Hank

No fuel gage I've ever seen in any land, water or air vehicle is accurate down to the single gallon level. When I stick my tanks (unless full to the cap), I know that for instance I have 17 gal in the right tank (capacity is 26 gal). A nice, accurate gage would show just over halfway between 1/2 and 3/4. So how long will that last me at 9 gph? If a full tank is 2:30, it's 1:15 plus some, total unknown. I'd rather know 17 gal will almost 2:00, call it 1:53. If that's all my gas, I'll fill up before departure (but would rather have both tanks functional unless going somewhere to fix the other tank), or plan to land in an hour to top off. So no, I reject your theory that running out of gas is due to faulty indicators. It's because the pilot didn't check and know how much fuel was in the plane before departure; didn't monitor the time aloft on a given tank; didn't lean the mixture properly; headwinds were stronger than forecast and the pilot opted to push on to the original destination instead of stopping for fuel; or something similar related to pilot action or inaction and not to the fuel gage. Even the simple cork and wire floats on Cubs have been know to jam, lord knows the cork-on-a-spiral-wire on an old riding mower of mine was next to worthless.

It can't be that hard! I've carried a 10' x 10' canopy in a five-foot-tall zippered case with wheels in my C. Thankfully the back seat folded down in ine side and no one was beside me. I was unable to take a picture, though. Took it to the Mooney Ambassador display at the Indy Air Show the year before it was canceled by the sequester. '11? '12?

Quite a coincidence: the USPS brought me a nice, big envelope today; inside was the new Cinci sectional, $9.88 delivered. I am subscribed to four of them, which come out twice a year. They never overheat, and the batteries don't go dead.

Fixed that for you, Bob! (Sorry we don't have a line-through font available.) Some of us actually prefer the quadrant control to having an assortment of knobs sticking out of the panel to try to crawl past getting in and out. It wasn't bad on the Cessna as a student because I had a door on the left, but I really don't want to work my way to the right with the throttle and mixture knobs sticking way out of the panel. Like everything else it's a mix of personal preference and what you're used to.

If you ask a bunch of J owners, each will say the most preferable year is the one each owns. The throttle quadrant was only used the first year, 77, then they went to push / pull. Don't know when split reclining seats reached the Js, my 1970 C model left the factory that way. But my seat bottom is an actual seat bottom, not seat-shaped cushions in a rectangular fuselage piece. Expect some upgrades to the J over the years, in installed equipment, changed layout, etc. Then there is the whole 205 thing vs. 201. Another thing is that as the years went by, empty weight increased at the expense of useful load. Then Mooney wished up and allowed a gross weight increase (from 2740 to 2900?). So watch the numbers as you shop. Remember to have fun as you shop! When you find decent candidates, get everything emailed and go over logs with your mechanic looking for obvious gotchas; if a plane passes that test, visit and fly, haggle on prices and arrange a pre-buy inspection. And post pictures of your new ride!!

I never had this happen until I read this thread yesterday on my iPad with pars' screenshots as the last post. Then it happened, and was difficult to even close the tab as the ad had a pop up on top of it that reappeared faster than I could close it and reach for the 'X' at the top. After several attempts I was successful, then opened a new tab for Mooneyspace. Here's hoping it doesn't happen again . . .

The Avidyne is newer, does more and is reputed to be more user-friendly. The Garmin knobology is very counter-intuitive. A WAAS GPS will open up a lot of things for you, especially when you start instrument training. But a new Avi 440 with install will chew up your entire budget . . . What they have going for them is they are direct Garmin replacements, same tray and everything, while the new Garmin units aren't compatible with the old Garmin trays,raising the install cost. With nothing, after install you won't save much between a used 430W and a new 440W. One thing to keep in mind is that some of what you take out can be sold to offset some installation labor. Try to find a Brittain AccuFlite, it will fly you in whatever direction you set the heading bug for (assuming your plane has a working PC system). They are simple, and very inexpensive to upkeep (I had a servo rebuilt ~4 years ago for $135 plus shipping to Tulsa). For now, I wouldn't worry about ADSB or iPad connectivity, I fly just fine without either, and plan to continue doing so until ADSB units fall to reasonable prices. I also will not buy an all-in-one unit and run a second GPS antenna, that's just flushing money down the toilet. Time will tell if I can still get inside the Bravo ring underneath the actual airspace . . . If not, I won't lose a whole lot.

I'm guessing he was running high power with the turbo. My longest leg so far was 4:40, and I landed with 11 gallons out of the 52 that I took off with. I switch tanks every hour, even though the Owners Manual says to fly one hour on one tank; switch tanks, and fly until it's empty; you then have known duration in the original tank (time to empty on the other tank less one hour). Of course, this conveniently ignores the extra fuel burn in the climb, but if you plan to land with an hour in the tank anyway, the extra 3-4 gallons won't make a huge difference. I've not dipped into my reserve fuel yet . . . but I have flown longer legs (see above) than originally planned, due to reroutes, vectors, active MOAs with fast movers on the radio and everyone's favorite, headwinds.

Woo-hooo!! Blazing speed!

I used to have problems with my landing light when doing currency night landings. From taxi, takeoff, three landings to a full stop, back taxi between each, then back to the hangar was a long time for that big GE bulb to be lit. Since I switched it for a Whelen Parmetheus, I only turn it off when having the master in for over an hour inside the hangar (like the IFR cert testing). No more heat problems. It wouldn't surprise me if the Nav Light breaker was picking up heat from the landing light breaker bolted on beside it. P.S.--my C has exactly the same switches, but the gear lever is immediately to the left and not a little below them.

