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This is clearly not headed in the right direction. Jolie is clearly a competent, quality Mooney Ambassador...nuff said.

I have similar experiences. I grew up in Santa Barbara, CA and back then if you traveled north on the 101, you would pass through the village of Gaviota and there they had a schoolhouse called Vista Del Mar Union School and on the grounds was a North American F-86 Saber. It had it's engine, guns, avionics, etc removed, but you could climb on it and there was a way to climb into where the engine was and make you way to the cockpit. Every time my family took a day trip north, we would stop in Gaviota. The Schoolhouse is visible from the 101 freeway and so was the Saber. The school closed in 1986 and the Saber soon thereafter disappeared, but I still look over there when I pass by today and think about it. Also when I was a kid and in the Boy Scouts, our troop arranged to go camping in the desert at Edwards Air Force Base. This was the '70s and you could still do cool things like that. One of two things that really stand out from that trip, was hiking to see the rocket sled track where they did all those experiments to do with humans and G forces that everyone, including me at the time, had seen those black and white films. We went down in the concrete bunker where they ran the experiments and looked out through the thick, blast proof glass. You don't forget this stuff. The other was hiking over a hill and coming across a B-58 Hustler in the desert. As we got closer, we realized that it had been torn to sheds with bullet holes. It was clear it was a ground attack practice target. It had lots of sharp, jagged edges sticking out, but did that stop us? No. We climbed all over and in that thing. It was so cool and it was one of my favorite planes at the time as I had just finished a model of one. We were kids, so it never occurred to us that they might come back and shoot at it again while we were there. It was an adventure... Anyhow, those were the days.

I was fortunate to be involved in one angel flight, although it wasn't with the Angel Flight organization. Oh, did I mention I was the patient? The cool part was a former Mooney pilot flew me and my bride home from recovery after getting medical clearance to be at an 8K cabin pressure in his TBM 850...as we pull out on the runway, he says "your airplane"....and thats how it stayed until we touched down at KPIE, with a short stop at KNEW. I love logging TBM time! Thanks Chuck!

Thanks for all the advice, met with my instructor yesterday, he has calmed down alot, I went for a solo flight afterwards with the info gained from this thread, and have had 4 perfect landings, back at home base I had long roll out approved since my hanger is at the end of a 8500' runway. I used the 80mph appraoach (1.3Vso ) full flaps and full up trim and adjust power for glide slope. A foot above the runway, I got an itch from reading Don Kaye's website and added a little power and then a little more and kept her in ground effect at about 65 mph IAS all the way just short of my taxiway and then pulled power and she settled down. This is what I took from all the advise This is working perfectly: I use 45 degree past abeam since it is not wind dependent vs time (I don't descend until turning base) 100-90-80 MPH in downwind, base, and especially on final. Full Flaps on final Adjust power and pitch as necessary for aiming point. (Usually don't have to keep fiddling with this once stabilized) Runway assured, power to idle make sure trim is all the way or nearly all the way back for easy flair. Plane slows to about 75 in the round out Soft field landing, fly it down to runway, shortfield hold it off to full stall about 1 ft off. It's cake after all that, I know I could reduce speed more when light, but aircraft only floats for about 2-3 seconds as it. This is working perfectly and I can land shorter than most of the C172 students at both fields.

Did another fitting today. We are finding, on the injected models, the oil cooler is simply in the way. Dave thinks he could work around it, but it is uber tight. The command decision is to relocate the cooler to clear up space and also make room for a second landing light. This will delay things a bit. The plan is to move the oil cooler and plug the with a plate allowing us to test the ram-air. If the ram-air is ineffective, we remove it totally, making even more space and a cleaner installation. If we do remove the ram-air, I will have a nearly-new servo boot for sale. Also for sale will be the LASAR cowl closure.

If it's not busy, I answer that call by saying, "Sure, what do you need advice about?"

Looks like all the rest of us have to stop flying in IMC...

Something you might consider. If you want the most altitude possible and still be as close to the airport as possible, you might want to try making a Vx climb. Check your POH but I suspect that is at a very slow speed with flaps up. Personally, I would prefer as much energy as possible which implies cleaning up as quickly as I can safely do so.

