RLCarter

You train to the published minimums, but someone's personal mins might be higher due to turbulence, wind, equipment or what ever might be going on. People die because they go past their personal mins not because they won't go lower.

MS FSX or X-Plane work really well for Instrument procedures, personally I use FSX with CH yoke and pedals. Picked up all of it on eBay for less than 100 bucks, as Andrew mentioned, Weather can be set to what ever you want as can pretty much every parameter including failures, there are even programs (free) that allow the use of your iPad and favorite moving map app.

Get a rope........ Well that might a little extreme

For you guys getting your panel updated my advice is get very very familiar with the new equipment before you start your Instrument training. Go up in VMC with a buddy, have him fly from the right seat while you play with your new equipment

Before my IR I spent many mornings sitting in the hangar waiting for the ceiling to lift, now punch through the layer and go. Learning to fly out of an uncontrolled field, I would be a little timid flying into busy airports, when on an IFR flight plane you get walked all the way in, as @gsxrpilot says, much easier flying

I would say 1st fly the plane, I wouldn't concern myself with proper phrasing, just tell them what you need

So whats too cold for the plan? Screw the plane, I call no joy way before it would

trim is your friend, chances are too tight of grip on the yoke...it will all fall into place around the 20hr mark

7.5 gallon makes it even tougher

I do a lot of safety piloting and I get a kick out of it when there is a x-wind and all the needles are centered and then they get a peek at the runway say 600ft agl or less, they will turn towards what they saw almost every time

@SkyTrekker with a 70~80% dropout rate its awesome that you have pushed on. Part 61.65 spells out the requirements for the Instrument Rating, log 40 or so hours of x-country as PIC before you start your IR training (its needed anyway)because if your like most the next 40+ hours will be looking at the instrument panel.

An Instrument Rating as Paul has stated above adds so much utility to your flying. Most VFR pilots only have the 3 hrs of "Hood" time that was required while getting their PPL and haven't practiced that since receiving their ticket. If nothing else grab a safety pilot on a VFR day or a CFII on an IFR day and get on those instruments, straight & level is better than nothing but climbs, descents, turns and air speed changes will be more beneficial. A friend with over 500hrs (the cocky zone) flew into a cloud late at night, he was at 10.5 and didn't regain control of the aircraft until 4K, I was really hoping this would convince him to get his IR rating but it hasn't yet

I have the one from Aircraftdoorseals.com, if you are really really carefull you can make it 6 months before it gets torn somewhere. Seems to seal alright just fragile to the touch. Easy to repair with material found at one of the big box stores

The.one I have is a very dark blue with NO lettering.... I like it

Saw this on another thread and thought it should be moved to its own Hello everyone, this is Cecilia Henderson with Brittain Industries. My friend Chuck let me borrow his account so I could speak to all of you directly regarding Brittain. On December 15th my brother Jerry Walters, our owner and resident expert, passed away after a brief battle with cancer. As many of you already know, Jerry was the heart and soul of Brittain and leaves behind a big foot print which is impossible to fill. Those of us left behind are desperately trying to find a way to move the company forward but with Jerry's passing we have lost our only certificated repairman (return to service authorization), our chief inspector (production approval), accountable manager and autopilot installation/repair expert. Given the current circumstances we are unable to repair or produce any product at this time and therefore must ask that you NOT send your step servos or any other products to us until further notice. If you already have product in our shop we will be in touch with you very soon about returning the products and we will keep you posted about our future via our website www.brittainautopilots.com We are so grateful to the Mooney community for their support of our products over the decades and we will do everything possible to restart the company in as quick a time frame as we can. We know many of you still have servos in need of repair and may even be on our backlog for upgrades to your current system. Efforts are under way to sell the company in the hopes of completing the re-tooling of our production line and meeting our backlogged orders but this transition will take some time as we hire, train and apply for FAA approval of a new autopilot expert. We invite you to reach out through our email account, support@brittainautopilots.com with your questions and request and Kevin and I will do all we can to assist you through this transition. Thank you Mooney flyers, we hope to see you on the other side of this sad transition. Sincerely, Cecilia Henderson

I replaced mine with one from LASAR, sorry no pics but it works fine

yep, as always in aviation it is a $500.00 solution to $30.00 problem

Critical Engine failure, they roll over extremely fast

Divide the # of screws removed by 4.68, multiply that by .835 and you'll be close.

Merry Christmas

My guess would be over 1000 fasteners of some sort gets removed and reinstalled at annual

640+ in the wing plates alone, Al Mooney owned a screw company and build an aircraft company as a customer

Hmmm? I can (button next to submit)

Thanks Jerry, will let him know about these. I'm going to talk to a local Avionics guy that is really good, he's repaired a couple radios and audio panels for me over the years

I had it at a radio shop and one of the boards in the radio is smoked