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Hey friends, You didn't know we were friends yet, but here we are. We're all members of the "Owned by a Mooney" club. (Flaps hanging because I shot this picture from a J-3. It was my second-most-mismatched formation flight ever) My connection with this M20C goes back a while. I was a mechanically-inclined airport kid, well on the way to earning my A&P when I ran off and joined the circus. A flying circus, if you will. I crewed for Chris Smisson on the airshow circuit through high school and much of college, and in addition to his fast-movers, he had an M20C. Johnson Bar, hand pump flaps. All the latest and greatest gizmos that 1992 had to offer: A BF Goodrich strike finder, Apollo LORAN, even a widget that deciphered morse code to identify the VOR and the radial you were on. It was a great go-somewhere bird. He sold a small percentage of the Mooney to a friend, Kelly, so the insurance company would be a little more understanding. When Chris died in 2003, the friend bought the remaining share of the bird. Both of these men were like family. Without their patience and generosity, I'd probably be running a grader for the county road department. There weren't a lot of tickets out of my little hometown for kids without means, but they helped me chase a dream. Fast forward two decades. The friend wants to sell the Mooney and make room for other flying machines. He's spent years making ridiculous offers to me whenever he wanted to sell an airplane. He tried to sell me one airplane for $1 years ago but I was making chump change flying RJs for a day job. I couldn't afford insurance on it, much less any real maintenance. I had to say no. This time, the offer was reasonable, and I'm doing a little better flying A320s for my day job and spinning words into stories for some busywork on the side. I'm becoming the caretaker of a bird that's been in my family of flying friends since 1980. I took my bride for a flight, fully respecting her veto power. "If this just had a headrest, I'd be asleep in no time. Buy this airplane," she said. So, here we go. Hi Guys. My name is Jeremy, and I'm newly owned by a Mooney.

Instrument Rated!

Welcome to Mooney ownership! Usually @carusoam does my dirty work for me , but looks like he missed it. Your first upgrade should be a proper CO detector. Cheers, Dan

Oh wait. I forgot to share this gem: How about a shot from 1980 when Chris picked it up from the previous owners?

Not a big fan of wheelies, but lane splitting has positive safety value.

I started commercial ground today (I already have the flight requirements done) & calling a CFI with a Citabria tomorrow for tailwheel endorsement I am also looking at a local flight school with an Aztec for multi

Aaaaaand on the flight home..... Irony? Luck? My plane is equipped with a Precise Flight backup which (with a power reduction) it pulled enough vacuum to erect the gyros. Good practice and interesting to see how the engine's intake system provides suction for these units. Back to Mooney-ing while a replacement is on the way. Looks like the old pump was installed in 2013, and was the last entry before I bought the plane. Lasted 428 hours. I'm also temporarily doubling my personal minimums for the first 15 hours of operation with the new pump until I'm comfortable with its use.

I HAVE had a corrosion issue with my airplane but it was in a location that seems unlikely to be related to tks, which is in the fuel tank area. And I had not been using, or even been aware of, the anti-corrosion misting agents - but I am now! But - not doing TKS because of worrying about corrosion, is worrying about a chronic problem vs an acute problem. Sort of like deciding not to get an x-ray to examine your broken arm because you are worried about the possibility of the cancer causing properties of x-rays. If you find yourself in a situation wanting-needing-wishing for tks, because of an inadvertent (or fiki) ice encounter, I promise you, if you flick that tks on switch, you will not be thinking about corrosion at that moment.

I've been rear-ended on a bike, it can be impossible to avoid in this kind of traffic. When I filter it's usually no more than 10 mph faster than the cars. If someone krons into the back of me I might not see them, if they change lanes or open their car door in front of me I will. Moreover, smacking into something at 10 mph isn't all that terribly painful. I usually filter to get past sticky spots in traffic, so it can save me a boatload of time. I don't allow dumb shit laws to keep me from doing what's safe. As far as being so dangerous, been riding like this for 30 years now. I doubt anyone arguing with me has ever ridden motorcycle. If you had you'd not be arguing.

It is only specifically legal in California, but in several other states there are no laws against it. Further, studies have shown that it it much safer for the rider than staying in lanes. One of the most dangerous accidents for a motorcyclist is a rear end collision. When lane splitting, that risk diminishes significantly and, according to the study, enough to justify a possible side swipe from being in a blind spot.

