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OK, finally picked up the Mooney from Georgia Avionics yesterday and all is joyful. Turns out the shielding around the antenna cable from my #2 navcomm was frayed which caused the spike in volts when I transmitted. Was a painful project to run new cabling but I needed the cabling for the 430 redone anyway to make the WAAS switch. So nice to have a fully functioning #2 again and one that doesn't kick off the autopilot when I transmit, not to mention being heard loud and clear. As for the WAAS upgrade it too went without a hitch. Now I will need to go back to my IFR magazines and read all those WAAS articles that I have skipped over the last several years. Plan to fly next week with my CFII to shoot some WAAS approaches and get familiar with the new capability. Looking forward to it!

We flew Delta Air to BOS yesterday since our Mooney is still in pieces. Return to CLT next Tuesday. Did get to 6B6 and the engine shop today. I'll update prop strike drama elsewhere.

I'll be around all weekend if either of you two want to come along an watch me botch some approaches....

We are still talking about your airplane right?

Hello everyone. I would like to take this time and introduce myself to MooneySpace! I have been an avide reader of the forum as I have always been in love with Mooney's! A couple weeks ago, I made entered the Mooney family. I hope now to contribute, ask, and discuse many topics with my new friends. Thanks, James

Staying home and turkey at home - and phew - there is nasty weather rolling over the east for the next 36 hrs. But Friday I am doing a pilot n paws mission to bring a tiny poodle from Brooklyn to Burlington, with my oldest son.

Friend of mine did a wingtip repair much more exrensively damaged than yours. It took him a lot of layers of resin/microballons/sanding to get the surface right, but it was unskilled labor....his own...very cheap. He had a paint shop match the color....that was the only difficult part. Looks great. As a matter of fact, his repaired tip looks better than the other wing tip now! If you have some time, give it a try. You can always sand your work away if you don't like it.

I can't imagine a dipstick heater has sufficient mass/surface area to do any meaningful heating. I'd opt for a stick-on oil pan heater ahead of a dipstick heater since it can heat a much larger area of metal, which should transmit the heat easily to the oil and other parts of the engine.

We are flying up to the Gold Country in Northern CA. A beautiful 1.5 hour flight. The weather is getting a little dodgy so will have to make sure we can stay VFR. Need to get that rating! Happy Thanksgiving to all our Mooney family.

Flying home to the parents. Some people call it a time machine. It's not. It's a stargate.

I got a fltplan.com email briefing this morning and one of the things that they have added are electronic checklists. I created a couple of categories just to test it out and it's pretty good. It's fairly basic but they'll probably add some formatting and additional organizational feature as we request them. If you don't use fltplan.com, you should. It has excellent flight planning tools as well as other feature - like checklists and best of all, IT'S FREE! Dave

I bought into a 69F model with a group of 3 other guys. One was a retired man, driving a school bus to keep benefits. Another was a fed ex long haul truck driver. Both of them barely were able to make ends meet. But somehow, we managed to run that partnership on $125-150/ month dues. That was all in, insurance, hanger, everything. We put in $20 an hour per flight hour and somehow that paid for all repairs and allowed to save up $16,000 for an engine overhaul in the future. At $5/gallon, gas was $50/hour and at 140 knots, that comes $.44 per statute mile plus $150 month. My cost to join was about $15k. I moved on, recovering my investment and another pilot is enjoying the benefits. My experiences with newer aircraft (BE36 and M20R) are enjoyable but with a higher hull value and more expensive avionics, come higher costs. I know costs are a factor in why people don't fly more. But is it the reason people don't fly? I don't know about that, if you really want to do something, you find a way and if a retired guy driving a school bus can enjoy Mooney ownership, why can't anyone? Anyway, welcome back. I have only been flying about 7 years now, so I can't tell you what has changed. But what hasn't changed is the freedom and sense of accomplishment and enjoyment that comes with owning your own a/c. Best of luck!

