Skates97

I have one for sale that I ordered for my D. Looks like you have a slightly different yellow arc but this shows what I put on the form when I ordered.

I look them up too. The first time I met Lee Trotter we were up in Utah and I got a PM on MS that said "I think I'm tied down next to you at U42." I was able to meet him the next day at the airport and chat while we brushed snow off our planes.

Last Saturday was a beautiful day for a flight down the coast to Gillespie. We got to fly right past Mirarmar, three miles off the approach end, if only we could have turned inbound.... https://intothesky.us/2020/12/05/negative-ghostrider-the-pattern-is-full/

Good to see it fits there at the top of the stack with the angled tubes, that is where I am planning to put it.

I just renewed and went from Falcon to @Parker_Woodruff this year. In terms of percentages of change this is what I have seen in the four years I have had our plane. The first year in 2016 I had less than 60 hours total time and no retract. During that first year I flew 140 hours in the Mooney so there was a nice drop. 2017 renewal - dropped 34.10% 2018 renewal - increase 6.47% 2019 renewal - increase 11.31% With multiple upgrades to the plane I have increased the hull coverage, but if I had kept the hull coverage the same the renewal quote for 2020 would have been an increase of 25.78% in premium. No claims, flying 100+ hours a year. No instrument rating, but it will be completed next Spring.

I currently have three different colors in my "Frankenstein" panel. On the left is what it was when I got the plane. In the top of the stack and the right side is the "get it close" color of the paint I bought when I had removed stuff and cut some temporary pieces to fill the blanks. On the right where the breakers are is the dark gray which I think I will use on the whole panel after I have an AP installed and have a new panel cut to flush mount the G5's and EDM900. Of all the colors I think I like the dark gray, perhaps just a shade lighter than what is currently there.

I'm happy to get in there and take one for the team. I just need Garmin to approve it for my 1965 D. The numbers are a bit fuzzy... I paid $5255 for the dual G5's and a flush mount plate from Chase, @Avionics Source back in August. I also had to buy the GAD13 and connector kit ($180) and a C307PS OAT Sensor ($90) plus the CANBUS wire, breakers, etc... I was installing a GNC355 and PMA 450B at the same time so not sure what the breakdown would be of all the miscellaneous stuff that was needed. Say maybe $6k in parts/equipment for the dual G5's? I did the installation myself so tack on whatever the labor would be, but $10k is probably fair. There are others that have had installs done that could give better numbers for complete install. Mine isn't a C but is a close cousin as a D and is a forever plane. Even though I had less than 60 hours when I bought it, I knew what I wanted, but there was also what I could afford. I started four years ago with a VFR only plane with no autopilot (what I could afford at the time). It wasn't fancy but "had good bones" and had been well cared for. Over the past year plus I've been collecting the pieces for the panel and finally did the work this summer. I don't know what it would have cost to pay someone to do it, but a rough guess is that if I had to pay someone then I would have easily spent as much for all the upgrades as I did for the purchase. When an AP is approved I will gladly spend the money to put the AP in. Would I change the way I went about it? Nope! For four years I have been blessed to own a plane and fly it all over the country making memories for a lifetime. I have spent the money on upgrades when I had it to spend and now have a plane that I know inside and out which is equipped the way I want (minus the AP I am still waiting to be approved). It's definitely more expensive than if I had bought one someone else upgraded, but again it was what I could afford, and I'll take the memories made, you can't put a price on them.

I'll do what I can to help get the Tru-Track certified. I put a pre-order in for the AV-30's when it was Aerovonics in April 2019. Then I waited and waited after uAvionix bought them out and they kept pushing it back another quarter. Finally I gave up and bought dual G5's earlier this year. My thinking was two part, one I wanted to upgrade the panel and remove the vacuum system, and two if the GFC500 was approved first I was going to put it in which would require a G5. I was halfway into the install when the AV-30's were approved... If the same holds true for the autopilots you just need to wait for the GFC500 to be approved for the short bodies. Once my plane goes into the shop for the GFC500 install the TruTrak should be approved before the install is done.

