Things that have spoiled you

hey Ted there is nothing wrong with fiberglass and carbon fiber. they are great materials to build sailplanes from.

now that you mention it i really really hate flying towplanes without my noise cancelling headsets.
 
Of all the expensive goodies in my panel.. I'd miss my inexpensive little 496 with XM WX the most.
 
I miss the fact that I could fly a Cherokee 140 with the fewest operable systems, in relative safety.
 
Definitely AC. I just went on a trip to Big Bend Texas this last weekend, and it was already close to 100 F. Seems awfully hot for so early. Having AC and being able to fly low to enjoy the scenery and still be cool absolutely made this part of the trip (and appreciated by my passengers).
 
G1000 definitely spoils me. GPS with moving maps.... man. that is tough to stay away from.
 
That's easy: lavatories and flight attendants. The FAs are a maybe, but they do bring us food.
 
tonycondon said:
hey Ted there is nothing wrong with fiberglass and carbon fiber. they are great materials to build sailplanes from.
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Agreed. But you also don't try to fly your sailplane around embedded thunderstorms and in icing. :)
 
sure but in that case it really doesn't matter what the aircraft is made of
 
tonycondon said:
sure but in that case it really doesn't matter what the aircraft is made of
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Ok, would you prefer when I impact the terrain? Cirrus planes do especially poorly with that as well.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
Agreed. But you also don't try to fly your sailplane around embedded thunderstorms and in icing. :)
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To be fair to Cirrus, I don't believe they've ever had an in-flight structural failure. I'm still waiting for them to slap a second engine on the SR-20 series, and then see what your reaction is. :D
 
matthammer said:
To be fair to Cirrus, I don't believe they've ever had an in-flight structural failure. I'm still waiting for them to slap a second engine on the SR-20 series, and then see what your reaction is. :D
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Still won't buy it. :)
 
Ted DuPuis said:
Ok, would you prefer when I impact the terrain? Cirrus planes do especially poorly with that as well.
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The fire issue isn't so much a problem of the material as much as the tanks were poorly engineered. Plenty of other composite airplanes aren't exploding every time the wind gusts.
 
Fuel flow, came with my first, put one in each subsequent within days of purchase.
 
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Henning said:
Fuel flow, came with my First, put one in each subsequent within days of purchase.
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My fuel flow is being shipped right now. I'm really excited. I got the JPI 700 w/ FF and oil temp. (and EGTs and CHTs for every cylinder)
 
DavidWhite said:
My fuel flow is being shipped right now. I'm really excited. I got the JPI 700 w/ FF and oil temp. (and EGTs and CHTs for every cylinder)
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You're gonna love having fuel flow, especially if you have gps hooked to it because it keeps a running track of reserves in real time against your current ground speed. If the conditions change you'll see your reserves diminish and when you don't have enough to make it, it tells you and you can adjust your power settings to extend to what you need or decide to land early for fuel. Very slick setup to help you avoid the most common reason for GA accidents.
 
I didnt know you could hook it up to the GPS - I know my 530 has some kind of fuel planning thing but I will see if my mechanic can. That does sounds pretty slick.
 
DavidWhite said:
I didnt know you could hook it up to the GPS - I know my 530 has some kind of fuel planning thing but I will see if my mechanic can. That does sounds pretty slick.
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Yep, the 700 interfaces with 430/530s, I have the 760 hooked to a 430w, sweet setup.
 
I like the price ($80 per hour wet).

I like having two radios (then again, all my planes have this, and I have access to 4 planes I'm checked out in).

I am "new" to GPS but I can't imagine living without it. All the planes at my new school have GPS - either yoke mounted hand held units or built in panel units.

Foreflight, though that is not part of the plane.
 
FWIW I do love my auto pilot with GPSS for XC trips, it goes well with long range tanks.
 
DavidWhite said:
Is it pretty easy to hook up?
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I suspect so, especially if you have an avionics shop involved. The cost adder to wire it up I really cant directly speak to but I wouldnt think the addtional manhours would be much at that point.
 
Internet access to weather. I suppose if Wx Brief was my only source, and it was all I knew, I'd be fine with that. But to be able to have graphical presentations of the weather, and call up any METAR/TAF I want instantly is pretty nice.
 
flygirl34q said:
:rolleyes2: Not necessarily... I think it all depends on how the information available to any pilot gets used. The technologies we have today for our small airplanes are wonderful tools and there is no such thing as too much information in the air. :yes:
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I had the same thought as Ed, if you didn't know how to read clouds with confidence before, all that weather picture can add to the situation is false confidence.
 
Henning said:
I had the same thought as Ed, if you didn't know how to read clouds with confidence before, all that weather picture can add to the situation is false confidence.
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I don't know about you but I can't see a couple hundred miles out. I can with XM and that has made many flights more enjoyable.

I also have a really hard time seeing very far in solid IMC. XM is a hell of a lot better then nothing when you're in solid IMC with potential embedded activity. The key is to understand the weather system and the limitations of XM. I generally provide myself with a 40 mile buffer from anything significant if all I have is XM and I'm in IMC. It's much better then trusting that ATC will be watching out for you, because, often they do a **** job of that.

In most cases the delay of XM isn't a big deal. In the cases where it is you just need to increase the margins. I use XM to stay on the outside of nasty stuff. I don't try and penetrate to zig-zag my way through with it. Even if you do have radar, they can break, and I don't know many people flying with two of them.

