garytex

I don't want an ifr ticket, and I don't want to go flying at night.

Familiarity breeds competence. I go in and out of 1600 feet 18 feet wide with powerlines 400 feet past with no problem. But I learned in and land it like a Taildragger. I recommend, if you can, to find some old fart Taildragger instructor to teach you in your plane. Go practice some place where it won't kill you if you mess up, and don't quit until you can actually touch down where ever you want to on the runway every time, pointed straight down the runway and not drifting to either side. The Mooney is an honest airplane will crab, slip and land crosswind just fine. It's all about speed control and understanding how to bleed off your energy to arrive with no extra at the touchdown point while keeping it pointed straight down the runway. I was in no rush and learned on an airport that was really difficult and I think it was 694 landings before I was satisfied, and went for mycheckride. You can do it, just go do it!

I commute around the state for work and so I told up two three four hours a week most we can show it winds up being 150 to 200 hours a year. The nice thing about flying that much is you really get a feel for the airplane and where to be on the numbers to make nice landings, and I really like that

TWinter's got it right, shop lenders. Also shop around, shop the Fs and Es, they're cheaper. And shop local, it's so much easier and less risky.

TWinter's got it right, shop lenders. Also shop around, shop the Fs and Es, they're cheaper. And shop local, it's so much easier and less risky.

Jetdriven's got it right about mags. I have multiple experiences that have convinced me that more than 500 hrs on mags without a good IRAN is bad medicine. Everything else on condition, as I am VFR

Ah,dueling mechanic opinions. The guy at Navajo said you had to tear the servo apart and there was some small little tiddlywinker that you could adjust with some tiny little special tool. I think he was talking about the needle looking thing that's attached to a round metal plate that's on the diaphragm inside the servo. I didn't pay a whole hell of a lot of attention to exactly what the process was cause I knew I was never taking my servo body a part to play with it. I wonder which guy is right. It makes sense to me that the fuel flows would be adjustable. But I could easily be wrong about that, frequently am. Anybody got the straight skinny?

To me replacing old equipment that works well enough and is cheap to fix IS irrational. If nothing else you'll lose the use of the plane the week that the work is being done and have to drive while it's being installed. And on an old F panel just getting up and behind and working is going to break something else. It's tight back there a lot of that stuff is old and stiff and doesn't like to be jostled. If you're flying hard IFR single pilot maybe the additional utility might be worth the trade-offs.

aaronk25 There are 3 different adjustments for low, medium and high power ranges in the RSA according to the tech at Navajo. He says that adjusting high and medium is a PITA. Idle mixture is via a turnbuckle like hex rod on the side of the servo. it has a symbol that tells which way to turn the hex for richer idle

Diagnostic never Neverland where you have multiple places for there to be a problem and one has to figure out which indication is wrong. Is the fuel for servo set up wrong or is the fuel flow gauge lying to me? I'm showing around 1200 EGT wide-open throttle sea level which agrees with the guys who are getting the 18-19 gallon flows.The posts indicating that a 300° drop from Peak is about the right number we're also very helpful, thank you Aaron 25k, your post was very helpful thank you. Your post showing 15 gallons and 1350 EGT tends to make me think that my fuel flow indicator is underreporting at high flow values.The red herring is that it totalizes very well and I think is accurate in the 7 to 9 gallon an hour range where I normally fly the airplane. I guess if I want to know the answer to this conundrum I'm going to have to lay my hands on another flow transducer someplace. Does anybody see any errors in this logic or things that I have missed in my thinking? Thanks Gary Also what actually is the wide-open fuel flow supposed to be?

I am also seeing a little distress on the tops of the pistons, never run at more than 65%, and wonder if the cause could be low WOT fuel flow. CHTs stay reasonable if I keep speed up to 130 MPH.

The totalizer is usually within 3-5% of correct, however I guess that the instantaneous flow could be lying. I see your egt is about the same as mine. Couriouser and couriouser.

I think my WOT takeoff fuel flow is too lean at 15 GPH, std. conditions. Seems like it should be around 18 GPH. Sent the RSA injector body for adjustment, came back same, "set to spec on the bench" at Navajo in San Antonio. I'm seeing 1200 egt at WOT 1500 at peak. I have looked for the WOT fuel flow, haven't found anything concrete. Anybody in proud possession of the straight skinny? Thanks Gary

I have had good results breaking in single cyls on Phillips 20-50 (no cam guard till later)

$4.30 at Del Rio, TX, which is really cheap for an international at the border airport

$4.30 at Del Rio, TX, which is really cheap for an international at the border airport

If you stay and D and E airspace and are not ABS be out compliant could you still get flight following?

That's probably Hippo deaths. Hippos are the biggest non-snake killers of Africans and the last number I saw a few years ago was around 3000. There are probably not 2900 rhinos left outside parks in the wild in all africa, they are really in big trouble as a species.

"Minuscule when compared to the roughly 10,000 gun deaths per year." Clarence, are you a medical doctor or an airplane doctor? Gary

Jetdriven Glad to hear you got your 25 degrees back. I think that is an irreplaceable part of why this engine makes so much power out of so little gas at altitude and especially LOP. Gary

Trip 8 That's not the case about safety, the town grew up around the airport and they see it as an annoying and possibly dangerous pimple in the middle of their lovely powdered face. Of course it's a small town where those feelings can be communicated with the police. The saving grace is lately we got some flyers on the police force and so they haven't been hanging around the airport at sunset trying to catch people.

