Amelia

Here's another enthusiastic endorsement for Hector at Aerocomfort. He redid my shabby interior, including covering the cracked and yellowed panels in ultra-leather or some such, four or five years ago or so, and it looks wonderful. The man worked miracles, and I still send a kind thought his way whenever I climb in the airplane.

maybe there will be room to send my nonflying non-girl spouse along on the Blowing Rock trip? He might think that's more fun than plane talk.

Rob and I hope to arrive Friday afternoon, hire a car, and go see dear old friends up the mountain from Marion for the night. We will spend Saturday Mooneyakking, then aim to get home to the swamp by dark Saturday evening. Looking forward to it!

Fine day, excellent hospitality at SSI, looking forward to Mooniacking tomorrow. Not sure how well a snug Mooney Ambassador t-shirt is going to work, -- shoulda sprung for the sweat shirt!, but looks like another spectacular day.

Y'all can be counted on to provide good advice to this CAMP, (cheap---Mooney pilot). I'm pretty well committed to flying to Puerto Rico in a month, and thinking it will be worthwhile to install a 406 ELT. Any thoughts on which one would be much appreciated. Prices run from $570ish to $2000+. Thanks! Mimi

Outstanding speakers, great company, spectacular weather... Really a treat! This weekend has been beautifully planned down to every detail, and so many experts on hand... And what camaraderie. I've never been to the Homecoming, but hard to imagine anything better than this Panama City event has been, twice.

I regret to say, I frankly don't care what ZAU does or does not do. The rudest controller I ever heard, nastily scolded a hapless VFR pilot late one quiet night for informing ZAU of an altitude change. I couldn't help my sweet Southern self. I drawled, "Wow, SOMEbody has had a really bad day." Another pilot on freq said, "Really. Welcome to Chicago Center!" I looked forward to my annual trip to Chicago, even the hair-raising approach in IMC one night to Midway, breaking out to find skyscrapers on both sides disappearing into the clouds. Yikes! But when they plowed Meigs, I decided the city could do without my meager contributions to its coffers. There are lots of places gladder to see me and my money.

Jolie, it might have been quicker to unearth a stamp and an envelope,but I believe I have successfully navigated PayPal. Yay! Bill, I expect to depart northbound late Saturday afternoon, (subject to change!) but expect to be there Friday evening, with or without favorite spouse, camping under my wing, unless it rains and reasonable nearby accommodations can be secured at the last minute. I will be happy to help out whenever it's most needed. Mimi

I've flown from Atlantic to Pacific several times, hit 49 states and much of Canada, but part of the joy in that journey is stopping in interesting places, every three or four hours. I enjoy meeting on-line friends and far-flung relatives, and stopping for lunch in the only dusty little crossroads for a hundred miles. Good people populate this country, and the one to our north. Not for me is the record-busting, bottom-busting nonstop, though I do appreciate a good tailwind at FL 170 for as long as it can be comfortably sustained.

I'm looking forward to SSI, have already reserved space for my tiny tent. Will those lovely Mooney Ambassador T shirts be for sale there?

I just got out to the airport to head for the nearest commercial airport to pick up a couple of incoming houseguests, and realized as I slid into my seat, that oops, I'd left my iPad Mini at home. Well, darn. But wait... I did have my Samsung Note2 cell phone, and what do you know, AVARE was waiting there for me. Perfect. Purple line on a bright sectional to my destination, runway extensions, approach plates and airport diagram right there, easy to read, easy to remember how it worked, even though it had been a month or more since last I looked at it..... If you have an Android gadget, tablet, or whatever, do give this free and very well-thought-out EFB a try.

I'm really impressed with the clarity and stability of Avare. I use it as a back up on my GalaxyNote2 phone, and it seems quick, intuitive, and capable. There are goodies on the iThingie EFBs that are more sophisticated, but for free? And a $150 tablet? How can you go wrong?

Medical oxygen, as I understand it, has the moisture bubbled in at the patient's bedside. In the green cylinder, it's the same as any other O2. I'm sure tired of paying $75 or more for a top-off. Would be quite interested in figuring out how to rig a system of my own, but pressures and valves and fittings, oh, my! Maybe I could offer to buy the refill setup for the airport, and arrange to have a couple of big bottles delivered, in exchange for having somebody smarter than I do the filling. I bet a modified kid's little red wagon would be ideal to move them from one place to another.

I got the iPad3, loaded it up with everything, used it constantly, for everything from flight planning, reading the news, catching upon email, reading Kindle books, letting the grandchildren play games on it, and of course, following that magenta line en route. Only snag was its size. Short-legged pilot sits so close to the panel there was no place to put the thing in flight except on the right-side passenger's left knee. Santa Claus must have noticed... So now, I have the Mini mounted on the yoke, where it works admirably, and the full size one tucked in my flight bag for all the other uses. Big iPad or Mini? For me, the answer was both!

Oh! That is very helpful info, Anthony! I'll pursue that theory, in the hopes that a simple repair or replacement will work. Thanks!

Amelia has more or less decided to at least see what ails the old system. If that turns out to be a very pricey solution, the glass is still a very attractive option, especially thanks to Marauder Chris's good real-world video. Thank you for the time you all devoted to this discussion. It was most helpful!

My baggage area light has a rocker switch, and it was a source of considerable frustration when someone unloading a suitcase in daylight would accidentally hit that rocker switch. The dim light was easy to miss on a bright day, but drew enough power to flatten a battery overnight. I cured the problem...unscrewed the bulb.

Welcome! 1. A Mooney is an exceptional go-places airplane, capable and comfortable, and fun to fly. But you knew that, right? 2. You've found a fine source of expertise here. 3. An instrument rating is a huge safety measure, even if you are a mostly fair-weather flier. A fast, slick airplane (why, hello, Mooney,) can get you in over your head in a hurry. Unsought advice: Go ahead and start on the IR.

You guys are the greatest! Thanks much for the advice and encouragement. I talked to my nearest avionics shop, who's apparently booked solid at the moment, but can install a nice Aspen for $11,000ish if I'm willing to wait, and let 'em have my airplane for a week. And I talked to the VERY nice Bob Bramble who will give the current boxes a look-see. He theorizes that if we're lucky, it may just be a loose contact, or a missing tooth in a gear in the remote gyro, which might be a few hundred bucks, or a whole overhaul of both things, which would be a couple thousand. If I remember what he said correctly. In which case, it's probably going to make more sense than spending many thousands on So-Pretty. I'm used to the analog 'Swiss watch,' anyway.

Thank you, each of you, for helping to focus my decision-making process. I see I have some extensive research to do! First, maybe, ought to be trying to clarify what is the problem with the old one. Today? No problem at all. Worked perfectly coming home from DC, the whole way. Of course, the trip up to DC, with a nervous Angel Flight passenger, natch, the HSI began a lazy drift counter-clockwise about 10 minutes after takeoff, and a reset of the compass-slave button helped temporarily, as did pulling the circuit breaker and resetting it. Finally I grumbled phooey, and slapped a sticky note over it. Peeked under the sticky note as we bumped through the clouds, and lo, it had decided to agree with the compass, so I gingerly tried to reset the autopilot. It seemed fine for the last half hour of the ride. The same thing happened the prior week, the HSI heading info sporadically diverged at least 45 degrees from the compass and the course information on the GPS display. The time it really got my attention was on climb out from a little airport just south of DC, inside the FRZ, a month ago. Approach asked me to verify my heading of 180, a glance at the HSI confirmed that to be the case, exactly, then I looked up to see the Washington Monument and the Mall dead ahead. OOOOOPS! I squeaked an admission of my DG problem to Potomac Approach, hastily aimed in the opposite direction, and played reset games for a while until it began to read properly. Each time, I have been able to get it to play nice, but it took some unladylike threats. So, I am planning a couple of trips before long that will require things to be working well. My inclination now is to talk to these experts here cited for a diagnosis, and if possible, to fix what's there, rather than spending a lot of money on a system that may have a steep learning curve. On the other hand, I DO have a birthday coming up...and the wheels haven't fallen off my 20-year-old car yet.

Just looked at MidContinent's website. ~$1300 to repair the bloomin thing. 90-day warranty. Sigh....

You who have Aspens, do you think the displays would be easy for an old-ish lady to read with trifocal plus lenses? Are they appropriately dimmable at night?

I have a Garmin 530W and a KAP150. I expect to fly this airplane until I can't pass a class III medical. Which means maybe 10 more years if I'm lucky. And still lucid. Trouble is, I am a little hesitant to put a $5 collar on this $2 dog. And a little concerned about the added complexity and head-down time. But those magic boxes are awfully pretty.

As predicted here a while back, the 231's wonky HSI is increasingly unreliable. Sometimes it works fine, and sometimes it takes a half hour to get with the program. The time draws near to make a decision. Overhaul? Fancy and crazy-expensive glass? If so, which one? Several friends sing the praises of the G500, but my old joke about exciting women being expensive has worn awfully thin.

Good call on the turbo... but use it! If you resolved to drive all winter, you'd be missing some of the clearest, smoothest, sunniest air ever. Just stay below, (or quickly on top of thin) potentially icy clouds, and aim south!