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So while was polishing my Mooney today I was day dreaming about some nose art... What do you think?

Hi guys, I'm the poster child for who benefits from BasicMed. I'm the friend of Orion and Marauder whose experience was referenced here. I am truly the poster child for BasicMed. I am 67, have been flying an average of 175 hours per year for each of the past 19 years, mostly in my 67 M20F. Five years ago, after a sleep study, I was diagnosed with OSA and had occasional Afib. I spent six months going through the special issuance process, and have been flying since, I use my CPAP daily and I haven't had an incident with Afib in nearly 4 years. Part of the deal is I have to prove use of the CPAP and have a 24 Holter annually. My most recent Class 3 expired on Apr 30. On May 4 I had a very detailed physical with my longtime personal physician, a non-aviation person. She pronounced me to be her patient of the month. Every one of my numbers have improved. My BMI is 24.3, and I'm showing no risk factors for any potential debilitation, other than my 3 year old bout with Afib. I have a recent clean bill and Holter from my cardiologist. The BasicMed program will allow me to avoid the annual administrivia, and produce no additional risk to the public, so I was confident that she would sign right away. I was so wrong. She did not, and said she had to "research" it. Over the past week, she has researched nearly every FAA Reg she can find, and has concluded that, if I comply with all the requirements of the last Special Issuance letter, she will sign. I've invested a great deal of time getting to this point, so I'm going to comply. Truthfully, if I'd just gone to my AME, I would have been flying last weekend under a Class 3. I want to avoid the annual requirements, so it makes sense for me. My advice to anyone who will listen is - "Shop for a physician, beginning with local AMEs." BTW, I called AOPA for their opinion yesterday, and they tell me that the number one reason for incomeng member calls re BasicMed is this question, "My Dr refuses to sign the form, no matter what anyone says. Can you refer me to a Dr who will?" Jack ps. I know her sources refer to Medical Classification by AMEs, not BasicMed. Frankly, I'm simply not a credible source of information for her. It's not her fault. The industry should have published talking points and quick reference guides for physicians well in advance of the release of the rules. Instead we released scores of eager but misguided pilots like myself onto a wellmeaning, but unsuspecting physician population. In their shoes, I would also probably decline. Sad.

I predict it will be on Ebay a year from now and the Seller will be from Tennessee and the reason for selling is that he lost his medical.

Spoken like somebody that has never dealt with BK technical support. There is a big difference between Garmin quoting you a fair price and returning the unit on time, working, with warranty vs BK accepting the unit, fucking around for 2 months, quoting you a price of $55K to fix a 4" CRT screen while at the same time refusing to provide a timeline or any sort of warranty. Yeah, that's BK for you. The issue is that that are spring chickens. There is not a single person at BK who even remotely knows what they are doing. All experienced personal either retired, died or went to work for Garmin. What's left is a barebones operation incapable of certifying a single new product on their own for last 20 years. I would never in my wildest dream fly behind an autopilot servo serviced by BK after my experience with them maintaining the EFIS 40 and the KFC325 autopilot. Glad I wasn't the one paying the bills. How about $15K for a pitch trim servo? And another two months turn around time.

Walter White

All - we should probably hit Pause for a minute. I've read through every post here, and unless I'm missing it, no one has referenced or posted the actual note sent out. I've attached it below. Although there is truth that BK will require the items in the list to be sent back to them for repair/OH/replacement, what's notably missing are the KAP-150, KFC-150, KFC-225, KFC-325 autopilot computers, their respective servos, and other related components. I confirmed with my shop and through BK that these items are left off by design, and can continue to be serviced and supported in the field as they are now. Please take a read through the note, and although there is valid concern from many of us about items that ARE on the list, any of us with BK autopilots will be able to obtain services as we do today, hence, are not at-risk. Should your shop of choice not be able to repair or replace any component of an autopilot (due to lack of skill set, equipment, or other limitation), then that shop would engage BK as needed. Hope this provides a bit of clarity and perspective. Steve May 1 Bendix King.pdf

I'm not sure there are too many outright naysayers. For those (most of us) who thought we were going to be able to fly on a driver's license, it is a terrible disappointment. For some pilots, it is a good deal. For others of us, there is little in it that seems attractive to us. And with changes in our circumstances we may rethink our position. So, all told, there is some good here, just not as much as we hoped.

