jezzie

Hi, Eldon here, This was my 5th consecutive year in Oshkosh, and my first year meeting all the Mooney owners at OSH thanks to Moonyspace. Mooneyspace.com has been a great source of contacts and information. I am rebuilding a 77 J model and I have a lot of pictures on my avitar, more pictures to come shortly. Hoping to have my Mooney flying in a few months. I have added a lot of speed mods including a Lopresti cowl. I will also be installing a full Garmin stack and look forward to flying my Mooney to Oshkosh next year. I did own a 68 F model and also a couple of J-3's a Cherokee 180 and a Tri-Pacer. I have a soft spot for Mooney's cause they just fit good. I do appreciate all the help and comments so far.

I have a 201 cowl that came off a 77J, needs a little TLC, An aircraft salvage yard told me it's worth $3500 Eldon

Russ, Looks like Warren Pietsch's P-51 from Minot, did he do an aerobatic routine? Next year you will have to make it to Oshkosh. Dispite the weather they still reported over 10,000 planes on the field, and the night show was spectacular Eldon

Great photo's Ned, I'm looking forward to getting my Mooney airborne. It was great meeting you and your wife, and looking forward to next year Eldon

Jolie and Mitch, I just listened to the AOPA live podcast, and would like to expand this further at next years Air Venture to perhaps a daily spot with the announcer and perhaps even small 30 second infomercials that I could play thru out the day to promote and encourage other pilots to promote GA, To that extent I am forwarding this Podcast to Wayne Fluery, and will remind him as we get closer to next years Air Venture. Great job. Eldon

Hi everyone, More rain last night. The best is to contact the tower as to what is happening, as it appears folks on the N40 are saying some thing different. Sorry if I misled anyone. My cell # is 780-975-8598 if any one wants to get a hold of me. All the campers are either parked in shopping center lots or on the side of the road, looking south from the comm center all the aircraft are parked adjacent to the taxi way, I'll try and post some pictures area along 18/36 Eldon

Hello everyone, Just checked with Flightline communications for the N40 and they are allowing aircraft in and providing Marshalling services, No large airplanes like twins, they said Mooneys OK. For further clarification call 920-230-7800 ext 7790 for the latest updates, then you can decide Eldon

Just checked the N40 appears to be a dozen airplanes parked, I'll try and get the real information and let everyone know. Eldon

Hi Folks, 2 1/2 " rain yesterday, drove over the north 40 and some parts are soft otherwise good. Suggest parking as far west as possible because of higher ground. The good folks running the ground crew should direct traffic properly. All soft spots have been marked properly. Mitch's advice of a spotter is a good one. Looking forward to watching for the Caravan. See you all then Eldon

Light rain now in Osh I'll keep you all posted as we progress through set up Eldon

I'm here in Osh and the N 40 looks pretty good. Already a couple of parked planes with tents set up. They have cut the grass and marked all the soft spots with cones and tape. Grounds are looking good clean and fresh. Eldon

Eldon Wed- Mon No Caravan BBQ-YES Camping with Comm Center group Paul's Park Camp Scholler

I have tried to locate the thread that talks about the BBQ after the caravan lands, what time location etc. Thanks Eldon

If you go to any auto wrecker that has a lot of Toyota's you should find a good selection. The seat back holes are 6" on center and it appears all Toyota's have the same measurement, I even found some leather ones. $5 ea. You will want to recover them with approved aviation leather or fabric

I am leaving on the 19th sadly I have to drive, I am involved with the Green Gang that handles the communications at Air Venture, I have watched the Mooney Caravan every year for the past 4 years from my seat right behind the announcers. I will turn up the volume just a bit every time the announcer mentions Mooney. Hopefully the winds favor 36L. Come by and see me and ask for Eldon, If you ask for Jezzie they all will all have that puzzled look on their face!

Happy to share, Once all the pictures are a little more complete I will show the before and after in my gallery. The restoration process on my J has been quite an experience, primarily cause the previous owner would not relinquish the log books. After sending out about 20 letters to previous owners and A&P mechanics, plus communicating with Lycoming, we determined that the engine had anywhere between 880 to 1200 hours on it. Transport Canada regulators are very fastidious when it comes to rules and regulations about importing an aircraft into Canada, basically I had no choice but to overhaul with all new parts. There are some very good engine shops in the US at very good prices, and decided to use someone local cause then I could be part of the process. After the tear down we found that one of the bearings had some wear and the lobes on the camshaft were worn, otherwise it looked like a normal 1/2 time engine with no internal corrosion which is remarkable considering the plane sat out in the elements for 4 years in BC. The comment the Engineer said after I told him the colors, was " I guess I'd better make sure there are no leaks". I powder coated everything except the cylinders which were sprayed with a high temp enamel. For powder coating the 2 halves had to be bolted together then torqued down before we sprayed and put it in the oven. Dan at Lasar was the inspiration behind all this primarily with the landing gear. Powder coating has also extended to some other parts, rudder petals, control yokes and some push pull rods. The refurbishing of this Mooney is certainly better than it has to be, and I can hardly wait to get airborn. M20J N999VM soon to be C-GJEZ

Thank you for all your help, quotes for T-hangers are coming in slowly. I will be leaving in about 2 weeks and traveling by car from Edmonton to Oshkosh. Typically I cut across country to Minot ND, then over to Minneapolis then Oshkosh. If any one out there knows of any good hanger complexes that I can take a look at while enroute let me know. Even if it is some what off the normal route I would consider it. Of course I will de doing my due diligence while at Air Venture, I may be directed else where then. Our group is serious about providing a good product and service for the general aviation community in the Metro Edmonton area and subregional area. I envision a good mix of Corporate, GA, and Homebuilders facilities. Thank you Eldon

We had over 100 aircraft fly in for pancake breakfast, tremendous family day, planes cars military. Transport Canada has rules about jet aircraft and airshows over populated areas, however we were treated to a series of 5 low level precautionary approaches with one of our F-18's before he landed. Evidently the pilot of the F-18 did the same on Friday. We flew close to 200 Young Eagle fights, we had 7 donated airplanes of which one was a Mooney. A great day for General Aviation. I posted some pictures in the gallery Thank you Eldon M20J C-GJEZ