robert7467

ohhh, and before you guys start bashing me on the rolling runup, I am well aware of the dangers of doing a runup while taxiing, and how you should pay attention to the taxiway, so its not a common practice for me, and my taxiway is over a mile long, and wide and I did it to avoid running it for a length of time on the ground to help break in the cylinder.

Well, could be because your rings are not seated. Are you babying your engine? If so try the following: Clean the plug Maybe try mineral oil (talk to your mechanic) Run the engine hard, and don’t baby it. If the rings get seated, switch back to detergent based oil. Go full power on climb, and climb at 120mph instead of 105 to keep the engine cool (I have a m20c, so yours might be a little different) Also, if you have a long taxiway you can try a rolling run-up to minimize running at low RPM on the ground (might get a little brake wear, and some people on her might not recommend it, but it also works great for busy airports, an instructor taught me this in long beach) Consult with your mechanic before you take my advice. This same thing happened to mine, and I did the above and it worked. On my plane at around 3500-4000 I started running it at 25/26 and 25/25 and it solved the problem.

Did another XC to Nashville this weekend. Really Hazy to the point to where I could see the ground looking our the side window, but had issues seeing the horizon in front of me. The good news, is that I could see traffic, clouds, and if needed I could decend to 3000 or so feet safely if I started getting fatigue scanning my instruments. So in the end, it was good to practice scanning instruments in a safe enviroment. On the return trip I cruised at tree thousand.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Airlines_Flight_232 Amazing..

Just something positive to think about. Often at times, we start to focus on the negatives in aviation such as politics, user fees, unwarranted searches and other government BS. Here is something that is really cool about aviation. When I took my trip to NC, I spoke with at least 10 different people during my route. They were keeping me clear of other aircraft, helping with weather, reassuring me that I was clear of the mountains, and overall made me comfortable during my flight knowing they were there. Do I depend on their information to be accurate? No, but it does help communicating with them, and knowing there are there with me during my trip. Think about how cool this is. I am on my little joyride, and I have the support of a whole team as an extra set of eyes out there. If I want to take a tour of a major city, they made sure the public is safe and vector me around approaching traffic, all for my personal enjoyment. There is a coolness factor to this. Our aviation infrastructure is not perfect, but it is the best in the world, and this is what I am thankful for. Just something positive to think about….

Anybody going to the turbo normalizer meeting this weekend?

This supports what I read in the killing zone, about pilots thinking just because their plane is in ground effect that its ready to climb, and then they see trees, and instead of letting airspeed build up, the start pulling back to avoid the trees.

Ha, yes it's just north of Nashville, if interested I will get the airport identifier when I get to the office. Looks like its going to be fun, and Aviation Access Project will be there, which I am thinking about opening a flight center here in Memphis.

On mine it had 100 hrs since overhaul in 2008 so it did a lot of sitting. Engine was running rough, and one of the plugs was oil fouled. Told mechanic how we were running it, pulling the power back 25/26 on climb, and 22/23 on cruise, and he told me not to baby it. Since then I started running it at full power on climb, and 25/25 or 25/26 and the rings finally set, and she is using regular oil now, and now I can set back the power settings a little. That's just my 2 cents, and my plane is in muggy Memphis. Just be careful, and do a good prebuy, and there is a chance by simply running the hell out if it, that the engine can be salvaged.

Anybody going to the Eaa shindig in TN this weekend? I would love to meet some of you guys.

I have been talking with Nathan Peterson on the phone, and he has been giving me some helpful insights, he is also local to me, and I have met him once. I just need to surround myself with more people like him and be a sponge with any knowlege they can offer.

“From where do you get a weather briefing? If you are only looking at TAFs along your route that is not nearly enough to understand the weather picture for an enroute flight. Flying the entire length of Tennessee is certainly going to expose you to varying weather conditions. “ I used foreflight looking at the ceilings, convective activity, visibility and all the other weather briefing tools. I need to learn to do better weather briefings, and I have to admit DUATS can be a little bit of an information overload. “Where you trying to reach FSS Flight Watch on 122,0 ? Perhaps you shuold review the AIM, they have an excellent section of enroute weather services.” I tried 122.0, then advised ATC that I wasn’t getting a response, then they gave me 2 frequencies to try, and I didn’t get any answers on those as well. “Good, that is not what they are for, ATCs primary responsibility is providing separation service to participating aircraft.” The ATC at tri cities was just trying to be helplful, and he helped me check the stations ahead of my route, “It just sounds like you need to get more hours in your logbook. What you have posted is pretty much typical cross country flying.” I agree. The only way to learn at this point is through further training, and more importantly experience. Now that I am looking back, my previous XC’s were pretty much strait forward. I did most all of my XC in the winter time, so I wasn’t used to haze, and the rest of my flying was local under 3000. Now, since its summer time, I have to deal with haze, which is new to me. I will admit, getting my PPL was just about being able to pass the test by memorizing questions. I took a weekend crash course, and all they did was give you enough information to pass the test. At the time, I thought it was acceptable, but now I realize I need to take 100 steps backwards, and relearn all the information and the theories behind all the information which is what I am doing now. Learning in a Mooney presents its own challenges, and it’s not necessarily the plane, or the flying portion of it. In Memphis, there are about 2 instructors that I could find that met the insurance requirements, so I didn’t have a lot of options. For my instrument, I am pilot in command, and I can use any CFII without having to worry about insurance requirements, which will allow me to focus on finding quality instruction. This time, I am in no big hurry to get an instrument rating, which will allow me to have the time to study, digest and understand the information instead of just passing the test. On the bright side of things, that whole St Louis fiasco is a blessing since I am now aware of the many dangers of being a pilot, and I am more eager than ever to gain knowledge towards being a safer pilot. Some pilots have never have never been in such a scary situation, and over time get more and more comfortable to the point if they do get into a situation, they end up being a statistic.

