0TreeLemur

At first glance, these seem great. However, I hear from my son who is in the instrumentation industry that these connectors have known reliability issues. I personally would not use one of these on an airplane, especially in a location that experiences a lot of heat.

Efficiency.

Don Maxwell's shop in Longview, Texas, is the premier bent-metal Mooney shop in the country. They can and do work miracles. Give them a call and talk.

As a federal employee when I travel for business using my Mooney, here's what federal travel policy allows: 1. Current (f.y. 24) GSA personal aircraft reimbursement rate = $1.76/mile 2. Look up GSA one-way contract air fare for city-to-city pair $X 3. Calculate 1-way personal aircraft reimburseable mileage as: $X/$1.76 In short, I cannot be reimbursed an amount greater than the negotiated contract air fare between those two cities. At least I have the freedom to fly myself and avoid the airlines if willing. I seldom get reimbursed for the true cost of the flight, but I enjoy the freedom and time savings. Sometimes, the contract air fare is so low that it just makes more sense to fly commercial. I always book a flight any time I plan a trip as a backup. Since federal tickets are fully refundable I cancel it if I decide to fly myself. In every case so far, the cost of my trip to the federal government is less if I fly myself than if I fly commercially, because it eliminates expenses such a driving to the distant commercial airport, airport parking, and usually one nights lodging and associated per-diem to accommodate airline schedules.

Aside from what you mentioned, I really like to have a small bottle of window cleaner and a microfiber cloth. After along cross-country the windshield is always covered with bugs this time of year. It's really nice to start clean when you takeoff for your return. Also, if you have a cover take it and cover your plane to avoid baking the interior while sitting outside in the sun all day.

I landed at U42. Arrived early afternoon from the southeast. It got real busy real fast trying to duck under and stay below the Class-B, avoid traffic and restricted airspace. Wish my co-pilot had been with me to help look for traffic. It worked out, just too busy to enjoy. Service at U42 was "meh". Nobody greeted me. A fuel truck guy stopped to tell me that I was parked in the wrong area. I was on my own to find the right area, which wound up being out on a helipad with one broken tie down ring. Had to schlep all my luggage 300 yards across the ramp on a hot day. Here's the sight that greeted my entry to Spanish Fork descending from 12,500 on arrival. Departure was a piece of cake. I left shortly after 0700 and was cleared into the Bravo on my climb-out!

Mooney over Mars? Taken two weeks ago between Cortez, Colorado, and Moab, Utah, at 12,500 ft on a flight from Los Alamos (LAM) to South Valley Regional (U42) just south of SLC. Looking west, showing where the Colorado River has dissected the Colorado Plateau. If you enlarge it, the blue patch in at the right-edge of the photo is the potash mine on the bank of the Colorado River just west of Moab. I flew a total of 25 hours on this trip!

Here's the one I created for our C in .doc format. Printed on card-stock and laminated to fit nicely on a kneeboard. drat. This site won't let me upload a .doc format. If you want it DM me your e-mail address and I'll send it to you. I'll attach the pdf so you can see if it is something you want. -Fred Freds_Checklist_Draft3.pdf

I'm in the middle of a long cross country in my J, TCL-LAM-U42-LAM-TCL. Covering much of the same parts of the country that you plan to traverse. My process: 1. For long range weather, I use windy.com to compare the outputs of the different forecast models. Agreement between the ECMWF and GFS models boosts my confidence in their forecasts. Divergence between them adds uncertainty. For route planning & fuel stops I use skyvector.com because it is fundamentally map-based. It allows you to enter a flight plan, giving a megenta line on a map. Shows 100LL prices to help you pick candidate landing airports along your route. Skyvector also shows you the AFD entry for airports you enter. Has some reviews. Starting the day before departure I do route briefings with foreflight. 2. From 106W to 80W your route covers 26 degrees of longitude. Weather is always going to be a factor this time of year Are you flying IFR? If not, good luck, because you'll be doing a lot of deviations, unscheduled overnight stays or scud running. All of this throws your initial plan into the rubbish bin. If you are IFR current and capable, then you'll have more luck. A Stormscope and an iPad with FIS-B weather displayed and talking to controllers all keep me out of convective trouble. 3. Leave as early in the morning as you can because it decreases the time you spend in rough air. 4. Eastbound, I like to plan for 11,000 or 11,500 because I don't have O2, and it typically maximizes tailwinds. Westbound, lower (~6,000) east of central Kansas offers lower headwinds. I've stopped at GLC westbound for fuel- nice facilities. From there to DEN you gotta fly above 8,000 terrain. 5. Since my J burns 7.5-8.5 gph LOP, I don't have to completely fill the tanks at every stop. Last year I flew eastbound (Fort Collins/Loveland - Tuscaloosa) FNL-TCL non-stop in 6 hours, but that was mind-numbing. I enjoy flying a bit more if I can stop every 3-4 hours and stretch legs and use the facilities. 6. Miami Executive has a good FBO. It's located about 6 miles south of MIA, and the MIA approach controllers sent me low (at or below 1,700!) over the Everglades for a long while keeping me out of the heavy traffic above. Bouncing along in the hot, humid air for 50 or more miles dodging 172's on training flights is not very glamorous. Good luck!

