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I planned an ambitious weekend and most of it worked out. My home base is FCM in Minneapolis. On Friday I planned to go to Gary, IN (GYY) to look at a sailboat. Just what I need, another hole in space into which to pour money. Saturday the 4th my youngest son and I planned to go to Bemidji for the day to see family. Then on Sunday I was going to be an all day Angel. Friday worked out well. I flew to GYY in the morning. I filed for 11,000 and had a little tailwind, not much just a few knots. I cruised at around 178 - 179 and the flight was a little over two hours. The route was the ZUMBRO6.ODI departure to JOT, then GYY. There was a little vectoring around Chicago but not much, pretty seamless. I got a crew car, drove to the lake, saw the boat, and got back to Minneapolis mid-afternoon, in time for supper with some friends. Saturday did not go as planned. On runup the engine was rough on the right magneto. The next day I had an ambitious schedule of Angel Flights and quite alot of campers I could not let down, so I scrambled to find a mechanic on the 4th. I lucked out and found John at Executive Aviation at Flying Cloud. WIth the instrumentation on the JPI 930 we were able to determine that the right mag was not firing at all on cylinder 2. He traced it to a gunked up connection at the magneto, cleaned it up, and I was back in business in about three hours. It was too late to fly that day, but my son and I had supper together and watched the fireworks. The big day was Sunday. Angel Flight Central flies patients to a camp at Moose Lake MN for kids with life threatening illness. The kids come from all over, and AFC moves more than 20 campers that day. I voluteered to bring three sisters from Lansing, IL (IGQ), and then because there were still campers in need of getting to MZH I volunteered to fly a second load, going MZH to Stevens Point, WI (STE) and back, again to bring in three campers. Let me pause a minute in describing this adventure and say something about the Mooney. First, with the turbocharger it was an easy, fast trip in the morning from FCM to IGQ, about two hours. Although we could have gone to the flight levels on the return, because there was practically no wind, I did not want to do that with two very young and flight-inexperienced children on board, so the return was a more sedate 8,000. Even so, cruise speed was a little better than 150 knots. There was another ship behind us with two more kids on the same mission, a Cessna. My passengers were delighted that we were going to beat their brothers to camp. I don't for a minute want to take anything away from my fellow Angel pilot in that Cessna, he was a great guy and I enjoyed meeting him, but to get in two loads in the day, I needed Mooney speed. MZH is a small, typical northern MN airport. One runway, and it is not long at 3200, self serve fuel only. There was another very generous Angel pilot flying 6 campers in from IN that day in a Citation, but he needed the long runway at DLH, which meant a drive for the camp staff. Yet another wonderful pilot was bringing two kids in his Malibu, but he needed the longer runway at Clocquet, another drive for the camp staff. I don't mean to take anything away from any of those generous pilots, but it is worth noting that I was able to cruise the flight levels at 170, and then put it down on that little strip near the camp, and do it all with time to spare. The first "crew" from IGQ to MZH were the three sisters, 13, 6 and 7. What a riot! Maybe a little more playing with the headsets than I would have liked. The older girl just took hers off to enjoy the quiet, I have the ISOL button that worked for me. I got alot of the "are we there yet" questions but explained to them what they could see on the moving map and GPS, so that took care of that and made it a little quieter in the cockpit. We made the trip from IGQ to MXH in about 2:45, and were able to cruise with ease above the cloud layer and its associated turbulence. It turned out they were out of fuel at MZH. I only got 11 gallons on board, but still had a couple of hours of fuel left from the IGQ to MZH trip, so I was good to fly to STE for the second load. I put fuel on there, filed a flight plan with FSS, loaded up my three passengers and we went back to MZH. Since the flight is short there was no time to go high, so we stayed at 8,000 just above the layer and made it back to MZH in about an hour. Having done two loads, I was the last plane of the day. The last adventure was the return home. It was a short flight, about 50 minutes. To make weight I had only been able to carry about 48 gallons from STE to MZH, and then there was no fuel at MZH so I had about 35 gallons left to get home, plenty of fuel for the short flight. The only exciting part was that some build up had started on my exact route home, so there was quite alot of deviating and about a half hour in turbulent IMC. I was glad I did not have campers with me, it would have been uncomfortable for them. Happily, no instrument approach at the end. It would have been fine, but I was one tired puppy. I did get routed directly over KMSP and got "the view," something that has happened a few times before. Landing on the short strip at KFCM was uneventful. So that's it. Well over two thousand miles in the air (I didn't count), fast time saving trips in the flight levels, a ton of endurance even with my 75.6 gallon tanks thanks to the low fuel usage, the ability to use the smallest of strips even with a full load. And for those who wonder whether I was in my right, careful mind putting four people and baggage in the plane, twice in one day, there was a careful w & b for each flight. These are, after all, someone's children, no unnecessary risks. I have pics, sorry I can't share them, we respect the kids privacy. I will say that as far as charitable giving is concerned, it is hard to beat flying for AF. I am sure many of us give to charities, but even with the best of them you know that a significant chunk of your contribution is going to pay the salaries of those who raise the money from you. At AF, your entire gift of your time, aircraft, and money, is going to the person in the seat next to you, and you get to spend time with them, most are delightful people, grateful for the help.

What you said was just about right. - Once long ago I saw a brand new pilot greatly overload a Cherokee 140. He was fueling it up and I stopped him. I told him the plane might very well not get off the ground and not to put any more fuel in it. Two giggly young girls and a strong looking guy all got in with the pilot. I had told the pilot not to turn the plane if climbing became difficult. Several of us watched the plane try to take off and the stress was killing me. That Cherokee flew between the tops of a few trees and we never saw the plane make the left turn he needed to get to its destination. He was just too low. It was a rented plane and those kids had no clue. If I have a "next time" I'm going to say more because I don't care what they say to me.

I finally started doing some Pilots N Paws flights recently and yesterday was one that just made you smile. On Friday I saw an urgent posting about a Boxer in one of the LA shelters that was on the kill list because of the expected overcrowding due to the 4th of July. He's an older boy and had some veterinary needs, but the people at the shelter loved him and wanted to get him out before he got put down. I already had plans to do a pleasure flight with one of my friends and her boyfriend and since I knew she loved dogs and we didn't have a destination nailed down yet I went ahead and committed to helping to save this guy. It ended up being a very overcast morning so I got to do my first true IFR departure without an instructor on board. The usual heavy socal marine layer, we were up and on top in just a couple minutes. We then flew up to KWHP and did an approach in to meet the woman who got him out of the shelter. He turned out to just be the sweetest dog, and so well behaved it's obvious someone trained him. It kills me to think that someone would spend the time to train a dog so well, then abandon him. He's not the prettiest thing at the moment but the folks at NorCal Boxer rescue are gonna get him some proper vet care and clean him up right. The flight up to Oakland was as smooth as glass and our boy Sam snuggled right up in the back seat with my friend, and they both promptly passed out. When we got there the folks at Kaiser Air were all ready for us and had brought the rescue folks out to the ramp with their car. They treated us great and had a crew car for us to get lunch with as well, and were kind enough to waive all the fees. Guess they love dogs too The trip home took a bit longer with a bit of a headwind, and we ended up having to shoot the ILS back into Palomar right at sunset which was beautiful as they descended us right to the top of the layer before catching the glide slope. Best part of the day was getting home to check my email and finding this link from the woman who dropped Sam off with us. Burned a lot of time and AVGas today, but this made it worth it. https://youtu.be/sWmFviZgp5Q I couldn't resist snapping some pics of the flight either. Dallas

