Hank

Check with Squirrel, he has a B, too. My C has Brittain in it.

I let it slip this spring when the days got longer. Being super busy at work didn't help, either. But I will be back by this weekend!

THAT's what the funny looking, loud plane was! :-)

I've never given WHAT I eat before flight much thought, only whether I should eat now or after arrival. In flight food has similar requirements as for in-car "dining", or easily opened, not messy or dripping and suitable for one-handed feeding. But then, I don't make many trips in the 5+ duration range, either.

I thought everyone waited a long time to raise gear, but some waited longer than others. Mine are always stowed before treetop height. The climb angle on the 231 was impressive!

www.weepnomore.com. (I think; that IS their name in Minnesota) www.wetwingologists.com (Edison did my tanks in Florida) www.donmaxwell.com (uses Weep-no-more process in Texas) This is the best way to reseal your tanks.

Robert-- It sounds like you are on the right track! When making a longish XC, like from Memphis to anywhere much further than Nashville, after you check all of the stuff on-line and sort through the overload, give Flight Service a phone call an hour or two before you depart. 1-800-WX-BRIEF is their number. You can talk to a real person, ask questions and clear up anything you don't understand from the computer. If you've already done DUATS, tell him you want an "abbreviated briefing." Doing this a few times will help you figure out all of the DUATS information. Haze is a problem east of the Rockies. There are summer days here when skies are clear but visibility will be just 3 or 4 miles in haze. As a freshly licensed pilot, I tried to make a short ~80 mile XC on a morning like that; at the airport, an instructor was going out with a student so I thought I would be OK. Initial climb to the west was good, turned crosswind, everything great. Then I turned downwind and the world outside disappeared; instead of calling "downwind, Runway 26, departing the pattern to the east" I called "downwind Runway 26, closed pattern", kept a close eye on the ground out the left window [the only ground I could see], turned base and the world reappeared. I learned that day that haze is a very bad thing. Since buying the Mooney, I often fly above the haze; going south at 8000'-10,000' I have had the haze rise up and envelop me; I have come home above the haze, with the ground mostly visible in front, only to have it disappear on descent around 6000' and the hilltops not reappear until 3500' or less, with full ground visibility only at 3000' or below. [The hilltops are ~1300-1500', not counting antennas.] Fortunately this did not happen to me until after I completed my instrument rating, but I did log that descent time as actual--I couldn't see anything out any windows. Visibility in haze is also variable, depending upon which direction you are looking. With the sun directly behind you, visibility can be pretty good, but the closer you look towards the sun, visibility decreases and can go to pretty much zero, unless you lean your head against the window and look just in front of the wing [not a good position for flying or maintaining VFR]. Study well, fly safe, and talk to a mentor. Let me know if you are ever up West Virginia way.

I guess I lucked out--she swears she had no idea I wanted to fly anything but RC models until I "suddenly" started lessons . . . But she supports me, encourages me to stay current, and really enjoys traveling. She insists she is not interested in learning to fly but has agreed to learn how to land "just in case," but she wants to do it in the Mooney instead of the flight school rental that I would prefer. [beat up their plane, not my retractable gear! At least until she is landing under control.] Getting home to see her parents or to the beach in just a couple of hours vs. 8-10 hours in the car really won her over. It has changed our lives for the better, and enables us to see much more of this wonderful country than we could by car or the airlines. In our group of flying friends, she has an excellent reputation as a traffic spotter, finding them from the back seat about the same time that ATC calls them out and before two of us up front see anything . . . With eyes like hers, I'd have been a military pilot and had a whole different life. I'm not sure how much she enjoys the actual flying part, but she does like going places together in the plane. Lucky me!!

Love the video! Should be "Albert R. Maruader Productions". The differences in the takeoffs were interesting to see, too. I've never been able to watch my own departures for comparison.

First owned aircraft: a nice used Mooney Current owned aircraft: the same Mooney Over 500 hours together and going strong!

I have no clue what happened to my eye, either, just that I wasn't going to be flying as a result. The fun I was having was in setting up this Mike-poll. Someone else had much more fun with their "pole" response!

So I was having a little fun . . . When I woke up, my eye was all puffy and extremely red, so I had a 3-hour drive instead of a 40-minute flight. Some Visine and a cold compress for 30-40 minutes made my eye better, but I was afraid it wouldn't stay that way, and the trip home would have been in IMC, a poor thing to attempt with just one working eye.

I've also been told that pieces of formica edge trim work well and won't scratch the aluminum tank surface. Have plenty of time, lots of elbow grease, much patience and small flexible arms to reach all of the tanks through the few access holes. Be careful when applying new sealant to not mess up the fuel intake openings, fuel sending units, drain holes and the through-holes in the ribs connecting the bays . . .

Yeah, I missed removing a chock once when I had been on the ground for ~30 minutes. Ran in the FBO for a pit stop and phone call, and waited while my buddy pre-flighted across the ramp. Since I had not chocked the plane, I didn't think to look for one when I went back to get in; I did check the leading edges and gave her a quick once-over, but didn't look for the [unpainted, wooden] chocks that a well-meaning FBO employee slid under while I was inside. Nobody does that at home, mostly because there is nobody to do it. He did come out and pull the chocks while the engine was stopping. Meanwhile, a CFI and new student were getting in the 172 beside me . . .

Go to members and look up aviatoreb in NY.

My wingtips aren't metal, but the original square end is. I think my VOR antennas are out there rather than transmitting anything. But they are STC add-ons, too.

Good news, Mike! Even better, you made my wife laugh.

With all if Mike's polls lately, I just had to try one myself.

Was that oil on the windshield? Strangd his it was only on the left side, and it appeared to grow larger after he bailed. Maybe that's why the prop stopped.

I discovered RAH in junior high. Found I liked the grown-up books much better.

Yep, I've been a fan of TANSTAAFL for a long time now . . .

I don't know how they plan to use a traditional single-engine platform. The one I described is shown with two crew and 5 passenger seats; they list 4- and 6-place options along with higher-capacity commercial platforms. A Mooney airframe is just not suitable for hanging two ducted fans on either side of the tail, to say nothing of a 325-hp, liquid cooled V-8 engine . . . My personal opinion is that this is as likely to happen as the Chinese "Mooney Billionaire's Club" that we all saw just a couple of weeks ago.

I hit a fog bank in the flare once, it's a very uncomfortable experience. Especially on a short field with trees at the end. Rolled out before I hit the brakes. Never saw it from the air on downwind, base or final, but did have time to ask my wife to turn of the landing light. Did I mention it was at night, too? Not fun.

That's not what the plugs in my 1970 Ranger look like . . . so they must be fine wires and I have Massives. Big center electrode with two prongs on the sides that lean in towards the center. The gap is easily tightened up with a small ring that screws onto the plug, but if I ever over-tighten the gap then I am hosed.

When I first read his post here, my next stop was Google: Hines Aircraft Mooney I did not find anything about the purchase. Scott's post above is the first I saw of that.