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Flew down to Fort Lauderdale to pick up my girl from Edison at Wet Wingologists East after getting her tanks resealsed. Before I left, she got parked in front of the FBO buildings and trees and I thought she was looking particularly good and had a nice background. So I just wanted to share.

Friends, Romans, Countrymen, Peeps, and MSers.... I was up late catching up with all the reading.... I realized how late it was when a few of you got into work.... From my screen... MS looks like a giant community with lots of M20 pilots.... From your screens at 6am... it looks like I am hogging up all of MS! You know I had a hard time sending Craig a message... he probably got a cellphone buzz at 3am when it came in...on the west coast! Just a small detail that needed a fix... Sorry it took so long to check in... i’ve Been wiping the tears of joy and laughter off the touch screen, but it’s still not dry enough to use... MS is a 24hour, 7day, world wide, hot spot, for a global community of awesome Mooney pilots and maintenance people... At MS, your plane may be AOG... but you are never alone.... Thank you everybody, your sense of humor and camaraderie are greatly appreciated... PP thoughts only, not a sleep expert... let’s start this again, soon... Best regards, -a-

I've met Anthony. He is VERY interesting. He gave his father “the talk” His passport requires no photograph When he drives a car off the lot, its price increases in value Once a rattlesnake bit him, after 5 days of excruciating pain, the snake finally died His 5 de Mayo party starts on the 8th of March His feet don’t get blisters, but his shoes do He once went to the psychic, to warn her If he were to punch you in the face you would have to fight off a strong urge to thank him Whatever side of the tracks he’s currently on is the right side, even if he crosses the tracks he’ll still be on the right side He can speak Russian… in French

Mike and I just had BBQ with our wives who got to sit quietly and listen to us yak about Mooneys and related topics.

‘Tis true that this is a horse that gets bludgeoned every year or so. I still think the discussion is useful. Not because I think we all need to adhere to some collective climb procedure, but because it’s a good idea to understand why you’re doing what you’re doing. Doesn’t matter how many years we do this, there will always be folks who don’t know why they’re doing what they’re doing. I’ve certainly fallen into that category before and it’s these kinds of discussions that were enlightening.

I have found very little metal in a regular Constant Speed Prop. There is just so little oil movement with 0(Zero) circulation. You see some metal in Feathering props, an reversible props cause there is much more oil Movement. I would probably want to atleast have the cylinder flushed just to get the ol sludge out. That’s a $400 of piece of mind in my shop. Certaily wouldn’t O/H it. Its only going to O/H so many times, but you can flush the Hydraulic unit anytime you want. My 2 Pennies

And there are those of us who missed the prior year's discussion and still have a lot to learn. Maybe not every rehashed thread has golden nuggets in it, but for those of us who are noobs (and everyone is at some point) when it comes up, it certainly helps.

This is not necessarily a bad thing for those of us that are fans of ForeFlight. In fact, we can all hope that the ForeFlight team takes over the Jep website, store front, electronic updates, etc. I'll certainly stay with ForeFlight as long the product stays as good as it is and the price doesn't go up.

I get a discount at Aircraft Spruce which brings it down to $110.58 each, which I'm happy to pass on to anyone on Mooneyspace.

If he doesn't know that on a King Autopilot that you need to keep the King Attitude indicator, I wouldn't let him near your instrument panel. This subject has been discussed at great length on this and other forums. Take it to a shop that does this every day.

Thank you for being so honest Cody. The willingness of people to throw money at things for which they have no understanding means that you could make a fortune acting in a less virtuous manner. You’re a credit to your profession and a great asset to this community.

He’s like Chuck Norris. They dont vector him onto the localizer, they vector the localizer onto him

It was great meeting you both and Marianna enjoyed it even if it was just Mooney talk. There’s just something sexy about those correct facing tail airplanes.

Jeppesen Foreflight. I just hope they don't make us pay $499 a year to buy the Jeppesen Nav database... If so, I'll be moving to a different EFB.

If you notice, he responds in spurts. This is due to recharge cycles and periodic firmware updates. He will start his rounds between midnight and 6 am eastern. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

Not a Mooney but thought y’all might like to see this photo. While doing my first Annual on my ‘95 Citabria I found this little problem. The safety wire holding the baffling together was sawing into the #4 oil return line. Surprisingly there was very little evidence of oil leaking in the area. I found something similar on my previous Mooney years ago so I’m always careful to look for this problem and to cover the safety wire with hose for protection. Since this was my first Annual on this airplane I expected to find a lot of issues. Other than the oil line it only had a few nits as well as needing new brakes, tires, and plugs. Y’all be careful out there. Lee

The "down and dirty" way to check is to put the plane on jacks, wait 4 hours for the rubber to expand as far as they are going to, then try to rotate the discs by hand, It they turn easily or are loose, change them now. If they are a little tight, but you can move them, change them next annual. If you can't move them, don't worry about them. No true CB would change them on a "years in service" schedule.

http://www.foreflightaboeingcompany.com/ Boeing [NYSE: BA] completed the acquisition of ForeFlight, a leading provider of innovative mobile and web-based aviation applications... Congrats to FF for developing a great product and getting paid!!

