donkaye, MCFI

Slightly greater than 20 minutes, so you would have plenty of time to get down if you recognized your symptoms soon enough. At that altitude it is pretty easy to recognize your symptoms within a minute. On a ferry flight at 17K I had multiple O2 tanks with which I was not familiar. Not realizing which way was on on one of them because of the way they were hooked together, I got it backwards. Within a minute I recognized my particular symptom and did a Pulse Oximeter check. It was 85%. I turned the knob the other way and all was quickly good again.

I wouldn't think too hard about it, Dan. On the recommendation of a student I bought one. To make a long story short, I couldn't get my O2 sats above 92% even on the highest flow rate. I spent the first hour of the first and only flight with it being completely distracted with the O2 system. Additionally, the noise of breathing coming through the headset was annoying and distracting. I disconnect the system and never used it again. Since we were on our way to Oshkosh this year with it, I went to the MH booth. They were every nice and I left the system with them to check it out. After I got back home they called and said the system worked. I said it didn't. Awhile later they called and said it wasn't set up for an airplane that had an altitude compensating regulator like we have on the Bravo. They refunded most of my money, but kept a 10% restocking charge. I like the MH connectors and set up my backup O2 system with their regulator and connectors. Another VERY important considerations when flying in the FL in an unpressurized airplane concerns the possibility of getting the Bends. My SO has that tendency. For her it would be worse than getting into a thunderstorm. When I first got the plane, I didn't even know about the Bends in airplanes. It took awhile and many conversations with people at UND and Brooks AF Medical Center in San Antonio to figure it out. Dr. Bob Achtel in his "Into thin Air Course" goes over mitigations extensively. For us time aloft is most important, then taking an aspirin 1 hour before flight, then keeping hydrated, and finally pre breathing O2 which isn't practical for us. On short flights I don't take the backup O2 bottle, but on any long cross country it goes along. When I first got the plane I flew at FL 210 and 220 thinking I was a jet. No longer. 15K to 17K gives me enough additional TAS and efficiency (the higher up the more efficient the airplane, since you're getting closer to best L/D). Any time I'm going over 200 knots I'm a happy camper. I also question the NTSB results. On the high pressure side it would have been zero when he took off. On the low pressure side without a kink in the line I don't see how the O2 could have leaked out so much in so little time.

If I remember correctly, according to Dr. Bob Achtel it is Pressure Altitude that is important, not Density Altitude.

Sometimes it's better to pay the price for service. Last year 2016, after Oshkosh we again stopped in Rapid City. When I'm traveling in the summertime I ALWAYS have my plane hangared no matter the cost (Usually reasonable). As we passed the airport on our way to the hotel after spending the day out at the Badlands, one of the fiercest storms I have ever experienced crossed our path. The rain and hail and lightning was so strong that I had to pull over and was afraid the windshield was going to crack. It lasted nearly 15 minutes. Thank goodness the plane was hangared! I'll gladly pay for good service and WestJet gives it.

We love South Dakota. We go there every year after Oshkosh. I prefer KRAP rather than Spearfish because it is central to Mt. Rushmore and the Badlands. Of course you have to stop at Wall Drugs on the way to the Badlands. The FBO at Rapid City is great and we got the rental car there. They have a new terminal. It takes about an hour and a half to drive out to the Badlands. It's a 45 minute drive up to Hill City and then another 20 minutes to Mt. Rushmore. The train through the Black Hills is closed for the winter. We took it last summer. The Drive up Spearfish Canyon is beautiful with a stop for lunch and walk through Deadwood. The FBO recommended the Cambria Suites and we really liked it. There have been some pretty good crosswinds in the summertime, but they always use Runway 32 and 14. Have a great time!

I should also say that having all this good stuff is not the end all of being able to get to where you want when you want. For example, we didn't make it all the way to Homecoming by plane this year. We got as far as Fort Stockton and that was it for this year due to weather I wasn't willing to go through due to the possibility of imbedded T-Storms. The plane ended up staying in a Hangar the whole week, while we miraculously found a ride by car for the rest of the trip. To make a long story short, there is no Uber or rental cars in Fort Stockton. The hotels were also full except for the Comfort Inn. Both Shirley and I and Mary and Homer were directed there at different times as one of the few places left with a couple of rooms. We met them the following morning in the free breakfast area. Unbelievably, Homer had a problem with his airplane and was driving with Mary to Kerrville from Arizona. They graciously asked us if we wanted a ride the rest of the way. We quickly accepted. We never saw blue sky from that very rainy and windy Wednesday morning until Saturday. It rained constantly every day in between causing very few people to fly into Kerrville this year.

