kortopates

[mention=7337]Ron McBride[/mention] Mostly all instructional flights with the occasional VIP demo flight either as a sales demo or a government official. Although Soaring scheduled us to fly with our visiting US Ambassador to China, Max Baucus, I just new he couldn’t accept a ride. We did a fly by that day instead. But I still got to meet him and get photographed with him and Veronica (owner of the Meijing Group) which was one of my favorite memories. WRT to Chinese officials, they weren’t too keen on accepting rides either, but what they all wanted to do was go out to dinner after the meeting and take turns toasting drinks to each and everyone. Fond memories there too! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Soaring has a team of over 6 mechanics to maintain their relatively small fleet of Mooney Acclaims and Ovations. There not at all lacking for support when it comes to personnel. They also have a pretty good spare parts inventory but they can't stock everything and are also dependent on Kerrvile for Mooney airframe parts. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Not at all true - the Chinese government didn't put the kibosh on anything. They have been entirely supportive with building local airport infrastructure for Soaring. Their FAA equivalent is as slow as ours - but not unsupportive. It took some time but Soaring now has several Mooneys registered in China. As@KSMooniac said, their long term plan was dependent on introducing a US Mooney branded trainer to the Chinese people. Can't build on nothing. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

We continued our winter safari departing Flores Guatemala back to Mexico via Cozumel. Mexico only allows two ports of entry, excluding from the US border, which are Tapachula on the west and Cozumel on the east. We went into Cozumel so it would be easy to make additional stops in the Yucatan and Palenque. But the only real concern on this flight was realizing despite that we were going by a couple good alternate airports along the way we only had permission to land at our destination. Although if we needed too we would have declared and landed wherever, yet likely with considerable delay and added expense. We had pretty nice wx departing Flores and once again climbed on top of three different layers for a smooth ride north east to Cozumel in VMC. As we arrived and began our descent we saw we would find the forecasted 40% chance of rain in the TAF and stiffer than forecasted winds. But luckily we just went through the rain on the approach mostly over the water east of the field. The field was dry. But we encountered a very stiff direct cross wind gusting to 20 kts. Note in the picture on final, we're centered and tracking right down final, but see how crabbed we are into the wind! (At this point winds were over 30). In fairness, I should point out that I did not have to land on this runway with a direct cross wind, I could have circled to a more favorable runway - they have 4 afterall. But I always enjoy getting some good cross-wind landing practice in when opportunity presents. Being an international flight we were greeted by over a dozen officials before we finished shutting down. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Sure there are uses of ADF in many places. But none of them are truly required anymore. Take your KHBV NDB approach example, yet we find there is a GPS LPV approach to the same runway. Why would anyone fly an NDB approach anymore when we have much better options? I don’t even know of any instrument students that have even been trained in NDB approaches in last couple decades - not when a GNS430 is common on most trainers including C150s. But obviously there are still many Mooney’s without an IFR GPS and I’ve trained in many that way. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

But unless any of those fields are ONLY served by an ADF approach then they have lost their utility IMO since there are better options. Like Anthony said, that "required" ADF for the middle marker identification is just a (FAF) Gps waypoint with any IFR GPS. The irony of the lack of utility of ADF is that it's only "real" utility is that you need the ADF operational in the plane just to be "legal" to fly the ADF approach with an IFR GPS; since legally the raw ADF signal needs to be monitored while flying it with your GPS. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

We continued our winter safari from Oaxaxa south east to Flores Guatemala to visit the ruins of Tikal - site that has been on our list before but never made it on previous trips south into CenAm. Just a few months ago the aero club got gas but I still flew in with enough gas to get out. Glad I did, since I couldn't pass up taking on about 20 gallons - but at $7.24/ gal. We've been paying a little or a little more than $4/gal throughout Mex. Thankfully another boring leg of VMC cruise on top of clouds, most of the entire way. Completef by an ILS approach descending through several layers with the lowest at 1500' making for an easy approach. We were the loan GA aircraft on the ramp. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Unless you fly in Alaska, why would you want to keep an ADF? Is there even a remaining field in the Continental US only served by ADF approach - I doubt it, but interested to know. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

After our rather intense leg and diversion to Mazatlan, we enjoyed a boring (yay!) long leg to beautiful Oaxaca in the south of Mexico. Next stop Guatemala. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

i have right side brakes and love them. But then again we are two pilots, husband and wife, and I fly exclusively from the right seat - my leg or not. But to get your right brakes, if you wait for someone to contact you with a kit, I bet the odds are slim to none. If your serious, use your IPC to develop a parts list and start calling the salvage yards to find what you can. All new parts from the factory is very expensive. But the challenge is that most co-pilot side brake parts are unique except for a pair of Master cylinders so you're really looking for salvage yard that has a J or K with right hand brakes. Start with Paul Lowen's Salvage. You might also find longbody's have some of the parts you need to after you get your parts list together.

