Super Dave

Me too! Even if I can't make the Caravan, I'd love to try formation.

I'll try to be at Anoka, MN (KANE) Aug.22

Moving the CG aft for a given weight will reduce drag and improve performance. But adding weight just to move the CG aft will not improve performance. In other words, moving a 50lb bag of tools from the front seat to the baggage compartment will make some small speed improvement, but the airplane will be even faster if you leave the tools in the hanger.

Using a handheld to locate an ELT on the ground can be difficult because the radio is so sensitive that the ELT can be heard from almost anywhere on the airport property. To make the handheld more discerning, you can make it less sensitive by tuning it up or down a half step (121.45 or 121.55) or even a full step or more.

I'd love to learn the story of that ADF behind the panel. Made me laugh out loud.

Aaron, you're starting to sound like a married man!

It sounds like this is a temporary fix. Eventually corrections will be right on the plates.

Honeywell GNS... The least intuitive FMS ever made. Programing a Victor Airway, or radial/DME fix always reminds me of using DOS on my first PC.

We use Blackstone and have always had quick service. Interestingly, I was at two separate talks at Oshkosh this year; one by Mike Busch and one by a Continental tech rep. When the subject of oil analysis came up, they both mentioned Blackstone and said something to the effect that they do a fine oil analysis, but that Blackstone should omit the half baked commentary from the report.

I fly corporate ERJs and just finished my six month recurrent simulator training on Thursday. The emergency descent checklist is performed from memory, and the first two items are 1. Cabin Crew..................NOTIFY 2. Fasten Seatbelt Sign...ON I'm not joking these are really the first two items on the checklist. 3. Thrust Levers....IDLE 4. Speed Brakes...OPEN 5. Airspeed...........MAX 250 6. Landing Gear....DOWN 7. Descent............INITIATE 8. Altitude.............MEA OR 10,000 FT WHICHEVER IS HIGHER We are encouraged to leave the autopilot on throughout the maneuver, so it's just a matter of going to idle, opening the speed brakes, waiting for 250, then extending the gear and simultaneously selecting "speed" on the vertical mode of the flight director. No skill required. The autopilot pitches over and initially dips about 15 knots below 250, but quickly gets back to 250 and keeps it nailed all the way to 10,000'. This results in an initial descent rate of around 8000FPM out of 36,000' slowing to 6000FPM approaching 10,000'. 250KIAS is the max speed with gear extended, so we are actually quite a bit below redline. Once leveled at 10,000', the airplane needs to be slowed to 200KIAS for gear retraction. Once the gear is up the airplane can be accelerated to redline-320KIAS. So the airspeed fluctuation at 10,000' actually looks pretty textbook perfect. The ERJ only has one auto pressurization controller and one manual controller. Auto controller drives an electro-pnematic outflow valve and a slaved pneumatic outflow valve. In manual, the electro-pneumatic outflow valve closes and the pneumatic outflow valve is controlled manually. Flyboy, glad to hear your daughter is safe and still able to fly.

As an alternative to trailing the cowl flaps, how about going a touch further LOP? Might be less airspeed loss than opening the cowl flaps?

Not to be argumentative, I know the subject of closed cowl flaps for ground ops has come up in other threads, but just incase someone wasn't around for the other thread... I wouldn't ever recommend closing cowl flaps for ground ops. John Deakin doesn't recommend it even in arctic conditions, and I've never seen a POH that recommends it.

'76 F here with sloped windshield and cowl closures. Also have aileron, elevator, and flap-gap seals, but I don't remember if those are aftermarket mods or factory. Roller tappet engine timed to 20˚ BTDC. Engine and prop at about 600hrs. I've used the three-turn calculator to verify the accuracy of the Aspen TAS readout and found it to be within 3%. I'm almost always flying with wife, kids and luggage, so near MGTOW. Anywhere rom a 9000'-12,000' I can count on 148-150 KTAS. 9.3 GPH LOP. As a side note, with the instantaneous TAS readout on the Aspen, I've experimented with different RPMs at 9.3 GPH, and I don't see one knot of difference between 2350-2650RPM. 2500RPM seems to be the best balance of noise/vibration so that's usually where I run.

It's a quarter. You can buy gum balls with them.

Map light from the underside of the yoke?

With oscillations like that on the VSI and altimiter I would expect to see pitch oscillations visible on the attitude indicator, but this is hard to see on the video. Was the nose pitching up and down? If not, I'd guess static line moisture/blockage.

We've all read that Mooneys have a cabin width as great or greater than a Bonanza or Skylane, but I don't think many people, having sat in all three, would guess this to be the case. My theory on the disparity between perception and the tape measure is the relatively LARGE space BETWEEN the seats in the Mooney. I'm 6' 3" and 235#, I have plenty of leg room and head room, but I have to admit that my left shoulder/elbow is sort of crowded against the left side of the cabin. At the same time, I'm nowhere near rubbing shoulders with another adult sharing the front seat with me. To sum it up; I think Mooney's seating position is to far outboard, leaving wasted space between seats. So, my recommendation to Mooney is to reposition the trim wheel up to the pedestal and move each seat inboard a couple of inches, and maybe increase the seat width so that they are nearly touching.

If your J has the same RSA 5 fuel injection system that my F does, then yes, the servo senses the change in MP and increases the FF accordingly. I'd agree that .5gph seems a little high for just 1/4" MP. I see about an inch increase in my MP with the ram air open, and I know that FF does not increase anywhere near 2GPH. In my F, the fuel servo impact tubes are directly behind the ram air door, but the MP for the cockpit gauge is taken further downstream. I'm guessing here, but maybe there is some kind of localized disturbance that occurs at the ram inlet that artificially increases what the impact tubes sense?

Trying to hold your breath through a rapid decompression at 50,000' could cause a lung rupture. Also, at the lower altitudes we can hold our breath or just stop breathing altogether, but our bloodstream still holds a significant amount of dissolved oxygen to supply our brain. At altitudes like 50,000' the lack of pressure causes the reserve of dissolved oxygen to quickly outgas, leaving our bloodstream without sufficient oxygen to supply our brain. Forgive me for any incorrect terminology, I'm trying to remember this stuff from a long ago aeromedical course.

I can only speak for Aspen but I assume Garmin has similar features. -Backup battery incase of electrical failure -Independent GPS that allows you to navigate to your destination if the primary GPS fails -RMI bearing pointers -Tape displays for airspeed and altitude -Ability to display labeled indexes at airspeeds like Vx, Vy, Vlo and Vref -Altitude bug with audio alert as you approach or leave the selected altitude -Continuous display of wind direction and speed, and TAS -In some cases, GPSS with older autopilots -Reliability. This one is an educated guess as I have no data, but Im guessing the in-flight failure rate of glass displays is much lower than that of vacuum pump/mechanical gyro attitude displays. And if you do have a failure of the glass, you still have a completely independent backup attitude display with the mechanical gyro.

For economical travel, a Mooney is without a doubt the airplane to buy. But if you are serious about a career as a pilot, my advice is to build ME time. Not all jobs require ME time, but many if not most do. I recommend getting your VFR ME, then doing your instrument ME. If you still have the finances for an airplane purchase after that, the cheapest way to build time (but not necessarily miles) is probably something like a C120/140. Once you've filled the hour requirements for the Commercial, I'd recommend doing that ME also. The ME Commercial check ride is actually more straight forward than the SE Commercial: no chandelles, lazy-8s, or power off 180's. If you train with consistency you can realistically get through those ratings with about 50hrs of ME time: VFR ME rating (10 hrs), ME Inst.(20 hrs assuming a Sim is used), and ME Com. (20 hrs). Whatever route you choose, good luck.

Like others here, I like to approach in a crab and transition to a slip in the flare. The problem with developing the skill is that you are only in the slip for a couple of seconds on each landing. So, even if you go out and do cross-wind landing for an hour and a half, you are still only getting about 30 seconds of practicing the slip. What I used to like to do with students practicing cross-winds was find a nice long runway and have them make a normal approach, but in the flare, add a little power, level off a few feet high, and fly down the centerline so they could practice the slip for the length of the runway. As the departure end of the runway approaches, add full power and make a normal go around. So, I'd recommend taking up an instructor and make several passes as I've described. Your goal is to point the nose straight down the runway with assertive use of the rudder, and keep the centerline right underneath your seat with use of aileron.

Another vote for dumping the backup DG

This is exactly what you would see with an advance in the ignition timing; higher CHTs, lower EGTs.

Had a nose tire go flat on a Beech Duchess I was instructing in years ago; non event, was able to taxi clear of the runway and get towed in. My biggest concern would be reduced prop clearance.