exM20K

I find the Sirius XM lightning product to be superior to my old stormscope, but mine was not the latest version (had green screen with black dots). This is from the Sirius xm site: “The Lightning feature contains the latitude and longitude of both cloud-to-cloud and cloud-to-ground lightning strikes detected over North America, including the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. It is updated every 2.5 minutes. SiriusXM has recently upgraded its lightning provider to the most accurate and reliable large-scale lightning detection network in the world. Improvements to the lightning service include: 40% cloud-to-cloud lightning detection improvement, 20% lightning strike location accuracy improvement, 5% cloud-to-ground lightning detection improvement” while there is some latency, I’m not getting *that* close to a buildup. I believe these ground-based strike detection systems triangulate rather than estimate for location, which should be better. -dan

Publix down here in FL is well-stocked with Lemon Pledge. Problem: solved. -dan

That is not correct. The one that was all over youtube was at cruise speed and is the only one I'm aware of that departed the aircraft. Many here have reported one coming open on the t/o roll or after t/o with a normal landing to follow. From the overhead shots of this wreck, the baggage door appears to be open and attached to the plane, and the overhead shots appear to be taken before any first responders were on the scene. -dan

Add to that… they may well have had a full bag of gas, which is way cheaper at St. Augustine than at Homestead. Speaking only for myself…. I seldom land at max landing weight and NEVER at 3368 MTOW. Stall speed really goes up at heavy weight and high bank angle. 57 KIAS at a normal wings-level 3000# landing vs 72/85 @ 45/60* bank and MTOW. AOA warning, if installed, would have been screaming if this is what happened. -dan

It could also be the baggage door

It’s the actuator switch I want; I’m not a fan of the bicycle brake twisty one that was standard when mine was made. The remote, electric one seems like a better “do”. when mine broke this year, it was something crazy like 10 hours of labor to replace and lube the new one.

That is impressive, and I do have a use case for them. One of my home dromes is 2250-2500 x 30. I hesitate for fear of losing cruise speed. Did you observe any before/after difference on the Bravo? -dan

That is how I’d look at this plane vs others that are available or will be. The “A” engine works, but it runs hotter than the “B”. The panel looks like it came off a U-Boat with the bare metal and switches. VG’s are an unknown, and I’d steer clear w/o a need for them. With a $100,000 engine, $50,000 of panel, $25,000+ in paint, plus the work, time, and unknowns, and you have a new vs 700 SMOH version of this: https://www.controller.com/listing/for-sale/229261461/1989-mooney-m20m-bravo-piston-single-aircraft -dan

Wouldn’t a little J-shaped snorkel accomplish the same thing? -dan

Many things are possible with the application of a sufficient stack of AMU’s…. https://www.mhoxygen.com/product-category/built-in/ youd need some parts from Mooney, maybe. https://preciseflight.com/product/built-in-oxygen-system-for-mooney/ I would love to switch out to the precise flight control, but not for 8+ AMU’s -dan

If the advertised supply is not great, it is probably worth the money to buy a list of registered bravos, and send each owner a card or letter. If you make it clear that you’re a qualified, individual buyer and not a broker, you may unearth a good candidate or two. there used to be a company called AVPAK that sold these lists, but I can’t find a website for them. I’m sure there are others, since I get broker solicitations from time to time. -dan

But the installed cost has gotten so high that it’s way better to buy an equipped plane if you can find a suitable one. I’m curious what they quoted for each. NB: FIKI requires non-CAV equipment (2nd alternator and heated stall warning) that are spendy if not already so equipped. -dan

If you can find an Ovation DX (2004 ish), that would be a great choice, all other things being equal. The DX ovations and bravos were the side-by-side steam gauge models when G1000 was introduced, and they got the shorter panel, which is very nice. No doubt some have been glassed with stuff that is in a lot of ways better than G1000. -dan

Look more closely. Under the tks panel is a home-made placard saying “flight into known icing prohibited.” FIKI should carry a good premium to a no-hazard installation, which this appears to be. -dan

Premium + price for a non-FIKI plane that is being represented as something it is not? Nah. -dan

Well, it could be Virga, the clouds off to your 10 or 11 o’clock don’t appear well developed enough to produce virga. On several occasions in the past, I’ve had ATC call out significant weather ahead in a clear blue sky. I suspect that these are processing errors as the raw radar scans are amalgamated into the picture that gets distributed. I passed my meteorology – student son, or a more technical answer. Standby. ps. Nice panel, Glen. You and M still come down to Florida? -dan

This was my experience with Diamond planes as well. We had a customer DA20 that somehow fell off a jack, driving it through the wing. Factory designed the repair, and it was done without too much strife. A golf cart into the leading edge of a DA40 had a similar repair. I believe the DA20 was fiberglass, and the DA40 was composite with carbon fiber, but it’s been a while. If the factories do go dark sometime in the future, legacy aircraft ownership starts to resemble automobile ownership in Cuba. In some cases it does already. Parts generally get scavenged or re-produced. Life goes on. -dan

Jim @ Centric aviation in Apalachicola just did my newly overhauled prop. He got it down to 0.04 IPS in two or three runs. Smooth like butter now. -dan

Second photo from China, I think. @carusoam to the white courtesy phone, please

Here you go:

I know there are lots of posts here on door seal replacement, including one from @Gee Bee Aeroproducts that all have me confused. My seal got pinched on the front side and is now perforated and prolapsing through the door/fuselage gap. I’m not interested in a seal that mounts on the fuselage, which many of the after-market ones seem to do. if someone could direct me to an off-the-shelf replacement and associated adhesive, I’d really appreciate it. Meantime, perhaps some glue will fix the hole. -dan

Ok, well it’s coming from somewhere, and if it were my plane, I’d want the inside of the wing dry of TKS fluid. It can take some searching. I was getting a mist of fluid in the avionics bay. It was not obvious where it was coming from. Rejected hypotheses included the fuselage gap at the wing root with flaps extended, accumulating leaks in the belly, a bad vent in the tank, and others. Finding that mechanism of mess was not easy. It turns out that a sagging fill tube had created a trap between the filler and tank, and in flight, the low pressure in the avionics bay was sucking the fluid back up ro the vented cap. Problem solved with a few PMS zip ties to straighten the run to the tank. My factory installation did not leave much at all in the way of service loops in the lines; some were nearly taut. That tension can help pull stuff loose. good luck. -dan

I don’t think there should be fluid getting inside the wing. It is pretty straightforward to look at the supply tubes nd proportioning valve to find any leak. A leak won’t get better, and if a connection parts, the system won’t pressurize. -dan

Well-regarded shop, though I have no experience with them https://www.coleaviation.com At AAF: https://centricaviation.com/apalachicola-florida/ does a fair bit of work on my Acclaim. Jim is square biz. -dan

@Jetpilot86 have you confirmed that your LHS is correctly 0’d? On my TN, the sensor is mounted inboard of the step, and it is 18” off the ground there. “1 foot, 1 foot, 1 foot” with a stall warning, idle power, full nose up trim rolled in, and almost full-back stick usually leads to greasers, short rollouts, and further inflation of my considerable ego. Two out of three ain’t bad. Ive never measured it, but is seems to me that bleeding off energy holding the plane, then the nose, off is as or more effective than jumping on the brakes > 50 KIAS. Bounces, on the other hand, are a splendid way to consum8ng landing distance. -dan