Bennett

Would I buy a brand new Mooney when I can, and have, completely refurbished a well maintained J. I doubt it, as customizing an older airframe got me exactly what I want. Not a choice between limited factory "option packages". The paint and interior are as custom as I wanted. No dealing with allowable colors and paint schemes. The panel is very personal to me, and for the type of flying I to do today. All sorts of aftermarket "stuff" on N335BB including a LoPresti cowl and a fair number of LASAR goodies. All of this at a cost that I am sure is considerably less than a quarter of what Mooney would have to charge for a new J. Hence the problem for Mooney. There are quite a few refurbishment programs out there . Beechcraft has one. Twin Commanders have at least one refurbishing house. I believe Mooney could do a great job with Js and Ks, creating semi-custom rebuilds. The Js could easily be brought up to MSE standards (and gross weight), while Ks all become 252s with their 28,000' service ceilings. I still prefer my custom work, but I could be tempted by a factory refurbished Mooney with a reasonable warranty.

Another interesting navigational (and safety) idea was tried out by the Coast Guard at Sandy Hook. As I recall, the idea was that the Coast Guard broadcasted a radar image of the local area on an "unused" UHF channel (remember those), and any boater, sailor, etc. could pick up the image on a cheap battery powered portable TV. The sailor could either maneuver in a circle, thus identifying himself, or use a transceiver sold for the purpose of creating a momentary "blip" that could be seen on the portable TV screen. Great idea for finding harbor entrances, or avoiding other vessels in fog, or at night without everyone buying and learning to use their own radar. Really helpful for small boats. The project was killed, as I understand it, by the FCC, and the TV media who feared they might lose some broadcast bandwidth. It is easy to envision how this could have been expanded for aircraft by broadcasting ATC radar images, and receiving them in the cockpit on inexpensive portable TVs. I'm sure there are some technical problems (other than the FCC) with this idea, but ADS-B in/out is hardly simple. A early WAAS like system was also used by the Coast Guard at some US harbors, when GPS signals were still "dithered", and the CG would broadcast a delta correction, much like WAAS. Receivers for the delta signal were available at most marine stores. Have to love the idea that one federal agency deliberty degraded the GPS signal, while another federal agency corrected for the dithering.

In case you were curious: "A number of insurers are involved in insuring the aircraft, with coverage totaling $2.3 billion. Dow Jones says AIG has the largest portion of the risk at $100 million." Most of the cover is for Bodily Injury and Property Damage, with Crew Coverage and Hull coverages at what would appear to be adequate limits. Commercial airliner insurance rates have dropped appreciably in the last several years, and the industry has enormous capacity available. Even the corporate jet market rates are low, and it is not difficult to obtain very high liability limits for jets used in business. Satori, my company, is a risk management consultancy, and working with competent brokers, one of our clients who owns two corporate jets in support of their businesses is insured at the $200,000,000 "smooth" level, with more available if desired.

From Associated Press: The autopilot was switched off at about 1,600 feet as the plane began its final descent, according to an account of the last 82 seconds of flight provided by Hersman. Over the next 42 seconds, the plane appeared to descend normally, reaching about 500 feet and slowing to 134 knots (154 mph), a 777 pilot for a major airline familiar with Hersman's description told The Associated Press. The pilot spoke on the condition of anonymity because his company had not authorized him to speak publicly. But something went wrong during the following 18 seconds. The plane continued slowing to 118 knots (136 mph), well below its target speed of 137 knots (158 mph) that is typical for crossing the runway threshold. By that time, it had descended to just 200 feet. Eight seconds later, with the speed still falling, Hersman said, the throttles were moved forward, an apparent attempt by the pilot to increase speed. But it was too little, too late. Five seconds later, at 50 percent power, speed began to increase. A key question raised by the NTSB's account is why two experienced pilots - the pilot flying the plane and another supervising pilot in the other seat - apparently didn't notice the plane's airspeed problem. Part of the answer to that question may lie in whether the pilot flying, after switching off the autopilot, still had the plane's autothrottle engaged during the descent. Aviation safety experts have long warned that an overreliance on automation is contributing to an erosion of pilots' stick-and-rudder flying skills. It's too soon to say if that was the case in the Asiana crash, but it's something NTSB investigators will be exploring, they said.

