donkaye, MCFI

For perspective, Palo Alto is a piece of cake compared to Fallbrook. I take all my students into Palo Alto near the end of their transition training as a confidence builder. Even Oceano at 2,325 is pretty easy with its usual onshore breeze. But it is flat and there is a good lead in for the aim point.

Ooo. That hurts. I have a Rolls sitting in my garage that at most I drive 50 miles a year to keep the battery charged. I used it when I was selling apartment houses many years ago and it was important to have "flash". I just can't get rid of it, but on OTOH won't drive it either. I''m worried that any place I park it without a valet might result in the loss of the Flying Lady hood ornament. Yes, I know. Those are the kind of problems to have.

LET ME EMPHASIZE!!! DO NOT AND I REPEAT DO NOT TAKE YOUR MOONEY BRAVO INTO FALLBROOK unless you are the best Mooney pilot in the country notwithstanding your credentials as an ATP and CFII And to base it there is INSANE!!!!! That runway is too short for the Bravo. And expect an inexperienced person with little Mooney experience to crack it up on the first try. You have to be perfect on the correct speed. Even if you are good, expect to flat spot your tires trying to stop. That airport is an aircraft carrier and definitely not appropriate for the Bravo. So, if you value your new airplane, pay the price and base it somewhere else or sell it and buy a C Model Mooney. The C would work at that airport. I personally have taken an Ovation in there a couple of times to demonstrate that it could be done, but I was light and alone. I let the owner out and went around the pattern a couple of times. AGAIN I HAVE NEARLY 9,000 MOONEY HOURS AND NEARLY 6,000 TEACHING HOURS AND THERE IS NO WAY I WOULD BASE MY AIRPLANE THERE (also a Bravo). You have been forewarned. If you base there, expect to either kill yourself and/or your family at some point with the Bravo or at best have a non fatal accident there.

There is no "justifying" anything about airplane ownership or many other things in life you want. There's also nothing to feel guilty about. If you can afford it, want it, then get it. I can get away with saying that because of perspective. It wasn't too many years ago when I was one of the youngest on the block figuratively speaking. Now I'm one of the oldest. So I can truly say I have perspective. Let me give just a couple of examples of the many I have experienced. I once bought a house in the best area of the Bay Area where many of the Silicon Valley billionaires live now. By today's standards I paid nothing practically for it. I lived in it for a year and started to feel uncomfortable about owing such a big house. I sold it for a small gain in 1975. Today that house would go for about 20 million dollars. Perspective. But I really learned about perspective over the past 17 years. On a recommendation from a financial newsletter I put some money in an EFT in the year 2000. It turns out I had bought it at the high and in short order the technology bubble burst. I wrote the publisher a nasty letter. Then I said to myself how much could I lose and be able to sleep at night. I decided half, so when it went down 10%, I sold half of what I put in. The balance dropped another 60% and I figured "Well that's the end of that", but I still slept well. I held on for the next 17 years and about 2 years ago I broke even. I thought, "Well that's interesting" and let it ride. It's now up over 120%. Perspective. (I haven't sent him a thank you letter yet, although I've been thinking about it). And finally there is my life's Real Estate Story. Except to say I tried to talk some of my fellow Engineers into doing what I was starting to do and no one would listen, I'll leave that story for another day. But there is the most perspective in that one and it allows me to have the magic of flight be such a large part of my life today. I guess what I"m trying to say is that looking back from my perspective today, the idea of having to think about justifying something that you really want (and can afford) just makes no sense to me now. So will it be a Bravo or Ovation?

I've owned my Bravo for 25 years. I'm 1,400 hours into the second engine. I've got many hours in many Bravos and many Ovations. I've been cross country many times in both models. Coming West you have to fly low most of the time due to winds except when you have get up to 15,500 to follow the airways if you take the mid country route. Going east I fly 15,000 to 18,000 in the Bravo and usually have a tailwind. So the Bravo is great going East and just had about a 20 edge going West from my experience. The Ovation is a great airplane, but it does poop out above 11,000 feet even with the 310 HP engine. Yes, you can get it a lot higher, but the price you pay is time. I've had to divert a couple of times in the Ovation because I couldn't get above the weather safely. Sometimes coming West I've had to truck along at C172 speed because of MEAs and winds aloft. If you're back East, the Ovation is probably the better buy. Out West I like the option of the turbo and the Bravo. From a cost standpoint all airplanes are expensive to own and maintain properly. The Bravo is going to cost you all in between 25,000 and 35,000 per year to own based on my experience of about 150 hours/year. Some years are going to more expensive than others. Last year was much more expensive than the upper amount indicated because I did some optional things to it and one non optional thing like having to reseal the tanks. I also put in the newer braking system that those planes past my serial number already had. Fuel burn on the Bravo ROP is 18 gal/hr at 75% power. The Ovation is about 15.5 gal/hour. Fuel and oil are the least of your airplane expenses. The turbo and waste gate are additional items that will have to be overhauled mid-time on the Bravo engine. For me, I wanted the turbo and haven't looked back. You just have more options with it. For some unknown to me reason, for the past few years Bravos have been given away, so it's a good time to buy.

Let me emphasize one more time. If you have completed a phase of the Wings Program and inadvertently violate an FAR and are called on it, you get a "Get out of Jail Free" card once every 18 months. None of us want to have an infraction, but the free pass is nice to have in reserve.

The Wings Program concentrates on areas found to create the most accidents, so it is very valuable. For a pilot who is reasonably current, I can complete the requirements in about an hour. No need for 3 flights. My last personal Phases done this past April included both Phase 10 of the Basic and Phase 7 of the Advanced, and all items were complete in 45 minutes. Of course it was done very efficiently by the flight instructor and former DPE. Doing the Advanced Phase for me gives me a significant discount on my Flight Instructor Insurance, as does doing the requirements for the Master CFI.

Most of my 1st time Wings Program Students hadn't participated in the program before coming to me. We easily set them up and chose the Courses that they wanted to take. Then even if they hadn't completed them yet, we went out and did the flight portion. I initiated the validations so they didn't have to do it. Then all they had to do was finish the Courses at their leisure and their Phase was completed. That you haven't completed a Phase, yet, after having taken multiple courses indicates a need to make some changes to your instruction and find a flight instructor interested enough in excellence and his students to have familiarized himself/herself in the program to both understand and promote its value.

I've just looked at my records and I've done in excess of 72 Wings programs with various students over the past few years. I participated in the first program to year 15 when they cancelled it (they only gave out different wings for the first 10 years). In the current program I'm on Phase 11 Basic and Phase 8 Advanced. If you can fly an airplane, then it should be easy to take the time to figure out the Wings Program. It's just not that complicated. Bryan Neville put his heart and soul into developing the current program before he retired. I can only say that the current crop of flight instructors are just "plane" lazy if they don't take the time to investigate this program and both participate in it and encourage their students to participate in it.

Couldn't have said it better myself. Thank you.

Please point me to the place in the FARs or somewhere else that says this is acceptable. Susan Parsons once wrote an article where she said that taking a particular online course and satisfactorily passing a test would qualify for part of the ground requirement, but not the whole requirement. That was back in 2006 and the referenced URL doesn't exist anymore.

Assuming you've signed up correctly on the website, you go to My Wings. There you will see default courses for each category. I usually don't like the default courses, so I will click on Search and look for courses in that category that I would rather take. You can do that for each section. When you click on Search only those courses are presented that will qualify for that particular category. It's not difficult to complete the courses. After you have completed a course, a green check mark will automatically be placed by that category indicating that you have completed it. After you have completed whichever 3 courses you do, and you have a flight instructor validate the 3 flight categories (green checkmarks will appear after each category that the flight instructor validates), then all categories, both knowledge and flight will have green checkmarks next to them and you can print out your certificates. Your new Flight Review date will automatically be indicated. All of this is really not very difficult and is worth the effort..

