Wistarmo

Referring to Hank's two posts-- I have a '93 M20J (MSE) and I try to flare at 65kts by myself, 70kts with one passenger, 75kts with two passengers, and 80kts with 4 passengers. My short final speed is about 5kts higher. My most embarassing landings have been with four on board and flaring at too slow a speed.

I did like Jerry. In my last two aircraft, I removed the ADF and replaced it with a backup electric attitude indicator. I have been very happy with this arrangement.

Jlunseth is correct. There is a flight manual supplement for the autopilot that should be in the POH. The test has four parts: 1) Move the left half of the electric trim switch forward and aft, ensuring that the trim wheel does not move; manually move the trim wheel to make sure the required force is normal 2) Repeat with the right half of the electric trim switch 3) Engage the autopilot and move the controls to ensure that they can be overridden, and 4) Depressing the autopilot disconect switch, ensure that the electric trim switch does not move the trim. These are found in the supplement in the POH for my M20J MSE with a KAP 150 autopilot.

Things that have helped my wife tolerate flying: 1) She sees me obsessive about maintenance and meticulous care. She knows that I will not tolerate any mechanical deficiencies, so she doesn't have to worry about equipment failures. 2) The plane is always spotless inisde and out. Again, this goes to attention to detail. 3) I put a JPI engine monitor on the panel in front of her. 4) XM Weather is huge. I keep us dry and out of heavy rain/turbulence. 5) XM Radio and Lightspeed Zulu headsets have gone a long way to make her trips more tolerable. She enjoys listening to talk radio and sports. She does not love flying, but knows I have been doing it for 26 years. She has gone from the point of refusing to ever do it to tolerating it to now even suggesting trips we might take. She sees the benefits and freedom it provides.

For what it's worth, I have had further repairs on the leather work, including re-gluing the rear seat backs. When we did that, we found out that they had re-used the old foam.

Piloto is correct. Replacing the diode on the alternator works. However in my case ('93 M20J MSE), the problem recurred within a few months after replacing the diode. Does anyone have any thoughts about a more durable diode solution?

Didn't help my 1993 M20J MSE one bit in cruise speed or fuel consumption, although I rarely cruise above 10,000. Climb is a little better. All slip joints must be disassembled and lubricated with anti-seize compound at each annual.

The autopilot disconnect switch on the yoke ususally does two things: 1) It disconnects the autopilot, and 2) It disengages the electric trim. If this switch is defective, the autopilot will not pass the self-test. This has happened to me. The switch is an easy and cheap thing to replace if it is the culprit.

The Mooney facility in Sarasota that you are stuck with is notorious. If you utilize the MooneySpace, MAPA, Mooney-Tech, and AOPA websites and search for Mooney Mart or its owner you will find over thirty highly negative comments without a single positive response. Having personally dealt with them, I would advise you to do whatever it takes to get your plane out as soon as possible, including legal action. Believe no promises or verbal committments. Be prepared to carefully inspect the quality of all work. Hopefully all of your repair estimates are in writing; this will be crucial in the future.

I periodically get a warning "This device not supported by I-Pad" and have to unplug the Bad Elf and then plug it back in. Other than that, it appears to work as advertised.

I have a Mid-Continent 4300 which was $3500, which included installation. I am very happy with it. I used it to replace my ADF. I did not opt for one with a battery back-up, which adds quite a bit more to the price.

I believe the mission should determine the airplane. I originally owned a '93 M20J from 1993-97. Flew several times over water to the Bahamas and Caymans. Sold the Mooney and bought a 1978 Cessna 310R. Fuel and maintenance costs tripled. This was not a problem initiallly until the cost of AVGAS doubled. Sold the 310 and bought my original M20J back. I live in Florida and my family lives in North Carolina. Here are some sample expenses of round trips over the last 18 years: 1993, Mooney M20J, AVGAS $2.00/gal, round trip to N.C $140.00 1998, Cessna 310, AVGAS $3.00/gal, round trip to N.C. $540.00 2006, Cessna 310, AVGAS $5.00/gal, round trip to N.C. $1,000.00 My Mooney has a standby vacuum pump, back-up electric artificial horizon, and JPI engine monitor. I believe with these and a well-maintained engine that reliability and safety are equivalent to the twin. My wife and I do not have children; our usual mission then is usually two people and occasionally four people. I almost never carried five or six people when I owned the Cessna 310. The final economic decisions have to do with the expense of replacing two engines instead of one, future fuel costs, and resale value. If we are forced to move to an alternative fuel to 100LL, the cost of that fuel will likely far exceed $5-6.00/gallon. And at some point, you will have to find a buyer for the twin; currently it is a buyer's market, and if fuel/maintenance costs continue to climb, it will be even more so.

Manassas, Virginia, as mentioned above, is easily accessible. There is a Virginia Railways Express train station adjacent to the field, and this will get you into the city inexpensively. The FBO's will take take you to the station. The train schedule can be found at www.VRE.org. The Special Flight Rules Area rules and its required course applies to VFR flight. The course can be taken at www.FAASafety.gov. Flying in on an IFR flight plan is like any other IFR flight. Where pilots have gotten into trouble is cancelling IFR as they approach the field. An example of a problem caused by this is that you do not squawk 1200 in the SFRA. The way to avoid this type of problem is to simply continue IFR until landing. If you are going to go to all the effort to go up to Washington to see the National Air and Space Museum, make plans to also go to the Udvar-Hazy facility located at Dulles Airport. There are buses that depart from near the NASM that can take you there. They have nearly 300 planes of interest there, such as the Winnie Mae, etc.

I use it for nearly everything and have been extremely pleased. It does far more than just allow you to file flight plans. The more you look into it, the more it will do for you. You can set it up to send text messages to your cell phone to 1) confirm your flight plan is in the system, 2) tell you what route you should expect for a clearance, and 3) if there are any FTC traffic delays. It will store all of your aircraft parameters for future flight planning purposes. It provides flight tracking. You can set it up to send a fax to your arrival FBO to let them know of your needs, such as fueling, hangar, or rental cars. You can check FBO fuel prices and get a full weather analysis. If you want to impress your passengers, it will allow you to print a flight briefing for them showing the route, arrival FBO telephone numbers and weather forecasts. All of this is free. If you are an AOPA member, you can get their Airport Directory for free. If you combine this with SkyCharts, which costs around $20.00 per year, you have pretty much everything you could possibly need for IFR flight planning. You can pay around $200.00 a year to have them do all of your EAPIS work, but I do that myself.

I always like to put in a good word for Central Florida Avionics in Leesburg. Mike Noland and his son Kris have done numerous projects for me and they have always been on time and within budget. They get my highest recommendation. (352) 787-0712. I cannot give you an exact quote for an installed GNS 430W; my panel upgrade involved sending in an existing GNS 430 for a WAAS upgrade and adding a GNS 530W. A ballpark figure would probably be around $8,000.00 for the GNS 430W and up to $2,000.00 labor to install, depending on whether or not you have a compatible CDI or HSI. If not, you will also be looking at purchashing the Garmin GI 106A GPS/VOR/LOC/Glideslope indicator. These run around $1,800.00. In the GNS 400 series installation manual, there is a list of compatible indicators in the back.