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Thanks. Did you ask which year for Q3 or Q4?

Another flight Wednesday night. We flew the RNAV GPS approach to 29R at KTOA down to LPV minimums. My accuracy and scan continues to improve but still a long way to go. Still trying to get used to the radios for IFR work even though I'm more than comfortable even in the busy LA Airspace on the radios when on flight following, it's just the extra brainpower required to fly instruments doesn't leave a whole lot leftover for the radios. It is reminiscent of when I first started flying and it took most of my brainpower to just fly straight and level or make turns while VFR leaving little left to work the radios. It sure is fun to be training again, and I was excited to see when I got home and pulled up Cloud Ahoy to see that I scored a 96 out of 100 on the approach to KTOA. https://intothesky.com/2021/03/05/ifr-training-approach-to-lpv-minimums/

William selected the best parents on earth! -a-

With the exception of Eric’s pi post that may be the longest Mooneyspace post. But I didn’t notice its length until I scrolled up after reading, Wow Seth! I have had my share of ups and downs the past few years but these posts sure put everything in perspective. If there is anything I can ever do for you down the road. Anything, just reach out. Cheers, Dan Here is a bad cellphone photo of you, Mari, Alan, and Anthony departing the Summit. Ron Jarmon and I took the golf cart out and watched you guys depart.

The first thing to check is the Turbo pumping oil out through the seal. This could be from a checkvalve that's blocking the return line to the scavenger pump line, or the scaveger pump not keeping up or it could be a worn garlock seal on the turbo shaft as well. But usually the later only leaks initially when flying high where the Turbo is really spinning. Its not spinning that fast in low power. Hence the suggestion to check that the return line is able to suck up oil faster than what the engine is pumping in and if not you know where to focus: check valve and scavenger pump.

OMG Seth, god works in many ways William is blessed to have such wonderful parents. My thoughts quickly forgot about your plane and was overwhelmed by your situation. You must be an extremely strong person to deal with such a complex ordeal. My thoughts and prayers are with you and William my friend

William, my now nearly four year old son, has had issues his entire life. As noted, at 2.5 years he had his first seizure. This was in addition to hypotonia, developmental delays, gastroesphageal reflux disease, strabismus, epilepsy, undersized/underweight, constriction of his upper thoracic airways, asymmetric brain, apraxia of speech, and the need for ankle braces. There are also some minor dysmorphic features. He was just learning to finally walk with ankle braces when he had his first seizure. We knew something was wrong since soon after birth and we are lucky to be based in the Greater Washington DC region with fantastic support and numerous services, specialists and doctors. We treated the symptoms and kept ruling out different diseases and syndromes. No one however could figure it out until we switch geneticists and whole genome sequencing was recommended. I’ll fast forward, in late July 2020, whole genome sequencing found the problem. William is diagnosed with Bohring-Opitz Syndrome (BOS). It’s a very rare and unfortunately serious genetic alteration of the ASLX1 gene. We see 19 doctors and therapists for William. This is a de novo mutation meaning both my wife and I do not carry the gene. The mutation occurred at conception. We have a better statistical chance of winning the lottery 20 times in a row than having a child with BOS. Less than 250 people worldwide have ever been diagnosed. About half don’t make it past two. Of the survivors, half are in wheel chairs due to skeletal or cardiac issues. William has been ruled clear of these complications. 10% of the survivors develop Wilms tumors, mainly near the kidney region but sometimes in other areas in the abdomen. Thus, every three months we take William for a sonogram. Early detection and a surgical procedure cure this cancer. 3% of those diagnosed reach adulthood. The long term survival rate increased recently from 2% to 3% when two 17 year attained the age of 18 and one person was diagnosed in their 30’s. I’m sure many deaths occurred undiagnosed – failure to thrive, respiratory failure, never making it out of the NICU due to infection or other reasons, infant mortality syndrome, etc . . . just like I’m sure more people with BOS are living however misdiagnosed. The percentages though are likely generally accurate even with just a 250 sample size. William may very well be one of the least affected by BOS. He’s a happy kid, fully mobile, and a sweetheart. We are teaching him sign language and he has an augmentative device tablet to assist with expressive communication. He’s becoming more verbal. If you met him you would not know anything was that wrong but if you saw him with neurotypical peers nearly 4 years old you’d recognized how behind he is. He’s also been diagnosed with Intellectual developmental disability (IDD). He has a absolutely fantastic older sister (who LOVES aviation and will be six this summer!), and Meghan and I have processed the long term realities. It’s been hell. And we don’t know any different and love every day with him. Back to the timeline of August 6, 2019: William seized for close to two hours between when we noticed it, got him to the hospital, got the first injection in him to attempt to stop it by slowing/relaxing brain function (it stopped the pulsing motions but he was still seizing, just not as violently), and finally once we got the IV in which took some time (hypotonia – about a half hour with three people attempting to get the IV line in) and valium to finally get him out of the seizure (when his eyes unpegged from looking up and right). He then fell asleep for a few hours. We transported him to Children’s hospital downtown where our neurologist happened to be on that day (we had already performed one Brian MRI to attempt to determine the cause of the developmental delays – really to rule out bad problems). We did not yet know about the asymmetric brain as his second Brain MRI a month later showed that (where the first did not). We spent two nights at Children’s Hospital before coming home. We had a planned family vacation with my in-laws and brother-in-law/sister-in-law and their kids set for August 2019 the week after William had his seizure. It was a trip to Hawaii. We nearly did not go but William recovered enough that we decided to take the trip. He was fine and continued to get better during the trip. He’s since had two more major seizures. He’s now on an anti-seizure medication and has had one smaller third seizure we were able to deal with at home. Between AirVenture, getting the Mooney back to Maryland, the multi commercial, my son’s seizure, and our trip to Hawaii, I had to spend some time concentrating on my business (I run a holistic financial planning firm where I take care of clients, work with other established advisors, and recruit and develop new financial planners). Figuring out where to send the engine and what prop were pushed to the back burner. The Freeway MSC did what was necessary to “start” my annual, then removed the “Maxwell” loaner propeller, boxed it up, and sent it back to Texas. Insurance fully covered the loaner prop. I will later explain what insurance covered and what I paid for out of pocket. I was still at this time getting the written quote form Hartzell for a replacement prop and getting the data from MT as to why it would be a better prop for the Missile. I was also reaching out to suggested shops to get quotes for the engine teardown to be paid for by the EAA insurance policy. It was late September 2019 at this point. I’ll edit the first post to include this next message, and will also state it here. We are not even ¼ through the ordeal yet, but getting this out to MooneySpace, both the family and personal experiences, I’ve realized is very cathartic. Thank you for reading. To Be Continued . . . -Seth