I recommend going to this website for a more detailed discussion: https://disciplesofflight.com/faa-wings-program/ The basic issues the program addresses is: For the purposes of the FAA WINGS program, the six accident causal factors have been broken out into three knowledge and three flight areas as follows: Knowledge Topics 1. Aeronautical decision making, including runway safety issues 2. Performance and limitations, including loss of control issues 3. Preflight planning, risk management, and fuel management Flight Topics 1. Takeoffs and landings 2. Positive aircraft control, including loss of control issues 3. Basic flying skills For my purposes I choose the following flight Activities per the faasafety.gov website related to the above: 1. A070405-07 This activity covers Normal and crosswind takeoffs and landings, Normal and crosswind approach and landings, Soft field approach and landings, Short field Approach and landings. Go-Arounds. 2. A070405-08 This Activity covers Maneuvering during slow flight, Power off stalls, Power on stalls, Basic instrument maneuvers: straight and level, Basic instrument maneuvers: Turns to headings, Basic instrument maneuvers: Recovery from unusual attitudes. 3. A100125-07 This activity covers Preflight inspection, Taxiing, Radio Communications and ATC light signals, Traffic Patterns, Airport runway and taxiway signs, Markings , and Lighting, and Short field takeoff and maximum performance climb. Doing the Wings Program also provides an additional benefit: Should you have an "inadvertent" run in with the FAA (call us when you land), you will get 1 "get out of jail free" card every eighteen months. In my opinion this is the way to go for your Flight Review.

I don't give Flight Reviews any more. Not withstanding the negative article in AOPA this month by Barry Schiff, I'll only do the Wings Program with students. I personally do a Basic and Advanced Phase each and every year myself. Taking the 3 online courses in areas where most accidents are found to occur and then doing the maneuvers designed to prevent those types of accidents are what a Flight Review is all about in my opinion. If a student wants to do some other things we can do that, too. Barry makes it seem like it is very difficult to navigate the faaasafety.gov website, but it is not. I, also, validate the Activities without the student having to ask me. All they have to do is then print out the Wings and Flight Review certificate.

For the record the Bravo has two controllers; a density controller for controlling maximum power and a pressure differential controller for maintaining constant power at different altitudes. The density controller works well from my experience, the pressure differential controller not so well, in fact down right lousy. Even after overhaul it won't maintain constant MP, as it is supposed to as altitude decreases. I've given up trying to get it to work properly and just monitor the MP in descents.

Sometimes it might be worth listening to even more experienced Mooney instructors. Practice makes perfect using full flaps. The C Model can be landed in distances comparable to a Cessna 150 if you use full flaps. The approach sight picture is much clearer when using full flaps. Full flaps makes the transition to the landing attitude while continuing to view the runway much easier leading to a "rolled on landing" without even a "chirp". It's possible that sometimes you don't know what you don't know even while doing what you think you know. So, as a 23 year instructor with nearly 6,000 hours of instructing time mostly in Mooneys and about 11,000 hours total GA time, I recommend landing with full flaps except in gusty winds and strong crosswinds where the crab angle is greater than 15° with full flaps.

Yes, I just checked the invoice and it was about 4K for 2 cylinders and turbocharger and waste gate and controllers.

All I can say is "be my guest". Unless you have the TIO540AF1B engine, it's just not the same. I run my engine very cool and I've had to overhaul 2 cylinders for leaking intake valve guides for $9,000, the turbo and waste gate for another $5,000, plus the exhaust cracks that have grounded the plane for weeks while trying to get them repaired. In the final analysis neither I nor Shirley like the occasional "miss" and "rough"sound of the engine while running LOP (GAMi spread is .5). And, yes, I've taken the APS course both in person and online.

John is too modest. He could have put MD next to his name. He is after all a Cardiologist. I'd listen to him.

You could lean to no higher than 1450, but I choose to keep it rich until reaching my final altitude. I use full power, but back off the MP until the boost pump light goes off.

FWIW, at night O2 from the ground up.

Even at 9000 ft everyone should be on O2 (certainly the pilot) unless you're a Sherpa from Nepal. if not, you will arrive at your destination tired and with a potential headache. In the evening your wife won't be kidding when she says she has a headache.

No way anywhere near 1750. At most lean to 1625.

Yes, I thought that I could pay for a new engine with the fuel savings of running LOP. After a couple of exhaust repairs of $2500 each I said it wasn't worth it and went back to running ROP.

The Bravo should be leaned by TIT. At 75% power (29"/2400) you should lean to 125° rich of peak TIT. That should give 18.5 gal/hr for the 1st hour and then 18 gal/hr thereafter. Don't lean by EGT using Lean Find. LOP operation not really recommended in my opinion on the Bravo.