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I hope this hotel is there forever. They really nailed it! They renovated the old hotel and made the Connie into a really nice lounge in terminal 5. It’s the entire airplane with ground handling equipment and everything. Highly impressive being the airplane nut I am!! I had some time to kill and checked it out. The fact that the general public can see the thing for free is really neat. Worth the AirTrain inter terminal train ride. Awesome! -Matt

Not yet, but very soon. I expect my first sets of cowlings this month. Pictures to be posted as soon as the first set is pulled from the molds. Thanks, David

Thank you to all who assisted in planning, executing, and of course attending Mooney Summit VII! Planning has commenced for Mooney Summit VIII. -Seth

Hello there! Really enjoying flying again. Past few days in Florida were gusty as heck! Now in the Caribbean for work. This was this morning off the east coast of PR. Hope everyone well. Continued prayers for Mark’s recovery process. Best! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I don't recognize the old goat in those pics... here's a better shot of Nancy and me (with Nancy's brother, George). In front of our first '66E, N9249M.

I have shared this before (when this site first opened back in whenever). I did five pre-buys and I physically saw only the first and last candidates, back in 2004 when I was looking for a Johnson bar Mooney. Each pre-buy (or other examination) cost from $0 to $500 (except for the last one which I eventually bought). Each pre-buy (regardless of cost) saved me from $50,000 mistake. None of the aircraft were considered "airworthy" following the pre-buys. I did not know what to look for - so my view of each aircraft was not going to be based on any competent considerations. It turns out that it is far less important to see the aircraft than it is to have a good Mooney-savvy mechanic working for you. I remember the guy from Missouri who called me and told me that the C model being examined had been "rode hard and put away wet." The five Mooneys included: an undocumented repair for two gear up landings, one set of rusted longerons, leaking fuel tanks, wing spar corrosion and others. You all know Clarence and he did the pre-buy on the last one (the one I bought) and the previous owner did not believe the issues Clarence found, until I told him I was not buying it without it being repaired first. The broker convinced the seller to go to the shop (to save the sale) and see the results. When he saw what Clarence showed him, he dropped the cost of repair from the asking price and I bought it. Simple, no fuss, unemotional, based on objective evidence transaction. Possible only with someone who knows what to look for and works for the buyer. We (buyers) look at potential aircraft purchases with emotion - not wanting what we do not love and wanting what excites us. Mechanics do not have this impediment to good judgement. Fact based decision making is what we use when we fly - but it can also support unbiased purchase decisions. Just me.

Remember when eggs were bad for you...then they were good? Remember when the world was headed toward the next ice age...and two decades later global warming? Remember when all the earths fossil fuel was going to be depleted by y2k? Well, here we go again... https://www.marketwatch.com/story/chew-on-this-new-study-says-dont-bother-giving-up-red-meat-2019-09-30 Don’t have time to read it? Basically red meat just ain’t that bad after all. Bon Apetit my fellow red meat eating, fossil fuel burning, beer drinking, over achieving aviators.

100% agree. I have always exercised. As you get older you must adjust your caloric intake because most don’t exercise like you are in your 20’s to 40’s when you are in your 50’s and 60’s. For me it was elimination of five foods to get the calories in vs. burned back in line. Subway is fast food. I eat the hell out of their salads now. Forces me to sit down and enjoy a meal. Winning.

Like the OP, I did oil analysis religiously when I first got my plane and struggled with the innate ambiguities and resultant anxieties of interpreting it. I later solved this issue by pledging never to do oil analysis again. I think engine monitoring, routine borescoping, watching oil consumption, inspecting/ maintaining my plugs, cutting my filter, and the standard checks at annual give me all the data points I need to make good engine decisions in a timely manner. The cost of 5-6 oil analyses will pay for a pretty nice borescope

I think this one looks like a worthy candidate. But here is what I'd do before starting a pre-buy. See if someone from here on MooneySpace can go look at it for you if you can't look at it yourself. Those of us who own Mooneys have dealt with plenty of maintenance issues and can probably give a thumbs up or down at no cost to you. Even if you are able to go look at it, see if someone here can go look at it with you. Get the logs if you can, go through them, ask for help here to go through them as well. When looking at the logs, see who did the last annual or the last few annuals. If it's a well known shop, it's worth getting on the phone with them to ask about the plane, and the owner. Ask "what doesn't work?" Also ask the owner what needs to be done. If the answer is everything works and it needs nothing, you probably move on to the next one.

