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Pictures make a lovely gift. That’s me on the left, 33 years ago. The little guy in my lap is in the next two, his kids on his lap, last month. Shameless bragging.

Not sure if folks have seen this or not so posting a link to the magazine… https://www.faa.gov/newsroom/faa-safety-briefing-magazine -Don

I used to fly for angel flight. The waiver protects them from lawsuits from the passengers. But it doesn’t protect you one bit. I don’t fly for them anymore after finding this out. Again it’s not the passenger who is the only threat. The bereaved spouse who was counting on that 300k income for ten more years now wants 3m. Your policy pays 100k a seat. You pay the rest. If you have assets they are at risk. The ins company does have a duty to defend, but it’s you or your estate who pays over the 100k. I’m not saying don’t take people flying. But evaluate your relationship and the risk.

Just wanted to say thanks to @MooneyMitch and to MS for my new storm window. The old one was faded but useable so it probably wasn't going to get replaced soon but was annoying me. Then Mooney Mitch posted that he had a spare one that he'd send for the cost of postage, so now it looks prettier. Much appreciated Happy New Year to all

The best slide in replacement for the KX-155 remains a KX-155 that has been to a reputable repair shop for capacitor replacement, level adjustment, and maybe display repair.

Out with the old, in with the new! I've been without my Mooney for just over 2 months, but I just recently got it back from a total overhaul of the panel... it feels like a totally different airplane! After fighting continuously with the unreliable Aspen analog autopilot interface issues (ever since I bought the plane), I finally threw in the towel earlier this year and decided it was time to go all-in on the panel. Originally I had planned to do 2x GI-275s and a GFC500 only, but I decided that, as much as I loved the GNS480, no panel upgrade made sense where I left that as-is, and I wanted VNAV anyway. After considering also adding a newer engine monitor (another GI275 or an EDM), I decided the cost difference was small enough to just go to the full G3X solution. I also elected to replace the GTX330ES with the 345 so that I could link the G3X and GTN to the ADS-B in data without another converter box. Even went with a new audio panel for the Bluetooth features. (Very important to the wife!) Ordered everything back in March, and then waited in the 6+ month Garmin order backlog (mainly for the GTN and GTX), but it finally went into the shop the first week of October, and I picked it up December 9th. Did several test flights, had the shop fix a couple small bugs, but it's all working flawlessly now. Can't wait to get back out there and fly more adventures! (Goal is to hit at least 6 or 7 more states this coming year, probably to Colorado and back) Panel photos attached, after and before. New: G3X Touch + G5 Backup w/ EIS, GTN650Xi, SL30 (only old part retained), GFC500 (3 servo), GTX345, GMA345, GDL51R Old: Aspen E5 + ACU + EA100, Insight G3 Engine Monitor, Garmin GNS480 (loved that unit), SL30, King KAP 150 (non-functional since January due to another faulty Aspen EA100), GTX330ES, GMA340 For anyone interested, all the old stuff will be going up on MS soon, once I get to photographing and documenting everything.

I've posted some of these graphs before, but nothing recently. This one is interesting. Returning from my last trip I forgot to plug in my engine heater and humidity measuring system. The system is designed to keep the engine at an even 90 degrees F and measure engine and ambient temperature and humidity. After a couple weeks of sitting I check it, find it offline, and return to the airport to plug it in. So the engine was sitting with it's cowl blanket on, the oil filler open, and around 55 degrees average ambient temperature. The humidity measured inside the engine is the yellow line on the graph. What the graph shows is that when I started up the system the humidity inside the engine was 95%. After warming it dropped to 85%. But after 36 hours of heat, humidity gradually declined to 35%. Ambient humidity is high because it's been raining here the last couple days. I was shocked to find that after 2 weeks of no heat, with the oil cap open, the humidity was so high. But constant application of mild heat does drive the humidity down to reasonable levels. Larry

Thanks @Jake@BevanAviation. In the meantime I found your phone number and called your shop (I did mention that I'm calling from Michigan and that I've heard about you on MS). Thanks again for the help here and on the phone.

We have seen some LED mods fail but it's pretty rare. For out of box failures BK has replaced the failed display but the process does take some time. If I had to guess for a manufacture warranty, possibly around 90 days. The display connector is prone to failure so that is a possibility or we have seen some of the contacts on the LED board cause issues. As for the website you linked, it's not a approved mod and we have never seen one in person but have had multiple inquires about it in the past. The only approved mod for the old gas display replacement is the LED mod.

Yeah, at 71 I'm probably too young to appreciate the risk fully

The Rh goes down but that automatically goes down as warmer air holds more water. But what’s the total grains of water per cubic foot? Also corrosion increases as temperature increases, if the water content is the same.

