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The only thing better than having a job like that is NOT having a job at all and still being able to fly when and where you want. Kinda like @Bob_Belville, who I seriously envy....

I've been flying for 20+ years...just military. I'm spreading my wings as it were into GA. Mooneys meet the desired mission set. Fast crosscountry machines. What I'm learning is there are SO many variants (engines and models) in the <100k price range. Awesome and intimidating all at the same time.

In my case, the watermark checkerboard was just a little bit too much for Joe and the crew. The process is a little bit unusual. It’s all masked up if you see that. The checkerboard is basically the base red it but it’s tinted very slightly darker with the same Black that used to make the red to begin with. Take several iterations of Add Black, put in a cup, spray on a test panel, force dry then view, to get it right. Then me and his man Sean got to work. He would spray the base red over the front third of the airfoil. Then I would spray tinted red from the trailing edge forward and at the demarcation line for the gun away back and fade it and ghost it onto the already wet base red to get that faded in look. We did pull it off, I think.

I agree. The data block time when it’s always displayed I think you can argue for. but having to get 3 pages deep into a menu to View a clock while doing an approach that you’re actually using the GPS to do, seems a little far-fetched

Paul, since the IFD always displays the time, I'm with you on this because of one sentence in the FAA legal explanation letter. It says pretty clearly that: "it is not necessary that the appliance's sole function be time-keeping."

The M20M uses the Lycoming TIO-540 (turbocharged). The M20K uses the Continental TSIO-360 (also turbo-charged). The M20M has a lot more displacement and burns a crapload more fuel to get the 270 hp. The M20R Oovation is not turbocharged, it uses the Continental IO-550 and produces 280-310 horsepower. Again, it has a lot more displacement and burns a lot more fuel. At altitude, it produces a lot less horsepower than at sea level, of course.

Future prediction... You are going to regret typing this one day.... Recognize that you might be in a room of Mooney pilots and may have taken an odd approach to making friends... Then let me know how one person’s GU accident affects my insurance rates... Fixing a GU event is a pretty low cost affair compared to losing a single pilot in a stall / spin accident... Are you aware of the number of Mooney pilots lost this year? Are you going to suggest that they should take some time off from flying? Sounds kind of short sighted... Have you read up on distractions, how they work, and what causes GU accidents? Sounds like you may not be taking flying very seriously... Join the discussion... Best regards, -a-

Reasoning of Garmin on requiring GPS with the GFC 500. Still, I don't like the fact that it doesn't have CWS..

No disrespect to anyone, but I just don't see any reason not to learn to fly in the M20E that he already owns. Never mind the legality of the long expired LS certificate, the OP once upon a time, knew how to fly. Those skills get rusty but it's nothing like starting from zero. He's also got quite a bit of recent time in the Mooney already. I think the plan is a good one. Get an instructor to come down to the islands for a couple of weeks and knock it out. You'll be just fine with the Mooney.

My experience transitioning to a Mooney (from an Arrow) is that it required a lot more trim changes to get stabilized. I think this is because of the much greater speed and power. As Jay pointed out, it takes a while to reach equilibrium. I think the nice thing about the Mooney is that these changes are pretty predictable. As you level off from climb, for example, you will need left rudder trim and forward elevator and more of this as you speed up. Once it gets to its cruise speed, I don’t think it’s any less stable than a 172 or Arrrow, just takes a while to get there. Passed a 172 yesterday with a 70 kt overtake. My son said “that Cessna’s flying backwards!”

A property rigged mooney is a very stable IFR platform. If you are having trouble with altitude hold I would look very carefully at your trimming technique and then any issues with the airplane rigging. The problem is most likely the pilot, and the good news is that only takes some practice to fix. Get to altitude, get the airspeed where you want it, set the power to hold that airspeed, and trim-trim-trim as you get that dialed in. Once property trimmed, if you don't touch anything, I think you'll see that your airplane will fly as if it were on rails. The final trim adjustments are very subtle. I use my electric trim for big changes, but use the manual trim wheel to adjust just those final touches as you have finer control... very very small movements.

