cwaters

Where are you located?

I think you're knocking on a solution with your last sentence. I've been told I'll get vectors to final and requested an IAF a few times and they tend to not mind as it reduces their workload with you to some extent as then your course and altitude is defined on the chart and they don't have to get you headed the right way and altitude. I've also been forgotten about by approach controllers if I'm going to a smaller airport and they have a large C/B in their sector. So I end up having to prod them for things like " Approach 1QE would like to start our decent now" or start a turn now and I'd say about 80% of the time they give it to me and the rest they let me in on their grand plan with " standby traffic ...." type reply . If you're going to make the call to talk to them I'd find the number for the ABC Approach as you mention and list the date and time to the manager and they will go pull the tapes and get back to you with a reason or an apology, or maybe a "you missed a call clearly on the tapes here"

a few things of note: - with 200TT and IR your insurance will be better than with lower hours and no IR (I bought my J at 100TT and no IR) - Insurance may not care about your 10hr dual in a mooney, best to talk to an agent about your situation specifically, and the only real pro to it would be building complex time but only 10 hr or so is not really going to make a difference - when my insurance gave me the transition training req, they gave CFI req too, my cfi had to have more than xxx hours (i don't recall the exact number but think 500) mooney time - the other pro to having a CFI travel with you to bring it back is that the transition training and getting to know your plane is second to none. Ideally you do the long XC back with the CFI to iron out some kinks with plane and then do the regular transition training stuff, Stalls, soft/short field, develop personal min ... - Having done a 700nm xc to bring my mooney home, FL-VA, i highly recommend not doing it alone. I have also done a few multi day XC (1000nm+) solo after having a few hundred hours in my J and love it but wouldn't think to do that solo in the plane having never flown it before - Every once in a while a J comes along for just over your listed budget and you may be able to swing it, if you can look at early model J as they have all the speed mods from the factory and a mid body gives you some more space will stil being 200hp (so not High Perf) and the electric gear/flaps. The E would be my next recommendation over the C as it has the injected 200hp not the carb 180hp engine. - I was able to accomplish everything with my purchase at a distance minus actually signing paperwork and looking at plane and test flight, I was able to test fly, sign and fly 700nm home in 1 day without too much time crunch in Jan with short days. if I'm doing a long XC now i will plan ~1000nm a day and end there because i get tired after 6-7hrs of flying so even if you bought a plane on the east coast its really only a 2 day trip back if you want it to be. But if you have to fly though CO to get home then highly reccomend doing some mnt flying and burn a day exploring - I got to spend some time out at edwards a few years ago and there is some good flying out there so a mooney would be wonderful for getting around the area without driving multi hours

I've used Davinci Resolve for a few years now and like it, its a highly capable platform and they have a free version that i don't think ill ever ue to its full capacity. I use GoPro Hero 3 and 4 in and around the plane (my thought is that they are old enough to be cheap to replace if something ever happened to them) outside i just let it run till the battery dies and don't use the BT turn on or off as it kills the battery much quicker. inside i have it plugged into power and audio so i let it run till i need to change the SD cards. Check out Flyingthewaters on YT if you want to see what ive done with the videos. Videos take a while to edit and its not my favorite thing to do so i havn't done it in a while and there is currently a backlog of raw footage for me to edit on my desk and ive stopped filming because all my SD cards are full with rad content to edit.

This is just about what my J is at also, for reference im dialing in on the EDM 900 Lean find function. Mine seems to be really happy at a FF of 8.3-8.5gph LOP and 10.5-11.2ROP depeding on altitude and MP setting on the ROP side. most the time im running WOT on my climb (based in CO so my WOT on the ground is only putting me in the 22-23in range and 80% power)

Look at the west coast mooney group her on MS, best i can tell it stretches out to the eastern front of the Rockies and there is no mid-west group on here just east and west so some of the flatlanders are in there too also on FB DONT BUY CHEAP, avoid the urge its tempting for sure but look at a bunch of ads and really dig into some one the cheap ones (even if you have no intent to buy) search them online and see the flight history and check around on the plane without wasting the sellers time and your money. this will be extra work on your end but you will start to learn some of the lingo and some of the reasons they are so cheap. My J I got my pre-buy on an had nothing of note come from it. I budget about 2k/month on everything aviation related (from hangar, insurance, fuel, maint reserves, ...) some months that works and others it dosn't but so far for 2 yrs its averaged out nicely and i built a small maint reserve. My first annual was 2.5k and this yr was 4k (had some non 'needed' maint done because i felt it was time) Get a good pre-buy with a mech that you know and trust and (since you don't have a mech yet) ask around here and at the field for a mech people know and trust for mooneys. get their honest opinion and don't be afraid to walk from a deal. Best to not get emotionally involved until the check clears and flying it home.

I was in your position about 2 years ago, 100hr TT and working on IFR. I was debating VFR vs IFR planes and on one trip my wife and i got stuck at an airport with an overcast layer that was 500ft thick that was just sticking around at 800ft all day. Nothing to do with approaches and nothing really to do with enroute ifr flying, having the rating (and a capable plane) would have allowed us to get out of the airport and start our trip home. Now this was before i got my mooney and before i got my IFR. So i decided that i would have no use for a vfr only plane and the minimum equipment on board for me was starting to flesh out. I ended up getting a 77 J for 80k that was already IFR cert and then going to get my IFR in my plane. I have a modest panel, just a standard 6 pack and a non-Waas 430, back up nav com is klx 155. so i can shoot an ils (if it exists) to 200 ft and rnav (LNAV) to 500ft and for now that is all im really comfortable with in single pilot ifr no AP. All to say if you go with a vfr only plane and you get your ifr in a school plane remember the currency req for ifr and remember that current and proficient are not the same. I have a mooney buddy at my home airport that he and i fly about every week in one of our planes if not both and do approaches so that we stay current and proficient. Buying and selling in a few years is a notion IMHO best left to the more experienced buyers and sellers. I bought my J for 80K in '21 and have no doubt it would go for more now days but i couldn't afford to replace it with anything out there right now so having it already and planning to keep it (ie not needing to replace it) is a good spot to be in.

I have the 900 and love it, its a primary so the old gauges go, its large enough for the 6cyl guys to have enough room on the display so us 4 cyl guys don't have everything squished together and the operation is really intuitive I have a standard 6 pack and a non-waas 430, when i got the plane i had high hopes of going all glass but after flying for now 2 years I don't think this plane will go all glass. If anything ill upgrade the 430 so i can have waas but my IFR flying does not have me shooting to LPV min anyway and the LNAV min are typically 500ft there are a few other nice to haves that i would aim for in my next plane but i don't find them enough of an annoyance for this one to pay the $$ to add them. I'd like to have an AP (I just have the wing leveler), WAAS, Built in ADSB-in, and synthetic vision would be nice but all are byond what i want to put into this plane given avionics resale pricing don't age well. The AP is the only one ive seriously considered and come very close to pulling the trigger on as my average trip changed from 500nm to 1000nm in the last yr but even then the plane is super stable and once itgets trimmed out in cruise im rarely making any inputs to the controls. I've found that (in smooth air) i can trim to the point that if im getting low i can lean back in my seat and climb and if high lean forward. All this to say fly your plane for a while and try to take some long trips where you spend a few hours in cruise to really highlight what you don't like about your current set up and then rank those grievances

Thanks, not sure how I jacked that up

if you're getting oil on the outside of the bag you may be doing it wrong but in all seriousness, I use a funnel and a gallon ziplock with a paper towel or 2 shoved in it to catch drips. Usually the process is to unscrew oil filler cap (check oil) and not remove it, get oil check rag (usually a semi clean rag not all oily) and remove funnel from bag, wipe down funnel and remove paper towel, place in filler tube along side the dipstick, fill ..... wait for 2-3 min (this is usually when I'm putting an empty quart jug in the back of the plane or the trash can, get oil rag again and pull funnel out of tube, take some quick-ish action to get rag under funnel in time to not have a single drip but its far from all over the place. Put funnel back in bag and zip up. the paper towels get replaced every now and then as they get saturated but its on a once ever few month basis and putting the bag on the hat rack has yet to lead to any unwanted oil anywhere in the back of the plane. i find the waiting part to be the most important as the rest of the oil gets out of the funnel, takes longer on cold mornings than warm afternoons though.

