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About a year ago my compass started reading 30 degrees off at all times and it was leaking even after a reseal kit. I didn't care much, but the avionics shop did when it went in for some other work, and they replaced it, and then struggled to get it adjusted. The steel tube above the glareshield it was mounted on had become magnetized. They had to degauss it and also install a compensator kit. He also said when running on just alternator #2 it still doesn't swing quite right but is now within tolerance. I asked if the compass could just be removed and was told no because of the requirements of our G500TXi STC which requires another primary source of directional information. So there it stays. I'd like it out of the view as well but learned there's more to making a simple whisky compass work than I realized. I asked about a dry vertical card compass and they said they don't like those, wouldn't sell me one, and wouldn't warranty it if I bought one and had them put it in. According to them they are not reliable. I haven't found the whisky compass to be all that reliable but didn't want to argue with the guy that installs and repairs this stuff for a living and keeps my panel working, so I let him put in the one he likes. On the switches issue - I wish sometimes we had changed to toggles or modern rockers when we did the panel. I'm very delicate with the factory switches and have one (the landing light) where the cover is loose and will even pop off occasionally. The lettering is worn on some of them. I could replace them but it's a hassle it would be nice not to have to deal with. You have to track down the good folks on Mooneyspace making custom 3d-printed laser-etched replacements - you can't just order new ones from Aircraft Spruce.

I ordered a kit from SCS and had similar issues related to my plane having some parts of a 252 interior. After I paid, with a note that said I wasn't sure which kit I needed, they sent me their shop drawings from both kits. We measured against the plane and sent them a list of alterations / changes. I ended up needing some pieces from the 231 kit, some from the 252 kit, and some custom altered from one kit or the other. They did it all and did a really good job, just a little minor trimming was needed. Took a month or two to get the kit this way but I'm glad we did it.

The smoke caught me by surprise a couple of years ago on a trip to Montana as well. Had not really planned on any weather because none was in the forecast, then suddenly visibility dropped and I had to fly an approach into Casper, WY because it was reporting 1 mile visibility with unlimited ceiling. The runway came into view 3 miles out. Plane was covered in a film of dirty grit when we landed. If I remember right, the fires were several hundred miles away in Canada somewhere. Something to be aware of flying out west that I'd never encountered before, and I agree, available weather briefings don't always identify the hazard.

I'll add too - after this I ordered spare tubes, one in the size for the nose and one in the size for the mains, and keep them on the shelf in my hangar. Later on I had a bald spot appear on a tire and got spares of those too. Both are sold at different qualities and price points. If you just ask a shop to fix it without specifying you won't know what you're getting. Canceling a trip is inconvenient. Landing with a flat tire could total your airplane or even hurt someone.

Same thing happened to me, except I noticed nothing until I was off the runway. Plane suddenly came to a stop and wouldn't taxi. Had no idea what it was. My nose tire looked just like that when I got out. Got an air tank but it wouldn't hold air long enough to taxi to the hangar. Had to jack it up, put the nose wheel on a rolling cart, and tow it with my truck, with the help of a local A&P. When we got the tube out and put air back in it, there was a pencil-sized hole on the inside, where it would have been against the wheel. Could have been pinched during install. Must have worn through. New one went on with talc powder and was partly inflated, then deflated, then re-inflated to proper PSI. Cleaned the wheel first to make sure there was no debris / rough spots. Haven't had a problem since.

My K model likes to float in ground effect, a lot more than the C did. The only way to stop the float is to come in slower, but how much slower depends on your weight. We're talking about approaching at 70 KIAS vs 75 KIAS and the difference can be 1,000 feet of runway use on landing. It also really matters when you pull the throttle over the fence. Wait a couple seconds too long and you will float 500 feet. Pull it too early and you'll be flaring over the grass before the runway and hoping you float as much as you thought you were going to, or adding power back in. I find it's easier to land short when heavy, oddly enough. I flew with a very experienced Mooney instructor at a MAPA PPP who kept telling me I was too fast, we shouldn't be floating that much, etc. He said here, let me demonstrate, and proceeded to float more than I had for a few landings. He said he hadn't been in another Mooney that liked to float that much. We eventually got some real short field landings done but it's not easy to nail every time. Add in some wind gusts, some traffic in the pattern, obstacles to clear, a bit of fatigue, and it's not something I'd want to have to do on every landing at home.

Well.. I upgraded from a C to a K model, so I guess I'm your target audience. The C had a 3-bladed prop and was a pretty good short field plane. I don't think I ever had it in and out of any 1,800 foot runways but I could imagine it working. I would not take my K to an 1,800 foot runway. It just needs a more, landing and taking off. Not enough margin for error for this pilot. I've done 2,700 feet in the K and it felt tight, though within safety margins. It has a 2-blade prop and I've heard a 3-blade can improve the short field performance, both for takeoff and for landing (extra drag on landing). No personal experience. The K is a much more slippery plane with significantly more weight and mass than the C, and not that much more horsepower. It does better significantly under gross, but that's not its mission - it likes to get up high and fly long distances, so I'm usually putting as much fuel in the tanks as I can, while staying under max gross. Basing it at an 1,800 foot strip would be a no-go for me personally, after several hundred hours in the plane. I'd say 2,500 minimum for routine use. Good luck, hope that data point helps.

I was trained that wind less than 5 knots on the AWOS is "no wind" for purposes of tailwind component, meaning two things at an uncontrolled field - you can use whatever runway you want, and also, you better consider the increased risk that anyone else may be using whatever runway they want. I will still usually take the headwind landing or departure myself, as long as it's a reasonable option. I've done landings with up to 10 knots of tailwind at mountain strips like Los Alamos, NM (KLAM) that are one-way. It feels like landing at high density altitude - the ground is going by much faster - but otherwise is manageable. Fly the airspeed indicator, make sure you have plenty of runway, and you'll be OK. Be careful of a quartering, gusting tailwind in a Mooney. There are certain conditions that make it want to fish-tail and veer back and forth with the gusts in a way I've never seen it do with a headwind. Like any landing, you have to stay on the rudder and remember the plane isn't done flying until it's tied down on the ramp. This is the main reason I avoid tailwind landings whenever possible. It can also happen in direct crosswinds that are shifting from headwind to tailwind component. You'll know it happened when you have an extra squirrely landing and you look out the window and the windsock says you just landed with a quartering tailwind, despite the AWOS saying something else.

I got my instrument in a M20C with a 6-pack panel and a 430 GPS. It's a great platform for that. Paint vs interior vs panel is pretty much your choice. You pay for each one, either when you buy the plane or when you have it done. Getting any of them done right now is very difficult even if you have the money. Shops are busy, wait times are long, and the job takes longer than it should, because the shops are all short-staffed. If you want to go straight into your instrument rating, which is a great idea, I'd stretch your budget to get a plane that you can use and live with upgrade-free until that's done so it doesn't interrupt your training. There will still be a risk that unplanned maintenance will do it, but at least you aren't planning on it. Once you're done with the instrument, you'll know what you value most - paint, interior, or panel - and can pick if/when you want to put the plane down for a couple months to improve each one.

Yes, you can set the baro on the G500TXi and I usually do. I believe you can also control the frequencies on a GTN from the G500Txi, but not on a GNS or GNC.

I'd suggest posting what model of plane and engine you're working on. TSIO-360 means a M20K, but there are at least four variants used in different Mooneys (GB, LB, MB, SB) with manufacture dates ranging from 1979 to 1998. You say TSIO-360M but I'm not sure what that means exactly. Is it a MB? Factory 252 or a 262 conversion? I'm not one of them, but there are people here with lots of knowledge of all the different parts over the years. I'm here to learn what a Variable Absolute Pressure Controller is, so won't be much help. Good luck.

My practice, with electric gear: Gear comes down when the glideslope is one dot high, set descent power, then half (takeoff) flaps. I leave the flaps there and do not go full flaps unless I have broken out and a landing is assured. The plane lands just fine with half flaps or even no flaps. This is to avoid the high workload that comes with a full-flap go-around. If you have to go around from 75 KIAS with gear and full flaps, and you're trimmed properly for that (near full nose-up), the pitch-up action is very strong, so you have to do partial power, put in some nose-down trim, raise the flaps to half, let the plane stabilize a bit, raise the gear, more power, more nose down trim, raise the flaps. It's a lot to do while bumping around in the clouds in IMC near the ground, trying to fly a missed approach and not run into a tree you can't see. Leaving the flaps at half removes pretty much all the workload. You won't be trimmed as much nose-up. You just go full power, establish positive rate of climb, gear up, flaps up. I don't usually do touch-and-goes in the Mooney but my practice is the same for those. They're easy with half flaps, lots of work with full. It's good to practice full-flap go arounds because you may need to do one someday. Obstacle on the runway, someone pulls out in front of you, etc. But I don't want to do it in IMC. And if you're flying an instrument approach, there is pretty much always plenty of runway so landing with half flaps is fine. I also only use half flaps if the wind is gusting more than 5 knots or so. Really reduces the plane's tendency to balloon up off the runway in a gust. I have about 2 hours in a manual gear Mooney but don't think I'd do anything different.

