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I had my towbar powder coated, it still went into the gear leg easily.

Oh, fun.

I thought he wanted the panel itself, not the instruments to mount in it. The last time I was at the avionics shop, they had a whole pole of used panels that they had replaced. Check around with some, see what they have.

I make lots of local flights with out a tablet. I keep a current EFB database on my iphone to be legal. I flew the Decathlon for an hour on Monday between a few different airports. Was never more than about 1500ft AGL and as low as 500ft AGL over the mountains and rural farm land. I know the area well enough that I don't need to be low enough to read the route numbers on the state roads.

Do you check your currency before every flight? I've actually made a few local flights without the IPad! (How did we ever fly without them?) I'm not saying I'm flippant about currency, I'm not, but things happen.

Would be interesting to know how many of the pilots on this board have had an "oh $h!#" moment discovering an overdue flight review. Harder to do in this day of electronic calendars, but still possible.

Well, I don’t think this is as simple as you might prefer. The evidence here falls way short of establishing the “brazen fraud” you posit. He was certainly licensed (certificated to be pedantic) as I saw nothing to indicate his cert was ever revoked. As far as the medical, I’m allowing for ignorance of what conditions require a new 3rd class medical when already under Basic Med rather than conclude deliberate malice. This guy paid for his mistake with his life, and fortunately didn’t hurt anyone else. And now you want to punish his grieving wife by denying the claim for the plane and having her pay for damage to the farmer’s field out of her pocket? You certainly aren’t punishing him!

I have a J model and it's definitely 1" ID on that tube. The difference between 1" and 3/4" is significant, so just putting a tape measure on it should tell you what you have between those two. If they gave you a towbar with a 1" tube and it doesn't fit, but it's close, you can try removing any paint that may have gotten applied too thick on the gear tube, or take some emery cloth (or something) and file down the tube on the towbar.

I have the DG out of my J if you are needing one. Plus a BK CDI.

As a reference point... I have 325 hrs in a Mooney, and I'm not IFR rated... so low hours, and lower grade of permit. and my insurance is $2600 per year.

Do you have the motor

We all have our preferred set of actions and situations we want covered and those that we don't want covered. Why don't we exclude from health insurance coverage anybody who doesn't actually follow the doctor's advice on dieting, exercise, and smoking? I remember someone on mooneyspace wanted to reject coverage for any flight with a special flight permit. And I think someone else or maybe the same person wanted to reject fuel exhaustion claims. There isn't a large enough pool of people to offer specific policies for each set of things people want covered or not. If you have not heard this line that I think started with George Carlin: Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?

thank you. It’s honestly more than i wanted to do but it ends up being like a kitchen project at home. Once you do that, the rest of the house needs done too.

Thank you. The basic foundational things and panel were good. We looked hard at everything else. It’s going to Weep-no-more in December.

So the pilot of the Cirrus that spun in at Love Field in 2016 was at 25 months since her last flight review so just one month out of currency. One could make the argument that her unfortunate lack of airmanship might have been corrected prior to the accident had she received a proper FR in the weeks leading up to the accident flight. It's no stretch to attribute that accident to task saturation and poor airmanship, the very reason we get a flight review is to identify and rectify deficiencies in our performance. Legally out of currency and a fatal accident attributed to poor airmanship. Should her insurance have denied to cover that loss? The same case could be made for the Mooney accident. Much easier to make the case that his lack of instrument currency was causal when compared to the medical issues. I'm sympathetic to your view point, but I think that the professionals in the industry have repeatedly encountered this situation and found it preferable to err on the side of paying claims in spite of bad boy/bad girl acts. In the case of this Mooney accident, you appear to be implying that there was intentional and deliberate fraud with regard to this pilot's policy renewal. I don't think we have enough information to be sure of that but it's certainly a strong possibility. In such a case, I think it's prudent to pay the liability claims but the pilot and their heirs do not collect.

Check Indy air website I believe they just listed one .. also have you checked insurance ? Guessing your looking north of $6,000

If you decide to go that route, a buddy of mine is selling his 2000 Turbo Bravo: https://www.trade-a-plane.com/search?category_level1=Single+Engine+Piston&make=MOONEY&model=M20M+BRAVO&listing_id=2429288&s-type=aircraft . It's also got built-in O2 and is the only Bravo with a factory A/C system, which we exercised last week. LED lights, pulse lights, speed brakes, and they recently overhauled a few things in the panel, the 430W and the HSI IIRC. It's regularly flying. I've flown it a handful of times and it flies really nicely, plus gets into the flight levels with ease. Up in the flight levels is where that plane shines on longer trips, we've gotten 200+ KTAS multiple times. I think he already has a few interested buyers so reach out quick if you're interested.

Just when I was thinkin' that our petroleum powered flying machines are the pinnacle of aviation, this article gave me a reason to reconsider. It describes a satellite-logged flight of a 5-month old Bar-Tailed Godwit in Oct. 2022. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-feathers-are-one-of-evolutions-cleverest-inventions The bird was tagged as a juvenile in Alaska. Flight path shown here: https://www.usgs.gov/centers/alaska-science-center/news/juvenile-bar-tailed-godwit-b6-sets-world-record Wow!

Hi Dan, I have not decided yet, but I'm leaning heavily toward a Turbo Mooney.

So you spaced out your medical and it expired last week and you had a gear up. So sad to bad......

I’m not looking for any reason for a company to deny a claim. Just two. I just think to pay the claim the insured should actually be a (1) licensed pilot with a (2) valid medical. In fact every policy I’ve ever read reads as such. Very simple. Forget the fact that he violated many FARs that day - we all make mistakes. If that’s too restrictive then we can agree to disagree. Someone without a license or a medical knows it when they apply for coverage and if they brazenly falsify that I can only imagine what other risks they’ll take. Do your think his insurance company would have issued the policy if he told the truth about his medical? Contracts for coverage are bi-lateral - both parties have to act in good faith. A bad decision is a momentary lapse in judgment - we all have them. Lying intentionally to get coverage is a character flaw. I have no problem whatsoever with a company paying for stupid mistakes - that’s why we insure. Taking off with a 300 foot ceiling when you aren’t instrument current was a stupid mistake, in addition to violating the FARs. But he never would have been insured if he had not lied when he applied for the policy.

Wow, thanks guys!

Update: snugging the set screw up by around a quarter turn…and just baicially finger tight again fixed it for now. I don’t know if the screw came loose or the shaft deformed. Will monitor for now.

We all break rules, have you never broken the speed limit?

BT, DT Also