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Mike Weir has stepped up to take care of organizing the Florida Mooney Lunch group meetings each month. Here is an email he recently sent. His contact info is mwier79@gmail.com Mooney Lunch June 14th 11:30 @ X14 LaBelle Municipal Get your Mooney running, fly out to LaBelle for lunch and semi-accurate conversation from like minded individuals. I’m hoping for clear sky and fair winds, but it’s Florida in the summer. If you don’t like the weather, wait and it will change. Please email me back with a guest count. If think you will show up let me know so I can pass it along to the restaurant. Life is fun - Enjoy it Mike LaBelle has a 5,200 foot runway 14 - 32 , ramp space, restaurant and reasonably priced fuel ($4.65 at my last use). Hamilton Disston recorded the largest purchase of land by a single person in the history of the world! That happened in 1881 here in Florida when he purchased 4 million acres. He planned to drain the swamp. A settlement formed on the shore of the Caloosahatchee River in that swamp and was named for the daughters of F.A. Hendry cattle baron and later FL politician who bought marshland along the river for grazing. E.E. Goodno bought some of this land from Hendry borrowing the money from Henry Ford. Ford later took Goodno’s land (7,000 acres) to settle the debt. The airport was activated in January 1956. I haven’t found much about the history of the airport, but its most recent renovation was completed in 2019. The total project which includes the terminal building, aircraft parking apron expansion and aircraft parking apron rehabilitation was funded by the FDOT at $3,065,200.00, the FAA at $2,534,500.00 and Hendry County at $21,300. Short Cakes Restaurant yelp.com Airport Information X14 - La Belle Municipal Airport airnav.com Some history of LaBelle The History of LaBelle citylabelle.com The Hendry county link contains some old LaBelle photos and stories (The Clock Tower) oooh.. Hendry County, Florida - FLGenWeb Site sites.rootsweb.com

I was thinking the same about TWA. I never worried too much about domestic flights, but the food and service on international flights would rival any restaurant. Sometimes I had to tell them I wasn't interested in the additional courses.

Dear Mooney Enthusiast, We had good weather for our last event. 9 Mooneys brought 14 people to lunch at The Tiki in Fort Pierce. Food was good, and we all enjoyed the visiting and eating. Our next event will be this Saturday, May 10, at Winter Haven (KGIF). As of today their self service price for 100LL is $4.56. This is the last event that I am planning to put on. All events start at 11:30. Future events. May 10, Winter Haven, GIF Please let me know by Thursday if you are going to try to come so I can give the restaurant an approximate head count. If you tell me you are coming, and can’t come do not worry about telling me, just do not come. I do not want anyone flying for any reason if they shouldn’t. I have been putting on Mooney Lunch for 20 years, starting in January of 2004. My situation is changing and I am giving it up after the May meeting. If anyone would like to take it over, please call me. If I pass it on to someone else, you will be given the option to have your name and address removed from the mailing list before I make the transfer of information. So far, no one has shown an interest in taking it over. Just an idea, but since no one has expressed an interest in taking the organization over, maybe a small group could do it. One person could handle the email list and notices, someone else could contact the restaurants, and those two or others could take turns being “in charge” at the restaurants which basically means taking attendance if you still want it and thanking the management for taking care of us. Hope to see you soon, Dave and Ruth N46DT 352-408-3343

Me too, i visit St George for its great mountain bike trails. Put our two big MTB’s (29’er and wife’s 27.5”) in the back of the Mooney with rear seats down and off we go. Used to climb out there too but now just MTB as it’s a mecca for outdoor activities as the warmest spot in UT. Also very close to Zion and Bryce and beautiful for its location. There can be a major storm very close in the surrounding mountains with St. George mostly sunny and warm yet probably a bit windy. Was out there recently for spring break and the FBO was expanding - there used to be only one but now it seems 3. My only complaint is they put the self serve on the wrong side of the field but i expect the locals prefer that. When i first started visiting UT for the skiing years ago by the Salt Lake area, alcohol was a challenge but these days seems like a non issue. At least i can’t remember a restaurant not serving beer and wine. Not really looking for much more these days. The Cliffside restaurant up by the old airport is really good, but they have a lot of very good restaurants these days. It can be a bit of hoot seeing the mormon polygamous camps town a bit east like Hilldale and Colorado City where the “husbands” must own a small apartment complex for a home with each wife in a separate apartment. Or in town seeing some Mormon camp woman in the store dressed in their purple burka like dresses. (purple signifies their single). Of course they’re not part of the true Mormon church anymore but it’s crazy their way of like is still tolerated in AZ despite being illegal. But makes sense when the woman born into that life don’t want to leave. It may never get resolved as long as they can live in near isolation. Anyway it’s crazy for more than alcohol even though these camps are really in AZ, and a bit of an example of why living in rural america has never appealed to me. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Hickory NC (khky) has an on site restaurant and an aviation museum. Lee

I use mine constantly. When I go into a restaurant, I carry the Mini. I have grown to hate the tiny screen and tiny keyboard on my phone. VOIP turns the iPad into a phone. No WiFi or hotspot required.

Even a few months ago traffic circles ate its lunch, now it handles them better than I do and I spent years in Europe so I learned then. If anything it’s not as conservative as I am, it will pull into traffic that I would wait for. Someone on this site explained FSD perfectly as of a year ago, that it reminded them of a nervous teen driver, it was full of bugs, you would be driving down a country road and out if the blue it would brake hard. I think shadows would confuse it, but it could get exciting when someone was right behind you and the car hit the brakes for no reason, I drove then with my foot near the accelerator to hit the “gas” when it did. The steering wheel movements were jerky at parking speeds, you could tell it was making the effort, but it just wasn’t there. I assume after years of trying and failing Elon had enough and spent God knows how much building an AI Supercomputer named dojo that’s teaching the cars to drive, I believe there is more than one now and expect they are doing things other than teaching the cars like maybe the Robots but that’s supposition. Plus Hardware 4 is now in production cars and at least the cameras are much, much better. He’s stated if he can’t make FSD work on hardware 3 cars he will update them for free. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_Dojo The Cyber Truck has been problematic FSD wise I don’t know why but it’s FSD updates are well behind the cars, I’m sure it will be fixed but as I don’t have a clue what the issue is as honestly I’m not really interested in the truck. Cool vehicle, just I don’t have any need for one. Supposedly the Cybercab is going live this Summer in Austin. I suspicion it will be geo fenced and only allowed in certain areas that have been tested at first, because it won’t have the capability of being driven manually, I don’t think it will have controls in it, but who knows we have only seen prototypes The Waymo model is I think a dead end, it has of course a great many sensors and is restricted to only areas that have been mapped to the centimeter. But in my opinion FSD is tough, I mean hugely way more complex than Garmin self land or anything in an aircraft to include any ground ops. So if you can teach a car to drive in NY City at rush hour then you could teach a jet to taxi anywhere on an airport I believe. The future I think in cars and Commercial Aviation is Automation, not saying there won’t be a Pilot, but I think their job will be to take over if needed and that will be rare, so how would they maintain proficiency? I have no idea, maybe Sims? But successful automation is much safer than a Human that's been proven decades ago, who can hand fly an instrument approach with the precision of a coupled approach? Almost all of my drives now start out in the garage when I tell the car “navigate to La Perla in Eustis” for example, that’s a restaurant in Eustis a town about 30 miles away that the Wife likes. Push a “button” on the screen and tap the brake to acknowledge I want the car to drive. The car backs out of the driveway, drives to the neighborhood gate where it stops and triggers the built in homelink to open the gate and drives to the restaurant and pulls into its parking lot, without me having to intervene at all. I do park it as the lot is dirt/gravel and I think it needs lines to park? Lots of construction in Eustis now with traffic cones etc and the car has no problems and it’s congested. We take the little dog as he enjoys going with us and when we get there I put the HVAC in dog mode where it maintains set temp until we get back and click the home button, tap the brake and the car drives home. It won’t pull into the garage it stops short I don’t know why, but I do have to drive the last 10 ft. The cars are of course all internet connected so you get live traffic updates and it will reroute if it will save a time that you set, you see live Radar on the map like ADSB, get wx etc. Not sure if it’s happened yet but the cars will phone home and report things like flooded streets, construction, temporarily closed roads etc so other cars will reroute around the trouble area. FSD is close, but I’ll never completely trust it, but as I get older I know the day is coming that I’ll get to the point that I shouldn’t drive, especially in night and maybe bad wx etc. Then I’ll really be even more appreciative of a FSD car. Assuming I live that long of course.

That Pizza Hut was one of the best sources of morale in Afghanistan! That and the Thai restaurant in Kabul on the Nato base. Surprisingly good!

Dear Mooney Enthusiast, The weather for our last event was windy with rain showers around and only 4 Mooneys brought 5 people to lunch at Fort Pierce. But, we had a good time visiting and eating. Our next event will be this Saturday, January 11 at the Flight Line Cafe at Winter Haven (KGIF) at 11:30. As of today on Foreflight their self serve price for 100LL is $4.43. All events start at 11:30. Future events: January 11, Winter Haven, GIF. February 8, Sebring, SEF March 8, Bartow, BOW Please let me know by Thursday if you are going to try to come so I can give the restaurant an approximate headcount. If you tell me you are coming, and can’t come do not worry about telling me, just do not come. I do not want anyone flying for any reason if they shouldn’t. I have been putting on Mooney Lunch for 20 years, starting in January of 2004. My situation is changing and I am thinking of giving it up after the April or May meetings. If anyone would like to take it over, please call me. If I pass it on to someone else, you will be given the option to have your name and address removed from the mailing list before I make the transfer of information. Hope to see you soon, Dave and Ruth N46DT 352-408-3343

Dear Mooney Enthusiast, The weather for our last event was cold, overcast, with a forecast of a low freezing level in the Northern part of the state. As a result we had 9 people show up at Winter Haven in 2 Mooneys and 2 Teslas. Our next event will be this Saturday, February 8, at Sebring. They will no longer take reservations on the weekend, so the first one there needs to tell the restaurant staff that we are coming and how many are in the group. I will send out another email on Friday telling everyone how many I am expecting so you will know what to tell them if you beat me there. All events start at 11:30. Future events. February 8, Sebring, SEF March 8, Bartow, BOW April 12, Ft. Pierce, FPR Please let me know by Thursday if you are going to try to come so I can give the restaurant an approximate headcount. If you tell me you are coming, and can’t come do not worry about telling me, just do not come. I do not want anyone flying for any reason if they shouldn’t. I have been putting on Mooney Lunch for 20 years, starting in January of 2004. My situation is changing and I am thinking of giving it up after the April or May meetings. If anyone would like to take it over, please call me. If I pass it on to someone else, you will be given the option to have your name and address removed from the mailing list before I make the transfer of information. So far, no one has shown an interest in taking it over. Hope to see you soon, Dave and Ruth N46DT 352-408-3343

I live in the Denver Metro area and trek down to the Springs several times a year to go to the Airplane Restaurant for $100 hamburgers. We download and keep our engine monitor data, so I've got plenty of info on this. I went back 3 years and tried to find the absolute hottest day on which I or one of my partners had a recorded flight, correlating temps from https://www.wunderground.com/. The plot below is from July 11, 2023, when the high at KBJC (elevation 5673') was 95 degrees F. It's a long flight, and while we didn't have altitude recording at the time, it's essentially guaranteed by the length of the flight that the climb out was to 3000' AGL or higher. I'm not claiming the flight departed at the hottest point of the day, but it was obviously hot all day long. Hottest CHT in the initial climb peaks at 389F before quickly settling down at level-off. A later climb at higher altitude gets right to 400, again before quickly settling down. I also pulled the raw data from the CSV files over the past two years and sorted it. The highest CHT we've ever recorded on any day under any conditions in those two years is 413F. We've had all-cylinder CHT monitoring since 2006, and in all that time I've never seen anything remotely approaching 450. If you're confident your instrumentation is good and all your baffling is pristine, then the only thing I can think of is you're developing more power than stock, and/or your cylinders run hot (are they chrome perchance?)

For the shop that takes care of Myrtle, I always give a $50 gift card to a local Italian restaurant to the owner and all his mechanics. The family that owns the Italian restaurant are also friends, so I end up buying $500 worth of gift cards from them every year to hand out to folks I appreciate.

I feel it’s a rip off scheme especially if i do not use their service. At KDTO for example there are 2 FBO and there used to be free transit parking in front of the tower. It’s a bone of contention when i want to pickup someone that comes to the airport and does not use their facility in anyway shape or form for them to come out and expect a fee from me. It’s the equivalent of going to a restaurant and self parking in the parking lot but i still have to pay a valet person?!?! No if i didn’t use their valet then I don’t pay. The FBO doesn’t own that tarmac the tax payers do and for a FBO company to come in and then claim that part as theirs to charge a fee is wrong. Now if they build a new complex and new concrete in front of their business and you park there sure. But it would be like me setting up a toll fee in front of my property on the road that goes in front of my house when the tax payers paid for the road already. It’s not mine to charge for nor is it the FBO’s to charge for either.

Indeed, COVID was somehow a precedent where it was acceptable to “close X and carry on” (X = airport, restaurant, shop, fuel station). Then many of these places and businesses have never recovered: some has to do with laziness (there is a technical term somewhere) and a lot has to do with cost-cutting and online shopping post-CV19 https://www.retail-systems.com/rs/Supermarkets_Ditch_24_Hour_Opening_To_Pick_E_Commerce_Orders.php https://www.axios.com/2023/03/17/stores-restaurants-covid-changes

Seems like there are fewer all-night businesses of all types since COVID. I cannot think of an all-night market or restaurant. Probably could find a café or restaurant at a truck stop on an interstate highway if you were desperate.

One gets used to it for public airports (private airports are much more relaxed about opening hours) I recall while ago I was flying VFR from Poznan (Poland) to Stapleford (private airfield in UK) at night: one Dutch ATC along the way told me he never heard a single piston aircraft in frequency at night in his entire career (he was curious why we are doing it? ) For someone coming from US or used to fly in US, it comes as shock when airfield close at 5pm after fireman or controllers go home: unlike US where you have private pilots, Bizjets, Part135, helimeds, police...all flying untowred in middle of the night with PCL/LPV and load of arrangements with FBO or School I also complain about restaurant opening hours and service: in US one can eat lunch at 2am while being served with smile. Here in France, one is more likely to starve on Sundays if they land after 2pm in some remote village: the landing is the easy part, finding food is tricky

From Dave and Ruth: Dear Mooney Enthusiast, We had pleasant VFR weather for our last event with 8 Mooneys and 1 Bonanza bringing 20 people to lunch at Flagler. With their usual good food and service, everyone had a good time. Our next event is this Saturday, May 13 at St. Augustine (KSGJ). This will probably be a first and last as the FBO, Atlantic, is threatening to levy a $75 ramp fee in the future, possibly starting in June. They also did not want our airplanes on their ramp interfering with their jet customers, so I have negotiated with the airport to use the overflow parking (be sure to tell ground control you are going to the overflow parking), and Atlantic will haul us from there to the FBO and back at no charge. I do not know if this service will be available in the future. Below is a copy of my letter and Atlantic’s answers. All events start at 11:30. Future events: May 13, St. Augustine ( SGJ). June 10, Sebring (SEF). July 8, Williston (X60). Please let me know by Thursday if you are going to try to come so I can give the restaurant an approximate headcount. If you tell me you are coming, and can’t come do not worry about telling me, just do not come. I do not want anyone flying for any reason if they shouldn’t. Hope to see you soon, Dave and Ruth 11605 Lane Park Rd. Tavares, FL. 352-408-3343 1). Request parking at overflow ramp 2). You will need to be escorted so van and golf carts will do the trick. Must go through FBO to get to restaurant entrance (streetside) 3). Negative Fee Vinny Beyers General Manager ‑ SGJ T: 904-584-9628 ext. 9628 vinny.beyers@atlanticaviation.com

Dear Mooney Enthusiast, We had 4 Mooneys and 1 Bonanza bring 8 people to lunch last month at Williston. There was fog and low clouds around early in the morning, but it was good VFR after lunch. Our next event will be this Saturday, December 14 at the Tiki restaurant on the Fort Pierce Airport (KFPR). As of today on AIR NAV their self serv price for 100LL is $5.49. All events start at 11:30. Future events: December 14, Fort Pierce, FPR January 11, Winter Haven, GIF. February 8, Sebring, SEF Please let me know by Thursday if you are going to try to come so I can give the restaurant an approximate headcount. If you tell me you are coming, and can’t come do not worry about telling me, just do not come. I do not want anyone flying for any reason if they shouldn’t. We might have a new member wanting a ride from the Clearwater area. If you are coming from that area and would like a passenger, let me know. Hope to see you soon, Dave and Ruth N46DT 352-408-3343

if you made it a bit more west, I’d join. Fredricksburg, Stephenville, anmarillo tradewind has a relatively new restaurant on the field that’s always busy when I drop in too. That might be too far west for you.