Just don't be the knucklehead who gets on the radio and asks other aircraft in the area to "please advise."

Absolutely. We had a pretty good conversation about it last night. It's difficult to find actual IMC in Arizona. When it happens it's either known icing or thunderstorms, so... We're going to try to find some in SoCal and fly out there just for that. At this point, I've pretty much decided I'd like to go through to at least CFI. Maybe CFII. So we're going to start throwing some commercial stuff into the instrument training. I took my first discovery flight 9/11/16. As of today, I have 177 hours. 80+ hours cross country with several flights that were 'real' XC. Including from KDVT to KMSY (New Orleans). I like flying. I usually go fly at least twice a week, often 3 or 4 times a week.

When I was a kid in the 80’s we had a Grumman F9F at our local park. The engine was removed and we used to crawl through the air intakes and mess about. The F9F came from the MInnesota Marine Reserve. About 10 years ago I met a pilot that flew that very plane. He said In the late 50’s the MN Wing went down to participate in nuclear testing. He said he circled that plane around several mushroom clouds only 4 miles from ground zero. Apparently they wanted to see how the radiation effected the plane and electronics. I love that when it was time to retire the plane someone thought, “kids would love this thing, let’s drop it in a park”. Im glad they did. I did love it. cheers, Dan

I've said it before and I'll say it again and all of you can hold me to it... If I'm ever in a situation where I can't fly my airplane for more than a few months, I'll find some young aspiring pilot/CFI/etc who needs hours, get them listed on the insurance and make them a set of keys. And if its a financial situation where I can't afford to maintain the plane, I'll either sell it or bring on a partner or two, even if all they can do is cover maintenance and running costs. But one way or another, it needs to keep flying. Holding onto an airplane and keeping it from flying, just because it's yours and you're not in a position to fly it, until it rots, is selfish and shameful.

I’ve flown for several Angel Flight organizations as well as Veterans Airlift Command. Good, professional mission coordinators who understand GA constraints. Last weekend I confessed to the coordinator that, gee, I’d love to help, the weather looks perfect, but I’m not IFR current in this airplane. She promptly waived that requirement, and the ride was glorious. There are mobility rules by the Angel Flight orgs. I’ve overlooked them when I thought we could manage,, but in general, the patient must be able to step up onto the wing, step down into seat, and do that process in reverse. Line help may or may not be available to assist. About Weight, the rules say 30 pound max softside luggage. So do I. I made one entitled couple repack, right there on the ramp, and leave most of their matched luggage in their SUV. Another coordinator said there’d be one small parent, small duffle, and baby. Showed up to find two parents, very airsick and badly-handicapped toddler, and a cartload of special, heavy medical equipment. “We didn’t think medical stuff counted.” Duh. Fortunately, the linking pilot gave me a heads-up on the load, and I hadn’t topped off. It was a near thing.These are the exceptions. Most passengers are scrupulously careful, weight-wise, and all are very appreciative. Some stories are heartbreaking, others heartwarming. They often can’t afford the commercial fare for repeat treatment, some are immunosuppressed, some live hours from commercial airports. It is a privilege to be able to help. And a tax write off for that flight. And great publicity for GA. And personal warm-fuzzies. And a fine excuse to burn 100LL. How often, how far, in what conditions, are up to the pilot and her plane. In the final analysis, whether to accept the mission, or call it off at any point, is my decision, like every other flight I’m PIC of. If the weather is poor, the patient and companion need special accommodations, are overweight or not mobile, it’s a no-go.

With a single 45 minute stop at a supercharger a Tesla P100D will do it and a Model 3 Long Range will do it easily with an even shorter battery stop.

For me this structured flight for non family or friends is going to have to wait until 500 hrs / IR / smooth coverage which is probably 2 years out. I’ll have many years to help out in the future and I see no advantage in having newer/low time pilots take on these responsibilities. However, helping as a copilot would be a great idea but I’m not sure how many do that or if UL would allow.

