donkaye, MCFI

Cross controlled stalls aren't prohibited in a Mooney, but spins are prohibited. Cross controlled stalls should be taught in primary training, especially those out of a skid where the bottom wing stalls first. At the time, the FAA had placed emphasis on LOC from base to final, so I thought I'd have students "practice" that situation. Most recovered immediately with no issue. The last one did not. At least I was smart enough to start the practice at 6,000 feet. That was 21 years ago, and I haven't had any students do one since that time---and won't. http://www.donkaye.com/donkaye.com/Inadvertent_Spins_in_a_Mooney.html

As you're spinning down out of a cross controlled stall in a Mooney and normal recovery techniques aren't working, I'd like you to calmly say that again.

Practicing slow flight and stalls are very important. The only stall that should NOT and I repeat NOT be practiced in a Mooney is the cross controlled stall. I did a writeup about my experience with one about 15 years ago. I think it is on my website. I have experienced out of rig older Mooneys that have the desire to go into a spin at the stall. That's why I aways do the first stall with a student before we practice them. I've never experienced a long body having a tendency to enter a spin at the stall. Each airplane has been test flown at the Factory to set up the stall strips for a perfect straight ahead stall. I do power on stalls at the Commercial recommend power setting of 65%. Any higher power setting gets the Mooney into a very high nose attitude, and at full power probably an attitude defined as aerobatic. Being able to fly all the range of power settings enables you to accommodate ATC directives without flying a cross country. For example if ATC tells you to follow a Boeing 737 5 miles out, number 2 cleared to land, Caution Wake Turbulence, it would be a good idea to go to slow flight to kill time before turning base rather than flying a downwind cross country.

I've decided that I don't like any of the iComs. They don't have a battery indicator until it is empty. I need a new unit.

No, just a lot more comfortable and much, much less stressful.

ESI 500 does the trick.

Two WAAS GPSs. Backup navigation. Display different items on each at the same time; Weather, Traffic, Stormscope information. What alerts are not provided on these instruments?

Regarding going ALL Glass: When I was doing my upgrade, I wanted to keep one legacy VOR head to be used as a backup navigator. My avionics tech said not to do that. "It just wouldn't look right", he said. I went along with him. So for the first year, before the ESI 500 came out my backup navigation source in case of total electrical failure was my 796. Keeping the legacy ASI, ADI, and Altimeter was never a consideration give the ESI 2000 that I originally bought. I wanted a "Clean" panel, and with a lot of G1000 time, I felt comfortable doing that. Legacy instruments take up a lot of space and are more inaccurate as compared to the digital replacements---and that goes for engine instruments as well. I also think they could be used as a "crutch" to moving on into the new age of avionics. If it makes sense economically, I'd recommend going ALL Glass. The Learning Curve just isn't that great, and with Mooney speed, you'll think you're flying a modern jet.

I'd ditch (Sell) the WX 1000+ Stormscope and get the Remote WX 500 that interfaces perfectly with the GTNs and G500TXi. Gives more panel space as a bonus. A Handheld transceiver with VOR/ILS? VORs are going the way of the Dinosaur. No way for me. I want GPS all the way and the Aera 796 on the yoke provides it along with weather and Jepp Charts--even in a total electrical failure. As an aside, I spent months reviewing what was available in the market before I upgraded my panel to what I have today. Whether its primary or backup, I recommend what I have. In 3 years, I haven't been the least bit sorry for anything I did, and love flying behind it each time I get into the air. In my opinion it's the best of the best of what is out there.

The Garmin G5 cannot be used as a backup. Garmin is pretty clear about this and this has been discussed extensively on Beechtalk. The ESI 500 does have Navigation, but it takes its input from either the GTN 750 or 650. My last ditch backups would be the Aera 796 for Navigation on the yoke and ESI 500 backup battery for Attitude, if I lost both GTNs. After that the last, last ditch backup would be the iPad, which without the FS 210 or FS 510 would provide Navigation but no attitude, but the ESI 500 would. Doing a Risk Analysis of your hypothetical I think would lead to a probability of your circumstance being unbelievably remote.

