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Not sure what is in the MAPA checklist - but some do or die items on the takeoff are (these are things that I have personally screwed up once): 1. Make sure your transponder is set to the correct squawk code and on ALT - theres nothing like taking off into an overcast with ATC unable to see you. ATC will ofcourse ask whether you are squawking - but its a distraction to be setting the xpndr up in the clouds when you should be concentrating on flying. 2. If you have an autopilot that will not turn on until it goes through its test mode - make sure you "Test" it before takeoff and that its ready to work when you are in the air. If you turn it on before entering the overcast - verify its actually on and working - otherwise dont fiddle with it and just fly. My autopilot has a small button that you push for testing with no "click" feedback - kinda like a Push to talk switch - so one day I pushed it but I hadnt pushed it far enough. It had not tested itself and I had an autopilot that refused to work when entering the cloud bases. Distracting ! 3. Make sure you know the area around your takeoff area - which means knowing what terrain the VFR chart shows, knowing the takeoff minimums and climb rate required etc. I havent personally screwed this up yet - but thought I'd mention it. 4. At non-towered airports - getting a clearance and a "void if not off by so and so time" can cause you to rush through checklists - be careful here. My solution has been to just pair my cell phone via bluetooth to my headset or audio panel and call flight service when I am ready to take off after I am done with my critical checklists Theres a whole host of other things - but these stick out in my mind...

is it possible to do the screaming eagle conversion now? how much does it cost?

Quote: tomcullen To continue that thought, I recommend you don;t visit Alaska by cruise ship with the expectation of getting the full experience. The cruise ship ports are just shopping malls with imported summer help, often from other countries, with the same stores as you see in their Caribbean ports. You may like cruises, just keep your expectations relaistic. This is why I look forward to flying into Alaska someday, and getting past the ports, and spending some time without 2000 other tourists on the same schedule as me. Or a motorcycle trip, if I have more time than money when the opportunity comes around. -dan

Quote: NotarPilot I have the Avidyne TAS-600 in my plane and I'm very happy with it. My only complaint is it does not show direction the target is moving but it does give me a display on the 430 of distance and altitude above or below me. It's really come in handy more than once. But I have a question for you experts. Does the Avidyne TAS-600 qualify as "TCAS"?

Quote: davidsguerra if every plane had ads b out, at what distance will i pick up an inbound target with an 1090 ES reciever? i.e how big is the hockeypuck of separation for ads-B? thanks

Quote: davidsguerra so an ads b 1090 reciever wont detect a mode c transponder? doesnt a mode C use 1090mhz?

anyone know what pireps like the one below mean ? They show up in foreflight and do not follow the standard pirep coding scheme. Example: LVR EU2200 4257N 07023W 312255 F370 MS522 219/054 TB/ S031

thanks for the great viewpoints - especially the points about: 1) stormscope is directionally accurate - it gives an accurate bearing to the lightning 2) stormscope is range inaccurate 3) NEXRAD is position accurate but has old data. 4) ASR radar is both position and time inaccurate 5) Need to know the big weather picture. We should start a separate thread or forum section for weekly weather problems on this. Every week someone posts a 600 nm theoretical trip to be taken the next day - and people can chime in with what they think the weather scenario will be at flight time and what will be their go/no-go decision for IFR/VFR. I and probably others could benefit from seeing first hand the decision making process and knowledge that goes into flight planning with weather !

Quote: Piloto Unless you fly outside of XM\WX coverage I would not spend the time and money of having a Stormscope installed. I have XM and WX-10 Stormscope and only look at the WX-10 when flying in the Caribean Islands. Stormscope weather depiction is not as complete and accurate as XM. On the WX-10 you have to wait several minutes to get a good idea of the size and intensity of the storm. I found that turbulence in most cases is not associated with lightning but rather with build up height which is only visible on the XM satellite view. José

Quote: davidsguerra i have an insight strikefinder that needs a new LED. it will cost $1400 to fix it and it will come with a warranty. i havent sent it in yet but i would be happy to let it go cheap. i have a wx 500 and i love it.

I am looking to add a stormscope/strikefinder kind of thing to show me real-time lightning. And I want it used and cheap. Looks like there are a bunch of options, strikefinder, stormscope and different models of each. Which one would you recommend for biggest bang for the buck. I already used ADSB for nexrad data in-flight. Thanks in advance

I looked at a C172 POH and for the go around it does mention going to flaps 20 immediately after full power is applied, However, nothing in the limitations section at all about what might happen if you try to go around at full flaps. Amazing - the things that are left out from the POH. The Mooney POH on the contrary says retract flaps to takeoff position after climb established - feels good to be in a Mooney

Quote: jetdriven Several people in 150s have been killed when they attempt a go-around with flaps at 40 degrees. The aircraft will not climb. There is no certification requirment to climb with full flaps.

oh wow! thats a great way to track the flight plan changes - thanks !! I am always fighting with the phone at non-towered airports

Quote: AustinPynes Update: I am a low hour pilot - 150 hours, about 60 in my M20F and 70 in complex. AOPA, MAPA, MOA membership. Some WINGS courses. IR ground school and written complete and about to work on flight training - will finish this year come hell or high water. Last year I was taxiing on an FBO ramp when my nose went in a hole dug for a tie down - go figure. Story here as I posted the experience. Prop only needed dressing but two different A&Ps called it a prop strike so I had to have the teardown and inspection - about 25k later all done. No internal damage found. Fun times. So I am a low hour pilot, with a claim. I am currently insured with STARR. First year was around 1700 a year. Agent was AUA but STARR moved me to Falcon.(long story) This year my quote is for 2148 a year. So the taxiing prop strike caused about a 26% increase in premium. Hopefully I will get to fly more this year and get the IR.....maybe one day years from now I will see a reduction. I dont think with a claim for a low hour pilot I will even be looked at by other insurance companies much less a better rate.....but then the insurance companies know that too.

