Leaderboard

On Monday @33UM20C and I departed KHGR for the 302NM flight southwest to K7A8, a small (3001'x 60') mountain airport (2745msl) near Spruce Pine, NC. There were many volunteers on hand. Prior to loading, I removed all seats but the one that I needed, which left me with about 1090lbs of UL to play with. I cubed out before hitting max weight. Nevertheless, my plane had just under 600lbs of cargo on board for the trip. We arrived at 7A3 mid afternoon. 7A8 is in a valley. It was windy and bumpy on the somewhat sketchy approach; some of the nearby peaks are >4600'. Volunteers were able to help me unload in minutes what had taken considerably more time to carefully load prior to leaving. Fixed and rotor wing operations were running concurrently, but ideally segregated. Landing fixed wing aircraft were martialed to an offloading area where cargo was unloaded, sorted, and then hot loaded (engines running) as needed onto helicopters running round trip missions into the mountains to those who were isolated. The operation was amazingly well organized and efficient by any standard, but especially impressive given that both ground and aviation personnel were all volunteers. The helo pilots are truly heroes. These guys were flying all day, with only short breaks, on their own dime, and in their own aircraft. The Jet A supply at the fuel farm was completely consumed, so the turbine helos were fueling at an alternate site, but it hardly slowed operations. They were running at least four R44s on short, round trip, resupply missions into the surrounding mountains. The general tone on the ground did not make me feel comfortable taking a lot of pictures. Folks were kind, gracious and appreciative but it was not a happy place. Roads are opening and ground operations are becoming more robust every day in the more traveled areas. The airport manager told me that there are folks in the mountains that go into town so little that it’s likely that many don’t know the damage to the local infrastructure. Little mountain towns like Spruce Pine seem to be further down the priority list of the official relief effort. I am still in communication with my contacts in the region. I may make a second run at a later date, depending on the what’s needed.

Unprofessional and 'exact opposite' the AIM, 100% agree. To be clear, I am NOT defending his lack of knowledge. But, foolish? Vehemently disagree. Foolish is continuing into a situation that you PERCEIVE to be potentially dangerous even if you have the slightest doubt; that to me is the height of BAD judgement and poor ADM. All of you 'Monday morning QBs' can continue to point out that he only stopped because he "didn't know the rules". Well, DUH, thank you captains obvious! I'd much rather have the pilot that stops when he's uncertain, regardless of reason, than the one that has the "it's all good, man" attitude and just keeps on going when confronted with a possible safety issue. The idea that "his foolish/dangerous/ignorant/fill-in-the-deprecating blank" action would result "in a tragedy" is ridiculously overzealous hyperbole (I realize not your post, Mark). If the guy behind him can't perform a safe go-around REGARDLESS of the reason, that's on him, not the pilot stopped on the runway! Are we going to give the go-around pilot a pass if the plane on the runway gear-upped? I guess so, since the guy blocking the runway was at fault for not putting the gear down, right? Or, blown tire? I guess we can look and find out that the tire was bald; once again, blame it on the guy on the ground! Maybe the tire blew because of FOD on the runway from a previous departure? Let's blame that guy, and give the incompetent pilot that couldn't perform a safe go-around another pass!

Legally, when you are cleared to land you own the runway, but to needlessly dawdle or stop on the runway is unprofessional and selfish.

Lotta irony in these posts. But I believe the discussion is good and healthy, and makes all of (who are open to having our opinions challenged), think about this from different perspectives. IMHO, the pilot needs some remedial training, the controller needs to control his emotions and be more professional, and the pilot piling on is a douchebag. I mean, to be fair, we have all probably muttered the same to ourselves at one time or another, but we had the good sense and decorum to resist the urge to hit the transmit button! Even though I have been temped many times!!

Way to go @katzhome! hey everybody! -a-

So proud of the GA community for all that is being done. I have seen some mention of this on the news but not nearly enough. My former employer has sent over 400 line workers from nor cal plus support trucks for aiding in the restoration of electrical services. Stay safe everyone

Yep. I would try that as well. Have seen some antennas go bad, even causing the EGTs to spike in the G1000 when transmitting [emoji28] Gesendet von meinem XQ-DQ54 mit Tapatalk

I had faith and while I was getting a little anxious lately, I'm now very glad I went Dynon. The day it was approved I got a personal call from Dynon with the news. And it's 3-axis! I kept the Century II electric trim when the rest of the Century electronics were removed for the Dynon install so that will integrate well with the Dynon system. I feel bad for the short-body owners but perhaps now that the mid-body is approved, the short-body will come faster.