I tried this recently and failed miserably at it, went back to my funnel. Maybe i just need a bit more patience

I have a EDM 900 in my M20J and recently (within the last month) the FF reading has become erratic. I first noticed it spiked from my leaned out 8.5 GPH to 20 (I've never seen a reading that high) and then returned to normal and stabilized. Then on recent flights I've noticed it being stable then beginning to fluctuate higher than the actual flow (I have not seen lower) and not returning to stable flow. All other parameters appear to be stable and the engine is not running any different. No recent engine maint, last annual was 15-20 hrs ago and the issue started rather abruptly about 2-3 hrs ago. Currently its an annoyance as the JPI is wrong on the high side of FF the estimated amount remaining is always low (not a bad thing) so i have more in the tanks than it thinks i have. The Google machine suggests it could be the transducer, I was wondering if anyone here has had a similar issue and what the fix was/ cost of fix?

While the weather is far different from Minnesota, it's not a place I'd like to be tied for months on end esspecially in the summer. That summer sun beats down hard and will bake anything inside and out. Birds are a problem in the fall and spring, they can make a nest anywhere and in about an hour it seems. The summers are prone to afternoon T-Storms out of nowhere (typically rather short lived) with high winds. Winters (if you can call it that) is nice though. Just saying Peachtree is how you get around not actually knowing directions to something or how you give directions to someone you don't particularly like that much. "just turn left on peachtree" and there are 50/50 odds that the peachtree they turn on is a 1 way

I'm putting together a quick fly out to KDHT (Dalhart Municipal Airport, Tx) for lunch this sunday (3/5) at the Red Baron Restaurant on the field. Let me know if you're interested in attending so i can let the restaurant know aprox numbers. http://www.airnav.com/airport/kdht http://places.singleplatform.com/the-red-baron-restaurant/menu?ref=google

I recently talked to my insurance guy and asked about doing additional courses like this one and he said the only thing that would help my insurance go down is just more time in the plane. The training and after my IFR he even said that getting my Commercial wouldn't do anything for my premiums.

I might be missing alot her, but if the fuel burn is in the 16gph range and speed is in the 155kts true range why not go with something with much more room like a lance? you can get about the same specs and pick up 2 more seats and more UL/space for that growing family and all the stuff

Just curious, why do you trade them so much? Just haven't found the right one or just really enjoy something new every year or so ?

where in TX are they headed? they did my annual when I was east coast based and would love to get back to Lynn

how do you watch? what is it typically on? second question, Since Mooneys sit so low how is it for turning of the runway an onto the grass? especially if soft, do you not worry about prop clearance?

this is typically what I see too in my 77 J maybe a bit warmer this time of year with oat nearing 100 on the ramp, but my Oil temp stays ~200 at highest and cht is ~400 at highest

yeah, if you havn't gotten the chance to get the full family in a mooney I would advise you do that before comitting $$. they are not "small" like people say but there is a method to putting a family in one and you will likely not take the full fam every time so it may not be an issue but those boys still have growing to do so if you're very family centric then you may need to re evaluate all together.

I hear that, I recently went COS to DAY for work. unfortunately they make flying my mooney a pain with the extra paperwork and only reimburse me for the gov contracted rate of the airline not even the actual rate they will pay the airline. 1000nm and the J would do it in ~7 hr while the door to door was ~10hr as I had to fly out of DEN not COS and still had a layover in Chicago. the trip back was worse as the flight was canx the night before causing me to extend the rental car and hotel reservations. next trip I might just eat the extra cost of taking the J and not deal with the airlines at all.

something not here is what is your mission? The O2 and the J are two different planes with different best missions. you can get some really really nice J's out there so I don't know that its fair to say the O2 is a nicer plane. define the mission and get the plane that fits that mission. If that end up being the O2 then great, find a highly experienced CFI with O time to work with you to get in front of the plane and manage the systems properly. Don't do just the insurance minimum but spend some good time getting comfortable in the plane so you reduce the risks of getting behind and forgetting things. I got my J with about 100 TT in 172 and the like and then got my IFR in it and wouldn't have done it any different. I felt it was a big step from the 172 to the J but spent a good bit of time with a CFI to build confidence and comfort before turning loose to explore the world in style.

They are great down there, Lynn took care of my J last year and I just wish I was still in the area for him to help me out this year.

I would highly agree with what @201er mentioned. I brought my J from near Tampa to northern Va when I got it. the flight in cruise is not as instructional as you really need to check that box. so yes you would technically have the hrs, but you would not be doing yourself any favors by going off solo at that point. For me It was around hr 16-18 before I told my transition CFI I felt comfortable with him hopping out of the plane for me to get the additional 10 hr solo before passengers.