You did well. At the airlines we call it CRM (cockpit resource management). That means, the Captain (CA) uses all sources of information to make the decision. That includes other people. At the same time, the First Officer is not supposed to be shy about speaking up when the CA makes what he thinks is a mistake. CRM applies even when it isn't about your plane. You were providing the pilot with more information to make a proper decision. Its easy to say what you should/would have done in retrospect, but in the heat of the moment I think you did well. Looking back, if it had been me I might have done about what you did, then afterward I might wish that I had: 1. Taken the pilot aside and talked to him in private so as not to embarrass him. 2. If he was taking the plane to an airport to have the engine overhauled I might have let him go, but offered his wife a ride in my plane (especially if she was cute). Hey, I'm old, not dead! 3. If he was planning on flying the plane back home from his destination, in other words, planned on continuing to fly the plane; I might be willing to embarrass him in front of his wife by talking about the risks he was taking. After doing that, I would once again, offer his wife a ride. After that, any decision they made would be up to them. Bob

Thanks all, this is the type of information I was looking for. Still think a J is my best choice for the mission I have in mind, short to mid trips, low altitude with no time constraint.

This Mooney is quite roomy.

I was just responding to an AOA posting yesterday when the system was updated. Apparently a weeks worth of postings were lost when the update failed. That included the AOA thread. So for whoever did that post here was my response: I'll weigh in on this. I had over 10,000 hours (about 8,300 in Mooneys at the time along with about 5,600 hours of instructing) when I decided to buy one to see if it would be of any value. I had done a lot of reading and one of the best articles is this one Wind Tunnel Test of Angle of Attack Probe - NAR Associates In the past I always made a rough calculation of landing weight and adjusted my approach speed accordingly. That speed could vary by 5 to as much as 15 knots depending on weight. The AOA has made that calculation unnecessary. I have been using it now for over 6 months and feel it was a very good investment. Proper use would be to slow to the donut when on approach, note that speed, then fly that speed. I have become so comfortable with the AOA that I noticed that I unconsciously flew the AOA to the flare point recently. I have surprised myself by being able to reduce my approach speed 5-6 knots comfortably. The donut does indicate different speeds at different weights. In my opinion they work well, and I would encourage their purchase and use. I have the Alpha Systems Eagle with the Valkyrie HUD.

Well I have decided to go for ADS-B, but now what technology ? During my flight planning, I use ForeFlight for most things, route planning, weather, winds and all, but once in the aircraft, my primary navigation is on my GTN 650. I use the ForeFlight during flight to look for radio frequencies and airport data confirmation and all. I called Garmin just for fun and they told me I need a bunch of stuff to be ADSB-In and Out for 2020 and get weather and traffic on my GTN 650. I would need a Flight Stream 210, GLD88 for weather and traffic, plus new transponder with Extender squitter since I can fly higher than FL180, or upgrade my current GPS. I think all of that will have to wait to somewhat near 2020, and just go with Stratus 2 for now and get use to looking at my Ipad for traffic and weather during flight ! I'm sure cheaper or better solution will come up as we get near 2020 and the heap of aircraft will need to update to meet the ADS-B 2020 requirements.

Do you think he was influenced by the presence of the parachute?

So I guess everyone already knows. Yves flew me into Clarence's shop on Sunday where we planned the next steps to get C-FSWR back into the air. She was in the local avionics shop for the 24 month Pitot-Static check (apparently failed the pitot side of that too), but we had it back in Clarence's shop by 10 am and started filling in the logs. The journey log was good enough for me to do the 40 minutes over the airport at 3000' AGL (4000' ASL) followed by the 90 minutes airport to airport fly by running it at 2500 - 24" for the 75% power (first hour) and then alternatively at 2500 - 22" for the 65% power / 75% power run for the next hour per the Lycoming break in procedure. See the pics below (not very good, but showing the actual conditions). I used the iPhone App to determine the settings for 75% and 65% at given altitudes. Then the oil change. No issue. Back in the air for another hour. I looks like CBs here tomorrow morning, but later in the day, they may clear out enough for me to fly home. All told I should get another three or four hours of break in, bringing my total to 6 or 7 hours. The last three hours will be from Ottawa the next day and then she is good to go for formation practice with Yves and Houman. If Andrew and his team are not available on the Saturday, one of us will fly formation with Houman, while the other can act as safety pilot for him, if he wishes. If not, we will be doing three ship formation flying on Saturday next. Stand by for the pics and vids from that effort.

