Leaderboard

Regularly? Not a single one of them broke in half more than once.

Aircraft is sold! I'll still be in the game, just changing horses.

The usual Cirrus vs Mooney post made me think of this. Not to often people talk about 152s. I had nice talk with my private/multi instructor. Reminded me of the day I got my private. Like everyone that gets their pilots licence i was excited and I was hanging around the flight school, I couldn't get enough. I had flown only a 152 and I thought it was the best thing since sliced bread even though i knew almost everything out there was bigger faster etc. I was talking about my solo flights and on one of them I climbed to 7000.Then in the background this guy that reminded me of Fat Bastard from Austin Powers said "I can't believe you got it that high". I asked why not the book says it has a 14,700 ceiling. he starts laughing just like the Fat Bastard and said "no way it would ever get that high"!Remember I loved the 152 so i am like Later that day I rented the 152 filed a VFR flight plan so it would show up on flight aware. Filed KASH-KCON-KASH at 14,500. I called ground copied the flight plan and he cleared me to taxi. Halfway to the runway he asked me what I was doing so I told him the story. He clears me for take off and said good luck. I am thinking why doesn't any one think it will make it. I get handed off to approach and then they ask me "what are you intentions?" I tell him and he said with a laugh "altitude your discretion. around 10,000 I got handed of to center, she could care less and was rather busy. Knowing that you can't be above 12,500 for more that 30 min when I passed 12,500 I started the timer. It took 21 min to go from 12,500 to 14,000. Took pictures outside and of coarse the altimeter. I told center I would like to descend to Nashua"proceed as requested. handed back to approach and I said, I made it to 14,000. He said, I know we were all watching and I lost $10 buck to a bet! Back to tower He clears me to land and said I see that you made it up there. he asks what was the point of that? I said because Cessna said I could and someone told me I couldn't.That following Saturday I Showed Fat Bastard the proof and he got mad that proved him wrong. It was hilarious! looking back at it now he reminds me of my 9 year old right before bedtime.In his defense it most likely would not have made it there with him in it.

Heat and humidity here in Florida will cut the book number almost in half. You saw it in takeoff and climb. The hot runway makes the density altitude higher, which is why initial climb is slow. It improves as you get further from the hot airport environment. Your actual density altitude on the runway was probably 2200-2600 feet. I have an air data computer that I monitor on takeoff and it will show the actual conditions on the runway, not what is recorded on an ATIS, or observed in the cooler grassy area that an ASOS sees. After factoring for the atmospheric conditions, you'll need to verify that the airspeed indicator is correct. There is no requirement for them to be tested or calibrated, so you'd have to ask an avionics shop to check it when they do the 91.411/91.413 24 month certifications. If it's OK, then you start with mechanical issues that affect performance. Ignition timing, alternate air system, exhaust system, camshaft condition, max RPM verification (tach reading correctly).

I am a gadget guy and I like Garmin's portable units. So I ordered the new AREA 760 as soon as I heard it had been issued. I was really excited and when I saw the unit I thought: this is it. Better and brighter screen than my ipad and a sturdier build. This is exactly what I needed. The capacity to download via WIFI the updates was also great. So I was a happy camper until... I tried to get the approach plates... from Jeppesen (have used jepp charts for so long...). I went on the www side shop.jeppesen.com and looked for the unit. It was not listed. So I called Jepp customer service. Waited for about 30 minutes and was told Garmin had not send the unit over so they didn't support it. So I called Garmin and they told me that Jeppesen did support the unit. I called Jepp and they told me no. Called Garmin (waited and got a call back) told them that Jepp did not support the 760, so they shared with me a notice on the Jepp www side stating that indeed they did support the unit. Called Jepp was told first yes it is supported and then they backtracked and said NO. So I called Garmin and they told me I could order the plates for the 796 and they should work. I called Jepp and tried to purchase the approach plates for Northamerica for a 796. I was quoted 1300.- just for the plates!!!! I asked them if that was the price? And that I thought that this was simply too much, considering that it was portable unit! They basically said yes that is it. There is no bundle available. Long story short... I have a nice unit, but the plates cost each year about the same as the unit... so instead of a nice unit, I have a nice paper weight until Garmin and Jepp figure out what to do and what their pricing should be. So if you want to use the Garmin unit with your Jepp approach charts... call them and evaluate if it is right for you. I had I known all this I would have not bought it.

