donkaye, MCFI

1800wxbrief.com > Wx Charts > Lifted / K index

Interesting question. Many years ago we were coming back from a flyin in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. Bases were reported to be 11,000 with tops at 15,000. Clouds seemed benign stratus. I decided that it would be a simple matter to just climb the 4,000 feet through them. After all, I have a turbocharged airplane. I entered the clouds at 11,000 and began the climb. 12,000, 13000, 14,000, 15,000, 16,000, 17,000. Light rime had begun to form. I thought about going back down, but knew more ice would continue to form. 18,000, 19,000. Looking up, the view was beginning to get lighter. I broke out at 20,000 feet. After accelerating, I tried to move the rudder with the trim switch, but it wouldn't move. It broke loose about an hour later with a bang. Sublimation of the ¼" of ice accumulation in the bright sunlight? Not a bit. So much for the idea of sublimation. The ice didn't come off until the descent over Redding. Lesson learned.

For me I'll fly through stratus clouds if the temperature is above freezing and the lifted index is positive with low K Factors. For the most part I'm not interested in flying through cumulous clouds and will ask for deviations. I've never been denied. If I were denied, I'd ask ATC if they would rather I declare an emergency and ask them to save the tapes. Depending on nexrad and cloud cover and movement in my vicinity, for negative lifted indices and K factors above 20 I'm staying on the ground.

Asking the question for me is enough to deviate. The better question is. "Should I go?" Asking that question means a definite "NO!" I've never been through a cumulus cloud where I didn't get bumped around to some extent. Not really a lot of fun. When I first got my airplane, if the storm scope didn't show any activity I felt comfortable going. Big mistake. I didn't know what I didn't know at the time. I learned fast after a couple of simple flights from Stockton to San Jose in clouds and turbulence so bad that I couldn't read the instrument panel. Putting the gear down and using the speed brakes stabilized things a little. Looking at the actual weather from Stockton to the Bay area those days, it looked dark. I can now attest to the fact that if weather looks bad, stormscope or not, it IS bad. With all the weather tools available today the decision making process is considerably easier. In the end, though, if you have to ask yourself the question, "Should I go?" the answer should be no. Abide by that rule and there will always be another day. Don't abide by it and maybe not.

Like I said, it had to be one of 3 things and you met one of them, LOP. As I said, I'm not interested in going slower or doing the things to my engine to try and get it to run LOP. Also, it's my understanding that Key numbers are only valid for operations ROP.

It means I do understand LOP and chose not run my engine in that manner. The Continental Engines do run pretty smoothly LOP and I have a number of my students who do chose to run their engines LOP. When I'm flying with them I often ask them if it makes more sense to save on the fuel and end up paying a lot more for my time. They usually move to ROP. Since I don't like the "feel" of LOP, especially in the Bravo, maybe I ought to increase my rates for LOP students vs ROP students.

I have taken the Advanced Pilot Course. Having tried LOP, I'm not going to run my airplane LOP. I'm on my 3rd engine and will gladly take the fuel penalty vs the discomfort of the engine "sounding" like it's missing and the speed reduction of running LOP. (I do have the GAMIs with a GAMI spread of about .4)

He must either be running LOP or low power settings or has a TIT over 1750°, none of which are the reasons I bought and have owned my M20M for nearly 33 years (Speed). There's just no way you can run 75% power ROP on 15 gal/hour.

I've described safely landing in strong crosswind in the past (35-45 KTS) so I won't belabor the point other than to make a couple of comments: 1. High stall speed is good when it comes to crosswind landings because the airplane is done flying sooner with approach or no flaps. 2. Flying a higher speed approach = more rudder control. 3. Full flaps in gusty conditions is dangerous in my opinion because just when you think you are down and safe a good size gust could come along and ruin your day. 4. Variable approach speeds depending on wind strength is not a bad thing when needed to control stall speed with the use of flaps, The critical thing to me is that the speed is adjusted such that the crab angle on final is less than about 15°. Obviously, to successfully land in these types of conditions involves lots of practices working up to those conditions. Give me a good windy day with a good crosswind and I'm out practicing. See you there.