Ditto, I’ve told friends liability is too risky for the same reasons given. I’ll fly my wife and immediate family (CFIs and Safety Pilots too) but that is it. Hate doing that but what choice do we have- it only takes one… -Don

Well this is funny. I just looked at N155MP today. I picked up a local from there today and on our flight I was chatting to him about cars, and got to Porsches. He then told me about that Porsche Mooney sitting at the airport (KTPF). Sure enough, it's still there. I'm equal parts an aviation guy as I am a Porsche guy, and I need another one of each like I need a hole in my head. I got a contact to call about it so I plan to do that.

Politicizing what should have been medical decisions broke our health care system, just as politicizing combat efforts overseas broke our military system just a few years after winning the second (and hopefully LAST!) World War . . . . Because no career politician ever met a human of equal or greater intelligence, knowledge or experience. Shakespeare's solution to lawyers should be enforced on politicians, too, along with strict, short term limits,

I just went through the 1970 M20F schematic and can confirm the circuit is behaving as it should if the squat or airspeed switch is active (yes, I'm an EE) Part of the confusion may be the fact the relevant portions of the schematic are on two separate pages in the MMM.

It is probably a phenomenon that rarely happens and it only happened once to me, which was one too many times as I literally had no comms, only static and why I decided to have the wicks fitted. The phenomenon nicknamed St. Elmos Fire that Skip alluded to in his above post (I recall flying my '78 J through heavy rain one dark (and stormy - sorry, couldn't resist) night and I could put my finger on the windshield and cause an eerie corona discharge that didn't seem to affect the VHF navs or comms.), can result in a striking blue streak surrounding and travelling down the windshield is also static electricity. This is also a rarity that I have seen at night maybe 3 or 4 times in 3,400 hours of night flying, so environmental conditions have to be ripe and why it is so rare. I think Paul this maybe the same reason you have not experienced radio static. Despite the nickname, St. Elmos Fire is not dangerous, but if you touch it, it could give you a very light static shock, similar to touching a door handle after walking across a carpet covered floor in shoes caused by friction between the soles and carpet.

Speed makes a big difference. I've had Boeings that had a corona so bad all the comms were barely readable. For whatever reason, the Boeings seems to be the worst. After a number of no or low comm situations, I convinced the Fleet Captains to work with maintenance to improve the bonding and to create a periodic maintenance program. It worked. I have created enough static to create a corona on some light planes, but rarely enough to cause serious radio problems, just enough to zap my student's finger really hard when I have them touch the windshield. I've once created enough build up on a King Air to create some pretty good St. Elmo's and on the DC-9s you can get it rolling down the console in the cockpit if the windshield is old with a worn conductive coating. Do you need them? I sooner have them and not need them than to not have them at all. Helicopters are a whole other kettle of fish.

I have three of the original factory drawings for the wing.. One is for the preformed skin. The drawing calls out for 1/16" and 1/8" thickness. The thickness transitions at station 147.74. You can see this location on the wing. The face grain orientation is 45 degrees. The note calls out for all plywood to conform with MIL-P-6070, all plies poplar with option for face plies to be mahogany. I attached the file. I also have the spar drawing (very complex & difficult to read due to age) Also have the overall plan sheet for the wing assembly. Also the Mooney factory wood wing repair manual .. somewhere ...? Joe Mooney Wing Skin Dwg.pdf

Those waivers are marginal at best, because the passenger can’t sign away the rights of his heirs or his family to sue you. And they will.

Good point. However the fluid was just flushed. I have a working theory. I think the parking brake valve is partially stuck closed. This explains why the brakes are slow to apply when pressed, why they got “stuck” for a few seconds after I was pressing hard on them (the fluid slowly moved away from calipers due to restriction from the parking brake valve), why the brakes are hard (fluid has to squeeze through a small opening to get to the calipers), and why the symptoms affect both left/right pilot/copilot sides equally.

Terminals and bolts are silicone bronze https://legacy.concordebattery.com/flyerprint.php?id=149 Our General Aviation batteries are designed with terminals and hardware of silicon bronze alloy providing a corrosion free, low impedance connection.

Thanks Mike. Looks like you hit the send button before I did...

https://www.faa.gov/newsroom/faa-safety-briefing-magazine On the left side of the screen is a menu with the Subscribe option at the bottom of the first section. There is also an Link in the first paragraph to download the document. It will save it as a PDF from that link.

