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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

I flew from Los Angeles to Longview and had Don do my pre-buy and first annual before taking delivery of my 67 M20F in Santa Monica. I think it was a great decision. Lot's of good shops in TX for Mooney's.

I agree with you that the vor system should not go away but I think I read it may.

This seemed appropriate for this thread...apologies to the (human) ladies present. Why men prefer airplanes over women Airplanes do not get mad if you “touch and go”. Airplanes do not have Mother-in-Laws. Airplanes do not take forever to get ready. Airplanes do not care how many other airplanes you have flown with before. Behavior of airplanes follows logical rules. The maintenance of an airplane is cheaper than the maintenance of a woman. Airplanes come with instructions. An airplane will kill you quickly...a woman takes her time.

Just an update to the website so you guys know! I added a new feature! So far the sites been focused on airplane sales, but many have been asking for an easier way to post other things like parts, avionics, hangar houses, even Ferry Pilot services. So after much frustration, I finally figured out how to do that without ruining the simple layout of the home page! I added a "more" button, when clicked, with show more categories! This will also make it more intuitive to make listings for parts, engines, avionics, services, etc. So please, if you have a headset, avionics equipment, service, airpark lot, flight school service, spare wing, or engine, feel free to list it on the site!! One free picture is included Or just go check it out for yourself! Works great on mobile too. If you catch any errors or problems, please let me know haha www.wingswap.com If anyone is coming to the Camarillo Airshow tomorrow, I'll be walking around, if you see me say hi!!

Yes - I can. And I can get out my caliper and measure my antenna. And assume an infinite unobstructed wall. And perhaps be within 25%. or ask my middle son to do that for me which come to think of it he would do at a drop of a hat and probable I should.... he is a junior aero major. or I thought someone might know the actual answer for these specific units on our airplanes. Ill make up some numbers - cuz that’s what one does on the internet. Removal = 3kts for 5amu to hide them in the wing tips. Better make it 3.26kits for $5424 since artificial precision is more convincing.

I know the feeling, I have her younger sister, born in March of 84. Pritch

JD is booked for the next month, so is Don, so is Brian Kendrick. Like Paul Beck of weep no more, if your good at what you do, you stay busy in spite of your wanting a break every now and then.

Of course to get from San Antonio or Kestrel, to Don's place at Longview, you'll have to go right over the top of Southwest Texas Aviation (SWTA) and JD's place in Smithville, TX. No disrespect to Don, but you can't go wrong with either Don or JD for a Mooney pre-buy.

Show off! Now my favorite part - no one is talking about - in a rocket (and probably other turbo charged?) it is no problem to climb up to 15 or 17 for a short flight. On a cold day and a good wind I may to climb to17 for even just a 1hr flight - eg going to Boston or to Hartford over the adirondacks in the winter I consider to be hostile terrain in the winter just because it can be frigid cold in the mountains so I go high to give myself options and I enjoy the atmospherics up high...anyway I have timed climbs to 17 in under 13 minutes.

My M20F is a 158ktas airplane. On cold days, it will cruise in level flight at 5000ft in the yellow arc. It was faster after the engine overhaul than it ever was for the 1000 or so hours I put on the factory engine that came with it. The overhaul shop flow matched the cylinders; I'm not sure if that affected it, but the fuel burn went up slightly and she picked up some speed. It has the LoPresti cowl, 201 glass, GAMIjectors and a powerflow exhaust. My rocket will do 158ktas while climbing at 1000fpm.

Quick update: today's trip verified what I saw yesterday, that in my airplane the IFD540 VOR has a LOT better sensitivity than the TKM MX-170C. I outbound tracked two different VORs until loss of signal on each unit and the IFD lost lock much later (about 20nm) than the TKM. This may just mean that my TKM setup is especially crappy, so take it for what it's worth. I wrote down the distances to the next waypoint in my route that each failed at, if anybody cares for actual data.

