kortopates

The concept of selling Mooney's to flight schools is exactly what Mooney is designing and building their new composite diesel powered M10J and M10T for. But at least initially, their immediate goal is for the Chinese training market where the perceived market demand is much higher than here. Their role there is not limited to manufacturing trainers either as they are investing in being able to provide pilot training and fleet maintenance management much like a FBO as well. As the GA pilot community grows, the hope is our Kerrville M20's will then be marketable to a growing number of Chinese pilots with excess disposable income. The M20 is already slated for a large flying club based in Beijing, (which currently is only large in members but small in planes inventory). The long term plans goes much further beyond that too. I know all of us here in America only think about Kerrville's M20 production, but the priority right now is in positioning Mooney to become a market leader in the GA explosion which is about to take off in China. I have to caveat this, as it is my opinion only since I am not and can not speak for Mooney. I am only a pilot that spent 3 months flying for and working with their Chinese team in China and is hoping to see them entirely successful as you all are. But with that success and seeing this business line become profitable I believe we can then look forward to seeing new innovations in the high performance M20 aircraft and even new designs come from Mooney as it builds on its success.

Also if the horn was pulsating on and off that would be the gear horn; if you can remember it.

Thanks for the offer. A month ago i would jumped all over that. I like being able to offer other countries too. Although I haven't herd back where they are on this right now, I think they are past the immediate need for material. But soon as I know more, and learn that they can use more I'll let you know. Right now they are just going home from what must be Asia's largest annual airshow - kinda like our Oshkosh. Thanks again, its much appreciated!

Not doubting you, but that's crazy. And surprising since we all know you must be the most savvy guy on Mooney space when it comes to panel upgrades, having purchased and sold more airplanes than I can count and probably doing upgrades on most of them if not all. I'd think the avionics businesses would give you the royal kit glove treatment when you walk in - you must be the last customer any of them would want to loose! Look forward to hearing how they work out for you.

Yes, here are two images below that I scraped from an iPad with Garmin Pilot. the first shows the approach plate loaded. Its in split screen mode but that can easily changed to just the map as shown in the second image. The later has the airport diagram instead superimposed on the map along with extended center lines to all runways (another purely optional feature). Sorry there is no traffic on these and the only wx I could overlay was metar info. Garmin was the first to utilize the vector graphics for GA since they came out with their portable GPS's and their first panel unit, the MX20 MFD, to display moving maps, charts, weather and traffic when their GPS's lacked the graphics capabilities to do so. So they have been employing this technology long before anyone else in GA. To the best of my knowledge this technology first began in the early 80's pioneered for military mission planners with the advance of fast graphics workstations (e..g. the original SUN workstations). It was revolutionary in the early 80's. And now after 30+ years its made it all the way to masses on cheap tablet and phone apps. Yet I think there are some people that still prefer the old raster graphics.

The s/w updates from Garmin are free. Shops are allowed to charge money for their minimal time to upload the new firmware and print you out a new copy of the garmin AFMS for your POH. But of all the avionics shops I have worked with not one has ever charged me a penny to do so. I'd bet any shop selling and installing a FS210 would have done this automatically as a matter of course. No one purchasing a new Flight Stream is likely going to have the latest firmware on their GPS to support any new product interfaces including Flightstream. Although still very capable boxes, I agree the GNS series is getting long in the tooth. But to suggest there hasn't been any upgrades to them is false. They are still actively supported devices with updates every year. We've seen very recent upgrades for LP approaches a number of times (due to changing requirments from the FAA) as well as enhancements to support the final ADS/B position source requirements so they can be used to provide position source to an ADS/B out device. There is still only one WAAS approach type that the GNS series can not fly that the newer GTN boxes can, the RF leg approaches. Last I heard the Avidynes do not support RF leg approaches either. I wouldn't worry though, as they are currently very rare for now. I certainly understand the appeal to upgrade with minimal install cost that doesn't require re-wiring. And of course I think Garmin really blew it by not doing what Avidyne simply did. In my case I installed new GTN's because I wanted to clean up the wiring for a new G500 install and I didn't want to spend the money on cleaning up and re-wiring my old GNS boxes & AP after so many modifications over the years.

I haven't tried it, but a pre-requisite of enabling the cross-fill capability between Garmin boxes is that they both have to be using identical databases. For cross-filling between the Garmin Pilot ipad app and the Garmin panel units you have to load the ipad with jepp nav-data to essentially sync the ipad DB with the avionics DB. Don't know how its handled in Foreflight other than I am sure both units must be communicating with the same database versions. That seems very logical and reasonable to ensure your certified GPS isn't allowed to become corrupted or broken in flight by allowing our ipads to pass unrecognized data to them. I seriously doubt it. Sync'ing is at the flight plan level only. A string of waypoints in the flight plan is merely a series of Lat/Longs that box calculates distance and heading between and primarily just has to model how to turn based on whether its a "fly over" or "fly by" waypoint. Approaches are much more complicated than a series of waypoints and there are many different kinds of approach waypoints since in the most simplistic terms they are are 3 dimensional and have lots of other approach considerations such as meeting criteria to ARM the approach arriving at the FAF etc.. Just try deleting certain waypoints out of an approach - editing of approaches is very limited. What you can do is select an approach and an IAF. You can then activate it by going to direct to any way point outside of the FAF but you can't edit an approach like you can a route. That would break them and likely create discontinuities (a term the old CNX480's used) . It seems very reasonable though that if our ipad allowed us to select an approach and where to start it within limits, that could be passed to the certified GPS. But I'd expect all the limit checking would be redundant with the certified GPS probably preventing the practicality of us seeing it. I am puzzled by this. WingX also has this feature which is one I use but I never saw any value it the feature. In my ipad app, I have the route loaded, typically just as I filed it to an IAF to start the approach and nothing more after that than the airport. Once I have loaded the approach on the panel GPS I'll also have the geo-referenced approach plate loaded loaded on the ipad showing my location on the approach plate. How would loading the specific approach waypoints on the iPad help? They are already all shown on the plate with my position so I can only see the value of the specific waypoints sequenced on the ipad if the ipad wasn't already displaying the chart with my position. My nav data for time to the next waypoint, track info etc is all on the panel GPS. Frankly I am too busy flying the approach to use the ipad for anything more than displaying my geo-referenced approach plate with position at this point.