On the TXi you can reverse the PFD and MFD. If you do so, the functions of the knobs on the left and right change to the associated display and will give you what you are asking for. You would still have to use your left hand for the MFD controls. The EIS is primary, so all other engine instruments can go. Here is the 1 hour 10 minute initial Webinar introducing the products. View Recording.webloc

OK. Here it is. It's still a dream to fly behind. There is so much more that can't be seen in the photo; the stormscope, all the ADS-B stuff, the FS 510 and 210, the correlation of active and passive traffic that displays TargetTrend on all displays, the new Aeroled lights for taxi and landing that are unbelievably brighter than the regular 4596 lamps...

First off, the Sim is "Flakey" to say the least. It is constantly bombing out. The left hand knob works the same as on the G500 for both Heading and Course. I wouldn't use the touch screen for those functions. GS and TAS are right next to each other as opposed to GS being on top and TAS being on the bottom of the ASI as now on the G500. The Winds are also expanded to show total wind and direction in addition to headwind and crosswind components. The information on top of the Current G500 is eliminated for the most part; no TRK or DTK, at least not on the Sim. With two 7" screens you do get 2 AHRS, but then again I have two certified (three if you count the FS210) including the ESI 500. I wouldn't get the dual 7". You might as well just get the basic G500 in that case with the ESI 500 like I have now. The Garmin engine monitoring system is too expensive for what you get. I still like my MVP-50 much better. For me, when all is said and done, forget the $11,000 ($9,000 screen plus $2,000 install) upgrade cost, I'm not sure you get very much more bang for the buck except for the full screen PFD capability. Bottom line, I would like to have one of the 10.6 inch screens in my hands to play with for an hour. I could then make an easy decision.

75% Power = 29"/2400rpm, 18.4 gallons first hour, then 18 for the remainder at the same power setting. CHTs are low, around 350°. They were higher with the JPI probes on the 700. I checked with EI and they said their probes are accurate (MVP-50). TAS, of course, varies with altitude. At 17K it's about 200 knots.

I've had my Bravo 25 years, making me one of the longest owners. Been through one engine and ¾ through the second. Have taken the APS course and installed Gami Injectors. Gami spread is .5. Having said that, I'm running ROP except on descent. No matter what the Hartzell rep said he's not flying the airplane and his life is not at risk. I don't like anything above 1625° TIT. Even with this conservatism, a couple of years ago I needed to have 2 cylinders overhauled due to leaky intake valves. Also cracked exhaust pipes coming out of cylinders 1 and 3 one time and 2 and 4 another. At midtime on both engines the turbo and waste gate needed to be overhauled. I always mouse milk the waste gate at each oil change. I fly at 75% power most of the time and usually at altitudes of between 15 and 17K. I maintain O2 sats no less than 96%. I won't be testing higher temperatures anytime soon.

I've played with the G500 TXi Sim extensively. I was excited when it was announced because it is relatively simple to upgrade from the G500. I found that it takes more icon pushes to do the same thing as the G500. I'm surprisingly particularly annoyed with the lack of symmetry between the PFD and MFD. For me at least the fact that the PFD screen is bigger than the MFD screen feels off. The G500 has them the same size. When the EIS is added, the sizes are the same, so that is probably the reasoning. I thought of emailing them to ask them to provide for screen scaling, but thought they would think it was too picky. The MVP 50 is still way better than the Garmin EIS in my opinion. The full screen PFD mode is nice. I still haven't decided whether to do the upgrade. I was really looking forward to installing the GFC 600, but at Homecoming the Garmin rep said they weren't going to certify it for the Bravo. I hope they change their minds. The idea that there wouldn't be anything else to upgrade in my plane is out the window. If I like whatever new gadget Garmin comes out with, it's going in the plane. I could have about $600K (less 75K for a new engine coming up in 500 hours) of new gadgets before it would make sense to have bought a new Ultra. I don't think Garmin is going to come up with that many new gadgets in the next few years, though knowing their productivity, I could be wrong.

This is a tough group! I wouldn't dream of saying there is absolutely no comparison between the GNS 530 and GTN 750 that I've been using now for over 3 years. Who needs display of 30 traffic intruders with TargetTrend vs 8 and no TargetTrend on the 530? Who needs airways when ATC gives you a complicated clearance using them and additional time is required to do the same with an iPad? Who needs Topo showing what is below you when you can have a black screen of the 530 and be ignorant of it? Who needs a verbal interface to do almost anything you want with the 750 when you can fumble with the 530 in turbulence when given, "Have an amendment to you route. Advise ready to copy"? Who needs Range Rings that correct for headwinds and tailwinds to tell you with a quick look if you need to make a fuel stop enroute vs a sheet of paper noting gallons in each tank and how they change to keep track of fuel. Who needs automatic data updates via the iPad vs taking home a card and spending time with updates each month? Who needs Comm and Nav alphabetic frequency ID when you can't remember whether you flipped the frequency or not? And so much more....

A new Acclaim costs in the neighborhood of $800,000 and goes about 20 knots faster than the Bravo. Upgrading a Bravo to the ultimate as I did and will continue to do (G500 TXi and GFC 600 if it ever gets certified for the Bravo) makes perfect sense if you want a comparable airplane at ⅓ the cost all in. I'm a Garmin guy but you could also stick in the Avidyne 550 as a plug and play replacement for the GNS 530, although I've not had one student who has gotten one, yet.

