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Fly in at a friends private grass strip. My wife caught a cool smoky start up!

Not sure what the proper etiquette is, just wanted to introduce myself as a new mooney pilot... Just recently (last Friday) acquired this beautiful plane - M20J ‘78. About myself, been wanting to become a pilot since I was a kid, uncle was a plane constructor and always was talking about planes when I was growing up. Started to work on private in 2012, put it on hold due to work and with covid, got enough time to complete my private at the end of September. Currently have 100 hours, completed 12 hours in the plane with Krikor (awesome CFI - mooneycfi.com). Really like this plane! It is much more stable and predictable than the other planes I flew (C172, C152, Grumman Cheetah). Looking forward to learning about mooneys at this forum. The first priority, take a look at pesky oil leak, 2nd build up enough hours (20) in the Mooney to be able to take passengers, 3rd, instrument rating... And here is a picture of the plane at Mustang Island, weekend flight around the texas coast...

Lots of great advice here and from different perspectives. Just for perspective, the USAF takes someone off the street and their first 80-90 hours is in an 1,100 hp T-6A Texan II, then their next 80-90 hours is in a T-1 (based off of Beach 400) or T-38 (supersonic capable). That means someone who starts flying the C-17 or F-35 will have between 180-220 hours total. It's all in the quality of instruction. Find a great Mooney CFI and they'll get you ready.

and here is a picture which I thought was too awesome not to share, another mooney parked by mine when we were at lunch... Pay attention to colors!!!

The GFC500 for the F/G is fully certified and flying! Expect 2-3 weeks for the PMAd parts kit to be available to ship. I picked up my F, which was the certification aircraft, yesterday. I was only able to fly one coupled approach (LPV) into my destination. I wasn't up for much after the 5 hour flight. I of course have the full system to include yaw damper. I did like the yaw damper in the climb, as I was able to be feet on the floor and the ball was centered the entire time. I have quite a bit of time behind bigger aircraft autopilots so the transition was very easy and straight forward as are all the modes of operation. One a side note for the 64 and earlier aircraft, Garmin is in the process of accepting the certification aircraft for those models. Due to the flight control and empennage differences they could not use the current E for the earlier models. So for those of you wondering, the GFC500 is on its way to you as well.

I went factory re-man. Despite many interesting options, *none* of the rebuild offers included a new exhaust system, and adding it is a 20k+ item. On the basis that the Bravo exhaust is a weak point anyway (and I've had it welded a couple of times, and previous owners had repairs too) I felt it had to be done. I took that engine to 2200 hours, when when compression went down rapidly (exhaust valve & seat) on one cylinder. Four cylinders were original, one had been an early life warranty exchange, and I had changed one at around 1800 hours IIRC, so although I might have got some more time by replacing/repairing that cylinder, the odds were rather high that another one would go. Bonus that I wasn't expecting was that a new engine fuel pump cured the hard hot starts and very poor low speed idle/pick up in high (35C+) temperatures

I’ll bet the loadmaster of an Antonov AN225 says his plane needs another couple hundred thousand kilograms of useful load.

Wife wanted to go North to visit friends in Minnesota. Then this happened... There is a deer in this photo... The flight back was a great experience builder dealing with icing and convective activity. I called the briefer on both ends of this trip (probably the first time since 2005) just to make sure I wasn't missing anything. Departing Flying Cloud (KFCM) Looking a little sporty out here for this Southerner... Snow is gone.. Put on the big boy pants to go IFR and get around the crap building up East of KMCI. Picture overload but it is probably the prettiest flight we've had. Little man happy we're home.

Ten or twelve years ago a local radio shop had just installed a 430 in a customer's plane. Within a short period of time, the 430 was stolen. A couple months were spent haggling with the insurance company about replacing the new radio with a used radio. Finally, a used replacement was located at a large shop in Florida. Serial numbers were checked an almost unbelievably, they were about to buy back his stolen radio. FBI became involved. Got this directly from the local radio shop owner.

I had a Century 41 previously with electric trim. So I'm not sure what the actual weight difference between the old and new. Unfortunately, they did a re-weight of the aircraft. And let's just say that over the years the plane has put on a few pounds that were not accounted for.

