gitmo234

Gents, Normally I handle these directly, working for a 501c3 dog rescue, but I'm currently in the middle of moving and starting a new job so I'm totally booked. Are any of my fellow Mooney drivers interested in transporting a couple of pups (actual puppies I believe) from Tennessee to Northern Maryland? I could also meet you halfway on an evening or saturday. I'm not sure of the exactly legalities but the rescue is offering to pay for the gas if needed. I usually dont ask for the payment or when cash has been tight i ask for a 50/50 split.

I hear the wine industry is the same. Want to make $1 million making wine? Invest $12 million

GS-15 full time and O3 part time. It’s a no brainer. Drive 4+ hours for a meeting, get paid mileage, per die, for 2 days, hotel, and lose 2 days labor or fly 90 minutes, land on post, have someone pick me up, attend the meeting, fly home, no overtime, one day per dime, no hotel, and no lost time. Back at work the next day

Went through USAA to falcon. 150 hour private pilot, 1 hour in model, 1 hour complex. $50k hull, standard coverage. Came in cheapest at $1600 and compared many brokers. Requirement was 1 hour with CFI and 1 hour solo. Oddly enough I had to ditch USAA for other insurance. For some reason they were quoting my wife and I double what they quoted others, with half the coverage. I called up a local broker and they ran a quote and came backed shocked that we were accepted by a special group that normally won’t underwrite for this unless people are "exceptionally" qualified and in the right demographic (household income, education, credit, risk, etc). Doubled our coverage, cut our cost by about $2500 a year. I still call usaa on occasion and have them review and they always go over it, apologize and say they can’t even come close

On the legal side, the other amazing thing is how private businesses are somehow more conservative than the federal government in this regard. I have a permit allowing me to get prior approval and land on most any military post in the US. I fly GA for official travel every time it’s cost beneficial.

I always like the reactions to numbers. People just see the percentage. 19 times!!!! 19 times more likely of an extremely small number is still a small number. Kind of like saying "buying two lottery tickets doubles your chance of winning"

I had worried about being 6’3, and 200. Not an issue at all in an E model. Why I went Mooney? Useful load is approximately the same as my 172, but I could go almost double the speed and at approximately the same fuel burn. I use my Mooney for the occasional work commute (weather permitting) and vacations or family trips. I have, on occasion, made trips in my 172 to wine country with my wife. We had to offload A few cases of because we were overweight, but that’s semi-rare. Thank god sole family members drove. I’m not yet refined enough to have LOP or ROP opinions.

Honestly I love taking people up, especially on their first flight. I have more trouble finding people that want to go than anything.

Did you find the flare to be almost nothing? I know you said its very different for us rehabilitated Cessna drivers, but im finding it feels like NO flare. The sight picture to me feel almost nose-down, but its not. What I was most amazed by was how "solid" the mooney felt in the air, especially with the wing leveler. In my cessna (as old and out of shape as it was) there was no trimming for straight and level and relaxing just a bit. It made a 2+ hour flight exhausting. I seem to get a lot more bang for my buck now because if I need to I could actually take my hands off the controls for a few seconds and not have to worry.

If the timing were any worse it could have really made a short final interesting

Brings up a good question. the IFD-440 has an airspace and 500 feet altitude call out, what audio alerts are given with the AXP-340? Not sure you'd know, but the website just says altitude alerts, curious if its just the 500 feet alert or more

Gents, Does anyone have any recommendations for an Avionics installer near NOVA? I'm taking advantage of the Avidyne trade-up program next week. Turning in my Garmin 430W for an IFD 440, as well as a new transponder and Skytrax 100. The 440 is a slide in replacement, the transponder *might* be a slide in replacement for the KT-76A, but the skytrax will require some real since it supplies ADS-B in/out

