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I sent my Dad the December 2016 Aviation Consumer article on the Mooney 201 M20J. I bought a M20J last year and it reminds my Dad of his first airplane. He wrote me this email today: GREAT ARTICLE ABOUT A GREAT AIRPLANE - NOTHING SO FAST ON SO LITTLE FUEL ON 200HP! N5785Q was owned privately and billed 15 cents per mile when on business. (It was his personal plane but he used it for business and billed the business 15 cents per mile.) Answering your question: - It was a 1965 M20E bought for $10,205.70 on January 31st 1969, with 600 hours, Electric gear, 200HP, power boost, 52 gallons, Gross WT. 2575lbs, FLOWN LONG RANGE MOSTLY AT 10,000ft., 2,300RPM, 21"MP, 10.3GPH, 63%PWR, RANGE: 5.00 hours over 766nm no reserve, at 152kts airspeed. HIGH SPEED CRUISE – Gross WT. 2575lbs 5,000ft, 2,400RPM, 25"MP, 12.2GPH, 77%PWR, RANGE: 4.27 hours over 676nm no reserve, at 158kts airspeed. _______________ He eventually sold it and moved onto a Cessna 310 twin in the early to mid 70's which is the first airplane I can remember as a child. I can't remember the Mooney. When I got this email I looked it up and I see that greg51 is the current owner of my Dad's first plane. Cool to see that the plane is still around and being flown to this day. My Dad is 73 and still flying. Here is a photo of N5785Q when he owned it:

She's all done. Final payment is on the way, and the bill of sale/registration, etc is on the way to me. Other than minor things you'd expect out of an airplane this old, she seems great. Part of the agreement was to keep her stored in the hangar until I return from my deployment in July and can pick her up. My CFI will go out with me and we'll make the flight back to home base of 58M work as my flight review and complex checkout with all the necessary stops and maneuvers along the way. Until then I'll just keep looking at the same pictures over and over, plan trips (with our new extended range and speed), and plan future upgrades. My home field mechanic who maintained my Cessna reviewed the logs as well. He was confident based on the amount of maintenance, log keeping and where it had been maintained that I shouldn't have much to worry about and he'd be comfortable with the purchase. I spoke to others, I got details on everything I could find. Eventually at some point you have to roll the dice!

You are responsible for making sure the flight is conducted in a safe manner. I have no problem saying unable if they are vectoring me into what I perceive is an unsafe situation. Likewise I will deviate as needed if I perceive I'm in danger. Obviously we need to try and work within the system in a responsible way and I'm the first to offer ATC any deviation that makes their job easier, as long as it does not put me in harms way. Personally, I have not had a deviation for weather denied. In a few cases we have 'negotiated' a deviation but that's perfectly find in order to find a solution that works for both you and ATC. It's a partnership. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I heard from my wife's hairdresser's best-friend's cousin that she read on facebook that somebody told another passenger on a plane that landed at that same airport that she heard in the ladies' room that the guy who was dragged off the plane for refusing a lawful order from police had actually been murdered by rouge cops but then later was resurrected by an African witch doctor from Detroit before returning to the plane to recover his carry-on. I'm pretty sure that's how it all went down. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Hello All, I'm really too gutted to write anything of substance at the moment, but I wanted to share a few pictures of my father, the first one of him sitting in his Mooney Mite sometime between '69 and '71, when he owned the Mite. We laid him to rest yesterday far ahead of when it should have been. For the past two years he'd battled a brain injury from a freak accident. I had been searching for a Mooney when the accident occurred. He and I had been talking multiple times a week, planning all the trips we'd take, including Oshkosh. After the accident I could no longer call him and to visit meant a 5 hour drive, which I did many times until I found the Mooney. That helped shorten that trip to 1.5 hours which meant I could see him more frequently. He was so thrilled to hear of the plane and tried his best to overcome his challenges so he could go flying. It just wasn't meant to be. However, trying to make the most of the situation and give him some good days back, I managed, with the help of some good friends, to take a field trip away from the facility he was in and get him into my E this past November for a flight. He had a great day. To the staff at the facility, or anyone that visited, he talked about it for weeks and weeks afterwards. Throughout his life, he was so humble, quiet and kind. And so incredible. He did so much for me, I could never repay. Although he was a home builder by trade, his love of aviation was immense. He owned an Aeronca and a Mooney Mite, built a Rotorway Scorpion Too (II) in our garage when I was a kid, and was a Hot Air Balloon pilot flying second balloon for two of his friends businesses (I chased as a new teenage driver). He earned his Private, Instrument, Multi, Commercial and was hired by Eastern Airlines two seconds before they put a freeze on the incoming hires and it never materialized after that. He had a host of other incredible hobbies too, but this is an aviation forum and I've gone on long enough. Thanks Dad for, everything. Everything! Thanks MS'ers for letting me share this.

