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Lolitta - N7432V has a new look!

My co-pilot and I have gotten to know our 1967 M20C well since we acquired her last October. With the help and supervision of our A&P plus a good instrument shop, we took a tired example of a Mooney M20C and brought her panel up to modernity thanks in no small part to some advice given by MS members. She now has an 8-pack panel layout, JPI900 EDM, GNS430W, and Appareo transponder with ADS-B in/out. To celebrate we took her out on a "victory lap" around the Rockies in August, covering 2838 nm in 26.2 h flight time. We really spread her wings with max. cruise at 12,500, and 208 mph g.s. at top of descent approaching Amarillo thanks to some ridiculous winds. We faced headwinds more often than not, even on some eastbound legs! The haze from the numerous forest fires out west severely limited visibility particularly in the northern portion of our trip into Colorado front range and into southern Wyoming. We visited friends and family, plus toured Bryce Canyon Nat'l Park, Cedar Breaks, Nat.'l Mon., drove down the Moki Dugway and across Monument Valley, overflew the Grand Canyon N-S via the "Tuckup" VFR corridor at 10,500 ft., and orbited meteor crater near Winslow, AZ. "Little Sister" as we call her performed admirably.

I select the tank I plan on using before start up and do not touch the fuel selector again until I'm at altitude and in cruise flight this is generally an hour or 10 gallons which ever comes first. This way the run up and all taxing is done on one tank and to the best of my ability proven that it will continue to provide fuel to the engine during takeoff.

Maybe you should have them do it on the ground first, just in case they’re bad at math. [emoji2]

Just to let everyone know that the sponsors have all cleared their due so I just remitted the $276 USD to Mooneyspace as described in my previous message. Yves

Hi All, I am new to this forum and so I want to introduce myself and also share my excitement over becoming a proud Bravo owner! My wife, Denise and I close the purchase tomorrow (I hope this post does not prove to be premature) and we are picking her up on Friday in San Antonio. I already have Bob Cabe lined up for a day of familiarization training. I also received the Foreflight Mooney checklist from @Junkman, thanks again! I have been flying literally all of my life, first sharing the experience with my dad (still the best pilot I know) then earning my certificate in 1989. As for Mooneys, I have owned a J model, an Ovation and an Acclaim until 2008. I had a long period of self imposed hibernation until just three months ago. Two very generous friends allowed me to earn my BFR and IPC in their Ovations. Pretty cool, huh? Anyway, I am grateful this forum exists as I have already learned a lot reading previous posts and I hope to contribute some positive content going forward. Alex

Coming into DVT yesterday from HII (Lake Havasu) I requested 25L as its closer to parking. The pattern was empty, except for one guy on a practice instrument approach. Controller asked me to keep my speed up so I could beat that guy in and get the runway I wanted. I was cooking on downwind. Nearly 180MPH GS. I pulled power completely out before turning base, started slowing, had gear down before I turned final, and dropped it in right on the numbers. I didn’t think you could slow a Mooney down that quickly, but you sure can. I like a challenge now and then, and it was a fun one.

Hah! i have 45 min of eurcouope time in my logbook. I think all of it was climbing to pattern altitude.

The engine quit on take off could be due to water displaced toward the fuel tank pickup screen at the rear of tank. Even if the fuel was drained before flight water may be in the tanks due to the fuel drain adapter hole clogged. To insure of no water remove the drain valve and check for water residue. I switched to the drain valve F-391-72 which has the drain holes just above the adapter to overcome this problem. I first experience the engine quitting on take off at KFLL. I landed straight ahead on the runway and with the momentum taxi out. At the ramp removed the drain valve and water was pouring out even though I drained the tanks before through the drain valve. José

I don't know where you get your information. Don, and I, and many others on Mooneyspace are "MAPA guys", and I have not heard anyone from MAPA saying they were being undercut.

day after i got my license i flew an ercoupe to 13,000 ft to get on top. took 2.5 hours to get up there. to make it mooney specific i was going to Lebanon Tn to look at a mooney for sale.

Whut yuo meen? I feal fin heer at 2,000 foot dunsity alltutude.

