jelswick

Nice video and location! I was actually very close to you today flying into Sandusky's open house and fly-in pancake breakfast. Great view of Lake Erie and Cedar Point from there.

The person I sold my 1963 M20C to in 2007 is now looking to sell (just not getting to fly enough). I received comments on CTAFs and from controllers in a lot of places I flew it because of it's looks and is gorgeous. The paint is Dial Eastern States Aircraft Painting Inc (DESAPI) and they're always rated #1 or 2 in the country by Aviation Consumer. The interior is tan leather I had put in. It has a Garmin 430 and STec20 autopilot as well as a PS Engineering PM8000 Audio Panel with music and a KX155 as the 2nd NavCom. He's asked me to post it here and I believe he's looking for about $55-60K, but was waiting for him to confirm the current engine and AFTT since what I used in the valuation for him were estimated time I believe he's added to it. I had about $90K in it from purchase and all of the upgrades I'd done to it when I sold it to him. I can PM his contact info if you'd like. It does have damage history, but it was from 1964 when someone flew it into trees and it was bought from the insurance co and restored and had about 4,500 hrs flying on it when I sold it to him. I loved it, just needed the J for the longer leg room in the back as my kids grew. It was a northern airplane and completely clean from any corrosion. I regluarly had Corrosion X or ACF 50 applied to it and while that wasn't my primary maintenance shop, I had some maintenance done while in Dayton/Miamisburg and they told me it looked cleaner inside than many of the newer aircraft they'd seen. Very nice aircraft and all logs are complete. I'll add a folder for 1963 Mooney M20C to my profile on here and add some photos. I hate to see it leave our field (KDLZ) if he sells it, but I think it will make someone very happy for a relatively low amount of money.

I'm very happy with the results in mine, but like others said, the side windows didn't seem difficult (my mechanic did all of them). I was there when he did the front windshield and that part is a bear to fit correctly involving many times placing it, removing it and shaping/shaving a little more off, try again, and keep going until it fit right. I wouldn't want that task!

I love aviation videos and AirVenture and for any others that do, here is a video of our AirVenture flight, the air show, the aircraft around the grounds, etc. For those that don't like music with them though, might want to hit mute. http://youtu.be/NqA1Fxk8TGM

Ha! Had the same problem until looking at it a 2nd time. Jose, how many of us can you fit in the plane with you, us and your flight attendant?

If I were able to go, I think I'd be flying in with Jose even if he's flying the wrong brand. Looks like he's flying the party plane!

Very nice Nick! Love seeing videos like this. I've posted a number of the same in youtube (jelswick3 in there). It feels like the closest we can get to flying on the days we can't fly. Thanks for sharing these!

Agree Aerobat. I think the economy might be having an impact on currency for some. I'm very thankful to have a lot of flying recently, but was feeling rusty before the last few weeks, month or so. I feel a little uncomfortable if I haven't flown in the last two weeks. Will it keep me safe? I hope so, but don't bank on it. I try to tell myself every time I get in my Mooney that I love her, but she bites in a serious way if not flown correctly. I don't want to be in those reports and we're losing good pilots, so I know I'm no better than any of them. These are not just the bozos that act like they're nordo due to ego and the regs don't require they talk; these appear to truly be good pilots. I've made so many great friends in this flying and Mooney community...please everyone be very careful and I'll be doing the same... that doesn't guarantee we won't be reading about each other at some point, me included, but I hope and pray we're all careful enough that we're not.

There do seem to be a lot of these lately. Scary. In reading NTSB reports, I see a lot of 500-1500 hour pilots making me think this might be our greatest risk period of complacency. I'm at almost 800 and I try to remind myself of this fact in the stats all of the time. I love flight and that privelege and hope I'm never in those stats. At least in analyzing my own history, I get comfortable that I'm very comfortable in flying now and try to remind myself every pre-flight that not sumping tanks is not an option because it takes something as simple as that to bring down a great pilot and maybe even his/her family. I know a lot of bozo pilots that I'm surprised don't end up in the stats, but as soon as we think we're better than the average pilot population, we risk being in the next report. Hope this approach works to keep me and my family out of them...

This is getting insane. If you keep moving in the way of the transaction, the person selling you something owes you follow-up. To instruct to spend money and then not complete the sale in a reasonable amount of time (and that isn't months!) means you've given up the right to get that back in your deposit. Most contracts I've seen would award the full deposit to Jimmie based on time taken, but the honorable thing, the thing Jimmie did was to return what was left of it from transactions instructed by this client (the pre-purchase inspection) to the person that couldn't get to a completed transaction within a reasonable period of time and move on.

And I love Jose's posts. He has quite a practical outlook that I think is healthy. Consider your experience an education so that you don't step in the same (what you believe was a) pothole twice and move on. There will always be new potholes to find and step in. Carrying a grudge rather than the lesson just keeps you bitter going forward and life is too short for that!

I hadn't seen Jimmie respond until many, many grenades were lobbed at him and his business, so I for one appreciated seeing him showing patience, restraint and then needing to finally respond. I sold aircraft for 6 years and can tell you 98% of customers were absolutely wonderful to deal with, became friends sending back pictures of mods they did to their birds, stopping in when flying past or to Columbus, just a wonderful experience. But out of all of those buyers, two that really stood out and scr_wed us and our customers. You have to balance patience with the buyer who is making a very large purchase for most of our incomes with the fact your serving an owner too and two months after the start of the process with other buyers ready to go, the owners would be hopping mad and understandably so. No slam at AllSmiles, everyone's situation is different and he may have had extenuating circumstances, but hearing things like stopped payment checks without a validated reason for it, etc. wouldn't lead to trying to take care of him to the exclusion of taking care of the current owner. Just my two cents...

Agree Brett. This was really a dumb___ move on that pilot's part, but confront the person first to give them an opportunity to tell their side. If just a stupid mistake, help them learn why and hope it won't happen again. Any attitude about it, then escalate it. We had one customer where we had someone coming th next week to buy his Tiger and he had to cancel the sale because he was out of the aircraft with it idling and it decided to move forward shredding the side of an SUV (at least it was his own). Never, ever should the pilot get out of the plane with the engine running; I won't even let pilot passengers do that because of fear of a never expected trip or slip that could result in something you can't undo after the fact.

Yes, maybe a little bias, but I'll add my pitch for the Mooney as a four person family aircraft. We use it every year for trips and vacations to the beach and my wife, not an avid flyer, almost insists on it even to see my parents only about 2.5 hrs away by car, much faster by Mooney. I'm 6'2" 215, and with my wife, 18 yr old daughter and 11 yr son, we're limited to 30lbs of bags each which we try to stay under and we make fuel/restroom stops every 2.5 hrs to leave an hour or more in the tanks reserve. But, this is how often they like to stop anyway and you can't beat the fuel, efficiency, pure fun and the view. The seats fit us nicely with everyone having plenty of leg room. Stagger the pilot/co-pilot seats and it doesn't feel tight side to side either. Just a perfect (for me and my family) aircraft in my opinion!

Just downloaded it this morning. Haven't played with it yet, but reviews for it are great. And it has the NOTAM included!

Have a great time Vref and that sounds likes a great trip. Love the photo for the new avatar too. Wish I could fly 45T to Germany for some schweinshaxe!