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Along with an extensive (loooooong) annual - I broke down permanently fixed the dreaded fuel smell in the cabin and blue stains under the wings. Huge shout out to Charlie (the Mad Scientist), Griggs Refinishing and LASAR! They were amazing support partners and vendors for my mechanic and I through the entire process. They nailed turn around for part orders and overhauls. They gave the best phone and email support you could imagine and always served with a smile. Their expertise is second to none, they even helped identify a prior incorrect W&B assessment that gained 18lbs of useful load back. My crew is loving the new odorless cabin, and I’m loving the peace of mind. This annual also left me with a power flow exhaust, so I’m getting used to the new sound and different performance/fuel burn rate... And if that wasn’t enough, we also picked up a new family member for 63V - welcome 1218X to the hangar. She’ll have a little mending to get before flying, but it looks like we may have saved her from a death by stagnation. She’s only got 1700 total hours on the airframe and engine. She should be a great fall/winter restoration. Fun times, more excitement, parts orders, and more updates ahead! Pics included for visual enjoyment. ~Abe

I can’t really think of the down side to declaring an emergency. I had the engine run rough once just as I was about to cross over the mountains. I was IFR in VMC. Immediately started a climb to best glide and turned toward the general direction of the nearest airport. I declared an emergency, told them I was climbing, one person, 4 hours fuel and the airport I was headed to, then ignored ATC for a while to fly the airplane. It ended up being a clogged injector and everything worked out fine, but the moment I declared an emergency (within seconds of the engine running rough and the egt dropping) I was headed toward the airport at best glide and was comforted by the fact that I could now deviate from any rule in part 91 to the extent required during my emergency. It immediately took the decision away about what I was going to do and gave me permission to do what I needed without worrying about anyone else. I work in emergency medicine so I often have to make rapid decision with limited information that can have catastrophic consequences if I’m wrong. One of the problems I often see is that people are very poor at picking between two undesirable outcomes. They cling to the desired outcome that too often isn’t possible at that time. My desired outcome for the day was to fly up to the Bay Area and visit my brother. As soon as the engine ran rough I had to throw that out the window and make the decision that was most likely to keep me alive. I think this is where we screw up and decide that it sure would be nice if the roughness went away, or we could find some nice long paved runway within gliding distance, etc.. What we really should be thinking is “what choice right now will give me the highest probability of walking away from this?” This brings up another issue I see people struggle with which is how we make choices with asymmetric consequences. Often, in critical situations you can choose between several options, but the outcome if you’re wrong can be very different. If the engine is rough, you make a precautionary landing and it turns out your engine is fine the consequence of being wrong is that your trip is delayed. If the engine is rough, you decide to mess around with it for a while and it turns out you have a catastrophic engine failure, the consequence of being wrong is you might die. I’m not lucky enough to be right all the time, so I think about what might happen if I’m wrong and try to minimize the harm if that’s the case. In my particular situation, I made a precautionary landing and everything worked fine and in retrospect I probably would have survived that experience no matter what I did. Lessons learned: 1. On the GTN 750, at first sign of trouble, press direct, nearest airport, direct to. I knew the general direction but it took some fumbling to get this dialed in. Sometimes during cruise I’ll even practice doing it so it becomes muscle memory. 2 Use ATC, but don’t let them make the choices for you. The very first thing ATC told me after I declared the emergency was that I was cleared to descend. I started a climb and told them I would do the opposite and would climb as high as I could while the engine was still running. A descent to the altitude they suggested would have taken me out of glide range to the closest airport. My hope is that if this ever happens again, I’ll be conditioned to respond appropriately and make the right choice. The only consequence to declaring an emergency was that I had to talk to the fire Captain at the airport who was extremely friendly and offered to give me a ride home. Sorry if this has all been said before. Hopefully at least something I wrote can add to the discussion.

Which I still maintain is a good thing and in no way disparaging of the pilot. We all benefit from a discussion that reveals ALL the possible scenarios and helps us think through them now on the ground so we can make better decisions in the air. I have learned from this discussion already, about the concept of having the NRST page already loaded on my Navigator prior to takeoff. This is new information to me and something I hadn't thought about. I'll certainly see how this works on my very next flight. Again, no disrespect at all to the pilot here, I will assume that he did everything he could under the conditions, and likely better than I would have done under the same conditions. But I want to learn and this is a learning opportunity for all of us

Flush $10k down the toilet. If you're willing to open up your septic tank and fish around for it, you're a CB Mooney owner.

