alextstone

I once owned a 2007 Acclaim and now I own a 95 Bravo. I loved the Acclaim and I would own one again if I could afford it. That said, I also really enjoy flying the Bravo. I intentionally steered away from the G1000 Bravos for the reasons listed before, e.g. no WAAS, no clear upgrade path for avionics, autopilot issues. The troubling thing about the Acclaim is that almost every one I've seen advertised seems to have had a top overhaul every 600 hours or so. I did not fly mine but 250 hours before a medical issue required its sale so I have no first hand experience though with that. As for the engine, as long as it is properly flown and maintained, one can expect good dispatch reliability and "normal" costs. This business of it being "thirsty" is humorous to me. I fly LOP and I routinely see 11-12 NM per gallon at 175 knots which is just fine in my book. Whatever you do, get transition training and learn to fly (and especially land) the plane the way it was designed. Fast landings are not pretty.

How did it go?

Here's my Quote from Brown and Associates: Liability: 1 Mil Smooth Medical: $5,000 per seat Hull Value: $220,000 Premium: $3054.00 Requirement for IPC every 12 months (this is new and I was told that it is becoming the norm when liability limits are "smooth") Anyone see any changes to this I should request?

Thanks, everyone, for the great input. I suppose the biggest hurdle here is finding the time to devote to the effort.

That's a great PIREP, thanks.

Yep Paul, I checked. Nothing nearby or for that matter in the evenings. That's why I'm grateful I found an AI to do the mentor-protege arrangement.

Yes, I have begun to study these. Thanks for the suggestion.

I've read his other two books. Thanks for the suggestion. I will download it tonight. Alex

I need some advice from others who have been down the path of attaining an A&P license. I am very interested in going through the process. My reasoning is not to save money on maintenance rather to learn and become a better pilot overall. I have an AI who is willing to mentor me and help me log the time required. He has already vetted me as someone with the basic mechanical skills to tackle the challenge. However, I do not know what I do not know. That's where those of you who have some experience in this area come in. What are the pitfalls? Is this a reasonable goal? What advice do you have? Thanks in advance. Alex

My contribution to the Genius thread happened today. Well, actually slowly over the past several days. My wife and I stopped in St. Louis last Thursday and while there, I ordered a top off of our O2 bottle as we had 12 hours of flying over the next several days. This morning, as I pre flighted the airplane at Mackinac Island airport for a flight to NJ, I discovered that the O2 was EMPTY! Yours truly left the valve open and one of the regulators slightly open too. To complicate matters further, there is no fuel at Mackinac so I planned for both the leg to Mackinac and to NJ before leaving Traverse City. I planned for performance at 17k not 9k. Fortunately, I fueled to the max allowed and I had a nice cushion. That mistake will not be repeated soon

Wait, what?? Are you sure your regular mechanic caused the problem? If so, why not insist they fix it at their expense? If there is resistance, kindly offer to have another shop handle the fix and forward the bill to their insurance company. That should create some motivation to make you whole. Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

Hmm. The AD says: “Airworthiness Directives; BENDIX IGNITION SWITCHES: Applies To All Aircraft Employing Magnetos and Using Bendix Ignition Switches”. My parts catalog says: Bendix Scintilla part number 10-357210. So, it appears to be under the AD...

Thank you Paul. I was not aware of the AD. There has been no mention of compliance with this AD in my logs and my airplane was serviced for several years at an MSC. This leads me to an important question. How does an aircraft owner find a truly complete AD list? When I conducted an AD search on the FAA website for both “M20M” and “M20”, the Bendix switch AD did not come up.... https://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/airworthiness_directives/search/?q=mooney m20&makeModel=&type=Current&filter=&sort=effectiveDate&direction=desc&startRow=51 https://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/airworthiness_directives/search/?q=mooney+m20m Does this mean that a complete search would have to include all accessories for the aircraft separately? Is there a service the does not cost a fortune that one can rely on? Thanks in advance. Alex

Thank you. For the record, I’m a dentist. I’ll try my best to behave here so as to balance out the perception. I can’t promise I won’t come off as a bit crazy though.

Would you please share some specifics on improved takeoff and climb performance with the MT prop on your Bravo? Thanks Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

I think the spirit of this was and is to foster a positive environment to share a common passion - Mooney aircraft snd nothing more. I am in support because I like the single minded focus and frankly, If I were to share openly what my political and religious views were, I might inadvertantly strain the relationships I am hoping to develop here. I'm looking for inclusion, and comradery, not division. I've come to greatly appreciate the help and support I receive on this forum...thanks. Safe flying to you all.

I'm all for this.. Alex Touchstone Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

The point of my comment was simply an agreement with @mike_elliott in that there should be no set time for achievement of proficiency. I have had instructors who are so "humble" as to allow me to decide if I am safe and if I have had enough training to complete the task at hand. I don't know if as the student, I am really the best person to make that decision. So, while I am sure there are humble instructors who are also safe, if I were to choose between the two, I would rather have one who is assertive enough to make an honest evaluation of my skill and to guide me toward improvement regardless of the time involved. My comment was not meant to imply you are wrong. Perhaps we have different needs in an instructor. As an aside, I was at the airport recently and I saw another pilot who bases his airplane there show up, pace around while he was on the phone as his airplane that had not been flown in over a month was pulled from the hangar and then hop in for a series of touch and go's without so much as checking the oil level. Now, that's not safe. This same person switched instructors a while back because instructor "A" was too insistent on following the FAA training guidelines. Instuctor "B" that he switched to has a reputation for being "nice", "humble", "supportive"...in other words, he's the guy you go to if you want to get the training done quickly and easily. So, it's through observations and personal experience that I made that comment.

No one said that.

I'll take safe over humble any day Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

Well now, that's an ambitious goal.

Thank you!!!

I did not use the GEE-BEE kit. I ordered everything from Aircraft Spruce and cut the pieces to match so I'm not sure these photos will help...(not sure why these are rotated and I cannot seem to figure out how to fix that)

What do you mean by this statement? I run my Bravo LOP and my experience is that it runs smoothly all the way to starvation on the lean side of peak and I am cruising at 29"/2400RPM/14GPH while showing <1600 deg TIT and the hottest cylinder at just shy of 380 degrees. When I run ROP, the CHT's are higher by 20+ degrees at the same settings and I have to add more fuel to about 100 deg ROP to keep the TIT below 1600 degrees. My GAMI spread is not great yet either (0.8 GPH as of the last nozzle swap). I'm working with John-Paul and Savvy Aviation to dial this in. Is my experience unique? If so, why?

I'm partial to Gulf Shores KJKA but it might not be a convenient location to others