kortopates

Here is a verbose/overkill example that gets the job done for the wing tip lights - substitute your actual units that were removed & installed. Also update the weight & balance for the removed power supplies. Removed A650PG28, A650PR28 and Whelen strobe power supplies in wingtips and installed Whelen FAR SPEC compliant Orion replacement OR6502GE and OR6502RE LED lights that meet STC/TSO/ETSO-C96a Class II & TSO/ETSO-C30c Type I & III. The units were installed IAW Whelen Anti-Collision Light System Installation and Service Manual dated May 2015 including addition of placard on panel. Updated weight & balance this date. --- signed by an A&P

No, but no one will care if you do this as a minor mod citing the FAA approvals. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I recommend you join https://www.bushpilotsinternational.com/ Great resource to learn all the requirements before you go. Puerto Penasco is probably a good way to get your feet wet in Mexico. But coming so far from Austin, right at the peak of Whale season, you should consider checking out petting the California Grey Whales in Baja. Its a great use of your Mooney to base out of Mulege or Loreto and fly over to Laguna San Ignacio to go out and pet the whales that time of year. If you don't have time in Feb, put it on your list for a future trip.

I was thinking the same thing .... But Puerto Penasco = Southern Mexico?? LOL Sorry, I had to make more trouble. But I love your avatar, anybody that flies with their dog has to be a great person.

Really sorry to read this. So glad his young son survived. I never met Houman, but I read that thread with interest since I am making the same trip to KEYW from southern CA. I actually came into Pensacola today from San Diego. I am wondering how fatigued he may have been setting up for that landing. From the comments I've read above, with the helpful details Yves, drapo, carquik provided and the pictures in the news, its really looking more like a stall/spin. In other words, really looks like nothing to do with the runway assuming the plane went down maneuvering to it. Anyway, very sad. I also imagine the Canadian TSB probably takes a full year like our NTSB to issue their findings.

I'm not certain, but I think foreflight gives a special flight instructor rate that is heavily discounted. Smart move- gets their product into the line of sight of potential future customers. Foreflight gives NAFI members a 33% discount but WingX gives us 100% off! I never got into Foreflights interface, and prefer WingX and Garmin Pilot. Garmin is the only one that supports vector graphics (marketing calls it Dynamic maps) which I find superior to raster graphics of sectionals and the like - especially if you like Track Up orientation as I do. I also like its now integrated with Lockheed FSS and it works both north and south of the border in addition to the other pluses Don mentioned. But we're both fans of Garmin products. But the reality is, which ever interface works best for you is most likely going to work best for you. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Mike, According to this report, the pilot was the indeed Mitsuo Tamayama, owner of the plane and flight school. See: http://www.kathrynsreport.com/2015/12/incident-occurred-december-26-2015-at_42.html From the pictures in the above article, you'll see they cut the top of the cabin off to get people out. Phone numbers for the school are on their website at: http://www.pacificrimaviation.com/

The owner of the plane owns a flight school, Pacific Rim Aviation in CA and the F model is part of the schools fleet. Thus till they release the name of the pilot there is not much to go on other than a 57 year old pilot - male or female (article said both!)

You can order overhauled spindles/towers now from LASAR whom rebuilds them for considerably less than new. Yours will most certainly be rusted inside the bottom of tube from where water collects. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Dave, you could get the broken rod welded back to new. Faster than ordering a new one too. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

http://denver.cbslocal.com/2015/12/23/small-plane-crashes-into-snowplow-at-telluride-airport/#.Vns40vtzs6g.facebook The runway closure is clearly notam’d from 22:56 today to tomorrow 2000. Thank goodness no injuries but I’d hate to explain this one to the FAA; especially since they’re saying the plane didn’t call on the CTAF before landing! Very surprising Denver Center didn’t save them yet still managed to clear them for the approach – they’ll likely share in the blame.

There is no STC for the conversion. An STC would be required if it was a mod done by other than the Mooney Factory. This is a retrofit to the existing TCDS and authorization comes from 2 Mooney drawings - one for the brakes and one for the engine. You have todo the brakes first or with the engine - can operate it with just the engine. If you weren't already planning on doing this before the engine I am afraid you are in for a bit of a shock at the cost to buy all new Mooney parts for the brake mod. See my other post/thread on the details using the search function. It explains the mods. The engine is the easy part. Save you the search: http://mooneyspace.com/topic/14362-anyone-done-m20k-252-upgrade-to-encore-specs/ Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I am pretty sure a retractable step can be converted to a fix step and a step can be added to any plane without one. Check with your local MSC to be sure and for approximate cost. That should open a whole lot more Mooneys too you and you can then just factor in any additional costs for any step work. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

