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We really do need to be better about that. We have folks here that are for or against Just about every aviation product or manufacturer. We all have our biases but if our first instinct when one of these reps visits Mooneyspace is to tell them why they suck then don’t expect many or any of them to stick around and share information. Even if I don’t particularly like a brand I’m going to give that rep a pass because others here may need information he has. That being said, obviously we all need to share our opinion about these products and be brutally honest about it, but that is something we can share with each other without attacking the reps. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I thought about getting a Rocket but I’m happy with the Ovation.

Or the aspen guy... Or the oil additive guy... Or the Garmin guy... We are slowly getting better about not beating people up as they walk in the door... -a-

Up in the air again, I met up with a good friend who took some air-to-air shots. Had to slow the Mooner down and ad some flaps to be able to stay in formation, the other ship was a tad slower. Things of beauty, the airplanes we fly!

That's one pointy little toy airplane. You know what is amazing about this flying to me is not as much that a little jet airplane can go 451mph, but that the human pilot on the ground can control the thing at those speeds. Consider the pilot on the ground has to see it to fly it, meaning see which way it is pointing and going at the least, and have time to react. Consider that at 451mph it could easily fly out of site in a blink, or at least get so small you loose track of which way it is pointing, up or down and then from there it is impossible to decide how to control it. This is one very expert pilot indeed.

The Earth is still flat. Get a rocket and check it out yourself then check in when you see the truth.

Grass runways are different. Off-runway is so different that no one counts bounces unless the altimeter shows a change. My only emergency landing so far was after a total electrical failure, back at my (obstructed) home field. But I do go to grass fields. Red Sky done good!! His copilot even better!!!

I posted this on another thread but it can probably be useful here too. Here is the price of the entire GFC500 price layed out, because other people reading are probably curious about itGFC500 AP control Panel: $2,800GSA28 servo: 1400 x 4 = $5,600Product Info Kit = $50Basic Install Kit = $2,000Pitch Trim Kit = $850Yaw Damper Kit = $850Labor for installation of GFC500 = $5,000Labor for Yaw Damper = $800Yaw Damper alone = 3,050Total = $17,950 -850 for pt kit -850 for yd kit -2800 for lack of 2 servos -800 for labour of YD -1000 for approx labour of PT. that brings it down to 11.5 amu that brings it to give or take 12k for just 2 servos and hooking it up to the GPS. There's a g5 for sale here that's 1800. You can install that yourself with the help of an A&P. Obviously your lacking all the approach benefits without the g5, but you can add that later. There's your 12 to 15k install for an autopilot.

What you describe has nothing to do with the airspeed safety which prevents gear retraction when airspeed is too slow. That safety switch merely over-rides a pilot action to move the gear switch to retract by accident while still on the ground. Assuming no one touched the gear switch, and you didn't exit the runway at too high a speed to side load the gear, what you describe sounded like is a maintenance issue with insufficient pre-load on the left main allowing it left main gear over center latch to fold over with with very little side loading just as @Jerry 5TJ described above. So with those caveats, this would have nothing to do with the pilot(s) nor the air safety switch. Plus if it was from the pilot moving the switch and failure of the air speed safety switch all 3 gears would have likely folded - not just the left.

buy air boxes when you can and keep that baggage door locked !!!

That’s the best way to do it. Aircraft tails are designed for distributed loads so be careful if you load the tail to raise the nose. Shot bags or something similar are best. Cessnas have had lots of cracking problems by people man handling the tail. (There is a safe way to do it on a Cessna, but you have to push on a tail bulkhead and not on the stabilizer). Skip

@Denver98 and I pulled the nose wheel off this morning to get the flat fixed. I used my favorite method of lifting the nose for this job. A 2 ft piece of 3/4" pipe through the gear linkage just above the wheel. Put a jack under that and lift. We then stabilized it with a jack stand on either side while we were off fixing the flat.

N74562 is no longer ours. Signed it over to the insurance company today. Checks ‘in the mail’ so to speak ;o) Now, for N2652W! Did restart my IFR training yesterday - 3 hours of flying and wow, that was a workout! Been 22 years since my last IFR flight training but I was surprised how much came back. Still well behind the plane but, had fun. Heat got to me (98° and humid), did take a break but I was pretty gassed by the end. Mental work is something! May have to do shorter sessions during the summer heat here in Texas... -Don

Perfect application for a 3D printed part.

Unfortunately in Arizona hospitalizations and ICU occupation due to covid-19 are increasing, which is much more concerning than case increases due to increased testing. Deaths have been on a quadratic trajectory for a long time. I've been tracking Maricopa County (Phoenix area) data published by the county. Hospitalization and ICU (hospitalization is the red trace, the blue dots are a best-fit linear model applied before the big jump a little while back, the blue line is the ICU cases, also with a best-fit linear model underneath it): ICU by itself, which makes it a little easier to see that the rates were declining but reversed: For reasons I don't understand, the deaths have been on a very quadratic trajectory for a long time. The dashed line(s) underneath the trace include a quadratic curve-fit I did on May 3 and haven't changed since. The blue dotted line is just the best-fit linear regression, which is really only useful to emphasize the bend in the trajectory. Meanwhile our state and county governments are saying hospitalizations are declining. My healthcare friends in hospitals are indicating otherwise, as does the data. It's a very curious thing.

A proper pull test would be to load it with thousands of pounds instantaneously.... weight x gs Unfortunately, the test ruins the belt... That’s why belts get replaced after accidents... They are one time use kind of things... Often they get inspected... when fraying is found... they are done... sometimes the sewing falls apart... The cost of the raw material isn’t much... all the certification of the belts makes it worth it... Hopefully we won’t need to test them in anger... at That point, we have a lot of things on our plate... We want to be able to be conscious for the next decisions to happen... PP thoughts only, not a nylon web designer... Best regards, -a-

The rust on the arm going to the elevator is not uncommon. The airplane got stripped well, but when they shot the paint they didn't get enough onto the top part of that steel control horn. One day you will probably want to remove it from the airplane, clean it down to bare metal, and reshoot the paint with it off the airplane.

There is a standard answer for that... Especially if your plane was parked outdoors for years with no cover on it... belts are somewhat UV sensitive... Search for seat belt suppliers around here... they are pretty easy to find and easy to call to get answers from... Expect a number like 10-20 years... if yours are 40 years old... pick your favorite color and get some new ones... Best regards, -a-

Geez, I wish you guys hadn’t beat down the pro pilot guy when he came here to take our pulse.

I’m sure it’s due to every possible excuse OTHER than a disregard for social distancing and proper hygiene. I guess the doctors and scientists have been wrong all along.

Videos are helpful in obtaining understanding

Our Mooney is just coming out from annual inspection, and the clock bulb was changed. The mechanic found easier to access the bulb through the top of the panel with the glareshield removed. He didn't attempt to access by the ASI, but I believe this is also a good option for a quick access that avoids removing the glareshield. I 3d printed the changing tool with the file that Larryb shared above, and it revealed to be very helpful because it takes a lot of pressure to turn the bulb out. Actually, you need to press and turn 90º to take it out. But with all information shared here on MS and also with the web videos (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4j5Bg05vLuE) about Porsche 944 clock repair kit, this was a painless job. You can see below pictures of the before and after. Our clock really shines now!!! Thanks a lot to all that helped !! (I still recall severall emails I changed with MooneyFactory asking for information on how to solve this issue, and reply had always been that they were waiting for the MD answer...!! one more situation where MS is a really powerfull tool for Mooney Pilots) Cheers Fredi

Many people haven’t been keeping there distance and disregarding common sense. I believe if we all keep our distance, wear our mask, keep our hands clean maybe we could get going with the new normal. I just went away for a week, the hotel was cleaner than ever, the restaurant was 25% capacity they cleaned chairs everything after each sitting, workers wore masks. No maid svc therefore no one enters your room. If everyone does there due diligence we’re ok, but a certain small amount won’t

Cheaper than an annual inspection and probably catches more issues

Thanks for the tip on Jeev Old Guy. I’m reaching out to him now.

There’s an RC field near our house with a nicely paved runway that is every bit of 500’. Usually twice a year they have a Jets and Giants get together where huge RVs with race car hauler style trailers meet up for a week or so. Some of those birds rival a late model Mooney in value and they are huge. It’s absolutely amazing that people can follow and control something in the air at or below 400’ that is flying 400mph. So cool. They even make turbine RC helicopters and boats too. If I’m not mistaken, you can build a turbo prop like a PT6 too. Yep, just checked. JetCat makes them. So @Yooper Rocketman could build an RC scale IVPT to go with his full size plane.

If only I spoke better French.....

I absolutely think he did the right thing in putting it down ASAP, where he could. He had a BAGGAGE DOOR, STUCK TO HIS ELEVATOR. I looked through the POH and this is definately NOT addressed. I understand how you might want to see how the airplane is flying and assess characteristics and maybe fly to a big airport....I will take next available. You can see him trying to control the airplane right after the door departs....look at the damage the thing did, he absolutely needed to get that airplane on the ground, ASAP. Structural damage does NOT get better in flight. If something is bent but not broken (yet), I WANT IT ON THE GROUND. I am 100% sure I would have done the exact same thing. Maybe not as well....

How much? close to a million dollars? rather buy a run out old plane and fix it up and have mx and gas reserves for 4 lifetimes.....

..... and that’s what I’m sayin’

@EricJ, the big innovation isn't in the rocket tech itself (though there's a lot there), but in how it got here... "Old Space" for years denied it was possible to build a booster that could be propulsively landed for reuse, right up until SpaceX proved they could do it repeatedly. Too much money was at stake for them to say otherwise (cost+ contracts and Congressionally-supported division of labor [read: "jobs programs"]). We can really thank the Columbia Accident Investigation Board and the Augustine Commission for the major innovation that lead to SpaceX being able to create the Falcon 9 reusable booster system: Allowing private companies to develop and own the hardware (prior to that, NASA owned the hardware, even though the contractor was the developer and the only one that could build it). And THAT is a Very Big Dealtm. As far as SpaceX itself, the engineers there have done some very smart and innovative things. Landing the rocket isn't really one of them so much as the result of a lot of other, equally important, innovations. It's not every day that someone creates a new orbital-class medium-lift booster that can land itself and be reused a few weeks later... We can poke fun at the guy that funded it initially over beers sometime, but I have nothing but respect for everyone else there. Blue Origin hasn't actually done anything useful, so I don't really consider them at this point. Sure, the BE-4 engine looks interesting, but they haven't yet completed developing it and are still a good ways away from flying it (probably on ULA's Vulcan initially, rather than their own New Glenn). In other words, wake me up when they actually do something worth talking about. And don't get me started on their financier...

We had a presentation at our local EAA meeting in December by Concorde batteries as they are manufactured nearby. They brought with them cross sections and samples of material used in their batteries as well as competitors. There is no comparison in quality of materials and manufacture. Best of all....AGM That all said I also want to say that AGM batteries as a technology. Nothing else compares. I first discovered them in one of the SEAL "go fast" boats in San Diego in 1999. They told me it could take a 30 caliber bullet through and through and keep working. About a year later I saw at a boat show someone drill a 1/2 inch hole through and AGM. No leak, battery was slightly weakened in capacity but kept on working. I put in three into my boat. My granddaughter some years later was playing at the helm, which I removed her from, but failed to notice she left on a bilge pump which overwhelmed the charger and depleted the AGM. The charger kept pumping in juice and the case on the AGM blew...very softly. No leaks, no electrolyte, no cleanup. Just pulled it out and replaced it. Later when I bought my PA-18 it had a very small yet powerful AGM. Maintenance people accidentally left on the master. It was well run down but I charged it and it recovered just fine. I have two personal watercraft that sit out on the dock all winter, albeit on chargers but I usually get 3 to 4 years out of those tiny AGMs. A wet battery lucky if I get 2 years. Finally there is this. The Concorde AGM costs more upfront, but it is able to provide so many more start cycles it is the cheapest/cycle of any battery out there. When you couple that with the imperceptible issue of venting and corrosion and there is no other choice IMHO.

