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You have one of the coin operated Mooneys. They fell out of favor when people realized that keeping the correct amount of change onboard for a flight was difficult.

Unfortunately... 1) It is the quality that counts, not the quantity... Fortunately... 2) I’m glad we have you guys here that supply so much quality! 3) MS is incredible in its way to connect Mooney people with questions, with other Mooney people, with real answers. 4) Some MSers are just a link in that all important chain. I’m thrilled when I help with one of those connections... 5) Other things that are really cool... pulling out a 20year old M20C memory that is pertinant to a conversation today, as it would have been 20years ago... 6) Where else can you get such a good cognitive exercise, and practice your spelling, word use, and ethics at the same time? hmmm, 3:00pm is so much brighter than 3:00am... You guys just made my day... Thank you and best regards, -a-

Really strange thing happened today... Multi-tasking and paying attention to other things is a giant challenge for me... I figured I would look back at the end of the day to see I had hit the 20K mark... Then wonder which post it really was... It didn’t happen as planned... there was going to be a nice Mooney fly-in I was getting ready for this weekend... cancelled due to weather... It didn’t happen yesterday while the Bosox were busy... It didn’t happen all day today, amongst posts about compass mounts, and pulse-ox thoughts... In true MS form... it came with the support of a few MSers, reminders and well wishes... Starting with this thread... So here it is... Here’s to number 20k’! I would like to thank the 20k MSers that make this community work so well... Many of those posts were simply ‘Welcome aboard’... a simple light on for the new person visiting... A first post can be somewhat intimidating... if you haven’t made your first post yet, do it today... now.... I have come a long way over the years. Trying to remember everything I once knew... I think it worked... they really were brass screws with brass acorn nuts, holding my Airpath compass, to the center post in my Old M20C... The best part was meeting as Many MSers as possible along the way. Starting here and extending out to Fly-ins... On MS... you are never alone... not even in the middle of the night... So... Let my 20,000th post be remembered as a thank you note... Thank you to the regular 20,000 MSers that visit, some more often than others, share... knowledge or experience... a pic or procedure... specs and videos... And support, lend a hand, share a flight, give a lift... move a pet, or a patient, a vet, or just another person... YOU are so meaningful... Now, don’t change. Thank you, and Best regards, -anthony-

Or should I have responded?: 1) Looks 2) Like 3) I 4) Have 5) My 6) Work 7) Cut 8) Out 9) For 10) Me Just the opinion of a MooneySpace Poster, not a professional poster or instructor. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

Took my baby girl up for her first flight yesterday. It was a short flight and shorter for her cuz she was out in the first four minutes. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Pickup day has finally arrived, and I couldn't be more pleased! After several years of saying "maybe I'll get it done this year..." I finally bit the bullet, and committed. It turned out even better than I had imagined. Sadly, the lighting wasn't the best today for pictures, the blue appears very dark in some of the photos, but, you guys will get the drift.... Before and after included....

OK, my favorite convince the wife story. You guys may like this: When I started looking for a job I got a visit from Dr. Ryuzo Yanagimachi from the University of Hawaii. It was in his lab that mice were first cloned, and he wanted to hire me to run a cloning center there. My boss told him I could write really quickly, so he thought I could write the grants. Hawaii sounded good to me. Went home and told Mrs. Steingar about it. She said NO. No Hawaii, no way. If I wanted to go I could go myself. She thought she would get island fever. So I told Dr. Yanagimachi I couldn't do it. Got recruited to a large midwestern school. Ever dark, cold winter day I told Mrs. Steingar it was her fault I wasn't in Hawaii! I was pretty miserable. But then a pilot friend started mentoring me, and I realized I had the wherewithal to be a pilot. So I told Mrs. Steingar that I would never mention Hawaii again if she didn't give me a hard time about buying and flying an airplane. She never has, and in case anyone is interested its 25 years last week.

Just wanted to add some feedback about AGL Aviation in Morganton, NC. They are simply the best, nicest people and Lyn knows Mooneys quite well but on my last visit they truly were beyond amazing. I had a new Garmin G5 attitude indicator installed and had to go back to AGL for an over voltage light that we did not have time to address at my last visit. While Lyn was fixing a broken connector in my alternator he discovered a crack in my #2 exhaust manifold (just because he always looks for anything wrong whenever he's looking at an airplane). As it turned out, the manifold was in fact broken and Lynn offered me the manifold off his airplane because I was departing on a long trip! Unfortunately his manifold did not fit (C model versus F model) so he called a guy that flew in on his helicopter, took my manifold to his shop, repaired it and returned in an hour and had me on my way. He only charged me what the repair was which was $45! Amazing, just good people running a great company. No matter where you are, I suggest you take for plane to AGL for your annual. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me anytime.