Downtown OKC.

Does anyone know of anyone who has installed a KI300, or are they just in stock, approved and for sale in status only on Sarasota's website? If anyone knows, Peter might. PTK, how is your installation going? I was concerned the electronic components used might have reached end of life by the mfrg. prior to delivery.

Beautiful sunset over Oklahoma last night.

I want a job like that!

Lemme get this straight Paul, @gsxrpilot, you have a box in your aircraft that tells you that your gear are good to go, and the voice coming from this box sounds like the voice of Sam Elliot?? If so, where do I get one? I especially want it if the voice says: "Gear Down, Dude"

Like any other plane you will fly... spend the extra time for TT... it will be worth it... It will probably take about eight hours, to come out with only a few nuggets... But if one of those nuggets keeps you from landing in somebody’s garage after a departure stall, you got your money’s worth... The other nugget you want to get... is a fire breathing turbo 252 the right bird for you... It probably is... but... Lots of training, practice, and ownership experience to work through... Don’t be in a rush. For a great presentation, or just a good read... One MSer detailed his harrowing experience. That MSer, also a military pilot... has put in plenty of effort getting the word out... the key search words are probably departure stall and garage... Mooney performance is spectacular... except when it comes to too short fields, or too high DA situations, or too heavily loaded.... then it’s by the book. Make sure your plane matches the book before using the data... I took it in a similar fashion... with no flight experience how would I know a Mooney Ovation is the right bird for me... I started with a much lower cost M20C to simulate 90% of what I wanted to know before going all in... Some things worked as expected. We traded out the C and got the O... Hang out here long enough you will know all the finances required... MS is probably made up with 1/3, 1/3, 1/3... military pilot experience including many helicopter pilots commercial pilot experience up to and including 747s Mechanics that help us keep our birds maintained, Drs, lawyers, engineers, finance guys, EMT dispatcher, businessmen, And a great group of CFIs and CFIIs... All are very open with sharing their experience one way or another... even if it is only asking questions... Briefly, there have been some losses along the way... so take no short cuts, no matter what level your experience is today... Gravity can be so unkind. Search for the thread around here that has all the different military aircraft that MSers have piloted... from Sabres to F18s to Apaches to... If you can, add yours to the list... Best regards, -a-

Financially speaking, I'm ready to take-the-leap. Just a little apprehensive on "the first plane" leap...which is why all the questions, I suppose.

see the TSIO... Turbo/super charged... (compared to NA, or TN) Injection Opposed cylinders (nobody goes Radial anymore...) See The Numbers.... 360 520 540 550 Cubic inches... Want to do some fun math... Ask Alexa how many liters are in 550 cubic inches... She says 9... Remember when Vanilla Ice was singing about driving around Florida in his 5.0..? That was a lot of displacement in the mid 80s... (V-ice would love a TN 9.0!) Now for more fun... F=ma. Force, mass and acceleration are related... The Mustang weighs 3650 pounds A Mooney weighs in about half that... Imagine the acceleration and climb you can get with a turbocharged Mooney.... Hmmmm.... cutting the mass in half, keeping the HP the same, doubles the acceleration....? For additional fun... Wind resistance is a drag... Taking a Mooney to 20k’ is less than half a drag.... Unfortunately, a normally aspirated Engine can’t continue to produce a high amount of power with the lower MP available at 20k’.... Hence the value of the TSIO360 with a Merlyn controller, and an intercooler become very interesting.... high output combined with low drag.... Stunning! Are you a motor-head, just not familiar with all these specific details? Or are these details all new, haven’t become a motor head yet? Keep in mind... having a complex and powerful plane takes a lot of experience to master... The more masterful you are, the better off you will be... A normal part of the ownership experience is getting Transition Training to go with your new steed... You might consider getting some transition training prior to buying your new steed... There are quite a few Mooney specific CFIIs around that will train in their Mooney... find one with the motor you want and go for a lesson... Best regards, -a-

Or a turbine

I agree when it comes to Trio or Trutrak, but that's not the way Garmin is marketing the GFC500. I asked Garmin what the GFC600 would do that the GFC500 wouldn't and they never mentioned this limitation, only that the GFC600 was much more expensive but didn't need a G5. They can sell any product they like, but how about disclosing in their marketing materials that it needs GPS to fly a NAV approach?

I may be the only guy who went into Joe’s paint booth and painted part of the airplane while it was there. But I’m telling you I was heavily involved in this project. And I’ve learned a lot about aircraft painting

Granted, not very often. But this last summer I flew IFR from Charleston to Savannah without GPS. The outage was only over Charleston and so I was able to pick up the signal in flight before getting to Savannah. The tower asked if we were having GPS issues before we took off. I said we were and they said they'd had reports of GPS being out in the area. I took off using radio navigation until we picked up GPS later in the flight. But it was nice that my KFC150 didn't seem to care what Nav signal I asked it to follow, it just worked. I realize that the KFC-150 is getting long in the tooth and will be expensive to repair when it starts failing. But I'm not the least bit interested in downgrading to an autopilot with LESS capability or functionality than I have now. And as far as I can tell, the GFC500 will be a step down from my KFC150.

Only for normally aspirated engines. If there's an "I" or a "T" that begins your engine call out, not yet. Most Mooney's I'm familiar with have injected engines. The FAA is also requiring CHT monitoring equipment. Read the FAA document on their website. It's all there.

Same here. I want to six different paint shops before we used hawk. and you know what a couple of them are comparable with Hawk’s quality and maybe Slightly better but they were over $20,000, at a time when Joe was half that. Do you wanna see what a quality paint job looks like check and see if they drilled the data plate off and then riveted it back on after it’s done.

One of the issues for sensor fusion in something like this is that the importance of how various inputs, especially disparate inputs, should be weighted and treated during faults is often subjective. Clearly it is possible for an autopilot to fly an ILS/LOC/VOR without GPS, because there've been successful implementations that do just that for many decades. The Century III installation in my airplane is forty years old and it will fly a glideslope dead nuts on. Garmin's decision to exclude that capability because GPS has faulted is suspicious, IMHO. Maybe it just saved them testing/verification time by reducing the number of fault permutations, i.e., they don't have to test/verify ILS/LOC/VOR with GPS faulted because they just don't do it. It's lame, but it's often how engineering for high-reliability systems works, especially if you're behind schedule.

Below 14k winds was even worse and turbulence was no fun.

IIRC, the AIM suggests that the segment between the IF and the FAF is generally designed and intended to be as straight as practical to give you time before the FAF to make final preparations for the approach. I imagine that is not always true, but it's a reasonable argument to do your primary landing checklists in that segment (or comparable segment if there is no IF or FAF)

and Don Maxwell told me (unscientific study) that he has repaired more J bar gear ups than electric. Initially, I shrugged this off thinking there were more J bar planes existing than electric, but I believe I am wrong on this account also. What is telling is it doesn't matter. If you are not ingrained to check your gear position on short final EVERY time, you may become a member of the "those that have" club. Checklists are your friend if you remember to use them, and I am not referring to the 16 page version some like to fumble with in the cockpit. Gear up's are not more preventable with a J bar, but they are with proper pilot diligence

I've searched my PC over and over and just can't seem to find the ALT HOLD button. I guess I'll just have to stick to my dual installed Mark 1 Eyeballs for monitoring and 5 digit control manipulators for the actuation.

Aha! I like these guys - they designed the device the G5 just how I would design it if I were the group design leader. Data fusion is legit and falls under the wing of the sort of thing I do for a day job.

I think your point may be the most akin to my situation. Since you mentoined it, I'm thinking about it and I don't know if I have flown under the hood yet without at least a little bump. A may be too concerned at this point. Add that to what @jaylw314 said above about it taking some time to stabilize and I think we have my situation. I'm probably a bit too heavy handed on the trim wheel too. So taking to heart @Immelman's comment and being lighter on the wheel. Definitely some things to try next time I fly. Back to the turbulent air topic, I don't see how anyone could be expected to keep to +-100ft in turbulence in real life, or am I wrong? Are you guys able to do this? Or what do you see in the real world?

