donkaye, MCFI

650 to 650Xi : 2,935 750 to 750 Xi: 4,960 But I had to pay for an expensive data card that I really didn't need, since I already had an extra card from the old 650. In fact, I should have said I didn't want it. My mistake. Also I paid for 3 hours of labor. If they made extra on the data card, so be it. They did a very good job. They required one data card back for each unit. Since I had the 510, I didn't need a card for the 750. Bottom line, it was more than Sarasota, but not that much more.

As I mentioned in another post, after AirVenture was canceled for 2020, I decided to trade its cost for the cost of the GTN 750 and GTN 650 upgrade. While Sarasota Avionics in Florida has an upgrade program, they weren't a possibility here on the West Coast. I called around quite a bit and finally found an organization that was more than willing to do the exchange upgrade, Pacific Coast Avionics in Aurora, Oregon. It turns out that they had provided one of the best bids for my GFC 500 autopilot upgrade, but they had so much business that I was going to have to wait 6 months for them to do it, so I went with Accurate Aero in Minden, Nevada. I got what I thought was a fair bid from Pacific Coast. They said they could do the job in about 3 hours including all the paperwork and could start the job in about 2 weeks. That meant that I could leave early in the morning, fly up, get the work done, and fly back, all in the same day. I didn't want to stay overnight at any motel. So, armed with face mask, Clorox wipes, gloves, and hand sanitizer I flew up on May 15th, the one good day between storm systems in Oregon and California at the time. Due to headwinds the trip took 3 hours. but with gas at $2.99 the cost wasn't that much. It was good to get back in the air and exercise the plane, which had been sitting idle for awhile. Once there, the plane was quickly pulled into a new hangar. Chad was the only one working in the hangar, and he took me to a private room where I set up to spend a few hours working on the Gleim FIRC. Even though I renew my CFI through giving Wings Programs, I like to stay up with what is going on in the industry by taking their course yearly. It takes a lot longer than the required 16 hours, but I have found the course to be useful. I told Chad that it bothered me that my G5 altitude always varied from the G500 TXi altitude by more the 60 feet, and he said that he could fix it, but that it would take an additional hour. I told him to go ahead and do it. Being a PIA, periodically I"d go to the hangar to see how things were going. During one of those times I asked him when my units had arrived from Garmin. He said that wasn't necessary since they "keep the units in stock". That took me by surprise. How many organizations can keep high priced avionics like that in stock? Although the installation is "plug and play" and the units have their own configuration modules to make for easy exchange, there were still some settings that needed to be changed. Chad made the changes, calibrated the air data computer to correct the altitude deviations I had discussed, and finished up by mid afternoon. Fuel was expensive at Aurora so I flew the 10 miles over to Mulino State to get fuel at almost $1.50 a gallon cheaper. From there I filed through Garmin Pilot, picked up the clearance in the air, and headed home. Everything worked perfectly, as expected on the way home. Pacific Coast was excellent to deal with and I highly recommend them. The units are faster, have better resolution (although I can't really tell), have better software upgrade capability, and I have a new 2 year warranty. The software is a little different from the basic GTNs with a database icon showing up on turn on that could make database updates a little easier for some. All in all a very good day. Finally, I think I am done upgrading (how often have I said that). Well, maybe if Garmin comes up with a good autoland system for the Mooney....

If you're ferrying for money, you're not covered by your own insurance.

Better have good insurance.

Fallbrook, L18, is 2,160 x 60 feet on top of a hill with drop offs on both sides. Basically, your aircraft carrier approach and landing. I worked with one student who wanted to go in there. We made it, but it was very uncomfortable. I let him out and had him look at a couple of demo approaches that I did. They were uncomfortable for me, and I recommended that he never go in there again. In my opinion certainly a long body Mooney shouldn't be based there. The 252 is very marginal. I wouldn't want to be the instructor who released a student after training to be based there in any Mooney other than a C, or E model, which wouldn't have too much trouble. L52, Oceano, is really a pretty easy airport at 2,325 x 50 feet in any model Mooney. If has plenty of "lead in" to get set up. If I have a student in that area I always work that airport in near the end of our training. It's a different matter when there is a direct 25 knot crosswind. After I did my landing video in Porterville, we flew over to Ocean to stay the night. It's a beautiful setting almost on the beach. You can walk to the condos that are rented a block away. Anyway, the winds were blowing so hard that I had to go around twice. On downwind the third time I told Shirley that if I couldn't make this time, we'd fly down to Santa Barbara and stay there. The winds cooperated and I committed to the landing which went well. For all practical purposes it is a one way runway. Short runways and big crosswinds really don't mix well. I have seen a Bonanza stuck in the mud 100+ feet off the end of the runway one time. However, except for strong crosswinds, if on proper speed and slope, the airport should provide no problem for a proficient Mooney pilot.

Yes, you're correct. For me, moving plane to plane, I cannot guarantee that the plane I'm teaching in has the bluetooth capability to be able to provide an acceptable type of weather to me.

