Leaderboard

My aircraft, a 231, was stuck in the shop this spring because of COVID. Once it came out in May, I decided to use the COVID slowdown as an opportunity to fly more for Angel Flight. It occurred to me last week, in the middle of a long day aloft, that we are privileged to fly a remarkable, versatile aircraft. I live in Minneapolis. The day that made me think about this, required my little engine-that-thought-it-could to first fly from KFCM early in the morning to Fargo to pick up blood and bone marrow samples. I brought nothing along except my flight bag and iPad, so was able to stuff 8 good sized boxes into the baggage compartment and back seat. The plane was completely full except for the front seat, so I could put my morning coffee there temporarily. 260 lbs. of freight, plus me at 200 plus full fuel (75.6 gallons) and there was still room in the W&B. The material needed to be delivered in Billings MT. For many aircraft that is two jumps, but it was a one jump flight for the Mooney. Not necessarily an easy one, the winds aloft were very adverse so, being alone and not having to worry about passenger comfort, I elected to stay down at 4,000 until near Billings, then go to six (Billings is 3,700). It can be bumpy down low and out west as the ground heats up in the summer and this was no exception, made for a tiring flight. I was still able to make 150-160 over the ground at 11.3 LOP for the trip to KBIL. When the boxes were delivered in BIllings I put on full fuel. The day was not done yet. I needed to get to KBIS lickety split to pick up a young family whose infant daughter was due to have surgery in Minneapolis over the weekend. I put on the cannula, went to 15,000, and made about 231 kts. GS to Bismarck. At KBIS I had one tank topped off, but left some out of the second tank so I could take on me plus three passengers and baggage. At 7 pm the young family showed up. With an infant in the back I did not want to use the O2 system, so we stayed at 11,000 and made about 220 kts. in smooth air. It was a fun ride, my brothers and I have hunted and fished out in western ND for quite awhile, and it turned out I knew the same people and the same hunting holes in the same small towns as the young husband. Who knows, maybe I will get to go out and hunt with him some time. With the passengers safely delivered at KFCM, I was finally able to go home for the night. It was a long day, up at 5 a.m. to get to the airport, pre-flight, etc., and get out to KFAR through some weather to make my first pickup of the day, to about 9 p.m. when I got back home, with time for a short nap in the lounge at KBIS and not much else. Although this trip involved only large airfields (KBIL is a Class C, KBIS and KFAR are D's with KFAR having a TRSA), Angel Flights very often involve fetching passengers out of small rural fields. I have handed passengers off to business jets at an interim airport, but they can't get in where we can, they need us to get the passengers out of the little holes in the wall. Out "on the road," I have handed off to a few Cirrus pilots, but mostly 172's and 182's, they just don't have the speed or the range that our Mooneys do. Thought number one is that it is truly a remarkable aircraft that we fly, able to take on just about anything except TStorms (which nobody fights with), ice, and zero zero landings. Lots of range, lots of speed when needed, miserly fuel flow. Thought number two is that those of us who fly for AF need more of you. The passengers' needs have not diminished during COVID, but there seem to be fewer pilots. I get emails almost weekly from AF asking for help with flights for the following week that have not been filled yet. What better way to make a brand like Mooney stand for something. The coolest thing about flying for AF is that, unlike most charities where you just send a check every year, during an Angel Flight the person you are helping is in the right seat. You get to talk, find out something about their lives, help in ways other than just giving money, help keep their spirits up. I can tell you that the patients going through chemo really need that part of the AF program as much as the physical transportation, just someone who cares. I know, I know, if no pics it didn't happen. Sorry, I have pics but won't share them. These are medical patients some of them fighting for their lives and all are in need. We respect their privacy. There might be a few on the wall in my den though, just to remember.

I’ve been a members on different forums since 1997. Fishing, flying, soap making (yeah... making shaving soap in your kitchen is cool), cars.... etc. Mooneyspace users have been one of the most helpful group of guys and gals I’ve come across in any forum I’ve ever visited. Many of you have reached out to me privately through PM and publicly answered my questions in my posts. Finding the right plane as a first time aircraft buyer is overwhelming. I absolutely couldn’t have made an informed decision on a Mooney purchase without you guys. Thank you all for your help and generosity. I have just signed a purchase agreement on a very nice 2002 Ovation 2.

