Joe Zuffoletto

When I'm bringing my Acclaim into John Wayne Airport they often slot me behind a 737 and it's pretty annoying. Thankfully they tell the airliners to keep their speed up for me.

I have an Acclaim, which is more or less a turbo Ovation. I find the Acclaim to be no fun at all for putzing around locally on weekends. It's too fast, too heavy on the controls, and ill-suited for pattern work. It's really built to go high, far and fast on autopilot. Prior to the Acclaim I had an Encore. It had a lighter touch and was more enjoyable for local flying, but not really good for pattern work either. Neither plane was difficult to land after a little practice.

201er, that's a mighty generous offer. Let me think about it!

I used to fly XC exclusively except for local IFR currency flights with my flight instructor because the Acclaim is a terrible "buzz around the patch" bird. But I really missed doing pattern work and tooling around locally on weekends, so I bought an RV-8 a few months ago and now I do both about equally. Except that I still can't land the 8 without bouncing down the runway... still trying to master that tailwheel thingie.

Take my recollection of the useful load with a grain of salt as my memory probably failed me. Of course, it's something you would explore in a prebuy anyway. I always flew this plane alone or with my 110lb wife, and we never carried more than 50lb in two carry-on bags, so I did my w&b calculations once in the year 2000 and that was it!

The figure I gave is with all fluid tanks full, and with the airplane as originally equipped. I gained 30 lbs of useful load when I glassed it.

Canada and Mexico for me. I fly to Cabo a couple times a year these days.

I think it was around 860 lbs; 450 after filling the tanks.

My old Encore is back on the market again... I stumbled across it on Controller yesterday. I glassed this bird back in 2010, adding the G500 and the EDM930, and also the PS Engineering Bluetooth audio panel. I kept the Garmin 530/430 pair. The current owner has apparently added the Garmin 650/750 stack, extended tanks and a 3-bladed prop. Also replaced the TKS tank. (Anyone have any idea why that would be necessary?) I thought it was pretty sick when I glassed it, but this owner really gilded the lily!

Despite the occasional "steaming pile" thread on MooneySpace, this place is downright civilized compared to Pilots of America, which attracts far more freaks per capita, IMHO.

Awesome. Wish Jim was closer to me... would love to get pix of my bird over the Rockies.

I think Icon really nailed it with their implementation. I'd love to have that in my aircraft.

I flew a 1998 Encore, SN 25-2029, for 7 years on the west coast and absolutely loved it. It was very well equipped with FIKI, flight director, Garmin 530/430, etc. I was based in Napa and it was a perfect west coast airplane because I could go nonstop to Seattle, San Diego, Vegas and even Denver with the right tailwinds in the flight levels. The FIKI was essential during the wet CA winters and the turbo rocked for getting above Pacific storms at FL200 or higher. For its amazing capabilities it was also a very reasonable airplane to insure and maintain. After moving to Denver, which is in the middle of nowhere, I suddenly found myself unable to reach my most common destinations nonstop: Orange County, CA and the Bay Area. My wife and I started (gasp) flying commercially to these locations to visit our respective families. Then it occurred to me that an Acclaim with its 102 gallon tanks and greater speed would solve my problem. Nevertheless, I was sad to see the Encore go. I put 850 very enjoyable hours on that fantastic airplane and recommend them highly.

Glad to hear your emergency ended safely. FWIW, I absolutely will not do T&G's in my Acclaim, but I do practice go-arounds and missed approaches.

My 1998 Encore would glug-glug through turns in either direction on the ground, then run nice and smooth while going straight. I was told my several experts it was normal for that engine/airframe, and I flew the plane without incident for 11 years. My Acclaim doesn't do it, though.

Beautiful, Oscar. What's the music? Shazam doesn't recognize it.

Great addition, Craig. Thanks!

I like this idea and have obliged... you're now looking at my real name and I've added some background info to my profile. BTW, I would never do this at Pilots of America. Too many whack jobs on that board.

Don't know who/what that is. Please enlighten me....

Top vertical (see my avatar) to keep it out of the way of towing devices.

I'll take my crazy-busy home field of Denver Centennial and its awesome controllers over most uncontrolled fields any day. The incompetence and negligence I've heard over the radio at uncontrolled fields around here is breathtaking.

My Acclaim with 400lbs more useful load, a bigger baggage door, pressurization and a turboprop.

I love flying at night but it's just one of those things I've allowed to fade into the sunset as I get older.

Cool video! I'd never wear a camera on my head in Colorado... with all the turbulence we have it would eventually go through the roof. That would be a unique video, though.