Alex's M20D (continuous thread)

[Hector]

I only managed to log 17 hours in the 6 days I had it airworthy. I'm still chomping at the bit. My girlfriend hasn't even gotten to go anywhere yet, so she's ready for a trip over to Flagler for some food on Hijackers.

Cool, glad you are putting her back together with working governor and transponder. Let me know if you want some company at Hijackers, would love to see your bird.


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[Raptor05121]

3 hours ago, Hector said:

 

Cool, glad you are putting her back together with working governor and transponder. Let me know if you want some company at Hijackers, would love to see your bird.


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Sounds like a plan. I'll shoot you a text when we get it back and pick a day.

[mpg]

Wow!!!   toooo bad that things break.

A year and 10 AMU's to get her in the air again.

Still,,  you have a bargain plane..

I too suffered through that time, but didn't do any work.

Sooo,,,   An annual, airworthy, sooo sweet,,,,,  

 6 days, 17 hours flying.

Then you get to ,,,

sometimes things break,,,  need some money !!

Glad your transponder and prop governor repairs will be less than An AMU to fix.

Look forward to tales of your flying trips in the future... 

I am still very proud of you,, doing the work, getting through this ,,, long time,,  making it happen,,   getting it done!!

 

Oh,, and,,  D/C's Rule!!!!

 

Edited December 14, 2016 by mpg

[Raptor05121]

Transponder is back in and working. We found that the backlight was the one run to the new circuit breaker. The actual power to the transponder was just a dead end, possibly taken off the bank of fuses we removed.

New PAI-700 vertical card compass is installed. We will swing that later.

Waiting on the holidays to go by so my IA can come and put this governor back in. Hector, Hijackers is on our shortlist. We might be working on it the 25th, so maybe soon afterwards.

Upcoming destinations:

Jan 14- KLEE for the Florida Mooney Breakfast.
Jan ~21: Poss Charleston, SC to visit the USS Yorktown
Feb: The missus and I want to fly to Kitty Hawk, NC to see the Wright Bros memorial. I've been there as an 8 year old, I'd love to go back and get a picture in the same spot.
March: Tullahoma, TN for the Beech museum
April: SnF & Wings Over Suwannee
July: OSHKOSH!

[Hector]

Transponder is back in and working. We found that the backlight was the one run to the new circuit breaker. The actual power to the transponder was just a dead end, possibly taken off the bank of fuses we removed.

New PAI-700 vertical card compass is installed. We will swing that later.

Waiting on the holidays to go by so my IA can come and put this governor back in. Hector, Hijackers is on our shortlist. We might be working on it the 25th, so maybe soon afterwards.

Upcoming destinations:

Jan 14- KLEE for the Florida Mooney Breakfast.
Jan ~21: Poss Charleston, SC to visit the USS Yorktown
Feb: The missus and I want to fly to Kitty Hawk, NC to see the Wright Bros memorial. I've been there as an 8 year old, I'd love to go back and get a picture in the same spot.
March: Tullahoma, TN for the Beech museum
April: SnF & Wings Over Suwannee
July: OSHKOSH!

Cool, you're getting there. Just let me know. I'll probably do the Mooney breakfast at KLEE too. Charlestown is a cool town. Your girlfriend will probably dig the historic district. Excellent restaurants too. I use KJZI when I go there. I'll be at SnF too but will probably drive there (my brother in law lives there and I'll be staying with him). He is also a pilot and owns a Cherokee 6. He's a doctor and AME and volunteers at the SnF clinic during the week. I got other friends that fly in too and since I'm usually the only one with a large vehicle I shuttle them into town for dinner and such. You can join us if you like. And talking about Oshkosh, I flew my Mooney there last year and stayed there the whole week, but my brother in law has never taken the Cherokee there and he's already bending my ear about being his copilot for the 2017 pilgrimage.


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[Raptor05121]

Plane is flying great. New prop control is NICE! My dad, who hasn't flown since 2003 in my grandpa's M20F, went up with me. Maybe we can get him to get a medical and BFR done?



25 squared gave us good results at 2,000 feet at sunset.

 

Hector, KFIN tonight (12/23) at 7:30? 

[Hector]

Plane is flying great. New prop control is NICE! My dad, who hasn't flown since 2003 in my grandpa's M20F, went up with me. Maybe we can get him to get a medical and BFR done?



25 squared gave us good results at 2,000 feet at sunset.


 
Hector, KFIN tonight (12/23) at 7:30? 

Glad to hear it's running again. Sorry I missed KFIN if you went. Weather was great, but was working on my daughter's car all afternoon and got tired.


