PeteMc

Don't know how important time is for your flight. But if you can spare a few days while enroute, we always try to pick places along the way that we'd otherwise not make it to. Some for a few hours, most for at least an overnight or maybe a few days. One year on our way to Spokane, WA we intentionally made a big loop to the south to go to Santa Fe, NM for a few days, then up to Jackson, WY to see a friend for the day and then the quick hop up to Spokane. On another flight we stopped at Mt Rushmore, just to see it. So Great Circle and pick good fuel stops if you have a mission to get there. Otherwise, think of someplace to go, then plan the flight.

Any idea who did the maintenance so that 1) you can talk to them and find out about the maintenance and 2) find a different set of eyes to check out the plane.

Where are you located? In addition to the places @PT20J mentioned. I believe LV Avionics at Allentown (KABE) works on them. 610-264-1430 I do know that he works on the Servos and often just cleaning and tweaking can make a BIG difference and extend their life.

There's a guy in Coeur d'Alene Airport (KCOE) that works on Mooneys (blanking on the name). If you're that interested, maybe it's worth having him fly over. Pending his plane, it's looks like it's about an hour flight from KCOE to KGTF.

I had a local sail/cover shop add a booty for my top ADS-B antenna. Matched the material and did good craftsmanship (just made it bigger than I had asked for). Discussed having him use this one as a copy down the road and he wasn't to anxious. Said "you pilot's are too cheap!" Guessing he's been reading the aviation sites!

I have a friend that decided to give the Mac cover a try and came to the same conclusion. Not as well made as the Bruce, but it fits pretty well and he can buy 3 for the cost of the 1 Bruce. So if gets more than a couple of years out of his Mac, he's ahead of the game. And in time, hopefully Mac will keep tweaking their cover. I got one of the last (if not the last) Planecover.com/Ground Tech covers with full on Sunbrella material and an excellent fit. So I'm good for a while, but I'll probably look at the Mac when it eventually is time.

Apparently it could be now days... https://www.ifr-magazine.com/avionics/you-could-fly-a-cat-ii-ils/

Heard from a friend at HPN that saw the plane. He confirmed it was the nose wheel that collapsed. Going through the options, there are not a lot of things I can think of that would cause that on a maintained Mooney. I would hope any rusted out or bent (tug) pieces would be discovered in the preflight or at least at the annual or during oil changes.

I was just about to say what @midlifeflyer said... If you're truly VFR, then you can get an update for the 375 once a year or every couple of years. Your choice. But you will need to have a subscription for you ForeFlight or Garmin Pilot App to make sure the Sectionals are current. ALSO, the info in the iPad will be the Go-To to confirm frequencies, etc. Even though they're in the 375's DB, they could easily change at any time. So that's were the "current" EFB comes in. Now if you are considering any IFR, then you really don't have a choice but to get a subscription. As soon as you decide to take that spring trip and get and update and then a summer trip and get an update and then a fall trip before the winter Wx hits, you've already spent way extra. So you should look at the Bundle for the GTX375 and GI275. I you do use G Pilot you can update through that. But I think it may be quick to just swap out the SD Card in 375 and that will update both the 375 and 275. (You take the old card home and update it when the next update is available and just swap the cards again.)

I was taught the Touch method, especially for the pre-takeoff check.

Yes, but.... the FAA data is very inexpensive. And when you consider how many people are paying for the Business/Airline versions, I think there's getting QUITE the large markup. I'm all for someone making a buck, but never had soft spot for gougers.

@Jocbay I wish you had posted your intentions earlier.... You could have renewed Tuesday at the old price for another year. The month or so you still had on your subscription would have applied to the renewal. Because I have primarily a Garmin panel I really can only use Garmin Pilot or FF. Even though they're saying they haven't raised prices in 5+ years, I still think that's quite the price gouge.

Congratz!! Next time you'll have to keep heading up to the NE for a fly-in....

Congratz!! Looks like a nice route home. On those initial local flights, have your CFI pound into you being on speed for the pattern and especially for the final and landing. If you have a lot of time in a Cessna, for the first few flares in a low wing and especially in a Mooney will seem different to you. But if you nail the speeds, you'll get the feel for the flare with just a few landings.

When I was asking around for a pending move to KSFF they were in the $500 range. Surprised there's such a difference - though they are limited in number so that's probably the driving factor. ADDED: Just saw @PT20J comment that he's paying "...$280/mo for a T-hangar with power and air and concrete floor in Port Townsend WA..."

Are you looking for right now (this week) or coming up in the near future (poss. April)?

And again... Where is the plane? I'm heading over to ABE probably on Wednesday. So if that's anywhere close to where the plane is I could easily pick up Dave (Air Mods) on my way and drop him off. Don't know how long it takes for a pre-buy, but at least he could do a once over and talk to you about what your goal was. Then he could figure out a plan with you.

You lost the six quarts over what period? Was it a 4-5 hour flight? If it was something like a turbo seal or any number of other things on a long flight, I could see that it blew out slowly during the duration of the flight. Was there no indication of a high or low (lack of oil to sense) oil temp during the flight? And how much oil does the Rocket hold normally? In my K that would be all but one quart (8 max, but usually only 7 when you check the dip stick).

I'll second Air Mods they're in NJ at the Trenton-Robinsville Airport (N87). Give Dave Mathiesen a call 609-259-2400 https://www.airmodsflightcenter.com/ What airport is the plane you're looking at located?

Ah! Well of course!!

I was checking out hangar options at two airports in the area we're moving to. Both the larger in city and much smaller community near by told me the costs for them as a government/city entity would be astronomical. The big city asked if I'd be interested in leasing some property and building the hangars. Same with the smaller airport that was offering ground leases for 500/yr to build your own. So neither airport was opposed to new hangars. But neither one could do it for a reasonable cost. So I think I'm seriously going to go back to looking at the soft "carport" type cover and see if I can get them to allow it. Sure, a full on hangar would be nice, but I just want to keep the snow and ice off and get some sun protection.

Nice! Just last week a few of us were talking about missing the Wx Channel morning aviation segment.

Hmmm... So did I have too much coffee or too little coffee that day....

There's another thread on how Avidyne "Black Lists" it units if the plane has been involved in any kind of incident. And there isn't clear guidance on what the threshold is. Sounded like even a gear up with no major damage to the plane would result with any Avidyne equipment going on their Black List, so no more support. At least that's how I read it.

Downside of the GNX is that it wouldn't give him the 2nd Comm he's looking for.