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Happy Thanksgiving my Mooniac friends! I just wanted to let you all know that I passed my private pilot checkride this week.

Do you have access to an outlet where your plane is kept?

I bought one from SWTA last summer. Then me and the mechanic repaired the old one with Black RTV and cotton threads from an old pair of jeans. He said it looks like new. Now I have a spare. BILL

I can't imagine NOT owning an airplane, and yet for a good part of my life I didn't. Thank goodness for Flying Magazine and that picture of the TLS on its cover back in 1990. I've still kept that issue. It's been 21 years and over 9,300 flight hours later and my life has never been the same. I don't fly FOR a living. I fly for living. I can't imagine a more exciting and at most times peaceful way to wile away the hours than up in the air. I am fortunate in having had a mentor flight instructor who talked me into getting my CFI. As a result, I've met so many interesting people I never would have come in contact with and had adventures unimaginable in another way of life. If you really have a passion for the air, find a way to make it happen for you. I don't think It really works to live vicariously through someone else when you can have the experience yourself.

Cancelled XM months ago. No regrets. Weather plays great on my IPad and 696 via Garmin GDL39. The ADSB weather will be paid for in less than a year from now. Agree that weather on 696 is not as good as pad, but the pad has a lot of other great strengths and Garmin Pilot keeps getting better all the time. Ditch the XM. Send the message that the price is double what it should be...I still have my XM puck...for the RIGHT price.

Some progress pics...salvage cabin at home and flying plane in her hangar with spare parts all around, waiting for me to come back for more quality time! Sent from my ADR6425LVW using Tapatalk

I just wanted to update this and let you know Jimmy did send a check for a portion of the repairs and the new window is here so Dec 1st it goes in for annual and repairs.

Staying home and turkey at home - and phew - there is nasty weather rolling over the east for the next 36 hrs. But Friday I am doing a pilot n paws mission to bring a tiny poodle from Brooklyn to Burlington, with my oldest son.

I may have to tak youp on that! It's a busy weekend though, with a lot of family, so we'll have to play it by ear. If not this weekend - let's make it happen soon. -Seth

I don't base my analysis on your assessment or even the OP's. I am speculating based on my own experience spending the last 10 years finding things that were done to my aircraft that should have never left the shop without being remedied. To name a few: 1) Poorly rigged gear doors after after a nose gear truss swap during an ($8000) annual. 2) Screws left out of instrument mounts (covered by panel trim) after avionics work. 3) Sheet metal screws forced into nut plates designed for machine screws (one of my favorites). 4) Improper length fastener used (sheet metal screw) that went through the fuselage, intentionally hidden (covered with tape on the inside of the cabin wall). 5) Mag timed 180 degrees out of spec (the shop owned up to this one because they had no choice). 6) 3 hrs labor on an invoice to change an exhaust hangar. (shop reduced it to .5 hrs after I offered to show their mechanic how to do it in under an hour). 7) Paint work full of "fish eyes" and so badly color matched that the insurance adjuster told me he would refuse payment (damage from ground incident that was eventually rectified) 8) I have acquired 2 pairs of pliers (safety and needle nose) that shops unknowingly gave me as a bonus after MX. 9) un-torqued fuel injector that nearly stripped out the boss on the cyl from vibration. 10) over tightened B-nuts that cracked the flanges on all 4 injectors. 11) Oil cooler that was obviously dropped which bent and cracked one of the mounting ears (it was bent back with pliers or a vise which likely exacerbated the crack) 12) airplane returned to service with tape over all static ports after a pitot/static test (I new immediately when I began taxiing back to my hangar what had [not] been done ( I removed the tape, and phoned the shop to tell them whoever released the plane was not paying attention). I could go on, but why bother. Of all of the maintenance induced squawks above, 3 were owned up to by the shops that performed the work. I had to eat the cost to rectify the others. So maybe I'm a bit harsh in not offering the benefit of the doubt when it comes to spontaneous cracking of side windows. My experience tells me to be cynical. ALL shops have mishaps. With tight margins, I understand the temptation to take a "prove it was my fault" approach, in some cases it's warranted. However, is it unreasonable to have the expectation that a headliner last longer than a year? That window glass last more than 7 months and 60 hrs? I too am directly involved in running a small company. Doing the right thing is always more costly in the short term, but it's less costly in the long term. The problem with sub par shops is that they cannot afford to eat their mistakes because those mistakes are so frequent, so they must pass the cost on to the customer to stay in business. A few years back I called Don Maxwell to order some Flamemaster for a tank patch. 3 days went by and I had not received the the order or an email with tracking. I called Don back and he admitted that he had lost my order (his office manager was out sick). Knowing from our previous conversation that I was planning on using it for the weekend, he offered to next day air it to me. I insisted on splitting the additional shipping cost. The stuff arrived the next day but the invoice had no shipping charges included. Don paid~ $50 to send me ~$35 worth of tank sealant. That is the kind of accountability that I look for in a shop. That is the kind of accountability I try to provide my customers. Unfortunately, it is not the type of accountability I have come to expect... If I have any excuse at all to spend money at Maxwell Aviation, I will. I think that Don understands customer perception, and it is the reason he conducts business in such a way. That being said, I'm sure you'll find folks that disagree with my assessment.

Ditto my former 64E had the manual step retraction and it worked great except when the primary aircraft control computer failed to retract it then I would notice about a 5k decrease in speed and would spend 10 minutes trying to figure it out worried that something was really wrong. Of course you B has the truly manual flaps no hydraulic pump.

I think we have quit a few Auburn Grads on here. Seems most are Engineers also.

I would get the WAAS upgrade right now. According to the folk at ASTM we should be able to start flying with the Dynon type non-TSO panels in our Mooneys by the end of next year. The Part 23 ARC is law now and ASTM (F44 committee) is developing the standards and regulations to put that into effect. I expect to install the Dynon Skyview panel (same as my Lancair IVP) in my 231 around Xmas next year. You will need the 430 to be IFR compliant, the Dynon suite should get you everything else including ADS compliance for around $15K.

Just remember that the instrument rating only certifies that you can handle the airplane in the clouds. How to fly in weather is something you are going to learn on your own. Be careful out there, Mother Nature can be an evil B!@#$

Guys, there is the hard way of figuring this out (spreadsheets, calculations, etc) and the easy way to solve this once and for all. Just see how many gallons it takes each way! If you don't have accurate fuel gauges or a fuel flow, you can do it using the pump. One time fly the flight half tanks (or whatever you normally do). Top it off on arrival, see how much that used. Fly back (assuming neutral winds) and top off again. Compare number of gallons on the pump. I'll be curious what you find. I can tell you for a fact it pays for me to fly to an airport 10 minutes away to get gas and not at my field. 10 minutes at 10gph is 1.6 gallons and times 2 is 3.3 gallons round trip. We'll round up to 4 for run up and all other factors. $6.90 vs $5.54 justifies the cost of flying to get the fuel and I see it as free flying and a saving. Usually I pick up 80 gallons at a time $443 vs $552 at todays prices! That's $108 difference. Yet the cost in gas to fly back and forth for the gas is $22.16, $40 at most if you factor every nuance in. I know this doesn't attack your specific dilemma of flying heavy (and on my short flight it's irrelevant) but just to illustrate the huge difference in pricing. In your case, you are saving $30 by topping cheap. I doubt it takes an extra 6 gallons to haul 30 gallons for 3 hours so without testing it, sounds like a good plan.

Quote: Parker_Woodruff I have flown four (adults) in my M20J on several occasions and my M20K twice now. The biggest problem is getting in.