Joe Zuffoletto

I've always liked San Luis Obispo. Very scenic area, and they have a pretty good restaurant on the field, too.

Tom, how is it that the TKS on your Lancair is so fast? The TKS on my Acclaim is painfully slow, but it always passes inspection.

When I first got my Acclaim, I took it to Bruce Jaeger up in Minnesota to learn how to operate LOP, which I had never done before. He gave me pretty much this exact same presentation. Having access to this excellent video now is fantastic. Thank you for posting.

I owned one of the rare Encores (1998 model) for 11 years and loved it. It performed just like a J down low but would gain about 20 knots of TAS in the high teens. Up there I would see around 175KTAS, burning 12gph. Climb rate was decent. Good luck!

I have two Concordes in my Acclaim and one in my RV. They have been trouble free for six and four years, respectively. I don’t trickle charge any of them.

This Acclaim driver only tops off fuel if traveling a long way, like Denver to Northern CA. I also keep the TKS tanks half-filled because I've never needed more than a gallon or two in the worst of the conditions that I've encountered. Other than that I rarely fill to more than 50 or 60 gallons. 60 gallons gets me comfortably from Petaluma to any other location on the West Coast, with plenty of reserves. Believe it or not, an Acclaim really can fly with less than full fuel and TKS!

Since I'm only in CA part-time, I can't make any of these dates, but Skates please add me to your distribution list for future events. Thanks!

The TKS panels on my Acclaim took more than 15 minutes to fill out when I would run the pump on "Normal." I mentioned this to my mechanic, and he recommended running the windshield pump for 10-15 seconds to prime the system. Sure enough, my panels now fill out in 8-10 minutes.

I’ve been flying for 33 years and Mooneys more than half of that. I’ve been lucky to own some great airplanes and to fly them all over the place over the years, in all conditions. I really can’t wish for much more than that. My wish is to have the same pilot friends I have now at the end of 2018. Happy New Year to all of you. Love my MS friends. Cheers, JZ.

About 2 hours and 10 minutes.

Conditions in the Bay Area have been excellent for the past week or so and I've been taking advantage of it to fly my Acclaim around. On Christmas Eve, I did a little formation flying with @FlyDave On Christmas Day, I flew solo from Petaluma to Carmel and back. Didn't land anywhere, just went sightseeing. Pretty much had the skies to myself, too! Crossing the Golden Gate Bridge: Golden Gate Park, the Sunset and Outer Sunset districts, and Ocean Beach: Golden Gate Park: Half Moon Bay airport (KHAF): Pigeon Point Lighthouse: Santa Cruz: Spanish Bay golf course: Cypress Point Club in the foreground; Pebble Beach beyond: Pebble Beach: Downtown Santa Cruz: Outer Richmond and Richmond districts, with downtown San Francisco beyond. Mt. Diablo looms in the distance about 20 miles away: GGB, full span: The day after Christmas, my wife and I did some sightseeing in Santa Rosa and the Wine Country. One of many burned-out neighborhoods in Santa Rosa. So sad: Napa Valley: Lots of great flying, with more to come! Tomorrow we're off to John Wayne Airport (KSNA) to visit my parents for a few days. Happy New Year, everyone! IMG_5554.m4v

My Acclaim is based in Petaluma; I have a second home in NorCal. I’ll be out here from time to time in the spring and summer, so we can definitely meet at a later date.

I have a fully loaded 2008 Acclaim in Northern California (O69, Petaluma). I'll be around until Thursday if you want to come down and check it out.

I'm planning on installing a Garmin GTX-345R remote transponder in my Acclaim to meet the ADS-B requirement and am wondering which shop on the west coast y'all would recommend. Thanks.

Your mission describes to a "T" the way I use my Acclaim, and my FIKI Encore before that.

I've been using Hope Aviation Insurance for years and have no complaints. https://www.hopeaviation.com/

Welcome, Blake! I was also bitten by the Mooney bug when I was in college; my school's flying club had a brand new J that I flew for two years until I graduated. 30 years later I'm still flying a Mooney! They rock!

I've been using the Tailwheel Transporter II for my RV-8 and it works great: http://www.tailwheeltransporter.com/index.html

+1. I'd love to have a hangar like that!

2008 Acclaim Type S and 2009 Porsche 911 Turbo Cabriolet. Both have twin turbos and both are fast!

Above 16,000' in my Acclaim I can easily achieve 205KTAS LOP and 215KTAS ROP.

Correction: There were no changes made to my panel with the STC.

About 8 years ago I got a call from the Cessna sales office here in Denver and they offered me a demo flight in the Citation Mustang. Apparently they were targeting high-time, instrument rated retractable owners like myself. I made it clear to the sales rep that I may never be in the market for a jet, but he insisted so I went. We started with a 40-minute flight with my wife and I onboard (me right seat, she in the back), then we dropped everyone off but their pilot and me and he gave me the left seat for 3 circuits around the pattern at Rocky Mountain Airport. Unforgettable experience and loads of fun!

Raptor, I agree with you, and I did everything you suggested. Crickets from Mooney and Garmin. It was frustrating but hopeless. The mod works, so I moved on. Can’t change the weather. Joe

Andrew, I have a 2008 Acclaim Type S and I applied the 310hp STC to my bird 3 years ago. No regrets. The increased takeoff and climb performance are breathtaking. As part of the STC, my G1000 was modified to think my plane is a 310hp Ovation, so the maximum redline would go from 2,500RPM to 2,700. My G1000 has an Ovation 3 startup screen instead of the Acclaim startup screen. I didn't like it at first, but I got over it when I climbed out of Aspen on a hot day in August last year at 2,000 fpm. They did add a small secondary tach but it's no big deal. Didn't mess up my panel at all. If you will benefit from the increased climb performance, you should definitely go for it. I think it will add value to my plane if I ever decide to sell. Good luck, Joe