VIDEO EXTRA Meet the Mooney owner with Senior Editor Ian Twombly. IT SEEMS SOMEWHAT COUNTERINTUITIVE that taking out systems could somehow make an airplane more reliable. But when that system is a failure-prone vacuum pump, and it’s replaced by a standby alternator, increased reliability and safety often are the result. Reliability and safety are exactly what Mike Hall was looking for when he made this transition. More than 20 percent of the roughly 230 hours a year he spends in his 1994 Mooney M20J is at night in instrument conditions in the Northeast. That type of flying would make anyone look for a better way to do business. www.aopa.org/pilot AOPA PILOT | 69http://www.aopa.org/pilot