I'm in the unique position of needing both. My 796 normalizes all airplanes for me when teaching. I can get at whatever information I need independent of student and the avionics in their airplane. It also has built in XM with a small puck. While the new 760 is probably faster, runs cooler, a little lighter, and draws holds, it requires purchase of a much larger piece of hardware (the GDL 51 or 52) to do XM weather, so for the first time, I'm probably not going to get it. Of course I said that for the 750/650 to 750Xi/650Xi and went ahead and did that upgrade last week. The 796 gives me much more information on the yoke for my purposes than having an iPad mini on the yoke. It is also much less susceptible to blackout from heat than the iPad. So, although I have some of the best avionics in the world as primary in my plane, I still like having the extra information presented by the 796. Except for the weather issue, I think the same thing would apply to the 760.

Electric rudder trim and yaw damping are two entirely different animals. I center the rudder in level flight with the YD off, then turn it on. In turbulence it makes a worthwhile difference. It's cheap for the benefit in my opinion.

Yes. It's not a distraction when enroute. It could be on approach, so recommend turning it off in busy airspace and on approach. I have XM and usually listen to SPA channel 68 for calming music. I DO NOT have it "mute on audio input" as it's constantly ramping down and up on every radio call. I have its volume set below the volume of radio transmissions, and have a switch to turn it off instead of having do a lot of icon tapping on the Aera 796, or G500 TXi, or GTN 750 to turn it off..

I'm not concerned with the physical environment of the airplane, which I feel comfortable disinfecting. I'm uncomfortable with the state of the person in the next seat over. I can't control where they have been or with whom they have come in contact.

All of this in NOT encouraging. For example I have at least 4 students who want to fly now. The first one is for a flight review. I've been flying with him for over 20 years. He is not current now. He lives in a part of the San Jose that has the highest incidence of the virus, where as stated in the newspaper, multiple people have died from it, even middle age people. I have another student, who luckily I finished his recurrence training just before the shelter in place took effect. He wants to get his instrument rating and has almost the exact same panel as I have, so I'd love to teach him. Problem is he is an ER Doctor and has a number of Covid patients. I have another student who just got the GFC 500 and wants to get checked out in it and get an IPC. Finally, I want to do my annual Basic and Advanced Wings Program. The problem is that the instructor who I've done it with has several teenage children and continues to teach multiple students because she is a single Mother who needs to work. How many "chains" are in that one? Someone from Apple Computer once said that the experience of using the computer should be transparent to what is behind the scenes, In other wards, the computer itself should not get in the way of using it. Similarly, I don't see how armoring up can't help but get in the way of teaching, and as mentioned above might not even be that effective.

Yikes! Armor up. Following these guidelines sounds like you're preparing to go into a Corvid-19 hospital intensive care ward. Sort of takes the fun out of flight instructing.

Thanks, Alex. Food for thought.

Maybe so, but it's a lot easier to reach over and down a bit than constantly raising your hand to reach a Controller placed on top.

I've been flight instructing for the past 26 years pretty much full time. I have loved it. There has been great satisfaction watching people expand their universe, whether it be the instrument rating, commercial rating, transition training, flight reviews, and on and on, while at the same time enjoying the freedom and joy of flying myself. Never would I have thought that we'd be in the predicament that we are in right now. How do you safely flight instruct now without risking your life? Who knows the chain of contacts of the other person or they of you? I guess taking temperatures, wearing masks and gloves, Clorox wipes, Lysol spray would help mitigate the situation, but there are still no guarantees. Many of the most experienced instructors are in the age group where caution should be the order of the day. I'm certainly open to suggestions, but as of right now it seems pretty grim for both flight instructors and students alike, if you value your life. Until there is a vaccine or more certain treatments, it seems like a crap shoot to either get training or to train.

I've always bought the iPad with the most memory, 128 GB iPaid Air 2 being the last one a few years ago. It has cellular which is activated. Garmin Pilot is my primary flight app. A couple of years ago, after an IOS update it would continually bomb out. Several updates later and I've never had an additional problem with Garmin Pilot. I have not closed any other applications running in the background, however, I can see that might be advantageous if there is a memory issue.

I find the Wings Program to be so much better than giving a "standard" Flight Review, that except in very unusual situations, it is the only way I am doing Flight Reviews. I do the Basic Wings and Advanced Wings yearly myself. From a Flight Instructor's point of view it is also a good way to renew your Flight Instructor Certificate by having 5 students participate in it over a 2 year period of time--and it is so easy to document from both the student's and instructor's point of view. (See AC 61-91J).

You are correct. Only the ground portion unless you take a practical test. From the Wings Program activity A071024-01: "Satisfactory completion of a Practical Test for the initial issuance, renewal or reinstatement of a Flight Instructor Certificate meets all the requirements for the Master Level of the WINGS - Pilot Proficiency Program, the Advanced Level of WINGS, and the Basic Level, if, and this is a big "if", the applicant demonstrates takeoffs and landings during the Practical Test as sole manipulator of the controls. Note that a CFI Renewal based on other than a Practical Test does not qualify." Even though I qualify for CFI renewal by giving the required number of Wings trainings, I also do the Gleim FIRC (No way you can do it in 16 hours. Many more), and the last time I took it this is what they credited me with.:

Doesn't necessarily have to be. I use the 796 as my primary display of charts. Just use pinch zoom to expand any part of the chart.

I had a feeling AirVenture was going to be cancelled this year. It seemed like it was going to be the smart thing to do. Actually, I'm glad someone else made the decision instead of me having to make it had they decided to put it on anyway. It's been one of our major trips every year for the past 21 straight years. It's always an adventure--always different. It's fun to look forward to it. Fun to plan it. Fun to adjust for the changing weather situations flying to it. Fun to sometimes fly the Caravan. Fun to play in the AirVenture Band. Fun to go to all the events. Fun to see the airshows. Fun to go through the exhibits. Fun to go to the Forums. Fun to see all the new unexpected "toys" to buy. Fun to see so many of our Mooney friends. Fun just to be in Oshkosh among so many people who have the same interest as I have in aviation. What to do now? Change of plans, since every event of the year we had planned on attending so far has been cancelled. Time to make a little lemonade out of a bunch of lemons. All of those trips would have cost something, sometimes a large something. So, first off, next week, after a 3 year delay, the plane goes in to finally get the GMA 35c to work properly, I upgraded to it years ago so that I could have bluetooth for music from the iPad and phone, but it never worked. The other thing I had been mulling over for the past several months that I thought too extravagant to do, since I had perfectly good working units was to upgrade my GTN 750 and GTN 650 to the Xi units. The basic units are great, but sometime in the future Garmin is going to make use of that extra speed and update the software to something the basic units can't do just like they've done with the G500TXi, and I'd be disappointed that I didn't do the upgrade earlier. So, with some of that "saved" money, after AirVenture was cancelled today, I arranged to have those units upgraded, something to look forward to. For a couple of seconds I even thought about getting the new Aera 760, then decided that although a few ounces heavier and a little thicker, the 796 does almost everything the 760 does and doesn't require buying another piece of equipment, the GDL 52, to get XM weather. I'm sticking with the 796. So, although lack of AirVenture is a disappointment this year, I'm somewhat making up for it with some new toys for the plane, and looking forward to the time when we can get back to doing what we all love to do--go flying whenever and wherever we want to go.

In my 28 years of Bravo Ownership and teaching in many of them, I've never seen a Bravo with over 1,000 lb useful load. Even mine with no TKS or air-conditioning and light weight upgraded avionics panel has a useful load of 988 lb. If there is one out there with over 1,000 lb UL, then someone made a mistake and the plane should be re-weighed. Having said that and having flown or taught in every model Mooney extensively except the D and G, the Bravo is the one for me.

Here's a new link. I changed the link above, too. https://photos.app.goo.gl/cuwTvNBeE1rsbZEx5

I did a very short video today showing the G5 with VNAV. Sorry, but it was a little bumpy coming up on the East Bay Hills. I had multiple step downs programmed. I actually noticed something on the G5 for the first time, the little "1" to the right of the deviation bar. Playing around with the Navigation it turns out to be showing the Nav radio being used, magenta for GPS 1 or 2 and green for LOC 1 or 2. It's not in the manual so I think it's a new addition to the display. You can compare the displays between the G5 and the G500TXi. Before you start the video just look at the G5. "V" is indicated on top in the slope indicator with the magenta carrot showing "on slope". You can see a little carrot at the bottom of the magenta V/S bar, if you look closely. Earlier, I ran the approach into Byron (C83) with multiple step downs. "V" appeared until one waypoint before the FAF, as VNAV stops at that point with the GFC 500, then changed to "G" in anticipation of GP intercept. It worked perfectly including getting the biggest fuel price surprise in the past 20 years. Garmin Pilot showed the price to be $3.50, but in reality it was $2.95. https://photos.app.goo.gl/cuwTvNBeE1rsbZEx5

Also, start the 750 in setup mode, go to Navigation, then Vertical Navigation, then touch VNAV instead of VCALC to enable VNAV instead of VCAL in the Utilities menu when the 750 is started normally. V should highlight in magenta 1 minute from TOD and a magenta carrot descent on the GP until centered, at which time, if you don't have a GFC 500, you must manually follow the magenta carrot on the V/S side of the G5 to keep the carrot on the altitude side centered. Of equal importance is having a flight plan in the 750, being on a leg of that flight plan with an altitude constraint, or direct to a waypoint in the flight plan with an altitude constraint, and having the 750 in GPS mode (not LOC). If you've followed all of this and you don't get the V in place of G and magenta indicators by 1 minute from TOD, then it's time to take it to the shop for a possible wiring error.

Have you enabled VNAV on the GTN 750 or do you still have VCALC? Go to Utilities then VNAV. Do you have a BARO altitude source hooked into the GTN 750? I'll have to look on my G5 the next time I go flying. I'm pretty sure it shows up. Usually, I'm just looking on the TXi for that information.