kortopates

The awaited GTN 6.51 fix is out today. Not that its important, but interestingly, it suggest the problem may have started earlier than 6.5 and in ver 6.0, as its states mandatory for for those with 6.0 through 6.5. https://s23634.pcdn.co/en-US/aviationalerts/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/1876A_ASDN.pdf

In addition to red tape on the hangar floor for the mains, which is extended with ~6' of white paint on the asphalt, I have a vertical line of red tape centered vertically on hangar back wall. Latter allows me to keep the tail lined up with the vertical tape as I continue to push the aircraft back into the hangar straight. It really helps in tight fitting hangar. I've seen some hang tennis balls from ceiling for the same effect, but one well places vertical tape on the back wall does the job easily once you know you have the main gear tires in position.

No more than what a fresh reseal provides in value - if any. I never really thought of a fresh reseal as an upgrade - its maintenance IMO. But like an engine TBO time, a fresh reseal certainly adds value given especially how we hear potential buyers discuss wanting discounts when tanks don't have a fresh reseal yet no leaks either. But I have no clue how to price it or how to separate the tangible from the intangible selling points. I just don't think an owner can go wrong maintaining their aircraft per the type certificate; including resealing their tanks. But not all modifications are considered upgrades and there is probably none more controversial than bladders which are a personal preference; especially when the owner only see 2 options: "patch or replace with bladders?" Apparently 'reseal' isn't an option with some owners....

Aeroshell 15W50 is definitely the most popular multigrade within the GA market and its the only oil we discourage using at Savvy because of it being 50% synthetic. There are advantages of synthetic oils but they don't carry over to our piston engines operated on leaded gas the way they do for automotive and turbine engines. Corrosion is the #1 reason our piston aircraft engines fail to make TBO. They don't typically wear out, they rust out; especially the owner flown fleet that tend to be flown irregularly that we belong too. Our point at Savvy is it makes more sense to use an oil that provides the best pro's and least con's for our piston engines operated on leaded gas and flown irregularly and that's where 100% mineral oil in a single weight oil such as Aeroshell W100 which provides the best corrosion protection in contrast to Aeroshell 15W50 poor anti-corrosion properties. Its is also known for leaching out Copper (see high levels of Cu in oil analysis), causing premature TCM starter adapter failures (per the folks that overhaul them) and also aggravating oil leaks. In Mike's Engine book, he dedicates a full chapter, Chapter 17 Lubrication, where he goes through the various oils and discusses these issues including all the pro's and con's as well as additives, oil consumption and oil analysis. Mike principal concerns are engine longevity and why he sticks to a single weight 100% mineral oil with Camguard with frequent oil changes and believes its one of the most important factors in enabling his engines to go way beyond TBO. But as one remarked above, these are not new formulations and what Mike is saying is not new news either, is was the same stuff I was taught in A&P school that stems from what engine re-builders have been speaking about on oils for about for as long as we've had these products.

Some great comments on agressive leaning for taxi which is good advice. But for those of you that say without you experience plug fouling often - consider that is abnormal as well. With a properly set up mixture idle adjustment you shouldn't have to lean very much and shouldn't be seeing plug fouling if you don't aggressively lean. I fly right seat in a lot of Mooney's and often see some stumble at idle or hear about plug fouling and then suspect and overly rich idle mixture. So try this at shutdown to check your idle mixture. On fuel injected engines: First idle at 1000 RPM full rich for a good 30 sec to a minute to stabilize fuel flow, then use the throttle to reduce map to minimum RPM. It should be very near 700 RPM and be able to smoothly idle. We're still full rich, but next slowly lean the mixture till it dies. Before it dies, you should see an RPM rise of 20-50 RPM for most engines. RSA (for the lyc io-360) allows 20-40 RPM rise and says even 0 rise is okay but I personally find 0 too lean. But often I see engines with 100 or more rpm rise which is way too rich - no wonder these folks complained of fouling plugs, as well as inability to go full rich for landing without engine stumble etc. Adjusting it back to spec is easy for your A&P so if that's the case for your engine get it taken care of and you should also be able idle smoothly around 700 rpm. When you do need to burn off a fouled plug for a bad mag test, as someone suggested above use 2000 rpm as the max and only in a clean area, and aggressively lean letting EGT's come up above 1400-1500F for a max of about 30 sec before CHTs get near 400F. And then go back down to a thousand rpm leaned as you may need to give it a few seconds to cool down before trying another mag check. But if it's going to clean up, that should do it, but watch temperatures while doing that. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I get it, but for me, two taps: one to close the Safe Taxi and then one to tap Freq brings me back to the frequency page list for the airport. When done, one tap to go back safe taxi diagram. If the Freq where on the diagram per the Jep 10-9 diagram I figure I would be doing the equivalent or more scrolling to find the freq in proper corner; as you are aware Jepp doesn't have a fixed place corner for where it puts the freq which varies on orientation. So after zooming in its not obvious where to scroll too which is I why I think exiting back to the freq page is more efficient. The scaling you refer too seems to be vector or dynamic graphics as opposed to raster graphics. The safe taxi diagrams are vector graphics which allow additional content to be displayed as you zoom in and out and text to remain the same size rather than change. This is generally considered superior and allows text to maintain proper orientation (when the implementer chooses too). All the IAP are using raster graphics which is not dynamic. GP provides their safe-taxi diagrams without a Jepp subscription which is great. I can't recall if Jepp geo-references the 10-9 charts since I gave up the Jepp app after GP integrated them into GP, but clearly they aren't geo-referenced in GP. But GP gets a plus while taxing since it clearly shows hold short lines as well as hot spots are areas not visible to tower. But that does nothing for your frequency issue. Sorry I couldn't be of help. Hopefully well see the expected GTN 6.51 update out next week.

