donkaye, MCFI

There are some nice things about the Foreflight Charts, but when all is said and done I think the Garmin Smart Charts are both easier to use and provide data in a more useful form. The overlays on Foreflight are better, since Garmin doesn't have any--yet, as well as both visual on lighting and 3D view of the runway.

Before you do anything have the retract springs replaced. They used to be fairly inexpensive, but have since increased in price. I replace mine yearly preemptively. That is likely your problem.

What were your sats? At 10,000 feet sats for 2 people were 94 for us; usable but not outstanding. At 12,000 it was down to 90 for me and Shirley was 91. At 14,000 it was an unusable 88. I tried only 1 person and it made no difference. I may carry it as a backup for flights below 10,000 feet, but unfortunately for me it is basically useless at the altitudes I generally fly cross country.

So I ran a test on my new Inogen Rove 6 today on the way to Rapid City from Oshkosh. It worked pretty well at the PPP in Cheyenne where my student and I used it at 10,000 feet. O2 saturation levels were about 94% at setting 4. That pretty well worked for me, although I prefer to have saturation levels of 96%. Today at 10,000 feet I couldn't get above 94% even on the highest setting go 6. Shirley maintained 96% so I kept her on the Inogen and I went back on ship's O2. My saturation level immediately went back up to 98%. At 12,000 feet even she went down to 90% so I put her back on ship's O2. So for low altitude we'll consider using the Inogen, but most of the time we are flying at 15,000 feet, so we won't be using it. I also reexamined using the O2D2. Previously I had a 5th outlet installed that allowed for a diluter demand mask. This outlet bypasses the altitude compensating regulator of the installed O2 system so I realized that this is what the O2D2 requires. I was hoping I could get a higher sat reading than my previously max of 93% at max setting. Once again even on the highest setting I couldn't get above 93% ever. Other people seem to have had success, so apparently even though I am in good shape my physiology precludes my use of the O2D2. When all is said and done, ship's built in O2, while more expensive to use, for me works the best, so that's what I'll be using. It's disappointing.

If you don't have Handicap Parking, you take a bus from the parking lot where you park and the bus stops right next to where the Scooters are rented. It's actually closer than getting there from Handicap Parking.

You are completely WRONG! AirVenture is the most organized event you will ever attend. They have their act together with more than 5,000 volunteers who joyfully are there to assist. Plenty of tables, many with umbrellas surround the food vendors, plenty of food vendors all over the venue, although expensive. There are many, many port-potties scattered at convenient places all over the venue and they are maintained throughout the day multiple times. No lines for them. No Smell to them. For over 650,000 people the grounds are kept immaculately clean. Traffic is as well organized as possible with "In" direction in the morning and reversed to "Out" direction in the afternoon. I will say, though, that it is a pain in the butt. Police man the main entry roads and control the traffic lights, and volunteers direct traffic once you gain entry. Busses are provided from the parking areas and have priority with their own special lane. The venue is huge and there are multiple trams that have various routes throughout the grounds. Anybody who is anybody in aviation is there hawking their wares in 4 large hangars. The new airplanes from the big and small companies are displayed outside. There is fly-in airplane camping parking surrounding all the runways; enough for the 10,000 airplanes that fly in. The RV area is like a city in itself. The "cream of the crop" air traffic controllers from around the country control all of the air traffic. There are forums in the forums area every day given by many well know speakers. The FAA also has a building and has seminars all day long. If you're a lifetime member of EAA, the Oasis on the front line has all kinds of snacks and tables for free in an air conditioned building. If you are a donor you step up even more and have access to the PHP house, that also has even better snacks than the Oasis. EAA hosts almost a dinner there from 4-6 Monday, Tuesday. and Wednesday. If you're a donor or exhibitor, AOPA puts on a great free breakfast and has an outstanding dinner at the Waters house of the Lake on Tuesday evening. Hundreds of people show up to that. As you get older, 4 wheel scooters are available to rent for the day and have enough charge to get you anywhere on the grounds. Many years ago I almost laughed at the thought of ever needing one but, alas, for the past year and now again for this year I've needed to rent one for my special person. Flying in with the Mooney Caravan was fun for a number of years. The camaraderie is great. However, I park in Madison and drive up to Oshkosh because I don't want to park on the grass for the week, and I found that by the time everyone had debriefed and I got set to fly back to Madison, the thunderstorms often started building. So I haven't flown in with them for the past few years. And then there is the pure adventure of traveling more than half way across the country, stopping at places you probably never would have seen, meeting people you never would have met (I've got some great stories of people I've met going to Oshkosh at fuel stops). This is year 25 and counting. I hope I've conveyed a little bit of the excitement of AirVenture, It's a lifetime experience not to be missed.

This is our 25th year. I fly into Madison and drive up. My mentor flight instructor used to go every year, but I thought it would be boring. Then I went, and haven't looked back.

That's what, Mark, from Top Gun says. He is also very disappointed in Mooney. He found out about the Lasar deal the same as us, on Mooneyspace. They tried to go on the Mooney portal to order some parts and couldn't get in. Expect parts prices to increase accordingly with probable decreased service.

I bought the complete Rove 6 (the latest Inogen) pilot setup from Jon at Pure Medical (888-747-7590) just before the Cheyenne PPP last month. I mentioned Beechtalk and got a $100 discount. Absolute GREAT customer service. He spent a lot of time with me answering questions. I bought the big 16 cell battery because I didn't want to deal with the step-down transformer in the plane. He did include it so I could use it anytime. The big battery is suppose to supply O2 for over 12 hours for 1 user and weighs an additional 1 pound. The pilot pack includes the following: "1 × Pilot Package 16 Cell- New Inogen Rove 6 Pilot Package Portable Oxygen Concentrator- Includes unit 16 cell battery, carrying case, AC/DC chargers, 2- 4' cannula, Y splitter, pulse ox, manual, and 5 year warranty" In using it in a C model at the PPP I just put it in the back seat. After 4 hours of use with 2 people at 10,000 feet, it still had over 4 hours of charge remaining. At setting 4 our O2 saturation levels were over 96%. I'm taking it to Oshkosh this week as a backup.

I got the yokes back and they are being reinstalled. They cost more that the above quote because I got them expedited to be done before Oshkosh. So the expedited cost was $750. Before and after below.

Being Hypoxic, they probably didn't know what they were doing.

The Bravo has a prop clearance of 11".

My comment about the Rocket was made in general, not this particular case where the plane was flown so poorly and with so lack of judgement that nothing could have saved it.

The pilot of N66JG did so many things wrong that I didn't even want to begin to get into it. The fact is that the Rocket was originally a 231 and was modified to have a much heavier engine with Charlie Weights needed in the rear. Couple that with the very small prop clearance and, if not flown carefully, a prop strike is easier to have than in other Mooneys with larger prop clearances. Also, the prop clearance could have been even less if the shock disks were in need of replacement.