Bennett

I'll be there even if I decide to drive. I'll decide in the morning. I'm looking forward to matching up MS names with real people. The forecast for San Carlos is worse than for Watsonville.

The drop in replacement bulb (nav lights) may not be here yet, but there are "legal" ways to have LED nav lights, strobe lights, and recognition lights, I have them via a 337 form, which may be difficult to obtain in many FISDOs, but mine are certainly "legal" to the FAA. And I understand that I am not the only one who has gone this way to use LEDs for those purposes. I think that LED combination wing tip nav and strobe lights are available under STCs as are LED landing lights. Mine are subjectively brighter than the incandescent units they replace, draw very little power, and in the case of the strobes, I gained a bit of useful load in eliminating the power packs.

You really should become acquainted with all of the features that it has to offer. The ones that I use most are the altitude alert, GUMPS check and Decisioni Height announcement. . I am well aware of the capabilities of the SAM system and initially I used many of its features. But I find it a bit hard to read, and input data where the control head is located, and all I really want is the GPSS steering. The altitude and decision height call outs are good features, and I might go back to using them. Thanks for the reminder

I had my avionics shop add an Icarus SAM for GPSS steering for my GTN 750 / KAP 150 setup. The SAM unit has many features I don't use, but one press of the center button calls out: GPSS STEERING ENGAGED, and when the KAP 150 is in Heading mode, if will follow the flight plans set in the GTN 750. All turns are announced and accomplished smoothly just prior to the waypoint in the flight plan. Great unit.

The 261 and 262 conversions are essentially the same. Mod Works vs Mod Squad. Coy Jacobs vs Tim Combs. I had a 261 for about 18 years. The POH for the 261 was (so far as I know) a reprint of the 252 POH, except all references to 24 Volts. The 261 retained the 231 12 Volt electrical system ( mine had two alternators, and the 231 square windows). It was a great airplane, and at the time of conversion, far less expensive than the then new 252s.

I too have the RoboTow. And I added the wheels as fave others. Just used Lowes wheels and long cable ties. Great unit.

I just have the single bottom antenna installed, and TIS-B works just fine.

One of nice things about SMX is that you can taxi right up to the back door of the Raddison. Lots of tie downs, and the hotel rates aren't bad for those who want to stay over a night. Food is not, in my opinion, spectacular, but that's not the reason for the get together. The terminal at SMX has several brands of rental cars for those who might want to stay over and explore the area. Frankly, I don't care where the meet will be held. Just decide soon, and let us know.

To me, LASAR is the standard to match. Never "cheap", but Paul Lowen and his staff know Mooneys. And Dan in parts is simply amazing. I've been taking my Mooneys to LASAR for over 30 years.

I've done the same thing. I used to visit my daughter often enough that a second (far less expensive) hangar made sense. And it gave me an excuse to store a fully restored '69 Camaro in the hangar, plus having ground transportation. I really hate leaving aircraft outdoors. I know the arguments that for the cost of a hangar you can have aircraft repainted often, and/or use the money to buy avionics, etc. but I think that preserving an aircraft is important. Over the years I have had aircraft on tie downs, and under shade structures, but there is nothing as satisfying as a personal hangar.

Nicest hangar I have seen. But you are missing the recliner or a couch. If I had a couch in the hangar, I'd never leave.

San Carlos,CA. Standard hangar: $741.00 per month. 5-7 year waiting list.

Just me for the 10th.

Well it looks like I will get to meet you all at KSBP on the 10th. Should be fun to put faces (and airplanes) with the Moonyspace "names".

In my experience, KSBP is far enough inland that coastal fog (not usually a problem in January) is gone by 11:00. I've made many trips there (both my kids attended Cal Poly at some point in their college educations) and I only recall a time or two when I had to fly the ILS. But I am certainly open to other locations. Frankly, I think rain is more likely than fog at that time of year. As I said in an earlier post, I would be glad to host a get together at San Carlos, and I think I could arrange a meeting room there if I have a little lead time. For what is worth, San Carlos (KSQL) has two GPS approaches.

Can we settle on San Luis Obispo on the 10th at 11:00 AM (weather permitting). KSBP is about an hour away from most Bay Area airports. Nice easy run down the Salinas Valley, over flying Watsonville, Salinas, King City, and Paso Robles. Coming back up the coast on a sunny day is a real treat. I often meet my So. Cal flying friends at KSBP as it is a reasonable distance from Southern California.

We both slid after the crash, and you are right, it would have been much worse on dry pavement, but then we wouldn't have crashed. This was a 9/10 head on, and we both torqued to a side, which helped. Yet, that huge steel snow plow on the front was heavily dented. I did have the Escape repaired, and the cost was well over $25,000. It was a newly leased vehicle, and if it was "totalled" I would have been thousands of dollars on the back side of the lease. The airbags smell horribly when they go off - almost enough to make you sick. And of course modern cars have crumple zones to absorb energy that we do not have in our aircraft. But, I would still buy airbags for the Mooney if I could.

While airplanes and cars are not the same situation, several years ago I slid on "black ice" and hit a moving snow plow head on. He was sliding as well, and we calculated the closing speed at about 70 MPH, not far removed from GA landing speeds. Totally destroyed the front end of my new Ford Escape, and damaged the snow plow. Anyway, the airbags went off, and neither I nor my passenger were injured. The young lady passenger's necklace was ripped from her neck by the sudden deceleration, and the seat belts held. So, I am a enthusiast for the idea of installing airbags in my aircraft, and frustrated by the fact that Js, Ks, and older are out of the existing STC.

