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Well its not official until you post it on Mooneyspace. i am now the new owner of N74795, thanks Kurt for being such a stand-up guy, and say hi to you wife for me, hope to see you both again soon.

Disclosure- I'm co-owner of an unmanned systems company. We have been in the business in some shape or form since 1988. Primarily DOD stuff with some pure commercial. No hobbyist product. Most of your hobbyist grade stuff is a challenge. It's inexpensive. Requires no flight training. The autopilot and flight control system is open source resulting in "fly-a-ways". Quite often, the end user is not invested in the hobby like the typical AMA member. It appears to be a different culture. Modelers have operated off of airports for years with few issues. My home field has RC jets flying tremendous speeds every Sunday that the weather allows. They monitor the unicom and are very respectful. It doesn't hurt that they have tons of time and money invested. All that being said, I don't consider the multi rotor consumer grade gear the press spends so much time talking about much of a threat. Typically they are very lightweight, operate visual line of sight only, and have very limited endurance. Quite frankly the buzzards stacked up off the end of every runway concern me more. There are exceptions, but if you held one in your hand you probably wouldn't be as fearful. This whole issue has the press spooled up and is a PITA for those of us doing this for a living. They are salivating for a big story. It's invaded tv shows, movies, and the press at every level and very little of it is based on facts. Even this discussion. The pilot said he couldn't tell if it was a balloon or a drone. We are not talking about balloons. One thing I believe is certain, you can't legislate common sense. The government will not save us from ourselves. People flying on the Whitehouse lawn, on approach ends of runways.......are already breaking the law. More laws probably will not help. The guy flying an unmanned aircraft off the end of a runway probably has a laser in his pocket. For the record, my company rarely operates in the NAS. When we do it's with FAA approval, class two medicals, visual observers, private pilot minimum, redundant command and control transceivers, redundant GPS, backup magnetometers, lost com failsafes, denied gps failsafes, mode C and/or ADSB...........the list goes on and on. The bird(s) we are flying this week, in Restricted Airspace, show up great via any ADSB solution. Next time you fly by a big block of Restricted just look for something flying around at 30-40 knots. It's probably a UAS. All commercial operations of UAS in the US outside of Restricted Airspace require an FAA certificate of authorization or a 333 exemption (very limited). The FAA is so restrictive we are rapidly loses our industry to other countries. The jobs will leave and they will sell us their stuff on Amazon. As I read my own post I realize the tone could be interpreted several ways. So let me be clear. I'm probably more irritated than most when someone does something irresponsible with an unmanned asset. It's a stain on my profession, propels uninformed legislation and just generally pisses me off. However, in my opinion, the media and Holywood are certainly painting an unrealistic picture. It reminds me of the attitude toward those dang ultralight pilots (I was one) that were going to ruin GA. Not so long ago the media had the target on the backs of GA aircraft. Remember what a huge terrorist threat we were? Are? Recently someone reported 400,000 hobbyist multi rotors were in use. I'm sure not seeing a catastrophic result. The AOPA usually reports GA at around 225,000. That's everything...single, multi, exp. Seems like just on this thread we discuss an accident every other week or so. Maybe not, feels like it though. As Pilots and aviation enthusiast maybe we should show some leadership. I've got guys coming back from the nasty parts of this world with 30K in training to fly small tactical UAS. They are Pilots. Ground School, Medicals...they just fly half million dollar birds from a FOB. What would that add to the AOPA membership? How could they help educate the hobbyist? Just a thought. Cheers!

It's been a while since I have hand flown an approach. I usually let the auto pilot do the hard work (heading mode only). This weekend I hand flew a few approaches. Toss in a bad controller (turning me to close to the FAF on an ILS ), some bumpy weather, and a bit of a rusty pilot. I was humbled. I'll be doing some more hand flying next weekend.

The problem is that some insurance brokers are not getting quotes from all the underwriters. If you are sure the one you are talking to is then there is no reason to call any others. A good broker will forward you the quote from each underwriter as they receive them. Airpower does this and actually advised me to wait for one of the underwriters to respond with a quote as they felt they would offer the best quote for my situation. It may take 3-4 days to get all the quotes back.

it does complicate things. you want to add 1/2 the gust to your speed on final, so 15G25 adds [(25-15)/2 =] 5 knots to final approach speed, and you will use an extra 500 ft of runway

Thank you guys, great advice, the problem is the wind. Gusty winds with 20kts+ complicate things...

As a CFI that watches these things happen quite often, this is great advice. Unfortunately, many pilots get unnecessarily afraid of flight at the slower end of the envelope and shy away from good practice like this.

