Rhumbline

Check with LASAR. I bought a new hardcover copy there a couple of years ago. Don't recall what I paid but it wasn't unreasonable for a new book.

Is the autograph still there?

Agreed on both points. On the other hand, why not just be up front with the customer and recommend that they weld it up or weld it down "cause we ain't gonna mess with those anymore!"

Merely relayed what I know on the topic for anyone interested. My dilemma dates 1 1/2 years and I'm not in the practice of commenting on behalf of anyone else. Sounds like you have the bull by the horns. Build a better mousetrap and, well...you're a smart guy, you know the rest.

Going from memory here so take it for what it's worth, but I'm pretty sure it was someone at Brittain and the Beech uses it as a yaw damper or AP servo. In any event, no urgency has been demonstrated in the glacial pace of getting the new mold. Every time I've spoken with them, it's always another month or two. That's been going on for at least 1 1/2 years.

If not from Brittain themselves, I've heard that the retraction servo in a Mooney is the same component used elsewhere in Bonanzas and that those guys are gnawing for relief as well. I have an ebay salvage servo sucking my step up at the moment but I'm guessing there are more than a few paying folks waiting for Brittain to get the mold issue ironed out.

Everyday I wonder what country and, for that matter, in what universe I've awakened in. EVERYONE is bothered by something and whatever that something is, it must be regulated or curtailed. Our liberties and our property rights are being attacked and successfully diminished with alarming regularity. In real estate investments, I avoid subdivisions/communities with HOA's or binding covenants as you might as well be renting. Then come the hysterical (historical) societies which usually manage to convince enough owners to form a district and now everyone is pretty well effed when they want to replace the decking on their porch, replace windows, doors, siding or even select paint colors or roofing material. But this is an airplane forum. My Mooney now rests in a hangar which is, by practical standards, too large for such a small airplane. I own the hangar though it is on ground leased from a municipality which has little stipulation under the current Lease Agreement as to how the hangar is to be used. I have been surreptitiously informed, however, that various persons in the employ of the FBO and elsewhere have been asked to report to the airport administration incidences of storage of anything unrelated to aviation, even if these are merely in addition to an aircraft or other items supporting the operation of an aircraft or if a hangar owner is renting the hangar or space in the hangar even though the latter examples are specifically granted under the current lease. It is also worth noting that the field in question has many developable hangar sites available, hangar space for rent and multiple hangars for sale. It is largely a ghost town where the personal end of the GA spectrum is concerned so demand is not relevant. Now, we all know that anyone with a hangar on a field which receives funding from the FED's is going to be subject to scrutiny depending on the determination of the various administrators. The standard, however, is so maligned that I cannot even build an airplane (the completed parts can be assembled but not constructed) in my hangar as it does meet the approved uses as it applies by their definition in the use of property which is not theirs. Frankly, I can't imagine a better use for a hangar. As for the poor miscreant with a plane in his driveway, I feel his pain and wish him luck while dealing with everyone else's freedom to deprive him of his. At least he didn't go lion hunting...

Come on! I don't usually engage in this kind of discussion but that reference to the NRA is absolutely ridiculous! As long a s the launcher and the rockets are in separate cases and not accessible to the passengers; what difference does it really make? Seriously. I can't fathom what interest ALPA might have in this issue except cronyism. I'm sure that point has already been made but that outfit is anything but beneficent. ALPA has never taken a dollar... right?

I can't speak to trip-kits but I maintain a subscription to a number of sectionals, TAC's & an AFD at mypilotstore.com. I haven't shopped around for awhile but they used to have the best deal and I think the shipping is free on everything but the AFD. 100% reliable so far which is more than I can say for the iPad, BadElf, ForeFlight combo which recently necessitated use of the 'ol paper standby for use as primary for more than a couple of months. Hardly missed the electronic distractions.

I was once a conscripted ALPA card carrier. One of the greatest pleasures when quitting the airlines was parting ways with that crooked outfit. Not surprisingly, I continued to receive bills for dues since I had never allowed them access to my paycheck and always wrote them a check. I ignored the bills for some time after leaving my last job and I started receiving threatening letters. Fearing they might start collections proceedings but still irreverent of the so-called organization, I wrote "DECEASED" across the face of one of my statements and returned it. They then required a mountain of supporting paperwork from my "widow" to let me off the hook and RIP. I never responded and the bills and requests eventually subsided. I detest those contemptible money grubbing @$$holes!

Many years ago, I developed a close friendship with an aspiring professional pilot that I tried to mentor who always completed his logbook with a very descriptive detail of each flight without regard for how many lines on the page it consumed. At the time, I thought this a useless exercise as it wasted time, would appear unprofessional, would complicate examination of the log by a potential employer and might potentially volunteer some evidence of an unintentional (or not so) violation. When I bought my Mooney and started flying after a long hiatus, however, it precipitated a want to review some of the "old days" and formative experiences when I was learning to fly and instructing others. I've found that I wish I had been more like my anal-retentive friend and recorded, if only for that posterity for my own review, the details and essence of those flights rather than the mere facts with a brief notation of who the student or crew was. I started simple new logbook when I got a BFR after eight years without flying and have since recorded over the last couple of years not only the relevant information to demonstrate recency of experience and compliance but the little details which make each flight unique. I've no one who would care but it may color a memory or two as the 'ol bean is failing and I'm trying to grope ugly nurses at the old folks home while awaiting rendering into Soylent Green.

This is no doubt a poor spot to make the suggestion, but perhaps a category devoted to the fly-to-meal would be appropriate for MooneySpace. I'm a foodie and, I must admit, I watch some of the "Best Eats" TV shows for ideas about someday airplane destinations for little more than an excuse to fly and eat. Some mission, eh? The bulk of my flying is already devoted to the dual pleasure of flight and gurgitation and I monitor Fly2Lunch, Tripadvisor, etc. for potential destinations already. As MS is the only aviation forum I bother with, I'd enthusiastically follow recommendations of the forum for gastronomic satiety wherever it exists.

No and yes. It was a wisenheimer (colloquial for smarta$$ in my neck of the woods) response to a seemingly silly question. All in good fun.

Planes, boats, cars & horses... and everything else for that matter. Been going on for time and memoriam.

While driving in heavy traffic or luxuriating on the porcelain throne in the "library".