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As a "Mechanical Design Engineer" this interests me too, so I made a cardboard model. I know its nutty, but I am a nutty person. This is just a basic simplification of how the steering works in the extended and retracted position. It has the same strength properties as the gear in my Mooney

Well, I'm not going to do this in an open forum. It can be discussed via email as I stated before. This is a private forum system in which myself and the community decide the rules. This topic is being locked.

my long term project is moving along nicely. was time to fill the tanks and test the electric pump. throw the switch and just a clunk. it worked 5 yrs ago before my project started. I quickly talked to some friends and checked the forum. Aero Motors in wisconsin is the place. I woke up crazy early this morning removed the pump and drove over 2 hrs to Aero Motors. Was definitely worth the trip. I turned over my tired hunk of junk and was given a pump that looked like new with all their updates. They knew I was the Curious inquisitive type with a lot of questions so they took me through the shop and showed me the insides of a pump and their improvements. Everything except one particular seal is made in-house in the shop. They even wind their own armatures! I'm the type that likes to shop made in USA. I was thoroughly impressed. my pump happen to be $550 for the exchange. My project continues forward with a minimal delay, will be installing the pump tomorrow. Glenn 1964 m20e Aft stub spar and upper left spar cap change. might be ready to fly towards the end of the year or beginning of next year

Yes it’s easy within Schengen+EU as no immigration & customs are required * In southern countries like France, Italy…the flights are still “international” one still need to file mandatory flight plans, possibly gendec, make radio contact at borders…as these countries puts ICAO requirements above Schengen/EU laws, however, this is merely an ICAO reporting requirement: no restriction on where you can land and you don’t have to see anyone. * In northern countries like Germany, it’s easier as Schengen/EU flights are considered “domestic or national” (sub-ICAO): I flew Belgium-Germany-Austria without flight plan not talking to anyone except airport guys, this sounds more like “just go” UK (and Switzerland) need more planning: one have to comply with some immigration and customs rules like sGAR, these are not difficult once one gets used to them (it’s like eAPIS in US or Canpass in Canada) For fees (and Avgas), it’s manageable in small and medium airports in countries with light GA tradition Germany, Poland, France, Switzerland, Belgium…if you go to Spain, Italy…one tend to sick to private small airports while big airlines airports have pricy handling and are waste of time: imagine Signature price tag with bureaucracy and no red carpet. This is tough on GA flyers, you can’t fly north forever: you need to go south for sun, food, beach…

And you wonder why your posts were deleted?

Because I value my time as well. Most of my flying recently has been purpose driven. Flying two to three days a week means I don’t need an excuse to get the plane out. I am not making a special trip for $50, nor would I add a stop to an existing trip for $50. I like my local FBO and I want to do business with them. I enjoy having local services available. I had to delay my trip to NC a few Saturdays back because of a leaking line to the fuel pressure gauge. I had a new line fabricated with my old fittings (local shop), installed (by me) and signed off by an IA at the FBO before 11:00am Monday morning for <$200 total. I was able to do that because I support and have relationships with the service providers on my field. Shopping all over hell and half acre to save $50 is not a big concern. I might feel differently in my retirement, but that is quite a ways off.

I flew to Biarritz, then north to Deauville - Normadie, east to Saarbrücken and then home with basically the same view Hours and hours for three days of nothing but high fog to the horizon in every direction. It was eerie...

Yup! That is another smart part of the design. Not only does it "disconnect" the steering (not really of course) but it also straightens the wheel. I would say that is so the wheel well can be narrower in the cabin, but knowing Al Mooney, it's probably in case there is some slight errant breeze in the wheel well, he would want nice smooth airflow over the wheel Here's a better example of the "self centering" action:

Early bird gets the worm…but it goes down easier with some coffee!

The OXC accident was me. Gear was down and had no indications of a problem, landed rather uneventfully until the right main then nose gear collapsed. Left remained down and locked throughout the incident. No injuries, except my pride. I don't want to say anything inaccurate as I don't have solid answers yet (and not sure if I will). Both pins on the nose gear bungees were sheared. Right retract rod in the belly bent. That's really all we have right now. The NTSB had the nose retract rods for a few weeks and sent them back already. I'm fully onboard with learning from incidents and accidents but I completely understand why some pilots would be defensive or go quiet. If I didn't have some witnesses, and an extremely grainy video, it would be hard not to assume it wasn't just a really hard landing. Add to that the tendency to blame myself as a low-time pilot... It's hard! All things considered, if we are calling it a "crash", one of the best crashes to be in as no one was hurt. EDIT: I forgot to mention - landing was on speed, it was a calm wind day. Fourth landing of the day and they had gotten progressively smoother. I'm not a pro like many of you with the buttery roll landings, but I will say that I was in love with how the Mooney landed. I felt way more comfortable and confident in it than the Warrior. That last landing where the gear collapsed, I had about a split second of time to mentally pat myself on the back for a nice touchdown. Just about when I was ready to transition my feet up to be ready to apply the brakes, things started going south! FAA guy says it will most likely be ruled "mechanical error, cause unknown" but we will need to wait for the NTSB's report. I'm happy to answer questions to the best of my ability.

