0TreeLemur

Yeah, I'm aware. If you look at my history I've even joked a time or two about some of those posts. I'm pretty sure that I've written something about how Marauder would be better off with an aircraft with more UL than any Mooney. I get it. Fellas, I'm not a prude, just would like this thread and MS in general to lean a little bit professional and classy, that's all. This thread about Mooney tail art was suggested by @carusoam and I created it in part to amuse him. If it grew to consist of a fantastic collection of interesting Mooney paint jobs, then some of us could use it as resource to discuss ideas with our significant others when it comes time to consider paint jobs. Some of us have significant others who don't appreciate what they would consider smut. I assure you mine doesn't. I hear that POA is rife with off-colored posts. Good for them if they want to be that way. I never visit POA and don't plan to. Many of us more recent MS members have learned so much from all ya'll and this is such a valuable resource. We have female Mooney owners here. I think we would do ourselves a favor to strive to not be a "boyz club" and be welcoming to females, be they pilots or co-pilots! That's my point, and I make it only with the best of intentions. I am not trying to impose any morality on anyone. -Fred

Here's another of my favs. The "tail art" is a bit bland, but the rest is fantastically interesting.

I wouldn't fly it until you figure this out. I read in Mike Buschs' Engines that at about 500F is where so much of the strength of aluminum is lost that cyl. heads start to think about popping off the cylinder. Just a PPSEL, not an A&P.

There is an outfit in the Philippines that sells all kinds of aircraft logo stickers, I found them on eBay. Not too expensive. They ship by rowboat, whale, paraglider, and overland trail, so it takes 3-4 weeks to arrive. Good quality vinyl. I recommend them. You get a pair, each facing the opposite direction from the other.

Read the title of this thread. It isn't that I don't have a sense of humor. In fact I've got a killer sense of humor. It's that what you posted isn't cool and doesn't fit in. Why don't you start a thread on "Tail Art of Tattoos on Asses Featuring Extinct 80's Thrash Metal Bands". I'd be fine with that.

Just for -a-, ( @carusoam ) and posterity, the example of Mooney tail art that started it all...

Here's a wild one on a Mooney that is registered in the Netherlands. Seems to be a Central American indian motif. Another vinyl decal?

I like this one too, which is on a Mooney in Brazil. Must be a vinyl sticker?

Yes, mine are on backwards... Apparently somebody thought that it looked faster. I have looked into turning them around the right way but it isn't obvious how to do such a thing. Pretty tight quarters up there. Anybody have hangar fairies who can whisper into my hangar fairies' ear a little howto advice?

No, he is one of the few people around here who have invested the time and energy into truly understanding how to use MS's arcane boolean search system. He is also a master of the Dewey Decimal System!

Just started one!

Here's mine- a bit retro...

You'll be the first to know... We flew her about 50 miles offshore this past Sunday on a "social-distancing" sight seeing trip over the mouth of the Mississippi out in the Gulf. Photos in the "Flight of the Day 2020" thread. Purred the whole way.

Paul, what you just described for me is my idea of Heaven.

I have the same engine. My #4 CHT rarely exceeds 410F, and I try to keep it below that number. Here's a recent flight of mine for reference. Your graph suggests to me that cooling air flow is the problem. Just a PPSEL, not an A&P. Good luck.

I think that is the benefit of buying a C that is in really good shape and not wanting for much. But then you miss out on the fun of writing all those checks to pay for repairs and improvements! Buying the best airplane you can afford helps to avoid the problem you address in this next point: Which is the trajectory our C is on. But we love her and we have bonded doing much of the owner permitted work ourselves. Someday we'll make somebody a hell of a deal on a 70 y.o. airplane.

A closer photo taken the last time I had the cheek cowl off.

It depends on whether or not you can put them to work! My two boys paid their own way from about 15 to 18. Even before that, I almost never had to write big checks at least not until college.

