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Long story and I will do my best to keep this short. I was a "Top Gun" era kid and the movie was essentially my baby sitter growing up. I remember my first airline flight at the young age of 4 on an L-1011 and from that moment on, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with my life. In high school, I enrolled in Junior ROTC, got an Air Force scholarship to FSU (Go Noles!!), became an Air Force cadet in Senior ROTC, and in my Junior Year of College picked up one of 500 pilot slots handed out across the United States in 2006. I had a goal, a plan, tons of motivation, and I got what I worked for. One year later on January 9th 2007, sitting in a chair at Brooks Base San Antonio, I was advised by an ophthalmologists that I had a pretiy common eye condition known as an esophoria but that, unfortunately, I was "hard DQ'd" from Air Force flying. To this guy, I was just a number. I was literally 4 months from graduated college and starting Air Force Pilot training. Devastation does not describe how I felt and making matters worse, the Air Force was kind enough to send the information to the FAA (which is required and understandable) and I was forced to fight to keep my 3rd Class. At the time, I was already a private pilot with more than 150 hours so the fact that I was now facing a threat to my civilian flying, I was forced to spend thousands on lawyers and medical appointments. In the last 11 years, I have spent a ton of time fighting the FAA trying to prove that what they thought I had, was much less significant than what the Air Force told them. I was on a special issuance 3rd Class for 10 of those 11 years. I was able to continue recreational flying but was unable to fly commercially without a 2nd or 1st Class. Meanwhile, I spent 8 years in the Air Force as a Police Officer, got out, and became a project manager at a large public transportation agency in SLC making decent money. When Basic Med came out, I decided to give up hope and move on from the dream. Shortly after dropping my 3rd Class for Basic Med, however, I decided to request a Statement of Demonstrated Ability (SODA) one last time from the FAA. They approved my request and shortly after I got a 3rd Class free and clear. This was a big step considering I had been on a special issuance 3rd class for over 10 years...forcing me to submit paperwork every 2 years to the FAA proving that I was still healthy to fly. This process was especially aggravating because I had spent a lot of money on the best MD's in the US to prove that I was well within FAA tolerances for not only a 3rd Class--but for a 1st Class as well. The FAA chose to focus on what the one Air Force Flight Surgeon from 2007 had written on a piece of paper. Okay I'm winding this down. I got greedy this month and decided to press my luck for a 1st Class. I went to a new AME who was ironically, of all things, a retired Air Force Flight Surgeon. He called some friends in Oklahoma to ask what the deal was and promised to try to help me out. I received a call on Wednesday of this week from the AME, asking me to come sign my 1st Class Medical Certificate. As if my first born had just arrived, I cried when I got that stupid piece of paper. I was unceremoniously handed the paper by the office receptionist haha...she had zero idea what that piece of paper meant to me. So I'm quitting my great job that I have zero passion for this Summer and enrolling in ATP. I'm chasing the dream knowing that my fight with the FAA may and likely will come up again and again...every 12 months until I'm 40 and every 6 months thereafter. I don't care. I'm 33 years old and figure this is probably my only shot...I will regret not trying and even if this doesn't work out, then I will become a CFI and still realize the dream of flying for a living. What an office. Anybody have experience with ATP or even getting on with the regionals, working their way up to a major? Any current commercial pilots with information on current job prospects? General advice and recommendations are welcome from all.

I thought I would bump this with the --for now-- resolution to my issue... To cut to the chase: I found the leak, patched it, and its OK for now. I contacted a couple shops about a full strip and reseal. The most popular one, I was willing to go to but the lead time was just too far out. No one has anything but good to say about the quality of work though, so I may go ahead and schedule a reseal, but it would be far enough out that I had to get the plane fixed with a patch. Another shop, closer to home and known to do these jobs just never wrote back. My home shop is completely slammed for work (See a trend here?). So what to do? Whereas I worked quite a bit in February, the airline world gives, and the airline world takes... and March turned out to be a very, very easy month. I wish they could all be like this! With the time off, and help from a grandparent with our daughter at home I decided to tackle the leak using Don Maxwell's method. This differed from what my shop had used in the past, as they were not fans of using vacuum on old sealant, but I had decided I didn't have anything to lose with the state of the tank, and Don has a good reputation. Recall that from the beginning of this thread, my shop had made a couple of patch attempts. In hindsight thinking about the behavior of the tank and where we saw staining, I think we had multiple leaks. Their work as not in vain. It was just that the LAST leak I've been chasing was the worst one. I broke the work into several half-days' effort so as not to be away from home for to long. It didn't take long to see the leak. I used the plexiglass, mirrors, soapy water, and vacuum per Don's website. The leak was easy to see, coming from the rib in the middle of the tank, near one of the drain holes that lets fuel drain inboard. The fuel must have ran forward along the base of the rub, to the front spar, where it was then visible and worked its way downhill to the wing root, and around the corner into the cabin. Perhaps the leak was caused from weakness due to AD compliance? The drain holes look like they may have been reamed slightly per an AD in the 1980s and just weakened the sealant a bit.. the holes were missing their factory "top coat" leaving a little weak spot in the bottom of each one. After locating the leak, I ran quite a bit of water through the tank washing out the soap, scraped back the old sealant, cleaned down to bare metal, ordered the supplies, did the patch per the Mooney manual, and let the plane sit to cure for several days. A few days ago, I transferred my fuel (the other tank was full) (access panels still off), leak tested OK, then transferred the fuel back to the good tank filtering through a chamois per A&P suggestion in case any soap was left. Sealed the panels yet again, and got a final leak check good-to-go from my IA today. This is a tedious job. It does demand some meticulousness. Don't half-ass it. Clean things thoroughly. Let the gas sit in the tank for a good long time (A couple hours in my case) to accomplish the leak check. They don't always start leaking right away! I do question the safety of the job. Its difficult to to without your hands and arms contacting avgas, the sealants, and whatever you use as a solvent (Acetone for me), even with many changes of gloves. After opening the tanks a few times now and doing the job though, I can more confidently say that a fuel leak patch is not a scary proposition. Nor an expensive one. HOWEVER.... after reading here on mooneyspace about several DIY complete reseal jobs I can understand the cost of a complete reseal and believe that when it gets to that point, it will be worth the money to have a professional who warrants the work. Its just too much labor.

If you are intent on rolling your Mooney, go get some real aerobatic training with a real aerobatic instructor in a real aerobatic airplane. Doing your first roll solo in your Mooney is STUPID! Stupid P. S. Don't be stupid.

Newest future Mooney pilot. Emmalyn Cleo McKenna Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I live about 2,500 feet from Marjory Stoneman Douglas high and today I am delighted to hear.. nothing. On the day of the massacre, and for weeks after, the skies were filled day and night with helicopters to the point where the noise was maddening. Today's march down here coincides with Trump's visit to Mar-a-Lago and the skies are closed due to the presidential TFR. I assumed the media applied for waivers and am delighted they were denied. Without getting into politics, the effect the event had on our community down here is profound. Personally, a close friend of ours was among the victims, Meadow Pollack. The devastation it left behind for the family just has to be seen to be believed - and then you wouldn't believe it. I have a dozen other stories that relate directly to my wife, kids (both Douglas alumni) and myself, but I won't go into it.

Does changing the belly strobe really meet the requirements listed in the FARs for a major modification? If not, then by definition it's a minor mod with a logbook sign off. The reluctance of so many A&Ps to do anything at all without a 337 and its required "approved data" is part of what is killing GA. By the way, what data do you have to submit with the belly strobe 337? Who approves the data? Our old GE landing lights are not made under TSO or PMA, but we all used them until LEDs appeared . . . . .

