Mooneymite

There are some (not me) who opine that jet time is just about all instrument time since it would be darn near impossible to fly RVSM airspace without reference to instruments. I guess the fact that the autopilot uses the instruments is "close enough" to fulfill "solely by reference". An interesting argument, but I doubt an airline interview board would be impressed.

Forget the couch and toilet....does the friend pay for the gas? :-) The T-bone is a thirsty animal!

61.51 (g) Logging instrument time. (1) A person may log instrument time only for that flight time when the person operates the aircraft solely by reference to instruments under actual or simulated instrument flight conditions. Generally true when there is no visible horizon, but not specifically stated in this paragraph.

My employer tracks those statistics for us....over the years, it seems to work out at about 10%, but if we used the strict "visible horizon", it would probably be a bit more.

Have you picked out a nice Aerostar to supplement your Mooney lust? That would be a nice surprise for your wife when you get home!

How's the progress? When is your rating ride?

Just a suggestion: Get mechanically involved with your plane during your first annual. I don't know how "mechanical" you are, but no one is ever going to be more concerned about the condition of your plane than you. There's no rocket science involved in an 'E' model. Try to find a mechanic who will allow you to participate to "some" degree. A lot of IA's are happy to have the owner do the boring grunt work while they use their expertise on your gripe list.

Awsome.

That stuff you used on your gear doors? That's what I use on my teeth. Awsome!

Rob, why JAX instead of FTY?

While I don't doubt there are bad hubs out there, the question devolves into.... How many/what percentage? Of the bad hubs, how many of the failures were due to a prop strike which was not properly addressed? Even the new "non AD" hub can show a crack after a prop strike. In other words, is it really a design issue, or a service issue?

It would be very interesting to know how many defective/failing prop hubs turn up during this inspection. To me, this was an AD prompted by failures caused by something other than the prop-hub design. Like the recent "Huck bolt" AD, this seems to be a case of over-kill. I changed mine out when Hartzel had the deal on new hubs right after the AD came out, but my old hub was perfect according to the prop shop. Q: Has anyone on Mooneyspace discovered a bad hub due to this AD yet?

I watch these guys fly in/out of HTO, hauling folks out of Manhatten. Those Caravans are pretty tall way up on those amphib floats!

Your prop may be improperly "clocked". I can't tell what model you fly, but if it's got a 4-banger, the prop typically does not stop vertical. Simple to re-clock if you like safety wiring things. :-)

Welcome!

Oh! One more really good reason to monitor 121.5 on your "other" radio: if your ELT has activate (maybe from that "less than perfect landing" you just made ), you hear it and avoid an embarrassing visit from the CAP.

The most important reason is that since the US government (in its wisdom) stopped satelite monitoring of 121.5, flying aircraft are the most effective monitors of ELT's now. If WE don't monitor 121.5, we might as well throw our 121.5/243.0 ELT's away. Ground station monitoring of guard won't help unless you just happen to crash near a ground station.

Amen, Brother. Amen!

Most crews do monitor 121.5. I was just pointing out that legally, the ommercial carriers are bound by their ops specs which may make other provisions than monitoring 121.5. Legally, my former carrier has no requirement as long as company selcal works. When that NWA crew over-flew MSP, I could never figure out how they managed to ignore selcal!

The airline that I used to work for had in its ops-specs that "company freq" be monitored in lieu of 121.5. Our #2 radio was tuned to the airline (Airinc) network and the company could selcal us when ATC was looking for us. Later, when all the planes were equipped with ACARS (on a third VHF) with provision for selcal, we could tune the #2 radio to whatever we wanted. Some crews tuned 121.5, some 123.45, some never monitored #2 at all. Completely legal. Interestingly, there are some harmonics of 121.5 that will pop up on guard under certain atmospherics. The hapless pilot gets a ration about transmitting on guard when, in fact, he's not on 121.5 at all! Anyway, that's MY excuse!

Yeah....I used to date a girl named Pernicious. I've never forgotten her after all these years.

As I already said, electricty is all magic to me, but the Internet is full of instructions on how to "flash the generator field": Residual magnetism in the generator exciter field allows the generator to build up voltage during start-up. This magnetism is sometimes lost due to shelf time or improper operation, among other reasons. Restoring this residual magnetism is possible and is sometimes referred to as "flashing the exciter field". To restore the small amount of residual magnetism necessary to begin voltage buildup, connect a 12 volt battery to the exciter field while the generator is at rest, as follows.... However, be aware there are different generators and they may be labled differently, make sure you find the instructions for YOUR generator.....as I recall, on my Mooneymite, it was a Ford generator.

Once long ago, in another life, I was having a similar problem with the generator on my Mooneymite after the engine was overhauled. Since electricity is well above my competence, I counsulted with an old codger in my neighborhood. He said: "flash the field, your troubles will be gone". I said, "What?" Anyway, I ended up flashing the field and all my troubles were gone. Total cost: $0.

Obviously, the lower cage is most susceptable to corrosion since water migrates downward. However, there can also be pernicious corrosion under the windows and various other places not viewable from below. Taking the sidewalls out is the only way to see it all and it really is just a matter of removing all the screws....however, putting it all back together and finding all the right screwholes and matching the screws which have over time been mixed/matched can be like a chinese puzzle. There is no rocket science involved, but if you're paying someone by the hour.....yeowtch!!! If this aircraft has been stored outside for a portion of its life, you definitely want to look under the windows. If it's been hangared "all its life", you still want to look, but there probably isn't any corrosion.

What year model?