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I am pleased to announce after 15 yrs lusting on Mooneys , and just ended a 5 yrs plan of research and search i am the proud owner of a M20C . It was love at first sight, and love at first flight. She is a bare bones girl but is gonna be a great canvas to start with. I plan on systematically restoring her while flying the s*^t out of her. So hello fellow Mooney drivers you have one more to the club. One of the best milestones in aviation that i have crossed.....

We are here - row 509 - next to a Cessna 182 on the far south end of the row - the FIRST IN THE ROW AS A MATTER OF FACT. Come by and say hey! N7100U

Single worst riveting experience so far. My nice IA let me use a tray of various size cherry rivets. We supposed that that last hole had been drilled out before and was a bit bigger (13/64) than what the book calls for and way was likely put in when I had the windshield installed (1/8). That's why it had spun. I used an oversized cherry and it worked great. Until... The back fell off my pop rivet gun. Then The shank was stuck because the spring sprung out the back. I needed to disassemble the whole thing, hammer the shank through the teeth and reassemble the gun. Then it worked nicely. Spent about 2 hrs foil taping where duct tape used to be touching the tubular frame. Stuff is razor sharp. Then went back and sprayed a little zinc chromate anywhere where I saw chipped or scuffed old primer, with the exception of the forward spar flange. @Piloto - re the other thread with the spar flange: I didn't want to disturb the remaining zinc primer (some was off, I was going to have to brass brush it for hrs and wasn't going to use a wire wheel), so I sprayed with corrosion x, and put aluminum foil tape across the corner, going up the face of the spar. This way, moisture can escape to below the floor through the cracks and the spar is protected from my toddler's beverages. It's also easily removable for inspection at every annual. Cut all my carpets to rough size. Sunday after work, I'll go back and trim to fine size. Monday will be foam insulation day, Tuesday will be new Windows day and Wednesday will be carpet install day (I'm supposed to be on vacation this week :-). I'm hoping to be back in the air next Friday for a trip to see family.

The Caravan is Gathering. We made it to Madison today. Some got here yesterday. The gathering of Mooneys has begun.

Made it!! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

On the way back from Dalton, GA today, the PC just didn't seem to want to "grab" hold and stay engaged. When I got home, I discovered that the PC button on the yoke was not "springy". At least it wasn't springy enough to hold pressure against the bottom O ring. After further investigation, I found that the "ity bity spring" inside the button body was broken in half. Does anyone have one of these floating around their hangar, or in the bottom of their tool box? Either a complete button would work, or just the spring. I've made a temporary "owner fabricated" spring that seems to do the job, but I'd like an authentic part.

Here is a Don Maxwell opinion. http://www.donmaxwell.com/publications/MAPA_TEXT/Field Overhaul/Having Your Engine Overhauled In The Field.htm

My plane was named early on by a couple of Dr. Seuss fans, who insisted we read "Marvin K Mooney, Will You Please Go Now," at least twice a night until they were old enough to read it themselves. So, no surprise, when we acquired our K Mooney, he was dubbed Marvin by our middle-school age kids. So it is, 30 years later. Now my grandchildren appreciate the literary reference.

You are a crazy man Brad! Isn't the heat killing you?!

I am no expert, but if the aircraft is located in the arid climate of Arizona then sitting for 1 year might not be such a big deal. However, if it has been sitting for over a year, then it will most likely need an annual inspection. The K seems to have its quirks, but I would LOVE to have a RayJay on my J.

McMaster has a good selection of threaded knobs. You could also put a threaded insert in yours

Here is a short video. Just playing around with it, not much to see on this one. Flight back to KERI (Erie, PA) from KBED (Lexington, MA). 16000 ft. To watch 360° videos, you need the latest version of Chrome, Opera, Firefox, or Internet Explorer on your computer. On mobile devices, use the latest version of the YouTube app for Android or iOS. The best is to watch it on the youtube app on your phone. The video will pan around as you move your phone. The short URL is https://youtu.be/kSVMdbbw48Y

It would be interesting to carve one and out a blind nut in the bottom. I have some nice, dry ash, apple, magnolia and Holly,which should all be pretty light-colored. The ultimate "owner produced" part! what's the thread size?

I like not being injured or killed or injuring someone else. It is guys like you that think these planes are safer than driving. You do not understand and have a false sense of security with these flying lawnmowers with wings. And yes this includes the pilatus and TBM's etc.... The only planes that are safer than driving are multi engine all weather jets that are cared well for with highly trained crews with good judgement and with a union that can back them when they say NO. Everything else is just nonsense. All we can do with these single engine planes is give ourselves a slight edge by open checkbook maintenance, respect the weather and reading about every accident or incident that happens. Then you may just slightly beat the accident rate of motorcycles. Also if you don't have the money than you should just buy a plane ticket or take the bus.

The short answer is no fancy gadgets....Just my experience in the stock eagle. For TO, I know that fully loaded on winter day, TO roll is about 900-1000 ft based on fixed distance markers. In the summer its about 1200-1400 foot TO Roll. For Climb in winter fully loaded I see 1200-1300 ft p/min initial climb and summer I see about 900-1000 ft/min. For cruise I know that at 2400 RPM and 22 in MP burning 12.3 Gal/Hr LOP it cruises at 170 knots TAS +/- depending on ISA. ROP is 180 knots TAS at 15.8 G/hr. I'll see what I get after the mod.

It wouldn't be a problem. I've done 2 transition trainings this year to very low time pilots in LB. One bought his Ovation 3 and we flew it back home to California before he had his private pilot's license. Low time pilots are easier to teach than those with a lot of time from my experience.

On that rivet you must drill the window behind it to allow room for the correct length cherry MSC to fit in there and pull down. i tried and pipe glue, Tolulene, scraps, and fiberglass and it doesn't work. It simply cracks again. It's not strong enough, especially through screw holes. What does fix it is 8oz fiberglass cloth (7781) and MGS epoxy.

Yes, we do have the Lopresti cowling on ours. We have some pictures in the gallery as well. The groundspeed on Flightaware is interesting, but the true airspeed is more relevant. We also have low profile main gear doors, the Hartzell blended airfoil prop, and have no antennas on the fuselage forward of the baggage compartment, and more. It was a boatload of work, but the airplane is now a ~163ish TAS airplane at reasonable cruise, instead of the ~155ish TAS airplane that most 201s are, on the same fuel flow. Jetdriven on this forum has a 201 that have really been loved on lately, but without the Lopresti cowl. He and wife Rebecca will be in the Airventure cup race Sunday, should be a hoot to see their performance. Go Jet!

Bob, I personally used your excel sheet when I did my W&B re-weigh. Thanks for providing it. That said, you have THE most complete W&B I have ever worked with. I would say your airplane might be lighter than your W&B says it is, or all of ours are heavier than we think they are. I personally have never weighed my toe bar, flash light, but have weighed mine with 6qts of oil. I'm at 916UL last checked. I'll look again before I tanker up for Oshkosh. Fun stuff to play with, but I wouldn't loose sleep over it. Aft is fast! Hope to finally meet at OSH! fly safe, -Matt

I needed to fly customers from the U.P. to Mankato, MN on Thursday and my Rocket was AOG for a leaking waste gate controller (internally leaking out the drain line). Customers wouldn't wait for my plane to be repaired (would drive over and buy from the dealer instead of my dealership on a transfer). Since the weather was generally good, and Steve offered up his "E" model (N1258X) which was a real need of some flying time, I decided to fly the customers over in the "E". Steve and I went up the day before to check the plane over (just out of annual and MANY calendar days since last flight). It was at that time I realized he has no autopilot. Not a deal stopper, but it's been over 15 years since I flown a plane without that "back-up" option. I found out really quick how much my hand flying skills had eroded from too much dependence on the autopilot. I DO fly without it, but generally turn it on even on those flights when dealing with "in cockpit issues". Within 20 minutes I was getting comfortable with it, but was amazed how quickly the plane would start rolling when I looked down for more than a couple seconds for radio and navigation adjustments, or other distractions. When I was just south of Minneapolis I was given a "descend and maintain 4,000'" from 6k and I started down. His E model has a bunch of speed mods, so descent management is more challenging than my Rocket (higher red line, 3 blade prop and speed brakes) without hitting the NE red line. After just 40-50 seconds I get another "repeat" of the original descent instruction (and I am down 500' already). I read back again and then a Supervisor comes on and asks me to expedite my descent. With throttle just above gear horn blaring, I get it down at 800' a minute with the airspeed just below red line. My next instruction after leveling at 4k is descend to 2800'. When I reply back, I add I had the plane just below red line to get his earlier request "to expedite descent". Later, with the airport in site and cancelling IFR, the Supervisor comes on and specifically thanks me for the help. .................Got to wonder, was he working a new controller? They sure didn't give me the descent instruction early enough to get what they wanted without extra work on my side (surely they didn't think I was a turbo prop with my "E model speed" flying into the wind). On the trip back I got some quality IMC time, which could have been avoided with either a 2k climb or descent, but I clearly needed the practice. I felt a lot better about my hand flying skills at the fourth hour than I did in the first 30 minutes. George is going to turned off a lot more frequently after that wake up call. My first 1300 hours of IFR was all done sans autopilot, with lots of hard IMC, but having that option since those days has sure made me lazy. Tom

One of the easier ways to get on to the North 40 is through the pedestrian gates by Friar Tuck's or the Hilton. Then you can just take a shuttle or hitch a ride on the perimeter road to the Mooney Caravan tent. No wrist band needed.

I am driving down so will have a vehicle (I suppose you will too if staying in Appleton). Let's see what kind of a group commits and timing works for the most of us. You can get on the grounds without a wristband, just can't get out on the flightline. There are at least a few eateries out the wrist band access area and I think the north 40 is accessable sans a wrist band too. We can exchange cell numbers when we get closer to then. Tom

My point was that teachers are seeing this behavior that is linked to sugar and calling it ADHD. Unless you really believe that a third of American schoolchildren have developed the same neurological disease in the course of just a few years? What mechanism could be responsible for the rapid spread of such a thing, while providing some increasing resistance at higher socio-economic levels??? Hmmm . . . . maybe misdiagnosis to get medical treatment [teachers taking the easy way out, with support/encouragement from Administration since there is increased government funding going to the school as ADHD rates rise] instead of enforcing behavior in the classroom and providing time to run around outside and burn off energy?

I've been using Brian Kendrick (formerly of the Mooney factory) for the last four years. Brian is an absolute surgeon, and although he typically chooses to work on the M, R, TN, and an occasional J or K, I consider him the "Mike Holmes" of the Mooney maintenance world...in other words, people who have had things goofed up on their aircraft by the bigger shops (including a few MSCs I won't name here) come to Brian to get it done right. I bring Brian up to NY each year for my annual, or I go nearly 1300 miles to Texas - either way works as long as I have him doing my maintenance.