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Hello to all my friends at MooneySpace! I haven’t been here for a while since I sold my Acclaim in 2018. I sold my RV a couple years later and haven’t flown since. I just wanted to give you all a shout out from Mexico. My wife and I are retired and we moved here about two years ago. We split our time between Puerto Vallarta and San Miguel de Allende. I really miss flying Mooneys. Did so for 25 great years, as the proud owner of an Encore and then an Acclaim. I hope all of you who are still flying are keeping the flame alive and enjoying these incredible aircraft. I’d be curious to know if any of you have ever flown your Mooney to Puerto Vallarta? I flew my Acclaim to Cabo several times, but never to anywhere on the mainland. I get a tiny taste of aviation every day because the skydiving concession in Puerto Vallarta is right next door to my condo. They land about 40 single and tandem jumpers on the beach in front of me every day. Pretty neat. Fly safe, my friends, and enjoy your Mooneys! Saludos, Joe Zuffoletto, aka José de México :)

Doesn’t matter what kind of plane, totally sucks

The owner is age 87 or 88 according to an online database. I will note two things, one of which may be unrelated to this accident: - Please make sure go arounds and Stall avoidance are part of your recurrent training, and even moreso as you age. - for your safety, please remove sheepskin seat covers if they’re *at all* in the way of your manual operation of the trim wheel. I don’t care if you have electric trim.

That's one of the great features added to the GTN series a number of system updates ago. IF YOU ARE ON THE MISSED APPROACH, select PROCEDURES, Change the airport identifier to the alternate airport you want to go, selective the approach you want, then the transition, then go direct to one of the approach waypoints on the transition when you want to. The missed approach from your original airport becomes the enroute part of the flight plan so you can continue to fly it until you want to go to the other airport. For example, if you are in a hold as part of the original missed approach, you can stay in the hold and the AP will continue to fly it until you go to your alternate. It's important to note that you can't do the above before you are on a portion of the missed approach. You have to be on the missed approach of the original airport before putting in your alternate as above. Because of this feature, I can ping pong off of approaches to numerous airports close to each other when practicing without undo "overload" pressure. For example, I can do an approach into KSNS, go to the Hold on the missed, set up an approach to KWVI, start the missed, set up an approach into KOAR, start the missed, then set up an approach into KMRY and go missed, then head back to KSJC and do an approach into there. I did this a couple of weeks ago all in IMC conditions, and was barely tired after landing back in San Jose. That wouldn't have been the case without this feature.

Wonder if he was referring to the visual approach on a GTN or Avidyne GPS. They can make all the difference in finding a hard to see runway. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Lots of changes. I found this YouTube video helpful.

It can be done and done safely. What makes it safe is a full bright moon on a cloudless night, honestly on a night like that you can see fine, almost even see colors. We use to call the Field Grade night because those were the nights higher ranked Officers would fly their night currency flights. However on a night with no or little moon or heavy overcast is a whole different animal, unless your really proficient at it, it’s unsafe and I doubt anyone in their 80’s has good night vision to begin with. What helps tremendously for night flight is to fly with as little light in the cockpit that you can get away with, if your cockpit is dark your eyes will dark adapt rather well, you would be surprised how well you can see. We called unaided night flying “Night Hawking”. We practiced it because you never know when your night system could fail However with modern glass cockpits it’s just not possible to fly with a dark cockpit and therefore you will never really dark adapt and you won’t be able to see well at night.

@MooneyMitch I landed at Meadowlark back in the late '70s...as I recall it was around 1500'? Decades later I worked with a guy who had flown out of there as a CFI; claimed he flew twins in and out of there

Nice vid, but the site is still really clunky. It's not easy to use.

I went from a 79 K to a 99 Screaming Eagle in 2020. I loved the K model...flew it for around 1100 hours between 2016 and 2020. The Eagle is much easier when it comes to engine management. Seemed like I was always making adjustments in cruise on the K model. Useful load is way better (1130 in my Eagle). The Eagle being a longbody and 20 years newer was nice. What swayed me toward the Eagle I purchased was the TKS. I had an unexpected encounter with ice in the K model and didn't want to be without at least some protection in the future. Both are great airplanes. An overhaul of that engine is going to be expensive but seems like there has been an adjustment made in the price to compensate for that. Below is a picture of both my K and Eagle during pre purchase for both. If you have any specific questions send me a message and I'll give you my number. We can chat it up.

It provides the same vertical and lateral guidance indications as a GPS approach.

Lateral guidance to every runway in the database and many with vertical guidance when obstructions don’t disallow. Of course strictly a VFR aide to help to make a stabilized approach. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks for the help from everyone, private messages as well. Turns out it was the gea71. Installed software loaded and all back to normal! Guess I don’t have to throw the g1000 plane away yet.

That's how an HSI would behave, but the indicator in the OP's picture is a CDI, not an HSI.

I have also landed at night at Oceano Airport, L52, without the runway lights on...........just for practice.............just in case.

I agree with @GeeBee that attempting to land at night with no runway lighting is a really bad idea. A long time ago I regularly flew into KEZF in Virginia to visit my girlfriend. On one flight the weather was closing down rapidly, I was low on fuel, and was not instrument rated. I keyed the mic to turn on the PCL and nothing happened. After repeating this several times with no effect, I decided that I "knew" where I was, and would line up with the runway approach end. Suddenly the runway lights came on and I realized I would have hit a maintenance hangar on the heading I was holding. I went around. After I landed and pulled off the runway a truck raced up, and a guy (the airport manager) with a gun pointed at me started screaming that the airport had been NOTAMed closed for night landings due to drug traffickers using it as a transfer point. He had seen that I was about to crash into the hangar and turned the lights on. I made a major mistake in failing to read the NOTAM, and then compounded it by attempting to land on a runway with no lighting in a rural area. Never again.

Owning certain kinds of yachts makes airplane ownership look like a bargain! You have been warned!

Both GTN’s and Probably more than just the GTN’s such as smaller footprint IFR navigators but not sure - (not a fan of those). latest G1000’s too. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Such sadness for those left behind with this tragic crash. Fortunately no one else inured or killed. Landing at night with no runway lights.......................In the early 60's, both daytime and nighttime, I would fly into Meadowlark Airport, Huntington Beach {Orange County, CA] with my mentor, Joe Finnell, in his 1956 Cessna 170 [converted to nose wheel], N2497D. No runway lights at Meadowlark at that time. There were beginnings of housing tracts near the airport, but mostly open areas with minimal obstructions. Joe used one street light, located just off the end of the runway as guidance to the runway. Great memories as we would make night flights out of Van Nuys Airport, down over LAX, near Long Beach Airport and into Meadowlark. No Class B or C airspace and no Special Use VFR corridors.

The big take away is that it is IMPORTANT to check this in your Before Taxi checks. How many just push the Continue and don't actually check the indicators.

Fortunately, those were the only pins that were removed so they would be harder but not impossible to miss.

Do they stay firm for any period of time after you pump them up? If there is air in the system they will be soft almost immediately. If the piston seals in the master cylinders are leaking fluid to the back side of the piston, that can also feel spongy. The curiosity here is that it’s in both brakes and that the recurrence of the symptoms happens at the same time in both brakes. Seems highly unlikely that those master cylinders would fail at the same time and in the exact same way. Also seems unlikely that an internal leak would manifest in both circuits at the exact same time in the exact same way. something weird is happening and I think it’s going to be difficult or anyone to diagnose without being there. Maybe start with low hanging fruit. Apply vacuum to the reservoir to try and pull any potential air out of the system. If the system won’t hold vacuum, you know you have a leak(s) somewhere.

If it is pad spring back they will be soft, but if you pump them a couple of times, the should get firm

Hi, thanks to everyone for the reaction! A member of Mooney EMPOA here in Germany offered me the part. Best regards Alex

I have a yoke mounted iPad running ForeFlight. With the G3X and GTN 650Xi, it is superfluous, but adds redundancy and I like the user interface. It happily keeps track of local time, so I set the panel avionics to UTC.

Definitely don’t forget the external cotter pin near the clevis. It prevents over stroking and damaging the shaft o-ring. I found out once

Had a Piper crack a spinner, welded and cracked again. Now it bails water off my boat cover.

It's been six years but I had a spinner crack larger than yours welded by an FAA approved shop. I'd sure try that before spending big on a new spinner.

Looks like Dallas Airpark doesn’t have any lighting. Is that so? Is it a thing to land at an unlit airport at night? Unfortunately it looks like @mike_elliottis going to get involved with this one.

Wishful thinking you can clearly see the Mooney logo on the tail. Totally sucks

Pic on the tail sure looks like the Mooney Logo.. -Don

The rotor disc maybe warped ( cupped) put a straight edge across it to check. That would cause the caliper to spring back. Paul Loewen

Below 10000 feet, not much. Maybe 3 KTS.

I don't think so. Compare the rudder cutout from the crash to this picture. Our cutout is much smaller.

I’ve had some real issues going from a lycoming to the conty, had a surefly installed last month which helped dramatically. In addition I have a new to me procedure from a bonanza pilot which has worked 5-6 times in a row. 1. mixture full rich 2. Throttle closed. 3. Low boost pump on 4. crank and increase throttle while cranking and like Mike said it finds its happy point and starts. Procedure in old bonanza POH, but not n our Acclaims BTW I’m actually starting to like the acclaim

To close this out, I ended up buying old school contact cement from 3M that comes in a can with a brush attached to the lid. It worked great, potentially too good but I won’t know unless I try to remove the panel. I don’t see a reason I would ever have to so… thank you all for your responses. Tim

Following up on this, seems like on a recent maintenance, the wires were re-installed backwards. It's been corrected and properly showing half up half left now. Thanks everyone!

