Jeff_S

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.

I've searched the site here and no one has addressed this exactly, so I thought I'd open up the question. My interior was redone by the prior owner with an Airtex product that is overall quite nice. But in doing my first annual inspection this year, the IA noted that a few of the required placards were never replaced, so to comply with the strict letter of the regs he suggested I do this. I've already contacted Higher Graphics and Steve is going to give me a good price to print just the few I need. But two of them will need to go directly on the cloth-covered interior panel area, and I suspect the standard laminated sheet I get from HigherGraphics won't quite cut the mustard. The other placards that ARE in place look like they were put onto some sort of thin sheet metal and then glued more securely onto the fabric. So, does anybody have experience with this, or suggestions for how to do it so that it looks nice and will be durable? Thanks!

D'oh! Of course that's the answer. I hadn't factored in how trim changes the whole attitude of the tail section, and in cruise flight it will be angled backward to reduce downward force from the elevator. Makes perfect sense...thanks!

Hey all, I'm hoping y'all can help me solve a question that I've had recently. It has to do with the characteristic shape and look of the Mooney tail. I've always associated the Mooney with a vertical stab that goes straight up from the empennage and then straight back, for a nice square look. But lately I've seen photos, especially of some later-model Acclaims and such (see Andy Smith's gallery: http://www.mooneyspace.com/index.cfm?action=gallery&userGallery=388) where it looks as though the angle of the stab and top are tilted slightly backward. I could swear I've even seen this on some J model pics as well. So, is this just an optical illusion, or maybe the result of the the plane being in a tail-down attitude? Or was this a slight design change at some point? I know, it's probably a silly question but I'm curious. Jeff

There will be no one right answer. From what you've said about the pre-buy inspection, there doesn't seem to be anything catastrophically wrong with the plane that can't be fixed up. The engine and prop are low flight time since overhaul, but what about actual calendar time? That's always a consideration, because if it hasn't been flown a decent amount then you have some risk of corrosion and leaky seals. When I was buying my first plane, the best advice I got was to really consider two things: Corrosion in the wings or airframe, and condition "firewall forward." Any significant corrosion in the main frame or wings was a deal-killer, as would be any significant problems with the engine. It doesn't sound like this plane has either of those. So if you can buy this for $50K, budget for $9K to reseal tanks, $9K for an exterior refinish and corrosion clean-up, and a miscellaneous $5K for engine repair (leaks and things), you've got a pretty airworthy machine for $73K. Then you decide whether you want to spruce up the interior ($8-10K), put in modern avionics ($25-50K depending on what you want) and do anything else that will make it more enjoyable. You could easily have a $150K machine but it would be pretty nice. Compare that to what you can get on the market today in something similar, and decide whether you want to "buy and fly" or "buy and fix". That will make your decision for you.

I've never heard the spider called a "transducer" before. That seems to be a pretty poor use of terminology, as the spider is what transfers fuel to the injectors. By definition, a "transducer" will transfer rate of flow information from one format to another. The most common one is the one you stated in the original post: the rate of physical fuel flow is transformed into an electrical signal which feeds the fuel-flow indicator. Similarly, there is a transducer that converts the actual oil pressure into an electrical signal which drives the oil pressure gauge.

I have a Garmin 480 tied to an S-TEC55 A/P with the GPSS system. Flying pretty much any approach can be a nearly hands-off affair. When flying an RNAV approach with GPSS all you need to do is maintain your speed...and remember to hit the APR button on the S-TEC unit outside the FAF. If you don't do that, it won't capture the glideslope and you'll wonder why you aren't descending! (Learned that one by experience of course.) When flying an ILS, the only difference is that once you are on or approach the final approach path, you need to be sure to hit the NAV button on the STEC so it will track the ILS signal instead of trying to follow GPS. (This is because the G480 will have automatically switched the CDI output to NAV, its software being much smarter than the wetware between the pilot's ears.) Otherwise you'll find yourself continuing on past the approach path and wondering why your plane isn't turning. (Learned that one from experience too!)

I wasn't familiar with SkyCharts but I'll give it a look. Also, I have been following WingX for some time and downloaded that to give it a try, but to even experiment with the moving map functionality you had to pay the $99 app fee which I thought was a bit of a rip-off so I didn't do it.