N6744U blessed me with commercial pilot certificate today.

Carpe Diem eh Air Pirate? Life is a lot more enjoyable if you are not obese, out of breath, in pain and miserable. Rest assured “good food” as well as “good whiskey” is subjective I don’t deny my palate much. Finding a life balance can be learned at any point in the journey. Love to watch others dance. I dance like I did when I was 18 (like a mid 50’s Caucasian that is rhythm challenged). Still do it to the entertainment of all that witness “it”.

Eat the good food, drink the good whiskey, dance like no one is looking, this is a short ride and no one gets out alive.

Respectfully , the weight being pretty close , doesn't cut it , in any way shape or form , nor does lucking out in a flight test , In the service manuals , repainting a control surface REQUIRES rebalancing , An IA on my field , questioned the feds , after he refused to install a tailbeacon on a Mooney , and they were not pleased with the verbiage in the uAvionics installation manual...

I am dying to stay at this hotel - supposedly the roof bar is one of the premier plane watching spots in the country. I will book a night there if I ever need to go through JFK.

Enough suspense. Take my money now please

Thanks for the compliment. I saw you and intended to chat, but we just missed connecting. Maybe next time.

My wife has been tempted to create an App for GA pilots. When you tell your spouse you are going to the airport to for a quick flight, she'll know you'll be gone for 4-5 hours. "I'm heading to a brunch fly in" means I'll be home in time for dinner. I'm going for a morning flight, should be back at 10:00 = see you a 1:00 PM I'm going to update the GPS = See you in 3 hours. I'm going to go plug in the heater = see you in 1 hour. Something like that figuring out distance to airport and come up with a calculation. -Seth

That's a great pic!!! Bob it's been an honor getting to know you. We were thrilled you chose to have the Master Pilot award presented at Mooney Summit.

Those aren't necessarily mutually exclusive.

Good advise! A simple scroll down this section will provide you with enough good eateries to yield gross weight problems So will doing a search for Florida Fly-In locations. I would be hard pressed to call any airport restaurants "great"

I originally thought about keeping one mechanical VOR/GPS head, but was talked out of it by my installer. That was one of the best decisions I made on the planning. I would scuttle the mechanical indicator. Remember you have the same course shown on the G5 should you loose the G3X Touch. Also, move all the switches and clock somewhere else and either move the G3X to the left or move the G5 to the left side and also the JPI under it but turned 90° to make it vertical. See pictures below for my panel. I couldn't quite center the PFD over the yoke, but have not noticed any issues at all flying it as shown. I took these a couple of days ago. Due to cost I won't try to change your mind about installing the G500TXi over the G3X, but look at the fantastic display possibilities available with it. On approach before the final approach course I keep it on the 40/60 size for a larger map display, then switch to 60/40 for the larger PFD. And then, of course, there is the inset HSI map if you want it. BTW, the autopilot flys the G5 altitude not the G500TXi altitude.

Hi All, Mark's surgery went smoothly today. They cleaned him up on his front torso. He'll go back to surgery on Monday to get skin grafts above his eyes. They are ordering CEAs to start grafting his back. Although CEAs don't take as easily on the back, the doctors have no choice because Mark doesn't have enough donor sites (unburned skin). It'll take the Boston lab 2 weeks to grow them. He was exhausted this morning before his surgery and was not too communicative. Sitting up yesterday wiped him out. It took a while for the nurses to do his dressing change post-surgery so Suzie and I didn't get into his room until 5 pm. He told us he was in pain so the nurses gave him meds to get comfortable and he dozed off. AJ and his family left the hospital today to go to residential rehab - the nurses made a human tent - arms up as they walked through on their way out of the burn center. It made me teary eyed to see AJ leave. Several of the nurses said to me - you'll see, Mark Brandemuehl will be next to leave.

Looks very similar design to my panel from a re-design this past spring, hold the G3X to the TXi.

It's all calories in and calories burned. If you burn more calories than you consume you will lose weight. To feel better and live longer you need a healthy cardiovascular system. Get some exercise six days a week. I didn't change my diet, (well, I did almost eliminate fast food) just how much I eat and try to get in 60 minutes of exercise six days a week. About ten months later I'm down 30 pounds and feel great.

