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This is the Before and After shot of my plane before the big strip tease...

What option am I supposed to put down?

Kern Valley, CA (L05) campground parking area.

I posted this once before, but I think it's pretty cool so I'll post it again. I've read the book and highly recommend it to anyone in the Mooney community. In the early pages of this book Al mentions that he was born at 1223 S. Lincoln Street in Denver. That's about 15 minutes from my house, so I drove over to take a look. Sure enough, the old house is still there. The weather was lousy that day so I didn't take a picture, but here's a picture from Google Street View: BTW, I'm proud to be a third-generation Denver native, which is pretty unusual. Al was born here in 1906 and my grandmother was born here in 1908. The house she was born in also still stands.

I always monitor 121.5. Comes from where I work as a pilot, it's company policy and habit now. Do you folks realize that 121.5 ELT's are worthless now for the most part? You know what system or agency monitors for them now? None!!!! Your only chance is if an airliner gets close enough to you to pick it up and the crew bothers to report it. That's pretty much it. Literally, the airline crews are all that is left for monitoring for the 121.5 types, and I can tell you a lot of us hear so many of them that they can go unreported. When you fly several legs a day and hear ELT's here and there it gets old reporting the things when 99.9% of them are false alerts. And when they are reported the 121.5 types are hard to locate and identify. So please get a 406MHZ (I did), the life you save may be your own. For those not familiar the 406MHZ type, it sends a unique registration number and your last GPS position (if you pay for that option). So it literally takes the search out of search and rescue. They know who you are and where you are. And you ought to be monitoring 121.5 on your #2 comm when possible, it's just good airmanship. I have heard many little VFR airplanes being called out for entering airspace they shouldn't be in on 121.5 by the controlling agency, yet they continue right on course into said airspace. If folks would monitor 121.5 it would save a lot of grief and legal expenses.

I don't have Powerflow experience, but I replaced my muffler a few annuals ago. The old one was essentially hollowed out - all the internal baffles were shot and MIA. I needed back in the air ASAP and I could not find a single muffler on a shelf in the entire country - everybody wanted me to send them my core and they'd rebuild it. Didn't have that much time. Ended up talking to Knisely Welding in California. They had a brand new, built in-house, exhaust system in stock. Only catch was, theirs comes with new risers, muffler, and exhaust pipe - the only thing reused was the cabin heater shroud. It was was a simple bolt-on replacement, but it uses different pipe sizes or something that makes replacing the whole system necessary (or maybe it was the slip fittings that were different; I can't remember). Anyway, the tail pipe was noticeably longer than stock, similar to a Powerflow. When it came out of annual with nothing else done to the powerplant that would affect performance, I (almost) swear I picked up 5 or more knots of speed. I called Knisely to see if their muffler was responsible for my speed increase, and their response was along the lines of "we didn't test for that during certification and therefore can't claim a performance increase over stock". I swear I heard a wink and a nod over the phone. That's been 3 or 4 annuals ago and l'm still pleased with the purchase and performance. Also, instead of the muffler being ribbed like a coffee can as the original was, they use rows of threaded bolt shafts (I'm sure they have a technical name) for shroud standoffs, which I assume work much better for heat dissipation. Another advantage over the ribs is that now I can loosen the shroud and run my wireless proctologist-style camera up and down the rows, looking for exhaust leaks. Can't remember the price, but I'm thinking it was $1,500-$1,600 for the entire setup.Labor took maybe an hour.

As I've previously recounted -- in the mid 1990s I introduced a professional colleague to GA travel. I was flying a T210 at the time. He liked it so much he bought a brand new TBM700. Got his private and instrument flying the TBM for business with his CFII. Has a CJ3 now. All it takes is dedication, some smarts and bags of cash.

I rarely make fuel stops. I usually just fly once a day (for up to 8-11 hours) in one shot. Then I get fuel at the destination or overnight stop. I don't see much sense in flying the airlines domestically for pleasure travel. First off there is no pleasure left in the process whatsoever. On the other hand I get lots of enjoyment flying my Mooney. I can bring whatever and whomever I want. I can take my birds. I can change up dates if I want to spend more or less time somewhere. Even though it may be possible to go to some of the places I have gone in my plane by airline, it certainly would suck all the fun out of it!

Fixed :-) I certainly aspire to your level of Mooney travel. I've been all over the western US in the Mooney and east as far as Florida and NC. We plan to take a weekend and fly to Churchill in the fall to see some Polar bears. And next summer hope to spend two or three weeks seeing Alaska by Mooney. Of course, Cuba and the Caribbean are on the list as well... Too many places to go and not enough time off to do it.