So I bought a Cherokee 180 for my first 250 hours for my ppl and instrument rating and just picked up my Mooney. So fortunate to get to know Don and Paul Maxwell as they converted a 252 to an Encore for me. Just over 1100# useful load. Can’t express how much I appreciate this entire community for information and knowledge!

We have discussed internally a mini summit say in the Feb time frame. If we do it, the event will be very loose without agenda, just a simple good ole fashion fly in like we did in the good ol' days. This would not replace the Mooney Summit VIII, but be in addition to. Ill bet I could get a BBQ lunch thrown in and for those that wanted to enjoy the best beaches in 'merica, for the weekend we could most likely get some nice group rates from the Barrymore Sooo its poll time...How many would be interested to fly into Peter Oknight say the 3rd weekend in Feb?

Brings back memories... It was January 27, 1968; N3660J, a Cessna 150. 10 logbooks ago. I was working on my private and the instructor, Paul Ellis, a fireman at his day job, said we were going on the dual cross country even though it was a bad weather day. Being stupid at the time and relying on his experience, I agreed to go. We took off from San Jose and were going to Stockton. The 150 was real sloooow in the climb in which, due to weather, we climbed to 11,500 to get around some clouds. I remember him casually smoking his pipe in the hour long climb with the last 500 feet climbing at about 100 ft/min. We made it to Stockton. Then the real fun began. We visited the FSS that was on the field at the time (good old days). It didn't look good for the return. We took off on the way back to San Jose through what I now know was the Altamont Pass. As we approached the pass we hit really heavy rain and turbulence. Paul took the plane, rolled into a 60° bank and did a 180. We landed in Tracy. I wanted to kiss the ground. I told him I wanted to take the bus back to San Jose. He said, "No way" and that we could make it back. Against my better judgment, I got back in the plane and we took off. I watched Paul closely this time around. No casual smoking of a pipe; he was very intense. That gave me a whole lot of confidence. Right. Anyway, we did make it back in one piece with a lot of creaking of the 150's wing. Years later I saw what the ribs of the 150 wing were made of. You could easily bend them with you hands. It was the finished structure and support to the fuselage that held it together. 52 years and 11½ thousand flight hours later it's a different story. The Mooney wing is like no other, and I don't even give it a second thought to climb to 17,000 feet in 17 minutes in the Bravo.

So basically 4% faster burning 20% more fuel than my C and 20 kts slower than an ovation burning the same amount? Bottom line...Cirrus pilots fly at rental power settings, Mooney pilots fly at CB power settings.

Looks to be a good event. It goes without saying but please practice safe social distancing at this event. I've had neighbors parents pass from this as well as parents of some clients. It is real and worth taking the extra precautions for. Great advertising too! If I was closer to the west coast or scheduled to be there, I'd attend! -Seth

I know, but it’s a little offensive, especially to those of us who had many family members who fought. Let’s even look at north Africa, the British were crushed at Tobruk and Gazala in early 1942. The tide there did not turn until we began fighting in that particular theater as well. Clearly, Germany’s biggest mistake was opening the Eastern front. Notwithstanding, nobody that knows the history of the war seriously argues that the British would have been able to take continental Europe if we were not fighting. And what about the Pacific theater, does anybody really believe that the British would have been able to succeed there without us?

We, at the Mooney Summit, wish the west coast Mooney Club the best to have a safe, fun and educational event. For full transparency, we will report the donations made by the west coast Mooney club to the Bill Gilliland foundation here as it is advertised as a fundraiser for this ever important charity. Once we have a handle on "rona here in the Tampa area, we will once again reschedule The Mooney Summit VIII ! @Seth @rocketman @Junkman and the rest of the Mooney Summit, Inc. board are very anxious as is the Tampa airport authority and all of our wonderful sponsors to once again bring you this world class event!

I got to thinking about this table this afternoon. The SR22TN can't do this at 16,000 on 17.8 gph. And your 2006 Cirrus has Avidynes...which are fine, but no way to get Syn Viz, no touch screens. And with those limitations it'd still cost at least $60k more than I have in my Rocket with 2019 paint, interior, and avionics. But I do only have 900 lb UL.

sadly, you've flown higher in a 152 than I've flown in my mooney.

Kpaul is correct...the E model is currently in Garmin's possession. They have begun the process for certification. This I know for sure, reguardless of what anybody says. I own the E that they have.