Stay focussed gents... 1) You have the ears of the Dynon company in the house... 2) They have delivered some terrible news that directly affects the people buying the Dynon AP product... 3) Poking fun of the guy, because you can... and it’s a Friday!... somewhat affects the people that are interested in buying the product... 4)There are various methods of getting approvals through the FAA... 5) The quick method... requires the manufacturer to invest a ton of resources to generate more work internally... 6) The usual method... saves money but takes a longer period of time... 7) Many people pursuing the Dynon product line appreciate the value of getting a good product and paying the lower price... 8) Open communication makes this system work really well... 9) Poking the vendor because you can on a Friday, won’t make you feel any better or more valuable later on... 10) We are in this fight together... there is work to be done... Please keep the channels of communication open with the vendors... PP thoughts only, not an avionics sales guy... Best regards, -a-

Maybe this will help... WBtech.PDF

Very true and good advice. Having said that, if you buy a 201 specifically, but it can be applied to any mid or short body Mooney, if you maintain the plane properly, keep it up to date, and fly it regularly, you will get your purchase price back when you sell it. You probably won't get much if any back for the money spent to do all the above. But you'll get your purchase price back and probably a little bit more.

I agree with all of the posts. Fly it frequently and the purchase price is like background noise.

You're actually asking for an opinion on whether putting a $100K bet on Red will pay out when the wheel is spun a few years from now. Who knows... But here are a few factors to consider... Yes, insurance is expensive but this entire hobby is expensive and it hasn't deterred any of us. In this game, if you have to ask the price, you can't afford to play. The price of entry is the cheap part. It's everything else that gets you. The fleet of good Mooneys shrinks every year thus raising the value of the good ones still flying. M20J's are going up in value faster than any other Mooney model. It's a bit of a vicious circle. Pilots wreck Mooneys Insurance prices go up Pool of possible owners shrinks - lower demand Size of Mooney fleet shrinks Mooneys available to purchase reduced - lower supply

There’s a lot to this discussion, but one thing to try to wrap your head around... your purchase price and future sale price will be much less than your yearly cost after just a few years. Buy the $100k airplane, spend $20k/year for 10 years. Sell for $120k. You’re down $80k plus inflation. It has to be enjoyable because it’s definitely expensive. No, they don’t cost $20k/year every year, but at some point you’ll do $30k avionics or $40k engine. You will have years at $10k for 100 hours, and you’ll have years at $40k for 50 hours. It’ll average out in the $15-$20k per year ballpark. Maybe more for your insurance as a non ifr pilot and for a hangar on the west side. I have an F in Spokane and my hangar is cheap compared to what you guys have.

