Monday, October 28, 2013

John Schumacher visit from Fairfax, Va.

Reported by:  Steve Sanderson
 

 
It was our pleasure to host John Schumacher, from Fairfax, Va. at Whiteplains this past Friday and Saturday. Many thanks to Steve Crimm, Mike Moore, Ed Fisher, Clem Spencer and Jack Fastnaught for helping me show John what a great neighborhood we live in.

Monday, October 14, 2013

Good News for Mooney Aircraft Owners


Hello Mooney Followers,

It is time for all of you to take a deep breath and listen to what I
have to say about Mooney International, now that I am allowed to speak.

We have been working for months with Dr. Jerry Chen, President of
Soaring America on a deal to provide funding to restart production of
Mooney aircraft in Kerrville, TX. This last Friday, all of the necessary
hurdles being jumped, Mooney Aviation Company became Mooney
International Corporation, with a funding injection by Soaring America.
Soaring America is a U.S owned company, with its home office located in
the Los Angeles, Ca area.

If you were to meet Jerry, you would find a very intelligent, likable
guy. I mean this guy is a full Professor of Aeronautics at UCLA, and he
saw the potential in resurrecting one of the most advanced aircraft
designs in the world, and growing on that for future Aerospace products.
When Jerry first approached us, one of the first visions he presented to
us was to maintain a high quality aircraft brand, made in the USA by
American workers, sold worldwide including up and coming Emerging
markets worldwide. Restarting Production of the Ovation and the Acclaim
Type S is an expensive proposition, and Soaring America has the kind if
financial backing to get this place up and running again. You, as Mooney
owners can expect a serious improvement in parts flow and customer care
in the coming months. An example would be the Elevator skins, which have
not been available for years, are now shipping from the factory in
Kerrville to needy customers everywhere. Why? Because Jerry spent
$16,000 to replace the rubber press plate on our Large Hydro Press that
had deteriorated beyond use several years ago. We are currently
receiving bids to refurbish the factory, and are looking to hire upwards
of 100 people in the coming year. This will allow us to start Production
of new aircraft in early 2014, delivering later in the year.

Last week, an unfortunate, and inaccurate Press Release found its way
onto some of the internet aviation websites. That subsequently lit up
the chatlines with all manner of speculation and comment, including one
commenter that was ready to sell his F Model because "he wasn't going to
put any Chinese Junk" on his airplane. Really??

Allow me to present some FACTS to you, that you may not be aware of:



- Mooney International Corporation is a U.S. Corporation. Want proof?
Friday I transferred the Type Certificate 2A3 to Mooney International
Corp. under the authority of FAA Order 8110.4C Paragraph 3-2(f)(2) which
states: "Certificate Transfer to a Domestic Holder. When a TC holder
transfers a TC within the U.S., the FAA must reissue the TC immediately.
The TC holder submits the original TC to the ACO after completing the
transfer endorsement on the reverse side of the TC. This changes the TC
holder, and the effective date is the date of the TC holder's
signature...

 - I personally do not care if another country makes "junk", or not. I
am Chief Engineer for Mooney International, and Mooney International
makes aircraft and its parts, in Kerrville, Texas that conform to our
Type Design. The people that are, and will be employed here are
Americans that live in the Kerrville area. Always has been, always will
be.
- Is the source of this financing originating in other countries?
Probably. Let me remind you of another fact: Mooney, for more than the
last decade, has been financed by (GASP!) European investors. So if the
source of the financing that funds a U.S Company, building a U.S.
product in the U.S built by U.S. workers bothers you, then maybe you
should check out one of our competitors. Oh, wait! Most of them are
owned by foreign companies! But not Mooney International. Oh, and by the
way, Dr. Chen's lineage is not Chinese, rather Taiwanese.


In closing, I hope I have been able to put these rumors to rest. If I
were you, I would look for news releases that come from here. What is
happening here in Kerrville is GREAT NEWS, and should be greeted as
such.



Bill Eldred

Director of Engineering

Mooney International Corp.

Sunday, October 13, 2013

1/3 Scale B-17


This is not a remote controlled “model” airplane but is designed and built for a pilot to fly it, but has not been flown yet!!! 




The project was started back in 1999 and is just now nearing completion. The airframe is all scratch built (of course) and made out of aluminum. The main gear retracts just like the real B-17, and has proven to be the most complicated part of the project. The engines are the Hirth 3002 4-cylinder 2-stroke that usually have a reduction unit and make about 80 hp. Jack chose this engine because of its size... it was small enough to fit inside a properly scaled nacelle. However, to make it fit properly, the reduction unit is removed which will bring the power down around 60 hp each, with the engines spinning the 46.4" diameter props at about 3,300 rpm. 









This project, coming to life in Dixon Illinois, has to rank as one of the most fascinating home built aircraft projects of all time. It's the kind of idea that weird people like me dream up but rarely does anyone actually follow though. With an estimated 20,000 hours of labor required to build this cute little beast, it's understandable why. With a 34 ft 7 in wingspan, estimated 1,800 pound weight and four 60 hp engines for a total of 240 hp, the Bally Bomber is just pure awesome! Be sure to check out the hundreds of pix from the build process along with additional 

Tuesday, October 08, 2013

Expired Aircraft Registration Certificate


By Stephen Pope / Published: Oct 08, 2013 Related Tags:
Tip of the Week Aircraft Registration Certificate

If the registration for your airplane is expiring at the end this month and the government shutdown continues past October 31, you could face a thorny proposition: Should you consider your airplane grounded or keep flying as though nothing has happened? Based on an unscientific survey of pilots on online message boards, most appear to be taking the position that if FAA employees are on furlough there won't be anybody around to perform ramp checks, and so why not continue flying on an expired registration?

Read more at  Click Here!

Garmin Unveils GPS Smart Watch for Pilots


Suddenly "smart watches" are cool — so you knew it was only a matter of time before somebody
introduced a cool and smart pilot watch. Think of Garmin's new D2 watch as a powerful aviation GPS receiver that you wear on your wrist. Stylish and lightweight, the watch incorporates direct-to and nearest navigation functions, as well as a built-in altimeter with adjustable baro setting, altitude alerting capability, and the ability to integrate with the Garmin Pilot app, Garmin's VIRB HD camera and more. Priced at $449, the D2 incorporates a WAAS GPS receiver and a worldwide aviation database, allowing pilots to press and hold dedicated buttons for accessing direct-to, nearest functions, as well as to create fly-over waypoints of their current locations. Read more at

Click here!

Tuesday, October 01, 2013

Run for a good cause


Hey! As you may know, I am training to run a marathon in San Francisco and I am doing great. This week is the big 20 miles!! Yes 20! I am doing this to help raise needed funds to fund research and to provide medical needs to caner patients. I am doing this because my own grandfather died of Leukemia and that is why I am doing this. Why each Saturday I get up and run. The race is in 4 weeks and have raise $2300 so far. My goal is $2900- Can you please help me? In honor of my 20 miles this weekend, could you consider making a $20 donation?

All donations are tax deductible and it would me a lot to me and the people I am running for and their family. I am also running for two friend's daughters who are current survivors!!! I am also collecting names of heroes my friends want me to run for-I'm going to put them all on my shirt on race day and run in honor of everyone! Thanks for your support!! Check out my website for more updates and picture of my progress at

http://pages.teamintraining.org/sc/nikesf13/marathoner 

Need all donations by October 15th.

God Bless and Thank You!

Linda Demaray 
Real Estate Partners LLC
(803) 348-2677 P
(803) 996-6586 F
Helping to fight Cancer
10% Net Proceds to LLS

A GoPro competitor: Garmin VIRB - Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association