AndyFromCB

I second TAC Air at KAPA. Used them 3 times this summer, twice last year. Cheap gas, even cheaper on the weekends, cheap tie down, rental car always ready to go, Hertz counter right as you walk in the door, pleasant staff. Over all a winner. If you're going to land at KAPA, go to the airport website and read their special instructions. They are really swamped most of the time and prefer that you do as little talking as possible. 231flier, is there a reason not to fly to Granby in the winter? Just wondering? Is it not plowed?

One day I accidently built a better mouse trap in my hangar. I left a 2 foot section of 3/4 inch nylon hose hanging over a 5 gallon bucket, one end touching the ground, the other right over the edge of the bucket. The bucket had some trash at the bottom. Came back to the hangar about 2 weeks later and guess what? 5 dead little criters in the bucket. Apparently, if you're a mouse and you see a piece of hose you simply cannot resist...Now it's a permanent setup with some dehydrating kitty litter on the bottom of the bucket and a slice of bread.

My Arrow's useful load it 1030 on paper, 1070 when weighted last year (unofficial) so it's essentially full fuel, 4 people and small bags and 500nm range aircraft. N7627D does about 145kt but don't expect that from most Arrows. This one has every speed kit installed. Now in order for my bravo to pull this off, I could only put 27 gallons in it (or 17 with TKS full) and I don't think it's certified as a motor glider. And while I don't have an issue taking off a few pounds overweight here and there, as per prior discussions, I have no desire to push it. So if it's just me, full fuel, if me and my girlfriend and luggage, we'll only take 70 gallons which gives us about 3 hours of flight at 175knots plus a healthy reserve.

Quote: Shadrach Greetings Ladies and Gents, I have finally become relatively comfortable with my BK AV8OR and its shortcomings. However, I am noticing that the suction cup windscreen mount gives up climbing through DAs around 11,500ft. One would think that simply reattaching it at the lower DA would cement it in place...but so far this is not the case. Does anyone have any tricks or tips to solve or minimize this issue?

The poor guy would be me, keeping two airplanes for now. Need Arrow's useful load and for my 100nm run to Des Moines twice a week, it's hard to justify pulling the Bravo out of the hangar, plus as we know, one is always going to be broken ;-) But seriously, when they performed WASS upgrades, was it a total board replacement or where some older, slower components reused? Andy

The 430W installed in my Bravo was an older unit that was upgraded to WASS by Garmin. The one in my Arrow was WASS from the start. The Bravo unit seems to be slower? Or am I just seeing things? And it actually is slower, can they just simply by swapped by an A&P, both are 14v/28v units.

Speaking of mice, one day I accidently built a better mouse trap. I left a 2 foot section of 3/4 inch nylon hose hanging over a 5 gallon bucket, one end touching the ground, the other right over the edge of the bucket. The bucket had some trash at the bottom. Came back to the hangar about 2 weeks later and guess what? 5 dead little criters in the bucket. Apparently, if you're a mouse and you see a piece of hose you simply cannot resist...Now it's a permanent setup with some dehydrating kitty litter on the bottom of the bucket and a slice of bread.

My "new" Bravo got painted with 3 coats of JetGlo on the bottom and 3 coats of Imron on the top about a 1000 hours ago. The paint still looks great but there are about 4 small areas where it chipped around the TKS panels plus a big area where it's chipping on top of the cowling (heat and vibration). Need to find a good paint shop in the Midwest (Iowa, NE, MO or KS) to do some touch up. Any ideas?

I'm mainly interested in displaying XM NEXRAD and getting METARS/TAF. For charts and plates I find my iPad unbeatable in both screen size, ease of use and annual price for foreflight subsripction.