The problem with airplane marketing is we tend to talk to ourselves. I once took the wings off a bunch of Beechcraft products, transported them to malls, re-attached the wings and sold them like hot cakes. Even Beech marketing was impressed. 3 of the 5 I sold on one Saturday, were to non-pilots! Putting ads on the back cover of Flying, and trying to get press to do a "pilot report" is nice, but to really move units, you need to drag that lure right under their nose. Marketing is three things. Product, price, promotion. IMHO the product lacks promotion. My hangar neighbor has a nice new Cirrus Carbon, when he saw my 2005 Ovation GX with FIKI and talked about the performance he stated he had "no idea". He bought the Cirrus because the Cirrus people have promoted their product deeper into the the potential market than Mooney. It is likely Mooney would have closed a sale to him, were it actively identifying the buyers. Waiting for them to come to a tent, see your ad in Flying etc is not how you do that. You get big data to identify the potential buyer then you go after them, aggressively.

I kind of like these, Okay I’ll be going now

Don't tell your FAA medical examiner lol

@aviatoreb I like the way you're thinking, and you're correct! I know the certification processes well (and am on a couple of ASTM committees writing the new compliance to Part 23). What I am not sure about with Ti is heat transfer, temperature vs strength properties (which I believe are very good) and fatigue (which I think is not so good).

One way to determine if the power plant is generating power... 1) The run-up checks all spark plugs... and both mags... 2) Without an engine monitor, it will be hard to know if you have a weak plug... or timing difference... 3) Weak plugs are often marked with the word Champion on their side... 4) Weak plugs can be measured for their resistance... 5) A real good measurement of your Take/off HP is to measure your T/O distance.... 6) If you have a WAAS source on your ADSB-in device CloudAhoy app to automatically measure your T/O run... 7) If your T/O is long, and your climb rate is slow, you have two pieces of data pointing to something being amiss... 8) Check with your CfI, carefully... he may be a highly dense person, all muscle, appears to be slim, but weighs a lot.... 9) Your T/O performance really relies on that excess power discussed earlier... as you get towards MGTW.... your excess power starts heading towards zero... (figuratively speaking) PP thoughts only, not a CFI... Best regards, -a-

More than a little,. Dad was a tank Sargent under Patton and fought in the battle of the bulge and liberated the Jewish slaves at the camps when no one knew about what was really going on. He never talked about it. mom lost her first husband in a b24 over ploesti. My uncle flew PBY's and my aunt welded those Liberty ships in Valejo. Greatest number of lives lost was the with 8th Airforce doing daylight missions to improve accuracy and minimize collateral damage. While the British were flying under the cloak of darkness. It took a great coalition of nations to put an end to that terrible war and if the separatists had kept us out I do believe Europe would look a whole lot different today.

A titanium frame structure would be lighter but would also be many times more expensive. The M20 would be in excess of $1M. Because of its properties (stiff and brittle … like carbon), crashworthiness would not be as good. Strong without an elastic energy absorption is bad. Carbon Fiber is NOT lighter than aluminum … especially where minimum thickness comes into play. CFRP material alone is heavier than 0.020 aluminum used on flight controls and some skins. Oh, then add the required copper mesh to take care of HIRF/Lightening … and add all the weight/complexity/part count of bonding straps … oh and add a second wire harness (doubling your current harnesses) everywhere because the carbon frame isn't quite conductive enough to carry the return current. Or, save weight and use an aluminum mesh (ha, ha, ha) … then add more weight back in with a non-structural fiberglass separation layer so the carbon doesn't corrode the aluminum. The 787 is carbon for one reason and one reason only: it doesn't corrode. It is NOT lighter than aluminum or have a better strength to weight ratio. BTW, the shell of the M20 is fiberglass. At least it was when my engineers first designed it. No comment if it is now carbon. BTW2, the shell is as heavy or heavier than the aluminum shell was … costs more … and takes more labor, too!

I must be retarded or something. When I started using an iPad with Foreflight I thought I'd stumbled on a miracle. An inexpensive piece of consumer hardware that could navigate for me. Coupled with an inexpensive bit of aviation hardware I could see weather in near real time. And best of all when I'm done flying I can take the iPad home and read Mooneyspace on it. If it breaks or (more likely) goes obsolete I can inexpensively replace it. I just paid my $75 subscription to Foreflight which includes all the charts and approach plates I'm likely to ever need. I can even do my preflight weather briefing on the thing. Like I said, a miracle.

At our dealerships we invest heavily in data mining as well as programs and training to find potential buyers, it is how you grow market share.