Thank You gents...! 1) It was a big holiday weekend! 2) I'm still with you. 3) I have so much reading to catch up on... 4) All is good. 5) Economy is improving. 6) unemployment is declining. 7) Mooneys are being bought and sold all over. 8) Siri still thinks the plural of Mooney is spelled "Mooney's"... 9) MS is a great community to be a small part of... 10) Thank You and best regards, -a-

Let's see if I understand this correctly. Some have attempted to use common English pronunciation to correctly pronounce "carusoam" One questions if he will ever be like this "carusoam" guy on the internet. Some pronounce it "Anthony". One has identified the root origin of "carusoam" as a combination of name elements. Another questions the internet and the silliness of screen names. One respondent has verbalized it "let me carusoam that for you". One has a worry for the lack of responsiveness from "carusoam". These are the observations of an internet contributor, who hasn't stayed at a Holiday Inn Express lately and has no qualifications to answer your "very serious" question. [emoji3] Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

The Rocket ready to go, the Lancair looking "military", in primer, for now. Tom

Think I figured it out...

I don't know how much discussion there has been about this book. I saw it mentioned on this forum and found a copy on Amazon. It cost fifty bucks and was worth every dime. The ending was quite a surprise. Al was a great designer/engineer and a fine man that was an asset to the human race. If you like Mooneys and like reading biographies, I would highly recommend it.

I think this is the first we've heard an Avidyne installer call the update difficult. The update literally runs itself, it really isn't complicated. Yes, we warn the installer many times that if they don't follow the directions it will cause issues. They are probably right, Garmin updates are probably quicker than ours but are they bringing over 70 new features and improvements to their units?

Texas Hill country to Michigan a couple of times per year. San Antonio to Albuquerque every couple of months. We take our dog in the plane. Honestly, the 3-3.5 hours of flying to KAEG beats the 11 hour car trip and really makes short trips of a couple of days even possible. The Mooney fits my mission perfectly for now.

Not a problem for a Mooney.

It may not be new paint but it's a nice airplane.

There was an H model being developed in the Mooney R&D area, at the same time the Mustang was being created and developed. The H was the F/G fuselage with a 6 cylinder normally aspirated hung on the front. It never flew and the project died when Mooney went bankrupt. I gleaned/filmed this information from Ken Harmon during my visit to his Albuquerque home a few years ago. Ken is the son of Ralph Harmon, who was the creator of the Beechcraft Bonanza, and the person responsible for converting the Mooney M20 from wood to metal. Ken was the very young person in charge of the R&D department, working under his father during those very, very exciting times at the Kerrville factory! Many times, all were working 7 days per week, 16 or more hours per day, as they passionately and enthusiastically created new Mooney things! Mooney.....a great American story!!

It's doable without bags of money or your own personal CFI. I bought my C just five weeks after my PPL checkride, with 62 hours in my logbook (all in two different 172s). Insurance required 15 hours dual including 5 hours actual/simulated IMC. The day after I finished the dual, the wife and I went 140 nm across WV for lunch, and the next weekend almost 400 nm, crossing the Appalachians from western WV to central NC for her dad's birthday. But then again, two weeks after my PPL, we took the /A Skyhawk 200 nm down the Appalachians to see my parents at KAVL. Some people around the airport were shocked that I didn't take a handheld GPS with me, even though I hadn't trained with one. Had no problems . . . So it's really up to the pilot, how well you learn and how you apply your knowledge. Go for it! Many of us have.

I'm 7 mins from my hangar. Another thing to consider is traffic near major hubs. I can get to Balt/Wash in a little over an hour or Dulles in 50 mins...in the middle of the night. If I want to start my day with travel, one needs to factor in 50% more drive time to insure against rush hour delays. My wife had business in your neck of the woods a few months ago. We were half way to KPDK in the Mooney in the same amount of time it would have taken to get to a hub. We did almost 1000nm that day and had breakfast at home, lunch in ATL and dinner back at home. It wasn't just faster than the airlines, it just would not have been possible flying the airlines. If you factor in cost per mile, it makes chartering something like a LJ60 look stupid in terms of time and value.

Yup, they used prop stands to jack airplanes for decades before, then they said no, use the lifting eye on the engine (which isnt rated to support more than engine weight), and not use the tail tie down.

I have flown from Dallas to the Los Angeles area in one day, a few times, but finally figured out that 9 hours of flight just takes too much out of me. In addition, I don't think it is too smart on my part to wind up flying an approach when I am that tired.

All this anticipation of non certified avionics making their way into certified aircraft has been disappointing. Usually they are twice the price and have half the features. Which is only marginally better than the previous options.

Paul, I would argue that "Multiple fuel stops" and "Multi-day travel to destination" are the same answer. I have the stock tanks and my no-wind range with hour reserves is 1,800 nm with one fuel stop. Anybody flying further than that in a single day is a bonafide masochist. But for those of you with thirstier birds I can see where a second stop MIGHT be needed. I bought a Mooney so I wouldn't HAVE to make multiple stops to reach my destination. If I could afford one I'd own a TBM to extend my range, after all it's STILL a Mooney, right?!!

