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Showing content with the highest reputation on 03/13/2017 in all areas

  1. It took 3 years and about 70 hours under the hood. On Friday March 10, I passed my instrument check ride! Big day for me. Learned how to fly at 51 and now 56. Glad to have done it in my mooney. Got kicked around a lot on Friday with the wind up here in the Midwest.
    9 points
  2. Putting a positive spin on this thread... I know this thread is about the operating budget for a 1975 F, and maybe some of the numbers in this thread are high because of that. However, owning a plane can be done on a budget. It just depends on what someone is looking for and maybe they need look for something less expensive. To say that you need to be able to come up with $50,000 is perhaps true, depending on what you are flying. However for someone like @Raptor05121 or myself (and I think quite a few others around here), that is more than our planes are worth. If I had to come up with that, I would just scrap my plane and start over. I think that this and other online boards tend to scare away many a prospective owner. Yes, people stretch and buy planes beyond their budget which end up not flying, but to own a plane you don't have to have six figures of disposable income sitting in the bank just waiting to be spent on the plane. It depends on what you want. A lot of people told Alex that he shouldn't buy a plane on what he made and had available, but he did and put in a bunch of sweat equity. Look at all the adventures he has had and what a great ambassador he is to other young people thinking of GA, which is really what the industry needs more of. I just bought three headsets off Amazon for $85/ea + about $7 for cloth covers for the ears. They aren't as nice as what everyone else is using, but my wife and son like them just fine. I don't have ADS-B out, but I have a few years left to get that done and as with everything else electronic, the price will come down. I think there will be options in the marketplace that we have not heard of yet which will get the job done for less. I built a stratux with just over $100 of a raspberry pi and other pieces and have ADS-B in along with free weather on my tablet. My plane has no glass panel, older avionics (with an annoying Com1 that gets a stuck open mic from time to time) not IFR capable, but neither am I. However, I did fly my wife and son to Lake Havasu last week for lunch and over Anza Borrego State Park for some flight seeing on the way home last Saturday. Yesterday we flew to Mesquite for my wife's dad's 75th birthday and did a little flightseeing over the Hoover Dam on the way. We flew back home today, 254nm and 2 hours from wheels up to touching down at home, beats the heck out of the 5-6 hour drive back and fighting with the traffic from Vegas. Next weekend I'll fly my son and I to see family in AZ, probably going to take some family flying while we're there. I don't have an "F," just an old "D" that was converted to retract and CS prop 50 years ago, but it flies great, and these trips wouldn't have happened if I had to work out renting a plane.
    8 points
  3. Raptor methodology is not for the faint of heart, but where there's a will, there's a way.
    5 points
  4. Quite frankly the future of deicing is piezo electric. It already works on many corporate jets, mostly for tail deicing. Apply couple of thousand Gs to ice over a few micrometers and it just shutters. The TW system is flawed and has been from the start. There just is not enough power to generate heat quickly enough to avoid some runback. So slowly, over time, with each shed cycle you end up with ice bridge where you want it least. A system like this has to heat fast enough to vaporize the moisture on each shed cycle, TW simply does not do it. As to boots, they are pretty useless on our light piston powered aircraft. The work decent on turboprop equipment. They simply do not function well when you need them the most, which is on climb (although that fairly easy to overcome if the ice band altitudes are well know and not very thick, by zoom climbing) but there is not much that can be done on approach. Maintaining 140knots, a speed where boots really start to shine down to 200' is not an option is a piston single, it's not even a good option in a turboprop single, but most of them have considerably more advanced flap system where the difference between full flaps and no flap approach speeds can be as much as 30knots, so 150 on final down to 200' is quite doable in a TBM, you can slow down 40knots in half mile with the giant paddle up front, cross the numbers at 110 and force the landing and go into reverse. It still gets rather squirly because your rudder just simply quits working and if there is ice in the clouds, there is a good chance there is snow/ice on the runway and you need your rudder the most. Boots really need speed to shed well. I've spend enough time in a King Air series aircraft over the years to realize that even when maintaining good ice penetration speed, you still end up with a ton of ice unless the boots get coated before pretty much every flight with a ice de-bonding agent. It's a none issue on a King Air as you'd pretty much would have to continuously fly thru SLD in order to build up enough ice to bring that aircraft down. It's an old, fat airfoil that really doesn't much care what's on the leading edge. I bet a KA would take off with no issue with 2x4s mounted to the leading edge. TKS and a turbo is pretty much as good as it gets. Ask any Cessna Caravan pilot. The FedEx planes used to fall out of the sky due to icing all the time Caravans were booted. Once TKS replaced the boots, it became a non-issue. I'd take a FIKI TKS over any other system in a light plane. If you run into time limitations due to fluid usage, you're doing icing wrong. My two cents from a guy that has considerably more back seat time in flying machines than left seat time.
    4 points
  5. Well it's been a while and finally the weather and obligations to family aligned to allow some flying. It was only a hop to Walley World for some needed supplies but was so nice to be flying again. Snoopy performed as though not a day was missed and with the exception of a couple of not my best landings all was right with the world once leveled off in severe clear. Mount Shasta way off in the distance shown pure white even had some snow remaining on our local mountains. The lakes are full to the brim and the green country side would put envy in any Irish scene. Hopefully won't be so long until next flight. this winter was one for the books and with the grace of God the spring will bring some great adventures and flights to new destinations.
    4 points
  6. Hi KLRDMD and Rocket Based on all of the great advice I've received it's a hard decision that is probably dependent on the planes available (C, E or F ... I'm shying away from the G since it really is a bit slower) . I'm leaning towards the "F" because it just gives you more options with friends and family. I'm haven't found a plane ... yet ... that has it all, which is not surprising because they are treasured friends for their pilot owners. Due to this forum I'm equipped with the right questions to reduce the number of wild goose chases and make more educated decisions and I thank you all from my newbie heart for that. I've organized to kick off my IFR rating in April and it would be much more economic ... and fun to do it in my own plane .. my CFI thinks so too (he fly's a mooney (E) as well). It will be really neat to get the endorsement(s) associated with the model of plane at the same time as I do my IFR. As I've discovered, you'll never save money by being an aviator but you can certainly find ways to spend it less voraciously :-). Sophie
    3 points
  7. After reading through this thread, I am amazed.....absolutely amazed that anyone has bought, or sold a plane! In my five, or six aircraft purchases/sales, I've really enjoyed the people and the process. What am I doing wrong?
    3 points
  8. Sunset to the West, Moon-rise to the East... Sucks having to choose which one to watch.
    3 points
  9. Santa Rosa, CA to Sisters, Oregon 3/12/17
    3 points
  10. Just noticed this thread. Horse puckey... As someone who has invested both coast-to-coast + TX expense at looking for a Mooney, I can tell you that the I have no intention of buying your plane if: * You try to hide damage or maintenance issues. This is an automatic disqualification. * Don't show up to host me when I fly across the country to see your plane. Take note Robbinsville... * Lie about the condition of the plane. Auto disqualification... * I know it is your baby and you value it but I am making a business decision on its value in the market place (I may need to sell it btw). * You feel that the ancient avionics in your plane are special, rock solid and a selling point. Since I am on a roll here ---- * Why do I need to call for the price? Really? Is your time more important than mine? * Why do I need to ask for you to post the logs? Is it that much effort on your part to do this given that you want to sell your plane? If so, maybe this is not the right time in your life to sell? I have also come close to buying but: 2 opportunities were taken off the market by the seller after I had expended effort in pursuing the plane; both of these were a high probability for a purchase. Just this week, I was ready to buy but timing worked against me and someone else noticed the gem and beat me to the offer - oh well... wasn't meant to be. I would have bought this one... I really wanted (and want) to buy a Mooney but at some point, the above challenges make me think that maybe I need to consider something else if I want to stay in the 45 day designated window (it is now over 6 mos). Yes I have fluctuated between turbo/non-turbo but for a good plane I would take either. I am open to a variety of options for a Mooney but I will not buy crap. I am open to damage if repaired properly but not if you try to hide it. Sorry for the rant but the topic collided with my 2nd Manhattan... Cheers!
    3 points
  11. Too funny Bob! But absolutely true! I only touched on the "operating the airplane costs". When you figure in all of the aviation related paraphernalia, Larry's all in cost is close, if not exact. I have a dedicated iPad Mini, probably $300 worth of Ram mounts that I tried to find the one I liked, probably another $500 in flight bags, kneeboard and the rest of the toys. Add in the $100 CO detector, reupholstered seats, the CYA AoA indicator, Reiff pre-heater and let's not forget the headsets. Let's see, probably another $2k on them over the past 4 years. No wonder why my wife's favorite line is "if you had a cocaine habit it would be be cheaper". Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro
    3 points
  12. You'll note that even these guys who pretend they keep track of all their flying costs have not listed their property tax, Garmin subscriptions, Airman's Medical, oxygen fill ups, FRs, IPCs, MAPA conventions, Summits, PPPs, Mooney apparel, Sportys gizmos... And I forgot to mention dues to AOPA, MAPA, EAA, MS donations... If you have to ask...
