Mooney Round The World Flight Project Amelia Earhart 1937 2017

[Bartman]

I read thru most of the signatures on the website. Brian touched a lot of people who will never forget being some part of this truly historic voyage. I do not have the time or experience to do what Brian and his team did and I am humbled by his courage. 

[carusoam]

It only takes,

1) time

2) money

3) experience

4) drive

5) willingness 

6) skill

7) abilities

8) planning

9) financing

10) organizing

11) ham skills

12) a support team

13) MS fans

14) government support of all the world's governments

15) weather knowledge

16) extreme patience

17) nerves of steel

18) no fear

19) ability to recognize things not going right

20) ability to decide turning around is a good option

21) Not pressing forwards to maintain an important schedule

22) the knowledge that crap happens. Don't make it worse.

23) good to have formation skills. For the return celebration!

24) CFI experience

25) mechanical experience

26) great personality

27) excellent interpersonal skills

28) ...

 

Ideas that came to mind without having to think really hard...

Brian has done a great demonstration of what Mooney pilots can be.

I'd like to be like Brian.  First, I'd have to learn to allow somebody to sign their name all over my plane...  

Best regards,

-a-

[gsxrpilot]

5 hours ago, carusoam said:

I'd like to be like Brian.  First, I'd have to learn to allow somebody to sign their name all over my plane...  

If the paint on your plane was as ugly as Brian's, you'd be out there with a sharpie yourself, right now. ;-) 

I believe Brian intends to take good photos of all of the signatures, and the plane, then send it off for paint.

[LANCECASPER]

After that trip his airplane deserves a paint job. Brian did an amazing thing, but that little 231 did a pretty amazing job too.

[flyboy0681]

Definitely a job well done.

Looking at the picture of Howland Island on his website, I can now see how easily it could be missed.

[Piloto]

On ‎8‎/‎7‎/‎2017 at 9:13 PM, flyboy0681 said:

Definitely a job well done.

Looking at the picture of Howland Island on his website, I can now see how easily it could be missed.

Now try to imagine finding an aircraft carrier after completion of your mission.

[Chocks]

I havent had time to post the pics and vids. Sorry



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Chocks]

and a couple of short videos I clipped out

5508EFF2-A923-485E-A57F-DCA8BF197A2B.TRIM (1).MOV

IMG_5520.MOV

IMG_5521.MOV

IMG_5518.MOV

IMG_5519_TRIM.MOV

5508EFF2-A923-485E-A57F-DCA8BF197A2B.TRIM.MOV

69187A92-5C22-450A-8D79-271408EDF888.TRIM.MOV

C724EFCC-5810-4CDE-AC7C-EBFA777E0780.TRIM_(1).MOV

C724EFCC-5810-4CDE-AC7C-EBFA777E0780.TRIM.MOV

E66EF89E-89BA-4DAD-A138-E4B0B2363187_TRIM.MOV

Edited August 10, 2017 by "Chocks"
wrong set of vids

[carusoam]

@"Chocks", if you would be so kind...

Can you post these fine videos in YouTube?

This way all the iPad users will be able to click and see the fabulous work you have done.

I'm looking forward to seeing them.   

Best regards,

-a-

[Chocks]

13 hours ago, carusoam said:

@"Chocks", if you would be so kind...

Can you post these fine videos in YouTube?

This way all the iPad users will be able to click and see the fabulous work you have done.

I'm looking forward to seeing them.   

Best regards,

-a-

I'm going to make a nice edited video soon. Those are just raw vids. Once I get some time to do it, I'll put it up.

[MooneyCFII]

Well, perhaps it is time for me to chime in here. I didn't realize there was such a thread here or I would have gotten on here sooner. But I was doing something ... and it kept me pretty occupied ... darn, can't remember what it was but I think it was important at the time ... ;-)

As I read your comments I kept wanting to jump in, but it is a little late for that. 

Piloto: Don't argue antennas with Bonnie. She designs antennas for a living and understands them upside down and backwards. Also, I couldn't have done this trip without your long-range tank mod.  Thank you. 

