Becca

Quote: jetdriven For the record, Don Muncy goes out of his way to be friendly and approachable. He offered my wife a ride in the car early while I slaved away for 45 minutes to gas up the Mooney , park it, tie it down, put the cover on. I nearly died! Thanks buddy! Just kidding. But we have been focusing on the good ole boys a lot, there are also several like Don who go out of their way to meet people and mix it up I appreciate that.

Quote: DonMuncy You notice that I have mentioned the MAPA convention several times. This is because I believe that being able to get together (in person) with other Mooney lovers is one of the most enjoyable facets of Mooney ownership. If you haven’t attended, I urge you to come. It would be worth it even if there was no “program”. Just getting to see and talk with all of the other pilots, is worth the price. Bottom line is that MAPA is the only provider of a monthly magazine, other services and a yearly meeting of that large a number of Mooney people. Unless and until we have a better alternate, I think our interest is best served by doing our best to keep MAPA going. If you don’t like the way it is being run, send Trey constructive suggestions to improve it. Granted, he and the rest of the powers that be, have financial constraints in what they can do, but so would any other form of operation.

Quote: DonMuncy You notice that I have mentioned the MAPA convention several times. This is because I believe that being able to get together (in person) with other Mooney lovers is one of the most enjoyable facets of Mooney ownership. If you haven’t attended, I urge you to come. It would be worth it even if there was no “program”. Just getting to see and talk with all of the other pilots, is worth the price. Bottom line is that MAPA is the only provider of a monthly magazine, other services and a yearly meeting of that large a number of Mooney people. Unless and until we have a better alternate, I think our interest is best served by doing our best to keep MAPA going. If you don’t like the way it is being run, send Trey constructive suggestions to improve it. Granted, he and the rest of the powers that be, have financial constraints in what they can do, but so would any other form of operation.

Quote: Skybrd I was at Porterville last Saturday and saw a clean RV-6 airplane. I asked the pilot what engine it had and speed it ran. He had a Lycoming 0320 that was producing 160 hp and I think he said it would do 160 knots. I noticed that it didn't have retractable gear but did have wheel pants. My question is: can that airplane outrun a Mooney 201 that has higher horsepower and retractable gear. Do you know if there has been a race to vertify who is faster? I would think the Mooney would go faster.

Quote: tony Compliance is not the issue, it’s the unwarranted oversight. I'm convinced if Delta or American was an owner/operator of a M20 airframe which was in revenue generating service, the time of compliance would not have been the next ten hours. I really would love to see the analysis that shows the probably of occurrence, of another aircraft in the fleet with this manufacturing flaw and ity had the exact same failure mode was greater than 1x10e-9 (I’m assuming that a catastrophic event for a FAR 23 aircraft is the same as a FAR 25). That’s what this AD implies. That the chances my M20F with 5000 hours on my airframe is greater than 1x10e-9 that I'm going to fall out of the sky because of a manufacturing flaw that would have occurred 40 years. Doesn’t that sound ridiculous? A realistic time of compliance might be at the next annual or within the next twelve months, not the next ten flight hours.

Quote: allsmiles I would go to DLK at Cobb County Airport McCollum Field. It is an excellent MSC. Dan and Tracie are genuine solid folks eager to help. My experience was nothing but positive. You can trust Dan and he is an excellent Mooney resource.

Quote: sleepingsquirrel If you did it yesterday, document that and postmark or FAX the mailer today ,ASAP. I read that paragraph (i) ; (1) , gives credit for INSPECTIONS done before March 20,2012 IAW SB M20-313. I FAXED the mailer to Mooney days ago. Which is all that the SB M20-313 required in the way of communicating back to anyone. It NOTED to complete the compliance card and return it. It was not intended as part of the inspection just part of the documentation. This is how I read it. I will stand corrected if necessary. A few days ago the inspection was not madatory, now it is carrying the force of the FAA. Thankfully the AD acknowledged credit for INSPECTIONS done before it was madatory.

Quote: Hank Getting Instrument Rated drops the insurance rate nicely, too. I went from $3100 as a zero-complex newbie to $1300 with a couple hundred Mooney hours and a rating.

Quote: Hank Getting Instrument Rated drops the insurance rate nicely, too. I went from $3100 as a zero-complex newbie to $1300 with a couple hundred Mooney hours and a rating.

Quote: dmc I plan to finish my PPL in the 172 as I hopefully don't have that much longer and don't want to change now. Ive started my Cross country's and hopefully can finish up in a month or so. I just didn't like the age restriction, I guess as I'm 54, 65 doesn't seam that old anymore. The 15hrs also seems like a lot, but hopefully that will change when I get my PPL, if not I guess we can get a few more IFR hours in. I assume I can take passengers up before I have 50hrs in make/type, they just wont be insured. That wont keep me from taking the wife up. She can always sue me if need be. I wonder if insurance is worth it. I have health insurance, I can get some additional liability insurance.

Quote: aviatoreb What about when you got that job flying the space shuttle? Surely then you finally topped the weather? :-)

Quote: N6719N It's a shame. Hobby used to be a great GA airport.

Quote: john221us I have not found that anyone is scanning the logs on these old airframes (especially brokers, who want to do the minimum amount necessary to sell a plane). I just went and looked at one and found that the total hours in the listing were equal to the current tach time (even though the tach had been swapped at 1750 hours). He also forgot to mention on the phone, that the plane had been sitting for two years. Buyer beware.

Quote: dmc 9-27 is 2000', 18-36 is 3800'. I guess I could always wait for the wind to blow North or South. As far as obstacles the short runway is not to bad, nothing on one end, but parked planes and a power lines a few hundred ft to clear on the other. As far as buying, I originally was hoping to be able to spend less than 50k also. I'm not sure if that's doable, but we will just have to see. I have just started watching and there are quite a few for under 60k, and they still seam to be listed for quite some time. Ive got some wiggle room, but I'm not sure just how much I want to spend.

Quote: PAMooney 1st airplane was purchased when I was 25: 1965 M20C - my father nicknamed it "the ring" because i had a choice between getting engaged/married and buying an airplane and I you can see what choice I made 2nd airplane is my current M20J at 28 - used for business and also a key element to establishing/maintaining a relationship with my now wife that lived in Albany, Ny when I lived in Philly - she loves to fly and is a keeper.. Trying to get into my 3rd airplane now - M20R Ovation at 34

Quote: aviatoreb I have a unique opportunity next week to talk airplanes to a room full of young aerospace engineers. I am a math professor so I don't get to talk airplanes normally in my own classes (I am teaching graduate complex analysis this semester and I still am trying to figure out how to squeeze Mooney's, Cauchy's integral theorem, and the intracacies of an LPV all into the same sentence in class...). Since the university is only <2 mi from the airport, it is common for a trickle of our engineering students to enroll in flight lessons on their own time. And a few of them become aware that I am a pilot and pop into my office to talk airplanes... BUT! Next week a good friend of mine who teaches an actual class on the finer points of aeronautical engineering in the MAE department has to go on travel to a panel in Washington and he asked me to cover for him. These are students who learn the detailed engineering of flying but not necessarily the day-in-day out of actually flying. He says I should just talking about flying airplanes. He says I should just bring my iPad and show how I flight plan, with all my software, foreflight, weathermeister, etc, including the charts and weather, and talk about weight and balance. Not as a lesson, but just a demo. Then talk about altitudes, and speeds and engine ops and temps. Just an hour of talking out loud as if I were planning a flight somewhere fun like the coast of Maine and back. I will bring my O2 mask and make a show of putting that on and show some slides of fun places I have been, and with my kids and bikes. I am really looking forward to it.

So I really appreciate that you are willing to begin this conversation. Though I don't know the right way to "end" it... I can tell you my own impressions. But be warned, this is coming from a bleeding heart whacky liberal feminist . 10 years ago, when I was younger (ok, I am still pretty young!), I would have replied to say both the "old guys" and the young women and everyone in between should just learn to get along to share our common interest in flying. When I was in college, I tried to join CAF so I could learn more about maintaining old airplanes and was told "the wives" (never mind that I was 19, an aerospace engineering student, and not married) usually took care of the interior and cleaning the planes and asked how I felt abou those duties. That was the last time I went to a CAF meeting. So, back then, I used to blame the "old guys" for creating a hostile environment. But that really isn't the case, over time I appreciate where you are coming from. I have to say, I prefer the company of my girlfriends in social settings to most older men (who I respect through work and enjoy trading stories on the ramp at the airport) ... but I have a unique set of girlfriends - engineers and scientists like me, not exactly "girly girls" though we all love our pedicures too, several of them have even learned to fly (though are taking hiatuses for their young children.) At the MAPA convention, I made sure, for instance, to go to the "women's lunch", to meet some of the other women at the convention, but then got annoyed when one of the woman at the table scolded me for not going to the "pinch hitter" course, despite my hundreds of hours of flying experience. Sometimes you get caught in the middle when you don't quite fit in with the wives or the male pilots. In some ways, men closer to my age aren't quite as old fashioned about not being buddy-buddy with members of the opposite sex, and that definitely helps, though its not the perfect solution. So I have sought out my own solutions - like making a concerted effort to connect with other female pilots - like 99s, WIA, or even the other women who race in SARL or other air races. The MAPA convention was, in general, was as welcoming as I could possibly expect for the demographic, I have had many far more uncomfortable experiences - you should have seen me at a local FAA air safety seminar on owner-performed maintenance where I was both the only woman and only one of two people under the age of 50, where I had to hold my tongue from teasing an "old guy" for being unwilling to change his own oil (something I learned to do when I was 18). I don't think that would have gone over well. I guess the best thing you can do is understand that someone like me goes to place like the MAPA convention and I have to force myself outside my comfort zone and interact with different people than I would otherwise be comfortable with because I have no other option (there were two other women pilots I talked to at MAPA, both entirely fascinating and interesting, but not enough to make up a "convention"). However someone like you doesn't have to force that sort of interaction, you can stay in your comfort zone without it really impacting you - there are dozens of "old guys" choose from and you only had to avoid a couple women - Don, that said, trust me, you, by far, weren't in the least uncomfortable interacting with someone like me at the convention . Anyway, I don't have any solutions. I guess the best someone like you can do is realize the few young and female and minority and whatever pilots floating around do feel at least a little out of place, and make an effort to include them where you can. But I do think women leave flying because after they've overcome the "challenge" of learnign to fly, they don't see a clear path of how to turn it into a hobby that they can share with other people and maybe for women in general - certainly for me - community, socialization, etc, is an extremely important part of enjoying something. But I appreciate posts like this and people who make the effort to reach out with young people and women and interact, etc. Just my impressions, I speculate many women pilots have different experiences..

Quote: KSMooniac

Quote: pjsny78 I bought My first plane last June at age 33.

Quote: Parker_Woodruff Unless I misunderstood Don Maxwell when I saw him in person yesterday, they're making them with a few weeks' lead time. You can likely get them on order from your preferred MSC. I believe Don has 1 new and 1 used aileron in stock and can likely get another new one...

Ditto what Byron said.. deleted.

Quote: N9453V I appreciate all the helpful advice from people who've clearly gone through this before. Given what I'm hearing it sounds like replacing is the way to go, but I'm thinking with everything involved in balancing and re-painting, etc... and making sure the plane still flies straight it may make sense to wait until I have the whole aircraft re-painted and have arranged for a hangar at KBTR (53V is living outside under a cover right now). Is there any drawback (other than possibly paying more later) for accepting an insurance settlement, but not getting the work done right away? This would be my first claim since I bought the plane. My agent (Falcon) told me that I'd likely see no more than a 10% premium increase especially if the claim is settled for under $10k. I forgot to attach some pics of the damage to the first post, so a few are attached below. Thanks, -Andrew

Quote: takair I'm based out of Savannah (SAV). Claxton (CWV) has cheap fuel, reasonable bathroom, a car, and nearby southern barbecue. It is typically not attended, so PM me and I can talk you through getting the car, etc. St Simon (SSI) might be a little more convenient. They almost always have an oversize car available and lots of food within 5 minutes. Fuel is a little more, but top notch bathroom. Feel free to PM me on either or others in the Savannah area. If you are looking for company I might be able to meet you too.

Hm, that last post was from Becca. I clearly got the login bug again.

Quote: allsmiles I was actually shocked it is so high! 6 fatal accidents / year only from lack to properly preflight. I think we all need to take this to heart and objectively self critique. We need to be sure we are not perpetuating bad habits. I for one, have compiled my own checklist right out of the POH. It is time consuming to go through each and every item. It is very easy to fall into a habit of abbreviating. I will be the first to admit. On occasion, I have sinned!