donkaye

Per AIM Section 1-2-3 you can fly the final approach segment of a VOR approach with GPS under the following conditions summarized by John Collins, one of the most knowledgeable avionics persons in the Country. "To fly a VOR approach that does not include (or GPS) in the title using a GPS for navigation, the VOR must be in service, the approach must not be NOTAM out of service, the VOR must be tuned on a working and installed VOR receiver in the aircraft, the course set and the VOR CDI indications must be monitored for course guidance". This would include a Bearing Pointer as well for the monitored indicator. Vor approach with Gps.pdf

Tackle the install? Any competent Avionics' person or for that matter A&P can do the installation. Cut a hole in an inspection plate and mount the unit, run the wires to your audio panel, install a switch to turn the audio on/off, and include a circuit breaker if you wish. That's it. Here are some pictures from my installation. https://donkaye.com/landing-height-system

The fact that they have indicates the relevance of the thread. There's more to it than meets the eye. I haven't done another Gleim Module for the FIRC since I got so irritated with the word. Unless I can change my attitude (unlikely), I'll renew my CFI through the Wings Program, having already more than met the requirements.

My avionics would not update with database concierge this time. I'm going to download to the cards and go back out to the plane and update with the cards. Database Concierge just isn't worth the trouble. It's too flaky.

Obviously, it's more than just the word but that's about as far into the political realm that I want to go.

Obviously, my anger at such a trivial word change runs deeper than the word itself.

I asked Gleim to unlock their FIRC to me so I could go in and uniformly change all "learner" references back to "students". They refused. Every time I see the word "learner" it makes me angry. It takes away from the "learning" process.

Good opposing argument. I just disagree. A little change here, a little change there. It isn't going to matter. Oh, it's not? We're headed down a rabbit hole, and you're willingly jumping in.

Thanks for the link. It's just starting to show up in all publications. For thousands of years we got along just fine with the word "student". Just think of all the other things that could have been done in the time that these idiots spent discussing changing a word.

From the NAFI Live weekly Newsletter today: "The Class C airport where I instructed offered only full service fueling. One day I joined a learner on the ramp after he had pre-flighted the aircraft. It was only a few days prior to his private pilot exam. Noting the fuel truck nearby, I asked if the tanks had been topped off. He responded yes. I asked if he had checked the fuel caps. He responded yes. After working in the pattern, we landed to discover that one of the fuel caps was missing, along with several gallons of avgas. It was a toss-up regarding who felt worse—the learner who neglected to verify fuel cap security, or the lineman who had serviced the aircraft. Although learner pilots were taught to always check fuel cap security after service and this check had been demonstrated by instructors, the pilot still felt a sense of embarrassment checking for security in view of the line staff, thinking that it implied a lack of trust." From the Gleim FIRC changed this year: "For example, on a day with widely scattered thunderstorms, use a series of radar images or METAR observations to show learners that a local airport can rapidly alternate several times between clear skies and heavy rain over the course of a few hours. a) Explain to learners that if they fail to consider the possibility of rapidly changing weather and closely monitor the weather during each circuit around the traffic pattern, they could be caught beneath or inside a thunderstorm." I'm sure many would say that I'm making a mountain out of a molehill, but I am thoroughly disgusted with meaningless political correctness that is now infiltrating into flying and flight instruction in particular. It just seems too phony to me. Apparently the FAA has "cancelled" the word "student" in favor of "learner". I had planned on donating large amounts of money to both EAA and AOPA when my time on earth has ended. If I see the word "learner" turn up in any documentation coming from either of those organizations relating to "students", they will get nothing. I'm thinking of terminating my studies of the Gleim FIRC in favor of renewing my CFI through the Wings Program and never buying a Gleim Course again. I've been a member of NAFI since 1992 and have participated in their Master CFI Program for 20 years. I'm probably going to terminate my membership when it comes up for renewal. Everyone seems to be turning into sheep...

