BlueSky247

@LANCECASPER gets my write in vote for the presidential election!

It may be a little farther than you want but Cole Aviation at KDNN is about a two hour flight away from there and is a highly regarded MSC on the east coast.

Haha! You got it. If it's one of the big ones, I'll just do the Oprah thing here. "You get a Mooney, and you get a Mooney, and you...."

Joshua - you make some great points but also sound a tad salty. If people enjoy keeping the avionics shops busy, let em. Personally, I'm really liking the new safety options that are possible with the latest gen of hardware. Anytime we can give our pax an option to activate a safety net is a big plus in my book. So I'll take that Level button in the gfc500 and the smart glide wired to a separate guarded button on the panel. Maybe someday we'll see the Autoland in the sub-million dollar planes, but I'm thinking they'll see too many complications when that happens. One thing that bugs me about the g5 and gi275, some of those data readouts are mighty small. My current trainer has the g5's and I find the lagginess and need to stop and stare at them for a moment makes it hard to do (imo) an efficient scan pattern.

Popped over to their site yesterday and saw this front and center. Anybody know the story there? Something left over in the pipeline, or are they doing limited production? Time to go buy a lottery ticket!

I replied back to s-tec asking if they could forward the technical installation information for their system, just to try to get a sense of what it would involve. "I can't send you that as it is controlled information, but you can expect about 70 hours for the installation."

You guys might find this interesting. I filled out S-tec's web form the same day I started this thread. I just got this reply from them: "The 55X is a great option for your Mooney. It is a 2-axis coupling autopilot that includes vertical navigation, GPSS and GS capture. Auto Trim and Altitude Preselector are two additional options." Based on some cursory searches, and unless I'm missing something, I'm not seeing a compelling price delta for choosing to go a different path with those guys. (vs the gfc500)

Well, certainly a more advance airfoil shape on the same blade count would make a difference. But launching at high DAs at max weight needs a bigger hammer than that. If I were based in the mountains, I'd sure be looking for a different prop. That's one of the things that bugs me about the 390 path, seems like you'd be locked to a single approved prop. Lame.

This one slipped by me. I was referring to being able to go with more or less blades in addition to the sweep angle.

@Pinecone that’s pretty sweet. What kind of climb rates do you get down lower?

Beautiful plane and nicely equipped! That ought to sell quickly.

I know it’s a whole different ballgame, but you gotta admit, it would be nice if we could swap the “big screw” on our birds as easily and for a particular mission the way the boat folks can.

Is that while taking off from Leadville?

Good question. These hangars aren’t that big. I think it’s more his personal space and not a working shop.

@0TreeLemur Love it! Thank you Sir. I will look into that. Also - I see we are "neighbors". Would love to meet for a $100 hamburger sometime after I get mine home.

Step aside Wagyu! Make way for HailYu. (Not to be confused with the language that must have been used with whomever hit that poor Cessna.)

I agree. It is very possible my figure is the exception as my home field is very small and rural. I have to believe tying down at a busy city field would see a lot higher chance of getting dinged.

@A64Pilot If I understand your question correctly, you were asking what impact hangaring the plane makes. My last conversation with Parker, he indicated in my area, it only amounts to a couple of hundred dollars difference for a 100k hull policy versus being tied down outside. That seems wild to me considering how much damage hail can do, but I'm not an actuary.

I will third Jim at Gmax. If you are serious about a mooney, you should reach out to him for his valuation guides. They are a cheap and very informative resource to help you get up to speed on the different generations and price points.

Lurker to these parts just wanted to second the wet head benefits but also express my dismay that a turbo 540 has challenges in this area. Surely OP isn't doing these takeoffs at max weight?

@Tx_Aggie Much appreciated! You are absolutely right, of course. The plane already has the same transponder and gps nav I am used to from the school's fleet, so I for sure should be able to get a lot of $100 hamburgers, etc as it is now. After lots more mulling things over and waiting on the buying process to creep along, I'm thinking the comms(and some kind of EM) will be the first to update when the time comes. Everything should be working now but some of that gear is downright crusty and I'd rather pre-emptively get that potential time bomb addressed. Radios aren't as expensive to upgrade, right? Right? Also - I'm one of those guys that don't have a strong preference for glass or steam gauges. After looking into the gi275's more, I think that could be a great way to maintain the plane's character and a more timeless look. (Now watch me do a g3x anyway.) Thanks again for all the feedback. Really helps out.

Beautiful plane and nicely equipped. Why are you selling it?

Thanks all for the pointers and hard-won experiences. I am for sure planning to hold off any major items to start with. I just got through reading Jimmy’s valuation guide and learned a lot. I had a chuckle at his example of not buying a 78 and throwing the entire catalog at it. Looking forward to hopefully bringing her home soon.

Sweet! So what's the best way to find out the show prices? Osh have a special site up during the event?

Yes, indeed! I was really hoping to be able to leverage that but the timing is not looking great on my end. Not even sure I'll make it out this year.