Shadrach

What landing weight for 70KIAS target on short final?

The o-ring fits in a groove machined into the caliper piston. The piston will need to be removed to replace it. It would be a shame to go through the trouble to remove everything and not have the tools to repair. Your IA likely has a plan for such contingencies.

Cirrus is small potatoes. I was returning with a bunch of friends to Harrisburg, PA after a long Fall weekend at State college for home game. We were descending out of the Northwest with a healthy tailwind (something like 225Kts GS or more) for right traffic 26 at Capital City. My Pax were not rated pilots but were Savvy enough to give funny looks when I was asked to reduce speed for Falcon traffic before us. Pax were not Savvy enough to gather that the Falcon was out of the Southeast and fighting the very winds that were pushing us along.

I could be wrong, but I think the AD must specifically state that the pilot may comply with the AD as AD 76-07-12 states under Compliance required as indicated: 3. The checks required by this AD may be performed by the pilot. Consider the recent elevator counterweight AD. Determination of hybrid vs solid weight is simple enough for even the densest of pilots. I knew I had solid weights from the start and verified so before calling my IA but I don't think a writeup with my signature would've been adequate even though checking applicability and airworthiness was completely non-invasive. It was no great hardship, but the delta in cost would have been 5 minutes of my time and a line of ink from my pen vs My IA's minimum to do a hangar call and sticky (~$180). One becomes so conditioned to expenses that driving to the airport a second time and paying someone $180 to run a magnet over a piece of lead and then sign a statement stating as much seems like a great deal.

@Matthew P Consider “renting” a small, spring loaded, cylinder hone from your local auto parts chain.

When I overhauled my calipers, you could see some light, surface corrosion on the unwetted area but mine never leaked. It may have contributed to the o-rings demise, but it had been in service for forty years so it owed us nothing. I lightly honed the cylinder walls and replaced the o-rings It’s been good for 17 years.

Paragraph structure gets weird when posting from some mobile devices…

IIRC the cylinder wall is the same dimension from top to bottom with perhaps a slight chamfer at the top. It should not leak as long as the o-ring is in contact with the cylinder wall. I cannot imagine a scenario where that would happen even with very worn pads. Is this something you’ve seen a lot of? I rebuilt my calipers years ago because of an o-ring failure. They do fail but it is rare.

P/N is serial number dependent.

How would a worn pad cause a caliper to leak?

Pilots will needlessly complicate even the simplest of devices with overthought procedures.

https://www.avweb.com/ownership/shock-cooling-time-to-kill-the-myth/

I touch them twice during every flight. Right before I level in cruise and right before I drop the gear. One less thing to worry about after landing or in the event of a go-around.

The airplane in the link does not look modded, it looks like a stock 67 or later E or F. That’s very much what my 67 F looks like with the cowl removed.

And here’s one that should definitely not be used for diesel…

MGTOW ops are not necessary depending on empty weight. The differences in the weight of a mid body can vary by as much as 400lbs. I’ve heard lots of general claims about take off advantages of 3 bladed props, but I’ve never seen any data. I would be really interested to see it. I’ve always subscribed to the notion that losing weight (both pilot and plane) is the best way to improve takeoff and climb performance. Unfortunately, the Hartzell 3 bladed prop is 14lbs heavier than the compact 2 blade. In my view, light weight is a significant advantage in the relatively low powered segment of Mooney models (the 200ish horsepower group.) Looking at my book numbers, 440lbs makes a significant difference. On a standard day at 7500’, book take off roll numbers show that it takes 67% more runway to lift off at MGW of 2740lbs (1850) when compared to 2300lbs (1105’). An M20 with an operational weight under 2300lbs gives excellent take off performance. When under 2100lbs it has exceptional takeoff and runway performance for a cross country airplane.

When ever I’m doing panel work I trim full nose down. It pulls the yokes right up against the panel and out of the way. I can imagine there is very little authority to raid the nose in that position.

I know it sounds ridiculous but I would remove the 165 and gently clean the connector strip with a pencil erasure on both sides, then wipe with an alcohol soaked Qtip (leave no fiber behind). With the box out, shine a light into the tray and get a visual on the female side of the connector. Ensure all the contacts are properly oriented and undamaged. Re-rack and test. If that fails, it will need to be bench tested. The good news is that it’s a very robust radio, and most of the parts are available save for the display which is unobtainium… BE VERY, VERY MINDFUL OF THE DISPLAY WHEN HANDLING AND RACKING.

I diverted into Allentown/Queen City after a gen failure on my way back form Manchester. I had the local mx facility charge the battery overnight and I reinstalled it the next morning. I launched for home in clear VFR weather planning to arrive in under an hour. Before departing, I called my home tower to tell them my approximate ETA and that I may have a comm issue upon arrival necessitating light signals. I flew home with a handheld GPS and the master off, powering up from the Harrisburg TRSA (Now Class C) to HGR. I had adequate power to complete the trip with no issue. A CFI friend suggested that departing with defective, required equipment could get me in hot water with the FSDO.

I expect a manufacturer to make a case for their product to their target audience. I take issue with misrepresentation. I have not seen any misrepresentations made. Prior to the availability of AGM batteries, most of us had Gill G35s that weighed 27lbs, had just 250 CCA and a capacity of 23AH. The Gill batteries I used for most of my flying had a shelf life slightly better than pasteurized milk. Perhaps, for this reason, I’m not as concerned with rated capacity as you are. I’m not entirely sold by any means, but I am intrigued. I also think the BMS offers some beneficial features that aren’t currently available with other applications e.g. over discharge protection. I think they would do well to enhance BMS info beyond a flashing LED.

The RG35A is a 29Ah battery at 100%. I kept my last one until it fell below 80%. The plane does not do a lot of hard IFR. Everything is a trade off. So the practical question is, how likely is it that I find myself in a situation where I’m airborne with a dead EarthX that would be alive if it were a Concorde? Seems to me, not very. Conservatively speaking, the weight difference equates to more than 20mins of fuel at cruise. Statistically speaking it seems to me that more pilots get in trouble exhausting fuel rather than electrons…though I would never do such a thing.

My reasoning is that my airplane’s electrical needs are trending downward and that I have had a single charging system failure in the last 20 years. If the EarthX offers an honest 1 hr of operation, the delta between that and my RG35 is what, 15-20 mins at best? In exchange 24lbs of UL. It’s worth considering. I still think a dual battery with a switch would be ideal

Thank you for taking the time to explain in detail. I am warming to the idea. In truth, I’ve spent most of my flying days not having much confidence that any aviation battery would function for long as a reliable backup. I am on my second Concorde AGM and they have been far better than the Gill G35s I used up until 10 years ago. When this one is due for replacement, I will consider an EarthX. Look forward to pireps from those who’ve already switched.

My comment had nothing to do with ground testing. It was simply my observation that what is sufficient in theory is not always sufficient in practice. Let’s talk testing. Perhaps you can add some perspective. What number was used for average draw of a GA single in cruise. I suffered charging system failure that resulted in lost comms before I was able to land. This was at least 20 years ago and I admit that I did not catch the failure right away (plane is better instrumented now) but I was only ~1.2hrs into the flight when the comms failed. I had about .5 hours of coms after I noticed the failure and shut down all non essential electronics. That was supposed to be a 23Ah battery. I landed at Allentown NORDO at dusk. Grateful that my gear are not electric. I want to understand worst and best case scenarios.

I only hit the stop on short final if I’m at min fuel with two up front. This is a function of two things: 1) A forward CG 2) Very low approach speed at <2200lbs. Usually down to 65MIAS by short final. The combined effect is: Less airspeed requires an increase in AOA Increase in AOA requires more elevator input. Forward CG requires more elevator to increase AOA. Less airspeed makes elevator elevator less effective requiring more input. All in all, I think the plane is pretty well balanced across its weight, cg and speed envelope. Why not add a 50lbs ballast to the baggage compartment?