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How did I get to be the first one to post flying pics on here:) Started the new year off with a good flight, wish I would of had a place to go! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

First Flight in 2019 Today we completed our Holiday travel. Spirit of Saint Louis KSUS to Baltimore Martin. IMC in departure from St Louis and some ice from surface to 4500’ then clear skies and strong tailwinds. Nice performance from my new 9 blade prop: A good aviation start to 2019.

Way to get it started, Mark! Happy New Year! May your number of landings equal your number of take offs all year long... And of course, let the rubber always touch the runway, before the prop tips do... And other positive forward looking statements... Best regards, -a-

Well, N1017L, my 1982 Mooney Rocket I’ve owned since 2001, flew for nearly 2,000 hours, was officially sold as of 6:00 PM yesterday. Both my wife and I have pretty ambivalent feelings, having flown our Rocket into probably 75% of the states in this country, and kids memories of a lot of those trips too. My first cross country airplane in 1996 was an F model, N929PG. We flew her for 5 years, accumulating 1300 hours with my now 26 year old being 4 years old when I bought it. He used to sleep on a bed made on top the luggage in the baggage compartment during many Michigan to Colorado trips in the early years. The buyer, a very quality guy out of Austin, TX, began the initial inquiry and commitment to purchase during the air show in Oshkosh of this year. He said once we talked extensively about the plane, he was buying from the owner more than just the plane. I was not bashful disclosing things that I would address if I continued ownership of the plane, and a good review of my logbooks made it pretty clear I did not hold back on any maintenance throughout my ownership of the plane. He came up and inspected during my annual, which began in August and was not finished until November (engine overhaul on another thread). He had say in every aspect of the overhaul and never got a final number from me until two weeks ago (I was waiting on all the OH bills to come in). We were $5k apart on his expected number and my final number, and he hadn’t accounted for the $5k prop OH. A tip to other purchasers, he’s getting a lot of items that don’t normally come with the sale. His only request to meet my number was getting a Flight Stream installed, which I provided for the sale. By not beating me up he got a lot of stuff from me I would not have been compelled to provide otherwise. I’ve really enjoyed my participation on this forum over the years. I joined Beach Talk about a year ago, participated for maybe 4-6 months and although most were pretty decent people , I found some so caustic I’ve not been back in 4-6 months. On the other hand, this forum is the BEST ONE I’ve ever been privileged to belong to. I will stay for a while, believing 22 years of Mooney ownership and owner supervised maintenance might be of value to a few of you here. Many of you have followed my Lancair project through the later build years and the two years I’ve flown it. It’s done, reliable, and a great cross country machine. I hope as old age creeps up on me, and I no longer feel competent in the prop jet, to return to the Mooney fold for my last years flying. You guys will never lose this pilot as a huge advocate of the Mooney airplane! Thanks a ton fellow Mooniacs!! Tom

thank goodness I programmed my transponder to broadcast Marauder's tail #.

It takes energy (which creates drag) to windmill the prop on a dead engine, and it takes energy (drag), but slightly less energy, to windmill the prop on an idling engine. That's really all I've been saying and I think we agree on that point. The point about zero thrust was simply to help everyone understand that a prop attached to an idling engine on a gliding airplane produces drag and not thrust. The more interesting question is whether a stopped prop has more drag than a windmilling prop on an idling engine. This has been long studied and here is a link to a NACA report from 1933: https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19930091538.pdf The results were, drag in pounds, at 100 mph airspeed: Stopped: 94.4 Windmilling, dead engine: 101.0 Windmilling, idling engine: 100 Skip

Just flight planned my trip from Spruce Creek (south of Daytona Beach) to Iron Mountain ( in the U.P.) for tomorrow morning and it looks like winds will allow my first non-stop trip home, 1200+ NM’s, in about 3:40 hours. I guess we’ll see if winds tomorrow match what was forecast this evening. I will try to post some pictures. Maybe a departure picture of weather in the 70’s and landing less than 4 hours later in the teens with snow and snow banks will put the trip in perspective. Tom

A three ship formation today, around Humboldt Bay, NorCal Pritch

Happy new year everyone.

222.1. about an hour in a Cirrus. That was an hour too long.

