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I'll stay here and keep my identity relatively private. Thanks though.

Interesting first post.... Just what we need....yet another Mooney discussion site.

MJC, I don't see that as a bold statement at all and have no idea what a "troll-like" claim is. The import of my statement should be obvious. The Socata is a fringe market airplane. Most potential aircraft buyers would not consider purchasing one at any price. As other posters have noted, parts supply is an issue and unlike Piper, Beech, Cessna, and Mooney there is no inventory in salvage yards. I have had acquaintances who purchased fringe market aircraft before, a Siai Marchetti, a Socata, and a Meyers 200 coming immediately to mind. Their experiences were extraordinarily bad. I currently own a Piper, a Mooney, and recently purchased a 1975 Skylane, the Skylane being the 33rd aircraft I have owned in my aviation career. I bought it for one of my sons and am beginning the process of a complete refurbishment. Virtually no part on the airplane is more than a phone call and two day shipment away including interior and exterior plastics, control surfaces, glass, etc. In fact, I can't think of a single part on the airplane that either I or my mechanic don't know the source from memory; he has most of them on speed dial. The gentleman who started this thread asked a realistic question. I will assume that he is serious and has the financial ability to move up from the M20C. My answers were accurate and pertinent. If that makes me a troll, I suppose that is a good thing. Jgreen

Flaps change the camber of the wing which will increase lift (and drag) thus lowering the speed at which the plane will stall vice the angle

I appreciate your interest in getting more people to take up flying, but I believe that one of the big problems with our transportation system is that we have made cars "so easy to drive" that a large number of people think that it takes no effort (and therefore on attention) to drive. They think anyone can climb into a car and begin talking on the phone, texting, putting on make-up etc, and let the car take them where they want to go. IMHO it takes attention and care to fly or drive, and when you forget that, it gets dangerous quickly. The sad part of this is that we, as a society, have allowed this to become commonplace in cars and just ignore the fact that people are dying in cars at a horrible rate. They don't think the same way about airplane fatalities. They jump on that like it is the nature of flying that "kills so many people in planes". How many folks do you know that worriy that it might be you when they hear on the news about a plane crash, but never worry that it might be you when they hear of a car wreck. Sorry; rant off.

I have an external GPS antenna, but the XM is on the glare shield... which in a C is very little space to work with. When I had my avoinics upgraded, they at least cleaned up the XM antenna so it doesn't look like a mess with the cables hanging in the cockpit. FWIW.

I would like to install a external antenna just to clean up the cockpit.

So trip report for Staniel Cay... We departed Houston last Wednesday. The plans was to go to KLEE, get cheap gas, fly onto Boca (KBCT), have dinner with my and drop some things off, and then cross the water to the Bahamas. As you know from "that other" thread, we had a mag problem, Sunair was awesome, but we spent the night in KLEE. Thursday, we actually made it to KBCT at 2 pm, topped off the plane, dropped things off with mom, and departed IFR for North Eleuthera Airport (MYEH), high tailing it into the Bahamas. We originally had planned to take the "scenic" route, crossing the shortest distance over water and then flying along the chain of islands, but with sun set closing in and no night flying in the Bahamas VFR, we opted for radar vectors direct, and after getting outside the Palm Beach area, ATC was happy to comply. Customs was quick and efficient at MYEH, and we were off to Staniel Cay (MYES) in no time. This time I flew down the island chain and oggled at the scenery, we were on the ground in no time. Staniel Cay was just about perfect in every way. You know those post cards of colorful cottages on stilts? Yeah, that! We had a little Boston Whaler and over three days we fed the pigs, we found several private beaches and private sandbars, and saw giant iguanas. I use tripadvisor a lot to find hotels and decide where to stay, so I like to give them good mojo, so in the interest of not repeating my entire review here, you can read it there: (might take 48 hrs to post): http://www.tripadvis... ... R148032073 Some lessons learned for pilots flying there: 1. We opted for the non-all-inclusive in part because we weren't going to use the boat every day, but also because the 20% "pilot discount" applied only to the non-all inclusive, and if you do the math, even with renting the boat every day, it was worth getting this discount (it cancels out the resort tax). 2. The Bahamas offers a $300 fuel credit if you stay 4 nights at a participating resort. When we booked our reservations, there was a blackout date that began on Dec 21, so it wasn't going to be useful for us. But when we got there, we found out the black out date got moved to Dec 26! However, not even the hotel knew this (though it was clear on the web site, the internet was of course down when we checked out), though they said contact them when we get back to the US. However, when we got back to claim the discount they said they needed a copy of our C7A (cruising permit), which we have, our pilots licenses (which we obviously have) and our immigrations cards - uh, huge problem since they take those from you on departure. They are speaking with the Bahamian tourist board to see if there's some other paperwork we could provide instead, because that's an awesome deal. 3. The internet is super sketchy there - get everything filed that you can file (eapis, IFR/DVFR flight plan, etc.) on file before you leave. The internet was down at least 50% of our stay. 4. Bring tie downs and chocks for all three wheels with you. There was only frayed rope and one or two sets of broken chocks. 5. We had heard that you could pay your departure tax on arrival to save a trip to a customs airport on departure. We tried, they would not allow this or take our money at arrival. Speaking to some other pilots, it sounds like people do leave without clearing customs on the way out. We are kind of rule-abiding types, so we stopped at San Andros to clear customs and pay our departure tax on the way out, it was also fast and efficient. 6. Overall the runways were good quality, a little rough, but nothing to worry about. All fields expect the big ones use 122.8 and it was fun listening to people coming and going up the island chains. 7. When we returned to south florida, we came in through FXE. We dutifully sat in our airplanes, as per the instructions, waiting for the customs agents to come out to us. After two other planes parked and their pilots went in, we did the same. The customs agents told us in the south florida region that was normal. Byron will be posting pictures shortly