wrench

Looks like this is a great place for self inflicted financial wounds.

I don't know about any stats or studies on it but my race car engine spontaneously disassembled after I let up on the power in quarter mile run. Also a sign on the door to the flight line at McKinley Aviation in the 80's stated "Most engine failures occur when powering back from takeoff...be ready if it happens" I don't know if the A&P there put that one up or not but it always stuck with me.

Welcome aboard JB, this is good group to belong to. Bill at MKG

Thanks for the great article. I often monitor 121.5 when flying, in my "J" and know that CAP aircraft are directed to monitor 121.5 on the DF homing and Comm radios. It isn't unusual to pickup chit chat on this frequency by GA pilots, something we shouldn't be doing unless in distress of some kind. I also monitor the 121.5 freq. when in the CAP vehicle on (Ground Team or Urban Direction Find team) training missions with my hand held aviation radio while my trainees are concentrating on locating a hidden training beacon on it's assigned training frequency. I ask our trainees to get used to every five minutes or so switch to 121.5 for a few seconds then back to the training frequency just in case we are in range of an actual ELT signal. We did find a ELT that was inadvertently activated in a maintenance hanger back in April using the method. It is notable that the 406 Mhz ELT's also transmit on 121.5 for still valid reasons. To those out there monitoring when they can and reporting thank you. To all those like Buster actively and past serving by going into harms way a double Thank you. Bill

Does the male ends plug into the bottom of the Control yoke holes then you just would slide the bar on the floor the vertical position to lock the wheel? Just a guess but it looks like the width is about right.

Yep that is the ratio I used also. I kept the narrow tire to keep the ground pressure higher because the tug is so light. Sometimes I have to push down on the handle to pre-load the tire to keep it from slipping to start the plane rolling. Don, it was your original design you generously supplied me and I worked off of it, thank you again. Bill

Another Mooneyspacer had some plans he shared with us 4 or so years ago. I modified them a bit but the result is below. A search on Mooneyspace might get you the original designers plans. I looked and don't have them any more.

I just asked my current AEM if he would do the Basicmed and he said NO. He continues to do the Class 1,2, and 3's. The reason he does not do the Basicmed is additional prohibitive (for Him) liability insurance.

Just a thought, what if we share with our members which Doctors have already done or will do the BasicMed that we know of, and maybe include a location and name? Mine has not confirmed to me one way or the other yet. Probably to early but is there a data base somewhere anyone knows of?

After owning a Cherokee Challenger-180 for around 18 months my wife and I was on a typical Sunday breakfast run to LDM from MKG plugging away at a blistering 115 knots. About half way there flight following called out that I was being overtaken by Cirrus traffic 1 mile off my 8 o'clock same altitude. My wife said to me why is that plane passing us, we were first!! I explained it's a Cirrus and it's much faster than us, so much like driving on a highway airplanes can pass too. She quickly replied “well that's just not right” so after about 30 seconds of a stewing silence from her I hear “can't you do something about that!” Four months later after my second flight ever in a Mooney I had my M20J. I've owned shares of a C310 a 250-Comanche and did IFR/Commercial training in Turbo Arrows C172 XP and Piper Seminoles. The Mooney M20J purchase was based on performance, range, fuel burn, cost to own, and not getting overtaken anymore. Plus just a damn good looking piece of engineering.

Always sad to hear about any loss. Rest assured Civil Air Patrol (CAP) still does these searches, I was on one that turned out to be an inadvertent triggering of a PLB last Thursday. Air Force Search and Rescue gave us initial GPS search coordinates of a 406 Mhz beacon that turned out to be about 1.9 miles to the southwest of the actual find location. Our CAP aircraft found the 121.5 companion signal's general location very quickly and passed those coordinates on to the ground team I was on, once on scene we were able to isolate the signal to inside a home in about twenty minutes. Reports of 121.5 ELT signals are very useful in these searches especially from lower flying aircraft. Civil Air Patrol is all the volunteer auxiliary of the US Air Force and performs many different missions as well as ELT searches. If any of you may be interested copy the link. gocivilairpatrol.com Below is a forum response I gave last year on different search we did. Posted September 12, 2016 · Report post I see browsing the site that in the past there has been some confusion about the usefulness of 121.5 MHz ELT emergency beacon freq. A few months ago I went on a ground search for a 406 MHz emergency beacon. It turned out to be inadvertent triggering and all was well in this case. But I can tell you from this and other experience that if we did not have the homing ability of the 121.5 MHz companion signal from the 406 MHz equipment the ELT battery may have run dead on the unit before we ever found it. We were given Lat, Lon coordinates by SAR derived from a 406 MHz ELT beacon transmission to start the search. But we actually found it 3 miles away (typical). As a side note, CAP aircraft are equipped for 121.5 MHz homing but were not used in this search. PLB's and EPIRB's I believe transmit on both 406 and the 121.5 MHz frequency when triggered also. My observations from this type search 1) The 121.5 MHz is monitored by many commercial and some of us GA types while flying. We often still get reports of 121.5 triggering from these sources and was verified by commercial aircraft on this occasion also. 2) We get a very small search area IF your 406 MHz ELT has the ability to output a GPS signal to SARSAT. Typically within a few hundred meters, but not all 406 MHz ELT's have this ability! 406 MHz ELT's without the GPS output ability have a much larger search area. Our target in this case did not have GPS output thus a longer search time to find it. 3) In heavy ground or wooded cover the 121.5 may be the only reason SAR will find you. Especially for PLB's. 4) Our search area had mostly cell coverage but in many areas there was none especially in the low areas of the hilly terrain. Cell phone may or may not be a good backup but there are lots of recreational places in our state where coverage is nil. 5) If you have one of these devices, a 406 ELT or PLB or EPIRB, registration rules for the device's need to be followed to protect us all. I like many don't like a bunch of additional rules but to protect us and our passengers it can be very useful in this case. My observations on 121.5 homing, I hope this helps.

Some things are seemingly expensive like a new fuel selector for a "J" $2000.00+. This single instance of a cost example easily grows into "Mooney parts are expensive" but what counts is total ownership cost and speed trades like less time in the air because you are 40 knots faster than a Cherokee 180 or a Cessna 172 on the same fuel burn. As said earlier you can find expensive parts on all makes.

201er, I have had two on-board portables a (Garmin 196 and Skymap) GPS's lose satellite signal at the same time when using old Narco NAV/COM's tuned to certain VOR frequencies in a PA-28-180 Challenger on a VFR trip from Florida to Michigan. Failure was verified afterwards by a local avionics tech at my home field. Be careful if he wins the bet, fly to lunch in your plane if it looks like it could be IFR.

If you are taking about Aeromotors. They are in Wisconsin. They get good recommendations from the Beechtalk guys. http://www.aeromotorsllc.com/aeromotorsllc/default.aspx

1978 M20J ~5500TT. Right side stripped and resealed 2011, doesn't leak. Left side never touched per logs, doesn't leak.

I was at an aviation safety conference Saturday and two AME physicians spoke during one session on the new rules for a Basic Medical. What I took away from what they were saying is that our general family physicians wont have much interest in performing the required paperwork and assuming any possible liability that might be associated with it. I'm curious on what our general pilot community's take on it is and if they have heard the same reports or concerns from those in the AME/Medical community.

For my validation flight I briefed my CFII of what I'd like to do that day and I used the IPC for ADS'b validation in a local class "C" airspace. We did two different RNAV/GPS approaches then requested the known Intersection overflight on N/S and E/W courses followed by the two 720 degree turns (Right and Left). We had already decided which intersection we would request from ATC for the intersection and turn portions of the test before takeoff so as not to interfere with their traffic flow. Flew back to our TRSA and finished up the IPC then afterwards submitted the flight for approval. Three weeks later received the check.

