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As a doc who enjoys maintaining my aircraft, there are a lot of parallels between mechanics and doctors. I typically have the same mindset and level of focus when I'm doing say - an oil change - as I have when I'm say - doing a procedure for a child. Each done incorrectly or carelessly has a set of dire consequences. We've seen the MIFs outlined in previous threads. I'm happy to pay a fair price for competent work and more for excellent work. But you don't need to go to the "Mayo Clinic" of A&Ps to find a good mechanic. There are also $hit mechanics in huge fancy shops (or apprentices - kind of like the meds students of the mechnaic world). My latest mx mantra after being @&:$'d by a couple of big places in my short time as an aircraft owner. Find an independent, local A&P who you trust and develop a relationship with them. Treat them fairly and pay them for what they do and it will pay dividends in the long run.

My '64D is running the Whelen HDACF with Whelen strobe/nav tips. I would think that you are able to get a used set up fairly cheap with the fancy new LED models out now. It looks like a simple installation for your A&P. Make sure the supply is "jumpered" to alternate wingtip strobes - it is waaaay brighter. I think it's brighter than LED strobes. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I would not ever overlook the Encore. In fact one of the reasons for hunting down and acquiring one of the elusive 252's was because it could be converted to an Encore. A couple of notables on this board, @Parker_Woodruff and @kortopates have done this very conversion. I hope my 252 will be added to that list soon. There is a large box in my garage right now with almost all of the parts needed for the conversion. It's taken awhile to find and acquire them, but I'm almost there.

Who says Raptor was in the right seat? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Yes, he forgot the Encore

Not extravagant at all! [emoji846] Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I know that feeling. I took my girlfriend and her two female best friends flying for dinner down to Daytona one night. They were beyond exstatic and of course the girlfriend loves to showboat about my plane. We get to Daytona, its dark out, pretty city lights. ATC is busy so they are nervous for their first landing. It was a cool night, not a breeze anywhere, and weight in the back seats helps...I greased that landing like a lubed up pig in a KY wresting contest. Just pitch up slowly...slowly and just feel the rolling effect of the wheels. Not even a chirp from the tires. They were beyond amazed on how "safe" it was after I told them it was fine. Of course I was shouting in my head how good that was but kept a cool composure and told them that's normal. And of course I got pictures of the three girls in my plane: For my worst landing....Windy day. I think AWOS at Craig Jax said 26 gusting to 33, almost a crosswind. What sucks is my friend talked me into letting him left seat. Winds weren't bad when we left my airport, but got worse the closer we got to the coast. So I am trying to land this thing right seat, being blown sideways. Made two go arounds and last one I made it, I slammed it so hard onto the runway I swore I broke something. Since then I've been practicing no flap landings and It seems to lessen the xwind drift, but does create some haste with how high the nose is.

I feel your pain 3 months for paint, now 6 weeks for avionics. This will be longer thanks to Irma. Never complain I though 133DB was done for on Sunday. Phil (Tomlinson avionics) never made me happier when he called Monday and said his hanger made it!

From your lips to God's ears..

For your 3rd language, your English is quite good! Happy to have you here.

And you guys talk about me posting fat women photos. What about this guy posting naked Mooney photos?

She ain't going to get excited about 5".

@Cody Stallings had a couple comments noting that he liked the Hartzell scimitar blade best for Mooney's, that's actually why I'm thinking of the new prop

$1600 is a little over twice what it should cost to reseal your propeller. With that being said, your Orings being 16 yrs old it's time to get new ones. You made the right decision pulling it off for service, it won't get any better on its own.

That won't work. There are no short cuts here. While you may get away with Cherry rivets on the right side, on the left you will be drilling into the radios on the left rack. And if you do it you will make it almost impossible to remove them properly in the future. Removing the radio racks properly isn't that hard.

Maybe you should get s second opinion on the blades? I know that can be a PITA.

I revised the above post to add an additional auction item. L3 has donated a ride with the AeroShell Acrobatic Team!

I am not sure I like the flashing Red port light, it seems it could be easily confused with the red beacon anti-collision light rather than a red nav light. And of course it's not TSO'd.

This isn't going to read well in the NTSB report.

When my engine is hot, I don't prime at all. And the fuel pump on a carbureted airplane doesn't do anything once the carburetor bowl is filled. I just go mixture full rich, throttle at idle, and crank. If it goes more than 3 or 4 blades, start to open the throttle to 1/4-1/2". The engine (like all of them) is simply trying to find a mixture that will support combustion. The more ambient heat available, the less fuel is needed.