This bird has the LASAR cowl inlet, and most of their speed mods, other than the clean belly mod to move the antennae inside. 201 windshield and wingtips, gap seals, flap hinge seals. The airframe is about modded-out. There are a few things that need attention outside, but the panel is going to be "The Money Pit." I was considering dual Garmin G5s until a friend suggested the Aspen e5. One box to replace both the AI and DG. It talks to legacy nav/comms and GPS units. Over time, I'd love to modernize, but realistically one box at a time is a more realistic way to go. In time the LORAN boat anchor will give way to a GPS - Maybe an older Garmin 300XL or the new GPS175 if I can swing the expense. Anyone got a better suggestion that I've not seen yet?

Always happy to meet an old friend. (Dang, that sounds like something a time-traveler would say). If you're ever down near Atlanta, let me know. I'm always glad to meet the friends I already knew.

Driving is too... pedestrian. April in Florida can be really chilly... in NC, it was probably just above freezing... With a plane full of people, it is hard to carry along the fancy powered bikes, skate boards, or hover boards... Not enough UL to carry a spare case of beer. Given the choice... walk to get food and beer, or stay stationary... the usual American sedentary lifestyle has to take a back seat... With the LB, and only one other person, there is plenty of room for all that, a spare power source, and ice if you were to want your beer cooled... and all the sweatshirts you ever needed... When at first flight... there is only one rule posted... ‘No Camping’... Surprised we didn’t get arrested for possession of a tent or two. what can you do with that finely posted sign..? The whole visit is about celebrating defying important laws... namely the laws of physics, and that pesky law of gravity, and doing things that people called crazy... So when visiting FF... wait til the sun goes down... before setting up the tent! Be experienced before attempting setting up a tent in the dark, with 20kt chilly winds... and a nights worth of food and beer in your stomach. Not admitting any guilt... I may have seen somebody doing this... Best regards, -a-

I’ve heard they spontaneously combust above 10k’. You should sell yours immediately.

That's just not true. Sometimes when I park my car at the Walmart I need to walk all the way across the parking lot to find a nice motorized shopping cart.

A real short flight from KOSH, Door County WI, a lot of very cool, quaint water side towns, B&B's up the wazoo, nice restaurants, etc. https://www.doorcounty.com/ http://map.co.door.wi.us/airport/ Also, Traverse City MI is nice to hang out for a few days. Have fun!

we need to have a mooney burger run up there!

Best upgrade suggestion ever.

Legal here in California because of the safety increase. There has been talk about congress recommending the DOT ask more states to allow it. Sitting behind a line of cars stopped at a light is about the most dangerous time of riding. https://newatlas.com/motorcycle-lane-splitting-filtering-safety-research/34425/ -Robert

I use these, from wally world to hold pens: Like this on the right side; mine is on the pillar between windshield and window: There's two in the Mooney, one on each side; one on the dash of my truck; at home, one on my band saw and one on my wood lathe. Easy to find, inexpensive and very, very functional.

I've cupholders in mine, but coffee is verboten in my aircraft. The coffee stains on the headliner are evidence enough of what a good idea that is. I'll try and post up photos. I didn't do the mod.

Hey, Jeremy! I'm based at PDK but was based at Falcon for a long time. Sounds like you are somewhere around Mallards or Brooks Bridge. Good times down that way. Great looking plane and great writing skills. And man I miss Sammy's. That was a nice place to go and have a good lunch. William

Best first post ever! WELCOME Pasturepilot and CONGRATULATIONS!!!

It's not so much a "scan" as it is a "panoramic gaze!"

New canadian campaign slogan, "we built it, and the US is going to pay for it."?

Cool story! That's awesome how you are able to keep flying this plane you have so much history with! My E just got the E5. I'll give a pirep once I get to fly her a few times. Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

In the hours before signing the papers today, I did a few little housekeeping fixes I'd been putting off for (cough, cough) many years. Installed two new fuel gauges in the wing indicators. Those things are cheap, and LASAR was only too willing to sell me a new pair. Installed a new landing light circuit breaker switch, and cleaned out the pitot static system. Couple of bugs decided to try and defeat me with their pitot-static nest building skills.

Yes Sir!! 3M sells it. It’s EC-776 an it is a must for all Mooney owners. Its a Bit pricey, but worth it

For pilots, Christmas in July, and Santa lives in Wisconsin.

