mjc

Quote: Vref In fact the situation would be a Kid Seat on top of the existing bench (like in the car). Any feedback on this much aprreciated.

Quote: JimR I think that the rear seat utility of the short bodies directly depends upon the height of the front seat occupants and how far they have to slide their seats back.

Quote: DaV8or I did already check out Don's website, but I haven't contacted him yet. To be honest, I was a bit intimidated by it. Besides charging $80 an hour, he sounds like he really puts you through flight school all over again! Sounds like at least an $800 check out, propably more. I bet he makes a good deal of his money transitioning student pilots and freshly minted PP with lots of cash to their new Acclaims and Ovations. I should call him I guess though. I was just wondering if anybody knew of anybody else out there. I have joined MAPA... I think. I printed off their form and sent them a check for not only the membership, but also "Those Remakable Mooneys" but have yet to get a response from them or see the book. I guess I'll call soon to whoever... I would LOVE to join you guys at your fly in. I've never been there and I could easily rent the club's Arrow and go if it's OK. However, I am no longer instrument current, so it will have to be a VFR weekend.

I've seen a couple of outfits try to do this, but using a rent-to-own model, such as http://www.factorygps.com/. I've also heard of FBOs renting GPSes to their customers like they rent headsets, such as http://flflight.com/rentals.php.

I don't think I'd want to vote on the poll without knowing what the cost is for each option.

I'm on my 2nd Concorde RG-35A sealed battery, installed last year. The one before this one lasted six years. I suppose the keys to its longevity were frequent flying, living in a temperate area, and not discharging it completely more than once (left master on).

My understanding is that an annual inspection is not a forum through which an IA can arbitrarily decide to ground an airplane. See http://www.avweb.com/news/savvyaviator/189103-1.html. Having the annual signed off with this as a discrepancy doesn't seem to apply in this case, since it sounds as though you agree that the pedals should be either connected or replaced. But I think it bears mentioning as a general point that your airplane isn't a prisoner of the IA subject to his every whim. Michael Quote: FlyingAggie

I'm with Jose on this. You're spending a lot of money to add weight and complexity for a feature it sounds like you won't use. I would probably go a step further and ask the IA if there's a way to make the current pedals work, by binding them in a fixed position, to save most of the $500.

Quote: Mitch We are not letting up until we smother this foolish plan. Even though our officials say it cannot happen, we are not going to rest on that until the beast is dead and buried. We will take no chances here.

Quote: mooneygirl I remembered that article. Thank you, Eric. I couldn't remember which year it was published in AOPA magazine. Steven Ells is working with us, and of course JR from Banner Airways too. A fun addition is http://www.oceanoairport.com With its live cameras on the ramp and looking toward the dunes.

What time is the meeting on March 17th, and when is the Oceano Airport item expected to be discussed?

Quote: allsmiles The x30 is a 13 year old box originally designed as a VFR box. With the exception of WAAS there have been no other improvements. According to some reviews, it is cumbersome to use and under the right circumstances can be dangerous. We would be doing ourselves a huge diservice if we discount the fact that Honeywell has a tremendous level of experience with sophisticated military and business jet systems. Honeywel, not Garmin, owns this arena. Do we not benefit from this when they bring it to us at GA prices?? Is there no value in this??? I think there is tremendous value in this!! We are all adults here and free to make our own decisions. The original question was to buy 430/530 or not. My opinion, and only my opinion, is to wait until the 770 comes out. It's nor vaporware as some have called it, it's coming. Honeywell did not develop it just to turn around and kill it. (Like Garmin killed the 480. They bought it and killed it. An awesome box it was and instead of improving upon it they killed it!!) Perhaps then Garmin will wake up and come out with something to answer to it. In the end we benefit. We the GA user benefits from the technology and possibly lower prices. This is only my opinion and its worth as much as you paid for it!

Reid-Hillview recently survived an attempt to close the airport as well. The county was facing a budget shortfall of $225M, so they started looking for assets to sell off. Reid-Hillview is cash-flow positive, but the money goes into an enterprise fund, so the airport had a great big target on it. (Not to mention that there is a small but vocal group of anti-airport crusaders.) The politicians that wanted the airport closed directed county counsel to "investigate options" for Reid-Hillview. We were only allowed to see a portion of the attorney's response, which essentially enumerated four ways the airport could be closed, along with the costs for each. The only "cheap" way could only work if no one fought the closure (a "buyout" similar to the situation in Rialto). The rest all potentially invloved years in court and significant expenses, denying the county the short-term lump-sum they needed. The supervisors voted the take no action on the issue. An important factor was that our airport consumes no general fund money. If you haven't already, you MUST determine what the financial situation is at Oceano, both on-airport and for the airport's overall impact. AOPA has resources for this. If the airport is drain on the community, you'll have a much harder time convincing folks to keep it open. People are funny. They don't mind subsidizing a muni golf course because everyone knows someone who plays golf. Not everyone knows someone who uses an airport. Another thing I think really helped in our case at the time was correspondence from AOPA and the FAA indicating that they would fight any such closure attempt in court. However, both organizations were very clear that they could ONLY do so by working with a LOCAL organization of pilots on the "front lines." In our case, this was CRAMP and the RHVAA. Even under this imminent threat, it was difficult for us to mobilize pilots. Many were of the opinion that even if they did nothing, the county officials would give up and leave the airport be. They could not be more wrong, as the closure of Rialto proves. Pilots there didn't fight for their airport, and so the FAA let the city do as they pleased, and now it is gone forever. I guess this is a long-winded way of saying that you're fighting a committed enemy from a weak position. They have had time to gather information and experts favorable to closing the airport. You have to mobilize local opposition that can work with AOPA and the FAA to convince your enemy that even if they are ultimately successful, the fight will be more effort than it is worth.