Have them convert it.

I’m not saying it can’t happen but I always laugh at this scenario. Anyone who has been through an avionics upgrade and knows the work that goes into configuring units with various HSIs and PFDs knows how far fetched this scenario is. If there are thieves who can sit in a plane with a flashlight in their mouth and seamlessly integrate an older Garmin box in a matter of minutes or several hours (assuming the second aircraft doesn’t have the same EXACT panel as the first aircraft) they deserve the avionics tech equivalent of the Nobel prize. They probably would make way more money opening an avionics shop and completing full panels in a week.

So which one is backwards???

http://aea.net/stolenequipment/ It would be great if they made this list public, but at least avionics shops can view the list prior to tagging equipment.

If you haven't already, make sure all the thefts are reported and the serial numbers submitted to the NCIC by local police.

My experience was that the PPI gives you only a little bit of leverage for changing the price agreed on in the sales contract, assuming you used one. If you look through typical sales contracts they allow either party to back out with no loss, other than earnest money paid, once any significant findings or new terms are proposed. In other words, now that you have new information and would like to renegotiate the terms, the original agreement basically holds no water. Some sales contracts even specify the maximum amount of time for an new terms to be agreed on, so that neither party can drag things out or stall. Essentially, if you want the terms of the sales to be adjusted, you're basically at square one, where neither you nor the seller owe each other anything. At that point, the seller would be perfectly free to turn around and make a sales agreement with someone else, and you'd be out the cost of the PPI and the time you've invested. And therein lies the significance of the PPI--its primary significance is as your ticket to walk away from a plane you don't want to buy. If you find items that are not tolerable to you, and you have to be prepared to walk away and tell yourself "that's the best 1 AMU I've ever spent on a plane". If it is still a plane you want to buy, though, it doesn't really help renegotiating much because the seller can just walk out with no loss, whereas you've invested time and the cost of the PPI. The first plane I looked at turned out that way, and the independent mechanic told me "I'm not supposed to say things like this, but this isn't your plane." That was just after going over the airframe. I thanked him for his time, paid the flat fee and told him not to bother with the engine and just button up the plane. It sucked, but telling myself "that was the best 1 AMU I've ever spent on a plane" helped. The second PPI I felt out negotiating fixing the dented nosegear truss. In the end, the sellers agreed to take care of it on their own dime with their own mechanic which I was satisfied with. Otherwise, I suspect they would have been okay with lowering the price if I fixed it myself (which would have been problematic away from home) as it's clearly an unairworthy condition, but not all "airworthiness" items are equivalent.

Not many chances to fly IMC in a piston single around here (Colorado). But coming home from Texas yesterday afternoon, I cruised over an undercast for more than an hour. And with the sun at just the right angle for it, I saw for the first time ever in my Mooney, glory.

That’s a problem people are to damn sensitive trying to make something out of everything ie say something like all lives matter and your a racist..come on man.

I will miss the Mooney speed and efficiency. I look forward to seeing my Mooney friends at OSH and other venues. My mission is the same, family trips and Pilots n Paws. The plan is to go slower and burn more dinosaurs doing just that. Sean

But you can appreciate how that could go. If the seller says there is small tear in the seat that's $500, a crank in interior plastic, $500, etc. Its a 50 year old plane, its not off the assembly line. Seems disingenuous. Now maybe if a non-airworthiness item is very big like a tank seal required soon but still airworthy I could see that. -Robert

I installed my AV30 yesterday. The installation was pretty straight forward. I only installed the AI and will wait to install the DG until they have it ready to drive my STEC. The installation was fairly simple and should have only taken a few hours at most, but I was waiting on my IA to inspect before I could go any further so it ended up a most of the day project. Basically ran a power line from the circuit breaker, put in a couple T's for the pitot and the static, run the OAT. Put it all back together and everything fired right up! Since I had my panel apart, I ran the second power line and ground so I will be ready for the DG install as soon as the APA mini is available.

