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You are completely WRONG! AirVenture is the most organized event you will ever attend. They have their act together with more than 5,000 volunteers who joyfully are there to assist. Plenty of tables, many with umbrellas surround the food vendors, plenty of food vendors all over the venue, although expensive. There are many, many port-potties scattered at convenient places all over the venue and they are maintained throughout the day multiple times. No lines for them. No Smell to them. For over 650,000 people the grounds are kept immaculately clean. Traffic is as well organized as possible with "In" direction in the morning and reversed to "Out" direction in the afternoon. I will say, though, that it is a pain in the butt. Police man the main entry roads and control the traffic lights, and volunteers direct traffic once you gain entry. Busses are provided from the parking areas and have priority with their own special lane. The venue is huge and there are multiple trams that have various routes throughout the grounds. Anybody who is anybody in aviation is there hawking their wares in 4 large hangars. The new airplanes from the big and small companies are displayed outside. There is fly-in airplane camping parking surrounding all the runways; enough for the 10,000 airplanes that fly in. The RV area is like a city in itself. The "cream of the crop" air traffic controllers from around the country control all of the air traffic. There are forums in the forums area every day given by many well know speakers. The FAA also has a building and has seminars all day long. If you're a lifetime member of EAA, the Oasis on the front line has all kinds of snacks and tables for free in an air conditioned building. If you are a donor you step up even more and have access to the PHP house, that also has even better snacks than the Oasis. EAA hosts almost a dinner there from 4-6 Monday, Tuesday. and Wednesday. If you're a donor or exhibitor, AOPA puts on a great free breakfast and has an outstanding dinner at the Waters house of the Lake on Tuesday evening. Hundreds of people show up to that. As you get older, 4 wheel scooters are available to rent for the day and have enough charge to get you anywhere on the grounds. Many years ago I almost laughed at the thought of ever needing one but, alas, for the past year and now again for this year I've needed to rent one for my special person. Flying in with the Mooney Caravan was fun for a number of years. The camaraderie is great. However, I park in Madison and drive up to Oshkosh because I don't want to park on the grass for the week, and I found that by the time everyone had debriefed and I got set to fly back to Madison, the thunderstorms often started building. So I haven't flown in with them for the past few years. And then there is the pure adventure of traveling more than half way across the country, stopping at places you probably never would have seen, meeting people you never would have met (I've got some great stories of people I've met going to Oshkosh at fuel stops). This is year 25 and counting. I hope I've conveyed a little bit of the excitement of AirVenture, It's a lifetime experience not to be missed.

Back in ‘89 I took my M20F for annual. The mechanic said the nose truss was bent and he repaired it. He cut out the bent tubes and welded in new tubes. He then sent it out for heat treat. He charged me $200 for the repair which included heat treat. The heat treat took two days. He said he called Mooney to get the repair procedure. I don’t think you need a PMA to repair nose trusses. I think you could do it under 43.13-1B. LASAR is a repair station, they will need to have an approved procedure for doing it.

They do have the option this year of requesting the North 40 or the South 40 by the use of a sign with either an N or S on it. But as @KSMooniac stated there are no guarantees and the earlier you arrive the more likely you are to be granted your request.

I'll endorse Don's detailed reply. It is an amazing event. IMO, the experience is best enjoyed camping with your plane so you avoid the awful logistics of driving/parking/hiking/sitting in traffic every day. The permanent facilities include buildings with real sinks, toilets and showers so as far as camping goes, it is NOT roughing it all. You cannot beat the camaraderie when hanging out with so many like-minded folks and the coolest planes on the planet everywhere. Arriving with the Caravan doubles the fun too, and having the big party tent and meals there (along with tables, chairs, lights, etc) make it even easier to stay in the North 40.

Don Maxwell told me he purchased an oven and can repair and heat treat them. Don also told me that he has never became a repair station to avoid extra FAA paperwork hassles.

It's either the speed brakes or you've landed in Moscow, Russia instead of Moscow, Idaho.

Last month I provided transition training for a new 190 TT pilot into his M600. It can be done. It was not cheap.

Florida has lot of thunderstorms and many airplanes tied outside. You are a lot more likely to find empty hangars if you have an airplane. Get your name on hangar lists, pass the check ride, and then shop for the right airplane. While you do that, do talk to people at the airport, you'll be surprised how helpful people will be not only with you pursuit of finding an airplane, but with so many other resources.

No one should. As I said, damage or lack of damage should not be a consideration. Walking away from the crash is. Sadly, there have apparently been fatalities from trying to save the airplane. You may not like the slogan, but that’s where it comes from.

No back spring for gear actuators is another great example or the wing fule gauges, and so on.

