Hank

Honest, Gus, none of those were me! I'm not even multi rated, much less turbine endorsed! Many of those looked like the other Birmingham, over there in Merry Old England. I'd rather watch those landings than be along for the ride, but either would be better than riding up front holding the yoke. That's what we have you professional types for . . .

Nah, there are many if those. There's one just a few miles west if KCRW; land toward the mountain, take off away from it. Once you turn final, there are no go arounds. Oh, it's also pretty short, with a right dogleg and a circle at the hillside to turn around after back-taxiing. People park planes between the hangars and the runway, too, and there's no room for a taxiway. I'll probably remember the name later tonight. At least it's paved . . .

My last quart before a change, going in at 40+ hours, generally lasts 5-6 hours. I refill with 7 (6 for the engine and 1 for the filter), add the first usually 10-12 hours later. Each subsequent quart goes in a little sooner, often on 1/2 qt increments. Still don't quite use a case per 50-hour cycle. Higher power and higher RPMs increase oil consumption, though. When I fly lots of long distance trips, I use more oil; as local flying increases, oil consumption goes down. Color wise, it's generally pretty good for the first two additions, and begins to darken up around 25-30 hours. By 50 hours, it looks about like my truck does around 5000 miles, when I change it. But 50 Mooney hours is over 8000 miles . . . .

Wow! Haven't heard of Shadio Rack in a long, long time.

At least Flaps are partially down . . .

If you're already at the airport, with the plane out of the hangar or untied & uncovered, sitting inside with the engine running, just taxi to the end of the runway and go around the pattern a couple of times. My occasional 3 full stops at night takes a whole half hour or so from engine on to engine off. How much time will you save on the whole trip to the airport by not flying?

Drain the tank out the bottom, and park in the sun with the cap off. Should dry pretty well inside. Of course, this works better on a sunny summer day . . . especially down South! Or in Texas.

I've had nothing but good service from Phillip and the Switchbix. Living in West-by-God, Virginny, that thing was the bee's knees! Kept me from driving through the snow to plug in the plane the night before, and several times from driving back to the airport in the morning to unplug because ceilings were down, the weather didn't clear, it was snowing again, etc. Now that I'm back where I belong, it's not as important. But we had frost this morning, and are expecting it again tomorrow . . . Then back up into the 70s for Christmas.

That's when old, degraded sealant comes apart. Mine, on the other hand, was crumbly like sand.

Don't kid yourself, it's in full effect everywhere.

I like the steel safety cage. Regarding low CFIT rates, the Vintage birds have full time PC systems, which helps a lot. Later planes tend to have nice autopilots. All Mooneys have what B & C pilots call "heavy control forces," which probably makes our planes harder to upset from the outside. So we spend less time on aircraft control, giving us more time for other things like navigation, looking out the windows where we're going, etc. That's my 2¢

Someone needs to sue to get it to a judge.

So why the 50% price jump in the last two weeks?

I did the same from southern Ohio in 2010. Great service, on time, 7 year warranty. Edison is a great guy!

The AME I found after relocating is a pediatrician . . . And I would not say he has a "tight body" that I look forward to seeing . . . When I first started flying, I discovered that my doctor was an AME, so my annual physical alternated with a Flight Physical every other year.

No trouble with my 2-year-old iPad mini retina . . .

Makes me tired just looking at that . . .

I don't have a large enough fortune to make small in the aviation business. Thanks for the invite, though.

Mine's pretty low at startup, too. Don't know if I ever noticed it before my pump died, but in the last couple hundred hours since then, it's really low when I crank up in the morning, does perfect at runup, then drops when I pull the throttle back to 1000, and is always fine in flight. Now I have to pay attention to it's behavior the next couple of flights. Thanks for doing that to me . . .

Oh yeah. Please don't test-spin your Mooney to see what happens. My Owners Manual simply says "DO NOT SPIN THIS AIRCRAFT," then explains methods to try recovery, with a warning that a one-turn spin may require 2000' of altitude to recover. Don't think the test pilots went beyond one turn, and they flew in the right seat, beside a quick release door and wore a parachute. Details, details, details . . .

My wife encouraged me to buy my chuteless Mooney. She happily rides along VFR or IFR, if we're going somewhere; sometimes she'll go along flightseeing, but she's not really into practice flights or going up "just because." if I mentioned wanting to buy a chute instead of a car, she'd send me to get my head examined. On the other hand, you are always free to spend your money the way you want, just as I do. Personally, I think the "car like" interior and accoutrements of the Cirrus help sell it to people who are shopping in the 700K price range. To say nothing of two doors, just like their car. Gives them a more comfortable feeling sitting there looking at the big tv screens on the dash. There's even one of those on each side. "Perception is often more important than reality." Sure would be nice if my Mooney qualified for airbag seatbelts, just like the new 700K Mooneys . . . They actually save lives. Cirrus counts every pull as lives saved, whether the pull was necessary or not, whether the plane could have landed or not. Oh, except for the one that hit power lines and burned. Or the one where the chute never opened, and the pilot landed with the drogue chute dragging along the runway behind him and the rocket still unfired. Or the plane with an engine fire that popped the chute and had a hot fire during the slow motion descent. Or . . .

It's all in the design. Aerobatics requires higher wing loading, especially negative g; I would imagine tail loading is also higher. Then apply a safety factor.

Thanks, David. I'm impressed by the progress, style and results of your after-work project. Much more than my own. . . .

I'm too cheap to pay t h email ~$90 price on the only one I've seen, considering how often I'd use it. My A&P has one, though.

Some of us C owners were just looking for "a suitable plane" and stumbled accidentally into a local Mooney . . . and wouldn't have any other plane!