Hank

Bryan-- This reminds me of some pictures I saw from a fellow who hit a goose landing in upstate NY--on landing, one leg and one wing were hanging on each side of the vertical stabilizer, with the body squished almost a foot into the leading edge. At least your repair will be quicker! BTW, what is the round piece inset into the top of the right-hand window?

Use the "Search" feature at the top. George Perry has a detailed, lengthy series of posts about what to look for when purchasing a vintage Mooney. There are similar threads by other people. Be aware that any lists found here are neither comprehensive nor complete--for example, there was a fleet-wide AD issued a month ago that won't be found on threads from a year or two in the past. It boils down to two things: 1) a thorough review of the logbooks; 2) a good pre-purchase inspection by a Mooney-knowledgable mechanic. Then you still get to make the final decision, because after all it is your money.

Quote: DaV8or

byron-- I'm only 5'11" but just finished 4.4 hours without an autopilot and only three course changes. Took off at dinner time, landed somewhat late but feeling pretty good, no cramping issues at all. Had one foot on the rudder pedal the whole time, sometimes both when bouncing slowly over the Appalachian ridges before descending back into somewhat lighter headwinds to get speed back up into triple digits. If you are tired/cramped after flying, something isn't right. I keep my seat in the middle of the three available holes, and the throttle quadrant forces my kneeboard onto my left leg. That felt funnyat first, but I got used to it quickly.

Wow. All I've done is go VFR from KHTW to KCOD [WV to WY], spending two nights sightseeing along the way. 1320 nm westbound, a slightly longer trip home via Nebraska.

I drain mine warm; if necessary, I will take a lap or two around the pattern to warm it up. [Darn it, honey--I have to go fly the plane a little bit.] Drain the oil out, leave to drain while I gather tools, finish decowling, fetch oil & filter, remove/replace/safety the new filter. THEN I pull off the hose and close the drain valve. Refill everything, scribble notes for the logbook, and darn it, honey, I have to test-fly the plane to complete the maintenance. See you in a little while!

Flight following is often a good thing. I've used it going to the beach in NC, where R-space overlies the field starting at 1500 agl [field elevation = 40 msl] except when it's hot to the surface. A blackhawk "practiced" on me one time, didn't spot him until I entered the pattern with a 90º left turn to eyeball the windsock, decided I was on Upwind; saw him again when I turned downwind, hovering nearby watching and tracking. Never had a problem with military control--Seymour Johnson, Cherry Point, New River, Pope, etc. [yep, I fly all over NC!] You should not have a problem with Eglin, either. You may not be familiar with them, but they are certainly familiar in dealing with us.

Our Maintenance Shop is growing. They've added several new A&P's and now have a second IA. All are gaining Mooney experience, and not just on my plane. :-)

I used the red Gleim books that came bundled in a large box, complete with a flight bag, E6B and a plotter. [i still use the last two, but have bought a nicer bag.] From my [learning] experience, I can make two suggestions: 1) teach by "building blocks." Understand and apply each concept before moving on to the next. Size the blocks to fit the student's demonstrated ability to learn. 2) be thorough, and don't accept poor performance. Step back and repeat as necessary. My CFI had a syllabus; the Gleim kit had a syllabus; mostly we just went through the books from front to back. Read a chapter or two at home, discuss the reading, go fly, discuss how it went, and assign reading for the next lesson. Bless you for teaching! All of us owe our instructor(s) a lot. Without quality instruction from people who really care, we would not be flying our Mooneys around the country.

Probably because the required stiffeners would not have sufficient clearance from the flight controls and frame. The belly is rather long, and putting in longitudinal stiffeners on an 8' long piece of 0.040" aluminum, with crosswise stiffeners and mounting plates for the airframe bulkheads, would be a chore. There's not a lot of vertical clearance, just an inch or two, to the tail tubes, gear motors, etc. Real estate below the floor panels is at a premium! That's part of reducing the flat-plate area. Otherwise, our planes would be as draggy as Beeches . . . .

It looked good on the news last night, flying low over the National Mall. Although he did bounce the landing a little bit, he sure has a great excuse--not much practice flying with the load and unusual aerodynamic forces. It's a shame that we are now shut down, with nothing coming on-line as a replacement . . .

AIRPLANE!! I hope to make it next year; this year is out. If I can make some training, I'd like to join Caravan '13, too. I've been reading about them for the last four years, sounds like too much fun!