Dropped my gear in down wind. Base. Final. Do a short final landing check and tug on the J bar. It wasn't locked in! Looked at the dash and my green light wasnt on either. Don't get complacent thinking you went thru the motions. Give it a tug every time. Glad I double checked it! Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

I have a story to convey that is very alarming for me and I'm still being haunted by what could have happened. I've been told by many aviation experts that "I can count my blessings" I didn't have an engine fire or engine shutdown while cruising at 15,000 feet last year over rugged terrain and low IFR enroute conditions over New Mexico. On 17 October, 2018, I was repositioning my aircraft (2015 M20TN) from Atlanta (KPDK) to Las Vegas Henderson Executive Airport (KHND) with one fuel stop in Clinton, Oklahoma. The first leg went just fine. My fuel stop in Clinton consisted of grabbing a bite to eat at McDonalds (not many food choices in Clinton), then returning for the final leg home. I arrived back at the airport an hour later, sumped the tanks with the 75 gallons of fuel I had pumped earlier, and I was ready to file my new IFR flight plan via ForeFlight. I fueled my tanks especially full on this leg because of enroute low IFR weather 1/2 way to my destination, high terrain and lack of close alternate airports along the way. After takeoff in good DAY VFR conditions, I smelled 100LL fuel, which was a bit surprising, but I discounted it, since I assumed it was caused by filling the tanks as high as I could (100 gallons). In the 2015 Mooney Acclaim Type S, normally I don't top the tanks due to the added weight for shorter flights. In my previous 1998 Mooney, I once smelled fuel in the cabin after takeoff six months after my tanks were resealed. The culprit was a few loose screws behind the pilot's sidewall that links to the fuel senders in the wing. In that instance, fuel was leaking from those screws very slowly and making a blue mess behind the interior sidewall. I ended up fixing the leak myself under direction of the "Weep No More" repair center. That fix entailed removing the pilot's seat, removing the left sidewall, and tightening the screws carefully and cleaning the blue stains, all which I could do as a pilot/owner legally. During cruise, I made a note to contact my Mooney Service Center in North Las Vegas the following day to have the fuel smell addressed. Again, I assumed the fuel vapor was primarily caused by a small fuel seepage from a cabin screw behind the sidewall. The fuel smell continued after two hours, so I knew it wasn't due to overfueling. It must have been the fuel seepage into the cabin.....so I thought. About an hour outside of Henderson Executive, while talking to Los Angeles Center, my G1000 fuel range ring all of a sudden showed I had five minutes of fuel remaining from 60 minutes I was suppose to land with. My fuel gages still showed I would have 20 gallons remaining on landing, which is my normal reserve on such a long cross-country flight. I discounted the G1000 fuel range ring as a malfunction, but a later review of my G1000 engine parameters database showed my fuel flow spiked from under 18 gph to 35 gph over a five minute period. I relied on my fuel gages, burn rate, and time. The G1000 fuel ring is not something I rely on, but is an advisory "nice to have visual display" only. I was cleared for the visual approach into Henderson Executive, made a smooth landing and taxiied to my hangar with the fuel gages showing I had 20 gallons remaining. Since I had 32 hours on the oil and since the engine oil was still hot, I decided to do an oil change right then and there. After uncowling the engine and draining the hot oil, I noticed the firewall, nose gear doors (inside and outside), underbelly, and parts of the engine right next to the 1600'F+ dual turbo-chargers were coated with 100LL thick blue stains. I was in shock, because I'm super meticulous with my plane's maintenance, aircraft cleanliness, and I've never seen any leakage before like this with any aircraft I've owned in the past. This was a very SERIOUS leak. The only maintenance I've had done in the area was to "replace the main fuel pump" and to "reposition fuel line to prevent chafing". This was done two years ago. The MSC that accomplished this advised me they did not touch the fuel line in question. The next morning, I came back out to the airport to finish the oil change and to start the engine to find out where the fuel leak was located. Under the direction of my Mooney Service Center both in Atlanta and North Las Vegas, I started the engine, let it run at 1000 RPM's and had another pilot take video of the engine during the ground run at 1000 RPM's. We had an extensive safety briefing before the runup due to the spinning propeller. We have video of the leak, and it was a massive leak near the top of the firewall, where the fuel transducer and main fuel line are located. The fuel was literally gushing out extensively and spraying all over the firewall. It was not a pretty site to see and as I said before, I'm told that it was a miracle there was no fire or engine failure while in cruise flight. The area where the leak is located is wrapped up in orange fire-sleeve materials. About a week later, I had my MSC director of maintenance drive an hour to my hangar to diagnose the issue. His corrective action was, "TIGHTENED FUEL LINE ON FUEL TRANSDUCER". He found that this connection was not even finger tight. This area is on the upper rear firewall above the turbo chargers on the TSIO-550G engine. The fuel connection was about to let loose completely. I was flying 4 hours in that condition with considerable fuel spraying out. He said that this fitting is tightened from the factory and should never come loose on its own. He also said that it's something NEVER checked on annual or 100-hour inspections, because it's not suppose to come loose. I verified this with other leading Mooney Service Centers across the country and they advised me the same thing.....this main fuel fitting is NEVER checked on annuals. It's wrapped up in thick fire sleeving and there's never a need to check it. My MSC mechanic was super surprised that the plane didn't have a complete engine failure or especially a fire with the glowing red hot turbo chargers just below. Note: This main fuel line fitting cannot be safety wired, so it relies on proper tightness. That following week, I drove to the Las Vegas FSDO office in Las Vegas and provided all of my photos to document the issue. They were VERY interested and directed me to submit all of my documentation online, which I did. Their conclusion was that this seemed like an isolated case and it hasn't been reported in the past. The purpose of visiting the FAA was not to point any fingers, but to document the issue and perhaps prevent this from occurring to someone else. If it happenend to me, there's a good chance it will happen to someone else. So the moral of the story is: IF YOU SMELL FUEL IN THE CABIN, LAND AND HAVE IT CHECKED OUT BY A MECHANIC. PLEASE DON'T DELAY! I could have easily ended up a statistic in this case and possibly the NTSB would have never known what happened after their investigation since the plane would have most likely burned up after a forced landing in the rugged mountains or rough desert floor. At every annual, I will direct my mechanic to remove the fire sleeving from this area and check the security of the fuel line on the fuel transducer. After my incident, the MSC advised me they will start checking this on all TSIO-550G engines from now on. Another tip is to always keep the engine bay and wheel wells super clean, so that in the event there's a new leak of some sort, you'll spot it immediately. I learned this years ago while flying corporate aircraft.

Well I'm gonna jump in a disagree with every one else. First of all I don't believe in the myth of shock cooling. It's been thoroughly debunked and a needless concern. I'm sure some other very experience Mooney drivers will weigh in shortly in agreement. Once having dispensed with the shock cooling garbage, you can just trim the nose down and recover all the time you spent climbing. I just monitor the VSI to ensure I stay below VNE if in smooth air, or out of the yellow arc if in bumpy air. Leave the throttle and mixture right where it is and trim for 500 ft/min down, sit back and enjoy the speed. This means you do need to start your descent a bit earlier than you might think. It's not difficult to go from 160 TAS to 190 TAS in the descent. So start down a bit sooner. Upon arriving at pattern altitude, pull the throttle back to 15" and level off. It will slow right down.

We at Mooney space should make this guy who pulled the pilot out of the plane a nice trophy and crown him the first Mooneyspace hero of the year!

Many, many people get this wrong, its something that has to be emphasized with instrument students repeatedly along with the definition of "established" (try looking that one up!). we also see the very similar mistake made by pilots, that after being cleared for the approach and intercepting final don't start down because the controller told them to "maintain xxx feet" along with the their approach clearance - again failure to understand "established". But absolutely, you were not cleared to descend below 3K' when you got your initial approach clearance. Nor would I consider that a mistake by his part because you were likely still too far out for him to clear you below 3K. he could have added expect lower in x miles but its kinda a waste of time. But I am very confident, he saw your altitude, dip below 3K, at 2700, sees your target showing still assigned to 3000, but by now you are close enough that his MVA allows him to clear you down to 2000', so he does to avoid doing an deviation paperwork. I am very confident that if you had descend below 3K before his MVA had dropped below that he would have been saying check altitude. Even in very busy TRACON's its not unusual to get cleared for an approach many miles out if the approach doesn't have any traffic. But that far out he's not necessarily going to clear you lower given he had you coming down to 3000' as it was. He had plenty of time. BTW, charted MSA has nothing to do with this as you said above.

From Jenny today 7/15 Update - Mark still stable mike elliott, Jenny Brandemuehl has posted a new announcement for Family & Friends of Mark Brandemuehl. Hi All, Mark had a good night. His heart rate remains stable, his blood pressure still good and being supported by medication but at a reduced level compared to when he came out of his first surgery to remove fungal tissue. (He was in bad shape - lost of a lot of blood then). The good news is that his white blood cell count is in the normal range. His kidneys are still in need of a lot of support from the dialysis machine. The doctors are doing their morning rounds today. I plan to talk with his doctor about Mark's current prognosis now that we've gotten through the weekend. The nurses can't assess the state of the fungal infection on his exterior body nor the skin grafts on his front torso. I am a little anxious about what we'll hear from Dr. Peck today. We weren't able to see Mark yesterday until 4 pm. Steve, his brother played a guitar he borrowed from Jeff Dempsey and we sang a few rock songs in Mark's room - Steve, Rene, Michelle, Susan, Adrian and I. It didn't matter that Steven hadn't played in a while, I know Mark felt the energy and heard the music. Because they had to heat Mark up with heat lamps (he gets cold with dressing changes), what felt like a sauna became a sweat lodge! We also played the music from a concert Mark sang in years ago when he was a member of the California Bach Society. Really beautiful music. I hadn't attended church in a few years and yesterday, I made it to All Saints Episcopal (thank you Gwin for referring Rev. Reed there). Amazingly, the sermon was about the good Samaritan. It was a reminder to me of everyone who helped Mark live when he could've so easily died in his plane crash, in particular Thomas who got Mark out of his burning plane. So many miracles that day. You are receiving this message because you are a member of this community. You may unsubscribefrom receiving announcements at any time. Thanks for all you do to help others, Your friends at Lotsa Helping Hands © 2019 Lotsa Helping Hands | 118 N Peoria 2N Chicago, IL 60607 Hide quoted text ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Jenny Brandemuehl <jenny.brandemuehl@members.lotsahelpinghands.com> Date: Jul 15, 2019 10:32 AM Subject: 7/15 Update - Mark still stable To: mike_elliott@HOTMAIL.COM Cc:

I've known Larry Brown, who also monitors this list, since we did his instrument rating many years ago. Today the seemingly impossible happened. I was headed to Pueblo on the way to Garmin and Oshkosh. I later found out he was headed to Flagstaff. At any rate somewhere over Nevada, I got a traffic alert regarding traffic 500 feet above me who was about to cross over me. I looked up and saw a Mooney fly right over me. I was at 15,000 IFR and Larry was at 15,500. Since Larry had changed planes since the instrument rating, I didn't immediately recognized his number on the GTN 750 traffic page, but Larry recognized mine. His plane certainly looked good. Amazing!

Fellow aviators, Welcome to the Safety page dedicated to focusing on safety-related topics that will make us safer aviators. In order to do this, we'll need some ROEs, to follow shortly. I am the safety moderator and as such, I'll need your help keeping the threads in this section on point. Threads that drift from productive safety analysis to non-helpful conjecture, name-calling, etc. will be deleted or closed. The purpose of this section is to use facts, NTSB data, and eye-witness accounts to analyze Mooney accidents so that we can collectively learn and apply to all of us Mooney flyers. General safety article links, safety best practices, safety topics to discuss, are all highly encouraged. I will try to post a safety topics of the month for general discussion and Q&A. Thank you for being a part of this and please PM me suggestions or issues you see. We are better and safer as a collective group than as individuals. I look forward to our discourse! Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

The Bravo is definitely under appreciated and, therefore, the bargain out in the marketplace. Most buyers just don't get it--or care more about a couple gallons an hour than the benefits of the longer body and higher gross weight. I recently flew with a student who had upgraded his Encore to almost the same avionics as I have. After flying with me he commented that the Bravo had a much more "big airplane" feel. It does, and it should. After all, it has 50 more horsepower and a higher gross weight. It rides turbulence better and goes faster. After 26 years of ownership, I wouldn't trade mine for anything--just keep upgrading it with everything new that comes along. In the final analysis, though, there is a Mooney for everybody.

Formation practice in Seattle area. Madison can’t get here soon enough. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Hi MooneySpace gang. I haven't been around as much as I've wanted over the past year and a half and want to give an update, both as to why, and what I'm looking to do moving forward. First - yes I'll be at Oshkosh and look forward to catching up with many of you. I'll be camping in the North 40. I'll be by the Caravan tent for the BBQ and the Social. Also, the Mooney forum on Tuesday at stage 8. Second - yes - still working with Mooney Summit and we have a great event planned for September in Florida. The wait list is huge - we were not able to get a larger facility this year due to numerous reasons including the hotel we wanted to hold it in is still closed from the Hurricane damage. It should be open in September, but we can't take that risk. Funding is the other part. Airport day is the last Friday of September at ECP. That's unlimited in capacity. Come on down for that regardless of the rest of the weekend even if you haven't registered. We'll have the PROTE unit from the FAA - test out your hypoxia recognition skills. Third - Now that I have a 2 and 4 year old life is just BUSY - I've been part of MooneySpace since 2009 (bought my first Mooney in July 2008), got married in 2014, had kids in 2015, and 2017. My son (2 year old) had a rough first 18 months but seems to have turned the corner. We have a lot of work ahead of us and a great therapy treatment plan (we don't feel it's time consuming, but when we chart it out - it is intensive!). He's a happy kid and we'll catch him up. Lots of low muscle tone issues and thus non-liner and non-synchronized delayed development. Again, he's a very happy camper and my daughter and he both really enjoy airplanes. Family time and along with growing my business, has just taken a ton of my available resources, and I can't jump on MooneySpace as much as I used to. It's amazing how you are dead tired after putting the kids to bed vs then working into the wee hours of the morning. Aviation wise, as many of you know I earned my commercial rating last summer and was soon hired by a part 135 operator, Open Air, out of KGAI, and fly as a part time charter captain in Cirrus SR-22's. We may be getting some other aircraft in the near future. I'm planning to earn my multi rating in August. That said, I miss posting and reading on Mooney Space. It's fun for me, therapeutic, I love airplanes, and I love the community. So to sum it up, I'm just reaching back out, saying hello, and looking forward to seeing many of you at Oshkosh and Mooney Summit. To those I missed introductions for or have joined while I've been kind of inactive - hello and welcome! I hope to be back posting again a little more often. I hope to make it some of the NJ lunches and mid-Atlantic breakfasts again. Still LOVE my Mooney Missile and should we have a third kid I may need to seriously consider a larger airplane. For now it fits the family perfectly, and should for a while. Happy Flying!! -Seth

