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I rented a house below the Fisk merge point one year. One day I sat and watched with a couple beers. I gave up after an hour, it was just too stressful! Everyone on the Fisk arrival is already flying formation. They just don't know it, haven't practiced it, briefed it, or met the other pilots with whom they're sharing a runway. We've all seen several accidents that've closed a runway or the whole airport. Roush mentioned other traffic as a factor too in his jet bending. The controllers are just trying to push iron, they're relying on each pilot to execute or say "unable." Each year we have an interloper see the Caravan stream and try to join. And each year I think "wow, I'm glad I'm with people I know, trained with, and can trust to execute instead of throwing in with a bunch of strangers who may've not trained at all!" It IS the execution. 11 years with the group, no Fisk for me. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

First time flyer for PnP. KCGE to KBLM. Cute puppies.

I'm still learning, after forty two years, military, airline, general aviation....i've still got alot to learn.

I don't think anyone should fly because it endangers UAVs.

?!!! I was figuring you were married to a 750lber! Does your wife know that you think she needs to beef up?

TEB for several flights, back when it was possible from there, then Williams AFB in Mesa, AZ complements of USA taxpayers. Learning to fly is, however, a lifetime endeavor!

Really? I thought they were the Bob Belville relief tubes! Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I trained at ADS (Addison, Dallas), and highly recommend it or one like it. If you learn at what is reported to be the busiest single runway airport in the country, you will never worry about talking to ATC or heavy traffic.

You'll need to find a CFI with Mooney experience first. Have him check out your CFII partner (perhaps with you riding along in back as an observer) and then get your partner to check you out. Paying for a Mooney-specific instructor to do this is HIGHLY recommended as you'll learn good habits vs. just getting any ol' CFI to give you an easy checkout. Getting said Mooney-CFI to help you bring the new plane home is a good way to start.

A newly minted private pilot post check ride, is probably more on his A-game then a lot of 30hr a year weekend warriors!

Why don't we just say friends and family aren't allowed to fly with anyone other than 10,000 hour ATP's? Would you jump in the 172 with a newly minted Private Pilot as the DPE was just climbing out? It's one thing to chastise someone for breaking the regs or the law, but I'm personally tired of those trying to impose their personal limits on the rest of us.

When I read the title of your thread I thought Summarizing as in your collective thoughts on our wonderful airplanes

So coming back home from Oshkosh, I'm on FF with Austin Approach level at 7500ft. "Mooney 6XM maintain 5500 or above, traffic 12 o'clock 4500 a Cessna same direction." About 3 min later... "Austin Approach, Mooney 6XM in the decent to 5500." The response... "Mooney 6XM, Approach, delete altitude restriction, traffic no-factor. You've overtaken the Cessna and have at least 50 knots on him." Mooney's -- We Love to Fly FAST!

Living in Green Bay, I don't fly the week of the EAA. Just trying to stay safe, they don't need anymore planes in the air that week.

Sport pilots share the airspace already. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

LOL, I was just reading this article the other day laughing.... http://oppositelock.kinja.com/favorite-sr-71-story-1079127041

An unpainted carbon fiber spinner would look ausome

I'm here as a friendly reminder that the FAA medical does now include a BMI calculation. Over 40 BMI, automatic sleep study... Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Two caveats. 1) I didn't have my glasses on (uncorrected vision 20/30) and the distance was over a mile. 2) I noted the aircraft , turned to answer someones question about when the airshow started and when I looked back the airplane was in the process of going nose down and dropping a wing. I had time to say "Oh no, oh no..." and then the airplane hit. It appeared to me to just be beginning to recover from the stall immediately prior to impact. I have seen several aircraft "go in" in my life and was simply amazed there were survivors on this. It was only after seeing a post crash photo that I could understand how it could have been survivable and that is the wings, where the vast majority of the fuel was, broke away. One other thing that was noteworthy. A bystander who was nearby rushed into the aircraft and pulled the one badly injured person out. Makes me proud to be a human ...

230? Do you have any athletic friends over 6' tall? Seriously, 230lbs is not uncommon for a fit male in that height range.

The crash did keep me from meeting a commitment 75 miles NE. That was followed by a maintenance challenge suspected on the way from Madison and confirmed when OSH finally opened after the crash. The afternoon closure kept us from departing until almost 7 pm. I did get my commitment rescheduled. I had vowed to never visit OSH as I would only wanted to fly the trip personally, no drive and no commercial. The untrained bee type buzz around OSH and the crowds on the ground kept me from going. The Caravan Clan changed that for me this year. We will Caravan again in 2016, but may eliminate the camping and ONLY fly via the Caravan. Call Signs-Crank and T-Rex, affectionately bestowed by the Caravan policies.

