gsxrpilot

If you sign up to attend the course, plan to go to Ada, OK a day early or even just to arrive that morning. Jean-Paul from GAMI will be happy to go up for a flight with you in your plane and run the GAMI Spread Test for you. He'll either show you how to run LOP with what you have, or prescribe exactly the GAMI's you need to get LOP. They are not just trying to push GAMI's out the door, and will tell you if you don't need them. That service is usually free and net very valuable.

The only way the GTX 330 ES in anyway affects ADSB IN is that since you now have an OUT signal, you will be triggering more towers and activity which will show up on your iPad only so long as you have an ADSB IN receiver such as a Stratus. To be sure, the GTX330ES does NOT talk to, or interface with an iPad. I've installed two of them in different airplanes and never fly without an iPad.

My youngest kid graduates from college this weekend... I'll be getting a raise

I think us turbo drivers are all in agreement with you, @Jeev. There's nothing wrong with, or unsafe about flying a J. And as I've described, I've flown a C all over the mountain west. But if the budget allows, (it's definitely more expensive), a turbo is certainly preferable. I was very happy flying my C. But then when the budget allowed, I got a 252. And yes, it's better

And an airplane out of the shop and ready to fly

You don't think it's a deal breaker, and I think it is... and with our combined expertise on the subject, either one of us could be right Or we both might have missed the boat all together.

That's one. It was also a clean sheet design with the chute in the plans from the beginning.

The standby pump is a lot heavier. I believe it was also add an additional step to the speed brake deployment. First turn on standby pump, then activate brakes? Anyway, we decided to leave the engine driven pump on and pull out the standby pump. I'm mostly after the useful load here.

Yep, the chute only gets pulled when things have gone to shit. And that has to include that along with the other shit, there is a gear issue. I'm sure if I've fired the chute at 4000 feet, I've got no time to crank the handle and go through the emergency gear extension process. I don't see a lot of examples of BRS chutes on retracts.

I'm in the same boat. But I did remove the stand by, electric vacuum system and all the piping behind the panel.

One last anecdote for you After my first clinic I was hooked, and within the next six months had logged almost 20 hours of formation time. But I'd let my IFR lapse and needed an IPC to get current again. I was pretty nervous about it as it had been awhile since I'd shot an ILS approach... or any approach for that matter. But after all the formation flying, I found that keeping the needles centered on an approach was child's play. I'm just so much further ahead of my airplane now which is definitely a safety factor in my favor. And on top of all that, it's just too much fun. You'll have to come out and play sometime

There are lots of Mooney's with fixed side steps, no side steps and hand crank side steps...

Oh, and one more note... with a retractable gear airplane, the drop/landing has to be survivable both with gear up as well as down.

@gsengle and @rpcc, I'm not saying it can't be done, or that I'm in anyway suggesting it shouldn't be done. I'm just saying that I don't believe (don't work for Mooney or the FAA or BRS, etc, etc.) it would be easy, simple, cost effective, to do and so therefore I don't believe it will ever be done. I see two issues, and again, just my relatively uneducated opinion. One is the weight and second is the gear. The problem I see with the gear is not is it strong enough, but that it's too strong. The humans in the cockpit need to survive the straight drop onto the gear at approximately 27 or 28 feet per second. I believe the seating position and the springy gear in the Cessna and the Cirrus make that drop survivable for the human spine. I'm afraid the seating position, spar stiffness, and gear stiffness in the Mooney, would likely cause sever spinal injury, from such a drop. It would be pretty easy to test. We just need one of you to donate your Mooney for the experiment. You don't even have to ride in it, we'll use a crash test dummy with lots of sensors attached. ;-) Finally regarding FAA approval... those knuckleheads won't approve a simple airbag seatbelt for use in a vintage Mooney... so I'm not betting they'd easily allow the chute as a simple option because it's safer. As someone else always says... not an aerospace engineer, not an A&P, didn't stay at a Holiday Inn, just a PP.

Too late now, but it's ALWAYS cheaper to buy the plane with the avionics you want rather than upgrade later. Unless of course, and sometimes, that plane doesn't exist. I'm in the middle of a major avionics upgrade right now but it's because I can and I want to... not an effort to save money.

Hahah... if only it were that simple. The design, engineering, and certification challenges are numerous and not at all trivial. I'll bet my Mooney, that if there is ever a Mooney with a chute, it will be a clean sheet designed airplane. A chute can not and will never be added to an M20.

I'm not going to try and teach the Advanced Pilot Seminar here. I'll just say that I enjoyed the class and as an Engineer with a background in science and math, I understand the scientific method, testing, peer review, and conclusions backed up by data as opposed anecdotal evidence backed up by old wives tales and "this is the way it's always been". Your old school A&P is speaking from a position of ignorance. And if he's seen all the data, he obviously didn't understand what he saw or read. Take the course, see for yourself, draw your own conclusions... I'll be taking the course again in the fall to cover some of the stuff I missed the first time around. With that... I'm out.

I'd be pretty confident of a major repair coming out of Don's shop. Not that you shouldn't do due diligence but I'd expect it to all check out. One of the advantages of work done at Don's shop is that Don test flies the plane after the service. And not only is he the owner, but he's flown hundreds, or maybe thousands of Mooneys, and that experience is worth a lot.

@jerrodmonaghan if you can get into Don's shop, you won't be disappointed. Many, if not most of us on this board have had our planes into Don's shop for annuals. His shop is widely regarded as one of the best Mooney shops in the country. I live here in Texas so Don is convenient, but I have friends on both coasts who regularly take their Mooney's all the way to KGGG for their annuals.

No worries Terry. The "red box" or on some charts called the "red fin" is an area of extreme Internal Cylinder Pressure and corresponding high CHT's. It's not recommended to run your engine very long in this area. High ICP and CHT's are, according to John Deakin, George Braly, at GAMI, the leading cause of short engine life. Mike Busch, who has supposedly attended the APS class three times, tends to ignore the ICP issue and focus solely on CHT. If you have time, and are inclined to do some reading, on this page is a Download button for John Deakin's articles. It explains it all very nicely. https://www.advancedpilot.com/tech.html One nice thing about flying a C or any normally aspirated engine up high, is that over about 8000 or certainly 10000 ft. you're not making enough power to create a red box. You can do anything you like and not worry about over stressing your engine.

Try this link and you can push the throttle and see the red box change. https://www.advancedpilot.com/redbox.html

Someone either doesn't want to, or doesn't know how to sell a Mooney.

Another advantage a Mooney has against the weather is speed and range. We get some terrible weather here in Texas. Some of the worst of it this last weekend. But the speed and range of the Mooney allows for navigation around weather much of the time here in Texas. Use your instrument rating to punch through the light stuff and the speed and range to get around and out run the heavy stuff.

Yep, it was interesting in the APS class to hear the story of how ROP came back into fashion and now has to be debunked all over again.

Maxwell did the caliper reversal on mine as well. It's gotta be good for a fraction of a knot :-)