N2652W will have a new home!

[hammdo]

Drove by this place near Gainesville airport yesterday… Might be good - don’t know….

humm….

 

[LANCECASPER]

3 hours ago, hammdo said:

Drove by this place near Gainesville airport yesterday… Might be good - don’t know….

humm….

 

I wonder if they are the new owners of Hartzell Props.

[hammdo]

Battery did the trick, whips this baby around good - what I didn’t know was I had a Concord AXC to begin with. I noticed the charger was showing a charge but never made it to ‘full’. This new one does. Took it out today, pattern practice to make sure everything is good before I venture out.
Had to reset the breaker after the first startup for the GNC 355 as it was saying no gps and to check the power connection. Breaker reset did the trick and no further notices from the GNC355. Whew…

Good 1.6 hours in the pattern with a few landings and she did great. Ready to go!

-Don

 

[hammdo]

Got my BG power tow bar today! Lots of power and works good. Bernie is sending me an updated sprocket with tapered teeth to smooth out the ops. Outside of that, slow and steady with a bit more down pressure on the front tire works….

-Don

[hammdo]

Finally got to use the towbar today - wow, that thing is nice! After installing the updated sprocket, very smooth. I also spent some time with aluminum tape covering 2 areas on the #1 and #2 cylinder to cowling baffles. So far, looks like that is really helping CHT temps - hit over 100° @ Mesquite and CHT temps were excellent. Next is to take it out for a trip and see how see does - may GoTo Monroe LA for some test flying…

She’s doing great and the #4 cylinder seems to be excellent….

-Don

[hammdo]

99° today so of course, need to see how she does after the cylinder and baffling. Did great, temps were fantastic.  Plane did great, ready for more. Picked up Sentry Plus as my Stratus 3 is not holding battery charge after replacement.

With CO sensor et.al., should make a great upgrade…

-Don

[hammdo]

Flight review today and did some Simulated IFR with the Icarus - that thing is awesome. Great for IFR training. Had my first bounced landing today and did a go around immediately. Was too fast. I sucked on that one - we hit the clear on the Icarus too late - lesson learned…

Batteries on my tug overheated (Milwaukee) - I let those sit in the heat too long so, gonna leave those off until I’m gonna move the plane.

Still fun, early morning before we hit near 100° …

-Don

[hammdo]

Couple of flights the last 2 weekends - Hot Springs AR and Lawton OK. Plane doing fine. 1 quart in 12 hours, wife is going so I have a reason to fly places now ;o) Hot here so temps go up a bit but have been able to manage them. 

Hope the oil and temps continue to do well, for ~100° here, can’t complain.

Looking for how to get an AP now, seems things are still behind - saving my Pennies as it were…

-Don

 

[hammdo]

Planned on night flying yesterday, found the left nav light weak. Took it apart (led) and noticed it must have vibrated loose. Reset it, confirmed a tight fit, got her out and ready. After startup and turning on the lights again, found the landing light was off. Checked everything before start too. Tried the switch, no good. Shut down, and checked again - was on. Tapped around and the light flickered and then went off - grounded as I won’t fly at night with no landing light. Took off the cheek and found the butt splice for the landing light was no longer holding the wire - similar to the alternator issue I had. Ordered the proper 10-12 gauge splice and fixed it today. I now keep a supply of those splices just in case. Funny how even with constant inspections, this still occurs. Never a dull moment in aircraft ownership…

-Don

[Fly Boomer]

8 hours ago, hammdo said:

Never a dull moment in aircraft ownership…

It continues to amaze me that nothing ever seems to break on my car.  I have driven older cars that had one issue after another, but modern cars seem bulletproof.  I guess the "older" qualifier may explain the difference.

[N201MKTurbo]

1 hour ago, Fly Boomer said:

It continues to amaze me that nothing ever seems to break on my car.  I have driven older cars that had one issue after another, but modern cars seem bulletproof.  I guess the "older" qualifier may explain the difference.

If Mooney had a staff of 5000 engineers and sold over a million planes a year, they could probably produce a more reliable plane. 

[Shadrach]

10 hours ago, hammdo said:

Planned on night flying yesterday, found the left nav light weak. Took it apart (led) and noticed it must have vibrated loose. Reset it, confirmed a tight fit, got her out and ready. After startup and turning on the lights again, found the landing light was off. Checked everything before start too. Tried the switch, no good. Shut down, and checked again - was on. Tapped around and the light flickered and then went off - grounded as I won’t fly at night with no landing light. Took off the cheek and found the butt splice for the landing light was no longer holding the wire - similar to the alternator issue I had. Ordered the proper 10-12 gauge splice and fixed it today. I now keep a supply of those splices just in case. Funny how even with constant inspections, this still occurs. Never a dull moment in aircraft ownership…

-Don

I’m not saying you should, but I’m curious about your no night flight policy. Back in the days of incandescents, that rule would be a challenge to follow.

[Shadrach]

1 hour ago, Fly Boomer said:

It continues to amaze me that nothing ever seems to break on my car.  I have driven older cars that had one issue after another, but modern cars seem bulletproof.  I guess the "older" qualifier may explain the difference.

Automobiles have come a long way. Especially with fuel delivery and engine management. Modern cars could be absolutely bullet proof but they’re not engineered for that. They’re engineered to meet emissions metrics. I have seen self inflicted wounds caused by EGR systems, especially when coupled with DFI.  Thankfully most issues don’t start to manifest until ~100k or more. Mechanically they will run nearly for ever with high quality and frequent oil changes. Our beater car is 15 years old with >220k but runs just as strong and quiet as ever. I replaced the valve cover gasket last year and there is no visible wear on the valve train. The cam literally looked brand new with over 200k. I think improvements in lubrication have had a larger impact than improvements in metallurgy.

[hammdo]

37 minutes ago, Shadrach said:

I’m not saying you should, but I’m curious about your no night flight policy. Back in the days of incandescents, that rule would be a challenge to follow.

I’m getting older and my night vision is better with some light. I’m not in my 30’s when I flew plenty of night ops…

just a part of getting older and recognizing my limits…

-Don

[Sabremech]

On 7/12/2024 at 7:14 AM, Fly Boomer said:

It continues to amaze me that nothing ever seems to break on my car.  I have driven older cars that had one issue after another, but modern cars seem bulletproof.  I guess the "older" qualifier may explain the difference.

I had a newer car for less than 12 months due to 5 major visits to the dealer for repairs. It didn’t cost me anything but time but I’ll never own a newer Chevy again. Newer doesn’t mean better. I’m staying away from new especially because of the amount of electronics on them. 

[hammdo]

Last weekend flew to the Texas Panhandle and landed at River Falls (H81). Nice little airport, great service and fuel prices from the FBO. Rented a car from KAMA and the FBO was kind enough to give us a ride to get it.

Took in the Palo Duro Canyon and last Texas Musical of the year (with fireworks!). Airport can be a bit hard to spot and the weather from the Tradewind airport is not quite accurate so watch the wind sock. No approaches either.

Hit ‘The Big Texan’ steakhouse - great steakhouse. We stayed in Canyon Texas as that put us on the main road to Palo Duro. Nice drive and the Texas Outdoor musical show was fantastic. Must do that again. 
 

pics coming once my donation gets through….

-Don

Edited August 10, 2024 by hammdo

[hammdo]

The Big Texan Restaurant was outstanding -- food, service, atmosphere -- really great place and a must stop on I40 in Amarillo. Everything was delicious -- jalapeno coins were awesome in their ranch dressing:

 

 

[hammdo]

The flight into Palo Duro was nice, Wife got a couple of shots in.  Canyon was awesome for sure. Very hazy day:

[hammdo]

The Canyon was a nice drive -- they said takes 45 minutes to and hour but if you stop -- way longer -- we did 2.5 hours - lots of places to pull off and take pictures:

[hammdo]

 Some of the colors are something though in the canyon:

[hammdo]

The outdoor musical was a must visit -- they only have fireworks on the 1st, last, and during 4th of July week -- was absolutely worth it -- even in the light rain:

[Shadrach]

On 5/12/2024 at 4:02 PM, hammdo said:

Drove by this place near Gainesville airport yesterday… Might be good - don’t know….

humm….

 

Fuku tu…

[hammdo]

Ordered a 2 person Aerox System with Boomula from Scott - he gave me a discount code that pretty much covered the Boomula addition. Like the system, simple and on those longer flights, need some to keep me fresher when 8000-11000 feet. If I fly out west/Mountains, want to have that.

I’ll put this in the baggage area but with me getting older, more ‘ox’ is not a bad idea ;o)…

 

-Don

[hammdo]

Aerox finally came in!  I'll need to take some time and setup that in the airplane.  I'm due for oil change and brakes so that is on the list for this week.

Wife and I did another trip in Texas to the Natural Bridge Caverns.  We chose the San Marcos airport since the hotel and airport are nicely located and, San Marcos has an outstanding FBO - Berry Aviation.  Class Delta and excellent service all around -- got my plane in a hanger before the storms hit!

The trip down was super @ 8000 feet -- the plane just hums along.  Really happy with the performance and fuel burn.

 

[hammdo]

The Caverns were wonderful -- wife did NOT expect the very steep climb out on the 'Discovery' tour.  The first tour, Heritage, was much easier.  Wife and I got some nice pics -- and the cave water was crystal clear -- they even setup drinking fountains (with filters) to sample the water!  Very fun weekend trip -- and the Mooney makes it so nice to not have to deal with traffic -- 66-73° temps at altitude too.  Trip back was also fantastic, nice, cool and we got a lot of shortcuts from ATC -- I really enjoy flying IFR -- even in VFR conditions.  We did encounter some clouds and weather but, the Stromscope helped us keep and eye on the build-ups -- great tool to have!

pics of the caverns: