Hank

He may have had a IV-P. Either way, it was nicely equipped and fast. Hard to fly was about managing controls, speed and descent profile, not the cockpit layout. Never wangled a ride with him, now I can't. Just not a fan of the fuselage shape. Ditto some of the other composite designs, I think they throw extra compound curves in just to emphasize it's not an aluminum structure.

Aside from the fact that you have to build the Evolution, here are the major differences that I see: Evolution is pressurized. Evolution is all composite; until the U & V are approved, all Mooneys are aluminum but will soon have some composite. Mooneys still have the steel cage around the cabin, Evolution doesn't. Evolution stalls at a much higher speed. Approach speeds are tremendous in Evolution. Evolution has very high wing loading. I used to know someone who had a turboprop Evolution. Watching him zoom around the pattern and fall towards the runway like a rock was a sight to behold. He only got stopped on the 3000' runway using beta thrust. It is not a pilot-friendly plane, and I'm sure it is much less stable than any Mooney. Sounded cool taxiing in, mixing that turbine whine with the funky noise the prop made going from normal to beta thrust and back again. I am supposing that the piston version won't do this, losing many, many style points and lots of ramp appeal. I'm not much of a fan of the swoopy fuselage design, though. It looks wrong, and the back seats look cramped. Big, bulbous front windshield area, and a stick for a rear fuselage, then a tail. No balance, like a tadpole with a stubby, narrow wing. But you know what they say about the beer holder . . .

Congratulations! I love my AccuTrak!! I sometimes even fly with it turned off, other than takeoff, departure and the last thousand or two feet of descent.

Yep! I won't do that again! It was even a full stop and taxi back departure . . . It's on the Run Up portion of my checklist, after mags and prop and before seatbelts and door.

I fill out my logbook by my watch. Actually, I use the yoke clock, which I wind and set by my watch. The red hands mean I don't need to remember start time, just look at it when I park and record the difference. Maintenance is done either by the tach time or by the calendar. There's no Hobbs in my plane.

Buy a Duke. Your A&P will love you, and his children will go to good colleges. 50 gph? Your FBO will buy you a personalized red carpet, and always roll it out for you. A Mooney Bravo (M20-M) will do 190-200 KTAS on 18-20 gph. It's your money, it's your choice.

Negative, Ghost Rider! The pattern is full . . .

The XM weather is updated every five minutes. But it takes time to process and stitch together. So the "new," freshly updated XM weather can be 20 minutes old. Not good when you are near anything active . . . The StormScope shows what is happening RIGHT NOW.

I don't have bulbs of any color for this. My G430W is hooked up to CDI #1; the KY97A is hooked up to CDI #2. So it's up to me to know which radio I'm using then look at the appropriate indicator. And yes, it is a legal IFR install.

You do realize that the StormScope shows live data, just a second old,while XM and ADSB weather data can be 20 minutes older than the time shown on the screen, right? It wasn't the StormScope that caught you. A lot can happen to a maturing thunderstorm in twenty minutes! My C has a slaved compass way over at the left end of the panel, and the unit that drives it is in the tailcone, not the wing. But I'm sure much changed between my 1970 plane and your 1978 model. Besides, no have HSI, neither.

My tank sealant removal machine is named Edison, and lives in a hangar at KFXE. (Sorry, I couldn't resist! Six pages and going strong . . . )

Thanks but no thanks. No time left to rise on the list. . . .

Not much of a flight yesterday, and the only pictures were on my passenger's phone (darn it!). Having just moved to an airport redoing their fuel tank, I flew a whole 15 nm to gas up. Took a friend who had never been in a small plane, had the camera going taking pictures and video most of the way there and about halfway back. We detoured, did some flight seeing and got pictures and video of her flying the plane on the way back. After we landed and put the plane away, I found out she was live streaming the video from the plane. Need to get a link to share. As I was finishing pumping fuel ($3.30 at KALX), someone drove up on a golf cart and asked if we would like to take the courtesy car and go to dinner. I politely declined, while my passenger was shocked at the idea. The joys of GA!

Congrats in fixing things and improving your plane. I resurrected my doghouse across two annuals, rebuilt the carb heat and alt air boxes, then replaced the muffler and tailpipe. Kaboom! I'm 12 mph indicated faster at pretty much all altitudes, but a little more faster down low (3000 msl or less now indicates 150 mph; at 8-10K, it now reads 140+ mph). Once you finish rigging, there are other places to look. You don't have to wait for something like the carb heat box to fall apart and default to Full On in flight, making you wonder why you worry about clearing the trees at the end of the runway, or making ATC ask, "are you sure you're a Mooney?"

Here's what it looks like.

Wow! And I thought my four 10s was a great schedule! Where do I sign up for two 8s???

Cool video, Mike! Ground and air shots coming low over the beach. Like you say, memories to treasure!

Their website talks about ultralights and Rotax engines. I'd be shocked if it's approved for certified use. by the way, their "high density liquid mass (Quick Silver)"--quick silver is the old name for mercury, which is certainly a high density liquid (density = 13.7!).

There are several Mooneys at MRN, maybe Bob will be along soon with the name of the FBO. Have a great summer, I love that part of NC.

I don't reach across the cabin to open the door until after I exit the runway or turn around to back taxi--either way, I'm moving slowly. But I do reach out one finger while holding the throttle to idle and press the Flap switch to "Up." It helps put weight on the wheels earlier, for better braking. But I also don't brake hard to make an early turnoff, mostly because many of the places I go to have so few turnoffs.

Sims are good for practicing procedures after flying them for real with your instructor. They're also good for checking out airports when planning your long cross country; you can see what the airports look like as you fly towards them.

Lean to rough, enrichen to smooth has worked well for thousands of planes for several decades. But since my (factory single) EGT has numbers, I use them.

I think my Owners Manual says to switch to a tank with at least 6 gals for takeoff and landing. Need to check that. My guess is to prevent uncovering the fuel pickup from either nose-down attitude or acceleration.

This may require direct action. PM sent . . .