kortopates

Since you have different Keys for the baggage and door, that's something your locksmith can fix for you by re-keying one them so both baggage and door use the same key. I should add a cautionary reminder for all on their ignition key. Folks need to be careful duplicating their ignition key. Its not legal or airworthy to use a generic HomeDepot/Lowes/Etc key blank, it should be done only with a Bendix key blank for a Bendix ignition lock. This has actually led to some fatal accidents over the years including one at my home field with a flight school, which is how I learned about this. The issue is that some of these duplicated keys may allow removing the key without it being in the Off/Locked position. If so, eventually the key will be removed without turning the ignition off and then you or someone moves to the nose and moves the prop before pushing or pulling the plane with the p-leads still ungrounded and the engine fires with prop causing lethal injuries. Be sure to check your duplicated keys for this danger and discard any that allow that.

All true about the locksmith, but it’s only a $7 cabinet lock, nothing Mooney specific. If you’re going to pull it out the only reason not to replace it would be the need to pay the locksmith to re-key a new one or not wanting to replace both locks keyed the same. They don’t last forever. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

To be fair, the ILS is your only precision approach capability with a non-waas GPS. If you had WAAS, GPS LPV might be preferred and it’s LOC or GS never go out of service. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I teach GPS manual holding with the OBS (and arcing) that of course works with any IFR GPS to ensure they can use OBS. But without that, most don’t have a clue how to intercept GPS radials. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The Dynon HDX supports multiple navigation sources beyond just GPS. It integrates with VOR, ILS, and other traditional navigation systems. You just need to include a GPS with NAV/COM or another NAV/COM radio. You won't need the display heads. Although its legal to fly IFR only with GPS, i personally things its nuts! The GPS signal is very weak and easily jammed. I may laugh at losing GPS signal from someone jamming while VFR but when it happens in IMC its a very serious matter, No way am I launching without it. Only my opinion but it seems careless and reckless to place such confidence in GPS always being there for you.

Its also possible the seat is the culprit if the frame is cracked and not allowing the pins to line up to the hole or even an issue with the pin mechanism. Its not the end of the world if the seat rails need to be replaced. They are available and job is very doable, even more so on a manual gear without the electric gear in the way. I've replaced all 4 of mine.

Agreed, one great opportunities with the sim is to practice both VFR and IFR emergencies and system failures. Like loosing the engine IMC or VFR, and flying IFR with failed instruments. These are more easily conducted as dual sim time i.e. with an instructor doing a rehearsed scenario. But pilot with their own sim can also accomplish a lot of this; especially with the programming capabilities of the Redbird. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

