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We need to publicly acknowledge, and let Mike Elliott, the Mooney Summit folks, and the Bill Gilliland Foundation folks know that we appreciate them. Their efforts to reduce the heartache and pain associated with the loss of life in Mooney accidents is unbelievably generous, and I suspect greatly appreciated by the families of the victims.

After lurking these forums and bugging many members for two years I finally got my first plane back home. My wife and I were super happy after the trip, it's a lot of fun to really be crusing across the ground and having the capability of a real cross country Thanks for all the help, especially from MB65E!

Strange thing happened on my flight from NJ to FL today. One moment it was bright and sunny and the next it went dark and I had to put my panel lights on! 7.5 hours nonstop to Lakeland. Almost 1000nm. Took it slow and only burned 65 gallons. No fuel stop. A bit of weather dodging. Fun fun. If you think flying 7.5 nonstop through an eclipse on 65 gallons makes us MOONiacs, then please vote for our photo: http://lasar.com/contest/?contest=photo-detail&photo_id=1863

Well, after a few years of looking, I'm finally a Mooney owner! I bought a friend's airplane, and I have been lucky to fly with him in this airplane for the past few years, so I'm intimately familiar with its history and maintenance. I'm very excited to be its next caretaker and learning more about it. I'm also looking forward to the hopefully many trips that I will take with this wonderful machine. For those who have been following my posts, I am still looking for a partner for this airplane, but I could not pass on the opportunity to buy the airplane while I look for the partner. So, if anyone is interested, please let me know. The airplane is hangared at Gaithersburg, Maryland (KGAI). Here are a couple of pictures of the new airplane! Fernando

You'd think in 150 hours of flying, I'd have had at least one landing go pear shaped. Well, nope, not even in training. All I've ever done were 'planned' or 'practice' go-arounds. Until today. I started training for my instrument rating. Went and flew for 2 hours with my CFII, under the hood. It was rough. Convective SIGMET in the area and the air showed it. We flew around doing compass turns, partial panel (no DG or AI). We did a practice approach all the way to landing. Winds were reported 270/5 (ATIS was 58 minutes old), landing on 25. I took off the hood at 200 AGL on short final. I was on speed, but I felt sloppy. My brain was still spinning in circles. I flared a touch high, but nothing really 'bad'. As the mains touched, stall horn sounding (not a bounce) the plane lifted back off at a very slow speed. It was not good. I didn't even think about it, I just smoothly added power while turning off carb heat. Uneventful go-around and successful landing the 2nd time around. As we were in the pattern, the tower radioed that winds were now 220 at 14G20. My best guess is a gust picked us back up. If I were a better pilot, I probably could have cleaned it up and set it back down. With my brain mushed out, I wasn't in the mood to even try. I very pleased with myself that I didn't even hesitate and just did it as soon as things weren't right. My CFII commented afterwords that I was very quick to react. He said we were down, up, next thing he knew we were at full power and gaining speed. He didn't even have time to think about telling me to go around.

Bad weather - no problem! Stall spin - no problem! Scud running - no problem! Touch N Go = DEATH!

Yesterday morning I flew to Cabelas at KOWA. Picked up a neat little flashlight with a nice strobe feature that clips nicely onto my shoulder harness. I also picked up a headlamp that the red light can turn on and off with the push of one button. No need to cycle through the other blinding colors, I have been looking for one like this for years. On the way home I took a detour to fly over the field I woke up in 7 months ago. I can't explain how good it felt to be "here" flying above that field in another Mooney. I miss my old plane but this one is growing on me. Cheers, Dan

I simply warned a couple users to stop talking politics in the forums...and politely. No bans, etc. Just deleted the posts that did not belong and warned those that I deleted. If that is too much for you then I guess farewell and safe flying.

Been meaning to post this, but I got side-tracked by personal attacks on here because of who I voted for, then kicked off for two weeks for daring to respond! After six or eight months in an avionics shop and two months in another shop for paint, I decided to check the fuel tank vents before taking to the air again. Sure enough the left one was completely clogged. I mentioned checking them while picking up the plane. Had it not been for the mechanic offering to put a different fitting on his air compressor hose and blow through the vents after removing the gas caps, I might not have caught it? I learned to do that from MooneySpace and I wanted to say "thank you" and remind you all to keep checking those vents!!!!