I just received the e-mail I was waiting on that my Field approval will be approved by the end of this month. Now the real transformation begins. David

Feel a little bad the OP got railroaded by many with faster iron (or aluminum and/or carbon fiber). He made a great point about the attributes of our Mooney's and this really establishes the "cult" us Mooney pilots belong to. Every post in this topic has merit as to the value of Mooney ownership compared with the belly button airplanes everyone else has (C's, P's, and B's). All are impressive in relationship to their speed and efficiency. What he probably didn't realize is the addiction he has immersed himself in!!!!! Enjoy your "F" and be proud of your ownership. That's the exact model that started my "addiction ". Tom

@Tommy please feel free not to ever fly commercial. For the rest of us who depend on air travel for our livelihood, (I'm not an airline employee) the system works very well. I logged 107,000 air miles in the first 3 months of this year. This is how I do business and how I earn a living and fund my Mooney addiction. Airlines over booking flights is a well established and proper procedure. It's also enshrined in law. It also happens in your country as well. I've lived in Australia for some time and have over 1 million miles on Qantas. This is established best practice all over the world. I see airline customers all the time (I spend a lot of time in airports) being belligerent with airline staff. And several times, I've seen customers forcibly removed from planes. It's always done by law enforcement. And you can be sure, once a law officer tells you to get up out of your seat and to leave the plane with them, you will be leaving the plane. There is no way around it. The customer here who refused to leave, was absolutely in the wrong. Don't like it, don't fly. The leggings incident is different, the girls are still in the wrong, but it's unfortunate whoever gave them the passes, didn't inform them, or maybe they were informed and didn't take it seriously. All airlines enforce a dress code for employees traveling for free. My brother is a Captain and his airline doesn't allow employees to even wear jeans when they travel for free. This applies to anyone else traveling for free on your employee benefits. This is not at all unreasonable. As a consumer of massive amounts of air travel, I'll certainly side with United in both of these cases. The system must be working well, as air travel is accessible to more people for less money than ever before.

I bought $20,000 of United stock today after it tanked. I'll sell it before the market closes.

A great honor for a great man and a champion of Mooneys: http://www.wctrib.com/news/business/4248815-jaeger-chosen-aviation-hall-fame Congratulations, Bruce!

Bruce well deserves this recognition. His passion for Mooney's, his kindness, and willingness to help Mooney people has set a standard we should all strive for. Congrats Bruce! Thanks for all you have done for the Mooney Community and the Mooney Summit

Hi there, Mooniacs! I hope I'm not intruding, but Chupacabra invited me to check out MooneySpace as we were chatting last week at Base Operations. My name is Erin, and I'm the marketing coordinator for Base Operations at Page Field. I really appreciate the kind comments about the FBO and airport. It's always nice to hear about what we're doing well. Just a reminder that we have our Fly-in Fridays every week, so if you drop in between 1100 and 1300 you'll get a free hot dog lunch and probably some nice pilot talk in the cafe. I probably won't be in the office this Friday, but if you stop by any other time, ask for Erin and I will come say hello! Thanks again to Steve for a great conversation - I hope we will see you around again! Happy flying, everyone!

I say that they could have chartered a plane for the crew. I used to fly CAL pilots in Lears around the west coast for their internal travel issues. They could have driven them. They could have sent them down on SWA or any other airline. For some reason airlines never do this but it is a way to get there.....you would have to be creative and think outside the box...hard to do for a legacy POS.....and being that you had to ask what else could they have done differently is part of the problem......you fit right in there....... They could have offered more money for people to give up their seat. 800 bucks in 2017 is not enough. There have been times that no money in the world is enough, going to a parents funeral, your own wedding etc etc......800 bucks is a fraction of what the top brass get per minute in that company. if they offered 1500 to 2000 UAL would not have this bad PR....... The egos that gate agents and passenger pilots have is insane and unmerited. Don't get me started on those LEO's...... Even as a current UAL shareholder I hope it tanks to zero...........would be worth the loss to see it crater.......I could use the write off....

Lance. So sorry to hear about your father. I lost mine in December of 2015 and posted about an emergency landing in lower Michigan on the way to see him on his death bed. The support this forum provided helped me a lot getting through that loss (tearing up now writing about it). Keep sharing with us and don't ever let your memories fade! That's the only way we can keep them in our lives as we move on. You dad sounded like a pretty awesome father. Tom

I made the mistake two years ago booking a flight with United. I and three hundred other people were left standing in a line for six, yes six hours. No information or communication, elderly people standing for hours, it was a terrible. I hour two the plane was to depart, no one knew what was going on, one of the counter people told us United was leaving BKK and it was like the evacuation of Saigon. I wrote them a letter and after two months they sent me a $200 coupon, I told them to shove it. I told them I would rather bad mouth them for the next decade, I'm living up to my end of the bargain.

This whole thing could have been fixed if Kendell Jenner could have handed the passenger a Pepsi

I am so very sorry Lance. As a second generation pilot, I understand your loss. My Dad flew west in December of 2015 at the age of 90. He took me for my first airplane ride when I was three in 1960. I grew up hanging around airports and gliderports with him. Got to fly right seat in his 1964 C model Mooney on a cross country flight from California to Pennsylvania and back. Later in life we shared two airplanes together. Still own the last one. Can't bear to sell it. We made the pilgrimage to Oshkosh in 2002 for the 50th anniversary fly-in and to Dayton in 2003 for the Centennial of Flight. Many other flights since. We last flew together just two months before he died. I wish I could tell you that the hurt will go away with time. It won't, but you will learn to deal with it better. The memories you have with your Dad will always be with you. I hope they will be a source of comfort for you.

Here's my best in the Lancair during straight and level. That's 14.5 MPG on cheaper Jet-A (than avgas). What's really funny is my daughter saying she wondered where a Jet came from that landed at Spruce Creek while we were sitting on the deck watching planes land. I said I will tell you in just a minute and looked it up on Flight Aware. I told her it came out of central Illinois and, wait a minute, he filed the exact same speed as I did (300 knots, 345 mph) and as a Citation 1, burned 160 gallons an hour to my 30 GPH. WOW. http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N994PT/history/20170309/1530Z/KIMT/KDLZ/tracklog Thu 09:58:20 AM 44.4105 -86.7772 145° Southeast 397 knots 457 MPH 27,000 FlightAware ADS-B (KTVC) Just so none of you think I'm entirely impressed with my plane's speed, here's my engine builder, flight instructor, and overall mentor, John Cook's Lancair. I have seen numerous flights by him well in excess of 400 knots, and he files 345 knots in the winter, 335 knots in the summer (and gets it). This was his flight home from my last training session in December. That's why I'm still in primer. Trying to find some more speed mods before going to final paint. http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N213JC/history/20161214/1915Z/KIMT/GE99/tracklog Tom

No sir, I am an employee of the company, and you are not. And I can tell you that a passenger involuntarily bumped doesnt have the option to stay on the plane. It sucks, and its rare, but it can happen. If they decide to get stupid and sit in protest, this will happen. Same as any other belligerent passenger. After that, they are a safety concern, since they wont follow crewmember instructions. thats how we do in the USA at least, I am unsure what they do in Australia. If you cant understand that, well then, I feel sorry for your family.

Fired up the plane yesterday to shoot some approaches and test the rebuilt brittian autopilot. It hasnt flown in about 2 weeks. Noticed the battery was a pretty low at 11ish volts. but it started no problem. On runup I noticed the amp gauge was showing a slight discharge. I even said to my instructor, the amps arent amping but these gauges all suck anyway. So off we went. About 800agl the coms started flashing and the transponder went out completely. Nav/Coms were blinking and showing weird stuff on the panel. Reset avionics master and tried emergency avionics switch no help. Tried radioing the tower but they only got the beginning of one transmission and then nothing else. I put the gear back down and turned for the downwind (instead of the right turn to 340 they were expecting.) I could hear them talking in and out. Finally tower says if you can hear rock your wings. OK we see that. If you want to land rock your wings. OK clear to land 20L. And we made an uneventful landing and taxied back to the hangar. Went out last night and started poking around and hooked up the battery tender. There is a fusible link on the "Power" connection of the voltage regulator. Fuse was blown. went to day and got some new fuses. Battery was up at 12.4 from the battery tender. Pulled it out and fired it up and the amp gauge showed charging. In fact showing more charging then usual. Also the engine fired much faster than normal. I'm thinking that fuse was dying for a while and that's why I always felt my battery voltage was a little low and it was draggy turning over. So im thinking the fuse blew and the battery got low enough (I remember seeing 10.7 on the cig lighter volt meter) that the NAV/COM and xponder just went whacky. So lesson is 1. damn I love magnetos 2. Just because some of your gauges suck doesnt mean all of them do.

Sorry, Matt. BFE is not in Ky. It's in Texas....near Lubbock. Ask me how I know.... http://www.airnav.com/airport/KBFE

All airplanes are flying compromises. With a Mooney you just don't have to compromise as much.

Mooneyspace........ Can't we return to a subject we all agree upon? Superiority of Mooneys. This thread has exposed sides of people I really don't care to know about.

Just introducing myself. I just purchased a '67 M20C - N9638 - Loving it! I stopped flying 4 years ago after some heart issues, but I'm ready to get back in with the new medical regs taking effect next month I've already picked up a lot of great tips and Mooney-specific information here, and I look forward to many years of learning and sharing here. I'm in Crane, Texas, and yes we have an airport here - E13. Small but functional. 2 minutes from my house. Then it's 2 hours in the Mooney to Rockwall to see our grandchildren or about the same to College Station to see our son. Life is good.

Is that still on the air....?

Indeed, GPSS is amazing. It lowers tremendously your work load. The only thing is that you have to make sure that your flight plan is correct. Garbage in ... Garbage out Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That appears to be a Beech Sierra not a Sundowner or Musketeer.

As they say in Avionicsland, once you go GPSS, you'll never go back.

I can't believe someone tried to claim a C210 is cheaper to maintain and operate than a mooney... obviously someone who doesn't have experience in a mooney

Sometimes one is going to visit someone for several days and being bumped is an inconvenience. Sometimes a business travel consists of 24 hrs there and back for sake of a 3 hour meeting, and being bumped makes the entire travel irrelevant and not worth going. Sometimes, as someone said, the travel is go be at a funeral, or say your own son's wedding, etc, and being late is much less of an option. The carrot - offering sufficiently rich incentives - rather than a stick - marching out the goons - will shake this out conveniently, who is willing to give up a seat because their schedule allows, if sufficiently motivated.

What's the rush? As my late flight instructor said, "If you've got time to spare, go by air." ...In 1999 I took a scheduled airline flight from Rarotonga to Manihiki to do some engineering work for Telecom Cook Islands. There was one flight per week in an unpressurized King Air. When we arrived in Manihiki the agent told me the barge that delivers barrels of jet fuel (by tossing them into the surf to be towed ashore) had broken down, so there wouldn't be a flight the following week. But, he said, the one in two weeks would probably go so I had been bumped to the next flight. Or the one after that. Caught up in a Silicon Valley mindset where one expects flights out of OAK and SFO to be as available as, say, a Starbucks, it was anxiety-inducing. But soon I adapted to the local mode where everything gets done efficiently enough on island time. I did get a seat out 2 weeks later. No problem. And yes, UAL could have handled their overbooked flight better.

That's the same story I heard, except I was told the African witch doctor was actually from Milwaukee...

I'm outta town right now but there is 2 AD's pertinent too the wood wing on annual, in Canada. FVAA has been hangered for sure for the last 10 years and somewhere back in the 80's she was totalled stripped down and major work done to the spar. It was refabriced 2 years ago and the AME said the wood looked like new. She flies like new too, thanks too Russ looking after her so well. 2800TT and still going strong!

Lance I am so sorry to hear. I lost my father unexectantly about 13 years ago / and I still think about him often. I was just talking this evening to my wife about our boys and what a shame it was he isn't here to be proud of them as he would have been. This just means he is still missed. Best wishes lance to you and your father.

