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Just to update all my fellow MooneySpace Family, I was the PIC of this flight. It happened quick as most emergencies do. We (my family and I) were in solid IMC at 5k when I lost almost all power very suddenly and without warning. I worked through the emergency procedures checklist but had no success. I advised ATC of my issues and started a descent to VMC about 1000’ ft below. After the emergency procedures didn’t recover the power loss, I advised I was declaring and proceeded to get vectors for the nearest field. I was about 9 miles from the nearest and I worried if I lost the engine we may not glide all the way to the field. When we broke out, I could see what I thought was an airstrip about a mile or two off the nose. ATC advised I was near a private airfield and I thought that’s what I was looking at. I informed ATC of my intentions to circle this field and make a landing. We landed safely and not a scratch on my family or the plane, thank god! Only after I landed did I find out we landed on the Consumer Reports testing facility track. It’s about 4400’ long and makes a great emergency LZ! Now to work through the process to determine what happened and what’s next. This is a sobering reminder of why to practice practice practice, constantly refresh yourself with the POH and your checklists and stay sharp! I credit my save to my flight training and the many days I spent with my CFI working through this stuff! I will continue to be a student of the game and always press myself to study, practice and stay sharp! …..your life and others depend on it!51 points
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Hello all, I am the passenger of N231GZ - M20 Rocket Engineering conversion to turbo prop inner-cooled. I'm not a pilot so I only know a little bit. Pilot/ Physician is instrument rated for 22 years. Trained in a Mooney because it was built in Texas and could be converted by Rocket. We travel throughout Texas doing exams for the state for work injuries. Hangered in Addison field for 22 years. IFR coming home from our monthly trip to Abilene, 5 mile final 2000 ft. locked onto the ILS, engine failure. Pilot tried multiple things to restart with no success, then just "flew the airplane". Couldn't see the ground until about 400ft. and saw the street/ trees, not a very hard landing until we were lunged forward. Prop was feathered before we crashed. We now know we hit the light pole, but I think the left wing was still attached and barely on fire when we were pulled from the plane. Neither of us lost conscience, the handle fell off inside and I was unable to open the door. Someone came up to the window and we told him to pull outer latch and they got us out. I am now home with broken radius, repaired with surgery, broken facial bones will not require surgery. Pilot fractured L2 that severed nerve, had surgery and nerve will heel in 18 months but may have a drop foot, and stitches in forehead. He should be home in a few days. If he weren't such an amazing pilot with a ton of experience and God watching over us, we wouldn't have made it for sure!41 points
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There are a few days in a lifetime that are especially memorable. In my case it would be my birthday, Shirley's Birthday, the day we met 41½ years ago, and the day I closed on N9148W, 31 years and 12½ thousand flight hours ago today. Little did I know at the time the life changing event that would be. Before I bought it, I was in awe of anyone who owned an airplane, and anyone who owned a Mooney TLS had to be in a different league than me. I remember sitting in the airplane that day and thinking, "what have I done?" Will I even be able to learn how to fly this thing? It was intimidating. I had, Suzanne, Top Gun's pilot and a flight instructor, fly with me down to San Antonio where I took the Flight Safety Mooney M20M Course. After the course, I was still uncomfortable and had, Paul Arrambide, my flight instructor fly back with me to San Diego, where I showed my family what I had done. My Mother had not a few reservations. A PPP the following March in Fresno, where I flew with Jerry Johnson and met my soon to be mentor instructor, Robert Goldin, who fortuitously lived close by me, changed the direction of my life. Who ever heard of someone changing from a Real Estate Developer into a Flight Instructor? I did it. Real Estate became a sideline and Aviation took front and center. It still does. It's a passion and never gets boring. Along the way I've met hundreds and hundreds of people who became my students and later my friends. I've met many top educators in the aviation field. Most of them were dedicated teachers. What an experience it has been and continues to be. After all this time, buying my airplane was one of the best decisions I have ever made. It's a special day indeed.38 points
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It was 12 February, 1973, my Dad brought 47U home from Willmar Air Service to a 1/2-mile long grass strip (2Y5) in Northern Iowa. With Mom in the right seat, they enjoyed 35 years of flying the Mooney all over the country. Getting up there in years, in 2008 he gave up his medical and I brought 47U out to California, just north of Sacramento. I learned to fly in a Tri-Pacer (on the farm strip) and owned a Cherokee 160 for 20 years. But, 47U is my forever plane, just like it was Dad’s. Photo below, my Mom and Dad on a trip to the Dallas area to visit her sister.35 points