Newest NTSB report: Airspeed was 106 Kts at impact. Normal approach speed 137 Kts. If approach speed was 1.3 Vso, then Vso would be 105.38 Kts. No wonder the stick shaker was, well, shaking. Anyone know what the Vso would be for a 777 at light weights (fuel having been burned well down for this long trip)?

Don. A congressman interviewed on a local TV station blamed sequestration for the diversion of funds from airport construction projects to fund the tower controllers. Just wait until next week. Not a political statement, just a comment about how congresspersons and senators of both parties like to get in front of the media cameras and babble away about topics they do not know about. At least the congressman on local TV was a member of a transportation committee, and seemingly knew a good deal about aviation, and airport improvement funding.

Fold down seats and removable rear seat backs in the later J models are a pleasure to use for two people with lots of gear. Paul. at LASAR, built a articulating rear seat back for my 261 that worked well for my long trips. I could take out the rear seat bottoms (I think we made these as split seats) and fold down the back part to form a reasonably flat floor for baggage and gear. The key was the articulating hinging that Paul designed.

Jose. I live in the hills to the west of KSFO, about 5-6 miles away, and I fly out of KSQL which is about 7 miles to the south, and borders the bay via a slough. I have seen very little, if any, bird activity at either airport in the last several days. I often walk the Bay Trail which is just that, a very popular paved trail/walkway that (this leg) starts just south of KSFO. One can clearly see the approach ends of R29 R&L. Great fun to see the lumbering jets taxi out to the end and take off. 29 R&L are normally only used by the "Heavy" jets, 777, 747, 380 Etc. for takeoff. Under normal (northerly) winds, just about everyone lands on the 29s. Smaller jets use the two cross runways for takeoffs, and it is a great display of ATC/Tower choreography to watch the process of planes taking off on the cross runways as aircraft are landing on 29 R&L. I taken my Mooneys into SFO on rare occasions, and I have landed(at Tower request) well down one of the 29s as taxi takes forever to get to the GA (read jet) terminal. Several witnesses on this Bay Trail, and in the adjacent hotels, observed the crash 777 as being low on the approach, and an erratic flight path. You don't have to be a pilot to see deviations from the norm, as aircraft are always landing, often parallel, and taking off. Two minutes apart seems to be the normal separation, and from the Bay Trail I tend to count (for fun) how many aircraft I can see at the same time, and 10 or12 are not unusual, and this only counts KSFO, and not KOAK, directly across the bay for jets. I expect that someone will soon show up with a video of the actual crash. On this trail I often see tourists videotaping landings on the 29s. I hate typing on iPhones with my big fingers.

For anyone, including us GA folk, would lose the vertical needle for staying on the "proper" glide path, hand flying or on autopilot. KSFO glide slope is 3 degrees.

Just heard that ILS was not working because of construction. Good visual weather conditions, but vertical guidance was lacking. News reports 2 dead, and forty "critically" injured. Many others were injured to some degree. There is very little distance between the rock seawall and the start of the runway. There is a FAA mandate to increase the "safety" zone between the sea wall and the runway - most likely by increasing the length of the runway and increasing the existent displaced threshold for 29 R & L

Preliminary reports suggest that most passengers escaped major injuries. Eyewitnesses say aircraft struck approach end of runway, breaking off tail, then bounced, hit a wing that partially broke off, and bounced again, perhaps rolling. Missed a United Airlines 747 on the parallel runway waiting to take off. All this is preliminary. Looks like the aircraft landed well short of the approach end of the runway. It caught on fire, but the slides were successfully deployed. Photos now showing up on CNN.

I have a 796 in an Air Gizmos panel mount on the co-pilot side of the panel. I do have to lean just a bit to choose functions, but that really isn't a problem. I can easily see the screen, and I use various pages and maps as a useful augmentation to my other instruments.

Good advice from Cyberwatch: Avoid accessing e-mail from strange places. Most kiosks, cybercafes and other public access terminals are riddled with viruses and spyware, monitoring all your keystrokes and sending them to their masters. If you still had to use such services, change your password at the earliest from your home computer. It would not surprise me that both my fiends in London and Madrid used their laptops is a public place using a local wi-fi internet connection. Interesting that this scam is called: The London Stolen Wallet Scam. In hotels in the US I use my (unlimited) LTE connections in preference to the hotel wi-fi connections (which can be costly), and I never (almost never) use airport or public access wi-fi. Just as paranoid as many of our Mooney folk.

I've received two almost identical emails "from" friends that said they were in London (Madrid) and their wallet was stolen, with all their credit cards, and they could not reach their families as they were on separate vacations, and would I wire them $1000 immediately to some hotel desk with the following number. My immediate thought was this is an obvious scam, but I knew my friend was in London on business. I tried calling his home, and there was no answer. Fortunately, i called a mutual friend, and he too, had received an identical email. I ended up calling my friend, in London, on his cell phone, and he was shocked to hear about these emails . Turns out that quite a few people on his email contact list were receiving that same email. Fairly sophisticated scam to wait until he was in London to send out the emails, making the story sound plausible. Because he was a good friend, and the fact that I knew he was in London, I would have wired the money. The second time I received a similar letter it was again from a friend who I knew was in Madrid. I just sent that one to Junk, and called him on his cell phone. Again, he had no idea that emails were going to his contact list. All I can say is use firewalls, and use virus filters to scan your computers as often as you can stand. Last week, my personal business computer (but not the LAN) had been infected by a nasty virus that three different anti-virus programs could not detect, let alone remove. I had to call in professional (read expensive) help to rid the computer of this virus.

The market is quite limited for those over 75, even with thousands of hours of accident free flying, instrument, and commercial ratings. There is availability in some markets. Avemco does not seem to restrict by age, but they require annual "BFRs" and annual medicals. QBE, as an emerging market, is far less restrictive, and less expensive, but finding "Smooth", or limits higher than $1,000,000, even with per seat, or per passenger limits, are unavailable for us oldsters. (unless we fly jets). Kind of perverse in that experience can get one out of trouble in situations where newer pilots might fail. Also, following Darwin, by the time you are my age, most of the "hotshots" have done themselves in. Nowadays I fly smarter than in the past, and I am far more likely to avoid really bad weather, or when I feel the conditions are marginal at best. Like they say: "Done that", and now I don't have to prove anything to anyone; especially myself. Insurance companies like to pull out statistics to "prove" older pilots are somehow dangerous, but having employed actuaries for many years, I know I can get opinions that are slanted to whatever outcome I want. I have the hull coverage I want, but when I was younger (and crazier), I had no problem buying $5,000,000 smooth liability limits. Now I am stuck with $1,000,000/ $100,00 per person limits. Not pleased about that.

Suggestion: While you are checking cables, check your throttle and propeller cables as well. I had a throttle cable break off on takeoff some years ago. It was in the 261, and it was my habit to start with full boosted MP, and pull back an inch or two as the aircraft accelerated down the runway to avoid overboost. After liftoff and at about 50' or so, I pulled back "a bit" more on the throttle as boost was still near redline, and the knob and an inch or two of the cable top came off in my hand. Killed the mixture and managed to get back on the ground, on the brakes -hard, and managed to stop at the very end of the runway. This was at Little River, CA, which is 5,280' long. My home airport, KSQL, is 2,600' long, so I consider myself very lucky that the cable broke where and when it did. As I recall, the weld at the end of the cable, where it meets the knob mechanism (solid rod) broke. No warning, it just broke, and without undue pressure. I have often thought about what I would have done, had the aircraft been much higher, or if it broke when preparing to land.

I think having an aircraft that fits your current needs and wants makes sense. Both Js and Ks are fine aircraft (I've had them both), and when I bought my newest Mooney, I though long and hard about what I really want to do with the aircraft for 99% of the time I fly. I decided on the relative simplicity, and a bit lower maintenance costs, of the J. No regrets, as this airplane has fully met my expectations. No doubt there will be sales tax and unknown expenses in changing aircraft, but long term, you will have the airplane you feel most comfortable with.

I once owned a Cessna 172 that had a nose wheel collapse and it had a bent firewall. I bought a Cessna 172 fuselage that was in perfect shape, and my mechanic transferred everything over to the new fuselage It all went very well, and after a new prop, overhauled engine, and a great paint job, provided many years of safe and pleasurable flying. Also, a good friend, an A&P, turned three Cessna 150s into one great fun personal aircraft. He let me use that airplane whenever I wanted, and I never had any qualms about flying her. As DaV8or says, it is the quality of the work that is important, and the integrity of the "rebuilder". I keep telling Paul and the folks at LASAR they should make up a sticker/plate that reads: Remanufactured by LASAR.

Yesterday, a twin reported a 5 mile straight in. The TIS-B traffic in my Mooney showed him 10+ miles out. This a towered field, and following tower's instructions, I had reported downwind. Tower instructed me to extend my downwind, and that he would call my base. The twin was not only further out than he reported, and we all know how fast Mooneys are. When tower finally turned me to base I was almost 7 miles from the airport. My point being, with all this GPS stuff there is no reason to report incorrect distances ( and directions) from an airport. I don't believe the tower.controller had independent radar, and so I guess he took the twins report as accurate. Seven mile finals with good size hills close to the flight path are ridiculous.

Quite a few of us arrange services-annuals, oil changes, etc. on a schedule so that the pilot leaving his airplane catches a ride back in an airplane just finished. I've done this more than a few times in both directions. If that doesn't work, there is Enterprise that will pick you up at Lampson field. Frankly, I always felt the location at Lakeport was inconvenient, but the work is great, the people are great, and I've met a few interesting Monney owners in the process. In the old days, before we were all so concerned about liability issues, we used to ferry aircraft to and from LASAR, to help out with scheduling services. I don't even mind staying overnight - same motel as mentioned above- right on the lake.

I've been taking my Mooneys to LASAR for over thirty years. Paul and his staff have always come through for me, no matter what the problem. There is nothing cheap about that operation. You pay top dollar, and get top workmanship and workable parts. Above all, Paul knows Mooneys, and his whole staff is not far behind - better watch out Paul, Mike and Dan are catching up with you. They have been building Mooneys out of parts for years, and there are always a few wings and fuselages back of one of the hangars waiting for the quiet times to rebuild them. I would have no hesitation in buying one of their "constructions". Nothing would be hidden in the transaction, and the aircraft would be like a newly manufactured aircraft. Over the years I have seen several of these, and with good paint and avionics, they are great airplanes. The difference between Paul and the shops that sell junk airplanes to unwary buyers comes from LASAR's honesty and the quality of the work. Without Paul and his STCs and PMA.parts we would have a harder time keeping our old Mooneys flying. There are other good MSCs, but it is hard to beat Paul's Depth of knowledge.

Another plus for ArtCraft. I don't mind the expense if it is commensurate with quality and careful attention to details like sealing seams when stripping. I was really impressed with them when I saw the ailerons, flaps, gear doors, etc all being paired separately. The final "Wow" came when I saw they painted my exact upper wing design on the bottom of the wings - something I had not contracted for, or expected.

Comity anyone? Sometimes funny in a weird way, but this is supposed to be a Mooney forum, You know, engines, airframes, helping one another solve problems, and all that. Don't kill the messenger, but its time to knock it off for this thread.

Great panel. LIke your layout. Did you keep the AI as a vacuum unit, or is this an electric AI?

Didn't mean to sound as though I thought you were exaggerating. I was hoping you had some sort of secret you could pass along to us fellow J owners . I was once a speed freak with my former Mooney, but now with my current airplane I prefer to fly at less than oxygen altitudes. Yet, I want to fly as efficiently, and quickly as possible, with a nod towards faster is better, even if I have to burn a bit more fuel. On longer flights such as San Carlos, CA to Scottsdale, AZ, I am willing to go well LOP, and give away a few knots to avoid an interim fuel stop. On short Hamburger Runs, I sometimes will run ROP, simply because I want to to go a bit faster, and I enjoy the relative speed increase. No one pays me to fly, and increasingly I use commercial air for business, so I am left with (Yea!) pure pleasure flying, and so my Mooney is a "toy" to enjoy, and I would rather spend more money on her than anything else I can think of. (Old age does that to you). Anyway, have fun and enjoy life no matter what speed you fly at. And, if you can really do 167 Kts TAS, please let us know how you do it.