But at the very least make sure you Facebook live the attempt. The more angles the better. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yes I am on MS and have been for awhile The annual costs i “guessed” did include the fact that i have redone just about everything on the Plane. They are working on a video of a more “average” Mooney also. The intent was to show what you could do. Anyways, I enjoyed the process and it has been fun with 133DB. The spinner is clean by the way now lol

Guys, Adam from the “pre buy” guys had asked me to do this video a few months back. I wanted to post the video here for you all to see. I think he did a great job putting this together! Mike

Logged my 250th flight hour and passed my IR checkride. Woohoo!

"A superior pilot uses his superior judgment to avoid situations which require the use of his superior skill" Frank F. Borman, retired NASA astronaut and former Commander of Apollo 8 spacecraft.

Aviation in itself is not inherently dangerous. But to an even greater degree than the sea, it is terribly unforgiving of any carelessness, incapacity or neglect. There would be very few accidents if the elementary rules of flying were rigidly observed and stupid risks avoided. The road hog, with whom we are all so familiar nowadays, has his counterpart in the air, so cultivate the sane mind in the sound and healthy body.

I recently swapped out my Hartzell prop for the MT composite 4 blade and have had a chance to fly it a bit and thought I would post a report on what I have observed. Special thanks to Erik B. and Scott S. who provided me counseling on their experiences. By the way, my Hartzell is listed for sale with a complete overhaul. Buying Process - I ordered mine from Flight Resources. The delivery took 4 weeks, 1/2 down up front and 1/2 when it ships from Germany. You must have the prop shipped to a MT authorized prop shop for final assembly. I had mine shipped to Jordan Propeller in San Antonio. From there, the prop shop can deliver the prop to your A&P for installation and balance. It is recommended that you have the prop balanced. The spinner is a composite material and I had mine painted Matterhorn White to match the plane. Years ago most piston props were delivered with stainless leading edges. The restrictions to paint choices in Germany had many MT props shedding paint. The turbine application is for a nickel leading edge which wraps around longer and covers more of the prop. Also the paint formula has been modified and is much better in regards to wear and tear than the earlier props. Today, most pistons (like mine) have nickel edges and the new paint formula. Sound and Ergonomics - as mentioned elsewhere the prop is very quiet and smooth. It is German so I will say it is similar to driving a German engineered car. There is a certain smoothness and solid feel that I seem to get in the Mooney. Not to take anything away from other manufacturers but the prop does seem to maintain tight tolerances that are felt in the plane. Taxi, cruise and all aspects of flight seem to be much more quiet. Performance- I have one trip of 4 hours each way to pirep the prop. Takeoff performance is better although I do not have the hard data. The transfer of power from your power adjustments is instantaneous it feels. Moving to full throttle has no spool up time, its just gets there. Same for power reductions. No over speed conditions. I am still trying to get before and after take off distances and climb. Today I was climbing at 1100 fpm at 120 knots and 2500 rpm. I saw 700 fpm at 145 kts, 2500 rpm in a cruise climb. In cruise it is hard to tell but I think it may be the same speeds. I have logged many speeds and at some settings I was a knot faster but at others I was equal to the Hartzell. I do not feel I lost any speed with the 4 blades. 9000 ft, LOP -30, 12C, 21.6MP 2450rpm 12.9 gph at 171kts 9000 ft, ROP +100 12C 21.7MP 2450rpm 17.2gph at 177kts 8000 ft LOP -40 11C 22.5MP 2450rpm 13.6gph at 172kts 8000 ft ROP +100 11C 22.6MP 2450rpm 17.8gph at 176kts I am still getting used to landings. I have to carry a bit more power now to maintain 80kts on final. It used to be 12-13" and now it is over 13". The prop does seem to have a kind of braking effect when you twist it to the stops. I slow down very quickly but if you twist it to the stops while flaring it will stop flying so a lot of the float has been eliminated. Weight and Balance - Empty weight dropped around 30lbs and CG moved about 1.25" aft. (I left my POH in the hangar so don't quote me on those numbers) I put together a video to show the sound inside and out and also the look. Be gentle with me, I am not a producer. Russ Russ

