donkaye, MCFI

I could and probably should leave this alone, as I've been accused of sometimes being too argumentative in years past. I know there are many ways to land airplanes. But I've been flying Mooneys for over 30 years and have estimated my number of landings both personally and as an instructor in the 25,000 range. I would not recommend the above technique. ALL approaches are flown behind the power curve. The question is, "How far behind the power curve" is safe. Laminar flow wings, as I mentioned before, rise steeply deep behind the curve. Dragging the plane in is just not a good idea in my opinion. Flying less than a 3° slope is not a good idea, as there just is not enough angle to do a proper flare. Except when the crosswind component makes the crab on final more than 15°, less than full flaps is not a good idea. In no wind conditions a pilot should be able to set up after turning final at the final approach speed, at the proper slope angle (3°), trimmed for hands off, and let the airplane fly you to the runway hands off until you begin the flare. That pilot has Mastery of the airplane.

Sorry, but it makes me cringe every time I hear the term "chop the power". It's much more difficult to properly control descent rate when power is "chopped". It's a good way to have inconsistent landings. Nothing in flying non aerobatics needs to be done rapidly. If it does, then the judgement error was made earlier (commonly known as being behind the airplane). Flying is a graceful endeavor, and control should be made smoothly. That's what differentiates most private pilots from the ATP. I like to keep it simple. For the K model 90 knots on downwind with gear down and approach flaps. When you hit the 3° slope point as relates to your aim point, first reduce power to about 14", simultaneously hold up trim while adding full flaps, and turn base never letting the nose drop below 3°. To prevent bad things happening with a runaway trim, flaps move faster than the trim. Trim for hands off. The drag of the flaps will slow the plane to 80 knots if the nose maintains the 3° slope with the runway. Once on final, reduce speed to no less than 70 knots nominally. Maintain speed accurately with pitch and use power to control the descent rate. Maintain the 3° slope all the way to about 5 feet altitude from the aim point which should always be fixed in the windshield. Too often I see people not recognize what 3° looks like, let the slope decay to 2° or less and then end up dragging the airplane in with power for a sometimes smooth, but what I consider a lousy landing. It takes practice to control the rate of flare with rate of descent to be able to touch down at the desired point with idle power and the stall warning horn activated.

Microkit already has several videos out showing the altitude countdown with their unit.

Which is why the Alpha Systems Eagle Heads Up display is so valuable. When combined with the Microkit LHS 200 System (OK, and my Landing Video, too), you have to work pretty hard not to make very good landings every time.

The bulbs cost about $6 a piece if I remember correctly, but the AP computer does have to be removed and replaced. It was probably a fair price, but since it was out, If you planned on keeping the KAP 150, it would have been a good time to replace all the bulbs preemptively. It was not an accident that the ALT light went out, since it is on most of the time. The AP light is on all the time and went out on me along with the ALT light, so that one might be next.

I really recommend the latest LHS 200-C. While the 100 was very good, the 200-C is even better.

I understand that, but that is not a "normal landing". Try landing by hanging on the prop in a laminar flow airplane like the Mooney and you're an accident waiting to happen. The backside of the Power Curve on the laminar flow wing is much steeper than the non-laminar flow wing. That means less control with Power. Screw up just a little, and the induced drag can outweigh the power required, with the result of a stall and the plane dropping out from under you. Bad news for both you and the plane.

Sorry, In my respectful opinion that couldn't be further from the truth. The first question you should ask a transitioning instructor is "How much Mooney time do you have, to be followed with how much instructional Mooney time do you have?" Of course asked tactfully. That separates the wheat from the chaff.

Anybody can make a landing using Power as a crutch. You should know your airplane well enough to know when to withdraw Power to idle, and be able to bleed off airspeed to get to the landing attitude with the stall warning horn going off just as you touch down in the shortest distance.

By the time I started teaching I had over 500 hours of Mooney time. As time has passed, yes, I think I became a better and better instructor with more insight gained from earlier experiences. Now, of my over 12,000 hours total time, I have 10,330 hours of Mooney time. Between Don Kaye of 1994 and Don Kaye of 2022, I think you'd agree, the Don Kaye of 2022 would be the better choice. So, yes, it's a chicken and an egg situation. It's from that insight that I made the recommendations that I did. Ironically, I would not qualify to have checked out BravoWhiskey, since I apparently have too much experience gained by age. Sometimes the insurance companies don't have a clue.

A Mooney Specific Instructor in my opinion is a CFI who teaches almost exclusively in Mooneys. The more Mooney time they have the better. 25 hours definitely doesn't cut it. Owning a Mooney and teaching in Mooneys should be a prerequisite. In the least I would ask the instructor before the training started how much Mooney time they had. Don't be embarrassed to ask. If it was less than 1,000 Mooney hours, I would pass. Remember, you're looking for an "experienced" instructor. In my case, for example, I bought my Mooney in August of 1992 and got my CFI in February of 1994 in my airplane. By then I had had a lot of Mooney time. I immediately started teaching in Mooneys. My mentor instructor was an aeronautical engineer and really understood the laminar flow wing. That helped me. Growth as an instructor takes time. I don't think I had the perfect teaching method for landings down for a couple of years. I did my landing video after 12 years of teaching, and, yes, the stall warning horn should go off nearly at touchdown, as shown in the video. I have the greatest respect for airline pilots, but some of the most difficult transitions I have done have been airline pilots, usually because it is hard to get them out of the practice of starting the flare at 50 feet above the runway and being "heavy handed" with the yoke. We're not flying aerobatics. A "light" touch is the order of the day.

I am aware of a few people who recently purchased Mooneys. While it is a real achievement to become a CFI, when it comes to transition training in a Mooney, not all CFIs are created equal. Would you take your Rolls Royce to a Ford dealer for service? I certainly don't. I want someone who specializes in Rolls Royces and knows them intimately to work on mine. Is it more costly? You bet it is. Likewise, I know a number of Mooney owners who go to a general A & P for their Annuals. They get them on the cheap. In general, from my experience, you get what you pay for. I go to a Mooney Service Center for my Annuals. Having owned my Mooney for 30 years, it became evident early on that what was caught on my Annuals would not have been caught with your general A & P. So I pay a lot more for my Annuals, but I really feel comfortable flying my airplane the rest of the year knowing it was taken care of by a group of Mooney Specialists. Likewise, Transition Training should be looked upon in the same way. Too often new owners of Mooneys don't know what they don't know. I have to admit that when I got my CFI 28 years ago, while I always planned on specializing in Mooney Instruction, I didn't recognize at the time that teaching in the Mooney was any different than teaching in a Cessna or Piper. From the perspective of time I can say that it is. The real reason for the difference is the landing gear system, whether it be the Johnson Bar or Electric Gear. So, while the Mooney Specific Instructor can easily teach the Cessna or Piper aircraft, the reverse is not done well. The shock discs and wing distance above the ground make all the difference. Without oleo struts for damping, if the slope, airspeed, and descent rate are not "right on", the airplane is likely to bounce, and if bounce training is not included or taught improperly in the transition training, a future prop strike could be the result. Also, "cheating" on normal landings using power to control touchdown is poor technique I've seen far too often. While it's less offensive with the Cessna or Piper, short field landings are not in the cards using that technique in the Mooney. All of this is to say don't be pennywise and pound foolish when checking out in a Mooney for the first time. With proper training the Mooney is as easy to fly as the other types of airplanes. Search out a CFI who makes Mooneys a speciality. It will be well worth the effort.

So airspace is not restricted for an unlimited amount of time after a plane is released on an instrument flight plan at an uncontrolled field, ATC gives a specific amount of time for you to takeoff after you are released. If you're not off by that time your clearance becomes void. In other words you can't take off. It usually goes something like this: "N9148W, you're released for takeoff. Your clearance is void if not off by 1730. Time now 1725. If not off by 1730 advice ATC by 1800 of your intentions." If not heard from by 1800 Search and Rescue operation will be initiated.

I, too, just did the exchange without adding the two wires. It was going to take the better part of a day to tear into the electonics and my installer didn't have the time. It only took about 1½ hours to do the simple exchange and get it working as before. I hope to get the other wires installed in the next few weeks. There is now an option to have either a male or female voice and the callouts begin at 200 feet. The audio did need the audio low attached to ground to get the volume to work as before.

Sometimes being located in California has its benefits, and today provided one of them. In the summertime coastal fog provides a good opportunity to go out and practice approaches in actual conditions. Although unusual, this autumn day was even better with a thick layer of fog. With a nearly 30°F inversion the cool fog was held in in the Monterey Bay and tops were 1,700 feet with bases from 500 feet near Monterey to 700 feet near Salinas. With four airports nearly on top of each other the opportunity exists for a whole range of approaches. What really surprised me was that there was not one other airplane taking advantage of this day. That meant I had one controller nearly to myself. After doing a couple of new LPV approaches to minimums at Salinas and the required holding, I made things more interesting with the full VOR approach into Salinas, own navigation. A friend of mine told me that fuel prices at Marina were $6.00/gallon (who would have believed a year ago that that would be the lowest price around), so I ran the LNAV approach and broke out at near minimums for a full stop landing. Once on the ground I advised ATC to close my flight plan, told them I was stopping for fuel, and asked them if I could just pick up a clearance from them when I was done without filing, since they would be working me for my next few approaches into Monterey. They said that would not be a problem. That was the first time I tried that, and it came off without a hitch when I was ready to leave. It was sort of like a pop up clearance, but on the ground. Marina is usually a small quiet airport, but this day a big hangar was open, 50 or more people we hanging around, and I saw a huge electric helicopter in there. I wish now I had thought about taking a picture, but then again, maybe that would not have been appreciated. Once ready to go, I called for my clearance, was given a void time, and, shortly thereafter was released. I finished off my 6 approaches with a couple of ILSs to minimums into Monterey. After that, I got a clearance back to San Jose. Approaching the final approach course for the RNAV Y Rwy 30L, ATC queried my on my speed which was 160 knots. For the second time this day they told me to slow down by 20 knots (the first time it was 40 knots), an unusual request, since I'm usually requested to "keep your speed up". Having upgraded the LHS 100B to the LHS 200C yesterday, I got the altitude callouts, and touched down at the 0 foot callout. Taxiing back to my hangar, I was thinking of the great instrument flying day, and all those who missed the opportunity to sharpen up their instrument skills.

Referring to "Key" numbers: 3 of any combination of MP in inches or RPM/1000 is approximately 10% power when ROP. As opposed to gliding, turning down the RPM is analogous to shifting down in a car. The engine is running the prop, not the other way around. When under power the engine should run the prop for less wear and tear on the engine. When gliding, as in engine failure, you'd like to reduce drag, and in that case you'd like as little drag as possible and the prop as close to feather as possible. As mentioned above in another post, it's efficient to go as fast as practical in the descent to make up for the loss of time in the climb to altitude. So, if it's smooth, I'll descend in the yellow arc, otherwise the top of the green arc or maneuvering speed, if turbulence is a factor. Regarding the 165 knot limitation in the Bravo, that's with the gear down, and is an irrelevant number in the normal descent, since the gear will be up. Until in the pattern, the MP should never be set less than 15" to make sure the engine is running the prop. Slope of descent makes a difference in power management. A "slam dunk" should be flown differently than a normal descent. So, for efficiency, I'll descend as fast as practical when VFR, and that means knowing the rate of slow down of our airplane and importantly managing your fastest cooling cylinder head temperature to keep it below the 50°/minute limitation on our engines. I have it as a data field on my MVP-50 engine monitor. When I do start reducing power, I'll gradually reduce the MP to 20", then reduce the RPM to 2000. The MP will increase a couple of inches with reduction in RPM. I'll be monitoring the fastest cooling CHT to keep it below the 50°/minute limitation. Then I will further reduce the MP to 15". If a faster descent rate is then necessary, I'll add speed brakes, but I leave that to last because of the inefficiency it produces if you add them too soon and then have to add power because your descent rate was too great. Of course the gear comes down in the pattern, but adding the gear too early is VERY inefficient. In my opinion this is the way a descent should be managed on all the Mooneys (less speed brakes if a Mooney doesn't have them), no matter what has been written by anyone less familiar with the Mooney aircraft.

I know a lot of people like the PS Engineering 450B, but I really like the interface of the GMA 35c to the GTN 750(Xi). Additionally you get Telligence with it.

The main issue with mine was that the installer didn't put in the bracing brackets for the trim servo. That solved most of the issue. I still had some oscillation on approaches. That was resolved with the help of Paul Maxwell, who found the same issue resolved by simply lubing the yoke and elevator. I now lube mine every few weeks. I was told that Garmin needed to totally redo the flight control system on the Bravo they used to do the certification. There can be no resistance or sticking on the elevator. Mine yoke "glides" now and the elevator moves effortlessly.

Although I haven't plotted mine, I do not have the same issue. Mine varies maybe +/- 1 knot in smooth air. So, it's either an installation issue, servo issue, or "sticking" of the elevator due to lack of generously lubricating the yoke and elevator every few hours of flight time.

If you don't want to pull the breaker, have a switch installed the audio line.

I have your setup and it works perfectly and loud. Your installer didn't install it correctly. Mine is wired to an unswitched input with switch to turn it off when desired and also a circuit breaker. Take it back and get it done right.

I had Top Gun install mine. It was simple. They come in white, red, or blue and Top Gun got them from Aircraft Spruce. The strip was less than $30 at time. The install took a couple of hours.

Just like with a car you can drive at any speed you want, so, too, with the Bravo. It has a large dynamic range of speeds from slow flight to fast. So, if you're out practicing, you can fly slow. While i haven't tried it recently, when I was working with my mentor instructor many years ago, I think I remember the Bravo being able to hold altitude clean on about 35% power. I'll have to go out and try it the next time I go flying. 35% power would be about 17"/2400, which seems about right.

Since the plane is turbocharged you can fly whatever power setting you want and the FF will be the same. Altitude doesn't make a difference.

The acceptable file formats are listed and xls is not one of them.