I think Anthony makes an excellent point, about lining up the artificial horizon/HSI display over the yoke. This might be the best argument to move the ELT left and the backup CDI to the right of the main screen display. Not having them aligned (or at least close) with the yoke would be noticeably odd after a while and would distract from a really beautiful panel- IMO.

I became a first time Granddad yesterday. My daughter delivered a wonderful little girl into the world. I plan to support her until the day I die and beyond both financially and with abounding love. I hope everyone has a wonderful day. Love and compassion. Live it.

Its funny, but long ago I told Mrs. Steingar that I might have to tell her to shut the fuck up in the airplane. She's cool with it. I have too, and yes we stay married. Mrs. Steingar is quite intelligent. She was a bit miffed at the shoulder belt thing until our pal crashed his Deb. I showed her the photos of the aftermath. She doesn't complain about the shoulder belts anymore.

I went low carb two years ago. My A1C was very high and I have a family history of diabetes. I lost 20 lbs almost immediately and now my A1C is at the bottom end of the normal range. My blood pressure also went down. And I look great for 62.

I don’t know if anyone mentioned it, but Savvy prebuy can help you sort through the logbooks for free and if you decide to go through with it can help you navigate the prebuy. As far as the bird in Stockton, might be worth it to call Top Gun and see if they’re willing to eyeball it for you and go ahead with the prebuy if it looks good. They’re on the field already and are an excellent Mooney Service Center so should be a lot cheaper than having to fly it somewhere else.

A pre-buy of the seller is more important than pre-buy of the airplane. If the seller passes the pre-buy with a clean bill of health, I often won't bother with a pre-buy of the airplane. I've done this one or twice . . .or 16 times, though.

You need to take @DustinNwind up on that offer. The education would be worth a hell of a lot more than lunch and fuel. To say nothing of the value of a second set of eyes that have no emotional stake in the purchase.

Maybe to clarify... The beacon sniffs the transponder signal. It also has an internal gps and barometer. The initial setup is via WIFI and an app on your tablet or phone. The WIFI in designed to shut off after 5 minutes. During the active period you can activate an anonymous mode to hide your tailnumber. I ran the setup from the driver's seat. Once it's up and running there really isn't a need for monitoring the beacon. You just have to power it up on the ground and leave the nav lights until you are parked. Mike

I have a Mooney in the shop right now getting the HDX system installed. Hope to finish it next week.

There are restaurants at KSPG (Albert Witted in Tampa), KBOW (Bartow), X39 (Tampa North), KLAL (Lakeland), KOCF (Ocala), X60 (Williston), KEVB (New Smyrna), KDED (Deland), KFPR (Treasure Coast), KOBE (Okeechobee), just to name a few. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I completed the installation and testing of my new tailBeacon today. It was pretty straightforward. Two wires for power, 2 screws for the mount and 2 tiny set screws to lock the beacon in the mount after it 1/4 turns into the mount ring. I also lucked out and snagged a rebate in the weekly lottery. The test flight showed no errors. My test was approved and the check is in the mail. In flight, I could not feel any difference in the controls in any phase of flight. I took off, I flew fast, slow, turned steep, descended and landed, and lived to tell the tale. The weight of the beacon is pretty close to the old nav light. The STC documents says that the difference is negligible. As far as balancing the rudder goes, the STC was for a 172. A lot of them have the nav beacon on the rudder. There is nothing in any of the docs that mentions balancing the rudder on a 172. Regards Mike

Still married? We want to know how long you were in the hospital.....

Absolutely! I was devastated when the first plane I did a prebuy on failed (and I had flown the plane and thought it was great!). Saw the plane a couple of years later and basically all the issues my IA had identified had needed to be addressed (and more). Owner was happy but he had put almost $80k into it which was not something I would have been willing to do. Sounds like you owe that mechanic a nice bottle of whiskey!.

Michael, thanks for setting this up. I get the whole plan ahead, have insurance, don't rely upon everyone else's generosity to make up for your poor planning, argument that has been raised. But I see this action that Michael has made in this way. I have homeowner's insurance and I am sure the Maxwell's have homeowner's insurance as well. I have a deductible (very low one) and I am sure they have one as well (although what it is we don't know). If my house burnt down or was wiped out by an earthquake or some other covered event I would not be looking for someone to fund my misfortune. However a few hundred dollars to help offset a deductible, or help until the insurance was straightened out I am sure I would appreciate even though as my finances currently sit I would not need it. Michael didn't set up a huge GoFundMe looking to rebuild their home. Even if Don and Jan turn around and donate the money to some other worthy cause I am sure it is nice for them to see that there are folks out there (that they probably have never met) who care. It is also a chance for those who desire to do so to give a little. When it comes down to it, giving and serving others is the one place I have always been able to find joy in this sometimes difficult journey through life.

