Hank

Let's see: 970 useful - [100 gal x 6 lb/gal] = 370 lb. Me (dressed) + flightbag + charts ~ 200 lb. Tools, tie downs, canopy cover, umbrella, "stuff" ~30 lb. Useful load for wife/pax, luggage, snacks, etc. = 140 lb. Time for the family and friends to stop eating!! On the other hand, 100 gal @ 9 gph = 11.1 hours - 1 hour reserve = 10 hours x 140 knots = 1400 nm. Can you sit mostly still in your Mooney for 10 hours? I don't think I want to . . .

I've seen a C with 64-gallon bladders installed, and there is a set of new caps further out on the wing. The original caps are still there, too, I think, or else a new plate had been installed. Thought it looked funny. Then there's the issue of matching paint around where the new caps were installed, and hoping that there are no stripes or color changes in that spot. As far as my O-rings go, I'm not so frugal that $1/year in parts tears me up. It's quick, easy, effective and cheap. I look at them when I refuel anyway, and save the little one on the inside for annual.

Possible? Yes. Practical? Certainly not. My question is why would you want to? Surely there are good E's for sale. Unless you're an A&P in search of a project, or maybe an A&P student in search of work to apply towards the certificate requirements and would rather have something to show for it when you're done? The O-360 is stone simple, bullet proof and has no hot-start issues. I made ten flights on Saturday, most of them were shut down, unload and reload passengers, crank back up. Maybe 5 minutes or less of rest, my headset and seatbelt never touched. Try that with an E. My prop never turned more than 1½ revolutions except the one time I tried to crank up with the throttle at Idle and mixture at Cut Off . . .

I have to wonder why he doesn't use his E?

Jim-- I paid $6500 cash with a MAPA member discount to strip and reseal my 52-gallon tanks. A friend with another C paid $10,000 to have bladders installed, but I don't know his final out-the-door cost. So my reseal was "only" just over a third cheaper rather than half. My warranty is seven years . . . Round trip on the airlines [Allegiant] was $143 after all of the hidden fees were added in. The quote was $25 one way and $49 the other; I declined to either pay for a premium seat, food, exit row seating, pre-assigned seating or a checked bag. One change of clothes and my flight bag is all I had, and my Halo headset is far from bulky. En route, I stayed with my brother going down to meet the airline's noon departure, and I visited another Mooneyspacer for lunch coming home. Dropped off when he asked for it, picked up when I needed it back, in time for Thanksgiving travel. No muss, no fuss, no new holes cut in my wings for funny new caps. Bladder question: do the old caps just stay there all unusable, or should they be removed and faired over if the plane is painted?

Just add a couple of hardpoints and carry them on the bottom of the wings . . .

$350 for Halos. www.quiettechnology.com I think.

I generally hit the drive through window on the way to the airport. My wife also packs a great travel bag whenever we're traveling together. Water bottles stand up between the seats. Just don't take anything messy, drippy or that requires shelling. (Pistachios? Really??) Peanut butter crackers work well, eaten one at a time. A full mouth guarantees a radio call, too.

Gee, so your bladders cost twice what my reseal did, added more fuel caps that cost 10X or more to maintain and several times that to replace. Thought by now you'd be used to the twin bladder penalties of higher cost and lower useful load. . . .

I bought a set of screw-in anchors at SNF after the tornado came through. It was the normal EAA set; I saw no planes with them that had pulled loose, although several Claws let go and many planes broke loose. Threw away my dollar store dog screws when I got back, even though they held me in place because the EAA set is so much sturdier. Now I'm gonna have to look for the picture I took side by side.

When I bought my Mooney five weeks after my PPL checkride, I worked on simply learning the plane during my required dual. That was also my first actual IMC, since some instruction was required there like with you. On the advice of my Mooney CFI, I spent the next "little while" learning the plane better and getting used to it. Go have some fun and relax from all of the training. Do some of what inspired you to get your certificate in the first place. THEN come back and start Instrument training. Just don't do like me and wait two years to start back! Welcome to the club! Fly safe!!

Turn off Alt Hold . . . Mine doesn't have that feature to worry about.

Welcome to Apple Land! Drink the Kool Aid. Your device will operate only as Apple wants it to operate; should you wish to perform something else, be advised that Apple does not approve it and it will not be permitted. In the midst of intense stall & spin discussions, my airport had a Community Plane Ride Day. Five Skyhawks, a Cherokee and myself. I don't have a final count of people, but I made ten (10) flights on Saturday with 2-3 passengers each time, including several children. We made the front page of the local paper and were on the TV News in Huntington [across the river from the Village of Chesapeake, OH, where the airport is located]. I missed the evening news on WSAZ with an interview of my wife among others. Flying is fun. Flying is good for the community. Flying can be good for business. An active airport is a good thing for the local area--fuel & maintenance sales; flight instruction; itinerant pilots, overnight fuel stops, hotels, restaurants; improved access to area businesses; increased opportunities for area businesses to create additional sales presentations and capture more business; etc., etc. To remain viable and active requires community support. I was shocked by how many people told me that until they saw our little signs beside the road that they did not know there was an airport here . . . . .

This is what Don Kaye has posted on his website: http://www.donkaye.com/donkaye.com/Inadvertent_Spins_in_a_Mooney.html Stay coordinated, recover at the break, no problem. Wait a little too long, though, and watch out! Read what's in your Owner's Manual/POH; the stall discussion in mine is longer than the entire "Section V: Emergencies" and the spin discussion [mostly how to recover] is even longer. No, I'm not afraid of stalls in my Mooney. I've done them in training, I've done them in BFRs, I've done them on my Instrument checkride. But I don't go out and do them for fun. My Owner's Manual has this to say about stall practice: It is important to remember that while stalls are a permissable maneuver; [sic] they should not be practiced to learn how to stall the airplane but, rather, to learn how to recognize an incipient stall and to take prompt corrective action before the aircraft completely stalls. This is good advice.

Well, now I can't find that particular statement in my Owner's Manual. It does say "Acrobatic maneuvers, including spins, are not authorized in this aircraft." There is a lengthy section about stalls, and a longer one about spins and recovery. It further states that up to 2000' may be required to recover from a one-turn spin . . . and delaying recovery may lead to a flat spin from which recovery may not be possible. Here is Don Kaye's excellent article: http://www.donkaye.com/donkaye.com/Inadvertent_Spins_in_a_Mooney.html Happy reading, and if you decide to spin your Mooney, please don't tell me in advance, and no thank you, I don't want to watch.

I find that if I'm not out spinning, bathroom access is rarely an issue. Seriously, legs are rarely over 3 hours unless winds are bad. But then, my wife and I both grew up with career military fathers, and long road trips were the norm. Now we make those same trips oh-so-much faster. I also hit the head at fuel stops. I would never pee in a bottle or Travel John when not solo.

I've read Bob Kromer's advice about spin recovery, and someone's article (Don Kaye?) about inadvertent spins in Mooneys. "No fricken way" is more politely than I would most likely reply to a serious discussion about spinning a Mooney. P.S.--I did stall recovery during transition training, BFR's, Instrument training and MAPA PPPs. Flying at MCA with the stall horn buzzing is fine, turning this way and that. I hear it on every landing. You gotta stay proficient. But my Owner's Manual says NOT APPROVED FOR SPINS for a reason.

The roll trim knob on my 70C is on the turn coordinator. The same yoke button disables it, and control forces become much lighter. What does your Owner's Manual have to say? If necessary, there is another adjustment inside the panel box. Brittain can fill you in on how it works, and you will need to fly with your favorite mechanic in the right seat. It's not owner maintenance, and you can't fly while doing it due to access issues. Easy when you're sitting in front of it and looking closely, bad if you're leaning over or trying to look out the window and maintain control. There are a couple of manuals that I've downloaded. Brittain can also point you at those, or if you send me your email I can forward them to you next week.

Your link above goes to the NTSB Accident database; check the FAA Incident database instead. It took some searching to find it, right now all I can locate is an Excel spreadsheet with dates and times, but no details. It's out there somewhere, and has a record of my plane's gearup in 2003, prior to my purchase in 2007. This is not in the Accident database.

While you're beginning to think about studying to come by, your fast, heavy longbody will do better at KHTS across the river. I'll bring you to HTW in my C just for old times' sake, although it has electric gear. 3000' is plenty for me even with the trees, but is kind of tight for anything beyond a K, and I won't swear about them; Js don't have a problem.o

Get the thicker windshield, and a Halo headset.

Winner! Winner! Post of the year! You may pick up your award in person at KHTW. Let me know when you're coming to get it, and how you like your hot dogs. Check the menu at www.hillbillyhotdogs.com and I'll drive you across the bridge to get it. :-)

I've been accessing this site using my AT&T smart phone for almost 4 years . . . It's quite slow with an "Edge" connection, 3G works great, 4G is wonderful! Even works using wifi. I thought it had something to do with Verizon from the initial posters until you chimed in. AT&T Droid; Windows desktop at work; Droid tablet; iPad 1 & 2; no problems with any of them.

Yep, that's what happens when you try to study anecdotes. These stories must be normalized before they can become meaningful. Let's see, there were only a couple of hundred deaths in GA last year, while about 35, 000 Americans died in automobiles. Personal aircraft are, therefore, 100 times safer than personal automobiles. Wrong! When normalized for exposure (the missing Cirrus work), the GA accident rate is 8-10 times higher. This does not require mention of someone's cousin Tim, what kind of car he was driving, or even its state of repair. But thanks, the Cirrus BRS 'save' list was interesting reading. Does it count as a save if the chute fires from impact forces and nobody is killed? P.S.--just read Mike's link. The advanced, safer Cirrus has a 36-month accident rate almost double the entire old-fashioned, aluminum spam can GA fleet! What's up with that??

Please reread my post, I was editing while you were replying. 44 pulls doesn't tell me much by itself. Read the penultimate paragraph with a request for statistics. How many lives were saved during those 44 pulls? [No, you can't count the imaginary hospital that the explosive Cirrus full of fuel might have hit.] How many lives were lost during those 44 pulls? How many of those 44 pulls resulted in on-board fatalities? How many of those 44 pulls were already beyond saving [too fast, too low]? How many other Cirrus accidents might have been prevented if the chute had been pulled? Get it done up per 100,000 flight hours or some other accepted standard. "44 BRS pulls in Cirrus aircraft" by itself is not data. Were they all last week? Was it one really unlucky pilot? Did it occur over five years, ten years, 20,000 total hours, 100 total hours? Please turn your one raw number into manageable data, and we can have a discussion.