phecksel

I had one flight, 40+ kt headwind on final approach. I intentionally kept the gear up to maintain some reasonable GS. Several times said to the ex, please remind me to put the gear down. About 750 AGL, the gear went down, and she said down and locked? I didn't like breaking my normal behavior, but after almost 5 hours of flight, I was ready to be on the ground too

Let me see if I understand this, someone would use their airplane in a commercial operation to transport federally regulated drugs across state lines... and expect to keep their plane, and stay out of jail?

It's easy to sit on the ground in judgement of their decision making... I've made a couple of decisions that I shouldn't have made. I'd like to attribute the fact that I'm still here to skills that exceeded bad judgement, but I honestly believe my plane loved me. Friend of mine explained that he always considers what the accident report will show as part of his go/no go decision making process. This accident baffles me. I've flown into IFR in bitter cold, airframe icing is non existent at those temps. Ovation should climb like crazy through the weather, but I don't know what the tops were. I would lean towards pilot medical, or if he did something really silly and kept the plane in a heated hangar.

FB photo I found only shows three numbers, but it matches your photo.

If it's the same plane/person I think it is, reading a little blurb on his nose gear collapse was disconcerting, "My first and last Plane Crash"

News sources are reporting the plane as being based in Oakland Troy. Two on board killed. Names of deceased have not been released, pending notifications. I did a little searching, and it looks like a long fuselage M20 that had a prior nose gear collapse.

Friend of mine lost his plane to a guy that hand propped his plane on the other side of the field... plane started the high speed taxi run across the field and prop took several large chunks out of the fuselage destroying his glassair. Guy had no insurance and everything he owned was locked up in trusts, and he only had social security income. Totally uncollectable. Luckily his insurance paid out.

I had started to make some locking tow bars, have about 5 of the initial prototypes.

pfftttt! Had to cancel my initial med exam due to a conflict. Coming up to the holidays and work kept me from rescheduling... Had a disqualifying incident just before the holidays that will keep me out for several months Sometimes when it rains, it pours! Good thing I decided to hold off on buying the C with a marginally adequate panel.

Am I buying or selling? LOL

Nice write up Jolie. Out of everything I did, I received the most satisfaction from Mercy Med Flights, transporting indigent patients to medical care. One particular kid, was a particularly difficult flight really stood out for me. I happened to be unemployed at the time, and while waiting at the airport for them to return from the hospital, was working on mailing out resumes and searching for jobs. Mom kinda snuck up on me and figured out what I was doing and was dumbfounded that I would even still be doing those flights. One of the apps I mailed from that day led to a 10 yr career with an employer, that eventually led to my current career. Another flight was one of the most awesome aviation experiences I ever encountered.

Is there any value in an O2 sensor to actively monitor your oxygen levels?

I used to LOVE to go flying on the crappy days. Would drool for 200-1/2 My IFR instructor loved to take me down to 100' He beat stabilized into my head. Went for a 50 mile breakfast one day, my closest alt was something like 200 miles away

yea, that will work Don't watch this guage instead of not watching that guage! He was wide eyed as a newly minted pilot involved in his first race. Funny thing, I had my fuel usage so closely calculated that the time I had planned to switch tanks was only 15 minutes earlier. I landed with 45 minutes left. Took 2nd place in that race... my nemisis couldn't be beaten, at least by me. Funny side to that story, there was a manditory fuel stop, and everybody was waiting for the headwinds in the final leg to die down. All of a sudden, I see my nemisis get up and walk out the back door to the FBO... hmmm wonder where he's going? He was sneaking off to his plane. I told my co-pilot, we're leaving right now and did the same thing I asked later what caused him to leave, he said they were forcasting the wind speed to actually increase, not decrease... and they did too!

...

Follow the money, always follow the money. How many FAA employees are involved in the medical aspect? How many would have nothing to do if Class III went away? Remember, there are school children's lives at stake here.

I can tell you that an O-360 at WOT, leaned for peak power in a race, at a headwind busting altitude makes a loud sphincter tightening bang when the tank runs dry Co-pilot who's one single job was to keep on eye on the clock and remind me to change tanks got an earful after that.

People often don't sell planes because they tire of flying, they often sell them because maintenance and/or cost of flying become mor than they are willing to stomach. And Mooney owners tend to be umm, value minded Limited maintenance, limited flying, leads to further problems down the road.

Blurt out two? Even one would get me in trouble.

I would have the plane completely stabilized at FAF at IRC 90 kts. Gear would go down, the plane would settle into perfect glide slope tracking. Friend of mine was struggling with his "F" on ILS approaches. I flew with him a couple of times and it was awful, nothing I could tell him would sink in, and apparently his instructor wasn't sinking in either. He over controlled both pitch and roll, often going full needle deflection, and worse not recognizing full deflection. Several problems there... One day we were supposed to go flying, and it was real 200-1/2. I called and said are you ready? He said, we can't go flying, it's IFR... but we can in my plane I forget where I had to file as alternate, but it was a long ways away! I hit FAF, dropped the gear, applied pressure to the yoke to avoid the initial bounce, kept my hand completely off the yoke, making minor steering courses with only rudder pressure. Needle never left the doughnut the entire time. Another friend was in the back seat and his eyes never left the needles, he thought they were actually broken... to be honest I thought they were too, buy my GPS was programmed to the course, so it provided some reassurance that life was good. He finally got it, and I wish all my flights had been that accurate! Somebody mentioned precision, they are right on. Gentle movements, precise settings, be willing to break the chain.

Ok, it's been awhile since I flew, much less in the system. Detroit routing made ZERO sense, until I got a TRACON tour. I'm looking at a chart on a table and discovered three things, The VOR location for the center of the CBA was off by almost a mile, another waypoint fix was off by a couple of miles, but the most important thing, was the "fence" around Detroit. It was like a huge lightbulb went off in my head and I had to ask why they didn't share that with the GA community. About six months later they started handing out a nicely laid out graphic to the community. All traffic came in and out of Detroit Approach Control through gates in the fence. IRC, it was 4 GA in/out gates, and 4 big iron. Not all gates would be used on a given day. For the OP, for years, my drive to the airport was almost an hour... so i just got in the habit of long cross country flights. Even when I finally moved the plane close to my house, IRC, even the $100 hamburger was technically XC.

Thank you for the tip, good article.

What was the real reason the 301 was never built? the official line I heard was not a large enough market. Rumors had that Kerrville plant was incapable? anybody have the real story?

I wouldn't be in favor of putting his house on the line to buy a toy.

My friend hates looking at the planes just sitting there rotting away. While the planes might be flyable, there's no way I'd make a cross country flight home after the local field A&P did an annual to make them flight legal.