bnicolette

Wow bud you are a traveling fool. :-) I certainly hope you're going to go to Bonaire? If you're gonna take the time to go to Curacao after Aruba then you just as well hop over to Bonaire to get all the "ABC" islands. Seriously Mike what an awesome trip. Going to be hard to top this one. Be safe!

Scott that setup is freaken awesome! We have 3 Xboxes so we can all play together but mainly for football and Call of Duty games. When I lived part time away from home I had an Xbox in my rental home so I could play with my kids online. It wasn't as good as spending time with them at home but it fit the bill. So yep, I'm a 43 yr old geek gamer. I can appreciate your setup and understand exactly where you're coming from.

Have a grand adventure Mike!

Skynewbie, Congratulations to you sir. You have entered an elite club and have accomplished something on a small number of folks do. Surely it will be something to cherish the rest of your life. Don't forget to share it with others and spread the joy of general aviation. A big thumbs up to you!!

very cool!!

Wow. 1-900 Mooneyspace

Yep that was me bud. Long day. Up at 3am, grab a limo out of ILG at 4:15am to PHL. Airline to PBI. Falcon to PBI-APF-BOS-ILG. And top that off with a 4 hour drive home. Yikes.

Very nice Chris!! How did the trip go? Just need some ADS-B out now and you'll be all set. I have my iPad plugged into my intercom so I will hear all the audio alerts (when they become active again) through Foreflight. Hopefully Aspen will hook you up soon. I have noticed the traffic to be extremely accurate both in altitude and location.

Thank you Scott! I did see that he sent me an email. I'm in school all week (recurrent on the Falcon 900) but will get in touch with him soon. In the mean time I will write back to him. Thanks again for the contact for some more real world unbiased intel. Doesn't get any better than that.

I guess it depends on how and where you operate it. I am most interested in either the IO470 or the IO520 engines. B or E model. Most folks over at BT are claiming 175KTAS LOP at around 22gph and some even pull the big levers back further than that to yield 160KTAS at around 18gph. Pretty versatile operating range. Still though that is just splitting hairs in the big picture of owning and operating one of these things. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iy2KoXmcjYA

Jim I would want something with complete anti-ice capabilities. Guys are claiming 22gph economy settings in cruise with the B models which isn't too bad.

Yes Scott if you don't mind and you don't think your friend would mind me picking his brain a little bit I could always use some more "real life" input on the 55's. (bnicolette@yahoo.com) I didn't know you worked there! How cool is that!! Do you ever get to go up on the test flights after they've done wing work and go through all the stall series? Those damn Wright brothers did me in man! People think I'm nuts as when I come off a week long trip of flying every day, I inevitably end up at my hangar taking the Mooney out to play.

Scott thanks for your perspective and once again you've crystalized my thoughts. Jim I spent my last trip (6 days sitting in a hotel room) doing nothing but researching the B55's from the B to E model. I spent the better part of one of those days talking with B55 owners (not sellers) in the 1969-1976 era. I've discussed it with my insurance agent ($2k annually) and also my mechanic. It is certainly doable with the right airplane. My biggest concern is that even if you want to fire sale these damn things they aren't moving so for me it would be paramount to have an exquisite pre buy and a rock bottom price. Will probably talk myself out of it but my friend that just sold his Bravo is pushing hard to go for it. Maybe we should search for a 3rd and 4th guy. $40K before he even gets the thing in the air seems a bit crazy from my conversations with B55 owners, but as we all know it sure could be possible on a "bad" year.

Hey Seth, Thanks for the input. If I wanted to move it quickly I would either install an old 430 or just fire sale the airplane. My plane is paid for and is now to a point that it doesn't need anything else maintenance wise so the cost to keep it around is minimal. I think the perfect scenario for me is to partner with somebody on a light twin (Beech 55 is what I've been looking at) and that way I could have the best of both worlds. Just taking my time and exploring different options to get the job done and also have something that I can play with.

I ran retreads on all my flight school airplanes for years with no issues. And trust me they suffered all kinds of abuse! :-)

D

This is what I currently have: Mooney Pilot Incapacitate.pdf

If we could only change the title and lyrics from Jet pilot to Mooney pilot. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BzU1sYPjzo

Pretty good prices too!!! Thanks for the input. I'm going to get two of them and see how they work out.

So was that a total of 2 people? Hey that would be cool. You could use a little female interest in your life.

How was the turn out today?

Very cool sir!!!

I'm not seeing the Desser retread Flight Custom III's? Can you help me out with a part # from either Desser or Spruce?