I guess the next question is determine the corrosability of 35% air at 90° versus 60%or even 80% air at 30°

Here you go AC 23-27 as an A&P IA I reference it in the logbook entry if I have to use parts I got based on actual part number as opposed to Mooney Aircraft part number. ALL Mooney meet the definition of “Vintage” for this AC https://www.faa.gov/documentLibrary/media/Advisory_Circular/AC_23-27.pdf ‘In my case it was landing gear solenoids, one used on my Mooney are actually golf cart solenoids and widely available, Mooney part number one I could only source from a junkyard and at insane price, like $1,000 or so and then you have an old solenoid of unknown condition. Golf cart / winch solenoid. 100 amps continuous duty $30 on Amazon 40 yr old Mooney solenoid on the left, new golf cart solenoid on the right, both identical part number

If another prop is installed by STC, that would supersede the TCDS. If the the restricted range changed , I would expect the STC to require remarking the tach.

I’m not sure exactly how the stc vs tcds plays out, but there are other props now approved with some (slightly) different restriction ranges. Eg - Mcauley props which aren’t on that tcds. One other interesting thing is that my edm930 has the non continuous range marked in yellow, not red as indicated here. But then I have a different prop… To the OP, most people find there are some times they must operate in that regime for short periods of time (usually on final or instrument approaches). But we mostly agree we should not cruise there or stay in that regime longer than necessary. There’s your free internet opinion.

Interesting. It sounds like the adhesive is the problem. I got some Tapecase 423 UHMW 3 mil and 10 mil tape and used it on the belly where the gear doors rub. It has an acrylic adhesive and has been in place for about 3 years with no issues. I had to remove and replace a strip and it came off easily. Skip

Here we go again . . . .

It's a personal choice, not no choice. I've never* worried about it. My personal choice. And, no. While I have written liability waivers for others, I never* used one myself. *One exception to "never. "I wrote one for myself for giving instruction in owner aircraft. But I've never used it.

Most of you got your IR in trainers or aircraft without an autopilot. But anyone doing the IR with an airplane that is equipped with an autopilot can expect to demonstrate its proper use on one approach. Same for an IPC. With few exceptions, like NDB approaches, the candidate needs to be able demonstrate use of all equipment. That said, like everything else autopilot use is generally taught in stages, not introduced to fly approaches. For example, learning to use the FD and using it between approaches to help get set up etc. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

In 1996 I bought a Bravo that didn't have a Flight Director, so the A/P was a KAP150 not a KFC150. But it did have Altitude Pre-Select, one of the only ones I've seen that way (without a F/D yet had pre-select). It was the first time I had used pre-select and that feature is great not only on the way up but the way down too. I never upgraded to a FD, but later after I sold it to Jimmy Garrison he added a FD (and upgraded to a KFC150) and flew the airplane for at least 6 years. Back in 1996 the factory charged $4790 for the pre-select option. Since these units are coming on the used market frequently, pre-select should be able to be installed pretty reasonably now.

Cf Hindenburg ..

I got it. But I’m on a vitamin/supplement regimen to support my immune system. Once I confirmed by testing, I took 5 doses of ivermectin and azithromycin. 2 rough days then just wanted to sleep. 10 days and I was fine. I’m 72 and unvaxed. My neighbor went to the hospital, got put on remdisivir, got vented, almost died and took 6 months to recover. Covid broke our medical system.

The TCO on the Ovations can be sourced at Skygeek. DD1-W

Earlier this year, I was making the same decision as you. The interior and carpets on my K were just redone when I purchased it a year ago but the seats were done in the old style and in black leather - yuck! This last summer I pulled all the panels and seats and had everything recovered and re-upholstered. There is a local shop that specializes in boats and cars but will also do planes. They helped me plan out all the designs I wanted, ordered the materials, did the work and provided the required FAA paperwork - all for around 5k. Of course, I did all the removal and reinstallation (it's a pain, it really is) and had an A&P double-check the installation / paperwork but it was worth it! I had originally had between 15-20k budgeted for the interior re-do but this came out great and didn't cost me too much. My downtime was about two months but, again, worth it! Look for a similar shop that knows the ins and outs of the FAA requirements when it comes to working with aircraft.

I think it’s standard behavior for the warning horn to sound when the gear selector is up and the squat or airspeed switch is activated.

I was eating through oil door latches. Turns out that anti chafe tape was adding tension to the latches and grinding out where the pin runs in them. Those little suckers are expensive too and riveting them is time consuming. -robert

When I learned to fly in the 70s it was normal for everybody to have kneeboards, at least where I flew. So I got an appstrap that holds my big tablet to my knee like a kneeboard. I also fly with a small tablet in a ram mount on the pilot's yoke, and I've never had that move even in bad turbulence. During an approach I have the approach plate on the yoke tablet and the normal map on the knee tablet. In a pinch I could put the plate on both if I was worried about losing the one on the yoke for some reason.

