RJBrown

Fuel was 2 bucks a gallon then. What is real sad for pilots is how plane prices have skyrocketed, even when compared to cars built by Ferrari. The current 4 seat Ferrari an FF is now $295,000 and has four wheel drive and 651HP compared to the 436HP of the RWD 456 1995 car. Even in hand built cars the cost is more reasonable. 3300 Ferrari 456s were built from 1992-2003 so economy of scale can't be credited with the cost advantage. On a dollar for dollar basis the Ferrari would be racing a LSA today. Both the 172 and the Archer cost more than the current Ferrari. Both would lose this race.

Ira Curry of Stone Mt. Georgia and an as yet unidentified person who bought it in San Jose California.

There is no electricity to the shelters where I was parked. With the MSE there is a tanis and I would chain a small generator to the post overnight. With the Rocket it had no built in preheater. I made up a preheater from a 115v propane space heater from Home Depot, a small inverter to run it off the car battery and some HVAC tin and some scat tubing. Pre heat below freezing. 40 degrees maybe not.

In most instances this procedure would be unneccesary and a bad idea. When the fuel stops flowing the engine does NOT quit turning. Simply switching to the other tank should get it running again. Has anyone here ever got an engine to quit spinning while in the air? I tried a precautionary shut down once and the prop kept spinning. I even tried to slow the plane down enough to stop the prop but could not stop the spinning. I gave up on stopping it and landed the plane.

Many times on purpose. A non event used to verify fuel used and leave all fuel in one place. Once not on purpose. Startling but not serious. I was planning on running the tank dry but became distracted with other duties. It still ran dry without my help. Because I had seen it before and was expecting it there was no "panic".

No win here! So its the 737 to Phoenix at 7AM tomorrow.

I would be torn between the TBM and the Pilatus. If tonights numbers come through I could do Both! $221,000,000 after taxes could buy a lot of airplane toys. What If.... pick 5.... F8F, TBM/PC12, L39, H16, Rocket 305.

I owned a 1980 231 it was Serial # 0232. It came with factory O2. This one should have had it. Only the 1979 planes were without O2. I always carried a back up O2 bottle. None of his pictures show where the O2 fittings would be. E bottles pictured would be small for anything but flying alone. 1 bottle would not last a full tank of gas for 4 people. The Sky-Ox ads say otherwise but dont believe them. It is just like a 231 that wont do 200 knots as advertised.

You might want to compare numbers between your ASI and a GPS over a 3 legged course and do the math to verify. I rarely flew anywhere below 12,500. At cruise I burned 20gph. I always flight planned 200 kts. These numbers were always consevative. If I needed to watch my reserve I simply throttled back untill the GPS/Fuel flow meters showed a 30 minute reserve.

Dave you are misreading Wiki's chart. NY is 16y6m. DC is 16y6m. Maine is 16. Conn is 16y4m. These states are all in what I consider the "nanny" state contingent. Government should butt out and quit trying to be so OVER protective. Next thing you see some idiot trying to legislate what we can and cannot eat for lunch. I apologies if this crosses the "no politics" line but we need way less of big brother and way more common sense. I believe the vast majority of 16 year olds are responsible enough to drive. The biggest contributor to irresponsibility is the lack of control and discipline in children's lives.

No state force youth to wait untill 18 to allow a drivers license. So where did your data come from. South Dakota allows the youngest drivers at 14y3m while New Jersey is last and only state in the nation at 17 years. Generally the states that wait till after 16 are the New England states. Many in that area wait much longer to get to drive by choice. When states are no bigger than counties out here driving is different. My heart attack statement was not was not a claim based on any statistics but a flip observation made to tie back into the title of the thread.

The 1966 C model N2744W pictured above with the Piper twin has had it's N Number and registration expire. The owner has reserved his own N Number instead of re registering the plane. Now he has his number held untill 8-8-18. Not quit as ready to fly as he told you Dave. Got to feel for both the pilot and even more so the planes.

