TWinter

Actually she did much better than I expected. I think it took about a two weeks or so of me heading out to fly and her staying home (they were very nice days for flying), she knew she needed to get over the fear and was good about giving it another try. The first time flying after the incident we only flew about 10-15 minutes around the airport. I was just glad she went back up. I really thought she may never try again. Finally, after a few more times back up she started to get less apprehensive, but we still run into the issue with her 45 minute anxiety limit of flying even still today. I've spent lots of time explaining to her how emergency situations are handled, I show different landmarks when we fly that we could glide to if we had to. Her biggest fear is engine failure. It will take time, but the Cherokee landing was a set-back for sure. I actually think she enjoys the Mooney much better though, maybe I'll get her up to an hour or more I'm thinking if I take a beach weekend trip this winter and call her telling her I'm sitting on the balcony of a beach-front condo in Florida with a cocktail in my hand she just might try a three or four hour leg. Just maybe....

After many (twenty years) of not flying and also being a low time pilot, less than 100 hrs. I had just gotten back in the saddle and newly checked off again to get back in the air. I had purchased a Cherokee and was really enjoying my newly regained joy of flying. After about a month of flying I starting to get the "warm fuzzy" feeling back and was glad to be flying again. I finally had gotten my other half to join me on some local flights around the city. She is NOT a fan of flying, much less a small plane. We are on about her 8th or 9th time up so she is slowly starting to feel just a tad better each time we went flying. She still has an anxiety time limit of about 45 minutes each time we fly. Then I hear the " That was fun, are we heading back yet?". Well, it's a great day just trolling the city sky and she asks the magic question, heading back yet? I said, Sure lets call it a day. Cutting to the chase...Now as we all know when you have a apprehensive and nervous spouse onboard you are constantly being asked, "what was that noise, is that normal?, or any radio traffic and she says, " Who is that, where is he?..etc. We all know the distracting questions. I'm on final at my local FBO and a pretty day to fly. There is a slightly stiff crosswind. She is still talking and asking about this or that(she means well and is learning..flying is my idea)..back to the crosswind. I'm just about 20 feet from touchdown with full flaps. Speed is good, I'm dealing well with the crosswind and all of a sudden we hear a very loud "POP" and the plane suddenly balloons up. It scared the crap out of both of us..I looked around to see what happened and finally look down and the flap bar at slammed back down and the flaps had gone back to no flaps. I pulled on the bar and it would not re-catch to lock the flap handle in place. We continued to float down the runway using a no flap landing, very sloppy, but got down safely. I guess if I was thinking clearer I could have held the bar with my hand and landed, but it all happened so fast and at the time she had gone absolutely into tears and fear. I got it parked, hangered and took my better-half home to calm her down. Of course I wanted to go back and see what happened. It ended up the small 1" pin in the locking cog at the base of the flap ratchet bar had worked it's way out and just happen to fully fall out just before touchdown. This caused the flaps to retract and the bar to slam down from full flaps. Man it was sudden and loud!!. The pin was laying under the plastic cover at the base of the flap bar near the ratchet. That was lot's going on in a period of about a minute or so. Got it fixed the next day. The next few landings had a slight pucker factor though and I was ready to grab the handle..LOL

Good meeting ya yesterday. Glad you got the vibration worked out.

Seats are sold to Tony..Merry Christmas to all

I got new seats off EBay. They had just been newly refurbed by Aero Comfort w/ new pad, new two-tone leather. I had to buy more matching material from Aero to cover my rear seat ($15 a sq ft for the material..ouch). The rears along with some side panel trim are also out being covered this week locally. I'm also laying some soundproof insulation, new carpet and Aero Comfort Mooney logo floor mats in before the new seats go back in. The plane is in the shop have a JPI EDM 830 and wingtip strobes installed. Hope to get it all done and back by next Friday. I'll post pics after she is back. Can't wait Now just let the checkbook recover and make plans later get the yokes wrapped in leather. Have a great holiday weekend.. Tom

