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Conditions in the Bay Area have been excellent for the past week or so and I've been taking advantage of it to fly my Acclaim around. On Christmas Eve, I did a little formation flying with @FlyDave On Christmas Day, I flew solo from Petaluma to Carmel and back. Didn't land anywhere, just went sightseeing. Pretty much had the skies to myself, too! Crossing the Golden Gate Bridge: Golden Gate Park, the Sunset and Outer Sunset districts, and Ocean Beach: Golden Gate Park: Half Moon Bay airport (KHAF): Pigeon Point Lighthouse: Santa Cruz: Spanish Bay golf course: Cypress Point Club in the foreground; Pebble Beach beyond: Pebble Beach: Downtown Santa Cruz: Outer Richmond and Richmond districts, with downtown San Francisco beyond. Mt. Diablo looms in the distance about 20 miles away: GGB, full span: The day after Christmas, my wife and I did some sightseeing in Santa Rosa and the Wine Country. One of many burned-out neighborhoods in Santa Rosa. So sad: Napa Valley: Lots of great flying, with more to come! Tomorrow we're off to John Wayne Airport (KSNA) to visit my parents for a few days. Happy New Year, everyone! IMG_5554.m4v

The pilot. Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

Saw this on another thread and thought it should be moved to its own Hello everyone, this is Cecilia Henderson with Brittain Industries. My friend Chuck let me borrow his account so I could speak to all of you directly regarding Brittain. On December 15th my brother Jerry Walters, our owner and resident expert, passed away after a brief battle with cancer. As many of you already know, Jerry was the heart and soul of Brittain and leaves behind a big foot print which is impossible to fill. Those of us left behind are desperately trying to find a way to move the company forward but with Jerry's passing we have lost our only certificated repairman (return to service authorization), our chief inspector (production approval), accountable manager and autopilot installation/repair expert. Given the current circumstances we are unable to repair or produce any product at this time and therefore must ask that you NOT send your step servos or any other products to us until further notice. If you already have product in our shop we will be in touch with you very soon about returning the products and we will keep you posted about our future via our website www.brittainautopilots.com We are so grateful to the Mooney community for their support of our products over the decades and we will do everything possible to restart the company in as quick a time frame as we can. We know many of you still have servos in need of repair and may even be on our backlog for upgrades to your current system. Efforts are under way to sell the company in the hopes of completing the re-tooling of our production line and meeting our backlogged orders but this transition will take some time as we hire, train and apply for FAA approval of a new autopilot expert. We invite you to reach out through our email account, support@brittainautopilots.com with your questions and request and Kevin and I will do all we can to assist you through this transition. Thank you Mooney flyers, we hope to see you on the other side of this sad transition. Sincerely, Cecilia Henderson

Today the weather broke in the morning and I finally got to get Riley up for some preliminary testing. Since it was starting to snow and the ceilings were coming down, the highest I could get was 5500MSL. This didn't allow me to get up high enough to really open her up and see what she would do regarding TAS. What I did instead was set her up like I would fly her to work, i.e. 3500 and 70% power. Very limited testing to day seems to indicate about a 5 knot increase in speed. Whereas I would previously indicate 127KIAS, she now indicates 135IAS. Four heading TAS test seems to agree. I also ran 25 square at 3000 and the below indication was the result. As it stands now, the Ram-Air gives about .7" extra. We are thinking that changing to a smooth-flowing intake straight into the fuel servo will be good for at least .25" thereby making the Ram-Air unnecessary. As it stands now, there are a lot of turns the air has to go through to get the fuel servo creating (i believe) some vacuum and reducing MP. I don't know what .7" of MP translates to in HP, but it's not much. The CHT''s are a nice, even spread, but it's too early to tell is there was any difference in temp. Oil temps with the relocation were a solid 187. I have no reason to believe that will change much in the warmer temps. We shall see. When the weather breaks, I will be able to get up higher and get some good TAS testing done. Overall, I am super happy with the mod! I fly (for work) over the weekend then I am on vacation the first week of January so there probably won't be much flying done until the second week. I will be posting and changes and much better test data in the upcoming weeks. Stay tuned!