Rob, the easy fix to your problem is to fly more! That will immediately lower your hourly cost. Or divide the expenses into two categories: Ownership--annual, insurance, hangar, pitot-static & transponder checks, equipment upgrades, "speed" mods, etc. Operation--fuel, oil, oil changes, repairs, maintenance, GPS databases, CFI/CFII time, etc. Discretionary items will fit into one or the other. Handheld GPS goes toward Operation, while a new installed IFR GPS unit would go towards Ownership [in my book, anyway]. Not sure which place to put my tank reseal; it wasn't cheap, but because it was becoming an airworthiness issue, I'm leaning towards an Ownership expense--if the plane can't be flown, my operating expenses will become zero, and I can quit many of the repetitive ownership costs. I just hate it when people include all of the fixed costs, including hangar, insurance, etc., that must be paid anyway, and then produce an exhorbitant hourly figure for what it costs to fly. Lower insurance limits, move out of the hangar, and look at the reduction in your hourly costs. Those figures are what it costs to own an airplane and keep it in airworthy condition; fly one hour, and your hourly cost will be nearly infinite. Fly a second hour, and cut your hourly cost in half. Me, I run ~$50-60 per hour Operating expense, and several AMUs in ownership expenses. Where should I charge my medical? Either way, I don't want to know my total expenditures for any given year. It's been five great years, I'm not broke yet, and I manage to go places with and without my wife and enjoy the process. There are no stop signs, no speed limits [yeah, I know, 250 kts below 10,000 msl, but that is WAY above redline!], no roadside wrecks or construction zones, and only very rare traffic jams. Life is good at 9000 msl! [outside of big storms . . . ] And those weekend trips are now possible. Two Mooney hours is often 6-8 Honda hours, which would kill the weekend just in getting somewhere and back. Now, we get to go visit, leaving Friday evening and returning late Sunday with a full day-and-a-half wherever we went. As our parents age, this is becoming more important. There's no dollar figure on that!

My system is similar to Nick's, except I only use the one card for everything, and will one day get around to creating categories beyond the few their system creates. Right now, my "travel" expenses are significant, and from time to time I show large "Misc" expenses. I have a large pile of statements from the FBO ranging from annual to fuel to hangar rent to CFI & CFII time--there were once plans to figure out what all of this was costing me, but I have decided that the answer is more frightening than catching up all of the paperwork. I really don't want to know! But a spreadsheet will probably be the simplest way to go. Flexibility is great, you aren't locked in to any designs, and you can add and remove categories as needed. Subtotal vertically by category [add rows as needed for each invoice, and columns as needed for new expense types], and horizontally to match each invoice, or by month, quarter, year, however you want to slice it. But I really don't want to know!! P.S.--should my restaurant bills be added in to flight expenses when I fly somewhere for supper?? And since I don't fill up after every flight, actual per-flight expenses will require guesstimation anyway.

He actually had some questions about mission fit for a Mooney. I couldn't read it this morning--typical bug not letting anything appear except the poll. Checked on my Droid and read a lengthy post, but I can't reply with the phone. His questions ivnolve: 1000-nm family trips [one way or round-trip?] more economical than the airlines? use it to get his PPL increased flexibility for short-notice trips Someone actually had a response suggesting he would have fewer unscheduled stops with an Instrument Rating. That post is now also gone . . . but it's still on my phone [i haven't refreshed it yet]. Also, he asked if 80K budget will buy a safe, reliable plane, and what to expect for annual costs rangign from hangar to maintenance to insurance, etc. With no other options, i sent him a PM.

When I bought my C as a new pilot, I wanted to upgrade my yokes to something with padding, preferably larger in diameter. Why? My hands were often sore and cramped after flying, especially the left one. As I became more familiar with the plane and learned how to fly it properly, I no longer have a death-grip on the yoke. The yokes are still as they came, recently powder coated to look good, and are no longer a problem. But the work Aero Comfort does certainly looks attractive! I wonder if keeping my wind-up clock would be a problem for them? Days like yesterday, with the wind gusting and swirling over the ridge paralleling the runway, the style of yoke really won't matter. Just wipe your palms on your pants; I had to dry my left hand on the right side of my cargo shorts since the kneeboard was in the way. For some reason, I get nervous doing unintended knife-edge flight on final . . .