"Self Aggrandizement: The action or process of promoting oneself as being powerful or important." Couldn't be further from the truth. Sorry if you misinterpreted my post. It was all about training and what I perceived was the root cause of this accident. . From my perspective it had absolutely NOTHING to do about me.

First, thank goodness "all's well that ends well". I also appreciate having the person who went through the ordeal explain what happened. Having said that, if ever there was an example of the importance of having good Mooney specific transition training including all maneuvers included in the Basic Wings Program this was it--no matter the experience level of the pilot. Here we have an ATP and CFI make incredibly inconceivable decisions and stall the airplane on takeoff. Had he received a proper checkout with more experience flying at the edge of the envelope there is NO WAY he would have taken off at that airport with runway behind him. It also proves why I don't do Flight Reviews any more; only Wings Programs. The Wings Program requires the pilot to do power on stalls. I have the student do Power on stalls at 65% power. Do you know the attitude of the Mooney with only that power setting? Imagine the attitude at 100% power. It's unbelievable! Then couple that with the laminar flow wing of the Mooney. Laminar flow wings have a much steeper "backside of the power curve" than the non laminar flow wings of other models like the Cessna 182. That "J" was going to lose altitude at that attitude. And to "secondary stall" the airplane requires loading the wing on the primary recovery. Ouch!! This was a "lack of training" accident in my opinion leading to the resultant poor decision making. With lack of adequate training it was a case of "not knowing what you don't know" about the airplane. The accident chain began back with the lack of a proper aircraft checkout. This should be an eye opener for those who read this thread. I thank the pilot for sharing what happened in detail, so that others can benefit.

So far no LED replacement for the recognition lights.

Headed to Kerrville tomorrow for Homecoming. Maybe when I get back.

Yes, they are not inexpensive. While you could buy a lot of cheap 4596s, each time you replace a light it takes half an hour (or more if you don't know how to do it). So, for me, each time I would replace a light it would cost $100 in fuel to get to the MSC and back, and another $125 for the install and bulb. The spec on the 4596 says it has a useful life of 25 hours. Now compare that to the 30,000 hour MTBF of the Aeroleds lights. Basically you never have to replace them and you can have them on all the time---expecially when you pulse them. They'll pay for themselves in a couple of years. In the meantime you have lights that are way brighter than the less efficient and short lifetime incandescent bulb.

I went to Oshkosh this year expecting to buy nothing. How wrong I was—again. I had changed out the wingtip lights with Whelan Leds a couple of years ago, but I was never happy with any of the Landing and Taxi Light Leds. They just weren’t bright enough. So I never got any. This year was different. After looking at the Whelans and being treated poorly by the people at their booth, I checked out the Aeroleds' booth. They had demos comparing the 4596 incandescent light with their Led lights. I couldn’t believe how much brighter they looked even with the same lumens as the standard 4596. I bought both the Landing Lights (4596) and Taxi Lights (4587). Yesterday was the first time I got to try them out in actual darkness. Unbelievable! They seemed brighter and had more depth by a significant amount compared to my previous lights. I know it’s subjective, but that’s how it appeared. They do take more current than the comparable Whelans, so maybe that makes the difference. Too, the Whelans take another part to be able to flash them because of their low current. Not so with the Aeroleds. They are plug and play. They cost about twice what the Whelans cost, but in my opinion it was well, well worth it.

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The author "tries" on this article. Some of it is decent, but in general he misses the point on how to land a Mooney correctly EVERY TIME. Yes, I teach using low RPM to avoid using less MP than 15" on descent. Although "Shock Cooling" is a myth per the Advanced Pilot Course, you still want the engine to run the prop and not the other way around. RPM is just as good a way of reducing power as reducing MP. Remember the "Key Numbers" discussion? 3 of any combination or inches of MP or 100s of RPM gives approximately a 10% reduction in power. So a 300 RPM reduction will reduce power to the same extent as a 3" MP reduction.

While I have taught extensively in nearly every model Mooney over the past 23 years, I've owned my Bravo for 25 years. That tells the story for me. They're practically giving them away in this market.

The GDL 39 with its vertical antenna obstructs view when placed on the Glareshield and needs to be charged after a few hours of use. While it works if you have ADS-B Out, it's not a very good permanent ADS-B In solution in my opinion.

I've had several students upgrade their G1000 WAAS airplanes with the GTX 345 and none of them can get TargetTrend. I've also transitioned a number of students with WAAS G1000 airplanes and the GTX 345 and none can get TargetTrend. If you don't see a GREEN line, you don't have TargetTrend, you have a WHITE line and it's Absolute Motion. If you do have a G1000 airplane with TargetTrend, please take a picture and post it, as it was my understanding that it wasn't possible except with the G1000 NXi. Always willing to learn.