Not a Mooney but thought some people might enjoy seeing my new project. I flew commercial up to Boise Idaho, rented a box van, loaded the Kitfox and made the 14 hour drive home this past weekend. This is what the bones of a Kitfox STi looks like. I was looking at the Cub variants but decided I really wanted side by side seating. This plane also attracted me because it has retracting wings and can be easily trailered. It will have 29” tires, Garmin G3X panel and a turbo charged Rotax engine. I’m sure many have seen the Trent Palmer YouTube videos which has exponentially increased the demand for these. I was lucky to have ordered before the waiting list got long. It takes well over a year to get a kit now. So far I’m really impressed with the quality and thoroughness of the kit. After finishing my inventory of the thousands of parts not one missing item. Very well labeled and organized. The components are incredibly light. I’m hoping to document the build and will keep those interested posted on the progress.

OK here are my interesting / crappy landings. Have to give credit to the airports on the Bahamas - they deserve respect. Took on some extra energy for gusty conditions. Stall horn chirping at over 100 mph is always sporting. The winds in the second landing were fun. From the air there's an indication of a west to east prevailing wind pushing smoke from a farm. However, once you got low, the wind was east to west with little rotor pockets all the way down. Also lesson learned: I got distracted as I changed runway configs and turned my boost pump off an didn't turn in back on... not that it matters a whole bunch but my error and learning about distractions. Distraction or change -> back to do the checklist again. Here's landing in MYAM: Here's the flight from MYAM (Marsh Harbour) to MYAT (Treasure Cay): Here's my second, third and maybe fourth landing of the day. And tossing some fish bits to sharks and rays is always fun...

Hank and I have a C, the GAMI spread is a little larger

Probably not correct.

From the description, I'm guessing you have a KCS 55A compass system with KI 525A HSI and KG 102A remote gyro driving a KFC 150 or KFC 200 or KAP 150 autopilot. It sounds like either a broken wire or other issue with the HDG output from the KI 525A to the autopilot. I had a similar problem with an Aspen EFD 1000 ACU driving a KAP 150 and it turned out to be a broken wire at the connector to the KC 191 computer. Steve Chapman at Autopilots Central told me that heading problems are almost never a computer issue.

Thanks guys, your inputs have convinced me to target this panel, with only an increase of about $25,000. Yeah, thanks a LOT... I knew I could count on you guys. Cheers, Rick

I started the annual on my E today. removed cowls, access panels, spinner, spark plugs, PFS exhaust. Tomorrow I'll jack plane and remove wheels, seats, battery and start lubing. I don't put in 8 hour days, I also started 3 batches of muscadine wine, but I should be ready for Lynn to check compressions, boroscope inspect, check gear loads, inspect all the controls and systems I've exposed and we'll go over the check list. It will take me a couple of days to put things back together. Unless we find something amiss I will owe AGL for 6-8 hours and will have probably put in close to 40 hours myself.

I appreciate that your rajay requires climbing at 26”. For the purposes of this discussion, parasitic drag is ralated to speed not power. Furthermore, for a given velocity, drag is less in climb then in it is in level flight at the same velocity. Climb performance is a function of reserve power. A 10% reduction in rated power is a far greater percentage of reserve power. Using my airplane’s SL 1055fpm book ROC at MGTOW 2740lbs, a 10% power reduction would result in a calculated 22% loss in ROC. A 20% reduction results in a calculated ROC loss of 45%. This stuff is not my opinion, it’s physics. It’s well understood by every columnist from Deakin to Busch to Hirschman.

When referring to our Mooneys, I think some guys here who fly the big jets prefer the acronym GYFLOTG (Get Your Flying Lawnmower On The Ground)

First thing is to verify. The phone apps are pretty good at verifying.

Rather than continue to conjecture, E-mailed the company to get a real answer to the question above. Here is the immediate response and the exchange that followed: Rep: "The AV-30 will last around 2 hours at normal ambient temperatures, but that goes down to 30 minutes at -20C. It will not transition onto internal battery until the bus voltage gets into the 7V range." Me: "Thanks Jeff! Any info on required battery replacement interval and cost?" Rep:"Nothing formal yet, but I would expect once every 5 years or so. It will be less than $100." WOW, a truly modern, reasonably priced product that I would not be afraid to use or have as my backup in IMC, and definitely a heavyweight competitor to Garmin given its ability to drive an autopilot. This is really what avionics should look like in 2019! Me: " Thanks very much again! One last question (sorry) – any chance it can be used as a legal backup AI for an Aspen pfd, or only as primary AI?" Rep: "Primary AI for now. We think additional testing would be required for the backup, as odd as that sounds" DAMMIT!!! Back to the bleak reality of GA. Gotta hand it to Aerovonics though - I hope they keep going and eventually drink Garmin's milkshake .

@carusoam isn't one person, there are 12 working 3 shifts of 4....

Amazing how people freak out over things they don't know about. The propane bottles would present a big problem, but the ammo popping off wouldn't endanger anyone. Unless the round is chambered in a firearm the bullet won't be propelled when it goes off. The case will actually go further than the bullet and if you're more than 3 feet away, you won't even get a scratch from a direct hit. Similarly, there is pretty much zero chance of the jet fuel igniting. Jet fuel is NOT flammable, it is combustible. Unless the fuel is heated or atomized it will not ignite. The flammability of jet fuel is so often misunderstood that even my son's science teacher thought it would explode anytime there was a spark nearby. My son insisted on proving his teacher wrong, so we "borrowed" some jet fuel from the nozzle at the airport and proceeded to make a video putting matches out in the jet fuel. No explosion, no flame, no excitement.

The gist of it is that if the volume of oil in the prop control system is greater than the volume of oil in the hub, the oil in the hub will never change or mix with engine oil. Part of the oil in the lines WILL be changed/mixed with the main engine oil, but engine oil will only enter up to the volume in the control system that is the same volume as the hub. Not knowing any specifics, but that means engine oil DOES make it into the prop control system, but only up to a specific point. I imagine how far it makes it depends on the specific engine/prop combo. I forget my physiology, but you can see the same thing in the human lung. If you breathe with short, shallow breaths, there's a point where the volume of each breath is too small and not able to reach the alveoli, so you end up mixing oxygen only in the airways and not where it counts.

I once read in these very pages that Mooneys like mine burn less oil if climb is set to 25 square. Oil is expensive, and where I live is quite flat, so I've been doing just that. Oh yeah, and my POH says to, so I get to be compliant as well. My best guess is the issue is of insufficient importance to warrant 3 pages of discussion. But why let a thing like that stop us?

My carb doesn't have the tight intercylinder fuel flow spread of your injection system, so I must manage things more actively. BUT since rebuilding my doghouse and carb heat box, I can now sometimes run up to 25°LOP!

I wonder if the cable that opens the flap for the hot air froze.

Hank, why advance the mixture ? I just drop the nose and leave everything alone. The mixture will effectively become more lean during the descent as the air density increases. With the mixture leaning, the power decreases without the need to reduce throttle. My GAMI spread is excellent, so I can usually go very very lean without issues. Occasionally, I might add a touch of mixture only if I get some engine roughness, and then to slow for the pattern.

I just bought a Red Dragon VT2 torch via eBay for $45 shipped. Made in USA. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

While on the ground... You get a lot of opportunity to see if the knob and cable are still attached to anything at the other end.... Mooneys have either slide gates or rotating rubber throttle valves to control hot air entering the cabin... Check if those valves are operating still... PP thoughts only, not a mechanic... Best regards, -a-

"A lot more heat" would likely be from increased power output at the higher rpm as the increased frictional heating from 200 rpm should not be great. The way to test this is to stabilize in level flight at 2500 rpm and note the airspeed and CHTs and then increase the rpm to 2700 and reduce manifold pressure until you get the same airspeed and note the CHTs.

He doesn’t follow the Glideslope, the earth moves to his glide.

I used a piece of hose over the rod where it crosses the return lines per my IA's suggestion, major pain getting it over the rod with the offsets bent in it. Ended up doing both sides, again to put a smile on my IA

Another interesting topic... at high rpm... the prop is resting on the stops... I thought that for a long time... thinking if my govenor breaks... my O360 is going to hit max rpm and I can fly around at max power and 2700 rpm... Then one day... my gov leaked it’s fluids internally... and max power was well beyond 2700rpm.... in overspeed territory.... Fair enough, i’ll Pull the power back some to keep 2700 rpm with my newly fixed pitch O360... Pulling the prop back so 2700rpm is maintained, is no where near max power... getting the gov’s leak figured out became an immediate top priority... So don’t expect that your prop’s blades are actually sitting on the mechanical stops... We can always ask Cody about this detail... PP thoughts only... Best regards, -a-

I wouldn’t want to be a bladder period

No fuel out of hose front of Pilot footwell and pressure stayed for more than a min after electric pump was turned off.

WOT/2700 camp here too.

If I'm PIC, I'm legally responsible for the safe operation of the aircraft. Nope. If I'm PIC (not in the Student Pilot solo flight context) it's on me. Perfect! This is exactly what I hope other's take the mindset of so that THEY are protected. The crux of the discussion is not about an individual's record, but that THEY are properly covered.

Isn't it amazing when you think you have mastered landing a Mooney only to be humbled once again. Even after 28 years, I will sometimes get surprised.

It's an honest living that is for sure.

If it was easy everyone would be doing it.....