I feel the same way....there are so many pilots in the world who should not have a license. When innocent passengers are involved you should say something..... Even if it is just the pilot you should say something if you see an unsafe condition or decision. My copilots have saved me many times...... How would you feel if the pilot killed himself or his passengers or flew into a house full of people.....how would you feel if a first responder died while trying to rescue the guy that was clearly overloaded.... I would not sleep well that night or many nights afterward..... If anyone sees me doing something stupid (besides flying in a single engine airplane) I will gladly take a delay for your concerns......

Owning a plane is the best, isn't it? I'm anxious to start doing P-n-P flights as well. My wife and I just started volunteering at our local humane society and I'm looking forward to helping some their animals find a good home.

I've only had my Ovation for about a year, so my experience is more limited but I have 4 years of J to compare it to. Any retractable is going to add some to your maintenance costs compared to a fixed gear. It will add a few hundred to the cost of the annual, just because they have to spend more time checking gear rigging, etc. If you need to do maintenance on it, realize that changing gear shock discs is $106 PER DISC plus probably 2 hours per side (4 hours altogether for the mains, plus 3 hours for the nose gear). Realize that with the heavier long-bodies, you'll have to change the discs more often. Moving to the engine, that's two more cylinders to inspect, two more chances for exhaust stacks to go bad, etc. Of course that won't hit you every year, but when it finally does it will add several hundred to the overall costs. (I just found a cracked muffler while doing an oil change last week, and for safety sake we pulled the whole exhaust and sent it out for inspection since it was seven years old. That will probably set me back $2K or so...but I err on the side of safety, so that's just me.) You'll have speed brakes which work wonders, but when they need maintenance they need to be pulled and sent to PreciseFlight in Oregon. That's $800, at least it was in April of this year! So there are definitely higher expenses, any of which can get you at any point but probably won't all hit you at the same time. The good news is that all this is worth it, because the smile you'll have on your face when you're cruising along at 170 knots listening to that Continental purr is priceless.

Good on you for participating mate. There were a lot of planes of all types going in to that little rural airstrip on Sunday, it was good to see GA giving back. As for the rewards, well, the father of one family gave me a Starbucks card and I am drinking my coffee this morning, and there were a couple of hugs in there somewhere from a 6 year old. That too. BTW, if there are any members of Angel Flight Central reading this, they have to move all the kids back home this coming Saturday and I am probably out of it this weekend. They have a midpoint stop for the Illinois and Indiana kids, but they could sure use a long range Mooney or two. The loads are not heavy, the campers are kids and they are only allowed 30 lbs. of bags. Go get em. Just come with your sense of humor, six year olds on the headsets is not something the FAA teaches about.

I didn't look it up but I am almost certain that Continental has a maximum oil consumption value beyond which the engine is deemed not airworthy. He was clearly beyond limits continued operation would be a violation but if he is willing to put his wife and himself in the plane I wouldn't be calling the FAA to report him. His mechanic on the other hand probably shouldn't let the plane out of the shop if it goes in for any reason.

Click on this link to read the issue: http://themooneyflyer.com/ In this issue: Pictures & Story of The First Mooney Flyer Event Mooneys are Built Like a Mack Truck Fuel Starvation Grabs Another Mooney For the Want of a Nail Remove Before Flight Plus Upcoming Mooney Events, Have You Heard, Ask The Top Gun, and a Product Review of Fly Ties phil & jim

All three sisters and two brothers who were in the following aircraft have the same issue. They are all from a large adoptive or foster family, I don't know the details but bravo to the parents. The nature of the illness, identities of the kids, etc. are private. The pilot is given the information but we do not give it out to others, sorry. What matters to us, is that they have a need and we have a means to fill it.

I bought a plane knowing it was missing the first log but had a pre-buy done. All of this done on my own with no guidance by something like AOPA or experienced owners on a site like this. Needless to say, it was a cluster-gaggle. First log was missing since it identified the plane had been considered destroyed in a storm and de-registered. The person who bought it as scrap "rebuilt" it and my purchase solved his problems. I flew it for several years, but when I went to sell it myself, I had since learned about pulling all of the history from the FAA and having escrow companies do similar types of things. Took a significant hickey when I sold it. Wrote it off to education and swore to never repeat the process. Fast forward to buying my J model in 2013. Lots of research, all logs and I can even tell you the owners of it from day 1 to present. Some are even here on Mooneyspace and have shared their knowledge of it with me. Would I buy a plane without all of the logs? Probably not, but if I even considered it, I would track down owners from day one and find out what I could about the plane in question. And if a shop lost the logbook, I would expect the owner of the plane when the log was lost to have something I could take back to the shop for them to verify the facts. That is assuming they were still in business. How many of us would go to a shop that lost logbooks? Just my $0.02 worth. John

-I own three planes and have all logs to each going back to their test flights. -Logbooks represent in kind the integrity of the owner during his/her period of ownership of the plane. -I can only make judgement the integrity of the seller. -A lot of undocumented repairs, etc, have occured during the life of many 40+ year-old planes -I don't trust logbooks to represent the integrity of the plane, rather only to document "legal or not." -Safe or not-safe is determined by a thorough inspection. -Planes with missing logs, like planes with damage history, have their value discounted on the market, legitimate or not. -I would only purchase anyplane after it passed a thorough inspection. -I wouldn't hesitate to buy a plane with missing older logs but I would expect a discount, or I'd pass. -I would pass on recent (i.e. <10 year-old) missing logs unless the plan had a lot of documented airtime since the logs were lost, though I probably wouldn't want such a bird anyway.

Same here. Probably not a big deal but I found it extremely annoying.

I would wished him a good flight and go on about my business....

We were spared on Saturday from this fate... But the gas did still come... Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I agree, maybe it's just lack of knowledge about the event? The coverage and gossip other accidents get is nuts. Maybe we are all numb to it. It stinks that there is more info on 5 goofballs that all live in a Mooney wreck than a signal fatality. Those that do everything wrong still get the chance to tell a story. This could have been this guys only mistake. I know for myself, Its hard to justify aviation as profession when so may are cavalier about it. It's one of the only hobbies I know of that demands a professional attitude. Hopefully, some light can be seen during this investigation. -Matt

Sounds great!! Cute Beagles!!! Funny you should mention that.. one of these dogs pooped in his crate, 30 minutes into a 2 hour flight. Farts go away, but poops remain for all to "not enjoy" hah!

Lycoming Service Instruction gives the following formula for max. allowable oil consumption for all their recip. engines: .006 x BHP x 4 / 7.4 = qt./hr that comes to .65 qt/hr. for a 200hp J. Come on, anything more than qt/7hr.s too much...says WHO?! I would begin by checking the breather hose tube where it connects to the alumn. tube and make sure the vent hole is open & clear, then do a compression check and follow up with a bore scope of the weak cyl. to check for excessive scoring. Could be as simple as some stuck or broken rings. Certainly more expensive items on a Lycoming to repair than pulling jugs & replacing pistons & rings. Bore scoping the valves & doing the "wobble test" could be more conclusive. Also, how does the engine perform? run hot? start-ups? developing full power? What kind of cyl. finish, regularly flown, etc.

In the U.S. Most cabbies "lease" the 1991 crown Victoria cab for 100-200$ For 8 hours, and have to drive a lot to even begin making money. Many find its more money for them to drive for uber. That comment about all the minions making the few rich guys ever richer perfectly describes the cab companies.