I'm usually between 10 & 12 NMPG. IT was pretty cold out thus I was getting more performance and a higher fuel burn. I didn't build it to pull the power back but could get higher MPG if I pulled it back some. Remember, Jet A is cheaper at the pump too. My actual trip fuel costs are almost the same between the Rocket and my Lancair, but quite a bit less time in the Lancair. Tom

Had a real nice flight today, leaving -18 temps in the U.P. of Michigan to landing just under 3.5 hours later, 1231 nautical miles south, just south of Daytona Beach at Spruce Creek Florida where a T-shirt was comfortable. I know it's not a Mooney, but it WAS a Mooney driver. It's soooo cool I built this animal in my garage and it flies faster than certified planes costing 5 times or more than I have in this one. Now if xcrmckenna Can hook up with me in Florida I can get another Mooney Space member a ride in this magic carpet. Tom

We bought some from her too. It was a great in flight snack while we were Island hopping the Exhumas. That was a few years ago now, she only raised the price one dollar. It’s actually a C46 cheers, Dan

It's unfortunately not functional yet, they plan to open sometime in January. I had to clear at FXE before doing the flight back up to Boca Raton. I just got back from the Bahamas today. If you're going to travel down toward the Exuma Island Chains, here's some more recommendations / my experience: Staniel Cay: MYES - walking distance to the Staniel Key Yacht Club. Nice place for lunch - probably the most crowded island in the Exumas. The Yacht Club is ritzy and there are nursing sharks near the boat dock. Here, you can find a boater to take you to see the swimming pigs and into the Thunderbolt Cave. Expect to pay about $100 or so for the boat ride over and a tour, but if you befriend some folks with a boat and trade plane rides you may be able to get in for free ;). MYEB is Black Point and only 5 miles from Staniel Cay -- much more of an authentic island life experience without many amenities. Lots of beaches to yourself. If you're into food tourism, land at MYEB and walk the half mile into town. Right behind Lorraine's Cafe is a house where a lady bakes the most amazing bread you will ever taste. She charges about $6/loaf...the coconut cinnamon raisin was incredible, but I'm sure any of the flavors will be mind blowing. You can just knock on her door right before Lorraine's Cafe or ask the folks in the cafe (or really anyone on the island) where you can buy the bread and they will show you. My only regret was not buying more. My wife and I spent most of our 3 days in Black Point. There was practically no one here around the Christmas time and I was the only aircraft parked in the airport. We enjoyed the town and it was fun to take day trips to Staniel Cay, Cat Island etc.. MYEN -- Norman's Cay - didn't make it over here, but apparently right next to the airport is a sunken DC3 that used to be a drug running aircraft. You can snorkel and see the wreck or even fly by and see it. Cat Island is a fun day trip. MYCB is New Bight airport in Cat Island. Large runway and it's about 1 mile from Fernandez Beach Village. You can catch a taxi at the airport or it's about a 20 minute walk. Fernandez Beach here incredible for swimming. The most amazing water (not so much for snorkeling, for swimming and beaching and there are lawnchairs, etc. available for free)...once you're done swimming, hop back to the plane and land at Hawk's Nest airport on Cat Island..but even before you do that, inquire with the locals at the airport about Flour Cake and go buy some. It's a baked good that's famous throughout Bahamas as originating in Cat Island. There's a lady that bakes some and sells some. Unfortunately, when we came...the next batch wouldn't be done until 2pm and we had to go before then, but hopefully you will get to try it. Okay -- back to Hawk's Nest resort. Supposedly, there is a $15 landing fee, but we were never charged. We landed, parked and had lunch there...and despite the beautiful resort having practically no guests on Christmas, the lunch facility stayed open and we had a really nice lunch with the fresh fish wrap. It was so good!!! The best lunch we've eaten while we were traveling around. Worthwhile stop at the resort for lunch and the facilities looked pretty good, so you may even want to look into lodging here at some point. As far as customs, I cleared at Exuma International and Odyssey took good care, but their prices are steep for fuel. I ended up hitting up Governors Harbor (MYEM) in Eleuthra for the departure (you are supposed to depart the Bahamas from an AOE and pay a $29/per person departure fee) and got a nice deal on fuel at about $6.50/gallon on 100LL including the VAT fees. Earco Elite took good care of us. Fuel is cheaper here if you pay with cash, otherwise be prepared to pay an additional 5% credit card fee. It's like this pretty much everyone in the Bahamas where if you're not paying with cash, you will pay 5% more with a card. Hope this info is helpful and gives you some ideas! Cheers and happy travels! ...now to fly the Mooney back up north to our home base in Buffalo...Brrr...