So, as I mentioned, it just requires changing the regs, which specifically say "in person", and procedures. It's definitely do-able, it's just not allowed by the current regulatory language, as explained in the Moss letter.

Sounds about right. As long as you're going where they want you to go, you're doing what they want you to do AND you're not talking much, they're happy! (They really are, even if it doesn't sound like it! )

The only serious look at this I've ever found, concluded that the configuration and position of landing gear in a ditching event has no statistical impact on survivability: http://www.equipped.org/ditchingmyths.htm. High wing or low wing, gear up/down/welded, just doesn't influence what matters. For those who don't want to read the whole article, the one-liner is, "How often does the airplane flip over because the gear caught in the water? We don't really know. But even if all the airplanes flipped--highly unlikely--the occupants still manage to egress safely. Conclusion: It may not matter much."

I love NY controllers, with their congested airspace I think they’re probably the best in the world. I’m okay with the tower controller yelling at the Mooney pilot (but not the BO jerk that piled on). About 25 years ago I was delivering an old Piper Apache to the Republic airport (FRG). It was IMC and they were doing ILSs. The Apache was not in very good shape, one of its problems was the glide slope receiver was inop. I let the approach controller know that we’d be flying the approach as a localizer-only, since our glideslope was inop. I didn’t want him to be concerned when we were below the glideslope descending to get to the MDA. His response: “I don’t care about your equipment problems. Cleared for the ILS, contact the tower.”

Joey painted my airplane too. I dropped it off just before COVID hit. It took a little longer than it was supposed to but that was understandable. He texted me pictures with very major step. He was always accessible when I wanted to call. I'm very happy with the quality of his work. I had him change all the windows out, and he did some body work but so far everything has held up well. All the inspection panels were removed and painted separately. All the camlocks were changed, and he even put nylon washers under brand new stainless screws so the paint wouldn't be damaged during removal.. I appreciated his attention to detail. He took care of my airplane like it was his own. I have no reservations in recommending him. Remember, you get what you pay for. If you want it cheap, you’re going to get cheap.

I dunno @MikeOH. Sure, there’s gonna be the “whatta jerk” vitriol. Just this past year or so we’ve discussed a Mooney pilot flying into a tower while on an instrument approach, a Mooney pilot or two who seems to be clueless how to load and fly an IAP and indeed even how to fly headings and altitudes. Now we have a Mooney pilot who stops dead in the middle of a busy runway for no objective reason. (Doing what one thinks is safe because they don’t know how it works is subjective.) These kinds of events reflect badly on pilots. They reflect badly on GA. Worse yet, they reflect badly on Mooney pilots. So, yeah, I understand your feelings about it but I understand the human need to vent, especially in a Mooney forum, especially since it’s pretty harmless. None of us have the authority to take his certificate away, The controller tongue-lashing? Meh. A bit unprofessional but understandable and pretty mild. The Bozo go-around pilot piling it on? Uncalled for. But I think both are pretty irrelevant to the pilot knowledge /error discussion.

Have you been to NY airspace much? You think he was bad, wait till one of the N90 Controllers rip you a new one. They may use more "appropriate" terminology, but believe me, you'll know it when you hear some poor guy getting gutted on on the Freq.

Look! The -a- train arrived! -Don

Agree. Not only unprofessional or foolish but the exact opposite of "Exit the runway without delay at the first available taxiway or on a taxiway as instructed by ATC."

something similar happened to me in my Mooney...Just stay calm

So, I found a gear manufacture that manufactures the same exact gear set, that we are looking for, for a "CUSTOMER" that ISN'T Mooney, he is reaching out to said customer to see if he is willing to contact me to discuss the ability of us ordering the gear sets from them. Was told it will be a day or so before the customer will be available to reach out. So, hopefully this pans out and allows us an immediate sourcing for these gear sets...will let you know what I hear. I am still looking at other vendors though, just in case. V/r Matt

That's an interesting argument...how dangerous is a go around? We're taught that we should be able to safely go around if things don't look right, too fast, runway contaminated, don't break out of IMC at DA/MDA, per controller instruction, etc. I think in this case it was a squeeze play, so when the aircraft behind was told to go around, it was probably still on final and perhaps even 0.5 mile out? Also surely I would expect that the go around pilot should have been able to see that an aircraft is on the runway and be hearing the controller so they should ALREADY be prepped to go around. The go around should have been a non-issue, I think. There may be times when a go around is unable, but it seems that for most traffic that it should be a non issue, especially in a tower controlled environment where you have someone sequencing and giving instructions. EDIT: to be fair though...from my perspective the break in flow from a go around makes me paranoid of gear up so I probably quadruple check my gear when I've gone around...the break in flow certainly has the risk of missing a check list item.

