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Strap in. I bring you a story of adventure, peril, and a bit of “there I was” with my recent purchase of M20J sn 24-1167, currently N1156P (Soon to be N707LT) You saw it for sale here: A seldom used M20J of a few 1810 hours. 0 time OH engine and prop, new paint, engine mount, tires and tubes. Original interior an panel. Looking for a new home from Fl. And I bought. Sure, a few questions, but it is a good deal so yada, yada, she is mine. Fast forward. We all have jobs. When do you have time? Not now, or now, but NOW! Time to fetch the new find from FL to CA. Overnight, delayed flights, lost luggage, finally land Orlando. Rent car. Drive to Daytona (DAB). Meet airplane and confirm I have not been catfished – it exists and isn’t a fantasy (of 6 figures tossed for fan mail) Wait for an hour for gas (because it is a training base for Embry-Riddle after all). Pay pre-purchase inspection bill (shout out to Daytona Air Service – great people), and become #12 in line for T/O. A moment: ME: 13,000 hr pilot. Current 121 B737, 135 current G650/G4. But first time ALONE in an airplane in 3 decades. I taught in these airplanes: How hard can it be? Well, my friends, neighbors and colleagues, your skills and patience will be tested. Especially in a new airplane over 2,400 nm cross county with the three time FLARE rule: one at 737 height, once at Gulfstream height, and once at “OMG this is LOW” height. After multiple landings, it wasn’t pretty, but no bent metal. I will be calling a local CFI. Short story: DAB-HXD-TOI-MKO-ODO-E63-STS. 2400 nm, 2 days. 9 hours first day, 8 the second. REALLY comfortable factory seats (thank God). Super-grateful for iPad and Sentry+ And a great deal of super-IFR/VFR skills involved. Let me explain. I used skyvector.com to choose the route. I chose cheap fuel spots. It was a fantasy because MA nature had other ideas. Day 1 was just up to meet a friend in HXB and landing was embarrassing. But I didn’t hurt anyone or bend metal. Day 2: Up at em and head West! But 400nm long line of TRW up the East Texas side through LA and AR. So I land short in TOI. Nice FBO, quick gas. New plan. UP North around the TRW and come back down towards Midland right? OK: lots of TRW, dip, dodge and weave at 8,000’ in the “not forecast East of the Texas Line”. Oh, but low clouds/vis underneath you for about 4 states. Thanks. Not ready to takle a non-turbo airplane over the Rockies/Sierras so Southern route is still the key. The FlightAware forecast: LIES: 4+20 if dipping and weaving around the most hearty of cells who didn’t want to be found – but they were there (like Artesians for those of a certain age). MKO: My first time self-fueling up in a while. I ran the truck in the old days: this self-service stuff is new, but I figured it out. Then, well, we are on the back side of the TRW, so let’s head for the original destination: ODO. Multiple overcasts, with MOA’s: NO, you can’t go right for weather but you can go as much LEFT as you want. Why would any military agency in their right mind want to fly in THIS? OK, you want it, you got it! I’ll go around and you in your T-38, F-16, F-18 can cry for help later. Actually feel sorry for the newbies trying to navigate this. Why the Hell would anyone head to Midland in their right mind? Because dear friends, I go there A LOT. Well, to MAF. But now I’m in a light plane headed to ODO. There are MOA’s to avoid, overcast with some good thumpers I’m trying not to get underneath. It’s quite the show. And by landing, it’s 9 hours of flight. And the young line man looks at me on landing and asks, “Want a hangar?” Oh yeah, the MOTHER of all TRW has parked itself South of MDW tops +510 so Yes please! I just bought this pure-skinned angel and don't want her BEATEN TO DEATH BY HAIL PLEASE. (Heck, she make it this far) This AM (4/24): I am up at 630, breakfast, UBER to airport, and there is my plane fueled and ready. Only real IFR to break through layer to E63: Gila bend. 3+45 I was there. Spoke to a really nice lady who was in her C-182RG just out foolin’ around for the day. You know what? It’s 623 nm to STS from here: I can do it. Damn Skippy. Across the American Southwest. Great controllers through Joshua, LAX, Lemore, and OAK. 4+23, 40.2 gal 4+23 later landed in STS. I now have my commute vehicle. Needs some radios. But the mechanics, interior and exterior are fine. Good deal. Glad to be a part of the Mooney community and have a literal 2 day cross-country machine. So friends and family of the Mooneyspace, I welcome you comments, contributions and patronage at my FBO's in OAK and STS. Dang: What a machine AL built!

