donkaye, MCFI

I think the useful load with full fuel on the Acclaim with all 3 is 50 pounds. Even the Acclaim with air conditioning and TKS and 2 medium sized adults allows only about 60 gallons of fuel to be at gross. It's a 2 hour airplane with 1 hour of reserve.

How time "flys"! Don, I think you are one of the last people I know still flying (other than Jerry Johnson) who was around when I bought my airplane in 1992. We have certainly seen a lot of changes in GA over those years. I still have a lot of good memories, but it is still sad to have to say "goodbye" to new adventures and images seen only by the few of us fortunate enough to inhabit the skys. Unlike many who have commented about giving up instrument flying, I find that it stimulates the brain and helps keep it sharp in other aspects of life. Just last week I had a student, who had just gotten his Instrument Rating, fly up from LA on the way to Top Gun and stopped by San Jose, who wanted me to accompany him to Stockton and work with him later doing actual instrument approaches. The Valley had been socked in for weeks and this day was no exception at 300 and 2. There was still nothing like running an approach and breaking out at near minimums with the bright strobes on and bright runway lights. It was the lowest for the newly minted instrument pilot, and he was thrilled. Certainly, our advanced avionics makes staying ahead of the airplane at an older age a lot easier than 30 years ago when you were lucky if we had a DME. I'm doing my yearly Wings Basic and Advanced tomorrow. I always ask my long time CFI (I've been flying with her for over 20 years so she knows my flying skills) to tell me if she notices any diminution of cognitive ability, but I think I would notice it before she did. I'm going to keep flying as long as I feel safe. I'll make a determination, too, if I'm ever denied insurance. Meanwhile, Don, I'll look forward to seeing you at more Mooney events. Epilogue: The Wings Basic and Advanced went better this year than last. The Soft Field landing might have been the best of the day with the wheels rolling on without the slightest hint of touchdown.

G100UL worked great in my engine. Although it is a little heavier, a little more power was generated. I have GAMI injectors and appreciate the work GAMI has done in the injector design field. I also appreciate all the work they have done to come up with a replacement for 100LL. Having said that I have put G100UL in my airplane only three times. That was within the first few months that it came to Reid Hillview. I counted on the fuelers to take care of making sure no fuel was left on the wing. They really were attentive to their fueling. I watched them fuel the plane. Since it came on a truck, I didn't have the option to fuel the plane myself. By the 3rd fueling staining had become a real issue. Close examination of the staining revealed the pattern of the matt being used. As careful as the fuelers had been, somehow fuel ended up under the matt and stained my wings on both sides right beside the fuel entry points. I tried to rub it out unsuccessfully. I took it to Top Gun in Stockton. They couldn't get it out without using 1000 grit fine sand paper. Most of the staining was removed, but some still exists because they didn't want to remove any more paint. They spent a couple of hours on it and charged me nearly $500. Even with that, every time I do a preflight I still notice with annoyance the evidence of staining. I don't want to paint the whole airplane, but at some point I will have the wing repainted. I thank George for recommending the Blue O-rings for my gas caps and I have changed both of them. I would like to use G100UL, but until there is a better way to use it without damaging my paint, I'll be forced to use 100LL.

I have 27-0106. They changed to the dual puck system on 27-0107. I missed it by one. Initially, the cost to replace the pucks made the change to the dual puck system not really cost effective, but as time went on that changed dramatically. I bought the plane in 1992. Initially, the upgrade cost of materials was about $4,500. I finally had had enough of the poor braking and the cost of replacing the pucks about every 70 hours. In 2016 I did the upgrade. By that time the cost had grown to $8,500. It was not a trivial upgrade. It involved new axels, beefier disks, new gear doors, and a lot of labor. The difference in braking is significant. Care, however, needs to be exercised in braking or the brakes will lock up. Today, I'm not even sure you would be able to get an upgrade kit made.

You probably remember that Garmin came out with the GPS 90 before any other moving map. That was the first map in the cockpit albeit a portable that I used when ferrying Mooneys in the early 90s. What a difference in situational awareness, although you needed a magnifying glass to see the waypoints.

From my experience if you are in your mid 70's, you're a young'n. If you're using a landing checklist, will you forget to put the gear down? Are you flying at least 10 hours per month?, Are you doing the Wings Program several times per year to have someone else you respect and will be honest with you, evaluate your aeronautical competency? If you're flying instruments, are you constantly looking for benign weather (fog and low ceiling with nearby VFR) to keep more than current, but proficient, with your approaches? And from a personal comfort point of view, what has been your family history of longevity? For example, suppose you are in your eighties and your parents lived into their late nineties? You know your health better than anyone. Do you feel fit to fly? Of course there are unknowns that could only be known with diagnostics such as full body CT scans, full body MRIs and maybe even PET Scans, but, unfortunately, even with Medicare or maybe because of Medicare, they are unlikely to be proactively approved. I'd ask at least these questions before I stepped down to a kitty car with no retractable gear or gave up flying all together. Personally, I'll cross the insurance bridge when I come to it. Unless there is an absolute age where providing an overwhelming backup package of currency and family history doesn't make a difference, I'll continue to provide backup each year. So far my premiums have gone up several hundred dollars per year each year. I've been with the same insurance agency (and they've placed me usually with the same company ((USAIG)) since I bought my plane 33 years ago.

I'm flying the avionics with the Aera 760 on the yoke being used as primary for the approach chart. Easily switched between North up and Track up. However, with the advent of Smartcharts, I find myself prebriefing with it and even monitoring the profile with the iPad in my lap. So many valuable things all in one place and so easy to use. I particularly appreciate the airport details such as slope, and the "Show Minimums" tab that shows minimums of all approaches without having to swipe through all of them. Being able to easily switch between the Smartchart and the traditional chart is also nice.

