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Anyway --- update. Got an email yesterday morning from the avionics shop. They walked over to my hanger and swapped out the SD Cards and said the unit is fixed and my logbook sticker is sitting on my seat. Wont get to verify its working until this weekend or next, but very pleased with how quickly Avidyne reacted in shipping replacement hardware and coordinating with the shop to repair.

It will not surprise anyone on this site that knows me that I have a different airplane. This is #16. I change airplanes as my needs change. A couple of years ago I had a really sweet Mooney 231. A good friend of mine wanted it and I wanted more useful load (892 lb wasn't enough) and air conditioning. So I went about looking for an airplane that met those needs. I was looking for 1100 lb useful load in a single or 1500 lb in a twin. Other than those requirements, I was open to the specific airplane. I came upon a really nice B55 Baron. There are some photos of it on this site. Most importantly, it had flown just shy of 100 hours per year for each of the previous seven years. Right at a year ago now I accepted a position that allows me to fly to work a couple of days a week. It is only a 57NM flight each way but over the mountains that turns a 2 hour commute each way into a 20 minute flight. That flight comprises most of my flight time now, and it is done solo with me only bringing a back pack. So I started to investigate what I wanted next as the Baron certainly isn't required for that flight. Lancair 360 ? RV series ? Cessna 150 ? Two seats are all I need for that flight. But I need to get to 7,500/8,500 ft to clear the mountains and that may be 11,000 ft density altitude in the summer. A 150 is out, as is a 172. I guess a Cessna 182 would be the minimum. I had a Lancair and didn't like it. I've had a couple of 182s and really didn't want another one. I'm thinking 200 HP minimum. A nice F/J/K Mooney would be perfectly reasonable. I also go to Mexico a few times a year with the Flying Samaritans so four seats would be nice and useful load is good for those flights. I also need enough fuel to make it to Mexico and back without taking on fuel as the availability of fuel in Mexico is always in question. Looking for at least 1100 lb useful load rules out the Mooneys. A few weeks ago a guy posted on BeechTalk that he has a nice S35 Bonanza and was looking to trade for a Baron. We talked, we came to an agreement and we swapped airplanes last Sunday. The Bonanza has flown 100 hours per year for the last ten years. Yesterday I swapped out the Garmin 430W for an Avidyne 440 and I'll probably swap out the Garmin 340 audio panel for a PMA450B. The first photo is both airplanes side by side last Sunday, then photos of the Bonanza.

This is deja vu all over again. Back in the mid 90's Mobil (now Exxon/Mobil) pulled out of the aviation oil business saying that Mobil AV-1 synthetic was so expensive to produce that they could not sell it in a competitive market for a profit. It turns out that they knew in their testing that after about 20 hours the oil was so full of sludge that it caused stuck rings, clogged up prop governors and hubs, premature cylinder wear, etc. A year after they quietly took it off the market, the class action lawsuits started coming and they had to buy a lot of engines. Independent tests showed that up to 15 hours it was the best oil at reducing friction and wear but after that it would break down and didn't have the ability to keep the contaminants suspended past that threshold. After seeing how that they handled all of it I never trusted them for anything aviation related and have never bought a quart of their Exxon Elite.

You should see the photos you get when you google “MooneySpace members”. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

Glad to hear we got this taken care of for you. Please don't hesitate to reach out if anything comes up when you check it out this weekend or anytime moving forward. Best regards and thanks for choosing Avidyne, Bryan Kahl Director of Customer Experience M: 321-506-1541 | O: 321-751-8494 Bkahl@avidyne.com

It senses three-axis vibration in multiples of crankshaft speed and displays it as spikes. Looks a bit like an oscilloscope. Cam vibration presents at .5 and mags at 1.5. alternator is about 3-4 depending on gearing. Pretty cool. Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

Kind of a crappy day for flying, but I feel much better about landing it now with a lot of pattern practice

10 Years ago this morning is when Captain Sully landed the stricken A320 on the Hudson. Amazing still to think about/read about/hear about. Good training, good execution, good work. -Seth

I've figured it out--Ken's purpose is to upgrade as many GA planes as possible, and release them back to the market! Thanks for what you do for the rest of us, Ken.

Make sure you keep it interesting. It would be ironic to put a room of anesthetists to sleep.