This happened quite a while ago but it's only now that I'm willing to bring it up. I was flying my 77 J enroute from CYTZ to my home airport CYXL on Jan.31 2025. It was a 650nm flight over mostly remote part of Northern Ontario. Roughly three and half hour into the flight, about one hour from reaching my destination, in the vicinity of Nipigon Ontario, at a cruising altitude of 5500ft, the engine started to sputter. I immediately turned boost pump on and then my engine quit completely. I acted upon the situation as everyone would, I was lucky that there is a highway right below me, and I quickly turned my plane gliding alone the highway looking for a suitable landing spot. Then I tried to trouble shoot the problem, and declared mayday on both Center frequency (but I'm on the edge of their reception) and 126.7. Oil, fuel pressure were in the green. I had plenty of fuel. Propeller was windmilling, there is no oil spraying everywhere or any catastrophic failure. I even had fuel flow, though only 3-6 gph. But I had no power. Engine monitor show all four cylinder cold on EGT. I tried both mag, didn't switch tank because I already ran one dry, and determined I cannot bring the engine back. The subsequent landing on the highway is uneventful. Clipped two small roadsign during the landing roll, but I'm fine and the plane is now being repair in Toronto, after a temporary repair was carried out in the field and got a ferry permit from TC. The landing happened just before sunset, temperature at landing was -20c. If it would've happened ten minutes prior or later, I would've end up landing on a frozen lake. That was the only highway along my route for almost 300 miles. I think I got lucky here. After landing, I checked the oil, sitting exactly at 6 qts. I spun the prop and noticed smooth movement with no issue, and normal compression in all four cylinder. I then checked my fuel tank and I could see plenty of gas. The only thing abnormal, that I noticed, was when I turn on the boost pump there is a strong smell of fuel. During departure out of CYTZ, when I turn on the fuel point in the takeoff check, I also smelled a whif of gas but I did not thought to much about it. Shortly after, police, fire and ambulance arrived, though I do not require fire and ambulance (luckily I don't need to pay for ambulance). A snow plow came, plowed out a side road and move my plane there, where it sat for two month getting the wing patched up and a ferry permit issued from TC. A local float plane company sent a few mechanics and inspected the engine. They found the fuel line out of the engine driven pump to be loose at the connector, causing a very significant fuel leak. The reason why it is loose, according to the mechanics, is likely because the fuel line with fire sleeve over it was rubbing against the firewall, loosening it over time. Both mags are firing properly and sparks are produced on all 8 plugs. I'm not sure how much I believe this theory. Since during the flight, I ran the right tank dry, and my fuel accumulator read exactly 32 gallon used. The fuel flow transducer is located after the leak, so if there is any leak, I'd ran out of fuel before my fuel accumulator reaches 32. The mechanic in Toronto that usually worked on my plane said it might be due to some kind of icing issue inside the injector servo or controller or something like that, and the float plane mechanic did agree that it's also a possibility. He says I should not loose power completely if I still have fuel flow and green fuel pressure. To add, I did sump my tank in Toronto and noticed no water in fuel, and fuel cap o ring is fairly new. It was noted the boost pump was functioning properly providing proper pressure with no leaks. They removed the fire sleeve on that fuel line, reconnected the hose properly and ran the engine up, and it ran fine. So we eventually flew it out to toronto for permanant repair on the wing with a fueling stop in Thunder bay. Now the plane is sitting in my mechanic hangar in Toronto, I've asked my mechanic to thoroughly inspect the engine again, which I asked him to do last time when I was dealing with the prop governer fuel leak isssue. I'm really not sure how do I trust this plane again. For the past year that I've owned this airplane, I was always on the way of fixing something. The engine was looked into at least twice under my request to make sure the pervious owner's mechanic who installed the engine did not make any more mistake that's not yet discovered. Just sharing my experience here. I guess from now on I will use 1% alcohol added into the fuel to prevent icing. I'd love to hear everyone's thought's on this.

My advice would be to chalk it up to experience and never go back, and explain to them exactly why you won’t be back. No need to raise voices or argue just let them know that you expect a good job and they are apparently unable to deliver that, so you will be taking your business somewhere else.

Before I came to MooneySpace. my list of things to worry about was manageable -- now that I read this forum almost every day, I worry about almost everything.