Today at Udvar-Hazy at Dulles I “flew” the Wright Model B simulator. Jeez, three minutes seemed like FOREVER. Rotate st 35. Best climb 35. Best cruise 35. Stall 35 (seemingly) Wing warp to turn with hideous adverse yaw roll stick left = forward and right = aft. Thot I was going to die. And I have thousands of hours: the Wrights had to learn to fly in that beast.

Elizabeth Warren is coming to Oshkosh???

I'd try mineral spirits and then acetone if that didn't work. One of those should make easy work of it.

I don't see any evidence of poor judgement. This isn't a VFR pilot who finds himself in IMC despite a mountain of evidence it was likely. This sounds more like a guy who cognitively accepted the risk for the thrill of it. Similarly few would say that the act of climbing mt Everest is poor judgement but the risk of death is very high. His calculus of risk/thrill was just different than ours. But it was his life to live on his terms and he didn't own anything to us. Don't forget that for 90% of the public climbing into a small airplane is in itself an act of lunacy. You could just drive a safe Volvo. Your risk calculus may vary. -Robert

Forty years ago I flew our Cherokee to New Mexico to visit the in-laws. Got home, slammed the door, sold it and bought a Mooney.

I disagree. I think poor judgement, irrationality and faulty decision-making are normal states of the human condition, and require no additional explanation. The goal is to find ways to mitigate those faults that everyone is capable of. Blaming the on unspecified "mental health issues" is another way of saying "it'll never happen to me."

Discussing these quirky operational things... at least keeps it from happening accidentally... Things to consider... Prop strike at cruise speed... Black smoke seen after contact with the water... engine no longer with the plane... prop blades bent far back... Plane seen climbing rapidly before stall and plummet... Larry sure did leave us a lesson we can all abide by... The compliance of water is quite strong. Those hydrogen bonds really hold the water molecules close together. Density of water is pretty high. Conservation of momentum rules... Chance of survival after coming in contact with water at cruise speed, is proven to be quite limited... Controlling speed requires having control of the plane. It appears the plane may have had its WnB, or even center of lift, altered upon impact... So, things we learned from Larry’s flight... If your flight prep includes checking the wave height at the Jersey shore, add several hundred feet to your planned altitude. If required... Remember to slow to near stall speed before landing on the water. Water isn’t very friendly at high speeds. People aren’t going to be very friendly after you load up your risk level. Or place your loaded risk level onto somebody else. Broken planes are hard to control. Altitude above the plane still does nothing for the PIC... MSL has variations, in reality. I hadn’t ever considered flying over the surface like that. Actual height above the ground is hard to establish without continuously scanning... A simple controlled descent in a Mooney is accomplished at 500fpm... about 10’ per second... Avoiding a controlled descent to the surface takes a lot of talent when traveling 10’ agl... Changes in wind, changes in temperature, change in atmospheric pressure...lots of things that can cause a descent... That’s pretty eye opening. RIP, Larry. Best regards, -a-

Bucket List Flight today Beautiful morning with maybe the best opportunity for flying while we're here in NC so we flew out to First Flight. Fairly smooth, hazy flight but the winds do swirl around a little coming in final over the beach to 21. Once you drop below the treeline it changes again, but wow, how cool to land there. I get emotional about some things but must say I was a little surprised at the level of emotion I felt being up there on top of the hill. There may or may not have been a few tears shed. We back taxied on 21 along with two other planes departing and my wife snapped a great picture as we lined on 21 and waited for the Cessna ahead of us to depart. If you look close you can see the monument in the background.

Flying at single digits low level is stupid, especially in a single engine airplane. And the hours this guy had were too few to go about this. I have 1000s of hours low level and I've done some stupid things over the Pacific Ocean in a B-52G at 390 KIAS, but never 10 feet! Either act is stupid. But a Buff at 10 feet AGL going 390 KIAS would attract attention and make noise. A little bitty Mooney at 10 feet is 'meh'. Therefore, he gets no cool points from anywhere. RIP. This is my first post. I love flying my M20C. But I like cruising at 10,000 feet. More time to make decisions.

9500 feet, WOT, 8.9 gph, 2500 rpm, 3 blade prop, mostly stock airframe, usually close to gross: 139 knots Go read http://www.mooneypilots.com/mapalog/M20F Evaluation/M20F_Evaluation_Report.html He is running 50 ROP and likely burning 10.5 or more gph. If you want 150 knots go lower and burn more fuel. I consider 150 knots at 9 gph my dream, to get there I need a new windshield and cowl, otherwise the 20F at about 9 gph is a 140 knot airplane.

