gsxrpilot

Today... well this weekend anyway... I was able to take my 252 flying in it's natural habitat, the Colorado Rockies. I don't have any pictures as I was a little focused on the flying. But hopefully this will be the first of many trips into the mountains. On the 4th, my wife, our dog and I loaded up the Mooney and flew from Denver (KBJC) to Gunnison (KGUC). We departed about 8:45am to beat the winds that whip up in the afternoon. The winds were still 30 knots on the nose as we crossed just north of Cottonwood pass and over some 14,000+ foot peaks. At 15,500 ourselves, we just had some light chop. The flight was just 50 minutes instead of what would have been a 4 hour drive. Today we made the return trip. We loaded up and departed runway 06 out of Gunnison which is our direction of flight but also points directly at rising terrain immediately off the runway. The runway sits at 7680 ft MSL with terrain rising to over 9000 ft within 5 miles. And within 20 miles we were crossing 14,000 ft terrain. For the 252 it was as if asking, "what mountains?" We topped out at 15,000 and stayed on course direct Denver. BJC was reporting IFR and 800 OVC, and with a 45 minute flight, we were "METAR Controlled". So I filed IFR at 15,000 for the short flight. On contacting Denver Center, they told me the minimum IFR altitude would be 17,000. I declined and said we'd rather stay at 15 and VFR. Center said "no problem, we can open your IFR flight plan after you get across the Collegiate range. BJC started clearing up as we got closer so we stayed VFR all the way in. I really appreciated the speed brakes trying to lose 10K ft of altitude in just a few miles coming into Denver. Flight time was only 40 minutes, and we were home in time for brunch. The M20K 252 is such an amazing airplane to have in this part of the country. I'm excited to get to do this type of flying. https://flightaware.com/live/flight/N252AD/history/20190704/1446Z/KBJC/L 38.60240 -106.89600 https://flightaware.com/live/flight/N252AD

If you can afford it, and it's what you want... go for it. As other's are saying, the Eagle is a really nice airplane. If you're looking for an airplane to go to Johnson Creek, this is probably the wrong one. If you're looking for something to get you out of Idaho for weekends in Seattle, Denver, Chicago? This is the plane you want, no question about it.

If you mean QT Halo's, yes, most likely. Phil has been there selling his QT Halo's every year I've been there.

I've been to St Johns, just not in my Mooney. I agree with everything you say about it. It's such a cool place. And I now have friends who live here. The company I used to work for last year, bought a small company out of St Johns and I was sent to spend some time and do some work to integrate them into our company. If/when I make that trip in the Mooney, I'll definitely stop in St Johns.

JD and Laura Casteel of SWTA (Southwest Texas Aviation) are doing a lot of pre-buys in Texas. Jimmy Garrison has sold plenty of Mooneys where the pre-buy happened at SWTA. They are at 84R just outside of Austin. Buying a Mooney from AllAmerican and getting a pre-buy done at either Maxwell's or SWTA, is about as sure a thing as you can do in the Mooney world. Good Mooney shops get business from far and wide. I know Mooneys from both coasts that go to Maxwell's every year for their annuals. SWTA has also built a list of customers who will fly in excess of 500 nm to get their quality work. There are lots of other good Mooney shops around the country as well. These are just two in Texas that have particularly good and recent reputations.

Drain the tank, then pull the sump out to finish draining the tank. Let it sit for a little while with the cap off and the sump out. The vapors will dissipate quickly.

Our species has developed two ways to address differences, we can talk or we can fight. I'm in favor of the talking no matter how offensive or offended I am.

Just one of the things I like about the Aspen and the reason I'm adding the MFD this summer. Individual AHRS so the MFD can fully back up the PFD. No need for any additional redundant instruments.

But please don't discourage the kids out there. We've got enough problems with kids these days afraid to do anything more dangerous than the next level on their X-box. If you've had your years of adventure and are done with it, I'm envious. But I've got a bit more adventuring to go before I catch up to you. I read @201er account of his trip to the Arctic circle in his J a few years back and while I couldn't replicated it, I did make a fun trip to Churchill, Manitoba and back from Austin. It involved low IFR, freezing temps, a touch of ice, and plenty of deviations around the really ugly stuff. There was also some detailed fuel management to allow for navigation to airports without any 100LL. Now Mike's on another quick 4th of July weekend trip to the great white north. And I'm on Skyvector working out the next adventure. Someday I'll be done and ready to stay in the pattern, but I got a late start and so today, on my 52nd birthday, I'm planning more adventures. I'm trying to catch up on the "experience" as fast as I can.

An interesting idea but one that doesn't make any sense to me... I gave a lot of thought to this subject when I installed my Aspen PFD almost two years ago now. Between the PFD and the IFD540 large screen GPS, I couldn't really figure out what the MFD would display that I didn't already have displayed. There's actually a lot of overlap between the depiction of flight data on the PFD and the IFD540, and it doesn't really leave anything for an MFD. It seemed to me that the best reason to spend to install an MFD in the panel is to provide redundancy for the PFD. Of course that requires both PFD/MFD are the same manufacturer. But since the PFD still required an independent AI to back it up, the MFD seemed less important. In the end, I didn't install one for all of these reasons. Fast forward to now, and a combo Aspen PFD/MFD MAX doesn't require any other back up instruments including the AI. And that gives me a reason to add the MFD and in the process remove the AI, VSI, and Altimeter. If I were you, I'd either pull the Aspen and go G3X. Or pull the 430 and go Avidyne IFD440 or better yet, IFD550. Then much further down the road, when there is nothing left to upgrade or improve... add an MFD. Just my $0.02

And yet I've seen several videos on youtube of 3100's flying with very happy owners/pilots. Meanwhile, the GFC500 is giving Don fits. Autopilots are complex and we've seen plenty of avionics shops exposed for lack of expertise and skill on much simpler projects than autopilots. I think the jury is still out. Likely both the GFC500 and the 3100 are fine autopilots and will work well when properly installed and configured. But clearly not every avionics shop is up to the task.

Who's doing the annual? And do they even know where to look for corrosion? Yeah, I'd want to know the airplane was corrosion free before putting a lot of money into it. You're likely fine, but it would be good to know. I'd want to have a proper Mooney shop do the annual so you know. Just my $0.02

Truth.

You're that close already. You really should hop over to BGGH and add Greenland to your list of places that Mooney has been. Even though the flight from YVP to YFB was only 2.5 hours and only a little bit over water, there are really no options for the entire flight. So not much different than another 2.5 or 3 hours to Greenland. Love your work Mike! I hope to hear all about it at Oshkosh.

I agree with your plan and think it will work in the long run. I also prefer to buy a Mooney that needs paint and interior. And I would want a 430W or better as well. But I'd also want an autopilot. It is such an expensive upgrade to add an autopilot. The difference in price of a C with an autopilot vs one without an autopilot will only be about 25% the price of installing one later. I know of a couple of C's for sale right now that are for sale because they want one with an autopilot. In both cases, I told the owner not to buy one without an autopilot. They insisted they didn't need one. But Mooneys are made for long distance travel and once you have one, you'll likely start doing longer and longer trips... and you're gonna want an autopilot. That's why they're selling...

I, for one, have never heard of an avionics shop even asking to keep the stuff it pulls out. I've had one offer me a cash credit in exchange for a 530W. But both times I've had avionics work done, there was a couple of big boxes in the back of the airplane full of the old stuff for me to take home.

Prices have definitely gone up a bit in the last year or two. And while you're thinking on the right track, I believe you're off just a little. While you wouldn't want to spend E money on a C, a top dollar C with an autopilot, modern GPS, a nice panel and a few speed mods is more valuable than an E with a wing leveler and original avionics. A nice E with speed mods is often more valuable than a stock F. Not everyone needs the back seat and therefore wouldn't need the leg room in the back seat either. So then why carry around the extra weight. A slicked down E with all the speed mods will be faster than an F and therefore could be priced higher. Prices are going up because they're not making any more of them and there is nothing else out there in the market to take the place of a really nice C, E, F, or J. One that is well maintained, regularly flown, and kept up to date on avionics will fetch top dollar. The top J's are knocking on $200K.

Transition training from a Mooney specific CFI would have been able to explain the proper operations of a 231, including high altitude operations. It also sounds like someone's taking their 911 Carrera to a Chevy mechanic.

I've pulled the Spot Tracker Gen3, out of storage and will test it out in the plane this weekend. We're flying to Gunnison, CO and crossing a few miles of desolate country to get there. So I figure it's better than no PLB. I'll report back.

I'm pretty sure SWTA would be willing to sell the STC's (molds, tooling, etc) to anyone who'd like to bring them back to the market.

A small white hand towel draped over the iPad anytime it's in direct sunlight will solve this problem as well. I keep one in the seat back pocket just for this purpose. My iPad has overheated just once in the last 941 hours in the Mooney.

I think you'd be fine on that runway. If you can't get a J off the ground in 1800 ft. something's wrong with it.

When are you flying up to Madison? Are you doing it in one day? I'm leaving from Denver early Friday morning, the 19th.

If I had an S-TEC, you'd have my PO for the upgrade. I'd bet $10K that the 3100 will be the best autopilot I can put in my Mooney. But as I have a BK KFC150 the ante is $20K+ and that is just a bit too rich for me to bet on this hand. If the STC gets approved, and the reports come back that it is everything we've hear it will be, then I will go all in and buy the full system for my 252. Of course if Genesys offered me upgrade pricing for the system, even with refurbished servos, I'd submit the PO tomorrow. Hopefully the STC goes through and we have an option other than Garmin for our Mooneys.