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+1 for the Whelen Parmetheus Plus. I have four in my Ovation, and love them. I went from the GE bulbs to the "first generation" Parmetheus, and then to the "Plus" just recently...which are 40% brighter than their predecessors. Some folks swear by the HID lights, but they tend to draw more than the LED. They also tend to spread light over a wider lateral angle instead of focusing it on the runway environment, but like other hardware, your personal preference and mileage may vary. Also took the opportunity to do a pair of Orion OR650E for the wing tips and an OR500 for the tail...the flashing portions all synchronize. I LOVE them. Several towers have commented...particularly at night. Whelen Orion and Parmetheus: http://www.whelen.com ("Aviation home" --> "New Products")

Wow talk about thread drift...but based on OP I certainly hope for a prompt and attentive response from the authorities on stuff like this. Regardless of race, it's likely some clueless RC pilot who needs an unpleasant, publicized law enforcement encounter to help get his hobby back on track. Of course the possibility that it's a "dark skinned" person with Mohammed Atta ideology or a "light skinned" person with Timothy McVeigh or James Holmes-type thinking does give the response extra urgency. On domestic soil, it's hard to say which of the two scenarios is more likely. Of course as a dark skinned person, I hope not to be viewed in the former light when stepping into a flight school

I like the guy, he was winning the war on drugs, one eight ball at a time...

I have 4 inaccurate fuel gauges, an inaccurate fuel flow meter, no totalizer, but I'm looking for gas much over 3, 3.5 hours and my watch works just fine.

Today was an adventure. Last night before bed we spent a lot of time studying weather forecasts and trying to figure out if we were gonna be able to get out of "Nawlins" and we figured that our only shot would be to start out early. Alarm went off at 4am, and we were at the airport by 5. It was pouring rain the whole time, but the forecast showed that there was one big cell moving over the city and it would be clearing by our 6am departure time. Sure enough the rain stopped and the radar picture was looking pretty good for our route, aside from some junk right at the start. So just after first light we got up in the air, and before making it very far at all the XM weather started lighting up with cells. Where the hell did all this come from? We ended up deviating way south of our course, out over the gulf before turning back north to shoot through a corridor between sets of storms. We couldn't keep going east cause some MOA's were going hot, and the only way out was north, and it worked perfect. I had climbed all the way up to 15000', which was really about 18k DA, and my little C was doing pretty good. We did spend about 2 hours in IMC, but it was surprisingly smooth. Then my buddy mentioned something about the wing, and I looked out to find traces of ice on the leading edge. Immediately made the call and got down to 13 where all was good with the world. A little while later I noticed him nodding off in the passenger seat, which seemed a little unusual. I questioned him about it, and asked if he was feeling ok, if he wanted the O2, etc. but he swore he was fine and the finger tip oximeter was showing pretty good numbers for him. I was on Oxygen the whole time and feeling great. About an hour later he turned to me and said he wasn't feeling well and asked for the oxygen. He was so out of it I had to help him get it on. I had warned him about hypoxia, but obviously he didn't take it that seriously because he kept on saying he felt fine and didn't need it......until he really needed it. Thankfully once he got hooked up to the bottle everything got better and he gained a new respect for altitude. That was most of the excitement for the day. We're now in Marathon, FL enjoying the humidity and giant lizards.

The nexrad is the biggest reason I got it, and in the last couple days it's proven to be worth every penny and then some. Here's a pic from day before yesterday It's proven to be a very valuable in-flight planning tool for getting the big picture of what's going on along our route and if we should deviate north or south. Without it I don't think I would have gone up today, and we would have been stuck in New Orleans instead of getting to the Florida Keys.

I've gotten pretty decent "practice" on bounced landings without trying to necessarily...

When I decided that I wanted / needed a turbo charged engine I thought about adding the M20 Turbo to my VERY nice 67 F. I do believe the M20 Turbo kit is a better design than the early M20K. Everything I have read about the engineering is sound and an improvement from the original M20K. However, the cost to buy and install the kit exceeded the value of the F, and would not have added much to retail value down the road. I called Jimmy Garrison at All American and asked him to find a decent M20K, which he did in a couple months. 231MS also had the engine upgrade, intercooler, and Merlin wastegate that, in my mind, corrected some of the early K shortcomings. For me, it was absolutely the right decision. The cost was only about 10K more than my F was worth (it was a very nice F), it's newer, and there is support for the components. Hopefully, when the time comes to try something else, it will be a little easier to sell a factory turbo than one with the conversion. As good as the M20 Turbo conversion is, I always wonder who did the installation and how well the details were followed. It is a major job. Out here in AZ where it is hot and high, the K is the right plane for me. I've talked to people who really like the Ray Jays, and one fellow who is absolutely fanatically sold on the M20 Turbo conversion. Personally, I would not do a conversion myself, but if that was what I wanted, I would try to find an existing converted plane for sale.

No need to apologize. Check for aicrafts here: http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/46824/why-does-the-incorrect-plural-aircrafts-seem-to-be-occurring-more-often José

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

Anything above 5000' and my MAP is at maximum regardless of what it reads on the gauge.

It also makes sense if you are doing a cost comparison relative to renting an aircraft. If you fly enough your cost per hour could be better than a rental.

Looks like after 10,000' you start using .7"/1000' after 18,000' .5"/1000' as a ruff rule. My MP is correct at field level and pretty close using the previous numbers.

Missed you by a week We visited the weekend before for a "lobstah roll" at Hill's Seafood and a visit to the Farnsworth Museum and the Lobster Festival. Fun town, airport and stunning Maine coast line of course. Come visit Danbury (KDXR) if you feel like dodging Turkey Vultures on Short Final and take off, not as elegant but almost as large

If I'm not mistaken the mini 3 is the same as the mini 2 except addition of the fingerprint reader, which has no utility in the cockpit. Could save a couple bucks and just get the mini 2.

it's kind of funny that article should come out just recently with this discussion going on. The cost difference is so slight I think I'll just get a new LTE air, it'll be a little smaller than my ipad2 and have the same screen size. my wife still uses her ipad 1, it does everything she needs and still works great. It's like, the only one I've seen in years.

$150 a card? Yikes. Get some generic sdcards of the same size and clone the garmin cards, save yourself $140.

Check the suction screen too. That's where the big, scary metal chunks will be.

We have a GTN 650 and two G500s at work. I'm in charge of updating the SD cards for all 3 of those units and I can't get any of them to update. I've tried 2 different card readers and even tried uploading them using my own home computer with no luck. I plug the cards in and they seem to be invisible. Being we only fly VFR I haven't made it a priority but I have no problems updating our two GNS 530s. These issues are why I think simple is better. I love my steam gauges and have no plans to upgrade from my 430Ws.

LOL, no I believe that's the previous owner of the plane. I just bought it in January.

Now you are a real cross country pilot! Good job!

Nice seeing your progress today. It's looking good so far. I found that cutting through that first layer was hardest - in my case it was several years of dust and minor surface corrosion - it gets kind of addicting as you get into the finer grits and see the scratches disappear and the shine come to the top. I'll have to swing by again in a few weeks! Patrick

i was doing pattern work ,took off on 21 reported a left crosswind for 21 . a citation jet called in on a 8 mile final for runway 3 . i told him im turning onto left downwind and will extend until you are clear . he replied. he then landed and reported clear of the runway and thanked me. i did not even extend past my regular long downwind. he was just that quick. but talking to traffic i think helps

I'll try not to invest too much effort to this thread as it has also devolved but here's my opinion. Transition training is recommended. It's a check out. It's designed to get you safe. You can take this as a license to learn and finish with a certificate, bachelors, masters, or PhD in Mooney operation. You may decide that you need a Mooney-Yoda or you will be a self taught Jedi . Either way self assessment of your own capabilities and conditions, while establishing some practical limitations is paramount. Do you need to fly 2000 miles to see Don to get proficient ? Maybe but not necessarily. For me it was a checkout with the instructor that instructed the previous owner. Flew for 5 hrs and then I felt comfortable in the plane. Comfortable enough to to embark on a cross country journey from Fresno to Boston including taking passengers after insurance said I could. I was also flying a lot and instrument proficient in an Arrow at the time. The transition training was straightforward. Was this a good idea? Absolutely but it involved risk management decisions and consistent self assessment. Why? Because I value my own behind and that of my wife, family, etc. Honestly the Mooney has quirks and deserves the same respect as any other new or unfamiliar aircraft. No more and no less. Learn to fly it safely in whatever way you define safely. Just be responsible about it. Also there seems to be an over emphasis on landing technique in the mooney where the transition training conversation should also focus on things that will actually get you killed like not knowing how to perform emergency procedures including gear down, "power off" performance characteristics, and especially avoidance of spins. I believe it was the base to final spin accident rate that drove Cirrus-specific training by comparison. Brad Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Many Class Delta towers have nothing in the way of radar or a radar feed. They're looking out their window, not at a radar scope. They put a tower in at KFDK near my house and I feel less safe there since. Instead of pilots working together to keep the flow moving with proper spacing, that task has been given to a simgle person with no radar, sitting in a tinted glass room 20' off the ground...