Why do so many dedicated video cameras use the same silly, cheap sensors used in cell phone cameras, where rotating 2-blade propellers turn into 15- or 20-slat venetian blinds and block the view of what you are trying to film? My 4-year-old Sony pocket-size digital camera takes beautiful video through the propeller, looking just like what I see and rarely capturing the propeller blade in a photo [even though they usually show on the screen before pressing the button]. So I can't capture audio. But the video looks good! Like video should, not like what so many more expensive dedicated video recorders show. For the meantime, I am voting with my wallet and waiting for a video unit that shoots video as well as my old digital camera. For every second I've shot video out the side window, I have minutes of video through the [invisible] propeller.

Dave-- Where did you get those numbers? I've only heard of two late-model long bodies [Poland and somewhere else], and one 1990 J, plus the one plane that sat for 12 years after a tail strike and was improperly restored [didn't even use huck bolts!]. Guess that's another benefit to flying Vintage--built when people cared, and took enough time to do it right. Now, so many companies only care about gross sales and marginal profit for this quarter, and worry about next quarter after they wrap up this one. Short-sighted Wall Street traders are killing us all.

I'm curious, too. My plane has logged 41½ years since being properly assembled at the factory. All I've heard of are two 2006/2007 turbos, a 1990 J and an E/F that sat around for 12 years after a tail strike and was improperly restored without even using huck bolts.

It's pretty smooth except for one blade-style antenna sticking out. Cleans and waxes easily. I'm just guessing at the weight, annual is still months away; it's just heavy and awkward enough that I don't want to try to hold it up while reaching in to unplug the antenna lead. Maybe it's only 15 pounds, but at ~3' wide and easily 8' long, holding it up is not a one-hand job. Yes, the one-piece belly and the 3-blade came on my C, dating to four years before my purchase. Yes, she has been thoroughly and nicely repaired after the "incident." [incidents and Accidents each have their own database, a surprise to me. My plane doesn't show up on the NTSB database, but the FAA has an Incident database I found somewhere once, and she's listed there, matching the stories I have been told before and after purchase.]

Rushmore is great, and a must-see. Devil's Tower is <30 Mooney minutes away, right on sectional edge, so be aware of its location and the 'suggestion' to stay >2500 agl within three miles. Allow time to drive/find Crazy Horse, too. The FBO at KRAP can get hotels at a significant discount. [Remember, it SUX to go to KRAP. At least, that was on my route.] Tell anyone that you're heading to Rapid City, and you'll get warned that KRAP is on the left, stay away from the SAC base on the right. That 13,000' runway is a tempting target. KCOD, Cody WY, is another good stop; there or West Yellowstone will give Park access, but Cody has a rodeo every week during the summer, plus numerous hotels/restaurants. West Yellowstone is a pretty small village but has camping. Glacier Park is not far north of there, with two airports nearby, that I hope to visit in the near future.

I practice the safest Facebook there is--abstinence. Except in this case, it's fun, I visit here instead!

Yes, I have a range of preferred power settings, altitude dependent. One each, low, mid and high, based around POH recommendations and my experience. But they won't transfer well from my carb to your fuel-injection system . . . The LOP bus doesn't stop where I live, it just rattles on by coughing and skipping.

Yes, my fiberglas belly is quite thick and heavy. I have to slide something under the plane to support it within a few inches as I remove the last screws from both ends, then I can reach inside and undo the antenna wire. Drag it out, carry it out of the way, and start the clean & wax process. It's easily 20-25 pounds or so. I'm jealous of you folks with camlocks! Although 48 #10x3/4 acrews and 5 #8X3/4 screws around teh front gear is still an improvement over the mulitple original panels that I have never had to deal with. Byron, there's probably less uproar than over bladder weight because it is often done "free" during repairs, and it does not create additional problems that may occur with bladders [wrinkles, leaks between cells, $2000 caps, new holes cut into the wing, etc.]. The one-piece installation does create benefits besides [maybe] a knot or two--it's easy and fast to remove, so you are more likely to do PM work, mechanic charges are reduced if you aren't removing the bely yourself, etc.

Yeah, the whole weekend was windy. Landed at GSP last Friday since my destination has no AWOS and a 30' runway width. At GSP, Runway 22, 280@9G18 made me a little long. Coming home on Sunday, landing over the trees on 26 with winds reported as 320@10G20, but I saw the windsock swing from 30º left to 60º right and vary from half to straight out to limp and back to half, all in less than one minute. Not a fun time, increasing turbulence from 8500 all the way to the asphalt. It's been at least that high since, often reported as gusting into the mid-to-high 20's; today's TAF is 15G25 or higher all day.