Swissmooney

Thank you for all the advice I think some suggestions will not work due to the missig IR connectivity required for downloading And I have read the instructions on how to load the GEM-COM....and after 3 pages I gave up...it reminds me of ASCII and punchcards and I think I do not have the required nerves for that...so I am considering a trade in for a G2 of insight Anybody having experience with that and a comparison with the JPI....are they different?? Thanks again and happy landings Heinz

Hi everybody I just read Mike Busch's MANIFESTO and am totally convinced about his approach to maintenance and therefore changed the swissmooney from Hb-DGL to N731CW I have installed a GEM610 engine monitor and would lime to download now data to let them analyzed by savvy analysis. However I have no idea on how to do that! The original way was via IR to a HP palmtop. But I do not have such an antique piece. Does anybody know how to do that?? Savvy analysis has also no idea and the manufacturer insight does not answer the mails! Thanks for your help and kind regards Heinz

Hi there I wanted to get rid of the vacuum system (including a backup vacuum pump) and went to glas (Garmin500) however I found that my speedbrakes are using vacuum....so I only got rid of the standby vacpump! So check on your speed brakes if any... Kind regards Heinz

dear Oscar Thanks for info and wish you a successfull stay in Tampa Kind regards Heinz

dear Oscar Thanks for this info...I bought the backpack for the gopro but am unable to make it work from cockpit to the lower part of fuselage! Just one more question: with what prg are you editing the movies and how do you upload it?? I habe used the gopro editing however it took hrs and hrs to manage it?!? Kind regards from sunny Florida (vacation till end of jan) Heinz

Hi Oscar Great video and appreciate it very mich Just a question: do you control the go pros with the remote control for on and off?? Happy landings Heinz

Hi there everybody I had this problem also during our flight from switzerland to the USA...during a 100hr inspection by Don Maxwell in Longview he confirmed that the Masterswitch is the culprit...cleaned all connections and the problem was done...however 6 months later the problem reappears...so there is a new masterswitch in my future... See Don's publication @ http://www.donmaxwell.com/publications/MAPA_TEXT/Fluctuating%20Ammeters/Fluctuating%20Ammeters.htm Kind regards from swissmooney in Fort Myers Beach (unfortunately without the Mooney...!!) Heinz

Hi Mooniacs yes we did it!! and arrived finally safe and sound back home!! The return flight was also unbelievable impressive!! see pix in sep album / password is again hbdgl....see link below - Hudson Flight was quite a sight and the controllers @ JFK were very helpfull!! - Flight via Bangor (US Customs) to Goose Bay CYYR were we went to 23'000 ft and had a GS of 220 kts with some minor fronts to pass and a nice approach to Goose (Larry kept his word concerning better wx), but as soon as the CBP left it startet to rain very hard - The wx for Friday was bad (especially greenland) so we had breakfast with Larry and some very interesting discussions and then we visited two Labrador Museums...very interesting and staffed with young people...Darren and Amanda, which were an absolut delight!! - on saturday then the big flight...in order to go dct to Narsarsuaq and with no HF Radio we had to climb to 25'000 ft, wx was good and the approach to BGBW extremly interesting...the final approach was in VMC which was helpful....I would not like to fly this approach to minima....but it was spectacular and after takeoff we climb over the icecap to 17'000 and all of the eastcoast of greenland was severe clear...a sight ...just undescribable...see pix!! the rest of the flight was uneventful...Reykjavik in low clouds, drizzle, windy and no hotel rooms...we finally found a place in a youth hostel....well we are still young!! - after this intense flying day we decided to fly on sunday only to WICK in northern scotland and then take it easy, because the flight home would have been too long for the same day....Andrew from Far North aviation provided the absolutely perfect service!! - the next day we planned for a flight to the southern part of England...Manston..but it was 24 hrs PNR...so we rerouted to Norwich EGSH, which was perfect....had some minor problems with the routing because of the restrictions dur to Olympia...we got some ice but no whisky at FL170, even some clear ice...after descending to FL130 it was OK but never got rid of it until final approach to Norwich! and it cost 15 kts and we had an headwind of 15-20 kts...so it was definitely a slow flight!! and after that it was just the homestretch to swiss customs (maintenancoe cost have to be taxed!!) and then our ladies were expecting on us on the homebase LSZE!! It was a trip of a lifetime!!! and Hermann was the perfect partner for this return trip, THANK YOU HERMANN! Thanks for everybody who helped...escpecially Jose and Juanita for their hospitality and friendship all the best to all of you and HAPPY LANDINGS and enjoy the freedom you/we still have.... Heinz http://www.photobox.de/album/1399247165

Hi all, Well as Jose mentionned we are now on Long Island and enjoying the last couple of days together before Edith is leaving back home via Swiss airline! thanks to Jose and Juanita and their great hospitality our stay in the DC area was a blast...we enjoyed every minute of it and especially the interesting talks with J+J and their family, THANK YOU AGAIN!! Hermann Moosbrugger, a good friend and excellent and experienced Mooney Pilot will be joining me on our flight back via the north atlantic...we hope to fly VFR via the Hudson river and then we may have a stopover at Bar Harbor then probably on to St John for customs and then to Goose Bay!! our experience here in the USA has been just great and all flights were very easy with lots of direct routings, the wx cooperated more than perfectly except that we mostly encountered headwinds!! Yellowstone and Moab were the highlights from a landscape point of view and Tulsa brought back lots of memories and talks with old friends. Washington is just amazingly full of history And we could easily correlate to the museums of Tulsa, Gilcrease with a special exhibition of Washington! Philbrook is just an amazing estate as is now the Oheka Castle on Long Island The service for DGL by Don Maxwell was just perfect! Now the flight up to Farmingdale was short but not so easy with a couple of reroutings but no real problems....controllers were helpful...it was a saturday so maby it was a bit slower than normal We have organized an album with some pix for those interested the password is hbdgl http://www.photobox.de/album/1386290965 So thanks again for all the tipps we got and if you have dreams, just go for it!! Kind regards Heinz & Edith

Hi All and thank you very much for all the welcomes and good wishes....it is a pleasure to be in the USA and here some answers and comments - HBDGL is a 1985 K Model with an intercooler and longrange tanks - I have added a new album with pix of this trip - I will post a new report after MOAB - Our itinerary: 15th to West Yellowstone KWYS, 20th to MOAB KCNY, 23rd to Longview Texas KGGG, there Don Maxwell will be performing the 100 hrs and we will visit the Dallas Ft Worth area... and approx 26 or 27 to RVS Tulsa Then ev to Culpeper and then to Farmingdale....on the 8th of August, Edith is flying back home commercially (her mother is 90++), a friend of mine is coming to NY and then we will be flying back together via CYYR (borealone: I will take you up not only on the wx but also meeting you) piloto: thanks for your insights and I would ev consider a dct flight to BIRK with a tailwind of 70+ kts...otherwise it is just too long for me and the options are getting fewer and we are fortunately in no hurry...glad that is over!! But thanks on the marine VHF...had not thought of that!! jbs007: I would trade in a couple of Stg57 for that big chopper of yours...how many diet cokes label do you have to collect for that?? Scott: unfortunately Wichita is not on our route however close to RVS, but we already have a full programm in Tulsa... Gary would love to take you up on your offer the next time I will be in Ft Lauderdale...maybe in January, but then commercially...was there in February 12 and did my BFR and IFr competency out of KFXE so thanks again and we of course would love to meet some mooniacs along our route Happy landings and all the best heinz

Swissmooney is now in USA Hello Mooniacs This is just a little report on our flight to and in the USA, a thank you for the infos we received from this group! After a very long period of preparation we finally startet our big adventure on July 1st with a flight from St Gallen LSZR direct to Wick (EGPC) in northern scotland in marginal weather with a passing front some turbs and a bit of icing, the remaining flight at FL180 was then easy and the wx in Wick unusually nice!! after a good nights sleep we donned our immersion suits and the individual life rafts it was off to Reykjavik, about 670 NM and just short of 4 hrs. Wx enroute at FL180 was clear with an undercast at approx 10'000 and we flew a ILS approach with fex @ 600 br 1200 br 2' oc 3'500 with light rain. We enjoyed Iceland for 3 days and were very impressed with the diverse landscape and scenery, just unbelievable!! On 6th July we planned the flight via Kulusuk BGKK to Sondrestrom...the wx was dicey so we fueld DGL to the rim with 104 gal which brought our TO- weight 10% over max, but DGL lifted off @70 kts without any problems and we climbed @ TAS of 115 Kts and 700 ft just incredible...so we headed for FL180 where we had a TAS of 175 kts @ approx 70% pwr the winds were from the right with a headeind component of 5-10 kts, so approaching Kulusuk and checking the wx which was marginal VFR, we decided to skip BGKK und flew over the icecap dct to BGSF, in the descent we got some minor icing @FL100 but were able to make a visual approach!! Due to the clouds we couldn't get many pix but the flight was quite impressive with many pix in our heads! After enjoying the incredible nightlife (3 bars) and a personal wx briefing we had to decide to fly our planned route to Frobisher or plan an alternate....there was a front moving up to CYFB but the route dct to Goose Bay CYYR was much better with no front, just clouds up to FL200 we decided to give it a try, so we loaded DGL again to the rim and took off with no problem....a visual climb to 5000 ft and then intermittent in clouds up to FL180 with just a trace of rime ice. After leaving iceland control approx 150 NM out we had no radio contact for approx 2 hrs, did one position report via a relay with an airliner...the few glimpses of the atlantic we had showed a not very i viting environment and we were very happy that DGL works like a swiss clock. The wx in GooseBay was forecast to be IFR and MVFR, but on arrival we had to fly the ILS down close to minimas @approx 400 ft, it took us 6'23" to fly the last part of the atlantic xing and we were very happy despite the rain and low clouds. The next morning we climbed thru the same murks, had some little icing but were out of the clouds @FL180 after 1 hr and almost in severe clear to Quebec. after 3 days in a beautiful resort and enjoying old Quebec it was off to USA!! We planned to enter in KANJ Sault Ste Marie and checked everything at CBP manual, did the eAPIS and made an appointment for 1300LT at KANJ which was confirmed. The flight was uneventful but the rest.....we landed 5' early (after 3'50") in KANJ, taxied to a remote spot and expected the CBP officers. At 1300 I called and they were surprised that we were at KANJ and could not find our eAPIS (it was confirmed the evening before), so we got to hear what we did wrong,y and should have flown to a international airport....so finally they said they will come from the bridge and we have to wait at the airplane...it took approx 30' and then we were interrogated and got a very uneasy feeling. Then we moved to the FBO and one officer was searching our plane and baggage. After long tel discussions with the office it was decided that we had to go the the bridge with the official office for immigration...so we had to sit in the back of the patrol car!!! Like a prison, hot, stuffy...it took the officers 10 min to check in to get approval to drive the 2 Min to the office!! There we were processed in a friendly and efficient way and it cost only 12 $ incl even the taxi ride back in the prison car to the airport!! So finally we have arrived in the good ole USA!! And now I am writing this on our dct flight from KANJ to Rapid City KRAP approx 870 NM, got the IFR clearance from center immediately after TO and about 30 mins into the flight we got KRAP dct!!! Just incredible and unheard in Europe, that is why we consider the flying environment in the USA as pure heaven (not even talking about the fuel prices, which are higher then we were used but still about half of the prices at home) So we will spend some days in the badlands and on sunday we will fly to West Yellowstone airport and we stay in the area for 5 days, on the 20th we fly to MOAB UT After that we are heading direction Longview TX to get a nice treatment for DGL by Don Maxwell! sorry it got rather long now.... Happy landings Heinz @ Edith Just some add infos concerning safety - immersion suits - ISPLR Individual single place life raft - life raft - satphone with GPS and emergency function - 2 PLBs - SPOT with GPS and emergeny function flying stuff - 2 ipads - 2 iphones Wing X pro Foreflight Jepp FD

