AndyFromCB

I highly doubt that in FAA world an airplane exists that is truly airworthy ;-) Having have said that, I work mostly with two shops maintaining my mooney. Both have great mechanics and I trust both shops with my life. However, there is a major difference between shop A, a small shop and shop B, a repair station. There is a lot of things that shop A will point out but allow me to make a decision about whether to fix or not. Shop B, not so much. They are 100% by the book, see my engine mount saga. Mooney/Stacey said replace/repair due to scratches, Shop B said I had to, otherwise, would not sign off the annual. Shop A would let that mount fly for many more years if I did choose. What passes as airworthy to many mechanics vs what is truly airworthy according to TC and FAA best practices is worlds apart. I trade annuals between A & B, this way everything gets fixed at least once every 2 years.

I forgot the movie, but the quote was "never feel sorry for a man who owns a plane". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pn0WdJx-Wkw I love how everyone thinks that the data should be essentially free. And who is going to pay the millions for IS&T team's salaries that makes it all happen. Programmers and QA folks are not cheap. I know, I sign the payroll every two weeks. Last time I looked at Garmin's annual report, their aviation division is not exactly the most profitable of them all.

Don, Do you mean bottom end of the engine or the top end? Andy

Want to see an over engineered landing gear system, take a look a Bonanza. Same gear used all the way up 6200lb in PBaron. The reason for the insanely low gross weight on long bodies is that they will not pass a drop test at higher gross weights, hence the landing weight of 3200lb. It is and always has been a weak point of a Mooney. There is only so much dampening that can happen by using a rubber biscuit in this configuration. About an inch on travel. If mooney is serious about getting back into business, they will have to address this otherwise nobody in their right mind will buy a new 700K 850lb useful Ovation vs 700K 1350lb useful Cirrus. If you look at the sales numbers last year, Cirrus sold close to 300 aircraft. If I was in the market for new 4 seater and had 700K to blow, Mooney would not even be on my list.

You must be going senile ;-) That doesn't sound like they guy who busted my chops two years ago for flying my Bravo under the if it fits it will fly rule. 14.5lb/hp is going to make for a pretty anemic climb rate at 2900lb especially on a hot/high day. But on a cold day, close to sea level, I don't see why not. Like I said before, it all depends. My Bravo has busted MTOW multiple times on take off from Iowa heading west. I have always felt that at 13lb/hp at 3500lb I can live with only 1000fpm climb rate. But I postponed a take off and whined, screamed and cried when they over filled me in Denver on a 89 degree day. Made them unload fuel. The wing on any mooney is not the limiting factor. It's the damn landing gear, or rather, lack thereof.

Leave airspeed in the hole. Here is why: TruTrak gemini.

capitalavionics.com does a pretty good job too doing IRAN instead of full overhauls as well

http://avwxworkshops.com

carusoam, You're right, it just depends. Looking over the logbooks on my Bravo and the number of times I've repaired the autopilot/gyro components while owing the aircraft, maybe 2K a year was excessive, but damn, I myself spent close to 8K overhauling gyros, computer and a single servo. The prior owners spend probably twice as much. Total of 3 KI256 overhauls in 3600 hours, 3 HSI overhauls, 6 servo overhauls, 1 computer overhaul. My Arrow on the other hand flew flawlessly with the S-TEC 30 for last 3 owners without an issue. Don't get me wrong, when the KFC150 works, it's a dream. 30 seconds of hand flying per flight, then just twisting knobs, but when it starts to go, it gets expensive quickly. And then there are later Ovations with the KFC225 autopilot. Amazing piece of equipment when it works but read this: http://www.peter2000.co.uk/aviation/kfc225/ The pinnacle of king/honeywell autopilot design was KFC200. Everything after that, including Honeywell Apex system in PC12/47NG seems to have been designed by 14 year olds with a solder kit. I've flown a lot lately as a passenger in a copilot seat of PC12 and it's a nightmare of a system. Give me a a 1981 PC/XT with a CGA card and MSDOS and I could create a friendlier system with a keyboard. It's almost useless for real IFR. a GNS430 is a dream to operate vs the Apex.

Is it out for 796 yet? As in if I connect GDL39D to my 796, will I get synthetic vision with attitude? Or just the pilot app?

Eagle all the way. It will be lighter, much lighter, I've seen them with useful loads pushing 1150lb because of cheaper/lighter carpets, fabrics and much less sound proofing. Also, S-TEC 30 is bullet proof vs a king autopilot that will on average run about 2K per year to maintain if you add it all up.

I never understood any other technique but crab and kick. What is the point of sitting cross controlled and slow on a long final? Crab until right before flare, then kick. Said it before, will say it again. As to people claiming landing direct 45knot cross wind, well, you're much better pilot than me. This woos here went around 3 times before landing in 35knot gusts once.

Fly it like you'd fly a jet. Full flaps, crab until flare.

Call Randy at autopilot central. Or the crew at Capital Avionics. They do a great job on servo IRAN and overhaul at a lower price than Autopilot Central.

Make sure the cylinder is not timed out. It has a 15 year life span I think at which point it must be replaced. Mine looked brand new, but rules are rules in this case.

Amazing, simply amazing. That is a feat. All my glides were due to loss of oil pressure. I'm still here. Can I get a rating for that.

I see, you have the elusive LOP Bravo. I need to tweak with mine.

How do you get 32/2400 at 16gph? 28/2400 is closer to what I do to get that fuel flow. Peak TIT? 1750?

It never hurts to file your flight plan with N767FU in lieu of N767RD when flying to Illinois either.

Almost ;-) The pump motor is about $200 bucks and comes from a food/lab equipment german company, the "awesome" metal casing it an extra $2800 because that's what CAV charges for a replacement pump. I have a few "repaired ones" sitting on my shelf, no 8130 unfortunately, but hangar fairy don't need no stinking 8130...

What do I win?

A Tecnam P2006T after a divorce? Or a c$%^% skycatcher

I've been really happy with my combination tach/mp gauge from AeroSpace Logic. Bravo has two 2 1/4 gauges, one for tach, another for MP. I wanted my CHT/EGT/TIT gauge (G1) to be on the pilots side where I could see it, hence I installed the the combo and moved the G1 into the hole vacated by the MP gauge.

I've used these folks 4 times, http://www.insuredaircraft.com, always on top of their game I think the service for title search and escrow was something to a tune of $300 to $400 each time.

Where is the 30K more coming from? It used to be 30K to install inadvertent and now is 60K or so to install FIKI if I recall correctly. There are a few hours of labor to remove the old TKS panels if you want full FIKI but it's not 30K extra per se, it's still 60K plus a few hours of labor.