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Bad Shoulder Compensator


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Some of you probably know that I fell and injured my shoulder, preventing me from handling the Johnson Bar gear of my forever plane M20C.  I looked into changing her to electric gear.  It was going to be an ordeal if I did it myself, especially with a bad shoulder, and was gonna be time consuming and expensive to have someone else do it and I somehow felt like I was downgrading that sweet little C.  I began looking for an electric gear plane and wanted a little mor back seat room anyway.  The weekend before July 4th., I was poking around and saw this plane on Barnstormer.  

So, many things seemed to fall in place.  It was at Maxwell Aviation which is less than 50 nM from my home field and they were open July 4th., so Sandy and I drove down there to look at it.  Don was there and gave me a good run down.  He said he could swap avionics with my C.  I had just gotten through doing a 345 in the C and I didn’t want to give it up, and I wanted to keep my WAAS 430 and card compass.  I called Don that afternoon and we made a deal.  He said that he would be gone two weeks to Oshkosh, so I knew it would be a long night wait, but it seemed worth the wait.  After getting back they were hopelessly behind and Don was bent on flying it several hours and shaking it down tnoroughly since it had basically been through a restoration.  Obviously I wanted it shaken down well so I waited and just kept watching flightaware.

Some of the other things that fell in place were simply because I was buying it from Don, Paul and Jan.  They are competent and trustworthy, and just great people to meet, visit and deal with.  If I had bought from elsewhere, where would I have taken it for prebuy?  Given their reputation I knew I could trust them with no worry, so I simply wrote a check and didn’t have to fool with escrow and title search.

The plane:

Since they have access to various items they added lots of modifications, 201 windshield, 201cowl, speed brakes, new custom panel done by Kevin, their sheet metal guy.  The panel included a JPI instead of a clutter of engine gauges.  It now also has the 430 W, the GTX 345 and  NAV/COM with glide slope.  It has new paint, a nice interior, shoulder harnesses.

I have been about to bust a gut with excitement while waiting, so I have delayed writing this roll out thread.  I flew to Longview this morning to have somewhere to fly and she was sitting on the line outside and it turned out they were trying to call me yesterday to let me know she’s ready.  Don is going to fly it to Mount Pleasant for me tomorrow morning since I have to get a CFI checkout for insurance before I can solo it.  Have you ever seen a 69 year old kid at Christmas?  Once I have it home I will get a CFI in the next few days.

i am attaching a video of Don taxiing out for the first test flight after restoration, a picture of the panel before panel work and a picture of Kevin giving her the first bath.  More pictures to come after I get her home.

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Nice to see the unease fade...

Nothing like the feeling that comes... when you have a plane you might not be able to fly...

Time passes...

Solutions appear...

The sun comes out again...

Sometimes there are rainbows and angels playing trumpets that come with that.... :)

Way to go MBDiag!

Enjoy the transition training.

Best regards,

-a-

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Don landed at Mount Pleasant this morning right on time.  We flew a little and he had people waiting on him back at the shop so we got my friend the M20 F owner and retired professional helicopter pilot and helicopter instructor.  He rode in the backseat to Longview.  I got a few things out of the C and we headed back.

Longview is a training ground for air controllers so everything is by the book.  I am more comfortable going in and out of a pasture in a taildragger and I expect those controllers also would prefer that I did that instead of trying to get it all correct on a controlled field.

Many things about this F are different from my C.  I got by with flying my C as if it were a taildragger, but it is clear that I will have to seriously step up my game.  In addition I am working on my IR, so I need to get comfortable with her so I can continue my instrument training or go back to my Cessna to complete it.

Anyway, one picture is Don and myself and the other is her tucked away in her new home( pardon the hangar mess.)

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On 8/24/2018 at 4:04 PM, steingar said:

I just wish  to heck that Don would loose some of that extra weight.  Actually, he does look like he lost some since the last time I saw him.  He is a treasure to the Mooney world, and I'd like to see him stick around for awhile.

Yes, we all want to see him healthy and around for awhile.  He has already been around awhile.  Yesterday as we were on final for 18 at Longview I jokingly asked him if he had ever landed an airplane there before.  He said yes, since 1968.  Fifty years of flying Mooney’s.  Amazing!  His son is definitely following in his footsteps, so there should be Mooney expertise in Longview for many years to come.

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2 hours ago, MBDiagMan said:

His son is definitely following in his footsteps

Although I don't decry the fact that my über-scientist son considers engineering to be janitorial, congrats to Don!

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Well, the latest step in my journey through Mooney ownership is my C officially sold today and flew away to her new home.  The new owner bought her as his first plane and he is a great addition to the Mooney community.  It is the first plane he has ever owned, but his other plane is an Airbus 380.

It was very difficult watching her fly away.  She was supposed to be my forever plane and I had gotten very comfortable with her.

On the other side of this though, I have gotten more settled in with my great new (to me) F.   I am comfortable enough now that I am just trying to fit a trip or wo into our schedule. 

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