jax88

I've used US Aviation in Denton for oil changes, wash/wax and always had great service. Can't attest to their mechanics, but they do maintain a varied fleet of training aircraft for the flight school they operate in conjunction with. If you can get to Don Maxwell, I'd certainly recommend doing so.

I've flown the Houston class B several times, always with VFR flight following. I always get routed to the "I-10 corridor" at uncontrolled altitudes. Being on controller radar with the VFR flight following keeps me aware of traffic, but a vigilant eye will be useful. Have a look at the FLY chart for Houston (you can find one at skyvector.com) and try to pick a route that is already designated for VFR traffic. There may already be a recommended procedure for VFR arrivals to KHOU on the chart or in the procedures for KHOU. Have fun, and keep those eyes open.

No, they are expensive (as others point out). I'm milking all I can out of my current interior before giving them my money.

Aero Comfort in San Antonio.

We've flown into both, Henderson multiple times, and just from an FBO standpoint I'd choose Henderson without question. In fact, we'll never go back to North Vegas. Only time there we waited at least an hour for the rental car that had been pre-arranged and waited another hour for fuel when we went to depart EVEN THOUGH we asked upon arrival (for a 5 day stay) to have the tanks topped as soon as possible. Nice enough people, but severe lack of attention to detail.

No, no GDL-88.

I get traffic announcements from my 650, haven't flown near enough to terrain to find out if I get them. My panel has the GTN650 with a GTS330ES.

I'm with a previous poster, if any of you are interested in unloading your Chinese piece of junk, let me know. I wouldn't mind having an Ovation or Bravo.

They were definitely working hard. The whole process seemed to go really well. I was in and out in less than an hour, including the survey time and the 5 aircraft wait to take off.

How do I remove photos from my gallery?

What is the preferred method of flying through the Florida panhandle, through the Eglin Terminal Area on east/west headings?

I've got a Century 41 in my '75 M20F, integrated with a new Garmin 650. I am sometimes caught off guard by the course corrections, but otherwise I am very happy with it. With the gps integration it will follow my flight plan, hold altitude, fly holding patterns, approaches, etc. I often use it on climb out and descent using the attitude feature. As you can see from the flight tracking on flightaware.com for my aircraft, it holds a heading and altitude very well (disregarding the most recent flight from Kimball County to Stinson - the turbulence was constant all the way from Silver City, NM to San Antonio).

Probably not going to do this trip in the Mooney. As indicated above and by some of my former instructors who now fly corporate all over central/south America, the fees are likey high enough that it makes more sense to go commercial. If we were planning on hopping around the region I might do it, but we are house hunting on Ambergris only.

I'm a positive and consistent rate of climb vote as well. Just lumped that into the "comfortable" option.

Haven't been to Charleston Exec in 3 years, but fuel was high and one of the runways was somewhat rough. No other experience in the immediate Charleston area. I did some Mooney transition there and found Beaufort to be a nice place, if it's in range for your trip you may want to consider it.

Considering a trip from San Antonio, Texas to Ambergris Caye, Belize. Does anyone have any experience with stopping in Veracruz, Mexico or with landing on Ambergris Caye? From what I have read, I'll need to stop in Belize City first and get permission to land in Ambergris Caye. Pertaining to Veracruz, is it safe to spend the night? Do they speak pretty good English? Pesos for fuel?

I've flown out of both KSAT and KSSF and either are fine. Landmark at KSAT can get busy if the Navy is in town taking up ramp space. Never had to wait very long to taxi and/or take off at KSAT. I now keep my aircraft at KSSF (Stinson) and except for the fact that it is on the south side of San Antonio and I live on the north side, I enjoy being based there. Decent prices on fuel, a cafe in the main terminal, good fuel facilities, and wonderful people at San Antonio Aviation. Controllers at both Stinson tower and San Antonio approach/departure are easy to get along with and good at their jobs. In my 4 years of flying in the area I've only heard one occassion where a controller had to kick someone out of the C airspace. Some in the San Antonio area use Castroville because of lower fuel prices. Baytown is a great fuel stop on the east side of Houston. If you stop there, be sure to take advantage of the telephone clearance posted in the FBO office. I almost always get cleared through the Houston B airspace on what they call the I-10 corridor, which is a neat flight path just on the north side of downtown Houston. There is good FBO in Meridian, Mississippe that has free hot dogs, soft serve, and drinks. I don't recall the fuel prices, but entry and exit were easy and quick. Might even catch some up close military aircraft on the right days.

This is an opportunity for all of us to re-examine our personal minimums, and a reminder to do so realistically.

My POH procedure is Master/ON, Mixture/FULL, Prop/FULL, Fuel Pump/ON, prime for 5 seconds, Mixture/OFF, start, Mixture/ADVANCE, Fuel Pump/Off. It almost always takes a couple of attemts with a 2-3 second prime prior to the second attempt. I tried the Throttle/Quarter, Prop/FULL, Mixture/FULL, Master/ON, Fuel Pump/ON until pressure, Fuel Pump/OFF, Mixture/OFF, start, Mixture/ADVANCE procedure yesterday and got a solid start after only a couple of turns of the blades. It didn't work so well on a luke-warm (sitting for an hour after a two hour flight).

I asked this very question of a highly regarded MSC when having the annual done on my '75 M20F. His opinion was that there is no harm in doing so (obviously if done correctly).

It was nice to hear all the Mooneys on the radio in central Texas today. Wonderful day for flying around.

I used Hawthorne for a long weekend visit to New Orleans and had great service.

What about the major repair/alterations pages and STCs, where should those be kept?

Only suggestion would be to think about which units you touch the most during flight and put them in the most convenient locations. I did not think of this and wound up with some of my transponder buttons behind the copilot yoke and prop/mixture controls. If I had it to do all over I would put something like my audio panel or autopilot switches down there and move my transponder up in the center stack.

If you settle on the east side, have a look at Baytown Humphrey. For your trips to/from Baton Rouge it would be an easy place to call home. Never had an occassion to use maintenance there, but service is great, fuel is cheap, and last I checked they had a couple of gps approaches.