Small point but Restaurant at Greeley is open intermittently but is rumored to sell the first of the year.

I overnighted at KCFO in April 2023 on my way back to the Pacific Northwest. Good restaurant on the field. Good smaller airport for fuel/ meal stop

Depends on what the pit stop is for. I think in terms of food first. If overnight stop, lodging is important too. KAPA, south Denver, is one of the busiest GA airports in the country but has a first class restaurant, a hotel in the airport, and is in an area with lots of off airport food and lodging within a 5 mile radius. It was my home base for 20 years. KPUB, in Pueblo, south of, Colorado Springs has always had a great FBO staff. I think there’s still a restaurant there, but I hear it’s not open weekends. The Barnstormer at Greeley (KGXY) north of Denver is famous for their buffalo burgers.

It seems like this is a case of “do you want me to be on time or at the right restaurant?” The answer is yes. I want the right tools at the right time. Not exclusive to, or in place of, one or the other. Certainly fuel starvation and VFR into IMC are higher accident risk overall. But the chance that those would impact me may be much less. Overall statistics apply to overall populations. But when you’re looking at an individual, these statistics sometimes no longer apply outside of the population they were taken from. I.e. the risk of accident due to VFR into IMC is dramatically reduced with instrument rating. The point that perception of risk doesn’t always accurately reflect true risk is valid. But I took this discussion as one of 1) should you concern yourself with traffic displays and ADS-b in data, and 2) does monitoring traffic lead to distraction that results in accidents that wouldn’t have occurred otherwise. As a distant 3) others have described the way they use ADS-b on their panel and portable devices and how they feel it’s been helpful and 4) some instructors have described improper use of technology in the wrong way or at the wrong time that could negatively affect flight/situational awareness But I think that the concept of traffic deconfliction vs accident prevention can be blurred as it’s a continuum. I.e. use of ADS-b data can aid traffic deconfliction that avoids a potential accident vs the traffic could have been also deconflicted over the radio as well as visually. All in all these aren’t mutually exclusive but rather discussing the nuanced use of technology in modern flight, both pros and cons; and highlighting that safe use of technology usually requires education and experience, and sometimes isn't simple or intuitive.

@GeneralT001 depends on what you’re looking for. If you wind up going thru Albuquerque, I’ve flown into KAEG Double Eagle and they’ve got a nice FBO, easy in and out. But if you’re flying into Colorado, choice of airport would be determined by what your plans are…looking for food, staying the night, preference for cheaper fuel, prefer to stay out away from the Denver Bravo, etc. KCFO Space Port is towered and has a solid Mexican restaurant (Mi Tierra) on the field. There are close surface Bravo shelves to the north and west that make you fly a TIGHT pattern…pay attention. Also, it’s quite east of Denver that there isn’t much around in terms close hotels, restaurants, etc without a decent drive. Both KAPA and KBJC are more “in” the Denver metroplex and are towered. Busy with local and training traffic but no big deal with IFR or flight following. KAPA Centennial also has a nice restaurant on the field (A Perfect Landing) that is upstairs and overlooks the field for a cool booth seat by the window. If you wanna stay away from Denver area, KAKO Akron has a pizza joint on the field Miss Bea Havin that’s good and they have decent fuel prices. If you venture into the mountains one of my favs is to stop in Salida KANK and take the courtesy car into town for food along the river. It’s “in the mountains” but nestled in a wide basin and has long runway…so it’s a good VFR mountain airport that’s doable for most. Last but not least, if it’s super windy across Cheyenne, WY (to north) and thru BJC / DEN (to south) many times it’s much calmer thru Fort Collins/Greeley area. KGXY has long runways both N-S and E-W, is uncontrolled but has instrument approaches to all runways, and has a Breakfast/lunch diner on the field (Barnstormers) that’s basic diner food. So it’s a low frills solid backup for sub optimal wx a lot of times. Hope that helps. Post up any specifics you’re looking for and I’m sure everyone can lead you to the best options!

Ha! I just saw that you went to the Big Texan! We use to go there all the time when I was teaching USAF pilot training. Amarillo is a good dinner stop on cross country. If you call the restaurant from the fbo, they’ll come pick you up in a huge black limo (~60s era?) with real Texas longhorns across the entire width of the front of the hood!