exM20K

Aerostar. Just don't plan on operating out of short fields, and prepare to put your maintenance technician's kids through college. Purchase price for some of the turbine twins is low, but if you're being honest with yourself, the total cost of ownership is going to be a big multiple of the Mooney TCO. -dan

That sounds high for SVT but serves as a reminder: don’t lose your SVT unlock card! you have %power via fuel flow multiplier if you’re flying LOP, which of course all the cool kids do. I don’t remember what it is for higher compression engines, but it’s better than the 13.7 we use for the turbos. -dan

My engine eats EGT probes like they’re free. TIT probe is the same, just 1/6 as often. What you describe is typical of the failure mode I’ve experienced. They start out reading low, then they wig out, then they “X” out. Probably a good idea to have a spare. In the PA46 world, I believe they are 500 hour replacement items. Dunno if that is in the MX manual or received wisdom within the tribe. -dan

Since @mike_elliott is too busy to (or afraid to) fly with me tomorrow, I’m going to spend a couple hours solo going through the SFO drills from @Buster1 Nate’s excellent book. I really wanted to try this under the hood with SVT, but unless anyone wants to fly with me within an hour of AAF, I’ll do it solo. I try to do this every six months or so, and had a great time with Parvez Darva running through these repeatedly at a MAPASF PPP. I do believe that SVT can be a game changer if you can glide maneuver into the cone of good outcomes. -dan

Tough spot to be in. I think I heard him say the engine was over-revving at one point, which would be consistent with loss of OP. From where he was when the incident started, he was high and set up on a long final for 34, but the ceilings were below ILS 34 minimums. There’s just not a lot of options where and when this happened. One of the most jarring things here is how close they were to pulling it off. 1 mile final and a couple hundred MORE feet of altitude, and they would have had an awesome “so there I was” story. RIP

That is what I’m thinking will be the case. How one handles the last foot or two landing a Mooney, especially the long body, makes all the difference. Finishing with the yoke all the way back helps tremendously, and having a true 600 RMP idle are vital to not forcing the nose down. My landings were crap for a while , and I couldn’t figure out why until I noticed that the aftermarket throttle required a hard pull to get to idle. 1000-1100 rpm will add substantial float.

Question for @LANCECASPER @donkaye and the other long body LHS owners: I purchased a system and will have it installed at annual this month. My landing technique is 70-75 KIAS Vref, cross the threshold at 1.2 Vso, roll in up trim and roll out throttle in the flare. How do you make use of the altitude callouts in landing? Day/night differences? looking forward to experimenting. -dan

If your 80% mission is big runway to big runway, and those runways are not really far apart, the Vision Jet may be more suitable than the tight cabin of a TBM or P46T. Lucky for me, my 80% mission is short runway (with no Jet-A) to medium runway, and they are 750 NM apart, so I don’t have to struggle with which to buy. Acclaim is as well or better suited than anything else, save for the PA46, but that won’t fit in either hangar. Whew. No more looking at airplanes for me! -dan

If your data recorder includes pitch, that would be interesting to see. The factory gauges on my Acclaim are very pitch sensitive, reading higher and lower with pitch up/down. For long trips, I will often try to run one tank down to 8gallons which is where, in level flight, the low fuel annunciation illuminates. But since that is often in a descent, it puts me back on my calculated fuel tally. If the CIES probes are mounted in the same locations as the factory ones, how would one calibrate without leveling the plane on jacks? -dan

Brightens or Dims the screen in high or low light conditions

Same here. Haven’t found a solution.

with an O2D2, i refill maybe once a year and fly on 02 1-2 people probably 70 hours per year

If you're a foreflight performance plus or higher subscriber, you can download the performance profiles which are built from the POH. With TKS, I back the speeds off 5%. For W&B, My plane (TKS, No A/C) is Basic Empty CG (in) 45.518 Basic Empty Weight (lbs) 2490 The 310 HP Acclaim Type S was built off my poh. -dan

Lowest power settings in the POH Tailwind 50-60 knots according to windy. 7.7 hrs at 10-11 GPH. Plus climb fuel. Doable, just not w/pax you want to fly with you again.

Ditto the acclaim. I do know one guy who flies ROP lat 21+ GPH to get very high TAS numbers, but most don’t. There are two major differences with respect to performance vs the acclaim for both the Rocket and Bravo. Acclaim cowling is cleaner than either. The cowling is optimized not to need cowl flaps and is a much more modern design, and the Type S changes are meaningful. It’s my understanding that Bravo’s will fly LOP. All Acclaims will very happily. Not sure about TSIO520NB lop. Vs the long body planes, the mid body must generate more downforce to balance the heavy engine, which creates more drag. Speed reports without corresponding fuel flows are meaningless. My plane can be a 210 KTAS 16.5 GPH at 16-17,000, or it can be 220 KTAS at 21 GPH. I don’t find that juice worth the squeeze. TKS costs 8-10 KTAS. I do find that juice worth the squeeze. i imagine being able to sustain 12-1500 FPM climbs (310 HP) does more to shorten a trip than does a 5-10% cruise difference. -dan