I just ordered some sawgrass plants and a Mr. Beer kit to make my own

Yeah based in Houston. Bringing a small cooler and drinking 1-2 bottles of water when I fly up to Waco or down to the Valley helps. I also wear Nike dry-fit shirts. Anything cotton is completely drenched by take-off. And carry a couple gym towels to wipe off your head/headset/seat. Other than that, fly early/late, keep the cowl flaps open, and get as high as possible.

It's the responsibility of electronic products to control their RF emissions, expecting a radio receiver to be shielded against radio frequencies seems asking a bit much.

Yes, I think that the time to be especially careful is when the controllers are busy. Or perhaps I should say abnormally busy. I was flying over Kerrville about a year ago and on flight following, vfr. Controller was having to carry two frequencies that day, including approaches to both Austin and San Antonio. I heard him calling traffic to a king air and some other airplane and I thought to myself "those are in my area". So I started looking around a little bit extra. I looked out the left window and caught movement out of the top of my eye and see the Kingair which has flown smooth perfectly over me from right to left on a perpendicular intersecting course about 200 feet above me buzzing off to the left. I never saw it coming I just saw him leaving. And by the way, up close a king air looks big and hauls ass. I called the controller told him that I just gotten a haircut from the king air, and he got real bent out of shape and offensive on the radio. It was a strange experience and then interaction for me. In 25 years I had never heard a controller be anything other than courteous and professional. Point to this story is to watch your peas and cues when the guys are overwhelmed, they can have their attention focused on one perceived threat and miss another one.

KASL, 1957, soloed; PPL 1960, KAUS.

It's not opinion, it's value. The value of an AC is what someone, somewhere is willing to pay for it. If there is no one there, then your expectations are too high. As you said, move on, but don't bemoan the fact that where you see a dog another sees a princess.

I have the Century 31 with the GNS530W and Iam happy with they way it turns without a GPSS unit.It may incur on some minor overshoots that are quickly correted besides most of my flights are circumnavigating around clouds and steering manually. I can save that moomey for AVGAS José

No, they didn't even have their own booth, they "advertised" kind of as part of Seattle Avionics booth. No specials. Too bad, too, because I'm leaning strongly in that direction myself. The guy at the Seattle both said to just call Navworx with any questions.

The E, F, and J position the engine in the same place. The same engine mount is used when you convert an E or F to a J cowling. You weld on the cowl flap harward but the rest of the mount is the same. John Breda

I first soloed at a no-name grass field near KJYO, but my pre-solo lessons took place at KJYO (Godfrey Field, at that time, Leesburg, VA). The PA-11 was $10/hr wet. The instructor was $5. However, being a fairly smart lad, I calculated that I couldn't afford to fly without help from my rich Uncle Sam, so I got to solo again at KNUN, Saufley Field, FL. Finished my Naval flight training at KNGP...NAS Corpus Christi. For anyone who might fly out of JYO, Dave Pearce gave me my first hour of instruction. I understand he's still at JYO 47 years later....! I understand he still owns that PA-11.

My beautiful German girlfriend says that translates to " aircraft spruce has many 406 ELTs to choose from."

Thanks for all the advice. I've got an IceBox system but it's 45 minutes from the house to the hanger. I lose probably 10% just on the trip to the hanger. The good news is it's in the hanger, not outside. But there is no power to the hanger, so no air-conditioning, fans, etc in the hanger. A quick story... last year I was home alone for the 4th of July and my birthday which is the same weekend. I was pretty excited that when left to my own devices... all I really want to do is FLY. I'd owned the airplane for about 3 months and thought to myself, "I own an airplane! I will spend the weekend flying as much as I like." I went to the airport and started pre-flighting the plane. It was nearly 100 degrees. After getting it all ready to go, I was soaked through. And I thought to myself... "I OWN this airplane, which means I don't have to fly in this heat, I can fly anytime." I pushed it back in the hanger and went home to sit in the air-conditioning and watch flying videos on YouTube. Since then I've put 160 hours on the plane, so I'm not complaining. But flying in August just isn't much fun around here.

The ice chest cooler works great, especially if you use block ice. I'm a bachelor and dont keep much in my freezer so now 3/4 of it is full of ice bricks.

The ice chest cooler makes all the difference.

Oops, ran outta popcorn.

Last time I read about Swift fuel, it was supposed to be a drop in replacement for all engines. I hope this hasn't changed. It's seriously lame that they have to get an STC for each different engine. I don't get this fuel problem. There are numerous companies that claim to have fully tested drop in replacements for all engines. Seems to me the FAA could run some independent tests of their own on each fuel, approve them, or reject them and then let the market figure out which one is best. Should take about six months not years and years. They seem to be trying to turn this into big complicated rocket science project like we're going to the Moon or something. I bet the AVGAS we've been using for decades was tested and approved in six months or less. That's how they used to do things.

