McMooney

I flew into HND, wan't overly expensive. Vegas bravo is super easy, atc tends to give strip tours at the slightest request. TBH, if only a few days you might even think about KLAS

just go to an airport grab a cfii, complex only takes a flight or two.

same here, honestly i had forgotten all about those charts, i use 1800wxbrief charts. maybe weather.gov when i'm desperate

after being a passenger in a gear up, i can agree. plane landed fine, bent the prop, ground off a step but after they picked it up, the only other dmg was the scrapes on the bottom. Insruance still totaled the plane. New owner had it flying a month after all the insurance cleared

man that's 3 planes i know of insurance totalled, thinking i really need to up my hull value.

mine was the gear swittches, somehow they became imisaligned???, causing the motor to run till it popped the breaker. IA reset the the switches, all good

no, i'll have to install that at the same time. it's really not the mag that bothers me, it's the price, 2k right now, maybe 3k next time and if i'm lucky probably 4k the next inspection

man, my mag is due this annual, looking at the price i'm seriously thinking of replacing with a second surefly. pay a little more now and never have to do it again

just my opinion but leaking after 20 and 30 years in service, can't see how that would be labeled a defect.

mines ran to the luggage area by the rear hatch. thinking about rerouting to come near the step

Quick update on the AeroCruze 100: I’ve put about 2,500 miles on it so far. Can’t speak to long‑term durability yet, but functionally this thing is fantastic. Aside from needing a GPS source to drive the autopilot, it’s easily the best money I’ve spent on Birdy… you know, ignoring annuals and anything that prevents me from dying. Total cost was around $12k installed, with the autopilot itself running about $8k from Duncan. Their service has been excellent — any issues have been fixed within hours, which in aviation time is basically faster than light. I was originally worried about what I’d be giving up by choosing the AeroCruze over the pricier GFC 500, but after putting real miles on it, I’m honestly not sure what the GFC could do that would be meaningfully better. I actually prefer the AeroCruze’s simpler setup. The avionics shop, however, did not share that enthusiasm — apparently the installation involved a heroic amount of cussing. Performance: It does exactly what you’d expect. Tracks like it’s on rails, holds altitude perfectly, plays nicely with the G5s and GPS, and has one big advantage over the GFC 500: it can run independently of the rest of the avionics. Kind of like the old Brittain system, just not full‑time. A few operational notes: Set your altitude before startup. This mostly affects folks with G5s. In “EXT” mode, the AeroCruze gets altitude from the G5s — great until you switch to GPSS. If you didn’t set the altitude beforehand, the autopilot may decide you should be somewhere very different and start climbing or descending like it knows better. Lube your control yokes. I had a slight porpoise at first — nothing dramatic, but enough to make me wonder if I could tune it out. While poking around, I realized the yokes didn’t feel smooth. Probably never noticed because the Brittain was always masking it. Reached under the panel and found the yoke shafts were basically wearing a coat of sticky gunk. Cleaned and lubed them per my IA (insert all the jokes here). After that: test flight was perfect. No more porpoising, and the plane felt amazing to hand‑fly.

how many hours on the engine? how much oil was left when you landed? on long trips i try to start with about 6.5quarts knowing i'll have to top it up when i land

they had to use boards under the mains then let the air out the nose to level birdy.

i did mine, went from a kma20 to pma8000g, didn't spend 33 hours but it was def costly. they ran all new stereo jacks to 4 seats, disconnected and reconnected all the avionics, basically tore the inside of the plane apart. think i paid like 2k to 3k for the install. If tight on money, i'm not sure the audio panel is the best place to start, yes it sounds slightly better and i have bigger buttons but it still serves the exact same purpose. I do have bluetooth to everything so that's a plus. still, not sure it was really all that of an upgrade. to be clear the audio panel is AWESOME, just wasn't the biggest bang for the buck, for me. also, stero only really matters when i'm listening to music or when using the hrtf function, whis is really nice. don't they have a pma7000 that's a drop in replacement for the kma24?

question, if it's a capable and solid plane, why give it away at 63k? the avionics cost that

look what just popped up on the interweb https://science.slashdot.org/story/26/02/02/2029212/a-century-of-hair-samples-proves-leaded-gas-ban-worked

omg that thing has 102 gallons of fuel, thinking 51 gallons of fuel > 1 other person. oohhhh hmm, how to find 500k

hmm, i suck. I keep the batteryminder connected pretty much all the time i'm not flying. figure battery lasted atleast 7 years so not horrible

shrug, go with less than full fuel, you'll be good

Brian @ KAXH, Marshall does good work Dewayne Jones mobile Houston I just had my autopilot and gps/nav/comm done at CAM avionics @ KFWS, i know not houston, but not horribly far. i'm also at ksgr btw

gi-275 i would do, just kinda makes sense. autopilot of course, well if its actually used and not thousands of dollars i'd say really depends on cost for the DME, it can be tuned manually and was probably never hooked up due to not really needing it after the 430 install. if the dme is only a couple hundred bucks, why not. i connected my dme btw, never really use it though

If Gill is def saying no availability, try KTME or KIWS. KTME is kinda like an aircraft HILTON

where are you trying to go in Houston?

strange they used to have a couple t's reserved just for that, maybe they are full. do you need kdwh ? ksgr should have a few, def keld. actually, it's supposed to be pure sun with little humidity, do you really need a hangar

I've used aeroshell 15w50 for the last 6 or 700 hours, seems to work well. currently using about 1 quart every 10 to 15 hours so not bad all compressions normal. unfortunately, i don't believe there's anyone who can tell you what's best. there was an article a few years back, unfortunately i can't remember where but the gist was long as it's a reputable brand and you don't let it sit for years at a time, you're ok.