There was a big thread on this awhile back. Many seemed to like the vivity multifocal lens That lens it very expensive at about $5,000/eye per my sister who had them implanted a couple of months ago. I got the Toric lens with long range focal distance, since I had astigmatism and wasn't aware of the vivity lens. They were $2,000 per eye. Medicare pays for the operation and regular lens. I paid the extra for the toric lens. The operation was a non event and took about 10 minutes. I had the eyes done separately 3 weeks apart. The biggest deal were the eyedrops that were needed for 5 weeks. My sister said she had eyedrops that performed multiple functions and were a non issue for her. Without going into the details of Special Issuance 3rd Class for 20/25 in both eyes, after the operation and confirmation of corrected Commercial standard vision, I was able to get my 2nd Class Medical back immediately.

The music, news, and even the old radio shows are with the minimal cost. Around busy areas I don't use it much, but when on cross country trips when you have to ping ATC to make sure you haven't lost them, I use it all the time.

It's a lot more than just pucks. If I remember correctly, it involves new axels and gears doors along with the whole 4 puck assembly. It also may have involved different disks, too. Plus there is a lot of labor involved, as the gear doors have to be trimmed to fit.

So I just completed a basic training with a new student who bought an Acclaim Type-S. He had just gotten his Private license a few weeks earlier. I didn't have the time to teach him about the LA area so I referred him to another good friend and 787 Captain for additional training in the LA area. My friend objected to several items from my teaching: First, he wanted all trims set before taxiing, and second he really objected to my teaching where the aim point should be, about 400 feet before the threshold. That all sounds reasonable, right? Wrong! Set the rudder trim full right before taxiing and the plane will want to go right all the way down the taxiway because the rudder is connected to the nose wheel in the Mooney. Aim for the threshold and you'll have difficulty landing on a very short runway such as Oceano (L52) with the long body Mooney. I always teach to land assuming a short runway. Unless you have an extended amount of time teaching in such planes even a really good non Mooney instructor really wouldn't know that. I have a few hours teaching Mooneys (see https://donkaye.com/flight-instruction). Personally, I don't know of anyone else with more Mooney teaching time. I've specialized in Mooney instruction nearly full time for the past 31 years. I know how to control speed down to the knot and slope to less than a degree and I teach the same. So when I say the pucks need to be changed in the long body Mooney with the old 2 puck braking system about every 70 hours, it's not because I come in too fast. There was a reason Mooney changed to the 4 puck system. 2 pucks on a 2740 pound airplane are quite different than 2 pucks on a 3368 pound airplane. Of course you could land and not apply brakes and chew up a lot of runway. Of course you could aim for the threshold and sometimes due to obstacles you have to. But most of the time you don't have to. The 4 puck braking system on all long body Mooneys starting with 27-107 (mine is 27-106. I just missed it) was a big benefit and a worthy upgrade. I agree with the Rolls Royce comments having owned mine since 1979.

3K for O2 Bottle plus installation; 12K for upgraded brake system. Without the upgraded brakes the pucks have to be replaced about every 70 hours.

In the end who wants to wait nearly 2 years for an engine to fly their recently purchased airplane?

With the TIO540AF1A engine I'm not sure Lycoming would even give a core credit. I look at that airplane and remember mine 30 years ago. It's really sad to have to say that there exists a TLS (it is not a Bravo) that basically has no value as a usable airplane without inputting an unreasonable amount of money, but that is the case with this airplane in my opinion. I wouldn't trust flying it in it's present condition at all. Of course everyone knows that we all got our airplanes at a discount. Right? Most, if not all of them were sold at less than the cost to produce them. It's not an accident that they aren't made anymore. We are the lucky ones.