Garmin Guy: I happen to like my Aspens and IFD540. The G500 was a non-starter due to its size and requirement for backup pitot-static instruments. I teach both the GTN and IFD series. I prefer the IFD series on the basis of functionality and ergonomics. YMMV. 

Attached is a picture of my panel. This is just before we put the glare shield back on. There is no way the Garmin stuff would have fit. As it is, I am quite happy with it and reliability is quite good. It got a pretty good workout over the last two months. ;-)

Everyone else, thank you for following along and being so supportive. Sorry I couldn't make OSH but that comes under the heading of "stuff happens". Spirit and I will be there next year. And, yes, I was disappointed. But I wasn't about to leave Hamilton until I was 100% sure that Spirit's fuel system was 100% again. We did take most of the fuel system apart to look for contamination in other places. That crap that was in the gascolator screen was found all the way up in the flow-divider screen. All the fuel system components from the gascolator forward were cleaned and flushed out. That is where my week went. 

Now that I am on this thread I will be happy to answer questions.

"Pinky"

[MooneyCFII]

BTW, it wasn't the contamination itself that made my engine quit just N of NZ. Turns out it was vapor lock. The restriction in the fuel screen created enough of a pressure drop in the fuel line to the engine driven pump that, when combined with the high altitude and engine compartment temperature rise when I closed the cowl flaps, that vapor lock happened. 

I saw someone comment on my flight where I just went in circles over NZ. That was my test flight after cleaning out the fuel system. I went up to FL230 and let the engine get pretty hot looking to create a worst-case situation to determine whether I had killed the vapor monster or not. Apparently I had and left for Pago Pago pretty soon after. 

[MooneyCFII]

Thank you. I have some really solid numbers and some fuzzy ones.

Distance flown was 29,948 nm for the route. Given the turn-backs and the test flights I am confident in saying I flew 31,000 nm.

220.1 hours on the hobbs meter in 66 days.

Longest leg 17.5 hours by the hobbs meter. (Pago Pago to Honolulu)

My longest week was 61.7 flight hours in 7 days (Natal to Karachi) and that included a down-day for maintenance in Dakar. I realized I couldn't keep that pace up. This is where my respect for Amelia Earhart started to get really high. 

TAS when fully loaded and 63% power was about 147 kts and I couldn't climb higher than FL210, even with the variable waste-gate controller and the intercooler. ROC at sea level was right at 500fpm.

TAS when light increased to about 165 kts at my 58% cruise power. 

Yes, my 231 is slower than other 231's. I don't know why but I'm going to figure it out. 

I can't tell you for sure what the economy was but the lowest I saw in cruise was about 14nm/gal and highest 22nm/gal. The variations are mostly due to winds.

Fuel cost me anywhere from $3.50/gal to $25/gal, with the average being around $11/gal. I burned about 2200 gallons of fuel so my original estimate of 10 gph for flight planning was about right. I was told to expect to pay $1500 per barrel of avgas along the way. Fortunately it never got that high.

Not many Electras flying these days. There are a lot more Twin Beeches. Still, both are very cool airplanes.

 

[carusoam]

Nicely done, Brian!

It was a learning experience following along with you...

Thanks,

-a-

[BCrystal]

Video: Brian Lloyd landed his aircraft "Spirit" after his solo flight completing the historic round-the-world Earhart equatorial route at Oakland airport, California, USA.

On 31 July 2017, while at Oakland, he visited "ARINC" Rockwell-Collins Aeronautical Communications Center,  where they use HF radio for air traffic control radio operations over the oceans.

He also visited the historic Oakland airport building where Amelia Earhart stayed in the 1930s, which now houses the CAP #188 Amelia Earhart Squadron.

Project Amelia Earhart 80th Anniversary Flight.  

Edited August 17, 2017 by BCrystal

[carusoam]

Nicely done, Bonnie!

Best regards,

-a-

[MooneyCFII]

Wow! Bonnie, you do good work!