We all have a unique risk set that we are comfortable with. One that we have incrementally acclimatized to by stretching our experience and honing our skills. And stepwise we can increase our range of operations without getting in over our heads. It is when we get pushed unexpectedly into the deep end, when we are overwhelmed by multiple issues that just can't all be cured fast enough that planes get bent, and folks shed blood. Everybody has types of flying that work for them, and those that do not. I also hold the idea that IFR is not for me, although I am getting tempted. I am used to hearing gasps of derisive disbelief when I express that with the plane, instruments, and skill set that I have I see it as just too dangerous. Maybe with a $20G panel upgrade. But then again It is easy enough to drive those few missions a year when I can't make my schedule VFR, and I can spend those 20 Gs on whiskey and marine diesel fuel. The guy I bought my Mooney from asked me how I was going to use his old - my new plane. "Day VFR" and I expected the agast response. After all he had started in DC3s with Eastern, and finished flying charter across the Pacific in 777s. The plane has a full complement of pre GPS IFR instrumentation. He said "OK, I understand. I don't fly single pilot hard IFR that in this plane: with it's instruments, and skill set that I have, and by myself, it's just too dangerous." He went on to make some comments about instrument failures combined with vertigo, throw in some bad weather or mechanical and how easy it is to get overwhelmed. And I came to understand that in his 20,000 hrs that he had seen the elephant a time or two. Evidently you only need two in the cockpit to save everybody's bacon about once every 5,000 to 10,000 hours. And we're not going to fly that much. So we're good, right? On reflection, part of my predilection against night flying is the experience set that I brought to aviation from offshore. Another is that almost all of my flying has been based from airports with no lights, and lots of deer. In the above incident there were no blue lights to tell me that I was landing on a taxiway, there wasn't a single functioning light on the whole airport. Or another soul. It was dark. And that taxiway was about 10 feet of crumbling asphalt, on a heaving black gumbo soil sub grade in the last throws of coming completely apart with steep shoulders and two foot deep borrow ditches. I got away incredibly cheap. But I sure enough saw the elephant. And it marked me. Those comfortable with flying at night get lots more utility from their planes. I see the advantages. It is cool. The afternoon thunderstorms die down. There is less traffic. Strobes alight, other AC are easier to see. With the right plane, instruments, preparation and experience it is doable. By the last NTSB numbers I looked at back in the 90's for night VFR both the fatal and non-fatal numbers were not quite, but almost double. Not being able to see well is just one additional 'mistake/incident' to add to anything else that might go wrong. We all play with some fire. If folks want to go fly at night they should be able to have at it. The point is that they should understand that it is riskier. Statistically so. And common sense so. I am based at an airport with no lights, lots of deer, and a police force that can and does write tickets that can exceed $1000 for landing one minute after sundown. I also think that there is an added element of risk in night operations. So I'm probably not going to have much opportunity to ease into night flying anytime soon. And I'm OK with that.

If an IO 360 goes to Lycoming, doesn't it come back with the timing and data plate at 20 BTDC, instead of the 25 it started out with? That would be enough for me to forgo a Lyc reman or OH.

Guys, from my perspective, you are missing the point. Night flying, like night boating is significantly chancier than day. Serious trouble, the kind that bites you, happens when incidents/mistakes overwhelm your ability to complete your trip as planned. The more incidents/mistakes that occur, the more perturbed the outcome will be. My little group has spent many thousands of hours in offshore boating, and we have come up with the theory of incidents/mistakes to quantify risk and outcomes. For example, if the weather took an anticipated turn for the worse, you had a mechanical failure, and the radio didn't work, that was 3 'mistakes', and you could be seriously inconvenienced, say stranded offshore at least overnight. Add in a couple more 'mistakes' like anchor wouldn't grab and a strong onshore wind was blowing, or maybe not enough drinking water, or maybe a modest injury and people could die. We noticed that the risk of death got fairly high at around 4 to 5 really choice 'incidents/mistakes'. We also noticed that in boats at night the simplest operations become fraught with lots more risk, simply because you can't see well. The same guy that has run out the jetties literally 500 times during the day misses the turn and runs up on the beach, or can't stay in the channel and is up on the rocks. I've seen it several times. We would go offshore at night, but not very much, only when everything else was perfect, and only when there was a damn good reason to do so. Going at night, you start with one 'mistake' against you. I think boats get a 2 mistake discount over airplane 'mistakes' before someone is seriously inconvenienced, like floating around in the gulf holding on to the ice chest overnight. In airplanes, if things go perfectly wrong, even as few as one mistake can kill you. Two mistakes will certainly be bad news, and with 3 or 4 mistakes, I think one would have to be lucky not to die. Just as in boats, going out at night is 1'mistake', one strike against you. I have 1700 hrs, and am a vfr pilot. And my personal minimum is 'daylight'. I have 3.5 hrs. night in my logbook, 3 hrs required for my private, and another .5 several years ago because it got dark on me due to a head wind. 1 mistake. I passed Austin Mueler with tons of light because my car was at Birdsnest which was dark. 2 mistakes. I landed on the taxiway, because i couldn't tell it from the runway in the dark. 3 mistakes. But I landed ok. That was an unbelievably cheap lesson, and I am really leery of pissing off the gods who gave me that lesson at such a huge discount. So I don't fly at night. For me, it is a 'mistake' to do so.

what he said