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Hello All, I've been a lurker here for a couple of years. Back in March traveled to Durango, CO to do a pre-buy on a '67 F model. I ended up purchasing the aircraft and have put 100 hours on it since then. I have a bit of a unique situation - I'm Canadian, live in Mexico City, and do business between the USA and Mexico. Because my life is so spread out, I wanted an aircraft that could carry a decent payload, make it from the US border to Mexico City non-stop, and be fun to fly to the beach. The M20F beat out everything else I was looking at on price, simplicity, and pure fun. After s

Flew my trusty C model across the USA and back in 14 days. Here’s a few numbers .. 8,700 - highest DA takeoff (Taos, NM) 5,137 - miles flown 328 - gallons of 100LL 40 - hours flown 17 - cats carried from a shelter in Illinois to a rescue in Colorado 1 - quart of oil added 0 - hours spent on autopilot (I don’t have one!) I was very fortunate. The weather cooperated and I flew VFR almost the entire trip. The plane ran like a Swiss watch. Except for a couple of hours around ABQ the air was mostly smooth. Without exception the folks in the FBOs were fr

My new panel is finally complete! I chose a G3X, 750XI, JPI 930, 355 and GFC-500. Carl at Sebastian Communications in Merritt Island did a great job. He really stands behind his work. I highly recommend them. I am still in the wow stage, I can't believe how great all the new stuff works . Learning to use everything was kind of a steep curve at first and I still have a ways to go until I am comfortable with all the capabilities. Putting Dad's signature on the panel finished it for me. I want to sell all of the original equipment. Everything works and is in great shape, my plane is an 84

Hey everyone, thought I’d share my first engine malfunction during flight. While it wasn’t catastrophic, I feel It was a good lesson for me and maybe one of the newbie’s like me out there will learn. Took off from APV after normal run up and everything looked great. While climbing out on downwind, felt a little “cough” and shake. Sometimes get this once hitting 5,000’ due to rich mixture, so leaned out a bit. Still had a slight spitter and noticed rpm slightly bounce from 2550 to 2500. (Prop governor?) realized I’ll stay out of airport within glide distance and troubleshoot. Gauges in green

I finally got to do the torture GI 275 flight!! 1) Pitot tube failed.... AHRS and AI worked perfectly fine with IAS red-x'd 2) To further evaluate, removed all GPS sources so that no speed data at all for the AHRS 530W and turned MFD/stby ADI off so its VFR GPS would not give data to the primary ADI). Still worked perfectly through TWO coordinated standard rate turns. It never red-x'd or tumbled!! Shall publish video hopefully within a week. (It takes time to edit...) My conclusion is the Garmin has "rocket scientists" writing the AHRS software!! Chris

http://Zoom.earth Found this the other day. Pretty cool satellite overview

Got 0TF back from its major surgery yesterday. I've flown behind a GFC500 before but having it in my own airplane is just amazing. AP was on rails throughout the entire flight test, having the YD and pitch trim is wonderful. Getting used to having electric trim is going to take some getting used to instead of reaching for the wheel. I yanked out the vacuum system and the old STEC30, my avionics shop ran into a few minor issues along the way due to this being there first J model with a GFC but otherwise went well. If anyone is on the fence about doing something like this I highly recommend

Remembering and honoring aviators and all service members who gave their all so that we Americans can live in freedom. Thank you.

Getting this engine to run at this point is not wise. If you do get it to run what does that prove? It may give a false hope that you don't need to rebuild it. What will that save? Before sitting for years it was already near TBO. Your life is much more valuable than what it costs to overhaul the engine. The IA may be optimistic that he can get it running, but it's your life that's riding behind that engine, not his. Just this week a K model Mooney experienced a catastrophic engine failure while flying. The engine had 1225 since overhaul, but had been sitting awhile before its current ow

My 17 year old son painted me a picture for Father’s Day. Nice job kiddo!!! I guess he’s not always playing on his phone.

