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Attached is my new panel, and I love it, including the layout. The shop suggested pilot and co-pilot lemo plugs, which suggestion I followed. So glad I did. The only thing I don’t like is that I had to mount my phone in bottom left corner, and it is in the way of the ignition key. I’ll likely re-position that to far right. I use the phone for timing (Lab Timer) and backup checklist app (if you do not use Mira Check, check it out. A smart checklist (changes depending upon circumstances) is like having a co-pilot. I recently had an issue with my gear not going down. I hit two buttons in Mira and it immediately starting giving me audible instructions on what to do. Which makes me think of how thankful I am to have the 450B audio panel with Bluetooth to ForeFlight and my phone. I had same trouble with power trim not capable of full travel. They are working on it now.

Dual G3Xs and I love the layout more with each flight.

I bought a 1975 M20F about 10 years ago. It had 2 170 radios, old audio panel, and no gps. About 7 years ago I put in new audio panel, radios and gps. Being somewhat of a computer guy whose has dealt with a lot of cables and wiring, the fast stack intrigued and impressed me. My shop said faststack was not necessary and would never make things easier. I did it anyway. Now I am about to do another avionics upgrade and the shop I am looking at, which is not the same shop that did the first upgrade, is suggesting I remove the fastack for the same reason. I love the concept, but unless this method becomes a standard it does not appear to be a benefit. I’m disappointed it is not the std.

The following is the link to the EAA page where you can stay up tp date. https://www.eaa.org/airventure/eaa-fly-in-flying-to-oshkosh/ground-operations/airventure-ground-status I suggest you also sign up for the text alerts, the process of which is explained on the page above.

Count me in. Name. Mike

I have the 8000BT and love it. I pair it with my iPad mini and get ForeFlight audible alerts (“approaching runway 31”). I also get audible checklist items using MiraCheck. I pair it with my phone and listen to music. Lately I have had a lot of passengers, and if they don’t like my music, I just tell them to pair their phone to the 8000BT and we listen to their music. Couple weeks ago, had three passengers plus me and we all took turns listening to each other’s playlist. Lots of fun. Flying to MSP today my iPad mini would not connect. Turns out it pairs up to eight devices and then kicks the oldest ones off. I just had to go through the process of re-pairing and I was all set. After owning one, I can’t imagine anything better.

I have gotten in the habit of pulling back on the yoke pretty significantly the moment the mains touch down. If your approach speed was at 80 mph, and you are about to stall when the mains touch, you won’t hardly feel the nose wheel kiss the ground. Took me a long time to figure that out. Beeen great ever since.

Same thing happened to me. I thought e bendix on the plane was the same type of design as a car. Let the plane sit all weekend only to have my AP educate me the following week.

Congrats. Opens up a whole new world.

I have a 75 F and had the same concern. I Noticed the housing along my right leg would get extremely hot when I pulled out the heat knob. Then I started mixing cabin air with the blast furnace that results from pulling out only the heat knob. The center console cooled down nicely and I still get plenty of heat in the cabin. Given the other posts, I’m gonna see if the defrost hose is disconnected. In any event, the above solved my problem.

The panel lights in my 75’ F quit working. My mechanic tells me the rheostats are fine but the transistors are shot and he cannot locate any thus far. For those of you have done it, it looks like the MaxDim, http://m.pilotshop.com/catalog/elpages/maxDimUnit.php, solves the problem. That is, discard the rheostat/transistor panel (photos attached; unit is near area of landing gear switch) and replace with the MaxDim. In other words, if I understand the MaxDim correctly, all I need for panel lights are the existing lights, the MaxDim units (3 of them; one for left side of panel, middle of panel, and right side panel), and power.

When I did my XC night dual, my instructor and I landed at a small nontowered airport. It was one of those very dark nights with no moon. After we touched down, he asked if I remembered everything. I thought I had and was feeling relieved that I made a smooth landing. Then he told me to taxi, and giggled when we turned onto the black hole of a taxi-way. “Forgot to turn on the landing light,” I said as his giggle erupted into laughter. We then flew back to our home airport, which was towered. As I was about to turn on the landing light, he said, “It just burned out, leave it off.” The landing was a non-issue. A few years ago, I flew to an unfamiliar airport in order to go to an Eagles concert. I had called ahead because the only FBO advertised they closed at 10pm and I would not be taking off until about 11pm. The FBO said, “No worries. We have some VIPs who will not be leaving until about 11:30, so we’ll be here.” My response was, “I’m guessing I’m going to the same event as them, only facing a different direction.” Silence for a moment, and then she started laughing and just said, “Yup!.” When I Landed, I was taxied up to the only other plane parked at the FBO; a beautiful Gulfstream. The concert was fantastic. Glad I got to see and listen to Glenn Frey before he passed. I wanted to beat the crowd so bugged out when there were only a couple songs left. It was a dark, moonless night. When I discovered the taxi/landing light was burned out, I fiddled around trying to find if it was a loose wire or something else I could fix. While I was doing that, the black Suburbans pulled up and the band hopped out and entered the Gulfstream. I was jealous. They were gone within a minute or two. After contemplating whether to spend the night, I recalled the dual XC, and had been lately flying at night a lot. I told the tower my light was burned out and they cranked up all the lights. It was great. I flew home to my non-towered airport, landed without incident, and gave thanks to God that I am so fortunate to have a great life, great wife..., and a Mooney.

I have a '75 F and blue fuel has started to show up on the outside of my nose gear door. I cleaned everything up and tried to figure out where it was coming from, to no avail. It is too far forward to be the gascilator. It has not been flooded. I actually saw a couple drips fall on my front tire. In any event, my mechanic is looking at it. I will let you know if I find out anything that may be useful.

I live in Bismarck and am familiar with most of the shops in the area. Send me a private message if you want to discuss any of them in detail.

It is sometimes used to re-connect when communication is lost between atc and a pilot. For example, you are assigned 125.35 by atc. You are cruising along, they forget about you, or you have a weak radio, and when they attempt to contact you, you are out of range. Some controllers will hope you are monitoring 121.5 aka "guard," and try to contact you there in order to get you assigned to another frequency with a station closer to your vicinity. Happens frequently out here in the plains.

Merry Christmas. Love the dialogue.

Sea Foam Motor Treatment. Yes, Deep Creep is another one of our products. Glad you like it. Btw, I appreciate your active participation on this site. You are one that keeps things alive here.

Mmm, I live in Bismarck ND USA, which is approximately 200 miles NORTH of Toronto Canada. 30" of snow on the ground, more coming this weekend along with -24 degrees F and -50 degree windchill. Use a Honda generator with a good dose of sea foam in the tank. Now work for sea foam, but have been using the stuff since 92. Cant believe the difference it makes in starting my generator (which is an awesome generator, but seems to scoff at gas more than 30 days out of the pump unless treated with sea foam). I use the generator to power my tanis heater and a small cabin heater. Ok, a shameless, but sincere plug. Yvesg, swing by and pick me up on your way to FL.

I did the same setup. Labor charge was $1500. As I pointed out in another post, my ESG replaced a garmin 327. ESG was mounted in same place as my 327' which is just above throttle quadrant of my 75F. ESG keys protrude out more, and are more sensitive than 327 keys, and way too often I hit a number key (screwing up my squawk code) when I go to adjust mixture/prop/throttle. Mount the ESG where you will not inadvertently hit keys.

I also just had one installed. Works great. Couldn't believe all the traffic at University of North Dakota. In hindsight, though, I should not have mounted the Stratus ESG in the same place I had my Garmin 327, which is just above the throttle quadrant of my '75F. The keys on the Stratus ESG stick out quite a bit further than those of the 327. Just about every flight I manage to bump a key when I use the throttle, prop, or mixture, which messes up the squawk code. I now make sure I keep my written clearance handy. On another note, at the same time I had installed a Flightstream 210. Holy cow does that save time. For the most part I use preferred routes via the ForeFlight flight planning tool and use the 210 to send them to my 430. Very impressive.

Whether you are required by law to keep a log for the GPS database, unless you are blessed with living in an airpark and your hangar and garage are one and the same, how do you know the night before your flight whether your database and VOR checks are up to date? I keep an avionics log (attached) in my flight bag, along with a spare GPS card. Before my 20 minute drive to the airport, I check my log. If the GPS database is expired, I update the card in my flight bag and when I get to the airport, pop in the updated card, and remove the outdated one and put it in my flight bag. Since the log is in my flight bag, it is at home when I need it (check GPS database), and in the plane when I need it (conduct VOR check). I am sure there are better methods out there, but this seems to work well for me. Used to drive me crazy getting to the airport and realizing my database was out of date. I also added a section at the bottom re: the VOR check so I don't have to remember the rules and each element needed in the log in order to be legal.

I have a 75 F model also. If your cable is still intact, I advise using some thin stranded cable (like the kind used to hang pictures) as a stop gap for the scoop to travel. I was flying with my scoop open and, wham, I heard something above. When I landed my cable was broke and my scoop Was flapping around. Had there been that stop, I doubt my cable would have broken. You will need to put a small hole in the screen to run the cable (the cable will end up being about 3-4" long) but that will prevent what happened to me.

Mine is currently being installed and I should have a pirep in the next several days.

I'd like in. Just passed my IFR check ride few weeks ago and was complaining to my instructor that there should be a cheap easy alert system for altitude maintenance. Glad to see you doing something about it.

A friend of mine stopped some place in Montana for fuel last week. Just a pump with no credit card control or anything. Sign said, "we are on the honor system here. Just write your name, address, and gallonage on this log. I'll send you a bill at the end of the month." How wonderful is that?