toto

One more data point... I use a nylon strap (link below) and remove everything. Then I get myself under the cowl and just pop the clasp and the cowl falls down. It's easier than trying to reach camlocks while under the plane, and arguably less fiddly than trying to unhook a bungee. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BSJVW59

This may be an obvious recommendation, but what I would add to all of the great suggestions above is: Try to pick a relatively quiet time in your life to do this. Buying an airplane is an adventure, and whether your bird of choice is factory new or the first model year of a vintage craft, you're going to be thrown a bunch of curveballs. Stuff isn't going to work right. You're going to get unexpected phone calls from unexpected people asking for decisions you can't make and cash you'd rather not spend. I know you said you'll be in the same place for a few years, but you also mentioned a few other "life" stressors... try to pick a period of time where you can absorb a continuous din of aircraft buying crazy without too much harm. It does get better the second time

A friend has a lot of time in a Tecnam twin Rotax, and raves about it. I believe the Tecnam has an FAA type certificate, but I think they've also moved on from Rotax to Lycoming. Not sure if they're still making Rotax-powered twins today.

I always thought Rutan's asymmetric Boomerang was a clever solution to the critical engine problem. http://rutanboomerang.com/ It also just looks way cooler than a 337

Seems like most of the lessons that apply to Mooney ownership apply to other types as well. A handful of things that I've learned that are kind of Mooney specific.. * The tail trim system works well, but needs to be maintained. If your shop lets the jackscrew get dry, you may be unable to trim the aircraft at all. Keep it greased. * There's a tiny spring in the electric gear actuator that has a very small chance of failure, but when it does fail, you can't operate the gear. Replace it every 1000 hours or so for peace of mind. * The electric tachometer, driven by an engine-mounted tach generator, can fail because of a crummy little wire attached to something near the ignition. If your electric tach gets goofy and the shop knows to check the panel ignition wiring, this is literally a 10-minute fix requiring a screwdriver. If the shop doesn't know about this, they'll spend weeks and many hours replacing things before figuring it out.

There is a documented problem (with a service bulletin) in certain Pipers that have a static port on the same vane with the pitot. That was ultimately a software fix. But there is also a (maybe unofficial) recall on a batch of servos. We had all of the servos replaced under warranty by Garmin at a total cost of zero, and the porpoising problem has not returned. (Note this is in a PA-28.)

Surprised this hasn't already appeared in the thread, but.... http://rudyaircraftinstruments.com/

Wow, that looks fantastic. Nice.

DigiWx has this little info page, with a very short list of supported airports. No idea how representative this might be.. http://www.digiwx-usa.com/

+1 Over the years, I've had three different situations where I lost electrical power while on an instrument clearance, but VMC above a layer. In all three cases, I was near enough to SKC conditions that I elected to divert to an uneventful landing at a nearby airport. Each of the three cases played out essentially the same way: When rolling in to the FBO at a small uncontrolled field, a guy came running out holding a phone and saying "FAA would like to talk to you." In all three cases, the controller on the phone was awesome and understanding. I explained what happened, case closed. The first two of these happened more than a decade ago and I don't remember the phone conversation in much detail, but the most recent was about 18 months ago. I had a longish conversation with the controller this time, really just out of curiosity, and we talked through the process on his end. He explained that when they see a lost comms aircraft divert, they essentially declare an emergency on the pilot's behalf, and a controller takes responsibility for the aircraft until it has arrived somewhere and the controller has spoken to the pilot. There's a certain amount of paperwork involved on the controller's end, but basically "total electrical failure, pilot proceeded to nearest airport for uneventful landing VMC" is an acceptable statement for the report. I know that having a phone call with the FAA really freaks people out, but I've had absolutely nothing but positive experiences with controllers in these circumstances. Professional to a one, and concerned only about safe outcomes for all.

The big advantage over the GNS units was native support for airways iirc.

Congratulations! I traveled to see this aircraft about five years ago, and was blown away by how clean the owner kept the aircraft and the hangar. I'm pretty sure you could eat out of the wheel wells. And off the hangar floor. I think you'll really enjoy it.

The 210 has a built-in AHRS, which the 510 does not. Otherwise they're equivalent. The 210 is a standalone unit, and the 510 fits in an SD slot on a GTN. ETA: Oh, and the database concierge works only on the 510. So maybe db concierge and AHRS offset?

This one? Al Mooney article 1952.pdf

I'm sure that Doc or Blue or Jonny can answer the question definitively about current requirements, but I think they're nonzero. A local MSC had to drop the designation when their Mooney-trained mechanic left, and they told me that they weren't able to keep the designation unless they had an A&P on staff with a current Mooney certification. (No idea what that really amounts to, but..)

I dropped Jeppesen like a bad habit as soon as the Garmin navdata became available. I was always astounded that Jepp's customer support was as bad as it was, given that (imo) they had a very superior product and a lot of experience in the business.

If you want a 1090 emitter and you're planning on cutting open the panel anyway, you might look for a used GTX330ES. There seem to be a lot of them coming out from upgrades. That would eliminate the 978mhz concern. I was really excited about the Skyview HDX when it came out, but I had a really tough time finding an installer who wanted to do it. Most of the Dynon network seems to be experimental shops. The AP isn't certified yet, so you're just talking about a nice PFD/MFD. Might be worth considering a used 330ES plus an Aspen PFD for about the same money installed.

+1 for aliens

I've owned a Piper for a long time. They're great airplanes, and every mechanic at every airport in the known universe can work on them. I can buy parts from a factory dealer in town, and they stock a surprising number of the things I need. The Piper Forum is a great online resource, with an engaged community and a lot of experts who have been there, done that. But the Piper can't do what the Mooney can do. It's a night and day difference in aircraft capability, and for me the Mooney is worth the minor pain points of specialty parts and tribal knowledge.

Yep, that's right. FAA doesn't want to maintain VORs because they're expensive, but they have recognized the long term need for the high power network. (I think this largely covers enroute in the flight levels, but I'm not sure about long cross country flight down in the weeds.) My airplane came to me with an enroute certified GPS+LORAN receiver, which had a nice built-in backup option. As long as you were high enough, the satellites could be jammed all day long and you could navigate with a ground-based system. But with LORAN decommed, GPS is it. And this unit is currently sitting in a box in my basement I don't know if any of the major nav device manufacturers have incorporated a VOR-based RNAV function, but it would make a lot of sense. My perception is that today's flight students are very dependent on GPS, and are not very proficient at dead reckoning. If the nav box could just switch to a ground-based position source when GPS goes out, the pilot wouldn't need to do much but acknowledge the condition and then continue the flight (albeit with less accuracy) in an emergency fallback mode.

Interestingly, I think that Garmin had as much to do with driving subscription prices down as Seattle or anyone else. I'm sure that they didn't make any friends at Jeppesen/Boeing when they decided to compete with their own navdata product. In the early real-time wx world, it cost something like $450 per year per unit for a 430 navdata subscription, and $900/year for a 696 handheld, plus $59/month or whatever for XM aviator. When Garmin started offering their own navdata, these prices were completely upended. Why should a handheld cost twice as much as an enroute+approach certified panel unit? And why should you pay separately for each panel unit in the same airplane? No idea. But once the Garmin data came out, it all went away.

Right, that's what we're talking about. The increasing reliance on satellite-based nav is unfortunate, especially since ground-based backup options are dwindling. I'd love to see someone come up with a cheap INS, whether it's based on some accelerometer thing or some breakthrough cheap LRG. But in any case have a local position source as backup would be nice.

It's a local position source?

With an old VOR-based RNAV receiver, you could even fly direct using nothing but VORs. It's a little distressing how we've gone "all in" with satellite-based navigation. People think of a moving map as synonymous with GPS, but the map just sits in a database and the GPS is just a position source. Having that source be 10,000 miles away with a weak and relatively fragile signal seems kind of meh. I'm a bit surprised that someone hasn't come out with a cheap pseudo-INS using a couple of accelerometers and a Raspberri Pi. Having a purely local nav source feels like the ultimate backup, even if it's completely uncertified.

Well, right, but I mean if it's just an unscheduled test - the inaccurate position event that I encountered seemed more like SA than a broad jamming approach.