Realistic Price: 119,500 (Asking)+110,000(Engine+Installation (2 Year Wait))+3,000 (New O2 Tank)+12,000(New 4 Puck Brakes)+125,000 (New Avionics)=369,500 = Find a different Airplane

I guess I probably pay more than anyone for subscriptions. I call up every year and negotiate a price on both subscriptions and the car subscriptions. I have two Sirius subscriptions; XM for the older GDL 69A I have in the airplane and SXM on the Aera 760 through the GDL 52. I absolutely insist on having the real time weather of the WX500. All solutions are strictly strategic, even the WX500 Stormscope. Actually the most valuable to me is the Aera 760 through the GDL 52 and I wouldn't leave home without it for both teaching and cross country flying in any airplane. It normalizes all airplanes in more ways than can be discussed here. After seeing how I used it on a recent trip from Oklahoma City to San Jose, California, the student, who had just purchase his Acclaim Type S, and accepted the training would be done in San Jose, immediately purchased the 760 and GDL52 even though his airplane has the G1000. Information on the 760 can be accessed much faster than on the G1000 plus you can play a lot of "what if" scenarios without interfering with the G1000 navigation. From experience having the XM or SXM available on the ground is a big plus versus FIS-B. The same goes for the WX500 Stormscope. There have been times when I've had the Stormscope on the TXi, XM on the GTN 750, ADS-B on the GTN 650, and SXM on the Aera 760. The photos are from a flight from Sioux Falls to Rapid City. A perfectly safe flight with lots of "outs" and confirmation of route from ATC.

Empty weight is 2,544. Maximum gross weight is 3,368. Useful load is 824 pounds.

No, Fizan did not have a Type -S Acclaim. I flew his airplane back East to him from Santa Barbara when he bought it, and did his training in the middle of winter in Chicago. Brrrrrr. Yes, for short runways it would be better. We flew down to Hawthorne today in 1.5 hours, 15 minutes better than my plane. He'll be commuting back and forth from Texas to LA.

Yes, I've flown a number of Rockets. I even did a couple of instrument ratings in them. For some reason the 310HP Acclaim SEEMS to have much more power.

The 310 HP on the Ovation seems different to me than the same on the Acclaim. I recommended it to a student who lived in Truckee. He got it and it really makes a difference at the higher DAs. Not so with the Acclaim. Regarding the rudder, I was surprised that it did not make as much of a difference as I thought it would. However, my student did not like the rudder trim nor do I on the later model long bodies. When trimming with it, it doesn't stop when you release the trim switch, but overshoots. He actually found he liked just trimming the rudder to neutral on takeoff. On my Bravo the trim works as expected, and stops when you release the switch.

It's always been said that you can never have too much horsepower. Over the past week I found that personally not to be true. The student, who just got his private a couple of weeks ago, purchased an Acclaim Type-S that had the 310 HP upgrade. I've got a lot of time in Acclaims, but hadn't flown one with the 310 HP conversion. We flew it from near Oklahoma City (KOUN) to San Jose, California last Sunday. Because it had air-conditioning and TKS, it was load limited. We did the trip with a 10 knot headwind most of the way and 2 fuel stops in a little under 7 hours. I trained him all week and being a young 28 years old I was able to sign him off on his High Performance and Complex Endorsements by the end of today. At full power you're pushed back into the seat and the vibration is more than I like. We used full power for the short Palo Alto and Livermore short runway, but a more comfortable power setting was about 30" MP or about 90% Power. On takeoff with full power its burning 38 gal/hr, and in cruise its about 20.5 gal/hr. If you're thinking about doing the upgrade, I might think again.

In my opinion the Alpha Systems Eagle AOA is worth every penny of its cost. I've had and used mine since 11/24/14. If used properly, it's almost impossible to have a bad landing. I think it is important to read the Rogers Report attached below when determining how to calibrate the unit. From the Report, for accuracy, it is important that the 2 calibration points be located as close to each other as possible. The flap module was not available when i got my unit, and even if it was, I wouldn't use it. I, and a number of other people, calibrated the high speed point as the top of the White Arc in the clean configuration adjusted for weight, the low speed at Vso fully configured in the landing configuration, corrected for weight. The Donut is calibrated at 1.3 Vso. DeltaPAOA_wide_screen.pdf AOA and speeds 2.pdf

Without being sarcastic, if you are considering one of the earlier short bodied Mooneys, they are relatively inexpensive. Why don't you buy both types of planes? I once had a student who had cashed out of a tech company and couldn't make up his mind between a Mooney Bravo and a Bonanza A36. His wife suggested he buy both and he did. He added a PC 12 a few years later.