That's not even remotely true. I started doing Linux development in early 1993--Linux was barely a year old at that point--and it and projects it leveraged, such as GNU and Athena/X, were already thriving and distributed worldwide over Usenet and various email lists. Heck, I felt like a latecomer to the party at the time! I coauthored some of Linux's initial networking documentation in 1993 and then cofounded the original security project in 1994, by which time multiple companies had already sprung up in the ecosystem, most notably Red Hat. By the late 90s/early 00s, there was a flurry of Linux-related IPOs (I was granted share allocations in them), and I was working with Linus at Transmeta and was even briefly his team lead in our Linux group. He, I, and a couple of others cofounded the Linux Kernel Organization around then, and I served on its board until 2012, when we merged it into the Linux Foundation--where Linus had already been a fellow for close to a decade. There's nothing "very very recently" about any of this. Fun aside: Linus and I knocked around Northern California a bit in my first Mooney, a vintage M20C, when we worked together there. --Up.

All the things are in. Mechanic is finishing up some last wiring and hopefully can start up soon. Went with 2xG5s and a PAR200B audio panel with a remote com to clean up space. Left some space to do an autopilot soon and probably will swap the 430W with an IFD440 eventually. Passenger ptt will be a button on the panel rather than a janky ptt wrap on the yoke. Stoked to have the CGRs in front of me and not all the way on the right side. How it looked before

Mooney insurance for a student pilot is sometimes attainable but more difficult to obtain in California. I don't know where you are. As a CFI and insurance agent, I don't recommend a Mooney for a student pilot. Buy any Mooney you want right after getting your private pilot certificate.

Ok, here we go!! The first one is POH 65% power setting which also matches up with the TCM operating manual for 65%. It’s at 11.3gph or peak tit. I wasn’t quite at peak tit at 11.3, but speed was the same either way. I let it settle between each change… POH 65%: second one is using the “key number” of 50 for 65% and setting 100 rich of peak on the first egt to peak. Hmmm, same speed, more gas. 100 ROP “key number 65%”: Last one is lean of peak, 10.4ff for my 220hp engine. This is ~30 lean of peak on the last cylinder to peak. Hmmm, same speed, less fuel (~10% less than poh), cooler chts! 30 Lean of Peak: speeds are all within a knot! Up to you if you want 10.4gph or 12.4gph.

The Government of El Salvador has made aviation and general aviation in particular a policy priority. As part of that effort it has repopened and opened several airports. This is a video about a flight to one of these new airports. Hope you enjoy.

You are very right. I believe the vast majority of IFR accidents are exactly those pilots that take such a casual attitude towards their training and currency claiming they only need to be able to fly in "light IFR". Of course there is no such thing. The bottom line is that pilot that isn't current and proficient has no business filing IFR and launching on an IMC flight. They should get with an instructor (or safety pilot if able) and get IFR proficient before flying in IMC. What we see is that they are often only one unexpected event away from having an accident. Many of the accidents we see are pilots that are far from being IFR legally current and of course no where near IFR Proficient. Doing 6 approaches in the last 6 months, despite being IFR legally current, its no where near enough to be IFR proficient; especially for a low time IFR pilot. But we see instrument rated pilots try to keep their head in the game by filing IFR as much as they can - which is great practice but no where near enough. They may feel they can rely on their autopilot for some "light IFR" if needed but then for whatever reason the pilots finds conditions more challenging than expected, fall behind and have a loss of control. Take this twin accident for example which happened in my local area. The pilot was so confused by the circling maneuver at MYF, which is a common occurrence anytime a low moves through giving us a good surface wind out of the south. It really makes you wonder if he ever circled to 23 as a VFR maneuver without a ceiling before the tragic flight. Its clear though on the radio that his anxiety of how to circle to 23 and expecting he needed a clearance to land on 23 before he started the approach distracted him from getting established on the ILS for 28R. (only the tower can clear you to land after you've crossed the FAF and talking to them - not the controller). I have essentially the same panel he did and it should have been easy to get all that set up on the AP. It was after all an approach he had done many many times - but per his logbook he had never practiced a circling approach with his equipment even though its an IPC requirement. But the distraction allowed him to fall behind the aircraft. You'd think the conditions shouldn't have been that challenging because it was mostly broken ceilings in the accident area, (he had already done the hard flying over the mountains). But going in and out of the clouds and be very distracting and allow a low time pilot to forget the need to go back to basics and focus on the instruments to level wings and hold heading. It can sucker you into looking out the window wondering if you might be able to get down VFR. While he was losing control unable to heed the controller instructions he never thought to use his Blue Level button on his Garmin AP to level the wings; especially right after the controller just instructed to level the wings and climb (he had terrain higher than him very close). The more recent accident in Simi Valley is an example of an another pilot that appears wasn't even IFR legally current from reviewing his flight aware history. Since January, the pilot had done 7 IFR flights but only 2 of them included approaches, with two each totaling 4 approaches in the last 5 months. But we have no idea if any actually counted or whether they involved any actual past the FAF or if he was under the hood with a safety pilot. Of course we don't know if he may have logged some approaches on a sim to be legal, all we know is that he wasn't proficient enough to get established on the approach; somewhat similar to the Doctor flying the twin. Instrument flying is the fastest pilot skill to perish. The shorter the experience level of the pilot the faster the skills are lost and harder it is to get them back since the basic instrument skills are not as well engrained. Getting an instrument rating is very large undertaking, but its just a license to learn since keeping current is then a life long endeavor of constant practice. The FAA places virtually all of the requirements for maintaining currency on the honor system. No one will care or even notice if a pilot is not maintaining currency until the accident investigation, and then it will mean nothing if the pilot perished except for your heirs being sued. If we're going to fly in IMC conditions we need to take our proficiency seriously; not just currency.

This is a no-no for me. Never ever leave something halfway done. Period. Hand-tightening things that are supposed to be torqued, whether it is an oil filter, nut, or whatever, and leaving it like this, is asking for disaster.

Finally got home from work and spanked all these spammers.

You asked for opinions, so here you go. I understand that neither you nor your wife have ever lived in the United States. Moving to another country where you have no history or experience outside of tourism because of a political disagreement, as opposed to be being at risk of persecution, is, IMHO, a big mistake. Just as it would be for an American to move to Canada for the same reason. The two countries, their cultures, laws and norms are very different. You and your wife would be fishes out of water. Come here because you love our country, or you want to make your fortune. Don’t come here because you’re unhappy with an election.

Been awhile, but have an update on some aircraft (plus a new one), and interesting learnings from fuel selector bench testing.

Do not spend any money on aviation until you get a valid Medical certificate. Do not train in a Mooney for your PPL. Never buy a Mooney with the thought of renting it out.

Spokane to Carson City for a visit with the parents/grandparents. 15,000’ most of the way at 175ktas and 10.4gph. Awesome airplanes! IFR and had to stay low for icing across Washington, but Real pretty descending across Reno near Pyramid Lake and Blackrock “airport”.

Hi everyone, The Garmin team has a big announcement that I am excited to share with you today. Garmin Pilot Web, an all-new flight planning companion tool to Garmin Pilot mobile, is now available for pilots to plan, file, and sync flight plans from computers to mobile devices. With access to free at-a-glance flight planning tools on the maps tab, pilots have all the data at their fingertips to run what-if flight scenarios and get in-depth weather information without a Garmin Pilot subscription. Subscribers can seamlessly create trips, file flight plans, and sync data to the Garmin Pilot app. With easy to navigate maps, flights, and aircraft tabs, Garmin Pilot Web gives you many of the beloved features in the Garmin Pilot app on a larger viewing platform. As a new Garmin Pilot user, I thought I would bring you all in on the flight planning process I went through on a recent flight to Nashville to visit my family. While sitting at home, I wanted to see if I could make it from Kansas City to Nashville non-stop in my F35 Bonanza. I didn’t have my iPad with me, so I decided to pull up Garmin Pilot Web to do my flight planning and filing. I like to start with the simple, at-a-glance flight planning tools on the maps tab to determine if I need to add fuel stops along my route. By entering basic route details, TAS, and fuel burn, the performance engine instantaneously generated the distance, fuel burn, and time enroute values I needed for easy decision making. Looking through the 100LL layer with price color coding, I was able to quickly scan the estimated fuel prices in the Nashville area. Once I confirmed my departure and destination airports, I clicked the blue Create Flight button which brought me to the Flights tab to calculate detailed flight plan information. With basic flight plan information auto filled, I refined my routing by clicking the routes button to generate frequently flown and ATC prescribed routing options. I selected the most economical option for my altitude and previewed the expandable map on the flights tab to get a high-level overview of my new routing. To get the most accurate performance and weight and balance calculations for my cross country, I added a new aircraft under “Aircraft ID” to build out an aircraft profile for the Bonanza. This gave me the option to manually add the aircraft or utilize loaded templates which are available for many piston single, twin engine aircraft, and some turboprop aircraft. I chose to manually enter data since my older bonanza has multiple STCs. Across the top of my flight plan, I walked through the summary of details that outlined distance, required fuel, average wind speed, estimated time in route, estimated time of arrival, and filing status. In the payload section at the bottom left, I clicked on weight and balance to insert passengers, cargo, and fuel on board. The graphical flight envelope showed my zero fuel, landing, and takeoff weights all within range. Now that I knew I could make the trip non-stop, had my route plotted, and knew that I was safely within my weight & balance limitations, I headed over to the maps page to build my situational awareness for the upcoming flight. Clicking on the layers icon in the bottom left corner, I was able to toggle through the variety of base map options such as topo, satellite, street map, and VFR/IFR charts. I personally like to use the topo map because it’s easy to see terrain shading along your route. I also added the all-new aeronautical overlay to easily identify airspace, airports, and other aeronautical details near my planned route. In areas where I wanted more information, I was able to click anywhere on the map to reveal highlighted airspace, altitudes, and elevations to confirm that my routing and altitude kept me free from hazards. Since it was my first time flying into Nashville, I needed to learn as much about that busy airport as possible. To do that, I clicked directly on the airport to walk through general airport information, FBO pricing/hours, available services in case I had a maintenance issue, runway details, etc. The Info section had a great recap list of important details such as tower hours, elevation/traffic pattern altitude, best wind runways, fuel pricing/fees, and more. I like to be overprepared when flying into congested airports like Nashville, so I turned on the map traffic layer to get an idea of the different types of aircraft flying in. That day I ended up at “best forward speed” with a 747 in front of me and a 737 behind me! To familiarize myself with the airport layout and FBO locations, I went to the charts section for the BNA airport to view the FAA airport diagram. I also looked at approaches, which were easy to scan since the data is sorted by runway, with current wind conditions and runway closure information all right there to see. Lastly, I checked airport NOTAMs, which can be quickly filtered to show information important to me. Now that I was familiarized with the airports I was flying into, the next step was to look at forecasted weather along my route. The weather layers on the maps tab are a great resource to help see the high-level overview of weather systems across the country. Since I was flying in the Midwest which is known for convective activity this time of year, I started with the high-fidelity weather radar. Many of these layers have a slider across the bottom and expandable layer filters found by clicking on the layer name in the bottom middle. I was able to manipulate the data to show a specific time frame and include lightning, storm cell, and IR cloud selectable options. Next, I added the new color-coded visual winds aloft overlay that shows wind direction and velocity. These wind particles helped me visualize wind speed/direction patterns around convective activity. Since my flight was planned for later that day, I also looked at the color-coded temperatures aloft data to get an idea of aircraft climb performance. While icing wasn’t a huge factor this time of year, I quickly glanced at the icing forecast as well as the AIRMET/SIGMET, PIREP, and METAR overlays. Lastly, I checked the weather at my departure and destination airports. When clicking on the airport, I walked through the daily/hourly forecasts, METARs, TAFs, MOS, Winds Aloft, and the textual weather synopsis. Once I built up my situational awareness, I was almost ready to file my flight plan. Before filing, I like to look through the weather briefing to double-check for any factors that may cause me to cancel or delay my filed flight. The Leidos weather briefing, found on the top middle section of the flight I created on the flights tab, does a great job of giving you granular data along the whole route. The standard briefing outlined adverse conditions to be aware of, current and forecasted weather, NOTAMs, and more. After I made the “GO” decision, I clicked the blue filing form to review my flight details and file the flight plan (filing/syncing currently only available in North America). Once I arrived at the aircraft and completed my preflight, I opened the Garmin Pilot app on my iPad to see the Nashville trip under the Trip Planning section that synced automatically from Garmin Pilot Web. I clicked the “view on map” button to bring my filed flight route to the maps page and walked through the Leidos briefing one more time to review any updated information. From flight planning and filing on my computer at home to taking off using the trip synced to my iPad, I was able to use the robust data on both Garmin Pilot Web and the Garmin Pilot app to safely visit my loved ones in Nashville! Garmin Pilot Web (pilotweb.garmin.com) offers a wide variety of flight planning tools within the Free, Standard, and Premium packages. The free version gives pilots access to the maps tab with selectable base maps, data layers like weather/NOTAMs/fuel prices, FAA charts, airport information, and more. The free version also includes simple, at-a-glance flight planning tools on the maps page to run what-if scenarios on upcoming flights based on forecasted winds aloft at the time of departure. Pilots with a Standard Garmin Pilot subscription ($109.99/yr in US) now have access to advanced functionality on the Maps, Flights, and Aircraft Tabs. With the ability to plan, save, and file flight plans, request briefings, add/edit aircraft profiles, and view internet traffic, users can finish the flight planning process all in one place. Garmin Pilot Premium users ($209.98/yr in US) get access to all standard subscription features plus icing forecasts and Garmin SafeTaxi® diagrams. To learn more about what this tool can do for you, sign up for our Mooneyspace member exclusive Garmin Pilot Web Webinar hosted by Joe on May 21st at 4pm CST. I look forward to hearing your feedback and learning about your Garmin adventures! Sabrina Meiklejohn Sales & Customer Experience Manager

"Trust is earned in drops and lost in buckets." -Kevin Kelly. Unless you are retired and have nothing better to do, I'd cut your losses and move on. Maybe spend the extra effort on building a relationship with a new shop you can trust. Sadly, your story is not uncommon. My previous trusted shop had done reliable and sometimes exceptional quality work for me for years. Then came the year of the ADSB mandate. An excellent younger A&P had just left, and the capable senior IA in the shop was instructed to rake in as much $$$ as possible by doing one ads-b install after another. That IA, who I had known for years and trusted, went out of his way to emphasize me when I brought in the plane that he wouldn't be signing off my annual this year - I later understood why and wished that I had taken his subtle hint to turn around and run. My annual was signed off by another IA I'd never met, and the work was complete garbage - worse than that described in this thread. The shop owner acted indifferent to the situation - I coerced whatever remediation I could out of him (which was painfully little), paid my bill, and moved on. You can forgive a shop that screws up but not an owner without integity.

I just had my tanks done at wetWingologist at KFXE. he told me he needed four weeks and that’s exactly how long it took. there was another plane in process when I dropped off so it was easy to see exactly what they are going to do. he redid my wing walk, changed both sump assemblies and it was exactly the amount he told me it would be. this was hands down, the best service/upgrade experience I have ever had in aviation. I cannot recommend them highly enough.

The Dynon HDX supports multiple navigation sources beyond just GPS. It integrates with VOR, ILS, and other traditional navigation systems. You just need to include a GPS with NAV/COM or another NAV/COM radio. You won't need the display heads. Although its legal to fly IFR only with GPS, i personally things its nuts! The GPS signal is very weak and easily jammed. I may laugh at losing GPS signal from someone jamming while VFR but when it happens in IMC its a very serious matter, No way am I launching without it. Only my opinion but it seems careless and reckless to place such confidence in GPS always being there for you.

I received an email from John (COO) at LASAR last week, they receive the first quote back from the gear manufacturer and awaiting a secondary quote as the first manufacturer's lead time is considered excessive (didn't say how long). Will keep everyone posted. V/r Matt

I just tested my G5 battery. It is from 2017. It said it had 6.5 hours left in it. FWIW. I got my second class yesterday. I just finished all the inspections and the plane is legal. I’m going to fly it tomorrow. 3 months after my shoulder replacement.

It’s dangerous in front of the plane that is where the chopper/cutter thing is. It’s safer being behind the airplane.

Of course I do. Absolutely. But you said you were acting as safety pilot. Unless there was an arrangement that you might toss in a curve ball or create a challenge, it simply wasn't your place to do so.

Hello all, I'm new to Mooney Space but I've learned a ton here - thank you for all the great info! I'm the builder/owner of a Long Ez and I recently bought a '66 M20C. I wanted a better solution for the Yoke mounted PTT switch. I don't like the velcro strap variation we've all seen and my airplane still has the vacuum PC system so replacing the PC disconnect valve wasn't an option. I had a spare yoke / control wheel and I 3D scanned it, then modeled a switch mount around the top of the yoke. The mount is an interference fit and snaps onto the yoke. Below are pictures of the installation, I'll share more once its installed in the airplane. Its meant to work with 6mm momentary switches available from various sources, but I used these ones here: https://www.mcmaster.com/catalog/131/1104/7400K111 The files could be modified for any switch or expanded if additional switches are needed. Attached is an STL file. - Disclaimer: check with applicable regs and your A&P before using. I recommend using a plastic that isn’t biodegradable. PTT-Yoke-66M20C.stl

Thanks Rick. I will probably put those on the list to visit in June. Thanks Rags too. I like the landscape around Idaho, though I have not really visited, unforunately I think it's too cold for my girlfriend. I may have listed that down the list, but it probably ranks higher in priority if I'm honest. I'll bite too. I do appreciate this opinion, and I agree with the previous poster. The culture is not much different at all. If I were moving to Japan or even Mexico, I would say we would be fish out of water. But not in the US. Canadians have basically copied your way of life. The anti american sentiment that is going around in Canada right now makes me sick. We sucked off the US for so long, and they finally had enough. I don't like the way it was done, and perhaps it could have been executed better, but we deserve everything we are getting. I do agree that moving to the US because of "an election" is kinda dumb. That's not the only reason, just the straw that broke the camels back. I failed to mention in my post as I was trying to be brief and to the point, but I do love the US. I visted dozens and dozens of US cities when I was flying for the canadian version of NetJets. I think you guys do everything better and I love your country. The numbers don't lie. Canada's GDP per capita grew less than 1% in the past 10 years. Not per year, that was for 10 YEARS. In the US it was around 17-19% depending on the place you get your info. Canada ranks dead last in economic growth in the richest 37 nations and is predicted to stay that way for the next 30 years. So it isn't just one election. This has been brewing for a while and my girlfriend and I have been flirting with the idea since we got together 4 years ago. So it was really the last 3 elections, as well as the covid response that really sank things for Canada. And then this election, most of Canada decided they wanted more of the same. So it was the nail in the coffin. Also, I can make 50-150% more money as a pilot in the US and pay less taxes, so if the above reasons don't satisfy you (not that they need to), I guess I do want to come there and make my fortune. I think the US is in fact one of the greatest countries in the world, and everytime I visit I become more amazed. I think my life will be better there, and I think that is reason enough.