This is N100HQ, left to rot years ago in plain view of the family M20K 252 at our home base Teuge (EHTE). I try to cover her eyes and tell her not too look, when we taxi past, but the hard questions always come sooner or later, sometimes even right during the take-off roll. Then I tell her to be the pro that she is, and adhere to the sterile cockpit policy and save the questions for cruise, and often but not always she has forgotten already.

Oxygen chamber training was really helpful for this. In my Prote chamber experience I was at 28,000-30k ft simulated, and I could do VERY simple things for around 5 minutes, and I *might* be able to navigate the plane down, but could probably push one button (altitude preselect to a non hypoxic altitude above terrain) and not worry that much about passing out. Hypoxic chamber training is Highly recommended that *EVERYONE* who flies over 9,000 feet to do, so you'll know your symptoms right away so you can check and correct them before you pass out. I have no problem flying above 15k and in the flight levels with oxygen and do it regularly, as the air is generally smoother, and sometimes you can get awesome tailwinds, and you have the sky to yourself pretty much. I have several pulse oximeters that I use religiously. One of them blinks and has a beep (which I'm not sure I could hear) but I might see the blink and since I know my personal hypoxic symptoms (which are different for everyone) I would likely know when my sats are low. I do also carry a few of those oxygen in a can canisters, in case of catastrophic failure of my onboard oxygen system to be able to keep my brain happy while im doing an emergency descent if oxygen failure were to ever occur. JB

Make sure the rocker hits the valve stem all the way across the stem . Prussian blue can be used to check it. Otherwise it can side load the guide and wear it out very soon.

It is too bad that a bunch of these derelict airplanes (not just Mooneys) couldn't be rounded up and made into a playground area for kids at the airport. I would have loved that as a kid. I suppose liability, lawyers, insurance, etc...

Paul if I get to ride around in your 252, I'll drive you to the airport... Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I actually love this picture. The old planes half grown over, the dilapidated old hangar with the paint peeling off, the contrast of the colors of he planes with the grass and the red hangar, it is framed well in the photo. The difference between a bad picture and a great picture is usually just the point of view that it is taken from.

Being a Cherokee owner for 2 years has been fun, but I was always wanting to go faster. Mooney's quickly climbed to the top of my list because of their speed and economics. My story starts this past May as I was finishing up an instruction lesson with a owner of a Saratoga II TC. I mention to him that I was in the market looking for something faster, like his Saratoga. He says, "follow me" and we walk across the small airport together to another hangar way in the back. He walks up and points to a 1 inch gap in the door and tells me to "take a look." What I saw was a Mooney M20J 201 sitting in the corner of the hangar that hasn't been flown in a very long time. I took down the N# in attempt to find the owner and ask what the status was of the airplane. Here is what I found: The owner had fallen very ill 10 years ago and stopped flying until he got well. Unfortunately his illness progressed up until he passed away this past June. The airplane has been sitting for 10 years now in the corner of this hangar. He was the original owner of this 1977 201J serial #0017 all these years! It was a delicate and lengthy process all summer long with the now widow who had just inherited the aircraft. She finally gave me the "green light" in September to do a Pre-buy inspection to find out the value and what it would take to make it airworthy again. I contacted the MSC at Freeway airpark, MD and the mx guys came over on a Sunday to do the inspection. (great guys) 2 cranks and it fired right up! Put it up on jacks and the gear swung nicely. Here is what the conclusion was: No corrosion on roll cage. No rust of corrosion on the camshaft. Both fuel tanks leak. Brake system needs complete overhaul. Pilots seatback is cracked and needs repair. Top end overhaul recommended. Fuel pump leaking. Needs rubber gear pucks. I made a offer and the lady accepted! The best part: 958hrs TTAF Any mooniacs around the Delmarva Peninsula area I can meet up with after I resurrect this J? KCGE Its Mooney Resurrection time!!!