SOLD... I have purchased new leather seats and am selling my current seats. These were just removed from my 1973 M20E. There are no tears, rips or worn sections. I am only selling pilot and co-pilots seats. Price is $900 plus shipping. Allow $225 for shipping. If shipping is less I will refund the difference from the $225. These include the headrest as pictured. Feel free to email me at tpwinter@bellsouth.net . I am picky about my plane as you can tell from my gallary. The seats are in very good condition. Paypal is fine or check. I will hold the seats until the check clears and then they ship or feel free to fly into KDYR (Dyersburg, TN) and we will get them loaded up. If shipped I will ship UPS Ground. The $225 is assuming lower 48. If you are overseas..I'll help ship,but all expenses for international is up to the buyer. These are light tan (beige) in color. Cloth material with leather covered rear with rear pocket and side bolsters. These had been recovered using aviation grade materials in approx 2006 by the prior owner. After purchase I can make a photocopy of the logbook entry for proof of avaition material, install date and installing shop of when it was done for N7741M if you want it. I am open to reasonable offers. I will be putting these on EBay soon. I wanted to give my Mooney brothers first shot in case somebody needed a set. My EBay ID is: "ultfit1" I have 560 auctions w/ 100% positive feedback. No worries here. These are nice. A good cleaning and they would be absoutely perfect . I can send more pics to your email if needed. Thanks, Tom

Outside of Hot Springs is what I meant, not Fayetteville (another trip I had on my mind)..Minor brain skip. Very pretty flying over the area of Hot Springs with lots of lakes and mountain hills, however, not much area for emergency landings if needed. All in all about 250 miles from west TN.

Mena Paint in Arkansas did a great job for us and included a few extras. Mena is just outside Hot Springs, Arkansas. There are several other paint shops, avionics and interior shops also at the same airport. It's kind of like a big industrial park for aviation services. They also replaced a few rivets and replaced all new cowl camlocs. In addition I had them send my fuel caps out to be polished. Solid base and two accents. Metallic was no upcharge. Took about about three weeks. Jet-Glo is the paint used. Cost was under 11K. Good Luck, TW

Looks like a good price and unit, but I'm putting the cart before the horse since I'm in the middle of another upgrade. I better pass this go round and let somebody else have a chance. I'm getting older and need to hold off for the bigger screen..LOL..Good Luck!

The shop that is doing the install is the same shop that does most all my work. I just asked for the total cost of the unit installed. I had an idea of what the cost of the unit was based off the JPI website. I didn't get the unit/labor breakdown. The 830 from JPI retails for 3980+/-. I know the shops hourly charge is $75 an hour, so I guess using avg of 10-15 hrs he is pretty close on his quote. I am having all features of the 830 hooked up so I'm sure it will eat up every bit of 15 hrs. I'm also getting the two little items fixed (rear headset jacks, fuel strainer R/R) within the quote. The 930 looks very nice, but just not in the budget right now (or in the very near future) so we will have to go with the 830. I think it will be a great tool and look forward to getting it installed. Thanks for the input. I'll give my .02 after it's done and I get some time with it. Thanks, TW

I'll be giving you a call. A good fit for my project. First dibs, but I need to make a call to my AP. Finding a basket full of cash would be good also. Tom Dyerburg, TN

While 930 would be a great unit and awesome overall replacement for OEM..the budget just was not there for me. The EDM830 ended up costing $4800 installed, that was including the current $300 rebate from JPI. Still leaving me some room for wingtip strobes, another $2200. The leather interior upgrade I had already budgeted and saved for this past fall. I'm like a kid at Christmas..ready for it all to get done. PS. Do those prices sound about right for the EDM830 and for strobes? Thnx TW

While the plane still cranked I could tell it was getting time. I noticed there was a sharpie date marked on top dated 8/07. I just replaced it last week with a sealed Concorde, $235 shipped. The old lasted just a tad over 5 yrs, not bad..