Don't forget the little o-ring on the shaft down the inside!

Stay in touch and let me know how it flies. When you're through using it, I may buy it from you.

That's why I use Takeoff Flaps with trim on the line when heavy, no flaps and trim to the top of the line when light. It's very impressive when light in the winter; the further north, the colder, the more impressive. I just wish I could remember what the VSI said that 8°F breakfast run with half tanks when the wife stayed home in bed . . . . My C is acceptable for short runs with four adults, but it matters which adults it is. Three pax at 200+ each is a problem; one other guy around 170-180 and two ladies in the 130 range aren't a problem. Also, try to keep the 4-up flights down to an hour or 1-1/2 for comfort, and rotate the other seats at every landing, even if just a fuel stop. I'm 6' and fly in the middle seat position. The back seat is ideal for one person, they have the option to sit on one side and put feet on the other.

Marvel-Schebler, but check the letter after the dash. As mentioned above, it sounds like your C isn't running right. I don't have fuel flow, but mine runs well at (WOT - a tad) and leaned to the oh-so-despised 50°F ROP, and I get pretty much 9 gph block time. Full throttle / 2700 climb, set power, lean; to descend, I push for 500 fpm, trim forces away and occasionally pull throttle out and ease mixture in to maintain cruise values of MP and EGT. When I level off, I reset an appropriate power for that altitude and relean. My target is TPA around 3 nm out so that I have time to bleed off extra speed, as I'm pretty much descending around 170-175 MPHI. I've tried flying WOT, but all it did was burn a couple of extra gph for pretty much no discernible extra speed. If I'm flying around 8500 or higher, sometimes I'll leave the engine leaned to peak. Now that I've OHed the carb, resurrected my doghouse over two annuals and replaced the muffler (had a hand-sized hole on the bottom where everything came together, but no CO problem), I can now run sometimes as much as 25°F LOP. But it sure is slow . . . Find what isn't right and fix it, you'll love with your C all over again.

There was some coverage. I read about finding the wreckage yesterday afternoon, and the flight recorder this afternoon. Then again in the evening news. Then here. Doesn't that count as "coverage"?

Where is Andrew with the LSU G? Or the military pilot on the east coast? They are both big G fans. My C works well for me.

Oooooohhh!! <jealous!!>

No ram air on my C, but I've usually got 20-20.2" at 10,000 msl. I'm also eagerly awaiting David's finished announcement.

I used to work with a young guy from India. He said there are two kinds of Indians: this kind (touching his forehead between his eyes) and that kind (holding two fingers up behind his head). Then he laughed, and so did I.

Falcon is good, they actually contacted me to initiate the renewal. Now I just need to add up the hours divvied up their way since last year and send it in. Cliff is great.

My point was that teachers are seeing this behavior that is linked to sugar and calling it ADHD. Unless you really believe that a third of American schoolchildren have developed the same neurological disease in the course of just a few years? What mechanism could be responsible for the rapid spread of such a thing, while providing some increasing resistance at higher socio-economic levels??? Hmmm . . . . maybe misdiagnosis to get medical treatment [teachers taking the easy way out, with support/encouragement from Administration since there is increased government funding going to the school as ADHD rates rise] instead of enforcing behavior in the classroom and providing time to run around outside and burn off energy?

Go arounds are really pretty simple: feed in the power and rudder, push the yoke for desired airspeed (initially Vx), when seeing positive climb rate raise the gear. Hold Vx until a couple hundred feet up while rolling trim wheel forward and milking out flaps (move the right hand from one to the other, alternating until flaps are Up), pitch for Vy or desired climb speed, trim like a normal takeoff. This works for me with electric gear, electric flaps with a push-to-move switch and manual trim wheel. It should be practiced from time to time if you haven't done one in the not-too-distant past. As a maneuver drilled into pre-solo Student Pilots, we should still be able to do them ourselves. I have video of a go around on my Solo, my wife called it a photo pass. Every now and then, something will sneak up on me and I'll do another one even now; there's no shame in breaking off a bad approach and starting over with a good one (or at least a better one).

It would if they go to school after a sugary breakfast, eat a sugary morning snack, a lunch with sugary drink and dessert, then a sugary afternoon snack. That's an all-day-long blood sugar rollers caster, from high energy (can't concentrate) to low energy (can't pay attention, too sleepy). Throw in lackadaisical parenting with poor monitoring at home, and the kid has no chance.

One step at a time! But my main gear are only about 6' wide, so even that 30' runway gives me 12' to either side. I hope I'm not often more than 12' off center!

My Owners Manual describes several methods to break a spin. I've also read somewhere from a Mooney test pilot about ways he used to break a spin. For a flat spin, you need to unflatten it, often by working the throttle full to idle to full a few times coupled with full elevator deflection both directions [if I remember right]. You can also drop the gear. If that doesn't work, eject. My OM also says that recovery from a one-turn spin may require up to 2000' of altitude, so ain't nothing going to happen with a stall/spin at pattern altitude except an ugly splat, with or without a fire [seems to be luck of the draw on that one]. Thus the attention to make sure that I stay at or above 1.3 Vs. Holding 90 mph on downwind and base, 85 on final and 70-75 over the fence depending on weight, I have a buffer; by not banking beyond 30º, I don't need more buffer nor an AOA to remain safe. This works for me from large Class C [up to 11,000' long] down to grass strips of just 2000'. Any shorter and I'll go elsewhere.