Amelia

My three partners in this 231 were big guys. One was an Ohio State fullback, in his salad days. They used to all pile in with their golf clubs every winter and fly from northern Ohio to Daytone Beach. I asked where they found a Mooney-sized shoehorn, and they laughed, saying,"we aren't in it very long!" Those tall-guy legs fit just fine, and they prearranged shoulder positions, I guess. Now, if you are 5'3" and pudgy, as I am, you might find the fit more of a challenge. With the seal all the way forward, it is an effort for me to flare properly, even with rudder pedal extensions.i gather this is unlikely to be a problem for you. My husband slides his seat fairly far back, all the better for en route napping, so all the shoulder space where I sit is mine. That seat position may solve the snugness situation. I flew a beautifully equipped C182 the other day, and nice bird, but it sure was no Mooney! 35 knots slower for an extra gallon per hour, and flew like a truck. A truck with a very high instrument panel. Nope. No sale. I remain a Mooney partisan.

Nice! I like that design. I have resolved not to buy any more men's T shirts, though, because they just don't fit. Don't suppose there's a huge market for women's sizes and shapes, with shorter sleeves and more flattering necklines, though.

I am very happy with the Ram yoke system, the X- mount for the iPad mini displayed horizontally, which gives me a good view of the panel. The X-mount keeps the iPad sufficiently cool, even on a hot day, and I find it quite stable. I like the yoke mount much better than any other placement, because it doesn't obscure instruments or the view out the side window, and requires fewer head motions, thus less vestibular confusion. My favorite EFBs are FlyQ and WingX, both of which are very capable, stable, and intuitive, and play nicely with my Dual xgps170 ASDB. They're both easy for me to read at a glance with the horizontal orientation.

Here's another enthusiastic vote for EFBs. Wow, what a game changer that was, next best thing after internal combustion engines. I tried all the efbs, and hardware, from earliest little iPaq with clever, but klugey and very poorly supported AnywhereMap, then iPad (too big for short-legged grandma) and iPad mini R, which works fine, yoke-mounted. Went through nearly all the major EFB players, Foreflight, Garmin, WingX, and the free ones, but now perfectly content with the latest efficient and very intuitive FlyQ, so much so, that last time they offered it, I decided that since I plan to stick around for another century or so, to get the lifetime subscription. I back up with Avare on my Samsung cellphone. Oh, yes, and that GNS 530W just for legality.Seems I spend as much time downloading, charging, and baby-sitting all this stuff as I spend on the actual flight. sigh. But it sure beats whatever was in second place. I do NOT miss the stack of unopened Jepp envelopes waiting to be filed in those big, unwieldy binders. I do not miss hunting around for the least-out-of-date L charts the night before an unexpected flight. Love me those nice electrons!

I am very pleased with John Sanders, the mechanic in Elizabeth City, NC. He is thorough and very pleasant, his shop is clean, he welcomes owner-assistance. He found a number of issues with my 231, but they were going to have to get fixed eventually anyway. He did tell me this needs done now, that needs done at the next annual, and the other is purely up to you. I like that, and his clear explanations. A natural teacher. One of the few who doesn't whine about Mooneys, and has the book open as he goes through things.

What awful, sad news. I'm just devastated. Houman was a lovely man, and I'm glad to have met him.His family's in my prayers.

I've taken my 95-year-old mother-in-law for a number of long trips in my M231, even to Puerto Rico last year, She climbs up on the wing with help, and gets in unassisted, with more grace than I can muster. I've had other passengers (often Angel Flight) sometimes old and not very agile, some even kids in wheelchairs, and we've managed, sometimes with some pushing, pulling, and noisy encouragement. I lower the flaps all the way, have them sit on the wing, and skooch hind-part-before toward the front, then follow them up the walkway to help them in, feet first, then slide their bottoms over the door sill onto the seat. (Of course, I step over them while they're still sitting on the wing, first, to get into the driver's seat, and help them from that vantagepoint.) The way out is the reverse, Ease out, bottom first, then feet and legs swing over, then slide down to help on the ground. It helps to have somebody there waiting to lift them off the wing onto their feet. Do take him, no matter how arduous it might seem. He'll remember that ride for the rest of his life. No exaggeration. I took a friend's very old and semi-crippled dad for his first airplane ride in 50 year. His walker fit nicely in the baggage bin. He flew in the good ol' days, and so I encouraged him to take the controls. He was thrilled, almost to the point of tears, to see that he "hadn't lost his touch." He was still bragging about that ride the day he died, several years later. Not to be crude, but consider this:How's his prostate? Will you want to remember to bring a screw-cap bottle along for his comfort? Some guys need frequent relief, especially on longer trips. I've heard you can get those super-absorbent granules to prevent spills, which sounds like a pretty good idea..Speaking of which, my husband skips his morning coffee and his blood-pressure diuretic before we go on a long trip. As for oxygen, if you have an oxygen bottle and nasal cannula (and alcohol wipe, maybe), it wouldn't hurt to have it along. My old-old Dad had severe enough smoker's emphysema that he really appreciated a snort of Ox, even at 6000 feet, but most people don't need or want it, especially below 8000. There's little harm done, anyway, if they simply doze off. They'll wake up on downwind leg. :D. Take pictures!!

Add my hearty vote for FlyQ. I am quite satisfied with the list of features, the speed and stability, and especially, the easy and intuitive architecture, with no function more than two taps deep. Best of all, like WingX, FlyQ fully supports a wide list of non-proprietary portable ADS-B boxes. I bit on the first FlyQ lifetime subscription offer, and so far, with several major post AOPA updates, it has done all I needed done, with frequent updates and clever new ideas. I dropped FF and Garmin some time ago, and will have to think hard before renewing WingX next time.

Mostly I call it The, as in The Mooney. or The plane. But it has a real name, thanks to my small children, who were great Dr. Seuss fans. One favorite in particular was Marvin K. Mooney, Will You Please GO NOW. We read it at least once a day for a couple of toddler years. So our K- Mooney became Marvin.

Cody, I know the chances are slim that there's a partnership available way up there abeam the North Pole, but it might be worth considering. My lovely initial partners, three of them, were not only wonderful founts of aviation knowledge in general, and Mooney-specific knowledge in particular, but made it possible to own a MUCH nicer airplane than I could afford by myself. The facts that they didn't have time or money for flying much, welcomed my contributions thereto, and loved going out to the airport on a Sunday morning and washing, waxing, and then blow-drying our pretty airplane made it that much better. Your $35K will go a LOT further if you can find two people to throw in with you. The more avionics you can find already installed, the better, of course.

Oooohhhhhhhh, that's pretty. Um, Santa, I've been good this year. Sort of. Most of the time.

Flying over Sedona is jawdroppingly beautiful. Landing at SEZ can be exciting, especially if the wind favors the downhill runway 21 with that mountain hard by the approach end of the runway. Great for slick Mooney descents on a bumpy hot day. Float-oof-float-oof-float. Departing traffic will almost surely be taking off in that direction. If it's a crosswind, though, or only light southwesterly breeze (as far as I know, there's always a wind) consider landing to the northeast, slightly uphill on 3! And don't expect any Unicom advisory. Found a fellow sitting within arm's reach of the radio, who'd refused to answer this inbound tourist. Something about 'insurance.' You takes yer chances with the wacky traffic. Returning to the airport later that afternoon, we found a pretty RV balled up on that downsloping runway, who'd apparently learned the fun way about all that, especially with the mesa's aircraft-carrier sight picture. When we were there, a couple of years ago, we had lunch at a restaurant there on the field, the Mesa Grill, that was outstanding, packed with locals, and there's a decent motel within a short walk. The surrounding country is beautiful, rental cars readily available, but I took a pass on the tacky magic-crystal, airy-fairy gift shops downtown. I've landed a couple of times at GCN, even got to fly nearly all the way to the dam below the rim, once long, long ago. So lovely... and my kids slept through it all, despite my entreaties. Next time I'm going to investigate the airfields on the north rim.The corridor advice seems excellent.

Another Mooney? Something more comfortable landing on short-bumpy-grass strips? The deluxe plan at my nursing home? Nope. I'm into long-term relationships. Same old husband, same old car, same old airplane. all a little worse for wear, but I happy.

