Amelia

I bought part of a 231 a long time ago in an area where the mountains to the east are up to 3000 feet. No real need for turbocharging, but it was a lovely airplane at a good price with great partners, so what the heck? Then eventually I moved it to a part of the country where the hills can be as high as 30 feet. In both cases, the ability to climb quickly over the summer haze and heat, around the buildups, out of the murk, bumps and drizzle into smooth and cool and sunny air.has proved really useful. On long trips, the 13-17k cruise altitudes get really good tailwinds without having to break out a real oxygen mask as the adjustable-flow nasal cannulas work fine. I rarely NEED turbocharging here in the swamp, but it is mighty nice to have that choice, and often much better routing.The main drawback for me is the small difficulty and expense of recharging the built-in O2 bottle. If I were living in a really mountainous area as you will be, there would be no question. Turbocharging makes everything so much easier. Having the option to climb high over the Cascades, the Rockies, the Sierras, even these eastern mountains, to whatever altitude provides a nice ride, is great freedom. I would second the notion that an autopilot is a basic requirement, as it's a slippery airplane. I find it hard to multitask well, looking up the approach plates for the alternate after the missed, cleaning up the grandchild's upset tummy, and copying an amended clearance while hand-flying it in bumpy clouds. Ice? It can be a real danger, of course. While the healthy climb rate of a 231 or newer can get your behind out of trouble faster, best you don't get it in that situation in the first place.

I had a splendid experience with Uber near DC recently, (at least after the first driver decided it was too far to reach us and canceled). Second driver arrived right away, we watched his progress on the smart phone, spotless car, sweet older gentleman, knew the way, took half the time the cabbie had on the way in, and seemed surprised and genuinely grateful for his tip. I am sold. Have also used and enjoyed AirB&B, though some hosts tend to inflate their offerings. I thrive on variety, and one hotel looks an awful lot like the last...and the next. If traveling alone, a hotel is a lonely experience if you aren't a TV addict or a barfly. I really enjoy the personal touch, especially overseas, a chance to interact with local folk. The desk clerk isn't going to want to chit-chat with a random visitor as to what makes her town special.

It's a yoke mounted iPad mini, running (at the moment) mostly WingX, which displays data from the DualXGPS170.

Oh, it's a lovely thing to provide, along with a local map, a list of the top five restaurants within a few miles, and whatever propaganda your local CVB has to offer. Our town owns the airport, and so finding a spare car hasn't been a problem. For years it was a beat up cop car with the electric windows stuck and the front seat permanently set at Very Tall Guy. I had to wedge my purse behind me to reach the accelerator. But now we have a respectable car the city engineer outgrew, or something. They added the town's and the airport's name to the doors, so that locals are reminded what a nice place we have. It's a municipal castoff, but clean, and our business customers, especially, really appreciate it. The thing about the crew car is that it makes it easy for well-heeled visitors to learn a little something about your part of the world, a bit of hospitality that sets your airport apart, and whether or not you make a profit on the gas, it's just good business.

Oh, that sounds great! Y'all let swamp dwellers come play? Plan us some nice, calm, no-ice weather, now.

I spent much of last winter comparing XM with Dual ADS-B in real-world wx. No question, XM is a smoother rendition of the precip, and with the Aviator or better subscription, there are more products to use. Aviator Lite is equivalent to XM, just not as blocky. But the continuing hassles with XM customer "service" and the fact that my old XM box was wearing out, and to replace it would cost another $800 to start over, I decided to see how it went with just the ADS-B. I'm not sure whether the blockiness is unavoidable, or whether eventually ADS-B and EFB programmers will figure out how to smooth them out better. I'm not sure why ADS-B is as rudimentary-looking and limited as it is, seems that all the information, winds,lightning, etc, is available. Why can't I have it? Anyway, what I really want to know is where the heaviest rain is, and ADS-B tells me that.

If I borrow the airport car, I always pick up the trash the last guys left behind, top off the Mooney tanks, and often write an appreciative note on AvWeb if the service was good. I try to avoid places that are too proud of their ramp. If the words "Jet Center" or "executive" are in the name, I am pretty sure they're not looking for my patronage, anyway. I've often found the best service and lowest gas prices at little country airports. There's no mauve carpet, no bevy of front desk beauties, the ladies room might have grease remover on the basin rather than fresh terrycloth towels and complimentary mouthwash, but I can deal with that. And I am as happy with the runout Crown Vic with the cop insignia peeling off the door, or the mechanic's dusty stick shift pick-up truck as I am with the latest shiny upscale model at ExecuJetCentre. It's just goin' down the road a mile to the BBQ joint, anyway. Probably not even passing a gas station. But if we've used it longer than an hour, or gone more than a few miles, I will add gas.

This getting the monitor reinstalled and working is turning out to be a pain. Is a K factor unique to the airplane or is everybody's M231 K factor the same? Does anybody know what his number is off hand? I think I have to uncowl the thing to find out what is written on the transducer, right? And about the monitor's problem with the battery... I suspect the monitor just assumes it's a 24 volt airplane, when in fact it's a mere 12V. And when I get that far in the reprogramming, all will become clear. But at the moment, it flashes excitedly that the battery's no good. It's fine, almost new, and starts the engine without complaint.I wonder what else I'm going to have to stand on my head to find out. Maybe I should cheat and write the answers in the freakin' manual as I figure them out, you think?

I have had an EDM 730 for several years. I really like its clear display and ease of use. When it started talking trash to me a month or so ago, I pulled it out and sent it back, whining that it was giving erratic and nonsensical readings. The lovely tech support person called me a couple of days later, saying, "You aren't crazy. It needed some work. And new software. No charge, it's covered, and you'll have it back day after tomorrow." Can't beat that service! Now it is back in, and all I have to do is figure out how to reprogram it so it thinks I'm burning less than 48gph on takeoff, and 27 in cruise. I don't think I have all the numbers to plug in to do that, but we shall soon see.

The adjoining hotel's rooms (two double beds) facing the gulf were something like $65/night. No clue what the quality of the accommodations is, but I can guarantee we've likely encountered worse!

My three Mooney 231 partners, back in the old days, used to load up their golf clubs and go to Florida for the week. I don't know what those boys weighed, but they were not small men. One played big-college football, before he got old and fat. Not a one was under 6 feet tall. Don't have any notion what golf clubs weigh, or if they took a change of clothes and a toothbrush each. But I do believe it was a one-tank trip from way up nawth to their South Atlantic coast to their tropical destination, and they survived, year after year. I took that to mean that I could have second helpings of dessert. Oh, and you should see the stuff that can be packed in a Mooney for a week on the OSH North 40. I don't think many of those "camper" pilots actually weighed their gear. Once again, I am consoled about my expanding girth. A couple of times Angel Flight pax have showed up with a lot more weight than they claimed. The first time, I made the couple re-pack their many suitcases into one small bag each, while I waited. It was just a weekend, for heaven's sake! The other time, the family didn't think medical gear counted! So having been forewarned by the connecting pilot, I neglected to top off the tanks, and bought gas at the destination for the trip home. So, while I slavishly follow the rules, I do suspect a fair amount of extra capacity has been designed into these wonderful airplanes.

My check is (almost,sort of) in the mail.

I had a pretty blue and white 1975 C172M, that had whisked my little family, (OK, maybe whisk is the wrong word) back and forth across the country for some years, and I finally did the math. It was costing way too much, I could rent one much like it for less, had a friend who had pestered me to sell it to him, he offered quite a bit more than I had paid, and so I sold it. The next week, I had need of an airplane, so called to reserve the rental Skyhawk that was just sitting there on the ramp, flown very little, and the FBO said, "no, our insurance won't let it go out of state." WHAT?? Talk about remorse! This seller was unhappy! I flew commercial, cried in my beer, took care of out of state business, and grumpily returned to a phone message from my former aircraft insurance agent. He wanted to take me to lunch. We went in his lovely newish Mooney 231. I marveled at the whiz bang electronics, radar, RNAV, the 160mph groundspeed, the 900fpm climb rate,autopilot, and at the necessity to fly with fingertips only. Was in love. My friend and his partners were looking for a fourth partner, for less than I had sold the 172 for....and it cut the travel time for most of my trips in half, compared to Brand C. So, that was 25 years ago. It was a fine bit of luck, my remorse evaporated, and I still love that machine!

My pulse oximeter was a bequest from a dear friend who quit smoking last year...RIP. Works fine, especially when I have spare batteries for it.

I have a 1980 Mooney 231, and love it. Still. After more than 25 years. I'm 5'4", or at least I used to be. Probably shorter now. I have the 1.5" rudder pedal extensions, but wish I had gone for the bigger ones, because my grandma's girth, with the seat all the way forward, makes it a little tight on the flare, especially with the yoke-mounted ipad mini. It's just a matter of getting used to. I used to sit on a seat cushion, which made visibility great, but found it unnecessary once the seats were reupholstered. You do sit with your feet outstretched, like a sports car, rather than upright with your knees bent, like a Toyota sedan, but it's comfortable for a long ride. One thing to remember about cabin size is that it's rare that two people want the seats the same distance from the panel, or the seat backs the same degree of incline. My husband eases his right seat back for his in-flight nap, and he might as well be sitting in the back. Our shoulders never touch.

I had an EI UBG-16 engine monitor for several years, chose it because the sales people were so helpful and nice, and it was nothing but trouble. I still have it, yellow-tagged, 6 cylinder plus TIT gauge and wiring harness, let me know if anybody wants it... cheap, but you'll have to buy your own probes.Over the time I had it, it cost me a ton of money, mostly to repair the thin wires, repeatedly. Apparently my 231's vibrations were more than the very lightweight wiring harness could put up with. I had a number of experts tell me EI's contention that it was poorly wired in the first place, thus not their fault, was in fact, not the case. I now have a JPI 730, very intuitive to use, wiring so far seems fine, but it recently started acting up, reporting nonsense. I sent the gauge back, and a JPI tech support person called me when it arrived, said, "You AREN'T crazy... it needed work, new software. We did it, no charge, and will send it back 2-day shipping." I expect it back today. But that was the first problem in years I've had with it. So, I think I'm very happy with their service.

Wow! Congratulations, George!

PS. O2 maintenance has been no problem at all. I did have to replace the built-in tank a year ago... Nothing wrong with it but past its no-more-hydros date. Otherwise, simple and dependable. No real aerobatics. This is not that airplane. No spins, no inverted, etc. Great, comfortable, economical transportation for two or three people over longish distances, though. It might be worth looking at 231s...seems very nicely-equipped ones aren't hard to find well within your price range. If you're ever anywhere nearby, (NE NC) feel free to come look at mine,just for an example, Safe? The safest! I heard a ZTL controller explain why. "We never worry about Mooney pilots," he told his audience. "They're usually so far behind the airplane, it will be an hour or two before they make it to the scene of the crash."

You'll get more knowledgeable technical advice from other Mooniacs, and all I can offer is my own XC experience. My Mooney 231 has whisked me from east coast to west and back a number of times in the 25 years I've owned it. It leaps tall mountains in a single bound, has no trouble topping haze layers and puffy summer buildups. Its range (6 hours LOP) far exceeds my husband's, so for westbound flights, we usually stop after 3 hours or so for top-off and leg-stretching. Happy pax are a joy. Fidgety uncomfortable ones, not so much. Eastbound, I often head for the ultra-smooth midteens and nice tailwinds. Built-in o2 with adjustable-flow nasal cannulas is lovely, ever so convenient, except for the expense and hassle of refilling it. The places that sell it have names that include the words "jet center" which means an automatic hefty luxury upcharge. My usual flight is 750 miles or so, at 11,000 to 13,000, 165 TAS, 10-11gph. Makes visiting far-flung family an easy weekend adventure. Why sure, Grandmama will come to your ballet recital /robotics contest, etc, tomorrow, little one! Mooneys are nowhere near the all-weather machines you are flying now, but better than the 172 you remember fondly. That is where a turbo-model comes into its own. A nice climb rate, even out of 13000 feet is lovely when you're tired of mucking around in the low level soup. Finding superb partners, or being found by them, was the best thing ever. Learned SO much from those good guys. Now located in the Back of Beyond, where qualified partners are nowhere to be found, and I miss them. You expected Mooney owners to be fairly partisan, didn't you? Good. Just be prepared for enthusiastic proselytizing, and go find some little airplanes nearby with backwards tails, and sit in them, make airplane noises with your lips, and see if you can't talk yourself into a ride. You will soon be among the converts, grabbing airport tire kickers by the arm, and telling them all about the greatest single-engine airplane ever built: Yours!

I believe, if you've let your instrument currency lapse, and your six months' grace period has elapsed, you need to do a real IPC, but your CFII can take care of that. No need to take another check ride. I agree, keeping up with it is a great idea, but hard to do if you're home, home on the range, where the skies are not cloudy all day, or if you too often break out at 1200, so your approach, which has been IFR up until the last three minutes, is no longer loggable as an Instrument Approach. So, if you can find a friend to ride shotgun, it's useful to go out and do some foggling every so often, so that your sixth approach doesn't fall off the end of the queue.