As Clarence suggests in a prebuy, look at everything! Most prebuys are designed to be simple, somewhat economic cursory examination of the "show stopper" items like corrosion, spar cracks, bladder rot (sorry couldnt help myself) and tank leaks, along with airworthness in documentation. They are not usually conducted to find every possible issue a plane of upwards of 50 years sometimes can have, unless the buyer is willing to pay for it. I can see where that would turn into the super annual from Hell (SAFH). Heck, just to verify the engine's true condition could be more than a potential purchaser would be willing to spend and a seller willing to have done. Guys like Eric Rudningen, Clarence, Lynn Mace, Don Maxwell take this into account and go after the big ticket items in a prebuy as best they can for the bucks they get. A prebuy in a lot of ways is more complicated than an annual for a well kept plane, and why most specialtiy shops would rather just do an annual.

Well at least I now know that i am not the only one that straps in with keys still in pocket.

There's one in pieces behind Exec Autopilots...a really cruddy example

So, can anyone figure out how many horsepower that is, and how does it compare to a 747?

compressed air up the urethra never hurt anyone.

On the other hand I have asked what runway they were using because they were calling downwind and base without reference to a runway number.

Isn't it? Googled the registration and found very little, but someone wrote about flying with N100HQ to Templehof (Berlin), just before the airport closed for good in 2008.

ADI stands for attitude director indicator. It's an attitude indicator incorporating a flight director in same instrument. The flight director provides the computed pitch and roll commands from the autopilot required to fly a certain flight path for the pilot to mannually follow. Or if engaged the autopilot will follow and satisfy. Example: the KI 256 is the ADI in a KFC 150 autopilot.

Do Mooney girls use a piss tube?

trust your instruments.....if you plan on doing a lot of night flying or IMC you really should have three ADIs. One may be wrong so you compare it to the second,,,but which is correct? Must have a tie breaker

None of those GE landing light bulbs are PMA. They are standard parts, just like hardware and rivets. anyways, it's up to the installing mechanic to determine airworthiness, such as when baffle seal material is as good or better than what came off.

Time and Money. Just ask @Sabremech

No one is saying Guy's products are not quality; not even the FAA. Many will tell you they are better quality than any of the alternative approved parts available. The simple fact is GEE-BEE doesn't have PMA authority to produce these and hence they are unapproved parts. In Guy's defense, using Baffles as an example, I believe he would claim he is providing the raw materials that may or may not be approved but meet the same standards (or something like that) just as if we acquired the products from approved sources and cut them ourselves and then installed legitimately. But in his case, the FAA is saying he needs PMA approval to do so. Just like LASAR and others have gotten for all the "improved" parts they provide. in other words their parts are manufactured and distributed with the FAA's oversight and approval of their manufacturing processes, quality controls, record keeping etc etc. Guy has obviously chosen a different path for reasons we can only speculate (expense of getting PMA authority?) and given all this time has passed without getting approval I doubt he intends too - but only he can answer to that. Yet he is online now. Anyway I don't expect anything is going to change, except perhaps further expansion of his products offerings. Nor do I see the demand for his products going away; except perhaps by repair stations. But I do imagine owner installers will be more careful to only refer to the installed materials or as owner produced parts and avoid mention of GEE-BEE in the maintenance records for obvious reasons. I wish him the best. The products I have seen are very good quality (yet unapproved).

I'm just a lowly C pilot, but I could have sworn that Flight Levels in the US don't start until FL18??? But maybe Rockets with secret paint jobs get special handling, like the SR71s do when descending to FL60?

I disagree.

2 cents on the CFI thing... I’m a former Navy carrier instructor pilot, airline pilot and newish Mooney flier with a CFI certificate. I wouldn’t feel comfortable offering to train others for hire in a Mooney without some dedicated transition training and a good deal more experience in type. Especially not at the primary training level, which it sounds like you are at. Unless that CFI is willing to first learn to fly a Mooney himself before teaching in it, I wouldn’t be too keen to fly with him. High time jet pilots get into more than their share of trouble flying light pistons. If their was a personality conflict in addition to the CFI not being familiar with the airplane, that would seal the deal. I would hope to never let myself pay money to fly with someone who stresses me out or takes away the fun of learning to fly.

Just another example of fake news.