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I called Anthony tonight , and all is well... He has put down the keyboard and ventured out to smell the roses for a little while.... No problems , or issues , just didnt want to commit the huge amount of time , that he has been for all these years.... He will be back , e v e n t u a l l y ..... Carry on....32 points
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Just to update everyone, Upon inspection with the FAA Inspector and A&P/IA, they found that the internal baffles had broken off inside the muffler. The FAA Inspector and IA noticed heat marks and deformation on the inlet pipes going into the muffler housing indicating that the exhaust gases couldn't flow smoothly out of the exhaust and became trapped. They determined that the piece of the exhaust baffles had become lodged and obstructed almost all of the exhaust exit hole in the muffler, thus causing the immediate reduction in power and inability for the engine to run properly or make any power to maintain flight. They did say that they had seen this once before on a different aircraft and normally when a muffler fails the pieces simply blow out the tailpipe. I guess I got very unlucky that mine got stuck. I was very lucky however, that i had such a great spot to make an emergency landing!! We got a new muffler overnighted and made the necessary repairs yesterday. The FAA approved all of the work and all the ground runs showed that the problem was corrected. I was able to take off yesterday afternoon with the plane and fly it back to my local field. I played it safe and made the trip at a high altitude so I had options should any issues arise on the way back. I will say that the FAA Inspector was amazing and did a great job. He never approached with the attitude that he was out to get me and if anything, he was extremely understanding and compassionate to the issues. He reiterated several times that I did the right thing and made safe decisions to result in this positive outcome. He said this is why we have emergency procedures and pilots should never hesitate to use them! Then he said, Never let your pride get in the way of your safety! Thanks all for the kind words above and thanks for reading. Stay safe and fly Smart- Matt32 points
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I let @carusoam take me to lunch just so I could get a lot of likes here on Mooneyspace. Ladies and gentlemen, the ambassador of Mooneyspace Mr Anthony Caruso: He’s ignoring me cause he’s probably busy checking Mooneyspace! PS, I heard Anthony managed to get re-current in his airplane for the first time in years!30 points
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Hi Folks. For clarity, the Mooney factory didn't perform the annual on the aircraft that was lost. In any event, our focus right now is keeping the friends and family of those who were lost in our thoughts and prayers and allowing the NTSB to do their work. Kind regards, Jonny29 points
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Years ago I was flying home and while planning my flight realized there was a 70knt tailwind at 25k, directly on my tail. Pretty hard to pass up in a plane capable.. I was alone, had the nice blue silicone mask with a microphone, so I filed for 25k and off I went. I was cruising along and I looked down in my lap and saw this little black disk. At the time the plane I was flying was an ultra with the precise flight conservers, and I thought the disk looked like the adjustment dial on the outside of the unit. After a few seconds of fiddling with it, I realized I was trying to put it back together, but it wasn’t apart…. By the grace of god I realized that what I was doing made no sense whatsoever and I engaged the vertical descent for 1400fpm and still to this day do not recall the next two or three minutes. What I do recall is being level at 8,000 ft with atc calling me asking intentions. I hit replay on the g1000 and listened to me responding to them and taking instruction. I did not sound like myself, but I was responding. I do not remember any of this… After my wits were about me again I looked down and realized my arm had gotten wrapped around the o2 hose going to my mask and had inadvertently pulled the grommet out of the front of my mask at 25,000ft. The disk was the grommet, and if one was completely cogent, would never had mistaken it for anything else. I don’t know how long it had been pulled out, or how long it took me to notice something was wrong. The flight recorder only goes back about 2.5 minutes on a constant loop, so that’s all I could listen to. I don’t know how long the entire event lasted, but I did realize how close I came to being a bad story. There is certainly more elevated risk at those altitudes, and one must be very vigilant, aware and have some routine to check yourself very regularly. I personally stay 19k or below if I am alone, and will only go to 25k with someone else and if we pick up enough time to really make a difference. This isn’t my recommendation or suggestion, it’s merely a personal minimum in my Mooney, or any non pressurized airplane. Things can deteriorate much quicker than you would like to believe… Last thought on this story… I was embarrassed by this. I felt foolish, like my arrogance and confidence led me to a bad choice that could have killed me. I finally opened up and told the story to a pilot friend of mine and he told me I should share, because perhaps someone could benefit from hearing my mistake. I sure hope it does, because I still feel foolish.27 points