The whole subject of touch n goes on Mooneyspace is, for me, a real head-scratcher. The subject seems to have become charged with more of the "who"is right than "what" is right. The military does touch n goes in more complex aircraft. The airlines did touch and goes prior to the age of the simulator. I believe we all did (and survived) TnG's during primary training. The Mooney is a relatively docile airplane and poses no specific issues. I've said it before: the touch n go is a basic maneuver. You learn it, then use it in your bag of tools. There are no FAR or POH restrictions. No one forces you to do them, or to stay proficient at doing them. Personally, I think those who are adverse to them have a deficiency in their training/currency/proficiency, they get paid by the hour and prefer to see the Hobbs meter run, or they scared themselves and didn't get instruction to bring back proficiency and confidence. YMMV. Like I said...it's head-scratcher.

LET THE GAMES BEGIN!! We are shooting for the end of the month. Here's hoping the FAA and personal schedules will cooperate.

Bird strike hazard will be greatly reduced once the FAA gets them all equipped with ADS-B. 2020, Baby. Can't wait.

2 Our Fathers, 2 Hail Mary's and a trip around the pattern for you. Go in peace.

And I flew it today , No excitement , Squeaked it in no problems......

After 3 months, 2 I/As, a lot of patience, and a little bit of $$$, I'm happy to say I am finally back in the saddle! The corrosion issue on the spar splice plate was able to be cleaned, acid washed, alodined, and primed. Once put into the right hands, it was done in less than 2 weeks! Other than some minor trivial parts that needed replacement, along with a JPI 700 install, the cost was less than a quarter of what I was expecting after talking a wing replacement or sending it to the reaper! Cleaned and detailed her up today, took a quick test flight, now trying to figure out where to go for a burger tomorrow..............

I only hope that those who complain about the price of airplane parts and A&P/IA labor rates, try to be as cheap with their Mercedes or Porsche mechanics. My knowledge and signature aren't cheap and never will be with as much as I've invested in my career. I suspect Clarence feels the same way.

Today's flight was to help some of the folks still suffering the after effects of Harvey on the Texas coast. I pulled the back seats out of the 252 and stuffed it as full as possible with supplies destined to Rockport, Port Lavaca, and other communities on the coast. While on the ramp @jetdriven pulled up also hauling supplies. 375 lbs in each of these fast movers.

Starting Wednesday this past week, I solicited donations from Wichita friends and co-workers to bring south since I had planned a Texas trip prior to Harvey. They responded en masse, and I volumed-out my J! This afternoon I delivered them to Kountze, TX, outside of Beaumont. Yesterday the airport workers got to the FBO in a boat! Today it looked normal, but the devastation isn't too far away. I couldn't do any sight-seeing due to the Trump TFR, so I didn't see the bad parts. A Mooney makes a fine load-hauler on occasion, especially if you don't bring your wife. [emoji12] The only thing that would've made today better would have been to combine some formation practice with others hauling supplies! There is still a need if anyone is interested in helping. Sent from my LG-US996 using Tapatalk

To me it's simple. It's a critical phase of flight and when you start throwing switches and levers, muscle memory takes over and you can put the gear up, or you can lose control of the airplane. Both are hazards and both are mitigated by bringing it to a stop clear of the runway, and then doing the after landing items. Several members on this board have done it. You own it now, and it costs about 12$ an hour to taxi the thing, or about 75c to taxi it back and take off again.

As a doc who enjoys maintaining my aircraft, there are a lot of parallels between mechanics and doctors. I typically have the same mindset and level of focus when I'm doing say - an oil change - as I have when I'm say - doing a procedure for a child. Each done incorrectly or carelessly has a set of dire consequences. We've seen the MIFs outlined in previous threads. I'm happy to pay a fair price for competent work and more for excellent work. But you don't need to go to the "Mayo Clinic" of A&Ps to find a good mechanic. There are also $hit mechanics in huge fancy shops (or apprentices - kind of like the meds students of the mechnaic world). My latest mx mantra after being @&:$'d by a couple of big places in my short time as an aircraft owner. Find an independent, local A&P who you trust and develop a relationship with them. Treat them fairly and pay them for what they do and it will pay dividends in the long run.

And you guys talk about me posting fat women photos. What about this guy posting naked Mooney photos?

Well we made it out of the eye. Lots of wind damage in both KMKY, FA37 (where i wish my plane was), and KAPF. I have not seen my plane yet, but we are all ok!

