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This! And just to add one other point. Owning an airplane almost NEVER makes good financial sense. So trying to time the purchase of one is a lost cause as well. IF you want an airplane, AND you can afford an airplane, there is NO time like the present to buy one. Oh, and a second point... the clock is ticking on your medical, none of us will fly past a certain age. Don't let those 3rd Class Medical hours pass, waiting on a good time to buy.

Your flight review sounds a lot more like a lesson than a flight review. This is just me, and I've only had one flight review as I took my check ride in 2016, my next one will be this October. A CFI isn't going to touch the throttle if I'm the one with the plane, and absolutely not on final. If I give the CFI the plane ("Your Plane") to show me something that's a different story, but if I'm flying it they aren't touching any controls. The CFI isn't there on a flight review to teach me to fly the plane, they are there to observe and make sure I know the rules and can safely fly the plane.

True - true - rider. Another phrase amongst bike racer types is a person who can ride a high pace for a sustained period - you say - Oh that guy is just a motor. Or dude, you were motoring! Sculling is sublime! I love double sculls too since it really gets pretty fast. No kidding - you row? Fast twitch is quite a thing - I think I used to be a decent fast twitcher. I can see how much I have lost since the old days especially when I ride with my son.... who is Bollt 2.0 improved version. He these days we measure watts directly. So I know my rides power output moment to moment, and his.... as I can see how many watts I am putting out while he is dropping me faster than I can type the words MORE watts.

I first started SCCA racing in an MG TD (1959). Back then we didn't have videos.

Did someone say motor bike? My 1980 CB750Custom (me, original owner ). Is this possibly a new drift to this thread ?

Forget the car. I want the house!

nice job....thanks for the report.... Most of the time,,,,,(not all),,,,,these engines seem to give hints of things not being right....just happened to me in the last month....I knew my plane was not right after my 10,000 MSC annual. Had oil dripping on my nose gear from day one after the annual,....my mechanic dismissed it as oil from the breather....turns out it was from a very loose oil line that almost detached and was certainly chaffing.....I posted video in another thread. If we all want to be cheap bastards, I am one, and drive around lawn mowers with wings then we have to at least spend money and time making the engine 100% safe....interior or paint do not matter.....show me a plane with great engine mx and a good clean fuel delivery system and a late model engine monitor,,,now you are talking.....monoxide detector of course too.....

It doesn't matter what any MSC wants. Tell them each dollar they contribute will get them one vote; after counting the money, you will tell them the winner.

So do tires. Both of those guys are actually good drivers, but I was on serious, reasonably fresh, race tires and they were both on street tires. The cars were all pretty stock, too. All I ever did to that Focus, to keep it in the class it was in, was tires and brake pads. It was one of the best balanced factory suspensions I think I've driven on a track. Still pretty soft, but very well balanced. I've got a ton more vids of catching up and passing Porsches in unexpected cars, like Miatas, Ford Taurii, an E36 328i BMW (non-M) with a stock engine, and an actual wtw race in a Spec Rx-7 (first gen, stock engine) against a Porsche 944 (he did actually beat me, I kept catching up in the back field twisties, and we'd go down the front straight together until I hit 4th gear, then he just walked away, I'd catch up again, repeat repeat repeat). Much fun. I got back into aviation partly because a bunch of the guys I race with are aviators.

Fair enough. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I find them to be beautiful as when I look at them I think of the science related to controlling the vorticity flowing over the wings. I find science and carefully engineered machines to be beautiful. This is an engineering trick in fluid dynamics and I find it beautiful because it is ingenious. It is red herring to state something like "when flown properly by a trained pilot" ... fact: an airplane with vortex generators stalls at a slower speed than one without, and on the Mooney it is about 5kts. I don't care how trained you or I am is as a pilot, or resorting to imply my pilot skills must be inferior if I like VGs - it is a fact that a trained pilot cannot make my Mooney stall slower with my VGs removed than I can with my VGs. I was thinking of the safety factor of what if an off field landing and reducing kinetic energy when I had them installed and I am confident in this values based decision today ten years later. We can argue what I value as important vs what you value as important as who's values are more important - but enough with the faux-facts red herring "When flown properly by a trained pilot.." diversion. Just say your aesthetics and your choices as to how to engineer your flight envelope are your choice and no need to sink your discourse to insults of the pilot skills to those pilots that don't make the same choices as you. Your diversions of insults are unbecoming.