65 total hours when I got my Mooney. Got PPL 20 yrs ago- flew C150 and Warrior back,then for a short time. Only flew a year and lost interest (could not afford it really). Fast forward twenty years later (present day) and I got the bug again. Bought a Cherokee 140 and flew it three months last year. Started looking for something with more payload and "just plain cooler than the Cherokee", Found my Mooney, I had about 65 hrs total when I started with my Mooney. Made some insurance calls. Bottom line insurance ended up being $1200 a year and required 10 hrs w/ CFI and 10 hrs solo for the Mooney with only 65 hrs logged. To be 100% honest..I have close to 160 hrs now and am just now feeling real comfortable in the Mooney. As somebody posted and a good thing to remember. A Mooney is the best. "When you fly.Just be sure your brain is always thinking 10 minutes ahead of your airplane".. GL

Thanks for all the replies and suggestions. Just quick update..Decided on the EDM830. Will be installed within the next few weeks. Install of the JPI unit along with a small "to do list" while there. Install rear head-set jacks, new wing-tip strobes, replace one fuel drain valve on left wing (sticking open after sampling), lay in a nice set of new Aero Comfort carpet and mats and lastly the install new Aero Comfort leather seats and some upholstery trim I've had waiting in my garage for the next trip to shop. Christmas is GOOD this year. If anybody needs a nice set of front seats (cloth..re-upholstered according to logs in 97) or mats from 73/74 M20E let me know. I'll post pics in the "for sale" section after I get them out. These are front seats w/ headrests only. The rear I had recovered. Color can be seen in my photos. Kind of light tan. No tears or rips. Email at tpwinter@bellsouth.net if interested. Like I said, it will be a few weeks before they are taken out. Thanks again for all the input. TW

Thanks guys..I'll call and check on those rebates.

Seth and Byron..thanks for the votes on 830. Looks like a nice unit. I may have to call my AP in the morning (I'll be sitting down while I do this, and get a approx cost to install). Seth pretty much hit my reasoning on head. What a great piece of mind plus that warm fuzzy feeling while flying of being able to see what's going on and where.

Considering looking at a JPI Engine Analyzer. This might be an old topic, but my quick search did not show anything. I know many of you have them. What's your choice. I would be putting it in my 73 M20E (FI). I see the unit cost on the various parts sites. I have looked at the install PDFs and there is not any mention of estimated "Install Hours". I know it all depends on your AP, but does anybody have an idea of the hours it took or cost for the install?. Any one unit better than another unit for the M20E? Thanks in advance. TW

Usually try for once a week minimum. Sometimes it gets pushed to once every 10 days. Try to do an hour minimum.

After reading this thread I need my fix..I'll be back. Some great comments.

He sends a prepaid card. You can use the device by just calling or text. It averages about 3 bucks a month if you just activate by a call in and no text. I'm cheap so I call, I think if you text it will text you back w/ a comfirmation of signal recieved. The text cost a few cents each time. Every three months you update your sims card. It was a ten dollar minimum. When you get the unit the card has 10 bucks loaded so your ready to go. If you want to let the sims card expire over the summer and not renew you can buy another sims card when winter rolls around again. I looked at the others and his seemed to be the easiest to "Plug and Play". Three bucks a month is cheap enough. I think I spent $20 on yesterdays Powerball. That would have bought 6 months of warm or cool airplane..LOL I do know the switch is slightly higher priced compared to some others, but it's pretty simple and works great. I'm a simple guy and the "plug n play" was worth the slight money difference from the EBay ones. It's only about a 12 mile round trip to the airport plug in the heater, but at 13 mpg I'm already ahead. Good luck. TW

Phillip's unit came in yesterday. Within 15 minutes it was up and working perfectly. Very impressed.

I just got mine in yesterday from a vendor on the forum (take a look at Pre-J forum) and it's a few posts down. It arrived and I had the app downloaded and up and working in 15 min. Tried it on a portable radio first just to see if I was doing it right. Worked perfect. Now it's at the airport and plugged in..of course we are in a heat spell right now, but in time it will be very nice and handy. Phillip's product works very well. So far, so good..

Just ordered one of these as a Turkey Day gift to myself. I'll give a full report after I get it and have it up and working Went with the one from Phillip.