It's interesting that you report having success with continuing the price negotiation well into the process. You mentioned "The remaining money due to the seller goes into escrow. Then we usually haggle over a few items and he reduces the price a little. Basically the price negotiation occurs well into the deal, when closure is in sight, the money is waiting to be transferred, and after the airplane has been thoroughly inspected." Other MS'ers on here have suggested that's crazy - no way to change the price after a pre-buy eval is done. (In this thread, just scroll up ) Sounds like both approaches have worked?

always remember- MPSAWTD. Most People Suck At What They Do. It's the Bell Curve in action. Finding the good people is harder than ever because so many young guys won't consider aviation due to the liability issues, and low starting pay. So we already have an extreme shortage of real talent. More than half of today's IA's will retire in the next 5-10 years. Thank your government for pushing liberal arts degrees in advanced basket weaving, instead of tech schools. All trades are affected, but aviation is affected the most. And lot of the best techs won't work on smaller planes anymore, due to Cheap Owner Syndrome. I can't tell you how many people want an IA to come to their hangar and work for Burger King pay. At the other end of the spectrum, owners of late model planes expect to pay realistic rates, and they are getting the best services. It is the free market at work. So getting the combination of an experienced, trustworthy, and available tech, is pretty close to winning the lottery these days. As an owner, you need to ask the right questions in advance, and as others have mentioned, let a new prospect do minor work, before jumping into an annual you might both regret.

Big G getting it done...Kevin hope you are thrilled with yours! Look forward to a pirep!

what'd that poor Mooney ever to do anybody?

One other tidbit I learned here on Mooney space, the governor shouldn’t be “governing” your rpm during a static run or at the beginning of your takeoff roll. A properly adjusted low pitch stop and a healthy engine are supposed to yield ~2680 rpm. The governor is not increasing pitch or “pulling back” the rpm at all to hold that. After the airspeed starts to build on takeoff roll, prop rpm would increase, but that’s where the governor brings it off the low pitch stop and keeps it ~2700 by increasing pitch.

Hmm, i was under the impression that most new Ahrs systems where rate based MEMS sensors

Not on the 430/530 series. My serial number in Garmin's system for updates those 2 were: 1 and 2 as it's the serial numbers on the cards that mattered(but didn't have to be entered).

Someone will probably step in and say this would never work, because of (insert reason here) but an idea of how they might get away with these shenanigans. Make two raids. Raid one: Only hit birds with incredibly popular avionics installed. You can be ugly with this operation; if some metal gets bent no big deal. Hang on to the boxes nabbed from this trip for raid number two. Raid two: requires more precision, a little more surgical. Armed with the boxes stolen from the first trip, find birds with identical equipment installed. Swap the (assumed to be reported as) stolen box for an identical box. Don’t damage the planes, you don’t want anyone to think these birds were disturbed. The stolen avionics from the first raid would be reported, but with those boxes already installed, nobody would check the serial numbers against the database for a while, until they go in for service. By then the trail is cold, any fingerprints are long covered over and wiped away. This process doubles the effort required before making a sale, but might cover the tracks long enough. The boxes netted in the second raid, similarly, would have been sold and installed before anyone realized THOSE serial numbers were also stolen. Are database updates serial specific, or will they work on any box running the specified hardware?

I had the same experience when I bought my 201 25 years ago. At that point I thought they all had steps but mine came from the factory without one. I don't miss it and I like to think it makes me faster :-)

Garmin has a procedure to follow... I called their help line to see if they could help me find it... 1) Police report 2) S/Ns 3) Email to Aviation.support@garmin.com 4) I sent a message over to Trek Lawler to see if there is a more direct route for the email... if he messages me back, I’ll include that as well... if I remember correctly, it is really difficult to use a stolen Garmin radio... their value is incredibly limited... Good luck! Best regards, -a-

Since I'm visual person, I made videos of leak locations with my GoPro. Posted on youtube. Now the fun of removing all this soap from the tank. Any suggestions? I thought of water and shopvac.

This is partly why I often fly my plane 1200NM to get work done as I pass many MSCs and mechanics along the way.

