Skates97

I love our time machine, you can't put a price on time. My wife knows I have wanted to fly for as long as I have memories. About two years ago when we learned we would have two grandchildren arriving within a month of each other (One in UT and one in ID) she said I should get my pilots license and a plane to make visits easier. I started my PPL two weeks later... 5 1/2 months later I passed my check ride. Two months after that we bought our Mooney and then we put almost 150 hours on it over the next year visiting family more than we ever had before.

I emailed @mooniac58 using the "Contact Us" at thet bottom of the page and he approved the West Coast Club very quickly. I don't think that he gets a notification when one is created so giving him a heads up that you are waiting on approval will move things along.

I know some of you have joined already, but instead of filtering my list I am just going to tag everyone that I had on my list to let you know about what @MrRodgers set up. I know there are others out here on the west coast that I don't have tagged so if you think of someone please tag them. @Flash, @Steve W, @MooneyMitch, @jonhop, @wishboneash, @N803RM, @Bennett, @mooneyflyer, @Dan at FUL, @MrRodgers, @JohnB @bonal @M20FanJesse @Matthew @Joe Zuffoletto @StinkBug @mooneygirl @N9201A @SantosDumont @ilovecornfields @MikeOH @Simon @Niko182 @thinwing @kortopates @kmyfm20s @NotarPilot @3914N @MB65E @rdshave @TheTurtle @VetRepp @donkaye @M20S Driver @helitim @Sven @jrwilson @TargetDriver @Bug Smasher @aeromancfi

Club is approved and active now so people can join.

I'm in. I can't remember, are you going to be able to make it to the fly in April 14th? Edit: Just went there and it says there are no clubs, just the button to create one. Did you already create it? If so maybe a forum glitch not displaying them?

Looking forward to this!

This is probably the best installation advice I have heard! It cost me $20 to have my AP/IA sign off on it after I was done. In hind sight, spending the extra $130 would have been worth it...

I did the left side first knowing it was going to be much more difficult than the right. The only thing that I can say is further up towards the roof there seemed to be more room, that may mean removing the headliner. There really isn't any trick I could come up with.

I don't expect mine to drop much the next renewal unless I get my instrument before then. (Possible but not probable right now) The big drop this time I believe was because I went from around 60 hours total with no complex time to over 200 with all the additional hours in the Mooney. Adding another 150 hours in the Mooney will likely not have much of an impact.

It is through Falcon Insurance. The first year it was underwritten by Starr Aviation, the second year it was underwritten by Global Aerospace. The first year there was some back and forth working competing bids against each other. The initial quote from Falcon my first year was $1983 but after they sent it back a couple of times to underwriting the final number came in at $1525. The renewal this year was $1005. $36k hull

We had waffles for dinner tonight... I love breakfast for dinner.

I had similar numbers. I renewed in December and mine was just over $1,000. Previously it was about $1,500 but that was no complex time and about 60 hours total. Renewal was with about 150 hours complex, seemed reasonable. (Granted my hull value is a little lower than yours).

When the old foam on my front seats was replaced with the confor foam those springs were removed and left out. The seats are so much more comfortable now. I would like to get to the back seat as well, but then I never sit back there and I haven't heard complaints from my son...

You are talking about actual accidents but you are missing his point. If I lose my engine I have no power and the odds of landing off field and in an accident report are much higher than the trained/proficient pilot in a twin who loses one engine. That guy will most likely land uneventfully at an airport and there is no accident report to go along with it.

Every time I see them taking off and the gear going up I always wonder if it is going to come back down and actually support the plane. The way they wobble does not instill confidence...

Good thing he's in a Mooney, ground speeds dropped into the double digits (and that's MPH)! Some serious headwinds...

Great, and I'll add you to my list of people to tag for upcoming fly-ins If you would like so you get a notification. If you don't mind update your avatar with a location.

I signed up for 2 (myself and my wife) but we may bring along my 13 yo son too.

Oh, I'll get into West Yellowstone. That was the afternoon of July 15th and the DA from the AWOS was over 9,000'. We were just on a tour of the area with our final destination at Rexburg just north of Idaho Falls. The only reason to land that day would have been to check another state off the map and so was not worth it that day.

One day a turbo may be in my budget, until then I'll just keep doing what I can with what I've got.

Without the turbo you may be limited in the summer. We often stop in Delta for fuel and have seen the DA above 8,000 quite frequently during the afternoon, it's doable but it's a slow climb in my non-turbo O-360. We flew over Yellowstone last July and I thought about landing at West Yellowstone but was concerned we wouldn't make it back off the ground so we just continued our aerial tour stopping in Idaho Falls, DA was about 9,500' at KWYS if I remember right. There are a number of mountain locations that you would only want to be leaving from early in the morning in a non-turbo.

I'm going to stop by the hangars of a couple Mooney owners at the airport and leave them a note about it, I don't think either one are on here.

I haven't forgotten the fuel cap but I did just buy another Fuelhawk dipstick for checking the tanks. Apparently left my other one on the wing and it was long gone. A clear piece of acrylic doesn't exactly stand out... The new one has a nice red "Remove Before Flight" streamer attached to the top end to hopefully prevent it from happening again. Fortunately I still had the calibration sheet so I could just add the marks at the proper heights.

I guess at some point the voting has to end. Right now it is 4 on the 7th, 5 on the 14th, with 7 more on either date. We will do the 14th and hopefully some of you that had the 7th will be able to work your schedule to join us. If not, then we maybe you can make the next one. The goal is to have one of these a quarter to give more opportunities to meet up. Please click on the link that Phil posted and register so he knows how much food to get. He has generously offered to supply everything, but he is a Mooney owner so I'm sure he would accept donations to the cause when we get there... Lasar @Greg Baker, has floated the idea of a Northern CA fly-in in this thread: If anyone else in Central CA wants to host a future event or Southern CA then post up. I would be happy to host one at a future date at my hangar in Corona (KAJO) although there isn't much to see there. All I could offer would be good food and hopefully good company. I'm not sure when Greg was thinking but it would be nice to get something in the works for July/August. If not it will end up being another 8-10 months before the next one, time just goes by so fast...