Hi all About to embark on yet another project. I’ll make this a running thread. This will be a G5 HSI install interfaced to a century IIB autopilot. Various resistors, capacitors and transformers provisioned from a combination of mouser, Newark, digikey, spruce and one other supplier that I wasn’t previously familiar with. If anyone wants the list of various items needed for the autopilot interface (the king and century iii interfaces are much simpler than the century IIB) pm me I’ll be happy to provide . It was about $200 of various parts and wiring in addition to the unit kit itself. A very big thank you to @LANCECASPER for ordering the G5 for me. Thanks Lance. This work is under the supervision of my IA. Step 1: determine the optimal location for the GMU11. After looking at what it would take to fashion a hat shelf / bracket in the empennage sufficiently far away from the trim motor, I thought twice about the empennage as a location even though I had two sets of wires pre run for just this purpose. Let’s move to where mooney installs their magnetometer in the wing opposite the aileron roll servo. Cool. Open the wing and locate the proper spot along the wing rib. I got a laser level (auto level on a gimbal) for this job ($50 on Amazon and can be used for a number of other projects around the house and even as a steering line for putting the plan in the hangar at night. Specs exceed that called for in the G5 installation manual). Cool. The aircraft sits 2.4 degrees nose up on level ground. So- the magnetometer will sit 2.4-deg up from the level line. Of note the bottom skin sits 1.6-deg nose down due to its chord at this inspection panel / station so that would have to have been taken into consideration if I wasn’t using an auto-leveling function. The holes will be drilled in the rib skin on a level line, so the bracket I’ll fashion will need to sit on a slight tilt up to match the angle of the aircraft on the ground. I had to dig out the trigonometry and determine for a 2.4-degree angle that my forward screw hole would need to be offset 0.178 in down to raise the front of the bracket up. I figured it would be easier to manipulate the bracket holes than trying to offset holes on a rib skin in tight quarters that I really can’t have error for. I can always make a new bracket. Anyway the guys at the flying club were nice enough to give me a piece of scrap aluminum and they have a full sheet metal shop (minus band saw), so it was pretty easy to make something actually decent. Couple of additional pieces of scrap for doubler plates and we’re in business. A little self etching primer and a top coat and I’ll have a somewhat good looking shelf. (Now I just need to decide whether to blind rivet or river nut plates onto the doublets...). Step 2: I am out of circuit breakers. The installation manual calls for two additional breakers to be installed. That and I have a strikefinder to be installed during this down time so three separate breakers are needed. I think what we’ll do is what @jetdriven did for extra breakers which was to create a row in the center pedestal of the footwell (Byron I’m thinking the copilot side - still somewhat visible but more out of the way of control linkages and throttle quadrant cable routes than the pilot side). Anyway - I’ll run a 14-ga wire from the avionics bus to a new bus bar and will drill 3 holes for new CBS in that pedestal. Fashioned and drilled out a nice little busy bar from some copper 1/2 in stock today. The weekend project will to finish installing the Gmu-11, route the wires (as well as a sync wire for LED anti collision lights - it’s an awful job if you’re not an arachnodactylic contortionist), and fashion a new mounting shelf that will house the GAD-29b My other goal is to do nothing too invasive that the plane can’t be put back in service on relatively short notice (ie keep her flying). Thus I’m not touching the panel until the panel is ready to be worked on. Not doing a flush mount this go around - too invasive, etc.). I’ve also hopefully saved some time by prewiring all the 430W connections from my last project so that that tray doesn’t have to be messed with. In all I’m anticipating about 20-hours. Spent 3 on that shelf so far today. I’ll see how well the bradvionics shop’s quote come in this time.

Wow! At least you have the arguably best Mooney doc in Canada on the job! Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

It says you should fly straight and level and marvel at what a great plane it is.

