Mooneymite

Flightplan.com app. About all I ever need.

I think I'd rather transition a Maule pilot to a Mooney than a Mooney pilot to a Maule. I think you'll find the transition easy/fun. Control the airspeed and land tail-low! No problem.

There are several different PC turn coordinators depending on year of your Mooney. I've had great luck finding components that are sitting on shelves from when people removed their PC's for a more modern autopilot. Might be more cost effective than overhaul. Matching exact components and paperwork can be challenging.

Iwas told the black stuff in the battery box was fuel tank sealer. (?) Makes sense that it's breaking down about the same time we have fuel tank leaks, but I have no assurance that this is anything but someone's guess. I bet Bill Wheat knows!

There's no competition around ROA to keep things reasonable. Landmark and the airport commission seem to have a cozy relationship keeping prices high. My son lives there, so I visit often. I really dislike that airport, but there are no viable alternatives other than driving. The Delta fares are also sky-high. Blacksburg maybe?

The future is obviously glass. No one should invest in mechanical anythings for their panels. The iPad has shifted the paradigm and I think we will see further blurring of the lines between hard install and soft install. Having said that, I've had 15 years of excellent, low cost service from my steam gauges. Some of that probably due to mild climate and a hangar. I'm not anticipating an up-grade to glass until I gain some capability that I don't presently have with steam gauges. My neighbor has the "latest, greatest", but he and I have the same minimums and fly the same places. I fly glass at work, but don't really hanker to have it in my Mooney. .

Unfortunately, sometimes the impossible turn turns out okay, so people keep trying it. Repeat after me: "The engine has quit, the airplane now belongs to the insurance company".

In this day and age, I'm not sure why ATC does not vector using magnetic track instead of heading!

Except that mine didin't have a heading bug, it sounds just like the one I got rid of!!!

Precession seems to be affected by the amount of turning I do. Go out and practice steep turns and the DG will be off in no time. Straight and level, hardly at all. The shops I've dealt with seem to think 10 degrees an hour is okay, but I've never seen anything written. I had a DG overhauled three times with no improvement. The shop finally agreed to exchange it. The new one has worked fine ever since, but I pity whoever got that original one!

I've never owned a Sigma Tek, but I have a friend who had both the electric AI and DG. Both failed within four years; due to repair costs, he elected to sell them to a repair shop. He took a bath.

Land.

Altimeter.

I'm sorry you did not enjoy the tongue-in-cheek humor (attempt).

Since I am not a test pilot, I would never do such a thing. However, the hangar fairies do it all the time and seem to bring the plane back in one piece. I've told them slipping with full flaps is a darn good way to get an incredible sink rate going and they are going to bust their fairy butts.

Better yet, don't.

Everytime I do an owner assisted annual, I am amazed at how many screws have to be removed for the inspections/lubrication and how inconvenient even the simple tasks are. While I admire the thought that went into making a Mooney a great flying plane, apparently no one at Mooney ever thought the airplanes would be worked on by humans. Good thing the hangar faries don't get aches and pains when they assume impossible positions to complete the various routine tasks.

My Navy primary instructor warned me: "if you want to avoid a spin, simply keep the ball centered at all times." Despite the simplification, there's a pretty good general discussion of this topic here: http://faaflighttest.us/Cross-Controlled.pdf Specifically: With reference to a slip: "In this configuration, there is no tendency to spin because roll force downward into a turn is opposed by the rudder force against the turn, thus creating a balanced situation."

I agree! Mooneyspace has been pretty non-controversial lately. Gone are the days when you couldn't wait to see who had the latest word. Too much love-fest down at the Mooney Summit in ECP, I guess.

Crab and kick is no different from any other technique (unless equipped with a crosswind landing gear). Crab and kick has the same effect as other techniques: landing on the up-wind gear, aligned with the runway. The error I see with the "crab and kick" guys is that without establishing alignment prior to the flare, they're just guessing at rudder....and almost always land with too much rudder or not enough rudder. This is usually painful to watch on aircraft with 4 wheel trucks on each gear. I've seen lot of different techniques, personally, I think rudder application needs to be applied smoothly prior to the flare, not jammed in at the last second of flight. However, whatever works for you....

I file IFR most of the time, but when I don't, getting VFR flight following almost always results in being kept at a lower atltitude than necessary. If the floor of the class B is 4000, approach will almost always want you at 3000, or below. They give wake turbulence avoidance as a reason.....which may be valid. Despite this complaint, I've found ATL approach to be very accomodating in most cases. I can't remember the last time I was denied an Alley-Oop over the top of KATL. Looks liike these GPS routes will facilitate that maneuver.

The crew seems pretty darn professional right up to the crash. The early-on remarks concerning fatigue are telling.

Here's some of that "jet technique".

CVR UPS1354: http://dms.ntsb.gov/public%2F55000-55499%2F55307%2F550788.pdf The good, the bad and the ugly.

Really?