That said there really isn't a case where having XM or not having XM will make the difference between a go/no-go decision for me. It just makes things a hell of a lot easier and certainly does provide some safety benefit. I'll take XM over SVT any day of the week.

I've never much cared for trying to listen to FSS or a controller describe the weather to me based on a bunch of fixes I've never heard of.
 
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jesse said:
I don't know about you but I can't see a couple hundred miles out. I can with XM and that has made many flights more enjoyable.

I also have a really hard time seeing very far in solid IMC. XM is a hell of a lot better then nothing when you're in solid IMC with potential embedded activity. The key is to understand the weather system and the limitations of XM. I generally provide myself with a 40 mile buffer from anything significant if all I have is XM and I'm in IMC. It's much better then trusting that ATC will be watching out for you, because, often they do a **** job of that.

In most cases the delay of XM isn't a big deal. In the cases where it is you just need to increase the margins. I use XM to stay on the outside of nasty stuff. I don't try and penetrate to zig-zag my way through with it. Even if you do have radar, they can break, and I don't know many people flying with two of them.

That said there really isn't a case where having XM or not having XM will make the difference between a go/no-go decision for me. It just makes things a hell of a lot easier and certainly does provide some safety benefit. I'll take XM over SVT any day of the week.

I've never much cared for trying to listen to FSS or a controller describe the weather to me based on a bunch of fixes I've never heard of.
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Well put, XM rocks and is a huge help when flying in the clouds.

Much easier to keep your eye on the ball when you aren't fiddling around with AWOS, FSS and such. Especially when hand flying a 152 in IMC.
 
jesse said:
I don't know about you but I can't see a couple hundred miles out. I can with XM and that has made many flights more enjoyable.

I also have a really hard time seeing very far in solid IMC. XM is a hell of a lot better then nothing when you're in solid IMC with potential embedded activity. The key is to understand the weather system and the limitations of XM. I generally provide myself with a 40 mile buffer from anything significant if all I have is XM and I'm in IMC. It's much better then trusting that ATC will be watching out for you, because, often they do a **** job of that.

In most cases the delay of XM isn't a big deal. In the cases where it is you just need to increase the margins. I use XM to stay on the outside of nasty stuff. I don't try and penetrate to zig-zag my way through with it. Even if you do have radar, they can break, and I don't know many people flying with two of them.

That said there really isn't a case where having XM or not having XM will make the difference between a go/no-go decision for me. It just makes things a hell of a lot easier and certainly does provide some safety benefit. I'll take XM over SVT any day of the week.

I've never much cared for trying to listen to FSS or a controller describe the weather to me based on a bunch of fixes I've never heard of.
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My exact issue, this is false. Due to the time delay the is NO assurance what so ever that the green you are pointing at a mile in front of you is not now currently red with grapefruit sized hail. Using a XM picture to make tactical decisions in a rapidly changing convective environment.
 
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It does allow you to avoid areas of convection. Don't forget you can also get sigmets displayed visually.

Also, there is a timer that lets you know how old the weather picture is. Usually is not older than about 5 minutes.

I know this is not always true, but usually a larger area of steady rain with smooth gradients between light rain and heavier rain will not just sprout a supercell in the middle all of a sudden.

If there is not a forecast for embedded CB's or strong CB in general and it looks nice on the radar picture its probably friendly. If there is a forecast for embedded storms or a sigmet pops up, its time to stay visual. The xm can help with that too, giving you an idea of where to go for VFR (it displays metars)
 
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Henning said:
My exact issue, this is false. Due to the time delay the is NO assurance what so ever that the green you are pointing at a mile in front of you is not now currently red with grapefruit sized hail. Using a XM picture to make tactical decisions in a rapidly changing convective environment.
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With some weather knowledge you can know if there is potential for that to occur. Radar is not a guarantee from that either. What was painting nice on your radar can suddenly paint a giant cluster-**** in the last minute with you no longer have a way out.

At the end of the day you can count on the following here:

  • The guys with gliders will tell you how dangerous it is to fly without a silly looking hat
  • The guys with XM will tell you how dangerous it is not to have XM
  • The guys with glass will say glass is safer
  • The guys with SVT will tell you how stupid it is not to have it
  • The guys with radar will tell you how dangerous XM is
  • The guys with twins will tell you how they really need a twin
  • The guys with boots will tell you how you can't get anywhere in the winter without boots
I fly a little bit of everything and because of that I've seen there is a middle ground in all of this. Understand that and you might live long and prosper. Or you might just die in a freak accident. In the end it's just a calculated crap shoot.
 
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Henning said:
My exact issue, this is false. Due to the time delay the is NO assurance what so ever that the green you are pointing at a mile in front of you is not now currently red with grapefruit sized hail. . . .
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And you think you would be better equipped to make that determination without XM weather? My take on it is that the more tools I have at my disposal, the better. I'd rather have my eyeballs and XM weather than only have my eyeballs. Of course, if it came down to only having one or the other, eyeballs or XM weather, I think it's pretty obvious which one I'd keep. :D
 
jesse said:
With some weather knowledge you can know if there is potential for that to occur. In the end it's just a crap shoot.
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That was what I said, if you don't have the knowledge to recognize the danger out the window, the XM will only add false confidence to get there and look at it and potentially fly though it with understanding what you're flying into.
 
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