If you are worried about the future value of an airplane to purchase, you can’t afford it to start with. Prices go up, they go down. The one constant is when you open your hangar door she is there and she is yours, everything else is pure speculation.

I am interested in attending the Mooney Safety Foundation program in Springfield, Ma. September 11-13, 2020. Are the programs operating as scheduled? Anyone have any experience with the training during the corona virus? Thanks Jim

That appears to be an entry from an engine log? There is no such thing as an "annual" for an engine. Engines only get hour inspections. (AFAIK) If you find an "annual inspection" in an engine log, you might inquire as to where the mechanic found the "annual" checklist.

The river and its lake are pretty nice... Right next to it is the Delaware Raritan canal... extra flat, and no wind, very little current... If you want to set speed records... precision may be a requirement... I have a pic of my racing days somewhere as well.... really lightweight machines... Slalom skis... Best regards, -a-

Hah - I have a video or two somewhere - but it will take some digging. But I did once get a chance to row right by you - on one of those visits to Princeton when I saw you - I also have a friend on the faculty there and we had arranged to row out of the crew house in that big bath tub that Carnegie built for Princeton (the lake for the crew team right next to campus).

That's us at the "Head of the Fish" last October. I'm in the far right of the picture in a short gray color shirt and a yellow hat. It's masters 50-54. Those other two guys in blue shirts were wearing Navy shirts and then I said, oh I used to teach at Navy - before the race - and they confirmed they went there. SO I am imagining the by their age and having been navy that they are a pair of Admirals - whose but Boris and I kicked and that's us passing them - remember you go backwards in crew. I'm stroke (lead the tempo) but Boris does the real work since he steers since he has to look where we are going and steer with foot rudder and commands to both of us for differential power - he's the coach for our university, and he is Croatian and has a great accent. A racing double is also even more of an amazing machine - 33' long, and its a bit less than 40lbs I think but I forget the exact number. Its a heavy weight boat. You need a boat that matches the displacement of the water so it runs true.

God made outboard motors for a reason !!!!!

Pretty sure erik got a field approval

Robert, You are going to find bashing is an old style... MS is all about respect for everybody... even though it may not look that way to every casual observer.... Some CFIs are stuck in an old style as well... That was normal for the 90s... CFIs looked better by making the student feel bad? The more you get comfortable with yourself, the easier it becomes to get decent feed back... There are many MSers on a budget... There are many MSers that can’t get enough flight time... There are plenty of MSers with good input, but can’t write very well... (I’m one... not the good input one...) There are couple of people that have GU landings with a CFI on board... Nice to see the avatar update... Once you add a location to your avatar, you will more feel like part of the community... When you add your Mooney’s model, the responses you get will be more specific... You have been here longer than many... Stay focussed on what you want to achieve... Some things happen to everybody... As a PP you are in command of your ship... While Re-building time, find somebody you can trust to fly right seat with you... not easy, not everyone is going to want to be in a plane that has sat a long time... or want to be right seat with somebody with very little recency... Be honest with that person about the mechanical part of your plane... most Mooneys don’t do very well sitting idle for years... my M20C stuck a valve after sitting for two.... really stuck as in it didn't move... it went in the cylinder, and crashed with the piston as it came up... Many MSers use a technique called verbal mediation... they actually say what they are doing just prior to doing it... this takes out the confusion of what you are doing... If you can’t verbally mediate... it is a sign that you may be running out of cognitive power as the multi-tasking increases...Or you are uncomfortable...? Or some other challenge is happening that you want to get control of... practice, practice, practice.... With so little flight time... expect some rust to need being removed... pilot wise... and same for the plane... It really helps to build relationships with CFIs and mechanics... an hour here and an hour there could be really beneficial... Avoid the need to do things twice... and not get anything out of it... Making headway costs time, money, effort, or a combination of all three... At MS you are never alone... There is one acceptable type of bashing that occurs around here... that orca looking plane takes some heat every now and then... PP thoughts only, not a CFI or mechanic... Best regards, -a-

Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream........man, you guys are amazing...... I’m tired just thinking about rowing !

Used to, but I would like to get back into it again. Wichita is just completing their new boathouse. Head races only (again no fast twitches … and I am not tall and lanky). St. Denis Head Race (26 miles) is on my bucket list but fading … if they still have it. "Escape from Alcatraz" Triathlon is still strong on the list, though. My last big rowing event was at the Iron Oars in Chicago (15 miles). I like my pain to be long and very excruciating Sprints are for wimps I don't measure power any more. I did one time. It's too depressing to know that I am not worthy.

In my opinion, a minimal oil leak that’s been stable for a good long time is not reason to open the can of worms involved in any type of MOH. I’m as anal as anyone out there, but clean it religiously and get use to it, then enjoy your engine for a couple hundred more hours until it actually needs OH. Just my 2 cents.

One of the most common and deceptive leak on the IO-360 is from the oil return line under the cylinders. It goes from below the rocker cover to the case and has a short segment of rubber hose held by 2 hose clamps. Try tightening the clamps and clean thoroughly. Oil from those Gets blow straight back since suspended in the air. Worth a shot!

Worked at a motorcycle dealership through college and we had a used Kawasaki GPz 750 Turbo that had been breathed on: More boost, intake/exhaust, etc. Stock, these bikes were for a time the quickest quarter-milers. That one was a streetable monster and I wish I’d just bought it instead of worrying about college and grad school. Priorities!

I think i would find a new MSC if tbat is what i was told.

It's not just this virus thing. Cyclists have some weird tan lines, too. Right @aviatoreb?

“Our bodies (human propulsion) are truly amazing.“ Regarding truly amazing bodies....... I cannot post photo in its entirety...... else I be chastised by management!

From a glider pilot and someone who has had an engine failure at about 400 feet resulting in a crash in a meridian... Whenever possible I offset my upwind leg to the downwind side of the runway. I do this by making a 10-20 degree turn towards the downwind side of the runway and climbing on that heading until I am about 700 feet offset, then turn back to runway heading. Should the engine fail, this puts me in a position to make only a 180 (@45 degree bank which is optimum for a 180 with minimal altitude loss during the turn) descending turn to land on the reciprocal runway. If you are on the runway center line, you have to make about a 200-230 degree turn one way, then another turn in the opposite direction to line back up with the runway. That's just me.

Assuming I'm looking to buy an airworthy airplane, and if you're selling an airworthy airplane, then the PPI to verify that it is indeed airworthy. If the PPI uncovers an airworthy issue, the seller will rectify it or I'll find another airplane. I'm not renegotiating to now buy an un-airworthy airplane. I will ask the questions, and would expect the seller to disclose anything that doesn't work. i.e. the GS on the 2nd CDI doesn't work. Or the Recog Lights switch is broken. Or something similar... But I would expect to test all of this myself during a test flight with the seller prior to sending it to pre-buy. If I've never flown a Mooney and don't know what to look for or ask, I would ask someone more knowledgeable to come along on the test flight or look the plane over for me. But this is not a pre-buy and doesn't require a mechanic or shop. So if during the pre-buy, the shop comes back with a list of broken switches, rips and tears in upholstery, chipped paint, etc... so what. This doesn't change anything, it's a used airplane, and none of those are airworthy items. If I do chose to walk away based on that list, I do so without my deposit. If the PPI uncovers an airworthy issue such as an SB not complied with or dented landing gear linkage, a cracked exhaust, etc. the seller will cover the cost or I walk away with my deposit and go find a actual airworthy airplane to buy. *One note to this process. Prior to sending the airplane to a PPI, I'd send the logs to Laura at SWTA along with about $250. No does a more thorough review of logs than Laura, and it might save you the cost of the PPI.

