wishboneash

I think you are very ambitious and sorry to say, naive! I live in the Bay area (fly out of KLVK) and wouldn't consider small single engine aircraft to be all weather planes for you to be able to commute in under all conditions. We have significant icing conditions in winter in Northern CA. You need to significantly up your skills and equipment before you can reliably do this. There are commercial pilots fly into KSFO, KSJC etc from the Sierra foothills, but then these guys are professional pilots flying into a major airport. Which airport will you fly into? KPAO? It doesn't have an ILS and not even a WAAS GPS approach. Your best bet is to fly into KSJC but then you are mixing it up with the commercial jets. If you are very flexible in your work timings, sure it might work. Good luck.

Magic words "unload the nose". Keep the turn coordinated. If in doubt, push the nose down. Know your altitude margin. You shouldn't stall on base to final cross-controlled.

We are honored that you are giving our beloved Mooneys a second chance....

Looks like Tower enroute control. TEC for departing following San Diego area airports CRQ MYF NFG NKX NRS NZY SAN to any of LA airports such as FUL LGB SNA SLI TOA LAX. The SAN N3 route is OCN V23 SLI (missing is MZB, so intercept V23 without going to MZB). More here http://imageserver.fltplan.com/legends/TEC_SW.pdf

The new airmen certification that the FAA is proposing is quite timely. I think they want to address the disconnect between initial training and real world flying in today's world. See the topic on "Misc Aviation Talk" I personally feel that my IFR skills have deteriorated with all these electronic gizmos (iPads), EFBs etc. Too many distractions trying to set them up correctly, resulting in less time aviating. In the good old days, we printed out the approach plates, carried paper charts, and had the VORs, ADFs and other instruments which didn't require much set up time or fiddling with. The only thing I had was a VFR GPS (the Garmin 195) for situational awareness, but all the IFR flying was done with the instruments in the panel. Come to think of it, it was less stressful then!

There is a comment period for the new airmen certification standards. I haven't read it yet but quickly glanced through the IFR portion. Please see http://www.regulations.gov/#!docketDetail;rpp=100;so=DESC;sb=docId;po=0;D=FAA-2013-0316

Once you master the Mooney and its airspeeds, you can land the plane within 1000 ft routinely (no wind). Short fields are not an issue. Then when in the air, you outrun the Cardinals, the 182 and all the Pipers while having similar fuel consumption. Plus, Mooney look like real planes.

Never been above 12k in any non-aspirated engine GA aircraft. Limited by not carrying oxygen more than anything else.

Taken out of my 1978 Mooney M20J. Working fine at the time of removal a couple of weeks ago. P/N ALX-8521R (12V/70A) S/N IO71243 $300 + S/H (TBD)

Same here. Never forgot a cover, but tried to taxi out with a chain connected. Felt really stupid.

I should have clarified. It is the seat itself, I am not concerned so much with the upholstery. Thanks.

The AP problem was not reliably fixed the last time. I started to recently see the AP lose its way and turn in the wrong direction etc. I took it in again, and they found a loose capacitor in the left/right roll amplifier. After resoldering, the AP works fine now. Whew, rather a simple issue! Also the AP board was reshimmed properly so there is no play in the connector and won't vibrate now.

Please PM if you have one or two for sale. Mine are badly worn and one recently was patched up. Thanks.

Yes, my Kelly alternator was the same way. It had the cover in place. I didn't however see any issues with it while it was working. The PP has a blast tube that directs the airflow perpendicular to the flow of air.

I am not exactly sure what you mean by a plenum. There were no cooling issues with my old alternator. It was just a badly frayed field wire.

Thank-you Lee, you hit the nail on the head. I finally got the time to look at the alternator last weekend. While inspecting the connections to the alternator, the field wire was frayed to the point it was probably being held up with a single strand. The rubber cover prevented me from noticing this earlier. When I pulled on this cover, the thing finally broke off completely. I reconnected it and the tested and the charging returned to normal. I had planned on replacing the alternator anyway, so I had that done. I now had a Plane Power AL12-P70 which looks to have better cooling, and is a bit lighter than the Kelly ALX-8521R. If anyone is interested in buying this please send me a PM with an offer price. An overhauled one goes for around $400 and a new about $500. From what I can tell, it is working fine.

I have a '78 M20J with the A3B6 engine with the Kelly ALY-5820R alt. Anyone upgraded to the AL12-P70 Plane Power version? Any issues with the compatability? Thanks.

Just heard on CNN that the 149 towers slated for closure will be "closed" on June 15.

Below 10K or so, the K behaves like a J and speeds are similar. Speedbrakes can be an useful option to come down fast.

Actually, I didn't set it up initially. When I did the avionics upgrade from a 430 (non-WAAS) to the GTN-650, I had the GDL-69 installed behind the panel so it is out of the way. The avionics dealer had to do an update to the 696 software to allow the GDL-39 to talk to it. When that was done a few more pages showed up on the interface menus related to the GDL-39 link. On the ground, I couldn't verify if the system worked because of a lack of a signal. On my first flight out when I climbed out to about 1500ft AGL, I had no problem with the ADS-B data link to the 696. I can send some pics of the relevant screens if you need more info.

I have the exact same set up. GDL-39 to 696. The 696 also connects to my GTN 650 and the Zaon XRX. I have a 3-way switch to do this. By default I connect the GDL-39 to the 696. I had to update my 696 software to accomplish this as well. Weather works fine in the SF bay area. I have XM on the 696 but subscription has expired. Traffic is spotty due to the absence of ADS-B out.

I frequently fly from KLVK to KCMA in about 1 hr 40 min in a J, so a bit further south like southern part of Orange county could be another half hour at most (IFR). One wouldn't have to go above 10k if you choose the routing right. VFR, one can manage this at 8.5k or 9.5k.

From the Garmin website... mostly some updates useful for helicopters plus a few others... GTN 6XX/7XX Main Software Version 4.00 adds a number of new capabilities and features to support Helicopters. It contains the following changes: • Added helicopter configuration settings • Added helicopter features including: o Helicopter Terrain Awareness and Warning System (HTAWS) o Pilot selectable capability for Reduced Protection Mode operation for HTAWS o Navigation down to 10 knots o Mark-on-Target o Remote Go Around activation o Display of heliports on maps • Added support for ARINC 429 Radar Altimeter input • Added enhanced lighting curves for backlight and keypad lighting • Added enhanced Map Range Ring markings • Added support for metric fuel units • Increased allowable manual input of fuel flow and quantity • GTN 7XX only; added pilot-on-the-right configuration to audio panel control layout and 3D audio

The belt was quite loose before and a couple of the nuts securing the alternator could be spun by hand. The safety wire was still attached to one of the bolts. Since the voltage held at 12V after this happened for almost 20 minutes, I now feel that the alternator was putting out some charge to maintain 12V. When the gear went down, something changed. On second thoughts, I still suspect the alternator and its assembly. Should double check wiring, connections and switches. Thanks for everyone's feedback.

Hi all Yesterday on a flight from Avalon to Livermore I had a low voltage annunication towards the end of the flight. Never seen this happen before The ammeter was discharging at ~20A. The bus voltage was around 12.0V. I turned off a few loads but couldn't do too much to reduce the loads. The voltage held steady around 11.8V to 12V (was about 20 min from LVK) as I monitored the situation. It was VFR and plenty of places to land so no need to land immediately. A couple of weeks ago, I had to tighten the alternator belt (Kelly alternator, I am waiting for it to die, hopefully in benign conditions like this one). Here's the strange thing. About 4 miles from LVK, I put the gear down. The ammeter needle spikes down as expected, but gear comes down without issues and immediately thereafter the ammeter spikes positive like a bat out of hell. The low-voltage light goes out and the bus voltage jumps to 13.9V. The rest of the flight which lasted a few minutes, the charging system is functioning normally putting out about 15A or so. On the taxi, I am getting 10A charging. So, I believe the alternator is OK. Something intermittent perhaps in the charging system? Anyone else seen this behaviour? Thanks.