Don't forget, I'm buying a skybeacon because I don't have modern GTN750 and integrated GTX33ES kinda money. My KT76A only has one indicator and it's an interrogation light and it's not going to flash until I'm airborne where RADAR can see me. I get more/better feedback on the wifi with the app off my skybeacon than I do on my installed transponder.

Put a HarborFreight winch on the back wall of your hangar/shed and drag the plane backward into the hangar. It seems the ice might only be causing issues for pushing the plane into he hangar?

The FAA provides pretty specific guidance on what is approved for use on runways and taxiways. It is covered in AC -150/5200-30D (https://www.faa.gov/documentLibrary/media/Advisory_Circular/150-5200-30D.pdf ). See 4.6 for details. For solid deicers they only allow "airside urea, sodium formate, and sodium acetate." In general it is halide salts that are corrosive so they want you to use organic salts instead.

It has to go on the left wing tip. Flipping on the same side puts the position light facing rear instead of forward and swapping tips puts the wrong color on the wrong side. It has to be installed as designed. Even if a flip was done, the indicator is not at the tip and would still be concealed by the wing from the pilot's seat. I don't see confirming its operation to be that immensly critical. I liken it to the normal transponder. You have no way of knowing if it's actually working either. You can see power, you can see a light, but you cannot confirm if it's actually broadcasting/replying to an interrogation. However, if it's not working, ATC will let you know pretty quickly. My $.02 anyway.

that makes them pretty worthless for securing

you have to have a programmable mode S transponder, the mode C transponders do not provide any identifying info Brian

He's just really that good at it.

Hahaha ha First understatement of 2019

You can increase your glide some if your engine quits by aggressively getting to best glide speed. Pull up sharply to get there, you will gain 500 feet or so that would be lost if you just maintained altitude until the plane decelerates to best glide speed. This will minimize the time spent at a speed in excess of best glide.

Here is another Jerry screw up. The new video he posted talks about setting minimums. And then he goes into his “almighty checklist” speech to give the indication that he does a full run up and completes a pre-takeoff checklist. Ironically, his newly installed clock above the TXi is showing the time when he says he is going to do the checklist and then when he says he is done. Only one minute elapsed on the clock. I can’t even do a single engine run up and complete a checklist in one minute. Roughly 9:40 into his video. https://youtu.be/XtXFCKMRrZg Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

Sadly, I did make a mistake when I initially posted that best glide occurs at Vx... and I’ve since corrected my post to say “L/D max.” in Jets, where your thrust available is relatively constant, Vx does coincide with L/D max... and that coincides with best glide. In our prop aircraft- thrust available is higher at lower speeds- and Vx occurs closer to stall.

It should have been you!!!! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The Aspen patent has more details... US20160298985A1.pdf

I was wondering who the first MSer to post an inflight pic was going to be... A high probability went to Jerry for closing out last year’s thread. Way to go, Early Birds! Best regards, -a-

(That was the ASRS form the OP mentioned.)

Happy New Year to all of our fellow Mooney bloggers! Wishing everyone clear skies in 2019!

Like above. Did you run into a mountain wave? It can cause airspeed changes like you said. If it was your engine you would hear and feel it.

A picture from my last flight for 2018... HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Back at you!

Happy New Year![emoji312] Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

I've had my F for 10 yrs, 1500 flight hours! Enjoy, it is an awesome airplane. I have done about everything you can think of to this plane, paint, avionics, interior. I'm going to fly it, fly it, & fly it!!

While taking some friends on a sightseeing flight I wandered into class d. I wasn’t talking to anyone so there was no way to say “I have a number for you to call upon landing. Advise when ready to copy”. As soon as I noticed my error I got out of there fast. I’ll file an an ASRS form, of course. But my question is how likely are they to contact me due to this error? I was squawking 1200 but have ADSB, so there is the technical means to know I was the one who wandered into that airspace. There was no call waiting for me at the FBO upon landing. Thanks.

Following up: Estimate, around 30 hours give or take (seemed totally reasonable, I have extras in my setup). Actual: About 25. I guess they wanted it to be a (pleasant) surprise. Workmanship is fantastic, too. Command Aviation at KBLI. My panel is the original and it's been hacked up so many times for avionics installs for prior owners and now me, it was really nice to have it come out with patches that look like the original materials and otherwise looking much better than it did when it went in. The layout is great, everything seems to work fine, I shaved some weight, and I couldn't be more pleased than I am with either the CGR or the installation job.

