney. My boss also flies (RV4) and I always remember the mantra he gave me when I was getting started: "just hold what you got."

I have to admit I'm on the fence on this one. There is not only the initial price to pay, but periodic maintenance and upkeep of the system which is significant dollars as well. At some point you have to decide the trade-off between economics and utility. I know David (the OP) flies a lot at night and in that situation, where you can't easily find a good landing spot, the airbags would provide some additional peace of mind. But for mostly day flying, I believe the old adage of "fly it all the way to the crash site" is still pretty good advice.

You'll have a hard time finding a full-motion simulator for a Mooney, I'm guessing. Some exist that have Cirrus and Cessna panels, but unless you know somebody, the cost of getting in there isn't cheap. But if you have a decently-powered computer (either Mac or Windows) then for the price of one hour in a simulator you can buy X-Plane and a decent joystick and I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. (I'm assuming you've never done this...apologies if you already are.) There is a free M20J model available on the X-Plane.org forum site that you can use. It's a bit dated but it still works well-enough. A commercial M20J was just released by a maker of sim planes (can't remember the name at the moment) but it has so many bells and whistles that it runs very poorly on any but the latest souped-up gamers machine. I tried it out, and can't get it to work well on my 4 year-old iMac. But once you've got X-Plane you can load up any airport in the World (yes, the World) and get a realistic look at how to approach and land over real terrain. And if you really want to spend the dough and are a bit of a computer geek yourself, you can actually trick out the home version with realistic panel and even get close to motion simulation with the right devices.

Well, we had a beautiful day on Saturday and I was able to seek out a corn maze to get some pics. For anybody in north Georgia, there is one that sits literally a mile off the end of the runway at KOPN so it's easy to find. Unfortunately it's kinda' small, and worse, this particular photographer turned out to be mediocre at best. Probably needed to be lower but I didn't want to buzz the crowd. Anyway, the quest was fun, so maybe I'll try again next weekend on something bigger.

I believe I helped this poster out on the Piper forum and as he states in the original post, he knows I made this same switch just this year. Joe, send me a PM if you want to go offline and I can tell you in detail everything I've learned.