BigTex

I had a blast! Flew in Thursday and attended the Boots world premier. Also enjoyed Dr. Chen's opening remarks Friday morning. The entire town was a buzz with Mooney re opening. The ice cream social was great and the auction was really fun... Just two words... DMax & Speedo. The banquet was good as well and a great way to close out the Homecoming. Can't wait until next year!

It was pretty cool to see mini next to the real thing... Can't wait to get it back together and hear how she flys.

I've actually talked to Mike about Exxon Elite and it's one of the few semi synthetics that he's okay with.

That or something like from the TV show Get Smart... Dome of silence.

Living in Texas, we have hail every spring. In fact, my airport just was hit with some baseball size hail come through. It sure is a nice feeling to know your plane is out of harms way. Also, where would I put all of my crap?

I use a 2" angle aluminum extrusion that's about 3' long. I snake it in under the oil filter and hang a small can on the other end. Then I loosen up the oil filter and let it drain into the cup at then end of the extrusion. Let it set until the flow stops then you can spin the filter off with almost no spilling. Just make sure that you tip it up when if comes off. If time permits, I like to start the draining and let it set overnight. When you come out the next day, there's almost no oil in the filter. Make sure you lube the filter gasket, torque to spec and safety wire it. After doing a couple, it gets pretty easy.

Wearing headsets is a relatively new thing. Back in the late '70's I obtained my PPL in a Warrior and it was all done without headsets. Just the hand held mic and the overhead speaker. In fact no one even used them at my flight school. Not until I started flying aerobatics in the early '80's did I start using headsets. Of course, we didn't use seat belts in our cars either.... Times have really changed.

Right now, the bid sets at $600K... Mastercard or Visa????

Last time I heard, Mooney was still in negotiations with the airport on a lease extension. Has anyone heard if that was ever worked out?

I use the Champion filter. PN: CH48110-1 The Tempest equivalent is: AA48110.

Point taken... Just find it amusing that you pay north of $700K for a state of the art glass cockpit and you list a DME and ADF as options.

$16.5K for an ADF??? Why would they even put ADF's on the option list?

Anyone notice that our favorite shell company (Soaring America) posted several jobs around the design and manufacturing of carbon fiber components? http://www.linkedin.com/jsearch?searchLocationType=Y&page_num=1&sortCriteria=DD&keepFacets=&facet_COMPANY=3547220 I suspect CF parts are not far form Mooney's future.

Planning on moving up or cashing out?

I swapped mine out. Pretty simple. Confirm the gap and torque them to spec.

CWM20F, Maybe I missed something but what's the issue? If it cycles at 1900, your golden. My Users Manual (POH) references the range of 1700 - 2000 for prop cycling.

The fact is anytime you have maintenance done, it could lead to potentially disastrous results. Back in my aerobatic days, I was pre-flighting a Decathlon and when I moved the elevator it locked up on me. I started looking around the bell crank and found a wrench lodged in there. As it turns out, the mechanic swapped out the battery earlier in the day and left his wrench next to the battery. The guy before me was up practicing hammerheads and the wrench fell to the back of the tail and must of ended up in the vertical stabilizer somewhere. That guy was very lucky. We all need to minimize how often our planes are opened up and serviced. When we get them back, really look them over. You never know when that wrench might get left behind.

Well, problem solved. Nothing like a good rap of the knuckles on the gauge to fee up the stuck gauge!