Barry

... sounds like "buyers remorse" ... but before the "buy" ...

Quote: Piloto I had similar issues with my wife. Next day is all forgotten. As they say in my old town "the more you play with shit the more it stinks" Hmmmm ... strange sentiments. What town are you from ?? Anyhow, My experience with AAA was 1st rate. Not only was the purchase pleasant, hanging out and dealing with the fellows was a good time, too!

Is there an STC to put dual batteries in "lesser" Mooney's ?? I had a failure in IMC on my trip to Boulder, Co the other week. A 2nd battery would be worth the weight in any aircraft. If so, who would hold the STC ??

The inward tilt of the gear is a good reason to exchange the right and left main gear on occasion for equal wear. It increases the lifetime of the tire.

Well, your situation certainly would have me boiling, too. It is difficult to know what the broker had going on in the background. Perhaps the purchase of the plane from the former buyer had some issues and fell through. Perhaps the paper work was screwed up. Perhaps the broker had trouble getting the money to payoff the plane as he expected. Shit happens ... however, the inability to recoup your deposit for an extended period of time is very had to expain and seems inexcusable with the limited knowledge we have of what went on. As mentioned in this thread, AAA is mostly a pretty good place to deal with. What happened here is certainly out of normal operations for them.

I bought my Mooney from AAA and it was a great experience. I had a down payment on a plane which failed the pre-buy. They found me another plane that was in exceptional condition and a much better plane than the 1st. I could not be happier with the quality of service I rec'd from AAA. They are (IMHO) a great bunch of stand-up guys.

Flying to Boulder, Co on Saturday to see the Grandkids (and live off my daugher for a week ) ). 1400 nm, one-way ...

The Bahama government has pushed that requirement out a year or two ...

One of the very biggest problems to production of aircraft at reasonable cost is the cost of insurance for each and every airframe built. I was already flying when the infamous Cessna crash occurred that caused the increase in aircraft to almost triple in price. The entire aircraft was poorly maintained. On it's last flight a mechanical failure of a seat latch on this Cessna caused the death of several people and the survivors and relatives of the deceased received TEN'S OF MILLIONS in compensation. This was the first time that compensation of that magnitude had ever been given out. Within a year, the cost of a Warrior increased from ~$40K to ~$140K ... most of that increase in the cost of insurance on each and every airframe produced. Nowdays, everything that touch’s an aircraft will receive a high level of scrutiny in a crash. Each item and every individual bolting that item on an aircraft needs to have expensive insurance to protect their ass. Our government was attempting to kill the small plane GA back in the '70's. The FAA was hard at work "making flying safer". It seemed that every year one had to bold another couple thousand dollars of equipment on the plane to be allowed to fly in a certain area. Maintenance was very carefully scrutinized and mechanics were heavly fined if they were determined to be at fault. If you have the history of over 35 years of flying to look upon, it is quite evident that this whole thing that we are presently experiencing is a planned event. NOTHING in the actions of government or politics is a mistake. The rising cost of automobiles, aircraft, housing, food, clothing ... all of this raises tax revenues and allows government to expand. The FAA will never be controlled by government because it is doing exactly what the government wants it to do. Eliminate individuals flying their own airplanes and increase tax revenues. If you want to see where the US is headed you only need look at Europe. The US has been following in the footsteps of the European model for the last 30 years.

Here's the U-Tube link if Aljazeera freaks you out !! http://www.youtube.com/ Search The daredevil pilots of columbia

Well, if lower resistance = higher temp reading, you are right. It is barking up the wrong tree.

If you are measuring the bus voltage through a good ground, you will see the voltage stay the same. If the sensor ground is bad, the drop will be on the ground side. It's not the bus voltage that is varying but the voltage drop across a bad ground on the ground or return side of the system. Try adding a better ground directly at the sender or directly at the meter terminal and see if that cures the problem.

Yea, I agree. I really don't feel it's about getting your money back out of the plane since they don't build these any longer. If you want a Mooney and you want updated interior, avionics, paint, etc you should be OK with putting money into an older plane. Actually, if you put enough money into a plane, you can arrive at an aircraft that is 95% of a new aircraft. The only real difference would be airframe age. Cost-wise, it may actually be cheaper than buying that same plane new (if still manufactured) in 2011 dollars.

Sounds like a high resistance common ground, somewhere ...

There are other options. On this site it was suggested to me to check out Anywhere Map among other options. I purchased Anywheremap after checking out the others and am very happy. The updates are cheap, it gets XM-WX, has features that Garmins is only now beginning to implement. Downside ?? A little hard to read in sunlight ... but positioning is everything. Anything that needs a cell signal will not work at altitude. The antennae is designed to flood the land. Very little signal leaks through to altitude. I'm not saying that Anywheremap is for all, but there are quite a few options out there that are affordable and work quite well. YMMV ...

If she's working in the Dirty City, Gaithersburg (KGAI) is close to the subway. Easiest way into the city. Make sure your plane is parked and tied down at a place where it will not be moved before you leave. I have heard that the FBO is not the most careful with aircraft and a fair amount of damage has been observered. The FBO always claims they are innocent.

Quote: SkyPilot Other mods are electric gear and 3 blade prop. ... snip ... If anybody has any good weight loss ideas, i'd like to hear them. It will likely be easier and cheaper for me to drop 30 pounds

Richard ... A BIG AMEN !! You verbalized what I really wanted to say so well ...

Well ... you cannot take past maintenance always at face value, either. I purchased my plane from All American. The 1st plane I looked at and had a down payment on was signed off for years by a well known Texas Mooney MSC. It had just been annualed by that MSC rock-star. On pre-buy, my mechanic discovered that the engine was shot. All American offered to give my down payment back ... but they did have another plane in their inventory that I had been looking at before deciding on the first. We did a pre-buy on that plane, it was in great shape. I've had it for 2 years and I've been very happy. If you are buying a plane, maintenance history is something that should carefully looked at. But remember, the MSC rock starts don't actually do the annual. They hire other mechanics who work for them to do that. If they have hired a mechanic that may not stay there very long, but does your plane in the meantime ... you may be in trouble. In that case, it is good to have a sale person you can count on to make things right. We all know about our sales friend in Florida. I have also heard of other sales by owners which are equally nasty. I believe it takes a team of people to assure you are getting your moneys worth and the purchase goes smoothly. For those of us who don't have a certification in aircraft mechanics, a good sales person who stakes their reputation on the sale of a good aircraft is a good team member. These guys won't put a bad plane in their fleet until they have done all of the leg work. As a matter of fact, I was told by Jimmy at All American that they had trusted the maintainence record trail of the plane I did not buy and bought it on that premise that a Mooney MSC rock-star had been maintaining the plane. He said that it was a mistake many people make and it was gonna cost him a LOT of money to rectify the problem ... and it did.

The competition of bidding makes people go crazy. That's why the best place to sell stuff is on e-pay ...

... to add to my post. In WV, there is no sales tax for aircraft bought out of state. I live in Jefferson county (no airport) and there is no property taxes on my aircraft. )

I work in Reston, Va and live in charles Town, WV. 50 miles 1 way to work. Keep the plane in Martinsburg. Got a hanger afer a 1 year wait for $176/mo. Not a bad hanger. Had a Bruce full cover for the plane while it was outside. I like it out here in WV. Nice country, outside all the foolishness of the DC area and Martinsburg airport is pretty nice. they've 5 C5's stationed there. Runway is 150' x 7815'. If you can't land there ... Always a crosswind, however. There is an MSC in Hagerstown (about 20 mins flight time) and also a VERY good one in Lancaster, Pa ... about 45 minutes flight time away. Barry

Well, you've the information on the engine. One reason for flying low is to get out of the way of high winds on the nose. A 40 knot wind at 7000 may only be a 15 knot wind at 3500.

An instructor who pulls your power on takeoff, 150 feet above the ground, should lose his certificate ...

Boy! That's for sure!! Plenty of nice flat land in Ohio. Doesn't beat North Dakota, however. Miles and miles of flat grassland with a very occasional tree ... Good IFR/Ice there, too !!