donkaye, MCFI

Don Kaye and Shirley McLaren expect to be there, too.

I can't believe it's been over 10 years, but it has. I really liked that trip To Australia! What a time we had on the Down Under Tour! I would like to get back there.

Time has a way of slipping by almost unnoticed---until it is. Yesterday I had the honor of participating in a Wright Brothers Master Pilot awards presentation. There were 3 of us getting the award. One of the requirements is having flown for 50 years. The time starts from the first solo flight. Not surprising all of us had first soloed in 1967. As I listened to the accomplishments of the other 2 participants given by Karen Arendt, the FAAST Team manager at the San Jose FISDO, I marveled at how unpretentious both were in our pre award conversations. You can do a lot in 50 years, as was demonstrated by these two individuals. Karen first showed a movie detailing the Wright Brothers step by step achievement towards attaining powered flight. Then she detailed the histories of each pilot with input from each as she went along. Photos from each of us went a long way in guiding those biographies. I remember Karen talking to me about receiving the "Blue Ribbon Package" which determines one's eligibility. That package was given to each of us and contained every document the FAA has ever had on us. Once home I reviewed it, and a lot of memories were brought back. It contained the results of every knowledge test, every flight test ever taken, every medical, and every renewal of the flight instructor certificate. Needless to say after 50 years it is pretty thick. And just think, the FAA has this record on each and every pilot in the United States. We were given a beautiful plaque, a letter acknowledging 50 years of our lifetime in aviation, and lapel pins for us and our spouses. The celebration finished wth distribution of pieces of cake that Karen brought and is shown below. All in all quite a day.

During all of my transition trainings, at some appropriate time, I will simulate an engine failure. I have been emphasizing how to manipulate the controls and find a suitable field even if it is the airport. I have not been emphasizing the importance of immediately (and what should be a memory item to do when time is of the essence and there is no time to pull out the checklist) switching tanks. And as ridiculous and improbable as it may seem to accidentally end up with a tank dry when there is plenty of fuel in the other tank, there are unusual chain of events that can occur that can lead to that outcome. Don't let it happen to you. Always, and I mean always, pre brief before takeoff what you will do in the event of an engine failure on takeoff. It will save 4 to 5 seconds of "startle effect" along with possibly saving your life.

The G600 is built like a tank. The G500 like a Prius. No comparison between the servos, the G600 servos are that much better. I saw them last year at Oshkosh. Unfortunately, Garmin has indicated no intention of certifying the GFC 600 for the Mooney even though they own one.

With much better servos.

That doesn't make sense to me. Missing the camaraderie of friends and fun for a political reason? Life is too short for that. I expect to be there +1.

Mine is approximately 1.5 to 2 quarts per 25 hours between oil changes with 9 quarts put in at oil change.

Maybe, but...

Reinforces the importance of verbally reviewing your "engine out on takeoff" procedure on every takeoff. I got lax on it myself, but recently re-established its importance. Richard helped all of us when we started formation flying. We would all meet at his hangar in Lincoln where he would give us water and we would go over both the preflight and post flight briefings so important in formation flying. He willingly gave of his time and experience. He will be missed.

If it's wired property it certainly should.

In my opinion not true. Proper slope and airspeed coupled with a smooth transition to the landing attitude will practically guarantee a perfect landing.

As a rule of thumb, as has been mentioned before, for every 1 knot of airspeed over nominal airspeed, the landing distance will be increased by 100 feet. So 10 knots too fast and you will be taking up an extra 1,000 feet of runway. Your landing distance had been determined by the time you hit ground effect. You can't expect to force it on any sooner and expect things to "work out". They won't. It's critical to touch down in the landing attitude (about 8° nose up) no matter what speed you come over the threshold. You can't have a prop strike if the nose it up. So it is incumbent on you to come over the threshold at the correct speed, especially on a short field.

Sorry, don't know anything about the IFDs, but it you activate any leg of an approach or go direct to any point on the approach, you have activated the approach.

Why do double duty with ADS-B? Spend the extra money now on the GTX 345 and use it when you do your upgrade later.

For the G500: To preselect Altitude and Vertical Speed do the following; 1. Press and hold the ALT Button. 2. Twist the knob to the Altitude you want to go. This Arms the Altitude. 3. Press and hold the VS Button This Engages the VS. 4. Twist the knob either counter clockwise or clockwise to select the climb or descent rate. It sounds like I may be disappointed with the G500 TXi solution, but maybe not. I do not intend to add the GCU Unit. My Display is scheduled to arrive next week and take a couple of days to install. In playing with the Sim here is the way I would handle it. Unfortunately the Sim doesn't show Arming either ALT or VS. Heading is the default so given a heading change just twist the knob as you would with an HSI. Then for an Altitude change I would twist the outer knob to ALT and the inner knob to select the Altitude. Don't know how to ARM yet, but from the above sounds like a screen tap to ARM. Should just be able to push and hold the inner knob to ARM ALT, but it sounds like that is not an option. For VS Twist outer knob to VS and inner knob either clockwise or counter clockwise to set climb or descent. I'd forget about trying to do it with the screen alone. Too time consuming. Using the knobs, I think everything can be done as quickly as with the legacy KAS 297B.

