Bennett

The only thing missing is a set of small but very bright LED landing lights in the forward section of their wingtip. I managed to do this in my J via a 337 form. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

LASAR built a prototype tall winglet in fiberglass (I saw it last year), but to my knowledge they never built the matching side to test the effectiveness, nor to pursue an STC. Looked great! I had tall winglets on my DOVA, and spoke at length with the aerodynamicist designer. Mostly he designs sailplanes, and he told me that wind tunnel tests on the DOVA increased speed and climb performance. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'm in the San Francisco Bay Area, and I come up for a Medical next month. My long term AME (40 years) died earlier this year, and so I am thinking that BASIC MED makes sense for me. So I have two questions: Does anyone know if the Kaiser Permanente Northern California program has a policy, positive or negative, about signing the Basic Med forms, And if negative, does anyone know of a qualified physician who would sign the Basic Med form for someone who is not his/her regular patient. For a fee, of course. I don't have a medical problem, but four years sounds advantageous to me, especially at my age. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I use my hangar as an office away from my office when I am in the area, and road traffic is a mess. I also use the "hangar office" for last minute alterations to flight plans, and for post flight internal reviews, aircraft cleanup, logbook entry, and to have coffee or cold beverages after the flight. No Molson (or Coronas), but I do keep non-alcohol St. Paul Girl "beers". Much prefer the real stuff, but not if I am going to fly again soon. Also a great place to visit with aviation friends. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

My two cents..... I prefer the sacred six to tapes. I've had both, and depending on what Garmim does with their experimental line, I might go to tapes again. In the meantime, I'm really happy with this set up. GTN 750, GTN 650, remote audio panel, remote transonder, AERA 796, GDL 88, FlightSteam 210, lifesaver electric back-up AI, electric backup vacuum pump, CYA 100 AOA, Icarus SAM GPSS steering, KAP 150 Autopilot, JPI 830, iPad Mini 4 in yoke mount, and more. (796 replaced 696, GTN 650 replaced 430)

Sounds like fun. I've "tricked out" my most recent hangars with various types of floor covering. These plastic garage squares have worked out better than the outdoor carpets I tried. The carpets were easier on the back, but stained badly. Another Mooniac at KSQL used carpet squares, and they easy to replace as necessary. The plastic squares are also easily replaceable, but they are easy to clean. In past hangars I was able to bring in wi-fi via cable, but not here. I've tried cellular hot spots, but they are too slow. A laptop or an iPad works adequately, and wireless printing takes care of what I need for hard copies. The County inspects the hangar every year, and I've heard no complaints from them. With this setup I can work right up to the time I leave to fly someplace. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

At $741 a month, electricity is "free". Plenty of outlets and excellent overhead lighting. Even so, I have several extension cords with multi-taps and surge protection. Refrigerator, water cooler, outlets for the laptop, iPads, music system, drill press, charger stations and printer. Even keep a couple of heaters for cold (California cold) days. Most of the racks hold miscellaneous aviation related stuff, as do the cabinets. Any Mooniac around KSQL is welcome to stop in. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Quite a few of us on the west coast coordinate through LASAR for annuals and general maintenance. In older times (before liability concerns) it was not unusual to fly your airplane up to LASAR, and bring back someone else's Mooney. Now a days we just catch rides back and forth to LASAR. Works out fairly well. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Being ancient, I have used DECCA, LORAN A, LORAN C, Omega, and a Tamaya sextant for offshore cruising. I've flown ADF approaches, in in marine sailing, bottom contours, visual ranges, and radar. Now GPS makes it almost too easy. My Mooney has two GTNs, a 796, and an iPad mini 4 running ForeFlight. But I glad I know the old systems. If GPS goes down, I can still find a way to navigate. I even learned lifeboat navigation with a piece of folded paper and any weight and a piece of string. And everything else you need can be worked out from a iPhone, without an internet connection. And if all else fails, derive the formulas from trig. Frankly I doubt if any of my kids or grandkids could do this although they all hold advanced degrees. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

