Jeff_S

I went to that same seminar in Atlanta and heard the same instruction. I wonder, if everything that was *supposed* to be logged on a 20+ year old airplane actually had been logged somewhere, what size room that would fill up? No disputing the regs, but this one seems like the technology curve got ahead of the reg writers. As noted above, clearly the unit itself will tell an inspector whether or not the database is current, and the mere fact that it powers up will show that it's functional (after self tests). So who cares what's written down in a book somewhere?

No plans to fly on Christmas, but scheduled to do an Angel Flight on the 28th if the weather holds out.

I had asked a very similar question in these forums earlier this year, and decided to go with the LASAR combo tie-down/jack points. They are awesome. And I picked up at least three knots. (I mean, .003 knots.) But they are well worth it, and at $35 or so one of the cheapest mods you can add to a plane.

Quote: piperpainter What nobody ever mentions is that the depreciation you take on the plane (whether regular or bonus; ie accelerated) lowers the "basis" of your cost in the plane. Then when you eventually sell the plane, any amount you you get for it over the "basis" must be reported as a gain, and taxes paid on it. If you are buying a new plane and the value of the plane drops as much as the drop in your basis, you come out even. But if your basis goes down to $100,000 and you sell it for $500,000, the tax on that $400,000 depreciation has to be "paid back". This does not take into consideration the value of the use of that money over time, nor the tax rates that apply at the front end and back end of the deal. My point is that this accelerated depreciation tax money is not just "free money", and one would be smart to ask their tax guru about the effect it will have on them. Don

I do Angel Flights. Have signed up for VAC flights but they always seem to be on weekdays, or they come up on too short notice, or they're just a lot longer than I care to do, so I haven't done any of those. Lately I've been doing more Pilots n Paws rescues. So between Angel Flight and PnP, there's not question that the Angel Flight passengers are easier to deal wtih, and generally seem fine getting in and out of the cabin.

And in case Kevin's explanation wasn't fully clear, the effect of bonus depreciation is that it's a direct write-off against current year revenues, so it lowers business taxes. If you can legitimately use your airplane for business purposes, this can be very important. Say the corporate tax is 35% of revenue (I'm not sure if that's actually correct...it may be close, but I use it for illustration): if your net business income is $200,000 then you would pay $70K of that in taxes. But with bonus depreciation, you may be able to deduct an additional $100K directly out of your net income, reducing it to $100,000 and therefore getting only a $35K tax bill. So by accelerating the depreciation of the airplane you have saved $35K in one year. When you're talking about numbers associated with jet-props or corporate jets, the savings can be significant.

Well, I guess it's good we've all got a place to rant about this, and clearly no one on this forum is going to say anything negative about the Mooney product overall. We all love our birds..and yes, sometimes we go out to the airport with no intention of flying, but merely to pet them affectionately and admire their gracious lines. But let's not confuse that with running a business. To those who think quality can only be manufactured in America, I merely point to the American auto industry which only now is starting to get back to levels of style and quality that they ceded to the Japanese decades ago. Lot's of economic and business reasons for it which are well known, but let's not get too high on our horse about "only in the USA." The truth is, quality manufacturing can be done in many places these days. How many folks have an American-built flat screen TV in their house? (Answer: none, I think, but I may be wrong about that.) At the end of the day, everyone will have their opinion about which management decision at any stage of the Mooney Aircraft Company's lifecycle will have lead to the current situation, but unless you were there at the time, and facing the same business pressures as that management team, then it's all just armchair quarterbacking. And at the end of the day, running any enterprise is not too distant an exercise from gambling; you have to see the future as best you can, but ultimately you have to make a bet. And sometimes that bet is wrong. So I think it's counter-productive to be too critical of any past decisions. I recognize even the more angry posts here are actually just representative of a great love for this product and desire to see it soar again in full glory. But even if that doesn't happen, it in no way diminishes the intrinsic value of our EXISTING planes to us. If you bought a Mooney in hopes of reselling and making a profit, that was gambling of a different sort! But if you bought one because of the benefits it provides to you, that's not going away anytime soon. As my A/P tells me over and over, with the exception of just a few parts, it's all just sheet metal and engine components that are easy to find. If the community can still keep a venerable, but much smaller, fleet of Grumman Cheetah/Tigers (or pick any other older model) going strong, there will be no problem keeping our Mooneys in the air.

I got this reply from an inquiry to ForeFlight support: It is with great sadness that we watch the RunwayFinder.com web site go offline. The aviation community has lost a helpful resource. RunwayFinder is and has been a valued collaborator with ForeFlight. Dave Parsons is a true innovator. Given our business relationship, some customers have inquired as to whether or not the current matters will affect ForeFlight’s ability to deliver updated charts to ForeFlight HD customers. The answer is simple: ForeFlight will continue to offer all our monthly updates, including downloads of VFR sectional and IFR enroute charts, to customers and expects no interruption of service. Nothing is more important to Team ForeFlight than your faith, trust, support, and encouragement. We will always strive to live up to that, with the same conviction that drove the first pilots skyward. Thank you for your support of ForeFlight Mobile! Eric W. Hake, AGI, IGI, CFI, CFII ForeFlight LLC Intelligent Apps for Pilots www.foreflight.com

Quote: rbharvey wonder how Foreflight is still using them as the VFR chart provider when online. Strange

Had a few long days on my trip to OSH in 2009 in the Warrior. First leg was a trip to Denver to visit my brother for a few days, with Day 1 of that being Atlanta to Wichita (my home town). That day was PDK to TKX for fuel, then 3M0 (Gaston's resort on the White River in Arkansas, a great grass strip with a nice restaurant) for lunch, then FSK for fuel and finally into AAO for sleep. That was a total of 8 hours flying time. The day from Denver (APA) to OSH was 7.8 hours, with a fuel stop in JYR (York, NE) and then a fuel-holding stop at C47 (Portage, WI) to wait for OSH to open up after the air show, and finally the FISK arrival. Of course, the FISK hold added at least 30 minutes to that total time, but worth it. I bought the Mooney to make a one-stop, single day trip from Atlanta to Denver a reality, but haven't had the chance to enact it yet. Next summer for sure!

I, too, had a prickly situation with my (new, second) wife when I started getting into aviation. This was a woman who was so deathly afraid of motion sickness that for 8 years of her early career she refused to take a job that required travel. She finally got over that and for the last 10 years has been a Platinum traveler as a sales exec (funny how lots of money can change an attitude!). But she still refused to fly with me even after I bought the Warrior, until about three years in as we were planning a week in St. Augustine. I simply showed her how much easier it would be to fly Jeff Air instead of Delta. She decided to take the plunge, and now is a contented (if not eager) co-pilot. There just has to be a carrot, someplace she really wants to get to. She won't ever go out for the $100 hamburger run, but that's okay. That's what buddies are for anyway.

I don't know anything about the space requirements of the 480, but I acquired one when I bought my J and I can tell you that I absolutely love it. I had a 430W in my Warrior and my primary trainer had a 430 so I am very familiar with how both operate, and now that I have a 480 I would hate to ever go back. Yes, the operating logic is different so it takes some getting used to, but if you fly IFR in the system a lot using the FMS capabilities of the 480 is so much nicer. It's true, too, that the 480 doesn't have some of the same MFD functionality of the 430/530 series but if you've got the XM weather and/or traffic in your 430 then that shouldn't matter. It doesn't bother me in the least that the product is discontinued. I see no endpoint for the data update from Jepp, and since they are done on a standard CompactFlash card instead of the specialized card for the 430/530 series there are no problems with readers.

Longest non-stop was this Fall from KC (OJC) to ATL (PDK) at 4.2 hours. We had crosswinds the whole time which netted to just about no wind factor, so I cruised LOP at ~9.5 gph and made about 155 knots over the ground.

Are you kidding me? They actually call it the "Board of Equalization"? That's just a whole other country.

As I recalll, MSE = Mooney Special Edition

Interesting. I was also "exercising the engine" on Friday so with full tanks I wanted to do a speed test at normal cruise levels to determine the difference between ROP and LOP. Here's what I got: 6500', 4°C, 30.24 altimeter, 2460 lbs gross weight, 2500 RPM and WOT (~24" as I recall) 100° ROP = 160 KTAS 20° LOP = 155 KTAS 7500', 3°C, 30.24, 2450 lbs, 2500 RPM and WOT (~23" now) 20° LOP = 159 KTAS 100° ROP = Didn't do it, why bother?! All speed figures given by the Shadin air data computer. I love these cooler temps!

Quote: N513ZM you can get ice in the summer - ask me how I know. also - you have to run this system at least once a month (preferrably more often) to keep the panels "wetted" - if the membrane inside dries out you will end up with dead spots on panels - expensive to fix and dangerous in icing. Ask me how I know.

Quote: DaV8or Well, since the award for the most awesome hangar has been awarded... how about the smallest?

Quote: Sven I vote for Jeff S. His hangar is so big, he lets me fly around in it all the time.

I suppose someone might fly with it empty in the summertime!

Spacious one-bedroom spot features: Airy ceilings with awesome views in 360° Free showers and the occasional bracing snow blanket Solar heated cabin for those winter mornings Maximum curb appeal for passersby

Quote: GeorgePerry I have never flown a piston aircraft in my life but, would like to possibly own a nice fun family plane one day soon.

Quote: rogerl Hey - I read it on the internet so it must be true http://axonflux.com/mobile-safari-and-the-ipad-do-not-support-con?c=1 http://blog.whatwg.org/the-road-to-html-5-contenteditable Now, so much that that much vaunted apple leadership !!

Yes, for some reason you can't type on the iPad. The text entry fields must be some type of javascript component and they just aren't recognized in HTML5, which is the standard to which iPad Safari is written. HTML5 is definitely the wave of the future, but not all sites are there yet...most aren't fully, in fact...just another example of Apple trying to lead rather than follow. Sometimes it works (as in, no more floppy drives!) but not always. Time will tell...

Quote: Cruiser I got 220 kts. last Friday in my M20J. Very smooth ride too, it was nice to see 21mpg on the FF. http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N5763H/history/20101126/1820Z/I40/KFDK/tracklog