Yesterday there was a post on here where a new member was asking whether $30,000 for a 900TT J model that had been out of annual since 2007 was a good deal. This airplane was not advertised and it was a deal he stumbled upon. He concealed the N-number obviously not wanting anyone else to mess up his deal. All that is fine - we all want a great deal, but then he mentioned how the owner is in the hospital in the last stages of cancer. The more I thought about this the more I thought how the person in the hospital could be one of us and it sounded like he was trying to steal it from the family at a time when properly determining the value of an airplane was the last thing on their mind. Last night I took at shot in the dark and replied with what I thought was the N-number to the airplane (N201FA). It could also be N201CA, but I think it's N201FA. http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N201FA To my surprise when I looked today the post was completely removed - I must have struck a nerve. Out of the blue a few minutes later I got a PM from the one who posted: I'm not interested in this airplane. My only point to this post is that the free market should determine the value of this airplane for the family. If others here are in the market for a 201 project I would suggest checking out the registration (http://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/NNum_Results.aspx?omni=Home-N-Number&nNumberTxt=N201FA). Then going to whitepages.com (http://www.whitepages.com/name/Richard-H-Sherman/Milford-DE/1iu4mqu) and see if you can reach the family to look at it. The more people that look at it the better the family's chances of getting a fair offer. It may only be worth $30,000 but if it was your family disposing of your airplane you'd want them to have a few offers to consider. Full disclosure: I bought the airplane I fly now from a widow. It had been advertised for months though and many people had looked at it. She was treated with the kindness and fair treatment that I would want someone to treat my family. I realize this is none of my concern but we are all watching out for each other.

I thought you meant this:

I wouldn't fly it until those squawks are fixed.

An old Pilot sat down in Starbucks and ordered a cup of coffee. As he sat sipping his coffee, a young woman sat down next to him. She turned to the pilot and asked, ‘Are you a real pilot?’ He replied, ‘Well, I’ve spent my whole life flying biplanes, Cubs, Aeronca’s, Neiuports, flew in WWII in a B-29, and later in the Korean conflict, taught 50 people to fly and gave rides to hundreds, so I guess I am a pilot – what about you?’ She said, ‘I’m a lesbian. I spend my whole day thinking about naked women. As soon as I get up in the morning, I think about naked women. When I shower, I think about naked women When I watch TV, I think about naked women. It seems everything makes me think of naked women.’ The two sat sipping in silence. A little while later, a young man sat down on the other side of the old pilot and asked, ‘Are you a real pilot?’ He replied, ‘I always thought I was, but I just found out I’m a lesbian.’

1 PWE(parrote work equivalent)=2 hamsters

No offense, but can I get a little more gravy?

I would be remiss if I didn't take this opportunity to represent the South.

Good information indeed. With this information, and this is just my opinion, I want to consider that our small Mooney shops around the country (LASAR, Top Gun, Advanced Aircraft Services, Southwest Texas, Maxwell, etc,) need our support to continue servicing us and for them to stay in business and make a living. I do, of course, shop prices when I need parts, but I try to keep all of them in mind as they compete for our business. My thoughts only.

I had the opportunity of touring some of the Cirrus facilities at TYS yesterday evening. Since this is my home airport, I'm used to seeing lots of Cirruses, but something looked a little out of place yesterday. Can you spot the anomaly? In case not, I also uploaded a zoomed/cropped version to really give it away. We sat through a presentation by the VP of, I think it was, customer relations. Cirrus really is going out of its way to be the luxury brand in general aviation. Considering the initial cost and operating cost of a Cirrus, I'm not ready to have one over a Mooney. But, if I were considering new planes at new plane costs, I'd probably be a little less concerned with operating costs.

Anyone wanna venture a guess how much power this Mooney Rocket has up front?

Andy summed it up quite well, mechanics (A&P's and A&P's with IA's) can do everything except for Major Repairs and Major Alterations to Propellers and any form of Repair or Alteration to Instruments. Only a authorized Repairman at a Licensed Repair station can do the latter. There are differences in documentation too. Primarily a Repair station doesn't need to put the details of work done in your log books but can reference their work order for the details unlike a mechanic, plus the repair station has to maintain those records for a period of time. With respect to mechanics, the IA adds the the privileges for performing an Annual inspection and for returning to service a Major Repair or Major Alteration. An A&P can do the actual major alteration or major repair but its takes a IA to sign it off on a 337. Plus the IA can not delegate or supervise the Annual Inspection- the inspection must be done by the IA and not just supervised. Yet the A&P can complete and return to service a 100 hr inspection for those fly for hire ops requiring it. At a repair station, though, a licensed repairman many be performing annual inspections that do not have IA's following the documented procedures of the Repair Station. Then their are some nuances about some special authorizations for Canadian rated mechanics to perform the same work as a rated US A&P, but I recall not annual inspections.