Ah!.......Mooneyspace....... where we continue to learn we all have more in common than not.

This is what’s left of the annual Lompoc CA West Coast Cub Fly-In of some 30+ years. Event has dissenigrated for various reasons including the pandemic. Those that did attend this unofficial informal fly-in enjoyed themselves immensely! It was a beautiful day. 6A4BF881-886D-4135-B66E-504B18BD6415.MOV

I was 13 when it came out and had been riding dirt bikes for 4 years

And... to further complicate things, when I rode a police motorcycle we were called "motors" or "motor officers"...never motorcycle officers or bikers. Language is funny sometimes.

Understood. If the airplane is out of commission for whatever reason, there are lots of different ways to get stick time. But if *you're* out of commission due to external stress, then it makes sense to hangar fly until you're in a better place. If at all possible, you need a more gentle introduction next time Book a block of time at a flight school with a well maintained aircraft that has no open squawks. Get the rust knocked off your basic skills, then turn attention to your plane after you're up to speed. Being the test pilot in an aircraft with recent maintenance is a lot to take on - especially if you're not proficient yourself. Having a CFI along is a great idea, but if your CFI isn't very familiar with the aircraft, s/he can be yet another distraction for a rusty pilot. And honestly, if the CFI *is* very familiar with the aircraft, I might ask the instructor to fly left seat for a little while just to get the flows down and shake some cobwebs out of my head.

isn't that the funny thing about the vocabulary of 2-wheels.?! A motorCYCLE is a bike. But a person who rides a bicycle is a cyclist. I used to race track (velodrome) and road. I still ride road and mtn but I haven't done a track race in 25 years, but I did do a road race maybe 3 years ago, the tail end of that being time trials which is much more polite than racing in a peloton. Its actually very intense, and takes good timing and handling skills on the track in a mass start race with 60 guys on a 333m or 250m banked oval going 35-40mph and very very close. Time trial on the road is more "polite" and an individual effort. I'm unusually large for a cyclist and no one looks at me and says, hey, that guys a cyclist...but I did ok. My sons are home with the pandemic, which has been a lovely silver lining. and the old man still rides with the young bucks. My other sport, crew is a lot more bucolic to watch but it is quite intense in a different way while you are in the boat doing it, and last crew race was last fall in a double scull with the university crew coach. We were planning to do this summer too, but ..pandemic. The common thread in all this is - the equipment - is very exciting and technical and exciting high tech stuff - the bikes and the crew sculls are beautiful. Imagine a scull is 27 feet long, about less then 30'bs - for an almost 30 foot boat, and, 11'' at the beam and trick to balance - they are called shells because they are very thin but strong since they need to resist and be stiff against the full powered efforts of strapping young (or old) lads. Lots of carbon fiber. Ill photo some of my bikes that I designed in cad myself and had built to spec in Ti at xacd. Its the perfect sport for a tech-head. Here's a picture from my wall - top is around 1988, at the San Diego velodrome. and those are "funny bikes" cow-horns and its right before tai-bars burst into the cycling world generally (thanks Greg Lemond for making triathlon geek cool for cyclists). Its the 4k four man team pursue, where you change the lead every half lap by swinging up the side of the bank. The skin suits are the method of the day which is rubberized cloth - shiny and very very smooth for aerodynamics - it was shiny rubber impregnated into lycra and they were very hot but you only had it fully on for about under 5 min of racing. And long sleeves - for aero. The bottom picture is quite a thing, isn't it ? And let's not forget - the classic connection between airplanes and bicycles goes right back to the beginning with the Wright brothers who were also running a bike shop - and even today, or Mooney frames built out of tig-welded chromoly steel are built entirely of the same methods and skills as any classic steel bike frame.

