Joe Zuffoletto

N201MKTurbo: You're right, "suicidal" was too strong a word, but I stand by my opinion that tackling the Rockies without a mountain checkout, whether you're NA or turbo, is foolish. It's absolutely true you can fly the Rockies NA without incident as long as you understand your plane's limitations and the sometimes unpredictable winds and weather you might encounter. I did it for years myself before I finally went turbo.

Years ago I made the same mistake in my 1998 M20K Encore, operating the gear switch instead of the flaps switch on rollout. Fortunately, the squat switch saved me and the gear didn't retract. I noticed my error immediately and flipped the gear switch back down without incident. Whew!

Both presidential candidates have adopted Colorado as their second home during this election season, so happy is the day when there is NOT a TFR around here!

I think TKS would be very useful in Montreal because it will give you the ability to climb through a thin icing layer to get into a layer of clear air above. My limited experience with East Coast weather (3 years in New Jersey) tells me that a turbo would be less useful because the cloud tops in the winter are just too high - often FL280 or more. Nevertheless, it's hard to beat the additional flexibility you gain with a turbo.

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Fly at night.

Slick! Congratulations!

Oscar, Very cool. I have a Contour and have made videos from inside my Mooney. I'd love to do one from the outside. How did you attach the camera to the aircraft?

TFRs make sense for firefighting and other types of disaster response, but to effectively publish the President's travel schedule to the world with TFRs makes no sense to me. I live in a swing state and Obama has been in Colorado more in the last 30 days than he's been in DC. It's extraordinarily frustrating and has forced me to reschedule two trips. Why shut down the airspace over Denver when the President is in Boulder, 20 miles away? I don't think "VIP movement" TFRs protect anyone, but they've sure been making life a pain lately for those who fly on the Front Range.

Amber, I'm based in Denver, so when you're in Colorado, look me up.

Quote: jackn I went through the same decision making process when I bought mine. I decided not to get TKS initially. That turned out to be a mistake. I have no intention to fly along in icing conditions, but I found myself cancelling or postponing flights that could have been made ice free, because I wasn't sure. I addded TKS last year, and I'm happy I did. It's comforting to know that if I encounter ice, I'll have time to exit. I cross the Appalachians south of the Great Lakes on my way to/ back from Colorado in the winter and that route always seems to have an ice threat. BTW, I love flying in the Rockies in the winter. I don't fly on high wind days, and the scenery is spectacular! I always have to get used to the fact that if you lose your engine, your more than likely to make an off airport landing. Bring warm clothing and survival gear.

I think TKS adds the most value in coastal areas and the Midwest. When I lived in Northern CA I used TKS quite often when ascending and descending through wet, icy cloud layers in the winter. In that area I would pick up the most ice between 8,000' and 14,000'. I rarely picked up ice in the flight levels because I was either on top or the clouds held too little moisture up high. I would expect you'd have similar (albeit colder) conditions in the Northeast. Now that I live in Colorado I rarely use TKS because we don't often have wet overcast with high tops out here. It's either convective junk in the summer that you have to fly around, or high cirrus in the winter that you need a U2 to reach. We occasionally get upslope conditions where TKS would be useful, but so far I've not flown in those conditions. Quite frankly, my personal minimums are much higher out here (read: I only cross the Rockies VFR) because of the dangerous terrain and frequent turbulence. BTW, flying in Colorado absolutely sucks. In the summer we're plagued by gusty winds, convection and turbulence, even on what appears to be a clear, beautiful day. In the winter we're often subject to violent turbulence from the mountain waves and rotors that form downwind of the Rockies when the jetstream dips down here. I guess I need to vent because I took my bird up for some local sightseeing this morning in clear blue skies and got punished so badly that I returned to the airport within 30 minutes. 3 out of my last 5 flights have gone the same way. I miss flying on the West Coast!

Quote: AcclaimML Joe, have you seen any issues with your compressions so far? hours on the engine? thanks in advance

Quote: jetdriven Top overhaul with only 350 hours? Was Orangemtl running ROP or something? He bought it new...

Congratulations, and welcome! You'll really love that bird when you get her up high. I flew a roundtrip from Denver to Albuquerque this week. On the way down I had a nice tailwind at 16,500' and was doing 190KTAS on 14gph at 50LOP, making 205KTS over the ground. The MFD showed I had enough range to get 100NM past Cabo San Lucas with reserves. The Acclaim never stops blowing my mind.

The stall warning tab on my Acclaim seems to be overly sensitive. I get a lot of bogus stall warnings as I approach rotation speed on takeoff and they continue until the gear and flaps are up. Having that loud voice repeatedly screeching "Stall!" over the intercom just as we're leaving the ground is unnerving to my passengers, to say the least. Anyone else have this problem? My annual's next month and I'm going to see about getting the tab adjusted.

A little late to the game but I just sent my donation. Can't wait to see the new site!

Thanks everyone! I really appreciate it.

Thanks everyone! I really appreciate it.