Quote: Sven Is this different than the VMG gathering at Minden on June 19? I guess I'm confused.

Quote: csfahey As a new owner I am still trying to learn everything I can about owning and maintaining my 77 Mooney M20C. One thing that is missing from the manual is fuel burn rate for climbing and descending required for flight planning. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to determine these values? This is bothering me as I am using more fuel that I anticipate. Lastly, coming from the Cesna world and training, I learned to lean at cruise above 5000. When do Mooney owners generally lean, always? The manual indicates to lean below 75%. Any other little things I might like to know that are not in the manual that experience has taught them?

Is this event (the Gathering of Mooneys) still set for June 19th? Or has it been moved due to the conflict with the Columbia Father's Day Fly-in? If there is a new date, is it expected that it will still take place at the South Lake Tahoe Airport? Thanks!

I received an email today from XM regarding my XM Weather service. The first line thanks me for being a subscriber. It all goes downhill from there. The email ends with "In support of our commitment to the continued growth and success of the XM WX aviation service, as of March 22, 2010, the XM WX Aviator LT and the XM WX Aviator packages will increase by $5 per month, effective upon your next renewal. " There are three things about this that gall me. One is that at the "LT" level of service, the yearly cost of the increase is equivalent to two months' service. The second is that there is no corresponding increase in service. And finally, there is no competitor to which unhappy subscribers can flee.

As far as I am aware, it's the serious backcountry pilots who love AOA indicators. I'm told that an AOA indicator (actually a lift reserve indicator, I think) gives them the capability to bring the airplane in at absolute minimum speed regardless of density altitude for really short landings and climb at the highest possible angle after takeoff. Aside from that use case, I agree with the others that using airspeed to judge lift reserve is probably fine. And yes, while a Mooney works just fine in the backcountry, it isn't really the ideal airplane to get in and out of the shortest strips. An AOA indicator is probably less useful than, say, VGs or gap seals.

See http://www.mooneyspace.com/index.cfm?mainaction=posts&forumid=1&threadid=427.

This is already on my calendar and has been for some time, but it appears that the Gathering of Mooneys has been set for that weekend as well. It was my favorite fly-in of all the ones I attended last year, though that was mostly because it was also the only one my wife and daughter were able to attend with me. What does it mean that there's going to be a Mooney Ambassador display? Will that be over on the flightline, or in the camping area? Will the Gathering of Mooneys be moved (might be a tough sell to the family to attend two fly-ins in one weekend)?

I also had my airplane painted by Kracon. They did excellent work and kept me in the loop by emailing photos of the progress at least twice a week. I think if you give them a picture of what you really want, they'll paint it and you'll be very happy with the result.

I don't believe the Mooney has a life limit. My concern on this one is actually the engine. The spec sheet mentions 1616 hours since overhaul, but is mum about how long ago that was, who did the overhaul, or anything else (such as total hours on the cylinders). If I buy this airplane, I would expect to have to overhaul the engine in one to five years. Within three years, this plane is likely to cost $60k for the plane, $6k to fix "stuff," $30k for an engine, $4k for an engine monitor, and $12k for paint for a total of $112k, not including the GPS and autopilot, which I consider optional. Add those in and you'll have nearly $140k in the plane.

It think the fly-in worked out pretty well given the weather. Winter fly-ins are a crap-shoot anywhere, California included. Thank you for the offer to post the photos. I'll see about sending some over. I don't have a group shot; I wish I'd remembered to get everyone lined up for a group photo, but I didn't. In the meantime, a write-up and some photos got posted to the VMG website: http://www.vintagemooneygroup.com/SanJose2010.htm

It was IFR at Reid-Hillview up until around 11:30am. Three Mooneys already at Reid were there earlier, but the other six arrived once the weather lifted a bit. In all, the Mooney group was represented by 23 people by my count. For a winter fly-in, I would call it a success. Folks seemed to have a good time eating the BBQ burgers, walking the flight line, and chatting about flying. We skipped the white elephant thing due to the low turnout. I was sure looking forward to seeing a fixed-gear Mooney; perhaps at an upcoming event. I sent some photos over to the VMG board to put up on the website, so eventually it should appear there.

Quote: flight2000 Glad I exported the data while it was still free. I was able to upload it into freepilot.com without to much trouble. Not as pretty, but it's functional.