Today was a fairly windy and gusty day in Tracy, California. Not unusual after passage of a cold front yesterday. I had two brothers who bought a C model last week and were looking forward to their first day of transition training. Based out of San Jose, I flew my plane over there. It was a little bumpy, but not bad in my plane. I saw their plane in person for the first time. It had not been well taken care of. I checked for an Annual and it was confirmed. It wasn't done by a Mooney Service Center. While doing the preflight the sump valve couldn't be completely stopped from leaking on the left tank. There were no brakes on the right side. Given the conditions I told them it was not a good day to start the training. Instead, I took each of them up in my plane for a couple of times around the pattern and demonstrated handling such conditions. Even with my experience I didn't feel comfortable taking an unfamiliar airplane with people who had never flown a Mooney before up today. I think I was reasonably uncomfortable flying any airplane for my first 1,000 hours. I was uncomfortable flying my airplane for the first 100 hours. But I really wanted to get over that. My skillset really improved with the CFI and CFII ratings, and was honed when I got my ATP in my airplane. I kept learning about the weather by ferrying airplanes between Mooney Sales people. Each flight and enroute weather was different. I flew to most Homecomings in Kerrville and to Oshkosh 22 times so far. And then there has been all the learning that has taken place in my to date 6,603 hours of teaching over the past 28 years. Clarity, I think, comes from experience. You begin to know more about what you didn't know you didn't know. I've been flying 55 years and it never gets boring. In addition to the CFI, CFII, MEI, ATP, Basic and Advanced ground instructor, and CE525S Type rating, I got the Wright Brothers Master Pilot award a few years ago. To further increase my knowledge, I've done the requirements for the Master CFI for the past 20 years (going on 22 this year). Participating in these challenges has brought me better understanding and improved comfort level. The new technology has accelerated that process because it's so much easier to decide when it is safe to go and when it's best to stay on the ground in addition to being just plain fun to use. From my perspective, even if near middle age, you are just at the beginning of your flying adventures. You have more perspective to properly guide your decisions. With that added perspective you are in a position to make better decisions that lead to a higher level of comfort in your flying. Carry on my friend.

I've owned my Bravo for nearly 30 years, so have a good understanding of maintenance costs. I'm now on my 3rd engine. The 1st one made it to 2295 hours, but it had the Bravo upgrade at 1300 hours. The second one made it to 1600 hours and would have gone all the way to TBO had it not been for an unfortunate screwup by the maintenance facility during an annual. I chose to replace the engine and get credit for the remove and replace rather than do the required teardown. Until there is a change in petroleum philosophy, (not likely with the present unleadership) there will be a significant increase in costs of ownership due to fuel costs. Actual engine exchange for a zero time reman at present is about $80,000 all in. The turbo and waste gate from experience should be overhauled proactively around 1300 hours and cost about $2500 several years ago. Once again I expect inflation to be going strong for at least the next 3 years so everything is going to go up dramatically. My recommendation is the best time to buy anything you think you want is now, specifically for this thread the most airplane you can afford. Thinking you should buy a J now and upgrade to a Bravo later, in my opinion doesn't make sense. Except for the known turbo and waste gate overhaul at 1300 hours, at least as relates to my experience, both turbo and NA Mooneys should have close to the same maintenance costs. Assuming 17.5 gal/hr and 120 hours/yr flying, the fuel cost used to be 4 x 17.5 x 120 = 8,400/yr. Currently that has increased to 6.5 x 17.5 x 120 = 13,650 or a 5,250 increase. So, annual fuel costs are up 62.5% so far. While that's a lot, in the overall cost of Mooney ownership it's just a little significant. My philosophy has always been that the cost of the toys (things you want but don't have to have) should be no more than 10% of your financial net worth. If that philosophy is followed, then the increase in cost of ownership as the result of what we're seeing now, while disappointing, should not have a large impact on their use. The benefits of the turbo are so large in terms of greater capability that I personally wouldn't buy an airplane without it.

Yes, for experimental the audio callouts are permitted with the MVP 50. Didn't and doesn't make sense to me.

Audio alerts are not permitted for certified aircraft with the MVP-50. I had numerous discussions with EI about that and they said the FAA would not permit it. That has never been an issue for me. For example, if the gear is not in the down position when the throttle is pulled back, you get a blinking red light in the top center of the main display page that gets your attention in addition to the Mooney "Beep, Beep, Beep,...." Of course, with the addition of the LHS you get a "Check gear down" audio alert passing through 200' agl.

Don, I assume you set the volume to maximum in the setup? If so, have you spoken to Nidal about increasing the volume with the software. If all of those things were done, then it is a wiring issue to your audio panel. I have no problem with volume in my plane.

A little over 3 hours to remove and cut the inspection plate to attach the device and run the wires to the front panel. The balance of the time to run the wires to the audio panel and wire the circuit breaker and on/off switch. I have a deluxe installation. If you don't want the circuit breaker, the install time would be less. You should have the on/off switch because you will want the unit off when flying in moisture because the lidar will reflect the rain and give a false reading.

I've had mine since it first came out. I'd recommend it to everyone. I used the old trim circuit breaker from the KFC 150 for the breaker and an on/off switch. Install time about 7 hours.

I've taught in several planes that had the Garmin EIS. I think the characters are still too small, and the information provided does not compare with the MVF-50 in my opinion. It can, however, provide real time date when interfaced with an iPad. That would be a nice feature. Too bad EI has not upgraded their unit to do that.

I think 20 years from now you will wish you had gotten the MVP-50, since you would still be able to read it without a magnifying glass, Scott.

I had them paint my wings and horizontal stabilizer a number of years ago. They were only supposed to do the top, but went ahead and painted both top and bottom for no additional charge. The also repaired and repainted my top cowling that had a serious crack in the paint. I felt they went above and beyond what I asked for.

There is a LOP operation with the MVP-50. I don't run my engine LOP. You would first set up LOP, then slowly begin leaning. As each cylinder peaks, a bar appears over that cylinder. Note the FF. As you slowly continue leaning, each cylinder will peak and show a bar over its EGT. Per the manual, "After the last cylinder reaches peak EGT, the data provided in the top right portion of the display will show the “First” and “Last” cylinder to reach peak EGT and the current temperature below peak for each cylinder. This is exactly the information needed to properly operated LOP." It doesn't give the GAMI spread per se, but by noting the FF at the first and last peak you can easily figure it out. As a flight instructor who sometimes takes my plane to the student, an extra register is provides on the fuel management screen which resets after each flight. So fuel used on any flight can be seen without any calculations, while the other registers contains fuel remaining and fuel used since last fuel added. Here's a summary of the unit. MVP 50P - Glass Panel Engine Monitor - Overview - YouTube.webloc

I've had the EI MVP-50 since 2014 and the information it provides and the large character size make it my choice for an engine monitor. While JPI makes good engine monitors, you need a magnifying glass to see some of the numbers on their units. They also provide only a single page of information while the MVP-50 provides numerous pages.

I wouldn't want to be the insurance company that insures that airplane unless the annual insurance fee is the cost of the airplane. An Acclaim was put on the line at Palo Alto a number of years ago. 3 prop strikes later the plane went into default and was repossessed. Who would ever want it after all those prop strikes? I brought it back from Kerrville before it went on the line. It looked good then. A couple of years later it looked like your typical rental plane---garbage. The only beneficiaries may be the renters who don't give a cr*p about the plane, want to go fast, and will destroy the engine in short order. On top of everything else, with the altitude in Denver, landings will be at least 10% faster than at sea level and may expedite the first prop strike. It's a fools errand to put any long body Mooney on the line, expecting to make money while cutting their own flying expenses. They are in for a real eye opening experience. After 30 years' experience with the Bravo, there is so much more I could say, but it would likely just fall on deaf ears.

Nice panel. I'd check with your avionics shop to see if the transponder portion of the GNX 375 can be hooked into the GTN 750 for additional control of it, if that is something you would like. I certainly do with my GTX 335 interface to the GTN 750 Xi.

So I just viewed the video on the AeroCruz 100 and 230. I have recently flown extensively with the AeroCruz 100 in a Piper Arrow IV with a student working on an instrument rating. The AeroCruz 100 is not certified for approaches. It doesn't have a pitch trim servo, so won't hold altitude well. It does a good job with GPSS. Including installation it probably cost nearly $10,000. The AeroCruz 230 was projected in the video to cost around $15,000 installed. Friends, in the overall cost of aircraft ownership, the availability of product, magnitude of functionality, new modern light brushless servos, cost difference of approximately $5,000, reliability, and customer support, I personally think it is a no brainer to go with the GFC 500. With the recent magnitude of inflation, likely to continue to increase in the foreseeable future, the sooner you commit to the purchase and schedule installation, the happier you will be. In fact, by the time the AeroCruz 230 would be available for the Mooney, inflation would eat up the current price difference. How long have people been waiting for it?