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Sounds like Boss Hogg found a new County. Ros-co-P coal train, out.

This is a cautionary tale. After 1,600 hours and 1,850 landings I ran my M20J off the runway into a field this weekend. Had the field not been muddy, well, only my ego would have been bruised. But when I had slowed to a few miles per hour there was enough weight on the nosewheel that it buried itself in the mud, which produced a prop strike. No engine stoppage but, of course, that doesn't matter. I decided at the last moment to land at the airport and, so, used my speed brakes to descend (I hate using those things because it seems like such inefficient, ill-planned flying and, so, almost never deploy them) and was so focused on dumping them before really setting up for a long straight in approach that I forgot about those things called flaps (my routine is to deploy the first notch at 1K AGL). Rather than toggling the flap button I punched the speed brake button, so at least I did something at 1K!! I was higher and faster than I should have been for a 2,500 runway but, hey, the sight picture was one I'd seen before and handled without any trouble. But, of course, that picture was formed from landings with full flaps, probably with something of a headwind (on this day it was calm with, perhaps, a slight tailwind) and with an aircraft probably 400 pounds heavier than was the case yesterday. This experience has also caused me to realize how thoroughly I've disregarded the advice we all read from time to time, which is to be "primed" for a go round. In those 1850 landings I can only recall 4 go rounds. That means I've saved a lot of landings I shouldn't have. Which gave me the confidence I could save this one. The only thing I've been "primed" to do is land. So no more. Good enough isn't. If there isn't enough margin to handle the mistakes I may have made, then I'm going around. Of course, to be sure this gets etched into my brain, I've now got a couple of months to stew on those mistakes. The good news is I'm awfully lucky to have had this experience at a flat, sea level airport rather than, say, Sedona. If there are any of you out there who may have mimicked my bad behavior, well, please consider the possible consequences.

Loosely aviation related, but thought some of you might enjoy it....

Congratulations! The IFR ticket really opens up the capability of your aircraft. It makes all those trips that you worry about taking a non issue. When you worry about a trip you're taking IFR, that's when a true go/no go decision needs to be made. I like Don's comments above as a way to get comfortable starting with higher cielings (gentleman's IMC) and then working your way with experience and confidence down to minimums. I'm always amazed the few times I have taken an approach to minimums, you pop out of the layer, and the runway is right in front of you. It can be very tempting to bust minimums by just a few feet. DO NOT DO IT. Fly the missed procedure and always have a back up plan, even if it puts you behind schedule or out of the way for a while. Welcome to the privileges, flexibility, responsibility, and liability of your IFR ticket! Now go fly! -Seth

"I wouldn't let approach or tower paint you into a corner- that's when mistakes tend to be made. Diving at the runway at 150 kts and trying to flare off the excess speed is a pretty advanced technique: personally, I would have done just what you did. Go arounds are free- a botched landing can be very expensive" Well said! BL: don't try anything dumb, different, or dangerous when under pressure. If you need to regularly mix it up with the big iron then develop your own technique for keeping the speed up, but practice it so it becomes part of your routine. A technique: If told to maintain best speed, answer back with what you CAN do. That will give ATC a reference so they can tell if they'll have seperation behind you. IE, "Mooney 1RX can give ya 140kts till 1 mile" My own level of agressiveness on approach decreases as pilot workload increases due to factors like night/wx/fatigue/strange field/wet runway/etc.

I'm very interested in a AoA indicator. I spoke at length with the owner of Alpha systems at the AOPA Summit. I liked everything I heard except the way it is calibrated. The process is a little fuzzy and not as accurate as I would like. Basically, you install the system wherever within certain areas, then you have to go out and fly certain flight profiles and when you think you are in the zone based on your pitot static gauges, a passenger presses a little button on the unit to give it a base line. Seems a little, well, unprecise to me. Are you really on the edge of stall? Maybe you're closer than you think. I guess I was hoping there was a more mathematical, or geometric way to calibrate it on the ground and be certain where the stall is.

I wouldn't rent my airplane though. But if you Anthony, or you Cris are ever in a jam and want to borrow it, you got it! It's all yours for the asking, anytime!

There is only one right answer. Curly red-haired red head. Cuz that's what I married. :-) I had an iPad 1 and I was waiting waiting waiting for the mini for something smaller - I love it. The mini fits beautifully in the yoke for easy access.