exM20K

That’s great news. Last one I attended in Davenport was really thin on Acclaim materials. Any improvement there? -Dan

Yeah, but especially with the gear up, I think a mooney would do ok in a bean field. never had the “pleasure” of operating a Rotax 2 stroke but was very fond of the 912 and 914 in the Diamond motorglider

I think it was last year…l a frequent poster over on beechtalk (where I don’t hang out anymore) put his v tail into a corn field with not great results. Plane probably destroyed, serious injuries, etc. in my youth, I may have run a Jeep CJ5 through a cornfield without putting the windshield down. Oops. not just the stalks, but the ears will whack the crap out of everything. You don’t always have a choice, but I’d pt a corn field pretty far down the list of suitable landing spots this time of year. Glad this one worked out and hope plane is economically repairable. -dan

https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/267788 201 out of OZW. Much better outcome landing in a bean field than a corn field this time of year! -dan

The Kelley system is much better in many respects. it doesn’t add work for the fragile starter adapter it gets the weight aft, which is big for the acclaim it can be run from an apu it can operate during takeoff, though I’d carefully monitor CO levels that said, I’d be really surprised if a motor repair shop couldn’t fix it. i hade the same issue with a Carrier A/C unit on my motorhome. Carrier got out of that market and ceased supporting the low profile units. very frustrating, but if you’re going to keep the plane for a while, consider the Kelley unit. -dan

That's really cool and an indication of how big this "niche" market really is. Thanks for posting -dan

I run LOP/SOP, and with a black painted lower fuselage and the Acclaim’s stubby left side exhaust, the bottom left of the underside gets a lot of the chalky white staining. the combination of this, a creeper, and a bunch of micro fleece rags makes quick work of it. The used rags are probably hazmat. But the plane looks great -dan

Kennon sun shades. If your main concern is keeping the heat out, they are the best. If you’re worried about water intrusion from occasional outdoor parking, fix the door seal. Have you tried to install a cover in the wind? Not fun. Have you ever dealt with a dew-soaked or rain-soaked cover when you’re on the road? Not fun. Sun shades address the 80% concern with 5% of the aggravation. -Dan

They don’t. At least on my riding mower, they never engaged the ANR. Howard Leight headset, kinda low end. The ANR is looking for spikes, so when it is constantly loud, they do nothing. +1 on the foam plugs under electronic muffs for shooting. -dan

And he had that awesome write-up of his goose strike over KAVP one night, IIRC. digging for the pics.... -dan

I’ll bet you’re right. The foam plugs I use for motorcycling and shooting are good for 32 db of noise reduction. If the clarity and halo can come close to that, they are probably quite a bit quieter than my base A20’s, if I’m reading this report correctly. https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/surveyreports/pdfs/360-13a.pdf -Dan

The photo above looks like a KFC150, which would follow the AI -Dan

And winds 140@ 130 kts. Yikes

There is a huge installed base on G1000 aircraft out there, many with no upgrade path. It’s not something that keeps me up at night. a WAAS G1000 combined with GFC700 is simply the best pairing of autopilot and avionics I’ve ever flown with. And the lower panel significantly improves forward visibility as for the life cycle, mine is 12 years old now, and it’s the buttons and knobs that have been points of failure for me. Sadly, these are not field serviceable, but Garmin is quick with the overhaul/exchange. I am having an four month old exchange MFD replaced under warranty right now because the cOM freq inner adjustment knob failed. Previous failure was the Zoom knob. These are simple repairs for Garmin, and I expect they will support the G1000 for a good, long time. That said, I’d happily pay for an NXI upgrade at the cost of other aircraft so upgraded. And another 200# of useful load might make this my last plane. -dam

This. At my home field in Illinois, even if I could maneuver for the turn-back, there is insufficient runway almost all the time to get the plane stopped and trees at one end that I’d rather not roll into. I am highly confident that an off field landing in an adjacent golf course or prairie can be done more safely by me than all the maneuvering to run off the end of the downwind runway. Check your downwind landing distance in the POH or ForeFlight. At 10 kts, tailwind and typical takeoff weight my Acclaim requires 4200’. and 3000’ over a 50’ obstacle and for rollout respectively. This is probably a worst-case Mooney example, but it is eye opening. One artifact of the astounding climb rate offered by the 310HP Acclaim is the ability to out-climb the best glide sink rate by a big margin. We go up at 1200. FPM, and would come back down at about 800, making a return doable deep into a flight with an unrestricted climb, suitable runway availability notwithstanding. -Dan

Maybe…. But they do permit 120KIAS climbs to the high teens with everything comfortably cool (below 375) even on the hottest days. I’m pretty sure the S22T’s aren’t good for much more than 700 FPM, at least basis hat I see on flightaware. Getting up out of the heat, clouds, ice, and bumps and into cool, clear air in just over half the time is big for me. -Dan

Because every knot counts....