If an ad pops up when I’m in the clag on an instrument approach, I’ll be pissed.

Years ago, I think on this forum, someone found (the hard way) when they ran one fuel tank dry, they had a small leak in the selector valve that probably pulled an very minor amount of fuel from that tank when selected to the other, but pulled AIR into the fuel system once empty. The emergency landing with their "non-running" Mooney ended up being benign (no, I don't remember the details......it was probably 25+ years ago). Although the selector was on the tank with fuel, the engine was ALSO pulling air from the dry tank. Air has a lot less resistance than fuel, so the engine was pulling mostly air. What I DO REMEMBER, is that I never ran a tank dry again after hearing that story. Tom

I can think of a few reasons why I wouldn't want to do that. 1 Why would you want to be out of balance that far with all of the fuel on one side? 2 If the engine runs rough on the fuel from one side you could suspect water in that side and you would know that after your first tank change over. If the good side is now empty and it starts running rough you don't have any options other than perhaps an off field landing 3 There have been instances on Mooneyspace where the pilot said that the fuel selector was very difficult or impossible to turn. If I have stayed on one tank and run it dry and now I am unable to select the other tank I'm going to be landing wherever I can in the next couple minutes. If I have been switching tanks every 30-60 minutes, I know the selector works and even if it malfunctions at that point at least I have time to find a place to land by staying on the tank I am on.

Keep it imple.

This may not sound nice either, but aren't blatant commercial advertisements by businesses supposed to be posted in the "Vendor Forum"? Isn't that what it is for? - Aren't those the rules of MooneySpace? This pure advertisement post has no place in the General Forum. "Vendor Forum This forum is for Mooney related businesses to interact with the community and advertise their services. This is the only forum where advertising a Mooney related business is allowed." Vendor Forum - Mooneyspace.com - A community for Mooney aircraft owners and enthusiasts

Questions asked Questions answered Tribal knowledge says 40 pounds on the shelf As to the push/pull rods - that's way out in the future for engineering to look at BUT big thanks to Frank for getting back to me so quickly Great support response!!!! Thanks for the lead also !!

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I think one thing poorly understood in these debates is how likely your airplane is to lose GPS signal, vs. availability of the GPS network overall. The reliability of GPS as a system is very good, legitimate stories about jamming and spoofing not withstanding. There are many redundant satellites, the receivers have excellent discrimination, and overall hardware and software availability is very reliable. Widespread outages are essentially unheard of - any such thing would immediately make national news as shipping deliveries were disrupted, Uber drivers didn't arrive, etc. Because of this, there's an understandable tendency to think a GPS-nav-only airplane isn't a big deal. But GPS nav failure in an individual airplane is a different analysis. Antennas and cabling break, faulty COM radios generate harmonics that disrupt GPS receivers, etc. You also get the occasional, rogue interference in a small local area (sometimes near your airport) from some moron trying to disrupt tracking by his employer or parole officer, or whatever. I won't say these sorts of problems are frequent, but they're not unheard of. Most of us that have used panel-mounted GPS in a variety of airplanes for many years have seen an incident or two. When it happens, you can ask ATC or the CTAF or whoever, "Hey, what's going on with GPS?", but all you get is the verbal equivalent of a shoulder shrug, and reports that it's working for others. That's a pretty lonely feeling in VMC, can't imagine what it would feel like in IMC.

It’s that time of year for me to go to Casper, Wyoming on our annual business trip. According to ForeFlight it is 699 miles from KLXT to KCPR. Myrtle was at the top of her game today. I filed for 150 kts and 10,000’ because the winds were not favorable at our normal 15,000 - 17,000’ From engine start to shutdown was 4.2 hrs. That’s is an average ground speed of 175mph or 152kts. Did all that and only used 42.1 gallons of fuel. That is ~16.7MPG. Myrtle does a great job.