It very much is a box and both canyons become more narrow toward 2000 ft hills...You bring out a good point...was the Icon attempting to fly out by doing a steep turn 180 and spun in.gsengle...your google map doesn't match my boaters map...they are labeled "coves" and my map shows little Portuguese cove as the smaller of the two closer to the wires...I just finished the spring maintaince on my north river jet boat (both batteries and low pressure fuel pump blowing fuses) I need a test run and Berryessa is only 1/2 hr away cause I am curious now.

Difference between GFC700 and pretty much everything else short of the likes of ProLine21 and some upper end gear I've never had the pleasure to fly is that it reacts exactly as fast as it needs to with total, complete smoothness being the overall goal unless dictated otherwise. It can do that because it "looks" into the future as opposed to simply reacting. It just never missed the beat. It's the only GA autopilot that I do not disconnect at 1000' on ILS approach and in a pinch (0/0), I would allow to fly me into the runway. I have no issue what so ever flipping it on 10 seconds after takeoff in a busy airspace. Same software powers some very large equipment from Cessna's jet line where autopilot on after rotation and gear up is the norm.

I think the biggest issue is inability to certify autopilots with an AML. Each specific make/model has to be individually certified making it not worth it for Garmin at the moment. With different certification rules, who knows. I'm pretty positive that G500 can feed the GFC700 autopilot just fine as pretty much all of Garmin's gear runs on the same base software platform, which incidentally is why I would never use G5 to back up G500 or G1000. Software failure modes are probably fairly identical.

Roy, Try also sending Rob a PM. He may have the PM connected to his cell phone to better follow him around. Best regards, -a-

At the moment yes. That's why it's so important that TruTrak and others know how anxious Mooney owners are to install their autopilots once they become certified. I would expect Garmin to jump in one of these times, but it won't be cheap.

Seriously though, about those beignets....

Art needs less coverage to match the plane with minimal paint coverage. PP thoughts, I don't know much about art... Best regards, -a-

Thank you for all your years of service to the Mooney and aviation community!

Mouser has switches that can be N.O. or N.C. depending on arm movement. there are over 1800 choices according to their filter search. Pretty sure Mooney or Safe Flight is not making the switch. They are making the housing the switch lives in.

Since we are all confessing.... My most idiotic flight was in 1981. I had bought a C-150 with a partner. Neither one of us had any money to maintain it, other than scraping enough together for an owner-assisted annual. So it turned into a flying junker. (Eventually the other guy had the wisdom to sell me his half). My goal was to show my boss how I could use the plane for business. We had a presentation to a potential new client in Parkersburg WV. I was to fly from my home base in Frederick MD and join my boss (who was smart enough to drive) for the presentation. The weather forecast was for high overcast and a broken layer over Parkersburg. Needless to say, neither I nor the C-150 were "instrument rated and equipped". Leaving Frederick, I climbed to get over the mountains. Gradually the scattered to broken clouds below me turned into a solid undercast layer. I was now trapped between an overcast and undercast layer. My navigation method in this plane was limited to pilotage, since the only NavCom in the plane was unreliable in both Nav and Comm. On top of that, the whiskey compass had some kind of problem and was unreliable. You can see where this is going. When my carefully filled out flight log said that I should be over Parkersburg (based on timing), I was stuck in between layers, and could not even use my backup navigation method ("where is the sun?") to figure out which way I was heading. And with strong headwinds I was running low on fuel over the mountains of WV. The only radio on the plane that was somewhat reliable was an ADF. There were no NDBs in the area so I resorted to looking for an AM radio station in the Cumberland MD area to get myself turned around. Fortunately I picked up a station, and was never so happy as to see the needle turn toward the station. The clouds were broken over Cumberland and I dove through an opening to find the airport. After filling the tanks I estimated that I had about 20 minutes of flying time when I landed. I got a rental car and drove the rest of the way to Parkersburg, arriving just in time to see the presentation ending. My boss was not a happy camper, and we did not get the business. On the other hand, I was still alive. When I look back at this episode I can't believe how stupid I was. Never again! If any aspect of a flight begins to sound like something you might read in an NTSB accident report, I don't make the flight.

And don't forget, with every BasicMed exam, comes at no extra charge, a comprehensive anus exam.

OK...guess I will reveal my most stupid/dangerous time back in the early 1990's. Kept my original 201 in a community hanger at Austin municipal (prior to Bergstrom) airport. It was cold (for Texas) day about 10AM...called the FBO to get out my plane and leave it on the large ramp in front off the hanger . Hanger was the middle one of three about 200 yards from the FBO. Tried to start the Lycoming IO 360 and starter would only whir... starter would not engage. Previously I could move the prop a couple of inches and then could engage the starter. Of course I had a can of starter fluid ...just in case. Go out ( did not set brake because was only going to move prop a couple of inches). Just to help things I shot a little starter fluid in...you can guess what happened when I barely moved the prop...I dashed to the side and watched my plane go about 100 yards on the huge deserted ramp (no witnesses) and coast to a stop. I pushed it back to the hanger drove home went to bed...and did not fly for a week or two. I learned a huge lesson then. Bob

Mmmmm cafe du Monde. I could smash 6 right now I bet.

