bonal

A few more photos and checked out 242kt on flight aware that thing is bad ass fast

Outstanding news. Great that it was repairable

Looks like you all had a great day as well we should have had some kind of live feed between the two events. Great to see both get together's a big success. Hope everyone has a safe return home

First to post, well it did happen and will post some pics here and on today's flight thread soon. My wife counted 50 Mooneys on the ramp in front of the event hangar and there were a few others parked in a different area because they ran out of space. Could not have had better weather for the flying and the event. Met a few Mooney space folks but so many was impossible to meet them all. Thank you Phil and Mike and your better halves and every one who helped put this together. Was a fantastic turn out and we overwhelmed Oakland center as our airplanes began to depart.

No I never suggested you would suggest or purchase an airplane with corrosion all I'm saying is if someone finds a solid airframe and engine a panel can be improved upon, In fact there are lots of folks here that have been doing just that even though they are well aware they will never recover the investment. Plus one can look at a simple panel as a blank canvas that can now be improved exactly the way they want not almost or good enough but exactly. As I said its a balance of mission and budget. And since I did not do all due diligence on ours I could take offense that you would call me a fool, I don't I just didn't know then what I know now. You know I have a ton of respect for you Paul we just have different missions, expectations and means that we apply to our passion for flight. One of the things I like most about Mooney Space is that most folks here have way more knowledge and experience than me so I get the benefit of learning. Sadly I don't really have much that I can bring to the table for others.

I think you both have a point and the OP did mention the IFR but in support of Scott's opinion as a VFR pilot with no intention or need for the ins rate the items that GXR considered essential don't fit my mission needs and you can always improve a solid airframe but a great panel is of little use when you find a corroded spar. As is mentioned many times on similar threads it's all about a balance of mission and budget. Good luck in your search.

Well triple d was just a thought but I think the important thing is about getting the viewer into the characters and how the stories relate to them

I think how an airplane is maintained is more important than its age. Ours is a 64 which is outside your window but I can tell you it's dispatch rate has been almost 100% for the five years we have owned it.

Most of the reality based shows that are successful are so because of character build up. I think a great idea that could promote GA would be to showcase a number of pilots that volunteer to do life flights as well as rescue flights for dogs and cats. The life flights would provide drama and the rescue flights would help keep it light and fun. Then as with so many reality shows once you get the viewers into the characters you could branch out to other types of flights such as vacation adventure or trips to fly in events. I even thought it would be cool if Diners Drive ins and dives did a season of airport resturaunts that Guy Could fly to.

Fresh oil change and thankfully had another clean screen once again. So for today we flew down to LVK to celebrate two birthdays mom turned 97 and hanging tough. Had to dodge a few clouds along our path but otherwise very nice weather for flight. Landing was so smooth I could not tell when the wheels were on the Tarmac. Trip home and we were treated to some free gas courtesy of some uplift on the west side of Mt Diablo giving us 1500 fpm at 125 mph. Once leveled off my wife felt like she wanted to sleep the way home so climbed in the back to lay down. Once I got things trimmed out we picked up a solid 4 knots with her in the back too bad we had a healthy headwind for most of the trip home but always nice to see the airspeed in the yellow during level flight. Sure is nice to be able to avoid all that Bay Area traffic and turn a two and a half hour drive into a forty five minute flight.

Just signed up weather permitting looks like we will be able to attend. Should make for quite a group.

Based just 20 Mooney minutes NE of 069 I concur with how poor the weather was all day yesterday can't imagine flying in such bad conditions. A normal departure from 29 for us takes several minutes straight out before we can make the NE turn in order to clear that ridge. Very sad news to be sure. Thoughts and prayers to his family and friends

I'm sorry but first some thoughts and prayers to those left behind. I have a pretty good sense of humor but were talking about (jokingly) Windex and such when one of our fellow Mooney pilots ended up in a smoking hole. Just seems a bit inconsiderate

You must have been making one serious low pass to take that shot of the traffic that day

Easter in Lincoln, was our first time flying there nice airport and as always turned a two plus hour drive into a half an hour flight. Had a great day with our family, trip home had us into a pretty strong headwind but still made good time Snoopy performed well but is time for an oil change and next month is my BFR. Hard to believe how fast time passes.

How about a pair of channel locks with some tape on the jaws

Thanks Andy

The weather has been great for our water supply but not so for this VFR guy. Today looked promising but the clouds were moving in and our supply run was not critical and had to spend some time switching ours with our hangar partner none other than Paul Loewen and his 252 by the time we got that done I was set to give it up but really needed to get Snoopy back in the air. My wife bless her heart said why not just fly around the patch for a while and I'll take some pics. So out over the lake for some practice aviating get things up to temperature and back for a not to shabby landing. Hopefully the weather will improve soon.

The most impressive tech for Georges ride was not how it flew or even that it could fold into a brief case but that it could be lifted and carried by one hand

Went to look took a test flight read the logs (which might as well been in Chinese) wrote a check had it delivered. Cant get much more serious than that.

"A Lonely Kind Of War" by Marshall Harrison "Chickenhawk" bt Robert Mason "flight of the intruder" (terrible movie) great book Stephen Coonts (canable queen) All written by actual pilots that flew the airplanes and helo's they write about

I was wondering when someone was going to point out the percentages

I thought I was going to enjoy a quick flight in your 252 while eating my lunch alas only a push back into the hangar. But the same applies to our wonderful D/C very lucky indeed

Took a plier but that did it that little sucker did not want to come out.

Last flight I noticed the gear unsafe light was inop. Bench tested and would not light. So the question is how to extract the bulb from the housing. sorry about the poor image quality IPad camera not very good. Thanks for any advise on this little sucker.