Not exactly... the "working" planes in GA that are running high-horsepower turbo engines need 100 octane to prevent detonation as I understand it, and playing with the timing won't necessarily solve that problem. While these planes are in the minority of the GA fleet, they buy the majority of the 100LL.

The difference in my book between ordinary and extraordinary pilots is one knows their limits and the other doesn't. Everything about being an extraordinary pilot centers on ADM and not stick and rudder skills. Being a good stick can make up for a lot of bad decisions but eventually a bad decision is going to get you.

Flying into Oshkosh has been one of the highlights of my aviation experience... twice. I would whole heartedly recommend it to every pilot. After so many years of dreaming of that arrival, "Cleared to land on the purple dot, Welcome to Oshkosh" made me just a little bit emotional. BUT... it is a privilege not to be taken lightly. I chose to throw my lot in with the Mooney Caravan. That involved several clinics and lots of practice with fellow Caravan pilots. And like most things, preparation makes a huge difference. Last year I flew as Charlie 3 in the Caravan, landing solo on 36R. This year I flew as Charlie Lead, landing with my number 2 wingman, side by side on 36L. What an amazing experience. And after two of these, I'm convinced its the safest way to arrive at OSH. This year the Caravan landed 39 Mooney's in 5.0 minutes flat. If you want to fly to Oshkosh next year, get to a clinic and come fly with us!

Marauder might have some real world data to share.....

Last weekend I did a PNP flight with EMAN and we picked up the dog at Greenville(SC) Downtown. Great restaurant on the field, 10 % off to pilots and passengers. I had a super chicken salad and eman had a large burger. Highly recommended. (each was about $10 with drinks) Met another mooney pilot there too !. LAHSO...We parked side by side. Bill

Very sad. One reason why I don't fly into KOSH for the show any more.. too many things out of my control. Used to all the time, but no more. Seen too many accidents and planes torn up for no good reason. Now I fly into KGRB. Much safer for me and my plane. And I enjoy the show just as much. Best wishes and prayers for all on board.

Thanks guys for all of the comments and questions. I've researched the ram air on the E & F models and talked with some very knowledgeable Mooney folks and the consensus is that by moving the filtered air into the left cylinder air inlet, the same boost to mp can be achieved. if I do this, I can use most of the same parts except for the air inlet for the fuel injection on the 66 C, E, F & G models. This will keep the costs down if I can do this under one STC. It will do away with all the ram air rubber seals and the air filter on the above models and make them more in line with the J model. I'd like to find an option for the spinner, but if it's not already certified and fits certain dimensions, it can add 100 hours of test flights to get it certified as part of the STC. That would delay the project and raise costs, so it's a matter of where's a good balance in the cost vs benefit in the project. It was great meeting and talking with Ned, Clarence, Yves, Andy, Johnathon, Vincent and many more. Thanks again, David

Well I'm disappointed you're not coming. Don't trust that old F model to cross the Mason-Dixon line?

Stephenville (KSEP) has a nice BBQ place called Hard Eight about a 5 minute walk from the ramp. Brenham(11R) is a bit further and has somewhat restricted hours but has a nice diner on the field. Longview (KGGG) also has a couple of good restaurants pretty close to the field but you'd probably want a crew car.

Getting one as we speak. I also understand it will give an audio alert when traffic is conflicting. Will tie in display- GMX-200. Although it is replacing a GTX-327 in the right stack, am not concerned that the display is more in co-pilot position, they audio alert will cause my scan to look at it. Expect to sell the Gramin GTX 327, current used market value is approx $1200-1300. The small GPS antenna is no big deal. Hitting traffic is a bigger belimish. Yes, there are less expensive options, but with the traffic and wx displays, no need for an ipad (but will send data to one if you want) and having 1090 out- no 18K restriction it is the best value for the plane M20K-231.

Rick I think its everyone's fight and AOPA is helping lead the charge but we can only do it with the support of our members. If you've received an email asking for Political Action Committee support and feel like making a contribution isn't money well spent, then I'd suggest that support can be in many forms, not just financial. Lend your voice, write letters, ask for an appointment to meet with your congressman/senator. If everyone were as fed up as you obviously are and we could channel that energy towards the policy makers in DC things would almost certainly move faster. Earlier in the thread I listed 10 things that AOPA has done and continues to do for the betterment of GA. When you consider all of those things (and more) are part of $59 annual dues, I think is a pretty good value. Believe me when I tell you the folks at AOPA are well meaning, passionate, dedicated pilots. We want the same things as you. If your unconvinced send me a PM and I'll be happy to discuss with you personally over the phone or in person at a fly in. Safe Fights George