You're in or near Monroe NC? There's a Mooney Service Center, https://www.aglaviation.com/ at KMRN, about 30 Mooney minutes away. Lynn (and Tamara) Mace do a good many Mooney PPIs which often lead to long term relationships if the buyer buys the plane.

And then check the gear. It should be a retract or tail wheel. All others are trainers.

That would be an awesome treehouse!! What a project!

Sorry I don't have any old Mooney photos (at the moment, I'll start looking), but for years I used to fly predominantly to South America. There were always lots of derelicts down there, sitting in the tall grass. I always dreamed of getting one into my back yard and turning it into a tree house...

I’ve done angel flights too. Just stepping back a moment... Makes me proud of our community that so many of us have - and to those that haven’t, let me add to those that are saying it’s some of the most rewarding flying you’ll do, go check it out! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Requirements vary from one organization to another. No IFR rating required at Angel Flight West. They even let experimental aircraft do blood bank runs, but not carry people.

I've been flying mercy flights since 1994 and, up until recently, they accounted for 50% of my flying. I would guess nearly half the hours on my "past TBO" Rocket engine were accumulated doing donated medical flights. The last couple years I have backed off some, trying to complete the project plane that had run WAY longer than I anticipated when embarking on that adventure. Being the longest active pilot in the organization (Steve, my hangar partner is the only longer involved member, but has had many periods of inactivity) I routinely am asked to speak about our organization, Northwoods Airlifeline ( http://www.northwoodsairlifeline.org ). I could, and may, write a book on the many experiences I've had during this commitment. We were started by a great man, Bob Larson, almost 30 years ago and have performed thousands of flights since inception. We fly primarily patients from the U.P. and Northeastern Wisconsin to regional medical centers (Detroit, Cleveland, Chicago, Milwaukee, Madison, Rochester, MN, and Minneapolis). I have done flights to CT, FL, TN, VA, NC, and MO as well. I will say it's one of the most rewarding experiences I have done in life. That said, Joe, go for it! Our organization requires 500 hours and an IFR ticket, but we are more restrictive the other mercy flight organizations (a large portion of the flights are done in organizational owned aircraft). Get accepted to fly with one of the organizations, pick good weather and a mission that works, and you will provide a service that rewards you as much as it does the patient. I will share just one of hundreds of mercy flight stories, one that may relate to others doing flights with Mooneys. I flew over in the dead of winter to Newberry, a small community on the eastern end of the U.P. The trip was to take an older lady to Rochester MN. There were 20+MPH winds and snow blowing everywhere with a temp below zero. The patient arrived AFTER I did, but in an ambulance.........? I said "we are not supposed to be doing flights for patients that are not ambulatory (capable of self boarding and no assistance during the flight)". Her husband assured me she could board and was brought from the hospital by ambulance "as a precaution". Well, when she got up to walk, it was pretty clear getting on the wing was going to be with serious assistance, and stepping down in to the front seat was not going to happen. As I assessed the situation, realizing they had no other option.... she would die in Newberry if I didn't get her to Rochester (there is no way they could afford an air ambulance), I decided to pull the front seat and board her in the back, making the step down much more doable. Long story short, the husband got to see his wife again a few months later, as she returned home to finish out her life with him. I made a special trip back a few days later and picked up my front seat............. but with a pretty good feeling in my heart about how that went down. To be clear though, flights requiring this type of assistance have been very rare, as our flight coordinator does a much better job today determining the patient's capabilities before accepting the mission. Tom

Wow, Anthony. Nice find.

Once the hose on the inlet side of the oximeter came off, I felt real good, checked my 02 level 83, my wife had to put the hose back on, I was uncapable to reattach it. I now hang the meter so it's in my view, also I check the saturation every 3-4 minutes if above 14,000, and every 6-7 minutes between 8-13,000 ft.

MAube in one year for mooneys. Maybe longer. Here's the thing, what are they doing about ADSB. Because I'm not ripping out my 6500$ transponder that integrated with my GTN750 to install theirs.

Thanks for everyone’s input. It ended up being the gauge. 20+psi still reads at 13.