donkaye

The precision in aircraft control required for the instrument rating easily transfers over to the Commercial Rating. The Commercial Rating is just an advanced Private Rating requiring tighter tolerances and 4 new tasks; 1. Steep spirals, 2. Chandelles 3. Lazy Eights. 4. Eights on pylons. Also, a power off landing to a designated point and touchdown within 200 feet of that point.

I decided to continue the upgrade path so am selling the completely working GTX 330 ES in favor of the GTX 335 and my GMA 35 in favor of the GMA 35c. GTX 330ES --- $2K GMA 35 ---1.8K

Thanks, Robert. Does the plane really need to be in the climb before engaging ALT? In other words, you're saying preselect the altitude, engage VS and THEN ALT and V/S together after the plane begins climbing. I have another student who has the G500 and just follows the procedure I originally stated. That was not the case with this plane.

I was up in Canada last week doing a transition training with a student who had just purchased a G1000 Ovation with the S-Tec autopilot. Does anyone know if the early G1000 with the S-Tec 55X autopilot has Altitude Preselect? I was able to get the V/S preselect to work, but not the Altitude Preselect. I selected the Altitude on the G1000 and simultaneously pushed the ALT and V/S buttons as I have done in other installations of the S-Tec, but the ALT light would not light and, therefore, not arm the altitude preselect. Thanks.

Robert Buck's book "Weather Flying" is an excellent source for dipping your feet into actual instrument flying. I followed his procedure after I got my instrument rating many years ago, and it served me well.

"We make it." as though you were surprised. You have a very nice wife and child, whom I'm sure would like to live a long life. In my opinion your decision to fly anywhere near thunderstorms requiring vectoring from ATC, and in heavy rain in an F Model Mooney no matter how long you have an instrument rating shows a disregard for both your and their safety. I've had 2 former students (one took his soon to have been wife with him) kill themselves through very bad decision making such as the above even though I warned them about the importance of conservative decision making. I'd hate to see you be another statistic and take your family with you. Food for thought. Don Kaye, Master CFI

The pitch up moment with full flap retraction is not nearly as significant on the Mooney models before the K Model. From the K Model on up it does become fairly significant. My suggestions are just that, suggestions, from flying all the Mooney models. I try to teach the methods I have found produce the least amount of work for the desired results. A number of aircraft have been lost from the left turning tendency and significant pitch up moment on flap retraction so that I have chosen the method discussed to mitigate those issues. They've worked for all my students. However, you know your airplanes well, so use whatever method works for you. I've attached the short field procedure from the A model POH, highlighting the critical steps. It was actually from this procedure written up by Bill Wheat that I changed the way I taught the go around. M20A .pdf

Right, and with the consequential pitch up and left turning moment that causes some to lose control of the aircraft.

I disagree with the POHs of many Mooney models regarding the go around procedure, and feel they should change it. Instead of power up, flaps to T/O position, trim down, gear up, balance of flaps up, it should be Power up, trim down, GEAR UP, flaps to T/O when little upward pressure on the yoke, at Vx or Vy balance of flaps up. I say this because the drag of the gear is comparable to the drag of full flaps. Putting up the gear first while trimming down takes the pressure off the yoke and makes for a more stable and SAFE go around.

Not on topic, but curious. Why buy several Bravos and an Ovation? I've had my Bravo going on 24 years and wouldn't trade it for anything.

AOA is really nice and I have one on my glare shield, but after between 20-24 thousand Mooney landings (mostly in teaching. I did 110 2 weeks ago with 2 transition students), when one G (as in landing), pitch attitude (3°) and airspeed (determined by power setting) are most important. At one G and a 3° nose down attitude until the flare, there is just no way you are going to stall the airplane. Also, if you are turning with a bank angle greater than standard rate in the pattern, you are making your life more difficult than it needs be by rushing the landing and making your perspective change too rapidly. Certainly with experience you can accommodate short approaches which require a steeper bank angle on the turn to final, but not until you have your basic landings down pat.

I thought my panel updating was done, but as new products come to market I find myself continuing to modify it. It's apparently an addiction. So far this year I've replaced the ESI 2000 with the ESI 500 and I now have a GTX 335 on order to replace my GTX 330ES because I never have liked the display of the 330ES. The small losses on resale have been tolerable for the benefits gained.

You can actually see how the Map Chart function works by going to Demo mode setting a position close to the airport, setting a speed and altitude, entering a flight plan, and an approach to the airport. The plane will be superimposed on the plan view of the Chart, georeferenced in track view. You could also go to the Chart itself and see the plane on the Chart, but georeferenced in North up view only. Don't forget to enable Charts in the Map Menu.

Not one in my plane, but one in my car. Gas mileage is a poor 9 mi/gal, so a 26 gallon tank. Also, a little heavy for the plane. :-).

No question that XM is better, as it should be for the money. Pay to have the work done to be able to keep it. If you have or get the Flight Stream 210 you will be able to get XM weather on the iPad, too, for no additional cost. Edit: To get XM on the iPad you need the GDL 69 or GDL 69A

Each person chooses the level of risk with which they are comfortable. A back spring failure is a single point of failure and the gear won't come down or go up with ANY procedure. It's going to be a gear up landing. Do you really want to risk family or innocent friends who don't know any better when they go flying with you over a 1 AMU cost? My answer is an emphatic NO.