Let’s not. This is specific to your account and not General Mooney Talk content. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

@rturbett Take another look at my Lower 48 map! I finally got around to checking off UT on our way down to the PPP in Ft Worth (KAFW). Great overnight in Moab, UT just because it was someplace we wanted to stay.

That's ok. @Mooney in Oz and @Joshua Blackh4t can see them correctly!

I honestly think they've overshot on this one. There are many out there, myself included, who were very much on the fence about whether the infant mortality unknowns of a replacement spring were better than the unknowns of an otherwise healthy spring with a lot of hours on it. And that was when the spring was selling for an eye-watering $1000 per unit. But at $3000 per unit, those of us who were already on the fence probably have our decision made easier.

Perhaps it hasn’t occurred to you that the rest of us don’t care.

This is my setup.

Well, the end of this saga is a good one — another Mooney pilot at a nearby airport not only flew my plane, but his dad (also a Mooney pilot) came there and flew us back too. So everything is ok and done. I don’t think the idea of flying with an instructor would have worked. It’s quite obvious I could not act as PIC as I can’t operate the rudder pedals (not allowed to put any weight on the ankle). And my insurance has specific pilot experience for the PIC, which the instructor did not have. Anyway, it all worked out. Thanks for the suggestions.

You'd spend more renting a complex plane to gain RG hours than you would just paying the higher premium for the first year. We can get you covered in a Mooney as a brand new private pilot with one or two quality insurance companies.

Sorry to hear about the relative’s broken hip. Difficult process especially as folks age. Your doghouse is probably in good shape. The difficulty is that there are often big holes that are hard to see and work on. When you get back home and you take off your cowling’s side panels, put a drop light inside the doghouse and turn off the lights in your hangar. Look under all four cylinders for light leakage that isn’t through the cylinder fins. Also look behind the doghouse, particularly where the upper engine mounts are located. There should be large felt pieces that seal up that area, but are often missing or messed up. Finally, put the light just under the prop and look forward under the engine to where the generator and starter are. Additionally- there is supposed to be rubber baffle material attached to the forward part of the doghouse, top and bottom, all the way around the front. It goes inside a small aluminum u-channel on the cowling. All of that rubber material should be present and nice and flexible. Also additionally- are the inter-cylinder baffles still in place below the cylinders? These are sheet metal that extend between the barrels of cylinder 2&4 and 1&3. Engine cooling isn’t really about airflow, it’s about the air pressure differential between the top of the engine (doghouse) and the area under the engine (leading to the cowl flaps). Since it’s a fluid, the air in the doghouse will follow the path of least resistance- which is often big holes around the starter, generator, oil pressure adjustment, and engine mounts. That lowers the pressure differential so less air is being drawn through the cylinder fins. To summarize the problem areas: - upper engine mounts - around and under the oil pressure adjustment - around forward parts of the generator and starter - baffling in the u-channel at the front of the doghouse - inter-cylinder sheet metal baffles below the cylinder barrels - other areas of the doghouse where it fits around the cylinders and case

Im sure it’s more when flying an A10, but it took 6 or 7 times on the boom to get an F15E from Idaho to Lajes, Portugal. We took off around midnight so we’d be landing in daylight or just to make sure our circadian rhythms were 100% destroyed. I never figured out which. 6 fighters to each pair of tankers. Fly with them through the night cycling all 6 through about every hour. Use up all their gas, then two or three more tankers taking off from the east coast join up and the first two land while the fighters start sucking down the new gas. When the sun comes up you’re overjoyed because 7 or 8 planes all together in the dark (and invariably the tankers head straight for the thick clouds) is really not fun. Unfortunately, when the sunrise happens as you head East, you can’t see a GD thing. I remember refueling with a blinding ball of light that had tiny wingtips protruding out the side of it barely visible in my peripheral. Not fun. After that, its all trivia and snacks and comfortable daytime formation for another 4 hours while you keep it topped off in case the tanker breaks and you have to divert to iceland or something. Then you land, unfold your body, drink a couple of gallons of beer at the club/bowling alley, roll your commander down the lanes, pass out and do the second half of the trip (to the middle east) in ~36 hours. And that’s only for 6 of the 20 or so jets in each squadron. It’s a serious logistical nightmare especially considering how many planes break along they way and have to get rescued by maintenance and then join another crossing.