Seriously look at the avidyne/L3 lynx/aspen combo.... I LOVE my Lynx and have considered the other two, especially now with the update from aspen. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I didn't know that was the spar cap, but I saw those big AN4 rivets next to it and figured it wasn't good... Is that a Peanuts reference?

Make sure you stop here: https://m.facebook.com/BBQ23/ Great food!

Have her wear boots mine wears a Parka.

Well done @Fred_2O Who says you need a turbo to fly west! Very nice of you to let the little girl stretch her legs. That's what she was made to do.

Nor are we! It won't be long, when people will wish they had DMax, at his worst, rather than the local shade tree guy. He spends so much time on the phone, helping guys without charging them, that his time supervising is impacted. He has IA help for that....and we all know how easy it is to find and hold onto good help. The King, and a treasure...for sure!

I had an aunt that did the same thing. She died never knowing what it felt like to sit on fabric...but that cheap couch was in great shape when it got donated....!

OP here. I wanted to follow up with closure on this. YEAH!!! A/P working once again. Despite having crawled under the panel and finding the D-sub connector not fully seated, removing said connector and lookingfor bent pins....that's EXACTLY what the problem was; I just needed to pull the TC/RC out of the panel in order to see that two pins were shorted together due to one of them being bent. Pretty clearly done by the shop that had my panel torn apart to find the static system leak. A/P had been working just fine until then. Anyway, hat's off to Al, and Barry, at STEC (Genesis). VERY helpful and friendly advice. Based on the symptoms and measurements I made at Al's direction we thought that the unit needed to be sent back to the factory for repair; that's why I was pulling it out of tha panel. Al was originally betting it was a bent pin...and he was right!

I personally am a complete idiot at 25K in the altitude chamber, unable to add simple numbers. I would hate to be even near that cabin altitude without O2 trying to make simple decisions. Climb that mooney but bring some O2 with ya My .02

Let’s consider for a moment... the wing is carrying a fair amount of ice on it... it’s stall speed and associated AOA is no longer known... you have a stall warning device that is heated... And an AOAi that is heated and still 100% operational... You have become a test pilot by your own hand... You will be able to make judgements about your change of AOA, as you increase the AOA in the most controlled fashion... If you start to feel the buffet, Lower the nose while you note the IAS and the last seen data from the AOAi.... you have accidently defined the current edge of the new flight envelope, a place to not go back to until 3’ above the longest runway... Ice is a serious matter. The limiting AOA with an iced wing is going to be different. But it would be much better to be very informed about how things are going even when you don’t know where the limits are... making small adjustments is better when you know how small the adjustments are... add small control inputs + note the change on the instruments... a two pronged approach... As far as parts go... Mooney supplies a heated stall indicator for The FIkI systems... so it’s Mooney parts to be sought... Even if I didn’t have a full fiki system, a partial system would have benefits... like a heated prop. when gathering ice you have several challenges building at the same time... 1) Loss of lift... air flow separation caused by the change of the wing shape (get them de-iced) 2) Loss Of instrumentation... frozen pitot, Static, stall warning, and/or AOAi... (get them heated) 3) increased weight needed to be supported... ice is heavy as it attaches all over the plane... (get out of dodge quickly) 4) Loss of thrust, as ice disturbs the shape of the prop airfoil... hard to maintain level flight with out lots of power... (chemical sprayed or heated) a second problem occurs with uneven loss of ice from the prop... that causes huge vibrations and probably a need to pull the power... Discussing ice in the middle of the summer is a whole lot more comfortable... PP thoughts only, only have a minimal anti-ice system on my plane... not a CFI. Best regards, -a-

I'd have to find my notes but the airplane trued our around 130 knots (maybe a bit more). Would have to work backwards to find the IAS but probably 100mph +/-. The controls would not be any different than 100mph at low altitude. The lack of excess power though could lead a pilot to think things feel mushy, but in a different sense. In that regard, I think any airplane has a different feel when you are at the upper edge of its envelope. If you 'lose your spot' due to turbulence, wave, etc, or slow down and get behind the power curve, the recovery will be long and cost a bunch of altitude....same thing in a big transport jet.

