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OK guys, just got her back from the shop! Sorry, couldn't find room for the 8 track! Here is what she looks like:

I'm sitting in the terminal at SFO waiting on the connecting flight home. I've been in Korea all week but UPS tells me a stack of boxes has been delivered to the hangar. Over the next couple of months, I hope to get an all new panel done in my 252. Going In: Aspen E1000 Pro, EA100 autopilot adaptor, Avidyne IFD540, AXP322 Remote Transponder, SkyTrax100 ADSB In, PMA450a audio panel, JPI EDM-900. Coming Out: KNS 80, GNS 530W, KR 87 ADF, KT76a transponder, WX-10a strike finder, KI-525a HSI, GMA340, JPI EDM-700, Turn coordinator, all engine instruments. According to Southwest Texas Aviation, the JPI install is already in progress. I hope to get the IFD540 and the PMA450a installed over the weekend as they're both just plug and play. The rest of the work will take a bit more time and will require a new left side panel to be cut. The last piece still under research is what to do about an electric standby AI.

Mr. President-elect Trump I know you are quite busy selecting your cabinet members and other top US officials for your administration. The lower levels are not yet on your radar screen. However, I would like to be considered for the top role in the FAA as the administrator. I am an engineer, pilot and aircraft owner and extremely involved in the community. My engineering skills and aviation experience would make me an excellent choice to head up the FAA. My practical thought process would allow me to reduce rules and regulations imposed by the FAA and streamline processes to make general aviation industry more robust and profitable. I would make the FAA a leaner organization that can get things done efficiently and safely and make the organization act more like a business and less like a bureaucracy. Your consideration is greatly appreciated and I look forward to talking with one of your aides in the near future.

I'm sure his access will be seriously limited as he draws closer to actually being President but believe it or not he was very accessible as a "normal guy" just 2 months ago. He flew into St Louis on his rounds and a buddy of mine, more like my brother, had been asked to go up to the airport to help out with some of his arrangements...ended up getting walked out to his plane where he met Trump. They were only supposed to be there like 15 min or so.. but Trump asked him and his wife to come on board. They spent an hour just talking about regular daily life things. They met Malania (sp?) and the coolest part...My buddy's 12 yr old daughter text him while they were there... Derrick quickly texted back and put his phone away. Donald asked about her and asked if they used facetime (for iPhones). He said yep...Donald said lets call her back... She happened to be on a school bus headed to a school function... Donald called her and spent like 10 minutes talking to her while she sat there with all the other kids. Needless to say she went nuts afterwards and snapped a bunch of screenshots... My buddy said he was the most personable and normal guy you'd ever meet, There were no camera's around, and no press. Despite the media, he's probably much more of a normal guy than most would ever imagine...just happens to be a billionaire and thankfully our next President. Just 2 cents of ... ii hope you get the job! Sure would be great to have another "regular guy" that just happens to be a Mooney owner running something with common sense.

Ask about the turbine Mooney while you are there, Tom. Best regards, -a-

Hello Eagle D I can't imagine what an incredible experience it must be to pilot one of the finest fighters ever made might be like flying one of the finest GA aircraft ever made a Mooney. GXR had one of the nicest C models but alas he has moved on to a higher level. As someone that flys one of the most basic Mooneys around these parts I can tell you that as long as you find a sound engine and airframe you will be rewarded with a great flying machine. My wife and I love ours and have no problem taking it over the Sierra Nevada and mountains surrounding Montana. I love the manual gear and even some of the high end Mooney guys wish they still had their Johnson....Bar. Here is a shot of our simple short body Snoopy. And thank you for your service to our country

I deleted the offending posts.

Speak for yourself mine has them they just retract so as not to reduce speed until I need them You have to look deep inside the wing to find them and the ammo is expensive I'd rather burn gas than gunpowder.

Bob - definitely the cowling that's grabbing my attention. I suppose it changes the lines just enough to make a difference - before or after, Mooney made a fine airplane. Bonal - It's definitely something I wish everyone could experience; but GA is the same thing to me for different reasons. Thanks for showing off the pictures, she's a beaut! They look fast sitting on the ground... kpaul is right, and I can't wait!

Don't worry guys, I will be taking Eagle Driver up this weekend. Although my F is modest compared to Bob's machine. Planning on running up to 15J, Cook Co. in Adel GA for their fly-in and lunch http://www.socialflight.com/event-details.php?eventId=168384 It will be about an hour each way so hopefully a 2.0 will push him firmly to Mooney.

Oddly enough, this phenomenon only happens to the wife....repeatedly.

I visited Seppe on Wednesday and checked in on AL, which bearing in mind i have pneumonia was a feat in itself. She is looking better by the day. The left tank is cleaned, corrosion all fixed and well within limits, sealed and ready for her final protection. The right tank has been cleaned, inspected, slight corrosion fixed and again well within limits. Sealing is taking place as we speak. She should have her first coat of primer on her by Tuesday which is excellent news. All the flight controls and fairings have been cleaned and prepped. Loose smoking rivets throughout the aircraft have been replaced. Correct rivets have been put where the incorrect ones were (some sham maintenance company in the past called Airtime in Bournemouth). The interior is complete and will be back in Holland around Tuesday as well, which is excellent news. Can i just say (and i havent seen the product yet) but Aerocomfort in San Antonio is definitely the place to go to get your interior done. We shipped everything to them, they even sent lists to Holland to make sure that everything was sent. Hector has been so accomodating, friendly, coping with the damn Brit and his wierd English ways. They liaised with my shipping company direct and just kept me in the loop so i didnt have to worry about that as well. Fully understood to send photos to me before final payment went out (silly Brit thing). Excellent customer service, i cant fault it. Andrew and before anyone notices the crack is old and was fixed ages ago.

So to all that have been following my post about the Garmin GTN750 software upgrade affecting the Shadin Miniflo series fuel to destination being zero I spent a year arguing with Garmin that its a software bug in their update. I recently upgraded to the latest Garmin software release and I still had the same issue. I actually had to build my own test harness and give them rs232 stream dumps from both directions. The Shadin folks were great to work with and gave me their word format for the data and we also located an old Garmin data word format on the net somewhere. I was able to prove to Garmin that it is their problem and they were able to reproduce it in there lab. The data they were sending to the Shadin in the fuel to destination field was filled with dashes. Funny that's not a number to me.They tell me they will have a fix for it (hopefully) in the next update.

Try the Washington Post and New York Times. Or twitter . . . I'm also an engineer, with 21 years experience dealing with FDA regulations at work and over nine years dealing with FAA paperwork as a hobby. Let me know if you need help, I have a variety of sharp knives to cut red tape.

There you go. Everyone put your pitchforks away! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

here is a copy and paste of what you are looking for....... I also attached the link here.... http://www.donkaye.com/donkaye.com/Bob_Krommer_on_Mooney_Slips-Part_2.html From the Mooney List December 3, 2005 by Bob Kromer SLIPPING A MOONEY Went up to the attic last night and dug through my old flight test data sheets from my Engineering Flight Test days at the factory. I did find the observed data for the slip tests I did. Looked over the data. From those test results, here is some additional information that might help answer some of the questions that have been raised: 1. The data shows that it's the airplanes that require lots of nose up trim for landing that are the most prone to experiencing the tail buffeting condition we talked about earlier when aggressively slipping at or below 85 KIAS. We simply could not get the M20J prototype to buffet in a full rudder sideslip at any CG and flap condition tested, down to 1.1 Vstall. From those test results, I think it is safe to say that the Pre-J models and the J model itself will not experience any tail buffeting/partial airflow separation over the horizontal tail in an aggressive sideslip maneuver. So the J and Pre-J models should be okay for slipping on approach. Not comfortable, and in my humble opinion not the way to fly a high performance airplane like a Mooney, but safe. 2. It's the K models (and variations ther3of) and the "long body" models that showed the possibility of inducing a partial horizontal tail airflow separation in an aggressive sideslip condition. I got it in both the Mooney/Porsche and the M20K model prototypes in the landing approach configuration. These are the airplanes that require almost full (if not full) nose up trim for a hands off, trimmed condition on final approach. (Sometime, run your pitch trim to the full nose up position on the ground and look at the negative angle of attack of the horizontal tail. Quite impressive). It's this high negative angle of attack with full nose up trim that puts the airflow over the horizontal tail at a fairly extreme condition. 3. Extending the flaps adds to the downwash angle over the horizontal tail, making the negative angle of attack over the horizontal tail even greater. Mooneys spend a lot of their time at or near forward CG. As the CG moves forward the need for more nose up trim on the approach is required for trimmed flight. So does lower airspeed. So the worse condition for aggressive slipping in the K and up models is slow, forward CG, full flaps - just like we are when configured for landing. Remember, it's anything that requires the need for more nose up trim that adds to the possibility of experiencing horizontal tail buffeting when aggressively slipping on the approach. 4. Aggressive slipping does strange things to the local airflow over the horizontal tail. The bottom line is this - the horizontal tail will see a greater negative angle of attack in the slip maneuver. So add an aggressive slip to the conditions noted in #3 above and you can experience the partial airflow separation over the horizontal tail and the resulting buffeting that we found in the flight tests. The Mooney is such a good design that there is no danger here - just a buffet in the control wheel from the elevator, a slight nose down pitching moment and a little loss of elevator effectiveness. But I want to emphasize - THIS IS NO PLACE TO BE FLYING. Add a little ice to that horizontal tail leading edge or a gusty crosswind requiring heavy elevator input and look out. That minor buffeting and airflow separation can get worse. 5. Someone asked what would happen to an airplane if the horizontal tail completely stalled. The answer - bad news. A sharp nose down pitching moment and a loss of elevator control would result. With increased airspeed as a result of the nose down pitch, the tail might start flying again and elevator effectiveness might be restored. But we're talking a loss of aircraft control here - a pilot's worse nightmare. How much altitude might be lost in this loss of control experience? A guess - 2000 feet. 6. Incidentally, ground effect helps the condition - the downwash angle over the horizontal tail is slightly reduced with the wing/flaps in ground effect. This reduces the local negative angle of attack of the air flowing over the horizontal tail - a good thing when it comes to stalling the horizontal tail. Again - the bottom line. Aggressive slips in your Pre-J or J should be okay from a safety of flight viewpoint. K models and up - margins here are thinner. Chances are you might experience some tail buffeting in the K models and up when aggressively slipping - not a place to be. From my flight test experience, I would avoid aggressive slips on approach in the K's and up. The Mooney is a wonderful design, but all designs have their limits. I certainly don't have all the answers and would never claim to be an "expert" or tell anyone how they need to fly their airplanes, but maybe some of my engineering flight test experiences at Mooney will help you better understand your airplanes. I've got lots of good data in my attic. Hope to share more of it with you in the future. Best Regards; Bob Kromer

Took the afternoon off (after a crappy morning) to try and enjoy what may be the last of the nice days for a while. Preflight done, climb in and once over the controls before startup, pull back on the elevator and get this hideous metal on metal scraping sound and could really feel it in the yoke. Played with trim and flaps to no avail. Finally gave up, scratch flying today. Not sure whats was going on, nothing like this when i buttoned up the hangar last weekend. Grabbed my mechanic, James, and said lets go look at it. He listened to it for a while, pinpointed where it was coming from and started peeling back panels. (Some of u know where this is going). After about the 6th screw. He said try it now.... free and clear. 1 long screw was hitting the rod. I should have known. What we both cant figure out is how this just now showed up. I put all those damn screws in there myself last December during annual. James double checked the rod to make sure there was no damage. Buttoned it back up and took her an hour joy ride, worked on different power settings, etc. Came back to do some t and gs, no wind at all which is unusual in Nebraska, and hell if i didn't make the best landing ive ever made in any plane. Didnt even hear the tires chirp over the stall horn. (Some of my worst landings are when theres no wind). I quit there. What started out as a crappy day, and then the awful (how much is this gonna cost me) noise, i left the airport grinning from ear to ear. My question to the group, that I cant figure out is: What changed to make that scew hit so bad after a year of service. Would cooler temps move metal around that much? And why didnt it happen last winter? Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

Don't get him started!

I'd like to know how you taught the dog to work on the plane? Is he an IA? Mine just wants to wonder around the airport like a lost puppy.

Here's what you want to read. http://www.mooneypilots.com/mapalog/M20C Evaluation/M20C_Evaluation_Report.html http://www.mooneypilots.com/mapalog/m20e.html http://www.mooneypilots.com/mapalog/M20F Evaluation/M20F_Evaluation_Report.html http://www.mooneypilots.com/mapalog/M20G Evaluation/M20G_Eval.htm http://www.mooneypilots.com/mapalog/M20J Evaluation/M20J_evaluation_report.html http://www.mooneypilots.com/mapalog/M20K252_evaluation_report.htm Note: The C (short) and G (mid) share the same 180 hp engine. The E (short), F (mid), and J (mid) share the same 200 hp engine. So as you might expect, the C is faster than a G and the E is faster than the F. The J is faster than the E because of Lopresti speed mods. Today you can find C's and E's that have the Lopresti speed mods making them quite fast. And an E with all the speed mods should be faster than a J. The K 252 starts a whole new class of Turbo Mooney's.

Your point is well taken, but I still endorse Todd Palin. Any guy who names his daughter after an aircraft manufacturer is OK in my book.

I remember very well the Mercury program. I even got a cardboard capsule to play astronaut. I also remember Gagarin's first in space flight. Unlike Glenn that splashed on the ocean and was rescued by the Navy, Gagarin parachuted from the capsule and landed on a farm in Russia. He was rescued by a mother and her daughter and carried on horse drawn wagon to the nearest town to make a phone call to Moscow. Unlike launching from Florida at a tropical latitude launching from Siberia at temperate latitudes requires bigger rockets. In the early 1960s Nikita Khrushchev wanted to stablish a space port in Cuba to launch to the Moon but Kennedy changed his mind. The Vostok capsules used vacuum tubes were primitive compared to the Mercury capsules. Gagarin height was 5' 2" vs Glenn 5' 10". Glenn would have not fit in the Vostok. Nevertheless the Vostok were the first to return an astronaut on land. José

Coincidentally(?) Don Maxwell just posted in the MAPA discussion group and encouraged spreading the info: "It seems as these Johnson bar gear ups go away for years, then the planes change hands, the old mechanic die and here we go again. In the last 10 days I have had calls on three J-bar gear ups. All three just out of annual. One was the failure of the J-bar itself. Pic 2198 is of the jbar still latched and all three gear went down. Pic 2196 is the bellcrank welded to the bottom of the J-bar. New J-bars have a strap welded around the bottom for added strength. Lasar has been doing this mod to J-bars they repair for many years. It looks as though there may have been corrosion in that area. Have your mechanic pay close attention to the weld area at the base of the J-Bar. The one thing I see and hear over the years are new mechanics fascinated with the J-bar system and want to adjust one. It is not that difficult but should be shown by someone with experience. If a J-bar, installed at the factory, is greased regularly I doubt it would be out of adjustment 40 years later. If a J-bar system is out of rig it’s because someone screwed with it. Be very careful about mechanics changing preloads if they are not experienced. Feel free to pass this on. Don Jason, I hope you already know that if you've put quite a bit of money in avionics, paint, interior, mods,... whatever and have not raised the hull coverage to reflect the increased value you might be at risk of having the insurance adjuster decide their best cost solution is to pay you the hull coverage and take the plane and all your goodies for salvage. Hope that doesn't apply in your case. A typical gear up (& required engine tear down) will run $30,000 +/-.

Said the pot to the kettle! Let's keep it civilized, please.

I'm just a court jester.

Personally, I don't think I would stray too far from my home drone until I knew what the oil consumption rate was. I'd fly an hour or two in the local area staying within about 25 miles of home and check the oil consumption. If it was reasonable, then I might think about going cross country. Then again, I live in the west where many trips involve crossing the mountains with few good options for an engine out landing.

Looking good Andrew! Sucks to have Pneumonia but if you have to have it, I guess it's better to be down whilst the plane is down too. Prayers for quick recovery.

this would work http://www.ebay.com/itm/Oxygen-Transfill-Adaptor-CGA540-to-CGA540-Fill-small-Welding-tanks-/141041565692?hash=item20d6bb7ffc:g:O68AAOxye9lSElfW then you would need a cga 540 to scott adapter, those are expensive. http://www.mypilotstore.com/MyPilotStore/sep/9389?gclid=CjwKEAiAyanCBRDkiO6M_rDroH0SJAAfZ4KL-UQSNIovKzjgbV5eIvCgmp9VogWV4bEKDQCQY3owPRoC88fw_wcB I ASSUME that's what you have, because it's what I have. That has you at roughly $167, aircraft spruce has the adapter a little cheaper. If you wanted a two tank setup you could add a tee for about 40 dollars and two braided hoses for about $100, but then you're at about $320, when the full kit is only $350 what you really need is a gas booster that can pump the pressure from a depleted tank up to 2000psi so you can completely empty your tank, then I could get 2.5 fills per tank

Bennett, thanks for some very cool background on the 231 heritage. I seriously doubt mine will ever evolve to those lofty creations...but maybe we can park next to each other on a ramp somewhere and your '61 can wow my '31 with tales that legends are made of. Seriously, the 315 kts is killer ! I've seen 213kts on mine at one point... Had to take a picture ! ha Aviatoreb, I just found out that there's a '51 within 30 min flight time for me at Sonoma County airport... Now I just have zip down there and drop the $$$ for the bucket list check mark!

That's how I learned my glass panel.

Update: The avionics shop diagnosed it as a bad autopilot computer. A yellow tagged one was delivered and installed yesterday and I flew it today. All is well.

Thanks! (Long time MooneySpacers are pretty tired of pics of that panel.) The windshield is 201 style M20J, The cowl is an ARI STC that closes much of the original "guppy" intake. The oil cooler is relocated from the front to the rear allowing a 2nd landing light. The pointed spinner is also different from the original and is there to fit the modified cowl. Here's pics of my first '66E before and after painting. The one I have now would have looked the same before the plastic surgeons did their magic.

In September I found the "J" shaped tube that's supposed to squirt TKS fluid into the prop slinger ring had rotated 180 degrees on my M20R. It was hosing down the prop hub. The techs turned it back around, tightened it properly & it is working normally. The prop deice line passes through the firewall in front of the pilot's feet, runs over the left top of engine and to the slinger. There are about 4 connections from firewall to prop. You can see it all with just the top cowl half removed.

Shoot, it would be my first, and I'd use it to travel to make the rest!

You can also break in LOP at 27+ inches of manifold pressure, 11 gph that's 83% power LOP which is comparable to the ROP 75% value. it will also likely run cooler at that configuration

Great news perhaps they received notice from Santa indicating a major concern about being unable to fulfill a Christmas wish

I think you are confusing The Verrazano Narrows bridge with the Tacoma Narrows bridge.

May have been a miscommunication. May have been something else. But they made it right, quite promptly. They get credit for that.

I like the way you're thinking. I did very much the same with my first Mooney. If I think about what a Mooney is used for, I wanted a good long distance IFR machine. That meant a proper T panel config, an HSI, a WAAS GPS, and a good autopilot. I decided I wouldn't look at anything less. I also wanted an engine in the sweet spot between 500 hours and 1000 SMOH. Beyond that I had a wish list that included ADSB, Engine monitor, speed mods (the early birds really benefit from them), paint and interior. Ideally I wanted all of this in an E and had a $50K budget. All the really nice E's were between $60K and $70K and I really didn't want to compromise. So I found a C at $48K that was everything except the ADSB and Engine monitor. I bought it and flew 400 hours in 2 years with no maintenance issues over $1000. Along the way I added the ADSB and engine monitor. Now I fly a K 252. This time I didn't buy the most expensive K252 as the most expensive models I found seemed to have spend money in the wrong places and neglected the things that matter most. But I did buy a nice one. Most of us on this board would recommend that you buy at the high end of the range. Don't stretch to get into a cheap J, rather buy the top of the range E or even C. In the long run, you'll be much happier and will have made a better investment. BTW I sold my $48K C for $50K after two years.

One of our Naval aviators started with a nice F. Updated it over the years, then sold it before heading to Japan for a stay... Now he is back, with one of the nicest Screamin' Eagles on the East coast. It's kind of funny, you get to meet some interesting Mooney drivers over the years... MS is quite the Mooney hub. Best regards, -a-

This all sounds very fishy and I suspect there is more to the story. Rather than rushing to judgement and publicly trashing the company in an open forum, why don't you wait and see if you get a reasonable response from the company? Maybe there is a valid rationale that this "Lori" didn't convey. Or maybe not. But it seems to me that it's a bit premature to drag them into the mud without some more facts. By all means, give us the rest of the story once you get it.

Generally companies that are trying to grow, embrace the loyal fan base and use them as ambassadors for the brand.

Yeah so inquiring minds will wanna know. How's a Mooney handle compared to a F15, acceleration aside Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You can't spin if you don't stall and you can't stall unless you have a high AoA. The purpose of a forward slip is to loose altitude not airspeed. Keep your speed up and your nose down.

Just thinking out loud - not expressing an opinion - what do you think of this? So I have he King KFC200 autopilot including the gyro attitude indicator that goes with. I cannot get rid of that easily unless I go aspen or g600. So the g5 won't do. So g5 would be just as a backup. But I already have a nice and recently overhauled electric gyro. So no need to get rid of that. Well electronic is nice, but why would I want a third attitude indicator unless it does something extra? I wish the G5 came with synthetic vision - why didn't they? Well the GRT mini does come with synthetic vision. Same size and shape. But it is officially a "temporary" install like a handheld. It is cheaper therefore than the G5 and easy to install - just needs an open hole. http://grtavionics.com/mini.html

Justin is a stand-up guy and the aircraft appears to exactly as represented. I decided to go with a friend's aircraft but it was a really really hard decision. I would not hesitate to deal with Justin and I will definitely listen to any advice he has on a legacy Mooney - particularly when it comes to PC/Brittain systems. Just FYI - I expressed interest in the aircraft and in turn he found all the info I requested - called Brittain and found out what it would cost to upgrade his aircraft AND found two A&Ps that could get the prop inspections done within 1.5 mooney hours from my residence! Great guy - nice airplane!

heres what it looks like on the brochure from 67. Not sure if they photoshopped back then

One of those unexplainable oddities of life. Same phenomena as the sock that goes missing from the dryer.

There are plenty of quality/solid airframes around that have not been updated much, if at all. So long as you go into such a plane knowing that putting $50k into a $60k plane typically results in an $80k plane when it is time to sell, then you won't be disappointed. However, if you wish to build your dream plane (like Bennett) and own/fly it for a long time, then you'll "get" your money out if it in enjoyment over many years. Starting with an un-upgraded plane in this case is great because paying for newer paint or interior that you want to change is silly. Ditto for one with a 430W if you ultimately want a GTN instead. Just figure out what you ultimately want, and how long you might own it. Personally I think the J (and perhaps K) fit a real sweet spot in terms of useful speed and range, low operating cost, and reasonable purchase price. To go measurably faster or carry a lot more at similar speeds requires s LOT more in purchase and/or operating cost. Point bring you might not "outgrow" a Mooney and thus building a great one might be a great long-term decision. Sent from my VS985 4G using Tapatalk