Jim Rice, N10EX... Mooney makes the USAToday the right way! https://usat.ly/2gynvhZ Way to go Jim and everyone else like Jim that did and didn't get named or photographed. Jim is currently flying between Houston and Georgetown.... https://flightaware.com/live/flight/N10EX Best regards, -a-

Attached is my late entry for the Lasar Mooniac t-shirt contest. I thought MooneySpace participants might enjoy seeing it. Jim

Took my youngest son to breakfast on the USS Sedona (KSEZ) this morning. His first time riding in the front of any airplane. We had a great time! First time taking the yoke! On the ramp at SEZ. Breakfast time! Departing Sedona Flying the Mooney \ Williams, AZ. Gateway to the Grand Canyon. And Route 66 is down there too!

Not much Intellectual property on a plane that was designed 60 years ago.

Drove my freshly washed chick car out to the airport for a short flight in search of 100LL <$4.00. Found success in S.W. Wisconsin. Went out to assisted living and wished a belated Happy Birthday to my 105 year old next door neighbor growing up. She is still sharp as a tack and asked me how my adult children (by name) were doing. A short trip down the hall to my two neighbor down former Tech Sargeant in support of the 101st Airborne during WWII. Jack saw a lot in is spring chicken 90 some years. Next off to my in-laws to say "Hi". Enjoyed my courtesy former police interceptor. Engine doesn't feel like it has 150k on the odometer. In laws were relaxing on their three season porch enjoying a couple of swiveling new reclining and rocking chairs. Great to see all in good spirits. Prior to my return home I picked up my favorite deep dish pizza for the .6 flight back home. Nice to have the plane flying so well with no noted squaks. Dan Auerbach's new solo effort playing in the Bose. Much to the chagrin of eh 122.5 monitoring crowd. Put her away while sun was setting and last daylight of a wonderful summer day came to a close. I love GA and I love my Mooney.

It's very bad form to respond to "For Sale" posts like some of you have. To rich for your blood, just pass it on by. No one is interested in your opinion of someone else's item and or price. (Don't like what your watching.....change the channel)

Progress is excruciatingly slow. I have been a busy guy with house projects and friends/family visiting. I managed to get all the fuels bags in and the tubes connected, with the foam underneath, I put my brother to work when he was visiting last weekend. The new vents and anti-ice masts are installed. Fuel senders went in yesterday along with the sump drains. Getting closer. That's all for today folks, you can go back to arguing about touch and goes now...

We live in a free country. We are free to make our own choices on just about everything. Nobody is forcing anybody to do touch and gos. I have no animosity for people who do touch and gos or for people who don't want to do them. It just seems a bit strange to me. Sense the first day I had my hands on the controls of an airplane in '78 I thought that touch and gos were a normal part of flight training and didn't consider them to be a hazard until I got here.

My C model Mooney was built in 1961, I have owned it for over 10 yrs and in that time I have had some minor seeps but nothing causing me to need a full reseal. earlier this year one of my original fuel drains started dripping, when I went into the tank to replace the drains I found that some of the sealant from an earlier repair was bad and the tanks needed to stripped and resealed. Talking to weep no more they were booked up thru the beginning of next year so I did a temp repair to get me in the air with minimum flying until the tanks could get worked on. Of course after putting way too many hours into the temp repair I happened to talk to Dave (DVA) and found out that he has everything to strip and reseal Mooney fuel cells. after a short conversation I felt confident in his knowledge to do a good job on the repair so I asked him when he could do it, his answer... when do you want to drop it off! since I was already set to go to Osh I said I would drop it off when I got back. BTW Dave's shop is a 6 min flight from my airport, I literally took off made a right turn entered a right base and landed. so much better then the full day trip to Minnesota and commercial back. After I dropped off the plane, Dave asked if I knew when the tanks had been resealed, I went back thru the logs to an entry I remembered from 1985 stating the tanks had been resealed prior to the aircraft being painted. Looking thru everything I could not find anything clearly stating that the tanks had actually been stripped clean prior to resealing. Dave confirmed that it looked like I had original sealant still in the tanks from 1961. Thru the whole process Dave kept me informed of their process and sent pics. They found what I expected or already knew, the only surprise was another batch of bad sealant on the lids from the repair. he sent pictures and update, I went and looked at the progress several time. the shop is neat, clean and organized, everybody is paying attention to details. As mentioned earlier, my plane was last painted in the mid 80's and the paint is showing its age, I have areas where the paint is missing and the reseal process can strip paint if your not careful. I told Dave I wasn't worried if there was any damage to the paint when I dropped the aircraft off, Dave's Crew still masked off the aircraft to minimize the paint damage and even tried to color match my paint to do touch up after the reseal. When I went to pick up my plane I had several nice surprises, first was they had redone my wing walk (It really needed to be done), and cleaned up the aircraft including vacuuming up the interior. the plane had been fueled to my specifications and ground run verifying good operation on both tanks. the best surprise was that the repair cost came in less then originally expected! I know Dave's shop has only been open for a year, but being an A&P IA myself I was defiantly impresses. actually I am impressed enough that for my next annual I'm going to have Dave do it so I have another set of eyes that i trust look at the plane. Thanks again Dave. Brian