Everyone i spoke with last week in NC was friendly and very appreciative! They all went out of their way to say thank you and offer any help that I may want, when incase there to help them. The further into the flooded mountains you go, the more overwhelmed the people are. Homes and businesses are gone, few in the mountains have flood insurance, and everywhere is covered with inches of wet, sticky mud along with tree branches, broken lumber, cars, appliances and garbage from upstream. Can't even see the water in Lake Lure, just solid bank-to-bank debris. Recovery will take years, and some will likely walk away with nothing and restart somewhere else, somehow. Be gentle, they are shellshocked. Losing your home, all possessions, your neighbors, your neighborhood, your community and your job will change how people react. I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, and reach out gently. If i knew where to go, I could collect more supplies here in Sweet Home and take more up, but with Operation Airdrop closed out, I don't know where to go or who to contact.

So, August 20th I, as a newly minted Mooney M20J pilot, flew N82KL down to Sarasota Avionics in Venice, Florida for some work and upgrades. As a Mooney Service Center I figured I could kill two birds with one stone so to speak, get some great deals stemming from AirVenture installed and take care of the awful trim issues it had. So, its still down there. Ground Zero for Milton. As nervous as I am for my airplane, I am really, really feeling for those folks who live and work there. If my plane is destroyed, I have insurance. If their livlihood, or lives, are disrupted, there is a distinct limit to what insurance can do. I'm hoping for the best while fearing the worst. But overall my heart goes out to all of the folks at Sarasota Aviation right now, and their families. Just wow!

While looking for zip ties in the tool box, this greeted my wife last night. She handled it real well with a burst of adrenaline, and a "OH MY GOD THERE'S A SNAKE IN THE TOOL BOX!!!!" For those of you unfamiliar with the particularities of southern U.S. snake species, that's a venomous copperhead. How/why the heck it got up there, I have no idea. It is the time of year when they are attracted by warmth as the evenings are beginning to cool off here. The copperhead's venom is not particularly strong, and they are not very aggressive because of their excellent camouflage when in leaves, not climbing on a toolbox!

As long as he's not stopping for a "YIELD" sign . . . .

Thanks for doing this. I was talking with the head of Operation Airdrop yesterday. The thing to focus on is the Hope you brought to people and the Hope that they received. I see in one of the pictures the wheelbarrow to unload the plane. That is freaking genius

In the configuration mode, please take a picture of the COM 1 and COM 2 settings -> squelch threshold for 25 kHz and 8,33kHz channel spacing

We might just be disagreeing on the semantic use of "objectively." I don't think of a decision based on a mistaken belief to be "objective." IOW, "Well, I thought the light was green so I went into the intersection" is not an objective decision in my book.

So what if an A&P somewhere determines that he can supervise a complete engine overhaul by Zoom? And the intention is to sell the airplane immediately afterwards? The FAA’s job is to codify exact standards to remove “wiggle room” for unscrupulous people. It makes you wonder what egregious example came up that prompted this Moss letter after decades of it not being an issue. Sure, an engine overhaul is an extreme example, but so is yours. Speaking for the guys at my FSDO, I doubt any of them would (off the record) have an issue with the elevator weight AD inspection. They just wouldn’t want to hear anyone say it out loud.

So let's say you're at a field with no maintenance facility. A very straight forward AD is issued regarding elevator counter weights. Your IA is two hours away by car but is available by zoom/FT to view the tail weights in 4K with magnification as well as see the magnet not sticking to the weight. What utility/safety is added by the four hour round trip drive? Mr. Busch's point in the live stream seemed to be that when the rule was written, no one could have envisioned the technological advances we would have available to us 60 years later to shrink the world. His point is that the person conducting the supervision/inspection should be tasked with determining to what degree their direct and/or in person supervision is needed to ensure airworthiness.

Weather is always shifting. As to generators, I have a 40KW whole house. Last year had a huge line of T-storms with a massive down burst right over my house. Living out on a peninsula we are always the last to get re-wired. Ran 5 days 24/7 with 6 grandkids in the house. Ops completely normal other than all the downed trees. Get a whole house, you'll never regret it.

I'll chime in I wish/hope they continue to expand on the models that are supported. There are a lot of F's, G's, E's and C's out there that would love to have it.

Sorry I was just going by the info on Flight Aware

Missing Wilma, Charlie…

Oh - I think that was me!

It is supposed to come over top of me, I’m in Central Fl. I think maybe roof damage and maybe the screen enclosure on the pool. My hangar has folding doors and I think they are the weak link, so I have the motorhome parked sideways against the doors as a windbreak, I dont think it necessary, but why not? The biggest problem if your away from the storm surge will I think be flooding as we have had way more rainfall than normal and everything is just about flooded now. I’m nearly certain I will be fine but too much of Fl has been developed on land that has always flooded and guess what it still does, people from up North move down and just don’t know better, it’s just overdeveloped and they buy into neighborhoods that flood even from just thunderstorms. I think and hope it will hit just South of Tampa because if it hits North, then Tampa is gone, I mean that literally as Tampa is the most vulnerable city in the US for storm surge, haven’t read the article but have known that for years. https://nypost.com/2024/10/08/us-news/why-tampa-is-the-most-vulnerable-city-in-america-for-hurricanes/ As a pretty much Fl native I can tell you that hurricanes never form in the gulf and hit fl, not until 2017 when Michael blew up and destroyed Panama city, but since 2017 three now have I think, the weather pattern has changed, They just didn’t form in the Gulf, they came from the Atlantic, got in the Guif and strengthened but never formed in the gulf, not and hit Florida that is, and they didn’t blow up to Cat 5’s overnight, not until Michael I think maybe Sarasota will be the bulls eye, but that’s not as bad as being just South of the Hurricane, because the rotate counterclockwise if your S of it you get the wind speed added to its forward speed, it’s like the advancing blade of a helicopter, think of it this way if it’s North of yiu with wind speed of 100 mph and moving at 10 mph you get 110 mph winds, but if it’s S of you you get 90 mph winds, and if it’s N of you it pushes water on land, but if it’s S of you it pushes water away. If it hits N of Tampa it may push a 15 ft storm surge into the bay flooding millions of homes, if it hits S it will literally almost empty the bay and nothing floods. Tampa hasn’t been hit in over 100 years since 1921 and before that in the mid 1800’s. Tampa just doesn’t get hit, it’s like Savannah in that respect.

People need to lean to keep their mouth shut.

Perhaps, but your math isn’t complete either. How many of that 130k are trainers, and not really in our fleet per se. How many of those are registered but not airworthy. When you look at the Mooney fleet, under 10k were ever made, of which maybe 7500 are registered. Losing 20 in one year is absolutely catastrophic. They will not be replaced, and it’s 20 less to choose from when you go to buy. I guess you could say it will drive values up, but at some point that will fall off a cliff because of scarcity of parts. GA is shrinking, not growing. There may be a better word than catastrophe, but it escapes me at the moment. also, it’s not really a rounding error when there are 130k planes available in a country of 350 million. Lastly, the affect on the fleet of losing 50 at once isn’t immediate, but it is over time.

I'm not sure if there was a lot of background noise, or just strange audio layovers, but some of the sounds were comedically incorrect for the equipment. I liked the "spooling up" sounds that the CMM probe was making

And just like that, this pops up on my youtube feed. Complete with a damaged mooney that appears to have floated out of its hangar.

In Summary y'all are awesome. " We have officially wrapped up our final day for Operation Helene in Charlotte, North Carolina. To say we blew our goal out of the water is an understatement. This community was in desperate need for our support and the entire COUNTRY showed up! Final Missions Report out of Concord: 673 flights 402,000 lbs flown by air 700,000 lbs trucked 15 Drop Sites out of JUST concord total moved: 1,102,000 lbs!!!!! *These number do not include helicopter operations as they are still ongoing with search and rescue and supply deliveries up in the mountains. More announcements will be forthcoming as their mission continues* We cannot thank everyone enough for their unconditional support. We have made such a huge difference, heard heartbreaking stories of tragedy, but all came together to move mountains. While our mission has been fulfilled there are still communities across the East who need support. We will post more updates tonight after our team meeting about how you can further.

If you use the paraffin lube, it will stay clean. You just have to do it before your trip.

Before and after every ride? It will need cleaning before you take it somewhere; go riding; then clean again before going home. No thank you. Yes, bike bags are not inexpensive, but I've read here that a grill cover often works well at a fraction of the price.

@Matthew P You are tenacious! Thank you. Did Mooney indicate why they wouldn't accept a pre-pay from an MSC? Seems weird. As others have mentioned, many of us would gladly toss in a few hundred bucks each. Pick an MSC to place the order (so, NO financial risk to the MSC), and we'd be done!

