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I thought this was only a 210 thing?

Well, you know how pilots exaggerate. Although the airplane in question had a leather interior -- seats, headliner, glare shield, panel, side-walls, and the floor. Not sure what that might weigh, but it could be quite a bit. Maybe he meant "his dirty little secret"?

pre-purchase should be more thorough than an annual, focus is different though and directed to identifying show stoppers, if you find one early, stop the pre-buy, if things keep looking promising complete the prebuy and have it signed off as an annual after you bought the airplane, this is your one and only chance to get to the bottom of the story without having to pay for somebody else's sins, annual on a short body is typically 25-30h, pay for the prebuy, selling price then gets negotiated in view of the findings, if no deal you are much better prepared for the next pre-buy, an E built new today would probably cost in excess of $500k, the maintenance responsibility you are getting into is commensurate with that amount, caveat emptor = buyer beware

I fly one for work. I don’t fly it over gross. However, I rarely fill past ~2/3 fuel and no more than 3 passengers and no overnight bags on ~300nm trips. If you want full fuel, it’s only got about 550lbs left for people plus bags.

I once had a similar discussion with a Meridian pilot. He said the "dirty little secret" among Meridian drivers is that every flight is over gross. That would make me uncomfortable.

No, now it shows zero, so it was likely showing atmospheric pressure. 5 when the engine is running

like the big toggle mag switches, had an electroair installed once upon a time, with those small black mag switches it is hard to tell if they are on or off, I stayed with the key switch because I would have left the mag switches on one day for sure, key in hand or on glareshield = mag off

I have had my 1970 M20E for three years now, and it fits my mission profile perfectly; I never fly with more that one adult, so I don't need a medium body. The avionics are pretty much where I want them to be. Only thing bugging me is the speed (or lack thereof). A lot of testing leads me to conclude that the currently configured airplane gets about 143 kts cruise LOP (9.3 gph) and around 148 kts if I push it ROP (10.5-11 gph). These are the best speeds I could get out of her at altitudes of around 7500-9500, 2500 rpm. I would like to hear the forum's opinion on how I could get her to be faster if I were to throw some money at the problem, maybe $15k tops. More specifically, my question is what would be the best bang for the buck to get more speed. First question: is this a fool's errand? My plane, as it is, is worth about $80k. Would I be better off just biting the bullet -- selling it and spending another $40-50k to enter J territory? Here are things I considered that could potentially gain me more speed. a) Switch to a Hartzell scimitar 2-blade prop from the current 3-blade McCauley. This is expensive -- probably around $10k, and I would only do it if I were sure to see a significant improvement in speed. b) Install some STC-ed speed mods, like maybe the sloped windshield or one of the J-like cowls. Are any of these still sold? How much do they cost, and how much labor is involved in installing them? How much speed is gained? c) Any other low hanging fruit? My mechanic used the travel boards and checked the rigging at the last annual; I had the plane washed and waxed recently; I tried flying with weight in the back. None of these made much difference as far as I can tell. Thanks in advance!

Thanks! I was reading "a pillar" as "any ole pillar" instead of The "A" pillar.

Look at the smooth transition from the front frame to the door on the pics after paint and body work.

Just an observation: I would expect the arms to be the same between the Rocket and a stock 231/252 since the datum didn't move. The CG is however 0.3 more forward and the Rocket is about 200 pounds more. If I do W&B with that in mind, I should have a round idea on where the CG should lie given my weight scenarios (and some Rocket's have had at least 50-100 pounds removed from avionic upgrades). Put simply, after reviewing a lot of doc, I think @donkaye, MCFIsheet is correct. I think the plane in question's useful load/empty weight and CG are both wrong. That's why so many Rocket owners have zero issue with two-three PAX and significant fuel without 120 pounds in the back. God, anyone see what a 177 is like? That's even worse and it can still put two adults in the front with fuel and a little weight in the back.

I do not have the original numbers. The original shop has been called to see if we can get them and if we re-do the math, does the CG make sense.

About 20 pounds.

Check the post I was replying to. "I have a 252, not a rocket, so maybe this isn’t helpful…"

Gentlemen, I have spoken to Plane Power (Hartzell) engineering and they recommended the AL12-70 kit, which includes new brackets. They directed me to the engineering drawing on their website as well. So the old girl will have a new alternator in 2 days from Aircraft Spruce. I acknowledge this is an expensive option but worth the money for me at this time. Thank you all!