You can buy one today! It is called a TBM 900. The M is for Mooney. I’ve never flown one, but I hear they are a fantastic airplane. If you did a full design study, you would end up very close to one of the three planes you mentioned.

Larches and fresh snow in the North Cascades, as well as a I think it's the Entiat river valley from last Sunday

Crossing the Big Muddy into Loosiana, headed for Houston over the weekend. Beautiful day to be flying! Anything happening out this way anytime soon?

The engine is back on again and I got her back today! Excited to do some flying! She's purring like a kitten. Of course there are a few squawks, but nothing major. Break-in is essentially complete.

I ran my engine to 2400 hrs before replacing it. It had an IRAN at about 1100, but the reason was an incident where I lost oil pressure at 19k and had to make a rapid, no power descent to a safe no power landing. According to my A&P, that caused piston slap that scored the cylinder walls, hence the IRAN. It also had a turbo rebuild at about 700 hrs, right after I got it. That turbo made it all the way to TBO without further incident. I firmly believe that the TSIO360LB can run to TBO and beyond, if the engine is run correctly. Unfortunately, I think that many of the original engines were not, and part of the fault falls on misleading information in the POH. For example, the CHT redline is 460 dF. If you ever hit 460 dF it is probably time for a top overhaul at least. The goal is 380 dF. During high, hot climbs in the summer, such as out of a western airport, the engine might creep up a little over 400, but if the fuel flow is set up correctly to generate at least 24.0 GPH in a full rich full power climb, the CHTs will routinely be around 380, and in the spring, fall and winter they will be lower than that. The POH also has cruise power settings with the engine at or just slightly rich of peak. This is the worst possible place to run an engine and will generate the highest Internal Cylinder Pressures. From my experience, any cruise power setting in the range of 70-75% HP or higher, where the fuel flow is 12 something GPH, is a “red box” setting, hard on the engine. I was able to run the now-replaced engine for hundreds of hours at 11.1 GPH/2450 RPM/34” MP. The reason for the 34” is that lean of peak operation is a fuel/air ratio and you can make the mixture more lean either by reducing the fuel flow while the MP remains constant, or by adding MP while the fuel flow remains constant. So I used the 34” to make the mixture sufficiently lean to be reasonably healthy for the engine. I was concerned about the extra work this puts on the turbo so after it hit 1000 hours from the replacement I had it borescoped by my A&P several times and there were no ill effects. The other thing to watch is cooling of the cylinders, which is affected primarily by the baffling. My old baffling was not great, but with the new engine I have been a stickler on keeping the baffling in good shape, no gaps or creases. Creases where the baffling meets the top cowling were the primary issue with the old baffling. I am at about 150 hours on the new engine. Had to run it ROP for the first 100 hrs per TCM’s break-in instructions, and just beginning to work up LOP operations again. The biggest issue when you buy a used aircraft is that you have no idea how the prior owner ran the engine. If they believed everything that is in the POH the engine may be doomed to an early top or IRAN already.

I’d work on getting your instrument rating, by the time you complete that you should be insurable.

You were lied to about the liability part. Sorry to say that, but it’s true.

The o-ring is the seal against the bottom of the wing and the nut plate that is riveted to the wing skin inside the tank. The nut plate and the rivets that hold it are sealed with tank sealant on the inside just like the rest of the tank. If the drain valve gets overtorqued on installation or it gets broken or stuck and needs a lot of torque to remove it, it can move the nut plate enough to slightly unseat the rivets and/or lift some of the sealant inside the tank. That can lead to some annoying leaks (both of mine did this). On mine the leaks are around the rivets that hold the nut plate in. Both of mine responded well to liberal application of oyl-tite seal, swiping it across the rivet heads to try to drive the seal stick material under the rivet head. One side I've had to re-apply it once after a couple years. Other than that they've stayed pretty tight and leak very little. Otherwise a "proper" repair requires resetting the rivets, which requires removing the seal inside the tank around the nutplate and resealing it after either replacing or resetting the rivets. It's the sort of thing that is done during a tank reseal or repair but I think is otherwise not the first option.