Note: in keeping with the spirit of not creating infinitely many threads, I'm resurrecting a similar thread from 7 years ago. Yesterday, Sunday, April 5, 2020, at about 21:03Z, while flying northbound at 31.5169N -88.3447W the GNS430W threw an integrity error. Big yellow letters appear on the screen saying "USE OTHER NAVIGATION". This was actually the second time it happened yesterday. The first was perhaps 30 minutes prior and it lasted about 1 minute, but I didn't note the time. It resolved itself. The second time it happened, I noted the time and cycled power on the GPS. When it rebooted, it didn't have the error. The error did not reappear the rest of the days' flying. About 1 year ago, the GNS430W was overhauled when after flying through rain the GNS430W issued a "Communication Radio Failure" warning I sent it back to Garmin for the IRAN treatment, which I think cost a flat $1200. Yesterday there was no precip anywhere along our route of flight. Looking at the GPS status for 05Apr2020 from https://www.nstb.tc.faa.gov/24Hr_WaasLPV.htm (image below) there does not seem to have been a reported outage, which I guess means that it is my 430W that is having a problem. Anyone else seen/dealt with this behavior from their 430W? Man, I really don't want to give Garmin another $1200.

We did a "social distancing" tourist flight today. I have always wanted to see what it looks like at the very tip of the Mississippi River delta, a place called the "Head of Passes". Here's what that looked like. BTW- bought fuel for $3.40 at REG. That's cool. Lil' Sister is ETOPS (Engine Turns or Passengers Swim). View looking approximately east. The line to the south is scud in a marine boundary layer.

See my post just now in this thread. PM me if you have any questions.

It is good to dream. I write to convey my experience as a first plane owner. We have a '67C with manual gear. We bought it in late 2017 with about 1350 on the engine. The pre-buy turned up very little. All AD's had been complied with and we were eager to own. Being noobs, we didn't really realize all the deferred maintenance that going to come due in the first few years of ownership. After about 1 year of ownership the left tank started leaking badly, so we had both tanks re-sealed. The prop. governor went next and was too old for repair so we replaced it. Prop balancing was next and that revealed really worn engine mounts that needed replaced. We discovered some minor corrosion on the steel tubular frame in the cockpit and decided to get that examined and epoxy painted by a Mooney Service Center (MSC) to make sure there were no corrosion show-stoppers that were missed in the pre-buy. Got lucky there. This last (3rd) annual we decided to replace the 16 y.o. shock disks to protect our investment in the tank reseal. We did some optional stuff to like re-do the panel for a six-pack layout with a GNS430W and ADS-B out. Now the prop need's IRAN'd because Hartzell is nervous about how long it has been since it was opened up. Luckily my kids are grown and we could afford do all this. Add all that up and it is about $45k. Buying a plane that has been impeccably maintained and is in the shape you want, with recently resealed tanks and replaced shock disks (like mine) would definitely be the way to go. For calibration, my "accountant certified" spreadsheet which includes $3000 est. for annuals, $250/mo hangar rent, $1200/y insurance and the total cost of overhaul at TBO says that with $4.50/fuel she costs us about $175/h to fly if we fly 130h/y, which is what we've been averaging. When I was young with a new family there is no way I could have afforded that. Perhaps your financial situation is able to sustain that level of cost per hour. If you buy the right plane that doesn't have the deficit in deferred maintenance that ours did, your costs per hour might be a bit less. Also, you might get reimbursed for your flight time which would be great. Good luck. PM me if you have any questions about any of this.

After reading the preliminary report referenced in my previous post, I am left wondering how this would have been best avoided. The pilot said that he saw a clear path, yet acceded to follow the instructions of a controller sitting in a dark room. This after the controller cleared the pilot to do whatever he thought best. From the report: The pilot stated "I thought I was gonna shoot this gap here, I got a gap I can go straight through." The controller acknowledged and advised that was fine if it looked good to him, but that he showed moderate precipitation starting in about 1 mile extending for about 4 miles north bound; the pilot acknowledged.About 1633 the controller asked the pilot what his flight conditions were, the pilot responded, "rain three six eight." There were no further transmissions from the pilot. Hail outside the CB? Seems unlikely but possible. Scary stuff and a good cautionary read. Again the link is here: https://app.ntsb.gov/pdfgenerator/ReportGeneratorFile.ashx?EventID=20200303X93345&AKey=1&RType=Prelim&IType=FA

Thanks! Sadly, old CJ2A's went through a period of massive abuse back in the 70's-90's when they were seen as worthless. I have seen a lot of heavily adulterated examples. This one is essentially pristine except the electrical system was converted from 6VDC generator to 12VDC alternator/starter. All the body parts are original and mostly undamaged. Each one that goes to the scrap yard makes mine more valuable now...

My classic vehicle collection. The jeep is a 1948 Willy's CJ2A with the "Go Devil" flat head engine that produces that sound of freedom you hear in just about every WWII movie. While both are 4-cyl, the jeep engine has only half the cubes, will run on 65 octane fuel, with Vne of about 39 KIGS.