Hey you are just an incredible group...!!! many thanks for the wealth of information and we'll take the eastertime to sift thru all the proposals to finesse our plan... MANY MANY THANKS TO ALL OF YOU FOR YOUR ADVICE AND INFOS Hank: many thanks for your insights Parker woodruff and jetdriven and OR75 for the info concerning maintenance: I will check on the legal side! Mitch: for the advice re Kalispell (I visited it many moons ago and it is definitely on the wishlist again) and I lived in Tulsa 1980-1984 working for HILTI! Becca: for Sedona and DC Area and I sure do hope, that you enjoyed switzerland a bit?! Don Muncy: thank you very much for the offer concerning maintenance RVS...I will definitely consider it and will get in touch with you pm (during my stay in Tulsa I flew out of RVS with Arlan Nutt's FBO and Deanna Robertson and George Delap's Geronimo) Immelmann: for the Info concerning Yellowstone and Bryce...looking very much forward to! flyingwrench: for the confirmation of KANJ and the info CBP pisny78: thank you very much for your generous offer and I will contact you via pm DaV8or: yes Oshkosh is always on my mind....have seen it several times but never with own plane...but the itinerary is a bit off...however I will reconsider it...now that you mentionned it!! AmigOne: thanks for the generous offer and advice and I will certainly contact you by pm Thanks again for the input Kind regards, happy landigs and happy easter Heinz

Hi Mooniacs The plans for our trip to the USA are taking shape and I would like to ask for some advice, tipps, infos from this helpfull group concerning preferred airports and some additional infos which you think could help make this trip the adventure of a lifetime We have some specific questions concerning favorable airports at our various destinations like - Which is the best airport concerning o Services (avgas but also rental car etc) o Location in relation to our destination/tourist attraction - Any other recommendation „need to visit“ along our route - Any Mooney gatherings along the route?? - 100 hr maintenance in the Tulsa area: recommended shop?? Airplane: HB-DGL Mooney231 (see pix album) Crew: Edith, my wife is „Co-Pilot“ for the first part of the trip to NY….“multitasking-lady“…mainly responsible for „creature comfort“ and „moral support“!! PIC: european PPL/IR plus US-CPL/IR with BFR/IPC February 12 in KFXE electronic helpers: WingX & Fltplan.com /ipad Timing: departure will be July 1st till approx August 12th back in Europe Routing: Switzerland LSZR - Scotland / Wick / EGPC - Reykiavik Island: BIRK - Kulusuk Greenland: BGKK - Nuuk Greenland: BGGH - Frobisher Bay/Iqualit CDN /CYFB - Wabush CDN CYWK - Quebec CDN CYQB Entry USA approx July 13th @ Sault Ste Marie KCIU or KANJ (which one is preferable) or any other advice (eg custom! I know e-apis and decal!) Destinations/Targets in USA - Yellowstone: Cody KCOD or other recommendations - Bryce / Zion / Arches / Grand Canyon: Page KPGA?? Or….? - Tulsa KTUL (approx July 28th) (why Tulsa? Visiting old friends!): 100 hrs service! Maintenance shop?? - Washington DC: airport?? (access to downtown/mall etc!) - New York: Farmingdale KFRG or Teterboro KTEB?? Or…? - And4sure we will try to fly the Hudson incl the Lady! And from New York we’ll be flying back via the fast lane (approx Aug 6th) Goose Bay – Narssarsuaq – Reykiavik –Wick - home Total: 12‘000 NM roundtrip your help is greatly appreciated..... happy landings Heinz

Hi Geoff thank you very much for the info....but this would still be much cheaper than the offer I have! Would you please inform me about the source for a) the new coupler assembly of 1800-2500$ and the overhauled coupler assembly of approx 900$ kind regards Heinz