Thanks Grassfield for the PIREP. I will have to look into that product again at Friedrichshafen. After having flown with MX wx for years coming to Europe
2 yrs ago was like stepping back in time.
@C210 flyer:
I can only completely agree with Justin: The ADL120 is a fantastic product!
Bought one last spring, and when you fly it seems completely surreal to get satellite radar weather (and more) on your iPad in the cockpit at a very small cost. Gives great comfort when you fly longer trips and know that weather may be a challenge (even if IFR). You’ll get the big picture very early on your flight and can easily reroute as necessary way in advance.
If you are on the cautious side when flying, this product will give you a considerably higher dispatch rate. At least when weather is dodgy somewhere along the path on a long trip (e.g. TS areas often bubbling up over the Alpine region from late spring all through summer in 2nd half of day) you’ll have a much more ‘peace of mind’ when starting your journey as you can monitor evolution regularly even hour(s) you get to the area concerned.
Best ‘flight stuff’ investment I’ve made in a long time. Thanks Sebastian!
The engine power available definitly does. I would think also aerodynamically, but for most of our planes engine power available is the key as to if there is enough power to continue climbing or not. Density Altitude is only one way to describe the effects of pressure and temperature, but I fould that it is quite a useful measure when determining performance of an airplane under given conditions.
Most non turbo planes will not reach their service ceilings above MSL at ISA + conditions or struggle much more to reach them than if you have an ISA -20° condition. I have had to abort alpine crossings on PA28’s and the likes, which have 12000 ft service ceilings or so, at ISA + conditions, as the planes would simply not climb anymore at 9000 ft. Then, recalculating the situation later on, it became clear to me that DA that day at 9000 ft QNH was closer to 12’000 ft.
My airplane did actually exceed its service ceiling in terms of Density Altitude that day and it did show, FL170 that day was the absolute ceiling, where it simply would not climb any higher. If I tried that in Winter, I am sure I could get it up to FL200 with some performance to spare, as the true height of FL210 and the density altitude at 21000 ft pressure altitude (which is equal to FL210) will be much lower.
Actually, most performance graphs will do the same thing, correct pressure altitude for pressure and temperature. And that is pretty much what Density Altidtude is.
Does the operating ceiling really scale directly with density altitude?
its a normally aspirated (injected) IO360 in a stock 1967 M20F.
FL210 in Winter, I believe it. I once got my 180 hp C Model up to FL170 at ISA+20… which resulted in a DA of about 22000 ft. 20 hp more should make this easily possible.
Try to fly with a higher EGT. This brings a lot of really hot air into my plane. In a climb a have no chance, but in cruise it helps a lot, even a coulpe F°!
I know your pain! Me too :(
Actually you can choose a monthly setup which allows you to ‘park’ your subscription in quiet months, to re-start it in the springtime, when the flying season gets going again.
This is useful for the sole operator. It’s especially galling to have to pay monthly fees for something when you’re not using it so being able to suspend or park your subscription is handy.
When it’s parked, you’ll then ‘only’ have paid for the device and the annual DWD subscription (they are the weather/radar data providers- and as it’s almost real time data- that’s never available for free). Then when you unpark the subscription, it’ll be the satellite fees and any data costs you use (which for me is about 20-30 euro a month).
I make it sound complicated – but it isn’t really. It’s the cheapest way to get (almost) realtime inflight weather data (and SMS comms)
Justin Thanks for the cost info. Knowing the total cost is important since I am sole wallet for my plane. The fees are a bit confusing so it helps from somebody who has practical experience.
sorry to be a bit vague about the ADL cost – Saturdays flight download cost was 10euro+VAT for 11 (biggish) downloads. Cheap in the scheme of things. Unless there is a lot of weather about, i don’t usually need more than half a dozen downloads in a 3 hour flight.
don’t know why the system put a line thought the text in the last post. [ fixed; you were using a dash ( – ) without a space before+after it, which triggers the strike-through mode in the EuroGA text processor – Peter ]
very nice pics Lenthamen!
Yes, Sebastian got it right -its a normally aspirated (injected) IO360 in a stock 1967 M20F.
The ADL120 – you can have it stream constantly (rarely necessary) so I just take single downloads as and when needed. Best use is when quite a way out from the weather so you can do some long distance strategic heading changes to avoid the weather (15deg right or left to avoid when still 50-100NM away kind of thing) rather than any close in avoidance. Cost per download isn’t much – I can’t remember – it depends on the download size – but is <1euro I think. Monthly fees of approx 30 euro and annual DWD subscription of approx 80E. Unit is approx 2000E. These are a rough estimate – Ask Seb or see the ADL website for more info. As a single owner operator (rather than a group) the costs are ermm, ‘enough’ shall we say (though cheaper than the alternatives!) – but removing some of the uncertainty in flight is very valuable.
I did worry a bit about tiny amounts of residual water freezing in control surface hinges and fuel icing -but no issues encountered.
One mistake was that, though luckily I had a fleece on, while on the ground I casually threw my warm coat into the rear (Baggage bay) as I never lacked heat before – a decision I later regretted!