These are certified airplanes and as such there are safety factors that must be used in the design. If the maximum gear down speed is 140 knots in the POH, then that is what I will use. These are performance airplanes not Cessnas. I have over 3600 hours on my Bravo, am on my second engine, and follow the book on maintenance including replacing the backspring at 1,000 hours. Tell your mechanic he should get some Mooney instruction.

With System 5.13 using Flight Charts, due to the way Garmin handled them, the old flight Charts files needed to be removed before the new ones could be downloaded. I don't have the SB handy right now on this computer. The issue was fixed with System 6.11 and contributed to my switching from Jeppesen downloads to Garmin because of the free Garmin Flight Charts with their PilotPak. I'll know if I made a mistake on my first download next month. If you time your purchase properly, you can get 14 downloads instead of 12.

For example, if you have an engine failure and know the ground elevation, pitch down until you have the greatest range on the Arc and that will be the best glide. Takes into account winds with no computations.

Dave, several issues here. First is that without Active traffic you may not receive any ADS-B (unless you have a GBT on your field) until you get high enough to receive the broadcasts, usually around 1,500 feet. So I wouldn't count on it until everyone has ADS-B Out, which will be never. Second, TIS-B is just regular radar returns from traffic that ATC sees that doesn't have ADS-B Out, so it will be much slower than the returns of the ADS-B traffic. Doesn't it take about 12 seconds per radar sweep? Also, it is my understanding that while most GBTs have TIS-B capability, not all of them have it. With regards to FIS-B weather as compared to XM weather, XM provides much more resolution over the whole country and many more products with the middle Aviator subscription than does FIS-B. For me XM is worth the money, and if you have the GDL 69A that is the one time you don't have to pay for a second subscription, since the Flight Stream 210 transmits XM weather to the iPad.

I'm now 2 ½ years into my new panel. The options for GPS now are GTN 750, GTN 650 , IFD 540, IFD 440, and the KSN 770. I wanted something everybody is buying. I wanted something that would have an easy interface to other products. I wanted something who ergonomics I really liked. I wanted something whose software would be constantly updated to bring new features to it without the need to buy a need unit. For me it was the GTN 750. It is a hybrid unit in that for many functions you can use the knob or the touch screen. I find I use the knob mostly for frequency entry. There have been several software updates since my panel was upgraded and with each one brought a slew go new great features. Because I went mostly all Garmin, there were absolutely no interface issues and the engine monitor, MVP 50, and the ESI 500 backup attitude indicator interfaced easily with the Garmin units. Also, the KFC 150 smoothly interfaced with the Garmin products. Lots of discounts were available when I bought my hardware, as they are if you purchase around Oshkosh time. Since I did my upgrade, Garmin has come out the GTX 345 Transponder that would have same me a little time and money by requiring one less piece of hardware, but after all this time I couldn't be happier with my setup. Before you start buying a lot of equipment from a variety of vendors think carefully about how many interface issues you might have by trying to go a little cheaper than the Garmin products.

If anyone is interested, I am selling all the above. They are in good working condition, having just come off of my airplane. They are being replaced with the kit used on the long body aircraft after my serial number, 27-106. Due to that kit cost I venture to say few people will be purchasing it. So, if you haven’t trained with me and you’re planning on having a gear up landing (NOT), or you want to look at the parts to remind yourself not to have a gear up landing, these parts may just be for you. Email me if interested: donkaye@earthlink.net

You still need a WAAS GPS (not in the Transponder) to fly LPV approaches. Also, I still don't think there is a Mooney G1000 solution to ADS-B IN. All in all very expensive problems to rectify.

Like I said, I have no experience with the new Avidyne products so can't personally compare. I just like the fact that I have everything available today and no interface issues, as many have working with different vendors. I also like that like Avidyne, Garmin does spend the money to continually upgrade the software in their products to give me things I didn't even know I wanted. Totally agree that the G1000 being certified with the aircraft presents real problems, unknown to me and many others when the first G1000 Mooneys came out. I really feel sorry for those non WAAS G1000 owners who are having major issues with the new ADS-B requirements. For those with those aircraft, deep pockets are going to be required.

"When it was time to upgrade my avionics I went with Avidyne. Not because I was pissed at Garmin, I really think the IFD series is a better product and just about everyone who's bought one loves it. I use the GTN650 at work and I just don't like it. I'd prefer to have a GNS product with knobs rather than a system that's primarily touchscreen based." The GTN IS a hybrid. I do most of my frequency entries via the knob. However, I am using the GTN 750 as my primary GPS. The 650 does serve its purpose for me by giving me 6 data fields on the default page, fields that I gave up by having the GMA 35 and Transponder interface to the the GTN 750. By cross filling, easy frequency call up on the 650 is possible. There are so many other useful advantages to having the 650 that I can't name them all here.