Skates97

This is why we have the Mooney. Worked half a day on Friday and then flew to Salt Lake to surprise my sister for her 50th birthday. Then we got up Saturday morning, picked some raspberries for my dad from her garden and flew from Salt Lake to Phoenix to see my parents whom I haven't seen since Thanksgiving. On the way we flew over the tiny mountain town where my dad was born and the farm that was in the family for 100 years and took pictures and video for him. We also flew over Bryce Canyon and Lake Powell. We visited my parents and then had dinner at my sisters and stayed at one of my other sisters for the night. (Normally we stay at my parents but don't want to be in their home that much right now.) We had breakfast on the back patio with my parents this morning before flying home mid-day. A little over 1300 nm flown and memories to last a lifetime. Full post and more pictures coming soon.

This weekend were the first flights with the PMA450B that I put in which my son came along. My wife had flown to Phoenix and back with me a couple weeks ago and loves the new audio panel. My son is a fan too. I had it on crew mode because my wife likes listening to the radios but later in the flight I had it on "All." After a little while my son said "Can you push whatever button it is so that I don't hear the radios anymore?"

I think you are probably correct here. I just recently upgraded my panel and doing the online stuff to get ready and take my written IFR so I have no basis for how helpful they are to the GA IFR pilot. From reading about Rich's experiences they sound "Not so helpful..." For the VFR guy tooling around what is some very busy and congested airspace they are very helpful.

I do the same thing although I don't turn the fuel pump on. I leave the mixture at idle cut-off like you, I have found that if I pump the throttle or leave the mixture rich it takes longer to start. If I have the throttle all the way out I will push it in about 1/4 inch or so. Once the starter is engaged I start advancing the mixture and it will usually fire up by the 3rd or 4th blade.

I haven't flown as much as a lot of other folks, only a little over 4 years but I will tick over the 500 hour mark in the next week. I do fly into Salt Lake and Phoenix fairly regularly, have been up to Oregon and Idaho, and last summer went from SoCal to North Carolina and back. I'm not saying there aren't helpful controllers in other areas, but I have been consistently impressed by the controllers here.

The controllers here in SoCal I think are some of the best and most helpful in the nation.

I use Ben Kellogg, Ben's Motorworks at KFUL. I do mine as owner assist so not sure what his charge is for a non-owner assist annual. He's been doing the work on my plane for almost the past two years since I got to KFUL. I know he takes care of a number of Mooney's, there was a J in his shop last week for an annual when I stopped by. He's replaced my exhaust, control cables, the carb, oil cooler lines, and before our coast to coast trip took everything off the accessory case and put new seals/gaskets on as well as replacing the mechanical fuel pump. I have been happy with all his work and he's very fair on the labor he has charged for work done. If you get in touch with him tell him Richard gave you his info. Ben's Motorworks KFUL 714-396-6090 bensmotorworks at gmail dot com

We passed a flock of them at 10,500' once, thankfully they were about a quarter mile off the right wing.

We did this in June of 2019. If you want you can read about it on my blog. https://intothesky.us/category/coasttocoast/ A few thoughts from our trip. Don't get so caught up in the destination you miss the fun along the way. Mooneyspacers are the best. We made a stop in Memphis where Neil picked us up and took us to Central BBQ for the best ribs I have ever had in my life. Bob Belville saw we were going to be passing right by Hickory, NC and offered to let us crash their formation clinic to have dinner with them and we got to meet Bob for the first time and some other Mooneyspacers. Plan each day the night before, and be prepared for that to change in the morning. Plan two destinations for each fuel stop, at least 100 or so miles apart, along the general path of flight but to the left and right of the line. This will give you options when you look at the weather briefing and pick the one that looks the best. The same goes for your en-route legs, have a couple destinations planned. The final destination at the end of the trip may be set, but the couple of days getting there could land you anywhere. We tried to plan for places that had either a crew car to borrow or Uber/Lyft to get from the airport to a hotel. If planning to use the crew car check ahead to make sure it is available. Things are different now with COVID. I stopped in Delta, UT earlier this year for fuel and they have a nice pilot lounge and a crew car. The lounge and crew car were locked up and unavailable because of COIVD. Meridian, MS (KMEI) was by far the best FBO we stopped at. Good prices on fuel, nice crew cars available, and discounted rates at local hotels. Carlsbad, NM (KCNM) was the worst stop we made. They would not let you take the crew car overnight, the rental car they had was extremely overpriced, and the motel was the worst and most expensive of the trip.