Continued our winter flying safari southbound on New Year’s Day flying from Los Mochis. We were headed for Guadalajara but it quickly turned into a wild bronco ride in IMC. Just around Culiacan we lost GPS signal on both GPS navigators. Even tried a portable with same. I found we were only receiving one satellite - one directly over head. We announced it to ATC as we set up for VOR Nav - that got the rust off fast. ATC first said a Centurion 10 mi ahead but lower was getting signal okay. Soon as he said that he came back and said the Centurion was also now not receiving GPS. I was confident we were being jammed from prior experience down here - not intentionally. Sure enough in 15-20 min we had it back. Last year we had a similar experience but it was only VFR but IMC makes it quite a bit more sporting. But the winds grew to 74 kts, mostly direct x-wind and we couldn't find an altitude through the pineapple Express we were running into. So we diverted to Mazatlan and did the ILS approach with the GS out. It was raining - not to bad, just enough to limit the vis to 3 mile. Once down, had to wait 10 min for the rain to lighten enough to open the door without totally getting drenched. No enroute pictures because of the wx, just a wet plane on the ground. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Foreflight doesn't do precise performance modeling like you seek. If you are OCD about that like Iam, then could you use Garmin Pilot like I do or for free use flightPlan.com which also does that. But with a Normally aspirated engine you'll find it makes little difference since you only fly a just a couple practical altitudes. It really doesn't make much difference till you're flying a turbo that goes faster and faster with altitude and flies any any altitude up and into the flight levels. But all apps that do model performance fully all want TAS for a given density altitude and fuel flow, and they also allow multiple entries for different % power. So you could create tables for 75%, 65%, 55% power. Nobody wants to put in IAS, since TAS represents the actual performance you expect. Accurate numbers for TAS and FF at density altitude and the apps ability to use pretty accurate forecasted winds aloft results in very close to actual times and fuel burned. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Buddy, have you tried going into Manage Paired Devices and setting your iPad connection to always automatically re-connect? Depending on what your 345 is wired too, this is done from the Connect page on the GPS or the 345 directly. But on your -R I am not sure how to get to that if it isn't wired to a GPS but should be accessible. Anyway it’s worked flawlessly on units wired to a GPS and standalone units for me. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Did you verify that on your map overlay settings that you have ADS-B nexrad etc selected and not internet? Not sure how to in FF, but you should be able to go to an Ads-b status page to verify how many Ads-b towers you are receiving from (you don't need any to receive air to air traffic). Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Nah, nothing to do with rotating the prop by hand or by power strokes or forwards vs backwards by hand. More to do with need for regular mag servicing every 500 hrs or 5 years. The nylon/deldrin gear gets fragile from ozone damage which can be accelerated by internal arcing (misfire). Also sudden stoppage, like a prop strike, can rip the teeth off instantly. Opening them up annually to inspect and complying with the 500 hr/5yr IRAN is the best defense to avoid such surprises. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Started a vacation trip southbound today. First leg to Los Mochis. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

What was the total climb time? Do you recall how many inches of MP you had at the top? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Reach out to Jimmy Garrison of All American to find out what he's valuing them in the fleet today. I don't really know, but I got 6K each from my avionics shop when I upgraded to the GTN's a few years back. So probably more than you think. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Have you tried your GDL-39 on the back seat? Mine works really well there - even on the floor after unusual attitude recovery practice! None of the others seem to have as good of reception than the Garmin in my experience. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Sorry no, but good chance you might be able to find out looking in your Mooney IPC.

Nah, there is no equivalent to the TRSA under ICAO rules and we have very few of them. Kinda like an Optional Class C or where participation is not mandatory.

TRSA’s are neither Class B nor C, in fact talking to the TRSA controller is optional but highly recommended. Without ADS-B in addition to avoiding Class B and C veils, you must also remain below 10K (unless under 2500’ agl). Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

What was Garmin's solution - you didn't say yet? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Perhaps that’s true with some older models, but definitely not on modern Mooney’s. The relays and lights are on different CB’s than the actuator which is the only CB you want to pull. Plus you really want to see the light, when you have it, to ensure you have the right amount of compression on the gear springs - otherwise not hard to overdue it and start bending things. What year/model of yours doesn’t have the lights on it’s own circuit? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The cards do fail, and commonly right after re-installing the card after updating. If the card is still good though, you'll be able to re-write the database to it on your PC. If its failed, you'll get errors trying to do so. If you need a new card, Jepp was the only source back when I was still using these years ago. Garmin support can help you get it sorted out pretty quickly. Incidentally, over the decade I used these, I never once updated the Terrain database. Nor did I know anyone that did. Scorched earth just doesn't change enough. But then Garmin started offering bundles of databases when the GTN's came out, and that's when folks started updating terrain. But Navdata is really all you need till you go to the newer GTN's.