It is still amazed at the anguish over an open door. I did my RH ratings in R-22s. About half the year (Mid-Atlantic) there were NO doors on the helicopters. I have a few hours in Super Cubs. Nothing nicer that a nice day, low and slow with the door and window open waving at people on the ground and them waving back. And an odd few flights in open cockpit biplanes. Planes don't need doors.

Was there any annunciation on the PFD, or even an a/p disconnect chime? I ask speaking of someone who has *never, ever* (except maybe a half dozen times) accidentally clicked off the a/p and trim after switching tanks and hitting that switch instead of the adjacent low boost. -dan

@exM20K Thinking practically on all this, I almost think that instead of thinking G-F-F or F-G-F, the first call-out item should be *trim*. This is from the Acclaim perspective as well, which you outline very well (and as noted by Don, the order in the Acclaim is G-F-F). Well, "duh", you think, "trim is concurrent...". But I had a learning experience when my electric trim went out back in June. I was so used to just using the trim switch, and I found myself commanding trim and the wheel not moving until I clued back in later. I knew this intellectually, but my habits had settled so that I would ride the trim switch, assume it was working, and then simultaneously start messing with other configuration. So, I'm either waiting for electric trim a little ('cause it's slow) or a lot ('cause it's not working for some reason, and I either didn't notice or am subsconsciously discounting it). Some of the earlier discussion, particularly by @Ibra, re: L/D curves in different configurations, definitely in my mind argues against raising flaps in scenario #2... you could just drop yourself further onto the backside of the power curve. And, with the long-bodies, there is both a. enough nose-up trim to be a problem and b. enough power to overcome the gear drag, so the parasitic drag needn't be the biggest concern. So, what I'm saying is add some smash and concentrate on flying the plane, next would be to definitively trim to something reasonable (I'm considering now always using the wheel manually on a hard go-around in scenario #2, with "casual urgency" as @donkaye, MCFI says), then pick up the gear as you definitively come away from the ground. D

Take a close look at the ElectroAire switch setup before committing. I was going to put it in my plane and the switches feel cheap and cheesy. I went with locking toggle switches for the mag and a spring loaded toggle for the starter. My avionics shop told me that they had not had great long term luck with the push button switches when used this way. As for hot mags, make up a sign that says Mags Off. When you take it in hand to place it visible, you double check that they are off.

That was exactly my point: get to TO config. Personally, I prefer going to TO flaps, then gear up (assuming positive rate), then bleed off the rest of the flaps. As you say, some POHs, including some Mooneys, are written that way.

Good point, but treating the GA the same way as a takeoff doesn't necessarily mean gear then flaps. The way the GA is written up in many POH is flaps (T/O) - gear -flaps (remaining). Since we don't takeoff with full flaps, when that's the recommended sequence, I thinks the purpose is to move us from the landing configuration to the takeoff/climb configuration. At least I don't think people are suggesting that flaps before gear means flaps to zero before gear.

I currently live in denver. I fly out of platte valley slightly up north but in your case would probably use APA or BJC. biggest factor on that would be where you plan on staying. Traffic during rush hour is pretty nasty coming up from APA, so I think when and where you plan on going plays a pretty big factor. You can also fly into DIA. when I flew into KDEN, it was cheaper than I expected.

You were the one that emphasized FULL POWER!! complete with two exclamation points. And if I am doing a full power, low altitude, slow go around, I do not want more nose up pitching when I may be backside of the power curve already.

Sure, all GAs are NOT the same. But, worst case, you MAY need to apply full power. Of course, how to remove the flaps is different on different planes. My F is like yours, just a momentary contact switch; I haven't found it difficult to reach it blindly, start the retraction, and glance at the indicator. It's pretty clear from examples that even various POHs go both ways on this. That's why I capitalized OPINIONS...and why I stayed out of this, because I just knew someone would ARGUE...hence the 7 frickin' pages! This really isn't a RIGHT or WRONG situation, it's technique.

If the forward trim lead screw does not have the stepped stop nuts it can jam if enough torque is applied. The old BK trim servos have plenty of torque. I doubt a Garmin GSA 28 would do so. I don't know about others. Ks and later have a bob weight and variable down spring instead of trim bungees and seem to need a lot of nose up trim in the approach configuration. Also, because the elevator forces are higher in flare than many other airplanes, some have developed the habit of rolling in nose up trim to the stop during the flare (which of course exacerbates the nose up problem if you have to go around, especially after a bounce.)