cbarry

As bad as it seems, the one silver lining in the black cloud that is sitting over your situation is that at least we’re not reading about the cause of an inflight breakup being corrosion and you’re no longer here. Planes and parts are replaceable.

I would check the sending unit as well as the guage’s wiring connections for good contact and good ground. You might also check the wiring as it comes through the firewall for chaffing.

It may be the alternator, but it really sounds more like the voltage regulator is bad.

That’s a really nice panel layout! I really like how you went with the 650 versus a 750 which others do fine, but it ends up needing remote this and remote that to not look like an overcrowded panel. Great Job!

I’ll say first that I’m not in favor of additional oversight for oversight sake, but for safety sake I’d like to see at least some of my tax dollars, aviation fees…go toward a project that might be helpful such as modernizing radio technology. This discussion makes me wonder how far are we away from an imprinting style of radio transmissions? Obviously, while transmitting to control facilities, recordings are occurring, but out in the “open air,” I’m not sure the non-military version of radio technology is advanced enough to track a transmission. To those who are well-versed in the field, is it possible we see “waas” style of voice communications at some point? Not only would this be traceable, but it would appear to be much more solid.

This scenario points out one of my beliefs: it seems the only time pilots are ready to stop flying is when there’s a race to land! In the case of this potential conflict, I purposely stay slightly wider than standard when entering the pattern. This helps give me a better view and clearance from established pattern traffic (that may or may not be paying attention) or I simply will fly a 360 away from the pattern and re-enter on a 45 to downwind.

Somethings are funny and sometimes the same things are not! It’s all in the delivery. You flew a great mission with a great aircraft which tends to be cause for us, as pilots, to be on top of our game. A little extra tension somewhat created and then quickly broken by a light-hearted lineman sounds like it was the icing on the cake. Thanks for sharing!

I appreciate everyone’s replies. It’s fairly straight forward that gear down causes more drag than gear up. I’m just curious if there’s a point at which if the gear does not fully extend (hung at 30-50%), the drag will exceed that of fully extended gear—simply because of the airflow over the top side of the partially extended gear being funneled into the wheel well and acting like an air dam. I wonder if Mooney ever tested climb rates/performance impacts at various gear positions—25% down, 50% down as compared to 100% down at both Vx and Vy? If the impact is not linear, then that would be good piece of information to have in one’s pocket.

Leaving out of Bentonville recently I had the gear not fully retract. The gear unsafe light was on and the gear circuit breaker tripped. I was solo and full fuel. I was 475 lbs under gross and was able to maintain a fair climb rate but nothing stellar. I was able to determine by way of the gear window in the floorboard, that the gear was maybe a third from being fully retracted. I cycled the gear breaker once to no avail, left if out, confirmed gear switch in the down position and cranked the gear into the fully down position and got a gear safe indication. This predicament started making me think about whether the drag component changes based on the position of the gear as it extends or in this case doesn’t fully retract. In other words, does partially extended gear (say about 30%) cause more drag than fully extended gear. For example, do the gear doors, tires, etc( with partially extended gear) create a wind scoop into the wheel well causing more drag especially on climb out?

I have a 2001 M20S with the STEC 30 that might make a good candidate for the test plane. I have been contemplating pulling the STEC 30 and going the GFC500 plus G5(s) route, but the 3100 would make a nice upgrade from the 30 for sure.

Great work—the video coverage and the flying!

This topic reminds me of how other special event insurance works. For example, if a civic club holds a sporting clay event, then the club can purchase special event insurance for the event period. The club pays for the insurance not the participants. Evidently, an aviation training event may fall into the same category. It seems standards of risk associated with special event insurance needs to be reviewed in order to be considered applicable or not to flight training events. For example, permitting or prohibiting certain flight maneuvers/conditions etc should dictate the need for special event insurance. Otherwise, I would think the qualified pilot (CFI, time in make and model...) clause should cover the training just as it does for biennials, instrument proficiency training, etc.

You can use the left/right turn command or knob on the Stec 30 to exercise the roll servo or possibly just roll the heading bug.

The facts will prove out.

Actually, the Cirrus pilot did not say he had the Metro in sight. He said he had traffic in sight. You tell me, was he just repeating himself that he the first traffic in sight (the Cessna) or did he in fact have the Metro in sight as well?

The first thing that came to mind after seeing the damage to the Key Lime plane was: dang that plane would have been extremely difficult to spot from slightly above! In a few months when the ground cover is burnt to a crisp, that lime green color would be very easy to make out. However, at this time of year, I bet it blends in as well as a Desert Storm aircraft over the sands of Iraq! Of course, the reality is that if the Cirrus would have been where it was supposed to be, it wouldn’t have mattered if the KeyLime aircraft was just a radar attenuation the Cirrus wouldn’t have caused flight path interference. Regardless, all people involved are Blessed to have survived and should feel very thankful to be here another day!

If I’m not mistaken, it does give runway proximity and runway final approach alerts, but not remaining runway while on the roll or in the touchdown phases.