Received one of these "Inspection Scope" camera's for Christmas to take a quick look at things like baffle sealing and other mechanics with the cowl installed. About every 5 hours I remove the upper cowl on my J to get the whole picture. Not recommended for a self medical examination though. No suggestions please.

Would this work? Keeping numbers simple here. Chart exampel: 0 knot wind TO distance = 1200 ft Rotation speed = 60kts Tailwind= 6kts Tailwind increases ground speed at rotation by 10% and would add 10% distance to 1200 ft takeoff for 1320 ft total. The above is for debate/conversation purposes only. Looking for expert comments here.

Based at KMKG, next year my hanger (1 year lease) goes up to 200/month currently at 180/month, county owned. Great snow removal and grounds maintenance, very GA friendly with a nice restaurant.

My annuals have run around 1400, 1500, 1800, 3000, 4500, and 6000 on my J (not in that year order). I have owner assisted on 3 of 6 years. During the annuals the highest cost drivers were a new fuel selector valve @ ~2200 in the 6k year, replace one aileron push rod (scoring damage that would not polish out and still be to spec. ~1000), no obvious cause found per A&P, nose wheel steering knuckle and dual mag service bulletin. The numbers are rough but representative. My 2 cents on some perspective. To change the spark plugs in my 75,000 mile 2004 Ford F150 the Ford dealer charged me $587.00 at our local West Michigan shop rate of 85.00 per hour (2013) I think now it's 100+. A quote to replace one cracked exhaust manifold $1100.00 on the same truck. A&P's, Inspectors and their shops have as much or do I dare say more responsibility than the local auto dealer technicians. I continue to hope that the A&P's that are not even close to getting rich don't all decide to become automotive techs instead, so in the future I can still find people to work and sign off on my middle class aircraft. My first trade/profession was as an Auto Electric Tech. We worked on 50% commission and paid our own benefits. Does the local A&P shop work on the same type of commission? If so they are not probably seeing the shop rates we all get quoted. I know sometimes it seems like we are getting hosed but try and see the other guys viewpoint as well. Bill 1978 M20J

Anybody know if Garmin/Foreflight/Apple came up with the solution to the GTX345 losing the Bluetooth link to Foreflight yet? Bill

Thought some of you considering this upgrade might find interesting. Picked up plane on Friday after the ADS-b upgrade. Had GNS430 upgraded to WAAS for GPS source and installed a new GTX345. Paired up bluetooth on the iPad mini 2 with the GTX345 successfully and started the one hour flight home. I noticed Foreflight's screen was locked up after about 10 minutes into the flight and I could not zoom or move the screen. Also noticed iPad wouldn't calibrate straight and level from the GTX345 AHRS feed. Had other similar issues on the next flight with the combo such as the bluetooth link dropping out on Foreflight's devices page. Didn't spend a lot of time trying to trouble shoot in the air. Contacted Foreflight support and they know of problems with the bluetooth linkage and are working to try and get them resolved with Garmin. As a interim measure Foreflight support suggests to me that turning Bluetooth off in Settings page of the iPad Mini2 and then back on is a temporary fix but it will happen again until this issue is worked out. I don't know if other brands of EFB's are having similar issues maybe some of you can chime in on your combo's? Otherwise the GNS430w and GTX345 combo is working nicely together and wished I could have done it sooner. Bill

I tried using those as a Christmas gift for the wife many years ago but I don't recommend that anymore.

USMC 68-70. Force Logistics Command, Chu-Lia Air Base Viet-Nam Dec. 1968 to Jan. 1970. Our Company staffed the ammo dump that supported Marine Air Group 12 and 13 (F4's and A4's). I watched jets land and takeoff and knew I wanted to be a pilot some day. After attaining PPL in 1977 I used my GI Bill to get the IFR, Commercial, SEL and MEL. Joined Civil Air Patrol (Air Force Auxiliary) after retirement from L-3 in 2011, wanted to be active in emergency services and SAR and also because the Marine Core League doesn't have airplanes. Thanks to all branches and their families who have served, and also to our Mooneyspace supporters. Bill