Rules of appropriateness change accross the community... We have a cross section of people that is tremendous... Men and Women Teens to Octogenarians East to West from Asia to Eastern Europe North to south from Canada to Brazil All races, religions, of all types of people are welcomed here And more... Often mistakes are perceived more than actual... It is a challenge to write in a way that is understandable to everyone in the community For the most part, forgiveness always works... People make mistakes... apologies work, when you write something that gets misunderstood... Statistically more mistakes occur late on weekends... I know pretty quickly when I make mistakes... somebody will send a PM... another may write something publicly... Try to not make mistakes, try to be forgiving, take constructive criticism when offered... Nobody is on the payroll to clean up after us... If you need to... edit your post... appologize... move on... We are all here to learn Mooney related stuff from each other. Best regards, -a-

Keep in mind the costs involved in having every post reviewed... or edited or thrown out... they are real. It takes real people getting paid real dollars... MS costs are appropriately low. We are a pretty small community... Adding costs for the extra service won’t be greatly appreciated... Note the people that give money to support the community are indicated by ‘supporter’ badge. It’s a small dollar event. Often CFIs and mechanics give their expertise, often. There are no hard rules of what can or can’t be posted. That would require paying somebody to write them... update them... and others to read and abide by them... So... if you want to increase the price so we can have adult supervision... try starting that thread...? There are some really strange posts that come up. Some wish they never saw... Mom always said... you take the good with the bad... get an eyeful of the twisted pair, or any of Marauder’s girls... Keep in mind, when taken too far, too often... enough of the community will put an end to the posts... There really are limits to freedom of speech... you can’t yell Movie in a crowded fire house... ? Also, if you haven’t seen the donate button... it’s at the bottom of the page. We tried to hire one of Marauder’s girls to be a monitor, but we couldn’t find the pay with food option... she wanted too much! If you think there was sexism or otherisms, Marauder’s girls would change color, shape, creed, whatever was needed... The worst part of the thread mentioned... We lost a few people that were very supportive of the community. Including the people that were involved with the offending thread... We can’t afford the losses... Best regards, -a-

Had to change the wiring on the light. The can bus cable is already shielded twisted pair

Marauder was pointing out that you wrote for your CFII to "not let me land with the gear down", while we would prefer that you DO land with the gear down! CRM is a good thing, but you also need to train for those solo flights that you will make . . . . .

I think I'm Chase's @Avionics Source best customer. This is the first airplane I've only had a 440 in and not a larger screen GPS too. Initially I swapped out my Garmin 540W/430W in my Mooney for an Avidyne 540/440. Then I upgraded the 540 to a 550 when the 550 came out. Then in the Baron I upgraded the 540 that was there when I bought it to a 550. Now I just upgraded the 430W in the Bonanza to a 440. Plus add in two audio panel upgrades (so far . . . I'm getting ready to send Chase an E-Mail saying I want to upgrade the Garmin 340 in the Bonanza to a PMA450B), a transponder and ADS-B upgrades too. I love the 440 and once I set up the IFD100 (maybe this afternoon), I think I'll like it even more. I have a Garmin 330ES so ADS-B out only. This weekend my A&P is installing a FlightBox Pro. I think I read somewhere that you can use that to input weather and traffic to the 440. If so, the IFD100 will become my best friend soon

I think the frustration aka “irrational hating” comes into play when you feel like they are not working in your best interest or are not showing progress in resolving the concern. I’ll give you 3 personal examples. Garmin GTN. My unit was exhibiting open squelch issues. Early in the process of troubleshooting, the usual “something in the plane is causing this” remarks came up. Then a few firmware updates started showing up. Clearly there was a squelch issue in the box. Between the firmware updates and adjusting the squelch settings, the problem was resolved after a pretty lengthy period. JPI 900. I replaced my JPI 830 with a 900. Shortly afterwards I was on an IFR flight and my squelch on my GTN kept opening on a number of ATC frequencies. It was so bad, I couldn’t hear ATC. I was ready to blame Garmin but I decided to try to determine if anything else changed since the problem started. It had. The JPI 900 was added. After troubleshooting the issue to the remote indicator on the JPI 900, I called JPI. They immediately told me that it was not possible that their unit could do this. I sent them this video. So, I hear nothing from them but a ferrite filter shows up telling me to install it on the lead coming out of the JPI and going to the remote indicator. Problem fixed. Next JPI issue came up with the RPM being erratic. Immediate response was to return the unit. Decided to troubleshoot the issue. Turned out that the lead coming from the mag was loose. Aspen. I get an email from Aspen saying that due to some sort of ADS-B signal coding issue I needed to disable the ADS-B In until the problem is resolved. That was over a month ago. No updates, nada. I’m in the electronics field. I know how disruptive a problem can be for a customer. The best way to handle these issues is to be forthcoming and communicate as much as you can about what you are doing to resolve the concern. The motto we use here is “Take care of the Customer, we can always fix the problem later”. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

Bryan -- thanks for following up on this and being a part of this forum. Understand that you guys can get beat up every now and then, but please dont let that take away from the value that you have the potential to provide this community by participating on these boards. It certainly means a lot to us as customers. Cheers!