A little less hair and a lot less weight. No more sidewalk cracking for me! Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

That's why I still lust after the Eagle and the Warthog.... Having lost my flying virginity in a Phantom, that's what I still miss and dream about....often. Flying a Mooney is nice, different, and less demanding, and I get to make most decisions, but being strapped in, practicing ACM is where my heart will always be. You're a fortunate man, MO. The entire F-35 program seems out of control. FUBAR.

Wish I could be there. I hope these get-togethers happen more often

Browncbr1, it'll be worth your while to speak to Mr. Bob Bramble about your AI. http://www.aerolabaviation.com (913) 680-4169 He will steer you in the right direction and will save you money.

Well this was not a stupid reason why I was grounded...but for sure this was a strange reason... Last Tuesday we had a volcano erruption close to the airport... So I drove as close as I could totake a picture. http://mooneyspace.com/gallery/image/36816-volcano/

Or do something original like the member here whose plane is painted red, white & blue like the Texas flag, or the ones who paint their planes in honor of particular warbirds. Or even the paint job put on my own plane two owners ago . . . These vintage schemes are at least different from the overwhelming number of Mooneys that are color on the bottom, white on top, with a straight dividing line of thin gold stripes. Done well, most paint jobs look good. Spend money getting a well done job, whatever scheme or design you settle on. I'm thinking about nose art, but am cowardly,enough that I may go with a wrap instead of painting it on. If I could ever settle on just one that I like!

FlyDave, all of us here at Custom Aircraft thank you for all the kind words; we specialize in repairs as well as custom systems for the experimental market, and we do aim to please! Our slogan is "Big enough to service but small enough to care" Sorry your experience with Knisley Welding wasn't as good, but I can tell you Knisley produces some of the best exhaust systems out there. If someone is looking for new PMA parts their the shop to go to. Thanks again and Happy Flying. Sincerely, Mary Ann & Clinton Anderson Custom Aircraft Parts customaircraft.com

C-FSWR Lives!!!!!! Clarence tells me we are almost done. After this run up he was letting it cool down before the next run and de bugging of EGT issues. Hoping the new oil cooler arrives tomorrow. He has to remove the test prop and install my new one. Then the new governor and the cowl. Ron (the engine builder from http://www.reliablehorsepower.com/) advises he would like first oil change after 2 hours of break in flying to get the molybdenum disulphide (that came with the new cam) out of the engine . However, no formation flying until break in is complete, nor circuits/bump-and-go's. Finish the straight and level for break in first. If all goes well tomorrow, Yves and I will probably head to Waterloo on the weekend to pick it up. Two hours local for the oil change, then two hours low and hot back to Ottawa. Hope to fly six more break in hours before the end of Tuesday. That gives me 10 days to get a couple more practice hours with Yves before flying to Madison. I would say: Wish me luck, but none of this is about luck (defined as the happy confluence of preparedness and opportunity). Hard work, technical competence, planning, and some carpe diem. I fully intend to celebrate behind some scotch in the Mooney Caravan tent on Sunday evening of our arrival. Thank you Clarence. Thank you Yves. Thank you Ron. C-FSWR post install runup.mov

Please please please don't, his picture ladies are disgusting ...

Nice picture John... by all means :-) My son lives near you... I'll get in touch when we go visit... currently planned for beginning of September. We also love dogs... we own two beagles. Yves

Ah, geez, here we go again with the nitrogen thing...

I know for an undisputed FACT that our cabins are quite roomy. This is one of my recent Pilots N Paws trips with 2 people, 8 dogs with all of these crates.. no problemo!

Hi flyntgr1, the baffling will be part of the STC and the air filter will be relocated, so yes you will need to install the new baffling to sign off the STC. Hi Matt, I really hope to have my airplane at Osh so people can see this up close versus showing parts and pictures. It's going to be close as to whether I make it or not right now. Thanks, David