The hangar faries tell me it can be done. Just make sure you have enough altitude for a split S.

No guns in Canada except in Sunnyvale!

I did my 4th oil change today. Its starting to get easy, sans removing the 150 screws around the cowling.....Cleaned up the plane and tidyed up inside. Going to a fly-in tomorrow and doing a Young Eagles rally.

Insurance is covering it. Prop is 12 years old and was overhauled 2 years ago.

The clamping load on the bolt is going to be, far and away, the most significant force that those experience. Parts diagram for the Cleavland wheels on my bird call for AN4-22A through bolts, which appear to be 1/4-28. Not sure what SAE grad Mil-b-6812 specification translates to, but the assembly manual from Cleaveland says 75-90 in-lbs, which makes it at least grade 5, and gives us ~2,000 lbs clamping force. In short, there's around 3 tons of clamping load holding those wheels together. You could put the upper rim on a crane, and suspend the plane from the lower rim, and the bolts won't be what fail.

I will be interested how the magnetic interference test on the GMU-11 goes for you. I had issues with the anti collision light. After tearing my hair out for awhile we discovered that being grounded to the airframe was the problem. Running a ground from the beacon directly to the battery solved the problem. Don’t know if there was a more elegant solution, but that worked and it passed the test,

https://trutrakflightsystems.com/?gclid=CjwKCAjw7tfVBRB0EiwAiSYGM1w7y9mTSnlBvoabP9pY9Ezy_itXFrFozTteD2by48ypb5ayRnKIKxoC9foQAvD_BwE Fixed it for you...

Fantastic!

Nope, the limit switches are double pole double throw (basically 2 switches tied to same button), so 1/2 of the switch could fail, causing the annunciator problem but the gear still operational. Lucky for the OP. Not likely, but definitely possible, that’s why I said it’s likely the wiring. OP: you could try electronic cleaner to see if that fixes the problem. This is a common fix for flap limit switches, but for gear switches I would only use it as a diagnostic tool, and would replace the switches. One of them is very expensive ($350+ IIRC).

Ya, I am supposed to be at KIXD next Saturday if this weekend didn't work, and then it's time for annual. Dream - you should check out Barnstormers at KOFK too. Haven't been there since they reopened, but was always fun and great airport to fly into. Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

We’ll congrats to the OP. I hope to add similar words to this site in the not too distant future. If the gods of the air smile upon my unworthy self I may even be reunited with my aircraft tomorrow.

I had to ask the Airport to please stop driving their vehicles between a gravel pile and whatever/wherever they needed gravel for across the taxiways - instead of going to the long way around to the road - and explained that the constant supply of fresh pebbles was doing a number on the props. Very responsive now there are cones at the end of each dead end taxiway to discourage dragging gravel along. Some FOD you can’t do a thing about. Some FOD is preventable.

That's not pebble damage, that's a bolt. A pebble would shatter and move out of the way before it displaced that much metal, a stone with enough mass to do that would have left a wider mark. The only thing small enough and stout enough to take that deep a bite has to be steel. Go after the airport manager for not performing proper FOD checks on their runway. Donno if you'll get anything out of it, but if the airport implements a FOD walkdown each day, it might at least save the next guy...

I saw a Mooney parked at the FBO with a flat tire. When the owner found it, he removed all the wheel retaining hardware, then asked the three linemen to lift the wing while he slid the wheel off the axle. They used three large rubber chocks under the axle while the owner diappeared with the wheel to get a new tire. About 90 minutes later, with the new tire mounted, the linemen lifted the wing while the owner slid the wheel onto the axle and resecured it... the Mooney disappeared into the sunset shortly thereafter. I restrained myself from calling the linemen a bunch of jackpoints.

I don’t have any real hard numbers for you but butt dyno says yes, a big difference. I use Cloud Ahoy to measure take off difference and I sometimes see 10-20% reduction in roll if I purposely perform a short field take off. I have the 310 STC too. Cruise climb is very smooth. Sounds like a turbine on the ground as Erik can attest. Russ

And they made it into a movie and he made even more money and lived even more happily ever after. And then he became President of the United States and wasn’t very happy for awhile, but that went away and he established a personal foundation that everyone contributed big bunches of money to so he bought his own Caribbean island that had a place to moor his sailboat and a ramp to drive his amphibious plane up onto dry ground when he wanted to park it and he went diving for lobster every day and. drank Cayman Sunsets every night and watched the sun go down over the ocean. And never had to listen to anymore bitching. The end.

Make sure you pitch down to build up speed to VNE before attempting! Last time I tried it I was too slow and wound up in an inverted flat spin...not fun. Don't forget to use the rudder either!

Go to your favorite hunting store and purchase Red Fox Urine( a fox is a natural predator of mice and mice know this and stay away) Comes in a small pump spray bottle, spray around your hanger, on the tires, on the ground near the tires, I wouldn’t spray on alumium or steel. I use this on Rental houses and my M20F and it works

All I've seen is disagreement about the load on the wheel bolts. Then from nowhere is a discussion about the properties of AN-series bolts, with zero tie-in to the load actually placed on them. I'm still not sure what the relationship between behemoth Boeings breaking wheel bolts, and my tiny Mooney which probably grosses out around the weight of a single Boeing main wheel . . . . .

I just mounted it to the wing skin. With the plane leveled it was within spec. If it wasn't, a couple of washers would fix it.

Are you sure someone wasn’t shooting at you?

I looked at the Uber video carefully. The first visual appearance of the woman was her shoes when the car was about 100 feet away, confirmed because that's about the pavement range of typical low beams. Stopping distance from 40 mph should be about 80 feet plus reaction time. A human driver unless they swerved would have hit her. But most experienced drivers automatically swerve to avoid a collision and would have done so here. Attention and reflexes would be the coin toss. However, Lidar should have seen her much earlier and should have stopped in plenty of time. Even some existing production automatic colision avoidance systems would have hit the brakes. We'll see what the telemetry says. Did the car even slow down?

The buying pool will always be greater for NA engines. Mostly because of insurance requirements but also because of simplicity for the average pilot.

I think the pee and poop thing was a result of those max gross tests...

I like this one better: Once upon a time a pilot found a beautiful princess and asked her, "Will you marry me?" The princess said, "No!" And the pilot lived happily ever after and flew jets all over the world and drove hot cars and chased skinny long-legged big-breasted flight attendants and hunted and fished and went to topless bars and dated women half his age and drank Weihenstephaner German beer and Captain Morgan and never heard bitching and never paid child support or alimony and kept his house and guns and ate cold leftover meals, potato chips and beans and blew enormous farts and never got cheated on while he was at work and all his friends and family thought he was frickin' cool as hell and he had tons of money in the bank and left the toilet seat up........ The end. I copied it from http://www.flyingsquadron.com/forums/topic/18963-cool-pilot-story/ , but it has been all over the Internet for quite awhile. It has a happier ending.

An IR handheld thermometer.

Monroy long range tanks

There is no reason to remove all the wing panels. The manual clearly shows which panels to remove. Some are there for ease of assembly but don’t expose anything new for inspection. You want to have the manual out and open to ensure you’re following it -Robert

All kinds of people say all kinds of things. What do the FARs say?

I find it works best when I "pre-lean". I'll set 65% power and lean to between 100 and 75 degrees ROP. I'll let everything settle down and stabilize and then make the big pull to the LOP side. You'll also want to make sure you have a nice hot spark. I thought everything was perfect but was still struggling to get all cylinders over the line together. Then I had a mag issue and we pulled the left mag for inspection. It was corroded beyond belief. And we were surprised that any of the left mag plugs were firing. They were, but very weak. A new mag, strong spark and LOP is now easy.

It's normal and perhaps more an indication that your true gami spread is closer to .5 than .2 i.e. the larger the spread the more easily this happens. But as long as your not getting premature missing its okay. Any missing at 50 LOP or less is premature which of course is an independent issue. Make sure your spreads are as accurate as possible by ensuring your monitor is sampling at its fastest rate or at 1 Hz and that you change mixture very slowly. Also do the test at a WOT Power setting, not more than 65%, so that MAP isn't changing nor being influenced by induction leaks. Doing it slowly with monotonically decreasing or increasing FF is critical to capturing good data. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Is this just to demonstrate your xenophobia? You do realize Mooney has been owned by the Meijing Group since 2013? This has undoubtedly been a lifesaver, job saver, and wonderful turn of events for the good folks in Kerrville, TX. Mooney certainly has challenges, but Chinese money is not one of them. Without it, there would be no Mooney today.

You should seriously talk to him about the need for the plane to get to the other shop. He needs to do the right thing and finish your job before he does “Feb” even if that means pissing off a bigger wallet than yours. I would make it clear that you expect a refund minus an hourly account of work performed to date and you’ll pay him when he finishes and not before. How much did you prepay the mechanic (not avionics shop) for this...? I imagine you’re getting a crash course in ownership. Local reputations matter a lot. There are no ways to do things more cheaply orneasily without encountering these types or problems short of doing the work yourself with an IA. Other tips - *Always* for annuals put in writing that a list of discrepancies is to be provided after inspection and no repair work shall be performed until an estimate is provided and items are released by the owner operator. Don’t let money leave your hands for any labor related items until the work is done (don’t prepay for hours under any circumstance). It’s different for parts or avionics where the shop has to outlay funds on your behalf. You should pay for that stuff but make sure that you are the owner of the stuff when it’s bought. Not the shop. If a shop flubs a job (crank seal thread) the expectation is that the shop make it right and you shouldn’t be paying for their re do. It’s different for a parts failure where it’s not necessarily on the shop for a ie mag failure - so it’s fair to pay for the RR if you have an amicable relationship. If it’s someth major (thread a couple of years ago about an oil hose left off after an engine overhaul or something resulting in a failure and need for another OH - that should be entirely remedied by the shop). The best advice I can give is find an AP/IA who is competent and you get along with. Do owner assisted annuals and ask them to at least show you the inspection parts and what they are looking for / at. If you’re interested learn to turn wrenches, but that’s not quite for all pilots. Overall you are the “owner/operator” of Mooney airlines- treat yourself as such. That’s your job. Just advice but I’ve had good and bad experiences owning and operating my mooney over not very long - six years.

Mooney has a storied history of being purchased by companies that thought they could make money on Mooney. As far as I know, very few of them realized much of a return. Maybe the Chinese market will prove fruitful, but it's going to be a while before we know. I wish Mooney could find a solution to the modern fleets biggest challenge...payload. If my 50 year old bird can take 800lbs over 600sm with VFR reserves, the latest and greatest should. Hmmm, the 200hp Mooney market is still so robust. Since we're comparing to Cirrus, let quickly compare an SR20 to say my 50yr old F. I'll call the speed a wash as both 150Kt birds +/- 5 knots. Usefull load goes to my F by 100lbs (likely more in may cases) Climb rate goes to my F by a solid 200fpm margin Range goes to my F as an SR20 will be a glider before I hit VFR reserves. In hindsight, perhaps the best thing Mooney could have done was refined the 252 further and worked on getting to a MGW increase. Refining the airframe engine combination and offering reasonably priced upgrades to the existing fleet might have been profitable for decades until time to design a totally new design. Imagine a 3000lb - 3100lb MGW 252 yielding a real 1050-1150lb useful load with all of the cabin refinement of the current birds. 205-215kts at altitude, sipping <13GPH with real range and payload. I'm not knocking the big sixes, but it's a lot of noise, weight, fuel burn and cost for 10-20% more speed...and lousy payload