I am a 30 year owner of the same Mooney. Back in the early 2000s when the kids were getting too big, I debated long and hard about upgrading planes. But I knew for the 2 or 3 trips a year I needed extra hauling, I could rent or borrow a friend’s plane. Now that the kids are off on their own, my F is the perfect plane for my wife and I as we enter into retirement. Sure, I got tempted when Jerry asked me if I was interested in his Ovation or when I see Danb zipping by overhead at 200 knots. But I came back to reality and realized that the majority of my flying will be up and down the east coas

You can land the F without flaps, but the the nose attitude will be higher, speed will be faster and more difficult to slow down, and you will float MUCH MORE. There is no good reason to land without full flaps unless they are not working. John Breda

Valve cover gasket oil filler gasket late model cabin seal 8mm driver for clamps , I hate flathead garden hose washers zerk caps caliper bleed caps Its what we do for other people, not ourselves GB

Here it is

The issue with prop strikes on Continental engines is crankshafts crack. You can’t see a crack with a dial indicator or micrometer. You've found an amazing airplane virtually nothing, at very least pull the engine and have it checked or or overhauled. Clarence

Here’s a picture of the cowling being modified in my shop.

Your understanding of combustion science seems very basic. It’s clear that you believe your misunderstanding to be misinformation. What’s also clear that you’ve never taken the time to look at or understand a BSFC graph. BSFC simply stated is the amount of fuel used to make a unit of power. The lower the BSFC, the less fuel required to make a unit of power. The lowest BSFC numbers for any aero engine currently in service occur on the lean side of peak EGT...This is not opinion, it is not sales, it is not misinformation...it is combustion science and has been well understood for nearly 80 ye

Oct 7 2019. Alternator primary wire was touching the xover exhaust tube, burned thru the insulation then arc'd a hole in the tube. POOF! smoke coming up from the copilot side, Alternator fail annunciation. Instead of a missed to published hold, it was a land at KOCF and rent a car. I have a pic somewhere...Ah here it is... Mooney got a call from me right after we broke out, landed (em. bus puts the gear down ok) and I cleaned out the underwear. We didnt know the extent of what happened until the shop on the field decowled and discovered..

So, if you've been following along, I have great news! For those in a hurry, the new crank plug FIXED the prop issue! Yep, a $15 crank plug caused the prop to not change pitch For a bit more info, read below... The video evidence: Bad crank plug (using the pressurized smoke machine): After the crank plug was replace (using the pressurized smoke machine again): Video quality is not the greatest but, you get the idea! So, using the steps I listed above (except using a smoke machine thanks to Charles at Air-O Specialist) we were able

I bought my 1980 M20J in 1995 not being sure if I would upgrade to a newer/faster plane. I found it met my mission so well and after that first "get everything fixed how I want it" period, it has been very economical to own. About 3 years into owning it I decided it was my forever plane and now 26 years later I've spent WAAAAYYYY more on the plane for avionics (several times), paint, and interior that I paid for it. The ,money doesn't bother me at all since I know Ill be the one enjoying it for many more years.

My 1100 hour IO 360 was sorted and running great when last August at Annual it showed metal in the filter. When I saw that I was perfectly willing to pull a cylinder and look around. All that revealed was a very slight line of corrosion on a cam lobe, but we couldn’t see the front lobes as well as the rear where we pulled the cylinder. My IA mechanic recommended flying it 15 hours and sending off an oil sample since we had not taken a sample at the annual. I did that and the sample showed iron. We agreed to start tearing it apart. Cylinders came off and revealed two front lifters spalled

I will be on the full broadcast of Just Plane Radio scheduled for June 26. One of the hosts & Mooney M20J owner, Dennis ( @lotsofgadgets ), was nice enough to invite me onto the show. If you want to spend part of your Saturday listening to some insurance discussion, please tune in or download their podcast! https://justplaneradio.com/

A 3 inch instrument is too small IMHO to have useful SV. I've used it to great effect in larger displays.

I don't believe there is any way to accurately check the torque by just applying a torque wrench to the previously torqued fastener. When you originally torque a fastener, the nut is moving until you reach the desired torque and stop. The friction of the nut is less when moving than the friction needed to get it moving again so the "breakaway" torque will be greater than the desired torque. When you attempt to recheck the torque with a torque wrench you are probably measuring the friction more than the bolt stretch. In order to accurately retorque, you would need to loosen the fastener an

Our hotel contract is pending, and we will be getting the registration information out to all registered participants as soon as possible. This will be available to you no later than the end of June. Thanks for your patience! Cheers, Rick

A64Pilot "But I’m not posting this stuff for those that believe they know more than professionals that have spent most of their adult life in aircraft maintenance." You need to be careful on Mooney Space when talking about professionals. There are many of us that have the same same or exceeding experience as yourself. This site is to discuss and inform and learn.

I gave up on things like quotes long ago. If the mechanic is well regarded locally I'm good to go. The problem is these airplanes are all old. You take one apart and you can get into lots of issues that take lots of time. Same can be said for old houses.

hi everyone I just talked with Mr. Jose Monroy, his sound was better, I said him everyone says hi from mooneyspace.com and wish him feel better soon. he said, if everything is goes better, he might be able to produce the tanks again in the summer. I don’t know the latest situation there (I mean covid-19 restrictions - as I don’t live in Florida) but I think it would be nice to visit him sometimes for moralising. hope he will be back soon to the jungle wish you all sunny days

It’s one thing to be wrong, it’s quite another to be wrong and disingenuous. You can see in my original post that I said there is no requirement to “MEASURE” the internals of the engine when the case is out for overhaul. Any prudent mechanic visually INSPECTS anything that they disassemble. Measuring and inspecting may be related but are not the same thing. You’re now attempting to reframe my statement (and those that agreed with it) as recommending disassembly and reassembly without inspecting anything, which is not something I nor anyone else suggested.

Flew back home last night. ATC sent me through the Bravo over Atlanta. Really pretty at night.

Try landing slower. 80 is too fast. Ideally, when the wind isn't too gusty, you should hear the stall horn just before touchdown. You are flying the plane into the runway. I raise my flaps after the nose wheel comes down, and keep feet off the brakes until below 50 mph. This has worked well for me ar the 3000' obstructed field that I based at for my first 7 years, and at the nice 3200' field I moved to. Now I'm spoiled with 5000', and if I'm on speed and on glideslope, the midfield exit is easy to make with light braking.

Four weeks will be this coming Tuesday (June 1st) which is what the original post said. Someone with the know how, please start a poll so we can see who actually believes this will happen. In the mean time, Happy Memorial Day. All gave some, this day is for those who gave all. Freedom isn’t free.

I'm somewhat of a conspiracy guy. It's fun to work up outlandish ideas and see how they hold up. So here goes one: Garmin funded King's acquisition of trutrak knowing that King would muck it up and leave their GFC 500 as the only viable option in the market place.

My co-pilot and I started to refurbish the interior of 03L in Sept. 2019. As of May, 2021, I can report that it's more-or-less done. The interior of our '67C was very tired. Ripped upholstery, ripped/dirty/saggy headliner, crazed side/door windows, dingy/frayed carpet, cracked/stained plastic. Here's the result of our final step, installing SCS lightweight carpet with soundproof backing starting during the recent annual when we had the gascolator out. I was looking for a good "before" photo, but I guess I didn't take any - she was in really bad shape cosmetic and I avoided photographing

@kortopates It is not my place to give out all the details, but I know a few things about the yoke-less J that I consider to be "facts", and OK to share. Facts: The left yoke did not break, but came off the shaft. Immediately engaged the auto-pilot, called MAYDAY, and then moved over to fly from the right side. There was damage to an inner gear door from the rough landing, but otherwise the plane is undamaged. Opinions: I think "surprised" is an understatement. :-) And I think he did a great job of reacting to an unusual situation. -dan

Update on all things N6744U: So the precipice of selling or keeping N6744U mainly was hinging on this. The girlfriend and I bought a house in Florida. The rates were too great to pass up and with the new job means I could (barely) swing keeping both. Of course with all great things, I got a nice little house warming gift from the girlfriend. At this point I'm not sure if its a conversation piece or a reminder on where my paycheck is coming from to keep the mortgage. The fun didn't last long. I had about 6 hours to move stuff from our rental into the new house. We cracked op

In the past ten years, just in my own experience, I have witnessed four TSIO-360's throw rods, and eleven IO-550's do the same. Zero Lycoming rods thrown. And the Lycomings represent three times as many flight hours. I haven't had the time or inclination to parse the data. One TSIO-360 blew a hole through the top cowl of a Turbo Arrow, one in a Seneca II, the others in Mooneys. The IO-550 rod pukes were all in Cirrus sometime after overhauls or top overhauls. This latest rod departure should be analyzed to see how long since any cylinder maintenance had been done. In Continentals, th

Glazing is caused by low power operations after an overhaul, where the rings fail to seat seat. Camguard would have no effect on that unless you used a massive amount from the moment of overhaul. The anti-wear properties would inhibit break in.