This is one of the reasons I recommend sending the logs to Laura at SWTA before any PPI is done. If the plane is all the way across the country and not easy to see then maybe send the logs to Laura before you even see the airplane in person. I'd also get someone from MooneySpace to go look at the airplane for you. There's lots of stuff that can be done before getting into the time and expense of a PPI.

Well - could be - but (now mind you my airplane takes two big 35'ers) my airplane has concord and I have started it up without a problem in as low as -10F. (Well yes I do preheat - but that preheats the engine - not the batteries in the tail). So them's some cold batteries.

Awesome!!!!!

Received my 2 channel today. So far, it seems to work as advertised. In my situation I have good coverage and the antenna supplied works fine.

The confusion is only because serving as pic and logging pic really shouldn’t have both used the term pic because the two are very often not coincidental. Both are covered under different sections of the fars and have different rules. 99% of the time GA people log pic not because they are serving as pic but because they are sole manipulator. -Robert

Enroute to New Century as we speak. Sitting in Denver with a layover. I pick up the plane tomorrow morning. According to Garmin the certification paperwork was completed on the 16th. More to follow!

It wouldn't have been free - they would have had the airplane 6 months or more. The more I thought about it, it didn't seem like the deal it appeared to be. I decided to let others work out the inevitable teething challenges with any new product. My KFC150 still flies on rails with GPSS. I might have felt differently if I was having all of the problems you were with your KFC150. (I still wonder if most of the problems you were having weren't airframe problems since you still had the rocking after the GFC500, until someone thought to lubricate the control shafts.) Someday mine will need attention and replacement but I wasn't willing to accept that limitation when I didn't have to. If I decide that the GFC500 is the best choice when that day comes then that's what I'll choose. David, I am current on hand flying approaches and, like you, can fly an approach with or without an autopilot. That wasn't the point. We all get to make informed choices on what we want to fly with, but inferring that others that don't like that limitation must be inferior pilots and can't hand fly an approach is a weak argument. Again, if my autopilot wasn't working well I'd look at all of my options and then make an informed choice. Since I don't have to make that choice yet, I'll wait and see what's available then. (I still think about pilots that are already in a high stress situation if they have lost their GPS signal in IMC and they aren't aware of that GFC500 limitation, and they keep trying to engage a coupled ILS approach and can't figure out why it won't work. Distraction can easily lead to destruction. Garmin certainly has the resources to produce training videos on this and make them available to owners but they haven't chosen to do so.) Tying in with this topic, the point was that unlike other manufacturers (TruTrak (BK), Trio, Dynon) that are at the mercy of the understaffed FAA, Garmin gets these approvals through on schedule since they have in-house approvals. Since they do that, they were able to get that limitation through the system when no other autopilot that I know of has that limitation. To me, it is very doubtful that any other manufacturer could get that through the system, at least not without instrument panel placards, marketing disclaimers, etc. The other manufacturers are doing what they can with the resources they have and the huge backlog that the FAA currently has, which is undoubtedly frustrating for them and their waiting customers. Kudos to Garmin for working the system that's in place to get all of their products to the market, but with increased FAA scrutiny it remains to be seen how long that will last. It would be interesting to see how fast Garmin would be releasing these products if they had to jump through the hoops that the other manufacturers do. Back to topic and here's hoping that new releases for these other companies come soon to promote competition in the marketplace.

I bought my 81 J model Mooney in New Mexico in 1998. It had been inactive for several years and the logs could not be found. A couple of days ago (22 years and 2,400 hours later) I received a call from a gentleman from a small town in NM. He said that his father had operated a one man aircraft repair shop for many years prior to his death about 5 years ago. While cleaning out the contents of his father's hangar recently he found my logs which he kindly agreed to send me. He refused any compensation--even the cost if sending the logs. We had a nice visit and he seemed like a really nice guy. He is getting a huge Honey Baked ham which I hope his family will enjoy. Like the title says, aviation people are the best.

This is a picture of my first approach. Notice the deviation indicators on both the AI and HSI. Also note the minimums bug coming up on the altitude tape. It’s set at 462 ft. Synthetic vision is a significant plus!! Still need two cover plates for the empty holes....

