0TreeLemur

I nominate this for the best post of the year! I think we need another button!

While difficult, it is possible. Tower might say "you're number 3 behind a King Air and a Citation" and ask for an extended downwind, so you think "I'll wait to drop the gear." Then you get another traffic alert from tower, and after an intense search of the sky you report that you don't see the Citation, they ask you to do a 270. Next thing you know, you're slow and the gear are still up. Luckily, but for the grace of God, I did notice at the 500 ft call out that my gear were still up.

Glad it worked out for you. You may have dodged a bullet. Because of an ice storm a few years ago I was unable to get my Mooney to the shop before the annual expired. That was during covid. The FSDO made me pay a DAR to travel to my field, tell me a couple of stories, and sign off on the ferry permit. The DAR flew his own aircraft to inspect mine, an hour each way, and he still got paid for his time. That's how much that cost.

Why not!?! Some folks like to go to casinos, or own ocean front property in Florida! In the end, you can't take it with you- do what you love while you can.

"This goes to 11." - Nigel Tufnel

When we bought our J in 2022 it came with with tail number N202Y. That's great, but not quite right. It's a Mooney 201, not a 202. Kind of like a vanity plate that just doesn't quite make sense. Oh well. It's easy to say. On a whim In September I checked the FAA N-number availability list to see if by some chance N201Y was available. I would have bet 100 AMU's that it wasn't because of the N-number squatters out there that seem to pounce on all the shorter ones. I GOT IT! Last week I received a confirmation letter from the FAA. All I gotta do is change a 2 into a 1 and do the triplicate form tango with the FSDO. In the category of lucky days- on October 3 at our local championship golf course someone shot 2 holes in one in the same round!

The KFC-150 in my J beeps five times if all's well -or- forever (or until I pull the CB) if something causes it to not pass its self test. This happens for instance if somehow the Elec. Trim power switch is inadvertently switched off. That's actually a good way to test your sonalert.

I dunno, suppose so. I'll ask the raccoons that ate it.

My wife works for a large forest resource company headquartered here. The head of their wildlife division saw that photo and said that it was about the biggest copperhead he ever seen! We shooed it into the drawer and closed it up. Then we rolled the toolbox outdoors. It moved to the drawer below and I lifted it out with a long rod. I reckon that it was about 30" long before I took about 4" off its front end with a hoe. Normally I'm a live and let live kind of guy, but that thing came into our space.

When we went from TCA's, ARSA's, and TRSA's, to class A,B,C,D,E,G, that was an improvement. With recent ICAO changes our "/g" transmogrophyed into all that PBN gobbledygook. It seems to me that this new NOTAM format is more of the same. They took what was modestly decipherable and FUBAR'd it into gibberish. Oh, and GET OFF MY LAWN!!!

Between moving back to the US from Australia in 2002 and buying our first Mooney in 2017 I did no flying except as a passenger in big aluminum tubes. After getting my 10-hours of insurance required dual, I went flying in our C to continue scraping the rust off. While flying VFR near class C I called the approach frequency, who I had a very hard time hearing. Because I couldn't hear them well, and because I was rusty, my replies where pretty "non-standard". Some young turd on the frequency decided to have fun and give me $hit for not using standard phraseology. I've got t-shirts older than this turd, and when I soloed he didn't exist. Frosted my a$$. I said nothing. I'm over it now, and I don't know how someone would belittle another pilot on frequency. Who's training these guys?

LOL ROFL! I heard a controller say more or less that to someone else, but in a much less New York way. I learned from that- never say Kilo. The bit about the supervisor not being qualified and subsequent argument throughout the facility was rich!

Greeeaaat. ICAO format always makes things so much clearer- NOT. I'm with @NickG. Gimme a decoder ring so I don't have to remember how to unscramble that bowl of SpaghettiO's.

Earlier this year when I was having issues with the KFC-150 an avionics shop told me that my system was too old and unsupported, and that I needed to upgrade to a "G" panel. The verbal quote was "about $50k" for a G autopilot, a new GPS to replace my Avidyne IFD540 and 2 G5's to replace my Aspen. Besides the fact that I really like the Avidyne navigator and the Aspen, Jake was able to fix my KFC-150. I only saved 49 AMUs.

Looking at the prices on Amazon, the 3M stuff is ridiculous. I got this Scotch brand stuff for 80% less. I don't suppose you'd need more than a few short pieces. If so, PM me how many strips you need, how long, plus your address and I'll mail it to you free.

Here ya go.

Send it to Jake. He'll fix it to good as new condition. That's what I did and all's good.

3M makes a white/clear HD PTFE tape designed for this. It's expensive . Scotch makes an "equivalent " product that is considerably cheaper. I bought the Scotch brand and it's holding up well.

One thing for sure, options and competition are good things!

While looking for zip ties in the tool box, this greeted my wife last night. She handled it real well with a burst of adrenaline, and a "OH MY GOD THERE'S A SNAKE IN THE TOOL BOX!!!!" For those of you unfamiliar with the particularities of southern U.S. snake species, that's a venomous copperhead. How/why the heck it got up there, I have no idea. It is the time of year when they are attracted by warmth as the evenings are beginning to cool off here. The copperhead's venom is not particularly strong, and they are not very aggressive because of their excellent camouflage when in leaves, not climbing on a toolbox!

We installed Accutrak II, Accuflite, and PC/AH in our M20C, and because of the status of Brittain I hoarded parts. We've since sold our C. I've got a spare parts for all of it, except I don't have a spare Accuflite. I even have two spares of the elusive BI-805 valve. PM me if interested.

The SFRA training is pretty lightweight and its all online. If you are in the system with a discrete squawk and VFR flight following it's easy to get around SFRA as long as you don't want to get within the Flight Restricted Zone (FRZ) within 15 nm of DCA.

Not met, but heard on the radio during an IFR trip a couple of years ago. I checked in with Denver center while flying M20C N2903L, and was warned "N2903L be aware that N2905L is on this frequency". Did some research after I returned home, and found that N2903L and N2905L had airworthiness dates 2 days apart. N2904L was exported to Switzerland.

Sorry for my delayed response. I've been flying. A lot. That's recent performance between AL and MI, it has been warm. T=11C at 8500'. At least 14C above ISA.

At 8500 ft and 70F ROP my m20j cruises at 155 burning 10.3 gph. If I lean to 10F LOP it burns 8.3gph and cruises at 145. LOP ops cost me 10 knots WTH 20% fuel burn savings. Others have reported similar performance hits running LOP. You will only approach Poh numbers ROP. You gotta produce something close to max power.