Joe Zuffoletto

When flying in Wyoming, it's crucial to consult the local windsock.

Wing walk stain removal complete. It was spilled engine oil that caused the stain. My Acclaim has adhesive wing walk material that just got dirty over time. I applied WD-40 with a scrub brush, then washed it off with dish soap and water and rinsed. My wing walk is now like new. Before and after pics appear below.

Sorry to hear that. Bay Tours are stone simple. Maintain VFR below 3000' and you can go almost anywhere you want. I flew mine today at 2,500' and didn't even talk to ATC. As long as you remain outside the class Bravo and don't hit anyone, they'd prefer to not even hear from you. BTW, I'm not being cavalier. Been doing it for 35 years, and I've spoken to controllers who would validate what I'm saying. You need to be vigilant for other traffic on weekends, but on weekdays there is remarkably little traffic over the bay. Nothing at all like the Hudson in NYC.

I'm very confident it was the engine oil I spilled on the wing walk when I was prepping the plane to fly to CA two months ago. It's a long story, but it happened for a reason. Not fuel. If it was an active fuel leak it would have been wet, it would have smelled, and a dry paper towel would have picked it up. Negative on all counts. Didn't try the lighter trick Not TKS fluid. That stuff is viscuous like snot and this stain was dry. The wing walk is now clean and dry, and the stain is gone. I'm here for 5 more days and we'll see if it reappears. I'll post updates. After cleaning her up, we took to the skies. Magnificent chariots, these Mooneys

That's funny! It's not bumpy where my Mooney is now.

Thanks, everyone, for your thoughtful responses! This really is an amazing community. Mooney support told me today that there's nothing inside the wing at that location that could leak. Not fuel, not TKS. I read on another thread that some have cleaned their wing walks with WD-40 with good results, so I gave that a shot and damn, the wing walk looks like new! I didn't have my camera with me so I'll post "after" pics in a couple days. About two months ago I did spill engine oil there but I immediately cleaned it off with dish soap and hot water and everything looked fine. The stain didn't develop for a couple of weeks and that's what threw me off. I guess the oil soaked into the wing walk material and gradually caused the stain to develop. Thanks again for all your suggestions.

Keep the good ideas coming! I'm heading to the airport this afternoon to investigate further.

The maintenance facility at my airport thinks it's fuel. It's definitely not a leaky hangar roof. It's dry season out here. Also, I tried to scrub it off but then it came back. I'll shoot the photo to Mooney and see what they think.

In the past month or so I've developed a fuel stain on my wing walk. Darn. Guess I'll be resealing at my next annual in a few months. Any danger in operating the plane in this condition?

I took the light gun test at San Jose International Airport back in 1987, along with another subject. On many occasions we both gave different answers, but we both passed and got our SODAs. Nevertheless, I don't trust my ability to fly under light control. About 15 years ago I was descending over the CA central valley and lost all electrical power in my Encore. I was on an instrument flight plan, heading to Napa in mid-afternoon in VFR conditions. Realizing that Napa tower would probably bust out the light gun for me, I radioed ATC before my battery died and explained my colorblindness situation. I requested a clearance to land at Napa from 90 miles out, and it was granted!

Another +1 for the PowerTow 40 gas model. Mine's been working like a charm for 15 years.

As is the TSIO 550G in my Acclaim. 9 years of flawless performance, including a beautiful flight today.

Sad all around. There's an old saying that some pilots know their next flight will be their last, as when they're retiring, and some pilots don't, as when they perish unexpectedly. Don't know what else to say. Godspeed to our fellow pilot gone west.

I didn't realize this. Maybe I'll give the Halos a try too.

Our hearing is being assaulted from all directions. In my case, flying is one of the least of them. There are 8,760 hours in a year. I fly 80 hours in a good year. So the damage I'm doing to my ears in airplanes is less than 1% of the total damage my ears are exposed to in a year. And I do the best I can to mitigate that damage. Sirens. Loud motorcycles and cars. Workplace surprises (construction sites). I'm exposed daily to all the above. And then there's occasional loud music, like the 3 nights I spent in Nashville last month. We should all try our best to protect our bodies and senses the best we can. But we are all assaulted every day from all directions, and flying airplanes with any kind of noise reduction or passive protection is probably the least of our worries. Having said all that, nels, I appreciate your concern and your posts. I don't know your age, and it's none of my business, but I think Mr. Muncy is right. Hearing loss is an indisputable and unfortunate by-product of aging. There is a lot of anecdotal evidence in my family to support that. I'm the only pilot in my family, and so far my hearing is normal. But I'm a spring chicken at 53. Cheers to all.

I've been flying with Zulus for at least 10 years, and Bose A20s for 7 years before that, and have never experienced hearing loss or tinnitus. As soon as I turn my Zulus on, the background noise goes quiet and I can hear the radio perfectly. We've obviously had opposite experiences, for whatever reason.

I think it's a matter of personal preference. I bought the Clarity Alofts a couple years ago and really tried to like them, but at the end of the day I preferred my Lightspeed Zulus, which were quieter and had better sound quality.

Wow, that Spitfire accelerated like it was shot out of a cannon. Awesome!

Some factors that may contribute to what the OP observed: Much of the eastern US is flat as a pancake (Appalachians and some other ranges excepted, of course). Very little of the western US is. Lower elevations back east mean lower groundspeeds for off-airport landings. The opposite is true out west. It's hard to exceed a NA airplane's capabilities in the low elevations and predominantly low DAs back east. In Colorado, especially in the summer, it's hard NOT to exceed those capabilities. Yesterday it was 100F in Denver and the density altitude at Denver Centennial was nearly 10,000'. Many NA planes on the field couldn't even take off! These are just my anecdotal opinions on the matter, as someone who has traveled all over the US. Fly safe!

I'm sure that adding the second door had a marketing aspect to it, but it also made possible the center console with the FMS keypad, which I think is a big plus. However, I would have preferred that they stuck with one door and had a fold-down keypad, like the Eclipse jet. Like others have mentioned, I find it much easier to climb out of the left seat than the right seat of my TN. Another aspect is drafts and wind noise. I'd prefer they be on the other side of the cabin.

I toured the factory back in 2004, when it was still in full swing before the shutdown. Mooneys back then were built by hand, and I don't suspect a whole lot has changed. I do know this: I've flown a lot of GA aircraft over the last 32 years, and none were built better than my Acclaim.

A few years ago, shortly after MJ was legalized in Colorado, I briefly put my RV-8 up for sale. A gentleman from Lincoln, NE flew out one Saturday morning to have a look. He stayed for about an hour, then flew back to Lincoln. He called me that night to tell me that he was met by DEA agents when he landed. They suspected that he was making a weed run to Colorado. Pretty scary how closely we're being watched out there.

Cirrus brought their entire lineup of aircraft to my home drome a couple weekends ago, including the jet. The jet is definitely impressive. I sat in the front and the back and was blown away by how roomy it is. And I'm sure it's easier to fly than my Acclaim. I always thought that I would only give up my Acclaim for a TBM or a PC-12, but now there's this jet that sits right in between. Very interesting.

Mooneymite got it right. There's a clown at Petaluma, also in his 70s, who pulls all kinds of shenanigans every time he flies. One of his favorites is to do a low pass over the runway (50' AGL or less) with smoke on while people are waiting to take off. How considerate.

In small planes like Mooneys I've never heard of anyone doing it any other way besides NE North America to Greenland, Iceland and then Europe, except that some pilots go from North America to the Azores instead. I always figured the ferry pilots go where the airports are.