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http://www.doyletics.com/tidbits/militaryadvice.pdf Enjoy!

Now that the thread has gone enough pages for people to yell at each other with no purpose, my 2¢: I think there's a definite value to a mechanic who is at least familiar with the type. That doesn't mean Mooney specialist, but one who at least has enough experience with multiple aircraft types to know that different make/models have quirks. Those are the guys who have a big picture view and very quickly learn what they need to to handle something, even if they've never seen it before. Experience comes into play with how far they have to look. On instruction, you might be surprised, but shouldn't, that the exact same issue comes up on the type-specific forums for every type. In fact, I'll answer this part with a copy and paste of something I said quite recently in a Bonanza forum: As I started to fly more varied complex aircraft, I started to join type clubs and hang out in type-specific places like this. I learned two interesting things (among the huge wealth of information about the type): 1. The people who fly primarily the type think there is something about it that is so different from every other type out there that a CFI, even a good, experienced one, couldn't possibly handle it without specialized knowledge. 2. They are wrong. There are indeed specific quirks to certain aircraft, but the differences are really not that great. Good mechanics are good mechanics and good instructors are good instructors. It's a attitude, a way of approaching things, more than anything else.

There are dynamic, carbon and electret mics. Carbon and electret mics need DC voltage applied. All radios supply mic voltage. Mics need to be directional and noise canceling to work in an airplane. Otherwise all they would pick up is engine and wind noise. They accomplish noise canceling by letting cabin noise get to both sides of the diaphragm. The noise will be in phase on both sides so it will cancel. The sound from your mouth needs to get to only one side of the diaphragm or else it would also cancel itself out. This is accomplished by physically separating the two ports one towards your mouth and one away from your mouth. This is why there are ports on the back side of the mic. They make the mic directional by the size and shape of the ports to further increase the ratio of mouth sound getting to the front vs the back. How you place the mic with relation to your mouth can have a big effect on how well the mic works.

My wife has three horses. I see none of the bills and it's better that way

That's OK. You are in good company. Just replace "Mooney" with just about any other airplane in the bolded portion (with the possible exception of the ubiquitous fixed pitch/fixed prop Cessna 172 and Piper PA28) and you'll find many folks who feel exactly as you do about their special type. OTOH, probably just as many would feel that one doesn't need a "Mooney-specific instructor" in order to learn that one lands on the mains and doesn't force a nosewheel to the ground while an airplane is still flying. Personally, I've seen and heard about far more problems and damage landing a common Cessna 182 than a Mooney (ask a mechanic about how many times they've seen firewall damage in that type). BTW, I placed "Mooney-specific instructor" in quotes since we might have differing definitions of what that is. I would want (and have had) an instructor who flies Mooneys and has some experience in the make/model, not someone who is seeing one for the first time. And I feel exactly the ame as you do about instructing in a type I have not flown in a long time or in which I have little enough experience that I would not feel I have enough ,as the FAA puts it,"instructional knowledge." It's the emphasis on "specialists" I find a bit overblown.

We don't fly some insanely difficult plane to fly. We fly a plane that's just different. And it has a couple extra challenges and less-than-forgiving characteristics that wouldn't pose a challenge in Cessna 172. And it has some systems differences that would be nice to know before an appropriately rated pilot takes to the skies.

The "Little Jane" experiment was attempted with my wife one time. That is all she took for the 54 to 64 gallon upgrade discussion to end. I tried to persuade her to give Depends a try (like Bennet and me ) but she said something about needing to be in diapers twice in her life and not three times. As I have gotten older, I'm like you and not Stinky Pants, sitting for more than 3 hours isn't comfortable anymore. For you young guns: a Little Jane:

The flight path has some spectacular landscape. I always see something new! These are a couple of photos going there and back.

I was in Tel Aviv and was less then a block away when Mike's Place was bombed. I saw the bombing happen and took pictures of it. It doesn't change my view at all. I'm sorry you feel the way you do. I'm glad I don't, I don't live in fear and can count many Israelis, Arabs and Palestinians as close personal friends. Neither am I afraid of the nut jobs in this country murdering thousands with guns every year. Evil is everywhere but so is the good. I chose to enjoy the good everywhere in the world.

My company had an office in Tel Aviv and I visited them for a week doing some KT. An American favorite bar was bombed a few months earlier while my boss was there. My buddy went to Tel Hai (sp?) a few months later to help with QA and his office was attaked by Hezbollah firing Katsusha rockets wheeled out of the mosques. He was evacuated by Israeli army forces in armored personnel carriers. The Israelis I spent time with were some of the nicest most welcoming people I have ever met. They told me many stories and showed me around. I told them I'd support their defense from Hezbollah and Hamas and Iran any way I could. Islamism and Islamic terrorism is real my friends. How many beheadings and gays being thrown from buildings does it take? How many train bombings? Subway bombings? How many school girls need to be pulled into the sex trade? There is a sign at the airport put there by the gubmint, "see something, say something". Well I saw something.

I know it's been a while but after exhausting all the possible external causes for our high EGT issue, we finally took our bird to the engine shop. Our main reason for choosing to do so was a constant puddle of oil noted at the bottom of the intake tube and oily spark plugs. It's not burning enough oil to notice it on the dipstick but with the elevated EGT and CHT we decided it was time. I made one last call to Lycoming just to see what they thought and they agree that there's just enough oil getting into the cylinder from somewhere to be causing our issue. The question now though is WHERE. I'm hoping that it's from the scraper/oil control ring or perhaps a slightly worn valve guide and not a small crack somewhere in the cylinder head but time will tell. Fingers crossed we don't need a new jug I'm supposed to be hearing from the shop sometime tomorrow and I'll be sure to let you all know what has been causing our issue. Thanks for all the suggestions and troubleshooting advice during this long and treacherous journey. Hopefully we'll have the old girl back up and flying by the end of the week! -KJ

When you guys get to be my age you will take precautions as to mislabeled bottle. No one drinks anything out of a Prestone jug. Just sayin'

For those in Florida (X26), from airport website http://www.sebastianairport.org/ Fly in to the Sebastian Municipal Airport and play a round of golf at our great new "fly-in" discounted rate for airport users. The Airport has golf carts available on the ramp outside the Administration Building on the southeast side of the Airport. Contact The Community Development Director/City Engineer/Airport Manager Frank Watanabe at 772-388-8228 or E-mail fwatanabe@cityofsebastian.org for cart reservations. You can take the cart directly from the ramp to the adjacent Municipal Golf Course.

KXE was a good choice. It has plenty of shops like Premier Mooney service center that can repair it. After landing the plane is lifted by hand into dollies and then moved to the shop. It takes about 10 minutes to clear the runway. José

A gallon! You drink a lot!

I got a sun burn from a polished war bird a few years back. I was at an airshow, sat close to the polished bird better part of two hours, and got thoroughly burnt. figured out later it was because of the reflection from the plane.

You're somewhat correct. But in my case of an M20K, have that back alternator off twice in a year and you just realized you dropped $2,500 on alternator maintenance in one year. So I see how Don's $12,000 in annual maintenance is possible. It happened to me. Once was a coupler clutch and not a few months later the alternator quit. My M20J flew 300 hours in 20 months at a cost of approximately $100/hour. Didn't keep things down the penny on that one, so I couldn't tell you for sure. $50/mo shade hangar in Waco, TX helped, too.

Maybe that at least there are some who will read the POH cover to cover before flying a more complex aircraft. I can't recommend that as an alternative to type-specific training, but that attitude will keep seasoned pilots who have flown lots of different aircraft out of the little things that over-confident pilots will miss. ...such as what happens when the emergency gear latch isn't properly configured before takeoff. Then they wonder why the gear won't retract. ...or those who just guess 80 knots on approach and feel their way to the ground as they bleed off speed while using up valuable runway on landing. ...or other important things such as safe demonstrated fuel quantities for departure, slips, etc. The best choice is a thorough reading of the POH prior to training, the CFI going over the important differences to Mooneys in a ground briefing, then go fly. The regs say I can go jump in a Beech 58 and fly off right this very second. I would probably survive and fly ok. I won't be doing that. As a matter of fact, I wouldn't jump in any twin right now without a CFI. I'm at month 5 since flying a twin.

I just used the accuchem product to strip an aileron. It was totally cleaned of all its heavy old imron in about 1hrs time. No aggressive pads or scrapers were needed. Kevin, a sales guy here posted on MS a while back. Great product, minimal time. For comparison, the rudder I stripped took 7hrs for the best stuff from Home Depot and pep boys. Oh and I only used about a 1qt on the aileron of the accuchem, vs 2 gallons on the rudder!!! Thanks Kevin!!! -Matt

I guess we'll have to agree to disagree, especially when it comes to the Mooney. Just ask Top Gun how many prop strikes they have had to repair. Although I have my type rating in the CJ, it was quite awhile ago, so I wouldn't teach in it now even though I am qualified. Same for the King Air and the single engine turboprops. The Mooney is way more susceptible to prop strikes than the oleo strut airplanes. And how much more trouble is it to find a Mooney specific instructor who knows how to deal with those issues? When it comes to my safety, I want the best instruction possible from the most experienced person possible. There are times to be a CB and times not to.

