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Paul_Havelka

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Everything posted by Paul_Havelka

  1. So I got to lay eyes on a Mooney for the first time today and sit in one along with my 2 sons (wife was napping at home). With me being 6’ and 220, the oldest is 5’10” and 185, I was wanting to see how we would fit in a short body and I was surprised how roomy it was. The wife and youngest are short stacks, 5’3” and 5’ (14 yo) respectively and they would have no issues sitting behind the 2 future non-student pilots. That being said, this aircraft is actually for sale and a search of it actually shows it was listed for sale on here back in 2013. The plane is located at KGMJ (Grove, OK) and I was wondering if anyone knew of a Mooney knowledgeable A&P in the general area for a potential PPI. The aircraft gets owner assisted annuals and the A&P IA is supposedly knowledgeable with the nuances of the Mooney. Some details are listed below. In addition to the below listed it does have the O&N bladders, 1 piece belly skin, a few of the speed mods like the flap hinge covers, tail root horizontal fairing, 1 piece (not 201) windshield. The paint isn’t the prettiest but if the bones are solid I can always get a paint job later. 1965 M20E Super 21, N5895Q, 4450 TT 420 SMOH (Custom Airmotive of Tulsa) Avionics: King KX155 Nav/Com with Glideslope King KX155 Nav/Com King KMA24 Audio Panel King KN62 DME King KR66 ADF Narco AT150 Transponder Electric Gear Much appreciated, Paul Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
  2. Due to how circuit breakers work, heat derived from the current draw that correlated to the trip curve, it is very detrimental to their lifespan when they are used as switches. Unfortunately this is a necessary evil in some a/c. That being said, it appears that the above model of klixon cb has a life expectancy of 5,000 cycles at 30 vdc. To the OP, with that kind of draw and with the swelling of the one particular battery it would seem that you potentially have a hard short somewhere in the panel and before I would install any new equipment or operate the a/c I would have a meter put on all of the power leads, starting with the faulty circuit, until you were sure that there was not a short to ground or found the culprit. I would look for any chafing on any wire looms. It is feasible that you had a slight short that caused your stratus battery to bulge and the Narco to act up initially and that it continued to get worse. And with how trip curves work, if your previous flights were not long enough for the cb to trip then the problem could have been ongoing for quite a while. Does the cigarette lighter and Narco happen to share a circuit or even just a common/ground?
  3. Wow. Just went through the entire thread. Mad props to you Alex. Even with all the headaches and issues it sounds like you got a smoking deal on the plane and picked up a wealth of knowledge on the journey.
  4. And here I was looking to work my way into a F model. Guess I need to raise my hopes and swing for the Os or Bravos and hope to land in the k models
  5. So the swmbo has been more than encouraging since I started working towards my ppl and, fortunately for me, she likes low winged aircraft. Flying in from work today, working offshore and riding along in a s92, she sent me a text of an airplane saying that this is what she wanted to save for. What is this plane you ask? A Cessna 414!?!?!? I immediately told her that that was WAY beyond what I needed for my 80-90%. I love her enthusiasm but I do not want a twin. I’ve alre been feeding to food hungry boys and I don’t need to feed a fuel hungry twin. Now I just need to get her in a rocket and ease her into wanting one of those...lol
  6. Thanks for all the sound advice. Our instructor has a cherokee 140 for his trainer and the rental is $110 (wet) an hour so not too bad. We have actually found a couple mid time cherokee 140s with asking prices right at 20k. For the heck of it I got an insurance quote on a cherokee for the both of us, having less than 10 hours each, and it came in just under $800 a year. Between the both of us i think we may try and go that route just for him to have a time builder. Our local field even has a couple T hanger spots coming available for $120 a month. Factoring all that in he would be able to fly more hours on the same money barring any big OH $H!T items that may rear their ugly heads and for that price point I would'n have a problem running it a few hundred hours and selling it, of course to get a mooney , and not really getting hurt on it. On another note, on one of my work trips, every 3 weeks I alternate XNA-MSY commercial, I met a left seat AA pilot and happened to ask him a question about the particular patterns at one of the fields and he ended up asking for my number and we've talked since. He called my son and talked to him the other day and gave him some pointers and answered questions. He even offered to give him a hand up once my boy got his commercial ticket, evidently he has a few friends that own or have hire/fire powers at some part 135 carriers and said he had help when he was younger and has been looking to return the favor.
  7. Well, dear old dad could have gotten him an appointment to one of the academies but that was not the route he wanted to go. On top of that, his vision isn't good enough to fly in the military.
  8. I am definitely trying to push him towards the degree path. I know there are several accredited programs that give credit for FAA certificates. He's a smart kid, scored a 33 on his ACT, so getting into a decent program shouldn't be an issue. I'm going to try and get him to stay home and go to the local community college to at least get the basics while also working on his certifications.
  9. So my 17 year old high school senior has decided he wants to become a professional pilot. We live in northeastern oklahoma and yesterday he visited Riverside Flight Center for a little tour. One thing that my wife and I mandated of him was that he get his PPL via a part 61 first to ensure that he wasn't throwing money at something that he wasn't going to potentially enjoy. He's started his PPL and to help him build his credit and accelerate his training his mom and I just co-signed a signature loan to cover the cost of his private. I also started my instruction for my private and am hoping to get a m20 sometime next year. I would love for him to stay close to home and go to the local community college and then use whatever plane I ended up with to work on his IR and commercial but you know how teens can be, They know it all and are impatient. For those of you that fly for a living, what insight and suggestions would y'all give to an impatient kid?
  10. Was just perusing different ads and saw this one and it piqued my curiosity. 1000 on lower end overhaul 1950 on first run Lycoming cylinders (1950 SMOH) My preference is mid time for when i buy
  11. Sorry for the NEWB question but I haven't been able to find a direct answer yet. I have seen where ac that have had prop strikes only end up getting the bottom end of the engine OH due to money issues since the insurance the individual had only covered the cost of that part of the repair.My question is what exactly differentiates this from a major? Is it just that the cylinders were not replaced with new or OH units?
  12. @carusoam, having first and secondhand knowledge of that failure plus many other less serious ones, every indication was there for someone to call an all stop. The oilfield is very similar to aviation in that all of our safety rules are written in blood and all of our standard work instructions were preceded by shortcuts or human factors. Time is definitely money. Non productive time on some of the facilities can be $80k an hour! My facility is a combo drilling/production that was accidentally ESD’d last time I was out there and resulted in hard shut ins that took approximately 36 hours to get everything back to where it was. We produce about 80,000 barrels of oil and roughly 19 million cubic feet of gas per day. The guy that caused the shut down kept his job and the company reiterated that we’re all human and make mistakes but so long as we learn from ours and others then that’s all they can ask of us. Smart people learn from their mistakes. Brilliant people learn from the mistakes of others.
  13. A lot of good advice and personal guidelines/rules have been listed above. My instructor and I were talking about night flying and he made a remark that will stick with me forever. “In a single that has an engine out at night you have 2 options. Turn on your landing light and if you don’t like what you see then turn it off.” So a little background about me. I work offshore in the oilfield in middle management for the largest oilfield service company in the world(if you’re curious just google it. Colors are blue and white.). I’m on a facility that is owned by a big oil producer that had a big spill several years back when a rig had a blowout and caught fire. That being said, we don’t do any task without a permit to work and a task risk assessment and risk mitigation plan. My plan is to treat flying the same way. Assess the risks and mitigate what can be and if the risk is still too great then it’s no wheels up for this guy until the residual risk is acceptable.
  14. That is the most likely scenario. The oldest may be staying close to home while he progresses on towards his atp but more than likely it would end up being the Mrs, youngest and I for a few more years. I completely understand that 4 seats does not mean 4 people but with the efficiency of the mooneys, you can trade off fuel for pax and still have a solid range. And who knows, I could crawl into a Mooney and absolutely hate it. Pretty sure that won’t be the case but crazier $h!t has happened.
  15. Well I finally bit the bullet and started my ppl training. It’s always been a dream of mine to fly. My oldest son, 17, decided he wants to be a professional pilot and bought and paid for his own ground school and started taking instruction. The swmbo went and bought me the ground school from Sporty’s and I blazed through it in about a week. Well yesterday I had my first official, logged, time at the controls and I’m hoping to have everything completed within the next few months. I reside in northeastern Oklahoma and our home airport would be GMJ. After having our old house in southern Louisiana on the market we finally have a contract and should be closing within the next couple weeks. That being said I have also received a promotion, +15k a year, and a payplan restructuring, an additional 10k per year, within the last 3 months so things are definitely on the good side. Ever since I had an interest in GA i have been drawn to Mooneys. The swmbo has all but given the blessing for me to get an a/c and the first thing that came to mind was of course a Mooney. The sad part? I’ve never even seen one in person. When the time comes, I definitely won’t be rushing this, my realistic acquisition budget would be right around $100k and based on my mission I am leaning towards the F models. For a family trip it would be myself, 230#, the wife, 140#, oldest son, 200#, and youngest son, currently 120#. These are conservative numbers to err on the side of caution. Trip range would average 200-700ish nm. We would travel from NE Oklahoma to south Texas, Virginia, Florida on the regular and of course we’d find excuses to go elsewhere. I would also be plenty ok with having to make a fuel stop as we do not want to make the swmbo angry. I would love to find someone in the NE Oklahoma, NW Arkansas, SW Missouri or SE Kansas area that wouldn’t mind giving me the nickel tour or even a day or few hours in the air. Fortunately, my work schedule means I have half the year off and when I’m home My schedule is pretty flexible thanks in advance, Paul
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