Well, John, I have the FS 210 and also got the FS 510. Except for the Flightcharts transferring to the G500 slowly, the ease of updating everything else makes it worthwhile in my opinion. All databases download in the background to the iPad. You then go out to the plane, and Database Concierge transfers all the databases, including Flightcharts to the GTN in under 10 minutes via WiFi.

I guess it should be noted that I am talking about the G500. There is no manual out on the TXi, so maybe the TXi has enough memory to load a backup now. We'll have to wait and see, or call Garmin and ask them.

John, before you buy the Garmin ESI, I'd read over the specifications closely. It is expensive and doesn't provide as much information as the MVP-50, which I think would cost less money.

John, there is no backup chart storage on the G500 like there is on the GTN. The day the database expires, database sync recognizes that fact and starts transferring data from the GTN 750. If you don't want to wait, or take the card home like I do, the program is smart enough to know a new database needs to be loaded and specifically moves the Charts associated with your flight plan over to the G500 while it is transferring all the other Charts.

The one thing I don't use database sync for is syncing the Charts to the G500. However Garmin is doing it is just too time consuming. Dave, the Chart database is abut 868 MB and I'm not surprised that it took 45 minutes. In fact thanks for timing it. I never have. I just take that Card home and do that the Chart database on computer. It still takes about 10 minutes.

John, I just tested the link and it works perfectly. I have upgraded the GTN to 6.41 and I love the Visual approach addition. I now use it all the time. I still haven't decided on whether to upgrade to the TXi. There are pluses and minuses--mostly minuses from my point of view. I have to make a decision by June to be able to get the $2,000 discount on the display. I have several students in the que for installation, so I'll get to play with the real thing before I have to make the decision. The Sim on the iPad is super flakey and basically unusable. On the minus side, I don't like the lack of multiple Map and Weather Pages that are available on the Current G500. I think the Menu on the screen bottom is too small by a factor of 50%. It takes too many button pushes to get to the various pages. (I don't want any more switches on the panel). On the plus side, maybe the Map inside the HSI, but I think that is too small to be very valuable, but I'd have to use it to be certain. The screen resolution is supposedly better. No other pluses.

A new version of Garmin Pilot was just released. It has an outstanding new feature. A new menu item was added under the Connext Menu called All Devices. When you select this item a page is brought up that shows what all the Garmin devices are capable of connecting to. There have been so many new devices, that when someone asks me what the GDL 52 or GTX 345 or a host of other devices can show I always had to go the the Garmin website and try to figure it out. With this new feature it is all placed in front of you. What a great addition!

I fly with students all the time who can't fly a downwind parallel to the runway. Independent of flying with the AP or using the vertical guidance, activating a Visual Approach and having your HSI automatically aligns with the runway heading (assuming you have some type of glass HSI) should help solve that issue.

I'll use it on EVERY VFR approach whether I use the vertical guidance or not. Once an airport is in sight, activate the approach and get immediate runway SA without setting it up on your HSI in OBS mode. However, on Final to O41 a couple of days ago I loaded the approach, had the AP in GPSS mode, and the plane turned to intercept at 45°. Once intercepted, continued to nearly GP intercept, switched to APR, and watched the AP capture and descend to AP disconnect and landing. Pretty slick.

See 6.13 for visual approach information. The documentation is for Software version 6.3, which was apparently bypassed. 190-01007-18_A GTN 750 v6.3 Upgrade Supplement.pdf 1758A_ASDN.pdf 1758A_ASDN.webloc

A Garmin Dealer must do it, but it only takes 5-10 minutes and mine did it for free.

GTN Software Version 6.41 was finally released today. Almost every airport now has Visual Approaches to all runways, both front and back. These can be flown just like VTF instrument approaches with vertical guidance. They have a generated Glidepath that can be flown with an autopilot just like an ILS. I've flown a number of them and really like how they work. No longer is it necessary to put the GPS in OBS mode and turn the Course Selector to the runway heading for situational awareness. Just load a visual approach and all the work is now done for you.

No patience to read any of the above. This is the way to do the pattern for the M20F from 23 years of flight instructing in Mooneys. Get my video for more demonstrations. Don Kaye, Master Flight Instructor Traffic pattern M20F.pdf

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.