My guess is that you have been flying sideways too much. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Just an update. The baffle was trimmed but the oil line was not replaced. It did have some wear but luckily it wasn’t to deep. Ordered a new oil line just to be safe. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I've never quite understood the desire to use a cover to protect upholstery. I pay a bunch of money to get new seats on a chair at home, my car, or my plane so that I can look at and enjoy using them. I accept that by using them it will wear them out; just the way it works. I remember growing up my aunt and uncle put in new carpet in their home...then put these gawd awful 'clear' plastic runners over the carpet so it didn't get dirty and worn out!! Looked like total shit; especially after it got dirty and yellow. But, they damn well protected their carpet!

Finally got back in the air...(Oh what a feeling!). Was just kissing 80º at the airport and the tires were visibly low. Air Hawk put about a pound in the nose and then died. By that time the fuel truck had arrived and after fueling I asked if the compressor was working--it wasn't and in 9 years at KBPT it never has . The lineguy offered to bring the firetruck back and since he seemed more anxious than me to go fetch it, I said sure. It has to be the most expensive compressor on the planet, but after a few minutes all three tires were happy again. By then it was getting steamy so I got in the air about 9 AM. Super hazy, but a great flight nonetheless. A squeaker landing so she put the step down for me!

Yeah, I looked at one for a prebuy, and the inspector came out and told me "you know, I'm not supposed to say this sort of thing, but this is not your plane." Corrosion on some of the control surfaces as well as the control rods, among a host of other fairly significant problems, although only one or two were airworthiness issues. That being said, I wouldn't put out a name or number if the plane wasn't on the open market, and even then I'd think twice (or three times). Aside from the small but real possibility of being sued for slander, you don't know truthfully what the owner is going to do after you tell him what you saw. Even if it's unlikely to be repaired, there are always some people that do, and you don't know ahead of time that he or she's not one of them. Besides, it's the responsibility of whoever looks at a plane to exercise their own due diligence, and if the owner is a bad apple and tries to hide the problem, I would expect there are other significant issues that are just as or more obvious.

I represent that, and I am. The engine's out for rebuild now, so the sheepskin stays awhile longer... Patrick

@gsxrpilot has a list... -a-

no worries, sorry if I wasn't clear. But I was referring to overly rich idle mixture when from when he pulled it back to idle for landing.

http://alphaaviation.com/mooney-m20-a-thru-k-front-fixed-strap/ $379 including shipping. I called and asked them if they would just sell me the lapbelt since I already have the strap installed and they said no because "reasons". But after ripping my knuckles off and dealing with bleeding out on final for the second time I decided it was worth the money. Its about a 30-60 minute swap.

Try pointing the Wemac air vent on the copilot side to the avionics center stack. This helps substantially on cooling the avionics. José

Maxwell is a MAPA guy. He and Trey and that bunch are very loyal to the MAPA group. His expertise and personal contact comes with a membership to MAPA. This site is seen as undercutting that group.

If I was making over $1000/day giving checkrides I’d stick with that too. -Robert

That's sort of how I look at it. I have a 430W. Everything else I have is old. My single axis Centry A/P rarely works and I wouldn't trust it in IMC even when it did happen to work. I will need a 2020 xponder. Friends have told me by the sound of my Turn Co-ordinator that it might have a year left. I also only have a traditional DG and would like an HSI. With the dual G5 and GFC500 autopilot (if it ever comes out) I am in for 12-13k plus install. Add in 8k for a GTX-345 xponder. Plus my second com is old and although it works fine, the display doesn't always... I could also use a new audio panel. Even if lets say I do everything and have to spend 30-40k to bring the panel completely into todays age it seems worth it to me considering just adding an auto pilot and transponder would run me in the low 20's. Why not just do everything. If not, what it my AI goes, or my vacuum pump goes. 2k here, 2k there. Before I realize it I am spending the same money to keep my plane working but with mostly old technology. If Garmin had their autopilot available today it might be a different conversation and I might be considering different options. To me, Dynon is making more and more sense. Especially since they allowed a shop of my choice to install it.

Thanks All for the kind words.

17,800 crossing the Sierra. Was forced to go south from my usual route so decided I wanted to be high. Great view of the park and Yosemite Falls. I use a portable bottle and two person EDS in the plane.

I think that's pretty realistic. When we installed our ARI cowl mod, we got a consistent 3 knot increase in TAS over the guppy mouth (E model). The owner of the STC had told us that his customers reported from 3 - 7 knots. I guess he could have told me it would be anywhere from 3 to 25 knots and it still would've been right, Ha! We didn't install the 201 windshield but it's hard to believe it wouldn't be worth at least a few knots. From what I'm seeing here, David's cowl mod is an improvement over the ARI in terms of speed. Bang for the buck, of the two mods, I think the cowl mod is probably the best one. The windshield mod claims about 50 hours of labor, ouch!

A few clouds on my way to Vegas this morning, but a very nice flight.

Don is the only one that touches my airplane....

My story of lakefront airport: In February of 1990 I was part of a camera crew working the Super Bowl. We finished a basketball game in Tucson, rushed to the airport and jumped in the Mooney and flew to N. O. We were supposed to be ready to work at 9:00 AM. We made it with 5 min to spare. We flew into Lakefront Airport 3 days before the game. The FBO parked my plane. The job went well and we got all our stuff done. The biggest thing we did was do a live broadcast of the Denver fans marching from their hotel to the Super Dome. During the game all we had to do was shoot the fireworks being shoot off outside when someone scored. I managed to con myself credentials that let me watch the game from the side lines. That was cool, but I got tired of standing. I had a radio and a clipboard and walked around looking angry and yelling into the radio. Nobody gave me any trouble. Back to the flying part.... We were planning on flying back to Phoenix first thing in the morning. We stopped for breakfast and got to the airport at 7:00 AM. The mooney was parked with its tail jammed in the corner of the fence line of the ramp with about 100 biz jets parked as tightly as possible in front of it. I said “I need my airplane” they said “sorry, there is nothing we can do until the jets leave” There wasn’t enough room left in the ramp to menouver any of the jets around. It turns out that I was just the first of many severely pissed off aircraft owners. Most way more powerful then I. We departed at 2:00 PM.

Nice evening flight. Top of the Chesapeake Bay. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Don landed at Mount Pleasant this morning right on time. We flew a little and he had people waiting on him back at the shop so we got my friend the M20 F owner and retired professional helicopter pilot and helicopter instructor. He rode in the backseat to Longview. I got a few things out of the C and we headed back. Longview is a training ground for air controllers so everything is by the book. I am more comfortable going in and out of a pasture in a taildragger and I expect those controllers also would prefer that I did that instead of trying to get it all correct on a controlled field. Many things about this F are different from my C. I got by with flying my C as if it were a taildragger, but it is clear that I will have to seriously step up my game. In addition I am working on my IR, so I need to get comfortable with her so I can continue my instrument training or go back to my Cessna to complete it. Anyway, one picture is Don and myself and the other is her tucked away in her new home( pardon the hangar mess.)

I love my wife much more than I love my plane. She's also hot and I will always put her needs first before buying plane stuff. I wanted to make sure that I officially posted that in case she ever finds this site...

Slim chance its a probe issue from what you describe. But as mentioned above you need to look at the downloaded data and the best data to resolve this is a series of slow gami spreads. Can't get good data with a big pull or even the typical 6 sec data sampling. Be sure to also make sure your engine monitor is sampling at 1-2 sec data rate to ensure the best data resolution. Assuming your #3 is a lean outlier as you expect, the first step is always to clean that injector to see if dirt is making it lean. Then repeat the gami spreads and check to see if that cleared it up. Everybody (fuel injected) experiences a dirty or partially clogged injector eventually; pretty common especially after maintenance.

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.”

Hey your right prop is not tracking

Flew home from Salt Lake this morning with a small detour past my Dad's childhood home and then over the Grand Canyon. We love our Mooney! More pictures and the story over on my blog. http://intothesky.us/2018/07/29/grand-canyon-via-richfield-and-monroe/