I'd be interested if it were the 10th. My airplane is at LAC Avionics, and I won't have it back until then. San Luis Obispo is a fine place about halfway between northern and southern CA, but there are many other places to meet. A bit further north is Watsonville, or Salinas, and if you want to come up to San Carlos, I should be able to arrange a place for gathering together. The San Carlos flight center is always accommodating, as is the Hiller Museum. A bit of a lead time would be helpful. I would be glad to act as host.

At this point I would be happy to settle for airbags. This should be relatively simple as compared to the whole aircraft parachute concept. And do remember that the chute deployment envelope is narrow. I was about to buy a partnership in a new Cirrus until I read though the chute failures- especially the one over the Sierras out of Reno on a very bad night to fly. The main reason I was considering the Cirrus was the parachute feature- not so much for myself, as reassuring passengers. In the 40 years or so that I have been flying, I've had a few incidents that were life threatening, but none in which a parachute would have improved the outcome. The only situation where it absolutely might make a difference would be in a mid-air. I've owned other aircraft which were flown by other pilots (during or after the end of my ownership), which crashed, and in all three situations, (landings and takeoffs) a parachute would not make up for poor judgement (in my mind; stupidity), but in all three situations an airbag would have mitigated injuries.

Ron, good to see you on the forum. Best of luck on the first flight on the M10 series. I've been trying to get the AmSafe (or other) airbags installed on my J for the last three years. There have Moonspace forum polls that show interest in having such airbags as now available on the newest Mooneys. Anything the factory can do to make these available for earlier M20 series would be appreciated. Apparently Mooney thinks they are a good idea or they wouldn't be on the newest M20s.

Bennet, since it was your engine driven fuel pump working poorly, why is it that when you tried the electric fuel pump on high it didn't help? II did try the two position boost pump. On the high position all it did was to make the engine burble worse, the low position did nothing. When I had the engine driven fuel pump repaired in Palm Springs I had the boost pump replaced as well. I recall a conversation with Coy Jacobs (I know some members of this forum do not like him) who had a similar problem with the two position boost pump in which he had to fly in "ground" effect over the Gulf after his engine driven failed and he tried using the boost pump to provide the fuel. It was not strong enough to develop much power, hence the ground effect flight. It was my understanding that this was a boost pump to augment the engine driven pump, not to replace it.

I hope you were able to reach your dad in time. Congratulations on a successful landing. Getting the airplane back should be of secondary importance. Good to live to fly another day A suggestion about the problem. I once had a failure of my engine driven fuel pump at FL 230 in winter in IMC over Big Bear in California. I lost virtually all power, and mistakingly assumed it was a turbocharger failure. I was concerned that hot gases might be hitting the firewall. In retrospect that would not have been consistent with the loss of power. In trying to regain some power I tried the high position of the auxiliary fuel pump, but that just caused the engine to burble worse. I called LA Center and declared an emergency as I could not maintain altitude. They gave me vectors to Palm Springs, which from FL230 was no problem, and I had already set up my avionics to go there. I was still concerned about flames from a supposed turbocharger failure, and so I used the Commercial Spiral (gear and flaps down, speed brakes out, 50 degrees of bank, and an indicated airspeed of 110 knots) and the ASI hit its max reading of -2,000'/minute. I later calculated the real rate of decent was closer to 3,000'/minute. I broke out at about 3,500 AGL, and seeing that I was right over the field, and having experience dead sticking aircraft from that altitude, I made no attempt to increase what little power I had, if any. I did try the low boost position of the auxiliary fuel pump, but it didn't help. Tower wanted to know what runway I wanted, and that "the field was mine", and did I want the equipment rolled. I said that I would let them know the runway after my last turn. Just rolled level, and made an uneventful landing. I was totally calm during the whole ordeal - remembering my old flight instructor's admonition to just fly the airplane. As luck would have it, as I rolled off the runway, I saw a gentleman rushing out of a hangar to guide me in. Turned out he was the designer of the Continental engine driven fuel pump (this was my old 261 conversion) and in listening to my transmissions to ATC, knew exactly what the problem was. He repaired the pump, and I was back in the air two days later. While I was clearly mistaken in the cause of the engine problem, had I understood that the symptoms I was seeing was most likely an engine driven fuel pump failure, I doubt if I would have done much differently. I tried all the usual things: switch gas tanks, check throttle, mixture, prop positions and check to see if any circuit breakers had popped, but after that it was pretty much where to go, and to talk to LA Center to avoid other aircraft.

When I had my LED wingtip lights installed an inspector from the FISDO came out to the installer's location, and approved the 337 paperwork. Since then, I understand it is ever more difficult to obtain field approval for installations like mine. I believe that Paul at LASAR had done similar installations. I don't know any of the details, but you could call him. I leave the "recognition" and strobe lights on all the time, for every flight, and the HID boom box light in poor visibility, and always in the airport environment. The "recognition" lights run cool - no melting of the plastic lenses, and are bright enough to use as landing lights. I generally keep them in the slow alternating state. Very visible at a distance. Lots of hassle getting them installed, but I think they are well worth the time and trouble. An additional bonus was getting rid of the old strobe power supplies, and their weight.

Its a real hassle, but if you can find a friendly FISDO you might have something like these installed under a 337 form. The Oakland FISDO, for some unknown reason will not approve another one like mine, but these were presented as a "safety" change. The new Recognition lights are sold as landing and or taxi lights for LSAs or Experimentals. I can pulse, alternate, or leave on (all the time) via a rotary switch made for that purpose. They are amazingly bright. I also replaced the strobes and nav lights with LEDs. The sides and back of the unit are made of mirror plastic. I don't know why the FAA is such a problem as these lights are so bright, and draw so little power that using them should be a no brainer.