Experience is what you get when you don't get what you want (or expect).

BTW- a couple of weeks ago I received a DM from a MS noob (0 posts) saying that they have one for sale. When I asked how much they wanted for it, I got no reply. Drat. Still looking.

With the current setup (IFD540-Aspen-KFC150) I get coupled VNAV approaches. I kind of have "Smart glide", but it depends on how smart I am, and how much time it takes me to hit the NRST button on the IFD and look at the glide ring on Foreflight .

As I wrote, the avionics shop I visited recently to troubleshoot my KFC150 put the hard sell on me for a whole panel Garmin makeover. They told me that to use a Garmin autopilot I'd have to replace the Avidyne with a Garmin GPS. Anyhow, with my KFC150 autopilot problems solved and a pile of spare parts, I'm not going to be ditching anything in my setup for quite some time. I love my "anti-establishment" panel!

Let me get this straight. Your IFD540 is connected to one or both G5's, and then the G5's are connected to the GFC500? When I last spoke with an avionics shop, they didn't say that was an option. They told me that to install a GFC500 I would have to ditch the Avidyne, which I do not want to do! I really have grown to like it. So your Avidyne is driving your autopilot?

Which autopilot do you have?

Thanks! I appreciate you sharing your experience! Fred

Thanks Skip! @PT20J What a PITA that is going to be! Question: When I removed the fasteners from the headliner, I expected it to be free. The forward end was, but the aft end was not free. It acts as though there is one or more retainer clips joining the fore section of the headliner to the aft section that I cannot see. Does removing the forward headliner require removing the aft headliner too? As it is now with all fasteners removed, the forward end of the forward headliner only droops about 5" from the top of the airframe. The thread you shared indicates that removal of the entire headliner is necessary to do this repair. Also, how do those clamps work that hold the tubing to the black eyeball housing? I've not seen those before. Fred

Took my J up yesterday to test a "refurbished" (thanks @Jake@BevanAviation!!!) KC-192 autopilot computer. It performed flawlessly! After I landed and shutdown, I opened the cabin door in front of my hangar. The way I felt was confirmed by the license plate on my Tacoma! I had to memorialize the moment with a picture. A beautiful evening in Alabama!

I don't see how lube fixes this problem. I wanted to post a video showing how if you lightly push on the knurled part, it moves up into the valve body. That seems like a broken problem, not a lube problem. Videos not allowed in posts, it seems.

The co-pilot's side overhead eyeball vent in our J is inop. When we bought the airplane, it kind of worked if you futzed with it in just the right way. This year it stopped working altogether. No amount of futzing with it causes it to open. Worse yet, the knurled ring assy. that one turns to open it will move into the valve body. I seems like the little arm that actuates the flap valve has failed or come out of its internal mount. This morning I removed the fasteners and trim holding the headliner assy. in place to see if I could work on it. To my disappointment, the valve body is pop riveted to the square receptacle with limited access. The square plastic receptacle seems glued to the headliner. Seems like it was not built to be serviced or replaced? I searched MS but didn't find a thread discussing this. It seems unlikely that I'm the first to have this problem. Can anyone point me to a thread describing the steps to fix this? We're getting close to high dew point season here in the south, and I'd like to get this fixed for my co-pilot's comfort! Thx. Fred

I'm in the same camp as @gacoon. Previously I flew a C with a six pack. When we purchased our J, it was equipped with an Aspen and INOP TC. I found that the TC readout on the Aspen is ok, but the VSI didn't suit me. Its dynamics were not as smooth as a steam gauge VSI, particularly in turbulence. Rather than replace the TC, I decided to replace it with an analog VSI. It helps me more effectively manage energy on approaches with less mental energy spent understanding vertical speed compared to the Aspen. Easier stabilized approaches.

The thread title is misleading. Since pure jets don't have props, I think that the correct term is "pod strike" when the engine enclosure hits the ground or something else.

I think Lasar sells them ($$). Alternatively, there are CAD files floating around and you can have one cut for you by a company that does contract water jet cutting. That's what I did years ago.

I know! If you look at his course on the USGS page, he was blown off course after departing Alaska, or was taking advantage of favorable winds! I read that the solar powered GPS and satellite transmitter they glued to its tail feathers weighed 5 grams. He carried that too!

You can report it here: https://www.faa.gov/airports/airport_safety/wildlife The bird won't get a phone number to call.