There’s a common note among a lot of Mooney drivers, there ventures in fast other ,Oporto sports, from the 1960’s to now, makes sense our choice of planes. We’ve got motor head straight line brute speed, road racing, drag strippers, road rally enthusiasts, high end sports cars, Porsche’s ,AMG Benz, AC Cobras, hot Vettes, BMW assuming M models, Tesla’s silent force. Wow could we put together a car and plane show. The Summit would look cool with the array of car geeks Motörhead’s we’ll even invite Erik and the bike racers.

I Installed the new vernatherm, and sealed around the oil cooler at the cowling with a nice custom silicone gasket. See pic No real difference in oil temps. I chose not to do anything to the tapered Vernatherm orifice in the accessory case, as it looked fine to me. Test flight showed only a very slight improvement In oil temp, if any. The old vernatherm shows excessive and recent wear on the shaft where the poppet has been repeatedly compressed to its stop (Galling and polished there). See pic. This may indicate that there is a restriction in the oil cooler circuit that is causing the vernatherm poppet to compress the spring and partially bypass the oil cooler. Oil temperature 10 minutes after leveling off at 5500 ft with 82F OAT was around 205-210F. See pic. Oil temp during 115 KIAS climb was between 220-225F. After taxi back hangar, oil temp gauge indicated 200F. Lasar thermometer indicated that oil temp probe housing was also 200F. Front face of oil cooler indicated 177F at the hottest spot. So, oil is getting to the cooler, but I can’t be sure how much... I think I have a restriction, possibly a kinked hose. More exploration coming later this week. Oil cooler is an Aero Classics cooler with correct part number for the M20C, and the manufacture date aligns with the engine overhaul about180 hrs ago. Rather than send the cooler out for service, I’m going to remove the hoses and take a close look at them.

Not so bad, younger than me!!!!

In my search for flying hours, I've also had to fly some crap airplanes. Not as many or as bad as you've done, but I get it. Since you've been posting on MooneySpace, you've contributed a lot of good information and a number of solid opinions. But your opinions about magnetos are based upon your own very unique experiences. Those are very different from the experiences of people here who have flown airplanes with magnetos that received basic proper maintenance.

I did that for my Flight Review in 2014-ish. Had alternator failure on my evening, after work flight. Worked for a low approach at an Army field (descended until over the numbers, then went missed), but radio and panel lights got wonky on climbout. We were cleared to land, with 10° flaps maybe 15 miles out, landed at the unfamiliar Class D with no radio or lights, my first Cessna landing in several years and my first ever 182 landing. But it was educational! Aren't you supposed to learn something in your flight review? You can go as low as you want at a military field, just don't let the wheels touch [Tower's words, not mine]. Planes fly just fine with no electricity. Take that, glass panels worth more than my whole plane! Batteries not required . . .. 182 are quite nose heavy, especially with only 10° flaps [remember, high wing planes go nose up as flaps come down]. Those light gun signals really work, and are very easy to see at night! It's difficult to taxi around an unfamiliar, controlled field with airline flights with no lights on the plane and not even a flashlight to stick out the window My flashlight was in my flightbag, in the back seat of my Mooney, parked on the ramp that I couldn't find. Not a good place for your flight bag while you are out flying . . . . Just a couple weeks later, I used my flashlight out the storm window to taxi my Mooney in at my former home base (a whole month after I relocated) when my landing light burned out. [I replaced the GE bulb with an LED]. See, I learned . . . . CFIs are embarrassed and eager to disappear when a plane they provided breaks down in flight, especially after they vouch that it has been fixed. But he hung around long enough to sign off both Flight Review and HP Endorsement! Then he evaporated. I, on the other hand, was good to fly for two more years.