And what Scott doesn't mention is he has integrated the highly interactive rucsoundings site into his weatherspork app along with everything else a pilot would want. I have the IOS skew-t app as well but this is a significant step up in functionality. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Awesome! I hope you're enjoying it as much as I did!

I know this has been a sore spot with you from prior post, but Garmin came out with their own safe taxi diagrams to provide what they thought was more comprehensive coverage and detail. This recent Garmin blog video explaining them might be of interest. https://www.garmin.com/en-US/blog/aviation/terminal-environment-safety-garmin-safetaxi/ FWIW, I am Jepp chart subscriber with GP and have never found them lacking. Oh, I just finally remembered your prior complaint was lack of frequencies on the Safe Taxi diagrams. Sorry, the video doesn't address that. I personally get the frequencies off the airport frequency page of GP or the GTN to get clearance, ATIS and taxi instructions before i start taxing and then go to the Safe-taxi diagrams for taxi navigation.

Tire talc to protect the new tubes in the new tires. Also check your air filters used in your vacuum system for when they were last replaced, at least 2 are used, one of the regulator and one at the end of the vacuum line. FWIF, Mooney specs a different grease for the wheel bearings (Aeroshell 5) than that spec'd for the gear (22)

You're still too low. You are at the bottom of TCM's range (assuming your FF is properly calibrated). Your TIT of 1400F is too high which is proof your FF is too low. To qualify that, in a modern POH a TIT of 1450 is max TIT limitation at full take-off power and you're too close at 1400F. It would be better to see your full power TITs closer to low 1300Fs. Your A&P should be targetting for a couple GPH higher at 25.2 to 25.7 GPH. To get it dialed in, you really need to take it up for a lap in the pattern, check the data and then re-adjust. You can't exactly get it to full MAP until you are accelerating down the runway and giving it a minute to climb at full power to 1000' agl will give you a minute of data for the FF to stabilize. What I do is measure it on the ground as close as I can get to full power without the cowling on and try to adjust by the how much I want to change it based on the actual in flight data, and then cowl it back up and take it for the test flight to check. Remember that unmetered fuel pump pressure for full power is just for reference to be in the ball park, Its metered fuel pressure and Fuel Flow that are primary for full power. And since you do have Fuel Flow that's really all you need for the high setting adjustment (as long as its shown to be accurate).

I said above in the first line that the Aeroshell multi-weight is 50% synthetic. Which is 50% PAO which has been shown to be unable to hold lead salts from 100LL in suspension, so they precipitate out in the form of a nasty sludge in your engine, propeller and governor. Mineral or Petroleum oil is much better at holding particulates in suspension than synthetic oil. Synthetic oil is a better lubricant with higher film strength, but the inability to hold particulate matter in suspension is its downfall so long as we are using leaded gasoline.

I was a UPS CNX480 owner as well when it first came out. It was a head of its time for GA but came with a more complicated interface then it needed to be. Can't say I miss flight plan "discontinuities' either. But Both GTN's have knobs too which can be mostly used in lieu of touch screen. I say mostly because I primarily use the knobs to dial in a frequency which I find faster than using the touch screen. But for navigation I tend to use the touch screen and don't know anything about these rumored challenges of using the touch screen in turbulence after a few years of usage. Its a new technique that anyone can pretty quickly adapt too using the side rail to hold your hand on the box and is much than the dial a letter a time technique we used before touch screens. But with Flight Stream flight plan transfer, most of us have lots of ways to update the flight plan very easily and quickly.

