Hank

Welcome aboard! The Mooney flying season is all year long, minus the time for your annual and any days with icing about. I started flight lessons on 1 Oct on the OH / WV border, and have many winter XC trips based there. Performance is very good in the winter, especially compared to summer afternoons here in AL. Snow covered hills are nice to look down on, gloves off, coat open. The cabin heat in my C model will flat run me out if the cockpit, it was typically never more than half open with some fresh air mixed in. The morning it was 8° out, my wife stayed in bed and I went to breakfast without her, but boy! did the plane ever climb!

In WV, it was $100; now it's $200. Not much of a house payment.

Ooh, ooh! I wanna go!! It's not too far . . .

I've drooled over air parks, but have yet to see one where the housing requirements would qualify as "downsizing." Or "affordable" either, even without including the hangar . . .

No, cause when it comes off, will A&P #123456 be with you to spit on it again?

You need to visit a dealer to experience the many RAM options. Sporty's carries many of the pieces to build your own. I'd imagine Spruce does too..

I used to share a 50 x 50. The owner kept his Champ, bass boat and a motorcycle or two inside. And his old side-by-side refrigerator, wheelbarrow, a couple of bikes and some cabinets. Lots of space to fill up if you've only got one plane. (Biplane anyone? They're pretty small, short wings, etc. ) (me! me! if only . . . )

I can fly my Mooney at MCA for a long time, turning both ways, stall horn buzzing. But I still don't like stalls. When I have to (check rides, flight reviews, PPP, etc.), I do them. Didn't like stalls flying RC. Don't like stalls flying full scale. It's important to be able to recover from one, but I think it's more important to recognize the onset and be able to prevent the stall. Most accident stalls are in the pattern, and there's no recovery there . . . Stay sharp, practice a couple of times, and you will stay check ride ready.

Finally made it out for some trim pictures. This is in my C, solo with full fuel minus an hours' cruise and two climbs to altitude. Takeoff position (see my posts on the first two pages before the name calling and other silliness got so bad for details): Here is my trim in level cruise, and the obligatory panel shot: And after landing, my trim looks like this: I set Flaps to Takeoff on downwind while slowing to 90 mph. Gear down, begin descent, turn base, turn final, slow to 85 mph; short final like this I'm targeting 70 mph; Flaps, throttle and yoke set as required to hold descent, speed and aiming point; flaps may have been as far below Takeoff as Trim was above for takeoff, wind was 7-10 knots almost down the runway. Suit zipped up, extinguisher handy!

There are eleven biscuits (4 on each main, 3 on the nose). Early planes had more,that was changed before my 1970 model was built. Some are still out there, needing new gear parts for the new biscuits. Buyer beware . . . Last I saw, they were $105 each plus install.

Yeah, that usually happens when I'm doing night currency landings in the fall, alone at the airport . . .

My C lived in a hangar on the WV/OH border that was sometimes heated in winter, and flew 9 hours the two years and a bit before I bought it. The tanks both had small leaks, and this was factored into the price; I did a full strip and reseal three years later. No other problems have surfaced related to it's idle time. Tires, vacuum pump, new pucks, etc., sure, those happen. But you're looking at triple the sitting time. Check the logs and see how the 80 hours are distributed between annuals. It could be 10 hours a year, it might be 50 hours in one year, then none for a couple more. It could make a difference. Good luck in your search!

Nobody saw my worst bounce except my wife. We were coming back from our first real trip, WV to NC for thanksgiving. ATC vectored me around the college football game, brought me over the runway lights right at midfield, allowing me to set up a nice pattern. I was so glad to be home, to have flown us in a mere 3+ hours into the wind what was normally 10-12 hours in the car, that I stopped flying in the flare. So there we were, loaded to the gills in the plane, crow-hopping down the 3000' runway toward the trees at night . . . I went full throttle after #2, praying hard to miss the trees I couldn't see. Waited until after I got home to think about what went wrong.

Sporty's is a nice stop, especially to check out Ram mounts in person. Used to live ~45 Mooney minutes from there; now I'm that distance from Spruce. Picked up a new Concorde today, anda few little things. Waiting now for oil to drain from the filter.

Harley, if I remember, he took the parts from a later J and put them into his early J. Kind of like another member swapped out much if the cabin interior from a later J into an early one because he really, really hated the throttle quadrant and wanted the push/twist controls instead. It's still not easy, though.

It's been too many years--Dec 92-Jan 93 in Dalton, GA. . . I threw out the logbook in my third relocation after that, and of course the next year I started lessons again.

Bob flies a J. This is an interesting analysis, I need to do the same for my C.

I just have an oil pan heater (brand unknown, I don't recall, installed by the PO). Even in OH, give it an hour and it cranks right up. Overnight is easier, but the cellular attachment is great--no more driving to the airport the night before to plug in the heat.

Our government made that discovery decades ago, we just won't let them stop! They want to do the same with $1 bills and switch us over to ugly, clunky coins that last for decades (vs. ~18 months for paper), and we won't let 'me do that, either. Who runs the gov't in Canada, anyway--the politicos or the people?

Congratulations! Looking forward to the updates.

Now THAT's a bunch of pennies!?

Nah, if we all sort through our change for the next few months,mew can build the wall USING Canadian pennies!

Really. I just got one last month,and it's a L-O-N-G ways from here to Canada!

Quiet Technologies makes the Halo in-ear headsets in Mississippi, U.S.A. And they're good, clear, dependable and much stronger than they look. Despite my best efforts, I've not managed to damage my set in almost six years despite wearing them plugged into my handheld while mowing along the runway and repainting the runway numbers, or attempting to leave the plane without removing them . . .

May I suggest green scales with gold highlights, and some wicked teeth on the front?