I have been receiving a lot of texts and emails asking about the Mooney Summit, my well being etc as a result of Hurricane Irma. 1) Alice and I are fine, thanks everyone for your concern. We relocated CarolAnn Garratts famous 201 and ourselves out of harms way 2) Everyone who has ever been in show business knows "the show MUST go on" We will see you at the Mooney Summit V!

@Bob_Belvillenever misses a chance to post that picture. It has to be the most posted on MS

I didn't know you were Yetti. Anyways yeah front seat came out. 420 Lb went in. I was seriously gunning for the daily prize, I wanted all the Alpo dog food cans, I could have busted 500 lbs but they were hoarding it, for, get this, Bonanza pilots trying to fix their CG!! Hah! Otherwise I could have whacked the Saratoga that was running in first place. Not every day you pass up a Saratoga while Burning 40% less gas and carrying the load. There is always tomorrow though!

I've swapped out every light in my house and garage for LED's. We do it here in Texas to get rid of the heat as much as for the electricity savings. The way we stay warm in the winter is by turning off the air conditioning.

Are there electrical elves like there are hangar elves? Maybe if you leave out milk and cookies, when you come back the extra outlets will be in place.

I flew a load from Georgetown to West Houston this morning, and there are two other J's at the same time. Also following along was the B-25 Devil Dog! What a great display of people working together. We got the easy and fun part for sure, and I was glad I came down to help. KGTU was running like a well oiled machine receiving, processing, packing and loading the never-ending supply of donations. It sure was great to see so many people helping, and so much happiness on the receiving end. West Houston is a mess. Coming from the west it didn't look terrible, and then BAM, water everywhere just east of the airport. I'm sure it got worse going further east. Even after a week I'm exhausted now after 13-14 hours of flying this weekend in many legs, but I'm sure it is nothing compared to what many are feeling as they try to get back on their feet. There will be an ongoing need for support for a long time, so consider helping if you can! Sent from my LG-US996 using Tapatalk

Step 4 (or 3b) - remove ignition key; maybe even place it on glare shield.

I think my next project may be to design and build a device with no actual purpose, just to post and drive everyone crazy.

Beautiful sun setting over Delaware Bay on 8/2/2017, shortly after takeoff from KWWD.

That's a Cirrus.

This photo at 11,500MSL was from yesterday evening on the way from my home base to KARB to visit family. Flight was delayed two hours due to oddball cloud coverage. Today's flight back home didn't have anything interesting to show. Am I nuts for flying VFR over-the-top so much? Seems the only way I can go places in the Great Lakes region. Yeah it's time to get my IFR ticket. I'm sick of being grounded because of these low 1000AGL puffy clouds that are only about 250FT thick. But it sure is fun to fly around the big towering CB's. **Edit** Oh I forgot to mention how neat it was to see the Blue Angels zipping around in diamond formation at my 1 o'clock as I departed Runway 6 at KARB. Apparently there was an air show at KYIP Willow Run today. If I had Yooper's Lancair I would have joined in. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Finally had time to check the Bahamas - Bimini. Short trip this morning, had a can of Coke at the local restaurant and I was back home for lunch. Easy in and out. No issues at Opa Locka.

Yes, thanks for asking. The water only came up to the front jack and not anywhere on the plane or the things in my hanger. That last big flood came up much higher. I think we are in the clear here in Houston now at David Wayne Hooks as the forecast calls for more clearing. The water seems to be receding around the airport. Russ

Yeah, you suck. Thank goodness I've never made any mistakes flying.

It always amazes me how many people will blow the wad of cash on LED everything's, yet won't buy a 406 ELT which might save their life. Clarence

If I win it I'll buy everybody on Mooneyspace a brand new Mooney.

Or people could just take a healthy dose of skin thickener with the morning cereal or coffee. Clarence

Or better still, use a lighter.