I’ve gotten behind in a couple different types. To this day when I do I can hear my first CFI in my head saying “just fly the airplane” and “fly first, communicate second”. “Just fly the airplane” came into play when a deer jumped out in front of me after touching down and slowing down. I was in that zone where I couldn’t stop and there wasn’t enough room to get enough speed to get get off the ground. In a split second I froze, I heard “just fly the airplane”.... realized there really wasn’t anything I could do except be prepared for impact and a red windshield. A second before it hit the deer jumped out of the way, narrowly missing and going under the wing. That being said, whatever you start your training in will establish your baseline. Starting in a VFR only 1960 C150 with original avionics will make the jump to complex a lot harder than starting in something more advanced. If all you’ve ever trained in was a king air, that will be what you know. In the real world, my jump from a ‘56 172 to a Mooney E after not flying a year was incredible and overwhelming at first. Old cessnas were primarily visual so the windshield was huge and you felt like you were about to fall out of it. The panel was tiny and 2nd priority. Mooney was the opposite. Transition training was tougher and I still have a lot to improve

I thought my close calls with CAP birds was bad....

I'm still in my first year with my Mooney but I expect its similar to the first year with my Cessna. First annual was close to $3k. After that they were about $1500-$1800. The records from my Mooney indicate that one previous owner got some sticker shock by taking her to get an annual at an MSC his first year, and it was almost $10k. Lots of small stuff (rivets missing, parts installed incorrectly, etc). I expect I'll get some sticker shock from my first annual and you should too. I'd almost bet you could fly a brand new airplane home and roll it straight in for an annual and the new mechanic would somehow come up with $3k in stuff that needed replaced. After that it calms down. Keep in mind I'm the type that gets the smallest sputter or worry about something and I throw it straight into the shop. An expensive habit but I didnt have confidence in my cessna for awhile. I just couldnt believe I had an airplane for that price and nothing was really wrong with it. That lack of trust was basically misplaced.

Agree with this. I've found buying is a hybrid between buying a car and a house. If you ever think your home inspection isnt coming with 4 pages of squawks, you're misguided. Realistic expectations on the part of the buyer is sometime a magical thing

My pre-buy was basically broken down into major airworthiness items, with an option to turn into a full annual (which I took). Went like this: Buyer pays for pre-buy. Small (<$500) non-airworthiness items that could be quickly fixed or replaced during pre-buy would be paid for by the buyer, provided they didnt accumulate to a huge amount and the aircraft was otherwise airworthy (no gigantic items to fix) Larger items >$1000 to fix allowed the option to negotiate payment, such as shared cost, or the option to walk and have deposit returned Airworthiness, service bulletin and other serious items would be paid by the seller and/or I could walk Annual was a month or two from expiration. If at the end of the inspection it was a solid buy, I could elect an annual for which the seller would pay all routine costs (annual fee, oil, filters, small routine maintenance items, etc). Any larger costs discovered in the annual, then it opened up negotiation or walking away again. But then again... my wife writes contracts for a living so.....

Gents, I'm closing on my house (selling) on the 28th. I have cash set aside for both the IFD-440 swap and a skytrax/transponder package deal. Just wanted to brag a bit. Once complete I will post pictures and put some feedback about it up. So far Chase has been pretty damn tolerant. I started asking questions months ago.

Roger found it. I had an issue on/in my left magneto. It was a phone call during my commute so my terminology may be a bit fuzzy but it was something like "distributor block" on the left magneto was toast and the bushings were loose (likely cause of the block being bad or something). Should be all put back together tomorrow

Any idea how much difference there would be in install labor when it comes to swapping a 430 for a 540? I’m guessing it’s significant?

Once my house closes and I'm not commuting 2.5 hours each way, I will take some of that extra cash and see what I can do then

hmmm.. on or about the 28th of August im getting ready to make the jump with Chase. Turning in my 430W for a 440 + a combo package for skytrax 100 and transponder. I wonder how this would work

That video was awesome. That's what I've been fighting. Big difference in that and a 172 flare with the sight picture i used to have.

In high school I learned to make F's into B's and that helped me a lot in adulthood. Hope this helps....

He's going to take a look. He made the recommendation on trying the full power for a bit and then re-checking. he took care of my 172 as well