John, I'll go out and do some more airwork next week. The prior owner/delivery pilot was a CFI so he gave me a basic checkout as in getting off and back on the runway, basic systems and power settings about 3 hours of total flight time. I think I tracked the eletrical gremlin down yesterday, waiting for a new baterry and a couple of fuses that blew up when the voltage regulator went haywire. Then I indend to go out by myself for another 2 to 3 hours to do some more airwork including stalls. Then I plan on getting in with an instructor and doing about 6 to 12 full landing approaches in simulated IMC to understand the aircraft and autopiliot better. Unfortunatelly, the Bravo does not come with GPSS so I'll have to do all the "hard" work myself as in setting the needles on the HSI ;-) Might actually make me a better IFR pilot. On the other hand, it has the vertical functionality the autopilot in my Arrow lacked as in the S-Tec 30 only had altitude hold and manual trim. Hopefully at that point I'll start becoming one with the airplane. Then and only then will I take it on a real cross country and with some higher minimums for starters. Andy P.S. What do you guys think about taking out the MX-20 out of the panel (seem like an old painful interface) and just mounting an Aera connected to the 430 and audio panel in the same spot instead.

So did the one I bought. So I got a discount for damage history, a new prop with 400 hours and overhaul without calling it that from G&N. I'm almost glad Mooneys are like that.

Or you could come join us here in "sunny" Iowa. $240 a month at KCBF for two hangars, that's total. For $7200 a year that's a lot of runs down to Florida when you get tired of our Iowa "sun". For only $350 a month you can get a big twin heated hangar, gas included. Been on a waiting list for one of them for a while. For now, little space heater in the baggage compartement does the trick in the winter...

Well, I got her here, flown her 3 hours yesterday and other than the unfortunate incident with the homeland security folks here are my thoughts: -All the bad things I've ever heard about Mooneys are total nonsense. Went up and in about 10 minutes everything just clicked. Big wing dip on take off because I wasn't used to the small amount of control deflection needed for crosswind take off, the yoke just doesn't move that much but I find that actually nicer as it doesn't hit my legs at full deflection. -Slowing her down is non issue, I don't understand where that perception comes from. Drop the gear at 140, she's down to 110 in few seconds, put in full flaps abeam the numbers, 90 few seconds later, start pulling power out on final. -Bravo has to be the easiest airplane to land ever. Much easier than my Arrow. 75 on short final, 70 over the numbers, pull the power out. It doesn't float any more than my Arrow but I also don't have to point it nose down at the runway -Wow, this airplane is stable like a rock vs the pipers and cessna's I've flown, it's like it's on rails. When trimmed for an airspeed, it just stays there, making landings so easy. -I love that glide ratio. Two huge guys up front, case of oil in the back for W&B, pull the power back, pull the prop back, 500fpm descent. -Still having some issues with the right channel in the voltage regulator, so few more gremlins to track down. Two brand new batteries, left one failed after about 1 hour into the delivery flight. We tested it yesterday, just won't hold a charge.

Better yet, the last leg of the flight was on an IFR flight plan, KPUB/KCBF. How dumb would we have to be to do that if actually doing something illegal?

I'm still a bit shaken but I think I'm going to file a Freedom of Information Act request to understand what happened before I get on the FBO owner.

Well Ladies/Gentlemen, My "new" Bravo was delivered to my airport today. I have two hangars. Earlier in the day, I went to take a few parts of my sailboat, that I also store in #7, so that my Arrows wings would clear it, moved the Arrow from #38 (where all my tools, headsets, etc are stored) to #7 to make space for for the Bravo. Sat around the airport for another hour watching flightaware, waiting for Bravo to make it to its new home. When the Bravo landed, I drove out onto the ramp, waved to the delivery pilot to follow me to the hangar and we did just that. The second he shut down the engine, a big SUV shows up and then a little junky car. Two guys dressed more or less casual (actually, one looked like a hobo) jump out, ask us what is going on. I'm going, ha? He shows his homeland security badge and starts asking questions, asking to search the airplane, separates me from the delivery pilot. Ask for ID, tells me to go sit it my truck, then the other guy flips out because I go sit in my truck. I gave him my ID, then he asks me how long I lived at my address, at which point I tell him I am not going to answer any more questions. He tells me to go stand by his car, btw, it's raining. For next hour he keeps on searching the airplane, searching my car, asking me questions. Here is the best one "Do I know anything about narcotics?". What kind of question is that? How open ended. Why just not ask me if I know anything about Osama? Finally a local sheriff arrives, brings out a dog, that jumps all over the airplane, stratches the paint on the wings and ailerons, etc and then they just go away, no I'm sorry, no nothing. So what do I do about the scratches? Apparently all becuase I drove onto the ramp (I do it all the time, not illegal, no fence, no gate) and the airplane was non one someone at the FBO's recognized so they called these guys. I am going to tear a new one to the owner of the FBO on Monday and unless I get an appology, I will move my airplanes somewhere else.

Quote: orangemtl

Thanks, Wow to both sides of the story. That's all I have to say.

http://www.aero-news.net/index.cfm?do=main.textpost&id=5751ecf1-73ef-4a3e-af5a-cbe60022dec3

You might be right but why wouldn't they act like a fan? If they keep on spinning, they keep on moving air? Wish someone would post a diagram of a gyro's vanes.

When the pump fails, the gyro keeps on spinning, the flow reverses, this time around sucking carbon into it. It's called physics...

Allsmiles, To say that we don't need GPSS at our speeds is a falacy. Yes, we don't need it. Neither do we need Aspen or for that matter the whole GTN/GNS line. But GPSS is the greatest thing since sliced bread in IFR flying, sit down, kick back , relax and spend all your energy monitoring the flight instead fighting the wind in the soup. My GPSS took me thru a 32 knot cross wind on a LPV approach a few weeks ago where I could focus on the developing weather and pull the plug and do a 180 if needed instead of focusing on the basics of chasing the needles. If you have all the fancy avionics in your airplane and you don't have GPSS and you fly IFR, that's like a blind person buying the iPad. It's cool but pretty useless. Andy

John, While I agree completelly that no good deed goes unpunished indeed, by that line of reasoning you're heading straight to hell for talking sense into me about flying over gross ;-) Thanks Anyway, Andy

I don't have the time to change oil. I woke up at 6:30am this morning, was at work at 7:30am, took an hour and a half to excersise and eat lunch at home, got back home at 8:30pm. That's a 13 hour day. Eating bean chile I pulled from my freezer we made a few months ago as in not to eat junk. So during the week, I don't have the time. During the weekened, I'd rather enjoy my time and cook and freeze so I don't have to eat crap during the week, in the long run should save me a lot more than oil changes as in $400,000 heart surgery ;-) Bravo is that thristy if you want the keep the CHTs below 380 during the summer.

Shadrach, Try KJAC at $6.70, KMDW at $6.67 or KCBF, my home base at $5.99. Pumping it yourself is not an option at any one of these airports. I'd say 21 an hour would be more accurate than 19. The maintenance budget might be a bit over blown after first year, but first year on a 21 year old airplane, I'd say it's pretty accurate if you want everything to be perfect again. Then include engine ($30 an hour), prop ($5 an hour), paint ($5 an hour) and interior reserves ($5 an hour) and it really adds up. I've always counted on 1 hour of maintenance per 1 hour of flight in a complex, turbo'd single plus half the hourly amount in parts. I mean an oil change alone is going to run 2 hours plus 12 quarts so about $250. 4 of them a year is $1000. Now throw in a King Gyro and Autopilot issue and you're easily writting a check for $5000 and that's if you're lucky before all is said and done to ferry the airplane, get it fixed, ferry it back. I've seen annuals blow thru $10K with just a few 'minor' issues. Look at the $1890 price for a voltage regulator. Better have that budget and not spend it (I know I will eventually) than sweat at annuals and maintenance events. Most people underestimate costs of ownership, I'd rather do the opposite and occasionally be pleasantly surprised. It's kind of a like getting a $200 dollar bill from your attorney, you're starting to wonder if it's time to look for a new one because this one is apparently going senile, forgetting to tripple bill ;-) Andy