I would like to say thank you very very much to AlexLev located in Niagara International KIAG, he was so nice to me and my family.We had a great view over the Waterfalls and wonderful food at River Works (nice place). Well, when we were start to packing bags to go back to Orlando, my daughter asked me to visit her friend in Greensville NC, so I Have to make a new flight plan, and we decided to land in JFK for fuel and spend a night, I called them and they said ok. So, we had a great experience. The costs (fee) to land was 160 bucks for 24 hs plus fuel 6.65, not bad for the great adventure, cheaper than Universal Studios in Orlando lol thank you to AlexLev and the Mooney 921W!!

Here’s a few pics from flights over the past several days- Telluride, Rockies, Moab, Sierras, Yosemite, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon, & Lake Powell.

With all due respect Jim, I’m not anti American, I may not agree with policies of your government, just as I don’t agree with policies of my government, that doesn’t make me dislike the American or Canadian people. I did once say in a post that “We get the governments we deserve” I didn’t think that was a controversial statement. As the owner of one of only 2 MSC’s in Canada it would be hard for me to be anti Mooney. If I were anti Mooney as you suggest, do you really think I’d spend as much time as I do here digging out manual pages, finding documents etc. and posting them here, or spend time looking at posted pictures, pointing out errors and suggesting solutions to their troubles. I learn as much reading posts and hopefully share things I’ve learned along the way. I’ve answered people’s questions both privately and publicly when asked about vintage Mooneys and vintage Comanches with honesty based on my 35 years of maintenance experience and ownership of several of both types. If that causes grief I’m truly sorry. Even other respected posters here have directed people to me privately with questions comparing the 2 types, which I happily answer. I make my living maintaining all types of GA aircraft, it happens to be that Cirrus airframes make up the greatest number in my customer base, that doesn’t make me like them more or less than any other type. Regards, Clarence

My Wife and I are on a road trip which took us through Amarillo, Texas yesterday. I decided to stop in at Tradewinds Airport to see if I could recognize the place. You see, the last time I was there was during the summer of 1970. My Dad and I were returning to Torrance (KTOA) from Philadelphia International where we attended a family reunion. We were flying in Dad’s 1964 C Model Mooney. (Mom elected to stay longer and return on a commercial Airliner. She had had enough of the Mooney.) We stopped at Tradewinds for fuel and an overnight stay at the local Howard Johnson Motel. For some reason I remember that the motel restaurant had a meat loaf dinner special that Dad and I both enjoyed. Today the Airport has a beautiful, modern Terminal Building that wasn’t there forty nine years ago. The lady working the desk pointed out where the ground crew worked out of long ago. There was a very old FBO hangar adjacent to that building which probably dated back to that era. There was also a low post wooden type railing which separated the parking lot from the ramp area. That is the one thing there that bothered me and seemed vaguely familiar to me. Inside the Terminal Building are three groups of vintage photographs dating back to the late 1940s and early 1950s. In these pictures are mostly Bonanzas and Navions, along with a Staggerwing, an Ercoupe and others, all with their owners standing in front of them. All of the pictures were taken at Tradewinds Airport. The airplanes must have mostly been new as they still had their vintage factory paint schemes on them. I stood there looking at those pictures and realized that all of those folks and probably, many of those airplanes, are all gone now. While it saddened me, I was glad for this little tribute to that era of Pilots and their airplanes. As I left the building I glanced over to the ramp area and could almost see my Dad’s Mooney sitting there with it’s bright and shiny brown, yellow and white paint job. I don’t know If there is any good that comes out of these sentimental visits. I do know that they can be emotionally difficult to make. But I hope that somewhere, someone appreciates the thought and effort that goes into them.

Hysterical. My girlfriend doesn't even make it into the airplane. The moment I start talking about my airplane or flying her eyes glaze over and she is out like a light.

Today at 10:15am we touched down in Fullerton (KFUL) completing our coast to coast tour. It was the trip of a lifetime. Over 5,000 miles flown, 10 new airports landed at, 7 new states landed in, and time with my boys that could never be duplicated. KFUL -> KIWA -> KPVW -> KPBF -> M01 -> KHKY -> KJNX -> KFFA -> KJNX -> KDNL ->KMEI -> KCPT -> KCNM -> KIWA -> KFUL As you know I don’t post when I’m out of town, but I'll start posting up the details over in the coast to coast thread I started in the coming days.

I took a good friend and his 18 yo son flying last Thursday. Here's the "public post" I put on my blog and FB. https://intothesky.us/2019/07/14/thursday-night-flight/ It was very rewarding to be able to help a young man overcome his fear of flying and find out that it is actually fun. The rest of this post is kind of a long, but I didn't want to post more details on my blog because I didn't want his son to be embarrassed about being so scared. I wrote that he was nervous, but that would be the understatement of the year. Here is the Paul Harvey "Rest of the Story" where none of his friends will see. As I said in my post, his son had flown once on a commercial flight when he was 4 yo. As I was going through my pre-flight with them and answering questions his son was shaking, as in his whole body shaking because he was so nervous. I did my best to calm him down as I continued telling them about how the plane flies, what keeps it in the air, the safety features, etc... We got through that, got him calmed down enough that at least you couldn't see him shaking anymore, and pulled the plane out of the hangar. I wanted him in the front seat so hopefully I could get him to take the yoke for a minute later in the flight. "Ok, Greg you're going to be in the right seat and your dad in back." "I don't want to be in the front." "But if you aren't in front you won't be able to fly it at all if you decide you want to." "I won't want to." "Well, if we have any problems and have to land on a golf course, in a field, or on a road, the person in the right seat gets out first." "Ok, I'll sit in the front." Perfect. We got in and everyone bucked up, at which point he started breathing a little faster and said "I can't do this." I didn't want to see him just give up. As I told his dad later in the evening, even if he decided that he didn't want to fly ever again, I wanted to see him face his fear and overcome it because that would benefit him in other aspects of his life. So, I put on my best negotiator hat. "Ok, so let's do this. I'm going to start the engine to get a little cool air going. Then we're going to taxi down over there and do a run-up to make sure everything is working right, and if it is we'll just fly around the pattern once and land. We'll take off, start climbing up, make a turn to the right, make another turn and level off at 1,000'..." He cut me off, I did not know that not only was he afraid of flying, he was terrified of heights. "1,000 feet!!!???" "It's ok, it won't feel like you are very high." "But 1,000 feet!!!???" "I promise, it won't feel like it. It's only going to take about 3 minutes (ok, I know it is a little longer than 3 minutes around the pattern but figured he wouldn't notice) and then we'll be landing. All you have to do is hold on for 3 minutes. When we land you can tell me, 'I never want to do that again," and we'll just come right back to the hangar. You can say 'I want to do that again, but I can't handle it right now,' and that's ok, we'll come back here and go a different time. Or, you might say 'That wasn't so bad, I want to fly a little more,' and we'll go fly around some more and see things. Deal?" "Ok" With that we taxied down and after the run-up flew around the pattern once and I thankfully made a beautiful landing at which point he said he wanted to fly some more. On the subsequent flight we just did some flight-seeing he loved it. Over his High School, past their house, down to the coast, and the air was so smooth. At 3,000' I told him how high we were, but that it just doesn't feel like it and he agreed. I told him I'm afraid of heights too, but in the plane it isn't the same because you don't feel like you're going to fall off the edge of something. Over and over he kept saying how cool it was and he is looking forward to the next time we fly.

In a recently closed poll, nearly 90% of respondents selected that "Talking about Mooney's is my getaway, the last thing I need is to listen to politics here." So I would like to formalize a petition by the vast majority of the membership, pledging not to engage in political discussion and asking that others provide the same courtesy. Political discussion is not prohibited by the constitution nor by the Mooneyspace forum. However, out of respect for every Mooney flying participant that does not want to hear about it on Mooneyspace, it is in good taste to leave such discussions out. So, would everyone who would prefer that Mooneyspace be left to discussion about Mooneys and aviation, sign this petition by putting your name or handle as a response. And to the 10 or so members who like some degree of political discussion, please consider showing some courtesy. Petition: We the participants of Mooneyspace and the broader Mooney community kindly ask that those who wish to engage in any political discussion or discourse do so somewhere other than Mooneyspace.

How many young people reading these pages would want to pursue a career in aviation? Look at the outright distain people here have for the trade. Many trades and careers have far higher pay scales, the lack of available talent is a now is a result of this. How many posters race to the bottom for pricing then complain about the outcome? Clarence

