moodychief

Left Saint Louis this morning heading for Oshkosh. Stopped in Rochelle, IL for fuel. They have a restaurant on the field open 11:00 am - 10:00 pm over the weekend. It is not just a burger joint. My wife had pan seared fish tacos and I had grilled chicken Caesar salad. Refueled and stuffed, only 120 more miles to go. We hIghly recommend this stop.

Jon, PM me the list of equipment/avionics and I will spread the word. There is a reserve 130 driver that may be ready to get out of his old C-172 and into a traveling machine!!

I plan on attending the social gathering and Mooney events. My schedule didn't allow me to make the Formation Clinic in Texas. I guess that excludes us from the Caravan BBQ? I am arriving OSH Thursday morning. I will try to capture video of the Caravan arrival on Sunday.

Can we just get back to the subject? Has anyone considered this journalist may be a hired gun for the airlines? The airlines may feel threatened since they are losing business travelers to GA due to the airlines no longer arriving on schedule to the destinations? What better way than to scare them back to the airlines by tugging on the emotional strings of family members of frequent GA travelers.

Do you have to bust it LOP or ROP?

Did the fighter jets ever actually catch the "fast" little Mooney?

The flight back was good. We left at 6:30 am to get ahead of the heat and arrived home around 1:45 pm with one fuel stop. El Paso was forecasted for 106 yesterday. It was pretty hazy when we took off as the visibility was only 30 miles! My biggest concern during the whole trip was not to get into Mexico airspace when traveling the victor airway to/from Columbus to/from El Paso. As a side note, my uncle (lives in Az) used to fly and told me how claustrophobic he felt the first time he flew east and the visibilities were only 10 miles. He said he couldn't see anything until he was right on top of it. By the way, Cutter Aviation gives a 60 cent per gallon discount on the weekends. That put the fuel at $5.91 per gallon which was a nice surprise.

This is a quick trip. i will be attending a retirement party in El Paso and thought I would buzz over to see my aunt and Uncle in Willcox, AZ since I would be so close. During my initial planning I was going to fly into Horizon since it was closest to my friends house. Much to my surprise, Horizon closed in April. I was told some real estate developer has taken it over to develop after the owner died. Thanks everyone for the comments. I was reading them on my stops. Left out of Arkansas early in the morning with misty rain and 600-800 ft ceilings. Climbed to 12,000 feet for the trip to Abilene, Tx. Fort Worth approach gave us a routing change to keep us further north of the approach gates for DFW. The clouds didn't clear out until 25 minutes from Abilene. Abilene to El Paso was noneventful and pretty smooth until we got within 2,000 feet of traffic pattern. Left out of El Paso by myself in the heat of the afternoon. Density altitude was 7,900 feet. Initial climb was pretty anemic but after getting a little altitude, I put my glider skills to work maximizing the energy of the thermals. The ride to Willcox was just that...a real ride!!! A couple of times the thermals were so strong I had a closed throttle, pushing nose down and was still climbing 400 fpm!! My biggest concern was to make sure I didn't cross into Mexican airspace on the initial leg out of El Paso. Even though I drank a lot of water while flying, I still felt slightly dehydrated upon reaching Arizona. I file IFR on all of my flights because I enjoy being in the system and having an extra set of eyes to alert me on traffic. I am heading back to El Paso today and on to Arkansas tomorrow. A quick trip with lots of flying! I have been burning around 9 GPH. Full throttle and 2400 rpms. What would have been a 15-16 hour trip to El Paso in a car we did in 6 1/2 hours (including time on ground for fuel stop) on 54 gallons of fuel.

Tomorrow I will be flying to El Paso and Arizona in my C model. These will be the highest elevation airports I have ever flown into. It also will be the farthest west I have flown. I am looking forward to this new adventure. Does anyone have any tips for departing El Paso airspace, climbing and departing to the west to Arizona? Should I file IFR or VFR?

Cody, can you PM your phone number to me. I want to discuss having you look at my propeller possibly in June.

If you have taken your seat apart you ought to think about doing the modification piperpainter did that allows the back seat to flip down for carrying oversized items.

+1 for WingX!!!

How many had their airplane make it to homecoming without them? Due to work I was unable to attend this year but let a "F" owner and a "J" owner, that both had props off their planes, take my real pilot "C" model (no autopilot) as their chariot to homecoming. I heard some didn't recognize Ed Morris without his triple nickel ED. The winner of the beauty contest can pm me for the name of the prop shop to send a donation for keeping N555ED from winning again this year!

I'm interested. I was wondering dates as June 1st I am already booked. Later in June may work.

What are the dates?

While you have the panel off you might want to check for any leaks around your fuel sender.

+1, removed interior panel and lubed the cable. Now works real smooth. I had left in the up position for several months because it felt like the cable was going to break.

Could it be fuel injectors? http://mooneyspace.com/topic/10383-leaking-fuel-injectors/

Look at Status, Certificate Date, and Expiration Date. S The information contained in this record should be the most current Airworthiness information available in the historical aircraft record. However, this data alone does not provide the basis for a determination regarding the airworthiness of an aircraft or the current aircraft configuration. For specific information, you may request a copy of the aircraft record at http://aircraft.faa.gov/e.gov/ND/

Looks like it may be a registration issue. The FAA website shows registration was due April 2013 with a 90 day extension granted January 2014. However, here is what the FAA registry website shows when you type the registration number in: ATTENTION! This aircraft's registration status may not be suitable for operation. Please contact the Aircraft Registration Branch at 1-866-762-9434 for additional information. Continue

In case anyone is planning a Branson trip, I was informed this morning KPLK will be starting a runway lighting project on the 17th and will take approximately 60 days to complete. Watch NOTAMS to see when the runway will be open. It sounds like it will be closed Monday-Friday and open on weekends during daylight hours only for the duration of the project.

Tom, We will be looking for you. Bodie, Have fun in CO.