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Yes, we are privileged to witness the fall of a great society.

Things seem much worse at the former Belvoir Media (now Flying) than I realized. I’ve always liked the Belvoir publications, and I was an Aviation Consumer and IFR subscriber for many years. I dropped those subscriptions only after the Flying acquisition, when I thought the “Ultimate Edition” was a bad sign of commercial consolidation for the publications. Anyway - I’ve always liked Paul B, and this article was eye-opening. https://avbrief.com/paul-bertorelli-on-the-future-of-aviation-journalism-its-challenging/

The T37 goes three times faster than a PA28. The force is square law increase.

When I bought our M20C, I was a 400 hour private pilot coming of a 15-year non-flying sentence (life got in the way). Most of my time was in non-complex airplanes. Flying a Mooney was a handful for me because there is just so much more to pay attention to- especially speed control in the pattern. I flew VFR for a couple of years before starting my work on instrument rating and it was definitely a good way to go. I got used to the flight complexity before adding a whole bunch more IFR complexity to the mix. Something to consider. When shooting an approach in turbulence under the foggles you want flap settings, boost pump, landing gear, speed control, to be automatic. If they aren't you will struggle mightily.

I have a generator regulator if you're still looking.

@Jer I think your plan is solid. You may have had the ohmmeter set to a too-high resistance scale; it would read zero when, if fact, resistance could be excessive. Successful operation when you grounded locally, plus your previous voltage measurements, strongly suggests high resistance in the switch circuit, as you suspect. I'd check for a good ground from the switch to the airframe. Worst case will be a high on-resistance switch

Somewhere I have a video tape of a large buzzard like bird hitting the windshield of a T-34. Glanced off the front seaters helmet and whacked the back seater in the chest.

I don't think it would matter. They had to go to 1/2" polycarbonate (aka Lexan, aka bullet proof glass) on the T-37 to reduce the problem

Today's investigation led to some perplexing results. Removed the Sonalert, and put it across a 28v APU. Sounded fine. I removed the negative lead (which connects to the stall vane switch and then to ground), and checked that lead for continuity with the airframe ground while the vane was triggered. Checked zero OHMs, as one would expect. However, connecting this back to the sonalert negative, did not sound the alarm. However, just connecting a wire shunt between the negative terminal on the sonalert and the airframe, and the thing does sound. The conclusion of my electrical engineer tie-down neighbor was that while the negative side of the circuit, did show continuity to ground, there must be excessive resistance in that portion of the circuit. Tomorrow I intend to wire it up correctly, turn on the master, trigger the vane, and check the voltage drop across the sonalert. I believe I did this earlier but did not recognize the importance of this test. I believe the plus side checked 24 v to ground and the negative side checked 16v to ground. I did not directly check voltage across the unit, but if what I think I recall is true, there would be 8 volt drop across the device, with the other 16 volt drop eaten up by excessive resistance in the negative side of the circuit. If this is so, I will check quite locally for a voltage drop across the stall vane switch. It may have continuity, but also excessive resistance, in which case I will have the opportunity to try laparascopic removal of the switch from that access panel. Thanks for all your help. Jer

I use a suction cup mount and mount it in the copilot windscreen because I don't have a deep enough glare shield. I don't notice it while talking off or landing despite it's obvious obstruction. I do notice it when I'm looking for traffic that I see on my ads-b display. But my success rate of spotting migs is so bad either way. I frequently take weekend trips from South Louisiana to North Arkansas. Traveling north of course it's flawless. Traveling South at heading 190 I will still get around 20-30mb/s with occasional drops. Plenty good enough to use the Windy weather app which is my go-to. I think Starlink just provided an update that allows for better signal quality by having the signal bounce from satellite to satellite. I signed up for the plan outlined in Socal flying monkey's YouTube video. -David

is your engine timing at 25 degrees or has it been set to 20 degrees, there is a SB out on it that is suppose to help with difficult starts....experiencing a similar issue with mine, seems the only way I can get it started is to intentionally flood it, wait 10 minutes and then it will fire right up, hot starts aren't an issue...only cold starts...never had issues until we went from 25 degrees to 20 degrees but that doesn't make sense.

It’s still going to happen! I’ve just been extremely busy with the full time job which I’ll be retiring from in January. After 40 years, I’m going to be done with being on call 24/7 /365 and worrying when I’ll get the call that one of my airplanes is broken somewhere. I’ve moved to the UP, Michigan, last April and have been commuting for work to Waukegan IL Fridays and Mondays. Lots of driving. I did have a conversation with the composite shop and we’re still good there as they have people who can make molds! I’m to far into it with the research and money spent to walk away. What I need is time which will be happening soon. Thanks, David

And funny cat videos

I am looking at radar.weather.gov and it still has about 7 minutes latency. According to Google RadarScope or RadarOmega is near real time and what the storm chasers are using. Anyone have any opinions?

I think the great thing would be communications and the ability to easily file a flight plan in flight.

Exactly @PBones just move from your PPL training to your IFR training in the Mooney.

Do you have pictures of your plane that you can share?

I'll hand deliver unmarked, untraceable US dollars. -David

One of those killed a friend of mines dad a few years ago in his twin Comanche. Always go up!

I’d be inline too.

Additional: I painted her this spring. When my panel upgrade (GFC 500, second GTN650xi etc.) will be finished, I will be close to or maybe even north of $ 170.000,--. But then it will be a bird you won´t be able to buy easily - either here or in the U.S. ...

Yep, waiting with my checkbook!

Saw a duck hit the windshield on a Lockheed 1011 on downwind (10K) at KATL one night at around 9PM. I killed 20+ seagulls landing at night at Torrance CA Didn't hurt the airplane-just the birds Also killed a bunch of small birds just prior to touch down at SFO one afternoon Smelled yummy in the 737 air conditioning.

I´m wondering that you all are only talking about money. My ´64 M20E with a lot of mod´s is a speedy bird. I see 150 KTAS in any circumstance in FL120. Cruising WOT in the 8.000 to 10.000 ft range, I am somewhere between 157 and 160 KTAS. I am quite sure, that in daily flying there´s no difference that you can feel, compared to a J´s performance. But now to where a M20E shines: I really like the J-bar gear, as it is very simple (and cheap!) to maintain, and operating it is a piece of cake. But what I consider as best improvement compared to a J: a M20E is way less heavy: I have much shorter T/O distances than a J, and also an improved climb performance. You in the U.S. seldom have runways below 3.000 ft. But, for exampe, I frequently fly into Zell am See (LOWZ) with my M20E - elevation is 2.470 ft., LDA 660 m, TODA is about 100 m longer. I see it as an absolute safety advantage, that a M20E climbs at 1.000 ft./min. at gross weight on a standard day. Here in the mountains things can go different on a hot and humid day... Even a M20K only does about 850 ft./min. real world climb performance due to it´s higher weight... The only reason/advantage for a J would be, if I frequently would need more leg room for my rear passengers. But as Mooneys are fast, the passengers don´t stay there a long time anyway ;-))) ! The bigger thing is, that here in Europe there are not a lot of well equipped M20E´s around. I bought mine 2 years ago well IFR equipped (GTN650, ASPEN, etc.) at about $ 95.000,--. Disadvantage: I have an antique Century II, 1-axis autopilot only. But it flies GPSS-tracks and LOC-approaches perfectly, and trimming my bird for a steady attitude is easy. Now I´m grading her up to my personal plane. At the end, it does not matter if you spent 10.000,-- more or less - the plane has to match your requirements - and this also includes yearly maintenance costs etc. ... Just my 2c ...

Hi @Sabremech - I just wanted to let you know that folks cravng your cowling mod skills for the C are still around!