Joe Zuffoletto

This flight is a piece of cake. Fly LVK-VNY. Call SoCal approach about 20 miles north of VNY and request to transition the Class B via the Hollywood Park Route at 9,500'. You MUST be at 9,500' going that direction (8,500' going back). From VNY you fly outbound on the 140 radial until you overfly the Queen Mary in Long Beach. Tell SoCal your destination is Gillespie and they'll vector you along until you're out of their airspace. The Hollywood Park Route is depicted on the LA terminal chart. In any event, be talkiing to ATC. The controllers are excellent and helpful. My personal opinion is that it's quite risky to transition the LA basin in stealth mode.

As a student pilot you should definitely look at the current and forecast winds for your flight and expected time of landing. Don't be afraid to scratch until you start to develop your crosswind technique. Eventually your personal minimums will rise along with your abilities. In my younger days I would launch into almost anything without giving conditions for takeoffs or the landings too much thought. Dealt with some challenging conditions but never bent any metal. I've never diverted in a trike gear plane due to crosswinds on landing, but one time last year I remember racing to Denver Centennial in my Acclaim at full throttle to beat some increasing crosswinds that were passing the aircraft's demonstrated crosswind component. The runway that favored those winds was closed for construction so I had to either beat the winds or possibly land elsewhere that day. My taildragger is another story. I'm VERY aware of the current and forecast winds before I take that plane up!

Napa used to have a good restaurant on the field. It's been years since I've been there. Watsonville has a good Mexican restaurant on the field. San Luis Obispo has a good restaurant on the field.

I left Matt from Midwest Mooney a VM a couple weeks ago asking what was going to happen to the STC. Also sent him an email. He responded to neither. Not cool, in my opinion.

I'll take flying through rain in smooth air over flying through turbulence in the clear any day!

Finally got around to watching the video during my lunch hour.... Sure brought back memories! I'll bet I've shot that approach over 100 times! I miss being based at KAPC. It was awesome.

Yeah, I have a neat aerial photo of that somewhere. It is eerie. My wife and I lived in Walnut Creek from 2003-2006. I was based at KAPC at the time. Prior to that I lived in Sausalito from 1997-2003. I still own that home as a rental. We're heading out there to do some renovations to the house in between tenants. Most of my wife's family lives in the Concord-Clayton area, so we get out there 2-3 times a year.

I'll be heading your direction this Thursday, when I make my annual flight from Denver to Concord. Weather is forecast to be perfect, just like last year. Can't wait!

Whatever it was, it wasn't the outcome he wanted. I'm just so glad he survived.

Piloto, in response to your earlier comment, I doubt he chopped the power back to idle if he was conducting a normal approach. That turns the Acclaim into a rock if the gear and flaps are down. Richard certainly knew that; he probably has as much Acclaim time as anyone. But we're all speculating at this point.

My Acclaim has airbags; I'm sure this one did too. First Acclaim down that I know of. Have there been any others? I'm so glad that RS escaped with minor injuries. The wreck looked fatal just from the pix. What a relief.

Very concerning to me, for obvious reasons. Very glad the pilot escaped the post-crash fire with only minor injuries. Can't wait to hear more about what happened.

I had this mod done to my Acclaim. As Anthony said, it is "seat of the pants" noticeable on takeoff, and the difference in climb performance is astounding. 2,700 rpm is pretty noisy though, so it's nice to hit cruising altitude quicker so you can dial it back down. I've noticed no difference in the pattern or landing. I land with the prop full forward. The only bummer is I lost the nice Mooney startup graphic on the MFD when they reprogrammed the G1000. Now I get a cheesy image of the Earth with stupid looking satellites buzzing around it.

Congratulations, and welcome to the world of Mooney!

Yes, that was Crater Lake.

Bonal, that is absolutely bizarre. Never heard of such a thing and I have no idea what's causing it. Can you see the pix on this site: http://photos.zuffoletto.com/Aviation/

Can you see the pix on my website? It's here: http://www.zuffoletto.com/category/flying

Yes, it was a great panel. But during an annual inspection it was determined that both AI's and the HSI all needed to be overhauled or replaced, so I kind of overreacted and glassed the panel instead.

Hmmm. I can't figure out who was the first owner of my Mooney, but my tail number, N3833T, previously belonged to a Piper Cherokee 180 that crashed in 1982, killing all 4 aboard.

They show up on my computers. What kind of device are you using? The pictures are hosted on my personal website, and I simply post the URL's here.

In that spirit, and even though it's not my airplane any more, here are before and after shots of the glass panel I installed in my Encore:

Ha! If my income was more than $10mil you'd be looking at a pic of my TBM-900 panel!

I'll bite. Here is the stock panel in my Acclaim:

From this month's issue of Aviation Consumer magazine: For the July 2015 issue of Aviation Consumer, our Used Aircraft Guide will be on the Mooney 231, the high-flying turbocharged traveler. We want to know what it's like to own these planes, how much they cost to operate, maintain and insure and what they're like to fly. If you'd like your airplane to appear in the magazine, send us any photographs (full-size, high-resolution) you'd like to share to the email below. We welcome information on mods, support organizations or any other comments. Send correspondence on the Mooney by May 1, 2015, to: Aviation Consumer ConsumerEditor@hotmail.com

Someone who recently toured the Mooney factory in Kerrville posted a pair of videos he made during the tour. Pretty cool! Part 1: Part 2: