GeeBee

I have 6 type ratings all useful, but in the totally useless department, I have always wanted to go to Coulson and get rated on the Martin Mars http://www.martinmars.com

I have to agree with others that if it is running good and has good analytics, no reason to pull it. That said, I consider Gann Aviation in Lafayette, GA to be the best boutique shops in the business. Might call them for a quote. Carlus has built two engines for me and they are incomparable.

Credit cards, your phone, internet usage they all leave a trail. AMEX has one of the best heuristics systems out there which is why you never have to call them to tell them you are going to a foreign country. All those loyalty programs, etc all feed data to Google, Facebook et al who distribute it to anyone willing to pay for it and it is amazing cheap. I buy Facebook ads and I can target an audience down to the street and what for instance what type of pilot certificate they hold. It is unbelievably cheap. Your N-Number is displayed on a variety of sources VFR or IFR. If you parked transient, airports often log the information for ADAP funding purposes etc. Your assumption is less perfect. Go to any website, BestBuy, Amazon whatever and look for a product. Then go to Yahoo.com and see what ads pop up. I keep telling people, there is no privacy anymore. You can be "off the grid" but it is really, really hard. If you have any mobile device, forget it.

Why do you believe filing IFR made a difference? Is it possible credit card data? FBO list. etc? Big Data is everywhere.

There is no privacy anymore. ADS-B is the least of your problems if you are looking for privacy.

Having worked 27 years at a company that declared Chapter 11 it can either be a great process, or it can be a path to the SOS. My company came out of Chapter 11, promptly revamped its product and it methods. Today, it is the leader in the world, the most profitable in the history of its industry, both feared and loathed by its competitors. I retired after 40 years with them and while my pension was handed over to the PBGC, I also made a good amount of money in the latter years thanks to profit sharing. With good management, bankruptcy can often be clarifying and solve a lot of structural defects built up over the years. In GA one of the best parts is to end the lawsuits and payouts. If Mooney declares Chapter 11 I hope they use the process wisely, not just to scrub their balance sheet, but to revamp the entire company.

The three rules of marketing. PPP. Product, price, promotion. Failure on all three fronts. Beech failed for years on price, but stayed alive. Cessna has failed on product, but still manages to keep the 172 and 182 alive. Mooney, needed to amp the product, overpriced it and only let dealer do the heavy lift on promotion. You can sell freezers to Eskimos, it is just a matter of PPP. I also find the CAPS argument interesting. Amsafe makes the "airbag seatbelt" retrofit for every Mooney and indeed most GA aircraft for a very modest price of 2500 dollars. Other than a CAPS, it represents the most bang for the buck safety retrofit you can buy. How many of you have purchased that system?

Regarding BRS, I purchased my used Ovation last July. I also looked at Cirrus. could not get myself past the cost of maintenance on the airplane as a whole and in particular the BRS. If it were a grand every 5 years or so, it is a consideration. 16 grand? Nope.

As for non aviation contract work, ever notice all those Grumman aluminum canoes? Roy Grumman would do anything to keep his people on the payroll.

There has been a lot of "stupid money" being thrown around by Chinese investors in US aviation. I recently witnessed 20 million paid for a company that produces what can only be described as a rubber raft beneath a hang glider wing with a 2 cycle engine. Chinese money. That all said having owned a PA-18, there is always someone making parts. Heck, look at all the TDCS that Univair owns. I can still buy a whole new cowling for an Ercoupe from them. The beauty of a Mooney is most the construction is conventional and well understood processes. Most vendor equipment and parts are either still made or has viable alternatives. Not really worried.

According to their website, Surely is certified. AOPA and Aviation Consumer describes them positively. No advance yet, but when it is it is easy to add just plumb into the MP line. Or you could go with the Electro Air system which has advance. When the SureFly comes out with advance, I plan on putting one on my Ovation.

The Wright J-5 in the Spirit of St Louis had a 5:1 compression ratio. You could operate it at 1000 degrees LOP and it would make no difference to its longevity unless you were burning kerosene.

If you fly high, you either need a mag with a big coil or a pressurized mag. Slick mags have small coils, period. However if you go to pressurized mags, you introduce a source of contamination. Many shops will tell you Slicks are "throwaway mags" and really don't want to work on them. If I were you, given your problems, I would put in a SureFly and a Bendix and send your Slicks packing. I have found after 50 years that when I try to solve a mag problem "least cost" I always end up spending more than if I just bit the bullet and bought new.