Didnt see it mentioned but make sure to ground your aircraft AND your fuel can (metal or plastic) before draining. Years ago I witnessed what could go wrong.

several places that can make (rebuild) yours, not all that spendy doing one riser but I would inspect the others closely

Thanks for the welcome! I believe the testimonials on this thread from Mooney owners speak for themselves. Greater fuel economy, more power, smoother operation, and easier starts. Climb rates are significantly improved. Add to that, 2000 hours of operation between replacement and the cost justification is there. How much is a traditional magneto overhaul costing every 500 hours? If you don't fly much, I can see the reluctance to spend money on newer technology, but much of this stuff has been around for years now. I guess it depends on your definition of "new technology".

And go from forum-flying to possibly getting a ride in some different variants to help firm up your understanding of each.

I wish it were so. The analysis says otherwise, folks with J-bars gear up just as often as folks with switches.

Cecilia from Brittain sent me the overhaul manual for my PC/turn coordinator which does state that the TC is both electric and vacuum powered. She also mentioned that the 2 filters it has, p/n 123-002-002, are actually a Fram G12 fuel filter with the bib cut off. Interesting...They are currently unavailable from Brittain while they undergo reorganization. Thanks for the electric step info! KB

I might be transitioning from the first 1/3 into the second 1/3...God will let me know soon.

Wait a minute... Weren’t we just discussing a while back that the G5s need a GPS connected for improved accuracy? Sounds like Big G is having difficulty stating clearly, that it makes sense to integrate, GPS, display, magnetometer, servos, Pitot/Static, and an AP all together... The prior discussions circled around what happens to the HSI and attitude indicators, if they lose the GPS connection... They probably revert back to the old style AIs with accel/decel errors... a C150 doesn’t have acceleration error like a 310hp Mooney does... and even then it only lasts for a few dozen seconds mostly while level on the ground, in VMC.... BK has been doing this type of integration since the early 90s... with their digital evolution... The sales brochure is clear about what is connected to what. They visually make it obvious why everything is connected. Recently it came to light (around MS) that the BK APs are also connected to the static line... making setting a climb rate or descent rate a push button affair...I had no idea that’s what allowed it to work... I assumed it was connected by a wire to the altimeter... Some of these wicked smart boxes have sensors, some have intelligence, and others are just pretty smart displays... Being an educated consumer of this stuff isn’t very easy... Remembering how all this stuff is connected a decade later doesn’t get any easier... Big G has some pretty intelligent people working there... They just don’t want to hang out here at MS to explain what they have. Ask Trek, he is probably over at BT explaining this to somebody for some reason... Best regards, -a-

I almost offered my M20M for the testing - definitely glad I didn't. They even sent me all of the paperwork to look over. If I had and I just found out now that they hadn't told me about this, I would insist that they re-install the King KFC150 and reimburse for the hours flown. Why do they do this on the GFC500, but not the GFC600 or GFC700?

I hope to have a less expensive spinner option.

Wow, did they take it to MAACO, where they include antenna, windows & weatherstripping in the paint job?

Timers are not clocks. You might have missed that bit.

I'll have to check mine. (I'm in the @AGL Aviation frequently where a lot of Mooneys come for annuals an PPI. Most of them were painted with the covers over the tail hinge in place!)

Yep. The weather works sometimes, not today. I'll be back there again tomorrow, touch down around 7:20AM, leave when we're done for the day. Sometimes noon, sometimes 5PM and any time between is possible.

Demand for diesel is high and continues to rise. To produce diesel, gasoline is a by--product. Therefore there is a glut of gasoline so the price is down. On the other hand, 100LL is a very small specialty market which unfortunately doesn't drop quickly when the price of oil drops.

Is your aircraft registered as F-UC-AL ? heh

$12K for a third of that aircraft doesn't seem that bad. It's a really good thing is the deal brings you some partners. From my experience I think 3 is a good number of a n airplane partnership. Maximize utility while minimizing expenses. Always helps if one is IFR and another isn't. Good luck with the sale.