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First Flight in an Ovation


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    Eric with Oasis Aviation in Willmar, Minnesota flew me to Flying Cloud airport after I left my 89 201 at Weep No More. I had never flown or been in an Ovation and saw this as a good opportunity to see what it was like.  For a number of reasons that have been discussed here before, I LOVED what I saw in the Ovation. It has been said before that there is "No replacement for Displacement." I appreciated this experience. The downside is, even though my 201 has served me well, I see what I have been missing. Speed cost money. How fast can you afford to go?

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    Eric with Oasis Aviation in Willmar, Minnesota flew me to Flying Cloud airport after I left my 89 201 at Weep No More. I had never flown or been in an Ovation and saw this as a good opportunity to see what it was like.  For a number of reasons that have been discussed here before, I LOVED what I saw in the Ovation. It has been said before that there is "No replacement for Displacement." I appreciated this experience. The downside is, even though my 201 has served me well, I see what I have been missing. Speed cost money. How fast can you afford to go?


Sure they do cost more, but they are very efficient as well. I regularly go 175kts on 13gph, and can throttle back from there...


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IO550.... smooooooth...

Balanced injectors.... expect Gami spread of .1 or 0...

Dynamicaly balanced prop... doesn’t get any smoother...

310 hp... even better...

 

See if we can get some variable ignition timing...   :)

Best regards,

-a-

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3 minutes ago, carusoam said:

IO550.... smooooooth...

Balanced injectors.... expect Gami spread of .1 or 0...

Dynamicaly balanced prop... doesn’t get any smoother...

310 hp... even better...

 

See if we can get some variable ignition timing...   :)

Best regards,

-a-

If a six cylinder IO-550 is good, an eight cylinder IO-720 is better!

Clarence 

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18 hours ago, gsengle said:

 


Sure they do cost more, but they are very efficient as well. I regularly go 175kts on 13gph, and can throttle back from there...


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this beauty is for sale.. 12.6gph 179 kts TAS 8K

MVIMG_20180611_120129.thumb.jpg.98e30ec484e2ddd8c705c3200c5ee1ce.jpg

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11 minutes ago, jetdriven said:

That’s a nice looking plane but it 300 grand I can’t get my old lady to go for it

Yep it is not for everyone. For those looking at an ovation, this is probably the smoothest one I have flown. The owner took impeccable care of it. I have no interest, Im  just the guy who got to fly it from College Park Pa to Fort Lauderdale and can say this is one of the nicest used Mooney's I have been in.

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43 minutes ago, DakotaFlyer said:

I’m in the market for an Ovation but need FIKI and the GFC 700 with WAAS and VNav. Anyone know of one for sale but not on Controller?

With the next uodate, GTN750 is supposed to do (almost) the same VNAV stuff as the G1000 without locking you into the G1000 system.

When I was looking at Ovations I decided against G1000 and went for a G500 with GTN 750/650. I have been very happy with this decision. While I do have a FIKI Ovation and hope to keep it as my “forever” plane, if you’re really thinking about dealing with ice a normally aspirated single is not a good choice.

From Garmin:

GTN 650/750 descent vertical navigation

To assist in descent planning and energy management, pilots can take advantage of VNAV profiles throughout the enroute and terminal phases of flight within the GTN 650/750 touchscreen navigators when they’re paired with the G500 TXi/G600 TXi, G500/G600 or G5. Within the GTN, pilots can easily enter altitude constraints on the flight plan page to set-up a vertical descent profile. Pilots also experience a near-seamless transition from VNAV to an arrival and instrument approach. Once an arrival or approach is loaded and activated, the GTN automatically populates step-down altitudes or any applicable altitude restrictions. If ATC issues an unpublished altitude restriction, pilots can enter those altitudes manually into the active flight plan under the VNAV field.

As part of the VNAV profile, top of descent (TOD) and bottom of descent (BOD) values are also calculated and displayed on the moving map. As the aircraft arrives at TOD, the GTN displays a visual annunciation prompting the pilot to begin the descent. When paired with a display such as a G500 TXi/G600 TXi, G500/G600 or G5, a vertical deviation indication (VDI) also populates on the display to provide vertical guidance for the descent. Additionally, when the GTN 650/750 series is paired with the GFC 600 or GFC 500 autopilot, pilots can select the VNAV button on the mode controller to fly a fully-coupled VNAV profile.

 

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Thanks — my mission with the FIKI is not to our climb ice or plow through it... it’s to punch through the 2k layer that sits over the northern plains all winter.  I do understand the potential downsides with the G1000 setup, but major panel updates are something I’d rather avoid and I don’t think I’ve seen any planes for sale setup like you outlined.

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Read up on the G1000 challenges... they are aging... to get WAAS capabilities required some expensive updates... updates required the Mooney factory working closely with Garmin and having the customer pay the bill...

The FAA regulations made the challenge a bit worse... a complete panel is in the 100 k range... just the updates were something about half of that...

a staggering amount if you are still paying the note on the plane...

Fortunately the G1000s were updatable... for a while the update window was limited... and may have closed... so you need to be aware of what you are looking at when buying this.

An updated G1000 is super nice and capable... an un-updated G1000 is less capable, but still super nice....  :)

Best regards,

-a-

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9 hours ago, carusoam said:

Sorry DF,

had to retract my post...

I was referring to Mike above and the Mooney he has pictured there...

you can contact him directly @mike_elliott...  (click on the blue box, initiate a PM)

Best regards,

-a-

It is a non FIKI, on Controller. Contact Premier aircraft. VERY nice plane, well worth the asking price IMO. 

