exM20K

If you can find one, a FIKI Encore is probably the best plane Mooney ever made. I was looking for one when I bought the Acclaim, but there were none for sale. -de

1. no difference. you are correct. 2. Yes, my 231 was painted w/ TKS installed. no biggy to mask off the panels. 3. Yes, but most (all?) are authorized by Cav. 4. both. installed on 231 by shoreline aviation in MA and bought a FIKI Acclaim. Is it worth the investment? for me: yes. 5. My acclaim is 5% below book cruise LOP using FF tp determine power. Not a meaningful degradation in speed given the added capabilities. I flew your plane when my friend Jim Murphy owned it. NIce bird and well cared for by him. For where you are geographically, if it were me, i'd add the TKS. I have first hand experience w/ summertime icing crossing the Cascades in the 231 w/ a no-hazard system, and I'm glad I had it. -dan

I’ve flown both Acclaim and bravo but owned only Acclaim. Main differences: *bravo is a little slower •bravo is a little thirstier *Acclaim runs smoother *Acclaim runs LOP Both power plants are hideously expensive. Not so with the 201. Most bravo’s have a very tall panel. Otherwise, they fly similarly No idea why the bravos are perceived to be languishing on the market. Correctly priced planes should move. Maybe owners too fond of their birds. -dan

ForeFlight has an extensive library of aircraft performance profiles, many with TO & Landing data https://foreflight.com/products/performance-directory/#/ -dan

1083 vs 1089 (bulkhead vs G1000) for mine. Perhaps the G1000 doesn't record below a threshold rpm. Hardly worth noting.... I use G1000 for logging and MX. What section of POH addresses these gauges? -dan

also, if battery voltage drops low enough during storage, the DA40 hobbs will run on its own. ask me how i know:-)

pH is what I’d be most worried about. fluid specs. it can get acidic with age. pH testers are cheap insurance. specific gravity should tell you if the water and alcohol have evaporated out. -dan

That dolly is slick. I wrestle the 30 gallon barrel onto standard wheeled dolly, and it's not fun. Be careful that the pump is ok for corrosives. I ruined a barrel with one of these, which corroded very quickly. -dan

Interesting. The stock Iskra motor doesn't release the shaft - you can tell because the prop is difficult to rotate backwards. This risks damage to the starter adapter if there is a kick-back on a failed start. The ST-4 is a high-torque version like the ST-5, and equipped with a clutch. Prop is now easy to rotate. The ST-3 lacked the torque to seize the shaft well for starting. Poplar Grove recommended the ST-4 motor in place of my working Iskra, and for $700ish, why not? Time will tell, I guess... Precious little useful load in the Acclaim..... -dan

Just switched out the brand I starter motor for sky tech st4. Starter adaptor was worn and leaking oil. Repaired in one day by poplar grove aeromotive -dan

Close, but that would be too easy. It’s a TIO 540 J2B if memory serves. Navajo power plant. Easy engine to kaboom. the demo is very useful in showing the ICP to CHT correlation. ive been a GAMI fan since the 90’s in my 231, and more recently made the trip to ADA for the live class. I was looking Forward to the advanced class, but the three principals had some IP dispute. Sadly, Walter passed away recently, and it remains to be seen if the two survivors can agree on a way to re-start the live classes. I hope they can as the classes are excellent and significantly advance aviation safety. -dan

https://flightaware.com/live/flight/N676JM/history/20200727/2130Z/KAAF/LL10 Clearing the last of the weather north of Terre Haute.... out of the murk and into this:

The rent-seekers at Disney still have their TFR, which was illegitimate from day 1. The parks have been closed for how long now?

@OHAEDO pm on the way. -dan

If you can send them a soft copy of the POH, they may cook a few up for you. That’s how we got the TN profiles in the library. -dan

You're not helping, Mike. In addition to better short field landing performance (approx 50% of my flights) lowering the Vso by 6 KIAS (10-ish %) offers a pretty impressive (17% ish) energy reduction in a forced landing. -dan

You may have just cost me $1600. Thanks. :-) -dan

@Bentonck I pretty much disregard the factory power settings, and I agree that they run at temps that could put a real hurt on an exhaust system long term. Finding peak takes a little time - it's not just the big pull, enrichen, and lean. that quick look shows a peak TIT that is often 15-20* lower than what it will settle at if you fiddle around the peak for a while. so true 50*LOP can be 1690-1700 - at 2500rpm, it's not too hard to show a 1740+ peak tit. Compression readings tell only part of the story. borescope and oil consumption will tell you a lot more about a sick cylinder, and CMI is pretty liberal with what's allowable on compressions. 250 STOH and 1150TT. My top was for corroded jugs and resultant high oil consumption. The received wisdom is that 30.5x2500 ROP increases wear. I choose not to run there because it is horrendously inefficient (25% more gas for 5-10% more speed), and I'm a CB. Plus range.... and useful load.

@Bentonck I don’t care much about absolute EGT readings, only how far below peak each cyl is. I do care about TIT for exhaust system life. The pictures are snapshots I take at peak so I can be sure all are at least 50 LOP. IUSUALLY WIND UP 65 ish LOP in TIT, which has all cylinders where I want them. on today’s trip to Florida, I tried running 2400 to lower the TIT. The attached picture shows the power setting, and I found a few knots vs 2500 with a cooler exhaust. That was 17,000 and about 200 KTAS. Not too shabby on 16.2GPH. not book speed, but that’s the toll of TKS. CHTs are great in the acclaim. Max 330 at those settings and ISA +5

AE300, which is approximately equivalent to an IO360, is 30% heavier. I don’t know a lot about the new Austro 300hp, but assuming the same relative weight difference, it will be porky: IO550 is 460#, 130% of that is 600#. The bigger issue, though, is W&B. The DA40 lycoming is slightly aft CG biased, as you probably recall. The DA40 NG is very nose heavy as I recall from flying it. The long body planes start nose heavy, requiring the dual batteries in the tail for balance. Plus the fuel tanks are slightly aft, so even though diesel has more go per pound of fuel, it would be really hard to balance on the long body. Not saying “it’ll never work,” but... it’ll never work. -dan

You don’t know what the offender told the tower guy, but I expect it does not track with this offender’s interaction with approach. -dan

Example: DA40 vs Archer... DA40 is approx 200# heavier for an roughly equivalent aircraft. -dan

Late 90’s. I had one of the old hangars with the sliding door, pretty good upslope and lip for the door going in and no interior walls. Ken was awesome when my PowerTow arrived in a crate at the MX hangar. I popped it open and saw a ton of parts, cables, and a couple hours of work. This was back when we had to dress like adults, so I wasn’t looking forward to the assembly at all. He said “no problem,” and proceeded to put the thing together for me. big fan of the family and the airport. -dan

For sure. I was based there before the expansion for a few years. Suggest talking to Ken Nierenberg assuming he’s still there. He’d be likely to know of any partnership opportunities. -dan

Yah.... I’ve always known it as SWOT: Sell what’s on the truck. Or in some Chicago precincts... Sell what fell off the truck ;-) you and @LANCECASPER make great points about sales and marketing. Cirrus puts enormous resources, human and financial, into their sales and marketing. Unless the other manufacturers get that, want that, and are capable of doing that, they will struggle regardless of the merits of the product. I believe all aircraft sales will be sluggish for the foreseeable future. Pro pilot and foreign student programs are in trouble and liquidating a lot of trainers onto the used market. Credit is almost certainly tighter than before, and buyers have little FOMO (fear of missing out). I do hope I’m wrong... -dan