Well, I had two Mooneys before I bought a PA46. Then I bought a nice Ovation, and replaced that with yet another PA46. I won’t hold forth as an overall expert on the piston PA46 as both of mine have been turbine. But from the firewall aft the PA46 family has common structures. The aircraft was a clean sheet design optimized to fly at 20,000’ at 200 knots burning 14 GPH at LOP. In my opinion the airframe designers met their goal well. The airframe costs are comparable to long body Mooney costs. FIKI costs whether via boots or TKS. Pressurization system costs seem low. Avionics are equivalent, except the PA46 Mirage usually has a weather radar to care for. Both the piston versions have their staunch supporters. There is an STC to place an upgraded Continental TSIO-550 into the Malibu (PA46-310P) version. Care and feeding is about the same as for a turbocharged Bravo or Acclaim, from what I hear. To wit, lots of care and feeding is needed. The PA46 is heavier and you tend to fly it higher than a turbocharged Mooney so the piston engine works harder. With no cowl flap adjustment you have airspeed and gasoline for cooling. At FL250 in a Mirage I found it frequently took several additional GPH for cooling compared to best power ROP. To cruise higher you spend more time climbing. The POH says to expect 1,000 FPM but reasonable CHTs demand more like 500 FPM cruise climb so you are at about 35 GPH for 45 minutes to get to the lower FL. The plane handling is good in the air. It is a comfortable ride, passengers like the cabin. The piston types with 120 gallon tanks standard (140 optional) have great range and endurance. Yes, if you can’t stand a $10,000 bill now and then a PA46 is a risky tool. The Mirage pilot’s windshield is a perfect example: The heated PPG glass windscreen can fail the annual inspection heater current test and a replacement is around $30K. The turbine engine is expensive to buy but cheaper to maintain than the piston types. But that’s a different tale.

Took my wife and daughter down to Nut Tree (KVCB, Vacaville, CA) for brunch at Fenton's Creamery this morning. The little one rode up front for the first time, and had SO MANY questions about the airplane once we were home (What was that black knob for? What does the orange button do (CO alarm)? What are all the other buttons for? On and on and on until bedtime). She's been telling us she's going to be a pilot when she grows up since before I took my discovery flight. The only downside at all about our flight today was that it was 95º out. That made for a sweaty time on the ground while we got loaded in and through the run-up. It might be time to look into one of those ice-chest-based coolers I've seen mentioned.

Flew my Mooney to St. Paul Downtown airport yesterday. The EAA had their B17 and B25 here for the weekend giving rides and ground tours. The terminal building was built by the WPA in the mid-1930’s and was used by Northwest Airlines. The large Quonset hangar behind the B25 was built in WWII and used to modify aircraft, including Doolittle’s B25’s. Lot’s of great history.

OK I'll relate a story about weather at night, in the hopes that if the crap ever hits the fan someone might find it useful to save their bacon. Flying from ICT to SLC on night in a 737, as we passed DEN and entered the usual front range weather stuff (towering Q and flash bulbs, the RADAR took a dump. Nothing, nada, zilch. Here we are in the middle of it and we lose our "eyes" to the weather at night, IMC. Checked the usual, CBs, recycle, nothing. I fell back to a flight I had in a DC-3 many decades before when we didn't have RADAR and we encountered T storms coming out of Gallup, NM at night. I watched and learned as the old, veteran, DC-3 Captain flew around all the T storms. In the 737, I followed his lead and turned the cockpit lights down low, rested my chin on the glare shield and watched out the window. I had the copilot flying to my directions. ATC gave us 30 either side of course and as I saw a flash say 10 left of course I had the F/O turn 5 or 10 more right. As we passed that one I was looking ahead where the next flashes were grouped (these were just illuminating the IMC weather and not the bright electrical discharge). The next one might be dead ahead so I'd have him turn 20 left and so on. In about 70 miles we broke out into the clear on the west side. Never hit a bump! Although I don't recommend it as a usual practice, you can do pretty good (at night) this way if you have to fall back to basics and you are jammed into a corner. Remember, the guys that flew the Hump in WWII didn't have RADAR either, yet somehow they avoided the cells back then also! As we broke into the clear my F/O said, "GEE, I've never seen anything like that before". I responded, "I learned that from am old DC-3 Captain a long time ago. Remember it and it might save your butt someday".

More related footage worth watching:

Like this? ( Me in plaid shirt). Unfortunately the Stinson is a work in progress. Bought it from my dad in ‘73. Flew it until I took it down for another rebuild. Trying to complete it before my birth certificate expires.

Here's my flight for today, sorry no pics but I did get a new IR

I’m confused, do you guys find it awkward sharing the same woman? Clarence

Flight over Crater Lake, OR. I was depending on my passengers for better pictures, but this is all I could get from my phone and the dashcam.

I heard Don check in with center and recognized his voice and N number. I expanded my ADSB range and found him over 50 miles away. I watched our tracks converge for probably a hundred miles until he crossed right in front of me and 500 feet lower.

This topic is unnecessary since political discussion is already not permitted on Mooneyspace.