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11 hours ago, ilovecornfields said:

With the next uodate, GTN750 is supposed to do (almost) the same VNAV stuff as the G1000 without locking you into the G1000 system.

When I was looking at Ovations I decided against G1000 and went for a G500 with GTN 750/650. I have been very happy with this decision. While I do have a FIKI Ovation and hope to keep it as my “forever” plane, if you’re really thinking about dealing with ice a normally aspirated single is not a good choice.

From Garmin:

GTN 650/750 descent vertical navigation

To assist in descent planning and energy management, pilots can take advantage of VNAV profiles throughout the enroute and terminal phases of flight within the GTN 650/750 touchscreen navigators when they’re paired with the G500 TXi/G600 TXi, G500/G600 or G5. Within the GTN, pilots can easily enter altitude constraints on the flight plan page to set-up a vertical descent profile. Pilots also experience a near-seamless transition from VNAV to an arrival and instrument approach. Once an arrival or approach is loaded and activated, the GTN automatically populates step-down altitudes or any applicable altitude restrictions. If ATC issues an unpublished altitude restriction, pilots can enter those altitudes manually into the active flight plan under the VNAV field.

As part of the VNAV profile, top of descent (TOD) and bottom of descent (BOD) values are also calculated and displayed on the moving map. As the aircraft arrives at TOD, the GTN displays a visual annunciation prompting the pilot to begin the descent. When paired with a display such as a G500 TXi/G600 TXi, G500/G600 or G5, a vertical deviation indication (VDI) also populates on the display to provide vertical guidance for the descent. Additionally, when the GTN 650/750 series is paired with the GFC 600 or GFC 500 autopilot, pilots can select the VNAV button on the mode controller to fly a fully-coupled VNAV profile.

 

While that is an excellent package, it doesnt have the GFC700, what DakotaFlyer says is a must for him. That will take a G1000 or G1000NXI to get. While the G1000 is long in the tooth by avionics standards, it is still remarkable, especially when coupled with the best in class GFC700. That AP is amazing. The G1000NXI is fantastic, and is the single most expensive component in  a new Mooney. TOD and BOD are a couple of niceties that you can get now with updated GTN firmware, but real value of this feature requires the GXXX TXI display also. Throwing still more money at it, one could get the GFC500 when available or hope the GFC600 will be STC'd for the Mooney with its better servos. Will it be as nice as the GFC700? I hope so, but think that might lack economic substance for Garmin to compete with their flagship product. As a side note, there are rumors of G1000 to G1000NXI upgrades to happen...(maybe why the discontinuance of WAAS upgrade kits from Garmin)

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18 hours ago, mike_elliott said:

While that is an excellent package, it doesnt have the GFC700, what DakotaFlyer says is a must for him. That will take a G1000 or G1000NXI to get. While the G1000 is long in the tooth by avionics standards, it is still remarkable, especially when coupled with the best in class GFC700. That AP is amazing. The G1000NXI is fantastic, and is the single most expensive component in  a new Mooney. TOD and BOD are a couple of niceties that you can get now with updated GTN firmware, but real value of this feature requires the GXXX TXI display also. Throwing still more money at it, one could get the GFC500 when available or hope the GFC600 will be STC'd for the Mooney with its better servos. Will it be as nice as the GFC700? I hope so, but think that might lack economic substance for Garmin to compete with their flagship product. As a side note, there are rumors of G1000 to G1000NXI upgrades to happen...(maybe why the discontinuance of WAAS upgrade kits from Garmin)

Mike - you hit the nail on the head. For me, other than 10 hours in a SR22, all of my flying career has been in steam gauge Pipers and Cessnas, mostly with King GPS units, so a G1000/GFC700 combo (which will be WAAS upgraded) is pretty much revolutionary in terms of capability.  While the NXI is very nice, for me it just isn’t worth the very significant increase in cost. That said, if Garmin ever got the GFC500/600 approved for the M20 platform, I would certainly entertain older Ovations that currently use an STec.

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On 7/31/2018 at 10:24 PM, Skmoore63 said:

Hmm, thanks for the pleasant thoughts. Heading to controller.com now. 

SK ... I have owned 3 C Models and your plane is the fastest C model that I have ever flown. Although I sold 5601Q back in the mid to late 90’s I still miss her to this day. 

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Mike - you hit the nail on the head. For me, other than 10 hours in a SR22, all of my flying career has been in steam gauge Pipers and Cessnas, mostly with King GPS units, so a G1000/GFC700 combo (which will be WAAS upgraded) is pretty much revolutionary in terms of capability.  While the NXI is very nice, for me it just isn’t worth the very significant increase in cost. That said, if Garmin ever got the GFC500/600 approved for the M20 platform, I would certainly entertain older Ovations that currently use an STec.


I’m curious about that word “capability”. I know a g1000 has a lot of help for the pilot as does the gfc700. These are nice to fly with no doubt. But I think of the word capability as what can the airplane do. If two ovations have waas, and fiki, they can fly all the same approaches and weather and thus have the same capability... is glass really 100k or so nicer? Personally with so much shaking out I’d still be looking at older Ovations and considering a later upgrade, not looking at old G1000s with such rotten and expensive upgrade hurdles...


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On 8/1/2018 at 11:03 AM, mike_elliott said:

this beauty is for sale.. 12.6gph 179 kts TAS 8K

MVIMG_20180611_120129.thumb.jpg.98e30ec484e2ddd8c705c3200c5ee1ce.jpg

Looks like a nice setup. 

Mike, with your training do you ever find the gear handle is harder to use or see (for the pilot) in the g1000 position vs the high and to the right?  Especially for individuals who have an iPad mounted on the yoke?

In the process of a panel upgrade, ideally not enough room in the stock configuration. 

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