I would go with option 1 - for the same reasons you mentioned. Although this isnt an option that you specified - for the audio panel - have you taken a look at PS Engineering audio panels? I dont have one - but they always seemed to have more features than the garmin units on paper. I understand if you want to have a complete garmin stack tho.. And the other thing I wouldnt upgrade is the transponder until the ADSB stuff settles down.

Quote: astelmaszek If you're doing it in a fully loaded Cessna 172 or a Piper Cherokee 140 you will never get to " once you are accelerating and have gained some height from the ground."

Another oddity I found in my POH regarding flaps - Negative G limit with flaps extended is 0G !! So once you have flaps down - you better not get any sudden updrafts !!! hmmm ...

I'll throw a monkey wrench in all this ... So what happens if you come in to land full flaps and do a go-around and refuse to change the flap setting when slow and low to the ground and only retract flaps to takeoff setting once you are accelerating and have gained some height from the ground. The aircraft must have been certified with full flaps on a go-around. After all a landing is nothing but a preparation for a go-around. Seriously, I will be very concerned and surprised if Mooney did not test full-flaps takeoffs, touch and goes and go-arounds from the air. I understand when someone will cry out - "well its not the same - he is knowingly taking off with full flaps whereas the other event was a go-around in a possibly emergency and quick reaction-required scenario" - but does the airplane care?

I find that I use the documents feature at home and not in-flight. Its very handy though.. However, I am really looking forward to using their new route editing and planning features in an IFR environment where your clearance almost always is different from your filed plan

Quote: wiguy I have a 696 & went to a Garmin presentation on the GDL-39 at OSH yesterday. I currently have 'aviator lite' with XM for my 696. The GDL-39 does have my interest. One thing he pointed out is with the Garmin ADS-B weather, you get 'free' traffic info to most units with the 39. There are some particulars to what A/C have the capability to show up on your screen. ADS wx being 'free' is enticing. I still like my XM & am not ready to switch yet. I think the XM has a clearer picture, especially beyond the 'higher resolution zone'. That 'zone' was either 75 or 150 miles out from the A/C. I like that XM works on the ground, ADS averages about 1500 AGL, depending. I like that I can look at XM anywhere in the country, ADS wx you can only look in the area of your plane. That can be an issue on longer trips, though I know you can look on a computer before departure. He did say ADS-WX coverage is on track to cover the whole U.S. by the end of 2013(early 2014 at the latest), per FAA. I'm also not overly concerned about XM weather delay times we've read about lately. Part of this belief comes from flying & some from a WX data guy at OSH. Yes, still fly defensive. I feel XM errs on the conservative side with rain shower returns. It's a great safety tool but of course the eyeball is king for VFR flight. I like the winds aloft with ADS, not included on the 'lite' package. I was zoning out a bit so forgive me if a detail or 2 is off a bit.

The first half of the electroair installation manual seemed to be a good read about some of the features of the system. http://electroair.net/pdf/EIS-41000%20Installation%20Manual.pdf

Robert: one excellent book you can read about weather flying in general is "Weather Flying" by Robert N Buck. It has sections for VFR pilots also but its mostly for IFR pilots. No one knowingly flies into thunderstorms (altho there are a few that do). Here is how I almost "knowingly" flew into a thunderstorm. I was flying from West Virginia to Massachusetts. I was on an IFR plan. There were supposed to be isolated thunderstorm activity - I had ADSB weather on-board and I had planned a course around the entire area of isolated thunderstorms. Its faster to avoid the entire area believe it or not - and doesnt add much distance if you are doing a long cross country in a Mooney (3-4 hour flight). My destination was forecast to be clear. Enroute it was all clear and I could clearly see the thunderheads off in the distance (the area that I had avoided). However, as I came in close to my destination around evening time, the ceiling started dropping. Visibility was bad in the layers of clouds and I couldnt clearly see what kind of clouds lay ahead of me. Instead of forecasted clear it was now 3000 feet - which is no problem for IFR. However, something should have rung a bell at this point. Although the weather was clear on ADSB and on the controllers precip radar (think its called ASR radar) - I had a little bumpy ride and landed. As I was taxi-ing I saw lightning from the direction I just made the approach from and then foreflight showed me the thunderstorm and associated lightning and rain (it was now connected via 3G on the ground). And as I was pushing the plane into the hangar - the rain came down. This taught me a big lesson. Always be aware of changes in weather and deviations in forecast. . I had known that thunderstorms can develop in less than 10 minutes from Mr Buck's book and that my ADSB could lags the real weather by 10 minutes or so but had failed to put 2 and 2 together. During thunderstorm season I normally fly early morning and arrive mid-day at most - but not on this day - altho thats no guarantee of thunderstorm avoidance. ADSB and XM weather are also delayed by many minutes during which a cumulus cloud can easily develop into a plane wrecker. In this case I should have landed earlier given the deteriorating forecast and checked the weather or let the thunderstorm cloud pass. Anyway it was a good lesson

Quote: jetdriven Also, if you run that boost pump without it 100% completely full of fuel its life is measured in single digit minutes. And it is, at last count, a 1200$ overhaul. I run tanks dry, but will only us the pump if it will not relight. Which has not happened yet.