I have Aspens and a KFC150 with the KAS297B. The 1998 Ovation you're looking at had what Mooney called the Classic Avionics package back then. The Classic Plus had the Altitude Pre-select. I like the KAS297B, but this far down the road I wouldn't go back and install it if I didn't have it. Avionics have come a long ways since then. To drive it you also need a KEA-130 encoding altimeter which is very expensive to overhaul. You can set altitude alerts on the Aspen and with the rocker switch on the KFC-150 you can pretty much control your vertical speed. To add all of this and then have your KFC-150 eventually fail would be throwing good money after bad. Within the next few years we'll have more choices from TruTrak and the Dynon, along with the Garmin GFC500 that's available now. If altitude pre-select is a must now, I'd find an airplane that already has it.

In fact, Pete Brock who really was the brains behind the Cobra, especially their Daytona effort, went on to form Brock Racing Enterprises when Shelby did him wrong, which was Datsun's west coast effort. John Morton, Don Devendorf, Trevor Harris, Mac Tilton and a bunch of "hot rodders" turned tuners really built the performance image Datsun needed to grab market share.

Yup. Never scrubbed a trip for a bad mag. Bad plugs? Yes. Shorted harness? Yes. Bad Voltage Regulator? Sure...My anecdotal experience is that the Bendix 200 series mags on our plane are probably the most reliable system on the aircraft.

I’m getting a huge amount of quote requests for people buying planes. Good planes are getting strong prices

landing firmly, and with under-inflated tires, causes the tire to bulge outward and contact the door. When a tire squishes upon landing, the resulting bulge does not instantly disappear. It travels as the tire rotates.

Sorry was little shook up. Yes I had usable runway and landed straight down the runway. Now the turns, the other day during my BFR and we were at a point on downwind and the instructor asked me if I could make the runway, I said yes and pulled back the power. If we were in the Mooney, I could have made it, so I proceeded to turn and wasn't going to make it, so the instructor grabbed the controls and did a 90 degree bank and we made it. Now would I do a 90 degree bank as practice in the pattern, absolutely not. But if I had an emergency and no other option, now I have one. The whole point is, get with a high time, stick and rudder instructor. That mindset of grabbing the bull by the horns, not freezing up and flying the airplane went a long way into yesterday's situation. Now it looks like we are going to do more practice in his Decathlon. There is a lot that I learned on my BFR. I hand flew 2.5 hrs of IMC, when I only had foggle time in the past. Now if I were to inadvertently fly into IMC, I am much more confident in getting out of it. This guy has over 10k hours in small planes, gliders and aerobatics. He had his ATP by the time he entered college and tested out 40 credit hours in 1 semester. As soon as the plane is fixed I am starting my IFR at a flight school, then supplementing instruction with this super pilot. Just little things I picked up from him, collectively add up. I can get more into my flight review, but I know it will stir things up a little on a public forum. Going forward I am sure I am going to do a lot more upset training with him and possibly do some glider time. He has proven to me that day that I couldn't get the plane down with the standard emergency procedures that I have been taught. There is lot lot more for me to learn and I am excited about the next chapters.

“There’s a lot of money in aviation... I know I put it there “

+1 on learning to take the top part of the cowl off... You will get to see a lot of detail just by looking... Many people do it Differently based on individual strength and height and skill... I typically have a mechanic present for this... my M20C was much easier... Best regards, -a- This is a very special post for me... #30,000! Just another day in the MS world! Go MS! -Celebrate-

A long screw driver in the right angle you should be able to get it. Part #8 on the diagram.

Show us your engine monitor data... Some data is better than no data... Post it on savvy... Click the share button... Post link here... Things like these are interesting... they always leave finger prints... Fear not the sharing of the data... You might learn something about your engine’s behavior... You might find it is always the same cylinder... Maybe it is a lower plug... Maybe the valve wants to have its picture taken... PP thoughts only, not a mechanic... Best regards, -a-