Some in the “crowd” are licensed. Clarence

How did a guy like you get such a cute kid. Must be from the wife.

a few more.... When the lighting is a bit better, I'll find a nicer camera and try to take some more detailed shots....

Ok with my fire proof underwear on... flame away This is a touch and go in my 252. The landing is full flaps and almost full up trim. It gets a little wobbly as I grab the flaps and back out the trim while on the go. The taxiway I go by just before lifting off is 700 feet from the edge of the grass. This is a 360° video shot with a Rylo camera so you can move it around.

Check to make sure your airplane is still in your hangar!

Rat socks are so small and I always end up with 3 after washing them. I never can find the last one.

Meant to post this Sunday. It was a bumpy day down low in Oklahoma but still a beautiful day to fly. Caught a video of my final approach into my home airport KGOK (Guthrie, OK).

Taking off with full fuel is something we learn in primary training, but carrying more fuel than you need is not efficient. The lighter your plane, the faster/higher/cheaper it flies; takeoff and landing performance is improved. Airlines and commercial operators "fuel for the trip". However, one off-airport landing due to fuel exhaustion will probably wipe out all that efficiency.

Please join me this Thursday evening, October 25th at 8:30 pm EDT for a live webinar on "What the FAA doesn't want you to know about weather." If you'd like to attend, please register using the URL below. If all seats are not filled, registration will close by 3 pm EDT on Thursday. You will be sent an email on how to join the GoToMeeting session shortly after registration closes. Please check your spam folders for that email. https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20F0D4BA4AB2AA2FD0-whatIf you cannot attend, there will be an attempt to record this live webinar. Assuming there are no technical difficulties, it will be posted to the WeatherSpork YouTube channel at a later date. If you don't plan to attend, please go out today and subscribe to the WeatherSpork YouTube channel so you don't miss this important presentation. Hope to see you there!

When I encounter ice, I try to incorporate a little bourbon and branch water. In most all other cases, I feel it should be avoided.

I always assume there will be icing in the clouds when the temperature is at or below freezing. I use several sources to get an idea where the clouds are: Skew-T, Ogimet, and WeatherSpork. If the MEA and my direction of flight will allow me to cruise below the freezing level I don't worry about it. If I can't do that, then I consider what you suggested. Will I be on top before I get to the freezing level? And will I be able to descend below the freezing level at my destination before I enter the weather? If I can't do that, can I fly the entire route VFR below the weather? If I can't do that, I stay home.

I have now taken off and landed an airplane in all 50 states (and Puerto Rico). I'm sure I'm not the first on Mooneyspace to do that, but it was a goal and it was fun to accomplish. Number 50, Hawaii, was the only one where I wasn't flying N315L, my 1993 MSE. It felt odd flying a Cessna 172 again, but for now it was my best option. Kahului (PHOG)-Kalaupapa (PHLU)-Kahului (PHOG), after a checkout flight from PHOG. Ovick from MauiSkyHi Aviation rents his 172 with a mini iPad with Foreflight, for $160/hour wet, which is the best rate going on Maui, where nothing is cheap but everything is beautiful. Ovick is a great guy, too, and will share all the advice you could ask for. (I chose the checkout and the rental, but I probably would have saved a bit having him take the whole trip with me.) Kalaupapa is on Molokai, on a peninsula blocked off from the rest of the island by some sheer cliffs. That geographic isolation was combined with social isolation; Hawaii established a leper colony there. It is now a national historical park, but it's an unusual one, in that you can't visit it (other than walking around the airport), without a visitor permit, which is an invitation from a resident, or you're subject to arrest under Hawaii law. You can buy such an invitation from a tour company. Lest it trouble you that you have to pay to visit a national historical park, remember how the people who got to Kalaupapa got there, and that although they can leave nowadays (a treatment for leprosy was developed in the mid-20th century) and only a small number remain, they were exiled to this place from their homes merely because they had the misfortune to have a disease. From Kalaupapa, I flew across Molokai over to Lanai, where I viewed the remains of a couple of sailing vessels that met their fate on the northern shore. There were a bunch of clouds shrouding the top of Haleakala, the 10,000-foot dormant volcano on Maui, so though I climbed up to take a look there wasn't much to see. My focus on my iPhone 5s while flying also is not very good, partly because I am busy flying, partly because it's an iPhone 5s, but there were some terrific views beneath the 2,500-foot scattered layer along the Maui shoreline. Some of the best views were of the coast near the Hana airport, where I had hiked the day before.