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I had a mission to fly on Dec 26 from KGVL Gainesville, GA to KMKL (Jackson, TN). 267 miles. I have a known ice airplane. Looking at the forecast, MKL was above minimum, above personal minimums but would require an approach. The airport was in light snow that would end later in the day by the time of my arrival. Cloud cover forecast on Aviationweather.gov showed bases at 900' tops FL320. Freezing level near the surface. There was SLD icing above 13,000. Light to moderate icing below. After considering all things I canceled. Here was my thinking. I don't mind flying in forecast icing if I can bail out to warmer temps below and maintain MEA. I flew from BWI (actually KMTN) to GVL a week earlier and took a route down over RDU and CAE to do just that. Highest MEA was 3000', forecast to be above freezing. ATC wanted to route me out over western VA and NC but I told them unless I got what I wanted and filed I would divert to RIC. They granted me my wish. I was 2.5 hours solid IMC but had no worse than light icing. In this case on the 26th, I had no out. I could not descend into a non icing environment nor could I quickly exit it to the south as HSV (Huntsville, AL) had similar issues. The real range of a known ice Mooney is 1.5 hours. That is the amount of time you have running the TKS at max. Thus you must have no-ice conditions max within 45 minutes of entering, because that is the amount of time to get in, decide you are over your head and get out. You have to make your decision for turn back or turn out within 45 minutes of entering otherwise you are committed to the remaining time if you don't have "above MEA no-ice conditions below" and you have to be pretty darn sure about those conditions. I also could find no PIREPS on icing other than a Baron on the edge of the wx area over AR to the west reporting light icing at 9000. A look at flightaware.com (pirep by absence) revealed no aircraft below 10,000 feet and below 250 knots in the intended operational area. Equally so, a call to KMKL revealed no operations inbound, snow of unknown depth on the ramp and questionable runway conditions. Cancel. Finally a flight aware flight popped that met my requirement. A small commuter flight called "Southern Airways", departed ATL for MKL. Operating a known ice Cessna Caravan. It made Chattanooga where it executed a 180 and returned to ATL. A discussion with the MKL agent the next day (when I completed the mission) revealed he bailed when he TKS system was at max just to remain airborne. I made the right call. I post all this just to give you an idea of my personal decision making process, especially if you have a known ice airplane or are new to IFR flying. It is not enough to have a capable airplane, it is knowing what the real capability is and it's limits. Equally so, yes you can approach to 200' and 1/2 mile but can you stop on the runway? Can you taxi in and park? Always leave yourself an out. 625 points
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I’m well overdue explaining my off-field landing incident on May 9 of this year, as a result of the D- 3000 dual mag failure. Caution – long write-up but hopefully there are some takeaway points of value here. My wife and I departed from our home base in California for the Chicago area in our M20J as we’ve done many times before. Day 2 we took off from Page, AZ - direct Albuquerque - direct Salina, KS. Enroute at 11.5K nearing Albuquerque we began to hear what sounded like a very faint rattle emanating from the belly area. Listened for a bit and it started to get more frequent. Began troubleshooting to see if it might be engine related. Changed prop, mixture, throttle, pump, tanks with no affect. Best I recall all items on the engine monitor appeared normal. No change until switching to Left mag – nearly dead. Right mag was better but rough. Immediately turned to nearest airport. Declared an emergency with ABQ approach and informed the controller of my situation. Unfortunately, Double Eagle was a couple miles beyond the FF glide ring. Within the next couple minutes the left mag completely failed and had only partial power on the right, but that also failed in the next few minutes. Now it was truly an “oh darn” moment, or words to that effect. How both mags checked good during preflight and both were now failing was not a good feeling. All I knew was I needed to make the best of a bad situation. I tried to reassure my wife that the plane flies perfectly fine as a glider now, we have about ten minutes to reach the airport or find a good place to land and we’ll be alright. We gained some ground on the glide ring as we continued but were battling some 40kt headwinds. Kept the aircraft clean and the glide speed faster than normal in an attempt to minimize time in those strong winds. Glider pilots minimize their time spent in sinking air by flying faster for the same reason. I kept Approach informed of our progress, that I had no power, that I thought it was a dual mag failure and that I might not be able to make the airport. Then came the standard issue question - say number of souls on board and fuel remaining. My wife remained remarkably calm throughout and even helped by scanning around for possible landing locations and obstructions. The fact that I am a fairly experienced glider pilot did help immensely in my opinion. During the entire power-off descent and landing it all seemed rather normal to me because every landing in a glider is an engine out landing. Airports are nice but fields work too. Approach handed me off and Tower had already cleared out traffic for the inbound emergency and cleared us for any runway but winds were strongly favoring 22. It is so gratifying and special to know the ATC professionals will do everything in their power to assist an aircraft in distress. Despite making up some glide distance, it