I’m just bumping this thread since OSH is almost upon us. I have a question for those who responded that they “Don’t even want to go”- Just out of curiosity, have you ever been? Or have you been and don’t want to go back? I was like that 25 years ago, I’d never been and didn’t see the sense in going. (My wife and I go for 10 days straight now, I do volunteer work and she volunteers with GirlVenture.)

Could be your speed brakes snapping closed if they are not in the fully stowed position (sometimes they need adjustment). When the master is shut off or the SB breaker pulled, they snap close.

For those of you that are smarter than me this probably wouldn't happen. Been operating under a Basic Med since it started and worked fine. I have a home in Canada and thought I might try to get my Class III so I could fly up there again so applied. I was denied and now find out I can't go back or just continue my Basic. At least six months to get a Special if I can get it. And I just got my 66 E out of annual. Word to the wise. Check with AOPA before doing anything. Lesson learned. Dick

South West Texas Aviation also does them. I ordered a new unit from them, and sent back my dented unit to redeem the core charge. They were quick to send the part and easy to work with. I wasn't able to get the core back to them for something like 6 weeks, and they were amenable. Gear leg looked nice, and had the newer style stops on it. 4 landings later the nose gear was rather forcefully shoved into the gearwell during a collapse (through no fault of the SWTA leg) and it took it like a champ!

@1980Mooney, you grabbed a pic of my old paint and old wingtip somehow! (the maroon tip with the 201 painted on) My plane has changed a lot since then!

If you want an opinion for an AME, you do a consultation without even filling out a MedExpress. There are also plenty of people that pencil whip medical exams. When I needed to do mine last year, I happened to be out of town. Everyone I called was booking weeks out. I found a guy that could see me that day... I found out why: his exam took me four hours but once you've started, you've got to pass so I was very patient. I will go basic med next time; it's not worth the hassle or the risk.

As @KSMooniac pointed out, No you can't without a lot of modification of the ailerons, counterweights and outer wing skin. The construction of the ailerons changed after serial number 24-1037. Your counterweights (the early J's) are large, blunt and exposed on the front when fully deflected - the later models are streamlined the weight and concealed it in the wingtip. Also as pointed out the last section of skin on the wing is a little longer to overlap the Factory wing tip. Since you are new to Mooney, do you know that there are Illustrated Parts Catalog (IPC) and Service Manuals online in the Downloads section? (links below) The Factory wing tips are flush mounted and the aileron counterweights are fully enclosed. There are after-market Mooney wing tips for early J's - LASAR used to sell them - which overlap the wing skin and still allow the counterweight to be exposed when fully deflected. @Jesse20 had a set for sale earlier this year but they may have sold. Wing tips $3000 OBO - Vintage Mooneys (pre-J models) - Mooneyspace.com - A community for Mooney aircraft owners and enthusiasts

You don't really get to pick your parking/camping spot aside from Vintage or GA. They'll send you where there are open spots whenever you arrive. Getting there after Sunday afternoon likely means you won't get in the N40, at least until people start leaving on Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday.

Looking at my numbers (and the chart that I drew), the first 'turning point' is at about 10G, this is when the feel fills the wedge at the bottom. The second is at about 25G, this is when the inboard rib is filled to the top. There is a bit of a turning point at 42G, I'm not sure why. On a standard tank, the wedge at the top is never really filled because of the filler neck. But with the Monroy tank, it is filled to the top at the old filler location and near the top at the new location. I will go measure how far away the float is from th outboard side later today. Aerodon

It's not that the Monroy 'side' is empty, it's that the overall level of all tanks is starting to drop below the highest physical level the float in the tank can go. The tank has two floats, one on inboard side that will measure down the bottom, the one on the outboard side measure up to the top. Now Monroe moves the tank further outboard and the float cannot reach the top.

To limit the variance I place the FuelHawk in the cutout nearest the fuselage. And I am very careful how I put my thumb over the end. I have found that to make a huge difference. I really prefer the FuelStik as it has less variables, but it is harder to use on the inboards due to the anti siphon flapper.

I've had mine for about 18 months sitting outside. Bruce's covers for the whole plane, including the prop -- packing/unpacking takes about 15 min. Haven't seen any issues, and the covers do a good job keeping water aways from the plane.

Pinecone, Somewhere someone posted his accurate filling details. I plotted the results and as expected found that it is definitely non linear - from empty until the bottom is filled, then until the inside rib is filled, then to the top. I worked out some really good quantities to enter into my JPI for maximum accuracy. The idea is to choose calibration points with good linearity between them. IIRC, the JPI allows 5 calibration points, so I have chosen 0,10,25,42.5,52.5 for mine. Have not done it yet. Aerodon

Monroy Aux Tanks M20C-K FMS.pdf @Pinecone The way that Monroy shows it, you dip the aux tanks to determine amount of fuel and add this (chart amount based on inches of fuel in aux) to the amount shown by the senders...which just occurs to me that this no longer works if you've re-calibrated your fuel senders after Monroy installation. For me, this is the only weakness of the Monroy tanks...it would have been nice to have a sender for the aux tanks.

