Raistlin

Airfares are not crazy expensive if organized in advance (in Y, in C they are outrageous since after covid). Germany or France are most appealing due to the number of Mooney owners and the presence of the two Mooney service centers, but I can also offer up our arport in Milan (LIMB), runway 1080m/3600ft, hotel in front, three major airports to travel to. Our Aeroclub operates it, so we can figure out logistics and costs. I would love to see our apron full of Mooneys ☺️

Jokes aside, it would be great if that could be held in Europe at some point. I would very happily pay my share to make that happen!

Hey there @hazek! I'm right about there with you in the process of getting confidence with my Bravo (but I am IR-rated already). Let me just note down some of the very important lessons of these first 50 hours with my plane, and let's compare notes :-) As you noted, landing a Bravo requires speed and energy management; the beast is very efficient, so I needed to plan ahead and slow down early. That will be important for you also while flying an IFR approach, you'll see. If you are on speed on final, landings are almost always great. If you are 5 knots faster you need to hold it and have runway for it. More than 5 knots call for a go around unless you are landing at the Space Shuttle facility. Weird landing picture: flare 3 apparent degrees more and one full second later than my PA-28 picture got me to the right point with my landings. Staring down the runway from the line up position to fix in mind what "flat" looks like helped me dramatically. More right rudder :-) I know it's a worn-out joke but in most situations I had to retrain to use the rudder much more than I did previously. I religiously set full right rudder trim for T/O and landing and it helps. Speaking of trimming: she wants a lot of trimming, in particular while landing. (good) cross wind landings: still working on them, and even on here there's less useful material on those than on everything else; hints from experienced pilots would be appreciated Engine management: honestly I found it reasonably easy, the G1000 maybe helps in that with all the parameters available at a glance... I think the key is not overthinking about it, honestly There's a lot of things to look at in cruise, develop a flow and prioritize those that can really harm you Checklists: the ones in the POH are really long and some points are debatable, for that reading through this forum has been incredibly helpful Late go arounds - balked landings must be trained, the sequence of things is important, and I fumbled a bit before getting the hang of it Sometimes there will be a sh*tty landing, that's okay as long as you either go around or recover by keeping the flare and adding power if needed, and NOT by pushing the nose down on instinct

Yeah, that's the solution I am also considering.

Hiya folks I was wondering if someone had any issues with a Skywatch sensor integrated in a G1000 setup. Mine randomly (but very often, like 80% of time) disconnects, sometimes pulling the breaker for a while and resetting it solves the problem, most of the time it doesn't. The issue seems to be connected to overheating. I have been quoted an astronomical 10k to overhaul and fix it, and was just wondering if someone had previous experiences of this sort.

So, I am really envious because, since my bird is in Europe, there is no way for me to take this course...

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I just had the exact same issue (only BOTH switches broke… in the off position, grounding the plane, just my luck) and through LASAR I found exactly ONE (1) available at Mooney.

Hi everyone, first post so first of all a quick self introduction: I'm the brand new owner of a Bravo (G1000 equipped, dual alternator, one of the last built). I thank you all for your posts, they have been invaluable through deciding to buy a Mooney and to prepare myself for the transition. I wanted to pick your collective brain on the only (really) negative experience so far with my new plane. I bought her fresh out of annual (at ACG in Germany), during which the alternators where removed for a 500-hr inspection (total time of everything on board is ~1000 hrs). They were shipped to Vliegwerk Holland BV and back. Exactly 2 hours of flight later, I had a left alt indication (but the alternator was still charging the battery, at least initially). Shortly afterwards, the left alternator stopped charging the battery at all, and upon inspection on landing we noticed the belt being not tense. Removing the cowling, we found that the pulley on the left alt had come loose, damaging the shaft. The analysis was that probably the torque on its nut/bearing was not correct, and so in flight it had worked for a little while, while vibrations damaged it. The alternator was deemed not repairable and had to be replaced. I count myself lucky that the pulley did not come detached and bounced around at high speed near the prop and the front of the engine, where it could have caused way more damage... (I apologize in advance for the terminology, the combination of me being the wrong type of engineer and English not being my native language probably made a mess of it) The correlation between the inspection and the breakage is, to put it mildly, suspicious to me. However, the shop (Vliegwerk Holland, I mean) maintains that they did not remove the pulley and its nut at all, so they cannot be responsible. Nor, apparently, they checked the torque or the conditions of the shaft. I don't know if anyone has any past experience of similar faults, or any informed opinions to share. And while I'm at it... merry Christmas everyone!