Well I am happy to say that after all that work, she's finally flying! Parked on the ramp in Kingman Flying over northern AZ looking north Departing KPHX Pretty much everything is working and there were no issues on the first flights. Of course "pretty much" means not everything The EGT gauge is intermittent, there was a loose connection between the selector switch and the meter, fixed that and it was good for a few flights but now it seems like maybe there is another loose connection in the selector switch. The right tank also has a weep along the bottom of the spar. I will need to open that tank and patch that, maybe a winter project. And, the century IIB autopilot only tracks the heading bug. No matter what you select on the heading box, only tracks the heading bug. But that's all relatively minor - it really does fly and it flies nice! The new windows are amazing to look out of, that's the most visible of all the work I did. I'm seeing 150 - 155 knots true around 8500 ft. That's also what flight aware showed on its fateful flight out to arizona from socal.

Laughable? https://www.lycoming.com/publications/service-letter-no-270 Eliminating lead removes the barriers to modern synthetic oils. It will be a while before that happens, but it will. Doing away with the thick, toxic, grey film that accumulates on the belly is nearly to worth it. Being able to have my little ones help clean the belly would be worth it. I have been tested and I know that I have detectable lead levels in my system that are above average but still in the "safe range". In my youth I was careless with my handling of 100LL and aircraft parts that had been exposed to lead. I think the threat of lead to the general public from 100LL is way overstated. The real threat is to pilots, maintenance professionals and passengers that fail to take precautions or engage in risky behavior.

Thanks Anthony! I think many here are spreading the message as well as I could. The biggest thing I learned with my incident was how much the cognitive decline was with CO poisoning. At times I didn't have any symptoms yet my mental acuity was lacking. My wife would say that's me everyday. But nowhere was the cognitive decline taught to me. The other symptoms were taught as what happens, and it's what I taught when I instructed a primary student. This lead me to believe that I would be able to catch CO poisoning while it was happening. That clearly didn't work for me. As many have stated, CO poisoning is basically hypoxia. I don't know of any studies that just examine the effect of the CO. But CO finds a way in by replacing the O2 in the hemoglobin, thus making you hypoxic. The last flight on the day of my accident, I was able to copy and read back my IFR clearance, taxi out, and take off. It only took 4-1/2min from departure until I was sound asleep. So it can get dangerous fast, this is of course without a CO detector. With a detector I probably would have fixed my leak weeks or months before. I'm not taking anymore chances with CO now. I'm currently redoing my panel and will have my Guardian panel mounted detector, an Aithre panel mounted detector, and a Sensorcon AV8 mounted on the panel. As well as the Lightspeed Delta Zulu headset for both front seats. That's obviously way overkill. But these are the companies that have helped me promote CO awareness in aviation and I believe in their products. It's nice to support them. @Rick Junkin pointed this out. Many people have reported back to me what they have found with their detectors. Many find problems that could have turned much worse well before CO would have been a problem for the pilot. Broken engine mounts, V-bands, leaking exhaust burning through a fuel line, etc... So it's great to treat the CO monitor as if it is another metric on a engine monitor. Cheers, Dan

Pilots these days

Earl Scheib

Flew south with Mooney co-owner and visited Corsica, Cannes, Avignon, Marseille...while getting some dual time (FAA BFR, EASA IR and CPL training) It was sunny weather in south of France then back to cold and cloudy Normandy !

As a student pilot in the 1980's I swapped flight hours for fueling, cleaning aircraft and mechanics helper duties at the local FBO. One of the aircraft renters slid a wooden wing Mooney into the home runway without lowering the gear. The FBO AP/IA owner was a crusty old dog who relished in giving the FAA fits, so he drove to Texas from Idaho and bought a used wing from someone and mated the fuselage to the wing, which he never documented in the logs!. In the process the airplane was completely stripped down and one of my tasks was to sand off the zinc chromate off all the tubes before repainting them. The tubular chromoly fuselage cage reminded me of the funny car dragsters I worked on with my older brother and his buddies. Also it looked like the frame of the P51 models I built as a pre-teen. That was enough for me to realize the designers were interested in strength and protecting the passengers in the event of a crash. About the time the Mooney was ready to test out I acquiring my PP certificate (in the P and C brand aircraft), I got to do the taxi test runs of the rebuilt Mooney (my first time operating a Mooney) doing sequential ground runs up and down the runway and working out the known squawks. Finally the owner IA decided it was ready to go around the around the patch and I expected the lead instructor to perform the flight tests. To my surprise and (foolish) acceptance the owner IA said I could fly it around the patch for the first flight! I memorized the POH and recited it to him and over the objections of my instructor I performed the flight around the patch, left the gear down and noted that the left fuel cap was leaking! After that experience I knew all I ever wanted to own was a Mooney - strong, fast, sexy and efficient!