We have a G500TXi/GTN650xi/GNC355/G5/GFC500/FS510. It works great and there's not anything I'd change. A GTN750 didn't seem worth the extra cost and panel space, and neither did a stand-alone dedicated engine monitor or a MFD. I'd rather have 2 GPS and 1 nav than 2 nav and 1 GPS, but that's a preference. Just about everything has a backup. Flight plans push from a phone to the panel and back, and everything updates either through Garmin Pilot wirelessly or by a single SD card in the GTN650. Very easy to use and maintain.

@EarthX Inc I once had a well-intentioned FBO hook up a 24v jump cart to my 12v lead acid battery. This caused my ancient technology battery to explode, spraying acid all over the inside of the battery box, which then dripped out the drain onto the tarmac. It fried the master, starter, and aux power solenoids, the starter, the left mag, and the slick start module in the plane. It cost several thousand dollars to fix, and interrupted a family trip, costing several thousand more dollars in airfare. I was fortunate it didn't also fry anything in my panel, since I had newer avionics that are 12/24v. I've heard this event (which has happened to others, and I'm sure will happen to others in the future) has destroyed entire panels before. What would have happened if I'd had an EarthX battery with a built-in battery management system? Looking at your destruction video, it looks like yours has overcharge protection built in.

I'm not sure right now if I want to trade the useful load for the extra capacity, but it's great to have a choice in the market and some innovation in aviation.

I understand the plan to be to have an Anderson plug and some automotive wiring running through the plane and connected directly to the battery. They will be energized by the plane battery, possibly connected to the plane ground, and flying around with you everywhere you go. For the cost, I personally would not be OK with that and would get milspec wire, and size them such that if someone who is not you fires the plane up with a big diesel-powered external jump cart plugged in the wires won't melt and risk a fire, but we all make our own choices. It's a small risk.

I don't know what's legal in Australia, but I wouldn't use any automotive wire in an airplane. Aircraft Spruce sells proper milspec tin-coated wire in all gauges. It's much higher quality than anything I've seen in an auto parts store, and the coating will not produce toxic gasses in a fire that can incapacitate a pilot: https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/elpages/unshieldlwire.php In my K model, the wires feeding the battery, starter, and external power port are all 2 gauge (larger than 4). You could consult your plane's wiring diagram and IPC to see what gauge wire you have, or verify in the plane. I would consider using the same gauge wire so that no matter what jump pack you or someone else hooks up, the starter / alternator couldn't overdraw from it and melt the wires you are adding or blow a fuse. But, that's up to you and your installer to determine possible loads and what gauge you need.

The 231 is a pretty good people hauler for a 4-place single. Most have between 900 and 1,000 useful load but that number is deceiving when compared to other planes (even other Mooneys) due to its range, efficiency, and turbocharger. I've been family hauling with one for a long time now. As an example, if you do the math, on 50 gallons of fuel, you can fly up to 3 hours (with a 1 hour reserve) going 160 KTAS, which gets you 480 miles of range with a non-fuel payload of 660 lbs give or take. Many planes with higher useful loads can't carry the same 660 lbs for 480 miles due to their higher fuel burn and/or lower speed. In fact, as far as I can tell, you have to go to a 6-seat plane to do any better. Then the turbocharger lets you actually use all the useful load at any airport on any day. I've departed Telluride with two adults in the front, one teenager in the back, and 75 gallons of fuel on a 75 degree day, and it felt like a normal takeoff. The rear seat space is fine for adults, after you do the dance to get everyone loaded. If you have four adults, it's cozy, but you will probably end up doing shorter legs anyways. I've found it's pretty rare that four adults have the flexible schedule required to take off and fly GA together for any distance. If you have three, the rear passenger can spread out sideways and be very comfortable.

Be very careful reading your insurance policy and thinking you understand it. They are crafted by specialist lawyers and usually give rights up front, then take them away, either in the definitions section or in an exclusion or endorsement. You have to read the whole thing and remember each part and compare them. And if it conflicts or is ambiguous, which is surprisingly common, you may have to read caselaw to guess what would happen in the event of a claim. Some of the confusion here comes from people mixing up two different types of policies. We mostly all have owner-operator policies. The insurance company vets each person who will be flying the plane and quotes accordingly (lower) for the known risks. They aren't intended to cover flight instruction or unknown, unnamed pilots manipulating the controls. If you are a flight school or want to instruct in your plane, you'll get a different policy and a different, higher price. It will cover damage to the airplane, and possibly others, if an unknown, unnamed pilot is manipulating the controls when an incident happens. There's a strange gap sometimes where a new pilot has a hard time getting approved on a personal policy and may have trouble finding a Mooney with a flight school policy to log the required hours in. The best plan is probably to call a good agent and get a personal policy at whatever it costs. The other option is to fly uninsured.

Still not back to pre-COVID. Hard to tell, because with inflation the numbers have changed a lot, but vintage planes used to trade on the value of the life left on the engine overhaul, plus maybe some more if they had a nice panel/paint/interior. The airframe was basically thrown in for free. Twins used to sell for somewhere below the value of the life left on the engines. I don't feel like we're quite back there yet. Does seem like we're moving that way. The one listed here looks like one of the better values I've seen posted for sale in a while. Nice looking M20E.

I think you'll like the new setup a lot more, and it will be easier to service and maintain than your original plan. Once you get past the pain of the upgrade price, that is. I'll be curious to know how you like having the EIS on a separate GI-275 instead of on the G500TXi. Mine is on the TXi and it works great, I don't think I miss the extra screen space, but I've never flown with a setup like yours. Hope your project goes more smoothly from here.

If you're trying to use Garmin Pilot, you must first pair the Bluetooth devices in the phone settings, then go into the Garmin Pilot app, go to Connext settings, and select the GTX345R to connect to. If you don't do the second step in the app, the devices will show as paired but will never connect and show ADSB and traffic data. Took me longer than I'd care to admit to figure that out when we got our GTX345. Works the same way pairing with a GTN or other Garmin device, by the way. Hope that helps.

I think I'd paint it, fly the KFC150 until a major component breaks, then replace the autopilot.

Old planes deserve upgrades too. We put a non-WAAS Garmin 430 in a vintage M20C at a time when it was "way too much money" compared to the value of the airframe. This was before WAAS, and before you could put a G3X or GFC500 in anything. It turned the plane into a really amazing IFR cross-country machine. No more flying VOR to VOR. Non-precision approaches down to about 500 ft AGL anywhere in the country. 145 knots at 10 GPH. Was a total game changer. That was what we were buying. It was still cheaper than buying a more expensive plane with that capability already in the panel. Got my instrument rating with that panel. We later again paid "way too much money" (something like 1/3 of the plane's value) to properly repair and replace a corroded wing spar cap in the same plane. Why? It was a good, known plane and didn't deserve the scrap yard. It's still flying out there somewhere. You can buy the panel you want to fly behind in anything. If it's a M20C, you're getting that panel for far less than most other capable cross-country travelers. If you upgrade the plane you have, you aren't buying another owner's unknown list of squawks and deferred maintenance. It doesn't have to make sense to anyone but you. But I get why you'd do it.

I did a wool carpet kit from SCS last year. They were great to work with and custom-cut a few of the pieces for me. After you pay they'll send you shop drawings of the kit so you can go measure the plane and make sure you're getting a good set. Everything came surge or edge bound so it won't fray. I tried to use some of the velcro it came with but couldn't get it to stick with the spray 3m adhesive I had. I ordered some rubber cement which is the proper stuff to use. However, in the meantime, I just put the kit in, and so far it stays in place just fine, so I haven't got around to trying the rubber cement. I have some doubts it would work anyways. Byron's snap suggestion is probably the proper way to do it if you want it locked down. We used Peerco 321 adhesive remover and some scotch brite pads to get most of the yellow gunk from the factory glue off the floor. Didn't get it quite back to shiny aluminum but good enough for me, for under the carpet. Probably would have had to go at it with acetone or MEK and that stuff is pretty toxic inside the cockpit.