toto

Agreed. I have a grand total of about five hours now with the GFC500, and still getting to know it. But the envelope protection seems worth the price of admission - particularly in an "incapacitated pilot" scenario where it will help to buy valuable time. Still, in the context of this thread, we *are* talking about ceding some responsibilities to automation, and we'll have to get comfortable with that. The scary automation narrative is the one that may end up being at issue with the max-8: The aircraft is doing something you don't expect, and don't want to continue, but you're not sure how to shut it off. (I'll grant that there are plenty of situations where the automation is actually doing the right thing, and the pilot is mistaken - but knowing the aircraft systems allows a more informed decision in any case.)

Possibly worth noting that the new digital autopilots available for our birds inject automation where it didn't previously exist. The envelope protection stuff (available both on the Garmin and TruTrak APs) is a bit unnerving at first. On the GFC500, with the AP off, if the aircraft exceeds its safe envelope (predetermined thresholds for pitch, bank, and speed), the AP servos engage to push the AC back into compliance. If you want to do flight training (think slow flight or unusual attitudes), you have to disable the envelope protection or you'll be fighting it. (Again, note this is with the AP switched off.)

"Soon" is relative There are a lot of folks on this board who would love to see it happen soonish. You could always buy a hangar find and convert to an experimental registration, then install a G3X or a Skyview yourself

I was assuming it's screwed in on one end but flips up freely with one hand, dunno.

I'd love to see a photo of this. Mine doesn't have a cover (aside from the metal flap), and if one exists it might be nice to have. I'm always cautioning passengers about getting things caught in the emergency handle.

I really really wish WingX would support Garmin ADS-B. They have said for years that Garmin won't open their platform, and won't play nice with third party app developers. But meanwhile both FF and FltPlanGo got Garmin ADS-B support. (Of course, it's possible that the FltPlan acquisition was in the works when support was added.) Anyway, I'd love to see a legit alternative to FF and GP, and I keep hoping that WingX can be that alternative. But I want an option that talks to a GTX, so FltPlanGo has been my go-to CB option.

I think that the arrival of digital plates doomed Jepp's paper business for non-professional pilots. I subscribed to Reader Plates way back in the days when NOS charts were first available for free download. For 9 bucks a month, I saved untold hours of time filing those absurd Jepp updates, not to mention lugging leather binders around on every trip. I strongly preferred the Jepp chart format, but at a fraction of the cost and a vanishing fraction of the time, I switched to government plates on an ebook and never looked back.

I've flown several LPV approaches and haven't seen this behavior. But the manual suggests that the approach may have lost VNAV after the FAF (see below). 2.3.1.2 VERTICAL DEVIATION (GLIDEPATH) INDICATOR - GPS SOURCE The Vertical Deviation (Glidepath) Indicator (VDI) also appears to the left of the altimeter (PFD page) and to the right of the compass rose (HSI page) during a GPS approach. The glidepath is analogous to the glideslope for GPS approaches supporting WAAS vertical guidance (LNAV+V, L/VNAV, LPV). The Glidepath Indicator appears on the G5 as a magenta diamond. If the approach type downgrades past the final approach fix (FAF), “NO GP” is annunciated.

I once read a comment about turbine ownership that went something like "Go to the bank, take out $10,000 in cash, and light it on fire. If that bothers you, you can't afford a jet." I think the same is true for piston ownership, but it's more like $1000. If you aren't comfortable just torching a grand for no reason and with no notice, then you probably shouldn't own an airplane.

Unfortunately, you've asked the one question that we've all sworn never to answer.

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So..... Since we all have a vested interest in the future of Mooney, what can/should we do as a community to help ensure the best possible outcome for the company?

A C-150 is also certified for limited aerobatics, which might allow testing some unusual attitudes that you couldn't test in a Mooney.

Yeah, this is all super-subjective. I loved the Acclaim paint scheme, which I thought was very modern and helped make the M20 look more like a "serious" new plane than the white composite alternatives. (The white plastic looks kind of cheap to me - if I knew nothing about aircraft, I might assume a Cirrus was a trainer.) But I don't love the current retro Ovation/Ultra look, which seems like a hat-tip to a 1960's heyday. TBH, the whole 242KT Acclaim campaign was what I wanted to see from Mooney. A "catch us if you can" approach that put performance first, backed up by real data. That's where Mooney has always been the badass alternative. If you want the fancy seats and a pilot-side door, that's cool - we'll go ahead and start the appetizers while we wait for you to arrive.

At the same time, Mooney does not seem to be lacking confidence. It seems every GA magazine out there has at least one full-page ad from Mooney touting their new Ovation/Ultra models (often in the most high-profile locations, like the back cover). I don't know whether the advertising blitz is converting a lot of customers, but there's clearly some commitment to making a real run at this.

Love these old Mooney ads. They really do make a compelling value proposition, in the context of a healthy SEP market.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying you can't put stuff in a Mooney cabin. I'm just saying it's a PitA. The Piper baggage door is way better.

Yeah, hard but not impossible. I can get two mountain bikes into the back of the Piper if I take the wheels off. To get them into the Mooney requires taking the wheels off and then running them through a blender.

The only things the Piper has on the Mooney are rudder trim and a nice big accessible baggage door. Everything else on the Mooney is better.

Well, it's driven by a 430, but that radio is also the source for the LOC/GS/VOR. So if I pull the power from the 430, I'd lose the GPS but also the stuff I'm expecting to track.

Yeah I know, but replacing the whole cabin with a single piece of composite must have been a non-trivial engineering effort.

Mooney doesn't ask my advice, but if they had, I'd have told them the weight savings from the new composite fuselage components should have been used to add a BRS option instead of a second door. Whether anyone actually bought the BRS option or not is immaterial - it's about staying in the conversation with people who equate a chute with safety and lack of a chute with danger.

Yeah, they don't have a G5 simulator like they have for the navigators. I'd be happy with an offline app that could be used just to become familiar with the indications (an app that includes a "kill GPS" button).

I was pretty frustrated with the GPS limitation for ground-based navigation sources, but it's worth noting that the GFC500 does revert to pitch mode (if you're tracking an ILS) or heading mode (if you're on something without vertical guidance). So you get a big scary indication in the G5 that you've lost GPS, and the AP remains engaged in pitch mode. (I have a plane that just came out of the shop getting 2xG5+GFC500 installed - I've done a grand total of one flight with the new setup, but the performance of the GFC500 is impressive. I'm still trying to figure out a way to simulate GPS failure without having to physically disconnect something.)

I'm so tired of archaic spinning gyros and PoS circuitry that costs a fortune to keep running. If my Century 2000 shoots craps any time in the near future, I'm going to hand-fly until there's a GFC500 or an approach-approved TruTrak for the M20. The thought of throwing money at repairing 1950's technology makes my skin crawl. Even if the repair is cheaper than installing new, it always feels like kicking the can down the road to the inevitable upgrade.