They recently updated the app so that you can get the smile credits to Mooney Summit from the app instead of just a web browser. Tap the three bars on the top left of the app and scroll down to settings. Then click Amazon Smile and choose the Mooney Summit.

"There's always some extra parts when I put them back together, I don't know why..."

Check out the electric step that Rob @takair has, it is a pretty simple install and will allow you to get rid of the vacuum system entirely. I put the step in at last annual and pulled the vacuum system when the dual G5's went in last month. http://flightenhancements.com/index.html

I'll have to look in January when I have it all opened back up for annual.

Interesting thought, but they are including the 1965 and up D models. The D model did not have the wing leveler so there is nothing there.

Are they the Klixon Breakers in your panel? There should be numbers right on the breaker. https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/pnpages/7277-2-2.php If you are getting them make sure you know if you are getting the xxxx-2-x or the xxxx-5-x breaker. The "5" is longer than the "2" so you want to be sure to have the same as is in the panel.

I have one that I just took out of my 65 D. $100 shipped if you want it.

A few years ago I believe there were only 3 left flying that were still fixed gear, all the others were converted decades ago (pretty much as soon as they were built). Essentially they are all now the same as a C.

Mike Jesch is based out of Fullerton. Futher south is Paul @kortopates in the San Diego area. While the area may look crowded when you look at the TAC to people that are new to the area it's actually pretty easy to get around. Maybe I think that just because I learned here, but I'm not IFR so all my flying is VFR. I'm based out of KFUL and would be happy to chat about things if you want to get together sometime. There are quite a few others that regularly fly the LA basin who could offer pointers as well.

And Travel Johns, or Piloto's relief tube!

This reminds me of a phrase a friend used to use, "Buy the best and cry once." I can say I don't think I have ever regretted spending the extra on something to get the higher quality, however there have been times I have regretted going the "less expensive" route.

HSI kit comes with the GMU11 and GAD29B. At least that is how it came from Chase. If buying from a different supplier I would check the contents of the HSI kit. Even if you don't have a AP you still need the GAD29B for it to be an HSI, otherwise it is just a DG.

I just bought them a month ago from @Avionics Source, Chase was very helpful as always and a pleasure to do business with. The G5 AI was $2185 and the G5 HSI was $2995. They came with the new lightning protection modules which simplifies some of the wiring. However, you also need to buy a GAD13 and an OAT sensor, Davtron sells an approved one that is listed in the G5 installation manual and is much less expensive than the Garmin OAT sensor. On top of that add in wire for the CAN bus, circuit breakers, regular wire for power/ground, shielded wires for the RS-232 and ARINC 429 connections, connectors, terminals, etc... and things add up quickly.

We were going to finally visit my parents this weekend. I haven't seen them since Thanksgiving even though they are only about 2 1/2 hours away by Mooney. Instead we ended up just flying to Phoenix and back without seeing them. We did get to give two sweet dogs a new lease on life. What derailed our plans? My wife's sweet, very well meaning daughter. If you want to know "the rest of the story" it's all in the blog post. Here's a couple pics from the trip.

I "think" that is what it is saying, but it is going to take someone besides myself to interpret the manual language. I just have ADS-B In going to a tablet from a stratux so didn't dig into the ADS-B In capabilities of the GNC355.

The GI-275 may be a different story and the reason why you can't get that out of them. A couple lines from the GNC355 install manual relating to the GDL-88 2.1.1 Equipment Interfaced to the GNC 355( ) The GNC 355( ) is not approved for displaying correlated traffic and must not be connected to a GDL 88 or GTX 345 interfacing to a TCAS 3.4.4 ADS-B Receivers The GNC 355( ) is approved to receive ADS-B In data from a GDL 88 or GTX 345. The install manual also provides the schematic for connecting the GDL-88 to the GNC355.