I hear ya. But truth be told I hear Tommy too. Everybody has a different personality. I enjoy, check that, I LOVE a good rough and tumble debate. BUT, I have found I love being around Mooneyspace more so if you want to play in the sandbox you have to “check” your inner self. (I do this at work and in certain social circles daily). I enjoy this site very much and do understand that I am abrasive/opinionated/a bully/a dick/and ass (all as described by others). I am also a fun/outgoing/loving human being that is emotional. You will see the serious Mooniac here. If I offend know that it is not personal and I love and respect all (with Mooney Drivers like a cherry on top). I had a blast as ScottFromIowa/MyNameIsNobody and now Rogue, but I know I was offensive. I know that I was hurtful. Apologies to all. I truly AM sorry. I always say “I give what I get”, but truth be told I double down and triple down when in debate/douche mode. That button is off. As the wise -a- instructs: Move along. With regard to saying I will never come back. Childish words said with emotion/anger/disgust. I see that I am the one that warrants that anger and disgust after reading Tommy of late. I get it. Mea Culpa.

Another Mooney pilot I gotta thank is Mark in Val D’or who flies a 67F. He landed just before me. I was getting nervous because there was no one at the FBO and I needed fuel and internet to prepare for my US return leg. Mark didn’t just help me find the fueler and get online, but he gave my dad and I a ride into town to grab lunch. Not only was he our tour guide but also translator cause they only speak French out in those parts. Had a great convo over lunch with Mark about Mooney flying in Canada. A Mooney is not only an airplane but also a ticket to the most awesome unannounced elite flying club.

As critical as quality maintenance is to our aircraft, the #1 cause of accidents is the quality of the pilot. Dont ignore this critical system. It has ways of failing caused by ego, external pressures, systemic issues, and bad attitudes. Keep this system tuned up for maximum, proper performance. Dont just be current, be competent

You don't want to play around with the torque every annual. Just put torque paint on it and inspect every annual. I have torque paint on all my fittings. So far none have moved. -Robert

I think Anthony meant, old accident, but new video. The final was actually out Sept 2018. The report: https://app.ntsb.gov/pdfgenerator/ReportGeneratorFile.ashx?EventID=20160421X94028&AKey=1&RType=HTML&IType=FA Seriously? "When asked where he obtained the EW of 1,804 lbs, the pilot replied that he retrieved this EW from the internet. That was only one of several issues that led to this fatal including one sick engine with mags mistimed by 8 degrees, governor incorrectly set and insufficient FF which all conspired to limit takeoff RPM to 2430 rpm - which is 270 rpm low! But as they say about all accident, its takes several mistakes or issues to all align to allow an accident, any of which if removed will likely prevent it. In this accident, if the pilot had briefed an emergency takeoff briefing including an abort point down the runway, this accident would have been prevented. I hope anyone still not doing an takeoff emergency brief that includes the abort point for takeoff realizes how dangerous that can be departing from any marginal field. However, you have to do it for every takeoff to build the discipline to always do it. But the excerpt quoted from the Flying handbook by identifying the point where you expect to be airborne and then aborting there if not off is too late; especially true in this case or you wouldn't even try to take off on this runway following that rule. The 50/70 rules is much safer and realistic way to do it and usually easier way to do it. Easier since there is typically something by the midpoint you can identify before the takeoff run to use to call abort. ( I don't think its realistic to judge when for example you come to 1250' of runway used as this pilot calculated for this takeoff.) This simple rule though is based on seeing your IAS airspeed reach 70% of rotate speed by 50% of the runway and then aborting if not, while you still have ample room to stop. Especially this time of year with high density altitude takeoff being much more common place is a good time to make it a habit. Here is a good quick article on it https://www.boldmethod.com/learn-to-fly/performance/how-to-use-the-50-70-rule-of-thumb-for-your-takeoff-this-summer/

Oh the horror....Touch and Go's in a complex aircraft, tell me it's not so!

Telling the Arrow pilot to suck up the gear in the pattern sounded like really poor unsolicited advice. Joining up with him in unbriefed formation seemed unwise in the extreme. Way to turn a non emergency into one. If the Arrow pilot was shaky, if he didn't know what he was doing or asking for help then the Cirrus guy's a hero. The Arrow pilot sounded calm, cool and collected, and sounded from his radio calls like he had the situation well under control. That makes the Cirrus pilot the worst kind self important tool. Perhaps I'm wrong, I admit I haven't all the facts. Just seems who it is based on the video.

That cirrus driver is a self-important, unhelpful jackass. I would've punched him in the face after securing the plane. Un-invited and un-briefed formation flight during an emergency? Unsolicited instruction? No thanks. Sent from my LG-US996 using Tapatalk

Compared to some Mooneyspace claims each of my three Mooney airplanes was slow.

A friend of mine bought a home with a 60 x 60 hangar attached to it. Since he's single, he spent "several thousand" on a BigAss Fan for the hangar instead of furniture for the house.

Can the administration make this guy go away. Or watch as many others choose to leave.

Politics: From the Latin: Poly meaning many. Ticks being small blood sucking insects.

Why is it that flying makes everyone so sleepy? On the bright side, if you have an old audio panel, it's a poor-man's version of 'pilot isolate' mode for some quiet time! Do your passengers tend to sleep through flights? Or am I the only one that flies it so buttery smooth that they can't resist?