They can be very helpful during training and for maintaining proficiency. But they don’t count for logging training time nor for currency. So most, if you’re going to spend the time on a sim anyway, would prefer to use a sim legal for logging approaches like a Redbird. I have had several students that own a Redbird and it really helped them. I also teach an advanced IFR class at the local college on the Redbirds so i really believe in there use. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You are very right. I believe the vast majority of IFR accidents are exactly those pilots that take such a casual attitude towards their training and currency claiming they only need to be able to fly in "light IFR". Of course there is no such thing. The bottom line is that pilot that isn't current and proficient has no business filing IFR and launching on an IMC flight. They should get with an instructor (or safety pilot if able) and get IFR proficient before flying in IMC. What we see is that they are often only one unexpected event away from having an accident. Many of the accidents we see are pilots that are far from being IFR legally current and of course no where near IFR Proficient. Doing 6 approaches in the last 6 months, despite being IFR legally current, its no where near enough to be IFR proficient; especially for a low time IFR pilot. But we see instrument rated pilots try to keep their head in the game by filing IFR as much as they can - which is great practice but no where near enough. They may feel they can rely on their autopilot for some "light IFR" if needed but then for whatever reason the pilots finds conditions more challenging than expected, fall behind and have a loss of control. Take this twin accident for example which happened in my local area. The pilot was so confused by the circling maneuver at MYF, which is a common occurrence anytime a low moves through giving us a good surface wind out of the south. It really makes you wonder if he ever circled to 23 as a VFR maneuver without a ceiling before the tragic flight. Its clear though on the radio that his anxiety of how to circle to 23 and expecting he needed a clearance to land on 23 before he started the approach distracted him from getting established on the ILS for 28R. (only the tower can clear you to land after you've crossed the FAF and talking to them - not the controller). I have essentially the same panel he did and it should have been easy to get all that set up on the AP. It was after all an approach he had done many many times - but per his logbook he had never practiced a circling approach with his equipment even though its an IPC requirement. But the distraction allowed him to fall behind the aircraft. You'd think the conditions shouldn't have been that challenging because it was mostly broken ceilings in the accident area, (he had already done the hard flying over the mountains). But going in and out of the clouds and be very distracting and allow a low time pilot to forget the need to go back to basics and focus on the instruments to level wings and hold heading. It can sucker you into looking out the window wondering if you might be able to get down VFR. While he was losing control unable to heed the controller instructions he never thought to use his Blue Level button on his Garmin AP to level the wings; especially right after the controller just instructed to level the wings and climb (he had terrain higher than him very close). The more recent accident in Simi Valley is an example of an another pilot that appears wasn't even IFR legally current from reviewing his flight aware history. Since January, the pilot had done 7 IFR flights but only 2 of them included approaches, with two each totaling 4 approaches in the last 5 months. But we have no idea if any actually counted or whether they involved any actual past the FAF or if he was under the hood with a safety pilot. Of course we don't know if he may have logged some approaches on a sim to be legal, all we know is that he wasn't proficient enough to get established on the approach; somewhat similar to the Doctor flying the twin. Instrument flying is the fastest pilot skill to perish. The shorter the experience level of the pilot the faster the skills are lost and harder it is to get them back since the basic instrument skills are not as well engrained. Getting an instrument rating is very large undertaking, but its just a license to learn since keeping current is then a life long endeavor of constant practice. The FAA places virtually all of the requirements for maintaining currency on the honor system. No one will care or even notice if a pilot is not maintaining currency until the accident investigation, and then it will mean nothing if the pilot perished except for your heirs being sued. If we're going to fly in IMC conditions we need to take our proficiency seriously; not just currency.

Flight planning with winds can be finicky since a small change in direction can make a large change in ground speed. Add in that although forecast winds can be fairly accurate they are far from perfect in magnitude and direction. So often even if my EFB suggest a lower altitude, on longer flights most often i’ll check out higher altitudes before i give up on them. If the airspace and freq are not busy i’ll ask to level off every 2K for 3 minutes to check winds and ground speed. Or if i perceive it’s too busy for that i’ll just ask to climb another 2K at a time repeatedly. I am also judging when to give up on higher by comparing my XM forecast winds to actual as i sample. What i’ve learned is that I’ll actually do better at a higher altitude than what my earlier flight planning suggested. But i’ll often go higher just for a smoother ride and happily accept a few more minutes for a smooth flight. One of the big benefits of our Turbo that our NA brethren won’t understand. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Although I realize your response is focused on not enabling your safety pilot to get creative while your flying - I get that. But your prohibition of the safety pilot manipulating the controls is way over zealous and perhaps overly discouraging a safety pilot from performing their most important duty. Remember even when your safety pilot may have suggested you turn a bit right or left for traffic (so far meeting your rules) but then all this fails (maybe traffic turns towards you) its vital that the safety pilot grabs the controls to evade collision. Their responsibility is to monitor the surroundings, maintain situational awareness, and intervene when necessary to prevent accidents. We just had midair at DCA and many people blame the instructor for not taking the controls and the pilot flying for not moving left as suggested by the instructor - but I don't think we know for sure if the instructor saw the airliner till it was too late.

Indeed it was, but boy did it have a reputation for cross winds!

