donkaye

I don't care what the cannula flow meter reads. I set the flow to the lowest level that'll provide at least 96% O2 saturation as read on a pulse oximeter. I carry 2 of those on every flight. For cross country flights I carry a backup 22 cu ft tank. It's 10 pounds of useful load lost, but the extra safety factor makes it worth it to me. Some people have had success with the Mountain High conserving system. I sent mine back when I couldn't get an O2 saturation level above 93% at its highest delivery level.

I've had the system for almost 6 months, and every time I hear the "Check Gear" callout my attention is immediately drawn to the gear light.

I installed the new firmware and audio file this afternoon and flew it. I followed the provided instructions, and the installation went smoothly. On testing the audio before flying, as described in the instuctions, it appeared that it wasn't working. After a call to Nidal, he reminded me that the test was to be done through the audio panel and headset, and not the iPad I was using to do the upgrade. The audio worked perfectly. A couple of trips around the pattern showed the system to work perfectly in the air. The "Check Gear" callout is now done immediately after the 200 foot callout. I think everyone is going to enjoy the new capability.

What about keeping the GTX 335 and adding the GDL 88? You'd then have ADS-B Out on both frequencies and ADS-B traffic and weather on the GTN 750. You could probably find a used one for less than the GTX 345. I moved from the 330ES to the 335 before the 345 came out, and I'd do the same thing today.

This is a good reason to practice soft field takeoffs. Mastering this takeoff will teach you how the airplane behaves in the most critical situation and how you SHOULD behave is such a situation. The airplane will leave the ground before it really wants to fly because of ground effect. So, it is important to STAY IN GROUND EFFECT until you reach Vx, then, and only then, begin your climb out. And ground effect means GROUND EFFECT, as close to the ground as possible. Remember induced drag is reduce by almost 50% when your distance above the ground is 10% of the wing length. On our 36 foot wing that is 3 feet, and 3 feet is the height of the wing above the ground when stationary. So STAY LOW! I have found that most people in training think they are going to hit the prop and after the takeoff quickly get out of ground effect. Train yourself to stay low! Also, high DA's also mean flying a wider pattern to account for the higher true airspeed.

I did a C182 2 hour engine break-in a couple of weeks ago. I couldn't wait to get out of the plane. While the seats were higher, I couldn't imagine going on a cross country with those seats. It reminded me of my '66 Ford Mustang (my first car). Most uncomfortable on a long trip. To me Mooney figured out the seat angle on the Bravo perfectly. There is no limit to the amount of time I can sit on my original seats comfortably on a cross country. The same goes for all the Ovations I have flown. I just don't like leather. It doesn't breath.

I would be surprised to see prices ever come down, since I don't see another Mooney ever being built again.

FS 510/FS 210 firmware needs to be updated by shop. GTN/GTN Xi firmware needs to be updated by shop. G5 including GFC 500 firmware is downloadable without a shop. G500/G500TXi firmware needs to be updated by shop. GTS 800 needs to be updated by shop. GTX 345 Needs to be updated by shop.

That is true if you sync the flight charts. Syncing everything else only takes about 5 minutes. Flight charts only takes a couple of minutes on my home computer, so I bring the card home for that update. That really is't necessary, though. Any chart that you need will sync over to the G500 anytime you need it, if the full syncing process hasn't completed. As mentioned above, the full process takes about an hours, so you need at least an hour flight to complete the process. If it doesn't complete before you shut down, it has to start from scratch over again.

What do you mean? I'm strictly an Apple Mac person, and all my updates from Garmin (almost all my Avionics are Garmin) are done on either the Mac or the iPad.

I don't think you are giving yourself enough credit. At least the GTNs are simple to operate either in turbulence or out of it. In 15 minutes I think I could teach someone enough about it to feel comfortable loading flight plans and airways, inserting and deleting waypoints, airways, holds, and approaches, and running a GPS approach. Give me another 15 minutes and I could explain VNAV and its uses. Compared to understanding the VOR and its use in navigating airways and determining position with cross radials, the newer GPSs and glass panels are hands down a "piece of cake" to learn.

Anthony, while the KLN 90B was one of the best early GPS ever made, you really do need to get out of the dark ages.

When selling Apartment houses you need to show success. I've had it since almost new and for sentimental reasons haven't been able to part with it, although the year before last it asked for attention. ($$)

I do feel blessed, but it came with hard work and a little luck.

This is my 32nd trip out here. Just a few photos to get back on track.

We're looking forward to doing more flying trips this year after most were cancelled last year due to Covid. Our first one of the year (a non Mooney one) is our yearly trip out to the Big Island of Hawaii. We delayed it by several months until we had been fully vaccinated. Hawaii does not make it easy for you to travel there. You have to go through a whole bunch of hoops, the last of which is a negative Covid test from an approved source within 72 hours of departure. After spending a lot of money on both Airfare and Housing, we were kept on pins and needles waiting to see it the test results would come back before we were to leave. If they didn't, it would not be worth going, since you would need to be quarantined for 10 days. Full vaccination did not alleviated that requirement. Thankfully our results came back near the end of the 72 hour time frame. After doing some research, I decided to buy the Bose 700 headphones for the trip, since my A20's have been troublesome to carry on commercial flights. Surprise! No inflight movies, even in 1st Class. I guess that makes sense, since the airlines don't want to spend the money to have to sanitize them after every use. Also, no more inflight magazines. Luckily, I had some music on the iPad to while away the hours. BTW the Boses 700 were excellent and very comfortable to wear on at least a 5 ½ hour flight. Having done all the above, the arrival procedure to clear the airport required a temperature check by National Guard personnel, and additional checks including another potential quick Covid test. Alaska Airlines has a pre check procedure which we signed up for that was supposed to cut through the red tape. Although we weren't told having your vaccination card would be useful, we had brought it along anyway. After we deplaned, we were led to the temperature check. At that point people were separated into various lines: the pre check line and the non precheck line. Then there was an additional separation: those who could present their vaccination cards could immediately leave the airport and those that did not needed further screening. Luckily, we had our cards and were allowed to go. For us the whole process was simple, as easy as pre Covid. For those who didn't take the time to understand what was to be required, it was a long delay in getting out of the airport. Why have the above discussion? We went into Kona, to buy Sunglasses that Shirley forgot to bring and eat at one of our favorite restaurants. It had closed. We went to our second favorite restaurant and it, too, had closed. The whole town reminded me of a trip we took during the downturn of 2008. Many vacant stores. With all the store closing it was not surprising, Costo had plenty of traffic. We drove up to the place we were saying and went to a little center where there had previously been a number of restaurants. They were all closed. There were lots of empty store fronts. So, it looks like Hawaii isn't doing so well under Covid. On the plus side for us there aren't many people around, the Island is one of our most favorite places in the world, and we intend to have a great time for the week that we'll be here.

I have found the LHS System to be very useful, Although I always check "gear down" on downwind, base, and final, that "Check Gear" announcement after the 70 foot callout always causes me to look again. Where can you find something this useful for under 1 AMU?

With an airplane equipped with a G500/G500TXi and GTN 750(Xi)/650(Xi) with an optional yoke mounted Aera 760 and iPad, the addition of another display would be "display overload" in my opinion. The display options available with that equipment leaves no desired information lacking.

We topped off the TKS in Bend. The flight to Sunriver was necessary for tax purposes. You're right, though, Sunriver is only 17 nm from Bend.

