Paul Thomas

I wish heat was their problem! I think different iPad models have different heat tolerances. I live in South Florida and I have never gotten the heat warning in flight. My wife's iPad has given heat warning on multiple occasions but she's always managed to cool it enough to avoid a shutdown. A little shade and airflow goes a long way. She keeps it open all flight long while I often close mine and store it between the front seats. When flying IMC, heat shouldn't be an issue. When my wife is onboard, we fly with three Foreflight licenses: two iPads onboard + my iPhone. I also print the plate for destination and alternate if there is a chance the weather will be IFR. If a competent pilot requests vectors to give time for an iPad to cool, or have a plate read to them so that they could shoot an approach, I'd have no issue with that. Failures will happen. My issue with these two guys is they didn't give the appearance of being competent.

wow... poor wife on board! It's amazing the how helpful controllers are. If we keep having iPad issue, I can see the FAA requiring a power source for them on board. We are going to work ourselves into being regulated for electronic charts.

I don't know how they still are in business. While they have been making significant progress recently, they have been at it for SO long. Someone has a lot of faith to keep footing the bill. I would love to see new engine choices but the price point is just unrealistic; last I looked it was over 100k firewall forward for an experimental. I wonder how much is that cost is related to what the engine should cost vs. a failure to manage the development of the engine. I wish them well but I fear that they will fail and make it that much more difficult for the next person.

I have a subscription to Foreflight and that's what I use. I have FltPlanGO as a backup as it's free. FltPlanGO is a very good and to be candid, I probably should just switch to it but I like the convenience of using the data/documents I've uploaded to Foreflight.

There is now online access; it's free and immediate.

3 ft off the ground accelerating... is that with the gear up or down? If it's gear up, there is absolutely no way that I would EVER do that. We'll wait for a better day to fly out; the risk of a gear up is not worth it to me. With the gear down, I would do it as a training exercise, but would not do a takeoff where performance requires it. I've had airplanes that linger in ground effect to accelerate and I didn't like it -- and that was without mountains around. I just don't have the much risk tolerance these days.

Some formation groups will not allow vernier throttle equipped airplane; I don't know of any FFI approved group that does. The issue is being able to make quick power changes; pushing down on the vernier is viewed as hindering smooth operation, increase pilot workload, and makes the throttle hand more tense when it should be relaxed. I've never viewed it as an issue because it's so easy to push the button but those are the rules that some groups have.

That process is MAGIC; you will be amazed at how well is cleans and how little product it uses.

The W&B shows an empty weight of 1886 so it doesn't appear to be a typo. Beautiful airplane; the interior looks like a new car.

How much metal? Lycoming has a publication on what course of action depending no how much metal is being produced.

I contacted Mena Aircraft Painting earlier this year when I wasI was looking at an airplane located close to them that needed paint. Their quote was 18k for a basic 2 tone job.

I bought my J earlier this year; I don't have speed brakes and I'm glad that I don't. To me, they are equal to less useful load and more maintenance for something I may potentially find useful at some point. I haven't found slowing down the airplane difficult.

I'm building an RV7 and would like to get my CFI so those are in my future. In the meantime, we'll enjoy the Mooney. It's a sweet airplane and perfectly suited for our mission.

My goal is to arrive on Sunday and depart Wednesday morning but the weather/our schedule will have a say in that. My plan is Fisk and camping.

Are all the electric gears affected or only the early J and older?

Do any M20's have an STC for mogas?

I found that the SR22 makes book numbers; I'd look into why yours doesn't. You'll gain range with the Ovation but, unless you cut out a fuel stop, I'd look at how much block time you will actually save vs. the cost/pain of switching aircrafts. Flying 1000 NM in one hop is great in theory but impractical on a regular basis unless you fly alone. My wife puts up with a lot, but she's no longer ok going with my mentality of we're only stopping for fuel; bathroom break have to be included. I've found that 1,200 NM is all I want to do in a single day; two 600 mn legs make for easy flying, give me time to stop for food and stretch my legs, and I'm not tired when we arrive. Further than that and it's time to consider leaving it to the pros.

There is a lot of talk about the airplane doing just fine, and it will if you know how to fly it in those conditions but not much about the PIC. This FL based pilot would get a lesson in high DA operations and how to deal with mountains.

It's not just post-covid. More engines are being OH due to the surge in flight school and time builders, especially when it comes to Lycoming 360. Lots of pilots are/were paying to rent an airplane to get for 1,500 hours as fast as possible.

I just don't recall seeing anything about the video; it may very well have been admitted. It was not one of the items I was interested in when I was looking at the court file.

I'm not familiar with the facts of the case beside what I quickly saw in the court's record; I do not recall a video being part of the exhibits the parties mentioned. My understand based on Omar reply on Monday is that the video showed the ramp, not the airplane being pulled out of the hangar. He had two trial attorneys and I'm familiar with one of them; we started our careers around the same time and she was a competent trial attorney at the time. She always did a good job back and had a reputation for being pleasant to work with while being tough, fair, and knowledgeable. She is now the managing litigation attorney for the firm that represented Omar and based on the filings, it appears she is quite active trying cases.

I hope Omar will give us an update with details from the trial. The judge (it was a non-jury trial) found in favor of Signature. I'm sure we can learn from what was presented trial and the legal process so that we can avoid having a third party damage our airplanes and what to do should it happen.

Today is day 2; the case is being tried in Miami Dade in front of Judge Brinkley.

Is that common for the Mooney to only have formation under the wing? If so, that's scary to have it first adhere where the pilot cannot see it. I'm glad you were able to get the airplane down safely. There is a lot of learning lessons there; it's not because one is not able to get the engine re-started that one should quit trying. I had not considered 100LL freezing either.

When I built tanks for my RV7, I found that working with the sealer was no-where as bad as advertised -- as long as you kept your work area and gloves clean. That is the big trick, if not, the mess gets exponentially bigger as you continue working. I found the best use of gloves was the cheap one from Harbor Freight... wear two layers and keep changing the outer layer. Two layers makes it easier to quickly change gloves as you continue working. The sealant working time was shorter than advertised for me and would cut it in half. It did not flow as well once I got past half working time but my working temp is high 70's.