    3 points
  13. Looks like you are trying to fly in the Diamond Lane. Pritch
    3 points
  14. I got to do something super fun today. Perfect beach weather, light winds, and I got to take someone flying for the very first time. I mean very first time. No jets or airplanes ever. We had such a blast. She is a natural pilot. Gabriel was in the back seat calling out traffic like a boss. Super awesome rock star WALK-IT-ON landing was a plus. Smiles for days. #MooneyZoom #MooneyGirls
    2 points
  15. Hi Sophie, You're getting some really good advice on this thread. If I can assume that you intend to use the Mooney to travel, which most of us do. And if I can assume you intend to get the Instrument rating, also a common path... Then... I would council against stretching for any of the Mooneys. In other words, I'd be looking for the absolute top of the line C, E, G, or F. Of these the C or G will be the cheapest to acquire and might also be the cheapest to maintain, but not by much. My first Mooney was an M20C, but the best equipped M20C almost anyone had ever seen. That was absolutely the best decision for me and my wife and I flew that C all over the country. Don't get a cheap J, get the best C or E you can find. BTW I sold the C and bought a K. My experience is that it's quite a bit more expensive to maintain, and that doesn't include the spar issue I'm dealing with now which is very expensive.
    2 points
  16. We also have the reiff turbo XP and I'm super impressed. An hour or two and we're good to go. We have the oil cooler heater also.
    2 points
  17. First of all I want to say Thanks to all who responded. You just saved me a ton of cash.As you expected I did not need a fuel Or gauge . It was just trash in the line or gauge. So small I didn't find it. I cleaned the line and gauge and now it's working fine. Thanks
    2 points
  18. Now you can field overhaul your engine with a new roller rapper case for for perhaps even less money than having to buy the factory engine. Send it down to Zephyr, where they can actually build you a better engine that the factory anyways.
    2 points
  19. Anyone running the TCM engines, had better take heed to preheating the engine in cold temps and by saying engine i mean engine and oil cooler. If the oil cooler isnt warm and the oilmis congealed when the vernatherm start diverting oil to the cooler it can be damged or busted. So when the engine is preheated the oil cooler must also be considered. http://www.oilcoolers.com/article_oil_cooler_woes.asp
    2 points
  20. Substituted Lake Havasu last week for the Mooney fly-in at Santa Maria... (Dang forecast was completely wrong...) A bunch more pictures and short write-up on my blog. http://intothesky.us/2017/03/04/lake-havasu-anza-borrego-state-park/
    2 points
  21. Not sure how concerning a small amount is, I think 25ppm is actually allowed for an 8-hour work day: "max 8-hour avg CO level allowed in occupational settings for an 8-hour workday over a 40-hour workweek by the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists." However, it would be something I'd be curious about and fix at the very least at annual if possible. My CO meter = 5-8ppm when on the ground and 3-5ppm in climb and 0ppm eventually during cruise within 5minutes or so even with cabin heat fully on. I do have it mounted by the door though, so I'm not sure if that makes a difference.
    2 points
  22. +1 for Raptor methodology.... sticktuitiveness! He has nicely detailed the trials and tribulations of what it is like to fly a Mooney on a budget as a young guy. In some cases, you can substitute money for knowledge, knowledge for experience, experience for hard work.... With enough reading and flexibility mooney flying on a budget is quite possible. Don't take any short cuts. Things like improper training, improper equipment or improper insurance can put a quick end to your flying.... Don't forget partnerships can work pretty well too. If you like driving around in ancient, but well maintained autos... put that new car budget towards Mooney ownership. PP ideas only, not a finance expert... Best regards, -a-
    2 points
  23. Make it stop Bob! Make it stop! [emoji38] Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro
    2 points
  24. I'm a one-woman man. Bought my unnamed M20-C in June '07 as a newly-rated pilot. I'm still flying her . . . And still taking the wife places with her. So I guess they get along.
    2 points
  25. Nope, I'm not that old.
    2 points
  26. Just to offer one more perspective on the J bar - I'm a guy but might be considered your proverbial 90lb weakling. The J bar did offer some drama for me during transition training. But working it is mostly about technique - being at the correct airspeed, swinging it smoothly to let the pendulum action of the gear do ,most of the work, and the right little wrist move at the end to get it into the socket and make sure it's locked. If I were a burly fella, I might have been able to brute force it at first until the right motor memory took hold. But now it's second nature and a complete non-event. I bet bluehighwayflyer's mom would have figured it out too had she persisted . Lacking an actuator motor, it does have a few less components to maintain or to fail, so there may be a modest rational basis to want one. But now I just love the J bar irrationally, just like the rest of my plane.
    2 points
  27. my 80year old IA showed me a cool trick for the copilot seat. Just lift your butt out of the seat and onto the wing. then slide down off the front. If you dont have a beer gut that wont pass the door it makes it really easy to get out. My CFII has started using the "fred" method and likes it.
    1 point
  28. 1 point
  29. In my relatively short live, I have bought five houses and one condo, and sold four of the houses. Every house I talked to my realtor about had a price in the ad; every house I've sold has had a price in the ad. Looking to buy is simple: I list my needs, wants and nice-to-haves, and my price range. Look at listings, scratch out everything seriously overpriced, seriously underpriced, missing needs and those not priced. Thin out what is left. I don't have time to call and find out that you are asking more than I am looking to spend, value of the item be damned! I found a realtor in a new town once by flipping through the little book I picked up at the grocery store, and was appalled at the number of homes advertised with no prices, so I made a list of each realtor, the number of homes they advertised, and the number with prices--called the realtor with the highest percentage of prices shown, and told them exactly how I figured who to call. If you want to sell to me and others who feel the same [see above in this thread], advertise with a price.
    1 point
  30. I would put tape over part of the oil cooler when the oil temps arent staying in the green.
    1 point
  31. I can't speak for all sellers but as a recovering peddler I can think of several reasons why a seller would want to hear from a potential buyer. First of all, a price is negotiable. But no one wants to negotiate with himself. A 3 line Trade-a-Plane ad does not begin to tell enough about a vintage airplane to back up a price unless the plane is a minimal example of the breed and the best feature the seller has to promote is a low price. As a seller, I want to have a chance to sell. I don't want my product to be rejected out of hand because the shopper doesn't know what is really being offered. I'd like to be able to explain why my plane might be worth more to them than something else they're considering. As a seller, I want to get contact info on potential buyers. If there is no reason for someone to contact the seller... Talking to potential buyers gets the seller valuable data. Shoppers will have comments about other planes they've looked at and what is important to them. I displayed at an International trade show in Milan several years ago. A visitor from India watched my large continuous bleaching machine running fabric while I stood ready to discuss it with him. Our conversation went essentially like this: "Very nice machine, very nice machine." Thank you. "How much does it cost?" 700,000 USD "Oh, too much money!" "What does it do?" When my widow sells my humble E model I hope she'll not give out a price until someone shows enough interest to contact her about the plane.
    1 point
  32. They think they're such great salesmen that they can talk you into buying it if they can only get a conversation going with you. I skip right over those ads.
    1 point
  33. Exposure limits. The carbon monoxide content of the atmosphere in a room, building, vehicle, railcar or any enclosed space shall be maintained at not more than 50 parts per million (ppm) (0.005%) as an eight hour average area level and employees shall be removed from the enclosed space if the carbon monoxide concentration exceeds a ceiling of 100 ppm (0.01%). https://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_table=STANDARDS&p_id=10366 Obviously OSHA standard are quite a bit higher than most of us would be comfortable with. California has lower limits but still far above what I see on my detector and what others are reporting. ISTM, we're fine until there's a failure of the muffler with the heater on allowing raw exhaust into the cabin.
    1 point
  34. Well, the "theory" on mine is it should make money in that it allows me to keep my $$$$ job in AR, while living in norther MO (where we are moving in June). If I got a job in MO, it would likely be $$ or $$$ at best, so the message to the wife was that the plane will pay for itself the first year. That is my story and I'm sticking to it.
    1 point
  35. One more thing to consider that I don't think anybody has mentioned. Always ask about useful load. I've seen at least one below 800#, many below 900#, a few above 1000#. If you KNOW you will never want to take more than 3 people anywhere, it won't be as important. However, when we were looking for ours, we were not interested in anything less than a 950# useful load.
    1 point
  36. Wildhorses and I both race cars with the same national organization, which doesn't allow exhausts that open before the driver position unless the driver wears a respirator (which nobody wants to do, and basically nobody does, so basically everybody's exhausts dump behind the driver position). From that perspective, being used to that rule, it does seem a little weird that it is basic SOP for GA airplanes to dump the exhaust almost universally in front of the cabin space, often in front of the firewall. As much as the floor and firewall are essentially anything but hermetically sealed, and there are even cabin ventilation inlets in wing leading edges well behind exhaust dumps (I'm thinking particularly of older Arrows that dump the exhaust nearly under the prop), the above experience doesn't surprise me at all. That said, it's been this way almost since airplanes were invented, so maybe it's not that bad, but it does make you think. With the CO meters getting more common in GA cabins (and lets hope this trend continues), maybe enough experimentation might lead to some simple procedures or practices to minimize this, too.
