pinerunner

They may just be checking whether its a plane they know belongs there or a stranger who might be a smuggler. You shouldn't be afraid to talk to them. The one black kid in town shouldn't be afraid to talk to them either. There's no history of race troubles up there near the Canadian border to cause bad feelings I bet.

My son is getting his private and he is NOT doing it in my Mooney M20E. Yes I think its possible but I think it makes so much more sense to keep it simple until he gets his private. We've found an excellent instructor who doesn't overcharge ($35 for instructor $100 for his Piper Archer if you put $1000 in advance) with lots of students and great attention to detail so my son can easily compare notes with the others. I checked with my insurance company for their guess at covering him in the Mooney when he's a new private pilot and their guess was half again the price I get with my commercial and 400+ hours and they'd require him to get 10 hours in it with an instructor. I didn't ask them what the insurance cost to do all the student work in a complex aircraft.... When my son goes flying with me I get tips of things he's learning that help me polish up my game and of course I let him take the controls a bit and help me with the navigation.

Just an update on my M20E. I finished the sealing, and passed my annual inspection, and got back in the air. After a week I noticed a slow seep in a different location than I had sealed. I also spotted seeps around a couple rivets in the other wing. I'm OK for now but I'm planning a complete strip and reseal on both wings. Depending on my mechanic's discretion this would include drilling out any loose rivets and re-riveting them. After my initial adventures I feel pretty good about resealing the access panels. Finding the leak was the harder part for me and the tough part was actually seeing the bubbles. In that sense I'm thinking a complete strip will be easier and then the reseal will be on fresh clean metal. I'm very comfortable now removing and resealing the access panels; I got no leaks around them. Setting up improved cameras, mirrors, lights, etc. to actually see the bubbles when using Maxwell's (he says it's from someone else) method might have made the difference for me actually finding all the leaks. A dedicated hobbyist might come up with that ahead of time, playing around with inspecting the inside of old boxes. I may have been a bit shy when pulling the vacuum at first too. I came away feeling that a really big leak would have been pretty easy using the "vacuum bubble" method. I'll create a post about my next adventure. I'm going after my instrument rating now since I'm half way there.

It's good to practice the best radio usage possible, but at an uncontrolled airport a fellow without a radio has a perfect right to be there. There's quite a range of practices at uncontrolled airports and quite a range of local attitudes towards how PIC's exercise their FAA given authority. You have to be vigilant for all the possibilities. Often preferred practices are published in the airport directory. A really busy uncontrolled airport can be tricky. Some have large jets mixing with piper cubs.

I've thought about going there. Did you think about how cold that water is? How's your French?

Final Update: I finished up the patching job and passed annual. There is still a very slow seep along the lower edge of my right tank. I must have missed a spot that just didn't make enough bubles for me to see. An important point for me was the success I had resealing the access panels. I had no leaks from any of the access panels I took off and resealed. I cleaned up the exposed edges where the access panel would mate with the skin of the wing using Polygone (the gel kind) that I bought from Skygeek. I wasn't shy about slathering it on before reinstalling the access panels and as you can see in the picture it oozed up though as I tightened the screws. I consider that a good thing since it makes me feel sure I put on enough. Once it cures after 48 hours you can trim it away easily. Any ugly grey stains on the painted wing surface rub away easily since its low adhesion after all and doesn't stick well to paint. To take the access panels off I unscrew all screws so they're sticking up, place a piece of plywood and 30 lbs of weight on it and leave it overnight so the old seal slowly breaks. On the bottom I do it similar but use a jack pushing up lightly. Now I feel pretty comfortable going into the tank and looking things over. For the access door sealing I used. Flamemaster CS-3330 B-2 Red AMS 3284 Rev. B Type 1 Spec Access Door Sealant - 6 oz (3.5 fl oz) Cartridge Kit To remove old access door sealant I used RPM Technology 2035-205 PolyGone 305 Gel High-Performance Polysulfide Depolymerizer / Stripping Agent - 6 oz Jar I drained a babyfood jar full off fuel from that tank (through the gascolator) before letting the engine sip from there and it was clear. I plan a complete strip and reseal this winter (though I may put that off if I'm having too much fun flying). I'll buy a gallon of the liquid Polygone for that. That may turn out to be easier in the sense that I won't have have to fuss with finding all the leaks. I also won't have to worry about a stray bit of polygone getting loose and unsealing where I dont want it unsealed. They started up on a Cessna 185 (wet wing) leak fix in the shop on-field. It has much less generous access panels.

I think I may know what I'm getting myself for Christmas. I'm going to start by downloading an ESI 500 simulator.

When I get my new GTN 650, can the L3 ESI 500 function as my CDI or since its standby do I have to get an additional CDI, even though I'd mostly be looking at the ESI 500. Since its a Standby Instrument system, what can it replace?

Your post got me reading up on this. Certification is the key and they have certificated (is that a word) it but in a limited way for our old aircraft. What I want most is is slaved DG (with magneic sensor like flux gate) and HSI capability which the G5 has on the experiemental but apparently not yet on certificated. Its driving me nuts because I can see exactly what I want and its clear they can make it, but not for me yet. I like the L3 EHIS 3000 and 4000 but can't find the price. I think that means "If you have to ask you can't afford it." I started thinking about this when I read about the Sandel 3308 and King 55 compass/HSI systems. I'd have to drop 6K for either of those and maybe more. The upgraded Sandel 3500 leaps to over $10K. I can't get out of my head what you can apparently do with a Garmin G5 if you're experiemental. This is bugging me.

Mine went bad and my avionic guy found one and replaced in for just under $1000. I forget the exact price. They're old and hard to get parts I guess. I'm holding out for a GTN 650. I like my KNS80. They were the sweetest thing going back in the 90's. I still like that it has DME incorporated but I imagine once I get GPS I'll probably stop using it. For as long as they're still around they're still nice for VFR. But compared to cheap VFR GPS which you can get on your IPad?...

Update on my right upper surface leak. Although I didn't see bubbles the first time I tried it using cheap mirror and only looking up from the bottom, the second time I did the Don Maxwell (he says he didn't do it first) trick with a shop vac and soap I did spot bubbles. I was looking up from the bottom access port and didn't need a mirror. The three leaks were near each other and the bubbles I saw were very tiny. My leak isn't a gusher. I'll be doing the sealing of the area tomorrow and filling the tank after 48 hours. I hope on Monday that they'll see no blue and finish off my annual. The quality of your mirrors, lights, and the windows you're looking through matters. If you're a bit of a hobbyist you might play with that a bit beforehand so you can get as good a view as possible. Small camera's are cheap these days too.

So the stripping is going real slow. At this point I would buy a gallon of polygon and move the stripping process along myself. You wouldn't affect anything structural. Talk to your mechanic first and make sure he's OK with it. Careful of the paint. Wipe off gunk and dispose. WIpe with methanol then flush with water. You'll probably want to flush the lines so you don't get gunk in them, clean up the gascolator and give new gasket (just like at annual). You would, of course scrape the digested sealant goo away from the fuel strainer and sender (if that's still in, I'd take it out). Talk to your mechanic. I assume he got just too busy.

Mine (64 M20E) looked pretty much like this last week and its holding up my annual. I had a known leak down on the lower edge which I have apparently found and resealed since it doesn't show any more but now this one on the top. To test we filled the tanks right to the brim and watched over night. Previously I wouldn't quite fill this tank and then would use it up ASAP to minimize the problem on the lower edge. I'm doing the process Don Maxwell describes (with oversight from the shop at our airport) to find and seal leaks but I didn't see any bubbles on the upper edge (I need a mirror and light upgrade I think). So now I have to go back in and go after this new leak before I can be signed off. They told me they thought I must be on drugs when I said I wanted to learn to do this myself. My thoughts after this initial exposure to tank sealing. 1. Yes its a PITA. But you learn and get better at it and can save a lot of money. It gets easier when you know what you're doing. 2. My first sealing of the access doors went fine. No leaks there. So I was doing something right. 3. Going back in the second time was quicker and easier. I think they get easier to work on if you don't let them get too old. 4. I like this better than scrapping paint and ZipStrip which I used to do in my dad's rebuild projects. 5. This gives you a chance to inspect the interior. I noticed that there's a half inch left under the tube (going to the gascolator) where water could puddle long term and never be drained out. There were some crappy flakes there that I cleaned out. Some of the access panels came off so hard that I think they must have been sealed on with normal sealant instead of the lower adhesion sealant intended for access panels. This takes the PITA factor much higher but getting them back on with the right sealant makes it easier for the future. Now that I'm not afraid of it I'm planning a complete strip and reseal this winter. I was hesitant before. I like having the problem in my own hands better than flying to Minnesota and spending 8K that I want to spend on a 650 GTN. If I don't get flamed too bad maybe I'll post some pictures. I'm sick off being grounded.

A few very small metal particles are not cause for major concern. It's not time to split the case or pull jugs. The mechanics doing my latest annual impressed this on me. They were even joking that Lycoming had told them if you can't read any part numbers on the chunks then don't worry. (I'm sure that was an exaggeration of course). I had gone through my filter and found no particles and told them that meant overhaul was a ways off. They were laughing at me and set me straight (which you all get to do as well I suppose). I guess I had implied that at the first sign of metal particles in my filter I would start a major investigation. I think you should take careful note of it and then put it "on watch" as what minor wear particles look like in the filter. If something is really wrong it will get worse quickly and then you should get more nervous and take action to sort it out.

You mean you don't normally fly it in the yellow?

Hank, A lot of folks say you can't do LOP with an M20C. Kudos for mastering your craft.

In my case there was a very slight distortion in the very front-most loop of the long piano hinge style door hinge and I haven't had it replaced. It wouldn't need skins replaced on the door if it were to be replaced. I got off easy. I am having an A and P look over the latch. The interior over the door was mangled. I plan on getting Spacial Interior in the next year anyway.

I had a baggage door open too. The little pin in the latch was broken so it may not have been my fault. I heard the roaring, looked back, and saw open sky. I was well on my way to an airport an hour away. I slowed down to pattern speed (about 90 mph) to minimize stress on it and stopped at an airport about 15 minutes down the pike. Since I had been up to about 145 mph and it hadn't torn off I didn't get too excited about it once I had slowed down. It basically flew up and held against the flimsy little brace that we have on those old doors. That held so the baggage door hinge must be well oriented relative to the slip-stream. After landing I discovered the little axle in the latch had broken, but I could work the latching pin into its slot to hold it closed so I continued on another half hour to the destination where I was getting radio work done and the A and P there rigged me up a replacement pin for the latch. It didn't open again so all's well that end's well. This set's me up for a discussion of get-there-itis. I've kind of wondered how much it would take to get me to break off a flight where I really wanted to get through. Get-there-itis is a real phenomenon. Maybe I need a good spanking; but if so I should get to pick who administers it.

Congratulations. I've got an older E and no desire to "trade up". I think we may have the fastest climb rate, at least of the older Mooneys. If it doesn't have one I'd get a good engine monitor first. It allows you to track the health of your engine and catch problems earlier. Most of them allow you to save the data so you can look back and see any trends.

I think its just way to get extra hours out of scuffed-up out of round older cylinders. You have to get slightly oversize rings to match them. I know you can do this for cars but didn't know it was approved for aircraft. It would be a tiny percent increase in the volume and so the power output.

I'm gonna rebuild my doghouse too. Then I'm gonna start calling it a pressure cowl or plenum. That really looks good. Mine isn't the worst but it's got some badly worn area's, some that are kinda sharp (you can get cut on). Great post and discussion.

I'd get my private first and then go after the Mooney, especially since you're already in a school. If you've got enough $$ to be looking at the, higher end, more powerful, Mooneys like the M20K, the expense of the training shouldn't be an issue. Mooneys have rather stiff landing gear so I'd want my landings down in the more forgiving planes before doing the transition. Once I had the private then I wouldn't be shy about going to the plane I really want long term. It is possible of course to start in a Mooney but why make it harder on yourself at such an early stage?

I'm in Maine and I expect to be back in the air in about 4 mo with my old M20E, if you want to check out a short body.

Your starting assumptions are pretty good. Since fuel is the limiting reagent (chemist term) when you're lean of peak you can use a simple factor times fuel flow to get power output and 14.9 is pretty good for most of us 200 hp IO-360 flying types, if you've got your LOP conditions set up pretty well. The number is useless when you're flying rich of peak and then you should use the good old charts with MP and RPM which could easily be used to calculate how much air is flowing through (temperature has an effect too, but most don't fly in very extreme temperature conditions and ge away with ignoring it). From a physics point of view fuel flow with complete burn-up will give you how many calories of heat were generated but that heat can never be converted to horsepower with complete efficiency. Therefore expect a different conversion factor if you go to a different engine, especially higher compression or turbocharged.

There's been a bit of attention lately to valve and camshaft problems with our Lycomings. I was just wondering if we have any success stories. By that I mean making it to TBO without having to split the case and without needing to remove a jug (particularly to address an exhaust valve issue). If you did one of the above and discovered you actually didn't need to that would count too.