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sky1949, Here is my experience with vacuum pumps. In 3300 hrs I have had three failures of new pumps. Two of the three had cooling kits. I flew them all till they failed. I have one now that has 900hrs. Two went over 1300hrs and one lasted about 50hrs. I had dual pumps on my T-210 (they...

Eric, You asked if an Ovation can cruise 190Kt. I have never flown one but I doubt it. Early models had a prop. that was optimized for cruise. The prop. helped the cruise but had terrible take off performance. I think 175Kt at 70% power is a reasonable expectation. If you get a little more...

Eric, You do not describe your mission for the airplane you want to buy (or maybe I missed it). I have flown a Cirrus once so I cannot help you much with the Cirrus line. I have owned a couple of Mooney's, the current one is a TLS. I have a TKS system. The TLS meets my flying mission fairly...

I was out doing some instrument proficiency last Friday. I thought my FIKI and stormscope equipped airplane could handle most any problem that was thrown my way. Center called me up and requested that I report any sightings of falling space debis to them immediately. This was not a joke...

I have a TKS system on my Mooney. It works well allows me to travel without concern when using just a pitot heater would be risky. It is an aid that when linked with experience makes your flying safer. It is costly, requires at least annual maintenance and monitoring during use. It is not a...

Here is an element of ATC that continually cycles. I started instrument flying about 35 years ago. At that time you had to read back all instructions. Enroute you normally made position reports to FSS. A few years later traffic and radar coverage increased so did communications, not enough...

Here is a shot from the "front office". Have a great New Year!

John, I would go for a TBM 850. If that were not available a PC 12 would be second choice. Walt PS Could you have it here by Christmas?

I think we will be using our transponders for many years. ATC will have a dual parallel system (ADS-B and radar) in most areas. GA will have an unreliable traffic alert system as we do now. Looks like lots of money to be spent to comply with regulations, but no improvement in safety. (sigh)

Ted, You have some good input so far. I would add that GPS equipment has about a 5 yr. half life. A system bought today, will continue to work for many years but the GPS designers will add new features to their new models and you will want to upgrade. Buying used would be a good idea except...

Dan, Your mention of the Fairmont airport brought a pleasant memory. I went for my first airplane ride at the original Fairmont airport some 60 years ago. The original airport is buried under the interstate highway. Back in the 50's the drive from Pittsburgh to Fairmont took 3.5 hours on a...

Steve, I looked with interest at Boeing's remarks. The phasing of ADS-B does not concern me as much as the equipment required. I was wondering if you have determined if a 430W will meet the proposed regulations and if you know whether GPS's meeting TSO 129 will qualify. The biggest cost of...

sba55, I have not decided how I feel about spending $15-20K on ADS-B equipment. At this point I do not see the necessity. It will be redundant since mode C will still be required. Since I fly around Class B all the time my mode C is always running. Most of the time the traffic I encounter...

The GA pilots are legitimately wondering what they will be getting for the considerable cost of equipping their airplanes with ADS-B. Several years ago a retired FAA guy told me that the primary reason ADS-B was implemented was that the increased accuracy would reduce separation standards...

I'm with Ron, you need some VFR experience before you start flying instrument PIC. One thing to consider is how much time and money you have to work on the rating. The instrument requires a lot of study time. At the PPL level you are going to have to really increase you knowledge base. I...

Brian, Today was your day (flyable IFR in Denver), hope you took advantage. Lots of GA out flying. Clouds from 6-9K.

Brian, Lance F is right on target in his post. I got my instrument in Denver many years ago (before you needed a transponder). No actual during training. I went to Ohio for Thanksgiving that year and the return trip was all actual. That was the trip I needed to learn a little about the...

If your mechanic knows the system well and is happy I would adjust the throttle to set the power. This is the kind of problem you could spend a lot of money on and not get satisfaction. I had a similar problem and decided after a lot of screwing around that those controllers are not that...

Turbo wastegate angle is set by the absolute pressure controller. You might determine how long it has been since it (controller) was overhauled and also check the critical altitude per the maintenance manual. It has been I while since I flew a T-210, but the POH may give more information. Walt

Doc, You didn't mention the time of day this occurred. It might have been nap time.