But as avioreb points out, she's two dimensional. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Since I had to leave before the prizes were announced, who won what? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Great catching by up with old friends, and making new friends. Sorry we had to leave around 2:00, but my old flying buddy Jim,and I both had afternoon commitments. I wish the new owners success at LASAR. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I plan to be there. I posted a photo to the contest site, but since I am not a member of any social media other than MooneySpace, I don't expect to get very many votes, so for your and my amusement I am posting two photos here. The contest caption is: DON'T MESS WITH BENNETT'S MOONEYS - NOT THE MAMA MOONEY, AND ESPECIALLY NOT THE BABY MOONEY

With my current setup TIS - B traffic is presented on my GTN 750 moving map with alerts, on the GTN 650 (I normally keep the traffic page displayed at the 6 mile range), and the Mini 4 running ForeFlight in moving map mode in its yoke mount. This setup picks up an amazing number of aircraft. I think I have good eyesight, and a good scan habit, but TIS-B shows quite a few aircraft that I miss with eyeballs. Of course once you have altitude, distance, direction of flight information, it is easier to find aircraft in the proximity. I also use the data block to determine the type of aircraft. There have been several instances when I have deviated in direction or altitude to avoid traffic that was not following the hemispheric rules, or aircraft whose course was erratic. All in all, I feel safer with ADSB. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I've changed N numbers for most of the airplanes I have owned. I like numbers ending in BB because they are my initials. My current Mooney is N335BB. If I can't remember this number, time to hang up the keys. 3 for March, 35 for year of birth, BB for my initials. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Got my T-Shirts today - I ordered an extra one for a friend. Looking forward to the event at Lampson Field. Just Saturday for me. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

As I recall ArtCraft had an included number of hours for "body work" in their price quote. In my case there was no excess charge so I have no idea how many hours they might have expended in smoothing, etc. To be fair, the airplane had been painted only a few years before I decided I wanted to have her painted in the way I wanted, and there were no visible dings or dents that I could see before I brought her to ArtCraft. From my visits to Santa Maria during the painting process I did see areas of fill and smoothing, but in all honesty I don't know if it was ArtCraft or the previous painter who did the body work. What I do know is that the airplane leaving ArtCraft was fantastic with no runs, holidays, or smears in the complex multicolor paintwork. And the airbrushing work was amazing. I've had other aircraft painted, and in each case there was some bodywork. My DOVA was brand new when I had the European dull white paint completely removed before being repainted. There was a good deal of fairing and smoothing done at that time, so I guess most airplanes will have some bodywork as part of a repaint. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'm west coast, and I didn't receive my free shirt, or the ones I ordered to give to Mooney friends. Bummer! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I've been doing that for as long as I have been flying (and that's a very long time). Not only to check the mags, but to make sure the p lead grounds out properly. I will not touch the prop after shutting down unless I have done that mag check. On my J the prop generally stops in a vertical position, and I need to rotate it to essentially a horizontal position for my RoboTow to engage the front wheel. My ancient instructor taught me to do that 90 degree rotation opposite to the engine running rotation "just in case" the magnetos were not grounded. I go back to the days of hand propping our old rag and tube taildraggers, and I have learned to respect how easily a magneto engine can start. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I was one of the very first subscribers to ForeFlight and while I have tried several others (Garmin Pilot as the main competitor in my eyes) I personally regard ForeFlight to be the one for me. They update constantly, and their feature set meets my requirements. My avionics are primarily Garmin, and I use their FlightStream 210 to allow communication between the GTNs, GDL 88, and my yoke mounted iPad Mini 4 running ForeFlight. I use the Mini primarily for a Sectional presentation as I prefer their dark color Special Use area depiction to the lighter colors on the Garmin boxes. For what is worth (overkill for sure, but very useful) I use the GTN 750 as my primary moving map, the 650 for traffic display and VORs, the panel mounted 796 for XM weather, and general data display. Lots of useful information with redundancy available. ForeFlight allows three devices under their subscription, and so I have the iPad Mini 4, my iPad 3, and my iPhone 7+ all loaded with the most current data. On my most recent flight I forgot to bring my Mini 4 from its charger in the hangar, so I just put my iPhone 7+ in the yoke mount, and it was fairly easy to read in that position. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I did my Commercial in my 261 conversion. Glad I did so as I once had an emergency and used the Commercial Spiral to get me down through the clouds (I was at FL230 in IMC when the emergency started). Being familiar with that maneuver in the same airplane I trained in was a confidence builder. All worked out fine as I broke out at about 3000' and made it to a paved airport. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I've flown tower fly-bys on two occasions where I had concerns about the gear being down. Once in a Beech Sierra where I could not get 3 green lights in the panel (proved to be a defective micro switch on one main gear), and in my current Mooney that had a bent gear rod after retraction, and I had to recycle the gear several times) In neither case was this this a dangerous maneuver. I flew down the runway at about tower height, and at normal pattern speed. The tower staff used binoculars and reported that all three gear were down, and appeared normal. In each case I went around the pattern and landed as smoothly and slowly as I could. The fire truck stood by, and in neither case was there a collapse. Letting the tower know there was a potential problem, and soliciting their help in observing the gear, put notice to the rescue unit to stand by, and the tower staff to give me Priority in landing with plenty of space from other aircraft. I do agree that air to air observation can be dangerous without formation flying experience. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