Not the way most people do it. The positive safety value dissapears as speed differential between cars motorcycles increases. A better strategy would be to strictly enforce “pass to the left and merge”.

I think "much safer" might be overstating the case. IIRC, the UC Berkeley study suggested it was not more dangerous, with the caveats that traffic was below highway speed and when the motorcycle was not travelling much faster than the cars, e.g. in heavy traffic. I don't remember speeds, or if they looked at fatalities only or all accident types

Once the blue dye has had a chance to penetrate into the coating, you will never be able to remove it with solvent unless you actually dissolve the coating. The best way to control how much coating you want to remove is to use rubbing compound. You can rub a bit, clean and inspect the area and repeat until all of the stain is gone or you notice the paint getting thin.

Frankly, I like both. If you want convenience and money is no object, then KAUS is the way to go. You also get to land with the big boys. The tower there tried to kill me once by giving me 35L and then after I was almost on final switching me (and I could sense a pucker factor of 10+ in the controllers voice) to 35R for 'traffic'! I landed with a 737 IIRC. Anyway, KEDC is just an aviator's mecca. The terminal is one of the most beautiful of any in the world and the line crews are TOTALLY Mooney savvy. You also pull up in the shade (see photo, red arrow is N5976Q), a BIG plus in Tejas. Ozarka in the fridge and fresh baked chocolate chip cookies--what's not to love? Only issue is it being so far from the city center. I frankly will never forgive Austin for shutting down Mueller--my house in Hyde Park is less than ten minutes from it

Mine is on a shelf high up and several feet from the servos. No issues with AP active. Tom

I’m happy to close this one out with a solution and a lot of learning. Oh, and an AMU or two thrown out chasing the wrong culprit. The problem started with a low bus voltage, around 13.2, but sometimes 13.5, sometimes 12.9. Relatively variable during flight. Looking back through engine monitor data, it has been slowly declining on average for 2 years. Before that, it was solid at 14.0. Mechanic suggested replacing alternator at last annual so I did. Brushes were worn. I trust him very much on engine/cylinders/flight controls... in the future, I’ll do much more homework with electrical issues. No change with alternator. Lived with it for a while but it was declining. Tried to use Zeftronics troubleshooting guide but needed just a little more specific help as I had no experience troubleshooting electrical. Now I do. Talked to different mechanic. Talked me into new voltage regulator because “that’s cheaper than paying us for a few hours of troubleshooting.” No change in voltage. Although now I have a spare Zeftronics VR if anyone needs one. Decided to try my own hand. Bought $20 voltmeter at Lowes. Spent couple hours quality time with airplane apart. Cowl off, battery/avionics compartment open, instrument panel cover off. Identified two issues... Master Switch on my airplane is a single switch, dual pole. Not only does it Power the master relay, but it connects the alternator field wire. It isn’t the later model split switch. My switch is getting old. Voltage drop across it is the maximum allowable on the Zeftronics troubleshooting guide, .5 V. There is absolutely no access to change that switch without tearing out the panel. It’s on the list for next time the panel is apart. The other issue was the bus voltage was good (matched battery relay) but power input to the VR was .4-.6 volts lower. Found out the “alt field” circuit breaker was actually the power for the VR. Tested drop across the CB... .5 volts. New circuit breaker cost me $20 on spruce. It was accessible from under the panel so I changed it. Just flew it... 14volts and rock steady! Be aware, the electrical diagrams in the maintenance manual are model and year specific. I was surprised to see that both my field wire and my VR power wire went back behind the panel and then came back to the engine compartment. Also, that “battery master” switch on older models also cuts off the alternator field, so could be an area for resistance. They are cheap switches if you can get to them. Anyone want a working alternator with worn brushes or a gently used Zeftronics VR??

I left the garage side door open and the dogs got out once. Got ‘em both back. You’ll have that.

We all have to find our happy medium between risk of death and spice of life. Most people would say we are crazy to get in a little plane and that we've placed the balance far too far toward the "spice of life". With few exceptions you can get where you need to in a Volvo station wagon. I feel fortunate I live in a time we can make that choice though. -Robert

Not sure if you were serious in asking why he would do that. Because its a thrill that's hard to parallel. I spent many years flying and teaching in J-3 cubs. No one every asked how high it would go. Racing cars is very dangerous as well but people seek that thrill. They also die a lot. Some people seek out deadly activities. Alternatively you could live the fantasy of dying in a home at 100 sitting in your own poo and drooling. -Robert

To airplane owners