Living near a major metropolis like I do in SOCAL doesn't mean living in a slum nor below or near train tacks. I won't deny every big city has a poor part of town with a homeless people, many of which are mentally disabled and sadly many of them vets. And I am sure we all know where to find them. But vast majority of people don't live anywhere near these and won't see nor experience what your describing unless the few whose employment takes them by such places. But the big plus IMO is we have what nearly seems like unlimited neighborhoods to choose among all of varying degrees of cost all free of the inner city issues you describe. This and the fantastic weather is why people pay a premium to live here and consider it worth it. I have the ocean a few minutes away with also mountain and desert very nearby. Traffic is the exception with some cities worse than others, but San Diego isn't too bad.

Me too, i visit St George for its great mountain bike trails. Put our two big MTB’s (29’er and wife’s 27.5”) in the back of the Mooney with rear seats down and off we go. Used to climb out there too but now just MTB as it’s a mecca for outdoor activities as the warmest spot in UT. Also very close to Zion and Bryce and beautiful for its location. There can be a major storm very close in the surrounding mountains with St. George mostly sunny and warm yet probably a bit windy. Was out there recently for spring break and the FBO was expanding - there used to be only one but now it seems 3. My only complaint is they put the self serve on the wrong side of the field but i expect the locals prefer that. When i first started visiting UT for the skiing years ago by the Salt Lake area, alcohol was a challenge but these days seems like a non issue. At least i can’t remember a restaurant not serving beer and wine. Not really looking for much more these days. The Cliffside restaurant up by the old airport is really good, but they have a lot of very good restaurants these days. It can be a bit of hoot seeing the mormon polygamous camps town a bit east like Hilldale and Colorado City where the “husbands” must own a small apartment complex for a home with each wife in a separate apartment. Or in town seeing some Mormon camp woman in the store dressed in their purple burka like dresses. (purple signifies their single). Of course they’re not part of the true Mormon church anymore but it’s crazy their way of like is still tolerated in AZ despite being illegal. But makes sense when the woman born into that life don’t want to leave. It may never get resolved as long as they can live in near isolation. Anyway it’s crazy for more than alcohol even though these camps are really in AZ, and a bit of an example of why living in rural america has never appealed to me. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I didn't even think of the flanges that attach to the firewall might be stainless while the main part under the belly being aluminum. I know the main part is rather soft aluminum as its somewhat taken a beating over the years but it would make good sense that the flanges are stainless and now that you bring this up I've never found that portion of them to be as soft as the main part - I'll take a closer look next time I have mine off as that could explain what's going on here. Although his do look to be entirely stainless.

Yes, its not setup properly. Your MM calls for it going off when throttle position is less than 1/4" from idle and IAS is below 65+/- 5 kts with gear switch up. Most of us routinely fly with less than 20" in descent before we have the gear down. This isn't hard to adjust.

I can understand skepticism on ignoring the bulletin but I am not saying to ignore it entirely, just that its safe to ignore if you avoid the very high MAP/Low RPM ROP Cape Air flight profile that led to the issue reported in the CSB. Cape Air flew their TSIO-520 at 2100 rpm and 27" MAP ROP. For a little context: In June 2007, Cape Air grounded its entire Cessna 402C fleet due to a crankshaft counterweight issue in the Continental Teledyne TSIO-520 engines. The problem, was identified as abnormal wear on the counterweight, which led to three in-flight engine failures in the Cape Air fleet of 49 Cessna 402's. This prompted TCM to first issue, only to Cape Air, Special Service Instruction 107-5 to replace the 6th counterweights, pins, bushings, plates and snap-rings - the area of accelerated wear ( https://continental.aero/service-bulletins/SSI07-5.PDF) in order to get them back into the air by. Later despite the problem being limited to Cape Air aircraft Cessna 402 TSIO-550 engines, TCM issued a much broader Critical Service Bulletin 09-11 for a whole slew of NA and TSIO engines https://continental.aero/service-bulletins/CSB09-11A.PDF to warn against operating below 2300 rpm. So when I came on to work at Savvy years ago I queried Mike about this since he has written a great deal about how safe it is to operate highly oversquare - but I remind you he runs LOP and a lot at WOT. Below I'll share his response of this: Paul, I am intimately familiar with Continental CSB09-11A. It's a service bulletin, not an AD, so it is not an operating limitation, just a suggestion. CSB09-11 arose out of accelerated crankshaft counterweight pin/bushing wear that occurred in the Cessna 402C fleet operated by a Part 212 air carrier called Cape Air. The problems occurred in turbocharged TSIO-520 engines that were operated very far oversquare and with worst-case ROP mixtures. The Cape Air operations were very unusual -- extremely high-cycle ops, very short flights, worst-case leaning procedures. To the best of my knowledge and belief, no similar accelerated counterweight pin/bushing wear has ever been observed in normally aspirated Continental engines, nor in engines operated primarily LOP. The intensity of power pulses (and thus torsional stress on the crankshaft and motion of the counterweights) is greatly reduced during LOP operation. I have literally thousands of hours flying TSIO-520 engines LOP at RPMs in the 2100-2200 range and no unusual counterweight pin/bushing wear was observed at teardown. Hope this helps. —Mike

That bulletin can be safely ignored unless you’re flying a Cape Air profile with very high MAP and ROP. Mike has many thousands of hours operating his TSIO-520’s 2100 and 2200 LOP with out any unusual counterweight pin/bushing wear. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Lots of talking around it but nobody seems to reference (except Mark K perhaps) the current AC 90-66C which was updated not long ago after some tragic mid-airs. https://www.faa.gov/documentLibrary/media/Advisory_Circular/AC_90-66C.pdf As for the traffic pict that display is a distraction. You’re aware you can filter out non relevant traffic by altitude? In GP mine filters out all traffic’s more than 3K feet below or above, otherwise my map display would be unusable flying in the busiest airspace in the world - SOCAL. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

What John described for the 231 with his manual pneumatic waste gate controller doesn’t apply to your -MB with your automatic hydraulic controller. Its holds MAP pretty well as you lean. But if you’re leaning to 50F LOP at 65% power you are over leaning. But in reality it’s really unlikely you’re able to get that lean without roughness. I’d encourage you to review your downloaded data to see where it’s really at. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The initial break-in flight is the return to service flight line no other; meaning much greater chance of having an emergency or needing to return right away. The pilot needs to as proficient as possible for the unexpected. Two pilots are much safer with at least one very proficient and one closely monitoring the engine monitor. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I can bring it up with my fellow directors to see what the consensus is but our cost would need to go up by approximately half the cost of round trip airfare between the US and Germany since we need an instructor for every 2 students. We had 28 students at our last one in Las Vegas but we can probably due it with half that many. I have no idea what airfare is and what time of year would work best. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

When i am doing transition training i always do the same stunt that Don describes except i only pull the Actuator CB, not the stall and gear warning CB. I need to preface with i have my pilots put the gear down just below pattern altitude and add approach flaps along with the down wind MAP setting. When i pull the gear actuator CB see most pilots catch it right away, very seldom is it missed. But this is after a prior 1/2 day of ground going over all systems and emergency procedures, which hopefully helps but not the real reason IMHO. What i think what really helps is i teach them to keep their hand on the gear lever till the gear down light comes and to not touch the flaps till the gear down light is on and then lower the flaps to approach or takeoff position. That’s essentially two verification checks when the gear comes down. Then another gear down check abeam the numbers and a final check of the floor gear down light on final. Most notice the issue right away but i am surprised how many Mid-body Mooney’s have their gear down floor lights burnt out, showing the previous owner wasn’t using it. Long bodies have all been good. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

it was done in Germany about a decade ago. it’s doable again too. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Walk or run! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk