gsxrpilot

Just as a note here... it's very difficult to convey tone, emphasis, etc. in written posts on a forum. Accordingly I'm willing to give @jcovington the benefit of the doubt, but also the student/CIF the benefit of the doubt here as well. This would be a much more fruitful discussion sitting around the beer fridge in my hangar after a fun flight in the Mooney or any flying thing for that matter...

True, but that's an accusation with far reaching consequences... I'd give quarter on my part long before making that accusation.

If the two airplanes got to within 50 ft of each other, that's powerful evidence that the student/CFI did NOT see the Mooney.

This can make sense if there is a tower who is seeing and controlling all the aircraft in the vicinity of the airport. But without a tower, it's up to the pilots to manage the airspace and maintain separation. An airplane arriving from outside the pattern would naturally have a larger (big picture) view of the situation in the pattern. The airplane arriving also has more flexibility to use airspace to give way to pattern traffic. Should an airplane in the pattern, effectively depart the pattern to allow someone else to join the pattern? When under tower control, you'll often hear the tower tell someone in the pattern to extend their downwind and tower will call the base turn. That's easy when the tower knows the speed, position, and time to arrival of the inbound aircraft. But for a Cherokee in the pattern, it's virtually impossible to know how far to extend that downwind based on the inbound aircraft radio calls. Especially if the plane in the pattern can't see the arriving plane in the distance. I still maintain, and believe the official "recommendations" back up the idea that arriving traffic should have the responsibility to merge with and fit in with traffic in the pattern. But regardless, the only pilot, who's actions I can control, is ME. So when it's my airplane/life/family on the line, I'll control MY actions and assume the other guy can't see me, doesn't hear me, is a student pilot, is an idiot, or other wise incompetent. If I ensure I "see and avoid", there can't be any problem.

Got it, makes sense. If only there was prior agreement between the two of you, you could have logged it as formation time.

I don't mean to imply you're a bad pilot or anything, I just believe that the see and avoid published recommendation puts the responsibility squarely on me, and never on the other pilot.. And anytime I get close to an airplane I didn't see, it's my fault, not the other guy's. Perhaps I am naive but then why do we have recommendations published for our use? They're just recommendations and obviously interpreted many different ways, just like we're debating it here. When I am mixing with other traffic in the pattern I try to be both polite and safe. Sometimes I need to speed up and sometimes I need to slow down. I expected the speed to give me separation and to not interfere with the Warrior pattern. I was wrong in this case. - An easy mistake to make and thus the recommendation to have a visual (see and avoid) on the other traffic. I don't see how to have a visual on traffic at all times in the pattern. You have to depend somewhat on situational awareness of what the traffic is doing. I was definitely looking for him just apparently not in the right place. When I was established on downwind the Warrior was low and to my right. Very much a blind spot for me. Keep in mind that the conflict occurred about mid-field downwind. I had been established for a while and was in clear sight of the Warrior. - It's always a dangerous assumption to think the other guy sees you. Every near miss that happens, and they happen all the time is because we didn't see... the other guy. I did not descend into the pattern. I was at pattern altitude on the 45 entry. Sorry, my misunderstanding. I was slowing to put the gear out on the 45 so it was fairly quick. The Warrior was climbing on crosswind so he was below and to the right. The Warrior continued to climb after turning downwind. I could tell since I had a front row seat :). - But you didn't see him? I'm confused by this statement. Either you saw him climbing in the downwind, or you didn't see him. Either way, we all know it's very difficult to judge motion of other airplanes in the sky, especially when on a closing course. I never spoke to the student. My conversation was with the CFI. I was not inclined to apologize since the turn from crosswind to downwind was too close to another aircraft and should not have been performed. That turn is my biggest problem with the encounter. - Unless you have his GPS track overlaid on your GPS track, you really can't know. He didn't see you and you didn't see him until you were both dangerously close. I'll give the other guy the benefit of the doubt and say that I shouldn't have made so many assumptions, and should have followed the published recommendation to see and avoid.

NW SC is awful specific for a machine with the range of a Mooney. When buying an airplane, assume the acceptable range for a pre-buy is anywhere within about two hours flying time. If the seller doesn't agree, that goes in the column of red flags on the deal. For my money it would be AGL or Cole.

If I'm doing pattern work, I'm always either just departing or just arriving. Just because my distance between takeoff and landing is less than your cross country is not material.

Sorry, but... Assuming everyone else is going to fly to our interpretation of the FAR/AIM is naive. Entering the traffic pattern without a visual on other planes in the pattern is presumptuous. Descending into the pattern in a low wing is visually problematic. I would have apologized to the student for flying into his pattern without seeing him first. I like to approach the pattern at pattern altitude. It's just much less likely I'm hiding someone with my wing. And I'd never assume anyone else should be looking for me, will be where they say they are, or doing what I think they should be doing. This also comes from a lot of years on motorcycles. The safest way to ride is to assume I am invisible. Others on the road can't see you. If I ride that way, then it's 100% on me not to get hit.

We've got friends fighting for life in the hospital and you come on and your first ever comment is this garbage? You're seriously concerned about your insurance premium going up? This is the last post I'll ever read of yours and hope to never see you or your Mooney on a ramp anywhere I fly.

I walked by and saw your Rocket with the four blade prop, in the shop yesterday. Let me know when you're around the airport this week. I'll come over.

I can relate to this. And once becoming affluent enough to own a Mooney, it also means I can generally afford to sleep indoors as well. But the one time a year, we sleep in the tent outdoors, is at Oshkosh. There's just so much going on early in the morning around a fresh pot of coffee, and late at night around a cup of something that hasn't been fresh in at least 25 years. If we were going alone to Oshkosh just for the airplanes, we'd get a room. But going with the Caravan and all our friends, is a great experience that can really only be fully experienced by sleeping in a tent by your airplane. PS - being awakened at 6:10am by the roar of three 12 cylinder Merlins in formation rolling on the runway a mere yards from your tent, is worth the experience.

This whole discussion seems to be about which scalpel to use to bring down the mighty redwood. Does anyone log to a greater detail than a 1/10th of an hour? That 1/10th of an hour is 6 minutes. +/- 6 minutes would be a range of 12 minutes. A rough estimation based on Tach/Hobbs/ForeFlight/JPI/CloudAhoy or the length of the shadow on the ramp, would seem to be sufficiently accurate for our log books where the recording is based entirely on the honor system.

Mooney has never been known for their Marketing strategy. They were at Oshkosh last year, but the booth experience for most was terrible. Cirrus has been kicking Mooney's marketing ass for years.

Great video!

The other reason I use the EDM900 is that I'm not always using ForeFlight. I use it pretty religiously on cross country flights, but not when just local. Regardless, the EDM is always logging for me.

I use the flight time from my EDM900. Every so often, I download the data and upload it to my SavvyAnalysis account. That has a "duration" column that seems to be much closer to reality than ForeFlight. Then I update my ForeFlight log book. I'm certainly not about to pull out a stopwatch. But then logged flight time isn't all that important to me.

We've always used soft side coolers in the plane. Like you say, they take up less room and are easier to back around. I used to have a bkool but got rid of it as it just seemed to be more hassle than it was worth. The best aircon is to just take off and climb. :-) The nice thing about camping with the Caravan is that we will have some large coolers full of cold drinks most of the time. We usually have some for hydration and some for adults. You can also get away without bringing other things such as a table/chairs. Although some camping chairs are nice for sitting in the grass out on the flight line and carrying with you to the air-shows, etc. I'm happy to chat off line about camping with the Caravan and what to bring, etc. FYI... there is a Target within walking distance for all the stuff you forget to bring or decided to leave at home because of weight.

Truth!

Congrats on the new venture. This certainly does combine two of the best names in the Mooney world. And I expect this well deserved reputation to only increase going forward.

In addition to Don Maxwell, who is excellent by the way, another shop in Texas, SouthWest Texas Aviation has also done this type of repair work on Mooneys. Specifically mine. So you might also reach out to JD who owns that shop as well. I'm afraid the quote from Mooney will be outrageously expensive. But Don and JD have both done these repairs for reasonable costs.

I actually don't agree with the redundancy argument. If the factory gauge goes out, you're not airworthy or legal to fly. So you don't really have redundancy for dispatch purposes. If the factory gauge goes out in flight, it's no issue and I'm confident I can still get to my destination or back home. It's not an emergency and therefore redundancy is really just situational awareness, and is of very limited benefit. Like @StevenL757 said, I just can't understand people who install the 830. I understand being on a budget. In my first Mooney, I just couldn't spend the total amount to get a 900. But I still needed/wanted accurate temp data. So I got a G2, because it's PRIMARY for CHT/EGT, and it was cheap. Later with a better Mooney, I decided to spend more and get the 900. The 830 just seems like a very poor ROI.

I've always had good luck getting the line guys to help with the passenger exiting the plane. Most times I'm at Signature, Atlantic, or similar. When the line guy parks me, they always come to the window or door to ask if we need anything like fuel, services, etc. I'll ask for help with my passenger. It's always been easy to do.

The nice thing about measuring by running a tank dry in flight, is that you KNOW your useable fuel number. And that's really the only number that matters.

Here in Denver, my experience of a whole week now, is that we get a big violent thunderstorm with hail, tornadoes, warnings on the radio, etc. This happens every afternoon between 1pm and 4pm. Before and after that time window, it's clear blue skies and very comfortable mid 70's temps. The storm also only happens on the east side of the city. We're on the west side of the city and therefore just get to watch the event every afternoon from the rooftop deck. While everyone on the east side of the city are in their storm cellars.