There are just two many failure modes ranging from poor connections at the back of your tray, not including the oxidation on units card that slides in, to switch problems on the yoke and on and on.... I've been down this road before with an intermittent trim failure/disconnect. I sent my computer and both pitch and trim servos into AP Central and they were never able to find the source. After several months of ongoing effort to resolve it I finally flew to Executive Autopilots at Sacramento, CA; only after there bench testing also didn't find fault. In the end with the plane there, they found the problem pretty quickly but it wasn't something that any bench test would have resolved. They have all the specialized BendixKing test gear that enables them to plug in their test harness to the units while they are in the aircraft - then problems can be found very quickly. If I had just bit the bullet much earlier on I could have saved myself lots of $$$. But another well learned lesson. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The extra filter is to protect your instruments when and if the pump fails catastrophically. Since the pump pulls air from the cabin to the pump, the smell source is most likely in the cabin. Can't imagine how your air oil separator in the engine compartment could be involved. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Amen to that! What I most recall about the pre-GPS navigation was just how easy it was to kill yourself back in the day of ADF steers. The only thing I miss now is walking into the local FSS for a weather brief - an experience I got to relive flying up to Alaska. But the only airport I flew into that only had a NDB approach was south of the border, but in our current satellite nav era so I cheated and used the GPS and its procedure. Especially since there was a big mountain right by the airport. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Congrats Jon! So glad it all worked out for you. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Dump the paper weight. But reconsider that if you only realized how valuable an IFR GPS was for IFR flying you would not want to fly IFR without. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

If you are interested in the Tri-tip person, Jolie arranges fly-ins to nearby Oceano using him every May for Airport day and December for Toys for Tots which just happened a couple weeks ago. Oceano is perfect for that option since it has the area to set up and picnic. Plus the airport has tables in a storage hangar there that Jolie uses for those events. Would have to verify with Jolie though to be sure. The other advantage of Oceano is that everyone has free access to the ramp unlike the other nearby options. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

How fast the annual is done has never been my priority; the thoroughness and quality that goes into it at a fair cost has always been paramount to me. It my butt that on the line and its worth a very thorough good quality annual done per the Mooney 100 hr checklist. Luckily I do all the work myself but I am my own worst enemy at controlling cost - "Bad strobe tube flasher?; heck let's just put in those Orion LED's in now and be done with it!

This is why www.SavvyMX.com does so well saving inexperienced owners from these kinds of experiences by representing their interest with the shop performing the work; all for a very modest fee. We've supported a number of Mooneys over the years too. But anyone can do the same thing if you just follow the same guidelines we do at Savvy for Annuals: 1) Get a written estimate for the Inspection portion first which may include the typical oil change and filter and additional filters, boroscope exam;, gas cap O-rings etc called out for replacement at annual. Once the estimate has been reviewed; only then give the shop authorization to do the inspection including any agreed to work such as the oil change; boroscope etc. But no work is yet authorized beyond the agreed too inspection. 2) the inspection process is to provide a written list of discrepancies with estimates. The list is reviewed with the owner along with the estimated cost of parts & labor. The owner then decides which estimated items to complete. One of the things Savvy helps the owners with is sifting through the items that are truly required or strongly recommended (like the 500 hr Mag IRAN) from the optional non-required items like cleaning fuel injectors or more commonly avoiding a full top overhaul when only one cylinder needs to come off for repair. Savvy also work with the shop to give you options for repair - such as getting you estimates for repairing your part, overhauling your part or replacing your part etc with different cost and downtimes. 3) Only then the shop is authorized to perform the work agreed too by the owner and the shop provides an estimated time of completion based on the repairs. This leads to minimal surprises where everyone is satisfied and work gets done according to estimated cost and schedule. If a shop won't abide by these very simple terms, Savvy won't use them and neither should you! Many owners learn this the hard way but manage to learn how to do this on their own. Others whom have very little understanding of their planes maintenance requirements or just wish to have a professional help and advise them continue to use the service. Regardless though, just following the same basic steps will keep knowledgeable owners from experiencing big unnecessary surprises.

SBP handled hundreds of us for the CAL Pilots Annual meeting; but I presume your concern is the restaurant there can't accommodate us all. Have you considered the Radisson's for lunch at SMX? That might be easier than going off field.

Is your electrical system working normally after the event? I also would not contribute the smell and smoke to a vacuum pump failure. And would be more concerned that an electrical issue caused that and the smoke was sucked into your gyro's suggesting they will need servicing too from contamination. But I would not expect the smoke alone to cause the vacuum pump to fail either; unless some debris somehow came with the smoke and got past the filter which seems very unlikely. Let us know what your tech finds. Your GNS430 WAAS upgrade is surely unrelated, they just forgot to re-configure it the same way it was before the WAAS upgrade to properly talk to your AP (each port has to be properly setup for what its communicating with such as your AP.) Once they fixed the configuration issue it was fine.

The parts are in the IPC, the problem you will discover is that the all of the parts beyond the a couple master cylinders and 4 hoses, are all Mooney specific parts. You'll either need to find a salvage yard with a mid-body dual brakes (your cheapest route by far) or get them from the factory.

I owned both a 231 in the past and currently a 252. Hands down I would go for the TSIO-360-MB conversion that includes the 252 cowl w/ infinitely adjustable cowl flaps and dual alternators. Very valuable features in my mind. Plus the two blade prop is the better performer in cruise and especially for glide. Its a true turbo engine installation with a critical altitude of over 23K using a real hydraulic variable absolute pressure controller; it makes it the superior high altitude performer by a longshot. The Merlyn pneumatic controller doesn't even come close in my opinion. Overall I think it looks like a great opportunity to get 252 performance on a 231 budget. Its just limited to the 12v system and no prop heat. Also pluses to me are the Bendix-King AP which I find are superior to the Century 4. Plus it already has the GTN navigator. Its just needs a modern engine analyzer and 1090-ES transponder for ADS-B compliance. Plus as Marauder mentioned, I'd also want a WX500 feeding the GTN; especially in a turbo. Just my opinion as a past 231 owner and over a dozen years with a 252.