Anthony -- to answer your question about other brands and transitioning, I think it depends. I think "transition" training can range from how to land a plane through complete system familiarization. I remember renting a Cessna 172 for a BFR while my plane was on an extended annual. Although I have tons of hours in Cessnas, opening that cockpit door and seeing a G1000 took me a bit back a notch. The plane flew like any other Cessna, the systems however took me a bit to get comfortable with. Even in my own Mooney, after 22 years of ownership, stepping up to a glass system took some transitioning time. Even after 3 years of glass ownership, I am still learning new tidbits on them. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

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.

Steel parts like the welded up 4130 steel tubes that make up a large part of Mooneys, or crankshafts, connecting rods and such have no life limit. The loading of the parts is below the yield strength. Otherwise they would have a published life limit.

Yea. Since it's rare for anything to end up costing less than $1000 there is no point in more precision. -Robert

My AMUs are in hundreds

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!

AMU = Aviation monetary unit = $1000. Used to tell your wife I need a new widget and it only costs 2 AMU.

In Australia there are Wedge-Tailed Eagles that are actually a tad bigger than the Baldies here in the US. They are very territorial and I've been run off by one of them before while hang gliding. While soaring the hang glider, there's no sight quite like that of a Wedgie climbing to you in the same thermal. They are much better climbers and will climb right past you and then attack the glider from above. I've never stayed around to get hit by one, but friends have. They say it feels like a body landing on the wing from above. While not dangerous from the standpoint of breaking the glider or making you crash, but it will put nice neat slices through the wing, taking a quick grand off the value of the glider.

Any pilot can fly badly or kill himself with or without transition training. Any Mooney can have problems of some kind with or without a Mooney knowledgeable mechanic. Success in aviation, like all things in life, is built on odds. Your odds of being a better and/or safer pilot is better with better training, and your odds of getting better training (for Mooney flying) is better with a Mooney knowledgeable CFI. And your odds of having lower Mooney maintenance problems are better with Mooney knowledgeable mechanics. I think that Mooneys have a few more differences from brands C, C, P and B, that move those odds a little more than most, but this may be bias or ignorance on my part.

Minimal. An A&P that has worked on multiple Mooney's. Brought mine back from it's neglected hanger queen state. Experience is never mandatory, but any experience, that doesn't kill you, is a valuable experience in my book. Live and learn...Learn AND live.

There was a species of Eagle that lived in New Zealand until about 20 years ago that had a 20ft wingspan and was capable of killing adult humans and carrying away toddler humans. Can you imagine sharing the airspace with those bad boys? The FAA would probably have to mandate that they carry ADSB-out transponders. I bet they would make a mandate to the department of interior that the department of interior agents would be required to catch all the Heist Eagles (I think that's their species name) and tag them and mount a certified adsb-out transponder.

We've got Eagles in our pattern all the time... A bit bigger though: 42' wingspan and ~40,000lbs...

Why didn't you just talk to him and tell him it wasn't the best place to fly?

As a Sheriffs Dispatcher, I can only guesstimate that the call volume of Hillsborough led them to taking that call and putting it on the bottom in terms of priority.

Quiet Technologies Halo headset. You'll be glad you did. http://www.quiettechnologies.com

Funny how a "lunch at Dalton" thread becomes a "bad plug" thread.

Turn down the oxygen flow... Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I stopped at Silver Springs for gas flying from San Diego to Seattle in the summer time and it was like a ghost town. It was easy and cheap. Peed in the outlying dirt surrounding the fuel pump and went on my way...

I can't tell you the difference, but I can tell you it is usually less expensive to purchase an airplane with the desired equipment already installed. That being said, if the RayJay system isn't working properly, or has issues, it will be expensive to repair as unless they are really working well they seem to always have issues. Those who never have an issue with thier RayJay will disagree, but those are those that are really working well (and thus don't have issues). I would go find a good F with the RayJay if I really needed Turbo. If turbo was a must, find a K (231). Larger pool to purchase from and easier to sell when the time comes. However, they cost more. -Seth