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So after an uneventful landing at KAEX the FBO towed us over to the maintenance shop. Oh boy. Very large old hanger containing an old Bellanca Viking with the cowling off and pretty flat tires, a Stearman in pieces and some unidentifiable tail dragger with no skin on the frame. A guy came out...

In the air I suspected the problem was the turbo but had no way to confirm it. Certainly other explanations were possible. An engine making 0 power with unfeathered prop is a huge drag. Shutting it down to prevent possible other damage and getting rid of the drag is the priority. Then do the...

There we (my son Lane and I) were Tuesday morning cruising fat, dumb and happy in my C414 at FL210 returning home to Atlanta from Burnet, TX where we had spent a day of recurrent sim training. That was a day of constant engine and other failures. It was his leg to fly back and things were good...

Mooney M20 makes an excellent instrument platform

For sure an Acclaim doesn’t carry enough fuel to go 8 hours at max power settings. 180 kts is probably realistic for this mission. Still pretty impressive cross country machine. I wish my plane had a puny 5 hour range.

Mooney turbo flight yesterday. Wow. At 17,000’. So sucking O2 for 8 hours.

Ted. Don’t think that’s true. Many flying TornadoAlley’s turbonormalized 550’s are routinely cruising at 85% power well LOP without any bad effects.

Had to look this one up. Only 12 built and 7 left on FAA register. Pretty much an orphan airplane. Too bad. It does look pretty cool.

Don't let your wife have a ride in a Cessna 414 or she won't want one of the smaller ones available. South Florida, Bahamas you want A/C. Happy wife having sandwich in back of 414. For $400k you should be able to get a beauty.

I go the S&F about every year. Having been so many times at this point we fly down Saturday morning, camp one night and fly back Sunday after the show. It’s enough. That’s the plan for this year too. @CJones your boys would enjoy a couple of days. Plenty of ooh and ahh stuff if they like...

Front just hit here one minute ago. A deluge. And my phone just posted a radar confirmed tornado warning in this area. whew.

Appreciate the comments. I've weaved my way between a lot of cells, but I really want VMC to do this. The front is a nasty one. Actually the text messages back from my client were: "OK. Just cancel the flight. We will drive. Thanks for trying.", "I truly appreciate you (sic) keeping us safe."...

I've been doing contact pilot work on the side for a number of years. Recently mostly in twin Cessnas. In all that time I can't remember canceling a trip at the last minute for weather. But I did just that this morning. Trip was in a Cessna 414A from KLZU (east side of Atlanta) to KSRC (central...

Be safe. I logged 308 hours in 22. Would like to equal that. Would like a greater percentage to be fun flying with family. Get my MEI. Get insurance on the 414 without huge increase.

I'll bring my clubs. But we won't come until Friday so I'm not sure when we'd have time for this.

http://www.kathrynsreport.com/2021/11/beech-c35-bonanza-n2033d-accident.html?m=1

I don't think that's the report for this plane. It was tied down on the ramp at Perry, GA KPXE. An out of control tail drager collided with it and chewed it up pretty good. It's totaled. We wanted it for the engine, so we can have a spare and not have our training 172 down waiting for an...

Another independent CFI and I bought a 172 a couple of years ago so we could train at our local airport. It's worked out great. Had a chance to buy another 172 today and did it. What a beauty.

I'm totally aware that sadly the FAA is the ultimate holdup on this issue. I don't think it's for the lack of machining expertise in the US. I'll bet if Jack Rousch was crashing Cessna 414/421s rather than Cessna Citations and needed a crankshaft, a very good one could appear quickly from his...

I wonder if this is true. You can get cast steel automobile racing crankshafts easily good for 500+HP off the shelf for less than $2K. You can get forged steel ones for less than $4k (700+ HP). These are US built, and I'll bet the tolerances are better than what TCM puts out when they bother to...