WilliamR

I'll add that I seem to remember part of Tamarack's efficiency claim is circumstances where you've maxed your range and need a fuel stop just short of destination.

That is Tamarack's claim; up to 33%. The C-525 is supposed to get up to 25% efficiency. I haven't met anyone with those winglets. So, I don't know of have any real world experience. I stopped investigating when I saw ROI timeline; jut too long for my taste. I agree, airlines would love that extra efficiency over passive winglets as Tamarack points out. Not sure exactly where the disconnect is - install and reg. costs or lack of actual efficiency.

OK, I'll bite. I and a few friends separately are casually in the used market. Think C-500 for me. I have a friend or two in the CJ1 market (who would rather have a 3). What airframes are these winglets stc'd for as I haven't seen anything on the market for light jets since Tamarack? If you work for Tamarack are you thinking of doing something more than the CJ series like the C-550 and older? If not Tamarack, can you briefly outline the install cost/work/downtime involved in beefing up the wing structure or are you using some innovative control deflection limiter based on Mach? Not looking for "state secrets" just basics. I'm sure the OP is very smart and already has a slick presentation with things like cost of jet acquisition, time down, time to recapture upgrade investment, along with changes in runway needs, climb rate, payload changes, etc. I'd be interested in that presentation. I bet most on Mooneyspace would be. Or maybe I'm alone. William

I agree with all. Be happy for the short term offerings. Given US Fin seems to be just an investor group and not an activist sponsor, then, the real operational issues at Mooney will likely not be fixed. This company really needs a turnaround expert. Throwing more capital than talent at Mooney has happened many times over the last 20 years, right? In the early 2000's it was the Germans, then the banks as the company levered up (back when they were bankable), and then Meijing Group. How is this scenario different? Seems like more of the same... great ideas, with little to no talent to execute. I will stop now as it feels like piling on. It is fun to think of all the wonderful things Money could do. William

That's the thing. Is it really back? It's hard to take someone serious no matter how much of a fanboy they are when it's clear running the company will just be a hobby. Summary: temper you're expectations. Yep, I'm a pessimist today. William

So, an entertainment lawyer who's qualification is being a Mooney owner will run a small town, Texas aviation manufacturer and finds a sponsor in Wyoming? I bet that was an interesting capital committee meeting at the sponsor. Likely, that meeting was heavily weighted to international opportunities. Wonder what the long term cash flow projections look like? I guess given Mr. Saxena had extensive aviation manufacturing experience only lasted a hot minute, why not go completely in another direction for a manager. A small firm with these type of operational issues needs someone, inexhaustible, willing to get into the minutia, and very detailed oriented. Is Mr. Pollack that kind of person? This is not the first time a product owner became the CEO of an aircraft manufacturing company. Eclipse and Epic come to mind. However, at least those CEOs had manufacturing experience. One made it, one didn't. Completely different capital structures, though. Epic's is more like Mooney's. So, that's good. The further upside is that US Fin must be an activist investor since someone piloting this ship should know something about finance/accounting and how to create efficiencies. Sorry this seems cynical. I only know of what I've read so far on the interwebs. So, take my comments with a grain of salt. However, I have been a capital provider to privately owned companies with similar problems (both management and operational). I've seen enough of what works and what doesn't. A big factor of success is also how big US Financial's fund is and where they are compared to their return hurdles. The focus on gross margin and the list of aircraft improvements for existing and future aircraft do seem right on. A pilot advisory board is a fantastic idea for this company. William

AA of Oklahoma overhauled it. Looking back in my records, the cost was $850 and shop labor to remove and replace was 3 hours including fuel pressure/flow setup. I seem to remember it was turned around in about a week, two at the most. No problems since. Aircraft Accessories of Oklahoma, Inc. 2740 North Sheridan Road Tulsa, Oklahoma 74115 800-255-9924 William

Love the Businessliner (in Atlanta, where I live, I think it's pronounced Bidnessliner) and the Shaky Jake. A great 1950's executive transport. The 1950's crank to roll down the side from windows is fun. I also would describe it as a cabin class airplane since you enter the cabin at the back seats and go through the center aisle to the front seats. So, you've stepped up nicely from a Mooney. Also, the blue flame out the exhaust at night (only visible from outside the aircraft) screams round engine and nostalgia coolness. The negatives I found were not many people liked the crosswind gear. The one I flew had it removed. Great idea on the B-52, not so much on the 195. When all the doodads worked like the step connected by cable to the door is brilliant. Of course, the retractable landing lights were fun. The tail wheel assembly can be a week point as it's often neglected and prone to cracks. I never found the maintenance to be crazy. Unpin the side engine mount attach points and the whole engine assembly swings 90 degrees. Too bad Mooneys can't do that. William

Awhile back, I had a couple different products (some sealants, a true ceramic coating, ceramic wax, and some very high quality synthetic wax) laying around. I put a dab of each on a old desk and let sit for a week in a very hot hangar. The true ceramic turned to glass and was harder than any of the other products with synthetic wax being the softest. Not scientific, but was enough to convince me. Is a true ceramic coating exactly 9H in hardness. Damned if I know, but it is harder than anything else I've used. I also noticed some detailers advertise a ceramic wax as a ceramic coating. There is a huge difference between a ceramic wax and a true ceramic coating. Caveat emptor. Fortunately, the manufacturers are very clear on the differences in durability. William

And a few more

So, after many, many hours, I fully polished the entire plane including under the wings and as always, the belly. Most would say the paint was already in good shape. I washed with dawn to cut any oils, then clay barred. After that I used various strengths of polish. Took me forever to polish the back side of the prop to be shiny again. Ha! JK. The painted stripes were very soft compared to the base white. Getting the micro scratches out of the white paint around the fuel fillers was the hardest and still not quite done to perfection. I got as aggressive in polishing the white as I've ever gotten on any paint (rotary polisher with a lambs wool pad with some liquid compound). Yes, I knew how much paint depth I had. After polishing, I used the GTechniq Panel Wipe. I found the Panel Wipe to be reactive to the very soft stripes. Enough so, that I re-polished the red and gray (that added two hours to the process). I then applied Gtechniq CSL and applied EXOv4 36 hours later. I give me self an A-. Here are some pics.