With all due respect, your version of history as to Britain winning the war by 1940 and all that was needed was US manufacturing is flat out delusional. I’ll just leave it at that. The British were completely pushed off the continent at Dunkirk, and the Germans spent the rest of 1940 and 1941 securing victories in Europe. British troops did not even have a presence on the continent until after the US became involved in the war. The British would have also lost in north Africa had we not intervened.

Cooling in our engines depends on airflow through the cylinder fins. This airflow requires energy which is provided by a differential in air pressure above and below the cylinders. Higher pressure above. This higher pressure above must be maintained and not allowed to drop. It can drop if you have leakages between the top and the bottom. Controlling leakages is all a function of baffling. When baffled properly there’s very little space between the cylinder barrels and fins. It doesn’t take much leakage to throw this off. i.e. to bypass the fins rather than go through them. Based on your description I would say a major contributing factor is leakages. Granted it’s not uncommon to need cowl flaps in the summer in climb at or near gross. But cowl flaps are there to improve the air flow and carry heat down and out. They cannot recreate nor can they optimize proper air flow. (i.e. through the fins) if its not there because it is compromised by baffle leaks. In other words that pressure above the cylinders needs to be maintained higher than below and the airflow needs to be going through the fins. That’s optimal and efficient cooling. I would really have someone look at your baffles carefully. Both flexible and inter-cylinder baffles.

Just a comment on your airlines transition flights. Make sure to factor cost of arrival and storage at those airports and transition time from GA to Public sides. Both can be high. You also have time cost in going to your airport and preparing the plane, headwinds, weather, etc. I bet the time delta comes out more narrow than you think.

Just got my quote for renewing on the 201 this year. It has gone down by $8.

Wait....What's My Wife Doing Here?

Ukr, Time to get real.... 0) Do you have an engine monitor? 1) You know climb rate is based on excess power... 2) the more excess power you have, the faster you will climb... 3) weight takes away from climb rate, the more weight you are carrying, the slower you will climb. 4) Technique is key... use the right technique, you will climb really fast, at the cost of some excessive CHTs.... 5) What’s excessive to you, when it comes to CHTs? 6) excess power is really cool to have... there are many ways to get more... 7) There are plenty of ways to have less too... 8) Having High DA at time of rotation is a bad time to look at what the OAT is... 9) So Briefly, because this is important.... What was the DA when you were flying? Do you remember the OAT? 10) it’s a good chance It was a crummy day to be measuring performance... without using data that is readily available... 11) Compare your numbers to the POH...they should be pretty close... 12) What did the POH say it should be? 13) Many MSers use 120ias for cruise climb... it is a compromise of good speed over the ground and good climb rate... Vx, Vy, and cruise climb should be part of your conversation... Consider these notes from a friend... you left out so many important technical details... what you have may be a good number... how would we know? Let’s share the numbers... You have learned an important lesson... before the trees arrived to teach you something interesting.... You aren’t the first, you won’t be the last... we have Patrick that is our reminder of the effects of DA... PP thoughts only, not a CFI... Best regards, -a-

They're on most of the digital AI displays.

You never will get over the lack of frequency's on the Safe Taxi diagram! (i remember)

This is all very interesting and informative to me. I had never thought about using the FAF, for example, to better teach myself to see the glide path. (I do that with PAPI lights of course but kind of consider it cheating). It a great idea and I'm going to try it. I started IFR training right before the covid hit, but I did learn enough to enable me to used approach plates to work on this I think. That in combination with the other tips will mean a lot of methods to practice, and combine to dial in a system that gives me consistency. Here is something else interesting: I got curious about this, so I did the trigonometry, and then went to Google Earth and Fore Flight 3D and looked up some out of the way airports I've landed at, and where I tended to turn base based on eyeballing. I realize I been flying VFR approaches too high forever! I was initially taught to turn base in a 172 at 400 ft agl 1/2 mile from the runway. What the..... For anyone interested, I found the tangent for 3 degrees is .052, and for 4 degrees it's .069, unless I'm bad at math. So to figure out how far from the runway I should be for a given glide path, I divided my relative altitude at the point where I turn base by one of those numbers. Based on landmarks, I seem to always be turning too early and/or too high. And I do realize 3 degrees is really shallow for a light GA plane. I might find higher looks and feels better. But first, I need to figure out how to know where the heck I am.