Despite my aged eyes and coke-bottle progressive lenses, I love my iPad mini attached to the yoke with a recently acquired Ram- x-backed yoke mount. It fits in a landscape orientation between the horns of the yoke nicely, fits both the big rubber iPad protecting case as well as, in summer weather, the naked tablet, for very good cooling. It blocks none of the panel, even though my short legs have me awfully close up. I tried every EFB I could get my hands on, some for years. I tried every way possible to fix the regular sized iPad so I could read it and still see over it. Finally found a solution that works beautifully, at least for me: The split screen horizontal-orientation option on FlyQ makes it easy to see both approach plate and sectional view, with a quick toggle to full screen, overlaid plates, or weather, or whatever else is needed. My Galaxy Note 4 is big enough to use as a comfortable backup with Avare, but for now, my happy primary solution is the iPad Mini, FlyQ, and that spring-mounted yoke mount.

What I do, just because I am a timid old lady, with a fondness for my own continued existence, is, when I see somebody head for the opposite runway from the one I'm all ready to use, is fire up the radio and say, "BigGuy headed for rwy 6 at Podunk, this is Mooney 58H, holding short of rwy 24. Do you mind if I go first for a straight out departure to the southwest?" or, if I am feeling really big-hearted, I might suggest, "BigGuy departing Podunk, I'll hold short of 24 for you if you're ready to go." That leaves him the opportunity, as has often happened to me, to say, "No, thanks a lot, but we're still waiting for Clearance Delivery to get back to us. You go ahead.Have a good 'un." And if he had no intention of letting me go first, when I was clearly there first and ready to depart when he rolled right onto the runway, at least the sweetness might let him know he was just a little bit out of line. And it doesn't eat holes in my belly with frustration.

George Perry IS very, very good. As one might expect of a career NAVY fighter pilot.

Thread drift, much? Yes, people can be stupid, rude, arrogant, self-righteous-to-a-fault, entitled, and a host of other sins. Pilots, sadly, aren't exempt. Comes down to this: How much skin is it off our nose to allow the bigger, faster airplane to get out of our way first? It takes all of what, 3 minutes from his taking the runway to his being cleared to FL 190 on course? Our Mooney pilot assumes that since he announced he would be taxiing to 24, that meant the airport would be all his very own, from the time he left the ramp, got a mile down the taxiway, copied his clearance, completed his checklist, got done with his run-up, programmed his GPS, looked for his sunglasses, checked for landing traffic, checked the AWOS again, returned a quick phone call, etc, and the runway was still rightfully his until such a time as the kerosene burner saw him tuck his wheels in the wells, climb to a safe altitude, and presumably get the heck out of the way? OK. I don't understand. The jet jock is ready to go. He is headed elsewhere, promptly. That's the way they operate, at the prices they pay. Maybe our Mooney driver is going to muddle around in the pattern, sightsee over town, head over to do a practice approach or two, go wave to Mom. There might be a $100 hamburger in his immediate future Or maybe he is, indeed, bound on important business, too. Whatever. His intentions and time frame were not made clear. He is burning maybe 2 gph at idle, and he is indignant? He COULD have indulged in a little communication, and if he was, in fact, in a tearing rush, with all his preliminaries accomplished, asked politely if the bizjet minded yielding, when he saw him head to the closer runway, which was probably aligned with the jet's departure course. As for me, I'm willing to let the big guy go first, for heaven's sake. If uncontrolled airports are to work and be safe, a little cooperation, communication, and courtesy seem awfully important. Those of us who need a referee should operate exclusively out of controlled fields.

In general, I'm more than willing to offer to extend my pattern, veer away from the traffic pattern to let the big guys straight in on the approach, go ahead of me, or pull off to let the kerosene burner take off first. To their credit, if they're not ready to go yet, or can see I'm not going to be in the way, most will say, "no, you're fine. go ahead." I can't say I've ever had to pee so badly that I couldn't afford a little courtesy and common sense accommodation. That said, it does irk me when some self-important jet jockey thinks his concern at being 15 miles out trumps my short final on a for-reals instrument approach. I'll be long out of the way, I assure them in my sweetest old-lady voice. That's at uncontrolled fields. It does my wicked heart good, though, at a busy controlled field to hear, "Gulfstream, hold short at Bravo, Follow the Mooney to the ramp." And have the ramp guys park ME in front of the terminal. Ha!

That simple, eh? So long as I can get somebody much taller than I am to help with the cowling, maybe there's hope for me.... I'm still in the lefty-loosey, righty-tighty camp of mechanical expertise, though, even after all these years. I just figured it had been a while since I paid any attention, and that number caught my eye, as his posted shop rate is $65/hr, (more if you watch, even more if you help, and much more yet if you tried to fix it first), especially since I provided the oil. I wasn't balking, just surprised it apparently took so long, and I still have a mess in my hangar to clean up. And curious as to the going rate other places. Apparently way up nawth, it's really spendy, and second opinions are NOT deemed appropriate. FWIW, I'm perfectly willing to admit there's a price to be paid for such on-the-field convenience, and being able to count on him looking out for my safety, to the tune of several thousand dollars a year.. Most experts, in my limited experience, don't get all bent out of shape when people compare notes with fellow enthusiasts. Some people may even think it's just part of due diligence. Our man, bless his heart, is a dear, odd, knowledgeable, self-effacing soul. The next annual, I think, though, may just go to a mechanic who WILL let me watch/help/learn stuff, at least so long as I promise not to try to fix it first. With luck, it won't take six weeks.And I won't still be waiting for my logbook entries.

Thank you so much for your insight. PTK, Darlin'. And your lovely manners. I shall take your stern admonishment very much to heart.

Our. lifestyles are admittedly our own business; I begrudge my mechanic not. I've always been willing to pay a little more to support local folk. It helps keep this very small town prosperous. Somebody accused me of lying, though, when I jokingly referred to enabling his many hobbies, and that does offend me. I merely conjectured how he manages to afford his toys, to which I contribute so generously. I did think his oil change price was high, thus a little informal comparison shopping here. So very sorry to have stirred up such a major tempest in such a minor teapot. I hope those upon whose toes I have trodden will manage to get over it.

Excuse me, Mr. Sabremech. I was not joking. And must apologize most humbly for asking an illogical question. I asked it not to amuse or offend or to invite snide repartee and ridicule, but because I had no idea of the answer. I was merely, inappropriately and illogically astonished to learn that an oil change without complication or extra work, cost ~ $225. I have relatively little interest in doing the job myself, and the non-pilot man in my life has less than I do. The mechanic supplied the oil filter, cut the old one and inspected it.Replaced a small screw on the air filter. I supplied the oil I bought last time I was somewhere that sold it by the case. I am not permitted to get in his way or assist in any fashion. He does it when he gets around to it. It took three days from cowl off to cowl on. I will eventually get around to kitty-littering my hangar floor. And yes, he really does own two Corvettes, one beautiful antique Jaguar, a perfectly splendid 42-foot sailboat, a Harley, five fine and amazing old airplanes in various stages of repair, wonderful toys I do not begrudge him in the least. As far as I know, he has neither wife nor children, lives in the hangar when it suits him, and doesn't spend a fortune, shall we say, on clothes. Very good, competent, kind fellow, and I do like him, but I merely wondered what the going rate was. Now, thanks to some much appreciated Mooniacs who are willing to cut a poor confused grandmama (who probably shouldn't be allowed the keys to a bike lock, much less a Mooney) a teensy bit of slack, I know now that his expertise may be just a little on the high side.What I eventually do with that information, thank y'all all very much, is still under consideration.

How much should an oil change cost, if I supply the oil and the oil filter? Just curious...Not that it's a problem; I understand that the poor mechanic has to have a little jingle-money to buy his beautiful old airplanes, sports cars, and big teak-clad sailboat, right?

Rob's wife has been very happy since he bought the Mooney. She likes going fast, climbing quickly over the build ups, and the smooth landings. He finds it as easy to sleep in the Mooney as he did in her old 172.

Despite my presbyopia, I very much like my Mini Retina mounted horizontally on the yoke in front of me. If I need to read the finest print, pinch/zoom works well. I'd put up with a too-big iPad for several years, usually somewhere inconvenient, either in my lap or my copilot's lap, because there was no room on the yoke for it. The bigger screen also required shifting my scan down or across, which had its own set of equilibrium problems. I was concerned, though, that the smaller screen wouldn't be easy to read. Turns out it is, though, .and allows this short grandma who needs the seat all the way forward, to still see over it to the HSI and other useful gauges. Flaring is easier with the mini, too, given the space constraints. If you're 6'4, and most of that legs, the Air might be ok. Talk to your airport neighbors and try them both before you decide. The x-style attachment for the ram yoke mount also allows for better cooling, protecting against the overheat-shut-down, although I had to remove the bomb-proof case.