So, I am a finance guy. Debt is probably not going to get much cheaper now. 10 year treasuries (the closest benchmark rate that mortgage rates follow) are less than half (70 bps) of what they were at the end of Jan. 30 LIBOR, the index most corporate loans base off of was 1.66% Jan. versus today of less than 20 bps. Not sure how long this will last. I do worry about a whipsaw in inflation and thus rates should a really good (better than the current flu) vaccine be developed within the next year. Note, I did not think a whipsaw was going to occur in '08-'10 when money was free then and I was right, a rare event. Ask 10 economists what the market will do and you'll get 11 answers. William

My grandfather (fighter pilot and test pilot) had two really bad thunderstorm encounters all in peace time. The first was flying a B-25 on a Friday night from NY to FL. That's how courted my grandmother in FL. Navigator directed him right into a really bad T-storm despite my grandfather warning him and to watch the lightning closely. That one really shook him up. Second was lead on a flight of F-80s on their way to Alaska after being winterized/moded for artic weather. Being winterized the nose or leading edges (I forget which) were painted red. In trail formation he wandered into a T-storm in southern Louisiana. After exiting the storm, no one had red on their plane anymore. He would never get anywhere close to a storm in a small GA plane. Never intentionally flew into one in the South Pacific in combat either. William

Note, that paint is likely very soft, thin, and reactive. So, start off with a very light abrasive polish with a finish pad, go light on how much you polish in one area and see what you get. Harsh alcohols or even mineral spirits are likely to react with the paint. I'd stay away from those in the process. You could buy a paint depth meter to be really sure how thick the paint is before starting. Maybe worth the $200, maybe not. Remember, polishing is just removing a thin layer of paint. William

Fantastic, this gets me a long way along. Like you, I have 24v going out to the tips in my 252. William

@larryb would you mind providing a link to the regulator you used? A pic of the hole you describe and how the regulator is mounted would be icing on the cake. Thanks William

Oh, and to make my last post relevant, I coated my 996 last year to CQUK and the plane a coupe years ago with the same. Moderately happy with CQUK. This year going with GTechniq CSL with a top coat of EXOv4 on the plane. Of course, after a thorough wash, clay and polish. William

and the turbo doesn't have the IMS issue the NA version does

The headers for each section are not great and can cause confusion. Page 69 has an error in the headings; it brings across the prior section refs. in the numbering. Anyway, under SFAR 118 as it modifies Part 61, section 2(a)(2), page 70 of the SFAR is applicable to pilots as pilot in command and not flying for hire, but only to the extent they also meet section 2(a)(2)(i),(ii), and (iii). Stepping back, in section III. A. last paragraph of page 14, starts with, "Additionally, this relief applies to some operations conducted by pilots … provide that the pilot has at least...". Emphasis is mine. Those ops are as described in the 4 bullets of page 15. Note, even if you meet these criteria for time and ops, no non-essential persons are allowed on the flight. So, seems to me this SFAR is primarily limited to pilots engaged in for hire ops, business travel, medical needs or essential goods transport. Please describe a different interpretation of the actual SFAR or summary. Don't read a section out of context, though. The pilot news orgs really have done a disservice to us all not pointing these things out. Not an attorney, just a dumb investment banker who should get back to his real job.

25hrs/3mos which ever first. TCM TSIO-360MB

While the cuts are dramatic they only equate to 10% of the world's supply. That and given the demand curve for oil is probably flatter and lower than its ever been, no surprise the minimal change. Frankly, I was surprised at the early morning spike in prices. Wonder what those trades were about. Possibly derivatives covering.? I like what Goldman said, "historic yet insufficient". William

On average, lower oil prices takes 4-6 weeks to make through the pipeline, refinery and ultimately to the pump. Given demand is lower (only to be outpaced by an increase in supply), the significantly lower oil prices won't be fully reflected in the pump price for a few weeks. Avgas demand and production is significantly less and chunky. So, as Davidv said, who knows when we will see that lower cost. The upside is that even when demand recovers (hopefully sometime in the summer) there will likely still be significant oversupply depressing prices. Note, anyone who says they can predict the price of fuel more than a month or two out has no idea. OPEC (Saudi Arabia) could easily change their mind tomorrow and restrict supply swinging the price of oil the other way. Note, many US upstream companies drop out of the market when oil is sustainably below $45/barrel. So, there will likely be some restriction in US supply soon. W

C-150 carb ice on take off. Complete failure. Prop stopped just at touch down. Barely made the last turn off at runway end without running off. 2nd was a student in his M20C. Instead of pulling the flaps release knob pulled mixture to cutoff. Btw, I was watching my student like a hawk and still didn't catch him in time. Took less than a second to engine shutdown and then another second to regain power after I pushed both the mixture and yoke at the same time. Fun times William

Paul, as an I Banker I would not want to have to show that pitch book. Would the first page say something like, "This company burns cash faster than you could shovel it into a fire, but damn, the product sure is purdy." Title page would be: Project Forest Fire. Ha! Actually, I do believe there are some hidden gems in this company. William

Btw, another data point. While not a written quote, I asked what the install time is for a 275 from Garner Lowe at FFC....40 hours for full connection as an ADI including connection to autopilot, etc. William