toto

No doubt. I'm always dubious of turbulence PIREPS -- since the words themselves are descriptive, and people don't take the time to learn the definitions, they see "severe" and go "yep, that's it."

It’s (maybe just a little) surprising to me that so many pilots are choosing to fly right through a sigmet for severe turbulence. My typical passengers have nervous stomachs, and I really never experience more than light to occasional moderate. If there’s an airmet for moderate, I’m usually delaying the flight. A turbulence sigmet would have me booking a hotel room and looking for new movies on Netflix

I think this is a great idea. I'd be happy to pay the $100 on January 1 every year, whether or not I went to the event. (I don't even want to think about how many random aviation-related memberships and subscriptions I already have - none of which are as important to me as keeping the lights on at the Mooney factory.) I was a little bit discouraged at the last factory shutdown, in part because I've never been there and always thought it would be fun to visit. An official annual event just to kick some tires and see what's going on would be fun.

Quite a few pireps for severe turbulence tonight. One in Aspen, with a few more in Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wyoming.

No doubt. We *really* care about these updates, and even an occasional word from Jonny’s mouth is so much better than speculation. We get all kinds of threads going here when it’s been too long since the last official post

My J is normally maintained by a shop on the field that doesn’t do a lot of Mooney work. I’ve been thinking for a while that I would take it to Don Maxwell for an annual once every so often, just to have a real Mooney expert look it over - and Maxwell has a very loyal following here on MS. Jonny’s post today has me thinking whether it’s better to go to the factory than to Maxwell for an occasional expert annual. I certainly don’t want to start any arguments here, just curious what others would do —- if you’ve never had an annual at either place, would you go to Maxwell, to the factory, or to a third option I haven’t considered? Midwest or south central ideally. Maxwell is about a two-hour flight for me, and he’s the closest out-of-town MSC. (Note that there is an MSC in my immediate area that I have no experience with - so an occasional annual at a local MSC is also an option.)

Any A&P should be able to install LEMO plugs that are compatible with the A20. You’ll get ship's power and audio (and I believe the LEMO A20’s still have a battery for backup).

This is a very interesting idea.

I’ve seen everything from a PC-12 to a King Air to a Beaver on amphibious floats at Gaston’s. Iirc it’s been a fly-in resort since the 1950’s. It’s well worth a visit, though, even if you want to land on pavement. Their restaurant is fabulous, and they have nice little cabins to stay in. (Also trout fishing, if that’s of interest.) Two public airports very very near by, and they’ll come pick you up if you call. http://vfrmap.com/?type=vfrc&lat=36.349&lon=-92.556&zoom=10&api_key=763xxE1MJHyhr48DlAP2qQ

Gaston’s is a fantastic grass strip. It’s about 3200’ long and maintained as well as any I’ve ever seen.

Personal favorite is 3M0, http://www.gastons.com It’s a nice, long, well-maintained grass runway. But if you aren’t interested in grass, there are two public airports very nearby. Gaston’s will come pick you up for free from Baxter County. Great place for aviation lovers, just watching planes come and go is great. Excellent restaurant overlooking the water, and accommodations aren’t bad.

Sounds interesting I'll be watching for it.

I know this post is nearly 10 years old, but just wanted to chime in here and say thanks to @Bob - S50 for the html takeoff calculator. I hadn't seen this before, and was growing tired today of squinting at the performance charts in my flight manual - found this post in my search, and voila

Wow, you’re completely right. I was looking at the wrong page. Here’s the correct product page. Much cheaper.

Kelly has a PMA now to make every component of the dual mags including the housing. They don’t sell these as “new” mags, but they can literally replace every single component on inspection. I know this because my mag just came out of IRAN and they essentially replaced every component including the housing. The IRAN was $3k but I’ve got what amounts to a brand new D3000. Or at least that’s what I tell myself to sleep at night

This is now listed at $6995 on the Electroair website. You pay $7995 and they give you back $1000 when they receive your old mag core. I’m feeling a little less bad about my $3000 IRAN now

Thanks for that - agree 100%

I was seriously considering it when Electroair announced pending FAA approval two years ago. But my 500-hour was coming up fast and I finally had to go ahead and do it. So now I’ve got another 500 hours to think about it

So glad to hear this news the same month that I spent $3k on an IRAN

For what it’s worth, a leaking compass can also cause a smelly cabin. You can normally run your hand around the bottom of the compass to find out if it’s leaking - and it’s a relatively cheap fix if so

Yeah, that's my take on it. I have a J model Mooney and a PA28, and the Mooney isn't any harder to find parts for than the Piper.

As others have said, the current problem with parts availability is industrywide. @M20Doc is both an MSC and a Cirrus service center, and he mentioned in a separate thread that he has had Cirrus aircraft grounded awaiting parts longer than any Mooney aircraft in his shop.

There have been something like 11,000 M20 airframes produced --- it's a niche aircraft, but a pretty healthy-sized niche as things go.

We had a thread on here a while back, but I haven’t heard of anyone using one in a Mooney yet.. https://mooneyspace.com/topic/35327-portable-auto-pilot/

Sort of curious why you sold the 510? Just not using the database concierge or wifi flight planning much?