Not at all true Paul, Foreflight makes no such claim. What they did do was introduce vector graphics to provide a world map - finally. Its a great start but something that Garmin Pilot has always had; except for very large airport database which appears much larger than other base product. I for one, also commend them on integrating airport diagrams into world map. That is very slick feature. But Foreflight's international planning capability is still in its infancy unlike Garmin pilot. Just look at their IFR nav-data charting options. Its limited to the US and Canada; the latter for another $100 (which is very reasonable). It takes much more than a world map to support flying. So far Garmin Pilot is the only iPad app that uses Jepp nav-data and therefore can provide the most complete and current nav-data for almost any country you want to add support for. Give Foreflight more time though and I am sure they will eventually get there too. I prefer the Garmin interface, but the more successful apps there are the more innovation we all will benefit by.

Difficult?? Not at all, nor should you need the "advanced" holding feature of the GTNs or Avidyne. Its as simple as what Jose describes above. Plus its how you should be able to one on your own to be proficient enough to get a IPC signoff. It will work with just about any GPS because its the same way we did it with VORs (except we can do it on any GPS waypoint as easily as if it was a VOR). The only reason IMO that the "advanced" holding feature of the GTN's and Avidyne are even useful is to allow your autopilot to fly them for you; assuming you have the rest of the hardware to do so. But hopefully you have learned how to hand fly them (i.e. how to enter a hold) maintain proficiency before you rely on your AP. I am certainly not meaning to pick on any one but its critical for all of flying in the system to know how to use our equipment, and not become dependent on it.

I use the fully articulating MyGoFlight set up. With that set up I have been know to switch between landscape and portrait - both work. But I probably use portrait the most. It's an expensive system but very versatile. Plus I move back and forth between my yoke mount and onto my thigh when I fly in students aircraft. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I fly a 252 and found the mini iPad was far better since the full size was too big on the yoke - which is where I felt it belongs - the same place I originally clipped paper plates. But I would not bother with the 330-ES transponder anymore, it's been obsoleted by the new 345 which is a 1090-ES transponder that includes ADS-B in TIS-B and FIS-B (wx and traffic) and has Bluetooth to provide those services plus position and backup ADHRS to your iPad. You can get a Garmin rebate on them right now as well. Check it out. Which iPad app you pick is purely personal preference except Garmin Pilot has more international coverage options and supports Jeppsen charts if that is appealing. So try them both using their free 30 day trail periods and you decide which you prefer. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Of course we have real below sea level airports here in the west: Death Valley,CA L06 -212' msl Thermal, CA KTRM -115' msl but then our winter lows aren't very chilly

Interesting, I have not seen any of the PowerPac Spoilers on a Mooney - perhaps they were done via a field approval. They appear even more expensive than Precise ones too. Turbo Plus did make a identical looking hydraulic hinged brake for the Mooney years ago. I have only seen one installation.

There is really nothing Mooney specific on the install and thus anyone good with sheet metal work will do a good job. The one exception would be if the 231 has the extended range tanks, in which case it's more involved since the cartridges go in the area of the extended tanks. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

On the mid-body's and later it's in reference to a couple screws on the outside skin right above the avionics bay door. Leveling is usually accomplished by adjusting tire pressure. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Electric speed brakes did not exist when the M20K's were produced. But speed brakes were not standard on the 231, unlike the 252, so many were added to 231's after they left factory and could be vacuum or electric. All 252's were factory equipped with vacuum. Good chance the Encores coming years later are electric. By now I suspect we are seeing vacuum speed brakes replaced with electric ones since the rubber vacuum canister is unobtainable [emoji19] Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You did fine. Two suggestions. Never hesitate to speak up and especially to the traffic that is encroaching on your airspace. Secondly, the RNM tower folks would have welcomed you up to discuss the issue where learning would have continued for both of you. But it's never too late to visit them and they are very friendly. Jon's ASRS suggestion is also a very good one. Let's hope that's the last time that happens but it's very doubtful. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The factory defines full rated capacity at the bottom of the filler neck/anti-siphon valve. There is added space for expansion. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Obviously that's not right. On jacks, after putting the gear switch to the up position, the red bypass light should have illuminated first indicating you need to push and hold the bypass button to raise the gear. Is it the air speed switch or wiring? One will need to trace the circuit to determine where the fault is.

Bring politics into it if you must but I sure don't think so. The roots in all of this lie solely with the NIMBY effect. I don't think you can blame the liberals on the land grab that has ensued either. The talk of lead pollution by some locals is just an excuse since their real complaint of noise hasn't worked for them - they are grasping for anything and everything they can short of moving. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk