Skates97

I'm interested to know what went wrong, whether it was something unforseen wrong with the plane, something the pilot did/didn't do, or something the pilot should have caught ahead of time in preflight/run up. That plane was on my short list but I could not get the broker to return emails or any of the voicemails I left inquiring about it. I think perhaps they were already in the process of selling it to this individual as the registration changed about a month after my attempts to contact them. Regardless I'm glad I have the plane that I did buy in my hangar.

I'm not sure exactly when but it wasn't long after I started flying mine that I quit looking to see if it was up and locked. I probably looked down the first couple of times and that was all. As Paul said, when the bar is on the floor and locked you know it, it either is or it isn't, and there isn't any place for it to go except in the hole so you aren't exactly fishing around for the right place. I do still look at it when I drop the gear as I like to see the thumb button pop out when it locks in place, then I give it one more good tug to be sure it is locked in place.

My POH says 4 1/2 pumps for full flaps. Mine seems to be right at about 4 1/3 for full flaps.

Hmmm... good point. I was going to include Cirrus in my post but I know they don't... I was just thinking of the fact that Beech owners do spend their money.

If you want to make your fortune you better change the logo to Beech and market on their forums, we all know Mooney owners aren't going to make you rich!

With the Johnson Bar if the handle is down, the gear is up. When the handle is up, the gear is down.

I took an old box, stuck holes in it with a screwdriver and made them big enough to stick a plug in. Then I took a sharpie and wrote T1 / B1, T2 / B2, etc... Simple, easy, cheap...

Reading the Continental link posted above I thought I would see what Lycoming has to say. "For most Lycoming models, preheat should be applied anytime temperatures are at 10˚ F or lower." https://www.lycoming.com/content/operating-cold-weather That's lower than the "preheat when below 40˚ F" that i have seen mentioned from time to time.

@MHemperly Mike, are you still in Vegas, did you find something else to fly yet?

This is pretty much what I see as well.

I'm probably 15-20 years from retirement, but the plane will be an integral part of it. That's the best way I know of to go see grandkids.

Given the lack of responses we won't do the fly-in this Saturday. Perhaps a different destination that people would be more interested in flying into? I would like to have something sort of mid-way between San Diego and Sacramento to see if we can get more people there. I'll start a different thread soliciting locations and we can plan for something a couple months from now. Will do

If we did the fly-in this Saturday the 13th, who would e able to attend?

Not having ventured into the IFR world I did not know that about the altitude, I thought it had to be more precise that +/- 200 feet. I just fly VFR but I try to stay within 50' of my chosen altitude. I don't have a GPS in the panel but on my tablet it tells me the distance of deviation off my planned route and I try to keep that under a mile with as few course corrections as possible, constantly monitoring my headings. I like to look at Flightaware after my flights to see how I did on maintaining altitude and then I pull up the track log on my tablet to see how close it matches my planned route. I think regardless of whether we are IFR/VFR we should be constantly challenging ourselves to improve. This was our flight back from AZ on New Years Day. Altitude was pretty steady and the routing was decent, with the exception of drifting north of it west of Palm Springs but I wanted to stay in the middle of the pass as it was dark at that point. https://flightaware.com/live/flight/N78878/history/20180101/2334Z/tracklog

Last flight of the old year and first flight of the new year on New Year's Day. Flew to Arizona and before flying home gave 2 sisters, 1 brother-in-law, 6 nieces and nephews their first ride in a small plane and another brother-in-law his first ride in a small plane since he was a little kid. It was great fun! More pictures and the write-up on my blog. No Brake Lights at 8,500'

Sometimes even commercial can't get in... My wife and step-daughter were flying Allegiant from LAX to OGD (Ogden, UT). Before they got there a fog bank rolled in and they couldn't land. They diverted to Las Vegas (I think because that is the most convenient for the airline to make the next planned flight leg), and now they are driving a rental car from Vegas to SLC. (The other option was to take the flight all the way back to LAX and hope they could make it tomorrow) They left for LAX at 3am this morning and she's really wishing she was flying there in our Mooney. We couldn't have gotten into Ogden either but we could have landed at South Valley Regional.

Great story, it's hard to put into words the relationship that you can have with a great dog. Thanks for sharing.

I thought my seats were comfortable, until I made my first 4 hour flight and felt something digging into my thigh. I took the seats out and apart and found that the springs no longer had the retainers holding them in place and one was sideways. There were even little dents in the seat bottoms from the springs over the years. The top of the old cushion (I am assuming from 1965) Springs, these were sideways so you were essentially sitting on the side of them... Looking at the bottom of the cushion you can see where the springs were buried up in it. I did something similar. We replaced the old cushions and springs with Confor Foam. I bought the 1" soft/medium/firm from Aircraft Spruce and then also ordered an additional 1" of the firm from the source to make it 4" thick. When it is cold it takes a little bit to warm and soften up but they are very comfortable even on long trips and I sit about 1 1/2" higher than before. My son still likes to use this inexpensive but effective cushion we got off Amazon. https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00UUTCZ8Q/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I have a light gray spot there on my door, almost blends in with the off-white color of the plane.

My favorite plane growing up was the F-15, which explains my license plate "F15 EAGL". However, I have always liked the A-10. Here's a good article about it, including some of the struggles to keep the Air Force from retiring it. There is also a 21 minute video that is worth watching with all actual footage and interviews with pilots and also boots on the ground. It doesn't have a lot of footage of flying, but does a good job of showing the relationship between the A-10 pilots and the guys on the ground. http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/17332/the-usaf-has-finally-released-a-glowing-film-about-the-a-10-it-tried-to-suppress

This reminds me of an article I read a year or so ago. They had similar problems with losing power. From the article: "When an airplane—even one using avgas—flies at altitudes where it’s very cold, the water that is regularly dissolved in the fuel precipitates out in the form of ice crystals, which then can block your fuel system. Then as your fuel system warms up, the ice melts and the water dissolves back into the fuel. When you drain warm fuel from the sumps, you won’t find water, because it is dissolved in the fuel. The solution is to use a fuel system icing inhibitor like the product called Prist, or isopropyl alcohol." http://johnandmartha.kingschools.com/2015/11/09/losing-them-both-flying-in-new-environments/

Or, if you aren't IFR rated and current, don't fly at night between layers, or over sparsely populated areas. I love flying the LA basin at night, however I won't fly over the desert at night because there aren't enough lights for ground reference. Also, don't get caught above a layer like the guy in the first post that started this whole VFR/IFR debate...again... Know your limitations and the limitations of your plane, including your limitations if you are Instrument Rated. Plan well, fly safe, and have fun.

This was the view flying home from AZ to SoCal on New Years Day. Those mountains on the distant horizon were 150 miles away. Planned the trip to be coming into Palm Springs by dark where I have flown at night quite a bit and know there is plenty of light for ground reference the rest of the way home. Get the rating if you want. If you aren't going to get the rating then plan well, execute well, and be ready to change plans when necessary. It made for a beautiful sunset as well.

Although VFR, I love talking to ATC and using flight following. On the way back to SoCal from Phoenix today I was listening to an IFR pilot talking with SoCal. He was trying to get his clearance and was struggling (it wasn't even a difficult one, he kept skipping the same point). After the third time that he messed up the readback ATC said "You keep missing a key part of the readback, let me know when you are actually ready." My wife looked at me and said "What's going on with that one?" On the fourth try the guy finally got it right, but if there is that big a struggle to get a simple clearance right (in clear skies with what was about 150 miles visibility), I wonder at the skill level of actually flying IMC. At least he is better trained than I am....

Goodness! How big would it be in a different color!