Some people have great memories. I just reread that thread. I even had posted in it. This issue has been around long time. I think it should have been an AD to get it fixed, then everyone would have known about it. It is easy to Monday morning quarterback. And it's often helpful. I'm going to check it out on my airplane, but the manual was not clear to me that disabling ESP with the AP on also disables it with the AP off. Had I tried it before, I don't think I would have turned it off, and the issue would have resolved itself with an immediate down trim. But that would have just masked the problem. The fact is that a servo can cause the trim jackscrew to lock up if the SB has not been implemented and that is a major issue that should be addressed before an accident happens. Even knowing the issue was discussed 9 years ago here didn't help because I had forgotten about it. Regarding other solutions such as bank angles; We were configured for slow flight with gear and full flaps. I'd be a little reluctant to go into a bank of greater than about 20° due to stall speed increase. That being the case 20° is not going to help much because the wing isn't loaded enough. At 45° where it would help, the plane would already have gone into a spin, having stalled earlier.

Yes, the student should have checked it. We did check it after the fact. The switch checked good, the module has been sent in for overhaul.

The ESP was disabled on the G5, but, while I may be wrong, that doesn't prevent the GFC 500 from turning back on after 10 seconds of being out of the envelope in slow flight.

Last week we were at 4500' off the California coast by Santa Cruz. We were just starting Commercial training. Before doing any of the new Commercial maneuvers, I start by doing slow flight, then Power off and Power on Stalls. The airplane, a 231, has been upgraded to 2 G5s, and the GFC 500 autopilot. As such, when operating outside of the ESP (Electronic Stability Protection) envelope the ESP needs to be disabled in the G5. Additionally, the AP circuit breaker needs to be pulled because, if the airplane is operated outside the envelope with the AP off for more than 10 seconds, the AP will automatically turn on and engage the servos in LVL mode. I hadn't pulled the circuit breaker, but we had slowed to just above the stall and, unbeknownst to me, my student had used the electric trim to trim up fully. Pulling the CB disabled the electric trim. First, we found that the stall warning switch was inoperative, but continued the exercise anyway. Power was added to maintain altitude on the backside of the power curve and the nose was lowered to increase speed and lower the AOA. To relieve yoke pressure trim needed to be adjusted down. With the electric trim off the student tried to trim down with the trim wheel. It wouldn't budge. The student said that he couldn't control the pitch with the yoke, the force was too strong. At that point I added my control input to the yoke. The force was so strong that with both of us locking our arms straight out we couldn't overcome the pitch up force. I tried to unlock the trim wheel with both hands--unsuccessfully. In all of my flying I have never had a flight where the outcome was in doubt. But for a few seconds that's exactly what I thought. Knowing that the 231 is somewhat nose heavy and on final at 75 knots with low power setting on a 3° slope the plane was controllable, I pulled the power. That did relieve some of the control pressure. I tried to unlock the trim again with the trim wheel. No dice. It was totally locked up. We were on flight following with NORCAL, and I was about to declare an emergency, when I decided to turn the AP on and see if the power of the trim servo would unlock the trim. I pushed in the CB and waited while the system went through its PFT. It took a few seconds, but ultimately finished successfully. I had the student try the electric trim---and it worked. The trim became unlocked. We had dodged a bullet. I said, "Let's head back to San Jose. We're done for the day". I got no argument. Epilogue: I told the student that until we found out the reason for our issue, we wouldn't be flying the plane. The maintenance shop was able to recreate the problem. I called Paul Kortopates and related the issue. He told me that a Service Instruction had been issued on December 14, 2016, SIM20-88A Stabilizer trim stop screw Modification. I've attached it here. It applys to the M20J, M20K, M20L, and M20M. It was to be done within 100 hours. On this airplane it apparently had not been done, so the force of the electric trim on trimming up for slow flight had pushed the trim wheel past the stop and locked it up. I'm posting this because for those owning aircraft to which it applies, you should confirm that it has been complied with. Otherwise, you might be put into an unrecoverable situation the likes of which we were lucky enough to have overcome. SIM20-88A Stabilizer trim stop screw Modification.pdf

Can any of the Logbook Apps do the below and much more? Total Flight Hours by Aircraft.pdf Total Flight Instruction By Aircraft Model .pdf Total Flight Instructing MCFI 2024.pdf

After some "birthing" issues, the WiFi updates have worked perfectly for me for many months. I let the update process proceed as I do my preflight. By the time I've finished the preflight the updates have completed.

I appreciated the 33% discount for FF and bought it even though I didn't use it much. At 15% not so much. I'll probably terminate my subscription at the next renewal. We'll see.

Recently GP added Graphical NOTAMS to the Airport Smart Chart Page. Just tap the button in the lower right hand corner. I like to manipulate my data in numerous ways including sorts and selections, so many years ago designed a flight log through a database management program called 4D. I, therefore use both a physical log and electronic one. I pay for both FF and GP. As a flight instructor, FF has previously given a 33% discount. I don't know what the future holds in that regard, though. FF is so immense that I don't know half of what it can do. I do like the 3D functionality that it provides. But overall I do like the interface of GP, since it mimics all of my other avionics. And I REALLY like Smart Charts and use it all the time now. While FF flight planning might be more comprehensive, GP provides adequate information and makes it very easy to file as opposed to the extra steps required to file in FF. If weather get complicated enough, whether it's FF or GP, I call Flight Service for an in depth analysis. Since I've be using GP since the beginning and it's the one I'm most familiar with, it's my program of choice. Probably those who use FF would say the same.