Years ago while flying through rain and cloud, my comm had so much intermittent static noise that I could barely decipher radio transmissions. My aircraft engineer recommended static wicks, so I had them fitted. Never a problem with static noise since. Later I was told by someone that the wicks are only useful for aircraft that fly at a TAS greater than 200 knots. Contrary to this info, mine work well. No, it doesn’t.

You're not alone. It surprises a lot of people.

I told you not to believe everything you hear and you are just now realizing it’s true told you so. Haha.

Please enlighten me on all these COVID $$$$. I haven’t received my check yet. Did you see the death certificate? I’ve filled out a few. There usually isn’t only one cause of death listed. For example, If you die from hypoxemic respiratory failure secondary to COPD secondary to tobacco use then tobacco will be on your death certificate even though it isn’t the sole reason you died. For those who haven’t heard, having other pre-existing conditions makes it more likely that you’ll die from COVID so I’m not at all surprised that someone with pancreatic cancer or stage IV lung CA would die while infected with COVID. I love hearing about all these incentives to say people died from COVID to get money but it just shows how you have no clue how the system works. I’m sorry your father-in-laws best friend died. My father in law also had a best friend that died. If people were instantly dying by the masses after getting COVID vaccines I think we’d know about it. With 12.7 Billion shots given I’m sure many people have died after the vaccines and most of not all were probably unrelated.

I cheated. Although I do get the gist of it. Go science!

Please share with me your expertise on the subject that makes you so comfortable making a statement like that. Are you a doctor?.Are you a medical coder? Epidemiologist? Did you treat COVID patients? This is why we can’t have a dialogue about this subject. People just make things up to support whatever they’re trying to say and then people just repeat it because it supports what they want to believe. Why bother fact-checking when you can make up your own facts? I didn’t read the rest of your post. I’m not going to because you don’t know what you’re talking about and don’t have the insight to realize this.

It sounds like you are way further down the buying process that any of us understood. Doing a pre-buy means you have a purchase contract signed on the Ovation. The answers that you were asking for that have already been given still apply. Either airplane will do just fine in your IFR training. A few of those who responded, including me, did their IFR training in the 231. I doubt that any of us are more capable than you. My biggest reason for you not listening to your heart and trading for the newer shinier Ovation is your reason for trading - you are going from a turbo-charged airplane to a normally aspirated. The Ovation is a fine airplane, but having owned both, you are giving up the number one advantage of the 231 - it being a turbo. I owned my Ovation a short time because I came from a Turbo and did not care for its climb capability in the Ovation past 10,000 - 12,000 to get over mid afternoon build ups in the South in the summer. You live in the South. In the 231 and other Mooney turbos I've owned it was a non-event once you put on the cannula. Also the KFC150 is nearly the same age technology as the KFC200 so that's not a valid reason to trade. You'll be swapping out autopilots one day on either airplane. All of that being said, If you want an Ovation go for it, but don't do it to make your IFR training easier - it won't be. In fact insurance rates tell us that when people go from a mid-body Mooney to a long body Mooney they are more challenging to land - the porpoising with a bit too much speed on final is accentuated in the long bodies. You see a lot more prop strikes in long body Mooneys. Transition training wil help with this - but that is one more thing to add to your training. Get your IFR and fly a few hundred Mooney hours and then decide.

Kinda what the other guys are saying, but typically you want to start new instrument pilots under the hood with things like straight and level, turns to a heading, constant rate/speed climbs, timed turns, and the dreaded “vertical S”. This first part is where you internalize the different power settings, pitch, and configuration to use for different phases. Then you move to intercepts, tracking courses, holding, etc. Introducing navigation systems while maintaining the perfect speed, heading, altitude from the first part. On early flights you might just see/get one approach on the way back. Halfway through your IR, you can really start learning from multiple approaches. If you keep just doing approaches, You’re probably skipping some skills you either think you have or don’t know you’re missing. That being said, we weren’t there. Do whatever you and your CFII agreed on. However, switching airplanes isn’t going to make it easier. With respect to your 400 hours and your previous instrument work, Learning how to fly instruments is about starting back at the basics, only doing it much more precisely and without looking outside. There are some free instrument syllabus online that will lead you through each flight/stage. I’d be familiar with those and follow one in general.

The question becomes, why did you do four instrument approaches on your first IFR training flight?

You should be twisting first and then push. Mark

Wow, your work is amazing. I wish I had the patience to do things like that. I tend to get 90% done with something and then get bored with it, that last 10% is 90% of the work.