I see that Anthony is closing in on his 20,000th MS post. Anyone care to guess when it will happen? Clarence

On a positive note, it is not a V tail Bonanza with magnesium ruddervators

I don’t want to get overly dramatic because the fact is it’s very, very unusual for two aircraft to occupy the same space at the same instant. Three dimensions work in our favor. But this morning I think it was at least 50/50 that, absent the heads up my GTX 345 gave me, I might have become a statistic. I departed Palo Alto just below SFO’s class B, turned in a direction that would allow a climb and commenced a climb. This was just prior to a hand off from the tower to nor cal and in an area where lots of aircraft squeeze into the airspace below class B. Well, a King Air was at 9 o’clock 200 feet above me a mile away on an T-bone heading when my ads-b started flashing yellow. I quit climbing and got a call from the tower just as it passed 200 feet overhead alerting me to the traffic. Tough to say if had I sustained a climb whether I’d have slowed enough to pass behind it. But that flashing yellow (and, maybe, audio alert. Can’t remember) sure helped. I do know that tower and ATC were of no help in that airspace.

I always try not to be too wordy, but this one might be long. Last Wednesday I was on an IFR flight from KISM back to KPLR. I was at 8,000’ in a layer about 4,000’ thick. I had just loaded the RNAV 3 approach and was beginning my descent to the IAF when things went pear shaped. I noticed my 430 was showing a rapid left deviation from course, and when I turned to look at the Aspen to see what it showed, the "AP/AHRS Failure" light lit up. The autopilot disconnect sounded, and I took the yoke. The Aspen did not show a big red “X” anywhere on it, but once there is a failure in an electronic group of instruments, I no longer trust any of them. I saw I was in a steep descending left turn, and I was able to use my Sandia Quattro (thank you @Alan Fox) to get level and back on course after a couple of adjustments. I continued the approach and landed – not my best touchdown – and put the plane in the avionics shop. Since then, the Aspen, EA100, and KAP 150 have all tested out completely fine, of course. As a result, the Aspen and EA100 are being pulled and sent to Aspen for further testing as I will not fly them again until someone identifies and corrects the problem I encountered. Lessons learned: We learn to fly partial panel, and we also practice unusual attitude recovery, but if you do not practice them happening one after the other, it can be a bit disconcerting and take more time than you want to get everything back on track. I was fortunate to have altitude I did not need to use, but doing this closer to the ground may not have had the same outcome. Both of my iPads were up and running ForeFlight – mini with synthetic vision and Pro with the approach plate – but the mini was not in my direct line of sight and not in the best location to shoot the approach relying just on it. It will end up moving to different location in the very near future. The Sandia Quattro 340 with IVSI is amazing, but without heading information included on it, I may have to consider whether it is a long term part of the panel or not. Use the “E” word. I declared an emergency and ATC was nothing but helpful. They did offer me a direct heading to the airport at one point, but being familiar with the airport and surrounding area, I knew I would be coming in over the hills to the east of the runway and ceilings were reported at 800’. Fortunately, I broke out at about 1,300’. In the days since, the FSDO and I have been on the phone a couple of times, and their main concern is what the resolution to the problem with the avionics will be. The biggest bummer at this time is having to take Southwest to Houston this week for a trip I have planned to see my family in Texas. But until this Aspen problem is worked out, I guess I will be racking up frequent rider miles.

I was a Mooney nut about 40 years ago and I owned 2 Bonanza's, 2- 210's and a Super Viking but I kept coming back to Mooney's and im at an age that this will likely be my last aircraft and I figured what the hell, buy another Mooney. As long as the prebuy doesn't go sideways, which it likely won't as it's a real clean aircraft. Anyways this is a great site, I've learned lots going back on old threads and im looking forward to flying my favorite little speedster again. Cheers!