MBDiagMan

I had one antenna pocket and I certainly don't remember them charging extra for it. IIRC the only additional charge was fore embroidering the tail number.

Thanks carusoam! I enjoyed the reading! A path down memory lane.

I saved considerable cash by buying a cover from MAC's and have been VERY pleased with it.

On the one hand I wish I had taken Dugosh telephone evaluation to heart and saved the PPI expense. On the other hand, having a fresh pair of experienced eyes on the airplane was comforting. David at Dugosh even recommended having a fresh set of eyes on it before purchase.

Roger that! Joyce had been hangared at Kerrville and maintained/inspected by Dugosh for the last thirty years before I became the caretaker. The PPI was done by a long time Mooney guy who told me before he did the inspection that he didn't reccommend the purchase of very many fifty year old airplanes. Then after going through airplane gave it very high praises. OP, since you have talked to the guys at Dugosh, did they tell you anything about the plane?

I think I answered the poll earlier since it won't let me vote now. E-5, US Army 1968-1971. Trained as Nike Hercules Missile. launcher and Nuclear warhead repairman. Served one year on a Nike Hercules site in Germany, then cross trained to radar and Fire control repairman for the HAWK missile system and spent my second year in Germany on a HAWK site. These were air defense artillery surface to air missile systems. The Hercules was 43 feet long, two stage, nuclear warhead capability with about 120 mile surface to air range. We were told that the nuke warhead was for taking fleets of bombers out of the air, but it also had a surface to surface capability. The HAWK system was high explosive armed and had about a 30 mile range. I was very fortunate to go to Germany at that time in the Army. Most people in the Army at that point in time went West of the US.

BTW, I promised comments on my hangar. I am finishing up my owner assisted annual on my 140 at another airport. I gave up that hangar and have to be out by the end of the month. I hope to get it to my new hangar next week or week after along with my tools, work bench air compressor and stuff. I plan on posting pictures once everything is put away nicely. I also have a friends Cherokee Six in the hangar, so the pictures will not be pure Mooney.

My panel compares very well with this one. I have a 430W and don't have an ADS-B transponder yet, but functionally it is a good comparison to this. Where mine falls short is its cosmetic appeal. I need to get a fresh brass looking switch label panel, and need to get my ASI cleaned up for a clear lens, and it is certified through the end of next year. Even without the 430 it would be a decent IR panel with DME, glide slope, marker beacon and so forth. The 430 is very nice icing on the cake. Mine and Paul's are pretty nice instrument planes given that C's are only for VFR pilots.:) BTW Paul, that panel looks great!

Coincidently I saw this thread and the picture right after moving my Mooney for the first time with a golf cart and tow bar. I had been careful not to put any pressure on the bar at full turn limit, but the picture scared me. I was very relieved to find everything looking good when I crawled underneath. I checked my tire pressures and found one noticeably low and another slightly low. I aired them up and have moved her by hand since then. Thank for the thread and picture. This kid will be extra careful henceforth.

I really think his comment was serious. The follow up discussion seemed to confirm it.

I am very excited to have gotten a hangar five minutes from where I will be living soon. Many details will be posted due to my excitement about the hangar. In the course of meeting people there I met an F Model owner. Appears to be a great guy and a veteran pilot. In the course of conversation he said: "so you are a VFR pilot." I said yes, but working on my IR, how did you know? He said, " no one messes with making a C instrument capable." I was floored by this. My plane has a 430W, DME, glideslope and is currently IFR certified. Is it common fpr C's to not be IFR capable? Thanks for your responses and comments.

Looks great Zack!!!! can you give more information about who did it and how much it cost. My C is in desperate need as well.

Thanks VERY much for everyone's input. You guys always come through with the information I need. Remember I said that I am moving to a new airport. It turns out that they have a golf cart and tow bar that I can take and use any time. I am going to go very slowly at first and the airport manager offered to help me get the hang of it. I am sure I can manage it. I will get her in place and mark the floor for the next time. The paint on Joyce is fresh and beautiful so I am focused on keeping it that way. Thanks again for the input. I fully expect that others will also benefit from the thread.

