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I believe in our Mooney Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association [MAPA]. MAPA keeps the interest of Mooney owners and pilots at the forefront. It is my belief that MAPA is truly a professional organization which puts the interests of Mooney owners first, above all else. Nothing, or no one in MAPA is ego based or self-serving. Our recent experience at the 2012 MAPA Homecoming Convention proves my point. Every aspect of the event was strictly based, and focused on keeping us Mooney owners and pilots interests at the top of the list! Trey and Lela's efforts are sincere and completely dedicated to that concept. No one there was, or is looking for a pat on the back! They do it all for us. Other Mooney organizations have come and gone, which appeared to be personally ego based, and not truly have our Mooney family at heart. In the case of MAPA, I believe their efforts are for us, not for themselves. I believe in fair and honest competition in the market place. Nothing in life is perfect, not even MAPA or the MAPA LOG. There is always room for improvement. With the recent upgrades to the MAPA web site, this is proof that MAPA does listen and respond to its members, while striving in a positive honest way of keeping us, the members as the focus of the group. On a side note, none of us know the future of general aviation as a whole. What we do know is that we all must continue to speak up and out in protecting our right to fly our airplanes freely about our American skies. These freedoms obviously include protecting and promoting our precious general aviation airports. In this fight, we all must be involved politically on Federal, State and local levels. If you are not involved, I strongly suggest you become so! We can easily sit back, complain and disparage. If you believe in something, speak up and out, not only to your friends, but to your elected officials. It really can help make a difference.

Well, 100 hours into a newly overhauled engine, I lost a cylinder, and may have damage to a second. After reading the post on Red Board (AOPA) when I noticed the increased CHT in cylinder 2, and immediatly kept a hawkeye on it. Long story short, I pulled back power to keep the temp below 450, and then back down to the 380 to 400 range and let ATC know I was having an issue. After landing (at my home base) I had one of two shops I use look at it (the one based at GAI) and we thought it was an induction leak. The engine still ran rough and hot, and the compression was 0. You could hear the air hissing out of the cracks. Unfortunately, cylinder 4 also has a lower compression at this point, yet the other four cylinders have compressions in the 70s. The shop that did the overhaul is backing up their work, and will send out two replacement cylinders - but this is very concerning for a newly overhauled engine. I'll give pictures and updates as to what we think caused this issue on a newly overhauled engine 5% into it's lifecylce. -Seth

We need to findout who this guy is and have a conversation with him in a unlit parking lot. People and policies like this are whats killing GA in the US.....Its only a matter of time before GA dies completely here....damn sad.