2009 acclaim. So likely the newer version. Thanks

I guess I should be glad they didn’t fail in the Up position. This failure mode: push the button, they extend 2/3 of the wan, and then they snap right back to stowed. Any ideas on how to troubleshoot? -dan

Yup. My old boss has a sign behind his desk that reads: “What’s obvious is obviously wrong.” He is a billionaire many times over and possesses a unique set of skills. it seems to me that we are wired for mean reversion expectations, especially in a rising price environment. I’m sure there is plenty in the scientific literature to name and describe this tendency, and in plain English, it’s some stew of Fear of (or embarrassment from) missing out and envy. As pointed out above, CAPEX is a small part of total cost of ownership. Buy the best plane for your mission that you can afford on a TCO basis. Price fluctuations, especially over larger time spans will barely make the needle quiver on the cost meter. -dan

Amen. Within the last six months, I was able to identify a failing fuel pump by comparing the data traces on comparable flights in the past. Data visualization works great for me, and I’m grateful to Savvy for offering their visualization tools and expert advice. I don’t get hung up on absolute levels on the engine monitor. Sometimes, oil pressure wants to sit at 57 PSI, and sometimes it wants to be at 60, or 55, or whatever. Ditto oil and cylinder head temps. Sometimes one jug or the oil will tick up or down 25or 5 degrees respectively with no change in OAT. If nothing else corroborates such a move, no big deal. We are monitoring non-precision devices with precision gauges. A data logging engine monitor enables me to put a flight’s engine data into the context of a lot of other flights. Excursions well outside the normal range and especially if corroborated by other data are, to me, what matter. Can we do oil analysis next :-)

Leaving yourself an “out” begins at least as early as the takeoff roll. Dinky little airports with not-great snow removal may mean you’re committed to fly soon after you apply takeoff power. No thanks. and when you fly the (non-precision) approach into a snowy dinky little strip, don’t forget the 120KIAS minimum icing speed. This speed applies to approach just as it does to climb. and when you fly the approach into the dinky little field, don’t forget that the FIKI planes are limited to takeoff flaps only if icing has been encountered. Figure 83 KIAS Vref vs 73. Do you know you can get stopped on a contaminated dinky little runway in an unfamiliar configuration, sight picture, and airspeed? real winter weather flying for me is a big airport thing. YMMV. -dan (based part of the time at a dinky little strip in Illinois)

I can't get out to the hangar just now. If yours is set up like mine, just pop open the left side cover. It is sitting just inside and aft with a handful of breatkers. -dan

If you have a battery minder(s), how did you route the wires to the exterior? Also, I assume it one minder per battery, correct? -dan Edit…. Reading is fundamental. From the spruce product page…. Maintain up to 2 batteries at a time. (requires BatteryMINDer® Y-Connector Accessory 210-AY)

Also, check that the trickle charger breaker is in. Just inside the left battery access door on my Acclaim. Mine was tripping all the time when the right side battery was dying. -dan

I have considered one as an upgrade. Pressurization is nice, the Malibu runs well LOP with good range and UL. It is about 3” too long with the RV in the back of my hangar. Mirage is not on my radar because of the pathetic climb rate. Look at flightaware PA46 flights. These things crawl into the flight levels at maybe 500 FPM. This time of year they look a bit better with the cold OAT permitting slower climb speeds. The Malibu is really not much better. A friend went from Acclaim to M350 (mirage) and likes it very much. I mentioned the climb rate concern, and his attitude was, “so what?” For me, 40 minutes of climb at 40GPH and 120 KIAS, carefully watching the CHT is inferior to the Acclaim’s balls to the wall, 35 GPH, 12-1500 FPM @130 KIAS. Set it and forget it. Just remember low boost passing 12,000. And flip the boom cannula down. And monitor blood O2. And stay 11,000 if the dog is onboard. PA46 of any flavor is probably double the purchase price of a good Bravo. And that’s just the ante. Recurring costs, like hangar and insurance, are significantly higher. For an average $5-600,000 PA46, you could well be looking at $15-20,000 annual, recurring insurance premium. My premium for a $450,000 hull value is <$5,000 for $1MM smooth. A friend is selling his Malibu because of the insurance cost and current high prices he thinks he can tap. Perhaps @Parker_Woodruff can confirm my anecdotes. High recurring costs are a bad bleed. PA46 is a great platform that, along with SETP, put the final nail in the coffin for the cabin class pressurized twins as anything other than a niche market. But it is a whole different cost category than our planes. -dan

One more consideration from me: If you live in an area that can flood, and you plan on finishing the interior, do the bottom 2-3 feet of sidewall in greenboard with bagged insulation and a barrier between it and what's above. When the hangar floods, maybe the greenboard is caulked well enough to keep the interior of the wall dry, maybe now. But if not, you're replacing 2-3 feet of interior and insulation all the way around three sides of the building and not 14' -dan