Becca

@edgargravel, yeah, I understand in Canada you get a separate VFR night rating. But in the US, that's not the case, and I am flying an N-registered aircraft with my American pilots license. So I guess the question is, can I fly VFR at night or not? We're only planning day light flying right now anyway, but it was point of curiousity. (Doubly compounding the problem is that 15 years ago, I actually got a Transport Canada validation of my private pilots license that was limited to VFR Day only while I was doing some sea plane flying) Also my newly discovered issue is we were planning on departing for the US at 7 am tomorrow morning, arriving in the US at 9 am. But customs at the airport of entry we planned on going to is closed all weekend and only opens at 8 am. How are we supposed to provide 2 hr phone notification (apparently just filling out an eAPIS form isn't considered sufficient notification)? I called a couple other local customs places that are open over the weekend to see if they could help, and they just shrugged and told me to wait to arrive until 10 am so we could notify them at 8 am when they opened. This M-F, business hours only, customs support is really frustrating and putting a damper in my desire to use my airplane for quick weekend trips into Canada. The US doesn't have a system like CANPASS right now that allows us to bypass that.

We just landed for first time im Canada (cleared customs in sault ste Marie, then onto Kingston). Lessons learned: if it's not too late, pay to join can pass so you don't have to arrive on a weekday during business hours (which is usual customs and border arrival policy), buy gas before you get here (it's $7-8/gallon in Canada), don't expect reliable weather while en route while getting into us, there is a $17/day air traffic use fee, and if you fly over 25 miles you must b on a flight plan for search and rescue, Vfr flying is normally not done (not allowes?) at night..

My speculation on the ridiculously low price offer ($7k less than retail) is a last ditch effort to raise the capital required to bring the thing to market. I think you'd be taking a risk making a deposit that avidyne could go out of business before delivering the unit. Any thoughts on this? I see that avidyn is no longer standard equipment in cirrus, that probably hurts their bottom line quite a bit.

yes the end of the tube that goes to the side of the airplane is connected to that NACA scoop on the side of the fuselage.

still ony 1/3rd the candlepower of a HID

The Mooney Caravan appears to be having a BBQ on Sunday night, even for those who don't fly in with them. Cost is $25pp though.

We are going to Osh this year. Its my first time ever flying in (though I've been by ground a few times) and jetdriven's first time ever (which I have been taunting him much). We're camping with our Mooney. Hope we'll meet some of you there! A couple questions for the veterans. Can you tell me about the camp store? Will we be able to find enough food to cook our meals? How often is a shuttle into town so we can eat at area restaurants? Does the campground have grills or should i bring a propane stove? I am trying to figure out how much stuff we should pack in our cooler vs just getting there. thanks!

Quote: Bill_Pyles Along these lines, what are the top ten Mooney-specific parts that are a) likely to need replacing and hard to find?

Quote: rsnowden Personally I blame it all on math illiteracy.

Quote: tony oh god....I can just feel the tension. This used to be such a nice place.....what happened?

I have no doubt the bank would come after me for the loan amount even if the plane became "worthless" due to a title problem and I stopped paying the loan, but I don't think they'd recover their money with Texas's friendly-to-debtors laws, though I would take a pretty serious ding in my credit rating, it would probably be worth it compared to paying of the debt on a worthless airplane. So the bank also takes a with their money without title insurance (and since they own 80% of my airplane they are actually taking more of a risk then I am in that regard). Anyway..

Quote: jlunseth So when the hard drive crashes or you drop the iPad and break it, what then? I do alot of work with computers and retaining and producing information from computers and PDA's. There are two rules. One. It is very hard to lose or get rid of data that you would just as soon not have around. Two. It is very hard to store and keep data that you really want to have around and accessible for a long period of time (like a flight logbook). Think of all computer memory as volatile, not permanent, because it really is. All my permanent logs are paper, and I have copies. Would not ever put one on a computer. Been through too many computer crashes.

This whole conversation has me curious about aircraft title insurance. Has anyone had any experience actually making a claim on their title insurance? For what reason? I wonder if there are any statistics out there for claims on title insurance and the break down of common reasons. It seems like the most obvious one may be unpaid sales or use taxes - if the state comes after for you for a previous owner's unpaid taxes later, that wouldn't show up in a title search because the claim wouldn't exist at purchase time. I wasn't able to find any articles besides those written by title insurance companies on what its used for - I'd be interested in hearing more on actual practice. This was the most thorough article I could find, but as an engineer, I found it still lacked hard data: http://www.ainonline.com/ain-and-ainalerts/aviation-international-news/single-publication-story/browse/0/article/aircraft-title-insurance-do-you-need-it-or-not-2556/?no_cache=1&tx_ttnews%5Bstory_pointer%5D=6&tx_ttnews%5Bmode%5D=1

Quote: Cris Jetdriven: For the record I just checked and the cost of the "title" insurance (which is what the insurance company calls it) for my Eagle was $652. This is for an A/C valuation that is based on more than double your $80K estimate for my A/C. Frankly I'll buy several low time Eagles at that price. Just tell me where. So as I said I did not recall the exact figures but now that I have looked it up the closing fees were $500 which included the "title" search, paperwork, registration, escrow & whatever else was required. The $850 differance between the $2000 & the 1152 was for the PPI. The $500 escrow fee plus the $652 title insurance fee = $1152. This insurance may well be worthless if never needed just like the cost of the A/C liability insurance but that is my choice. I belive it is a prudent decision-for me. Now here are the facts:

Quote: allsmiles Let's be logical. You buy an airplane for say 100K or so wouldn't you pay a couple thousand dollars to an escrow agent to do all the leg work properly so you are protected? Seems a no brainer right??

Quote: Cris I used the escrow/title services available thru AOPA simply because they are a known entity to me. I do not recall the exact cost but it was probably around $2000 including title ins. Of course AOPA makes money so the services are available elsewhere for less but I did not have the experience to determine who might be better. However the recommended company did the title search. provided title insurance, & guaranteed that the paperwork would be filed correctly. The broker, JeffFine of Fine Aircraft would have been happy to handle it all (except the title insurance which was the most expensive) at no charge. This was was part of his value add but I wanted a complely independent source due to the issues I wrote about. It was all handled on the phone at time of closing with a very knowlegeable A/C title person. Once papers were faxed the title company authorized me to hand over the funds to the broker & guaranrteed me clear title & off I flew. It was great for peace of mind. A few weeks later I got the FAA registration etc. Costly maybe but I would not buy a house without title insurance & with scames today who knows. Price is what you pay & value is what you get. One other point is that in the prebuy the Stec 30 autopilot was not checked in flight only on the ground. Jeff warranteed that it would work properly. It was out of tolerance. I had it fixed & Jeff paid the bill even though the deal was completly done. A man of his word- Old school. There still are people like that out there.

Quote: danb35 Interesting--my Mooney is financed with the AOPA/BofA program, and the rate is below 7%. Have they raised the rates that much in the last 3 years?

Quote: jetdriven For all you guys suffesting that you use AOPA escrow service, we looked into it. For a 5K deposit the escrow fee was over 1,000$. Id rather risk losing my deposit than pay some bank 20%. The same AOPA aircraft financing is just another pig with lipstick courstey of Bank of America. 16% APR for an aircraft. My Bank of America credit card is cheaper.

Quote: donshapansky They are using former employees on a contract basis to make parts for them off site, which has helped keep a lot of aircraft flying. Molded plastic parts and gear doors are not being made as far I can gather.

Quote: allsmiles Why did you pay the mechanic for a prebuy in advance of the actual inspection? I didn't think this was SOP (regardless of the broker, I would not pay a mechanic before he actually did the work).

Quote: allsmiles I agree Parker100%. How about in the case where a reputable buyer places a deposit proceeds to AND pays for prebuy, sets up a date to close and pickup the airplane, buys an airline ticket to get there, arranges for a safety pilot to fly home with, purchases an airline ticket to fly safety pilot back, only to find out the night before the airplane isn't available! And then takes a year and the threat of legal action to get "refundable" deposit back! What do you think in that case?

We bought our Mooney brokered through AAA after a long time searching planes. Honestly we had been mostly looking at private party purchase, but AAA had the right plane at the right price. The usual negotiation was required and somewhat annoying, but in the end, I was left feeling like we were dealt with completely fairly. Feel free to pm me if you want more details.

Enjoyed listening to the interviews with the guys on the ground: http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/bizarre/inhofe-scared-crap-out-airport-workers-192645 I actually agree with his proposed reforms. But his claims of innocence were insane. I can't believe he kept his license after this insanity.

I think parts are a bigger problem then you guys are letting on. Used to be Mooney was one up on the Beech for parts. Not sure this is going to be the case going into the future. I can't replace my hail damaged ailerons and elevators for any price right now - not at all the renowned Mooney places in Texas, nowhere. When will I be able to and how much will it cost? That's any one's guess. Presumably if the factory goes a couple years without building parts there will be enough demand with the large fleet that someone else might start to buy jigs and plans and such from them, but how much will they charge and when will it happen? Luckily its not damage that grounds my plane. But its still frustrating. All the other pro-Mooney arguments remain valid. But if I could afford the additional GPH of a Bonanza.. well... On the partner thing, no serious advice. Just firmly establish expectations regarding scheduling, maintenance, upgrades, valuation, etc. Understand you will both have to do some training (probably 10-15 hrs) in the plane before flying passengers for the insurance company. Make sure the partner is a person you are willing to get into financial bed with, as it were. Our partnership is me (~300 hrs at time of purchase), husband (extremely high time), and friend (fairly new PP) and its worked pretty well so far even with the range of experience. Now I feel the need to go to the Bonanaza forum (link?) to see what those guys are saying about this