I am excited to have gotten a large hangar at the airport 3 miles or so from where I will be living soon. My planes have been stored in two different hangars, one about 65 miles away and the other about 80 miles away. I have never stored a plane any closer to home than about a 40 minute drive. I AM EXCITED!!! I flew the Mooney to her new home yesterday afternoon in the heat. It was well over 90 degrees F and extremely high humidity when I got on the ground and was trying to push her uphill into her new domicile. It almost killed me, and would have, had it not been for a kind soul who stopped to help. It is apparent that I will need to make a bar and get some sort of contrivance to add some push to the project. My Cessna is no problem. It is a feather and very easy to move around by hand. What do YOU use to move your baby around?

Will you need a 337 for that? The mod would be ridiculously simple though. I think I would prefer a solid state circuit as opposed to an old fashioned electromechanical unit. That said, it has been so long since I have messed with an automotive flasher that there may very well be solid state replacements.

Thanks for the video Paul. I enjoyed it immensely!

I went from a Cessna 140 to the Mooney. I was in the habit of slipping the Cessna pretty hard. It's the way I was trained as a trick to have up your sleeve if needed in preparation for an emergency landing. In my Mooney transition training I came in high on final and asked the instructor if slipping was okay. He said "of course." I slipped it pretty hard and bled off some altitude. He commented, "I never saw anyone slip a Mooney that hard," but he didn't say there was anything wrong with it, so although I haven't slipped it that hard since then, from that episode I have the feeling that you can slip it about hard as you like as long as you keep the nose down. Also, I don't know if this is correct, but I suspect that slipping to lose altitude is more effective in a high wing airplane, but I have no facts or evidence to support that theory. My $0.02,

Great move and welcome to Mooneyspace Sia! I too bought my first plane while a student. It is a great thing to do. Once you get past the checkride you will be ready to fly at will and be comfortable in the plane without having to transition to a different aircraft. I am one of your fellow Texans, so maybe we will meet up at some point in the future. Enjoy!

Well Chuck, I guess I will have to write a nasty gram to ATC, they didn't give me that 145 NM option.:)

Thanks Hank! I will look for those eyeballs down low.

Not exactly. I was looking out the sides and seeing ships in the water. I also had the horizon because there was enough definition of the clouds to see the horizon from them. Just to be safe, I was watching the artificial horizon. The conditions were four mile visibility haze.

Well this thread seems like the right place to continue chronicling my Mooney progrss, even as slow as it is. Friday before the Holiday, my Girlfriends son in law Jason, a private pilot who passed his checkride last fall flew copilot with me to Galveston from NorthEast Texas. I flew at 7,500' clearing the scattered clouds. When ATC cut us loose, we crossed the bay southward toward runway 18 Galveston, there were low clouds, 4 mile visibility and water. I saw nothing but white, but kept the top side up until I saw the PAPI and was right on glide slope. The runway was huge and a nice sight at that point. Jason said " if you can't put it on that runway I will never fly with you again." My girlfriend was already there. She rode with Jason's wife down there. We had a great Holiday, soaked up sun, shrimp, steak, played in the surf, saw a great fireworks show and had good times with her kids and grandkids. Tuesday afternoon Sandy and I headed to the airport and loaded up. I got a sqwauk while on the ground and we flew out over the water and were handed off to Houston straight away. We climbed to 8,500' and had smooth and 59 degree air for the flight home. Cool air was a good thing after sweating my butt off getting loaded and doing the preflight. Sandy was a great help in the cockpit. She is not a pilot, but did great writing down frequencies when I was passed off and watched heading and altitude when I was doing other things. I know that to most of you this would have been a short local flight, but it is the farthest and highest I have been in the Mooney so far. It was a great step forward as I get familiar and comfortable with Joyce. She is a great plane, and I am getting more and more familiar and comfortable. My instrument training is starting to move along too. She's a great instrument platform. I flew both ways at about 156 mph true and burned about 9.2 GPH. I also learned that there is a cabin vent to allow air under the panel. Helped a good bit.

I installed one Monday and flew from NE Texas to Galveston in the heat yesterday. It worked great, except the noise bothered my copilot while he was on the radio. At 7,000 feet, the air temp was below 70 so I folded it in until crossing the bay. I am very pleased with it. Do be prepared for the noise though.

Anyone know of a Mooney savvy CFI in the Galveston, Tx area? Chuck?

Got one on Amazon for $27 including shipping.