While the training value of the unexpected "failure" of the AP during the practice flight cannot be denied, I believe that safety pilot should not interfere with the aircraft systems without prior consent of the pilot. Your intentions to enhance the training experience of your colleague may have been good, but your actions agruably crossed the line if you have not discussed with the pilot in advance that you would engage in such simulations. Unless I am on a training or proficiency check flight with an instructor or examination with DPE, the person in the right seat is a passenger, no matter how experienced they may be and how many rating they may hold. Part of my pre-flight passenger briefing is - "Do not touch any controls or switches unless I tell you to or become incapacitated" and I expect my passengers to follow this to the letter.

Flying IFR to minimums doesn’t scare me at all. Flying in wet bumpy rainy clouds can get scarry.

Brian Kendrick in San Marcos, JD Casteel SWTA in Smithville, Dougosh in Kerrville lots of great choices

I got a bill from Vector by email a couple of weeks ago for $300 past due. The tail number in the bill was not mine. They managed to link my last name and email to an LLC apparently owned by someone of the same last name. They got a reply to go f*ck themselves without further explanation. Then the airport contacted me trying to collect. They got a more detailed explanation, including a critique of their decision to work with such a predatory business.

I’ve seen some worn seat rails before, but never any that would let the seat slide back on it’s own. What I HAVE seen, in that regard, is gunk in the holes on the seat rails. Dirt/carpet fuzz/other gross stuff gets jammed inside those holes and prevents the pins from seating fully. Usually it isn’t even noticeable- until you dig it out with a pick, then alcohol and q-tips (if necessary). I can’t guarantee this will fix your issue, but it’s definitely worth taking some time and trying.

hey dkk! That’s pretty funny..! the longer the threads… the more fun the summary became. for about a decade and a half, I was able to read every post ever written… welcoming each member, as they came aboard… it was a fun way to learn, or check old memories… to see what I forgot, or didn’t quite learn the right way… the best parts… meeting thousands of MSers on line… then running into them in real life, at various fly ins… helping so many people find an answer to a challenge they were having… or a service they were looking for… I happened upon MS… in the early days. I had just sold my M20C, and was starting the search for the next Mooney… in some places… I left cryptic markers. To help remember people… and find them again… if you can’t remember Cody as the person to answer questions about Mooney propellers… do a search on prop guy… and see how often he shows up… Or search welcome aboard and your screen name… see if you can find your own first post! keep in mind… MS had a weak search function at first. Finding a three letter word like ‘guy’ was a bit challenging… running a google search from outside MS has always worked better… hmmmmm… imagine being replaced by AI. my post count grew by thousands every year… We would celebrate the post count at each 10K milestone… hoping to make that post a memorable one… I always look forward to the next post… some posts are more fun than others… inviting various people to a thread… using the important @ symbol in front of their screen name… it’s been about 18 years or so since this all began… next stop… post number 50k. it’s been a fun flight! Best regards, -a-

I am writing a flight bag in a mix of 6502 assembler and LISP. I plan to launch a kick starter later this year.

Well, according to the parts diagram, you have link 22 in backwards.

Does anyone really believe running the other tank dry has anything to do with this? There are a few instances I’ve used the technique as well and certainly there are considerations, but I think we’re going off on a tangent here.

I just wish I had a DME to go with the VOR for approaches. Actually, long term, I wish Garmin would come out with a DME module that gave DME capability to the 650/750 PLUS could hop channels and do DME/DME or DME/DME/DME nav in case of GPS outage, spooking or jamming.

An airport neighbor asked me to be his safety pilot for some approaches. He was flying a Rocket. On his third approach he was about to the FAF and I pulled the CB for his autopilot. He totally lost it and had to take off the hood. It took him a while to find the pulled breaker. He would have been dead in real IFR. He got mad as hell and was yelling at me. He said I had no business doing that and he was going to report me to the FAA. I wish he would have, that would be a fun conversation. He told me he would never fly with me again. Which was fine with me, I didn’t think he was safe. The funny thing is, when he sold his plane, the buyer hired me to ferry it. He had to hand me the keys to his plane.

I hear people who say “I’d never fly IFR without an Autopilot” and I think what fools, what their plan when it fails? Because one day it will. It’s all proficiency based, I used to fly my Maule without an Autopilot and a Maule isn’t a good IFR platform without issue often to ILS minimums. But I flew real IFR a LOT, now I won’t fly IFR anymore because I’m not going to put the work into it that’s required to gain and maintain proficiency, plus I don’t do the cross country like I used to that demanded IFR. My belief is if you have an Autopilot you need to fly without it often enough that your comfortable hand flying. I fear many can’t they never really trained without one.

The difference is it's a full immersion program and there's been a big selection process before they even get to the training.