Little Johnnys are a waste of money in my opinion. They leak. I had several at one point and I think I've thrown them all out by now. A water bottle is far better sealed and tosses out without mess.

Proof that a.... Bird in the hand is better than a twin in the bush..? Sorry Daver, don't know what lead to this....

I love the rocket conversion Bonanza...sweet (but I think the allison version is better since it enjoys mid teens). I love the rocket engineering conversion Baron "Cougar". 300 kts and pressurized. Love it. Ain't gonna get either. I love the rocket engineering Mooney in my hangar. I got the keys to that one. :-)

Well if we can't afford it so we aren't going to buy it anyway - My favorite twin has a pair of PT6's. Its more fun to not afford something more expensive.

Students come to me to learn the best way to fly their airplane. Over the past 23 years, I've had a chance to try out many different ways to do that. So it's been an iterative process. The more questions a student has the better. They are involved the learning process. From that perspective I suppose you could say there is collaboration. But most students don't come to me to try to talk me into why their way of flying their airplane is the best way to fly their airplane. I've have had a couple of those (3 or 4 out of all the people I've worked with), and we part ways very quickly. Instructors are in a position of authority because of the experience they hopefully have to more quickly impart their knowledge to a student in the quickest least expensive manner possible. I will demo a lot early on to give a student confidence in their decision to have me teach them and to show them how the Mooney should be flown---especially landing them. Nearly always that encourages them and they improve more quickly. So from that perspective flight instructing is Authoritative.

Vfr towers have very limited equipment. They'll give you traffic advisories and sequence you but in the air separation services are not provided. Only on the concrete. You are always responsible to see and avoid, class d usually affords little to no additional protection.

Uh oh ...

Today chrisk beat me out of Montrose! I departed around 10:15am. It was severe clear all the way home and took 3.5hrs. Nice and smooth with a few exception of predictable areas of turbulence. I have done the drive and it takes 14 hours. I go direct VFR at 10,500' on the way home which takes me by Lake Powell and over the Grand Canyon. Black Canyon Jet Center is always great with reasonable fuel prices. They even gave me a hat and a sun glass cloth, great people!

Greg, My O3 was converted from an O2 when the 1st owner bought it, so I have both the new and old T/O performance tables (although you can also get those on the web). Std atmosphere conditions etc., MGW (3368 lbs) Take-Off distance drops from 1200ft to 800ft. Climb similarly improves. Hot summer days and short runways...yep definitely worth it Robert Edit: LOL, just saw that Anthony had already beat me to it with a more detailed write-up. oh well

Unrecognizable from the days I met my (now) wife who grew up there. Lovely little downtown! Decent restaurants, no longer just German restaurants

The mics on the Halos are VERY directional. If it's just slanted away from you either up or down it will be noticeably poor. And if it's 90 degrees to your mouth it won't work at all. My wife tried my Halo's once and decided she liked them much better than the Zulu2's I had handed down to her after getting the Halo's for me. So I let her use the Halo's and I went back to the Zulu's, planning to buy another set of Halo's at Oshkosh this year. On the trip to OSH her mic stopped working. It was the same over several flights. At the show, I went to the QT booth and complained about he mic not working anymore. He tested them and showed me that the mic boom had gotten twisted and was 90 degrees to the mouth. Now that I felt completely ignorant ;-) we bought a second pair and headed home. Now we both use the Halos and the Zulu2 is designated as the loaner headset for passengers.

Manual #106, would be for Oct-1983 revisions. Covers most models through the J models...but specifically looking for 1970 F Executive model info.

agreed, they are trying to teach common sense....good luck with that.

I'm not familiar with the Halo's, but with the Zulu once you remove the muff there is a little round cover that has an adjustment under it. The mic is also very directional to avoid picking up noise so be sure it is pointed at you and not up or down.

Good, then we can eliminate the radios and testing becomes trivial Zulus have a mic adjustment, Bose do not (I think they auto adjust). dont know about Halos. BTW, the mics are very uni-directional, make sure its pointed at your mouth, easy to do because the mitt covers the mic and you may not have notice.

I left Montrose CO around 8:15 this morning local time. Landed at the home drome 4.5 hours later. I love my Mooney! It started off with an eastward trek at 17,000 to just past Poncha Pass and I then took a right for a direct route. I soon got bumped up to FL190. And after looking at the ADS-B weather, I opted for a slight eastern diversion. --A great day that could have been flown VFR the whole way.