Just a thought...I was struck by the magnificence of that image. That includes the upturned wings, ethereal.

Just bought into this Mite with a partner. We are just annualing it now. Any info on sources of landing gear parts, etc. would be great!

Lot's of sub optimal procedure there. I stopped when I saw takeoff flaps still down through 2700ft (2000ft AGL).

I did the LASAR kit, a lot cheaper than Mooney. If your not pressed for time I would clean and paint the gear while your there (wish I would have)

When I've encountered pilots who are learning to land, I teach them to think of the sight picture you have riding down an escalator. You typically focus towards the bottom of the escalator as you're riding it down, but as you start to round off at the bottom, you change your focus to look ahead of you. When you're on final, you only care about two things: airspeed and runway. Get your speed correct using pitch (I know; easier said than done when you're learning, but master control of airspeed and landings will be easy). If the runway is moving up in the windscreen, you're sinking. Add power. If the runway is moving down, pull power out. As for rudder work, my solution for the confusion as to which foot to press in a crosswind to straighten the plane out was to imagine the foot that you press pulls the nose towards it; at the same time action/reaction and all of that, the opposite wing will drop on its own and you just need to make sure to track centerline. I had CFIs go into all sorts of "drop a wing" and "opposite rudder" and all of that which overloaded me as back as a primary student. Stay loose on the pedals and remember that rudder work isn't just pressing with one foot, you lift with the other or you'll fighting yourself when stressed.

Jeff schnabel is going to come down from Cincinnati, which is going to be perfect, he’s a also a A&P with loads of mooney experience, and no one here has ever worked on one. So he’ll be able to give the bird a look over as well.

Thank you all, for your interaction on this post. I believe I found my CFII! I spoke with 2 very qualified guys, and Jeff has a bit more time to allow for my needs. I’m very excited to start this new year out with a great goal of getting my ppl, and getting to enjoy my bird. September 2017 we were hit with 2 cat 5 hurricanes Irma and Maria, every structure was damaged, every utility pole snapped. A week before the first storm every flight was booked, you couldn’t get off this island! Unless you had your own plane... That will never happen again with the mooney, I’ve been through a lot of hurricanes, but 1 cat 5 let alone 2 in two weeks, I’m done! I’ve been wanting to get back into aviation and those storms tipped the scales for me. Imagine 200+ mph winds and rain in your living room, with you in it. Not fun. A little long winded, sorry. This is the main reason for my post, to get this done before another one of these storms decides to stop by. Updates to come on my progress, we start in February.

Oh, and LANCECASPER, thanks, I did call Rocket regarding the fuel pressure regulator, and they said there was only one guy left there who knew anything about the Rocket 305. I didn't write down his name, but he seemed to be someone who had worked on assembling them and was able to at least confirm the part number I was looking for to the best of his memory. I notice that none of the various links around the Web to Rocket Engineering's Rocket 305 data pages are working.

One of Mooney’s raisins d‘etre is that it’s a hand built quality machine. This flies in the face of that dictum. They need badly to get out in front of this quickly. The money lost in a crash pales in front of the money lost cue to loss of reputation.

It was bitterly cold on the ramp this morning in Flagstaff. It was 20 degrees with wind gusting to 15 knots. Unlike the day before, this time the wing in the sun was iced over while the wing in the shade was just powder and brushed off easily. The RV anti-freeze worked pretty well. But it still took over an hour to make sure the wings and tail were clean and dry. It was way to cold to get the phone out and take pictures. Eventually we got loaded up and departed for Moab, UT.

If I am correct, the plane has been sold and relocated to New Hampshire.

I agree 20-25h estimate EU quotes for CGR30P is too optimistic. I did the install myself on 67M20F and would estimate close to 40h with few extra hours by my IA for inspection and fuel hose fabrication. Install is not difficult but it takes time to run and connect all the wires and sensors and you have 6 cylinders. I don't see why would JPI be easier, though. By far most time was spent removing existing instrument and cleaning up wires and hoses going through firewall. I see you're in SEA area and I'm curious who's the shop AFIK there's no MSC in the town any more...