Got a new camera for my birthday - Pretty impressive at 1080 - next go will be at 4k (make sure to change the resolution when it plays - for some reason when I pull up the video it defaults to a lower resolution)

Knock on wood, the reliability of glass has been phenomenal. My KI256 had to be overhauled every 1,000 hours or less and even after the overhaul would not show level when rolling out of a left turn from base to final. While I never had a vacuum pump failure, I changed the main one every 500 hours. The backup vacuum pump was electrically actuated and weighed a ton--in addition to being expensive. Alternators on the Bravo seem to put out enough juice that they need to be overhauled only at TBO. With the glass so far, I've needed to replace the fan on the G500; $50 plus 15 minute install time. Garmin discovered they needed a more powerful one, so this one makes a lot of noise. I have seen many G1000 displays that become dim after a few years. Not good. Still thumbs up for all glass.

I guess I am partial. I like my paint job the best as I have never seen one like it

I am ashamed to have been initially incredulous of this post - I would have thought surely there's a pitot-static independent mode with degraded backup AI function for my Aspen pfd. Nope. Below is a video of flying over the north Atlantic with dual Aspens that illustrates the problem as more than theoretical - see around 9-10min mark. The L3 ESI-500 certainly is the Cadillac glass backup option. The Sandia Quattro looks like a good budget alternative. The Dynon D10A is slightly cheaper still, but the graphics look dated and clunky. Some are installing the even more economical Garmin G5 as backup, although it's not STC'd as such, and the basis to do so without field approval remains fuzzy. It will probably be my choice if a regulatory path sorts out in the next year. At least the G5 doesn't go blank if the airspeed fails! I was hoping for more glass backup choices soon, but I've heard of none on the horizon. On another note, I wonder about backup battery life, replacement interval, and replacement cost as considerations for a glass backup AI. With no vac in an alternator failure, a glass backup is only as good as its lithium battery, which loses capacity over time. The Sandia has a 2 hour battery. The Garmin G5 has a low cost 4 hour battery that is fairly cheap - excellent. I haven't seen battery capacity info for the L3 or Dynon.

When the mercy flight organization I am currently president for bought their first plane about 15 years ago it was a twin, even though the two longest standing members were NOT twin rated ( I was one of them). There were a bunch of active and retired airline pilots who out voted us on a single ( interesting enough, none who fly for us today) and passed a resolution to allow the organization to cover the cost to get the two of us "twin rated ". I flew about 6 hours and decided there was no way I would fly enough to be "proficient " ( the other single rated pilot did the same) and decided I would just continue supporting the organization with flights in my Mooney. My Mooney was faster than the twin, better in weather, and I was building a single engine prop jet almost twice as fast as the twin . Couldn't quite see the advantage of a twin. Years later we sold the A/C equipped Seneca 5 to buy a 3 with better payload, and had enough money left over to buy our first Bonanza. Operating costs have been half the twin, and our second "newer" turbonormalized Bo is 20 knots faster with FIKA. I rode in the twin once in the winter time in icing when one set of boots decided to NOT work and will always take a TKS system over boots. I have to agree with Byron on this one. If you are going to fly a twin you better be open to frequent and serious flight training. These planes are a lot less forgiving of a pilot not dedicated to serious training and real currency. Tom

“BOM’s away!”

While I agree on your point that our engines can only make a low percentage of rated power up high because they are normally aspirated I disagree that a jet engine is also normally aspirated. They have compressor blades that pressurize the incoming air to a higher psi or am I wrong. Just like a mechanical blower or turbo charger does for piston engines just a different method of air compression.

Personally I'd take your backup attitude a little more seriously because your two AHRS aren't entirely independent. What I am referring too is that a failure of your pitot heat in icing will bring down both AHRS entirely; showing nothing for attitude, airspeed or altimeter making that backup attitude instrument more important. I went with the ESI-500 for my panel so that I also have backup nav functionality as well as IAS, Alt & VS, but an electric gyro with it own backup battery should do the job for you Ok.

I just hope that the Burke County Tax Collector doesn't read MooneySpace.

I think you are looking at the situation wrong. You want to fly. You need a plane. There are planes that have had maintenance done and ones that have not. All planes will need maintenance done in the future. Engines are a crap shoot. Best you can do is avoid rebuilds in the 1990s. Pick your budget range. Have 10K in the bank to do more maintenance when you get one. Check for corrosion in the common spots. Make a deal and go flying. The ability to do mechanical stuff will directly proportional to how much you spend on the plane. Make friends with the local mechanic. The last couple of weeks I have ripped out a chimney and replaced it with 4 large windows. If someone else had done it, it would have cost $30K. Since I did it, it cost under $3K. Probably added $50K to the asking price of the house, did not matter who did the work. Same thing for a plane. During the same time, the three year old Gil Battery started sounding weak in the plane. So I ordered a Concorde. Spent an hour pulling, cleaning and priming the battery box. Will spend another hour top coating, and installing the new battery. If someone else had done it would have cost $600-$750 for battery and labor. Since I did it, it only cost $309 for the battery. May have added $1K to the asking price of the plane for someone that knows because it has been maintained well. To get a good price on Mooneys. Post the ones you are interested in here. You will get some good feedback on the value. "getting" a plane has lots of costs associated with them. Travel to and fro, PPI, hotels, Ferry cost, a couple of weekends. just that can add up to $5K easy. If you find one close to you then you can save some dollars right there.

Seems worth it.

I just had a similar problem with my Trim switch. Previously, I had found a strange part on my floor that I could not figure out. It was a small cylinder of metal with splines on one end. Turns out it was an 'axle' for the switch. I could remove the pivoting apparatus through the dash and see the switch contact since both axles fell out of place. I have not found the axle from the other side, and the switch is nonfunctional without at least one of them. I am left with fabricating a new one to fix the switch.

Engine monitors pay for themselves over time, assuming we learn how to use it. And most often an engine monitor will alert us to a problem before the fan stops and very often giving us enough warning to save the engine. That's pretty priceless in my book.

IMG_0420.MOV

157 AMUs for an aircraft worth about 60 with a mid time engine to boot? Dude's on crack, or isn't serious. That kind of money buys a LOT of airplane. Buying something like this for a premium price is the only way I know to get real value in aviation. But paying that kind of money for a short body Mooney is nuts.

I would think using the tie down attachment would be a great way to do it. Looks like a ram mount is going under the knife this weekend.

For reference... Three weeks of no use will not kill an ordinary Concorde battery in an Ovation.... It will take a few months of not being charged to show a real discharge. Even then the BatteryMinder charges them without difficulty... See if using the batteries helps bring them back. The battery desulfonater process of the BatteryMinder might be of service as well. It may make a lot of sense to have the BatteryMinder always connected while on the ground. Get the Y cable for that two battery system. Best regards, -a-

It's not permanent... just reach under the wing and unscrew the mount and camera from the tie down / hoist point... easy day.

1) the c is amazing... 2) the O360 can be fit with a compressor. A turbo normalizer for the carb... There is at least one MSer that has one... 3) Compressing the engine's air inflow is what keeps some engines from being considered normally aspirated. Turbo charged, turbo normalized, and super charged are not Normally aspirated... 4) having a compressor disc at the front of the engine sort of disqualifies it from being NA. It compresses the air differently than a TC does, to produce a big % of power at altitudes where there is not a high % of air density available... 5) you can see from Fuel flow and power output that... the jet is designed to run at one set of high altitudes. It's efficiency is terrible down low... not as versatile as a TC'd engine or as flexible(?)(Produces power even if the turbo fails) as a TN'd engine... 6) But, If it allows Jerry to fly a NA P46T... I won't tell anyone... 7) I can claim I didn't see a TC on that there Brand P plane... it must be NA... 8) gotta love the straight pipes, no mufflers... 9) Speaking of straight-er pipes... does powerflow make an exhaust for the M20C? Best regards, -a-

Yes!!

Seat to stick interface issues! Lol :-) -Matt

Prof, can I get half credit??

