Wildhorsesracing

Unfortunately I don't see conventional aircraft as the future of GA - I think you'll find more and more semi autonomous air vehicles like personal drones take to the skies so that the average person can fly them and the software/hardware saves them from studying the FARs. The days of learning hours and hours of regulations are going away when the equipment can be taught to keep the craft in safe airspace and ADS-B keeps them separated. Cars today already have the ability to brake and park for you, it's not going to be long before drone like aircraft will do the same thing. Chinese Personal Drone

She is flying for fun, she recently took on a new job and it involves tremendous amounts of travel so she is limited for time to upgrade her ratings.

Well it's been over a year and a half since I polished her and finally decided she was looking fairly dull. You can see the difference in the one picture of before and after polishing. Time for a repolish - makes me feel like the Karate Kid! LOL!

So while was polishing my Mooney today I was day dreaming about some nose art... What do you think?

I was selling my 1st airplane, an Alarus 2000, and flew it to meet a potential buyer at a local airport. The FBO manager said, "If you sell it, you need to buy this Mooney we have had sitting here in our hangar for 10 yrs" and he took me to see the plane. I had always been told that "Mooneys are small and hard to work on" - but something about the plane drew me to her. Up to that point I had flown Cessna 172, Cherokee 180, Cherokee 235, Citabria, J-3 and a Bonanza. It was part of an estate and the heirs originally had an inflated value of the aircraft. Once I sold mine I contacted the executor and she explained that they had been paying hangar rent for so long that they needed to sell it just to recover some of the money. We negotiated a price contingent on the pre-purchase, the pre-purchase showed lots of minor issues but nothing major. After a 6 month annual & minor resto I got to fly a Mooney for the 1st time, needless to say I was hooked!

http://wspa.com/2017/05/09/plane-crashes-in-ocean-near-myrtle-beach-state-park/ I have always wondered if I could survive a forced landing in water, it would take a special approach and lots of patience.

My nose wheel went flat at a small airport recently and it cost 1/2 that much, so now I feel fortunate! But I usually go to out of the way airports and not the Class C or B because they are usually friendlier and eager to help you (vs. taking advantage of you). On the flip side, if your partner was traveling on a sunday, in a hurry to get home, and was possibly a less than friendly customer...

This is the Before and After shot of my plane before the big strip tease...

The one on the left is my 1st airplane - it was in for an annual so I parked next to it to compare "old vs new" planes.

I think you'll see many more VFR pilots flying into smaller airports, might be good for the smaller airports' budgets.

Sorry to hear that, let me know if I can help at all.

Thinking about it - trying to determine my daughter's work schedule, she just started a new job and not sure when she can take time off.

I read an article this morning about the privatization of ATC, in it they claimed there will suddenly become many more ex-IFR and VFR pilots w/o flight following since any interaction with ATC will incur a fee. Not sure that is a good thing, but a good VFR pilot is always looking out the window, not at his/her gauges, so that might not be bad, less chances for mid-air mishaps.

Many of the airports in NC had 4 digits - 4NC3 became KBQ1 - it's the favorite stop in NC for barBQ

My wife and I towed our camper up last year for our 1st Oshkosh and loved every minute of it. Our 27 yo daughter (who has a PPSEL) heard us talk all about it and has demanded we fly up this year. Still working on logistics since there are three of us + gear this year in a short body Mooney C. But if you like vintage aircraft you need to fly up to Brodhead WI for the weekend before, the saturday night barbeque is worth the trip alone!

There was an article in the 90's about sloped runways similar to this where the planes land uphill and take off downhill. The terminals were under the end of the runways. Sloped Runways Article

But the view isn't as nice as a cloudless day...

Mine went down ~$100 this year - but that was because I added 50 hrs of tailwheel and 15 hrs of aerobatic/unusual attitudes/spin training.

I travel quite a bit in my Mooney, even plan to fly to Oshkosh this summer with my daughter as my copilot. All of it is VFR and rarely do I have to cancel because of weather, but then again I prefer to travel to places where the weather is nice. My Mooney has very basic 6 pack instruments and would need upgrades just to fly IFR so my case is unique. Not only would I have to pay for the training but it was going to cost many AMU's to get my Mooney IFR capable. I can count on one hand all the times in the last 5 years of owning my Mooney where I had to cancel a flight that could've possibly been flown IFR. I was looking for a justification for spending the time and money for an IR, five missed flights in five years (and ~400 hrs of flying) was not enough to justify the effort. VFR requires beautiful weather to fly, why would anyone want to fly somewhere where the sun isn't shining?

I think it's interesting they can drop prices that easily, I am thankful for it, but makes you wonder why the price gouging got to be so high? Or are we as pilots that gullible to think those items really cost that much to make? $17,500 vs $4,900 for an IO-360. http://www.avweb.com/avwebflash/news/Lycoming-Rolls-Back-Prices-on-Engine-Parts-228621-1.html

We'll be at Road Atlanta next weekend 3/18-3/19 - come on down and I'll get you a ride with one of our instructors.

We all agree that one of the things that is awesome about a Mooney is it's ability as a truly a great cross country machine. I have always approached my cross country travel with the attitude that the journey can be as much fun as the destination. It is not uncommon for me to fly at 2500-3500' AGL enjoying the view, and since I fly at those flight levels regularly it doesn't phase me to fly under 4000' overcast skies. Two of my favorite books are Cannibal Queen by Stephen Coonts and Flight of Passage by Rinker Buck both of which are excellent books about the romance and experience of flying cross country purely for the view. If your mission is to reach your destination no matter what the weather is then by all means get your IR. I practice standard rate turns all the time to make sure I can get out of a sticky situation, but I rarely even approach weather especially when I see it on the horizon. I have a few friends who had their pilots' license complete with IR and let them lapse, they all agree that an IR is worth the effort if you need to get somewhere. But since most of them are generally not flying anymore they all admit that maybe getting an IR was overkill. How many of you have friends who have let their flying skills lapse? My hopes were for some unique reason for me personally get an IR, but since I usually take the flight path less travelled and enjoy the journey as much as the destination then possibly an IR is not for me. I didn't intend to spark such a lively discussion, but we all agree that some pilots need an IR and many don't. The key is to define your personal mission and get the training that suits your mission.

That's good info, and I almost believe you.... IFR Rated Pilot and Passenger killed FWIW - I believe an IFR rating is worth it if I was younger and planning to fly for my previous businesses. I rely on IFR rated pilots in jumbo jets to get me anywhere I want (when they aren't delayed by weather ). My primary question was it worth the cost for some like me, 55 yrs old, retired with plenty of time to fly and willing to jump on an airline if I ever get a case of "get-there-itis". And statistics clearly show that many pilots who were IFR rated let is lapse and think that they can still do it only to find that mother nature always wins. It's a risk I don't want to endure or put my family thru, so in essence I don't want to be one of those statistics.

We didn't measure but it still had plenty of clearance. We tried to load it on the trolley with two of us pushing on the tail but couldn't push hard enough without denting something. In the end the trolley had a winch that we used to pull it up onto the trolley. It will get your attention that is for sure, but it still was manageable. I taxied for at least 1000 ft while it was shimmying trying to slow down and determine what the issue was, and eventually to get to a place where I wasn't blocking the only taxiway for the runway.

The airport had a sweet "trolley" that lifted the front tire and towed it all the way back to the maintenance shop with a tug.