2016 today's flight

[Guest]

11 hours ago, Marauder said:

You need a rudder trim. Betcha you would squeeze out a few more knots.

It has manual rudder trim, but my autopilot has developed a slow roll of a few degrees left and right in cruise in all modes.  

Clarence

[flyboy0681]

My wife and I just got back from a weekend in New Orleans. The entire trip up there was solid cloud cover, accentuated by my first instrument approach down to 900 feet.

New Orleans is a great destination for anybody within flying distance.

[bonal]

Seems a while since my last flight. We were going to O69 for breakfast but the fuel rig at home is busted even though I had plenty to make O69 would be short if the rig there ended up out of service. We were going to go to STS after so went there instead since they have a few fuel options. Very windy today 21 knots made for some bumps crossing the ridge. But made 2 nice approaches and landings with the challenging winds. Whiskey compass has started to drip so needs service always something to tend to.

 

[rainman]

Flew the recently paint touched-up Mooney (looks way better) to Llano TX, KAQO, for the STOL competitions. I was there to watch as my 231 is not much of a STOL bird. The Carbon Cubs, Huskies, Caravans, and even a Quest Kodiak. Way cool!

[chrisk]

Saturday the weather was finally good.  I flew to Fredericksburg Texas (T82) and had a wonderful breakfast with my wife.  The field was very active with lots of fun planes to watch.  --And of course there is always one.  A loud mouth with a Bonanza talking trash.  He goes to leave, and he must have been in a hurry.  He starts his take off roll when the previous plane taking off is only 1000 feet down the runway.  --What would happen if the other plane (a 172) had to abort the take off?  I don't know, just too close for me. 

And then on the way home I was humiliated.  A few miles from the airport (4 ish) I start to slow down after descending.  I'm downwind at 90 knots or so, and the tower tells the Bonanza behind me to make a wider pattern since he is faster.    Just what I wanted to hear.  -Anyway, the guy in the Bonanza is just 3 hangars down from me and a really nice guy. And his plane probably is faster below 15,000 feet, as its got 300 hp.  I still don't want to hear it.

All in all,  a great day to fly!

 

 

 

 

[rainman]

Chris, I stopped at Fredericksburg on the way home to Boerne from the STOL competition at Llano about 1330ish. There were several Mooneys parked on the ramp. I should have walked in the restaurant and asked "which smart pilots own those Mooneys". I'll keep an eye out for your tail in the future. Ray

[chrisk]

1 hour ago, rainman said:

Chris, I stopped at Fredericksburg on the way home to Boerne from the STOL competition at Llano about 1330ish. There were several Mooneys parked on the ramp. I should have walked in the restaurant and asked "which smart pilots own those Mooneys". I'll keep an eye out for your tail in the future. Ray

 

I got her painted a few years ago.  It no longer has the giant 231 on the tail!  Also, I must have just missed you.  I left Fredricksburg at 12:15

[bonal]

Chrisk that is one beautiful Mooney. Looking at that it's a wonder anyone would want any other make. Well done.

[bonal]

So today was my BFR and we went to 0Q9 they have a Saturday BBQ that my CFI likes to go to. Winds were at least 15 knots at 90 degrees and the runway is 2400 by 40 my first approach was high and fast and I got behind so went around second time had a much better approach and made a nice landing. After we headed for home and had the worst turbulence I have ever flown. When we got close to home we did some air work with me wearing the hood. Slow flight while getting bounced around proved there is some work needed there. It was good to get the sign off but showed some weaknesses flying the instruments. I was very happy with my go around and landing under some very difficult conditions. I must say flying for review adds a bit of stress and a constant but welcome stream of information really increases the work load.

[Yooper Rocketman]

1 hour ago, bonal said:

 Winds were at least 15 knots at 90 degrees and the runway is 2400 by 40 my first approach was high and fast and I got behind so went around second time had a much better approach and made a nice landing. 

Good decision!

I went into a 2000' x 40' strip recently with the Rocket, after not landing on anything shorter than 2900' in the last 5 years.  I did a go around on my first try and that was the first go around in a long time.  The local airport manager, a Pilatus owner, was outside watching me (told me later he was wondering who was trying to land at his airport in a hot rod Mooney).  He is an old friend and once he saw it was me, he laughed.  My instructor was based out of this airport, so I had landed there before in every airplane I have ever owned.  Just had not been there in a while.

Oh, on the go around, I take that back, I did a go around on the 2900 footer too.  3NR3, Transylvania, NC, where you need airport manager approval to land AFTER you have watched the videos on landing and departure procedures. http://transylvaniacommunityairport.com/  Down wind for one of the runways is on the other side of a mountain, with a side step on short final to align to the runway.  Pretty hairy for a first timer.

