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I do the same. Even if it has been locked up in my hangar and I am the only one with access to it I still sump before the next flight. I know the odds of finding water in the tanks when there was none there before, it has been locked up, and there hasn't been rain for months (assuming rain could find it's way somehow magically inside the hangar and into my tanks) is next to zero. However I still do it because it is part of my pre-flight routine and if I "always" do it then the chances of me forgetting to do it are reduced.

Since fuel starvation is a leading cause of GA accidents, when I bought my plane I made a promise to myself (and my wife) that I would do everything in my power to never have a fuel related crash. A large portion of keeping this promise is to sump the fuel at least each time the plane sits outside or is refueled even when I want to blow it off.Today it paid off...After coming back from my two-day trip and readying the plane for the flight home, this is what I found in the sump of the tank that was just refueled :O This picture of the cup is AFTER four full samples had been taken. The first three samples were nothing but water. I noticed it was clear instead of blue and didn't smell. It took eight samples to fully clear the water out. The second pic is what water look like when dumped on the ramp. Be careful out there guys and gals! Had I taken off with this much water in the tank, I doubt I would be writing this now.

Posting just for fun as I've already had my turn at "show-n-tell", but this is our business promo vehicle. We seem to have quite a few car guy and bike guys so thought I'd toss this out just for fun. There is a GM 350 under the hood. Not a daily driver, but fun for business promo events. Makes absolutely no sense, but fun at promo and charity events. -Tom

I always do, on the rare occasion I am in the back seat. If anyone is in my car I also remind them (usually a problem with just teenagers) to wear them correctly, not down across their arm. Constantly had to remind my wife's teenage daughter to wear it correctly. One day she was in the backseat of a friend's car with the shoulder belt across her arm instead of over the shoulder when her friend rear-ended someone on an on-ramp going about 20 mph. She ended up crumpled on the floor boards in the backseat because the seat belt couldn't do its job. Thankfully no major injuries but she had a lot of bruises. I didn't have to remind her again to wear it correctly... Alex, it was the first thing I did with my plane when I got it. The left side was a bear to get the bracket on but the right side was a piece of cake. With everything else you have done on your plane I am sure it is well within your capabilities to do yourself and then get inspected and signed off. Just know the LH is a pain, take your time and do it first. Then when you get the the RH you will breeze through it. My DPE won't fly in a plane without them. The school where I took my lessons doesn't have them in all the planes but when that DPE is coming they always make sure whichever plane he is in has them because they know he won't fly without them. His son years earlier had an off field landing that was going really well until it wasn't. He put the plane down in a field and just before touching down the wheels caught a small berm and it flipped the plane. His son spent months in the hospital and fortunately made a full recovery. He said that had the plane his son was flying had shoulder harnesses he likely would have walked away with minor injuries.

Well deserved John! (Even if my old E parked in front of you turned more heads. )

Just got back from Oshkosh. Flew over Friday morning to enter 954N into the Vintage Aircraft Competition and came home with an award in the Contemporary Class. John Breda

Tomorrow I fly to CMA (tried to get PPR to land at NTD, but it was a no-go) and Uber over to the gate at NBVC - Pt. Mugu (née Pt. Mugu NAS), where I'll be escorted over to 3RM to fly her out. Replaced the fuel servo (possibly unnecessarily - the detached bit of ram air intake door seal in the throttle body was probably the only issue there, but it was already bought and paid for, so why not) and the mechanical fuel pump (definitely necessary, whatever else was going on seems to have caused a cascade partial failure, but looking at the cracking at the edges of the diaphragm, it was time to replace the pump in any case). I sent back the "new" pump (which, despite Aircraft Spruce's product page text at the time, was in fact a 62B26931, not a LW15473), and we've installed a rebuilt Tempest LW15473. In the process of all of that, the A&P noted a minor occasional miss, that's either plugs or wires (wires look original to the plane, '69). The mags are also coming up on IRAN, and the p-leads are crusty. I'm flying directly to CMA to have that work done, plus the baffles reinstalled correctly (they were put on wrong when the cylinders were replaced, about 350 hours ago, and were rubbing on the flywheel(!)). So the fuel system and spark system will be basically all new. Everything else looks great; mechanic says: "You have a solid airplane however some basic maintenance things have been neglected." So far, with the emergency landing, I'm in $3,000 in labor (including time waiting for a military escort onto the base, plus the hassles of working on a Navy ramp with only what tools you brought with you), $1700 (plus a $1000 core charge) for the fuel servo, $900 for the two fuel pumps (ultimately about $300 total, once I get the credit for the 62B26931 and the core charge refund on the LW15473). But hey, nothing bent, no one bruised. 5/7, would do again if necessary. Next, another $1,000 or so for all the other stuff (mags, wires, etc). Then I get to fly back out to Marana to have the S-Tec 30 pitch servo reinstalled (flat rate major service to correct "high start voltage" porpoising; $1325), the EDM-700 swapped for the EDM-730 (the -700 was on the fritz, it was going to be hundreds to fix, or $1200 to bump up to the -730 with the same wiring harness, no brainer)... Anyone need legal services? A couple of pints of blood?

The Mooney Caravan leadership made a great call to hold the Caravan due to low ceilings and visibility on Saturday. They have established a set of go/no go weather minimums and were never presented with a weather window that met this criteria. Sunday early afternoon the weather improved greatly and all 62 Mooneys were lead safely to the North 40. Hats off to the Mooney Caravan Flight Ops and safety team.

With all that fuel flowing around I'd be careful with those flames off the nose. Glad you got it sorted out.

Welcome to ownership. It was a lot easier to throw the keys at the FBO desk and say “it’s running rough” isn’t it?

We have to keep getting the Mooney name out there. These are highly modifiable birds and make for a pretty unique plane when updated. John Breda

I disagree. I lived there for 6 years. I never once described the weather as nice. There is a occasional time that the weather is not as bad.

We have carefully vetted the above dates for our Mooney Summit VII to avoid conflict with MAPA, the Caravan, MAPA safety foundation etc. We will have CAMI provide hypoxia training in the Prote reduce O chamber for us and we needed to confirm dates for their and our planning. Mark it on your calendar! We will open registration in late March once again.

Matt - glad you caught this! I know the recommendation is to sniff the AvGas. Personally, as a chemist and knowing what is in it, I wouldn’t. Another way to check is to place a drop on a piece of white paper. If the fuel evaporates quickly, it is AvGas. If it leaves a residue or halo, it is Jet-A. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

Maybe the issue was that the “Mooney Museum” name was already taken. http://www.sarahamooneymuseum.org/ In reality, Mooneyspace is the Mooney museum. Keeping them flying!

It doesn't have to sit well with everyone... only the one guy who bought the plane. He probably doesn't care. If they'd held an auction and sold off 1000 different items, much of it useless shit, but people purchase anyway to fund the museum, that's different. But this was only one item, sold to one person.

I'm curious how someone was able to fit the massive duckbill spout into our small(er) opening.

This was after several cups sumped from mine. I sumped it til it was all blue while shaking the wing between sumps, started on the other tank and then made several hard S turns for a mile down a taxiway and then got another few ounces of water out. I took off on the good tank while my passengers waited on the ground, flew over the field, switched tanks and flew aggressive turns and banks, switched back to the known good one, landed and sumped again, then picked up my passengers and went home, taking off on the tank that had not been contaminated. The cause was a line guy at KEYW improperly installing a fuel cap. I posted in another thread. Smell your fuel and verify the color. Had I not noticed the absence of the avgas smell, I might not have caught it.

I've flown with a deferred autopilot, definitely not a fun day. I also made sure that Dispatch and Maintenance Control knew that after 6 or 7 hours of duty time, we would be fatigued. If they wanted us to keep flying after that, they'd have to swap us into an airplane that had a working autopilot. Guess what- they found us another airplane. 14 hour duty day, 7.5 hours flight time, 6 legs. Makes me tired just thinking about having to do that again.

Very good data there! It strongly suggests that I do NOT have a fuel flow issue. I guess I need to look elsewhere for my high CHTs and Oil Temp. Your data are a carbon copy of mine....except your CHTs look great!

94 300z 2+2, non-turbo, automatic-perfect for my 16y/o (now 17). I wouldn't call it a restoration but a good bit of work done to get it ready for him. Of course now it has neon and an a loud subwoofer...ugggghh

@Raptor05121 I will give you the shoulder harness/seat belts out of my F when I upgrade to the AMSAFE airbags. I plan on doing the upgrade this fall as part of my annual. $3000 is not even aviation expensive and if it is ever needed it will be priceless.