I prefer Cafe' Du Monde's beignets. They taste better and give you a superior ride over crispy cream and only contain calories on the 6th Wednesday of every month.

I guess this can go here too:

These are the only cheap ones I have been able to find.

And, Robert Brown is back out of retirement, and will be staying on as Service Manager, which is wonderful news for all of us who know him. Robert had been there for many years before he retired to Mexico. He was missed, but now he is back. I understand we can expect new products from LASAR. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It's too bad this thing can't drive an autopilot- I'd be all over it if it could.

You never know what you'll see at the airport. By the way its for sale

Raytheon Aircraft Corp in the late 90's and early 2000's had a similar program called Travel Air. It was a fractional ownership structure, as I recall. It was a very minor part of their business. I couldn't tell you how profitable it was as getting to that level of detail was tough for someone as large as RACC. And Mooney, when taking pictures of the aircraft with the door open, please make sure the interior is finished before the pics are taken, interior panels missing and wires hanging in the center console looks amateurish at best and unprepared at worst. William

Like this:

Which in my mind means we are left waiting for the Garmin 700 AP to be certified w/ the g500. The other options would be a downgrade from the BK unit i currently have.

Thanks All. Skates, I have a couple of the Replay XD Prime cameras. Most people are sold on the GoPro probably because of their advertising dollars spent, but we've tested the Replay XD camera's literally to Mach .92 and altitudes to 41,000 ' on aerial platforms. They are slightly larger than a lipstick tube, have mini SD cards and have a multitude of mounts, attachments and accessories including a pigtail for onboard power instead of battery. On the aerial platforms we had to use the live-power pig tails when we went above 20,000' or so due the cold shortening the battery life. (normal battery life can be up to 3 or 4 hrs) I mounted the basic swivel mount with their adhesive patches under the tail cone. (which we've tested at work to over 500 kts and they held !!) One really cool feature of those camera's (the Prime X's) is they will bluetooth ! I fab'b a small mount on my instr panel and with an old iPhone 5 just bluetoothed to the camera. It's perfect for another Gear-Up verification with live video feed.

Are you sure? You might be and not know it

i like it,

Search around MS regarding that rpm transducer for the g1000. There may be some history on it... (some of it good) Best regards, -a-

Your weight and balance sheet might tell you what encoder you have.

It'll...ummmm...soften the landings!!!

Sorry Chris, the only thing I got out of that statement is your a Huge ass I knew we would see issues with the new med and I have been trying to decide what what to go. after talking to Jack last night and hearing his issues I think i'm just going with a regular class 3. Brian

Glad to hear you figured it out. Don't worry the oil will find a new place to escape it hates being trapped inside the engine. Oil likes the view from the bottom of the plane better.

I just want to point out that the reason behind some of the discouragement you might hear. We all love aviation, flying, and even using our airplanes to go places. However, we also have the experience to realize when things don't quite work out. I don't think anyone wants to discourage someone from getting into general aviation or getting a Mooney for that matter. But I think they want to offer you an honest view rather than the grand view you might have thought or would come to from an advertisement. I think people are genuinely concerned for your safety (and the safety reputation of the GA community) and wish you success within those constraints. External pressures (get-there-itis) have been one of the leading causes of aviation fatalities. Inexperience, exceedingly quick progression through ratings, and getting too much airplane relative to experience are also a big part. Nobody here wants to see a pilot get hurt or even just a plane get bent up. Another delusion that prospective business pilots have about the utility of the airplane (besides ones mentioned) is that the plane will be used strictly for travel. Inevitably, a lot of flying ends up being done for the purpose of maintaining the airplane and maintaining the pilot's skills. I find myself flying for oil changes, maintenance, upgrades, repairs on a fairly regular basis. Some are lucky to have all of this available on their field while others have to or choose to go elsewhere for the services. The plane ends up spending a fair bit of time down for annuals, upgrades, and repairs. Then there's the time spent practicing. Even if you fly regularly, maintaining currency in different conditions and for instruments takes a lot of practice as well. You've gotta love flying the plane for the sake of flying the plane. Then all this supporting activity is fun and justified. If doing it strictly for work, that's a lot of additional time and expense in order to safely accomplish the utility.