Do you have shoulder belts? If not then I would buy the Alpha Aviation ones that are push button with the shoulder belts. It was the most expensive thing I did right after getting our Mooney and hopefully the one upgrade I will never need. https://alphaaviation.com/mooney-m20-a-thru-k-push-button-release/

Wednesday I had a rare day off and my wife and I headed to the airport to fly the Mooney on a burger run. Instead we ended up going for a ride in my friend's Murphy Moose. My first time in a tailwheel and first time landing on a grass strip. It was awesome! More photos, videos, and the write-up on my blog. You Fly, We'll Buy

Wednesday after work I made the two mile drive to the airport for a nice sunset flight with my wife. It was a beautiful flight along the coast in the smooth evening air. A few pictures, more pictures and some short videos on my website. @Hyett6420, recognize the lifejacket? After your presentation at Mooney Summit last year we never fly along the coast without them on. https://intothesky.us/2020/11/21/chasing-the-sun/

I saw that when I was watching it but as usual when watching YouTube aviation videos I was riding the exercise bike. By the time I was done with the ride several videos later I forgot to go back and search to see if the Mooney belonged to a Mooneyspacer. I've been watching Josh's videos for a long time. He does a great job and this one was no exception.

It depends on how tall the pilot is. My wife and I are both 5' 10". We regularly fly with my now 16 yo who is just about to pass me up in height. He fits fine behind me, but if he complained I would just turn off the intercom. For insurance contact @Parker_Woodruff.

I have done quite a number of Pilot's and Paws flights between SoCal and Phoenix. The lady that runs one of the rescues texted me asking if I knew any CFI's in the Tucson/Marana area. She has a friend that she said has done 1 1/2 semesters at a flight school in Phoenix and is looking for a CFI. I'm not sure what school it is or why they aren't getting connected with a CFI through that school. I told her I would put the question out there. If anyone is interested you can PM me and I will give you her contact information.

I'm happy to give a ride. I'm at KFUL with a D (short body). DuBois out at KCNO has a B that they do instruction in.

Another question is how long after the flight did you check the oil. If you are checking it right after shutting down it is going to show much lower as the oil hasn't all drained back down into the pan yet. If you check it right after a flight and then go back alter you will see the difference.

I'm going to go with him having a bad day. If I'm not on flight following I base it on being 3-4 miles outside of their airspace. If there is a good VFR reporting point in route I usually use that as it makes it easier to tell them where I am. Just down the road from you at KFUL I usually call up a mile or two east of the Water Treatment Plant (charted VFR reporting point) when coming from the east, which is about 10-11 miles east of the airport. If it's quiet I have often heard "Mooney 78878, make straight in runway two-four, cleared to land" and that is from about 11 miles out and still 3+ miles outside of their airspace.

Kathy and I will be there. Looking forward to it.

This is my procedure exactly for long cross countries. Did it just last week going to Salt Lake from SoCal and back and a few weeks before that going to Salt Lake and then Phoenix. Just as a data point for @Tcraft938, with the carburetor you don't have to turn the fuel pump on and retard the throttle. You can watch the fuel pressure and when it is empty it will steadily and smoothly go to zero. If you switch tanks before it gets to zero the engine never skips a beat because there is still fuel in the carburetor. If you have a fuel flow meter you will see it momentarily increase after you switch tanks but then it will come back to where it was. If you don't catch it before the engine stumbles just switch tanks and because the prop is still windmilling and the plugs are still firing as soon as it has fuel/air mixture again it starts right back up. It really is no big deal and ensures all your fuel in one tank as Paul said. One thing I always check both before flight and during flight is to run my finger around in the cup for the selector to make sure nothing has fallen in there that could jam it when I go to switch tanks.

Not true, I've been wondering where you have been. Glad you are back.

The flight school I trained at always left the anti-collision light on as procedure to know if the master is left on. I kept that same procedure when I got the Mooney and leave the belly strobe on, can't miss it.

I have that one too for a '77 C and use it more than the original one from my plane, but it still doesn't specify a VSI. I have the VSI in my plane and plan on leaving it in the panel, it just surprised me that it wasn't "required."

Except there is no MEL in the POH for my 1965 D.

For part 125 operations, if a plane has a seating capacity of 20+ or payload of 6,000+ a VSI is required. I don't know enough about the planes in the AML for the G5 STC to know if any of them fall into that category. It also looks like a VSI is required for Part 135 IFR operations so maybe they put that in the installation to cover an instance where the aircraft it is being installed in requires it for the type of operations. In that case though I would think the wording would be different, something along the lines of "if a VSI is required by regulation/TCDS/etc..." STC - sa01818wi_08.pdf

To throw another wrench into this discussion, in the G5 installation manual it says that the VSI must be retained. If it is not a required instrument, why would it say that it must be retained?