Lee Loader

larryw wrote:Wow Michael, do you have to eyeball each one of those red dots?

Yeah, every one of them. Here is the iPad view at a scale typical of that while on patrol.



The white lines are the patrol track as is the two tan lines in the lower right hand of the screen. This is a busy area on the patrol, so I would zoom in the define the colocated wells better and I count each one to make sure I look at them.

I will capture a "live" view of the pad tomorrow as it is a little different. We are using ForeFlight and I add in the patrol specifics. ForeFlight constantly displaces an oddly shaped circle around the aircraft symbol, which shows ground contact in case of a catastrophic engine failure. ForeFlight gives me all kinds of information from 30-second track vectors (important for staying on track) to thunderstorms overlayed on my leases, to antenna and other obstacle clearance protection.

Good googly moogly Michael, fly the aircraft, look for traffic & obstacles, read the I-pad,
inspect the stuff, note & report problems????
That would not only give me a headache, but I'm pretty sure it would make
my hair hurt also, what's left of it???
Thanks Michael, keep 'em coming & be safe.

Saw this old thread and admired your "former" PA 20/22's instrument panel. What do you own and fly now?

Kaiser wrote:Saw this old thread and admired your "former" PA 20/22's instrument panel. What do you own and fly now?

Thank you. Just flying the patrol plane for now. I've been looking for a PA-30B Turbo Twin Comanche. My kids and grandkids are all a thousand miles away and I need the ability to fly that distance non-stop with a healthy fuel reserve at the end. This is one of the few airplanes that can do it. I thought I was going to own one by the end of the week, but there were some unresolvable issues with the logbooks. Here is what that model of the airplane looks like.

Ya know Mike I do know a fairly competent A&P that would swap pork for reconciliation of books and airframe .

I always liked the lines of the twin Comanche better than the Barron's . I did spend a lot of time with a TC56 with the TIO541 engines and I can confidently say that you'd break even on a swap for a PT boat .
An N or P model 35 Bonanza with tip tanks has a very long range with a 160 mph 75% cruise at 12-14 gph that's over 10 hr if I'm remembering correctly . The S I'm sure had the 40 gal mains , 20 gal aux and add 20 gal tips gives you and even the TIO 520 had a 175 mph cruise and 9 hr of fuel . Thats only 1 fuel stop from you to Havana , Vancouver WA , or Augusta Me . It's not even a fuel stop to San Diego .

Dad had a 59' 250 Comanche with droop tips and we built all the 260 cowl seals etc on it . We had a Dr friend with a 7?' 260 . Cross country the 2 were just about dead even . Dad's 250 made up for the difference in cruise on the long let downs he could start 20-25 miles sooner . I know those tips are to make up the low speed landing performance but on that one they did a lot more .

The twin Comanche's are beautiful aircraft, but fairly rare and only designed for 4 people. I almost pulled the "trigger" on a 310 Cessna, which is another good looking aircraft that looks like it is super fast just sitting on the ground; however, after doing the "number crunching" on what it would take to get it working from a long term standpoint, I backed out.
That extra engine comes out to 3 times the cost for keeping all the system related to it working, while only gaining 200 to 300 pounds of useful load after you put all that fuel in to feed their thirty engines (twin Comanche excepted).
I loved the "twins" when Uncle Sam was paying the bills, but not so much now. I'll just have to settle with my old 55 yr old M20C until I can no longer manually raise the gear. All the best on your pursuit - chasing the perfect plane is almost as much fun as chasing the perfect rifle and load. (BTW, I once owned a Maule for a few year; one of the early M4's with the smaller engine.)

Question Michael, on your ipad view above, dated Feb 24, are the red icons with
triangle in them wells you have tagged with an issue?

larryw wrote:Question Michael, on your ipad view above, dated Feb 24, are the red icons with
triangle in them wells you have tagged with an issue?

Good catch! They are leaks, a well or on the flow lines. The label has is the date.

I moved the iPad to a panel mount.