exM20K

When I was doing my primary training 30-some years ago, living in NYC, I found it to be just the opposite and very frustrating. Yes, the flight school had a half dozen trainers I could use (piper), but they were fully booked. I wound up buying half of anarcher and then all of a Cherokee 140 to finish private and instrument. The widespread use of G1000 in training fleets today significantly improves avionics uniformity, which was definitely an issue 20-30 years ago. -dan

Maybe, but not likely. In addition to the annunciator panel red fuel low warning, there is an indication on the G1000 MFD, and, most importantly, there is a blinking red master warning right above the master switches and just left of the PFD. It is deliberately annoying and hard to miss. Regarding the evident steep dive on final: There was a mishap in an acclaim during which the pilot reported uncommanded pitch trim activation. Final Report here, but the investigators were unable to duplicate later. If the NTSB does investigate, and I hope they do, it is beneficial that the plane's wreckage didn't burn, and maybe there is something left to point to a probable cause. If, for example, they find the carcass of a turkey vulture inside the cabin or the pilot's seat locks disengaged, maybe there can be some closure here. -dan

It is a very strange one. The plane flew often, not a new owner, not terrible weather, and relatively clear ground and low terrain on the approach. Very sad.

https://asn.flightsafety.org/wikibase/502469 https://www.flightaware.com/live/flight/N242RE -dan

consider yourself fortunate if your IA found some sort of failure when he or she inspected the clamp. Inflight failure is a bad, bad thing. Can you describe or share photos of the failed clamp? -dan

Funny, this was just in a “Ask the A&P’s” podcast. The provenance of this SB was Cape Air and their 402’s run at high power and low rpm. According to Mike Busch, there were no other reports of issues, save for a handful of Cape Air reports and maybe one or two others. The SB is based on 4 reports? Good grief, there are thousands of these engines flying, so not on my top 100 list of things to fret. And, as @brandt points out, the -G isn’t on the list, probably because it didn’t exist them. -dan

If I’m not mistaken, that is Ron Gilbert’s old TLS. He was a very big part of the early mooney mailing list and created a Palm VII app to receive weather in flight. He had an engine failure in Michigan (again, IIRC) and quit flying. Pity about another mishap for that airframe. -dan

I will run mine down to the panel Low Fuel annunciator light, just like I did in the 231, as corroborated by the totalizer . That is in level flight. The warning comes on early in the descent. I have verified after many of these flights that the warning comes on at 8 gallons remaining. That is sufficient certainty for me should I need to use that last half hour of fuel. -dan

I don’t know if I’d go through the cost and aggravation to go Bravo -> Acclaim. Transaction costs, catch up maintenance, downtime, etc are significant, especially if importing a non-WAAS plane. The acclaim is faster and has longer legs, but unless your 90% mission needs the range, the trip time will be similar. In Illinois, where my plane is registered, sales tax alone would be the better part of $30,000, and unless you can run a trade through the seller’s balance sheet, sales tax is collected on the purchase price, not the delta. In your shoes, I’d take the money and do a modern Garmin autopilot and panel. I got WAAS-compliant with a 330-ES transponder, which was maybe half or a third the cost of a 335. It won’t do ADS-B in, but I don’t care. While out of production, you probably could find one. -dan

The unit and both batteries were bought new in late April 2021. -dan

This is a question for your lawyers and accountants, not one for internet strangers. -dan

Current model. Same as this works fine / no damage. New is over $2400 with shipping. $1850 pickup at KAAF or LL10 (Naperville, IL) or somewhere reasonably close to a line between those airports, or plus actual shipping and box. -dan

Same (see post #3 in this thread). I am, however, careful to select battery #1 when I'm running the B-Kool. I experienced a somewhat depleted #1 battery when on #2 for a long trip. Coincidence? not sure, but the fan does draw some power... Regarding block ice, I found that the 20# blocks were knocking the bilge pump off the bottom. Some genius on another forum suggested a piece of plexi cut to fit the shape of the cooler bottom and with a cutout the size of the bilge pump and some drain holes. I'll try to get on this before it gets too hot this Spring. -dan

There is a SB at least in the acclaim that permits a modification to the mixing box. Dunno if there’s anything for the Bravo. https://mooney.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/SBM20-308B.pdf plenty of heat for me, even at night, after that was done, though might could use a few more BTU’s in the descent at night. -dan

I agree. Even with my 50-hour-old cylinders, I don’t get above 385 rish in the climb to 17,000 at 33x2700x36GPH @ISA +15. Maybe continuing into the flight levels would heat them more, but I hardly ever go above 17,000. The new cylinders do run warmer but not alarmingly so. Cruise cooling is more than adequate. -dan

Welcome to Hartzell’s new, improved (for them) pricing. I was advised by a director of maintenance I trust that, pricing notwithstanding, O/H is the wiser path as they have seen more than a few cases of infant mortality in the new Hartzell units. People wonder how engines cost so much now…. A $4000 starter, $4000 alternator, a couple of $10,000 turbos and an exhaust system start to spin the big numbers on the total. -dan

Nope. When I looked at the weather while contemplating an unimportant trip north from the eastern Florida panhandle, the weather looked very unusual and very unsettled to me. It was a wide-spread area of densely packed, but isolated convection. I didn’t even bother to check the tops. -dan

Yes, that is a good policy. So is carrying a roll of speed tape should you find one a little loose away from home. -dan

The remnants of a controlled burn north of Apalachicola. After I landed, I did a few laps to get night current, and the views were way more dramatic, but I had no spare hands to take pictures, regrettably. -dan

This was tough to see from the air. The flooding in central Kentucky is widespread, and while what I flew over appeared not to get beyond the river floodplain, there were definitely homes inundated or cut off. I read news reports of much of the state capitol being flooded. -dan

I was mostly responding to the stem question. There are angled stem tubes, but that is unnecessary for our gear. I just matched the tube size with the tire size, and it fit fine. I’m no expert in decoding aircraft tire sizes, but I’m sure someone at spruce could help. My pairing is the opposite of yours: Michelin tube in a Goodyear Flight Custom III. -dan

I just replaced mine with this https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/pnpages/06-00021.php no 90* angle valve needed -dan

@A64Pilot I think we are on the same page here, except as to the cost of the big bore turbo o/h. It is shocking, but they are well in excess of $100k now, both CMI and, I believe, Lyc. I did top o/h only partially because of new components, but in my case, the jugs had been punched 0.001 over once before, so at 1700 hours, there was nothing left but to mulch them. Agree 100% on the Mike Busch-fueled anxiety over cylinder R&R. Shop had torque plates, and this sort of work happens dozens of times across the county daily w/o planes lawn-darting all over the place. -dan

My primary considerations in choosing to top a 1700 hour engine vs O/H: Treat the symptom. High oil consumption and oil that would get dirty on the first run-up (it seemed.) The CMI crankcase test scored very badly, cross-hatch was very worn, so the cylinders needed to be replaced. The rest of the engine is fine, with 0 corrosion and no metal ever in the filter, so why throw out a working reliable engine? Recent Major Components repaired or replaced. 2 Turbo’s, mags, harnesses, fuel pump all replaced within the last 100 hours. Invasive MX / Infant Mortality. Less stuff is disturbed, so less opportunity for things to be done wrong/poorly. CAPEX /Time value of money. Just to make the math easy, let’s assume optimistically that the O/H costs $100,000 more than the top. At an 8% cost of funds, that o/h costs $8000 per year more. The hours on the “new” cost another $10,000 in blue book @150 hours per year. Downtime. I need the plane to run my business. Germ tube is massively inconvenient to the point of pointlessness. Top, even though it didn’t go great, is significantly less downtime. Unless someone beats me with a money stick, I plan on keeping this plane for a while. So at the rate I’m flying, if I can get another 5 years/750 hours out of the engine, then I’m nearly $100,000 ahead on a cash flow basis. There are, of course, no guarantees, save for the skinny warranty that the overhauler offers. As @aviatoreb is discovering, these engines are astonishingly expensive (Victor super-dooper overhaul quote $130,00++), so anything that can economically extend the life of the engine in place seems prudent to me. The financial figuring, done with an appropriately dull pencil, is just rationalization. For me, it was higher confidence in the engine and less downtime that drove the decision. YMMV. -dan

Especially considering the panel height of the pre-GX or -DX Ovations, I'd go with the @DonMuncy units. I find the rosen's to be 20-30% too big in the G1000 Acclaim. Or, I suppose you could trim to fit to your satisfaction. -dan