Yesterday started at 5:00 AM. I knew it was going to be a long day. Little did I know how much was going to fit into it and the challenges and rewarding experiences it would bring. The day's task was to pick up a new student in Hayward, fly to Stockton where the airplane had just gone through a pre buy and Annual, fly to Bend, Oregon for the purchase, visit Sunriver to look at property, fly back to Stockton where my plane was located, and drop my new student back in Hayward and fly home. Transition training would be in Stockton on another day. A couple of days earlier the weather enroute looked like it would be a non issue. But Nature had other plans. A cold front which became stationary developed on the border of California and Oregon and ran northwest to southeast. It would have to be crossed. The was no serious convection, so it seemed doable in the TKS Bravo. Early morning weather in Hayward with typical overcast meant that both an instrument approach into and departure from Hayward might be required. I arrived at the airport, preflighted my plane, and was met with the first surprise of the day when I opened my car truck to get out my flight gear and was met with a very scared bird who couldn't seem to get up the energy to get out. I have no idea how long it had been in there, but it could have been several days. I wasn't going anywhere until I got it out. After about 15 minutes I finally managed to coax it out. Cleaning up its mess would be left for another day. I had prefiled 3 IFR flight plans: one to Hayward, one to Stockton, and the last to Bend. Thankfully, the ceiling at Hayward was high enough that I was able to get there VFR, then fly South to be able to exit the overcast and get to Stockton in clear conditions. After a thorough preflight, I picked up my IFR Clearance to Bend and we were off. Flying early in the morning usually provides a smooth flight, and that was the case yesterday morning. The fun began as we reached the California Oregon border. I had been monitoring the weather on both the GDL69 that the plane had and my 760. The 760 earned its way this day. I had flown the plane from San Diego to Stockton a few weeks before, and met a similar situation which required the use of the TKS. So we only had about 3 gallons on board. If needed, it needed to be used wisely. While not seriously convective, the clouds ahead were somewhat billowy, so I really didn't want to go into them. Starting at 14,000 feet to minimize headwind, I first climbed to 16,000 then got a block 16-19,000. While this didn't get me on top, it did allow me to see the best way around some of them. So for about ½ hour I made my way around them. There came a time when that was not possible, but the clouds ahead became more stratus looking, so having previous primed the TKS, we entered the clouds. The temperature was -17°C. No ice developed for quite some time, then very light rime that was barely visible. After about 45 minutes we were through the front. Even a weak one looks intimidating. Coming into Bend we were met with very windy and gusty conditions typical of cold frontal passage. Within an hour the purchase had closed, and in turbulent conditions we were off to Sunriver. Sunriver, Oregon sits in a bowl at about 4,100 feet, so on a day like this you can imagine the conditions. It was very turbulent and gusty, but we made the landing without having to go around. The FBO there was very nice, and after lending us their crew truck we were off to see some properties. Thank goodness for the iPad. Oh no, wait. When I called Seattle Center, they didn't have it. They were kind enough to give me a clearance anyway. We had to go through the front again. It had become stationary, and its orientation was such that we needed to go through it a couple of times. But worse than that was that being the afternoon, thunderstorms had developed on the border. I had both ADS-B and XM weather on the 760 and the plane had a Stormscope and ADS-B weather. In this situation the Stormscope is better in my opinion. It showed a few strikes while the ADS-B and XM showed many. For sure this time no going into the weather. I was prepared to go out to the coast and then down to California if need be. It turned out that once again by climbing I was able to circumvent the serious stuff. Once into California it looked like the rest of the flight would be a piece of cake. Wrong. Arriving in Stockton we were met with winds 24G31 at a 30° crosswind with the turbulence to go along with it. So now it was back to Hayward. While I should have briefed the flight, I had made that trip so many times that "what could go wrong?" Well, it had become overcast, and there was no way to get there through the Livermore Valley VFR. I was on flight following and asked the Controller for the possibility of a Clearance into Hayward. He said if I waited a few more miles he could give me a Clearance without having to fly the airways. I was fortunate in that popup clearances into the Bay Area usually involve substantial delays. The overcast was thick and the turbulence matched it. I slowed down and briefed the approach. First, I was cleared to a waypoint on the approach, then cleared for the approach, then told to cancel the approach clearance and given vectors to intercept the final approach course, and then finally given the approach clearance the second time. Thank goodness I was in my airplane, and know the avionics backwards and forwards. I broke out at 1,500 feet looking at a crab angle of at least 25° to the runway. Thank you. Garmin for the flight path marker. We got kicked around in the turbulence, but the landing was OK. I dropped my student off and decided to fly back to San Jose VFR. The ceiling at San Jose was 2,000 feet. The wind was straight down the runway. Finally, no stress. I landed at 7:30pm. I had started the flying at 6:30am. It's been awhile since I had a flying day filled with so many challenges. It was good to be home.

I'm glad I have it. It works most of the time. Sometimes it doesn't.

Their Auto Landing System isn't about bringing safety to GA?

"You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink". I hope everyone who complains about Garmin enjoys their non Garmin products. Having not used any of them, I am happy NOT to complain about them. I've been dealing with Garmin since I bought their first aviation GPS, the GPS90. I won't go over all the many things Garmin has done for me to make things right when I had some issue with a product that I bought from them. That even included replacing an Area 796 that was 7 years out of warranty due to a software update issue they couldn't solve. Since my GFC 500 was one of the first to be installed in a Bravo, when I had my problem with it, they did something they never do and probably never will again. They allowed me to come to Olathe on my way to Oshkosh a couple of years ago to investigate the problem. I flew with the pilot who certified it and they agreed something was wrong. We landed and opened up the back panel to investigate. They immediately saw that a couple of brackets that supported the pitch trim servo were missing. Whether they were not include in the kit or were left off by the installer made no difference. They sent me to an approved avionics shop on the field and had them installed. I offered to pay and they declined the offer. I offered to pay for their lunches, and they declined that, too. Last week I sold my Aera 796. I had just purchased a separate year's database subscription for my new 760. The 796 was attached to my OnePac subscription. During the process of exchanging the 796 subscription with the 760 subscription the support agent found some of the databases were out of sync with each other on my OnePac. He not only synced them, but gave me an extra month on the subscription. Because I have an integrated Garmin System, I got thousands of dollars in rebates, by buying at rebate time (Oshkosh). I stayed up to date on the latest products (G500 to G500 TXi and GTN to GTN Xi) with discounts on the update. I have many other "good news" stories that I could share. So everyone who wants to bad mouth Garmin be my guest. If you've had problems with them I'm sorry. But no amount of talk is going convince me that they are not one of the best companies in the Avionics field. I have had too much long term experience to the contrary.

That's never going to happen with that plane. It was certified with the G1000 and that can't be changed.

Almost all operations on the GTN series of GPS can be done with touch or buttons. However, even in turbulence, with the ledges provided, I've never had an issue of not being able to do what I wanted to do. Surprisingly, one of the best features of the GTN is the VFR approaches provided to almost every airport and every runway, front and back, with the option of coupling both laterally and vertically to an autopilot, Garmin or 3rd party. So far, at least once a year Garmin updates their units with new features. Whether you love them or hate them, they provide really good products.