rocketman

The Mooney Summit lll made front page of the local news paper http://www.newsherald.com/article/20150930/NEWS/150939901

Mike Elliott and Ron Dubin getting ready for the third Mooney Summit this weekend in Panama City Beach. Weather promises to be good this weekend.

Wonder how much the factory would discount a new Mooney unpainted?

I had my Rocket engine overhauled a few years back and highly recommend them. John Pava is the face of the company and is accessible and very knowledgable. They do have added value on the Blue Book like the factory, something important to consider. I am currently in the process of getting a rebuilt engine from Lycoming for my 1994 Bravo and happy so far with the company. So both are recommended, and both are more pricey but worth it in the short and longterm IMHO.

I just purchased a rebuilt TIO-540-AF1B for my Bravo last week from AirPower. So far so good.

Since I own both a Bravo and Rocket, I can comment on the two with relative authority. The Bravo is like driving a Ford Flex (which I also own) with twin turbo chargers in a long body vehicle with relatively more comfort while the Rocket is like driving a (four seat) NASCAR vehicle (which I don't own but can just imagine) with more power, speed, and acceleration in a modestly smaller cabin.

I have the ipad mini 3 retina and love it. If I were in the market for a new ipad and can wait a little, I believe Apple might come out with something new before the holidays. IMHO!

Are you referring to an annual or an overhaul?

Something is not right for $500 per cylinder. Please explain what that includes

Engines need to burn some oil. Too little or too much is not good. What those parameters are I would need some help from others

My mechanic noticed that the wastegate controller for the turbocharger has a slow leak on my 1996 Bravo. It's been there a while and feels the controller needs an overhaul or be replaced. What are my best options and who specialized in overhauling these units?

OMG - so close to home for me. My wife is from Sheboygan and I fly into KSBM very frequently.

The best advice I can offer to prevent hard nose wheel landings it to watch your landing speeds. Watch Don Kays Landing video many times over and over. Simple concept to master but must be perfected on each landing.

I have been in 2 thunderstorms many years ago when all I had was a WX-11. Bad decision. A stormscope just paints a very broad area of thunderstorms. Maybe. Many false positives and negatives. XM radar is the best to avoid or circumvent them Just be aware of the time delay and don't get too close. If you ever do get into a thunderstorm, you will NEVER forget the experience. Almost like the day you got married. You will also remember where you landed, and what you did when you immediately got out of the plane (if you get the chance to.) Get the point? Nothing in aviation is ever worth the possibility of flying through this tiger.

Running in the Boston Marathon Monday then returning to work Tuesday only to head out to SNF Thursday evening or Friday AM depending on weather. Love to meet fellow Mooney and Rocket owners in Lakeland. PM me and I am in! Ron Dubin

I am so terribly sorry. A great pioneer and soldier for helping all of us for decades. He will be missed.

I just had this installed on my Bravo and will give my opinion in an upcoming post. The nice thing about this AOA is the ease of installation. It's all electric so there is no need to run an air pressure tubing from the wing to the cockpit. Electric wires is much much simpler.

I flew from 1A6 to ERV several years ago non stop at about 6 hours. That was my limit of sitting in a Mooney. You must have had some tail wind eastbound at 11,000 feet.

They usually do restart back up but if your not used to doing it, its a very sinking feeling.

Congratulations on your 82 201. I too have a 1982 201 since 1989 and that plane has been wonderful. Never let me down, rarely any surprises on the annuals, easy to fly AFTER you learn how to fly it, and arguably the best engineered and designed GA plane ever built. You will love it. Like others have said here, learn the numbers especially on landing. That is very critical.

I recently purposely flew my rocket only from the right tank for calibration purposes until fuel depletion on that side. What happened next was uneventful and expected but the feeling will live forever. While expecting the engine to quit, guess what - it did! Of course I switched to the left tank and it took about a second for the engine to restart. That was one of the longest 1 second of my flying since 1986. A feeling I will never forget. And won't again. The rest of the flight was like flying over the ocean, hearing sounds like the engine starting to sputter again. Also, I also recognized that on running the tank dry, I forgo another brilliant safety feature of airplanes, a second fuel source if one of them gets fouled or plugged. So, if you need to have an empty tank for what ever purpose, drain the fuel from that tank on the ground, not in the air.

Check the ground connection

Don - be thankful your were able to purchase these life saving devices for $150 years ago. They were worth as much at that time as they are for $20 today. Great investment!

WOW

As a 2000+ hour Mooney pilot, my advice to you is as follows: Given your experience, runway, short field, grass strip, inexperience, obstacles, weather, temperature, humidity, and other unknown variables, I would NOT do it. Period. Buy a Mooney, learn your plane, practice, and practice, and practice, then determine if what you airplane offers you makes perfect sense for you. Just my opinion!