Just went through a repair from the door blowing open on departure so might have some useful info. The hinge on the door side was ripped but intact on the airframe side so only the door hinge needed replacement . Speaking with Robert the service manager at Lake Areo who is expert with Mooney service. I asked him about using a used door as there were some in the hangar Im in and he said that these doors are really made to fit each airframe and would take more work to get one lined up than to repair the original. Plus to buy a new one is 3600 dollars and a used one would not be a cheap replacement. It took only a few days to re skin the door replace the hinge and do a base coat of white. I will need to shoot the accent color. The new door looks great and cost was 1100 dollars or 1.1AMU's so not bad as airframe repairs are seldom inexpensive. Good luck and welcome to Mooney space.

What about the 1 who posts asking if the new plugs will allow them to get deeper into LOP operations?

Whole thing could have been avoided with a simple RTFM

Start with the end in mind. Figure out what you will remove and what you are going to add and how you want it to look when you are done. For example, if you have the JPI 830 installed, where would it go? It takes up a bit more room than the RMI will give back by taking out the ADF, so are you removing other round pieces, or how will you make it fit? And what are the other items in your pile of compatible parts you will be adding? Microsoft Visio works well to lay out a panel, but even if all you have is a piece of paper and a pencil, sketch out how your panel will end up when you do what you want to it. Think about instrument scans for flying IMC, engine monitoring, etc. Any plan that opens up the panel the fewest times possible is going to be the winner. And welcome back state-side.

Should have used Tempest Fine Wire

Stole an idea from here on the forum - took a RAM mount, drilled and tapped a thread for a 5/16 18 piece of all thread rod. That screws into the tie down location on the wing. I put a thin piece of rubber insulator in place to act as a "lock washer"

Thank you. Mine had been reworked shortly before I acquired and I think it had doublers installed. I have noticed some slack but no vibration, but I'll have it addressed at annual next month.

I really don't believe that E's for sale. I think the market for a $160K E is so small as to be nonexistent. I actually don't think any E is worth that much. And for my money, I'd still rather have @Bob_Belville's E. I know it's history, I know who's done the maintenance, and I'm pretty sure it's not getting a dark paint job like that one. I just don't like the paint at all. But that's just personal. But most importantly... and the point of this whole thread, is that one from Controller isn't flying. Bob's is flying all the time. And a Mooney that's getting regular use is always going to be worth more than a hangar queen. Bottom line, I still believe Bob's is the best E in the country.

Now we’re talking- I think that’s what I’m looking for- something like that- thanks!

There are some people installing Glass and taking out MidContinent Lifesaver Electric AI's. I got mine with battery backup for less than $1000.

Personally, I just stay home. Very few places as nice

I think I would be more concerned if I were on supplemental oxygen, unless it was through a fully sealed face mask. The flow of oxygen in a supplemental system is only a small part of what is taken into the lungs, particularly through a cannula type nostril system. It only increases the relative percentage of oxygen that is available to the lungs, thus ensuring more O2 molecules are available to be absorbed. The rest is ambient air, which in this scenario, contains carbon monoxide. The transport mechanism for oxygen molecules is the hemoglobin in the blood. Hemoglobin has an affinity to transport carbon monoxide molecules 230 times greater than oxygen molecules.

Apparently my wife paid attention to @Hyett6420 at Mooney Summit V. A good gift I hope to never use. Merry Christmas everyone! Dan

My LOP cruise numbers are similar to others posted: 175 KTAS on 12.5-13.5 GPH depending on altitude. I also read with amusement the supposed speeds achieved by the Ovation in the magazine article...seemed a little high to me, but that plane has neither TKS nor A/C nor built-in O2, so it’s very light. It’s possible they weren’t BSing us. For speed, running 2600 RPM with WOT and 20 GPH at 1500’ MSL I could easily get 192 or 193 KTAS in steady flight. I averaged about 191 knots over a 150 mile course in an air race last year. The course had five turns including one 160 degree angle, and it started and stopped at the same airport so winds mostly canceled each other out. It was a smooth day, so I spent much of the race deep into the yellow band on the ASI. These birds can go fast if you’re willing to guzzle the gas.

At that price why bother. Because the Garmin GFC500 is going to be a hell of an auto pilot. I flew a GFC 700 in an Acclaim once. I think it’s pure magic; it was smoother than the Boeing 737 and it even had Flight level change and envelope protection.