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So with permission from my wife (in fact, she cheered me on), I went searching for a mistress. I would talk about my search at the bars and went online posting for love. I looked all over! I found an old girl born in the late 60's, still pretty, but someone married her before I got a chance to make my move. The same thing happened a few times before I contacted a guy in Texas who was offering to introduce me a number of girls. None were quite right, some were gorgeous on the outside but inside her personality was just off, I would find the perfect girl but she ended up being a gold digger, there was always something. Then one day a guy approached me with a proposition and the girl seemed to check all the boxes. After checking out all the details I jumped in. Had the doc check out her vitals and yesterday finally closed the deal! I am now a proud owner of a 1984 (built in Dec 83) Mooney M20K 231(What did you think I was talking about?!). My awards speech: Really appreciate this communities help in walking me through what it is I really wanted. It is a great community that I'm learning a lot from. I considered everything and while I didn't exactly follow all the guidance, I did think through it all. (One thing is I didn't get an aircraft with the avionics I wanted in it already and I realize I'm spending a bit more because of that) Specifically, thank you @Frank B. for your patience, @gsxrpilot for your guidance and insight, and @mccdeuce keeping me from jumping at the wrong option. I cannot thank Daytona Aircraft Services enough. Those guys are amazing, @jclemens had to sit on the phone and listen to me ask about the pre-buy status and he and his team had to listen to me waver on how I wanted to upgrade the avionics for hours on end. Thank you all for all the help. I look forward to getting more engaged in the community. I'll be attending events up in the NE for sure and will be looking for any reason to get all over the country!

Sadly I cannot be with her yet, but here is a picture.

She's sipping Aeroshell in the photo, not quite as pricey as champagne.

flew my 1964 C from Caldwell NJ to Spruce Creek FL today via the Grand Strand..and not one cloud was in the way in over 6 hours of flying in the summer, we did take off at 530am to help out the situation. Not one write up, thank you Sean at C&W for making my bird right after a total botch job by another MSC in the area..... also another shout out for Daytona Aircraft Service for making the panel a dream come true. Plane is at its new home in a great hangar surrounded by palm trees for the foreseeable future.

Nope, you can hear it just fine and I fly with ANR. Remember these were designed to be used in industrial areas, not quite office buildings. I have had mine alarm several times, although only on the ground, while taxiing in formation. The numbers get incredibly high on the ground during the Mooney Caravan. Mine is mounted low, hear the heater/air inlet below my throttle quadrant. On a normal day, without other aircraft around, I see 1-3 ppm on the ground with the cool scoop out and door open. In flight it reads 0. I check it regularly in flight. If I see a reading other than low single digits in flight, I will be heading for the closest airfield not waiting for it to alarm.

I did the brow on the front windows and windshield. The one on the windshield is an elliptical shape if you do it to have it go straight across. I used some blue painters tape on the sides and in the center and ran a string across then got inside and sat down to see where it would be. Then I laid the tint over it, marked it, and took it off to cut it. A roll of tint is cheap enough you can redo it every year or two without it breaking the bank.

I saw this a couple of days ago. I was at 9000 between the smoke layers.

I have been dealing with an erratic idle for a long time now. Nothing seems to help. It would only do it when the engine was hot. There are no intake leaks so I have really been stumped. At Oshkosh this year, I visited the Lycoming tent. They had a seminar on sticky valves, but that particular one got cancelled or rather rescheduled, and the one I sat in on was about induction systems. I wasn't going to stick around, but I thought well, this might be interesting. And it was! One of the things he talked about, was people pulling their fuel Servo and send in for overhaul when it is unnecessary do to idling issues. Not that it can't be the problem, but it rarely is. He said to run a clear tube from the fuel Servo to the spider and watch for bubbles. If there are bubbles, then you have a airframe-side fuel leak. I was all set to do this when I got back from Oshkosh but then he said something else that caught my attention. He said they had Mooney come into the shop with an erratic idle problem but only when it was hot. after 3 weeks of diagnosis, they finally found that the intake side of the fuel pump had an O-ring that had to run up on the threads and when it got hot, created a small leak. I thought to myself, "I have a Mooney that has an erratic idle when hot. Upon his advice, I pulled the connection to the inlet side of the fuel pump and replaced the O ring that had been smashed and had a ridden up on the threads. With the new o-ring in place, no more erratic idle! I can't even explain the joy of fixing this! It has been a huge pain in my butt for a few years now. if you're having a problem with an erratic idle, and you have no intake leaks, take a very close look at the airframe side of your fuel system. the chances are very good you have a leak there somewhere and it most likely will not show blue staining since it's on the vacuum side. Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