4 MGAs. A 1962 roadster 95% done, driveable but they are never done till they are sold. A 58 coupe 80% done. A 57 Mazda RX7 powered roadster done 25 years ago and needs work. A 1960 roadster partially dissasembled by the PO. Bought it in 92 and will restore it after retired. Closing on a fixer-upper house in Queen Creek Az. I will fix it up while living in it while building the house on Pegasus Airpark. A 1980 Suzuki GS1100L that I ride and a Kawasaki 750LTD that my wife rides. Both bikes need periodic maintainence. Just finished putting a new crank in the GS and rode it for the first time in 18 months. Once the house is built I will sell the fixer-upper to finance the hanger, pool, pool house and 305Rocket. Lots of BIG projects ahead of me in retirement! Should have the business sold by the first of the year and out a month later. Got too much to do. I'll have to retire to have the time to get it all done. All that and a lot of Scuba diving and golfing to catch up on.

Plast aid http://www.plast-aid.com/ 1/2 oz fiberglass cloth. Mine came from a R/C airplane hobby shop. MEK PVC glue SEM vinyl paints Using 1/2 oz per square foot cloth work it into the backside of the plastic to strengthen/repair it. Plastaid is powdered plastic and a solvent. Use it to fill where plastic is broken away kind of like a plastic bondo. Once repaired properly it will be stronger than new and can be finished by painting or covering. Heavier cloth can be used to repair areas that have more damage. PVC glue can be used instead of or in addition to the MEK. There are times a thinner solvent will work better and times when a thicker glue would work better. All I used was the MEK but I can see where PVC glue would work better in some aplications.

A Lycoming IO-360 at 75% produces .417 horsepower per cu inch. A Honda F20C produces the same .417 horsepower per cu inch at 21% power and can produce 1.967 HP per Cu inch at full power. Which one is "High strung"? The term "Lycosaur" was coined for a reason. Our engines really are pre-historic technologically.

At some point teenagers must be allowed to drive. Inexperience is what happens at first. You seem to want to delay that period of inexperience until later. When the "new" inexperienced 18 year old does as bad as the old inexperienced 16 year old do we raise it to 21? My son in law complained just yesterday about the older first time drivers in Florida. Non drivers who just moved down from New York or immigrants from further south all performing poorly as first time drivers. How about the experience of my sister and her many children in South Dakota. I know 8 is a small sample statistically but they all received driving privileges at age 14 without dangerous result. Getting experience Before a child turns into a raging teenager may make that teenager a safer driver. As a parent the freedom felt when the kid can finally drive themselves and their siblings is not to be trifled with. As to heart attacks my "fittest" uncle died in his 50s of a heart attack sitting and resting on a bench after a tennis match. Obesity is an enormous health risk and should not be discounted but it is not as high a heart risk factor as most assume.

Personally I believe in paying cash for toys. Fun money should be just that FUN. If you have to worry about your house to buy toys don't.

When I had a Rocket (1000 hours 12 years ago) I used Rocket Engineering's data to set power. I found their data to be a bit conservative. Mine always out performed the chart. If you are not getting the performance shown in their charts there is something wrong with YOUR plane. TKS can hurt, even more if it is as rough an install as you describe. Being "out of rig" can cause a slower plane also. Never flew a Missile enough to comment there. Conrad was very proud of the fact that his were "real world numbers" There are a lot of planes that don't reach advertised numbers, can you say 201 and 231 for example. All the manufacturers seem to have flown a specially prepped plane to achieve the book numbers. That said I believe Conrad succeeded in publishing real world, achievable numbers. The numbers I doubt are Mooneys. How can an Acclaim with a larger airframe, more weight and LESS horsepower out run a Rocket? Can't.

Had no regrets selling my J. It was too low and slow after 10 years in a Rocket. As long as you have no need to climb to the flight levels your Missile is the ultimate non turbo plane you can get. I will wait until the house and hanger on Pegasus are built to get another Rocket. I sit down with a possible buyer for the business on Friday. If all the stars line up I may be in a temporary/flip house in Az by the end of the year. My lot is on the SE corner of the runway. I cant wait to have a hanger in my backyard 200' from the runway.

Only DME arc approach I ever flew for real was into Quincy Il (KUIN) on my first flight in N231NH after it was converted to a Rocket. Long story but I had picked it up in Lancaster PA and needed a fuel stop en route to Denver. Seemed like it took forever to complete the approach. All the while I was circling around a commuter on the ground was waiting impatiently for me to clear so he could leave. Nowadays they have an ILS and 6 GPS approaches. 18 years ago all there was was just an NDB and a VOR/DME. Sidney NE (KSNY) still has DME arc approaches. Those I have only flown under the hood. Good thing I had the practice otherwise I would have had a bit of trouble when that one confronted me in Illinois.

I hear a bunch of you here saying " Don't worry about REAL pilot skills just buy a new dash toy instead" Isn't that what crashed that Korean Air 777? Replacing true pilot skill with glass instruments will, in the long run, prove to be less safe. I kept the ADF going in both my planes just for training. You are current AND competent once you can shoot a partial panel approach with just a compass, an ADF and a turn coordinator. Don't kid yourself even if you never need to actually shoot such and approach for real the skills needed to do it will serve to make you a better pilot across the board. Adding new and better toys to the panel IS a great thing just don't scrimp on the most important piece of safety equipment in the plane, YOU.

This thread illuminates why I no longer own a J. Without the ability to climb to a reasonable (20,000'+) altitude a J is unsafe in many normal conditions. Coming into Cenntennial on the LARKS arrival and not being able to maintain MEAs is quite disconcerting. Out east a non turbo can get high enough to clear most wave activity or if lower still be able to maintain due to lower density altitudes. Out here where the dirt starts higher than the mountains discussed here and the Rocks top 14,000' turbos are much more important. Once the house and hangar are completed on Pegasus (5AZ3) I will buy another Rocket. Untill then I am better off planeless than stuck flying a plane that disapointed each time it was flown.

Aviation has no formal flat rate book like the auto industry. All procedures must be agreed upon prior to work. A tech earns between 25% and 30% of billed labor. A tech doing work "on the side" in your facility on your insurance charging much more than 40% of normal shop rates is over charging. A real business pays for shop space, insurance, utilities, phone, advertising, withholding taxes, etc. One of the more important insurance coverages is "completed products" coverage. This coverage protects you against damage caused by improper repairs after the vehicle is returned to the customer. An example of this coverage might be seen in these examples. Negligence: A tech forgets to tighten a drain plug and the affected component is ruined. A defective part is installed that fails and causes damage. A tech at Continental failed to bend the tabs that keep the bolts from coming loose that held the alternator drive gear to the crank on my plane. Things came loose at 20,000' just after an IFR departure from Jackson Hole airport. The alternator came apart sending debris into the engine. Insurance replaced the $60,000 engine. Your "side job" tech probably has neither insurance nor personal net worth to cover such a failure. When you use this type of repair you are self insuring to save on labor rate. Someone working in your space un insured for $65 an hour is not doing you any favors. The $25-$30 figure tax free in cash on the side is better than his day job.

My experience out west has shown that the greatest ally is power to Climb above ice. Never flown with TKS. Comparison is between a J and a Rocket with a hot prop. At 1500 per climb you are not in ice very long. I preferred to stay above ice as long as possible descending only when at the destination and doing so quickly. Many flights in the Rocket were trace only where a J with limited climb would have been dangerous. The Rocket could always pick an ice free altitude, somewhere between 0 and 24,000 is an ice free zone.. The J was more or less stuck below 12. Climb above 12 in a J can be lost to winds or ice pretty easily. With 14,000' mountains and 16,600' MEAs a normally aspirated plane must remain clear of clouds. I remember one flight long ago in a 182 where I rode a mountain wave up to 20,000' coming across the front range. I was barely on top of the clouds. Wings were Ice free but got some on the wheel pants. Center gave my a block of airspace to play in. Very accommodating about ice. Inadvertent ice is not something they bust you for. It is something they want to help you out of. Don't be dumb about ice speak up if it is an issue.

And this is pretty much it on spinning Mooneys. DONT.