Electric Mooney

[MooneyMitch]

Don’t believe everything you read PERIOD! 

[AH-1 Cobra Pilot]

14 hours ago, N201MKTurbo said:

So, our starting batteries lose capacity after a while. Every lithium battery I have had has eventually failed. 

How can you trust the range numbers of an electric plane, unless you do periodic capacity tests. How often? Annually? Every 100 hours?

You got me thinking about that...  Here are some average numbers:

100 recharge cycles will reduce the battery capacity to 85%.  A year of storage at 25^oC will reduce the capacity to 80%.  So, if you start with a battery worth 2 hours of flying and fly the plane for 100 hours/year, in two years the batteries will only give you 65 minutes of flying time.

Electric aircraft will need a 'fuel' gauge to tell how many minutes of flying remain at any particular power level.  Psychology papers might be written on the effect of continuously seeing that gauge creep lower every time you fly.

[Blue on Top]

15 hours ago, carusoam said:

Bob Lutz is brilliant... a bit wacky lately...

So should I read his two books?

[Blue on Top]

7 hours ago, mike_elliott said:

Do not take my advice, as your risk tolerances will be different.

Soooooooo.  How much Mooney International stock do you own?  I am jealous of people that are less risk tolerant.  Personally, I am waaaaaayyyyyyy too much of an engineer, but so far, I think I'm doing okay.  Taking less risk is at times actually more risky.

[mike_elliott]

full disclaimer, I do not own stock in Mooney. Perhaps someday when the metrics work. I do have at least 5 Mooney hats and probably a half doz shirts, one pair of Mooney Sun glasses, a Mooney coffee cup, a dozen luggage tags, and a couple of vintage Mooney key chains. The Mooney fan busted so I threw it out

I own one Tesla shirt and a Tesla face mask

 

[carusoam]

57 minutes ago, Blue on Top said:

So should I read his two books?

If you like to read history books... sure! 

Find a book from Lee Iacocca too...  how to save the Chrysler dynosaur... (I made this title up, but it is fitting...)

From an engineering point of view... GM engineers had the opportunity to put an end to the bad ignition switch debacle that killed many people... unfortunately, they covered it over with an undocumented design change.... if there is a book about engineering ethics... there will be a big chapter covering engineering design changes... how to document them properly...

All of that is historical in nature... valuable for insight into old manufacturing companies...
 

If looking to lead a similar stodgy company out of tough times... Find something written by Mary Barra...  She has been GMs leader since the ignition switch disaster came into full view of the entire world...  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Barra

Some engineering disasters are interesting.... Tacoma Narrows bridge is the king of interesting....

The GM ignition switch is abominable... keys fall out, steering locks, airbag turns off.... fixing all of those bad switches will be expensive.... let’s cover it up....  

GM knew they had the problem in the 90s... they handed out key rings to new owners that could separate the ignition key from the rest of a person’s collection of keys...
 

Track and trace... the ability to know what something is, where it came from, what it was made from, and the ability to recall it when necessary...

For The trifecta of engineering disasters in our lifetime...  add Tylenol to the list...  JNJ, the manufacturer, was unable to identify lot numbers to properly identify what needed to be recalled, and how to do it...  Packaging engineers at the time neglected to put any effort into protecting the consumer (And their company) from product tampering...

The ability to track and trace everything from raw materials to finished product is getting more interesting... barcodes, serial numbers, code readers, fast computers, info on the cloud, accessible via cell phone, in the field... Technology is your friend... pharma companies have the ability to track and trace individual tablets... 

So...
What I learned from this... put the ignition key separate from everything else... Makes even more sense for the Mooney... where pulling Gs or turbulence might have the key going MIA...

On a more positive note...

To be a stock owner of Mooney would be interesting.... it would start with shares of the company would have to be for sale somewhere... 

 

 

PP thoughts only, not a manufacturing expert... 

Best regards,

-a-

[aviatoreb]

54 minutes ago, mike_elliott said:

full disclaimer, I do not own stock in Mooney. Perhaps someday when the metrics work. I do have at least 5 Mooney hats and probably a half doz shirts, one pair of Mooney Sun glasses, a Mooney coffee cup, a dozen luggage tags, and a couple of vintage Mooney key chains. The Mooney fan busted so I threw it out

I own one Tesla shirt and a Tesla face mask

 

Maybe you can be the "I liked it so much I bought the company" guy for Mooney?

[carusoam]

The Victor Kaiam of the Mooney Company...
 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Kiam

He also bought the NE Pats and their Schaefer (Beer) Stadium...  aka Shaver Stadium... now Gillette Shaver Stadium...
 

Who would remember that much detail..?

Best regards,

-a-

[mike_elliott]

4 hours ago, aviatoreb said:

Maybe you can be the "I liked it so much I bought the company" guy for Mooney?

There are a few people that already want to say that, I just want to fly them after they build them  and not before the AWC is issued, already turned that down. Im too old...

[cliffy]

There are no old bold test pilots!   :-)

[Blue on Top]

3 hours ago, cliffy said:

There are no old bold test pilots!   :-)

I know many of them.   Crotchety old farts, but they typically know their stuff.