This is why we have the Mooney. Worked half a day on Friday and then flew to Salt Lake to surprise my sister for her 50th birthday. Then we got up Saturday morning, picked some raspberries for my dad from her garden and flew from Salt Lake to Phoenix to see my parents whom I haven't seen since Thanksgiving. On the way we flew over the tiny mountain town where my dad was born and the farm that was in the family for 100 years and took pictures and video for him. We also flew over Bryce Canyon and Lake Powell. We visited my parents and then had dinner at my sisters and stayed at one of my other sisters for the night. (Normally we stay at my parents but don't want to be in their home that much right now.) We had breakfast on the back patio with my parents this morning before flying home mid-day. A little over 1300 nm flown and memories to last a lifetime. Full post and more pictures coming soon.

Well it’s in - all bugs fixed. First impressions - I like it - a lot. Amazing level of integration. With everything talking to everything else, the set up options are pretty mesmerizing. KFC 225 integration is very good — approach capture and track precision seem better. Test flights this weekend, some more comments to come. Lots of subtleties in configuration and in upgrading databases. + No Vac!

This is also likely to be a flaw in the instrument-rated vs. non-instrument-rated comparison. If instrument-rated pilots fly a lot more hours on average than non-instrument-rated ones, then it doesn't tell you a lot to say that on an accidents-per-year basis their accident rate might be slightly higher.

Thank you. I have just ordered a rainbow colored switch.

70 hours now with the new set-up. A few thoughts: 1) I am very happy with the location of the GFC500 at the bottom of the center stack. 2) the GFC500 is a very stable and reliable and intuitive A/P. Integration with the GN750 and G3X makes flying IMC single pilot effortless. I feel very confident with it. 3) Still debugging the fuel gauges. Found out the stock gauges do not work with the Garmin G3X. Had to replace them and am still debugging that. 4) Happy with my choice of shops. Partly because it was local but Holder Aviation has been very thorough and responsive to all of my requests and needs. 5) I don't miss the yaw damper. Maybe I don't know what I am missing. 6) Flying more and longer flights. The mental work load is about 50% or could even be 33% compared to the old set-up. The only thing I am not completely happy with is the layout of the engine monitor gauges. I keep searching for information, but maybe I will get more used to it as time goes on. 7) Perhaps the best upgrade was the sheepskin seat covers! Best value so far. Some things I would have done different: 1). I would not have refurbed the G430 unit. Instead, I would sell it and replace with a simple back-up com. It takes up panel space and essentially is a fancy radio now. I don't even program destination in the nav. 2) I would have looked harder at the G500TXi vs the G3X. By the time I added the engine monitor and all the integration with the 750, I think the final cost would have been about the same. Although I am not sure and not sure what capability I would have gained. 3) I would not have kept the old air speed indicator and altimeter. Original plan was to keep the turn coordinator too. But it was kaput. 4) Not start a complete teardown and build up just before a pandemic PS MORITZ boxes and probes still available. Get them while you can.

YGBSM. You made me look at it. He did just fine. Unknown structural damage, aircraft control questionable, and not a whole lot of altitude. They both walked away from it and they didn’t even cause additional damage to the airplane. What more do you want? Yeah, he landed hot. Luckily he had himself a good field and a tough airplane. We can and should always learn from these kind of things, so I’m sure there’s stuff that could be done better, but the results were pretty good. Kept control, didn’t stall, found good field. Overall, success.

It’s tough to say. At almost 20 years it may not need an overhaul, but it could probably use a reseal. Over that duration of time with on 600hr of operation I’m sure the Orings need to be replaced.

Chris Ford I have the amazing 1966 M20E and I have posted here before and might I say thank you for the valuable information from you all. I am a small business owner in Atlanta Ga. Im always looking to connect with any and all of you. I would like nothing more than to have a circle of friends with Moonies to hang out with and fly to wherever we want to. Im at KRYY and almost always available to go fly. PM me if your in my area even just to link up to say hello. Drop in and have some of out $6.67 avgas...(ouch) I bought her in march of 2013 and have a little over 100 hours on her since.