201er

Perhaps an unpopular opinion, but perhaps the safest bet, is to just focus on your flying. Can't count the number of Mooney accidents and gear ups that happen on a new owner's first flight or first trip. Unless you already have a lot of experience in Mooneys, it may be better to avoid the distraction of additional travel planning. You are more likely to encounter maintenance related problems on a plane that's been sitting or who knows how it was maintained? It may have had a prebuy or recent annual but that too can leave you open to premature failures. I would suggest giving all your focus toward flights, rest, and planning. Enjoy traveling with your plane after you've gotten through the "break in" period.

The regular kind of cumulus clouds that top out at 6000, 8000, or even 10,000 feet are fairly benign. There may be some turbulence but virtually never any rain or substantial turbulence. There can be unexpected icing. But luckily most cumulus clouds tend to have gaps between them. You can fly around, through, between, above, or below regular cumulus clouds. Above is the most comfortable, followed by around, under, and least of all through. The turbulence can be enough to get your attention but shouldn’t ever be enough to cause a hazard. I prefer going through to going under because there tends to be plenty of VFR traffic below and a not so smooth ride. Cumulus clouds reaching higher, like 10,000 to 14,000ft may be considered Towering Cumulus but are at the lower end of the type. You might get over these in a turbo, and I’m sure the ride above them is much better. In normally aspirated, you’re not getting above them. This leaves going through, around, or below. It may be a good smack going through, but again doable. I usually tighten up my belts and grab onto the center steel tube. Might get tossed around for a minute, but it won’t be long till you pop out the other side and go on your way. Make sure nothing is loose before going through one of these because it may not be where you placed it by the time you’re out. And then there’s the real towering cumulus. The good old cumulus congestus. These extend to about 20,000ft which may be a challenge to cross even in a turbo. This is a bonafide junior cumulonimbus. It has many similar characteristics to a thunderstorm but with less severity. Updrafts, downdrafts, wind, rain, turbulence. What the large towering cumulus don’t have, as compared to a thunderstorm, is lightening. They may still show up on a storm scope but with significantly lower intensity than a thunderstorm. Towering cumulus may show up on radar with light to moderate and at times heavy precipitation. It can be heavy enough to feel like going through a pressure washer. Going through large towering cumulus is possible but certainly uncomfortable. It’s the survivable version of flying through a thunderstorm. The biggest hazard is that it could possibly grow into a thunderstorm as you’re going through it. I suppose every thunderstorm was a towering cumulus at some point as it grew. Towering cumulus can be distinguished from a thunderstorm by color, height, milder strikes on strike finder, and echo returns. Towering cumulus are usually white while thunderstorms are grey. Towering cumulus top out around 20,000 while thunderstorms continue higher. Towering cumulus may or may not appear on strike finder while thunderstorms do. Towering cumulus may return green, yellow, orange, even a bit of red on radar. Towering cumulus will be smaller in size on radar than thunderstorms but with similar shape. Thunderstorms are likely to have pronounced red and even purple areas on radar and likely a connective sigmet. That’s a towering cumulus. Definitely not getting over it in a normally aspirated Mooney. I wouldn’t be eager to go through it. I’d try to get deviations around, but I would go through. However, if it extends above 20,000ft, shows significant lightning strikes, is dark in color, or is showing heavy+ precipitation on radar, UNABLE. This information is for entertainment purposes only and should not be taken for meteorological or safety advice. Just my experience and a place to start your own gradual understanding of hazardous weather.

That’s not towering cumulus. That’s just cumulus!

It’s not just the rating. You’ll also end up increasing your total time by 25% and particularly retract time. However, going uninsured over saving a few hundred or thousand bucks doesn’t make sense.

I don’t have this problem as my birds prefer to fly inside the cabin. But for everyone else there’s: https://www.proppastie.com/Bird Spikes.html

I’ve been going to Byron @jetdriven in KGAI cause he specializes specifically in Mooney and particularly M20Js.

I prefer an ordinary Mooney. They did a fine job.

Funny I still know and talk to all these people.

Realized how lucky I am not to have a bird problem being outside a decade at my airport. That's about the only good thing I can say about my airport. This was particularly highlighted to me when after only a few days outside in the middle of a wide concrete ramp in Florida, my vertical stabilizer was painted in colors of crap. Little undigested seeds and all. However, being indoors isn't always the catch all. Occasionally I've been in communal hangars where the plane got crapped on more than outside!

Well that takes the cake, when they're shitting on your plane, in your plane, and making more little butts to do shit on your plane some more.

I came to a realization that some airports are much shittier than others. In terms of birds crapping on your plane. How would you rate the amount of bird shit you get on your plane (or on the covers) from none to

You've done a lot of J/C time. How does the short rudder feel by comparison? How much less authority do you actually get?

And YOU need to keep your assumptions in your own ass. I learned in a conventional gear trainer before I’ve ever flown tricycle gear. The ground clearance in a low wing Mooney is nothing like in those high wing conventional gear trainers! Sorry I don’t have the obvious markings of a taildragger pilot by going around telling everyone they need to fly tailwheel or they’re not worth a dime.

Depends on runway width. You don't want to mess with too strong a crosswind on a narrow runway. Once it pops off the ground, it will drift significantly sideways until you become aware of the intensity and turn into a crab. You don't want to dip a wing into the runway, so you're limited how quickly you can bank into that crab while sliding across the runway in the air.

Cross control in and of itself isn't a problem at all. It aggravates a stall and likely turns it into a spin. But if you maintain sufficient angle of attack, it won't stall. And when you begin flaring cross controlled in a strong crosswind, you're right over the ground so a stall is usually called a landing at that point. Just be careful about wind gusts because those kinds of winds are often gusty. That can get you unexpectedly. Carry extra speed to combat wind gusts.

No you can’t. 6-24 months.

Keep in mind that it’s not just the cost but also the time the plane will have to be down for overhaul. Could take half a year. This can happen with any airplane, but in this case something you should be expecting.

Surprised the best flying shoes haven’t been mentioned Cmon guys it’s a Mooney. You hardly ever need to use those pedal things anyway.

If that piece of junk is still for sale, you should put one of these in it to help it sell.

The best Mooney upgrade you can get is on sale today from Aircraft Spruce for the same price certified as experimental. Go look it up, you can't beat this new mod.

Welcome to the Dan Bass Saved My Ass Club!

I doubt you’re gonna want to go through that again, and especially every 6 months! What are you going to do next time?

Prop Pastie. It’s right on point but the guy stopped making them because he’s paranoid the government is spying on him and that someone is going to sue him.