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[Raptor05121]

1 minute ago, Hector said:

 

Glad to hear it's running again. Sorry I missed KFIN if you went. Weather was great, but was working on my daughter's car all afternoon and got tired.


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We scrubbed last night. We are going tonight.

[mpg]

1 hour ago, Raptor05121 said:

We scrubbed last night. We are going tonight.

 

Really glad that you are 

flying again

Glad you took your Dad!!

Edited December 23, 2016 by mpg

[carusoam]

Wait...

Dad looks younger than me...

Find and share some info from AOPA for their rusty pilots program.  Could be good for both of you.  

Thinking out loud,

-a-

 

[Raptor05121]

This morning I picked up a friend in Lake City:

and then went south to Ocala for breakfast at Tailwinds Cafe. This Paine's Prarie section of I-75 just south of Gainesville:



My GoPro Session 4 was mounted on the vertical stabilizer so I got some good shots. Leaving home at 7:30am:

Landing runway 36 at KOCF:

And then we went west to Cedar Key just to say I've landed my plane there. This shot shows the abandoned Great Florida Canal project that was halted in the 60s. Designed as a shortcut for small and medium ships getting to the Gulf.



Then the misssus and I *finally* made it to Flagler. Perfect night conditions. I went up to 9500 feet, went east to CRG VOR then south to KFIN. I was doing 142kts GS the entire way. Transponder is working great, got flight following there and back.



2.9 hrs day, 2.2 hrs night, 7 landings total. Most were greasers but OCF I hit a little hard. I'm starting to get used to the landing picture and energy management now.

[Hector]

Awesome Alex, glad you are back in the air. She looks great!


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[Raptor05121]

4 hours ago, Hyett6420 said:

I love the pics you guy ace of your babies parked next to trees and other wildlife.  I don't believe we have such fields here in the Uk unless they are farm strips. 

The airport in question is the place I learned to fly. Private airpark called Cannon Creek. They have runway 18/36 aptly called "The Sidewalk" at 2700x25' and 9/27 grass at 2000x50'. I use the grass most of the time due to prevailing winds but I also know some 500+ hour pilots that swear they'd never land on anything less than 50' wide so I take pride when I can get it onto 18/36. They also have a 2,000 gallon private fuel farm for residents to use.

[Skates97]

I love the pictures! Are you just using one of the go-pro 3M sticky mounts on the vertical stabilizer?

[Raptor05121]

7 hours ago, Skates97 said:

I love the pictures! Are you just using one of the go-pro 3M sticky mounts on the vertical stabilizer?

Yes, I'll get a picture tomorrow. Here is some more, two showing the 25' wide runway at Cannon Creek.







I found some land clearing that was visible from 30 miles away

[tigers2007]

Raps upload some video. I'd love to see you landing it on the sidewalk. I'm too spoiled with 5,000+ft runways up here. In fact, my home base's main runway is 7,200x150' + 5,800 emergency overrun on one end. My plan is to frequent KSAW about an hour West of me which has a 12,300x150' runway.

[Raptor05121]

I'll have to learn how to edit. Plus my internet is pure crap out here in the sticks so it will take me several hours to upload even a small snippet. I'll give it a try

[Hank]

I'll try to get some video the next time I visit Mom and Dad--the runway has a good slope, is 2770 x 40' and the patches in the asphalt have all been patched.

[tigers2007]

I'll have to learn how to edit. Plus my internet is pure crap out here in the sticks so it will take me several hours to upload even a small snippet. I'll give it a try

Consider using a nearby community college or university's WiFi to upload. I have about 2Mbps upload/download at home. In the parking lot of a university not to far away I can get 130Mbps up/down. Go into the cafeteria, get lunch, setup your laptop to upload, and enjoy the scenery...


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[Patto]

Loving all the pictures!  Wish my C was out of the shop so I could fly it a bit too.

[Raptor05121]

On 12/25/2016 at 5:47 AM, Hyett6420 said:

Google Pringle wifi aerial. Great things.

sounds expensive!

[Yetti]

Should fly for a good while with all the things that were fixed.

[Raptor05121]

Finished my first page with the Mooney. Lots of "mosts". Most time logged with a single page, most landings in a page, most night time in a page, etc.

[Hank]

Progress! Keep up the good work. You really can't fly the wings off, I know--I tried hard my first year, then flew even more while working on IFR.

[Raptor05121]

13 minutes ago, Hyett6420 said:

Left handed Alex like me by any chance?  Your fives are very similar to mine. 

I am! My grandfather is British blood if that makes a difference.