FWIW Mike Busch's take on the topic linked below. He doesn't favor a single cause. According to him, primary etiologies can be imperfectly machined valve guides, suboptimally ground contact area between valve and seat, or deposits on the valve seat. Wobble in a bad guide can create a hot spot on the valve face. But a deposit on the seat can also create a hot spot on the valve face that additionally lets hot gases during combustion stroke leak to trash the guide. The wobbly guide then sustains the feed forward loop even if it wasn't the primary cause. The biggest preventative measure to take

If you can’t find a good local mechanic consider growing some talent. Here is what I did: I found a youngish A&P/IA about 5 years ago. He wrenches airliners as his day job but wanted PT work on the side. I helped him get set up, I hired him on a fixed retainer for x hours per month and paid an expert to come provide him a few days of type-specific training. The plane gets immediate attention to any squawk. Annual inspections go smoothly. So far it has worked well & his business is expanding to other owners.

They lost me. I was on a waiting list for the TruTrack install. I finally gave up, put in G5's last year and picked up my plane last Wednesday from a GFC500 installation. Flew from SoCal to St George and back last weekend. After 500+ hours hand flying without even the wing leveler I felt like I died and went to heaven. I'm sure I would have been happy with the TruTrack, but I don't regret spending the extra for the GFC500.

I know that’s the correct GUMPS checklist, but in my head it’s really: Gear down Undercarriage down Make sure the gear’s down Positively sure the gear’s down Spouse reassures me that the gear’s down

Are we describing the 8 second ride, or failure to use feet to steer the plane on roll out? https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/4147179/technical_documents/service_bulletins/sbm20-202.pdf Clarence

It would be a shame to see this cut up. Engines and props are always available. Clarence

I find it disturbing that loss of pitot input and loss of GPS data causes the AHRS to outright fail. That stuff should be bulletproof because they tell you you can remove everything else on the airplane but those two devices

The 20% discount code for pilots is still in effect. It's good on any of the CO detectors and its a little better deal than the $20 off. Added bonus, the aircraft discount code allows us to see how many were purchased from the aviation community. It all started here on Mooneyspace when someone suggested we we try to get a group purchase to save a little cash. I contacted Sensorcon and told them that we had a group of maybe 20 that would like to purchase. But I didn't really want to order them all and try to distribute and collect payments. So they offered us a code. Well over 1,000

Well, I think you are pretty accurate as it is and I think most of us appreciate your fact-based posts and you freely sharing knowledge that can only be gained from years of experience maintaining these airplanes. I know I’ve learned a lot from reading your posts. Thanks, Skip

There are several posts advising that rebuild is recommended (or at least IRAN). However, given this number of hours and the history of sitting, IMO overhaul is the only choice, along with at least a rebuilt prop, but new preferred, and rebuilt or new accessories. Check the engine mount for cracks and change the engine mount shock disks. The only motivation for not doing this now seems to be an attempt to eek-out an additional 300 hours. This is not a wise choice given even a quick assessment of the risk reward equation of what an accident could look like when unrecognized damage revea

funny you said that...Lycoming cylinders last longer because of how they oil the valve stems with oil, because the pushrods are on top of the cylinders. All that oil runs over the rocker arm, valve tips & stems, and valve springs. Continentals are on the bottom, so the oil coming through the pushrods doesn't get to the valve stems and valve springs in the volume that a Lycoming does. It's why Continental's rotocoils wear out quickly and then the valves stop rotating, and then begin to burn. Gravity works against the Continental design. Continentals seem to suffer from main bearing shi