I sure felt safer before ADS-B. I used to fly through the airspace south of KCHD just looking out the window with my head on a swivel. If I didn't see any planes, I felt safe. Now I fly through there and see all the planes on the IPad and it's terrifying! (-:

Had an epiphany late last night and confirmed the issue today after replacing a failed aircraft jack. It seems that the main gear shock discs are worn out enough that the weight on wheel switch can make contact when the gear is in transition in flight and with a wind load pushing the main tires back. This is causing the gear to not fully retract after takeoff, but is not a problem when on jacks. While retracting today, pushing on the tire causes the gear to hault retraction. Time for some new shock discs…. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

This is just my philosophy and if you disagree I will not be the tiniest bit offended. I very much like the adsb traffic depiction technology. Today while climbing out of KAIZ heading southwest, the glare was terrible. I did not punt to the technology, as has been pointed out ad nauseum, the technology has limitations. But I do have a lovely bride sitting next to me that is very useful locating the little arrows on the iPad while I diligently continue my outside scan. This works well for me. She warns me of something and then I can scan in the appropriate direction. This has helped numerous times. At least 2 or 3 times just today. Frankly fellows, it’s just silly to pick one side or the other and then attack your fellow Mooney Spacer. The technology is a help, not a silver bullet, but it is a big help. Outside scanning is vital but it is not the enemy of adsb, and adsb is not the enemy of scanning.

Well the Accu-Flite is eactly as I remembered from my first plane. Works fantastic in keeping the plane on course. I took two 2+ hour flights to Arkansas and the Brittain DG worked flawlessly. Once trimmed I found i could esentially fly hands off. No altitude hold needed. Without the Accu-Flight heading corrections resulted in altitude deviations, wash, rinse, repeat. LOVE THIS SYSTEM in a short-bodied Mooney. All in with installation it cost 2AMU's. I highly recommend this system if you are on a budget.

Using the RAM parts I listed above

I made this for my 68 M20F as the original handles were cracked. With my interior, the back of the handles were rubbing quite a bit against the kick panel, so I releived the back side a bit and shortened the overall length to keep that from happening. If anyone would like a modification, let me know. The back relief does make it more challenging to print. If you would like the 3d geometry files just let me know, I would post them but the file type isn't allowed. EDIT: here's the STL file on Thingiverse: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6830500

The often dreaded conversation upon arrival: Lineman: “Sir are your brakes off?” Me: “Yes. Is your staff familiar with the nose gear turning limitations of a Mooney?” Lineman: “Oh yeah, we know.” Me: “Good. I prefer this aircraft to not be towed, so if I need to park in a different spot, I’m more than happy to do so now.”

Indeed, GA suffers from a surplus of capitalism…what we need is greater regulation. That should do it.

Also when you remove exhaust hardware that has not been removed in a long time, you may find more problems that require more work - slip joints, flanges, - or corrosion may conspire to induce problems like breaking a stud.

And what a peaceful, positive 7 weeks it was on here.

I disagree... This is exactly the sort of thing the FAA can do. "Any type certificated engine or airframe that is authorized or certificated to use ASTM D910 is allowed to also use G100UL in addition to or instead of any ASTM D910 fuel." Signed, some-dude-in-charge.

If I close my baggage door, I lock it. And every time I board the airplane, I tug on the handle.

There are few market forces at work with regard to 100LL other than demand, it's mostly regulatory forces. Innospec is currently the only TEL producer in the world. If multiple refineries are able to license G100UL, then buy and blend from readily available ingredients, it should make for a more competitive market, not less.

Ya know. We talk a lot around here about getting a PMA and DERs and such. Nobody wants to do it because it is too expensive. Well LASAR bit the bullet and spent all the money. Now they want to earn a profit on a very low volume item with high NRE. Be glad they are available.

That is a depressing, and probably true assessment. I am just about to gamble on my airplane for another 20 years investment. Its engine time and in two weeks, I am due to fly my airplane to an R&R shop for them to ship my engine off for major overhaul. Replacing an engine is crazy expensive but I feel at peace with it if I am thinking it is a 20 year investment into something I love. If somehow fuel (by regulation) or parts become unavailable in 5 years or so, and I knew that now, I might be making a different decision. But I am taking the gamble, because I love it.