[Piloto]

On ‎8‎/‎15‎/‎2017 at 6:27 PM, CFII said:

Well, perhaps it is time for me to chime in here. I didn't realize there was such a thread here or I would have gotten on here sooner. But I was doing something ... and it kept me pretty occupied ... darn, can't remember what it was but I think it was important at the time ... ;-)

As I read your comments I kept wanting to jump in, but it is a little late for that. 

Piloto: Don't argue antennas with Bonnie. She designs antennas for a living and understands them upside down and backwards. Also, I couldn't have done this trip without your long-range tank mod.  Thank you. 

 

"Pinky"

It is a well known fact that top mounted antennas (VHF/HF) outperform belly mounted antennas when plane is on the ground or on the water (amphibians BE 200). This performance is a must for planes that operate in remote areas where VHF coverage is marginal or where HF is required for clearance on the ground. Belly mounted antennas are unable to operate when the plane has crash landed and the antenna is just buried in the mud. This would inhibit the survivors calling for help.   

José

Edited August 18, 2017 by Piloto

[MooneyCFII]

I guess it doesn't matter that much. After all, in flight, the antenna on the belly of my plane works very well, probably just as well as the antenna on top. Bonnie Crystal did a stellar job modeling how the antenna would work and what was needed to make it work well. After all, she is an electrical engineer who specializes in the design of HF antennas.  

As for top-mounted vs. belly-mounted, your statement is spot on in the case of VHF antennas. I specifically moved my two VHF antennas so that one was on the top and one was on the bottom. Not only did it provids better isolation between the radios (making it possible to use both VHF transceivers at the same time) but the differing radiation patterns allows me to optimize coverage simply by switching radios. It really makes a difference.

That having been said, it appears that, in flight, it really doesn't make much difference whether the HF antenna is on the top or the bottom of the airplane. Your point about the survivors of a crash using the HF, well, I figured my plane is going to sink very quickly and the HF is not going to play much part in my search-and-rescue. I figure that my SPOT tracker and/or my IridiumGO is going to play a much bigger part than my HF will in securing rescue. 

YMMV.

[Piloto]

[Piloto]

In Amelia's days there were no ELTs or SPOTs to call for help if you crash landed. The only thing available was the HF radio and a good pair of healthy batteries or crank generator to keep the filaments going on.

José

KP4DAC

[MooneyCFII]

1 hour ago, Piloto said:

In Amelia's days there were no ELTs or SPOTs to call for help if you crash landed. The only thing available was the HF radio and a good pair of healthy batteries or crank generator to keep the filaments going on.

José

KP4DAC

Today we have Iridium, SPOT, GPS, Stormscope, RADAR, Satellite-based weather spotting, and a host of other things that make a trip like this easier. Hey, I love HF. My first choice was to put the antenna on the top but the Mooney's pivoting tail with the 11" travel at the top of the vertical stabilizer made crafting a reliable, long-lived antenna very difficult. What I have on the belly is pretty darned robust. Only a gear-up landing is going to take it out. OK, it won't work well on the ground but I don't care. On the ground I have other means to communicate.

So, after evaluating all options I decided to do what I did. Bonnie modeled it and determined it would work adequately well. In fact, it works better than the models suggest it should. 

Anyone contemplating installing an HF, I recommend talking to Bonnie. After all, it is all about the antenna.

[peevee]

Don't mind Jose. He likes to argue and talk about the merits of piss tubes and rainx for anti ice. Every forum has one....

 

I don't know how you sat for 16.5hrs

[Piloto]

I figured the tail movement was the reason for the belly mounted antenna. But 30 years ago after using trailing wires I decided for the vertical fin antenna. I use Home Depot door springs with a soldered inner braid wire to overcome the inductance. The springs provide very good wire tension while allowing the tail to move the full travel with no resistance.  

[jetdriven]

i wouldn't  want that stuff hanging off my airplane. There's probably 5 knots of drag from those wires passing vertical to the base of the fin.