Hector

I did laugh as well being from Florida too......until you decide to visit a buddy up north and a couple of days later when it's time to leave you show up at the airport in the morning and there are 5 inches of snow on the ground and no preheat for the engine and you look stupid trying to figure out what to do but have no clue how to get your plane out of this mess and you are freezing your ass off and too embarrassed to ask the locals and seriously contemplating setting the plane on fire and wondering how these people live this way........

Almost forgot about the "Board of Equalization"! Who the heck came up with that name for a tax agency? It's almost too funny, sounds like something out of George Orwell's Animal Farm[emoji1]

If the Accuflite has not sold I'll take it.

That makes more sense. I fly out of there quite often and like Jose said lots of open fields and options at that airport, specially if you are taking off to the west.

That might be significant !! Opens the door for more options.

Congrats Alex!!!

Once Cuba opens up they will drop all the stupid fees or will starve.

I own a 1967 M20C which was in excellent condition when I purchased it 3 years ago. I have averaged a little over 100 hours per year and have loved every minute of it. After a round trip yesterday from north Florida to Patuxent River, MD and back as soon as I put my C in the hanger I again said to myself "Got to love a Mooney!" Still had 17 gallons after a 4 hour flight, meaning I burned 8.7 GPH while cruising at 142 Kts. My useful load is right at 1000 and it's typically just me and a passenger, but I've had up to 4 people and a dog in the plane (don't ask). I do owner assisted annuals which in my case it means I do all the work and my IA inspects the work and signs off. All three annuals have been under $ 1K. Keep in mind that the excellent reliability I have experienced is mostly due to the fact that my plane was in great shape having passed a good PPI with very few squawks. As others have said, given you are in Texas have Don Maxwell do your PPI to greatly minimize the chances of any costly surprises. Transition training is important, but truth be told I never had a problem with the Mooney. I was taught from day one that an airplane will land when it's ready to do so, meaning all excess energy has been dissipated. Even when my speed control has not been perfect all it means is that I floated in ground effect for a bit longer. Typically not a problem with longer runways but NOT good in short fields. Learn to fly precisely but if stuff happens DON'T force a Mooney (or any airplane) to land with excess energy.

Seems to have worked pretty well. It looks like the chute starts dragging the airplane through the water causing the wing over. If it had been calm the plane may have floated for a while longer, but after the wing over with the cabin filling up with water it does not take long.

I would suspect there is a rigging issue. I would hope that after your mechanic did all that work on your gear he checked the rigging before signing it off. If he did not, I would suspect highly that your preload is very high. With a properly rigged gear you should have no trouble at all lowering the gear even at 120 mph.

If you have Bendix magnetos I would check the P-leads. This has happened to me before exactly as you described. The P-lead will have either a hex nut or a round knurled nut in the back of the Magneto. Make sure that connection is tight. If that looks good then it could be the ignition switch itself.

I'm not sure. I always put the stick in the center, or as close to center as my eyeball can tell. Accurate enough. I can predict very accurately how many gallons it will take to fill up. I'll check it out to see how much difference if I move the stick inboard/outboard.

Home Depot paint stick. Made by adding one gallon at a time. Very accurate and matched my JPI very well. I use it before every flight to make sure my fuel quantity per JPI is correct.

Good job Alex! After a few flights you will feel a lot more comfortable and the fun will never stop

Wow, was going to leave early this morning and fly in but something came up and had to cancel. RIP

I may try to go Friday.

If they are not bright enough, then you could try plain white LED's that are even brighter and see if that works. Should be ok i think since you are retaining the red lens. Let us know if it works.

Did the conversion today per Dan's instructions. I'm pretty happy with the results!

Earlier this year while I was there I used Fontainebleau and their charge for a Mooney was twice what they charged for a C-172. I asked the lady at the FBO why and she did not know. She was just reading from a list at the front desk. I told her my M20C was no bigger than a C-172 and pointed to my airplane parked right outside the door. She gave me the C-172 rate. Next time I was down there they tried to charge me the "Mooney" rate again and I told them I had previously been charged the C-172 rate. They gave me the lower rate. Sometimes you have to put your CB hat on to save some bucks

Yves, next time you are down there use KTMB (Tamiami Airport). It is more centrally located in Miami, caters to business/general aviation, full precision approaches if you need them. The FBO I use there is Air Sal. Nice folks, $15 a day if you stay overnight and the self serve pump is right next to them (currently $4.95). No ramp fees or any other charges. There is a Hertz rental car agency across the street from the airport that I use typically for $25-30 a day. Just call them and they'll pick you up. If you use the Hertz at one of the FBOs at the airport they charge you twice that amount.

Alex, welcome aboard. I'm based at Craig, one of five Mooney's there. One C (mine), a B and an E (my hangar neighbors), an F and an MSE. We try to help out young guys like you, specially if they like Mooney's. We routinely go out for the proverbial $100 burger so if you want to come along just PM me and you can tag along. You might even learn something .

Flew with it today. I have a Stratus 2 and it all worked quite nicely. Very usable. Even the altitude ribbon was only 100 feet off which is not bad at all. I only wish it worked in my iPhone 6. I have an iPad mini and like to look at the approach plates in full screen mode. Split screen during the approach is not desirable. Would much prefer to have SV running in full screen mode on the iphone with a RAM mount next to me.

There are currently over one million Chinese millionaires. Yes, there are lots of folks there that can afford to fly. If the government opens up the airspace an private flying takes hold, Watch Out!!

Glad you mentioned that Hank. I just bought an Ashlight and was wondering if they were any good. Just received it today and was going to install it tomorrow morning. Don't fly much at night, but last flight a couple of weeks ago could hardly see the kneeboard to write down a clearance.

No worries, I figured as much. Besides, looks like my hangar neighbor next door will be able to use them.