I think the trouble you're going through will be worth it even if you decide to run mostly ROP when you're done. Even though an engine with a terrible GAMI spread will run pretty smooth ROP, the different cylinders will be experiencing very different conditions, from in the red box to so filthy rich that plugs are fouled and exhaust valves stick (I'm imagining extreme case here). With an engine that that's able to run well LOP you'll also have an engine that'll get the best possible results run under ROP conditions.

Thanks for all the info. We found that we were able to reach the aiming screws through the lower right engine cowl flap, however, for large adjustments it was easier for the two of us to just take off the lower cowl. We removed the lens from the front. We loosened the screws on the chrome trim plate (we felt they were used to limit the forward movement of the bulb). They actually have slotted holes to allow forward and aft movement. We then ran the 12 o'clock adjustment screw all the way in and the 8 and 4 o'clock (sideward adjustment) screws out as far as we felt comfortable. We then put it all back together. Definitely is aimed lower now but we have not flown it at night yet to test it out. I also had not seen the info about aligning the filament vertically before we did that so next time up there I'll do that too. Thanks again, Bob

You can fill it with epoxy mixed with micro balloons and paint to match with a brush. Remove the wingtip and have it scanned at finishmster and have a pint of the paint mixed

That 1% must then be magic...

Snake mineral oil. Their claims that it soaks into metal is bogus

Here is an update on speeds of my basically stock M20C. Speeds are GPS 4 direction averages. I flight plan 140 knots.

I'll post some pictures in the gallery when I get a chance. All my pictures are pretty dated so I'll need to take some current pictures next time I'm at the hangar. Basically, it's a plans built WAR P47D. Started the project back when there wasn't such a thing as kits so I had to fabricate EVERYTHING. Believe it or not I actually built the radio back with they allowed that. There was a company selling kits much like Heathkits if anyone remembers those. Seems Like I've worked on it much of my adult life.

So is this plane worth $28,000.

I guess I'll chime in on this thread. I don't fly all that much either. There is no way in hell I can fly for work, it just doesn't make any sense. Commuting is right out too. The weekend get aways and vacations are out too for the most part because my wife does not like to fly and I can not and will not guarantee her an exact departure and arrival schedule. Her work, not mine, demand it. There can not be, "Oh sorry, we had to stay over night for weather." excuse. High winds and turbulence only amplify the misery for her, so best to take her flying when it's smooth VMC. Not easy to travel the country in smooth VMC. I scheme on traveling to over night locations by myself, but then I estimate the fuel costs and the over night costs and I really can't justify it and honestly, I really can't afford it right now. Maybe in my next business venture I'll do better and be able light fire to hundred dollar bills by the gas pump. Now is a good time for me to save money, not blow it away. This makes me one of those pattern flyers. The thing is, my pattern has about a 150nm range. My logbook is now full of "depart from C83 and return to C83 with one landing." I typically spend about an hour doing this. What I like about the Mooney is, in that hour I can cover so much more ground than I could in a slower airplane. Even though I'm not going anywhere, I like to be going somewhere if you know what I mean. I'm on a long term mission to land at every public use airport in California. There are a lot of them. I have ticked off all of them in my pattern area and even beyond. The rest are going to cost me more money to get to, so they have to wait for now. So, I don't have a ton of free time, I don't have enough money to really travel and I have no real purpose, or reason to fly. Why do I own and maintain an airplane? What the hell is wrong with me? It's a hobby and an addiction. It's a really stupid hobby, but I'm still having fun doing it and will continue to do so as long as the money holds out, the health holds out, the government doesn't make it too impossible AND I'm still having fun doing it. The second I'm not having fun, my Mooney will be for sale the next second. What does my story have to do with the OP? Not much other than IMO, you do not need a purpose, a need, or a specific mission to own an airplane. You don't even need to fly a lot. Just hating rental planes is enough in my book. The ownership experience, both good and bad, goes beyond the flying. In my case, the positives outweigh the negatives... for now. P.S.- If you do buy a plane, get a hangar for it. It amplifies the fun and makes your experience much, much better IMO.

Just watched the DVD last night. Very good. Dusty's mechanic, Dotty, reminds me of my mechanic.

Good looking new panel, Aron!

I have had the 750 and the 650 setup for a few months now and I like the 750 better. I do use them both though. I really like the cross-flll function. I also enjoy the V-calc function which is available on both the 750 and the 650.

Ahhh, Grasshopper, you are wise. I see you understand how all the universe is connected by the equation 1 AMU= 1 JMU. It is time for you to leave this world of 150KT happiness and seek new heights..

Pulled the proverbial "swap-per-roo"... It wasn't easy to get it past the misses, but I made her an offer she couldn't refuse. I have no doubt she'll cost me more in the long run: the younger, faster ones always do...but she'll be worth it for the pleasure she'll bring me!

The only thing I will say to counter Mike's point is that there is SOME intrinsic value in owning an airplane, if you've truly got the bug. It's fun just knowing that she is out there, waiting for you to come fly, or just give her some TLC with a wash and wax job. Men have been known to just spend time at the hangar than for no other reason than to enjoy her company. And NO, I'm not talking about a mistress (at least not a flesh and blood one). But of course, this requires you have the discretionary means to engage in this type of love affair. But if you do, it is oh so worth it...

Hey Seth, Thanks for the input. If I wanted to move it quickly I would either install an old 430 or just fire sale the airplane. My plane is paid for and is now to a point that it doesn't need anything else maintenance wise so the cost to keep it around is minimal. I think the perfect scenario for me is to partner with somebody on a light twin (Beech 55 is what I've been looking at) and that way I could have the best of both worlds. Just taking my time and exploring different options to get the job done and also have something that I can play with.

First a note of explanation: a manifold pressure gague is an absolute pressure gague. What this means is that it is an uncorrected barometer connected to your intake manifold so with the engine not running it indicates uncorrected field pressure. Those among us living at or near sea level can look at the gague and expect it to read the same as the Kolsman window when the altimeter is set to field elevation. Those of us living at significant altitudes above sea level look at the gague and ponder if what we are seeing is right. My field is at 2,400' and my gague reads 27.4" with the local altimeter (corrected barometer) at 29.85", Perhaps a flight to a sea level field might resolve any insecurity but there is another way. The website http://www.csgnetwork.com/barcorrecthcalc.html has a handy calculator. You just enter your field elevation and current altimeter setting in the top column and read the uncorrected mercury column and correction factor at the bottom. For my field elevation the correction turned out to be 2.5" which corresponds to 29.8" within .05" of where it should be. Now I have confidence in the instrument without having to go to sea level to check it. This same calculator can give you the maximum theoretical full throttle manifold pressure for any cruise altitude and within 1/4" the power you would achieve. A bit helpful when trying to calculate crise performance for altitudes that fall between the charts in the POH. As an Airframe/Powerplant mechanic with extensive experience in both large jet transport and general aviation aircraft as well as avionics I will be writing other blogs trying to take some of the mystery out of small aircraft systems. If anyone has questions on or suguestions for articles, please comment.

Since you asked for opinions.....I'll be honest. I think you're priced 7-10k high based on your avionics. What is a KNS 80 and Apollo 360? (Just kidding). If you do intend to keep the J an IFR GPS will yield much more utility. When I bought my Mooney the /G was a mandatory item. Most IFR pilots will either walk away from a non-IFR GPS bird or factor the cost to upgrade into their offer.

Brett -- man, do I know where you are at! I went back and forth on whether to upgrade an airplane that met 80% of my flying needs, that I knew inside and out or spend a ton more to pick up the remaining 20% of utility. I wish it was an easy decision but in reality, it came down to cost versus benefit. I just had a hard time justifying putting out the additonal cash to pick up that remaining 20%. That said, if you think that another plane opens up greater utility and the math works, go for it.

I'd like to see an E model with a 201 cowling. I know there are a few around, and I bet they are smokin' fast. Anyway, back to the OPs question. I would bet on 135knots or so in a stock C model.

They don't say that C-models are "the best bang for the buck" for no reason!

Mmmm, it seems that I should've bought a C instead. I haven't done a speed test with my new engine, but just about all the above mentioned C models are faster than my F. Some are WAY faster...