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A couple of reasons why I keep buying Garmin products. 1. Huge discounts when I did my upgrade. 2. Issues with the GMA 35; immediate replacement sent. 3. Issues with 2 FS 510 when they first came out: Immediately replacements. 4. After a System Upgrade to the GTX 800 recently, it wouldn't work properly; unit was out of warranty and they replaced with a new unit. 5. Same issue with my Aera 796. After a System Update, the unit wouldn't start up; it was out of warranty and they replaced the unit with a new one. I didn't just get the new one back. I got a new boxed unit with all accessories included. 6. Rather easy upgrade path from the G500 to the G500TXi. When you buy a Rolls Royce you expect to be treated with extra care. That has been my experience with Garmin.

Everyone who's been should recognize the main entrance, even with snow!

Before I even planned on getting my Instrument Rating I was working on upgrades allowing me to remove my vacuum system. Luckily my AP didn’t need it. The upgrade I did last summer to the plane made my plane all electric. And now Being a newly IR pilot I’m even happier I started on that journey for my plane. I have four options for synthetic vision and five places I have battery back up AHARS. I have ForeFlight loaded on both my iPads and my iPhone. Both iPads have xnaut cooling mounts. One iPad has ForeFlight running and the other iPad has an Avidyne app running while flying. The tab for ForeFlight it right at the top and requires no set up. Press and down it drops, it gives you an HSI needle for your track. When I fly at night or IMC I will start out the flight with it running. I agree in a panic it’s not the best time to try to mess with it. But the FAA doesn’t say it can’t be running till you are in an emergency. Prep the flight from the ground the best you can. I agree with Shardrach and gsxrpilot the iPad is a viable back up and I train using it. If I die in an emergency I want it to be because I ran out of tools in my tool box not because I didn’t know how to use one. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I bought my M20C in 2002. N9341V is a 70 model build in 1969. Since I bought the plane I must have invested at least twice the purchase price in upgrades. I also have a three blade prop. Great speed brake, runs smoothly but I would love to get a two blade to get more performance out of it. However, I must say that the airplane did serve me well. Although it is not the fastest Mooney around, nor the most confortable (specially for the backseat passengers) it is a great plane. I flew from the US to Central America, doing for example Key West to San Salvador 811 miles non stop at 13,000 feet in 7 hours (headwind of 10 miles/h). After 7 hours I was ready to arrive but I was not exhausted. Annuals and maintenance are mostly reasonable. The only issue I had (and still have) are my CHTs. They are high and although I have been able to tame them, they are still high. So, I am a big fan of M20Cs. Oscar Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Another tough day on the job....

That's clearly a non-starter.

Longest trip so far with the whole family. ILM to EDC with a stop at NEW for the night. Heading back tomorrow ahead of some weather.

You can't argue with this logic. I just wonder how many "Rolls Royce's" you have to buy before getting the red carpet treatment. On a more serious note, I wonder if the Avionics shop you're using has anything to do with this level of service as well. I've never been able to get Garmin on the phone or to respond to an email other than to tell me to go through the Avionics shop.

You can buy anti glare screen savers, iPads are more than big enough and cut it to size. Or try to find something close, Aera 660 is probably pretty close in dimensions IIRC. Tom

Because CJaviation is using the same crap tech that makes the Dukes such a fragile piece of glass in the first place. They charge more than twice as much to convert your broken piece of shite to a newly overhauled piece of shite. Given how "important" the pump is, I'll take the robustly upgraded Aeromotors unit over the wheezy, iffy, 1-5hour run time between overhauls any day. I'll give Aeromoters a pass on this as an anomaly with the suspicion that there there may be more to the story. For a detailed understanding of how Aeromotors has improved the existing Dukes unit, see my write up after spending almost a half hour discussing the pump with Ole, the owner of the company and the individual that developed the FAA approved upgrades. My newly overhauled pump is demonstrably more powerful than it's ever been. I have had to shorten my prime times accordingly and have noted that it boosts pressure to red line in flight and on the ground (would never happen with previous overhauls). An Aeromotors pump is an excellent upgrade to any lawn mower!

Wow! You are good at trick photography! Looking at your avatar, I would have guessed you are a 6 footer. I think I weighed 145 lbs. at birth.

Something I honestly don't get. My Mooney is a tight fit in my hangar, so I've never been that interested in a power tow. Easier to get hangar rash than if I just push in in by hand, and I can always use the exercise. I push in my Mooney. Now, I am easily the smallest person on this board. I was the smallest guy at the Mooney gathering at Oshkosh (except the kids), and I can push my Mooney uphill into its hangar. I that to be way, way easier for you big guys than me, especially because I bet you guys can see over the nose when you put your airplane away. I can't at all. And power tow thingies are expensive, an anathema to us CBs. So why the profusion of power tow devices?

We old Mooney guys remember our C and E models fondly. I flew mine all over the USA and have many great memories. I had 300 TT, all in Cessnas, when I bought my E. For the first few hours I needed about 800’ to take off but 6000’ to land: Good thing my home base runway was 7000’ long. Eventually I learned speed control. My Mooney transition CFII had 7,000 hours of Mooney time and his tutorials were invaluable. I have flown the C and E into South Lake Tahoe and Truckee with density altitudes above 8,000 feet. The planes don’t exhibit much desire to leap off the runway up there but can be safely flown fairly high. Buy a good one and have fun.

You have no idea. My beloved (yes, be-loved) Apple iPad mini 3 MH372LL/A (64GB, Wi-Fi + Cellular, Space Gray ) has been replaced with a Mini-5: 256GB, Pencil support, A12 Bionic system on a chip. I am a very, very happy camper. Still has a lightning port, so all my stuff will play with it AND it has a headphone jack--again, all my stuff will play with it and it will play... ...ta, da! on the speaker system hanging on the wall of my hangar! I had it engraved with 'HRM'. I got the 'smart case' and Logitech Crayon today.

First ride is free. Don't do it

Zero calories for sitting in a plane for 3 hours? I think you got ripped off...

Personal overkill . . .

Bart, I know this will be hard to believe, as I probably would not have believed it when I started looking to buy a plane. (I almost died thinking about spending $1000 on a pre-buy, knowing it could not be recouped if I did not buy the plane) But the purchase price is almost insignificant in the ownership picture. An extra $20,000 on the sales price gets lost during the next few years as you have to install stuff, repair stuff, pay insurance, have annual inspections and all the other stuff it takes to fly. I know; anyone who says $20,000 is insignificant must be either rich, stupid or both, but sadly enough, in most cases it is true. Virtually every one of us here appreciates the necessity of not overspending on anything, but be careful of what the cheap plane you find does not have, needs updating, requires repair, etc.

All good points! None of them justify the “little more than toys” comment. If you’re having that many problems with the solid-state iPad with software that has likely been revised at least 10 times, then some troubleshooting is in order. FlyQ locked up on me exactly one time in the last 10 years and that was one of the earliest versions of the software. If your iPad is failing in the cockpit due to overheating then I would suggest you find a cooling solution (Just like you would for an instrument in the panel). The only time I’ve seen an iPad malfunction is when someone leaves it in the aircraft, in the sun for an extended period of time, an unlikely event in IMC. I didn't disagree with anything you’d said until you referred to some of the most revolutionary cockpit tools we’ve ever seen as little more than toys.

where is it located? I might be able to swing by. I wonder if it's the one at EQY I looked at a few years ago....

I'll go counter to all this and say the degree is optional. The regionals don't require one these days and I expect to see a lot of people upgrading through the majors that don't have them. It's definitely helpful if it can be afforded, but there is a lot of opportunity out there even without a degree. If he goes for the degree, make sure it's one that'll be worth the investment.

65 AMU new from Continental... but I'll just get mine overhauled to SB specs. I'm not buying new.

Is the SB engine the one that makes your hand tremor when you write the check?

Have you installed any new JPI 900s recently (within the last 2 months)? I sent mine back earlier this year for another failure of the display and they replaced it with a new display that does not have the anti-glare coating on it. Wonder if all the new ones are coming out this way. And more importantly if there is an anti-glare add-on that can be placed on the display. you can see how shiny it is in this video as compared to the Aspen, L-3 ESI-500 and the center stack stuff.

John, Maybe you should start using the iPad as the backup to your back ups when they become primary. There is no fumbling around setting the iPad up as an AHARS. It’s a single tab at the top of the page. Easily pressed before you enter IMC if you have your iPad right on your yoke it seems pretty reasonable to use all the tools in your tool box. And if you don’t want to use it because you don’t know how you should take some flight time to get used to it... Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The G500 can display traffic but not weather. I expect the TXi can do the same. The issue with the weather is not the NEXRAD graphical display, it is also the textual stuff like showing METARs and TAFs. There are specific sub menus in the G500/TXi that would require programming to accept the L-3's input. I am still waiting for the GTN 650 to show any weather products from my 9000+.

I purchased my ‘65 C Mooney on 1/16/19 and received my registration card last week. Have you looked at the FAA website to see if the registration has been updated?

I went from a Cessna 170 to a Mooney M20B at 275 hours. It was an easy transition for me. The Mooney is faster but I think it slows down easily. It is much more comfortable in turbulence - it wiggles instead of jars. The deck angle on climb was the hardest thing for me to get use to. I had to get use to climbing out of the airport and not being able to see what was ahead of me. I don't notice it anymore. I do from time to time forget to put the gear up though :-)

I agree. I put an engineer hat on and I agree with you. When I put a politician's hat on...

The Garmin 500 is marketed as deck angle (and bank angle) protection, not AOA, but to your point, yes, even when the autopilot is not engaged. To add a thinking item, most all autopilots are “on” when the master/avionics master is on and in theory could have a failure mode where it could engage something undesirable at any point even when it’s not engaged. Highly unlikely but possible. While technology and innovation in aviation certainly makes our day to day normal aviation procedures easier, it adds to the amount of training and “committed to memory” items we need to remember in an emergency. In this instance, disabling the system via normal control panel interface with the override being pulling the CB; that will get you back to a better place should the system malfunction. I’ll take that any day of the week if I’m hand flying in the soup and look down at a chart for a few seconds too long and am cranking in excessive bank.

The Mooney has wide span flaps which increases their effectiveness in increasing CLmax since more of the wing is subject to the increased camber effect when flaps are extended. The tradeoff is less room for ailerons. The short span, wide chord ailerons likely create a lot of drag when lifting a wing. The obvious fix to minimize the adverse yaw would be to add a aileron-rudder interconnect. If you remove it, you would likely find the reduced roll-yaw coupling unpleasant.

@kortopates is in your neck of the woods. He’s based at SEE. MAPA PPP in SMX is coming up as well. Might still be able to get in.

Absolutely agree! I have a 345 in the Mooney and Stratus ESG with the Stratus 3i and the AHRS sensor in the Cessna. I shudder to think of a time when I have to resort to Foreflight Synthetic Vision as a last resort, but if I do, I have a decent chance that it will work properly. Of course if you need it, the satellites might be obscured.

Garmin simply having the G3X for experimentals keeps other companies from jumping in and spending the money to certify a competing solution. IMHO Garmin will never certify the G3X since it would cannibalize the TXI sales, however, everyone knows that if some game-changing, market disrupting thing gets announced from a competitor, Garmin has the resources to get things certified quickly.

Exactly. gopros are USB-C. laptops are USB-C. all the new phones are transitioning over to USB-C. The ipad pros are USB-C. Why not make everything Just 1 connection type.

That’s a lot of wonderful in that pic!!! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Just to clarify . . . are you referring to the hardware holding down the battery or the maintenance guys in the shop where @Mooney_Allegro went?

If you decide to go VFR, you still must file a flight plan to cross the border. I think Foreflight just released the ability to do this, so much easier now. AlexLev is correct on all points. It is pretty easy to do and we love to see people visit our great country, especially with their Mooneys

if that plane is worth 62K, then mine is worth 90-95K. I think the broker needs @jgarrison price guide

For you, to turn on the espresso machine and hot tub. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

I always have, too, until this year. My last IA retired, and the one I found doesn't allow it. This is Week #8, just got off the phone--I'll be lucky to get it back during Week #10. We got along well in the past, but he doesn't answer his phone or return calls, voicemails or texts. Right now, I just want my freaking Mooney back! I'll find out the quality of work whenever it gets finished . . . . . Always check your plane after maintenance. My most thorough preflight to date was after resealing both tanks, but this will be more so when the time comes. The Quality Manager at my first medical manufacturer had a sign behind her desk: "In God We Trust. All Others Bring Data." The same thing applies here, except the data will be collected by my eyes and fingers.

My Ovation has no vaccum system. It does have a G500, two batteries, two alternators and a backup digital AI in case the G500 fails. If that fails I have a FS 210 that sends AHRS to the iPad. If that fails I have a Sentry that sends AHRS and GPS position to a second iPad. If that fails in IMC then it was just my time...

It doesn't matter which way you think. The media and politicians are going to have a field day with this and ultimately the only ones who are not going to suffer are the lawyers!

I'm based down in Corvallis. I'm free today and the weather's nice if you're interested in looking at an M20J. I'm available on Fridays and weekends, but next weekend looks iffy for sightseeing. PM if you haven't found anyone yet. Edit: OK, maybe the weather's not so nice up in HIO. 16 knots gusting to 24 right between the two runway directions...

YES - but we should ALL also have the A/P breaker marked with a colored plastic breaker marker as it is one more line of defense to quickly find in case of such an emergency.

I could make some of these. I think I would use spring loaded ball set screws with locking nuts threaded into an aluminum block screwed to the side of the long rail. This would allow for tension adjustment for snapping the U channel onto the rail and would be mechanically solid. May want to use 1/8" thick. U channel stock. I could make them longer than necessary and then they can be fitted and cut with a small hack saw in the field. John Breda

Thanks everybody. I have decided to order Bruce's. One of the reason is that most of the times I install them when the engine is still warm and I need to make sure nothing crazy happens! IYKWIM (If you know what I mean!)

Failing the self test is very often the trim servo or wiring/connections for it

$2,500 for an overhaul exchange pitch servo from Autopilots Central last summer.

For many......IMPOSSIBLE!