My plane lives at a grass strip and I swear that every take-off is a porpoise or three - it starts wanting to fly, but can't quite, yet, and it settles back...

Corn flake, that is not exactly how it works. The governor stop will not change your static RPM unless it is being limited by the governor. If adjusting the screw gets you up to 2600, then that will be your max RPM in flight also. Another item to check is the rigging of the rod end on the prop control. You need to make sure the governor arm is contacting the stop before the blue knob hits the stop in the cockpit.

Have you tried soft field landing technique on tarmac (not sure why one do that? )

FWIW, rockets have been vertical landing for quite a while, long before Paypal existed or Musk had mastered self-hype PR. In engineering it's a classic inverted pendulum problem which is often taught in graduate control theory. Personally I'm a little sad that we make such a big deal about freshening up old ideas and getting back into a business we did decades ago and others have continued to do for a long time. It used to be we reserved such admiration for genuinely new or innovative accomplishments. Yes, I'm grumpy. The Delta Clipper was also autonomous.

It only counts if you build it yourself first, from your own design and castoff parts from the neighborhood garbage . . .

Leave it to a cinematographer to not only make a video of our audio panel informative, he's made it entertaining too! Hope you enjoy watching this as much as I did. SoCal Flying Monkey Mark Scheuer PS Engineering, Inc.

If it were due to increased testing then your positive test rate would go down. Your positive test rate has gone UP meaning that as much as you would like to think so, it is NOT from increased testing but from increased number of cases. This was predictable. Last time the positive test rate was 7.2%, now it’s 8.5%.

I have a working radio selector, trim system, and roll servo for a CIIb. I don’t know if the parts numbers are the same or not. In North Carolina. Brad

LOL. When it was installed I would use it to record wind direction and speed at my destination.

/shameless plug mode = ON The wonderful MSC's who support the Mooney Summit might be worthy of considering as vendors for your Mooney Parts needs. These great companies along with all of our sponsors allow us to provide not only help for downed Mooney pilots, but enable us to provide fantastic content at the Summit each year for your education and entertainment They are: Oasis Aero Premier Aircraft Southwest Texas Aviation AGL Aviation Daytona Aircraft Services I would be remiss to not plug them for all they have done for us as a community, along with Clarence who has little to gain and donates an oil change kit each year for our raffle. Do consider supporting these fine organizations who support the Mooney community. /shameless pluig mode = OFF

Yes. The full open position is draggy, noisy and kinda uncomfortable, but there's a detente on the canopy rails which is about perfect. On the other end of the spectrum, the Mite has a heater, but the stock heater is kinda weak. Most owners who need heat have enhanced it by wrapping a screen door spring around the exhaust pipe inside the muff to increase heat transfer. The screen door spring is generally available at Lowes, or Home Dept's PMA section.

I have that part of my interior out. I’ll send you a picture of what it looks like

US Patents don't apply elsewhere in the world, so if an inventing company doesn't file patents internationally in countries in which it has a market, those markets are free to use US Patented devices. People have been doing the same here for years, bringing foreign inventions in and making money on them. And often patents are not written well enough to prevent a work-around where a knockoff won't violate the patent, so knockoffs often survive even when there's a patent if the patent isn't broad enough. Lived that world for a long time. It's a minefield and often not productive.

Join the club of people that refer to the big devil as Big G... You are not alone... And when you play this game long enough... you can dislike the next guy... Big G doesn’t necessarily make the best equipment... But they do integrate their own equipment quite well... imperfectly sometimes... There are no Best avionics suppliers... If you are good at equipment integration... there are several suppliers you can go to... Just don’t hook up an Aspen to something that isn’t qualified to drive it... there are plenty of WAAS devices that are used at low costs to send the proper signals... PP thoughts only, I have a bunch of aged BK stuff... Best regards, -a-

My IA did an excellent job here at KSPG. http://skyaddictaviation.com/

https://www.saintaviation.com ask for Jesse Saint https://www.aopa.org/destinations/business/26798 Ask for Jake Clemmens Both are great resources and have done great work for MSers... Best regards, -a-

Working well with an iPad... May need to see an eye dr. afterwards though... -a-