BorealOne

Here in the Great White North, I install my oil cooler cover in October and leave it in place until April or so. Winter variation in temps between -30C and +10C. Frankly, the baffle doesn't do a lot for oil temps - maybe 10ºF on a good day? - so I've never had a concern leaving it in place until we are back in the +teens. Major PITA to take off the cowl to pull it out/put it in, but I wouldn't be in a hurry to cut a hole in the cowling to fix what for me is a twice/year event coinciding with oil changes.

I'm consistently seeing 168 30 LOP at 9000' at 2400 RPM - scimitar prop, 310 HP, TKS.

Turns out replacing the Model 90033 belly strobe with a Whelan Orion 500V02 in the tail strobe location is a legit alternative. I've just had that work done, and it's a much better (more visible) alternative to stock.

There's one other possibility - failure of the attachment of the rod end bearing to the flap sheet metal. Ask me how I know

Great - keep me posted. I'm wondering if the Whelan Orion 500V02 in the tail strobe location is a legit alternative? Any one done the research on that? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Aft belly light. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Anyone tried out one of the LED anti-collision lights yet? What options are there out there for Ovations?

Just got my bird back from the shop. I had similar symptoms, which developed slowly over time. The yoke switch would run fine on the ground, but would intermittently fail in the air, usually on approach. The flight director would run the trim just fine, but then started to blow through ALT holds. Turned out to be the clutch on the pitch servo. The forces in certain flight configurations would overcome the clutch, while the motor remained engaged. Rebuild was required.

i use a little white lithium grease on the threads. Still tight, but not the PITA it once was.

I got my quote this am for my insurance renewals. I'm glad I was sitting down. I was quoted nearly $4500 this year for COPA VIP Gold coverage (which is by far the most popular aviation insurance package in Canada, sponsored by our affiliate of AOPA) with $250k (CAD - or about $190k USD) hull motion/not-in-motion + $2M smooth coverages for my Ovation. This is up by $600 over last year. I didn't think was me: I've got over 2000h TT, with over 1800h in high performance retractables, 1300h of that in my Ovation. I'm IR current and proficient. No claims or violations. So I asked, and was advised: " there’s been a rate increase on all retractable gear aircraft. Mooney’s specifically have consistently poor loss experience. We've taken your experience into account to minimize the impacts on your rates. " Anyone else getting similar quotes or rationales for rate increases?

CUPHOLDERS!

The O3 numbers are a bit better than book in take-off performance, and pretty close in cruise. Like Greg, 175 kts LOP is what I expect in my TKS 310hp STC Ovation. I've never flown a similarly equipped O3 without TKS, but rumors are that it might be 1-2 kts faster at the same power settings.

In addition to my Tanis engine and battery warmers, I use an Aerotherm unit in my cabin when the temps are below about -10C. I place it on the floor near the left seat, with the 'blow' directed up into the instrument panel and the 'suck' directed under the seat. It is thermostat controlled, so I don't worry about leaving it plugged in overnight. It does an excellent job of keeping things room-temp in the cabin under the covers, even when it's frightfully cold outside. As to condensation issues mentioned by Jeff_S, as any Northerner knows, they occur in any event and will be worse if you don't use cabin heat, and simply get in and try to warm the cabin while breathing in an enclosed space. Much better to warm things in advance absent your input of humid heat.

Just dropped off my plane for an annual, and noticed that I've logged 1201h with her. Time flies when you are having fun!

What Anthony said. x2. Had it done as part of a TBO engine swap. Incremental cost to go 310 in that context made it a no-brainer.

There's an awesome dedicated forum on that topic at: https://www.backcountrypilot.org/forum

The one that still gets my heart racing is the time I nearly lost it over the Laurentians. I was enroute from Ottawa to Goose Bay, flying in the clear at 15,000 through a thick deck over the Gulf of St. Lawrence when my wife texted me to make a stop in Sept-Iles to pick up a passenger. "No problem-o" I replied, and obtained a clearance from ATC for the approach into CYZV, which was 3M and OVC010 at the time. I switched off the ALT hold mode on the autopilot, and initiated a 500/min descent down through a thick stratus deck that will be very familiar to East Coast fliers - thick as soup and full of ice, but no turbulence. Somewhere around 11,000 I experienced an intense feeling of spatial disorientation. I did my scan, trusting that my instruments would set me straight, only to discover that there was about a 30º and widening difference in roll indications between my vacuum driven KI-256 flight director and my standby electric AI. As I puzzled this, my airspeed was edging up into the yellow, my altitude indicator started to unwind, and the VSI began a precipitous drop... I uncoupled the autopilot, and felt the controls unload significantly. At some level, I grasped that the vacuum had failed, that the KI-256 was precessing, and that the autopilot was just doing its best to keep up as it put us into a spiral dive. But in real life, I was far to focused on trying to get airspeed under control (now well into the red) so that I could roll back level and try to pull out of the dive. The VSI was pegged at -2000 FPM, the altimeter was unwinding like a broken clock, and I could hear the wind roaring over the now idling engine and over ATCs repeated calls to "SAY ALTITUDE" as I plummeted towards the mountains below. It felt like a lifetime, but I finally rolled level and brought my descent under control, still in IMC, at about 2000' - well below the MSA. I swore profoundly in both official languages, and informed ATC that I would not be stopping in Sept-Isles after all, as I didn't think that I could manage an approach. My wife met me at the airport in Goose a few hours later. She told me that she'd been following my progress on Flightaware, and thought that my descent looked a "little funny". Yeah, it certainly was.

And a few more - last weekend from CYVQ (Norman Wells) through the Sahtu region north of Great Bear Lake and over the barren grounds to the Nunavut border. Little known fact - when you are this far North, you can see the curve of the earth

CYXY (Whitehorse) to CYZF (Yellowknife) on Friday morning. Departed 0515 am under an aurora borealis, climbed out of the Yukon River valley and turned on course over the mountains. Then climbed through cloud layers and a few snow squalls to 15,000, where I flew east over the cloud deck into the early colors of dawn. The skies opened up over Nahanni National Park and the Mackenzie River, treating me to a fantastic few of the Nahanni ranges.

I posted my thoughts on Northern survival kits a while back. I've not really changed my theory, although I have updated some of the gear.

I'm with the 6 q crowd in my O.

I fly an 'O' with the 310hp mod, so my profile won't help you, but other Ovation owners flying LOP may find it useful. It's usually accurate for predicting fuel burn by +/- 1g. Fltplan username: linnes, aircraft CGJOG

As above, I'd suspect intermittent leaks. Check the joints at the belly and the slinger nozzle at the prop, which occasionally gets chewed off. That's been the answer to every TKS issue I've had. If the system has a low pressure point due to a leak, it will not work as designed.