I hear ELT soundings several times on the ground, but figured it is someone testing their box... I used to monitor guard all the time, but everytime I travel, particularly over and around Ohio, someone is playing around making silly sounds and playing the bird is the word over guard. Sometimes I tell them that no one will help them if they really need help. Other times I just turn volume all the way down.

Don't let @Marauder fool you. He's completely run out of upgrades for his panel but needed some reason to tear into it again... The L3 was the best excuse he could find.

I have the Alpha Systems Eagle with Valkyrie HUD. Here are some pictures. The HUD should be in your field of vision. In flight I just put it down for obstruction free viewing out the window.

With any justice her dads too

I can't wait for him to break out the Roman Numerals. What about Latin? YES. Latin. That's it!.

It is easier to receive a 121.5 MHz signal at 30nm than a 406 MHz at 10,000 miles. If all the airborne planes listen to 121.5 MHz the chances of a prompt rescue would increase dramatically. This could be accomplished by a scanning feature on the COMs that listen to 121.5 MHz on the background without affecting COM normal operation. I have a third COM (Icom 706) that stay tuned and squelch in the event of an ELT or MAYDAY call. José

Thought it would be a good time to provide an update on the direction I took on ADS-B. I went back and forth on the Garmin and L-3 offerings. It was a tough decision especially since Garmin & Aspen finally completed the unlocking of the GTX-345 on the Aspens. My final decision was based on integration, capability and redundancy. As an Aspen 2000 owner, I wanted something that would work seamlessly with the Aspens, had additional capabilities and offered a level of redundancy. I opted to go the L-3 9000+ route because I knew the 9000+ is completely supported by L-3 and Aspen. In addition, the 9000+ has its own display and provides redundancy. Another factor that weighed heavily was the integration of active traffic on the L-3 system. Having flown a bit recently in an ADS-B compliant plane, I am convinced that even after the mandate deadline date comes, there will be a number of planes still operating with Mode C only. Since ADS-B will identify them, you may think that this may be a minor concern. It is -- when they are picked up by radar. Having flown in an ADS-B equipped plane, we just didn't pick up some mode C planes when they were in the traffic pattern of some airports. I also noted on every flight when full TIS-B became active. It was between 900' and 2000'. Aspen's software update to support the L-3 unit included additional features that the Garmin integration didn't. As well, L-3 was offering the ATAS (voice announcement for traffic and terrain) for just attending a seminar. It also takes advantage of my WX-500 and will display this on the L-3. What are the downsides? The L-3 will not currently display weather on the GTN 650/750. Also, currently the 9000+ will display traffic and weather on a number of EFB apps but will not with Garmin Pilot. Since I am a Garmin Pilot user and will have a FlightStream 510 in the GTN, I will need decide how best to proceed. Once everything is buttoned up, I will post pictures of the completed panel. For now, just the carnage... Before carnage: Week 1 Week 2 (why does it look worse than week 1?)

It is always easier if you own the company. No need to wait until retirement.

Dude, no need to feel bad you own and fly a Mooney and C's are great performers for the cost. Looking at all the pics on 20000 post they all look great. Our d/c is pretty basic but it's a great joy to fly and scoots along just fine. oh hell I just checked your avatar and you fly an E. Wwwaaaaahhh Wwwaaaaaahhhh

So I had a fun - and long anticipated flight today. I dropped N10933 off at the paint shop! Next time you see her - she's going to have an ALL NEW look and even a new tail number....

I had the same CYA-100 in my C that @Bob_Belville has. It worked really well, was easy to calibrate and very small/light. It doesn't take any room in the panel which is nice. I haven't thought of putting on in the K yet. I found a picture. It's the small horizontal item just above the right most AI.

I installed one and I love it. As Don mentioned once it is calibrated it works really well. It has become even more strategic than the ASÍ. I fly most of my approaches based on the AOA. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Wow! This makes me feel like my Cessna140 is fast! It does at least 100 knots air speed true on a touch over 5 GPH. My Mooney goes point A to point B on less fuel than my 140 and gets there in much less time. For your budget you can find a nice example of whichever model you want, C, E or F. Do a proper prebuy with a Mooney savvy IA. You will love a Mooney.

Well there you have it, straight from the horse's mouth! And I don't think we are one smidge closer to an answer to life's important question.

He's still typing

whenever I want to give a linear enumerated response, I say, "let me carusoam that for you."

Okay, I'll play.[emoji846] Still saving up for the pretty paint but she's still a beauty to me! Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Makes me want to hide in the bushes with my AR!

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