Eric, you really need to find yourself an A&P program and enroll. That's what I did, at a local community college that had both daytime and evening classes perfect for the working engineer by day. Then in about 2 1/2 years you'll be able to to do most of this stuff and maintain your Mooney. But in the first semester though, you'll be de-programmed to degree to learn as a practicing A&P you still won't be able to apply any of your engineering background. Generally, you have to become a Designated Engineering Representative (DER) which licenses you to be an engineer and develop "approved" data that an A&P can use. A licensed A&P is mandated to follow the methods and procedures approved by the Administrator and that is what you'll spend learning and practicing for the next couple of years of full time evening classes. But learning and following approved methods and procedures isn't such a bad thing though. And I'd bet you'd be as entertained as I was attending evenings classes. Its just a huge time sink since it's 4 out of 5 nights a week. Of course it really helps if you have such a school nearby.

Yep, your in for a huge treat with your new panel which will literally change the way you fly. If you are new to the technology; especially waas GPS and the 650, do yourself a big favor and find a CFII that is an expert in GPS and get some good instruction in how to use it with all the different RNAV GPS Approaches including navaid substitution. There is a lot more to it than just buttonology which will be the first hurdle. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Technically the aeroshell multi weight is the worst oil for our engines because it's 50% synthetic. Our engines do much better on 100% mineral oil like the Phillips x-ctry multi weight or a straight weight oil. The Phillips has no additive package so it needs Camguard added. Together they're the bets option we have. But those that want to skip the additive, then Exxon Elite is much better choice since it's only 25% synthetic with nearly identical additive package to the Aeroshell. Probably after we switch to unleaded fuel we'll see a re-introduction to purely synthetic aviation oils like Mobil 1 which was a distaster years ago because of our leaded fuel. But for now 100% mineral oil is preferred. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Iam guessing the Cherokee is fixed gear? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yes, all correct, and I am a GP user, but was following Jim’s post recommendation above to get GP to take advantage of this functionality and he just might become a convert. It’s really good stuff but I don’t know about FF support for the DB streaming support. Sorry I can’t recall if you use GP but for others it does use a fast WIFI connection to stream data and then drops that and Bluetooth’s for the normal iPad functionality (gps position, TISB and FISb). Once everything is set up it reconnects automatically on future flights. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I agree going by the F model till you can verify on your own. But the most important factor will be if you still have the original 2 blade prop or not. The 3 blade props changes it substantially since they are a big air brake. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It the long run the FS 510 should save you $$ since you won’t need to pull the SD cards to reprogram with data every 28 days. All that removal and re-insertion leads to failure needing new cards and can occur in opportune times. I understand you only have one box to update compared to my 3, but if you think Bluetoothing the data across to your box is slow, just wait till you do them manually after you take them home or bring a laptop to the plane. It’s actually quite fast even with my 3 boxes. While you were doing all that card programming you could have been taxing to the run up area, copying clearance etc. while your iPad did it for you. Also with your soon to be GTX-345 (rather than 330) you won’t want the clutter of your portable Stratus 2 anymore nor the need for the second iPad connection (FS + stratus) since your FS 510 will replace both with a more reliable system; so you can sell it and recoup a few $. That backup AHRS you were planning to get from the FS210 will still be available through the GTX-345. So you’ll still have all your bases covered. And when your done you’ll have higher resale value on your avionics with the 345. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The FS 210 with the GTN series doesn't make any sense. Look into the FS 510,which is the right one for the GTN's, and about the same cost with no installation cost and does more!

Agreed, they almost always gain weight by being re-weighed. If that was the case, it would be advantageous from a useful load basis to go back and stick to arithmetic updates only. Of course re-weighing is always an option - probably not nearly as helpful though. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I don't really recommend doing the rating in the turbo. The full power to idle in the pwr off landings are really hard on it. I know one K owner whose turbo died prematurely after completing the rating. Of course could never prove working on the rating is what caused it. The other thing is this is a really quick easy rating to get in a school rental to learn the maneuvers. Then you can practice them in the Mooney afterwards. Absolutely, you want to keep proficient in doing pwr-off landings in the Mooney - you never know when you'll need that skill. You just don't want to do dozens of them practicing for the check ride. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Down grading after all these years?! Lol Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

What kind of equipment does it have? TKS? Or AC? Those kind of things will do it. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk