David_H

^ This... The commercial plane ticket and time required to go see a plane in person is small compared to time required to maintain a plane.... unless you have extremely deep pockets. If they can't send you enough information to justify the purchase of a commercial ticket to see it in person and you still decide to purchase sight unseen, be prepared to make the blank checks rain.

There may even be some luck needed to get one. Cheap doesn't exist in aviation.

^This is 100% true. If you read the Policy Definitions of "Named Pilot" and "Named Insured" in your policy you will see that being a "Named Pilot" without a "Waiver of Subrogation" leaves the "Named Pilot" with a significant amount of exposure. It's my understanding that this basically places the "Named Pilot" in the same category as a "Rental Pilot." The "Named Insured" liabilities are covered... the "Named Pilot" is not completely covered by the policy. In this case, the insurance company has cleverly hedged their bets against the "Named Pilot" while also increasing the annual insurance premium. It takes reading the policy over several times to connect the dots. You may become angry after doing so. Parker, correct me if I'm wrong.

I've had IPads shut down due to overheating on a few occasions. This likely happened because it was mounted in direct sunlight due to being in a Canopy. However, this hasn't happened in the Mooney since the cabin is shaded well. The Mooney has a moving map GPS panel mounted... but the Mooney is not the only plane I fly. I do my best to transfer habits between planes in an effort to be safer. The last time the IPad overheated, I used the stored paper sectionals to build a tent over the IPad to keep it cool since it's more convenient to use. While the IPad cooled down, I had a paper sectional neatly folded and clipped to my mini note-taking kneeboard, making it a non-event. I've also had an IPad battery go dead due to a bad USB charger while in the Mooney. The replacement USB charger now has an indicator light on it to help prevent that from happening again.

Being a named pilot vs. named insured. In addition to open pilot warranty, there is a lot to unpack there.

Come on now... what if "Danger Zone" was also playing loudly in the background?

The Jaeger pockets look to be nice. However, attachment to the old brittle side panels might be difficult.

I use and Ipad as well... but also like to keep backup sectionals within reach due to experiencing Ipad overheating in the past. Its nice to be able to quickly get frequencies from a paper sectional if needed. More importantly, it would be nice to keep checklists in one spot. I use flow checks while in the air... but use checklists while on the ground.

I suppose it might be a good idea to include storage for an input stylus as well so it feels familiar to others.

There could be some surplus stores in Chicago that possibly could have something. That said, Amazon looks to be the easy answer.

I generally don't like to keep anything between the seats due to the gear position indicator in the floor. I check both the in-dash gear-down light as well as the floor gear position indicator during my GUMPS checks. It was the floor gear-down indicator that likely kept me from having a gear-up landing on a night-flight just a couple months back due to a weak gear motor tripping the breaker.

I'm currently using a Tupperware container in either the passenger seat or the passenger side floor to hold Checklists and Sectionals in an electric gear M20F. If something doesn't make it in the Tupperware container, it's certain to end up in the back floor where it can't be reached when needed. Does anyone have a good solution for a Map Pocket? Maybe something like the attached photo could be used with hook-and-loop fasteners? I haven't been able to find anything like this yet.

This is a good question... why is WAAS GPS positioning data not good enough to give altitude reporting information?

Several references over the past six months have cited increases in aviation insurance premiums are due to the market "Firming up." An uptick in the local aviation scene doesn't appear to be visible... so this seems confusing. What does the Aviation Market "Firming up" really mean and how has this come to be?

Unless the pilot has an accident history, $4K for annual premiums for an E doesn't make very much sense.

This is an informative thread. Thanks for stepping up to take a shot at answering some questions Parker. Everyone knows there isn't a single correct answer usually.... but dealing with airplane insurance seems like a shootout in the Wild West. It seems as if some form of luck ends up being being the deciding factor when premiums are discussed. It doesn't seem to make much sense to anyone.

I'm glad that we're able to fly older airframes. Most of us wouldn't be able to get off the ground if we had to buy a new Mooney to get into aviation.

Camping and Mooneys go very well together.

As airplane enthusiasts, we can all agree that Mooney has always produced fantastic planes. Most enthusiast don't care much about Marketing. I've never seen a Ferrari commercial, yet I know it's an enthusiast's car... not something you take the family camping in. If marketing is truly the root problem, then why are there no threads on MS talking about how great their new Mooney is? After all, this is arguably one of the most Mooney-centered groups in existence.

Clever Marketing isn't going to fix the problems.

This still looks like a step forward even if the AOA feature isn't robust.

A Mooney is a Pilots airplane. It always has been and likely always will be. Until Mooney is able to bring pricing down to the point that pilots can afford to purchase one... the sales story will remain the same. The story also remains the same for many aspiring student pilots: They have to at some point ask themselves if going through training is really worthwhile if they're not going to be able to afford to purchase a plane to fly.

It's a bunch of little screens for now... just wait until it's one big screen. Alexa: Confirm Gear Down

Posting some photos and including an asking price would likely be helpful for you.

Suppliers such as Lycoming, Continental, Garmin, BK, ....etc. were allowed to turn the aviation market into a boutique operation. Evidence of this can be seen by observing at what a panel mounted GPS costs to purchase and install. Produced quantities are artificially stymied by keeping component costs high.