My guess is the reserves. My F will be in the $180/hr for a 100/yr. a lot of pilots don't count the tangibles, like Nav subscriptions, IFR certs, etc. If you go purely on all costs, including reserves, it does add up. In fact, so much that I have a special accounting system in place so the wife only sees the "wet" costs. I know, I'm bad... Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I travel a lot for business as well and in particular to countries that do a lot in the oil and gas arena. Not going to get into the whole racial profiling thing but to say walking around in Lagos is akin to being in Texas is far off base. I have been scared more than once flying but boy have I been really scared more some places in the world. The world is amazing but be careful of the rose colored glasses they can get you killed.

Maybe it's because of the Camguard.

I have the guppy mouth closure. This new cowl gets rid of the whole front and ties in to the existing cheek panels (I think). Then there are cool, efficient, modern air intakes on each side. And no more carb chin. Keep going, David, we're all standing and cheering as you approach the finish line!

During my pre-buy and first year of ownership this was one of my issues I know I was going to have to deal with as well. I was able to find the the right fasteners for the specific ones that kept popping out by calling LAZAR and they put a few in a ziplock and sent them to me so I had them on the road if I needed....which I did...and definitely due to worn out cowling fiberglass. So in an effort to not have to call LAZAR and have them keep my tab open to send me reoccurring fasteners every 60 days I elected to get a complete fastener kit from AEROSPACE (LAZAR has them also) and at my last annual have my mech repair and reinforce my cowling fiberglass (kind of like a face lift...but not really). He has a gentleman thats kind of an artist at it. Now it looks like it rolled off the showroom in addition to not have to worrying about replacing one when you're on the road is kind of a luxury. You're probably eventually going to have to have your fiberglass repaired.

Posts like the above are detrimental to those wondering if they should get training from a Mooney specific instructor. I bet I could fly with this guy and tear his flying apart in 1 or 2 times around the pattern. He is your Macho, anti-authority know it all. If he has CFI at the end of his name, he should be ashamed of himself. If not, he doesn't know what he is talking about. I've seen them before in all shapes and colors in my 21 years of instructing. Unfortunately I've had to fire a couple of those types of students. There darn well is a difference between the Bonanza and Arrow, oleo struts being one of them. I've been asked by Mooney in the past to go cross country to help convince a buyer who was lent a Mooney by the company, prop struck it, and then wanted to back out of his deal because of the landing characteristics of the Mooney, that he could land it properly. It turns out he was one of the best pilots I have ever flown with, but he froze on bounced landing because he didn't know what to do. After spending a day and a half with him, he went ahead with the purchase. So, Mr. non CFI don't tell me there's no difference in checking out in a Mooney vs other airplanes. Go get your CFI and train 450 students and then get back to me.

Hey I was in the air around the same time today just after noon I was flying in from Jackson MS. Heard you on the radio. Enjoy New Orleans. :)

The baggage door is the same size on all Mooneys, at least through K, isn't it? And the F/G/J/K only added a couple of inches to baggage area and 10" to back seat leg room, I think.

Laziness pays off again!

Check with Falcon for insurance. If you want, I'll PM my agents' contact info.

ILS into DPA, then cancel once VFR continue straight ahead to 06C. With the Class G in the Chicago airspace, it's kinda fun. The VFR mins are lower than the lFR mins. At least with the MVA around 06C used to be 2600' The FBO does have funny hours so call ahead. I have Jumped the fence several times... -Matt

For Arl Hgts, I would do 06C if VFR and PWK as an alternate if IFR. Arl Hgts is a pretty cool town!

This time of year it really shouldn't be a problem to where you would need an approach. I always file to DPA and either cancel close to the B if Chicago is vectoring me to much or just cancel with DPA tower and tell them I am over to Schaumburg. Getting out of 06C IFR on the ground is pretty tough but again this time of the year you can get it in the air with no issues (133.5). I was based at PWK years ago when they redid 06C and it is a nice airport as is DPA but the costs are a bit nutty. Getting out of PWK IFR depending upon direction of flight (or coming inbound) can be a bit challenging due to ORD as well. It looks like you are coming from East Coast so getting into PWK means either going over the lake or going around the south side of the B. It is pretty rare to get into the B space, not saying it doesn't happen but doesn't happen very often. Fuel at all three airports is $1 or more over what you can get resonably close. I just looked at KMGC which was $3.99 for awhile and along your route went up but KOXI is $4.04. Also keep in mind what looks like 20 mins is going to vary a lot depending on traffic. Going one side of Arlington Heights to the other is going to be 40 mins and any road near PWK in rush hour is a nightmare pretty much. If you are coming on the weekend or off hours the 20 mins is probably ok.

Can you clearcoat it after you get it polished?