exM20K

Yikes! Did you keep your speed up on final? One thing I need to do more is to fly an ILS at >120 KIAS, which is the minimum icing speed. I'm typically 105 for the final segment... -dan

Amen to that. But beware the moral hazard of a more reliable powerplant (or CAPS) impelling riskier decision making.... -dan

and yet.... the Vitatoe turbo-normalized IO550 conversion cruises nearly as fast, has a lot more range, and is a ton cheaper to purchase (and presumably to operate). Pistons work well in this class of planes. -dan

The cost of operating a factory turbine is shockingly high. C&D pegs the M20TN and Bravo at $205/hour w/ $5 gas. Meridian/TBM are $900-1200 per hour. Yes, you are going faster, but not that much. Then there is the cost of money and higher insurance.... Even the Jetprop comes in at something like $800/hr. I spend $25-$35,000 per year operating the M20TN 150ish hours every year with no interest or hangar charges. I'm simply not in a place that I can rationalize spending 5x that for the much more capable SETP. For all the hate directed at the CMI engines, I think it's wrong. These engines are very efficient, light weight and reliable. Consider the Cirrus experience: 100 cases where the pilot elected to pull the 'chute over 10 years/10,000,000 hours of flying? If all 100 of those chute pulls were catastrophic engine failure, then engine failure is so unlikely as compared to stupid pilot tricks that it fades into irrelevance. 1/100th% likelihood of a chute pull event every 100 hour year. And Cirrus pilots are pulling the chute for a variety of reasons, not just a rod or cylinder departing the cowling. The cirrus owners group keeps very good data, and i'm using approximate recollections here.... WRT the big continental diesel... I have a hundreds of hours in DA42's and am very fond of those installations. I would, however, be more comfortable with a couple hundred thousand hours in service for a new diesel in a single. Stuff breaks no matter what engine you're running. -dan

That would be doubly awesome... a flatter pitch angle for climbing in and sufficient useful load to use the back seats regularly! -dan

They’re not if you steal them out of a soft-serve machine ;-)

That plane would have the pitch angle of a DC3 sitting on the ground. Acclaim sits something like 5* nose up, which makes rear seat access a lot harder than in the 231: front seat back won’t stay forward. It wants to flop back...

The electro-thermal system in the early Columbia planes was a failure IIRC because of the alternator size and reliability requirements. I too prefer TKS to boots. I hate vacuum pumps. They fail, and if steam gauges and boots in IMC, you’re right properly screwed. -Dan

new tires.

Love Weather Tech in the car. Terrible idea in the plane. I think i've mentioned this before: had pep-boys type floor mats in the front footwells of the 231. Main line from battery to starter chafed through. Molten insulation and wire fell onto the floor mat and started smoldering. Killed the master and my PAX stamped out the floor mat. I'll never put carpet or upholstery into a plane w/o burn certificate. Few things scare me as much as in-flight fire. -dan

.... and ensures the exhaust is free of CO

Cost, weight, systems, and structure. One lesson from the P210 vs PA46 battle is that the ground-up platform built for pressurization will be better (lighter, cheaper, higher diff) than the legacy plane retrofitted with bubblegum and caulk. look at the door of a DA62 and consider the surface area. At 5 PSI, those hinges, latches, window glue, and window will have to be pretty stout. For a plane without excess useful load, it just won’t work. likewise, even if Mooney could certify and deliver a 301, it would have to be a lot better than the PA46 to succeed. That’s a tall order. -Dan

Still less of a pain than positioning a ladder and climbing up to fuel a high wing. GATS Jar = more fuel in the cup and less on my hand -Dan

18.5 gph @ 8000 standard day, book says 201KTAS. Real world prolly 10 under that. love that PFD display. It’s so much better and brighter than the G1000 especially turn and slip indication. -Dan

Flow problems are unlikely to come from surface contamination. Fluid pressure will clear the holes most of the time. Individual dry panels are more likely a result of a dried out membrane or a bad proportioning valve.

Hi Lucas. What I would do... fix TIT probe. switch #4 EGT probe with one of the others make certain your G1000 software is capable of logging data and that you have a card in the MFD top slot run a SAVVY flight test profile http://content.savvyanalysis.com/static/pdf/SavvyAnalysisFlightTestProfiles.pdf post the data here and/or subscribe to Savvy’s support. I’ve found it to be of good value. -Dan

Really? My FIKI Acclaim S has a useful load of 880. There really isn't much variability in the empty weight from there unless you load it up with old radios (DME, ADF, etc) which some especially in EU and other world markets do. One of the easy ways to shed empty weight probably won't work here: the lithium batteries. The 35# weight savings would probably not be great for W&B. There may be a handful of FIKI+AC planes out there, but last time I checked, Mooney disallowed "both" on the order form when that was a thing. I would consider seriously a new M20V with another 200# of useful. -dan

Bar harbor. Lunt’s Gateway lobster pound was always our go-to when we lived in the northeast -dan

I’d forgotten about that jive. Doesn’t give one the warm fuzzies about the company.

The winglets extend the effective wingspan, which changes the loads on the spar, carry through, bolts, sheet metal screws, whatever. I saw one of these in terre haute last week. A CJ3. On the trailing edge of the winglet’s horizontal surface is another aileron, which acts to kill lift when some G limit or acceleration is exceeded. the company is Tamarack, and there was some controversy last year after an equipped CJ lawn darted. Company passed through bankruptcy but now back in the game, I believe. -dan

Power-off, and you’ve got the energy you’ve got. A little power on and behind the power curve, and you can take energy out of the mix in the flare. Simultaneously rolling in nose up trim and rolling out power works well for me. Learn what it looks and feels like on a big runway, obviously. -dan

flightaware understands wildcards. Try M20* as the type. -dan

I believe that a big part of the cost is filtration: the TKS fluid is filtered down to 1 micron or something. Are the inputs off the shelf filtered to the same degree? AccuChem TKS Fluid is produced by Express Chem in St. Louis, Missouri. Our TKS Fluid is filtered down to 1 micron before and after blending to ensure the highest quality product. https://www.tksfluid.com/ -dan

great point, Norm. I think I forgot to mention this. Landings are at lighter weight than takeoffs most of the time (duh - we burn fuel in flight!). however, book distances for t/o are much easier to achieve than book or less for landing - pilot skill and technique is much more influential in landing distances. For my situation, if the book says the plane will do it, I'm confident it will since the book is written for 280 HP, and not the 310 I have. cheers, -dan

Same. I have an apple watch and use it when I'm riding my bike and less frequently as a watch. O2 sat is something I care about only flying (maybe I should care more, but I don't), so there are good, dedicated devices for that. The nav function on the Garmin watches doesn't do anything for me. The eco drive is just perfect: E6B, charges itself, sets itself, just works. -dan