I don't know Brad, I am a CFI and flying right seat if you are not one is (at least perhaps) not a great idea. Yes the brakes are an issue, but I would worry about an insurance claim. I have a CFI buddy in Naples who owns a 172 that he rents. Two guys who rented it from him had the one guy who had his private let his buddy fly left seat (no ticket) and they bent the plane on the landing. Insurance said that the guy in left was acting as PIC so no insurance coverage. Be careful!

IGot to do an IFR currency flight and learn some of the local airspace a bit better. 4 approaches in 2.1 hours - almost all of it start to finish in IMC. It felt good to get some rust gone. IGX - Vor 27 then RDU ILS 05R then TTA ILS 03 x 2 Excellent ATC from RDU approach and Fayetteville. They seemed to enjoy me doing approaches to outliers as much as I did. Unfortunately I didn't pick my head up to take any photos. Ended up being busy for most of the flight (in a good way). There was a cool B-17 parked on the ramp. It's not leaving until Thursday so I'll hopefully get a chance to get a closer look soon.

The best panel is the one that you know and gets you safely to where you want to go. Bradfuscious say.

I wish they had made a plain white bulb too - would have been great for the coffe grinder and tail lights.

What's your mission? Faster can be accomplished by a bunch of different body styles. Mountains ? Pacific NW ice? You're staring at a M20M bravo as Don indicated. Mountains or want to get higher to pick up tail winds? 231 or 252 (252s are really hard to come by). A good clean / modded E is about the fastest 200 HP NA short / mid body you're going to find. You may just be a good match with what you already got and don't know it ...?

We were among the lucky ones down here. Lost power for about 36 hours while there are millions without,, some of whom have been told that they may not have their power restored for another 10-12 days! No property damage other than a big pile of tree branches to deal with. Same at my Mom's place where my wife and I spent last night (Mom had power). My airplane was fine at Hidden Lake FA40. The only damage I saw at the airport was one (1) downed tree in the grass behind a row of hangars. I feel for those who have suffered damage to theirs.

on our drag bike we would "gas port" the pistons, but our compression ratio was pushing 17:1

Psh, best mid body turbo? Clearly you've forgotten one contender.

This is 7 miles from my house

To all interested parties, the 252 is under contract. Thank you all so much for your interest and concern for Carol.

A retired proctologist decided he wanted to be a mechanic, after a few years of classes it was time for the final exam. The exam was straight forward, disassemble an engine, reassemble and it had run. After the instructor handed him his grade, he questioned how he scored so high, the instructor said 25 points for disassembly, 25 for assembly, 50 cause it started and ran, I gave you an additional 50 points for doing it all through the exhaust pipe

Best landings I've ever made were in my Mooney. Worst one too.

I installed 1/2" closed cell foam on the sides and ceiling, foam backed carpet and even put carpet in front of the rudder pedals, it's still pretty loud, would be a pain to do the firewall but I think that's where most of the noise comes from

Call Cody Stallings. He is a fellow Mooneyspacer. He did my IRAN this spring. he is a straight shooter.

I am no expert, but here's the way I have flown my J for 10 years. I also own a 1977 J with 150 as max gear extension and have a couple of personal preferences to descent and landing. If on an instrument approach I try to level off about 3-4 miles before the initial approach fix at 18 on MP which gets me well below 150mph. Back off on MP until about 90 Kts and drop the gear at the final approach fix and ride the glideslope about 16 on the MP. If i am VFR in smooth air then I generally keep the gear up and descend as tolerated keeping her LOP and MP below 25 which gives great speed with descent rate of 500fpm or more as tolerated by pax and depending on turbulence without too much speed buildup. When I am about 2-4 miles from traffic pattern I will back off slowly to 18 on MP, pull the nose up to slow down and gain a couple hundred feet, and drop the gear when it's about 130 mph. Enjoy the J

Ya'll be careful when you get flying again. I was only able to make one flight between mid-April and late August. R3cognize that your limits will have degraded . . . I made it through an IPC, but my landings still need work.

Labor Day Weekend trip to UT. CA to UT Race – Mooney in the Morning Just another day with the Mooney time machine, giving you back what Winston Churchill once said is “one thing that can never be retrieved,” time. (I guess he didn’t have a Mooney…)

Ressurecting this old thread in anticipation of Mooney Summit V, so long as Irma cooperates. Mooney Summit V participants will have the opportunity to bid on the following silent auction items during the event: Lightspeed Zulu 3 headset Set of 12 Tempest fine wire spark plugs Jeppesen G1000 PilotPak, Full USA coverage (1-year subscription) MSC annual at Oasis Aero, Inc. (KBDH) MSC annual at Daytona Aircraft (KDAB or 7FL6) MSC annual at AGL Aviation (KMRN) Ride with the AeroShell Acrobatic Team, during OSH or SNF practice All of the above items are in addition to the raffle that has become a Mooney Summit tradition. I will post updates if auction specifics should change. Bidding opens on September 28, just a little over two weeks from today. Please see the following Silent Auction fact sheet for further information. Looking forward to seeing everyone at Mooney Summit V, assuming Irma cooperates. Summit V silent auction fact sheet v2.docx

It's a used JetProp & two weeks ago.

Technically this is yesterdays flight.... Flew back from KAPA to KCVO via KJER for fuel yesterday. First leg was VFR at 10,500 with plenty of deviating due to terrain and weather. I had initially planned an earlier fuel stop and partial fuel coming out of KAPA, but later decided to make the fuel stop farther along at KJER due to cost and to get most of the terrain behind me. Climb rate coming out of KAPA wasn't great but there was plenty of room to climb before heading west. Once heading west past Medicine Bow the convective activity and wind had cleared much of the smoke so it was much easier to see the build ups and rain shafts to dodge. Once into KJER and getting fuel(nice fuel stop, minimal terrain, low prices, internet and restrooms available), and then parking like a Cirrus to run in and use their internet to re-file my IFR for the next leg I headed out IFR at 10,000 for the rest of the journey with no real deviation except cutting a corner to go direct DSD to clear some buildups. Past KJER had convective activity to the south but clear until about 50 East of DSD when the smoke came back in. To the south looked really bad with clouds and smoke and the strike finder was displaying a bunch of activity down there. KCVO had a normal cloud layer(not smoke or convective) at about 2500, so I got to fly the RNAV approach back in, and got my hold for currency. KAPA to KJER: 4.3 hours KJER to KCVO : 3.3 hours Important notes: next time I decide to camp and travel and take the tiny bicycle, do it over lower terrain or figure out how to shave off at least 100lbs off the gear collection and/or accept partial fuel and shorter legs. Park like a Cirrus day... That was supposed to be a couple of mostly straight lines...

Goodness you must be a bad shot.

Yeah, easily. Just make sure that out of that 800 lbs your carrying, about 400 lbs of it is fuel. ;-)

I'm no Albert Epstein, but I'm pretty sure your turbo-normalized 1975 M20F doesn't have a carb to drop. It's fuel injected.

Yesterday morning I flew to Cabelas at KOWA. Picked up a neat little flashlight with a nice strobe feature that clips nicely onto my shoulder harness. I also picked up a headlamp that the red light can turn on and off with the push of one button. No need to cycle through the other blinding colors, I have been looking for one like this for years. On the way home I took a detour to fly over the field I woke up in 7 months ago. I can't explain how good it felt to be "here" flying above that field in another Mooney. I miss my old plane but this one is growing on me. Cheers, Dan

Compression tests can be very fickle. How the compression test is done, the equipment used, how hot/cold and the alignment of the rings at any particular time can all affect the readings. Since yours are all still pretty good and generally uniform readings, there's nothing to do but note them and consider the trend in susequent compression checks.

ever the pessimist, my opinion is unless you're an a&p there are no diamonds in the rough, only money pits.