was looking very iffy that we would be able to make the runway. Several miles out we identified what looked like a good open space short of the airport boundary clear of power lines and obstructions. It was our go to place if needed. At about 1000AGL those hangers, roads and fences on final approach looked like something we might not clear. Without hesitation I told the tower unable to make the runway and we're going for the field. The last thing I wanted to do was to try for the airport at all cost only to stretch the glide with disastrous results. As much as I love my Mooney the thought went through my mind to use the plane to save us. I rolled out parallel to the active into the strong headwind, lowered the gear and flaps and did a nice smooth full stall landing on the sandy desert floor. We looked at each other, did a quick embrace and said somewhat jokingly, well that wasn’t a bad landing. We ended up about 100 yards from the airport fence. Tower controller was watching the entire event and offered a big compliment. I let them know that the airplane appeared undamaged and no injuries. Emergency personnel soon began to arrive, followed by airport and FBO staff as well as the FAA. The largest fire in NM history was in progress and the last thing anyone wanted was an airplane crash to spark another blaze in the windy desert scrub. Everyone, and especially me, was relieved that the Mooney was sitting there unscathed. No damage to the prop or even the gear doors, not a scratch that I could see. Full stall landing into a strong wind on the semi-soft surface made for a very short landing. FAA measured the roll out at 322 feet. The two gentlemen from the FAA were extremely nice but also professional. In fact one of them owns an F model so we bonded a bit. They did check the airplane for fuel and oil just to make sure I didn't do something really stupid. They took pictures of the plane as well as my documents and the airplane documents to verify everyone and everything was legal and current. Basically a ramp check in the desert. They also requested I send them scans of the latest annual logbook entries when I returned home. After everyone was satisfied we were fine and all the paperwork was done, one of the maintenance guys offered to help with his small Jeep and a tow bar. It was an easy pull to perimeter road and onto the ramp. Given the situation I’m extremely grateful for the outcome. Day VFR at cruise over a desert having just flown over rugged terrain. Luck played a big part but I’ll take it. Those sounds at the beginning of the event were likely afterfires in the muffler due to incomplete combustion in the cylinders. One would think EGT would be spiking but the JPI 830 didn’t show that and the engine data doesn’t reflect anything out of the ordinary either from what I tell. So what happened? The next morning I met an IA at the plane. We pulled the infamous D-3000 dual mag and right away observed that neither set of points was opening. That's on a recently overhauled mag with 209 hours on it replaced two years prior. Something caused both rubbing blocks to wear down prematurely – and remarkably simultaneously. I’m going with lack of lube because it appeared the oil pads on the points were dry with some fibers scattered about inside the distributor cap. But both sets, and simultaneously? Other commonalities to the failure could be bad surface finish on the common cam, contaminated lube, defective rubbing block material. So, bad parts or a bad rebuild? The FAA says they are looking into it but who knows how long that will take or if anything will come of it. Maybe if more failures occur it will become a higher priority. In the meantime the mag was field repaired (points adjusted and oil wicks lubed, engine timing set) and I flew it back to my home base. It just came out of annual with an emphasis on looking for any possible damage due to the off-field landing. As mentioned, not a scratch or any problems found. I subsequently made that Chicago trip, without my wife this time, and the plane performed perfectly. I plan to have the point gaps checked every 50 hours to see if there is any trend or cause for concern. Lessons learned. When something doesn’t feel or sound right it might be worse than thought. Wasted a few precious minutes troubleshooting before turning to the airport. Pulling back the prop might have improved the glide. Never trained for it, only read about it and being task saturated at the time didn’t think of it. Forty plus years and thousands of hours, mostly in Mooneys, without an engine failure doesn’t mean it can’t happen. I fly a Mooney for safety and its good looks, but also for its efficiency which means I frequently fly direct. Been rather cavalier about flying over inhospitable terrain. My glider buddies call that Tiger country. Glider experience helped. Kept things somewhat routine. Stay current and legal. You never know when a ramp check can occur. Practice various emergencies. Commit important procedures to memory. Single pilot ops too task saturated or no time to look it up. Squawk 7700 in an emergency. Didn’t think of it and wasn’t my highest priority. Hopefully missed my one and only opportunity. ATC already had me as an emergency. Add more items to the survival kit. Could have been far from help or injured. Love Mooneys but hate dual mags. I don’t want this incident to significantly change my flying. Unfortunately, it’s changed my wife’s flying. It was a rare event and the odds of it happening again are highly unlikely. However, the reason for this failure is largely unknown. I’m still flying with the same mag but checking Left and Right in flight now and especially before entering IFR conditions, nighttime or Tiger country. Fly safe.24 points
