Hank

Welcome, @moonlighting7! While your CFII will doubtless be capable of flying your new E, please spend a few hours in Middle America with a CFI/CFII who knows how to do things the Mooney way. Then fly off with your guy and have lots of fun. Please post pictures at pickup and when you get home. And any questions you may have at any time. Also, update your avatar with your location (or at least "Colorado" so we will know the next time you post!) and model. There are probably other members near you for hangar flying.

So do lots of bright, flashing lights on the ground.

I plan to fly places within my personal minimums, and plan an alternate or two if there's a decent chance it'll go below, I try to get an alternate that won't. But I do practice to minimums, because the weather you get is what you see out the windshield. "Weather forecasts are wrong too often to trust, but right too often to ignore."

Yep! But before we speculate on all potential causes and their many preventions and solutions, we will first need to speculate randomly on how the two planes may have touched (wingtip-to-wingtip, wing to rudder, wing to stab, wings overlapped and slapped, spinner to tail, etc., etc.) and the aircraft positions and attitudes that would allow each possible type of contact . . . . Because right, we the great unwashed know only: Two planes flying formation "touched," landed safely, were repaired and flew home; No one with any knowledge of what happened is saying anything at all. And it looks like their deaf-mute act is supported by many here, and that it began on the ground at Osh instead of having an all-Caravan safety discussion (because they are all above such considerations?). Sometimes perception can be more important than reality . . . . .

OK, you comment on the color, now post a picture from the sunny side so we can see what the durn color is!! I have a non-traditional, sorta-red paint scheme, too, just not in the modern stripey style. I'll keep my pictures out of your celebration.

Find the local auto body paint supplier and take an inspection plate to them. They can match most anything, of any age and amount of fading. My guy in WV wasn't fased when I told him to be careful, they were off an airplane and would be expensive to replace, because he did the local hospital helicopter, too. My plane has 5 colors, I took several plates and had to leave them . . .

It would help to know if your C has electric or hydraulic flaps and gear, as some of the speeds are different, which affects the process. I generally enter the approach cleanat 23"/2300, and slow towards 105 mph soon after the IAF, and drop Takeoff Flaps. At the FAF or 1-1/2 dots above glideslope intercept, I drop the gear and descend at 105mph until breakout. Then slow down to 85 mph on final, Idle Throttle when I know I have the field made, just like every landing. This won't work with hydraulic flaps, Vfe on those is too low. The MAPA PPP is an excellent program, and will teach you a lot more about flying YOUR airplane.

Yes to both! Encouraging progress for Mark! Thanks for the explanation, Steiney. It helps me understand the updates. I have two engineering degrees but never had high school bio . . . .

There's always McFarland. Send them your old cable and the broken piece if you have it, and they'll make a new one to match what it used to be.

Pulling my C out of the hangar and pushing it back in is my exercise regime, along with flexibility drills climbing in and out . . . .

All I can say is two words, a little one and a big one: risk homeostasis. Add something to improve safety, and behavior will deteriorate so that there is no net improvement in operational safety. AWD and ABS brakes just let people drive faster than they did without them, having accidents at the same rate but at higher speeds . . . All too often, airframe parachutes just encourage pilots to go ahead and take that worrisome flight, if it all goes to hell, pull the red handle--but you'll probably make it anyway . . .

Mine are big and brass. Oh, you meant on the plane! No idea, didn't go to the airport this evening and won't tomorrow evening, either. Good luck with your new plane!

Back when i wrote SOPs and product specifications a lot, I kept one line taped to the bottom of my monitor at work: Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool. I'm not saying that anyone in the Caravan is a fool or acted foolishly, it's just a reminder that "stuff" happens every day regardless of how well we plan for it. Like a former politician said, "We are prepared for the unknown, both the known unknowns and the unknown unknowns" or some such. Gotta prepare for everything that everyone involved can think of, and be ready for things that weren't thought of in advance.

The "NAPA fuel line" in the photo clearly has "NOT FOR FUEL INJECTION USE" written down the side of it. Regardless of pressure rating, that would bother me a lot! My car's fuel pump puts out 45-50 psi . . . .

When I have problems, it's usually in the jacks. Reach under the panel and make sure the contacts touch the right parts of the plugs.

Pics, please, for those of us not committed to either install yet!

Love a P-40!! Next to the F4-U, it's my favorite warbird. Even if my Mooney does have a passing resemblance to a B-model P-51 . . . . Beautiful plane, great photo.

But thsre is ZERO information for us to use for our own education, other than the no-content Official Caravan Statement that two planes "touched" on approach into OSH. Same element, different elements, brushed wingtips, tails, props . . . Pretty sure no windshields were involved . . . Those who saw know, the rest of us remain in the dark. But that's okay, I've been calling myself "King of the Mushrooms" for many years now.

I've been cleared as filed, then Approach realized I was coming towards ATL and vectored me away from the Bravo. One time cleared direct from Furthest WV to the VA coast, Potomac approach had me copy a list of VORs to fly, cutting me loose from the airways about 50-60 miles due north of my destination . . . Dunno why, filed "/G" but they insisted on crooked airways across southern VA going to KJGG. Guess my luck doesn't run to shortcuts or Bravo clearances.

Please post where I can buy this kit and install instructions!!! Pretty please?

Oh no, tell me you didn't! I was an ear witness to a large Cessna prop strike in the goo at SnF while inspecting the ground around my plane, planning to leave that day. It was ugly . . . Turned around and saw the pilot's face (they had landed and were taxiing in, nose wheel sunk in, more power compressed the strut . . . ), so I stayed another night.

Being based in WV, I used to file Direct all the time and often heard "cleared as filed." Then again, I usually opened in the air because it was hard to reach anyone from the ground. Just like when flying past ATL now, getting cleared once doesn't prevent that "advise when ready to copy" discussion later . . . ,

We all think that about our planes . . . . But she only gets what I can afford after making a jewelry contribution to my wife . . . . .

Tightening the fuel cap requires taking out the lower cotter pin, tightening the nut, testing the fit until you're happy, then replacing the used cotter pin with a new one. Good luck! Took me a couple tests when I installed the blue fluorosilicone orings.

"There's no replacement for displacement." —Big Daddy Don Garlits [father of drag racing, multi-Hall of Fame member, many-time multi-champion, etc.] "Once you fly an IO550, you can't go back." —carusoam [Anthony Caruso, the ultimate Mooneyspace reader / writer]