@AGL Aviationannuals several long bodies - Bravos, Ovations - and Mimi's Screaming Eagle this month. You might be able to get a ride home if you need it and are willing to fly in my lowly E.

There MS goes again costing me money- I couldn't close the link without hitting the "Order" button...

Matt, I appreciate the reminder. When I went to pick up my plane after buying it (in 2000), I sumped and found a significant amount of water. Since that time, I have never found another drop. It would be easy to become complacent, but for guys like you reminding us.

red plane, white mustang. You're copying me.

Why are you people so quick to drain the tanks? Waste all that Jet-A and 100 LL to flush it? Doesn’t it seem more logical to swap the Lycoming for a Pratt & Whitney? Before going to the trouble of draining tanks! Hang a PT6A on it and he'd have one serious Mooney! Think outside the box people!

Here is the current state of the panel! It’s been taking awhile due to my schedule but making progress.

SK28S3-XX. The XX will be the length of the camloc you want. I ordered mainly 5s and 6s. I think I also needed two 8s lengths. You will probably need a slightly longer camloc than the ones you currently have. Mine were generally 1mm longer, some were 2mm. The reason being the wider flange keeps the camloc from sinking in as far into the cowling hole. https://store.skybolt.com/categories.aspx?Keyword=sk28s3-5s

You need to love this site, the members and the vendors that monitor and respond to request, questions and comments. MS is a great resource to the community of Mooney owners.

@bdash Thanks so much. I spoke with Brett earlier today and he said my plane was in the hangar as they are set to finish it up sometime tomorrow. I hope yours is okay. Thanks for letting me know. Hope that you and your family are well and that you get home soon. Stay safe.

These days? Yes. But I'm a lot more risk-averse than I was a year ago. If a critical system hiccups on me, but I'm in a working configuration, I'm not touching anything related to that configuration until I'm safely on the ground (or can glide to a rubber-on-hard-surface landing in an airport environment, as applicable). If I was at some remote field and I could get to a home base or a field with better services by leaving the gear down and pulling back to 19.5/1950, and flying there slowly, I probably would have done that (Vle on my Mooney is 120 mph), but after checking basics (tripped breaker - why was it tripped? ... Partially extended emergency extension handle (I don't know if that cuts off the electric system in the F, the owner's manual doesn't mention it, just says "[d]o not operate landing gear electrically with handcrank engaged"), yeah, I'd reset that. But if the switch is failing, no, I'm not going to hope it intermittently works again when the gear need to come down. If the breaker is tripped, I want to know why, and that it's not going to trip again when I need the gear down. Etc. All things that are much easier, and safer, to diagnose on the ground.

I traded in my Aera 560 for an Aera 660 with a Garmin rebate on top at Oshkosh. I’ll get my AHRS backup that way. My iPad mini2 is running faster again now that I’ve cleared off a lot of programs and will keep it for now. Maybe Black Friday I’ll scoop up a Mini4 or by then will test the size of the 9.7 in the cockpit. Will circle back in November to hear the current PIREPs. -Seth

Aviongoo, and yes it's a subscription.

John, congratulations! I’ve seen the pictures of the before and after. The rebirth of your airplane from the ‘09 re-first flight is absolutely phenomenal and you clearly have a head turner. The transformation was no doubt a labor of love. Very well deserved!!

Great reminder years and hours ago I sumped and it was all water. I didn’t notice I had only ever seen examples of some water. The other tank had none and the blue fuel made me go back to the first tank and sump more. I got lucky that day had there been water in both I might not have noticed. Now I always sump and I ALWAYS hold the cup against a white part of the plane. Funny it’s things like this, that they don’t emphasize enough during private training. Lawrence

Bob, When I pulled into the parking space and saw your plane (not knowing it was you), I figured it was my competition. John Breda

I just flew from Central TX to Appleton, WI with one fuel stop (over 1100 nm) and Appleton to Eastern MA non-stop (800 nm) in my highly modified F. I filled the plane (90 gallons) in Appleton and had 30 gallons left over when I landed. Appleton to eastern MA took 5 hours. The highest level flight speed on Foreflight at 16,900 feet was 192 kts (perhaps 20 kt tailwind). Fuel burn was 10.5 to perhaps 11 gallons per hour 100-125 ROP. It makes for a pretty respectable retirement plane. John Breda

And besides who wants to look this if they survive: Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Good question Lance. Since the museum was the idea of the past CEO Jerry Chen, I suspect the concept may have lost its sponsor. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The big difference between Florida and California... bugs. The weather is great in Florida, but the bugs will keep you inside instead of out enjoying it.

Alex, Ill show you a nice scar on my head at the Summit where it was stapled back together. Did I mention I was wearing a shoulder belt? Without it, I wont be here typing. Hopefully, you will realize the few $ spent on shoulder belts are a far better addition to your plane than some new headset or other gizmo. Personally, I wont fly in any aircraft that doesnt have them.

Wow. Very nice.

For the same reason you call your insurance company when you get in a car accident. If the other party decides not to pay I still need help right now. I don’t want my mechanic to have to drive 60 miles out to the airport, put in a days worth of work draining 4 tanks on a 120 degree tarmac while trying not to burn to death and then have to fight to get paid by the offending party. Let the insurance company fight to get the money.

I would say almost any noise reducing headset that fits well is sufficient. We simply got some child sized shooting ear covers at Walmart. They worked fine for our daughter and now we passed them to our 12 month son. Our 3 year old daughter upgraded to a child aviation headset when our son started flying with us.

I just finished installing a full 64G set from Griggs. They are super nice and helpful and @Ruthie is a sweetheart! If she can help she will, AWESOME to deal with! The product was stellar and the new bags were way easier to install then the old ones were to come out.

It’s fun. I always had a good time growing up. My parents met at OSH in the early 70’s. Just tell him there will be other girls there, and it’s summertime!! ;-) -Matt

So, what happened to me today? I went into a Verizon store to get a SIM card and they tell me that they are doing some sort of customer loyalty rewards program this weekend. They call up Verizon headquarters with my cell number and some guy who sounds like a game show host spins some sort of electronic wheel (I’m not making this up, I could hear it on the speaker phone). While this is going on, the Verizon store guy says people have been winning $30 off of their bill, iPhone cases and stuff like that. The corporate Verizon yells, “we got a grand prize winner here! A brand new Galaxy Tab E with a case. So what does an Apple guy who is a Cheap Bast$#d at heart do? He takes it home! I’ll load FltPln Go on it and use it as a backup. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

Mooney made 889 231's from 1979-1985. They made 231 252's from 1986-1990 and just 35 Encores from 1997-1998. It's a challenge to find a 252 with the dual alternators in great shape that hasn't been converted to a Rocket (TSIO-520). It's nearly impossible to find an Encore. (The first eight '97 Encores were called 252's until the FAA approved the GW increase of 230 pounds, then they were called Encores.) Model Chronology.pdf My first Mooney was a 10 year old 231 (#759 - '83 model). New this airplane would have been probably a little over $100,000. I paid $83,000 for it 10 years later. Later on in 2014 I owned a 17 year old spotless Encore (#12 - '97 model). There were a lot of upgrades from the 231 to the Encore, but by the time these were re-introduced in 1997 the price had gone up considerably. ($387,000 and the owner added TKS on top of that, so around $430,000). In 14 years from 1983 a loaded K model had gone from just over $100,000 to almost $400,000. Economy of scale was not working well for Mooney who had been producing a few airplanes a day in the late 70's down to 154 airplanes in total in 1983, down to 92 airplanes total in 1997. N40FM FACTORY INVOICE.pdf I took care of a few little things after I bought it during the year I owned it. When I sold it the buyer had a pre-buy done by Don Maxwell. Don went over it with a fine tooth comb and told me it was the first pre-buy he had ever done where he couldn't find one squawk. He was a little disappointed . . lol. I know, I probably should have never sold it. But if we're talking best bang for the buck though (speed & value for the dollar) find the best, most well kept example of a later model 231 that has an aftermarket intercooler and a Merlyn wastegate. It will do almost everything that the 252 or Encore will do for considerably less money. M20k_review_AvConsumer_Mar2010.pdf