Jerry 5TJ

Don’t forget about the down time — a major panel project often takes many months. If you do it in two or three stages the total down time may be over a year.

The blog covers their round the world flight in a Piper Mirage. With the 4 aft seats removed to fit a ferry tank they had over 250 gallons aboard.

You should avoid those Sierra Hotel 7 g 360 degree approaches anyway. Heck, I refuse to do circle to land approaches in general.

I have CFI insurance and the policy does not set minimum hours in make or model, just requires I be current in category and class. That doesn’t mean I am ready to teach in, say, a Meyers 200D, as I’ve never been in one. But I’d be covered…. Typically a new Mooney owner’s policy will place restrictions on the CFI chosen for initial training and of late that’s been 25 hours make and model & 250 retract. Agree with others, and admittedly it is self-serving, that transition training is better with an instructor who has extensive experience in the same make and model. If you want to learn to fly your Mooney, I advise you train in the Mooney. As the kinesiology professors say, “if you want to learn to play the flute, don’t go shoot baskets”

When VFR the second screen is set to show traffic, or at night terrain. IFR it is usually displaying weather pages. Sometimes the second navigator flight plan is loaded with the alternate approach while navigating with the first navigator. On long XC the second display may show the XM music selections.

Yes, I do capacity testing for my new batteries before installing them to provide a baseline. My two most recent batteries showed around 107% when new (extrapolated from the 60 minute test graph). The batteries are tested at 12 months or 250 flight hours, whichever comes first. They are replaced when the capacity has decreased to 80% of specified amp-hour rating. When someone posts “my battery lasted X years” they’re just telling us they don’t capacity test, instead they use the battery until it can’t crank the engine.

I’m starting to think about selling the turboprop and getting a LSA or similar experimental. Fixed gear. Rotax.

How about …. pull chute, during ride down open canopy, use fire ax to chop a hole in cowling, squirt fire extinguisher into engine compartment? I bet it would work in a Hollywood production. And the photogenic gal in the right seat would swoon in appreciation. Cut!

Agree one shouldn’t spin a Mooney. Or a Cirrus or an Airbus 330, either. But we were talking about stalls, and the aversion to slow flight or incipient stalls, among Mooney pilots.

An inadvertent stall at pattern altitude is serious in a 172 or a Mooney. That’s not because either aircraft stalls in a nasty way but because of insufficient time and altitude to recover. I’m curious—Where does the belief that a Mooney stall is “not benign” originate? I admit that it—the belief—is widespread. One of the first things I have a new-to-me Mooney student do is slow flight and stalls, for two reasons: First, to dispel the commonly-held belief that the Mooney stall behavior is unpredictable or vicious. Next, to see what the several-decades-old ASI actually reads before we use it to gauge landing speeds.

Perhaps it’s that the pressure hull is much stronger than the unpressurized areas so under severe stress the aircraft tends to break at that juncture.

Runway behind you is of no interest.

IIRC It’s perhaps 500’ from the start of the takeoff roll on runway 4.

True, so a fixed % rule is nonsensical.

The compass rose at CA35 happens to be a highly visible point early in the takeoff roll. For me it served as a checkpoint for proper acceleration and from which it was still possible to stop on the remaining runway. Without an accelerate-stop performance chart in the AFM you must make your own estimates.

When I operated out of a 2000’ strip (CA35) I had a go/no go point pre-established: If not at >50 knots when abeam of the compass rose, abort the takeoff. That pre-set test prevents (some of) the decision delay.

As of December 2022, the FAA says there are still 209 published NDB approaches. But I’m hard pressed to find one nearby for training or amusement. https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/flight_info/aeronav/procedures/ifp_inventory_summary/

A Typical PPP agenda: Arrival Thursday, social gatherings Thursday evening. Then classroom all day Friday. Briefing with your instructor, who is selected for considerable experience in your specific model, on Friday afternoon. Option to fly at night Friday evening. Saturday each participant flies twice, broadly speaking with a syllabus calling for 1 VFR and 1 IFR session. Banquet Saturday night. Departure Sunday. About 8 hours of ground work and around 4 hours of dual flight, plus more flight time if you opt for the night session.

That’s a lotta jugs.

If you go direct, or the near-direct route Don suggested, get VFR flight following. If you say what you are going to do and do what you say, ATC appreciates knowing your intentions and, I’ve found, are helpful and courteous.

ATP Single Engine is basically an instrument rating to tighter standards. You do NOT need the ATP-CTP course for the single engine ATP. One challenge is to find a DPE authorized to administer the ATP-SE practical test. A good overview: https://www.ifr-magazine.com/technique/atp-the-ultimate-ipc/

See https://www.mooneysafety.com

Sure we do. If anything the price of JetA is more flexible and negotiable than 100LL at an FBO. There are numerous fuel plans and the difference between “list price” and the available price is significant. As in several $ per gallon, even for us little guys buying just 100-120 gallons at a time.

Yes, especially if you have a mode S diversity transponder (so the Aerion satellite interrogators can track your plane reliably) then the ELT is of less utility.

Using the G500 with synthetic vision and “the pipper” can work out for emergency use in that awful case of gliding through IMC to 300’ ceilings. I have practiced such from simulated engine out in cruise to short final with a CFI watching. It can work but a bit of luck is required. It helps to cruise at higher altitudes.