That's a glowing report. Nice to hear. I've thought about trying Sun and Fun as a way to kick off spring but I'm sure I would enjoy WI in the summer too.

I’ve always used a canopy / fuselage cover to cover the windscreen, windows and doors. It provides sun protection for the avionics and upholstery and helps minimize any chance of water intrusion through the doors or windows. Check out Bruce’s Custom covers to start. I had my last cover custom made at a local shop out of Sunbrella. You want to keep water out of the airplane. A covered awning could be good. However, I’ve always wondered what folks do in areas prone to bad thunderstorms or tornadoes. Probably best to ask folks in your area as well as your insurance company.

This is our 25th year. I fly into Madison and drive up. My mentor flight instructor used to go every year, but I thought it would be boring. Then I went, and haven't looked back.

I don't know how skilled or handy you are working on your Mooney, but if you have never worked on and removed your interior before this can be a time consuming and frustrating project. Over 25+ years, I have done it more times than I care to recall. It is still a pain in the ass. In order to get that front headliner off, you will need to remove the front and rear plastic side panels To do that the front seats need to come out. The kick panels need to be removed on both sides. There are a lot of screws of all sizes Bag each set by location - don't mix up the location of short screws with the location of longer screws Do not use any sharp pointed screws in the side panels. An avionics shop substituted a long sharp screw one time on my plane side panel and proceeded to drive it right into a cable that was zip tied to the steel frame. The headliner removal and replacement can benefit from two people handling it. It gets brittle over time and if you are holding it just by one side you can crack it by its own weight and do more damage than you started with. New plastic panels are no panacea. Every Mooney is slightly hand-made. Those panels, even from Mooney, are generally oversized and need to be trimmed to fit perfectly. And then there are all those screw holes. New plastic panels do not have any screw holes. If you want to hit all the existing holes, you need to use the old panel as a template in order to mark them. It is easy to screw up. Otherwise you have to drill all new holes in both the new plastic panel and the aluminum. This is also easy to screw up. I prefer to repair my existing panels and utilize all the existing screws and screwholes. Now in your case someone has put a lot of oval headed screws in your headliner - perhaps a backing plate? It is pure overkill. The panel should be smooth without any screw heads. Every owner faces this interior problem. Good luck however you choose to proceed.

My point is the cost to total ownership won't change that much with the cost increase. Lack of part would be a major issue, one to freak out about.

And Vintage emergency gear extension cable and worm gear . . . . Fortunately mine worked as advertised last weekend.

This question is usually once a year and it’s usually the speed brakes. Not certainly, but that’s most likely.

I'm an element lead in the Caravan for the first time, and one of my wingmen has been flying 50 years, but never to OSH! Can't wait to get up there!

It's an easy sell when your other option is a 4 hour drive across East Dakota!

The big question is if this will keep more parts on the shelf or not. If parts more frequently in stock and on the shelf, ordered and sent the same day, it might balance an increased cost. If everything is a one off order and much higher cost, then that's not good.

Welcome to working on Mooneys!

One note of caution from a concerned citizen on this lovefest… yes, I’ve used jimmy several times. Yes I enjoyed our conversation. Transaction was completed smoothly. However, he sells a lot of Mooneys sight unseen. He probably looks through the logs, although I caught some things on my recent purchase that he didn’t see (and both of us missed a big one in the logs). He hasn’t actually looked at these remote sales except for pictures. I say this because he sold my airplane without seeing it and I hope I didn’t misrepresent it to him or the new owner. Not everyone is going to sell through a remote broker and be totally honest/open. Due diligence folks. Don’t count on a broker catching everything, especially on an airplane he’s not seen.

Yes, I am. I will PM you with the details.

Driving and staying in/near Waupaca. Booth in Hangar A. Come visit.

If an airport has a landing fee published correctly and I land there, I will pay it. I don't care how they identify me or even if they do. I will call them up to pay if I have to. If an airport has a tie-down fee with appropriate notification, I will pay it. I will figure out how to pay it. If I get a bill that I don't owe, I will not pay it unless forced to do so by the government, but that hasn't happened yet. It sounds like Vector has a lot of false positives which is too bad.

It seems Jerry visited Moonespace on June 9.

It seems like Lasar and Mooney have agreed that my order three months ago is still with Mooneys vendor and will be delivered in September. We’ll see. However, I ordered the part through Top Gun and they charged $760. Lasar wants $1015. So you guys were clearly correct about the pricing.

Mooney service before: Factory price $, add MSC markup $ -- Owner pays $$ Mooney setrvice after: Factory price $, add LASAR markup $, add MSC Markup $ -- Owner pays $$$