Try https://lasar.com/fly-in

Wayne, as a recent buyer (a 1985 M201K) I can assure you all the things they say about insurance are true, and then some. I paid about $300 more for insurance than I had anticipated, but almost $1K less than some of the other quotes I got from supposedly pilot-friendly organizations (not naming any names, but a national airplane owners association totally sucked, both in their prices and their communications). I was able to cut my rate significantly by agreeing to 15 hours dual received time. I chose to regard this as a win-win: by taking those hours over 3 days from a former Mooney factory test pilot CFI, I sucked up a vast amount of knowledge about the type and the specific aircraft from a guy who knows Mooneys inside-out, while at the same time lowering my first-year premium. This can only make me a better and safer pilot for the future.

Hey Steve, thanks for the offer but thats a completely different system. I have the circular Whelen self-contained unit. I think I'll eventually go with red/red

+1 for Tempest. I have this socket and it fits perfect every time. I chose this one since it is not very deep. I don't think I will go back to Champion filters or plugs on my bird.

I have a K model, 25-2026, with electric speed brakes. My push-button switch is mounted on the left side of the pilots yoke, horizontally. I can get you a picture, but I don't thing the switch is any special BK part. It appears to be just a standard spring loaded switch.

When the plane was hot (after a flight), it would idle kind of like a big-block Chevy with a performance cam installed. In other words, it would run smooth for a bit, then quit for a split second then catch. Rinse and repeat about every five to ten seconds or so. During this time, there would be an occasional back-fire through the exhaust as well. I had heard the same thing about boiling the fuel in the lines to the injectors and was ready to accept that as the reason, but I couldn't make that reconcile with what I was seeing. The fact it was only happening when the engine was hot, made it that much more frustrating. After a hot-start, I DO believe that is the reason for the rough running, but it should smooth out very shortly after start. Had I not attended the Lycoming induction seminar at KOSH, I would have NEVER figured this out! There was no visual indication of a leak anywhere. The premise of the seminar was people go right to the fuel servo as the cause of rough idle problems, but the servo is almost never the problem and many people end up overhauling a perfectly good servo. Not that it can't be the problem, but it rarely is, according to the Lycoming rep. Strange thing was, that was not the seminar I was supposed to attend; it was a mistake in the schedule printing. Everything happens for a reason. I don't have pictures, but it was an easy job. Pull the inlet side fitting from the mechanical fuel pump and match the o-ring. I am very blessed to have an engine shop on the field with good parts availability. Before going to the trouble of doing this, I would run the clear tube from the servo to the spider and see if there are any bubbles. I only went right to the fitting because of his story of a Mooney doing the exact same thing as mine.

I had a King Air get relegated to #2 tonight behind my Rocket. I was on the ramp by the time he landed. King Air pilot even asked if he needed a specific speed and tower told him he was fine and I was doing over 180.

I personally think they want to remain incognito. Wouldn’t it be funny if Peter Garmin was the guy? Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

With the WAAS upgrade costing what it does and the crazy high 430 non waas used values I think a new ifd440 is a better “investment”.

ALWAYS ask what the useful load is. It will range from under 900 to just over 1000 on a J. All the 'extras' people add take away from the useful load. 5 pounds here, 10 pounds there, pretty soon your useful load is getting pretty low. Evaluate whether you would rather have those extras or the weight. Long range tanks? I rarely need more than 50 gallons (I'm butt limited not fuel limited). Storm scope? Articulating seats? Speed brakes? Thick glass? Backup xxx? Bose 20 speaker audio (kidding of course)? If it has an extra that you don't want, and it would save you some weight, can it easily be removed and sold? All things to keep in mind.

no, it goes on your license It is actually a Polish LIM-2

I for one am very happy they didn't shoot down the Q400 in Seattle. There is way too much preemptive killing of people already. And as it turned out, it was just fine that they didn't. Kudos to the controller who very calmly talked to the guy and kept him out of harms way and never gave up trying to talk him down.

Pros: Goes really fast! Cons: Sucks fuel like you own an oil company! Has the full fuel payload of a Cessna 150