Joe Zuffoletto

RocketAviator: I followed your construction of "Mini-Me" on this board with great interest. You did a helluva job. Definitely not your first rodeo! Have you flown it yet? ROP or LOP?

So, what do you get the man who has everything for his 50th birthday? A drone, of course! Specifically, a Phantom 2 Vision quadcopter with built-in camera on gimbals, fully controllable while airborne with an iPhone or iPad. Coolest gift ever! Unfortunately, I crashed it on its maiden voyage and broke the built-in camera. The quadcopter itself, however, somehow survived unscathed. After a few more test flights I finally mastered flying it, more or less. So today I decided to velcro my GoPro Hero3 camera onto the front of the built-in camera and see if I could finally get some aerial footage. Here's my rig: And here's the video of today's inaugural flight: I have a feeling I'm going to get addicted to this thing....

Way to go, Bob!

I've not used Tapatalk, but I know that it supposedly makes interacting with online forums easier for mobile devices, and I believe it even makes them all look and behave the same way on your device. I plan to try it out.

When I first bought my Acclaim, my hangar mate had a Cirrus SR22 Turbo. My wife had never ridden in one, so we exchanged rides one day. Afterwards, over a cup of coffee (and without my hangar mate present), my wife said, "The Cirrus is the plane you buy for the spouse. The Mooney is the plane you buy for the pilot." I think she nailed it.

It's my previous bird: 1998 Encore (M20K). It has the Continental TSIO-360-SB engine.

Good lord. At least the music was soothing.

Ha! I had a similar experience. Took the light gun test on the tarmac of San Jose airport back in 1988, along with one other pilot. He and I saw different colors most of the time but we both passed. Go figure. Got the SODA and have been flying without restrictions ever since. Funny thing is that I can distinguish light sources just fine, but not reflected light.

Nate, 4 hours, 35 minutes at 16,500'. Here's the track: http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N3833T/history/20140502/1421Z/KAPA/KCCR

Stayed in SF one night, then one night in the Crown Plaza. Yes, I was instructed to land on 32R.

Denver Centennial (KAPA).

You've seen the pictures, now you can watch the video as I fly my Acclaim across the western US at over 3,000mph! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hzamb6IWpb8#t=14

The closest MSC to San Francisco is Top Gun Aviation in Stockton. Lasar up in Ukiah is another great shop.

I had a local bureau scan my POH into a PDF document; it's fairly straightforward. I keep copies on my computer and iPad. However, the bureau required me to get a copyright release from Mooney, which they were happy to provide as long as it was for my personal use and would not be distributed. YMMV.

Good God. Diamond DA-40. How emasculating. And no, I don't buy expensive wine. But I do drive Porsches.

I ordered the DVD and a sweatshirt in addition to the free t-shirt that came with the DVD. The DVD was great. I really enjoyed hearing the stories of how the aircraft and company evolved from the old timers who made it happen. I'm glad this film was made because a lot of these wonderful folks are getting way up in age and unfortunately may not be around much longer. One thing that really struck me was how a bunch of ordinary, regular folks created airplanes that are anything but. An incredibly talented and innovative bunch who hardly look the part. Stealth geniuses. The opening sequence was breathtaking... an Ovation dancing above the clouds in glimmering sunlight, set to beautiful piano music. Almost choked me up because it really captured the essence of why we fly these beautiful aircraft. A+. Thank you, Jolie!

Mooney did make strides in this area before they stopped production. The cabin in my 2008 Acclaim is noticeably quieter than my 1998 Encore was, in spite of having 60 more horses under the cowling. When I compared them side-by-side I could see that Mooney added insulation to the door and ceiling panels, and the overall fit and finish of the Acclaim was superior to that of the Encore. Still need a headset, though!

I suspect our military and the CIA know exactly where that aircraft is and they're keeping that info top secret.

I can't help it... from one of my favorite movies of all time:

The 30 minutes is based on the average time it took 100 FAA employees to complete the form.

I couldn't agree more. When I bought my Encore in 2000 it was my first turbo and my first opportunity to operate in the flight levels. I had plenty of IFR and high-performance/complex experience down low, but had never flown higher than 13,000'. I took this very seriously and hired an instructor to fly the plane with me back home from Minneapolis (where I bought it) to Napa, CA. We flew 12 hours in 3 legs exclusively in the flight levels, much of it in IMC. We used the TKS in real icing conditions. We flew one leg at night. It was rigorous and very educational. That experience, coupled with subsequent flights and the BFR's I received from Don Kaye when I lived in the Bay Area, really solidified my abilities as a high-altitude Mooney pilot. After 11 years flying the Encore up high in the Western U.S., transitioning to the Acclaim was pretty straightforward. Nevertheless, I hired my CFII here in Denver to fly 10 hours of transition training with me. My insurance company didn't require it, but I did. Although I had installed a G500 in the Encore a year before, transitioning to the G1000 and GFC700 still required appreciable effort. Flying coupled approaches was now a breeze, but it required a few hours of practice before I could make the G1000 do my bidding without much thought or hesitation. With a plane that screams along like the Acclaim, staying ahead of it is more critical than ever. The toughest adjustment for me was the landings. The Acclaim is heavier on the controls, heavier in the nose, and that 3-bladed prop creates a lot of drag. I bounced 3 or 4 landings pretty bad before I got the hang of it. Fortunately I never dug the prop, but I can see how it could have happened.

I'll bet that if you take the time to surf all the Mooney ads on Controller you'll find a few prop strikes in many of the models. I've read about prop strikes on this board that were in F's, J's, etc. Not unique to Acclaims. As for me, I've managed to taxi a K for 11 years without a strike, and an Acclaim for almost 3. The Acclaim actually feels like it has more prop clearance because of the 3-blade and because it sits tail-low, but my understanding from other posts I've seen here is that it doesn't. Before I bought my first Mooney I rented a friend's Socata Trinidad for years. It had tall, forgiving trailing link landing gear. Never thought about prop strikes when taxiing. But in Mooneys it's always on my mind, and I taxi with extreme caution.

Or at least the landings!

I flew a 1998 Encore for 11 years and loved it before bumping up to a 2008 Acclaim two and a half years ago. Absolutely no regrets, but my mission changed which is why I made the bump. I was living in the Bay Area, based at Napa, when I purchased the Encore in 2000. My trips were mostly up and down the West Coast, from Vancouver, BC to San Diego, CA, and all points between. Occasionally I would head east to Las Vegas or Denver, but not very often. The Encore was a perfect plane for these trips; it could comfortably fly all the West Coast trips nonstop. In 2006 my wife and I moved to Denver and our primary missions became Denver to Orange County (to visit my parents) and Denver to the Bay Area (to visit her family). The Encore did the job but having to make fuel stops both ways got old after a while. The Acclaim makes both trips nonstop with plenty of fuel to spare, and shaves almost 2 hours off these trips door-to-door in each direction. Don't know what the Ovation's panel is like but the G1000 and GFC700 autopilot in the Acclaim are absolutely fabulous and make long trips much less taxing.