Sue Bon

This happened to me for my PPL check ride. It was so unnerving! At the end, the guy complained about my American accent when I spoke on the radio. He said it made me sound like I knew what I was talking about when I really had no clue. Afterwards, my actual examiner pulled me aside and told me to ignore that guy. He said, "you sound very professional on the radio, but you're just starting out. Don't ever be afraid to ask for help if you need it."

Come to Switzerland! It's much cheaper here! Narrator: Sue was lying, of course. She's actually crying in her coffee reading about $650 annuals.

Hi! It's been a while. Welcome back

I, for one, really do like to know what's going on with the global (or mainly US) Mooney fleet and what is happening with other pilots and owners. I very much appreciate all the effort @1980Mooney puts into laying out the information available and sharing with us what happened. Even if the discussion doesn't go further than some observations from MS members that have visited the field or know the pilot/owner, it's really helpful for me to be reminded that these things happen pretty regularly and to not get complacent in my own flying.

I've had the opposite problem this year. Rain and TS basically every day. If I'm not available for the maybe two nice hours in a three week span, then I don't fly for weeks on end. Last year was so nice! I've flown less than half of the hours I'd flown by this time last year. It's so frustrating that I'm also wondering if maybe I should just do something else. It's almost impossible to stay current with these weather conditions. But I really do love to fly and can't imagine life on the ground. Maybe next year will be nice again.

OMG, you sound exactly like my Examiner on my last check ride! They're not allowed to pull circuit breakers, but even without that, he put me through the wringer! It was the toughest check ride I've had yet...

For the record.... I didn't mean something like that would never happen to me because I'm an IFR pilot in VFR weather. I agree that the pilot kept his cool and responded to ATC and got out of a harrowing situation safely. I was wondering about his planning while he was still on the ground. It is important to ask for help if you need it. It is important to be able to hand fly your airplane and to respond to ATC and let them help you. It's even better to not get into a dangerous situation in the first place. Pre-flight planning goes a long way in that regard.

I tend to agree. I'm an IFR pilot, but mainly in VFR weather. I will never fly if I know I'll be going down to minimums. I haven't checked, but I am curious what the weather forecast was for his destination on the day of his flight. If he had programmed his GPS wrong and was in IMC to minimums, that would be harrowing. Especially if not current in said conditions. Things can get overwhelming quickly.

I don't have a step. It is a bit uncomfortable -- especially when you have passengers who don't know what flaps are. I've started putting the flaps all the way down before letting pax get in, and stressing multiple times, only step on the black part.

That's nothin' for @EricJ in his '77 J!

I found some... MS uploads photos in random order so the order you should try to look at is (1) the one with all the snow/ice, then (2) the end of the snow/ice, the beginning of ground, (3) the airport in about the middle of the photo, you can see two little buildings, which are actually two giant hangars, (4) the runway on approach

There's basically nothing around for hours except snow and horizon and places you definitely cannot land in case of emergency, and then you see a little landing strip off in the distance. The little landing strip obviously becomes a big runway, but it looks so small at first. It's just out there all by itself, with a few houses next to it, surrounded by nature for as far as you can see. I was trying to find pictures, but my impulsivity got the best of me one night. The trip was one of the worst experiences of my life due to the guy sitting in the left seat, so I deleted a bunch of stuff that I now wish I had kept.

A friend of mine met some friends of his in Alaska. My friend was flying a C340 and his friends had a 252. The Mooney flew directly from Canada (not sure where) to Reykjavik while the 340 had to get fuel in Greenland. I think the Mooney flew for something like 12 or 13 hours. That's a hard pass from me. Plus the landings in Greenland are spectacular.

I'm curious about the Wick, Scotland to Reykjavik, Iceland leg without long-range tanks in a J. It's a bit over 4 hours with no wind, and you almost always have headwind that direction. I flew to Quebec City in a C340 (right seat - in charge of the radio) and that was the longest leg. I'm interested in trying it in my J, but that's the leg that makes me the most nervous.

Haha! You quoted me before I deleted my post, but yes, you are right. Lyon is lovely and has the best identifier for any airport IMO.

Woohoo!!! Congratulations! That's amazing

I flew to Grenoble, France (LFLS) to test it as a possibility for my upcoming IR/SEP check flight. It won't work for the check flight, but I had some great views of Mont Blanc and Geneva. The French Air Force was also landing there, which was really cool.

I love the thought of someone yelling "Caution!" at the park. A friend wanted to name his dog Taxi for that very reason... You have a fine looking Mooney

Cool article in Axios https://www.axios.com/newsletters/axios-finish-line-ecfccf60-33d0-11ef-bb25-87c6e3338553.html?chunk=2&utm_term=emshare#story2

How did he like it?

We finally had a day without rain and I headed up to Memmingen, Germany. Look who else was visiting! Placid Lassie... They were skydiving out of her. The pilot sounded American. Plus my token pic of Zurich, Zurich Airport and what is visible of the Alps. I must have taken this photo 100 times on 50 different flights, but each time I'm there, I just can't resist it.

Both. There is probably something happening with my plane, as @EricJ mentioned. I had big problems before the panel upgrade. I thought taking everything out and putting it back in new would solve it. At least now it's just those frequencies, in that airspace - that I know of. That's the only time I hear it, and they are the only ones that say "read you broken". Maybe the software update will help. Let's hope.

I don't understand anything you guys have said, but after my 650 Xi was installed, I had significant problems with my Coms. Then they were fixed - maybe doing whatever you said above. I do have one remaining problem: when I enter Zurich or Geneva airspace, the first frequency is always broken. Both of those frequencies are higher ones, 130 or higher. Can these problems have anything to do with the frequency, or do I have a separate problem?

Why?

So... I checked and the Malibu he had in mind fell through and he has since decided to keep his Ovation for a while. Sorry about that.