Tom

[Raptor05121]

I flew the other day on another pilots dime. He rented a plane and had me pick him up and fly him 100 miles to Leesburg to pick up his Comanche from the avionics shop. I logged 3.2, which pushed me over 100 hours AND was the last line on a page in my logbook. I'm holding the next entry (new page) in my logbook for my Mooney.

[chrisk]

A flight to KGLS for a Saturday Mothers day. 

[Hank]

Looks like Pharoah has moved to Texas!

My flight today was 10.4 nm for fuel, landing in a direct crosswind, then heading back home where the wind was shifting from one end to the other. Then I cleaned the plane until another pilot came along, about to make the same hop. He offered and I accepted to ride along with him in a King Air 200. The power and speed are addictive! 180 KIAS and 1500 fpm on departure!! 

Gave me better insight into Seth, Erik and Anthony, especially the latter's continual talk about the wonders of the 310-hp STC for his O. "There's no replacement for displacement!" Although sometimes fuel flow can make up for part of it . . .

[bonal]

Got to take Snoopy out for an evening flight for some shopping and dinner with my wife and her friend. Nice smooth air to VCB had to add a quart of oil before we left and tach shows 8.5 hrs since oil change so not bad since some is drips from vent tube while plane is not flying and in its hangar. 100LL is 3.89 at the Nut Tree. Couple nice approaches and landings made for a nice trip

 

[Yooper Rocketman]

I did a medical flight today from KSAW to KDET, taking two patients down, a girl and her mom for cancer treatment on the girl, and a very young man for screening for a future heart transplant.  He was riding in the front seat with me, and sported "blue" hair, so I didn't take a picture of him as I thought he would be uncomfortable with it.  The mom in the back has received quite a few flights for her daughter, to DET for treatment of her daughter, and is a huge supporter of our organization (hosting fund raisers).  We probably only take them down about once a month, and she drives for the other weekly appointments (2 day event).  We left at 7 AM EST(which means I left home at 4:30 AM CST to make the trip from my home airport) and I had them home by 1:45 PM.  This is the first time I've seen mom with hair, as she is battling cancer as well, and has the most unbelievable positive attitude. Third picture shows a bit of ice as the TKS is clearing it off..  Speed down in the Bonanza was not too bad this AM, but we paid for it on the way back.  http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N7256A/history/20160516/1100Z/KSAW/KDET

[Yooper Rocketman]

Here's a couple more shots on the way back.  The second photo is of Lake Michigan as we are flying northbound, in the area of Traverse City.

[carusoam]

Nice report, Tom.

You are the best! 

Best regards,

-a-

[MB65E]

Had a great flight today. LA-Bay area-PHX! Airplane did great! Marine layer is back in LA...Super choppy from Gorman all the way past hollister. However, it only knocked my headsets off once.

Later I had time to trouble shoot some rear seat comm's my girls were having issues with.Turns out the mic's are dead in back...go figure. 

Good news was my #1 comm is rock solid again. The angled right angle coax B&C fell apart in my hand when I went to check the issue. I installed a new B&C and it is really clear again. I guess 51 years is enough for the little guy. Fresh oil drain now too. The CCB-37000 is now approved (per Curtiss) for oil.  Spruce's website is not up to date yet. They just received approval this year. 

Anyone else having trouble posting pics lately? I cleared a bunch of memory in my phone and I think it might be taking higher Rez pics now. Who knows. Looks like only 1 loaded. 

 

Have fun!!

-Matt

[carusoam]

I easily load some med resolution photos today...  I had to get them off the phone and onto the iPad for posting....

More of a screen size vs thumb size issue.

Best regards,

-a-

[Deb]

We went glider flying today. Debbie demonstrated a 200 ft rope break. That's landing back at the airport ("impossible turn") from 200 ft AGL.

Minimum sink speed was 42 kts and best glide speed was 48 kts, so we were cruising at about 45 kts – only 130 kts slower than the Mooney.

Here's the panel (Blanik L23):

There is no battery in the glider, and the Hobbs meter doesn't have one either. The on/off switch is presumably for the Hobbs, which works off the pitot tube.

Note the extensive checklists! The "ball" is the piece of yarn on the canopy (yaw string).

[Yooper Rocketman]

Holy crap Deb.  Those are pretty hairy legs. 

[Deb]

35 minutes ago, Yooper Rocketman said:

Holy crap Deb.  Those are pretty hairy legs. 

Tom,

I was sitting in the back scaring the daylights out of my husband. He didn't believe me when I said I could loop the glider!

[Yooper Rocketman]

He must have been # 2 on the take-off check list then?

 

[gsxrpilot]

Pictures (courtesy of Shane Schmidt) from our flight on Saturday. While the forecast kept many on the ground in Austin, we got some quality IMC actual, on a nice flight to north Dallas and back. If the visibility is there, sometimes it pays to just go up and have a look. 

[Yetti]

Some days it is fun just to get "up there" even if the clouds look ominous and foreboding.   Then you get these moments....  and you are getting to fly...