You mean something like a LoPresti cowl? http://www.loprestiaviation.com/#!wholey-cowl-/c1gg8

One thing I enjoy as much as speed is economy, I have no problem pulling the throttle back and running LOP to fly with you. If everything goes well we will be in a formation flight back to San Diego:) Check out L05 for the next get SoCal together.

I just went through this same problem last week, flew home after an extended absence, three hour flight turned into four due to headwinds, I needed to use restroom, a little tired, impatient, the plane was light with just me and about ten gallons of fuel remaining bounced two times on the mains and had to go around. My second landing was OK, but still ugly. I was to fast over the fence for my weight and knew it and should have just made the go around decision earlier. I went down a few days later and practiced, no problems, I think it happens to many of us Mooney pilots. Airspeed adjustments when the plane is light are important!

You and me both. I get lots of complements on my paint job, but that's always from 50' away. It really is a 50' paint job and my interior... well, it's functional. Still, I love my ol' bucket o' bolts with it's war stories. Oh and I think I'll make it this year. I tried in 2011, but the starter died on the day of departure and I had to miss it. Every year since then, money has been tight and gas prices high, but this year, money is still tight, but gas is low, so I think I will toss my accountant (me) out the window and go!

Anthony, my 1970 C has those same two drains. Guess it depends on the year.

1,500 views... To get to the most important reply! Congrats. Go MS... Best regards, -a-

Many props have 5 or 6 year suggested overhaul periods. Also, sometimes as short as 600 hour suggested increments. But, that depends greatly on the prop in question. 2 blade props generally cost less than 3 blade props. $1600-$2200 for 2 blade props is the norm around here. $2000-$3000 is the local norm for 3 blades. Here are a few thoughts: I'm not a fan of overhauling props needlessly. At each overhaul, there is often a requirement to remove a certain amount of surface material. Sometimes it's as much as thirty thousandths of an inch. (about double an aviation spark plug gap). Once this is done a few times, sometimes as few as 3 times, the prob blade can be "too thin" and gets rejected. Sometimes, a prop can get a "re-seal" where just the O-Rings and seals are changed, and a general inspection is performed. Note, some prop shops won't perform a re-seal on props more than 6 years from last overhaul. Some shops go 10 years. I don't know of any who will perform a re-seal on a prop that has an overhaul older than 10 years. As you might guess, a proper re-seal can go a long way towards extending the life of your prop. My prop was built in 1974, overhauled once since then, and resealed twice. I just recently sent it in for it's 2nd overhaul. It was in great shape, and good lord willing, it will make it's 3rd overhaul sometime in the distant future. Had it been overhauled every 6 years as suggested, the prop would long ago have been scrapped. Also note: depending on prop model, there may be some other reasons to overhaul. Such as known crack risk in the hub, corrosion problems, leaks, and internal parts that need updating due to age or design.

It's a full time deal. They want someone living in town all the time as some of the trips (even the Pt 91 ones) are sudden pop ups. They will always probably be looking as they expand so check back later in the summer with them and see what they might have available. There is another option that might be available here. One of the lake tour operators (American Aviation) flies C 207s and might work out a part time deal with you. They fly around the lake on 1/2 hr tours. Maybe 4 to 8 a day per pilot. They have I think 8 207s. They are always looking for pilots as it is a seasonal thing and a time builder so most don't stay around more than a year or two. Give then a call. You might ask for Bob Logan. BTW, thank you for serving our country!

1977 J powerflow exhaust, boarding step removed: 8000ft 2700rpm, full throttle, 50rop 12.3gph 168kts true Same as above but at peak egt, 10.9gph 164kts Same but 20 lop 159kts 10.1gph Take 3kts off for 2500rpm and about 1gph less give or take. Sweet spot is 22"mp 2400rpm 10lop at 8.2gph turning 152kts. Between 7-11k. Mp at 11k Is less so operate at peak egt but same fuel flow of 8.2gph same 152ish kts

I sure would hate to have someone think of my Mooney as "disappointing" I'm certain it's not as nice as most but it's pretty special to me.

Perhaps they will have a white trash plan contest because we will win that in a heartbeat. Gray primer, old paint, bare aluminum.

Call Falcon Insurance.

You must be feeling like a test pilot when you fly this Mooney! Wowza!

Me, too. In fact, sometimes I contemplate selling my Mooney and replacing it with something that doesn't need an IA sign off. I'm presently flying my second experimental airplane; both have been very easy on the wallet to own. I'm pretty much done with certified. The experimentals out there are pretty impressive and buying parts for them is much more reasonable. The guys in the neighborhood flying the glasairs blow the doors off my Mooney. The Mooney is a great airplane, but, let's just say the part 23 re-write can't come soon enough.

IO-520-BB Tornado Alley Turbo Normalized F-33...