So far Dynon hasn't added Moony to their STC listing, but I suspect they will in the not too distant future. As I posted earlier on MS, I've had several years flying behind their older SkyView glass screens, and found them to be excellent units. It will soon be even more interesting if and when Garmin decides to STC their G3X in more aircraft (currently only the certified Carbon Cub - see the announcement). A choice between the new Dynon SkyView and the Garmin G3X would be difficult for me, at least. Either way I would remove the vacuum system including the backup electrical vacuum pump in the tail one. I think I could save over 25 pounds when all the piping and wiring are included. I would also replace my KAP 150, with its trouble prone servos, and the expensive to repair BK AI. I could also remove my Icarus SAM GPSS steering unit, making for a simpler panel. To be consistent in presentation the LifeSaver electrical backup would be replaced by either a G5, or D-10. Just when I thought my panel was complete for my needs...... But, realistically I can't even start until Garmin and Dynon expand their approved lists to include M 20Js. As much as I like Dynon, I think that at a reasonable price differential I would go with Garmin simply because my current panel includes a Garmin GTN 750, GTN 650, remote Garmin transponder, remote Garmin audio panel, Garmin GDL 88 ADS -B in/out, Garmin FlightSteam 210, and a Garmin 796 in an AirGizmo panel mount. I do prefer ForeFlight to Garmin Pilot though, and FlightStream works just fine with ForeFlight. I have a tentative November booking with my avionics shop if the Garmin STCs are in place by then. I guess I'm just an avionics "junky". But I do think all this data integration makes for a safer, more redundant panel. TIS-B traffic alerts sure are a great augmentation to looking out the windows. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I sold my DOVA about three years ago, and at that time the charts (and updates) were provided without cost. At least that is my recollection. I look back and think about the thousand dollar plus annual subscription costs I have paid to Bendix/King, and Jeppesen, and by those standards, the new Dynon charges seem very reasonable. For what it is worth, I coupled the Dynon SkyView units with a TruTrac autopilot as Dynon had not yet introduced their own autopilot. The TruTrack unit (two axis) was superlative, and absolutely reliable, and service free. One of the reasons I bought the DOVA was to utilize low cost experimental avionics. Again at that time, two Dynon SkyView glass panels, with all the options available then, and the TruTrac autopilot, totaled less than $9000. I had a new custom panel created (even though was a brand new aircraft), and so it is hard to break out the installation costs for the Dynons of and TruTrac autopilot, but it would be far less than equivalent certified avionics. Yes, this was a fully coupled IFR aircraft (but the Rotex engine was not the IFR version - not an unusual situation with LSAs). Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I had the older Dynon SkyView glass screens in my DOVA LSA. No problems in the units except for a failed backup battery that was replaced at no cost to me. Many updates to software and hardware. - all free. Nice to see that there is competition coming for our avionics. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk