Bennett

I think that Enterprise is trying to enhance their (historically poor, at least to me) reputation, at a couple of airports I regularly fly to. The folks at Dulles have gone way out of their way to accommodate my request for renting me a specific car, and this has recently also been true at SFO. On the other hand, a "one way" rental I thought I arranged with Enterprise at the Santa Maria(KSMX)terminal turned into a horror show. They misquoted and low balled a one way rental fee, and when I went to return the car at SFO, the Enterprise representative at SFO said that the Santa Maria Enterprise was a franchise, and SFO wanted to charge "their" outrageous one way "additional" fee if I left the car there. That was not going to happen, so I called the Santa Maria Enterprise office who said: "Sorry, we made a mistake, but we can't fix it from here". At that point I lost my cool, and kept working up the chain in command at SFO, and finally a manager said she would issue me an Enterprise dollar certificate, on the spot, in the same amount of the "one way" fee. I accepted it, and it was enough for a couple more Enterprise rentals, but obviously I have been wary about Enterprise since then. The absolute worst rental was from Santa Rosa airport. Avis and Hertz refused to rent me a car at 5:03 PM, although their employees were still at their booths in the terminal. I had just landed, and needed to drive a passenger to a her destination. Santa Rosa was the nearest airport, and the Taxi fare was quoted to me as being over a hundred and fifty dollars. In retrospect,I should have paid it. The car rental booths officially closed at 5:00 PM, and all the respective representatives were just plain horse's asses about it. (I wrote a lot of letters to both Avis and Hertz -no one bothered to reply). Anyway, an off premises rental shop, the only one I could find, was in walking distance. The car was a wreck to start with, and I had to stay overnight in Santa Rosa, as they had no facility, not even a key drop box, to return the car until the following morning. When they finally arrived, an hour past the posted time, they said I was responsible for any number of damaged areas, even though the rust was apparent. They charged my credit cars hundreds of dollars, and I fought back via my credit card company. The bank was great, and ultimately I got back the overcharges, but it was a miserable experience. I think that Alamo and National (both Enterprise companies) have proven the most reasonable for me at least, over minor bumper rash that happens during the rental period.

The flat main gear doors are a plus.

Like others, I travel a lot for business, and rent cars often. I like Alamo (as with National's Emerald club) you can walk about and pick out your car. I always (no matter what the weather) do a walk around, and insist that an employee note, in writing, any damage, scratches, and especially windshield dings. I haven't tried taking photos, but that sounds like a good idea. AOPA has shifted their discount program to Enterprise, and they want you to book through them. I just go direct and use the old discount numbers for all the companies they used to use, and so far that works. Watch out for the "cheaper" companies. I had a blowout on a major highway, changed the left side rear tire myself at roadside in spite of traffic whizzing by, and upon my return I told them that the blown out tire was in the trunk. A few days later they tried to charge me for the tire (full retail that no one pays), and a day's loss of use. I refused to pay, and we fought over this for months, until they gave up. Never had this type of problem with Avis or Hertz.

The major speed gains (my experience - may be different for others) for the M20J come from four areas: The LoPresi cowl, with its great Ram Air box system, overlapping nose gear doors, fairings behind the nose doors, and windshield fairing, a Powerflow exhaust system, a one piece belly pan (consider hiding some antennas by mounting them upside down on the pan), and a two bladed Scimitar prop. Lots of expense for all of these, but you should get some noticeable speed gains from them. Both my current Mooney, and the previous one had all the minor mods, but while in the total they might have added a knot or two, no one of them seemed to make much difference. Don't "stack" the advertised mod speed increases as some advertise. LASAR does great mods, but choose wisely. By the way, The PowerFlow system adds some costs at annual time as some parts require periodic maintenance. Not a deal breaker, but not cheap either. The basic 201 (especially the later versions) are already fairly well cleaned up, and it is hard (and expensive) to make incremental increases in speed. The esthetics and the pleasure of having them is another matter. Personally, a really great paint job brings the most satisfaction.

The door pin is very worthwhile in my experience.

I suggest that you consider mounting an ELT. 406, in the dorsal fin before painting the airplane. Also a good time to move VOR ,blades, into the wing tips I didn't think you will get any speed out of the wheel liners or wing root fairings, although they improve and modernize the looks. Have fun with you project

My POH (1983 M20J) reads: "1900-2000 RPM" for the mag check. I use 2000 RPM as shown on the JPI 830, check for EGT rise as mags are switched, check for RPM drop, and proper Vacuum (I also turn on the auxiliary electric vacuum pump at this time to make sure it will work at high RPMs), and then cycle the prop (three times if cold - twice if already warm). Since I switched to fine wire plugs on the bottom cylinders I have not had any oil fouling from idling.