Some of the new non-Max 800s (and others) ship out with the improved winglets (that go up and down). Best tell-tale sign to me is the big@$$ engine with the scalloped engine nacelle

Got it all installed and it works great, just have to put in that dropping resistor for the indicator light. Thank you larryb for calculation and the link! They worked great and there is no more problem. For those of you wondering the new switch from Mooney is made by E-switch part # RP8100B2M1CEBLKRED. That is the E-Switch part # and the Mooney part #. The Cutler-Hammer and NKK Switches listed in the parts manual are no longer available from any source as near as I can tell.

Whatever you get, make sure it has crotch straps and a spray hood. I always thought of the benefit of the spray hood was just for the regular waves. I had not considered the benefit of it to help with all the water going in your face from a helo overhead until some conversations with Andrew.

Yeah we’re hired to,protect half the world, most of them forget to pay for our defense. Dumb ass politicians

Not nearly as an unwelcome surprise to those pilots that simply ignore their POH weight and balance limits. In other words, the one that if they do a Weight and balance calculation use random internet data (not their planes) or those that load up there Mooney's with 5 pax or other gross deviations like a 4 people on board with 20 gal and beyond the forward aft limit. The NTSB records have lots of such examples of pilots ignoring their airframe limits, such as the 3 examples I listed. But I am still waiting to read about the first report of an aircraft official/legal weight and balance record being so wrong by either computation or weighing that it attributed in any way a mishap. I believe the record shows Pilots are quite capable of doing that all by themselves without any such help! If there is any such data to the contrary I would sure like to hear about it.

I'll have to admit............my first couple of flying lessons, I was ready to stop! So interesting as I'd loved airplanes from some of my very first memories of my life. Always hung around the airports. My dad would take me to watch them and to get up very close to them. Our country neighbors in Tulsa had their own airplane [C140 then one of the first C172's) and I'd hang around their place all the time. Always knew I'd eventually learn to fly and have my own airplane! Yet, the first couple of flights, I was terrified the bottom of the plane was going to fall out from under me................and I seriously asked myself...........WTF are you doing? After I got past that................all was incredible, and still is to this day. I still marvel at the ability to fly and behold all................amazing!

I wouldn't own one of those things just by the way it sounds flying overhead.............yuck!!!!

When I lived in Denver, before I bought my Mooney, I was renting, usually a Cutlass RG or a Hawk XP to fly over the Rockies. I had a job in Steamboat Springs that I knew would only take a few minutes, so I asked my neighbor if he wanted to do a half day of skiing. Well the two 172s were not available. All I could get was a 152. I thought, it will make it to 12,500, that's all I need. Well we took off and headed to the pass to make the crossing. When we got to 9500 the plane just quit climbing! I think I was in a very mild mountain wave down draft. I cruised north for about 20 miles looking for some climb, but it wasn't going to happen. Turned around, flew back to the airport, apologized to my neighbor and drove to Steamboat....

Why did you need two AP units?

That setup is a perfect match for the Whelen Orion 500 LED rear tail light/strobe for the 231's that don't have the wingtip rear white position lights. Plus won't have to pull any new wires except for possibly an optional sync wire. With the wing strobes enclosed in the wingtips, it's impossible to get the required 360 coverage without the 3rd strobe on the tail.

1. Yes, correct … especially for required FAA composite certification materials and processes. Composite processes already defined by the FAA (NIAR database) need to be duplicated by an OEM to prove they can meet the minimum requirements (lots and lots of samples) of that specification. New composite processes/materials must complete a 3X times sampling to prove strength, voids and repeatability. A new composite material or process costs in excess of $2M. Total aircraft costs were not looked at until 3 years into the program. 2. Yes; no comment. 3. I am not sure. I was not allow to even see the aircraft specification until late in the program. Ironically, the Chief Engineer is the one that should be signing his/her name to that document at the inception of the program as a commitment as to what can be done. When I was finally shown it and asked to rewrite it, another rock and hard place appeared. Write it to meet the POC (an airplane needing redesign) or write it to what can be done from past history … showing the POC didn't meet it's performance goals.

Hi Ron. My Ovation (owned 2009-2016). Paint scheme chosen from 2008 year model. My current D/C model (2016-?...lol ). Paint scheme chosen from 1963 C model. Both painted exquisitely by Tony from Artcraft, at my home airport (SMX).

The only thing mine ever did that was Harley like, was it started making this ticking sound. I finally pulled a head and found a screw embedded in the piston. It was knocking on the head. It was from the throttle plate in the carb.

This may help: Black new custom panels Light grey leather by Aero Comfort