Many OEM's in many, many industries contract their parts operations out to third parties who maintain the warehouses and inventory. Think of the operations as "banks" where you stack money. Now if they keep a part (money) on the shelf, they don't just want the price of the part (money), they want an ROI for all the time that "money" sat on the shelf. A lot of these warehouses sit in Memphis or Louisville close to FedEx and UPS. In some cases they are even operated by those companies. When you order a part from the OEM, they simply transmit the order to their warehouser to pulls the part, packs it and ships it out. OEM's often have little control over the pricing of the part by the third party.

Check the draw on the battery to make sure you don't have a short to the hot bus. I once had a Cessna 402 that would drain a battery. I solved the problem by pulling all the C/B's and disconnect all fuses.. I placed an ammeter in series on the positive pole. It should read zero. I then energized the C/B's one at a time until I found the culprit. It turned out to be a reading light in the cabin that had a switch that would not fully disconnect the circuit. It was such a weak connection that the bulb would not illuminate, but enough to draw down the battery.

One of the issues with the Bonanza is the use of the use of a carbon steel wire in the leading edge cap piano hinge. When you start trapping moisture with that kind of differential, bad things are going to happen. I believe that on retrofits, they are replacing the wire with a different material now. The Mooney MM however does recommend a fresh water wash down of the airplane when possible after a TKS flight. I usually hose mine down then do a 100 mph dry off (1 circuit around the pattern.)

It did when that happened to your neighbor to the North.

I can assure you where I live, they enforce Real ID with vigor. They will not accept photocopies of anything.

I am sure like a lot of government agencies, the TSA is an easy target and I must say there are times I am less than pleased. To large extent but not entirely, there is security theatre, but that is layered upon some conduct of real value. One day I was PIC of a flight that resulted in a new regulation, that was the removal of O2 generators from lavatories. I can tell you that very good people from TSA were of great assistance. When you actually have had a "probe mission" ran against your aircraft by enemies of the United States the purpose, mission and efficiency of TSA becomes very apparent. The real reason for "non real id" DL is political mostly having to do with immigration policy.

The issue of the MCAS is more complex than not knowing how to turn it off if you understand how a stab trim brake works. That is part of the myriad of problems with the MCAS system, after you turn it off, it leaves you with a "bound trim system" which can now only be released by nose down stick, couple that with low altitude and it never will work. I can could go on ad infinitum but let's say the MCAS is like trying to be "a little bit pregnant". You can't. Either design a full mechanical system or go full fly by wire. Electronic augmentation of a mechanical system always creates problems. With full FBW, the stability is designed in rather than "activated". As for "turning on" that is a constant battle in all automation systems, even Mooney's. Think how many times an airplane goes through the localizer because the mode was not armed. Aircraft "state" is a matter of training and training to the annunciator.

I bought the same unit and I love it. It is more than enough power to run the G1000 and it is an intelligent charger. It comes with clips as well as a plug so I can charge the #2 battery if it needs it. Overall better value for the money unless you need starting capability.

As to picking the least bad, of bad choices that is already happening in automobiles, and I have experienced it. A while back I was driving when a truck at my 4 o'clock start drifting from the right lane into me. My car began steering itself to the left, it even crossed the yellow boundary line, however it determined the ditch to the left would not be safe so it slammed on the brakes to let the truck go by. It determined the ditch conditions through its high res stereoscopic cameras. High resolution topo coupled with cameras could do the same thing in an airplane. Using maps is not out of the realm as again, my car does that. If it sees on the map a curve beyond which the suspension cannot handle at the current speed it will slow. It even slows for round about. AI is here and it is at the consumer level. With the proliferation of single pilot jets and owner flown turbo props this system is a huge quantum leap in safety and I am sure insurance rates will reflect that.

Just a question, is anybody running LOP with Electro Air ignition? I am interested is how an IO-550 does LOP with an advancing ignition system.

That is about what I run at 65%.

I have a few thousand hours in the flight levels with clear windows above the arctic ice. There is NO tint that can save your skin or keep you comfortable. I have tried them all. Amber, green, grey. Put on a lot of sunscreen and stuff a chart in the frame to block the direct sun. You are in the flight levels (positive control airspace) and you have a traffic display. See and be seen is not a factor.