I have a Vintage Mooney with a Johnson bar. I think I have an Uplock Block (the one bolted to the floor) in decent condition I could sell for much less than the E-bay seller is asking. I'll look to see if I indeed have it. John Breda

Every airplane you buy the process starts over on finding all of the things that need attention, even with a good pre-buy If it's the Eagle that Jimmy has for sale - it looks like a nice airplane. It will be a 20 year newer airframe. The long body carries some advantages, but you will go through more shock discs due to the weight. The STec-30 is a very basic autopilot though with manual trim. The advertisement says that it has an Avidyne IFD550, but the picture shows an IFD540. The Moritz gauges have been replaced with an MVP-50, so that was at least a $10,000 job by the time you cut a new panel. This one has been upgraded to leather, which is nice, another $4000 at least. The one thing that the Eagle should have had is rudder trim. Originally it had 244hp and it was certified without it. But now with 310hp you will see on the first take-off how far your right leg needs to be buried into the right rudder, and it needs to stay there for 10-20 minutes during the climb. Paint was not a Mooney strong point back when these were made, so a lot of people have repainted their Mooney from this era already (-$20000). The tanks have less capacity than the Ovation but about what you have now (75 gallons) and due to 24 years should be looked at carefully for leaks. The white paint scheme makes them easy to spot though. (EDIT: The STC raises the tank capacity to 89 gallons) Since you didn't put any of the hours on that engine there is some uncertainty on how many more hours you can get out of it. I would budget for a new engine (-$60000 ??) and maybe even order it and then run the engine on condition since it will take probably well over a year to get a new engine - not sure about that timeframe though. Then it becomes a one or two week event when the engine comes in. What will you gain? Useful load for sure. The extra few inches in the baggage area. Speeds will be about the same depending on how you fly it. Climb performance on take-off will be improved, but will degrade after 8000 feet

I don’t want to be the wet blanket either, but there’s a recent crash due to this part failing and the suction pulling it closed on itself. The part has to be strong enough to keep shape under pretty good suction and durable enough not to crumble. The result of being slightly wrong is a dead engine and possibly crash. I definitely recommend everyone order one of these through an msc. Once there are enough orders, Mooney will get some more made. I ordered through lasar.

I barely have the coordination for a scooter, I would probably lose my medical on a one wheel

Yeah, even the main display is only a flat of 2500. If it’s an LRU that would be the easiest fix, I suspect it isn’t that given the logbook history. The challenge if no one locally wants to help, I’m not sure how to get it somewhere else. it’s going to take someone patient and thorough, not something very common in thr modern world… speaking of that and for the sake of levity, I saw this today and laughed.

Go with a K, you'll love the turbo. It gives you oodles of options; it gets you out of ice, lets you climb to smoother air, lets you get off the ground and climb out of high density altitude airports. I'm sure the M20J is awesome, efficient, cheaper to own and operate and is probably even nicer to fly because the nose is lighter, but I just love the options the turbo offers.

Turbo's are the best bang for the buck; significantly enhancing my dispatch ability since I have far more weather options with the altitude abilities to climb quickly and above weather and then cruise significantly faster at altitude. Many thousand hours in Mooney's in virtually all models and no doubt in my mind that the 252/Encore is the sweet spot in Mooney effeciency and capabilities to do it all.

I have a One Wheel GT. It fits nicely in the Mooney. It takes up about as much space as one carry on bag. It goes a long way on a charge. The longest trip I have done on it was 18 miles. There is a learning curve to ride it and there is blood involved.

I always forget about that. My F has the 201 windshield mod which makes that 1000% more difficult.

With the F you just have to take off the access panel in front of the windshield and it is right there.

So I found two places who can repair these: https://aircapitoldial.com/ https://www.nimbusaviation.com/ Both places need the current panel to repair rather than purchasing a new one. Mooney has no stock or pathway to replace at current.

Just to add a bit to what the others have said. Do you have a engine monitor? if not you should An engine monitor would help isolate what event started the engine shutdown. to troubleshoot, I would verify the fuel flows, but first before I ever touch fuel flows, I pressurize the intake and exhaust system and spray soapy water to find and fix any leaks. I also clean the injectors before checking or adjusting fuel flows because the injector nozzles are the pressure restriction. Our engines fuel injection system is a fuel pump with mixture adjustment, and aneroid to automatically adjust fuel based on upper deck pressure. The throttle body has some brass plates with orifices to vary the actual fuel flow. Doing the pre-adjustment set up that i discussed and a proper FF adjustment will give you a base line for the fuel system being set correctly. Remember that with your added intercooler the max MP is ~36in. Non intercooled max is 40in and with intercooler ~36in is the same air charge just a denser and cooler air. At max MP your fuel flow should be 24.7GPM + 1gpm(a recommendation from Savvy). This additional 1GPM is the best recommendation that i have seen for our TSIO-360 engines. A little extra fuel and my engine runs cool at full power.

Yes it’s not robbery it’s common. Anything under $50 is a value. On the road below $100 is a value in my book. -Robert