...and my pi post ended up an error of judgement that it ruined scrolling. But also that I generated those digits with a computer program so that hardly counts. Seth's story was the longest true post. BTW - Erik w' a k. Oh -and ... Pi day is coming up and I think I could find a few more digits somewhere. Hint - the ten trillionth digit of pi is 5. Seth you told a really beautiful story of how life happens, your struggles and triumphs, with an airplane weaved through the middle. Through talking to you for some time, I have known some of the scaffold of many bits of this story, but not the whole thing and your telling of it was really tremendous. Im thinking of you, your wife, and your lucky little ones for parents like you.

No. But I am actually amazed by the release I’m having getting this out to the MoonySpace community as though is public and I do have close personal contacts I’ve shared this with, I know many of you at arms length and some better; again there’s a true cathartic experience occurring. The next section contains another horrible non-flying event. it’s just been hit after hit after hit after hit after hit - and then COVID on top. But you just keep taking steps forward and picking yourself back up! -Seth

I have a huge rolodex from Mooney owners here and I’ve committed to buying the first hundred pair of these lights when they go LED. Any opportunity I get to push this light to Whelen, I do it. It will get done. It is on their project list and I am lobbying to move it up in priority.

You deliver a scolding so eloquently.

You’re thinking of the AeroCruze. The Aerocruz is a different product that automatically flies direct to Cancun.

Purchase price is not the expensive part of owning a plane. Maintenance and upgrades are. Toys are not financial investments.

I have found ForeFlight is receptive to suggestions. Write them an email with your suggestions, There is a better than zero chance that your feature will magically appear in a future release.

For all those yelling at a vendor about FAA certification delays, I encourage you to try getting a new autopilot approved yourself. Or get anything approved at all, through a byzantine bureaucracy that still gets paychecks no matter what it does to the people it serves. Then, you'll be grateful than anyone even wants to develop a new autopilot for a 30-50 year old plane, where there are fewer planes and customers everyday. In fact, you'll question the sanity of attempting such a feat.

Hank- After the second seizure in March 2020, William was put on Keppra to get him out of the hospital as COVID was sweeping across the country and everything was shutting down. William had a negative reaction to Keppra. It made him emotionally unstable. He became sad, cried, and anything set him off toward unhappiness. Due to the consistent nature of the two seizures shown by the brainscan and also the learned asymmetric brain (hippocampus not forming on the right side), we were able to titrate his meds over to trileptal. It took about a month to build up the levels we needed and then another month to wean him off the Keppra. He's his normal happy self again. We increased his dosage after his break through seizure in October 2020, which was also the shortest and least severe seizure we've observed. I am concerned of how the anti seizure drugs affect cognitive ability and development, especially due to his delays, but I'd rather have him seizure free. -Seth

Made it all the way to Colorado where she can dry out in the dry Colorado air!

Hi Freddy, Are these the overhead air vents you are talking about? If so, I went through this recently with my 252. Older but similar. Repairing them is fairly easy, but getting access to them is a huge PITA. Let’s talk about the easy part first. The butterfly valve is opened and closed by turning the outer ring of the nozzle which turns a ring clip that has a u-shaped tab with a slot in it. A little rod attached to the butterfly valve sits in this slot in the tab and as the ring clip turns in the housing, the changing geometry opens or closes the butterfly valve. See first picture. There are actually two parts to the ring clip that both fit in a circular slot around the inside circumference of the housing. There is a spring clip that looks like a bent bicycle rim that keeps tension on the assembly, then the ring clip with the u shaped tab. Both sandwich into the little circular slot, but if the ring clip falls out then all the pieces just rattle around inside the vent. Once you get the vent out of the plastic housing it is very easy to reassemble and put a drop of Loctite on the ring clip to keep it secure. Now for the hard part. The vent assemblies are attached to the back side of your headliner and the metal Wemac valve is inside a black plastic housing. In my case I had the headliner out for an avionics upgrade so that was my opportunity. For the first one I cut the entire housing out of the headliner, only to discover that the metal valve is actually glued into the black housing so I still couldn’t get it out, and the offending ring clip is on the back side of the vent, inside that black housing. I actually had to cut the housing in half to get access to the back of the vent, but it was easy to glue it back on with plumbers ABS cement. For vents 2, 3 and 4 I left them in the headliner and just cut the black housing. There was no point in cutting them out of the headliner. In picture 3 you can see the vent with the housing cut open and the loose ring and spring clips. In the last picture the housing is glued back on. You can see the cut line. Your part numbers are different from the 252 so your valves and housings won’t be identical but they look very similar from the pictures in the IPC so I think your job should be similar. Regards, Mark

My grandfather runs the EAA Museum at Marathon airport. He loves having visitors swing by. He received the Wrights Brother's Master Pilot Award back in December.

Purchased a replacement for my step. 8)

.... because the analog gauges lacked the accuracy and resolution to detect it.

If I thought it would save a buck, I’d figure it out.

Hey Folks - Been off of here for a while dealing with the ice storm in Texas and plans for a new version of the Ultra. The factory took a hit but we're back up and running. No Back Springs came in last week so those of you who were grounded are hopefully up and running again - we are on order for more. Also, wanted to alert everyone that we're selling N197CV, the Ultra Ovation Prototype. It's a beautiful plane, only has 300 Hrs, will have a 1 year tip to tail warranty and I just put new seats in it. Also, it's NXi Phase II! If you're interested, hop onto the Mooney website and have a look - it's listed under New Factory Sales. Hope you're all safe and well! Jonny

Thanks Steve - that's kind of how I've felt the last 18 months too. Other pilots I haven't shared the issue with my son or other matters I'm about to post (yes there's more), are just flabbergasted I was not as upset that I didn't have my airplane for 18 months, etc, but it really didn't matter. However, please DO INDEED ask me anything you want about the airplane - there's more coming in future posts but the more information shared on MooneySpace is part of what is so great about this community. So do ask away! -Seth

Wow Seth, what an ordeal! As I've been reading the thread, at first I was thinking about things I would say/ask about your airplane; that just doesn't seem to matter now! I'm glad that you finally have your missile back in the air. But most importantly I wish you and your family well and hope for the best for William! Steve

Something about Mooneys (maybe it’s their efficiency) but only on this board do I see such pride on being cheap (and the label CB being a badge of honor). If I had a business this would not be the place I’d look to sell/introduce a rather expensive product. Beechtalk is where I would go.

I try to use different instructors during my flight reviews. We have at least three CFIs based on our small field, and I’ve found it helpful to fly with different ones as well as use others at fields close by. Each has a slightly different approach and teaching style. I like to fly for an hour with one of these guys every 12 months or so, then ideally sit down for another hour over a cup of bad airport coffee and listen to their thoughts and observations as to what I did, and didn’t do, as well as general observations. It’s made me a better and safer pilot. When I was a member of the CAP, they required me to get a comprehensive ‘Form 5’ check ride every 12 months (which could also count as a flight review if I chose), and while those were always in a Cessna, most of their check pilots had some great insights. (CAP had a rule that I couldn’t get checked out by the same check pilot more than two years in a row, BTW.) I was also a CAP Mission Pilot, which was a separate check ride every two years. So I guess the CAP got me in the habit of annual reviews. Looking back, I’ve been taught by a former F16 pilot, a former B-52 driver, retired airline pilots, a former Vietnam forward air controller, a former F-111 pilot, a retired PhD, a former home builder turned CFI, an international freight dog, corporate pilots.... Most were good teachers who had flown in a wide range of high performance, complex aircraft. Four of them REALLY knew Mooneys. All of their insights were invaluable.

I don’t know much about the Ovation. Is it possible that you can remove the vent assembly from the center of the headliner without taking out the headliner itself? If so that labor estimate would make sense. For my plane you had to remove the entire headliner, which was a lot more than 2 hours. Once I had it out, the vents were pretty easy to fix and even if I had bought new ones, I would still have had to cut the old ones out and glue the new ones in. It struck me as a poor design that there was no way to remove and service them without cutting things apart. Maybe they improved on that with newer models?

Two totally different things. PDC = Pre-Departure Clearance. All on the ground. As said earlier in the thread, it basically sends you your full clearance ahead of start-up, and you just need to notify ground of your squawk code (to show you received the PDC) and that you're ready to taxi. CPDLC is true in-flight communications via two way text messaging, per se.

Rick, As someone who flies a mid-body I am not in the same situation as many others are. But I just wanted to say you guys have an amazing product and I can't wait to have the full system installed with autopilot. Your product is worth the wait and having worked with the government before, I understand the frustration of dealing with big agencies (FAA). Thank you for your efforts. Dan Kelley Mooney 3977N 1968 M20-F

True, but no one wants to try that defense in an enforcement action. Turning something into a reg is a very elaborate process involving public meetings, publishing for comment, and justifying the reg. There are actually three ways other than field work (actual inspections and enforcement actions) that the FAA gets its points across, the regs., opinions of counsel, and the ACs. If you get yourself into trouble, you are far better off being able to say, here, this is the AC, I followed that or at least I was trying to follow that. In addition, what the AC is doing in this particular case, is explaining the FAA's program for development of MELs and explaining that GA pilots can still legally elect to use the airworthiness rules and 91.213(d). For better or worse, there is a legal doctrine called "Chevron deference," that says that courts will not disturb agency's interpretations of their own regs. 91-67 is an explanation of how the FAA views its regs., so yes, it is not itself a reg., but it explains the regs and the FAA's explanation of the regs is enforceable. Understand, I am on your side about this. Lots of people think the Chevron deference doctrine needs serious re-examination, including the US Supreme Court. The doctrine lets agencies legislate by interpretation of existing regs, basically without any real review. But right now, it is what it is. Hey, they are from the Federal government and after all, they are here to help. What is in that AC for Mooney pilots distills down to a flow of three things, if a piece of equipment is inoperable: 1. Does it cause the aircraft to not comply with its TC, any STCs, and the general airworthiness rules under which it was certified? If so, you can't fly. 2. Does the aircraft equipment list require the equipment to be operable? If so, you can't fly. Don't worry about any MEL, you don't have one. 3. If the first and second tests are passed, then look at 91.213(d) and follow that. Then there is #4, not in the AC, and that is, even if you pass the first three tests, can someone monday morning quarterback the operation and say it was careless and reckless to go flying into hard IMC with only one working alternator in your 231, and no vacuum system because it was removed to allow the install of a second alternator that was inop.

not this one it was another one the got off topic

Hi guys, Can you reach the floats from the fuel tank feed hole and manually move the floats to see if they are stuck? I had seen my uncle assist a cow give birth... I can use similar gloves that come all the way to your shoulders... Thanks.

Sacked out on the couch.

Theoretical discussions aside - I just got my shot number one! 3 hours ago. Wohoo! Pfizer. No symptoms yet.

I have a little bit of a love hate relationship with KOAK. It's been a difficult time learning to fly - in a Mooney - out of an airport in class C airspace nestled under the 3000 shelf of a Bravo. I rented a hangar at one point and never put my airplane in it because it was rusting, falling apart, and my the plane was going to be far safer outside. Keeping a North Field badge active is a pain, and mine is expired right now so my Mooney has been on the ramp at what is now Signature. That said, as far as I know there's actually no comparable airport that combines GA and commercial service so closely in such close proximity to a major urban area and without so much as a landing fee. The view just from the pattern is breathtaking. And then there's days like the day I looked up from reading charts in my parked plane to see an Airbus A330 wing over several stories over my head. There are days like today when instead of sharing the ramp with flight school airplanes and Fedex, it's the Canadian Demonstration CF-18 (I literally had to taxi around it), the Breitling Jet team, the Blue Angels, the Lucas Oil Pitts, a P41, and two F-22's. I keep wondering if there has been some kind of mistake. Who would let me walk around and much less operate heavy machinery in such close proximity to [back of the napkin math based on wikipedia numbers] at least 503 million dollars worth of the world's top military equipment? Aviation lives. There is magic out there!

I was told that two years ago for 2019 by TT themselves at OSH "It'll be approved in 60 days" Why do I feel that there's a little trolling going on here? Just waiting for a bite? Why would someone "share" this info if asked to keep it on the low? Especially on a public forum.

Now that's a good lookin' airplane!

I started putting an old pillow below fragile things that are likely to drop and be rendered useless.

But does it ? The engine and prop are doing exactly the same as before, only the analog gauges never picked up on it.

Next thing you know they rename "annual inspection" to "inspection" so that people feel free to inspect with an IA more often than every year.

I have 3D-printed fuel vent covers using flex material, they perfectly fit on my Ovation. I have designed the cover with a small breather hole, about 2mm, maybe 1/16" in size. That allows some air exchange but it is definitely not enough for flight operations with the cover on. So, I have printed a small storage board also which is glued to the back wall of my luggage compartment. It holds both fuel vent covers and the pitot heat cover... In order to not forget to remove these covers I have added a line to both the outside- and regular check list. Just before starting the engine I turn my head and look to the back. If I see 3 red tags, all of the covers are removed. In case anyone is interested and wants to print it, I have posted the parts on thingiverse. Thingiverse Download Or if you are in my neck of the woods, come by my house in Munich for a chat and I'll print them for you. (After Covid19 has eased of...) Happy landings !

Porsche. Porsche has a history and is an engineered evolution 911) that reflects the M20 way better than Marinello...Mooney is the Porsche of the sky... And Ferrari sucks in 2020 F1...So there is THAT...

You could make a Country Western song from your post...