Cruiser, I will answer your questions tommorrow, as it it easier to answer the while I am on my computer rather than cell phone.

I have bought a few books to help gain knowledge, and I decided to take my first XC since the St Louis fiasco. I went from Millington, TN to Elizabethton, TN to visit a friend at his cabin. The trip there went off without a hitch. The Elizabethton airport was surrounded by mountains and pattern altitude was around 2600 feet, which mountain flying is something new to me. In route, it was showing the mountains at around 4500’, so I went over them at 6500’ to err on the side of caution since I know about downdrafts, but I don’t know how close to the tops I could have went since I have no mountain experience. On the return trip the weather was showing prior to departure: Ceilings at 6000’ in Elizabethton, 10 Vis, winds calm. In route before Nashville, the ceilings showed 10,000’, 10 vis. Then after Nashville all the way to Memphis 25,000’ Well, that entirely was not the case. After takeoff, I climbed to 4,500 and started seeing a lot of buildup. Everything was fine higher up, so I climbed to 6,500 flew that for a while, then saw another layer ahead of me, but everything looked good higher up so I climbed to 8,500’ and flew that for a while until I saw another layer ahead, and everything looked good below, so I stepped down to 6500’ and kept repeating this process until 3500’. I tried calling a briefer, but he would not answer on the 2 frequencies ATC have given me, so I just kept checking the stations ahead of me. Guess what? Skies clear until 25,000 on every station I kept checking. ATC even helped me out checking the stations in route and kept getting the same thing I was getting, but there was multiple layers of clouds, and I even went through a little rain when ATC was showing no precipitation. As I got closer in, I started to see some cumulous buildup, that appeared to be the beginning stages of thunderstorms, so I steered clear of those. My buddy left an hr after I did, and has the same experience as I did. Good weather report, but the same conditions that I was in. He has been flying for 30 years, and he said this has happened to him maybe 5 times “bad weather reporting” like on Sunday. I did experience some heavy haze, but visibility was still at least 10 miles, and I managed to stay within the legal VFR limits. This time around, I was aware of the illusions I was getting from the haze from my last experience, so I handled it a lot better this time. Lessons learned: Look at the weather report, but trust what you actually see. Don’t count on ATC as a reliable weather source. I now look at my PPL as a “good luck” license. As a PPL, you can mitigate most risk with good weather planning, preflight, etc… But it also takes luck until you gain experience, and you can’t get experience without flying and going through it. So it’s a catch 22 As always, I will keep you guys posted on my journey to be a proficient, safe pilot.

Yeah, things are starting to make more sense. Like the short field stuff being important to learn for LAHS operations. And slipping for crosswinds to keep the mains strait every time. I am over half way through it now and have learned a lot so far. When I am done with that I have “stick and rudder” that I have started to read. I went ahead and ordered my Jeppesen Commercial/ Instrument study materials, and IO have 2 IFR books to support the text for a better explanation.

Great radio work!

Mooney’s are known to be challenging to get "in and out" of.

Texas=brisket. Memphis= BBQ

I was raised in TX and lived in Memphis for 13 years. I love the beef brisket, but ribs are pork. Hate to burst your bubble guys. I was on the Memphis in may championship team "killer hogs"

I would be too worried about a "LOAD" shift.

Congrats!

I am half way through the killing zone, and abour 1/3rd way through "stick and rudder". It amazing the stuff you learn from those who have already been there. Like something I never thought about- If you are at gross, or a little over on a hot day, the plane will still get off the ground in ground effect, and most pilots think they are good to go, when its only the ground effect keeping them up. They then try to pull back thinking everything is ok, and do an accelerated stall trying to avoid the trees ahead of them, where if they would have let the airspeed increase in ground effect, then they would have cleared the trees. This is one example of a gotcha they dont teach you for your PPL, and know I know about it. I am sure I will find many more through further reading and exp.

Airplanes are awesome....

All I can say is this hits it right on the money. I once thought I was a bad ass pilot, who flys a mooney.. Then I got my ppl, and I really thought I was on top of my game. No matter what anybody tried to tell me, I knew more than they did............. I was wrong.. I flew my family on a new ticket, into imc, and almost killed them. After taking several steps backwards, and re evaluating the what iff's I realize I don't even have a clue, and I still have a long way to go. This book emphasizes that I don't know sh!t, and I still have a long way to go.

Awesome read. It teaches you that you don't know everything as a pilot under 350 hrs. Love it