donkaye, MCFI

There are 6 bays per side in the Bravo, less in the J.

With their stripping machine, which I saw and is quite interesting, Paul said the actual job should take 2 weeks with a third week having the airplane sit with fuel to check for leaks. In talking to him yesterday, my plane seems to be on schedule for that time frame.

There were significant reasons that I chose not to go with Houston Tank Specialists not the least of which was a significant price difference, more than all the expenses of going to Minnesota. I got 3 bids before I decided to go with Weep no More. The extra flying that I did was from Kerrville to Willmar, about 900 nm. The distance from BDH and the Houston airport to SJC is about the same. We had a great time in Minneapolis, spending several days at the Mall of America. I still need to pick up the plane in a couple of weeks.

Where there's a will there's a way. It's a 2 hour drive from Willmar to Minneapolis. That's the extent of the "hard to get to" from Texas. Paul even lent me his truck. Remember, I flew there from Kerrville, Texas. We'll see how it goes going the other way, but I have a potential student in Chicago who wants some training in his new Acclaim, who offered to fly to Willmar when the plane is ready for pickup.

Between $11,000 to $13,000 depending on who you use. Get bids from all who specialize in full tank reseals. Not the time to try someone with little experience. Mine are being resealed right now at Weep no More in Willmar, MN. I live in California, so that should tell you what I think of them.

I paid $13,675 for my GTN 750, then got a Garmin rebate of $1,125. So that makes it $12,550.

After Homecoming last week, I flew up to Willmar and dropped my plane off for a complete tank reseal. There were 5 or 6 airplanes in their heated hangar. I had allowed several extra days in case weather was an issue getting to Willmar. There was no weather, so I got to Willmar on Monday Morning. We, therefore, had several days to see Minneapolis. What do you do in Minneapolis for several days? Why see the Mall of America, of course. After a short discussion, Paul gave us his truck. He had another client coming in on Friday, and he said they could drive the truck back. We drove the 2 hours to a point near the airport and I fortuitously took the wrong exit. By doing so I accidentally found the Country Inn that just happened to a short walk to the Mall. They also provided shuttle service to the airport. Shirley and I walked miles during those 2 days last week and got to know the Mall pretty well. I'll be heading back in a couple of weeks to pick up my plane. Bottom line: So far those are great guys. They will be taking over another hanger next month, as they are now a Mooney Service Center. PS: We had lunch with Bruce Yeager last Monday. He was working in another hanger doing an interior.

First, a safe homebrew approach cannot be programmed into the GTN. There would be no vertical guidance signal output. But even more important there would be no scaling down from the enroute scaling of 2 nm full scale. Regarding other features I like: 1. If you have the GMA 35/35c audio panel, nearly all control of the GTN can be done without touching the GTN with the Telligent verbal commands. 2. Large screen. Quite a bit larger than the Avidyne IFD 540. 3. Blended traffic display of both Active (GTS 800) and Passive traffic (GDL 88 or GTX 345), but most important is the TargetTrend display of relative motion of the traffic. 4. Stormscope display, XM radio, XM weather or FIS-B weather display. 5. Database Concierge for download and automatic upload of all databases from the iPad through the Flight Stream 510. No more Computer database transfers required. 6. Ease of loading Departure Procedures from any runway and their depiction along with Flight Plans, and Airways, and Approaches. 7. Flight plan transfer both directions, from or to the iPad. 8. If wanted, hands off AP control of the whole flight from shortly after takeoff to shortly before landings including any holding patterns that could be thrown at you. 9. Known interface to Garmin transponders, G500, Stormscope, most traffic boxes, the GDL 69 audio and weather box and Shadin fuel. Basically any interface you can think of. 10. Thoughtless, simple Menu that a kindergartener could learn without even knowing how to read. 11. Many more things that I can't think of at the moment. There is nothing I can think of that I would want to do or information that I would want to have that I can't do or get with the GTN 750. Same with the 650, but with a smaller screen.

I haven't used an Avidyne product so couldn't comment on it. I have used Garmin products so just answered the questions.

create my own gps approach to an airfield if t doesnt have one (ie my own base airport) with vertical guidance and store this for future use. NOT LEGAL IN THE US be able to say i want to go from a-b via airways and have it fill in the airways in between. GTN WILL DO THIS then via my ipad file that as a flight plan or vice versa GTN WILL DO THIS VIA GARMIN PILOT fly holds (im crap at manually flying them, arent we all) GTN CAN DO THAT fly a plan on ap without me touching a thing and load radio frquencies into standby for the airspace sector i am in (big ask i know) GTN CAN DO THE AP THING WITH A GPSS MODULE OR G500 OR ASPEND WITH AP MODULE. I CAN LOAD ARTCC FREQUENCIES, NOT APPROACH FREQUENCIES. on the approach section have a VERY simple interface that allows me to route SID or vectors GTN CAN DO THAT load frequencies for the one above as required into standby GTN CAN DO THAT have a stormscope hidden somewhere in the plane and display the storms as required on the screen of the device (don't think i can get weather in europe yet any other way) GTN CAN DO THAT automatically load the go around, and display onto the Flight Director as required. GTN CAN DO THAT be able to define airports i can land at, concrete, xxx length. GTN CAN DO THAT auto flick to taxi help on landing. On takeoff have this feature as an easy to fnd turn on feature and have it auto off once speed reaches 40 knots for example. GTN AN DO THAT interface with sandel or aspen if required in the future. DON'T KNOW ABOUT SANDEL, BUT WILL INTERFACE WITH THE ASPEN be future proof, its 15k for gauds sake, i dont want to have to rip it out in 10 yrs because its worthless. GTN IS UPDATED ONE OR TWO TIMES A YEAR database upgrades to be a simple load onto a card and install. Currently i have a special PC thats sole function is to update the gps db via an interface cable and rs 232. GTN CAN DO THAT 8.33mhz transmission / receive capability GTN CAN DO THAT

If it is in direct sunlight, the 796 slows down and becomes unresponsive. That has been my experience since day 1 of ownership. Keep it out of direct sunlight even if it means covering it with a shield.

Call Joe at Ariel Avionics at Reid Hillview Airport. Tell him Don Kaye recommended you call him.

When Bob Goldin was teaching the Mooney PPP he spent some time discussing the Top Comp Computer. You can get one here. It is slightly more conservative than actual performance, so is very good to use. While it can be adapted for turbocharged airplanes, (Bob went over it with me many years ago) it was too complicated for that and I don't remember how to do it. http://www.sportys.com/pilotshop/takeoff-performance-computer.html

The fastest I have ever done and Instrument rating was 8 days with an exception student. On the accelerated program it's usually 11 days. The written should already have been done. I'm close to you, but I won't do it in a Cirrus. I haven't flown them enough. I personally like to do the whole flying part in an airplane. A sim just isn't realistic enough for me. I also like to do it in as much weather as is available. It a lot easier if you use your own airplane. Rental airplanes just always seem too have problems.

Why not continue on with Max?

While i like the G1000/GFC 700, I wouldn't own an airplane with one after seeing what has happened to those Mooneys with the G1000. The airplane is certified with a specific type of G1000 and can only be updated by the manufacturer, not Garmin. So, if the manufacturer chooses not to do any upgrades like Mooney and Beech, you are left with an out of date and vastly depreciated airplane. The latest model Mooney doesn't have the avionics capability of even my airplane.

I think the degree to which someone upgrades their airplane depends on several things. Desire complemented with the financial capability to follow through, the stage of life one is at, or, of course, necessity if something is broken and so outdated as to be uneconomical to repair. My decision included all the above. When my EFIS 40 Symbol Generator went South, the cost to repair the 20 year old technology was beyond imaginable. I never gave much thought to buying a different airplane. My type of flying doesn't require a jet, although it was fun getting my Citation Type rating, and while I like and have flown in the PC 12 and TBM, except for the pressurization, again my type of flying didn't make those exciting either. On the other hand the new technology and interface of Gamin's products were very much enticing. I did spend 3 solid months investigating most everything certified in the market at the time, and read every owners manual. Luckily, I had flown with most of the individual equipment in various student's airplanes, although no one had everything I was looking at. Finally, choosing the right shop was all important to me. I wanted someone who was as excited about doing the job as I was in having it done. I found that in Peter at J and R Electronics in Livermore. It's been 2½ years now, and for awhile after it was completed I said I would not change a thing. But technology has moved ahead, and over time I moved with it. So, I first swapped the ESI 2000 for the ESI 500 for a big increase in backup capability. Then, I never liked the green screen display or angular viewing range of the GTX 330ES transponder, so I swapped that for the GTX 335 with its white display and better menu interface. Then the GMA 35 audio panel went for the GMA 35c with its bluetooth interface. Finally, for the present, the last addition will be the Flightstream 510 substantially discounted for owners of the Flightstream 210. All of this replaced equipment went to good homes with very little monetary loss. The yearly software upgrades to the Garmin hardware have been incredibly valuable. I thank Avidyne for keeping Garmin on their toes. I really feel lucky to be here at this time to be able to make use of this fabulous equipment to go along with my joy of flying Mooneys. It is exciting to think about some future item that will be coming along that I will want but can't know that I want now, but will snap up when it becomes available.

The equipment and labor costs were over $100,000 but after rebates and sales of equipment the overall cost was a little more than the $75,000 all in. I did get an exceptional price on the labor, however. Now compare that to a new airplane that doesn't have near the equipment that I have, and you see that the upgrade cost makes the resultant airplane an unbelievable bargain.

I actually got a very good price on my upgrade. The downside was that it took 6 months.

That's unrealistic. I don't do that. I just have the student close their eyes for about a minute and fly the plane, then I take the airplane and put it into a more unusual attitude.

I have the GTX 335 and checked the lighting on the buttons tonight. They all lit up. You either have a settings issue or a wiring issue. The buttons should all light at night.

You can get the Garmin GTS 800 active traffic for $9,300 (That's what I paid). if you buy when Garmin has rebates, then it would cost even less. That's not much more than the cost stated above. Also, with the GTX 345 and GTS 800 you will get TargetTrend, one of the most valuable benefits of the Garmin package.

Does it interface with your autopilot? Where did you hear about it?

Who makes it? I have't seen one of those. Commercial or Experimental?

Trend is shown in magenta for Airspeed, Altitude, Turn rate, so acceleration is displayed for glass. For the Commercial Maneuvers, I agree, the legacy instruments are more of an assist.