At his final HBO show of the season, Bill Maher (not known for his mild, polite political commentary) told his audience the best thing they could do over the holidays is not talk about politics. He noted that politics and religion were once verbotten topics among friends and, until we started violating that rule, we didn't know how much we hated each other. Why screw up a good thing?

I hope the instructor does just the opposite!

Hard to believe it's taken this long to "almost" have closure. It turned out it was a bad mag. My A&P couldn't diagnose the problem with what he had so we sent it in to a shop in Oklahoma that found some signs of arcing, a pretty significant balance issue and gears starting to change colors. Pretty much a rebuild of one mag and work on the other as well. One point 06 AMU later it is on it's way back and I should have it in hand this week. I hope back on the plane soon thereafter.

Just trip over the door mat and make a scene. Sounds like you’ll get the entire menu. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

there is, and the fines are similar

My D model never came with PC and still sports the factory "shotgun" panel with /A equipment (dual VORs and a DME). I've got about 50 hours simulated under the hood and have no trouble whatsoever staring at gauges for up to 2 hours and holding wings level. I know it isn't the same when you're alone and in actual conditions, but I plan on flying my plane quite a bit with the factory panel as-is. My father and his father flew them as such. With ADS-B In and tablet at my fingertips, no reason it still can't be done in 2019. Some will agree, others will disagree and say you need a $100,000 panel to fly IFR. Just my $0.02

I agree with you. However the customer’s feeling is his/her “reality” and the difference is huge. If I go to a restaurant and I don’t like it I simply don’t go back. But if I just paid 20 grand and I feel stuck and ignored it’s a “reality” that hits like a ton of bricks.

Calling an MSer with an avionics shop... @Jeev Sometimes used ones show up when MSers upgrade to using it for primary gauges, like a jpi900... check the stuff for sale section... Check with your installer... because they might include things in their pricing so they can feed their children. They may require you to buy the hardware from them... Best regards, -a-

One of the challenges of flying approaches in a vintage Mooney is the gear and flap speeds. You’ll need to determine your power settings to get to these speeds and be able to make the transition from cruise or a descent to the approach speeds. Guys who have higher gear speeds have the luxury of tossing it out as way to slow down. I have learned how much time & distance is consumed moving from 120 - 130 KIAS to 100 KIAS (my approach speed) to be able to deploy either flaps or gear. Hopefully your instructor has spent some time developing a matrix like this to help you with the power and attitude settings required for stabilized climbs and descents. My typical sequence is to begin slowing down before the IAF and be below flap speed of 109 KIAS. I deploy flaps and adjust power to get to a stabilized 100 KIAS. If I am flying a precision approach, I always deploy gear at the FAF and run the BUMPS checklist. For a non-precision, I will drop the gear at the FAF unless for some reason I am delaying the descent to the MDA (rare). Either way, I always do the BUMPS checklist. As for your instructor, I won’t tolerate someone who doesn’t jell with my style. I have heard of people tolerating instructors who belittle them, scream at them or are just not good instructors. A decent instructor makes a world of difference on the learning experience. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

Twisted pair did the trick. Not even a bump when I turn the nav lights on and off. And I went with the wing, because why not. I figured that would be better because there's a lot of steel in the tail (control rods) and I have my rotating beacon and strobe power supply back there. Near the end of the wing seems liked the cleanest place. And I don't know for sure, but I'm betting a servo gets mounted in the tail for the TruTrak. I have no idea where the aileron servo will go, but it won't be past the control rods in the wing. Where I put it seems the least likely to have future interference.

I have found that CFIs tend to fall into one of two camps. On the one hand are those that simply understand flight and are there as your spirit guide to try to help get you to Stick and Rudder nirvana and the the others who have decided that whoever taught you to fly was an idiot and it is their mission to correct the deficiencies. Whenever encountering the latter, and this occurs randomly every two years at FR time for me, I simply 'go with the flow' and stroke their ego until I get a sign off out of them. I would never, however, commit to a new rating with a CFI in that category. Seek out the spirit guide--less heartburn and anxiety and you'll be a better pilot in the end.

No Alex if you knew my mechanical ineptness you would be surprised that I could even be taught to fly! I ordered it directly from the company and had my MSC install it. The owner of Gee Bee is on this forum and is a super helpful and knowledgeable guy.