Kind Sir, in my defense, I'd like to say that I was in fact in straight & level, cruise flight with the altitude-hold auto-pilot (KFC-150) engaged. To backup my claim, if you'll notice in the bottom left corner of the picture, you will see the illuminated ALT annunciation indicating that the altitude-hold function is in fact engaged. The -146 FPM in the top left corner, which I surmise is what caused you to come to your conclusion, is actually a function of my top-of-descent (TOD) settings, i.e. when the negative FPM number hits that which I have set for my TOD, then the GTN-750 will alert me to the fact that it's time to begin my descent. I usually use either 300 or 500 FPM for my cruise descent planning. Though 238 knots GS is surely nice and it's my personal best to date in the Mooney, there are other airplanes, to include Mooneys, that will go faster. However, those faster airplanes are usually burning substantially more fuel. My picture was taken while cruising at FL210 somewhere between Jackson Hole, WY and Valentine, NE. My power at the time would have been set at 28" MP, 2500 RPM, 13 GPH at 50 degrees ROP TIT and per my notes, 192 KTAS is what the GTN-750 computed that day for those conditions...so that's only a 46-knot tailwind. My imagination runs wild when I consider the results of easily attainable stronger tailwinds. So, I'm with Teg916 in that I am still amazed every day at just how capable our Mooney aircraft really are. I consider myself very fortunate to actually own one. Very respectfully, A happy Mooney driver

My new CO detector works great. The plane shows 0-2 on the meter. Today on the way from Michigan to Georgia my kid passed some raunchy gas in the plane. The CO detector went up to 10. Hmmmm. Next thing you know he puts the Sensorcon up to his butt and blasts one. Ding! 30 on the meter. Google says a high concentration of methane can register on a CO detector. My kid proved it. Yuck! lol. Now he wants to take my detector and show all his friends his new trick. I wonder what number Marauders girls could achieve? Jason

That is what Maxwell told me as well. I bought one for my K and am very happy with it. A little pricey at about $14AMU, but it is worth it, if only for the smoothness and quietness. It does leap off the ground and has the added advantage of more drag/deceleration when landing. I am not such a stickler for keeping up with speeds that I can say for sure, but I don't notice any difference in cruise speed. It is a mild PITA removing the lower cowling, but it's not too bad. I can still take it off and put it back on by myself.

I believe Don Maxwell said the three prop blade (MT) on the M20k was the only upgrade he would ever pay for (or something like that). I cant remember where I saw that, but it helped shorten takeoff role, increased climb, lower the weight on the nose without any speed penalty.

I don't know, looking at that bad boy tug I was thinking of painting the plane to match it... Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

But isn't that the problem that us Ga pilots talk about all the time, too much litigation and blood sucking lawyers making aviation too expensive? What if the passenger had just complied with lawful police instructions? Don't get me me wrong United has a PR nightmare on its hands, but no one is going to shut down the airline over doing what they had the legal right to do. When does any of this fall on the passenger for resisting the police? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Now time to take everything up to the plane to check to see if it works. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Being the unofficial judge in this contest, I think you guys need to post more of your panel, specifically YOUR VSI!! Not that I don't believe you, but when we have guys around claiming Garmin is the best and that they are able to fly LOP on 2 tablespoons, I want evidence! Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

You tell me? Do we reward non compliance with well established rules? What do we do, let the guy that complains the loudest get home, and leave others stranded because maybe they followed the rules? I'm open to ideas... Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You've been lucky. I have just a fraction of your mileage in the same time span, and have been bumped more than once. The last time I was in my seat, and someone else appeared with a boarding pass for my seat. Don't recall how that ended up, maybe he showed up last but the stewardess made the call. Every time I have been bumped, it was before I got on the plane. To get me off will require compensation, and if it's already beenoffered and I turned it down, then it wasn't enough. If I was bloodied up, my asking amount will add a couple of commas. What is wrong with saying, "I bought this seat, I have a boarding pass for this seat. I am sitting in this seat already."??? Have a reasonable discussion. Those who resort to violence first are admitting they have lost the argument and do not have logic on their side. In this case, they better have lots of money . . . . .

Just imagine what a twist this incident would have been if that passenger would also have been wearing leggings...

So an airliner can be hijacked by a passenger that refuses to comply because he feels it's unfair? We don't know all the facts. If you are instructed to deplane and they have to call airport police and you continue to resist you're either a fool or looking for an excuse for a lawsuit. Neither of which is admirable. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Using strong-arm tactics by police is not the answer. Everyone has their price and United should have upped the ante until someone shouted out BINGO and danced off the plane. I yearn for the days when America was a kinder, gentler nation.

What a wonderful tribute to your dad. I love the last photo. The resemblance is strong. Sounds like he had a full life and you know he was a class act...Just look at how his son turned out. Sorry for your loss.

I caught a cold from my 6 year old.. thus I had to stay at home for the last three days. Not much to do about it. So I decided to edit some of the footage from some flights I made during the last two months. So here goes another one (longer than usual) but the scenery was so nice that I could not cut it... hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed my early morning flight out of St Louis.