So, The gear sets (both 20:1 and 40:1) are manufactured by a 3rd party under contract with Mooney, and still available as long as Mooney places the order which they have been unwilling to do because they have to front the money and they aren't willing to do that nor can they accept pre-pay for the order from the MSCs, not that the MSCs would be willing to front the money. I received a test from the CEO last week, they are looking at the possibility of licensing those parts, like they have done with other parts, so that they are available to be ordered...we'll see. SO, WHERE ARE WE CURRENTLY. A MoonySpace individual sent me a unused set of the 20:1 gear set, I had them professionally scanned and measured and have the 3D CAD Drawing for them....Another MooneySpace individual send me a set that failed inspection so that I can have them tested to determine the metal and heat treating makeup of the gear sets, UNFORTUNATELY, NONE of the (5) Metallurgy testing facilities, that I have requested testing quotes from, will provide their service to an individual, so I'm still trying but have been unsuccessful thus far. I have also requested, through the FAA (Certification Branch), under the Freedom of Information Act, that they provide the drawings and metallurgy report for the gear set so that we can satisfy the requirement of the OPP that the parts are equal to or better than OEM for a manufactured part that is no longer produced or available, I've called, they have the request but gave NO indication as to how long it will take to approve/disapprove the request. So, if ANYONE knows of a metallurgist, that might be able to test the gear sets, please let me know. I'm still trying guys.... Matt

Dude, you’re such a rookie! Yank out that front seat and load it up with a case or two of water. Getting in is a bit of a challenge, but I’m sure you can do it.

I did that for 4 years in the Alps! I was in college at that time. It's A LOT of fun.

I usually use one of three 'routes' when crossing the Rockies VFR. And I'm usually going to/from the Seattle area. I'll list these as going West to East, but just reverse them if you are going the other way. I'm including crossing the Cascades, and my 'destination' is Des Moines Iowa for this example, but I just stopped putting waypoints after I'm out of the mountains. The higher you can fly, the further from major roads you can fly to be more direct. The "North" route is: KBFI S88 KEAT KSFF MLP KMSO 38S KBZN KBIL https://skyvector.com/?ll=46.325309636327376,-112.80432128491857&chart=301&zoom=3&fpl=N0180 KBFI S88 KEAT KSFF MLP KMSO 38S KBZN KBIL KDSM You can do that below 8,000' if you stick near to I-90, but the higher you can climb, the more direct you can go. The "Northern Southern" route is: KBFI KELN KBOI KTWF KIDA KJAC DNW KDUB KRIW https://skyvector.com/?ll=43.23119628894878,-113.13995360915851&chart=301&zoom=7&fpl=N0180 KBFI KELN KBOI KTWF KIDA KJAC DNW KDUB KRIW KDSM You are going to have to be at at least 10,500 to get over Togwotee pass, but you can make it over Teton pass at 9,500'. The "Southern Southern" route is: KELN KBOI KTWF KBMC KRKS KRWL https://skyvector.com/?ll=44.048642155373955,-111.42333983951893&chart=301&zoom=10&fpl=N0180 KBFI KELN KBOI KTWF KBMC KRKS KRWL KDSM You really need to make it up to about 9,500' to get over the Utah/Wyoming border safely, but if you really want to stick to the roads, you can do it at 8,500 I bet, going through Evanston and following I-80 But this is a Mooney forum, everybody here should be able to make 12,500' with relative ease. If I'm IFR, it's just direct at FL210

https://cpassoc.clubexpress.com/content.aspx?page_id=22&club_id=612720&module_id=379021 The Colorado Pilots Association has plenty of information available on Colorado mountain flying. They also host a CPA Mountain Flying Course at least once a year that has an optional flight component. WELL worth it for some direct local knowledge and mountain flying experience!

I know the capabilities of everyone I work with. I will not assign them any tasks they are not competent to do. I always inspect the results of their work. The FAA doesn't have the manpower to watch me watching someone else work. The chance of the FAA discovering that you don't have your eyeballs on somebody are about as close to zero as your chance of winning the Power Ball.

The JetProp and Meridian make for a nice airframe/engine combo. But even with the Meridian and the gross weight increase from 2002 the range was still considerably less than the piston Malibu Mirage due to fuel burn. (I was a partner in a 2000 Mirage and later a 2002 Meridian, both very nice capable airplanes. However cost per mile, all things considered, is a lot less in a Mooney. Ramp appeal, no comparison )