Culver LFA

I was 38 when I bought my Mooney, I’m 48 now with ATP and 2 type ratings yet have only seen annual increases in rates every year. I was once told by my agent that the rates would have gone up more without the experience and additional ratings so I guess I’m fortunate!

I purchased an IFD440 from Jesse Saint a few years ago, flew in and picked it up from his shop on one of my trips down to FL. Great guy and I wouldn’t hesitate to buy from him again!

Most important thing is to find the shop you want to work with, see their work and get on the schedule. The logistics of getting the airplane there and back home is the easy part. I know from experience ferrying Mooneys around the country, sometimes it’s worth going to places like Atlanta to Tampa because it’s a lot easier to catch an airline back home than to go some place closer to Atlanta (but out in the middle of nowhere). I could fly a Mooney down to Tampa area in the morning, catch an Uber to TPA, eat lunch and airline home in time for dinner that same day. If you went to somewhere like Selma AL to get your airplane painted, it’s hard to get a rental car or airline back to Atlanta because there just isn’t much around. I took one airplane to Selma for paint and I ended up asking one of my neighbors fly out to pick me up to get me back home, it was the only way to do the trip in a day.

My father-in-law's mobility and stability was not good enough for him to step from the footstep to the wing, I still have a little dent in the baggage door from his palm pressing firmly against it trying to keep his balance. He was determined to get into the airplane so I took him around the front, had him step up on a little foot stool and sit down on the leading edge of the wing. He then scooted backwards and slid into the seat. We didn't fly that day but he sat there for a good 10 minutes and told stories about when he was flight training as a private pilot back in the day. That ended up being his last time in an airplane so it was all worth it.

Absolutely, what’s your timeframe? I’ll PM you.

Good options, and insurable I have a little over 40hrs with the Mooney this year, 19 in a J3. Each one definitely has a purpose!

KLRDMD Buy a Pitts, problem solved!

I haven’t stayed more than an hour or so but nothing is free in the Keys! Probably best to give them a call before you arrive so you know what to expect.

The staff at Million Air is really good, very friendly and helpful. I go down there every other month or so for work, usually grab the keys to the Milionaire Jeep and get a sandwich to go from Frank's Grill, then head back home.

Just imagine all the stress the electric gear Mooneys are experiencing in those instances. Those pilots have no physical gauge of how their climb/speed is putting the gear components under so much pressure because the switch on the panel feels the same either way On a serious note, if going missed in cruddy weather/IMC, you could always consider leaving the gear down and climb out until there is more more distance between you and the ground. You can do the 'push' to assist the gear swing but honestly there is plenty of time to swing the gear on the way to the hold and these airplanes climb really well with the gear still hanging out.

In the grand scheme of things, tires and tubes are cheap to replace at your home field. Hard to believe but a date code of 2005 is 18 years ago, if mine I’d have replaced those tubes/tires twice by now even if in good condition and sleep good at night knowing I did my best to prevent issues down the road.

Whenever I look at a RV10 I think that would be a great replacement for my 67 F, but when I step away and look at the much higher acquisition costs, the build time, higher fuel burn for the same speed, and lower baggage compartment weight capacity, I am happy to keep my old Mooney another year. While a new experimental with all the wizz bang electronics would be nice, I just want to fly and a lightweight 67 F with manual gear/flaps and a couple simple ADs sure is hard to improve upon.

A friend of mine and I have been, over a few beers, talking about putting a M20 wing on a RV10. We think it would be good to give up the shorter takeoff/landing roll for a faster cross country machine.

Little bit jealous, gotta admit! I think 99% of the long flights I’ve completed in the last 12 months comes with minimum 25+kt headwind, I’ve done something wrong…

I think that they really believed that they were doing the right thing, and by their response, the ground controller must be wrong! But their situational awareness was off and they were not going where they thought that they were. Probably 90 degrees off like was mentioned before. How’d it happen? I don’t know but this confusion can happen so easily and that’s exactly why there are two pilots, there’s no shame in saying “Stop! I think we’re going the wrong way” or whatever the problem is even if you’re incorrect in the end. As a recent example (I’m with a Part 91/135), on an arrival we briefed the approach that we were expecting from ATIS and then reviewed our expected taxi route as we always do. Then, while busy on the arrival, Approach changes the runway direction and switches everybody. So no big deal, you’re landing from the other side from what you previously briefed. But you are busy, recalculating landing numbers, briefing the new approach, loading it, etc, then get vectors, intercept and land, but you never briefed the new taxi route and now you’re on the ground. Everything still seems ok but when you turn off the runway something starts to seem off, you hesitate for a second as your brain says, “Wait a minute, I’m going the wrong way…” because you (from the prior briefing in the air) expected to turn the other direction. So you clear the runway, get confusing taxi instructions and have to stop to look at your taxi diagram to see what’s up before proceeding. I don’t know what happened in their heads but the human brain just seems to have a hard time letting go of bad information. All it takes is a long day, weather challenges, an unexpected change or a little distraction and you are on your way to a mistake, hopefully not a dangerous/life threatening/career ending one. They approached the crossing runway, looked out the window (and maybe even saw the other airplanes lights!) but whatever, it’s not all processing yet, we are where we are supposed to be, clear left/clear right, cleared to cross… This flying thing is really easy and fun until something goes wrong and you get on the wrong side of being ahead of the game. I’m so glad this wasn’t a huge disaster and everyone was able to go home. I bet the crew is just beating themselves up for crossing that runway.

This one sold quick, it has moved on to it's new caretaker!

I’ll bring this thread back to life because Cody Stallings is an absolute rockstar. We flew to Delta Regional today to drop some passengers off for an overnight and, with the potential for some ugly weather, Cody parked us in his hangar to protect the airplane! Gave us a nice tour of his spotless facility, sat and chatted well past closing time. It’s so great to have a knowledgeable and honest guy you can trust in this industry and it’s so nice to know he’s willing to help even when your airplane doesn’t have propellers!

That wing mite not be for a J I can attest that Jim's Mooney (and all his airplanes) are kept in the finest condition. You will not find a better airplane than one that rolls out of his hangar. Somebody is going to get a sweet one here!

Yes, first lesson and it sounds like you did a ton during it. Definitely don't put another thought into changing airplanes right now. If you don't have one already, set up a computer in a quiet place you can sneak away and shoot approaches on a flight simulator. I think I was able to learn 10x's more sitting in front of the computer with a beer and X-plane flight simulator flying IMC and shooting approaches than I did when in the actual airplane. I would often times "re-fly" the days lesson with the flight sim which really helped me to understand what happened when my brain was fried in the airplane.

For me, the instrument rating was a tough one. It was mentally exhausting at times but probably the most rewarding check ride to complete. Are you sure it's the airplane you are struggling with? I wouldn't change anything equipment wise or you may take a big step back learning a new airplane and then picking up your training where you had left off.

If you look at your aircraft settings, what is your maximum ceiling set at? This will change what altitudes are displayed for winds aloft

I believe it is based off of the aircraft you have selected, my M20F shows the winds aloft down low but if I change to the CJ it goes up into the flight levels

This is what my wife and daughter have for the airplane: https://www.oxo.com/oxo-tot-2-in-1-go-potty.html#gray-gray

We have one in the airplane, it’s a folding travel potty thing (it’s like a small toilet seat with a folding base). I think my wife found it on Amazon but I’ll have to ask her, hopefully I can post a link. The thing gets packed on the hat shelf and she says just having it in the airplane calms her nerves enough that it is normally not needed. Traveling with 2 girls I plan stops around 2.5hrs for relief/stretch breaks, but even with that planning sometimes the folding potty gets utilized.

I do this pretty often, usually end up going east of the Windsor airspace heading up to Sandusky MI, talking to Approach when VFR or IFR, and have not been billed for any transitioning of the Canadian airspace. Detroit usually needs to move you east of their airspace for the arrivals and down to 5000' over Lake St Clair when heading north, going south I usually start a climb up to 10'000 which is where I want to be anyway heading home, it seems to work for their incoming traffic and I'm more comfortable crossing the lakes. Detroit controllers are some of the best I've ever worked with, they really seem to understand the challenges of weather (like needing to get low early or staying high longer to prevent icing going through clouds) and working the traffic flow between the slow guys (us) and the fast traffic arriving and departing. Enjoy your flight! Just one more thought, I'm always with Detroit/Great Lakes approach when doing this, not sure if that matters billing wise but they never hand me over to Canadian ATC?