Jeff_S

M20BE, try refreshing the page, and potentially clearing your cache. If your browser has cached the error message it may not let you in until you clear that out.

I've used Bruce's for two different planes now and will give them another vote. The covers are nice, tight fitting, and well made. And their customer service is excellent, generally refurbishing them for free. They have full wing covers as well.

Be that as it may, what the hell do you do with this?

I grew up in Wichita, watching F4s and B-52s, and later B1s fly out of McConnell AFB, and driving by the Beechcraft Factory almost daily. Olive Beech was a family friend. (Cessna was on the other side of town so I didn't see it as much...maybe why I've always preferred low-wing planes!) Who can forget Pappy Boyington on Black Sheep Squadron? To this day, the F4U Corsair is my favorite WWII airplane although a P51 only loses by one rotation of a propellor blade. I tried to get into the Navy AOCS after college but even though I passed all my tests, they noted flat feet on the physical exam. Given that Top Gun had just come out, and every red-blooded aviation wannabe was in the recruiting office with me, that was enough to cancel me out. So instead I taught skiing for a few years (actually great training for flying, as it too teaches the concepts of maintaining control in three dimensional space) and ended up in business. But I guess that gave me the funds to get back to aviation eventually. The dream was always there. It took a copy of X-Plane as a Christmas present, and a colleague/mentor with a 172 and a big heart, to get me to my first lesson. The rest was fueled by 100LL!

Hey Mike, is this event still happening this weekend? Looking for a reason to go fly someplace, as always!

Yeah, I challenge you to get a dog crate big enough for a Lab into an M20J! I finally hit on the solution for the next time. You see, I've got the right rear seat removed to give me some more space in general, so that allowed him to move more freely about the cabin. But I realized that even though the seat is removed, I can still raise the platform that the seat-back slides onto, and that would effectively seal them in the baggage area. And yes, there was a bit of "induced turbulence" as he moved around but we were never in CG danger even with him all the way at the back of the compartment, so no big deal. Just gave my autopilot-autotrim a bit of a workout!

We're all Mooney owners so most of us will say "go for it!" But at the risk of sounding wishy-washy, no one will either be right or wrong, it's just that we've all had personal experiences. I bought a great Piper Warrior right out of my PPL and used that to get my IFR and flew it for about 400 hours, even all the way to Denver and up to OSH. I had it tricked out a little bit so I could reliably get 125 KTAS, but once my wife decided flying was a good way to get around I knew I could get the Mooney I always dreamed of. So when I transitioned into a complex airplane with a market value of 3x my Warrior, the flying part of the transition was easy. Even though I knew it was coming, the tripling of insurance rates and property tax took my breath away a bit. I know those will both come back down, but it's just something to consider. On the other hand, the smile I get dodging my Mooney in between the popcorn clouds on a summer day at 160 KTAS is well worth it. Others have really said it before: think about your mission and get the plane that suits it. I do think running off a bumpy grass strip increases the odds of fuel-tank leaks and even a prop strike, depending on what kind of Mooney it is. But others seem to accept these risks and deal with them.

Chuck, just sent you a PM with another instructor for you to investigate from the same stable. Kerwin Day could be an option...I just don't know how much Mooney time he has, vis a vis how important that is to your mission.

Bosco definitely had more energy than his years would imply. Once I got him in the back, we used a thin nylon leash that I tied to the clothes-hanging ring to try to secure him back there. But being a Lab, he would have none of that and wanted to make sure things were going okay. Not five minutes into the climb all of a sudden this muzzle appeared next to my head accompanied by a cloud of dog breath, as he had chewed right through that leash. He spent the rest of the flight mulling around, looking out the window, sticking his nose up in the ceiling air vent to capture the breeze...typical dog stuff!

I'm with those who prefer to listen to the plane and make sure I'm paying attention to ATC, as on most long flights I am either IFR or at least have flight following. And I'm not a big music junkie anyway, generally preferring peace and quiet to some constant background noise. On long car trips, once we get out of range of my home radio station, I'm as likely to just turn it off completely and get lost in thought.

Chuck, call Michael O'Neal at Skybound Aviation. His cell phone is on the website...I don't want to post it here but here's the link: http://www.skybnd.com/instructors.html He's got a ton of Mooney hours and is one of the best instructors around the area. You can tell him I sent you.

I think I was the one who brought it up before. I did take the course from FAA and it helped, but mostly I just flew IFR on the way down and then didn't have to worry about anything. I didn't have to take the corridor, but just flew through one of the cold MOAs. Leaving Destin was a bit more interesting. I wanted to depart VFR and take the eastbound corridor along the coast for some sightseeing all the way to Panama City before heading back up to Atlanta. I filed IFR from Panama City but had to call in my VFR clearance from Destin. They got everything all confused which made me sit on the ground longer in Destin than I liked, but what's 5 minutes between friends?

Hello all, Here's a link to a story about a dog rescue I flew yesterday through Pilots N Paws. The circumstances surrounding the story are unfortunate but at least it has a happy ending. I talked to the reporter at length about Mooneys but I recognize that with space limitations he focused on the more important angles. Enjoy! http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2010/aug/30/second-chance/

If it's motivation you need, why not just tell yourself that with your newly minted PPL you can fly to as many Tony Robbins classes as you like!? As far as flying wisdom for passing the tests, the folks above have it about right. Get a second opinion, go fly with another CFI just to learn from him/her, get signed off and go do it. And for economic wisdom...there isn't any. There is nothing about private aviation that passes an economic smell-test by anybody. So do realize that if you're going to make it a serious hobby you've got to enjoy the spend. And anyway, you can't take it with you!

Quote: KSMooniac For the OP, you need to find another shop. On the email list, Tim Mathison (706) 638-7921 gets rave reviews for Aspen/Autopilot work with Mooneys and has owners flying across the country to his shop. A couple years ago I was quoted ~$12k for an Aspen Pro installed and integrated with my STEC-30, and that was before all the rebates and discounts. I've since heard of people getting out-the-door for MSRP.

Just to finish this up for future reference, I got the required placards from HigherGraphics, which did an excellent job and only charged me for just the ones I needed. I found aluminum metal sheets at Michael's Arts and Crafts for $3 which provided the perfect backing and were easily trimmed by scissors. A little Elmer's glue and they attached perfectly. I'd take a photo but my iPhone camera can't zoom close enough to make it worthwhile.

Rockport ME is the place I always associate with lobster. I lived in the Boston area for five years and that was where we could always get some fresh ones in season (if we didn't pick up the bugs ourselves while scuba diving). I've never flown in there but Knox County Regional (KRKD) seems to be the closest to Rockport. Good luck with it...you're making me hungry!

So like most plane owners, I just got my J six months ago and already looking to see what major improvements I can make. Going glass with a G500 or Aspen is an option, but frankly my panel is pretty good right now so it would be nice but not essential. Having just returned from the Jekyll Island get together with a few other Mooniacs, one with an Eagle and another with a 252, I started to get excited about more SPEED! (Yes, I know, it's addictive.) So I went to the M-20 Turbo website this morning and read about that. Everything on their website seems like a good story, but I'm in marketing myself so I know all about a good story. I guess my biggest shock was seeing their kit price of $35K! Hell, I could probably sell the J and upgrade to a nicely-equipped 231/252 for about the same amount. And that wouldn't include installation I'm sure. So just curious...anybody done this? Happy with the results? I'm not seriously considering it at this point but just adding it to my wish list.

That's totally weird. Bob started this thread a year ago and it is just now getting responses? I know for a fact that Bob owns a 205 now because he outbid me for it last Fall!

I couldn't get to the link. Can you try to repost it?

Quote: N201MKTurbo Just be careful out there. If you fly enough you are bound to do something stupid eventually. For me it was leaning the mixture while on a long taxi and then getting distracted and forgetting to enrich the mixture for takeoff. After taking off scanning for traffic and dealing with the airport environment, I scanned the engine gages and noticed the CHT pegged! The plane made it home burning about 1 QT/hr. It is kind of embarrassing to stop for fuel and ask the line man to add 4 QTs of oil. All four pistons had elongated the piston pin hole by about .005 and all the ring lands were deformed. I had softened all four pistons. It cost about $2000 to fix it. The point is - don't be to aggressive leaning in a climb.

Hello all, For those folks who are going to make it to Jekyll Island this weekend, the informal cocktail hour for Friday evening has now been moved to the Lobby Bar at 5:30. They have decided to close The Pub due to noise complaints from guests...and to think, the truly unruly Mooney Pilots haven't even arrived yet! I look forward to meeting folks there. Cheers.

This has been addressed a few times but always bears repeating. For the best treatise on this, go to this webpage and download the Target EGT presentation from Advanced Pilot Seminars. It will tell you how to measure it for yourself. I haven't done this at sea level yet for my Mooney but I may try this weekend at Jekyll Island. In the meantime, since I have a JPI-700, I will typically start to lean above 3500' and just lean until I'm keeping about one bar visible for CHT on each cylinder. This generally keeps EGTs in the low-mid 1200's and keeps CHTs well below 350 so while I might could lean more aggressively I think it's a decent trade-off.

AMU = Aviation Monetary Unit, or any variation of acronym that implies the same thing. Since they don't circulate poor Grover Cleveland's face anymore, you're left with 10 Ben Franklins to represent the $1000 that is equivalent to one AMU. Pilots invented that term since it seems just about anything related to an airplane costs at least that much, so it lessens the emotional pain of having to talk about it.

Quote: jlunseth I have an item on my checklist to return the trim to takeoff position after landing, so my tail is always in the correct Mooney-looking position when the plane sits on the ramp. Wouldn't want someone to mistake it for a Cherokee or such like.