0TreeLemur

Anthony, thanks for the links to the nice Hagiographic writings. The only thing I can say is this: F'n ladders and helicopters stole Roy LoPresti and Stevie Ray Vaughn from humanity.

According to the article here drone impacts can do considerably more damage than birds of the same mass. Birds go splat and disintegrate more than drones. Think about those dense little electric motors. The bird damages the leading edge, but not the main spar. The drone damages the main spar.

It seems that our C is the only Mooney roosting in Tuscaloosa. There are lots of RV's of various vintages, most of them seldom flown. A mixture of vintage P, B, and C makes too. A Lancair and a Cirrus or two. There are some nice warbirds in hangars on the 'l33t' side of the street but they are seldom exposed to daylight. BUT- gameday is a thing to behold. The normally sleepy but towered TCL field takes on the feel of an air force base on the first day of a war. They close rwy 12-30 to use it for parking. You can't hear yourself think for all the APUs running, keeping interior's cool for soon-to-return hot & sweaty football fans and the air reeks with the odor of burning kerosene.

The eatin' fish we caught were: three Mahi-Mahi or "Dolphin" as the locals call them, one King Mackerel, one blackfin tuna. We cooked some of each Saturday evening and they were tasty. The smallest one is a good baitfish and I don't recall the name. The Atlantic was flat as a lake last Saturday.

Last Friday, I flew across the affected portions of South AL & GA affected by Michael. Poor folks. Could see from 7500 ft. that the trees down there were missing their leaves. Lot's of fires from what I assumed were folks burning broken branches and woody debris. Next morning went fishing with a buddy about 15 miles off Palm Beach. Saw the beautiful remnants of shallow tropical CB that fizzled at sunrise. That afternoon back at his house with the catch. It was a good trip. I left the bird behind to get her tanks resealed.

@MB65E where did you find clear lenses.?

The other weird thing is this: Owning an older Mooney is like playing musical chairs. The music stops when something is found that will cost more to fix/overhaul/replace than the ship is worth parted out, unless your place some intangible value on it that somehow tips the balance.

Damn, @Yetti I want to have this cast on a bronze plaque and framed. This and the above quote by @SantosDumont about flaming C-notes at will for fun. <wipes tear from eye>

Nice pics! The smoke in the cockpit from the dodgy Stratus power connector is scary as hell. Most of us have one of those. Looking forward to details on WTF went wrong with that! Please advise when able.

Interesting story. The IFR ticket is the thing to have, I'm convinced, to make personal air travel much more certain. Spent five days with our Mooney tied down in CDC in August while we toured Southern Utah in a rental. Very nice area. Regarding running tanks dry, I was taught by a WW-II era pilot to always run your not-last tank(s) dry. Then you know by god that they are empty. So I warn my co-pilot that it is about to happen, and _she_ will watch the FP religiously, because _she_ hates it when the engine sputters. That's my trick.

My inner CB says that sawed-off wing tips are a cool "retro" way to save $2.5k+install if there isn't a solid performance benefit. I would like to replace my tinted nav lite bulb covers with clear ones though.

Paul- Having no experience with turbo Mooneys, I should have qualified my statement. Regarding normally-aspirated Mooneys, I think the article really clears up any uncertainty regarding climb power settings.

I love the article by former Mooney test pilot Bob Kromer regarding climb power settings. To me, his article definitively answers the question regarding climb power settings. click here.

Without reading the fine print, it seems similar to my example. That would provide an option for this case if the fine print is acceptable to the buyer of an a/c that has not been flown frequently. Perhaps you could negotiate a lower purchase price that would allow you to buy such a policy. It does give an indication of how much financial risk is for just any-old engine before overhaul.

Curious question that might help in this situation. Is it possible to buy parametric insurance on a/c engines? For example, buy a policy for $X,000 that if it needs an overhaul in the next 200 h or two years due to corrosion as determined by the rebuild shop, then the policyholder is paid $25k? I wonder what the premium would be on something like that? I just attended a meeting on risk management, and yes, I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express.

For those wondering about installation of an LED landing light, I recommend this video. https://www.avweb.com/blogs/insider/AVWebInsider_FAACounterSafety_203196-1.html

Like I said, I'll reply to a PM, but I'm not gonna recommend anything that somebody might find objectionable in any way on a www site where every word I type is immortal. You might try google. That's how I found them.

OK, so the new LED really lights up the numbers on final. Here is the bigger advantage: the old incandescent light was worthless on the ground. The new LED light that I bought has a grating over four of its 18 LEDs that casts some of the light on the ground around the a/c, making taxi opns much safer...

I purchased a PAR46 LED bulb from a non-certified vendor that cost less than half what a certified bulb cost. I did this after studying the AIM and acknowledging that the incandescent bulb that I replaced was not certified. The AIM says that landing lights are required for commercial aircraft, not for private aircraft. The second thing the AIM says is that landing lights shall not start a fire. So, I tested the bulb that I bought outside the aircraft driven with a 14V power supply for hours. It didn't catch fire. So I installed it. If you want the name of the vendor send me a PM. It is BRIGHT. So much brighter and with a considerably wider beam than the incandescent bulb it replaced.

Just curious, where can one obtain legacy analog floats for the 1967 C model with 26 gal tanks? Anyone know?

See this thread "Lube the step" for some hints

As an IFR trainee, it is encouraging to hear that the system is working that well. Thanks Paul.

That one on Spruce https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/elpages/singlechannelpwm.php that looks like the one on Amazon is not certified. The certified one definitely has a price that would repel a CB. The certified one on spruce here: https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/elpages/maxDimUnit.php

Certified PWM is not for CB's.

The fuel stick in the photo by @Hank looks like acrylic to me. I'd try 1/8" ID acrylic. BTW- @M20F-1968 I really like the paint job on your aircraft.