Hank

My neighbor killed a baby copperhead with her walking stick yesterday at the end of her morning walk. Little guy wasn't a foot long, and kept coming after her.

Wow, i can't erase the fallout on my phone. . . Is the gear really "under"engineered if it didn't fail until significantly after its anticipated service life, i.e., TBO? Seems to me ti be not seriously overengineered. But what do I know about gear design? All I've ever done is buy, review and approve molds to make plastic ones, then run the fool out of them in production.

Wow, the Bravo typicallynhas 280 hp, often has modern avionics, and cruise speed often reaches around 150 knots! That makes my C look like an absolute bargain of a speed demon . . . . But all that aside, what is on this particular Bravo???

My little C struggles when climbing to 10K and above. As for Direct, most of us aren't blessed with a big turbo . . . . But it sounds like fun!

I think your Book was written by Marketing! Below is the page from the Owners Manual for my 1970 C, at those setting it shows 164 / 167 mph depending on weight. If I remember, your C is 1965 or earlier, so in 5-8 years, the plane lost 15 mph!

I've heard that I-10 is an easy route. Just make sure there are no tunnels . . . .

Anyone gonna meet me in Concord? I was the only single with over 400 lb available useful load the last time--I didn't fill up until after my first delivery. The problem with a short body, though, is always space, not weight. Operation Airdrop is well organized, everything is boxed and weighed, and stacked on carts with the total weight shown, Just load as much as you can hold. Remember, the weather is usually great after a hurricane passes through!

Like this:

That's a beautiful drive. My fishing buddies and I took pictures "fishing" in a snowbank at the pass once. If memory serves, the pass is 11,900 and a few feet.

It's cra-cra!

Isn't that a composite blade? I wouldn't expect wood or fiberglass / carbon fiber to Crack neatly across the grain. I also wouldn't expect aluminum to crack neatly like that, either. Maybe @Cody Stallings has some relevant experience he can share.

You're a brave soul! I went in and out of Cody from the east, up the valley to BIL VOR specifically to go around the Absarokas!

My 12V Concords average around 7 years. I'm happy with that. I write the installation date on top with a Sharpie.

The overwhelming majority of GA spins are in the pattern, and recovery is not possible there (especially in a Mooney).

P.S.--I thought it was having trouble and losing speed, and could barely reach 160 mph in a 500 fpm descent. Then washed, polished, waxed and buffed, and now I have to watch the yellow line (175) in the same descent! A shocking difference! Guess I got my money's worth from the work. (No, I didn't do it myself, getting too old for that much work.) I was going to confirm cruise speeds going to Tampa this morning, but . . . .

I bought my Mooney because: I was finishing my license and looking It was at my airport It was the FBO owner's personal plane Therefore it was in good shape He was willing to sell it half at a time Each half was about the price of a worn 172 I had 62 hours in my logbook by the time we filled in the pink slip, did the required 15 hours dual including 5 hours actual & simulated IMC, and haven't looked back. It's been 1000 amazing hours since then! Also, it's fast and efficient. As an engineer, I appreciate both! I can make the same trip as a 172, in ~30% less time and 10-15% less fuel. Oh, and i can carry more people and stuff while doing it.

After Helene blew through, Atlanta is kind of cool . . . . My brother lives there, had 6" of rain yesterday, expected five more overnight.

Leather wrap is easier to add than a yoke clock. I'm hooked on mine! Use it every flight.

Ah so ka. That picture is worth a couple thousand words. It would be tedious trying to fish many wires around those rivets with such little space above it. Do you think pushing a piece of thin piano wire through from the other end, then taping the wires to it and pulling them down would be any easier? It would need to be thin enough to flex out around the linkage.

I was really looking forward to seeing this unit in Tampa, and talking to you about it. Where in the country are you based?

That's a reduction of 0.040" / 1.0 mm in the indpside diameter of the shaft. How fat are all of these cables? Surely a 1mm smaller shaft wouldn't eliminate all of those wires?

I canceled everything yesterday. The Summit is a safety event, and I decided that the trip would not be a safe one. Plus the Tampa forecast is for rain through Monday night. It would be nice to have a get-together sometime after this is all over for everyone. Looks like Georgia, upland SC and the western NC mountains are going to take a beating. Any ideas, @Pinecone? @Danb?

This is where the Mooney Summit was supposed to start tomorrow. Helene's eye is about even with Tampa. Note that the METAR does nit indicate water level, upbut field elevation is 7 feet, and the storm surge in Tampa Bay is projected to be 6-8 feet. But in a couple of months, everywhere in the Deep South will be so much nicer than anywhere in either of the Dakotas. Hey, you aren't showing the temperature in ND . . . . But the wind looks like a normal day, right?

The full Mooney Annual / 100 Hr checklist is generally 20-24 hours labor. No idea what the difference is for turbo or long body models. The owner assist tasks that I used to do were remove inspection panels and cowl Clean, gap and test spark plugs Grease landing gear Replaced inspection panels and cowl Whether I did anything else depended on what else needed doing and how everything came along. Doing the little maintenance tasks let the IA handle all of the Inspection tasks. We replaced nose tire and tube together, which is different from auto work and more dangerous; I'm competent to do this myself now if needed. More importantly, I was there to look at things and monitor year-to-year changes, make decisions about fix this now or later, etc. I miss it . . . . But my new IA doesn't allow it. Been with him for the last four annuals.

Man, you mid-body folks are so complicated! I fly downwind at 90 mph, Takeoff Flaps, drop gear and back off throttle at the numbers; turn base still at 90 mph; turn final and roll wings level at 85 mph, slowing to 75 mph over the mystical / mythical fence, minus 5 mph for every 309 lbni am below gross for that landing. Throttle to idle, maintain speed, raise the nose to slow and touch down. If the wind is really low or calm, I'll often have to add additional flaps to maintain desired descent / glideslope / VASI lights if present. Yes, all of our planes move nose down with the addition of flaps; adding more flaps moves the nose down more. But you should get a lot of that back when you round out and flare, right? Or do you just maintain the descent rate, lift the nose with trim and yoke, and plonk down onto the runway?