Jeff_S

I have never once found myself wishing I had speed brakes. Of course, since I've never had them I may not know what I'm missing, but I have learned that a good forward slip can drop the bird down at over 1000' fpm if needed. As to other's questions, I have only ever seen photos of my plane since it's prior owner. I know he did some touch-up paint but didn't paint the whole thing, so I suspect this might be the original paint scheme. There's nothing in the logs about paint color numbers, because I tried to find that last year when trying to match the blue for a new inner-gear door.

That's a bit harsh! Probably said in jest, but really...I think those of us who have studied the topic and use it regularly do actually understand it.

To answer your question, you can't go wrong with the Sporty's handheld. Now it actually will do a full ILS with glideslope, which is pretty amazing if you think about it. I have the older one which will do VOR/LOC but no glideslope. Truth is I've only had to use it once, and that taught me a valuable lesson. It's great to keep batteries in it, but if you live in any kind of climate with humidity you also have to periodically clean the contacts on the plugs for the headset adapter otherwise it ain't gonna' work!

I own 24-1692-14, another AT. It's true they came out of the factory somewhat stripped down with no A/P, but they were well IFR equipped to teach complex IFR operations by at Flight Safety, etc. Mine has been pretty souped up with interior, avionics and the like over the years, and about the only thing separating it from an MSE are speed brakes and the gross weight increase. And I could even get that if I wanted to pay for the STC and the modified airspeed indicator. Since I don't need to carry the weight I haven't bothered, but it's nice to know I could if necessary.

Well, I think that post may be a bit pedantic but it is right...rudder trim isn't the answer to correcting for upper air movement crosswise from your direction of flight. But if you haven't already, you should definitely find a copy of Wolfgang Langewiesche's "Stick and Rudder," which is essential reading for any pilot who really wants to understand how his airplane works. Although written nearly 70 years ago, it is still as pertinent today as it was then for those of us flying piston-driven machines. I re-read it every year not only to remind myself of the basics, but because I genuinely like his writing style.

I agree that it's worth the extra money to have the wireless data capability, so I'd go for it. An added benefit of this I discovered on Friday when I had flown up to Anderson SC to visit my father in the hospital. I had programmed the route from the airport to the hospital into the Apple Maps app on my iPad 3. It would be my first chance to use the turn-by-turn directions in the new iOS 6. It worked just "okay" from the airport to the hospital, but wasn't giving me voice readouts or automatically switching to each next step in the route. When I was ready to head back the airport I switched to ForeFlight to get a briefing and realized I had left the wireless data "off," so I turned it back on. This time the turn-by-turn directions worked like I thought they should, with automatic voice read-outs, showing next legs, etc. Apparently when it can't get access to the network database the turn-by-turn doesn't work very well.

I'm in the camp that says if I'm going to file anything, it will be IFR. I, too, have not filed a VFR flight plan since my PPL days. It always seemed so cumbersome to me, the methodology for actually picking up the plan in the air. You have to switch over to a Flight Service frequency (which are not so easy to find) and then deal with them finding it and all that. Much easier to get flight following for a longer VFR trip, which I will do for any flight over about 1/2 hour or so.

IndyTim, I have a pre-buy checklist that I used when I bought my J. I downloaded it from the MAPA website as I recall, and it was in the "public" section so not only for members. I have it as a PDF which I will mail to you if you can't find it yourself. Just send me a PM here on the forum with your email address. I generally look here about once a day. Jeff Never mind the PM, I found it on the MAPA website, so here it is: http://www.mooneypilots.com/mapalog/M20J_Inspection.htm

While there may have been water in the fuel, this seems to me that the cause of the real tragedy (death of the pilot) was the too-common turnback attempt to land at the airport.

Not sure if this poster was referring to Wash-Wax All or not, but that's what I use and it does a great job. A thorough once-over twice a year, with a good belly scrub using Wash-Wax All Belly Wash during annual when the belly is off and it's easier to clean. For regular maintenance, I just spritz all the leading edges (bug collectors) after every flight or when needed. Having the layer of Wash-Wax All on helps get the bug parts off really fast.

I have never had a GPS signal problem while using the iPad's internal GPS flying in my Mooney, but it does lose signal when I'm flying inside the big blue and white Delta tubes as they get to cruising altitude. I don't know if there's more interference or what, but it becomes unreliable. Since I bought the Stratus ADS-B device for ForeFlight, that has become the primary GPS receiver for the iPad and it is rock solid, with stated 1m accuracy levels.

Phil, my Angel Flight fell through so it looks like I may be free on Saturday. Are you still doing this fly-in?

Remember that controllers can only tell your vector, not which way your plane is actually pointed. Even mild crosswinds can cause a 5 or 10 degree deflection between your heading and your bearing. So when you get a call-out, keep in mind what wind correction you may need to apply to determine where to really look. One nice trick if you have an HSI is to remember that to the controller, your 12 o'clock is where your HSI is pointed. That said, I still do find it hard to see smaller planes even when called out. They just don't ever look as large as you expect them to.

I do quite a few PnP flights as well. I used to do more Angel Flights but it became harder to do those on weekends, and frankly, the Mooney isn't as well equipped to get people who are somewhat incapacitated in and out. But dogs seem to love the Mooney. Here's a few pics from the last couple of years. Brook was the funniest one...she actually had 9 puppies along for the ride, and one of them crawled under the back seat and nearly stowed away for the return trip. Good thing I found it before I took off...I didn't need a new puppy at that time in my life. http://mooneyspace.com/gallery/image/33403-/ http://mooneyspace.com/gallery/image/33402-/ http://mooneyspace.com/gallery/image/33401-/ http://mooneyspace.com/gallery/image/33400-/ http://mooneyspace.com/gallery/image/33399-/

That was Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, well known French pilot and author of Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince). Tragically, of course, he died in an airplane crash. Oh, the actual quote is "...tyranny of petty things." but the principle is the same.

I'm doing an Angel Flight up to Knoxville that morning, so I'm headed in the other direction. But I'll keep it in mind in case plans change. If you send me the details I'll put a note out on the Southeast Mooney mailing list as well.

There is a lot to be said for longer oil change intervals (based on hours flown) if those hours are coming close together. In my old Warrior I was changing about every 25-30 hours and the Blackstone analyses started to show some signs of metal most likely from corrosion (I think it was iron). It was nothing dangerous, but my A/P said let's just fly the crap out of this thing for the next few months and so I flew it to Colorado and then to OSH and several more trips that summer, and we changed the oil after nearly 50 hours. Dang if the next analysis came back with better numbers. I find that my flying has curtailed a bit this year due to extenuating circumstances, and even the trips I do still make are obviously much faster in the Mooney, so I am currently on a 4-month/25 hour change cycle.

Change the oil, change the filter, including cutting open the old filter to look for metal. It's cheap cheap cheap insurance against a catastrophic engine failure in flight.

I believe even LPV is not considered an "official" precision approach, unless those rules have changed from what I learned during my IFR training.