We just finished the modification and installation of a second lift in our hangar. No more room for toys. Clarence

This past Monday was the big day! Pick up Amelia from KPOF Poplar Bluff, MO and fly her home to KFYE, Fayette County Airport, Somerville, TN. Beautiful weather with winds 4 knots or less. Perfect for the pilot with only 7 hours TW time. Pictured is the previous owner and the new owner. I'm the short guy! I have done one landing in the 195 now. Yesterday I flew an L2 Grasshooper and manged 6 landings on my own. What a fun new challenge!

https://flightaware.com/live/flight/N676JM/history/20200727/2130Z/KAAF/LL10 Clearing the last of the weather north of Terre Haute.... out of the murk and into this:

Most physicians these days are employed physicians rather than physicians in private practice. There certainly are those that concentrate on how many patients they see a day and how much they can bill an insurance company. I've tried to stay away from those both as a patient and as an employee. There are many physician employers whose concern is "how much money can we make off your license." Those are the organizations that are forcing physicians to see more and more patients and conduct shorter and shorter visits. I have tried throughout my career to make more more money by working more hours. I can honestly say that I have worked an eight hour outpatient day in a 12 hour inpatient night, mostly seven days a week for 15 of my 21 years of practice. It's ironic that I'm posting this on many space because it was the start of my aircraft rebuilt project they got me into working more hours. I found that when I saw patients during the day, I was able to give them more time and feel better about myself because I worked more than two full-time job equivalents. I needed to feel that I offered something of value to each patient at the end of each visit. Many physicians simply go through the motions. It is about making sure the patient has been heard and has been provided what they need at any individual visit. The practice of medicine has become challenging and even more challenging now with COVID. I'm trying to do more and more things I have control over so i can see patients in a reasonable manner. Patients need to be educated consumers and physicians need to support and empower patients. That all takes time that many health care entities will not tolerate. John Breda

I love this stuff. I've been flying as command pilot for AF since I bought my first Mooney, N6XM. Last year before COVID I picked up a little girl and her mom for a flight from Colorado Springs to Salt Lake City. The little girl needed eye surgery. The weather over the mountains was terrible with winds at the peaks in excess of 80 knots. I was to fly her from CS to Rawlins, WY. Another pilot would pick her up there and take her to Salt Lake City. The second pilot called the day before and declined because of weather concerns. There was rain forecast for SLC and he said his "airplane couldn't fly in rain"??? It was a Cessna 206. Go figure. So I offered to take them the whole way. We took off out of Colorado Springs and headed for Wyoming, the long way around the mountains to avoid the wind and turbulence. By the time we got to Evanston, WY, the clouds and rain over SLC had changed to snow and ice. So we landed. I grabbed a rental car from the FBO and drove them the last hour to SLC. I drove back, got back in the Mooney and flew home. It was a long day, but rewarding none the less. Since COVID I've been flying PPE's around Colorado. It's easy to load the Mooney with boxes of masks, gloves, gowns, ventilator parts, etc. and fly them out to rural Colorado airports. I can always fill the cabin to the roof as I never need full tanks to get anywhere in Colorado. I'll be flying PPE this Saturday as part of a huge airlift here in Colorado. I'm not sure of my route yet, but was told to expect 5 or 6 airports all before lunch on Saturday. We are all privileged to own and fly these wonderful airplanes. Angel Flight is a really convenient way to use some of this privilege to give back.

I need to do better posting up pictures... 7/22 took a short post oil change flight over to Riverside for cheap(er) fuel. 7/24 flew to South Valley Regional in Salt Lake to see family for the weekend. 7/25 two short flights to take one of my sisters, three of her kids, and one of their friends all on their first GA flights. 7/26 flew back to CA. 7/28 put 5 gallons in at KFUL (only had 10 in the plane which is my personal minimum to land, not take off) and then a relaxing post work day flight over to Riverside, my current favorite less expensive fuel stop. 8/1 my oldest son is in town for a week so we flew over to Camarillo for breakfast. 8/1 put the homemade AC in the plane and took a couple friends and her son for an flight-seeing tour of LA. It was her and her son's first flights in a GA plane, fortunately greased the landing. Lake Mead Utah Flights Camarillo Breakfast - Mooneys well represented, ours plus two more. LA Flightseeing - Yep, two adults in the backseat of a short-body.

The patients are checked at every medical appointment for COVID symptoms, and they mostly come from rural areas where there is no or very little COVID, so the chances are small, but the chances are not non-existent for any of us, anywhere. However, there are non-patient flights as well, with limited contact with others. I have hauled blood and bone marrow (boxed up), and there are flights for mothers' milk, medical supplies to rural areas, disaster relief supplies and others. It would be helpful if those who are concerned about patient contact would pick up the non-patient flights, it would lift some of the burden on those of us who are willing to fly patients. I should explain how this all works, I am getting some questions. It may vary from one regional Air Charity organization to another, so always check the region's requirements. To be a volunteer command pilot you must have 250 hours of PIC time and 500 total hours, a PPL and an instrument rating. You need to carry $1 million in insurance. Congress passed a law (imagine that!) in 2018 limiting liability to the pilot's insurance). You do not need to own and aircraft but most do. You must do an orientation, which is basically watching an AOPA webinar on charitable flying (WINGS credit) and reading the AF organization's manual. Once you have done an orientation, you do not need to do it again so long as you fly one mission every 24 months. These are the AF Central (AFC) requirements, there are other more detailed requirements on their website (angelflightcentral.org). Other regional organizations may have other requirements. You do not need to be a Command Pilot to contribute. Command pilots can request another pilot to fly with them and AF will organize that. AF also needs "Ground Angels" who pick the passengers up at an airport and drive them to their appointment, and there are also Mission Assistants who can be non-pilots. Command Pilots can request an MA. Usually, W & B is the problem with a second or an MA, but I have handed off to pilots who are operating as two-person crews (of small aircraft). Once on board, the AF organization receives the requests to fly a patient, either from a patient themself, but more often from a health care provider. They vet the patient for financial need and if the flight is accepted, they explain the rules to the patient. Max 50 lbs. in luggage for example. Flights are posted to an Internet bulletin board that gives some basic information, date of the flight, W & B information, general nature of the patient's health issue. Pilot's log on and request a flight, or if you want, a succession of linked flights. AF reviews and approves in short order. You then receive a Mission Itinerary. It provides among other things the contact information for the patient (or an organization, if, i.e., it is a tissue shipment). It is up to the pilot to contact the patient and arrange the flight. If there is a succession of linked flights it is up to the pilot of the first flight to also contact the succeeding flight pilots and arrange the times and handoffs. The pilot then does the flight. You are PIC, so on the day of, if there is a weather condition or some other safety issue it is up to you to decide whether to cancel the flight. The patients know that they must have a backup plan. I have been lucky, I have not had to cancel in some 30+ flights. There is a charitable deduction for the cost of the flight, but don't think you are going to save big on your taxes. The IRS is stingy when it comes to in-kind contributions to charity. In many cases the patient has no transportation at the end of the flight. I always ask, and if they don't I wrangle an airport courtesy car and take them to their appointment myself. Most of us do. The health issues are varied. I have flown many cancer patients, as young as 6 and as old as 72, brain, pancreatic, breast, and a couple of others. Often we wind up moving them back and forth for several flights while they go through chemo. My first patient was a young girl living on an island in Lake Superior who has cerebral palsy, I have also moved patients with disease names I never knew, Ehlers Danlos, autoimmune issues, you name it, if it is not contagious and they are ambulatory we fly them. AF gives you a Mission pin. You get one at 10 missions, 15 missions, 25, 50, 75, 100+. I wear mine on my blazer when I go out, most people have no idea what it is and most don't ask, but a few do. That, and knowing that you are helping someone, is your return. Someone mentioned that, on the pilot roster for a regional organization there will be a number of pilots who signed up but have never flown. And then there will be a small number who have flown a few hundred flights. I am not in the hundreds yet, but we have three pilots in the Minnesota Wing of AFC who are. If you want to find your region, look on aircharitynetwork.org, it has the website links for all the regional member organizations. Over time you will meet pilots from everywhere. Click on your region to find out their rules and call them with questions, they would love to have you.

Here's some $12 including shipping

Over the past year (or two) at various times I've had the gear warning and stall warning circuit breakers pop--together. It started getting worse this year, so I decided it was time to solve the problem. I realized that it didn't happen in the wintertime; only the summertime. This year it was happening every time I flew when it was reasonably hot. I took it in to an Avionics shop hoping it wouldn't take them too long to diagnose the issue. They spent a lot of time trying to track down the problem and finally decided to just change out the circuit breakers. The first flight after the new breakers were installed both breakers popped again. That money was down the drain. Nobody understood why both breakers popped at the same time. Time to call Top Gun. It turns out that the only place where the two circuits meet is the Tone Generator box located by the left rudder pedal. Mooney still sells them--$2,000+. That's a lot of money to spend on a guess. Turns out the product is made for Mooney by International Avionics Incorporated in Addison, Texas. They do repairs and quoted about $650 to look at it. I had Top Gun send it out to them. A week later I called them to see if the problem was diagnosed. Ken, their tech who has worked there for 30 years, said he was going to work on it the next day, but in the past they had had a number of them returned for the same issue, and as such they redesigned the power supply. I gave them the go ahead to replace the card if necessary. They replicated my problem, so the card was replaced. Today, Mark installed the unit in about 15 minutes. We tested it on the ground and with the new design the circuit breakers are independent of each other. (In the past if you wanted to disable the stall warning you had to pull the gear warning breaker as well). I feel comfortable that the problem is solved. I'm posting this to save anyone else the expense of troubleshooting this issue should they have it. Just send in the Tone Generator for repair and your problem will be easily resolved. PS Just got the Bill. Less than new, but $$.

I wear a mask inside private businesses that ask me to, because it’s their right. I still spend more time “worrying” about distancing. I don’t wear one anywhere else. instead, I distance myself. Nearly every story of infection I’ve read lately start with “I was wearing a mask and gloves and was doing everything by the guidelines”. It’s my non-professional opinion that people are being careless because they have “protection”. They don’t worry about distancing, they touch their face 10 times more than people without masks (I’ve witnessed this consistently every place I’ve been). I think some people are getting infected because of the masks. I've personally decided to just live my life. I’m going to die someday. If this is what does it, this is what does it. I’m not going out of my way to catch it, and am actively trying to avoid it, as I do with ALL contagious disease. Thing is, it’s here forever. It’s probably not going to just disappear one day. Eventually everyone will just become comfortable with the knowledge that a certain number of people will die of it every year. I’m just tired of the politicos and medical folks lecturing/pleading/chastising all the while I can still go buy a pack of smokes, a 12 pack of beer, and a triple bacon cheeseburger with extra greasy fries. They don’t care about saving lives, not really. If they did, we’d be actually banning things that save orders of magnitudes more lives, rather than condemning people going to Sunday church service.

Who wants to bet that after the election COVID magically and suddenly won't be a thing anymore???

Friday, July 31, 1970 13th leg. Amarillo, TX (TDW) to Winslow, AZ (INW). We got up early, again, this time with an actual wake-up call and headed back to Tradewinds Airport. The plan was to parallel I-40 heading West towards Winslow, our very first stop on this trip. We covered the 503 mile distance in 3 hours and 15 minutes. I asked Dad if we could spend the night? This was partially because I was tired but mostly because I didn’t want this grand adventure to end. Dad said “no”, that we needed to get home. 14th leg. Winslow, AZ (INW) to Torrance, CA. (TOA). It was hot in Winslow and Dad was concerned about takeoff performance. He did something on this takeoff that I never saw him do before. After getting some speed on the roll, he reached for the flap lever and gave her a couple of pumps of flap. Instead of launching the plane into ground effect, it caused the Mooney to start skipping down the runway. Three heart pounding skips later, we were airborne and climbing slowly away. The 442 miles back home to Torrance went by in 3 hours and 10 minutes. We had covered some 945 miles on this last day in 6 hours and 25 minutes of flying. This brought our total return trip to 2,543 miles in 19 hours and 10 minutes. Our first family flying vacation was over. Dad had finally realized his boyhood dream of flying his own airplane across the country. Epilogue Not long after returning home, Dad received a letter from his old flying buddy, “Reds” Honaker. “Reds” had enclosed a newspaper clipping of an airplane accident. Richard “Rip” Davis, the nice man who shared his plate of fries with me at the Bridgeport Airport Cafe, had been killed. It was the first time in my life that I would know someone who had been killed in an airplane accident. It would not be the last. Charlie Hillard would go on to become the first American to win the World Aerobatic Championship in 1972. He would also join up with Gene Soucy and Tom Poberezny to form first “The Red Devils” and later “The Eagles” aerobatic teams. Sadly, he would lose his life in a freak accident following a performance at the Sun-n-fun Fly-in in 1996. Following this trip, Dad would fly his Mooney just eighteen more times, including day trips to both Palm Springs and Santa Barbara. Then, with Mom facing surgery and uncertainty about when or if she would be able to return to work, coupled with a slowdown in orders at the factory where Dad worked and facing the possibility of layoffs, Dad decided to sell his Mooney. Then, in a mean twist of fate, shortly after the Mooney was sold, orders picked back up at the factory and Mom was able to return to work. Dad didn’t need to sell the Mooney after all, but it was too late, zero six Uniform was gone. I would not see the Mooney again for another twelve years. I was a Student Pilot, 26 years old, and I took a drive up to Hawthorne Airport on a whim. There, sitting across the runway, was Dad’s old Mooney. It had the same paint scheme but the colors had all faded and some of the striping had worn away. I was shocked by it’s appearance. Then I remembered the first weekend that we had owned it back at Torrance. We washed the Mooney from top to bottom and then Dad climbed underneath it to clean every bit of grease and grime off the belly. I thought of Dad, lying on his back on the ramp at Torrance Airport, cleaning his shiny airplane with great pride and the tears began to flow. It was one of the saddest moments of my life. In 1984 I moved East with my family and not long after that, the Mooney did too. Somehow I managed to locate the new owner and sent him a letter. He actually replied and sent me this picture: The Mooney had been re-painted and was all spruced up again! It was a happy day for me and Dad liked it too, but the Mooney wasn’t done with us yet. On July 8, 2010, Dad and I decided to fly down to Sebring for Lunch. Dad was at the controls of our Skyhawk. He landed on Sebring’s long North-South runway and as he made the first turnoff I noticed a Mooney parked on the ramp with a familiar registration number. I pointed and said “Dad, you’re going to want to park right next to that Mooney” and he did. We had a nice visit with the current owner who caught us up on all that had happened to it since Dad sold the plane in 1971. The interior Dad had put in was gone, as was the Mark 12 with the Mooney faceplate and the Bendix ADF. Forty years to the month of that special summer vacation, Dad, his old Mooney and me were together again. To this day it remains one of my favorite memories. My Dad with our Skyhawk.

1. ONLY applies to MAX units 2. ONLY applies if software is 2.10 or 2.10.1 3 The fix is a software upgrade, free from your Aspen dealer. 4. Takes about 12 minutes to upgrade the software. 5. If you already have software version 2.10.2 this AD does not apply 6. Check your software version by pushing the menu button and turning the lower right knob to the last page.

OK, once again, (sigh) dear Michael (steingar) has to be reeled in. in my experience, the medical care in small towns can be superior. Small hospitals are very likely, these days, to be affiliated with or owned by big medical teaching facilities, with specialist staff showing up for weekly local office appointments. Those double-distilled hotshots are as close as a phone call or a webcam. There’s a helipad right out back, lighted and paved for emergency transfers, 20 smooth minutes to University Hospital Center. The local staff are very accessible, well-trained, board-certified, know their patients well, in an established relationship, and speak English as a first language. Aviation content: the nearest Angel Flight-able airport is unlikely to be more than a half hour away. Two of our ER docs commute here by Mooney and Bonanza, barely ten rural minutes from the hospital they serve.. Compare and contrast with Saint Megahospital in a six-block cluster of mid-city high-rises.It may be a 25 minute hike from the parking garage! Small town superiority case in point: I had a sudden bad bellyache one long ago night in a very little town. My sleepy family doc listened to my complaint, called the local general surgeon at 12:30am, asked him to meet us at the tiny hospital ER. The anesthetist and on call surgery crew were notified. Knife drop was at 1:10 am. And within an hour I was thus cured of a rare and life-threatening ailment, before the big city ER would have even taken my temperature. Love my benighted and unfashionable backwater, both for easy, affordable, convenient flying and for excellent healthcare. Best of all worlds. View’s not bad, either.

Has anyone actually seen a new FAA rule? As Abraham Lincoln once said, “Don’t believe everything you read on the Internet.”

For the loyal who have followed along and Paul Harvey fans as well, I will now proceed with “the rest of the story”. Wednesday, July 29, 1970 8th leg. Philadelphia, PA. (PHL) to Charleston, WV (CRW). Over the past weekend we attended Dad’s family reunion, held at the picnic grounds at Boyertown, PA. We also managed an evening visit with his favorite flying buddy, “Reds” Honaker and his wife, Peggy. Now it was getting time to head home to California. In one of those behind closed door, sneaky meetings that parents are so good at conducting in order to keep their kids in the dark, it was decided that Mom would be staying in Philadelphia a few days longer and return on an airliner over the weekend. This would make up for the visiting time that she lost due to the weather delays flying to Philly. This also saved Dad from having a mad scramble to resupply the Mooney with motion sickness bags. But taking the airlines would cause Mom to “sacrifice” the adventure of the flying trip back to California with Dad and me. I’m not quite sure if the tears that she shed that morning were “tears of sadness” in seeing us leave or “tears of joy” that she would not have to spend any more time in the back seat of Dad’s Mooney. Dad and I left for Atlantic Aviation at Philly International in the face a gray, overcast sky with low ceilings. The weather had been typically crummy during our stay and did not look like it was going to improve anytime soon. Dad was going to file IFR and fly in Actual Instrument conditions for the very first time. I remember clearly that we were held idling in the run-up area for what seemed like a fairly long time. Then we were finally released and cleared for takeoff. We were in the soup pretty quick while being vectored around before breaking out on top. Trouble was, we kept running into more clouds that kept pushing us higher. We eventually were cruising at 12,000 feet with no oxygen on board. My head was feeling kind of funny. As we broke out in the clear we saw two things: the next wall of clouds, which was even higher than we were flying at, and a big hole in the undercast, which went all the way to the ground. It was at that very moment that the Air Traffic Controller advised Dad that we were running out of radar coverage and he would need to resume normal position reporting. Dad decided this would be the ideal time to cancel IFR and head back down through the hole. It can be very difficult to make position reports when your precise location is less than clear. Dad found his way to Charleston, West Virginia, covering the 355 statute miles from Philadelphia in 3 hours and 10 minutes. 9th leg. Charleston, WV (CRW) to BluefIeld, WV (BLF) I have absolutely no recollection of Charleston at all. I do remember that we took off heading Southwest but quickly ran into a fast moving front which actually caused us to fly Southeast, instead. Mercer County Airport in BluefIeld, WV became our port in this storm. We covered the 77 mile distance from Charleston in just 45 minutes, only to realize that we were now farther East when we were heading West. A number of other pilots had dropped in before us to avoid the approaching weather, so we had plenty of company. Dad asked the FBO to put the Mooney in their big Community Hangar, which they did, just before the skies darkened, the storm hit and the wind really began to blow. That is when a voice crackled in over the Unicom. Someone else was going to attempt a landing in these wicked conditions. It was none other than Charlie Hillard, the 1967 National Aerobatic Champion, flying in his Spinks Akromaster! Everybody crowded by the FBO’s window, which faced the runway, wanting to watch this landing. The Akromaster was not known for being a “forgiving” airplane and these were extremely challenging conditions. Obviously, all the Pilots there would treat this moment with the reverence it deserved. As the Akromaster came in we all started counting, bounces, that is ... One...Two...Three...uh oh...Four....Five...well, after Six, my view was blocked. I can’t say for certain how many bounces there actually were. Charlie Hillard got it down, safe and sound. That is all that mattered. Since Dad got the last Rental Car available, we offered to give Mr. Hillard a ride into town. That was an adventure all it’s own. The directions we were given were something like: “go down the road and make the third left, then turn right at the second stoplight”. This worked great getting us into town but was absolutely worthless when we were trying to get back to the airport the next morning. When we arrived at the hotel, there were just two rooms left. I’ll never forget what happened when Dad asked the old guy at the front desk if we could have a “wake-up call”. Without saying a word, the old grump bent down behind his counter and came up with a wind-up alarm clock and placed it on the counter.

Yes, ridiculous. You can always buy the Goodyear or Michelin tires. At least then the tube will cost less.

Would all those who’ve never made a mistake or done something stupid please raise your hand. Clarence

Man there's a lot of negativity on here lately. Maybe it's because we've been cooped up too long. Life does not always work exactly the way we want and we can't always get it our way. Bitching about it doesn't fix it. Unhappy people don't live any longer than the rest of us, they just FEEL like they've lived longer. Stepping down off my soapbox. Bob

I will miss the Mooney speed and efficiency. I look forward to seeing my Mooney friends at OSH and other venues. My mission is the same, family trips and Pilots n Paws. The plan is to go slower and burn more dinosaurs doing just that. Sean

Let’s see my track record... First 7 years of ownership, 1 AI failure, 2 vacuum pump failures and 2 DG failures. 7 years with the Aspens - 0 failures. Hmmm... Mike - you need to stop posting these photoshopped pictures! Fake news![emoji6] Good luck with the 275s Peter Garmin. Still trying to figure out how a guy who said the Aspens were too small to read, will end up with 275s... Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

I doubt if the Aspen software update will fix this fine swiss watch KI256 however, Peter. Thankfully, I had an Aspen to keep the shiny side up in IMC that day. Are you still flying and trusting your life to the technology of the '30's, with your KI256/Ki258 or did you finally get that KI300 you swore by 4 years ago installed?

So what's different here? We already have to report any hospital admissions on our medical app and certainly have to report all visits with any healthcare professional. So what's different here? If one was ill enough to require treatment for Covid-19 what is unusual about submitting records to show you are good to return to acting as PIC? I would assume all the same existing rules apply. Or to put another way how could this not count like any other medical illness that required hospitalization or ongoing treatment? Don't we already want to show up for a medical with all the appropriate documentation after a hospitalization or other non-routine treatment?

MooneySpace- helping members spend money since 2008.

The only reason that cap didn't fly off is it KNEW you had a spare on-board!

Well, you're wrong....

Now, remember please..... I don’t write these tasteless, horrible, disrespectful, crass, stupid and demeaning things I’ve been posting. I’m simply trying to be a good MSer and help to contribute to this particular thread, which was not started by me either. The wife has been missing a week now. Police said to prepare for the worst. So, I have been to the thrift shop to get all of her clothes back.

I've been doing them for over 25 years. Provided 31 flights last year (yes, you read that correct, 31 trips). You will find nothing more rewarding in flying than helping medically challenged people, some who won't see their next birthday. This one didn't. But those trips to the Mayo Clinic from the U.P. of Michigan, in under an hour in my prop jet, took her mind off the serious stuff for a little while anyway. Tom

Thanks for the info and stories, all...

I should say one other thing. Everywhere I go on Angel Flights I am treated gracefully. Phillips 66 will issue a credit card application and they give a discount on fuel for Angel Flights. KFAR and many other FBO’s give discounts. I have never been charged ground fees at a Signature. The very first flight I took was a retired high school principal in chemo, wearing a headress, needing to go home from Chicago to West Virginia. I picked her up at Palwaukee. It was early winter and cold. I explained to her that the heater in the Mooney is aft, between the seats, and the footwells can get cold, did she have blanket or some extra clothing to keep her feet warm. She did not. The pilot of a busjet overheard this, and approached me out on the ramp when I was getting the plane ready. Come over to his plane, he suggested, because he might be able to help. He said that for his last flight they had bought some blankets that folded into pillow sacks for the passengers and they would not need them again, would I like one for my passenger. Sure. I still have that blanket and pillow sack, it is perfect for light load planes like ours (compared to a G5). His company had him sign up for Angel Flights but so far they had not authorized one. He was going to talk to them about that when he got home. Just one pilot to another type of conversation. So my passenger was thankfully warm and cosy to SE Ohio where I handed her off to a pilot in a twin to take her home to West Virginia. You get a unique flight number that you file in place of you tail number in your flight plan. ATC will do just about anything for you, not that they don’t do that the rest of the time anyway if you are civil and professional. On that flight from Palwaukee ATC put us directly over O’Hare and then Midway at 4 or 5 thousand (don’t remember exactly) rather than route us out around Chi Bravo, what a view! Don’t see that every day. Made the patient happy.

The video as promised... enjoy! Chris

David I’m glad you’ve been able to keep the virus away. Clearly is a moving target. Even countries that have been more successful have had to change strategy as information is assimilated and the situation evolves. Came from knowing nothing about it to knowing something. Unfortunately all the political bs has gotten in the way of the public health response. Wash hands, wear mask for others in case you’re an asymptomatic carrier, distance. Keep life as normal as possible otherwise. Rinse and repeat. That’s it. All the public health messaging failed over and over again. Won’t get into that but the CDC kept moving the target as a political apparatus responding to what resources were available at the time (PPE shortages) and kept moving the goal posts for the public and allowed the hospitals to do whatever was practical rather than what was proper from apparent political reasons. Hospitals are still doing it with the PPE and isolation dance. Hospitals are still trying to min staff and profit off the backs of the workers and bailouts. Look at HCAs quarterly earnings. Its disgusting. The only reason the CDC said “no masks” and tried to give all sorts of bull $hit explanations was because we didn’t have enough masks. They could have said “masks would really help, make sense and have been used successfully in other parts of the world, but we ain’t got none” but they just make up a bunch of politically expedient doublespeak instead. That approach is infectious and cancerous in of itself. This thing keeps hitting close to home. Yesterday- admin said she was at a family party (not a good idea). Everyone got it except her. Her daughter’s MIL is on a vent. That means she’s 50/50 in the door to the ICU for survival. Today - my neighbor (doc) posted about his residency mentor dying the other day from it. Kinda close to home. Today I try to message a local pediatrician about a patient - he’s out with it with 22 days of symptoms, his wife heading to the ED being admitted with it. Every day there are new stories. Maybe we’d do better if we just focused locally. Put our covid numbers and mortality rate on a big electronic billboard and put them online. Live unfiltered data. But nope, the covid update email I get each evening is marked “confidential and not for distribution”. These are the healthcare workers trying to help folks who couldn’t help themselves and are getting taken down. And taking their families down. If you don’t wear a mask, the healthcare workers will still take care of you. Might keep putting them at risk. But it speaks volumes that people won’t just wear a simple f-ing mask even if it might prevent a single infection. Or not. But there might be an increased chance of helping and avoiding harm. So just do it. Please. Look my kids can wear a mask. And yes face shields help too. That’s what we’re wearing in the hospital. Just pretend you’re on a very long woodworking project. :-)

ABSOLUTELY NOT trying to be provocative, but I have a physician friend that says 100% the opposite...in that “Covid 19 is HIGHLY politicized and he and other professionals have been muzzled and risk their careers by speaking out”...So while you feel “Patriotic” by wearing your mask”...Many others (not saying they are “right”)...feel exactly the same by NOT. (Wearing a mask)...It is a damn shame that Covid 19 has been politicized, but brother, IT HAS.

As a guideline it is best to have different HW and SW on the backup: I have an L-3 ESI500 as backup to my Garmin G500.

From Little Rock to Lunken yesterday. I found the key to making single camera stories was to make 10 second shots - not longer ones to edit down later - and then slightly tweak in the GoPro Quik app. Quik_2020-07-30_12-20-56.MOV

The Capricorn cylinders are the worst.

