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2 pieces? I only had one thing break and as reliable as the KLN90B is, it is still a 25 year old piece of equipment...nothing lasts forever. Also, just for the record, I don't actually *HAVE* to be anywhere really ever. I'm supposed to be in Georgia on 9/21- 9/23 and plan to fly the Mooney. If weather looks bad as we get closer, we'll adapt. The plane has a VOR, DME and ILS and the pilot going with me is a CFII with a little over 2,000 hours so we're capable of flying in hard IMC safely if it comes to it and honestly, as long as there's not convective weather that would make it unsafe, it would be a good experience for me to do that with him. We'll make a game day decision though, like we do every time we fly. I have a seat available to me on a Lear45 if I need it so, I've got options. I'd just rather fly my plane for the training.

The prop is definitely bent, I think it's there because of a prop strike. I didn't see any damage on the underside, it doesn't look like a gear up. Maybe the bounced it? Broke my heart when I saw the prop.

Agreed, go with option 2 and have it repaired properly. Sent from my Pixel 6a using Tapatalk

I have another pilot going with me just to fly. Of course if we get delayed by weather, we get delayed, we won't take unnecessary risks. Thank you for the concern, seriously. Sent from my Pixel 6a using Tapatalk

Can I mix a G5 with a 275? Sent from my Pixel 6a using Tapatalk

Well, it appears that my KLN90B may have kicked the bucket. Yesterday morning, it powered up fine, we programmed in a flight plan and then had to shut down for a minute. When I powered everything back up, it wouldn't come in. We tried resetting the breaker, flipping switches off and on, made.sure the display was full bright, pulled it out of the tray and reseated it, all to no avail. I've got it at the house now, I'm going to try to power it up on the bench to rule out a power issue in the plane. In the meantime, the avionics guy went ahead and picked up a GPS 175 for me as he knew someone that had one in stock locally for $4550 so, worst case he has something to replace it with. I was really hoping to hold off a few months though, so that I could plan this out and do everything at the same time. I've settled on the GPS 175 and a 2nd G5, which will allow me to remove the gyro compass/CDI and the Icarus SAM. I can probably remove the OBS as well if I feed the ILS into the G5, I'm going back and forth on that. It would be nice to have the space for an engine monitor there but, it'd also be nice to have VNAV or LPV on one instrument and ILS on the other so that if one fails, I have something to fall back on. You guys have any feedback on that? Sent from my Pixel 6a using Tapatalk

This is the one at KERV. Sent from my Pixel 6a using Tapatalk

If I'm GAMI, I'm probably selling the STC for $10 or something so that I can get it into as many hands as possible as quickly as possible and sell more fuel. Hopefully that's what they'll do.

Thank you Hank and M20Doc! The A&P mentioned to me that my baffle would need some attention soon but didn't say anything about the dog house. I'm putting 5 - 6 hours a week on the plane right now so I'll need an oil change soon, I'll give all this a good look over when the oil change is done and figure out a plan of action for it.

Thanks for the feedback so far. Now I have a couple of other dumb questions...what is the dog house? Does anyone have a picture of the area where the felt is? I haven't taken the cowl off mine so I'm having a hard time visualizing some of this.

Ok, I have a 63 C and need some knowledge about the cowl flaps. The checklists say to close them in cruise, others have told me to leave them open for good cooling, what do we really do in practice? Also, it says not to open them above 150MPH on the placard, does that mean make sure they are closed if you're doing 150 or more or does that mean that if they're closed and you're over 150 you should not open them? How do you decide when you should close or open them? I assume I always want them open on takeoff and climb out for cooling, correct? Is there ever a time I would want them open during cruise or should they always be closed as part of the cruise checklist? This is the first plane I've flown with cowl flaps so I'm not sure how I should be using them. Thanks for tolerating my continued questions. I still love this plane.

No, it's more of a camo pattern and where the star is it has M on one side and 20 on the other. That one looks really good as well though.

The display is washed out and unreadable. It still works but, I can't see what it's doing. Sent from my Pixel 6a using Tapatalk

Awesome! That's exactly what I wanted to hear! Sent from my Pixel 6a using Tapatalk

I saw a really cool military style paint job in a Mooney parked in front of Dugosh at KERV today, unfortunately it looks to be the victim of a prop strike. I'll try to remember to get a picture on Friday, it was really well done.

OK, I have another, more specific avionics question about the new to me plane. Currently, I have a BK KLN90B interfacing with an Icarus SAM to control my S-Tec 50. I'm fairly confident I'm going to replace the KLN90B with a Garmin 175 to get WAAS approaches with VNAV since my OBS supports ILS approaches with vertical guidance so I believe that if the GPS could provide VNAV, I could see it on the OBS. I'd also like to install a 2nd G5 as a CDI and, ideally, drive the AP from the G5 instead of the SAM because the display on the SAM is on it's last leg and sure to fail completely soon. My question is, will this work? I think the G5 can do what I want but, I'm not 100% sure. Would I need anything else for it all to interface correctly? Thank you!

We were doing landing practice in Hondo a lot before moving the plane to Kerville. Today we flew up to Junction and did pattern work there instead, the runway is smaller and not nearly as smooth but, there's hardly any traffic up there and it's prettier terrain. I'm sure we'll be back at Hondo at some point to work on crosswind landings, we're usually only there for a couple of hours though. You're welcome to come see it in Kerrville if you'd like though.

So as you guys know, I recently got the M20C and today was my first time landing it. You guys all had me super nervous about floating, bouncing, prop strikes, ballooning, porpoising, etc, etc but, I've found this plane to be sooooo much easier to control and land than the 172s and Cherokee I've been flying. It's significantly more responsive so I'm not always waiting for it to do something or over correcting because it hasn't caught up with my inputs. I'm new to this so this is just my lightly informed opinion now but, it seems that if you fly the numbers correctly, the plane will behave in a very predictable manner and, most of the time, touch the ground just as the stall alarm is going off. I really thought that the transition was going to slow me down considerably but, I think it's actually going to speed progress up once I get the workflow down. That's taking some work to get used to, I'm either climbing 100 - 200 feet when configuring for landing or getting too fast right now. Once I get the muscle memory built up to be able to do the gear, prop and mixture without having to look at it all and I can keep my eyes on the G5, I think I'll be able to get that under control and really be in control of the process. It's really a cool feeling to be flying my own plane and not have to pull everything out at the end of a lesson or need to reconfigure everything the next time I get into it. I'm really looking forward to spending more time in her and becoming more proficient. These girls are real engineering marvels.

It's a lot of fun to fly, no doubt, and on a flight of an hour is so, hand flying is the way to go. I've got a 900 mile trip at the end of September though, no way I want to fly that by hand. It'll be a tiring trip even with the AP and then I have to make the return just 2 days later. In those situations, the AP is the only way to go. Let's not forget when Lindbergh crossed the Atlantic, Coca Cola still had Cocaine in it... Sent from my Pixel 6a using Tapatalk

The AP was a big part of why I chose this one. Nobody wants to hand fly 400 miles. I think the GPS 175 makes a lot more sense than a 430, I didn't know about those. I'll probably go that route to get something a little more user friendly than the old BK. Sent from my Pixel 6a using Tapatalk

Man, you Mooney guys are as cheap as your reputation, you don't even want to spend someone else's money. LOLOLOL Sent from my Pixel 6a using Tapatalk

Can I use the G2 as primary and remove the existing gauges? You're probably right about not doing too much with it, I have a tendency to want to overimprove things, I like nice stuff. The flip side is that when the time does come to sell, it'll move faster with updated avionics.

Which part, the gyro compass? It does connect to the GPS and move the needle to the side like a digital HSI but, it precepts and I'd like to not have to deal with that. That part is mostly laziness on my part, I'd just like to have one less thing to deal with in flight. Sent from my Pixel 6a using Tapatalk

OK guys, I need some feedback on avionics upgrades. I know a little bit about the options but, I'm far from what I would consider knowledgeable, please forgive any stupid questions. For background, I just bought a 63 C with a G5, King KLN90B, S-Tec 50 dual axis with altitude hold, Icom radio for Com 1 and an older Narco for Com 2 and Nav. Everything is functional and really already adequate but, there are a few things I would like to have. First is an electronic engine monitor, I've been thinking an EDM900. I also would like to replace the Gyro compass with an HSI, right now I'm thinking another G5 and lastly, I would like to have a more modern GPS with moving maps and VNAV support, ideally showing a glide scope on the PFD. I've been considering a used GNS430 for the GPS, mostly because of cost. When I add all this up though, I'm coming to somewhere between $16k -$17k just for the hardware. I've got a neighbor that's an A&P and will help/supervise me installing the EDM900 for $1,000, neither of use really know the Garmin stuff well enough to feel comfortable tackling that though, so I'd need to get someone to help with that which I'm guessing would run me another $4k or so, putting my total somewhere in the neighborhood of $20k - $25k. So my first question is, do my numbers seem reasonable? If so, that brings me to question 2, if I'm going to be spending this much money, is this really the best path to take or could I do something that will be more integrated and elegant for the same money, or just a little bit more? I'm not married to Garmin, a lot of the other options look to actually be better values so, I'm open to anything really. The only hard line is that I'm not looking to replace the AP so whatever I do needs to be able to work with it. Also, this isn't intended to be a forever plane, the plan right now is to fly this for a few years and get 300 - 500 hours in it and then move into a 252 or a Bravo so, I'd like to not spend a ton of money on upgrades that I'm not going to get back when it's time to move on. Of course, in the meantime I'm the one flying the plane and there is value in having a panel I'm really happy with even if it doesn't all come back when it's time to sell. So, what say you guys? How would you spend my money on this panel? Thanks in advance for any feedback, I'm looking forward to hearing what you folks come up with.

Thanks, I have that same tach and wasn't sure how to get the time. Sent from my Pixel 6a using Tapatalk