Yup, and make them a twisted pair like Brice suggested and it should help quite a bit. An example twisted pair:

Hi Carusoam! Before Christmas one of my "plane partners" showed up for an advert for a nice Mooney. (he would like to go a bit faster!) So I figured where would be the best place to catch up on what the Mooneys are all about? Have some hours in a Mooney, liked it a lot.. One of the Piper pilots also has a Mooney and mentioned this place.. ... Having just installed a new autopilot in our Cherokee, this thread attracted me right away. I have learned SO MUCH lurking in forums... I am not very active on all of them, but it is winter here and I have some time on my hands... I will probably "fade away" a bit when the weather warms up.... Nav

I'll have to try to remember that line in 30 years

After being in this business for many many years, it is always amazed me how professional this business really is. You have a bunch of type a pilots flying around and a bunch of type a air traffic controllers working them. Rarely do you hear conflicts in the radio... Except sometimes with American Airlines. Every time I get frustrated with ATC, I just remember that I have not hit an airplane in 30 years. Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

In these divided times, I too think that I'd like to think of ya'll as friends who love aviation as much as I do and that is what we have in common. To see non-aviation subjects lines in the "Recent Posts" section when I log into MS would be counter to one of the things that I like about hanging out here! I suspect many others would feel the same way.

There are many other online groups for non-aviation related discussions. They don't belong here.

I'm more concerned with security, and perhaps a place to change oil. Sent from my LG-US996 using Tapatalk

Genuine MSer... calling the supplier to get the answer, then coming back to MS to share the knowledge... Way to go, Allegro! Best regards, -a-

I wise person once told me, "In business, perception is reality." Most people expect a $20k purchase to be handled with more care than a $20 purchase, so for most purposes there certainly is a difference. Of course, that's the customer side. On the vendor side, it's completely different and I agree with you: There should be no difference in the care given, regardless of the price point.

So, @carusoam let me ask a <hypothetical> question of you. If a relatively new M20C owner during the recent annual inspection of his aircraft fumigated the wing and tail with corrosionX and didn't bag up the rubber membranes on the vacuum servos, are they going to (a) disintegrate quickly, (b) disintegrate slowly, or (c) spontaneously combust? What is the remedy?

545 hours on mine, and no issues. The high mark of success the 900 and 930 units have enjoyed seems to far outweigh the negative remarks. If you’re considering the 900 or the 930, find a way to pull the trigger...don’t waste your time or money with anything else.

Alex, Want to see a Gee Bee pic? There is a fresh one around here somewhere... Cooling is so dependent on good sealing. It helps to have proper materials without any extra holes... Best regards, -a-

Tom, I understand the melancholy. I've sold airplanes, one I flew and babied for a decade. I know how hard is to see them go. Sounds like yours went to the right guy.

In my experience, it takes many, many, many satisfied customers to overcome the negative from one dissatisfied customer. I try to bear that in mind as I read people's complaints against any business. And I really try to be careful when I report a bad experience with a business.

I've had a 930 for 6 years and and I remain happy overall. The unit has been sent back to JPI 3 times but never because it failed and grounded the plane. The last time I sent it in was to update the JPI for the CiES digital fuel level sensors. We were installing extended bladders at the same time and doing the annual so the plane was down several weeks. Another time was while trouble shoot an erratic sensor. The 3rd time was to update the firmware, again I chose a time when the plane was down anyway. I have found JPI tech service to be quite good. Removal or reinstalling the JPI takes about 15 minutes for my installation - the unit comes out the top of the panel.

930 going strong 5+ years ~500 hours. Knock on wood. would be nice to be able to do software updates without sending it to California. Otherwise good. Also I had good customer service when I had a minor issue with my remote display.

I flew my 1964 E for 7 years with no PC and no autopilot. (E models before serial number 400 did not have the PC system installed.) IMC flight in any turbulence was busy. I couldn’t look away from the AI for more than a few seconds to fold a chart (Historical note: IFR charts used to be printed on big sheets of paper) or tune the radios. In glassy smooth air it would stay on heading well for several minutes. An occasional nudge to the yoke was needed to keep on assigned altitude.

When you find one let me know, I’ll be there sooner than later. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'm at just over 200 hours for the year. Around 115 of those were in my old Cessna 172F, with the remaining 85 hours in my M20J that I upgraded to towards the end of August.

I'm one step behind Brad, installing 2xG5's in a C172 with a GFC500 autopilot. Aerodon

Another simple thing to check is condition of the hoses going to the vacuum gauge...If they are breaking down you may have a small leak not allowing for an accurate readout (low in this case) which then triggers the low vac warning light.