Never been ramp checked in 30+ years of logged flying. I recently attended a Wings seminar sponsored by a local flight school on the topic. One of the Bay Area FIDOs (I won't mention which one) sent a relatively young, enthusiastic, representative who took a rather positive approach, much like the materials shown at the start of this thread. He talked about correcting minor problems informally, and that the purpose of these ramp checks was to insure safety. About 15 minutes into the presentation, with a lot of relaxed, smiling pilots in the room, an older gentleman, obviously the younger man's superior at the FISDO, essentially, and to the embarrassment of all the attendees, both figuratively and literally, pushed the first presenter aside, and proceeded to tell us that the role of the FAA was regulatory, and that ramp checks were to enforce ALL the rules. Any deviance from a rule would would result in being "violated". Failure to provide this or that would be cause to be violated, and soon it sounded as though he was the master of a seventeenth century English frigate reading the Articles of War to the crew. The tone and temper of the meeting became quite somber, and at the end of the session, during the question and answer period, the remarks were all adversarial, and recounting old unpleasant FAA encounters. Perhaps it is a good thing that many of the older FAA folk will be retiring, and that a new generation of less crusty, and more idealistic personnel will take their place. I am sad that the mission statement of the FAA has dropped the Promote Aviation aspects. At least we have the Pilot's Bill of Rights, which will hopefully prove useful.

I actually think our group is a bit larger - especially when you consider the avionics upgrades that some of the forum members are posting. I hope you enjoy your aircraft as it is now as much as I enjoy mine. Like they say: "You can't take it with you", so enjoy the pleasure of a truly custom aircraft. I wish I had thought of having the console painted the same color as the panel. Dang! Now you have given me another project to think about

I got my notice on Friday for a June one renewal date. Glad I wasn't away travelling or I would have missed the deadline. Any reason the notices could not have been sent out 60 -90 days in advance? Dumb question I guess.

I'll bet there is a lot of crossover with Mooney owners and Harleys. My first bike was a Harley 74 with the side suicide shifter, complete with leather saddlebags and more chrome than I would be willing to polish today. A poll of members might be interesting (also polling the crossover with sailors).

Scott, your numbers are even more "buried" than mine, and moving them forward by raising your color line makes them even more readable, with less curl under. I really like the way the way that the Mooney fleet is becoming more individualistic, at least with paint. Nothing wrong with the factory schemes, but Mooney owners seem to be more willing to make modifications than many other brands(B, C, and P). This was even more apparent in the good old days when the MAPA conventions at Kerrville brought out hundreds of Mooneys, and it was hard to find any that were factory stock.

Be careful with "temporary" vinyl numbers. I had a paint shop make up a "removable" set of 12" numbers as I had my prior monney painted with the 3" numbers. This was for one of my first flights out of the country, and when just prior to leaving the Cayman Islands for Florida, I dutifully unrolled them, and pressed them in position on the fuselage. Sitting in the customs box at Key West, my US POE, I noticed the customs lady frowning at me. When she indicated I could get out of the aircraft, I found that all the numbers had peeled off, with many of them (or parts of them) stuck to the horizontal stabilizer. She gave me ten minutes to fix the problem, so I salvaged what I could, and then used blue masking tape to complete the job. As soon as I returned to the West Coast, I had a (different) paint shop paint on 12" numbers. When painting my current aircraft, I had ArtCraft just paint a two color shadow (gold and silver, the same as the stripes) outline over the base paint color. In my opinion this minimizes the "billboard" aspect of large numbers, and thus far no one has challenged their conformity with the "contrasting" color requirement for numbers. I have had her in and out of the U. S. and Customs never said anything about them. They are certainly readable.

Duplicate - see below

As I've mentioned in another thread, one of the forum members I often fly with in two ship formations has a well modified E - a 201 windshield, one piece belly pan, modified nose bowl, and a few other mods, and a three bladed composite prop. His airplane is lighter than my J model, will outclimb me, and slows down faster than I can, even though I have speed brakes, and I can drop my landing gear at higher speeds. In level flight at a given altitude, I am somewhat faster, but he still beats me on a block basis. Older Mooneys have some advantages, and they certainly are less expensive to buy, and perhaps maintain. Hard to beat the Johnson Bar gear for minimizing complexity. On the other hand, having owned a turbo Mooney in the past, I find that my J model suits my current type of flying, and does so surprisingly economically now that I cruise LOP. (Thanks Knute for teaching this old dog a new trick.) At my usual 7-9,000' cruising altitude, there is little difference in speed as compared to my former 261/262 conversion, and at a lesser fuel burn, and two less cylinders to maintain, let alone the turbo.

Very well done. ArtCraft regularly creates wing walks in aircraft colors. Makes a real difference in appearance. Viewed your album. Congratulations on a successful project.

My (Halon) unit is mounted longitudinally between the seat rails touching the front of the back seat bulkhead. I can reach it easily, but the left rear seat passenger has to step across it. I seldom have rear seat passengers, so the convenience to me trumps the inconvenience to them. Frankly, I don't know what it is bolted to - I assume the floor.: LASAR checked it out initially, and takes it out at every annual, so that location, and how it is mounted must be OK. I also keep a smaller Halon unit in the pilot side foot well pouch.

Hardly Halo worship. I had a good experience, others have not. Must have been lucky. And as I have pointed out several times, all my experiences with Coy were a long time ago. The workmanship was good, the price was fair, and all the work was delivered on time. I have had no other relationship with him except as a customer. I did call him, and many others, a few years years ago when I was looking for a co-pilot articulating seat, but he had none to sell. We had a short polite conversation that must have lasted all of 5 minutes. I'm just reporting my experience, Yes, I have read many comments on this web that paint him as some sort sort of villain, and I am certain that those reporters have reason to be far less than satisfied with him. But I cannot join in a condemnation when my only experiences with him were positive. I have no reason to not believe those have related their bad experiences. People change over time, and I must have known him at a different time, an earlier time. No need to jump on me for telling it the way if was for me.

Over the decades I have bought aircraft from dealers and individuals, and as talked about above, I chose to retain my own representative to aid me for my most recent purchase. In this case Craig, a very successful aviation broker on his own right, also acts on behalf of aircraft seekers- for domestic and overseas buyers. His work is not just looking through ads; he networks with dealers all over the country, as well as chasing individual ads. We spoke almost every day for more than three months culling through available aircraft, and his no bullshit approach and questioning eliminated most potential candidates. There is nothing like a selling broker to see through the exaggeration and misrepresentations that are out there. Like all things, let the buyer beware. Now there are some very good Mooney specialist selling brokers, and certainly AA comes to the top of the list as they only sell top of the line aircraft. I think that if you roll the dice and act for yourself (as I have for more than a few airplanes) understand that you are assuming a considerable capital risk, and that an impartial inspection or examination of the aircraft and logs by a truly knowledgable shop is imperative to your financial well being. There are really good shops (MSCs) in CA and TX that can guide you. There is a saying in the boating world: The best money you will ever spend in your life is for a purchase survey for a boat you decide not to buy. Been there and done that, and it is just as true for aircraft.

Those were "typical" mods for the Mod Squad" and for Mod Works. They were often packaged as "Trophy XXX" mods. The histories of the Mod Squad and the Mod Works can be found in the archives of this forum. While the physical location for both were in Florida, at least one had its legal roots elsewhere, and at one time one of them had a painting facility in the South. In spite of some criticism of one of the owners, my experience with both shops was quite positive, and the 261/262 conversions showed excellent workmanship. Coy Jacobs was the early pioneer in converting older Mooneys to "20X", and to this day I think that he knows as much as anyone about our aircraft and how to modify them. Several members of this forum have vilified him over more recent business practices, but my personal experiences over a decade or so (in the past - around the early 1990s) were fine - good workmanship at fair prices, delivered on time. Many shops (mostly well known MSCs) worked on my 261 in the 15 years or so after the conversion, in CA and TX, and no one at these MSCs ever found anything wrong with the mods or their paperwork.

I believe my avionics shop used regular vertical stabilizer blades, but mounted them inside the wing tips. I seem to recall a lot of grumbling about pulling the coax cables through the wing. It was done at the same time that various antenna were mounted upside down in the fiberglass belly pan to get them out of the air stream. The only one (except the comm antenna) we did not move was the antenna for the stormscope, but that was fairly flat, and location was critical. The old Mod Works in Florida did the work and filed a 337 form.

Priest VOR (near Paso Robles in California) has as its identifier: ROM The FAA must have their own Department of Funny Walks (Monty Python for you younger folk) that names intersections and reporting points.

With the LoPresiti cowl, Power Flow exhaust system, and all the other mods, I can generally achieve 160 KTAS at 7,500' (smooth air, a bit cooler than std), Ram Air open, at about 9.8 GPH LOP. 2550 RPM. A bit faster at much more fuel flow ROP.

Since I have retained my XM subscription, displayed my my Garmin 796, and I have a Garmin GDL88 ADS-B IN/OUT installation displaying on my GTN750 and GTN650 I have had the opportunity to compare the weather displays. In my opinion XM weather is far superior in flight to ADS-B NexGen weather, and worth the subscription cost. NexGen is not worthless, just not a good as XM's presentation, especially for winds aloft, and other XM extensions beyond just the basic weather display. NexGen, at least in my experience is "blocky" in comparison with XM. But the traffic display is where ADS-B IN/OUT really shines. As mentioned in earlier posts I am seeing more traffic on the GTN650 and GTN750 screens than I have ever seen with "eyeballs" alone. Actually awesome, and has been of great value in avoiding potential midairs.

Scott is absolutely right about no expectations of recovering costs for a full "remanufacture", but sometimes an esthetic is the most important consideration. In contrast with some who have chosen to follow this pathway, I do not expect to fly her long enough to reasonably amortize the costs involved. I'm 78 now, and I will "hang up the keys" for the Mooney, at least, when I am 80. Still can pass my aviation physicals, but age just creeps up on you, and I think it prudent to quit "winners" after more than thirty years of accident (and incident) free flying. Still toying with the idea of buying an Ercoupe (LSA version), to keep in a hangar out in the boonies, and just fly her locally, strictly VFR, just to keep a hand in flying in my 80s. A good friend, and A&P, of about my age is willing to maintain her for the consideration of flying her occasionally. A couple of old fogies with many thousands of hours between us just flying low and slow in a simple airplane for the pure pleasure of it has a certain attraction, but not until I have taken my J back across the country a few more times, and then back to the British West Indies, and then to revisit still more places in the Caribbean.