I’m an AME in Canada but restrict my practice to airplanes. Clarence

Angel Flight is my favorite charity flying. Young Eagles are great fun, but there’s the silly and insulting EAA’s insistence that olunteer pilots must be told every year how not to molest three boisterous nine-year-olds during a 12-minute flight in busy airspace. Hardly seems worth my considerable time and expense to be treated like a suspected creep.. Pilos ‘n’ Paws seems a disorganized zoo, with no oversight or effective guidance. Ride requesters don’t have a clue of what information is needed and what is not. And what requests are reasonable and practical. So many are not. (No, Ma’am, I can’t fly your terminally ill “sweet old man” pooch halfway across the continent to a no-kill shelter...somewhere, not sure where, but it’s near Texas. No, 600 pounds of uncrated adult Great Danes and their pups aren’t going to work out for me. . Really sorry, but no.Again this week., ... That leaves me with Angel Flight. They are pros, knowledgeable, flexible, and well-organized. The patients are educated and prepared, and ever so grateful. They’re often enthusiastic passengers, loving the ride. And getting them to medical expertise, or home again, really makes a huge difference to somebody whose life so needs a little joy. so, yeah. If you have a. Mooney, and experience, and in some areas a current instrument ticket, you’ll be welcomed with open arms.

Thursday, July 30, 1970 10th leg. BluefIeld, WV (BLF) to Nashville, TN (BNA) Our wind up “wake-up call” worked well and we got an early start today. Charlie Hillard elected to sleep in and Dad wanted to make tracks so we headed off to the airport. As usual, there were no airport signs and we promptly got lost. An older man was sweeping up outside of a Post Office building. Dad stopped and told me to ask him for directions to the field. The grouch replied “there’s another town down the road about six miles, go ask them”. No kidding, that is what he said. Without any assistance Dad still managed to find the airport and the place was deserted when we arrived. The big hangar’s door was left unlocked, so we pushed it open. There sat the Mooney blocked in by a big twin. I think it was a Queen Air. Dad eyeballed the situation for a minute or two, got out the tow bar and started maneuvering the Mooney back and forth. We managed to just sneak it out without hitting a thing. We closed up the hangar and took off, heading West. This leg would need to be shorter as we hadn’t refueled after the 45 minute hop from Charleston. We covered the 313 miles to Nashville in just 2 hours 35 minutes. No memories of Nashville Municipal Airport remain. 11th leg. Nashville, TN (BNA) to Tulsa, OK (TUL) This was a 513 mile, 3 hour and 45 minute hop. The longest of our journey so far and I have absolutely no recollection of it. Maybe I was sound asleep or maybe those images have just been lost in the strange eddies of my memory. The weather was good and we were making time. 12th leg. Tulsa, OK (TUL) to Amarillo, TX (TDW). Flying Southwest to the Texas panhandle we landed at Tradewinds Airport on the South side of Amarillo. This last hop covered 340 miles in 2 hours and 30 minutes, bringing our total for the day to 1,166 miles in 8 hours and 50 minutes of flying time. It was our second longest day of flying on this flying vacation. California was now within reach with just two more hops needed to get home. I remember that the airport seemed to be on the outskirts of the city. We drove North from the field and then hopped on I-40 heading East. We stayed at the Howard Johnson’s as it had a restaurant as part of their facility. Made it real convenient for us. After forgetting most of what happened today, I do remember exactly what we ate for dinner that night. Hojo’s Dinner Special was meat loaf, mashed potatoes and corn. Dad and I both ordered the Special and we both cleaned our plates.

I tested negitive, but had to go to dr to get tested , now i have to report that i had a dr visit, why I had a visit, proof that I tested negitive( how else will they know). I got a letter from health dept that i was not allowed to leave my home or even answer the door for 14 days, cause i was negitive, and could at any moment become positive, with the threat of jail time if i did not comply. I will not do that agian. I will not be responsable and try and do the right thing, i will not accept a letter from the health department(i will just throw it away) I will not answer my phone for unknown numbers, and god help them showing up at my door .

Great logic for the old FAA... It kept people from going to the doctor for as long as possible... The new FAA wrote some logical rules. Listed dozens of meds that can be used while flying... And SIs for certain individual cases... Either way, I don’t want to have to go to the hospital for Covid or anything else... Plan A: Stay healthy! Stand by for clarification on that letter... might be time to send a letter to the AOPA... Best regards, -a-

Tell them to F off.

Hi cctsurf, Its coming along slowly. I had a little set back on the upper cowling fitting correctly at the very front. It’s back at the composite shop being reworked along with the mold when we get the fit just right. I’d like to post more often but I feel I run the risk of the typical aviation product promises syndrome and don’t want that. Thanks, David

It's personal preference and risk tolerance. I touched down and my nose tube blew from the stem being weak. As you're barreling down at 80mph wondering when the nose is going to collapse hoping you can keep it on the runway, it may change your perspective. Separately, when you're 1000 miles from home and can't leave because your loss of $100 tube and now have to pay for a rental car, hotel, mechanic, and possibly airlines for multiple people it's a drop in the bucket.

“Sorry it took so long to fuel you up. We didn’t realize there were that many screws.” Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

I’ve recently taken up fishing myself.........