    1 point
  37. #sad Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
    1 point
  38. You guys may need an intervention. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
    1 point
  39. I'm not sure where you're located but I would consider fabricating a clamp style hitch for the front and also leaving the snowblower intact. I could use a free one of those as the snow build up near my hangar door gets atrocious. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
    1 point
  40. Mounted my meter with some Velcro after looking at the other posts. Had an interesting experience with it going off today The alarm went off, with 46ppm, when I pulled the power and did a high rate of descent approach into KTEX. As soon as I reduced the rate and added power the alarm went away with everything normalizing I'm wondering if the fuselage descending that fast forced some exhaust into the cabin through the vents
    1 point
  41. Carbureted Mooney engines (O360s) have an alternate air source by design... They do not open automatically like newer air intakes do. (Magnetically closed door) They come open with the air valve for carb heat. Make sure this is working properly on your plane. A couple of broken or loose control wires is all it takes to keep the valve from opening properly. Having snow and ice collecting on the forward facing airfilter can be disastrous. The alt air intake is inside the cowl, out of the way from snow and ice. Somebody around here gave an example of having a blocked air filter over the North Sea a while back. That pilot has really gotten to know the finest detail of his bird since then. Best regards, -a-
    1 point
  42. And for what it's worth, my insurance went from $1800 to $900 as a result of the rating...
    1 point
  43. I mostly agree, but disagree to an extent. If you are a "bad" pilot, instrument training will make you a less bad pilot. Yes, you have the risk that it may encourage you to get into trouble. But I think that any time spent with an instructor, especially doing new things, is helpful.
    1 point
  44. Or you could use external control locks
    1 point
  45. So overrated. Shortly after I bought my E I flew to Florida (from Tejas). I stopped at Marianna (MAI) for fuel and a pee. Probably hung around longer than I should have, got into the air and as I approached TLH the weather kept getting worse. Before you know it, I was deep in soup, first time in my life. The next thing you know, I see the hands on my gauges spinning and I thought, "Damn, I'm in the death spiral! So this is what it looks like." After being transfixed by the scenario for a moment, I then thought, "Damn, I'm only at 3,000' or so, sprialing down into middle-of-nowhere Florida, with all those damn TOWERS everywhere!" So then by some miracle I get out of the spiral (I channelled my grizzled old CFI from 1986, he'd be so proud--or pissed) and pull back and in a moment I am 'on top'. Just beautiful, absolutely beautiful. So, then I call TLH and they say it just gets worse and they are IFR anyway. They suggest I turn around and try to get back to MAI, which I do. Now I see HUGE thunderclouds off to my right, with little flashes of lightning inside. Mesmerizing. They seemed to beckon me to fly closer for a better look, I resisted. Now it is getting dark and finally I am into patchy clouds and can see the ground every so often. As I approach MAI I can't see the airport and start flipping through my docs to find out how to turn the lights on. THERE ARE NO LIGHTS! So now I get a bit panicked and TLH suggests Quincy. I fly there and like magic the lights come on with the radio. I do the dodge clouds landing and make it in. This is why my wife won't fly with me. I digress, IFR cert is first on my list to finish at retirement. Flying in clouds is too much fun to pass up.
    1 point
  46. I have flown all three : boots , therma wing and TKS . IMHO , TKS is the most efficient and clean up the wing much better , however TKS fluid is not unlimited , that is the main Issue . At one time , they were making Twin Otter with Therma wing , most likely it was a De Havilland in-house system , all the planes that i know who had Therma wing were retrofitted over time with boots . The latest Twin Otter who are produced in BC come with boots now . I had never seen someone who was happy with Therma wing , look what had happened to the Cessna TTX .
    1 point
  47. Just my 2 cents, but I'd probably still take it to maxwell for a prebuy. Our planes have been around for a while, and there's lots of stuff that could have happened over the last 40-50+ years. If you buy it, we'll have to show you the secret handshake known only by us C model pilots.
    1 point
  48. I am just a PMA/STC holder. José
    1 point
  49. I use an Icom 706 MKIIG with the SGC antenna tuner and a 15ft wire antenna on top of the fuselage. Also a VHF antenna on the belly. Besides ham bands I use it as a COM 3 for aviation and marine frequencies. On HF I have contacted hams in Europe and Shanwick Oceanic from Florida with 59 reports. The 706 is connected to the KMA 24 audio panel so I can use it with my headset and yoke PTT. I found better signal propagation at altitude than on the ground. On 2 meter you have to be cautious on the repeater frequencies since more than half the time you activate multiple repeaters. I mostly use the simplex channels. José
    1 point
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