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My ten year old daughter and I went to the Southeast Regional Fly-In (SERFI) in October. When registering, the lady checking us in asked my daughter if she wanted our Mooney to be judged in the competition. Of course, my daughter enthusiastically agrees and commences to completing the entry form (in her name naturally). Today, to our surprise, a plaque arrives in the mail awarding my daughter and Mooney the Contemporary Reserve Champion. Although I have not made it home to see it yet, my daughter has already advised me that the plaque is going in her room and will never see the hangar. LOL!

+1 for the APS class. The best 1 AMU I've spent as an owner. +1 for altitude as the most important safety commodity. I still don't understand pilots who climb slow with the gear hanging out waiting to use up all the useful runway. Once I'm off the ground I want all the altitude I can get as quickly as I can get it.

I've been playing around with this for a couple days. The hard part is modeling the turning radius.

I have a "helper."

Hi Marauder, Your cooler will hit the engine mount if you install the STC doubler as it comes in the kit. I installed my doubler on Matt’s airplane last night and we have about 3/4 inch clearance now. I’m thinking of doing my own STC for the cooler relocation now as it should be fairly simple and to correct the problem with the currently available STC.

Farewell, Andy. If there's someone you can't ignore, there's a built-in ignore feature. It works very well, the only thing Ignored Users post that you will ever see is if someone else quotes them in a reply. Makes it a nicer experience . . . .

Brian, I flew a lowly M20E for the kind of mission you outline for many years. Based in NC I traveled to Chicago, Philly, Cleveland, Boston, etc. in the wintertime w/o any deicing equipment or any onboard weather info except for a Stormscope. Very seldom did I have to scrub and go airline. I averaged 250 hours a year for 11 years. That was 30+ years ago and there is a great deal more capabilities available now than then. Since useful load and interior space are not an issue for you I would think that a short body or mid-body would get you the most bang for the buck in terms of acquisition and operating costs. That's M20E through M20K. The Ks are turbo if you decide you want to suck O2 and fly the flight levels. If most of your business trip are east of the Rockies that is not necessary. This might help you get acquainted with the maze of models Mooney has built on the M20 type certificate! http://www.mooneyevents.com/chrono.htm Es and Fs are "vintage" but Mooney airframes are very strong and unless beset by corrosion have no practical service limitation. Many have been well maintained and updated with features that were introduced in the J (201) that was the flagship of the fleet for 10 years beginning in 1977. In your budget range, no plane came out of the factory with a panel that you would find acceptable today so you'll be looking for a plane that has been updated since 2010 or priced so that you can equip it with the latest and greatest. For example, you should be able to buy a nice M20J with many hours left on an engine overhaul and good paint and interior for under $100,000 and spend another $50,000 for a very nice glass panel, ADS-B I/O etc. All of these models are honest round numbers 150 ktas on 10 gph cruisers except that the turbo K can do a little better if you're willing to go above about 15,000'. Range with IFR reserves should be 600 nm or more. Welcome to MooneySpace, happy hunting.

I didn't want to clog up the Springfield, OH off-field landing thread with this, and I think it's an important topic. I climb at full power in the Acclaim, and as an APS attendee and reader of the engine manual, I'm convinced that there is no additional engine wear or increased likelihood of catastrophic failure from climbing at full power. Higher detonation margins and better cooling at full power are undeniably "good" for the engine. What there is: increased safety. This incident has been widely written about, and it's a testament to the pilot's airmanship and the importance of climbing at a rate > engine out sink rate. The prop departed a Malibu on climbout from Aspen. It doesn't get much worse than that except for maybe being IMC instead of visual. This pilot was able to maintain control at best glide and return to Aspen. Amazing. My Acclaim is just now getting the 310HP STC, and even with only a puny 280HP, this plane will climb, at typical weights, at 1200-1400 FPM. Class B restrictions notwithstanding, I can well out-climb my glide, meaning passing a safe altitude for the impossible turn happens very quickly. To me, this is a really important safety of flight feature and well worth a couple AMU's to bump the power and climb rate. -dan

I know its slightly controversial but you could increase the turning radius by pushing down on the tail (raising the nose) and rotating the plane around the point between the mains. Alternatively given a good enough surface you could probably rest the noise on a furniture dolly. -Robert

Eh, close enough

C3 or C2. Much more powerful! Of course if you went to a 2 ship formation and one flew the first and the other flew the fifth then you would have a power chord formation! Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

The first time we proposed getting one through the fence, I was the idiot to try it with what I described. We tried it the day before the Parade to make sure it was doable and it took us a while (being pretty careful not to bang any aluminum). Once you've done it a few times and get the trick, we can usually maneuver one through in less than 5 minutes (longer on narrower gates, but not much). The key is to full deflect the nose tire twice on every forward and rearward move, for about half the move each way. Your goal is to move the mains sideways so you are shifting the plane to clear the wing on the gate post that is still on the other side. This past summer, Chad (FBO operator) was running the tow bar on a Cherokee (he's a big boy, so he moves the plane like its a tricycle). His daughter was watching one wing, I was on the other and his son was at the rear of the plane watching the Horizontal stab. I didn't notice his boy (19 years old) was "aiding" a bit at the back, with his hands on the vertical stab/fairing near the rudder. Chad full turned the nose wheel half way through one push and his son's hand got caught between the fairing and the rudder. He squealed pretty good and got blood on the airplane. IT HURT. Just make sure who ever is helping keeps their hands out of harms way. Looking at your gate picture, I agree with SheRugal on loosening the clamps on the hinges. That will allow the gate to open flat to the fence and also gain you nearly a foot on your opening. Wish I was there to help. Tom

There is so much variation in fuel tank capacity of same model Mooney's reported by different owners I would never trust anyone else data. The whole point of the exercise that Andy refers to above is to find out what your tank capacity is. Don't you want to know what your tanks really holds?

Mainly because there is nothing turbo normalized about the Acclaim, despite how Mooney marketed it as such. That is the biggest misunderstood myth about the Acclaim, what Mooney did was take the TSIO-550-G and de-rate down from 310HP to 280HP because they didn't need the full 310HP to claim the fastest single piston and management at the time thought 310HP was too much for the Mooney tail without beefing it up. Then to remove some of the stigma of a hot burning turbo, rather than call it for what it was, the marketing folks miss-represented it as turbo normalized because they felt that would help sell a cooler running engine after the Bravo's reputation for running hot and justified it by saying the maximum continuous MAP was only a little over sea level pressure. But the engine is a full fire breathing turbocharged TSIO-550-G complete with dual turbochargers and intercoolers using turbo 7.5:1 pistons. In contrast a TN engine begins with a non turbocharged engine with 8.5:1 pistons and then the turbocharging system is added on with redline MAP limited to sea level. All the STC did was return it to it full 310HP setup, but since this wasn't originally done by Mooney, they needed to get an STC approval. I guess you could add they proved the tail really wasn't too small too. Mooney later bought the STC but as the airframe manufacturer they don't need an STC. They probably just didn't want someone else profiting off of their design and short sighted HP limitation given the popularity of the mod.

Whatever you wind up doing to get it through the fence, take pics!

I rationalize cost thus: Since I already pay the fixed costs whether I fly or not, I can go fly for an hour, shoot an approach or two, cruise around some, and land back at my Home airport all for about $100. (30 gallons of JetA at around $3) So I tell myself it’s cheaper to fly a turboprop than renting a beat up 172 at the Flight School. (No, thanks for your kind offer but I already own the Brooklyn Bridge)

Will miss you

Unless your POH says you cannot operate continuously at 2700 RPM, if you are wanting to cool the CHT's but increase your climb power, I think you would be better served by increasing the RPM rather than the MP. Increasing the RPM will move the peak pressure further past TDC which should reduce CHT's. That is, rather than trying 26/2500, I'd try 25/2600 or 25/2700.

You can post a whole new set of likes in two minutes.... midnight! Best regards, -a-

I never had that problem living along the Ohio River, but I always preflighted in the hangar; pull the plane out, get in and crank up. Good luck with winter! I don't have those anymore . . .

For those of us who love to fly, it's easy to make a million reasons the Mooney is better than the airlines. I'm certainly in this camp. I'd rather take my 252 than the airlines any day and anywhere. But for someone who's only criteria is time and expense, I still maintain you can't beat the airlines except for those situations where the airlines just don't fly where you need to go. You certainly have to factor in the entire cost of ownership, not just the cost gas for an individual trip. For me personally? I'd prefer the Mooney regardless the time or the money... but then I'm a pilot and therefore hate to be sitting in the back and not logging the time.

My $.02: I grew up very interested in airplanes and all other things mechanical. I frequented airshows and airplane museums, but didn't have parents or family who were in aviation or had an airplane or flew. Wanted to be a pilot for as far back as I can remember. Took some lessons between high school and college, which prompted me to want to be a pilot even more, then went to college, majoring in flight and airplane mechanics. Would have come out with commercial, CFI, CFII, multi, etc, and A&P. After about 1.5 years of that I realized I didn't want to fly for a living. This was mostly due to my realization that most all the "cool" aviation jobs only come after tens of thousands of hours and years in the field or military, neither of which I wanted to do. Call me ill-informed and/or impatient. So I switched to mechanical engineering. Spent my last four years at Mooney in Kerrville, and recently moved to Stratos Aircraft in Oregon. I get to merge my interest in mechanical engineering with airplanes. It's the ideal combination for me. I am financially comfortable enough to fly as a hobby now, and even own a Luscombe, Taylorcraft, etc. All that to say, it may be something he wants to do for a career, but do not rule out keeping it in the back pocket as a future hobby in case he decides it is not actually want he wants to do for a living.

I totally agree, but some pilots get carried away thinking they need to climb at Vx or Vy when it should be more like your normal Vy+10 to 20 for both safety and engine cooling. Then if you do have a loss of power you actually have a few seconds before stall if you don't recognize it fast enough and push the nose over. Deakin does a good job of explaining this with lots of analysis and show how you can trade off the excess speed to maintain alt as you slow to Vg. https://www.avweb.com/news/features/Climb-Faster-221694-1.html Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Sooooooo .... I see that you all have heard about my corn field adventure. I haven't had a chance to catch up here on the prior three pages, so give me a little while to catch up. I suppose I should have come here first, but I believe that most of you are already friends on Facebook and it was easier to hold the conversation in one place instead of two (or more). Give me a little bit of time to read the thread and I'll try to get everyone's questions and comments answered. Thank you, I really appreciate the support.

So...for those that want to participate in the Mooney Formation Flying Clinic in Panama City Beach, Fl from March 23-25, I will gladly give all those pilots free accomidations at my condo's at Origin. Mike and I feel that flight experience and education as well as advancing flight skills are paramount importance and anything we can do to help this cause we will do. I will need a head count on those that can attend so I can reserve the condo's. This is not the Mooney Summit but specific to the formation flight clinic. The Mooney Summit will be from Sept 27 -30, 2018 at Panama City Beach Ron Dubin

A recent personal experience with ice. Not good. First a little background – I live in SD and have been flying the northern tear year round for some 30 years. I'd like to think I know ice but she's a fickle thing with many faces.I currently fly a Mooney with TKS and am very familiar with the systems capabilities and lack there of. It was April 7, 2017. The flight was from Stockton, CA (KSCK) to Corvallis, OR (KCVO). IFR conditions prevailed over the mountains with NO icing forecasted. Along the southern Oregon coast at approximately 12,000 feet, temperature hovering around 0 to -2 C (10 C lower than forecasted), TKS system primed and running on low, I encountered freezing rain! I immediately turned the TKS system to high. In a matter of 10 seconds my windshield and leading edge of the wing accumulated approximately 1 1/2 inch of ice-maybe more. it looked as though my tail was worse. I could not believe how incredibly fast things happened. From my perspective at this moment the TKS system was of no value. The system was completely overwhelmed. TKS fluid could be seen running back over the top of the wing from previous use. The ice accumulated perhaps a foot back from the leading edge. Within five seconds of the encounter I had requested immediate course reversal from ATC. Per my routine I make mental notes of cloud brakes/layers/temps and other more favorable locations as I continually update plan B, C and D. I returned to a clearing that was shortly behind me. I made a circling descending pattern to the MEA. This put me in warmer air, out of the rain and allowed the TKS system to catch up. I was able to shed ice off all protected surfaces of the plane.I completed the rest of the trip uneventfully at a lower altitude. On my same ATC frequency was another pilot in my same area. He was in serious trouble. I could hear the frantic cries of the pilot asking for help. "I have no airspeed", "I can't maintain altitude", "I'm losing control", "I'm going down" were repeated over and over. ATC was trying to offer assistance but could do little. After about 5 minutes the radio went silent. I later learned the next AM that a Malibu went down killing all 4 on board. I don't know if it was the aircraft- I suspect it was given the time and location. A very sobering experience. Take home lessons: 1. Ice kills, period! (even in capable aircraft) 2. Wether forecasted or not, expect ice in ANY visible moisture with temps +4C or lower (maybe to -25 or -30 C). This includes summer months as well. I have encountered ice every month of the year. 3. With temp inversions, beware if you are flying in freezing temps below clouds-VFR. 4. Always have plan B and C. Updates these plans continuously. 5. Expect the unexpected. 6. If you are FIKI equipped, you are not invincible. These systems should be considered a means of buying time to get out of the icing condition. 7. There is a reason non-FIKI ideas (WD-40, Rain-X, pre flight TKS spray etc.) are not certified. We and are passengers (family) are not test subjects. I know will all want more utility out of our planes. Flying safe will allow you more time to get that utility. 8. Icing conditions are VERY unpredictable. You can think "I will only pick up a little" and actually load up faster than you can believe. In a real way, ice is winters equivalent of the summer thunderstorm. I'm not sure which is worse. You will quickly run out of power if airframe icing is not Shed. 9. If you are picking up ice on descent.....Don't use airbrakes and consider a no flap landing with higher than normal airspeed-perhaps +10 kts, maybe more if heavy. 10. When/if you encounter ice, take immediate pro active action to get out of the situation-TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE! The bottom line....treat ice like you want your daughter (or son) treated while dating....With absolute RESPECT!

An update to this post: it wasn't a hydraulic line that was leaking. Some fluid was getting past the O-rings on the right brake. I had it repaired and life is once again good.

My first flyable mooney was a wood wing M20a mooney. I got it on a trade for a cessna 140. What a fantastic upgrade from a 100 mph airplane. I had to get the mooney painted since it was not painted. This set me back 1900.00 which was a lot in 1984. The new 3 tone paint job made it look new. Fortunately for me the wing was recently rebuilt and the wood was good. I really enjoyed flying it and if I remember right it cruised about 155 mph. This was quite a speed increase of the former airplanes I owned (piper tripacer, cherokee, cessna 140, tired 1947 bonanza and c-140). The mooney had a third fuel tank and gave me lots of range. Once, I flew it non stop from Cheyenne, Wy to St.George, Ut. One other interesting thing I learned is how well it glided. One time the engine quit about 3 miles from the field due to a leaky fuel gasolator, which later the electrical boost pump brought the engine back to life. Anyway it glided good. I had many good experiences and trips with this plane. I now have a 201 mooney and enjoy it as well.

When the paper planes get dressed in mock fancy paint jobs... there is something else in the plan... Some sand bags evenly distributed on the tale surfaces might be helpful... done at annual with other planes... Some goofy ideas from a PP, not a mechanic... Best regards, -a-

I came home to some paper airplanes and scale drawings last night. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You've got to have a little bit of fun during this process.

Told Bruce this morning I am having a hard time remembering where the Philly airport is. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

You need the BI-805 servo valve and a Brittain Acu-trak autopilot control head. This will allow the system to follow a track on a GPS or a VOR nav signal. If you can find the components everything can be done for a few AMUs.

BTW: Some have reported problems getting the last bit of air out of the system after replacing the orings in the master cylinder. A reported solution that several have reported success with is to pull into a steep climb and tap the brakes. Not needed to try it myself; just passing this along. -Robert

Tuesday, we were in the mid-70s; yesterday, temps fell all day and night; today is hovering below 40°F all day. Forecasting rain / snow mix tomorrow morning, with no accumulation. Fortunately I just bought milk and bread Tuesday evening, and the wife buys gigantic packages of TP. We're set to stay home and watch the mess!

You just need a punch set and the proper drill sizes. To remove them out easily, first use a punch and hammer to push the inner pin back out. This is the center pin that was pulled to set the rivet. Push it back out all the out and through. Next use a drill that is smaller than the diameter of the pop rivet. It will drill through the rivet easily now that the pin is gone. Then put the punch into the drilled hole and work it around circularly till the rivet falls out. This will remove the pop rivet without enlarging the hole. Removing soft non-structural Avex rivets, as used in your dog house, is very easy and quick. In contrast, removing structural Cherry-max rivets is a much much harder job.

looks like that fence gate should open flat if you loosen those clamp bolts and rotate the collar just a bit. After that, just parallel park your way through: back up and turn so that you end up with the right wing through the fence and right stab beside the fence, then pull forward and turn right. Might need to back up partway through to get the left wing to clear.

Your guy is limiting it to the middle of TCM's range of 25.6 - 27.3 and isn't even willing to set it to their high number of 27.3 GPH. I can understood why some A&P's are reluctant to set it above, and its true that if some one gets carried away adding too much fuel its reducing its max HP output. But especially with these high HP engines the need to keep it cool in climb easily trumps a couple horsepower. You'll find those that really know engines will target a max FF from 0.5 to 1.5 GPH over TCM's high number for the engine with some going beyond that. For example, when RAM does their overhaul for the TSIO-520-N & -NB's for the 340's and 314's they raise the FF from Continentals high number of 31.7 GPH to 36.0 GPH!

Let's speak "C" for a second.... I have been flying Dave's "C" around for a bit now. We have been trying some different cowl flap settings. When I first started flying it, the CHT's were about 390 with 70ish% (23/2400) power and about 50-75 ROP. I can't get it to run LOP, but that's not unusual for a "C." Dave opened the cowl flaps a bit (not sure how much), but the result, with the same power setting and nearly identical atmospheric conditions, was about a 30 degree drop to the 365 range! We are going to try different cowl openings to get the most effective cooling in both airplanes. Will keep everyone posted.

The sub freezing metal of the wings allows humid warmer air to reach the frost point and create frost on the wing surface. It will be hit or miss depending on the humidity in the air. I would normally carry a small spray bottle (pump up kind) of a mixture of 50:50 isopropyl alcohol and water. When you buy it in the store, it is usually 91% with the rest water. I just dilute it down further. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

Adsb traffic is not even close in capability to the skywatch/active units. But with the 345/9000+ it combines to give trend lines etc, best of both.

True; but I greatly appreciate all responses. I actually searched/googled for two evenings to get the full picture, and between 2-3 year old articles and lots of advertisements there was no clear dedicated discussion to this particular topic I could find. So thanks for all responses which provide the cheap-and-get-it-done option as well as the top-drawer (and not-so-cheap) avionics option. I'll have to think about it a bit. I am using an Ipad occasionally while flying, mostly while on the ground and figuring out clearances and fixes. While flying, my Garmin 695 portable system does everything I need it to do in the air, and the Skywatch system has been very dependable (I don't recall ever running into traffic that didn't show up on Skywatch, and displayed on the 530). So if you have XM weather and Skywatch active traffic avoidance, what other specific new information would the not-so-cheap L3 system provide? As I said, I have redundant (2) XM receivers in the plane. Frankly, I have been thinking about spending some money on upgrading to a more reliable and smaller portable (Iridium) Satellite phone from my very old Globalstar phone, and wire it into the headset more smartly (very useful to have my wife arrange for a hotel and rental car when we need to divert and need to find a place to put down for the night while airborne).

Your mission describes to a "T" the way I use my Acclaim, and my FIKI Encore before that.

I fill mine with helium. wings too. and I only will weigh it outside in a 20 MPH headwind.

I got "no fire sleeve-shamed" by two different A&Ps in addition to folks here in my first year of ownership. Just trying to spread the love so I don't feel like a sucker for having paid to get them put on at my first annual . Anyway the Sabremech cowl is a much more interesting topic, so back to our regularly scheduled programming...

I cannot think of a better way, but I've noticed when I do that with the GTN simulator, the fix does not end up on the correct radial. That's because the GPS calculates magnetic variation and could be a couple degrees different than that used by the VOR. Granted, if it is off by 2 degrees and you are going to the 30 mile fix you'll only miss the fix by a mile, but the engineer in me wants it to lie on the radial. I might warn the controller that because of the way the GPS works, I might miss the fix by a mile or two and see what they say. In my case, I'd probably just enter it into my KNS80 and use that to fly to the fix.

Climb at full power and then level off at pattern altitude, wherever that occurs. Then throttle back to 16” to maintain 90 knots on downwind. There is no evidence that climbing at full throttle and 2700 RPM causes any more wear than normal cruise operations. We have ran our airplane for long periods of time (hours even) at full throttle and 2700 RPM, and extended periods of cruise at 83% power as well at sea level density altitude and the oil analysis is consistent with periods where we don’t. What does ruin engines is sitting. And Jose, those connecting rods are about twice as strong as needed. I am convinced by evidence, and I’ve also never seen a broken connecting rod or crank from firewalling the throttle. In fact, the most abused engines I have ever flown were on a travel air. Fuel cutoff and feathered from full power at 1500’, cowl flaps still open, shut down for 2 minutes then restarted and immediately back to full power. Sometimes shut down, feathered, and unfeathered, full power, then another cycle all in half a minute. Sometimes the student tried to feather the engine still running at full power. Anyways, I remarked these engines must break often and he remarked this particular set had 8,000 hours since last overhaul. So let’s worry about actual causes of engine failure and damage rather than non-evidence opinions backed only by feelings.

I don’t get it. My prop shop is stripping my prop down repainting and resealing it and reassembling it all for $750. So how does tearing something down which takes about an hour and measuring everything which might take another hour costing 1000 bucks. That alone makes me suspect

When deciding plane, or car, the "overhead" of flight planning, preflight, travel time to/from the airport, and post flight wrap up, will often tip the scales toward taking the car. When a rental car is involed, it tips the scale even further. Now add in fuel, ramp fees, tie down fees, chance of weather turning bad, or the fear of a "mechanical event" away from home and it's a wonder we ever fly! Happily, the fun factor usually out weighs all those mundane considerations.

This is actually a good position to be in. I'd rather buy a plane at TBO with the price of an engine figured into the deal, than buy one with a fresh overhaul. That way I get to make the decisions on shop, timing, etc...