The problem is the Top Hat. I've attached a spreadsheet for the Rocket Weight and Balance. The CG range is from 40.6" to 49.3". But from 40.6 to 45.1 the plane is practically useless due to being above the envelope for any reasonable pilot and copilot weight. Do some "what ifs" with the spreadsheet to see what I mean. wb Version 3.8 231 Rocket.xls

The Rocket is an interesting airplane. I've trained numerous pilots in them. They climb better than the Bravo. Really it is a 2 person airplane. It has a screwy weight and balance envelope that makes flying 3 or more people impractical legally, since the fuel capacity is greatly reduced to stay within the envelope. With proper training a low time pilot can transition to the higher performance airplanes reasonably easily. I have found it easier to transition low time pilots because they are more willing to listen to experience than higher time pilots who think they know it all--but don't. The plane does go fast but sucks up a lot of fuel in doing so. Having had a Bravo for almost 26 years now, I prefer that airplane and the other long body planes over the Rocket. The above comments (for what they're worth) are the results of 11,000 GA hours flying time 9,200 of which are in all types of Mooneys and over 6,000 hours of instruction given over the past 25 years.

With a little weather experience it is reasonably easy to predict the occurrence of turbulence. In the past 26 years of airplane ownership I have been stopped by turbulence once. it was over Wyoming in the afternoon and there was no option to mitigate it. I've attach an article I wrote a while back that might be of interest on flying turbulence. Nobody really likes it and flying a 3,000 pound airplane in expected moderate turbulence is no fun and in my opinion should be avoided if you want passengers to fly with you again. The Mooney structure is really strong and remember it is certified for 3.8g meaning the wing can carry a load of 3.8 x 3,000 pounds or 11,400 pounds. Turbulence would have to be strong to load the wing to that amount. Having said that, if there is a significant amount of turbulence and I've used all the mitigating choices discussed in the attached paper before I call it quits and land, I'm definitely not flying above the top of the green arc. If it's uncomfortable enough to slow to maneuvering speed, it's time to land and call it a day. As a private pilot, do you really need to be flying in those conditions? On Flying Turbulence.pdf

If you have to do that, I'd just buy the unit new because between the STC purchase and the 3rd party purchase price you're paying nearly full price anyway and you'll have a warranty period.

Yes, it will work very well. As Don said below, you won't believe what a difference it makes in flying the autopilot. I've had a number of students with that combination.

Yes, it is from experience with conscious attention placed on the proper slope recognition. No, not by a small attitude indicator that has nowhere near satisfactory resolution. By the time a transitioning student is ready to be signed off by me they recognized the nominal 3° slope that will lead to perfect landings every time when combined with the proper speed. It is so important that I spend probably more time on slope management than on speed control. Unfortunately, I haven't met ANY instructor who has recognized the issue, so they miss a more effective way to teach good landing technique.

I just expanded on the usefulness of the 180° power off approach and landing. Even in the pattern, slope management is critical to a safe outcome engine out or simulated engine out.

Really? Examples: 5,000 ft = 10 minutes, 10,000 ft = 20 minutes, 8,000 feet = 16 minutes, 4,500 ft = 9 minutes. Practically no thought at all.

In my opinion the configuration one should use is dependent on the SLOPE to the airport at the time of engine failure. I like to see at least 6°. That gives a 3° safety factor. If the slope falls below 3°, there is a very good chance that you will not make the airport and immediately start looking for an off field landing spot. This can be confirmed in several ways: 1. If you have a G500, you are in the best shape to quickly determine if you can make it. After going to best glide clean and with the prop all the way back, set in the field elevation as the base altitude (worst case situation instead of TPA) and see if the range arc shows past the airport. Since wind is automatically taken into account, you have the best of all worlds. 2. Most people have GPS so, after setting up best glide as discussed above, press direct to the airport and observe the time to the airport. Note the altitude you have to loose to get to the airport. Let's assume it's 5,000 feet. As a rule of thumb for a quick calculation, double the altitude in thousands if feet and strip off the zeros. That would make it 10 minutes. Since the best glide in most Mooneys gives about a 600-700 ft/min descent rate, just note that you will need a little more time than the rule of thumb 500 ft/min to reach the airport. Compare the time to the airport with the GPS to the time you calculated. The time you calculated should be greater than 5 minutes more. When you absolutely know you have the field made, then configure the plane, but still make sure you have at least 3° safety factor on the slope. You can't get altitude back if you are on speed, but you have many options (speed brakes if you have them, gear, flaps, s-turns, and finally slips) if you have the extra time afforded by the additional slope. The 180° power off approach needs to be practiced many times in order to meet the Commercial Standards, because unlike the more draggy airplanes the Mooney will float more if your speed is not just right.