Polish them! Sent from my LG-US996 using Tapatalk

Hi All, I was able to buy a complete copilot brake kit used for $450. I installed the brake kit under supervision of my A&P. For me the most time consuming part was the bending and forming of the 4 metal brake lines to be perfectly in position, parallel, and straight...looks like a perfect factory installation. LASAR had a sale on the 3" copilot brake extension kit for $250 each, so for authentic Mooney parts, I went for it. NOTE: Mooney brake extension kit includes new pedals! Yes, they are cast the same as stock pedals. But the hole for the brake linkage is drilled in a different spot (see photos). Changing the hole location changes how the pedals align and mount in the Mooney. Building the extension brackets yourself would require you to either accept toebrake pedals shifted more aft - meaning you could accidentally depress the brakes when you are on the rudders, or you would have to know how to reposition the holes in your fabricated extension, and if you did then they would not match the original part specification. So $250 with a new pedal seemed like a good deal. Since, I was doing all the work, rather than reuse the original copilot rubber hoses, I decided to install new rubber lines. And if I'm ordering new rubber lines for copilot, it seemed a good idea to replace my old rubber pilot side brake lines as well. After installation, I left it to my A&P to do the adjustments and testing to the new brakes. They look and move great. I can't wait to see how happy my wife will be when she can reach the pedals and be able to stop the Mooney. Now if I could only find a reasonably priced articulating seat base. Brian

FIrst, on whether you should use fuel flow settings published for the Merlyn, or those published for the intercooler, here’s how that works. The Merlyn does not change your fuel flow settings from factory. You can distill the Merlyn’s effect down to two things. One, it prevents bootstrapping, so once you make a power setting it will stay stable. Two, it allows the wastegate to fully close, which the factory wastegate could not do, and that, in turn, gives you a higher critical altitude (the altitude at which the engine can no longer make full power). The Merlyn probably allows the turbo to work a little less hard, but it does not change fuel and MP settings. The intercooler changes power settings. The intercooler cools the discharge air from the turbo, which makes the air denser. Denser air has more molecules of O2. Therefore, MP for a given %HP (on the rich side) is lower that the factory equipped engine, for a given %HP power setting. The charts that are published with the intercooler are based on using the difference between Compressor Discharge Temp and Induction Air Temp, or differential temp. You make your power setting based on how much cooler the IAT is from the CDT. So you should use the intercooler power settings. Now, I have the Merlyn and the intercooler, and most people with experience with that set up will tell you that the power setting charts for the intercooler are a little conservative. If it says, for example, to use 28” to be equivalent to a non-intercooled 31 or 32”, probably 29 or 30 is the right setting. The article you read is probably the one that says find a 252 chart and use that. That will work ok, but I think you will find the MP settings are about an inch too low if you do it that way. I operate LOP quite a bit. However, if you are planning on putting in a JPI, then wait until you have a good engine monitor to do it, because you can toast a cylinder or two pretty easily and without knowing what is happening, if you are relying on a single cylinder’s EGT only, or just on TIT. To operate LOP, you have to treat each of the six cylinders as a single engine, and you have to make sure that the cylinder closest to peak EGT, is far enough away from peak EGT that it is not being damaged. If you only have a single cylinder EGT readout, or just the TIT readout, then you can have, say, four cylinders far enough lean of peak to be safe, and one or two running right at peak or even a little rich of peak, which is not good for them. Once you have your engine monitor you can do a lean test (see GAMI’s website for how to do that) and figure out if your engine can do LOP or needs some tweaking. I have a JPI 930. What I have found with my engine is that any cruise power setting that has a 12 in it, is the wrong place to be. It is called the “red box” by people who know LOP operations. I know the POH has lots of 12 something power settings. It also has a CHT redline of 460 dF. You should never be anywhere near 460. The magic Rich of Peak fuel flow in my aircraft is 13.3 GPH. Use that and 29 or 30” of MP until you get your engine monitor. I usually run at 2450, but that is my own superstition, I just like the number for my aircraft, if you want to run at 2500 feel free.

Night Sky: Back in 2006 I moved to a little island in the Bay of Honduras (Roatan). I had a house on the North shore at Palmetto Bay. The power to the island was run on generators and electricity was intermittent at best. At night the world was so dark the sky looked like a blanket of stars. It was as though you could reach out and touch them. I miss that. Way too much light pollution and we miss out on the beauty of the universe.

Everything you read on the internet is 100% true.

Mine mounted to the ceiling between the front seats is in close proximity to my right ear. It will wake you up if you happen to napping not be paying attention. No problem hearing it alarm at all.

My NAV antennas are buried in the wing tips. Originally I had a pair of Comant antenna's that went into a combiner that then spitted the signal to two radios. These were a pretty expensive and worked great. More recently I had to go to a smaller footprint when I changed out the control weights on my ailerons since the bigger Encore control weights would have interfered with the Comant antennas. After a lot research, I went with the same Bob Archer antenna's that he designed for LASAR to install in the LASAR wing tips and STC'd by LASAR. They only weight ounces and are really inexpensive compared to conventional Comant antenna's and actually work pretty well. My labor was the real cost of the project. You can still get these from Aircraftspruce - but not the wing tips and STC. Of course I was using my original Mooney wing tips but LASAR created their own wing-tip copy of the Mooney one to install on vintage Mooneys which included a buried nav antenna's option. They no longer offer them though.

This chart was from my 231 with a Merlin WG and Intercooler. ROP if I remember right, but you could lower the FF for the 65% and below to get to LOP on my 231. My Encore has a SB engine. A standard 252 that gets converted to an Encore will get that designation. The SB engine changes several things including max MP (39”), max rpm (2600), and higher max FF (26gph)

Women are easy to hot start, it’s the cold starts are tougher.

My original mechanic had me screw on firmly by hand, and then 2 flats (1/3 turn) That's worked for me on multiple aircraft over 20 years and I guess 50+ filters - never a leak yet! (and more importantly, not a problem to get them off again!)

I will admit I own one, too! At this point, I have changed nearly ever 30-45 days so it has come in handy, along with the filter tap and drain hose.

.and thats impressive!

Yes, works great! It was a “wife, buy this for me for Christmas” present. She smiles every time she sees me using it... +1 for Tempest

You can remove the taped on screen protector on the JPI, it’s not like the labels on pillows. [emoji38]

2 pages of replies and @mooneyflyfast still doesn't like tempest oil filters, the 2 guys in the videos are wrong (not by much, but still wrong), I still get pissed when I see someone back drag a file or saw blade, and for gods sake if you don't know which end of the screw driver to hit with the ratchet when chiseling a nut loose check the internet

The first thing I noticed when I lost the 50 pounds was the talking scale stop saying “one at a time please”. And then there was the silence in the closet. No longer did my pants see me coming and start yelling “not me, not me!” There are a lot of other benefits. Less bathroom tiles to replace, toilet seats holding up longer and I’m not going through a recliner ever other year. [emoji13] Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Nah, I think with all of the hours he has in Mooneys, he is just plain overconfident at times. I read the accident reports from time to time. Being a high time pilot doesn’t make you immune to accidents. I think you need to keep your guard up. Ernie is correct. I always view flying as something that is trying to kill me and my job is to make sure that doesn’t happen. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Everyone, I have acquired the test gas and regulator to calibrate the Sensorcon Inspector CO detector many of you have purchased. After two years without calibration, an EOL warning will appear at start up. Calibration will reset the clock on the EOL warning and ensure the detector is accurate and functional. I will have the calibration equipment with me at Airventure from Saturday 7/21 though Wendsday 7/25. Calibrations will be free of charge! If you so chose, I will accept donations to cover the cost of the test gas and equipment. All donations will go to the purchase of more test gas/equipment for future Airventure calibrations. Many of you will be attending @yvesg's MooneySpace Social. I'll be available at the Caravan tent before(1/2 hr ) and after the social to provide calibrations. So bring your Sensorcons. I'm flying in with the Caravan, Element Q - N231ME. I'll be camping with my plane so if any of you Caravan pilots need calibration you can hit me up anytime you see me in the north 40. I don't plan on doing any calibrations at MSN . If you are not attending the caravan or MS Social just send me a PM and we will figure something out. Cheers, Dan

Working on vehicles for decades you have a pretty close idea of the torque by feel knowing the materials in play; and the torque range on this is very forgiving. -Robert

Hahahah... this post alone would be enough to keep me away from Broadies. Did you talk with Don about the plane?

I found this information very helpful. Looks like the integration with aspen version 2.9.1 will be amazing. Also the install wiring is easier. One thing I haven’t noticed mentioned so far is if you don’t have an EFIS (esi500 and sam included) you will need to buy a $3k air/data computer (about the same cost as a g5). With the G500 system you get integrated VS selection vs the aspen giving you IAS control. I wish I could trade my warranty for a couple rebuilds on my servos. It would probably push me over the edge.

I can't imagine it can be heard, and the vibration certainly can't be felt, so everyone relies on seeing it if it lights up?

Best advice ever. mooney owners often talk about the speed”... but in many cases- it’s the useful load you really need to be looking at (well.. that... and the speed!)

Spin the filter on until the gasket just barely makes contact with the filter mount. Tighten a little more than 3/4 of a turn. Safety wire. I will neither confirm nor deny that I use this technique in lieu of a torque wrench.

It really is a beautiful feature.

The engraving on that socket may have something to do with the issue..... maybe there’s a little metric blood in the genes

It’s done just the opposite for me. I now have a LED landing light, LED nav lights, LED strobes, LED tail light with strobes, LED recognition light, CiES fuel senders, JPI 900, Senscor CO detector, CYA 100 AoA indicator, Jaeger Spatial Design Interior, all new RG-400 wiring, a new CI-196 antenna, new Klixon switch covers, countless RAM clamps, brackets and assorted hardware and I’m sure a bunch of stuff that is off of my radar. These people are evil!

It’s expensive but works great to take the filter off and on. http://m.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/topages/AA472.php?clickkey=655613 Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

For me the question is: Just how does a pilot with decades of Mooney time, with a seasoned CFI beside him, get into uncoordinated slow flight at low altitude? Ernie Gann, once again, said it well: “In this game, we play for keeps.”

Ditto....and agree. To the OP - Give Tempest a fair chance. Their customer support is impeccable; to which several others on here have attested, and I can also confirm. Steve

I just undo my shoulder belt and enjoy a bit of self-fellatio while I change the tanks. I have to admit, I am very afraid of running a tank dry at low altitude. I have to take off my shoulder belt at a moment when its services may be vitally important, and boy am I worried about how that report is going to be written.

And what about if all your friends are imaginary? Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

Much better on its feet! -a-

it costs nothing but time to go through it yourself and look for arithmetic mistakes . . . The seller should have his A&P make the correction if you find an obvious one.

So, I ended having to dodge weather all the way across Texas so my route didn’t allow me to try any of these places. Good thing I packed a couple of sandwiches. Although I will give props to Gainesville, TX (KGLE) for a friendly FBO and cheap gas. It was a bit bumpy in West Texas and into Arizona but tolerable. Fun descent down into Tucson valley.

I always get a kick out of how so many boast about the speed and efficiency of their Mooney until someone has a faster plane. Then we just talk about efficiency???? Airplanes are ALWAYS a trade off. Speed, efficiency, payload, seat count, acquisition cost, operating costs, maintenance factors, the list goes on and on. If you compare the Rocket to most other high performance singles and the lions share of twins, it stacks up pretty good. On this forum, I’ve always been amazed at how it’s treated like the black sheep..........well, by those that don’t own them or have any appreciable time in them. But then, what would I know? Tom

My previous Bravo was right at gross with full fuel, full TKS, weekend bags and me.

At the risk or major thread drift, I can remember as a kid in east Texas, we could see the Milky Way. Then with city life, pollution, etc., I forgot what the night sky was supposed to look like. Then a pilot friend and I flew down to the "big bend" country, visited the observatory there, and I was amazed at what was still up there.

You wouldn't need to calibrate this time, but we can if you wish. Calibrations will also be available at the Mooney Summit VI. I will be happy to calibrate any that are sent to me. If anyone wishes to do this just send me a PM. Cheers, Dan

1 demerit for not listing Mooney as a "popular" brand, but in the Other brand classification.

I drain the filter by first punching a hole in the bottom. I set up a piece of aluminum siding 90 degree corner trim and let oil run into it and down into a bucket. You can get the trim at any Home Depot or Lowes for a couple of bucks. Never have any mess.

Thanks for all of the replies. The oil change yesterday went much better. I used 3 techniques, one of which I read about here. First, I used the ziplock bag technique to hold the filter and most of the oil that drained out. This worked well. Second, I used a "bib" or a plastic sheet that I taped to the firewall and draped over the nose wheel. This kept any escaping oil drops off of the tire and gear. Third, I used a rubber tube on the oil filter attachment nipple. After I removed the filter, in the ziplock, I attached the tube to drain the residual oil into a bucket. I let this drain for a few minutes while I prepared the new filter and supplies. With all of this, I got only minor spillage on the bib and cleanup was pretty easy. Larry