Since apps such as ForeFlight can recognize the runway we’re entering and the available length, wouldn’t it be a nice feature to be able to customize it to announce sequentially the remaining available runway either in feet or percentage as we’re rolling down the runway for takeoff or as we come in over the numbers and start the landing phase?

Your experience fortunately ended well! It’s sometimes difficult enough see and avoid other flying objects that are legally there much some kid-minded toy driver’s spy tool! I may be wrong, but regardless of license (commercial...) the flight ceiling is still 400 agl or no more than 400 above the structure being observed by the drone. I’m usually not in favor of additional regulation and most pilots it seems (drone or otherwise) are responsible enough to follow the rules, but here’s a reason for the manufacturers to be required to limit the agl flight ceiling while in operation. They simply need to be governed to stop their climb at 400 ft agl. Of course, there will always be some garage nerd that will override the limiting software just because it’s a challenge, but at least there would be an expectation of consistency.

This discussion reminds me when one time my wife asked: “What’s the next size up second airplane for us that would have a bathroom?” I quickly responded: “A commercial airliner!” Then we went on to discuss what each additional feature (toilet, greater useful load, greater speed,...) meant as far as “costs-beyond-the-Mooney” and here’s what we concluded: If someone cannot sit for at least two hours without needing a potty break, they go commercial. If we need to haul more than 1000 lbs of fuel and cabin occupants (people, bags...), the excess, if people, can go commercial and the excess stuff can stay at home. If we need to be someone where more quickly than our Mooney can get us there, it’d better be an international flight because otherwise, I’ve just failed to properly plan or I’m pushing the situation (trying to outrun/avoid weather...or being subject to getthereitis). In my opinion, the “costs” (money and risks) to have a “greater mission” airplane are exponential.

Possibility of Negative Interest Rates: Actually, in late March of 2020 the short term treasuries (1&3 month) went negative for a brief time. Currently, with the rise in the 10yr. to be on par with the average S&P dividend yield, we are somewhat at an inflection point again regarding interest rates—but this time with a steepening curve between 1 & 10 and it slows its climb out to 30 (kind of looks like a max climb to clear an obstable on departure...) There’s still a good possibility of going negative on the short end if we some sort of a “shock” event resulting in a flight to safety (debatable regarding the level safety) with short term yields at an ultra low setting.

As an economist, what we're seeing is as much of a lack of supply issue as it is an increase in demand. Whenever supply shrinks and the monetary printing presses run (whether it’s from countries hoarding materials or because of reduced production) we stand to see stagflation as the resulting economic phase. Stagflation (high inflation, high real unemployment and slow growth) is not desirable whatsoever. The high inflation is being caused by a shortage of supplies due to many companies being being either offline or partially offline over the last year and countries and people hoarding materials. The high real unemployment is a direct result of the flawed Keynesian economic theory that governments can actually stimulate the economy. This is a complete farce. Governments can no more stimulate the economy than sugar can build muscle. The only historically proven way to see economic growth is to free the economy from restraints and let markets be markets. The other force working on the lack of used aircraft on the market is simply the positive wealth effect. The better people feel financially, the more they hang onto luxury items (like aircraft...). A series of restraints (increase in taxes, rapid rise in insurance costs, an aging pilot population, etc) will eventually cause the supply to pick back up and the cycle repeats itself again.

I would like to pass along an excellent customer service experience with Chase Larabee of Avionics Source. I recently purchased an Avidyne IFD540 and was having my avionics shop (Abilene Aero) do the installation. Last Friday, the shop called and said they had a little problem. Of course, I’m thinking something catastrophic like an engine hoist fell over and crushed a wing or something worse such as a Bonanza was trying to mate with my Mooney and have a litter of Moonanzas! The actual problem was the IFD540 powered down during the configuration setting process and would not power back up. Avidyne stepped in to help after a call from the shop. Between a great company like Avidyne and Chase, working on my behalf, the result was a new IFD540 is heading my way. This is great customer service and I wanted to pass the story along to fellow Mooniacs! If you are looking for an awesome place to purchase avionics, I would highly recommend Chase Larabee of AvionicsSource.com.

I’m guessing there’s a small leak in the vacuum gauge hose. Why? Because you’re getting a lower than normal reading after trouble shooting everything else and then your getting an intermittently higher than normal reading after turning up the regulator. I would bet there’s a little dry rot on the gauge line/hose.

Welcome aboard and congratulations on your possible new project. As a student pilot (by the way, we’re all still students no matter the accumulated hours), please refer to the minimum equipment list (not counting engine equipment) for VFR flight. It should say something like: an airspeed indicator, an altimeter and a magnetic compass. Then check your aircraft systems chapter in your ppl study guide and you’ll notice the instruments running off of vacuum and those that don’t. However, once this is determined, the question becomes: “If you have access to a new vacuum pump, then why not just go ahead and install it before the ferry flight? IMO, setting a pattern of taking off in an aircraft with known deficiencies is not a good pattern to start out with—ferry flight or not. If it were me, I’d want whatever needs to be done to bring this aircraft up to operational condition before the ferry flight. The extra time and money spent before the flight should be a wise investment.