bradp

There was some interesting weather over the weekend. I decided to bag a flight the next day (Pittsburgh to Princeton) with IMC and a cold front moving through with that embedded moderate stuff that you don't know if it will develop vertically or stay at FL200. It ended up developing into lots of embedded convective activity- a definite no go for me In addition during summer weather consider going up high in IMC. It gives you that many more options should the fan go quiet. Bag the victor airways if possible and fly your route over airports - I do both these when flying VFR over rough terrain (WVa mountains for instance).

+1 for considering not having a cover. I had mine outside for three years and airport construction dust blew up under hr cover (they are never dust tight) and acted like sandpaper on my poor 35 year old windows.

The space shuttle used power for both airspeed and altitude. ;-)

^^ That. They are asking for entirely too much percent of actual value for a plane that has logs missing (and were not talking a single logbook from 30 years ago) and hasn't flown at all. I'd consider the risk if they offered it for 55k and you did due diligence up down and sideways.

This was most likely the examiner making a point that the aircraft for the ride was a technically advanced aircraft (TAA). He wants you to know the systems of the aircraft inside and out. If it had TKS or a turbo installed, you may have just as easily been grilled on the functionality and failure modes of either of those technologies even though the pessimist in me thinks he may have reacted the same way many of us did when hearing about a primary student doing primary training in a Cirrus and he was going to grill you (and your CFI, indirectly) for it. If it makes you feel any better my IR hours building buddy failed his IR check ride because he couldn't maintain separation from cloud in VMC coming back from his check ride ride over a ridge. The ride was essentially passed, but he did something dumb and pushed it showing poor ADM. This was before the decision making emphasis that the new standards are based on. The DPE is one of the most reasonable guys I met, and gave him an out before he saw a problem coming, but the examinee nonetheless took the bait and caused a bust. He is also lucky he didn't have any action as I believe he caused a loss of separation for anther IFR flight above him coming over the same ridge (which he could not see). My buddy was bummed like you'd never imagine with his pink slip, but he picked himself up and brushed himself off and retook the test showing good ADM. He went on to do the commercial and his CFI rides with the same examiner. This same examiner made me draw the workings of a constant speed prop and a propeller governor on a whiteboard during my oral even though I hadn't even been in the cockpit of a high performance or complex aircraft. I think it was because I was running my mouth about something else and flying though the exam showing off how much I knew. Alright smart guy - draw. Lesson learned - answer the question and no more and no less. Continue forward. You're almost there. Study up again and prepare even more. You'll get it. He also gave you a great hint. Calling off a flight for a good reason shows good ADM (maybe the weather was marginal or the winds were squirlly). Next time if something comes up with the plane or the weather or whatever, still use your get out of jail card if you need to. It shows good ADM.

I had a discussion with my hangar neighbor the other day talking about lighting. I was about to run a sync wire from each wing to the cabin to pre wire for whenever my old Hoskins power supply decides to off itself. We discussed whether having synchronized anti collision lighting would be beneficial or harmful compared to random flashes. Two things we agreed on: -There may be a benefit to keeping lights not synchronized. Human eye / brain perceives random patterns as more attention getting than something with a pattern. - There may be more of an AMP draw on the alternator if even if low current LEDs are synced for that 1 sec that they flash together. - I now feel better about my weird looking single flash on the right wing and comet flash on the left being more attention getting What do you all think? -Brad

Some mention of tail stringers....

Clearly it could have benefited from M20Doc looking at it....

Left leaning cities have red light districts. That how I remeber. I love leaving my landing light in all the time now.

Um that's about the scariest maintenance item I've seen on the board.

I am unfamiliar with the collins Nav radio and indicator workings. I recently had the exact symptoms in my KI-209 / KX-170B setup, so I'll share. In my case the Nav radio delivers a signal to the indicator and the indicator does the decoding. Because it was receiving the GS/LOC fine, the radio itself was working correctly. The problem was traced to a dirty POT in the KI-209. Cleaned and the indicator is working properly. Buyer beware it may be more cost-effective in the long term to invest in new equipment rather than throwing money at a recurring problem. That will be for you to decide. I was charged 1 hr to R&R the indicator, 4 hrs of bench time. Remember that avionics shops charge 80-100/hr. That's a significant investment in very old equipment, but it's backup for me and I wanted it working, so I bought myself another several years, hopefully. Fortunately, my KI-209 is compatible with modern GPSs, so when it comes time to replace the 170B, the indicator may be reused.

Fun weekend with family at a campsite in western Virginia. Flew KFWQ to KLYH with good examples of markedly unstable atmospheres and thunderstorm avoidance planning. We were still able to make our trip with relatively minimal delays in general aviation terms (couldn't make it Sunday night so came back Monday morning). This was the first family flight since: - New control surfaces - New paint - Annual - New windows - Mostly refurbished interior (leather and trim pieces need to be finished, but plastic and carpet is done). It was really hot and humid in the Mid Atlantic this weekend. Convinced wife that DIY cooler air conditioner is a good idea for the sake of the puppy- that will be the next project. On the way down we left at 1pm instead of my plan for 10am. If the flight was any more than 1:17, I would probably have bagged it as we started seeing increasing buildups to the west and had one giant thunderstorm that was considering crossing our flight plan route. There was a scattered layer at about 7k, so I got up above at 9.5k so I could see buildups a bit better. Usually I stay lower with the kid in the back. I used the cloud top tool in the flightplan Go app to measure tops in the 50k range for one particular isolated cell. Fortunately, it was big enough to rain itself out and started dissipating by the time we arrive and stayed far enough west that it was no factor. Otherwise, we'd have needed to head out east and go around or divert to another favorite destination, Charlotesville. Had a great time at a campsite in natural bridge Virginia with the family. Piled 8 adults and 5 kids into my in-laws RV. I got put on campfire cooking duty in 95+ degree heat - the only cure for my ailment was cold beer. There was a small lake, a pool, a water slide and a spash area for the kids. Lots of hokie family activities that were tons of fun. Good eats (cooked our own stuff outdoors or in the RV). This is my second trip with our family in our in-laws RV and I can really get used to AC at night :-). Coming back home was more thunderstorm avoidance. I was waiting for a break in between two areas of convection associated with a trough during the morning hours. Then we were getting toward the afternoon hours, TAFs calling for VCTS along the entire route of flight starting at about 2pm. I wanted to be on the ground by about then. Made the decision that weather was plenty VFR and I had enough diversion pionts and outs that we'd go up and take a peak and departed around noon time. East of the Blue Ridge was clear and without buildups. Really angry stuff developing to the west. First time I've seen so much water content and heat that there were discrete areas of 'extreme' precip as called out by ATC with tops ~20k. Did zigging and zagging around buildups, importantly remaining in VMC, and keeping many options for landing with a swath of clear air to the east at all times. Got to the greater Pittsburgh area and was unsure if we'd make our destination before another line of cells arrived. Initially we were thinking MGW would be an option for diversion, but the coast ahead towards Latrobe was clear and is about a 8 min flight from my home base of FWQ. We flew to Latrobe and headed west towards the dark stuff. Could easily see the line of precip still to the west and the field was VMC, so proceeded with the plan to turn around if we couldn't make the home base with margins. Uneventful landing. Hangar door motor tripped when I tried to open it. Got soaked, had to ask the airport manager to come out to reset it. The foreflight screen shot below was after we landed - just to show how the afternoon was progressing but isn't reflective of what we encountered. It does go to show how fast build ups can mature, however. Great trip and good flying overall. This was a lesson in how to proceed in an unstable atmosphere with caution and making sure that there are Plans A, B, C and out A, B, C. The value of IMC avoidance during these summer days can't be underestimated. Mark 1 eyeballs cannot be overestimated. Take care, -B

Firmware updates are relatively easy to accomplish in your cockpit. Sometimes it is updated by electron fairies. What JPI puts out may be hit or miss, so make sure that you see some early adapters have had good experiences before updating the software. With your trusty A&P, of course... http://www.beechtalk.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=61509

I learned a lot from this thread: -Brad

The best annuals I've had have either been with MSCs who know and care or with the local IA who also knows and cares. The former was not an owner assist and the later was an owner assist. There have been other MSCs whom I wouldn't let maintain my kid's bicycle. Often large shops interested in bigger planes with "techs", A&Ps and an overseeing IA / manager. In this circumstance it seems like people are learning how to wrench in general and it just happens to be my plane they're learning on. I just happen to be paying the same shop rate regardless. In another instance I was AOG at a non-MSC shop and got the BS double the number of hours charged to RR a component because "Moonies are hard to work on" where I knew I could do the same task to an airworthy quality standard in the same number of hours. It's a mixed bag in aviation maintenance. If not a Yelp for mx shops, we at least need a referral list on the site for people who we know and trust. We don't need every dirty bit of laundry aired out, but we do need a roladex.

If you have a master warning test button and it is a "chirp chirp chirp" like your gear warning, it comes from the same speaker as the gear warning and can be tested on the ground. One sonalert is solid tone and the other is intermittent.

To upgrade from the G5 to the G500 just add two zeros on to the G5 model's price and there ya go. The only way I can see removing the vacuum system would be an Aspen / G500 setup to drive an autopilot. Now ... If these trutrack APs find their way into Moonies, there could be many fewer vacuum pumps. Dont think this is the right thread to go into the pluses and minuses of all electric w/battery backup vs vacuum mechanical gyro debate. B

My favorite happens to be a brand B. Coolest looking modern twin (to me) is brand R.

I had the same thing happen on a flight yesterday. Similar behavior 2 months ago. Breaker kept popping. I had brought it to have it looked at for this issue. Trim jack screw well lubed. Motor functional. Chased to down to a short to ground either at the switch or panel/ CB and then something got wiggled behind the CB panel such that the problem couldn't be reproduced. The shop said if it happened again to bring it back and they would trouble shoot the issue or replace the CB. It's now still an intermittent gremlin, but consistently intermittent. I will say that it is shorting proximal to the yoke switch and proximal to the trim on/ off flip flop switch. Tracing wires looks like not so much fun. Brad

I was just fixing my light bulb on the floor gear indicator tonight. What a great / simple contraption.

There may be a higher rate of interest in the unit / total number of aircraft produced for the Mooney compared to the C172. How many of those Cessnae are used for primary training where an autopilot is of little value? Among cross country machines like Moonies, how many would benefit from a useful autopilot? I'd argue many. The impediment has been the lack of value in putting a 15k +5k install autopilot into a 40k airframe makes almost no financial sense except for the owners perceived value from a safety or convenience standpoint. This could be popular Among the M20 airframe owners.

You'll see in particular that there is a straight shot from the floor gear indicator to FW fwd and the nose gear well. There are also gaps around the center console. When I recently took down my carpet I was surprised to see several gaps where the duct tape was no more. Replace with aluminum foil tape. There is fire resistant reinforced stuff (expensive) on McMaster Carr but that may be overkill. We have a steel cage and a through spar but everything else seems to be held together with duct tape.

As Byron states Turn and Bank or TC can be gotten rid of if you have an attitude indicator that drives your autopilot.

Shock mount issue resolved.

I've replaced my panel mounts twice with the lord mounts. Seems like they start sagging right away. I've seen some non approved similar offerings from our friends at McMaster Carr that have similar or improved elastic properties.