A conversation with my favorite, if faraway avionics tech about elderly HSIs, Aspens, and alternatives yielded this advice: "If you're going to go with glass, the G500 is the way to go in your Mooney. It interfaces with all the other stuff, G530, KAP, etc, is rock-solid reliable, bright and big enough for, er, senior, eyes to read. The Aspen has reliability problems. The one we have in our aircraft has had some major repair issue every year since we got it 7 years ago." OK. And how much did you say that would cost? "Oh, about thirty." THIRTY? As in $30,000??? Oooooff. Right. Steam gauges it is, then. Sigh. The repair, if it turns out to be necessary, is probably what will have to happen. Sigh. Exciting women are expensive, but we aren't bringing that kind of dough these days.

I've done several PnP, maybe four of them, and they were fine, but have had a lot of requests from very far away from me (that information is available!) to even farther away from me, asking if I can transport two full grown Labs and a crate full of puppies. Uh, nope. I wonder if they just spam everybody in the southeast. Sometimes I'll post my upcoming route, offering rides, but get no takers. It does seem a little hit or miss. Too bad they can't afford a real coordinator. But it IS irksome that Angel Flights and Veterans Airlift Command will assign a trip, and then cancel it at the last minute...I think they just get a fancier offer......sigh...

Last week I was off W32 a very few miles SE of Washington DC, just climbing through 1000' on the assigned heading of 180, when I saw the Washington Monument dead ahead. Ooooops!! HSI was talking nonsense. Compass was wandering as expected with the turn, and I needed help fast, before I had a military escort. I turned to my G530, used its magnetic course indication to head away from that very special airspace. All the while explaining to Potomac Approach that I was sorting out an electronic problem. Pretty soon, settled on the assigned route, I turned my attention to the HSI, reset the circuit breaker, and after a few red-flag minutes, all was well, and it behaved the rest of the trip. Don't know what was up with that, unless it was the doohickey that gives compass information to the HSI needed to be reset. It is usually so very good, I confess I forget to do that. Or maybe the electronics didn't like sitting outside in two weeks of rainy weather. All the same, I'm hoping to NOT have to convince my Chancellor of the Exchequer that just because I eschew fancy jewelry, a nice car and decent clothes, I really deserve that lovely Aspen unit.

I generally fly IFR, and my family or destination hosts seem to appreciate knowing how soon I expect to arrive. I may live in a fool's paradise, but I figure any expectation of privacy I might cling to is a charming notion from a bygone era. My medical records, my flight activities, my income, my credit rating, my travels, my writing, my academic record, are so widely accessible that if I were to put it all on a billboard, it couldn't be more public. And no, I don't even let Google or Facebook track me. Sheesh... Might as well let my kids know when Grandmama will show up.

I had the fun experience of flying with a mostly paper pilot across the country last year. She had a heavy satchel full of charts, notepads, highlighters, paper flight plan forms, airport diagrams, weather printouts, flight log, etc, and I had my iPad (and XM gear stuffed under my seat.) At the end of our three thousand plus miles together, we were each convinced that we were right all along. She continues to fly mostly locally with her lap full of papers, and I really like my gadgetry and its instantaneous answers all over the country. Yes, during some of those hot,hot desert days, if I weren't careful to keep the iPad uncovered and aimed at an air vent, it did overheat several times. I kept a tissue handy for the fingerprints. But having never lived close to a full-service pilot shop with a rack of current charts for the nation, I found it a PITA , and more often impossible, to get current charts, quickly, for a spur-of-the-moment trip, or last-minute Angel Flight mission. My iPads, both of them, always have current charts, plates, TFRs, restricted and special use airspaces, fuel prices, airport info, my WAAS position depicted on both charts and approach plates, graphic elevation depiction, and <10-minute-old weather, TYVM. Yes, indeedy, I am very happy with several excellent EFBs. In the Good Old Days, I loved spreading charts out on the big dining room table, matching edges, and finding my way from coast to coast, and now admit, EFBs do that better for me. Pinch and zoom. Rubberbanding. Vi-ola, the entire route, winds aloft, fuel consumption, even weight and balance pop up as if by magic. Wheee!