If you don't want to donate then don't. There have been plenty of appeals made here that I haven't donated to. But trashing the GoFundMe that @MrRodgers set up and/or those participating is just being an ass.

Youtube video is up for anyone that missed the webinar

"Off airport landing" where I walked away from the plane. Spent a total of 5 minutes with paramedic getting BP taken and then released. Shoulder belt worn.

Some of you guys remember my dumb questions when I was about to buy my first airplane. Some of you might remember that thanks to your very valuable advices and support I skipped on several suspicious airplanes (they didn't seem suspicious to me without your help). So coincided that short time before I decided that I want to become a proud Mooney owner another baby was born in our family. My wife was turning on Fisher Price piano for the baby every morning with the same song and I was drinking coffee and looking at new ADs on trade-a-plane. Over time I started to look new ads every time I heard the music like a well trained dog and one morning I found it! N9278M that had extremely detailed logs, flown 30-50 hours a year with mid-time engine. It was not a hangar queen in the way that it had some surface paint imperfections and a bit of corrosion but it also had resealed fuel tanks. In other words just like many owners suggest: ignore airplane appearance, look under the skin. And I did. With the help of people on this forum I brought this plane to MSC and did everything I could imagine: Change oil, sent to Blackstone lab, borescope, compressions, checked all ADs and even proceed with an annual later on. Checked gear and opened every panel. Absolutely everyone in that MSC and my instructor were impressed by this bird's technical condition. Blackstone report was ideal as well. One thing I didn't do: I didn't pull a cylinder to look at a camshaft mostly because several A&Ps advised me that this is expensive and seems to be unnecessary taking into an account Blackstone report and the fact that airplane flown quite a bit. Couple weeks back I finished my first oil change at 35h interval and sent oil to Blackstone. I put the old filter aside because I didn't yet had a filter cutter and departed with my friends to Grand Canyon - Vegas weekend trip. Week later I received a Blackstone report with the narrative that they don't understand what changed because both iron and nickel are significantly elevated while previous report was clean. I immediately cut open the filter and found many microscopic shiny dust-like particles that I was able to collect with a magnet. How much? I'd say 1/16 of a teaspoon plus or minus. Not enough to ground an airplane but definitely enough to be concerned. I am on a 10h probation now and really hope it was a one time event. What I don't understand is where nickel can came from in IO-360-A1A? I want to especially stress that I don't blame MSC, previous owner or any members of the forum. In all aspects this bird looked very good at the time of the purchase. P. S: I am still looking trade-a-plane every time I hear that Fisher Price piano.

I’ll have to see how that works, I like the idea of lining up the horizon.

That’s what I did. And I was told specifically airwolf will not support walker anymore. This is confirmed by their service bulletin on their website (which I saw after). I’m just asking here if anyone knows another supplier. I also think it’s important that I share my experience, as airwolf offers many products. My last plane had two of their oil filter kits which I installed and was pleased with. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I do have a CO monitor. The shop said the muffler still looked serviceable, but they recommended and I still wanted to swap it out since they thought the outside looked sketchy. AFAIK, a "repair" only requires one tiny piece of the original piece to be included. I don't think there's actually a defined "overhaul" for exhaust sections?

Agree 100% with the “Or better...don’t have a heart-attack...” Eat better. Lose weight. Don’t have high blood pressure or need a statin. Side effects: FEEL better. Look better. Have more energy. Be able to easily switch tanks, put on laced shoes, lie on your stomach. Ache less. Enjoy a better quality of life. NOT rocket science. I am not dieting. I simply changed my eating habits. Four months in: WINNING “The waters great. Come on in”

Clean all your connections ! All of them! re tighten them properly. If your master relay is working its working, check of voltage at battery side of starter relay for considerable voltage drop, you stated your power turns on but your your starter is turning slow I would start at the starter, is it old, worn out, drawing high amps, when was it replaced. My .02

What year and model is your airplane? Later models use a 1/4 inch OD 16th inch wall 1/4” wide bushing you can buy from McMaster Carr for like $.30 apiece

Cracked or chaffed MAP line. Popular failure.