I'll throw my two cents in as I'm a newer owner to the Mooney species. Buy one in decent running condition and be able to sell it in running condition. I don't know your financial position but I wouldn't dive into a project that has too many potential negative surprises. I paid less than $20k for mine yet I'm at least $35k over that now - and I bought mine in excellent running condition (though over TBO). Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Just to give you an idea of the hellish cost of avionics, I just went through this. In fact, this airplane closely resembles mine, but we paid more, the engine was ten years old and 1200hrs, we gambled and thought we could get some service from it. we lost on that deal. we went back and forth for the better part of 4 years about a G430, but in the end, we kept rejecting that idea because it was obsolete and install cost is a high part of installing one. Flat rte repairs for the com flip button or the knob, or Garmin's eventual discontinuance of parts made spending 13-14K on a 430 a bad value. (6500$ for 430W, 3K for labor, 2K indicator, 1500 audio panel.). 530W similae, but 1500$ more. We didnt go for it in 2011 and 2017 wasnt looking better, prices were the same. Nope. The iFD540 was a strong contender, actually I preferred it. I went and flew a friend's 201 that had one, and then went and powered up a friend's Cheyenne II and played with the installed GTN750, and the G530 right below it. It took about 5 minutes to determine the GTN750 was it. The 650 has this horrible drag left-right interface for entering fixes, and NFW was that thing going in my panel. Wentworth happened to have a GTN750 for 12,500$, which was twice the cost of a G430W but cheaper than a iFD540, and 4K more than a 530W. Oh, but since everything else was obsolete, this was going to be fun. Both VOR indicators were obsolete, our KMA20 audio panel was giving us problems, the COM2 KX170B worked great but it wont fit in the LH side of the stack, another 700$ to "re-install" it on the RH side of the stack. Now that and the transponder, also obsolete, fill up the RH stack so much we cant fit the Aera660. And the autopilot will do little more than track "direct", which is has always done. So, the SN3308 HSI. Garmin's offerings weren't available, or even forecast, and the King HSI is complicated and hellishly expensive to repair, and since then theyre gotten worse. Aspen is a 12K unit, and it's old tech, its ten years old. We needed an extra hole for an engine monitor, since ours was flaking out. an HSI was needed, and the Sandel seemed to be the only thing cheap. GPSS and the 1C388-3 radio coupler enables the autopilot to fly radius turns and holding patterns. the final straw that broke the camel's back, the GTX345r remote transponder. Wife and I got into several huge fights about this, she was wrong and still she wont admit it Anyways, these things are 7K installed. the GTX335 for 3K deal wasnt even on the horizon. weather and traffic on that huge screen is nice, you dont really need an ipad now. I found a guy on eBay who was in the unfortunate position of owning a GTX345r that was the wrong type for his aircraft, and he couldnt return it. 5K plus sales tax is 5400$ here. I got the transponder for 4600$. 5K now laid in, or 7K in 18mo. Another couple huge fights. I bought the transponder. I'm used to flying glass cockpit jets, 747, 737Ng, stuff like that. Onboard weather radar, ARINC429 turn anticipation LNAV, HSI on glass, real stuff. We're relocating to the east coast soon, and real IFR is going to a regularly occuring event. Anyways, we went from this: to this: to THIS: Here's my old lady collecting yet another air race trophy. The airplane does seem a couple knots faster, the CG is further aft due to the lightened radios in the panel and more remote boxes on the rear shelf. I even got into the soup on the way back from the avionics shop, shot some DME ARC approaches to an ILS and even collected my 500$ rebate. It was a non-event. I removed all the radios and all the old wiring, installed the KG102 remote gyro, the KMT112 flux gate, KN62A DME, and all the wiring (bundle 2" in diameter) was brought to the front. The avionics shop cut me a real deal on labor. NOTHING was bought new, it was all used. We sold everything that came out of the aircraft for market value, and applied the 500$ ADSB rebate too. And when the dust settled, it was 35,500$. Shocking... and this is just a mid level upgrade. But we have a large screen current production GPS, slimline, modern COM/NAV 2, remote ADSB in-out transponder with wx/trafffic on screen, HSI and GPSS roll steering. And I only had to rip the band-aid off once. This is counter to my usual methods...

Well, I was blown away this past weekend. I am part of the oldest established "Pilot's Organization" in Michigan that was started in 1939 by a local aviation pioneer, Mario Fontana. Anyway, we had the August monthly meeting / dinner and a new member attended, a local business woman who has just started her private pilot lessons. At the end of the meeting I asked her what prompted her to become interested in learning to fly. She said she had been looking for something new to do for a while and grabbed her phone and showed me a picture of my pickup truck with the billboard for our airport day on the trailer behind it. She said "THE FOURTH OF JULY PARADE" and my entry (which she had no idea I was the person driving it). Guess it's nice to know the work put out to enlighten the public actually pays off sometimes. Tom

2nd cross country to Kerrville for a weekend at the river. Couldn't leave the airport though without a photo like this! A little dark but worth the turbulence to get there yesterday.