Fairly typical summertime cruise for my Type "S" FIKI plane: 16,000 16.5GPH ~70*LOP (to keep #3 50* LOP) gives 198-200 KTAS typically. The POH power charts are mostly useless to me, but extrapolating as best as I can between rows and columns, it looks like 16.7 GPH should give 210 KTAS at that altitude, so I'm fine with all that. It looks like #6 EGT probe has entered the "Reading Low" stage of the failure sequence. This engine eats EGT probes like they're free. -Dan

I haven’t found anything that works better than correctly sized and correctly “installed” foam plugs. The better ones are good for 30+ dB of protection, which is very good. As they expand in your ear canal, you should hear the ambient volume go down a bunch. If not, they are not installed correctly. Perhaps you could get a ser made be an audiologist and get more protection. I had a silicone set made at a motorcycle show, and they were useless. -dan

Wife bought me one years ago, and it is da bomb, as the kids used to say. Company founder was an enthusiastic GA pilot and owner who was, sadly, lost when his MU2 went missing on a return flight from the Bahamas. That they fold and stay folded makes them a perfect fit in and out of the Moo ey baggage compartment. -dan

Do you fly with people whose survivors will sue your estate if you lawn dart, or do you fly mostly with family who won't? If mostly family, I'd lean towards sublimits. -dan

I see 0-5 ppm on the Tocsin which was just overhauled by them. I have no good explanation for where it's coming from, but I know it's not the heat. I run LOP, which I thought took care of CO, but evidently it doesn't. I suspect various cabin leaks create low pressure that draw exhaust into the cabin and also let me cheat on airspeed reports by using the alt static like @mike_elliott does lol. -dan

@Ozz You're overthinking this. Most all the candidate planes you're considering will have a Direct Operating Cost (DOC) of $150-$200 / hour - maybe higher in Canadia due to fuel costs, user fees, and socialism. Fixed costs are what they are. Higher hull value = higher insurance and oppty cost/debt service, but it doesn't really move the needle in DOC dollars. Are you willing to spend $20-$30,000 per year on your flying? That's really the only question you need to answer, and the choice of plane will nudge that number up or down a not-very-meaningful percentage. If it flies, floats, or fornicates, it will always be cheaper to rent than own. But the rental experience is very different from the ownership one, as several have noted above in this thread. If you own a plane, it's very likely you'll fly more than 80 hours per year as the marginal hourly cost is much less significant when you're paying all those fixed costs anyway. It's all rationalization anyway, but that's ok. -dan

Nah, brah. You had the alternate static open lol First plane I ever owned (as a partner) N8122Hwas the world’s fastest archer. Thing would show 135+ on the true ring of the ASI. Yay. This was before GPS and the 3 or 4 leg test. Didn’t believe it for a minute. -Dan

@mike_elliott I run 16.5-17GPH, usually 16,000 or 17,000 unless there is a compelling reason to go higher or stay lower (winds, ice, etc). I set power by fuel flow LOP. I run the ForeFlight slider back 5% in speed and 2% in fuel burn and am usually dead nuts on at 29ish x2500 (or 30.5ish x 2400.) That's 200 - 210 when adding back the CAS vs IAS errors. Cruise is only part of the equation. Climb matters bigly. The 310 HP will sustain 12-1500 FPM all the way up to the low flight levels at 120-130 KIAS. Compare/contrast with any other piston. I'll do a 120 KIAS climb out tomorrow tuesday on the way home in the afternoon with a full bag of fuel... assuming the WX is flyable in the AM. Winds are a compelling reason to stay low in the AM... Every time I fly my 310HP Acclaim "S," I'm amazed at how capable a plane it is. I can only imagine the Ultra is even better. Go Mooney! -dan