skydvrboy

I'm still having trouble understanding this comment. Were you trying to sit with your feet flat on the floor? You sit in a Mooney with your feet straight out, knees straight, with only your heals touching the floor. The seat is so close to the floor I can't possibly imagine how your knees/thighs were anywhere near the yoke or the bottom of the panel unless you were bending your knees and pulling them up. That sitting position definitely won't work. We get this "Will I fit?" question all the time, but usually it's asked by the wrong people. If you are tall, good news... you fit! It's the short people who don't ask and really should be asking. If your legs are too short, you won't have room for the yoke with your feet on the pedals. If your back isn't long enough, you won't see over the panel. Both can be fixed with rudder pedal extensions and seat cushions. But to be too tall, you'd really need to be about 6' 9" or taller.

The weather strip I got had a peel and stock adhesive on the back and I used that. I've used the one below on vehicle doors and figured I'd use it on the plane if the self adhesive didn't work. But, I've had no problems. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002NXZ7NW/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_imm_t1_hNO-FbNBY3A0H

It seems everyone overlooked item #3 on your list, so I thought I'd look it up. It's part #912018-1 on my F model. Pretty sure mine had the factory seal when I got it and it leaked terribly. Replaced it with the softest, thickest weather strip I could find in the aviation isle at Wal-Mart. No more leaking air and less than $5 repair.

I use a midshipman's hitch like several others. If I have enough extra line I'll tie a second further down. If I need tio tie the other end to the ground, I'll use a bowline on that end.

I also get about 3.5 hours on my iPad mini. Below is a link to the battery pack I use. My wife loved it so much that she bought two more to keep around the house. https://smile.amazon.com/Portable-Charger-Anker-PowerCore-20100mAh/dp/B00X5RV14Y/ref=sxts_sxwds-bia-wc-rsf-lq2a1_0?crid=2UTC6JNJ6NTPS&cv_ct_cx=anker+battery&dchild=1&keywords=anker+battery&pd_rd_i=B00X5RV14Y&pd_rd_r=8abb7cda-68bf-433c-972e-354eb3006b50&pd_rd_w=ehGz9&pd_rd_wg=V6Tac&pf_rd_p=52f9c563-bb87-44f4-9d9d-e1c03402d90f&pf_rd_r=3QGMRVXW5GSZME9N86EB&psc=1&qid=1609610662&sprefix=anker+batt%2Caps%2C1255&sr=1-1-d3e58e83-6458-471c-a87e-175495b96a10 We used it extensively to keep 3 phones and 2 iPads charged up while at Oshkosh and it performed beautifully. It was paired with the solar charger linked below. We would charge the battery during the day and then charge the devices from the battery at night. I have also used the solar charger sitting on my glare shield while flying just to try it out, but I've never flown long enough to actually need to use it. https://smile.amazon.com/Anker-Charger-PowerPort-iPhone-Galaxy/dp/B012YUJJM8/ref=sr_1_3?crid=2BJ95G66KPSVI&dchild=1&keywords=anker+solar+charger&qid=1609611067&sprefix=anker+solar+%2Caps%2C252&sr=8-3 P.S. Don't forget to use Amazon Smile and route your donations to Mooney Summit!

I really appreciated last year's thread started by @Seth, so I thought I'd start on for 2021. It made me pause, assess where I was in my aviation journey and where I wanted to take it. In hindsight, I accomplished exactly ZERO of my stated 2020 aviation goals, but I still think it was/is a good exercise. My 2021 goals will remain much the same as last year, and I still had some accomplishments even if they weren't stated goals. So with that said, what are your 2021 aviation goals and your 2020 accomplishments. 2021 Goals: Take a family vacation in the plane Finally get that instrument rating Fly another 100 hours Set a new trip distance record Obtain formation wingman card 2020 Accomplishments: Completed first owner assisted annual First business use of airplane (started a new business) Another year flying with no bent metal

I immediately thought of this from a different angle. Have you checked the iPad charging port? The only time I've had problems with mine not charging well was when it got some debris in the port. A wooden toothpick pulled out a surprising amount of junk from that tiny port. After that, no more problems. FWIW, I use an Anker brick charger in flight once my iPad gives me the low battery warning. It will easily recharge the iPad with the screen on full bright.

I guess what still confuses me a bit is why my track logs show I’m getting picked up by 978 UAT sometimes, but all my tracking consistently will start and end when I pick up and cancel flight following. I have to make another trip to Colorado in the next week, so I may do it without flight following and see if I ever get tracked.

@kortopates Here is the response I got from FlightAware: Hello Mark,Thank you for contacting FlightAware.We are enthralled to hear about the spirited debate ongoing amongst an online pilot forum.There could be several reasons that some aircraft equipped with ADSB out are not tracked on our website while others are. You have already mentioned one possible reason being 1090 ES vs 978 UAT. Most of our terrestrial ADS-B sources are tuned to 1090, however a handful of users do request to be equipped to receive 978 signals. That being said, 978 coverage is more intermittent in coverage compared to 1090.Additional factors include whether there is ample ADS-B coverage in the areas where pilots are operating. If they are operating in areas of low coverage, there may not be enough data collected to show tracking on our website.Subsequently, certain private aircraft are blocked from public tracking on our website, which is another reason why they may not appear on the live tracking maps.Hopefully this helps to clarify your inquiry.Let us know if you have any additional questions.Regards, Rebecca LaPorta

Sure, I have a skybeacon 978 UAT and I performed the service bulletin that increases output power. The other pilot I talked to said their flights also only show up when on flight following with the exception of their latest flight. Perhaps mine will now start showing up too. Earlier this year I flew from Salina all the way to Colorado Springs without flight following and FlightAware didn't pick me up until I contacted Springs approach and got a squawk code. As for the more recent FAQ's, those only apply to FlightAware's decision to make "position only" flights their default setting. I've always had "position only" flights turned on, so that shouldn't have affected my tracking in any way. I've also checked FlightAware's coverage maps and they have a few local private ads-b data feeds around here as well as a couple at local airports. My last untracked flight went directly over one of those airports, KMPR.

I'm pretty sure I know where I flew that day ;-) and FlightAware is consistent in tracking my flights. I departed Salina (KSLN) without flight following, thus no tracking. I then picked up flight following as I passed the busier airports near Wichita, thus tracking. Flight following was cancelled and I continued on to my destination, Strother Field (KWLD), thus no tracking. I then picked up flight following again near Wichita on the way back to Salina, thus tracked again. Looking at the small segment on my outbound route, I was on flight following a bit longer than what was tracked, but I don't think I was on more than about 10-15 minutes on the way down to Strother Field. I did find this on FlightAware's FAQ's: Can FlightAware track VFR flights? What about a VFR flight with a flight plan? SHARE | BACK TO TOP VFR flight tracking is not officially supported although some aircraft flying VFR with flight following or aircraft that are ADS-B equipped, tracking is available by turning on position-only flights on your account. Origin, destination, departure, arrival, and flight plan data may not be available. In Australia, VFR flights are fully supported by FlightAware as long as they have been assigned a transponder code. Bold added by me... I wasn't able to find out why some are tracked and others are not, so the debate remains, is it aircraft equipment based (1090 ES vs 978 UAT), private ADS-B receiver dependent, or ADS-B tower dependent. I think I can rule out ADS-B tower dependent as I have flown directly over the towers and not shown up on FlightAware. I don't know why I really want to know so badly, but I sent an email to FlightAware asking for a definitive answer and will post their reply.

Oh, this is definitely a "must have" for me. My wife is constantly complaining about being able to see the ground through the small hole in the boot. Thanks for the heads up about the cheap easy fix!

Yes, I left out of KSLN and picked up flight following with KC center shortly after leaving the class D airspace. My track on this flight and, it seems all others, starts when I first squawk a discrete code for flight following. The flight on November 19th shows this perfectly. I left from KSLN and picked up flight following as I went by Wichita. Once past the busy airspace they dropped me from flight following and I went on to KWLD. On the return, I again picked up flight following as I got close to Wichita and kept it the rest of the way home. During the flight, I flew directly over the ads-b tower at KEWK, yet was not shown on flight aware until I got flight following from Wichita approach.

I wonder if it’s regional or equipment differences that explain the difference. My 90 day flight aware data only shows 3 flights, but looking at my logbook, I’ve flown about 30 times during that time. Perhaps it’s because I’m using 978 instead of 1090 for my ads-b out solution?

Only flights with flight following show up. All flights that actually show up say position only. If I don’t get flight following, the flight will not ever appear on flight aware. Further, only the portion of the flight with flight following shows up, the rest of the flight is missing.

Back to Flight Aware tracking, my flights NEVER show up unless I get flight following. I have position only flights turned on and all my flights show as position only. Perhaps I’m doing something wrong, but I have Ads-B out and it just doesn’t seem to matter. In fact, you can see on my Nov. 19th flight track where I picked up flight following, where I cancelled it, and where I picked it up again on the return. Are others seeing flights show up when not on flight following or an IFR flight plan?

I don't know Mike @201er, I'm skeptical of the claim. My gut tells me you are likely still missing 6N6 and 7N3. When you do bag these, don't take your beloved Mooney into either of them or you get the other!

It seems we are an easy bunch to please. The MS gathering is well attended and something many of us look forward to. The menu... beer and pizza... by donation of course!

I love the new website! As an industrial engineer, I thought one of Johnny's comments was spot on: "But as great as our aircraft are, there were inefficiencies in the way they were built and simply restarting production would have been a fool’s errand." I picking my jaw up off the floor at Oshkosh when the salesman was bragging that Mooney's took something like 10 times as many man-hours to build as a Cessna and 5 times as many as a Cirrus. He was actually trying to imply that was a good thing! I also saw that our very own @aviatoreb was selected as the Mooney of the Month. Nice write-up Erik, and what an amazing plane to be featured as the first MOTM.

What would be really interesting is to see how this measure would stack up between airplane types. My guess is it would be rare for anyone to have more hours than landings in Cessna's and Piper's. They just aren't great traveling machines so most of the flights would be shorter; i.e. fly-ins, airshows, $100 burgers, sightseeing, etc. Then again, they're so slow you rack up a lot more hours every time you go anywhere!

This year, 1.25 L/H. Lowest year = 1.17; Highest year (PPL) = 3.51. My landings per hour go up a lot this time of year though. It's seems all my wife's friends and coworkers want to go for a flight to look at the Christmas lights. Lot's of night landings in December!

There are lots of fun ways that skyvans have been painted. I originally went with one that reminded me of Spaceballs. Perhaps it's the black nose that reminded me of Barf.

I seem to be computer illiterate tonight! Here is the pic of the Skyvan.

My personal favorite, the Short SC-7 Skyvan. It's said this was a mail order plane, but they decided to throw away the airplane and just fly the box! Plus, it kind of reminds me of the Winnebago space ship in Spaceballs. Sure is fun to jump out of that big open tailgate though.

I don't think you can count a plane that didn't actually fly (more than once). Otherwise, there are a whole host of entries in this contest that one would observe at Flugtag!