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Hello all, Today I upgraded the server from a shared hosting program to a new "virtual private server" - our storage went from 100GB to 250GB and we will now have continuous backups (we have not had backups since we exceeded 50GB on the old plan). You should also notice that things are running considerably faster around here. We have a lot more processing power and quicker disk access, etc. The migration happened really quickly but there is a chance that within an hour or so today something you posted might have been lost in the transition, I apologize for that but it is the nature of the beast. I am increasing storage limits to 1GB for Supporter members and 200MB for Basic members. However, please still be mindful about your uploads - obviously if 200 supporters decide to max out their upload limits we are going to be in trouble again. We currently sit at about 75GB storage usage so we have about 175GB of headroom. The new server plan costs about 3x what we were paying before. Donations would be appreciated as always and remember that Supporters have the ads turned off and get 5x the storage space of basic members. You can donate at this link if you so desire - $10 minimum per year will grant you Supporter level access. Please let me know if anything else seems off or not working correctly...I have not seen anything but things like this usually end up breaking something or other. Fly safe! Craig23 points
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My grandson soloed a few weeks ago in our Citabria making him a fourth generation pilot. I told him he had to learn in the Citabria, but he will have access to the Mooney for his instrument rating when the time comes. He got his drivers license two days after turning 16 and soled the next week. He also has discovered girls. He will find all three pursuits expensive! lee23 points
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23 points
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Just a quick report that I got my Acclaim Ultra back from annual yesterday from the Factory Service Center. My observations: The work was outstanding and reasonably priced. They kept me informed along the way. They found things that other shops had missed. They test flew the aircraft when they finished. I flew a 1400 mile trip yesterday with no squawks. Kerrville is a nice town. Mooney is very much in business.23 points
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Hello to all my friends at MooneySpace! I haven’t been here for a while since I sold my Acclaim in 2018. I sold my RV a couple years later and haven’t flown since. I just wanted to give you all a shout out from Mexico. My wife and I are retired and we moved here about two years ago. We split our time between Puerto Vallarta and San Miguel de Allende. I really miss flying Mooneys. Did so for 25 great years, as the proud owner of an Encore and then an Acclaim. I hope all of you who are still flying are keeping the flame alive and enjoying these incredible aircraft. I’d be curious to know if any of you have ever flown your Mooney to Puerto Vallarta? I flew my Acclaim to Cabo several times, but never to anywhere on the mainland. I get a tiny taste of aviation every day because the skydiving concession in Puerto Vallarta is right next door to my condo. They land about 40 single and tandem jumpers on the beach in front of me every day. Pretty neat. Fly safe, my friends, and enjoy your Mooneys! Saludos, Joe Zuffoletto, aka José de México :)22 points
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I have not been doing much flight instruction work over the past few years, but I have noticed a couple common occurrences recently, both on flights and on various social media posts (Facebook, in particular). It seems a pilot will complain about the airplane not settling down, yet their approach speed is correct (such as 70 KIAS for an M20J). Here are the things that come to mind when I hear this: Observation 1 - Idle RPM set too high. I was flying with a client and he couldn't get the plane to settle. I said "let me demonstrate one". So I take it around the pattern and have the same problem he had. We taxied off the runway...I think his idle RPM was 800-900. It's quite possible you may know exactly what to do and, all things considered, be using correct pilot technique. But in reality, a high idle RPM could be forcing bad results, or worse, forcing you to use to bad pilot technique to get a desired result. Observation 2 - Not closing the throttle all the way. This one is often recognizable to me by sound. A pilot sets up a very good final approach attitude, airspeed, glidepath, etc. Everything is great...until the end But in the flare, the pilot hasn't completely closed the throttle control. The pilot may not be able to experience a full flare unless he spends an exceptional amount of time floating down the runway trying to bleed off airspeed. "Ballooning" is often the end result leading to either a go around or wasted runway as corrections are made. Note on your next flight - Check your engine idle RPM after the engine is fully warmed up. You may find your idle speed is too high and spoiling your otherwise great flying technique. - Make it a point to feel the throttle control reach its "closed" limit before you touch down. Happy Saturday! Insurance is fine and all, but it's nice to talk about flying.22 points
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I have flown quite a few Angel Flights in the last couple of years. I do it for the same reasons I fly - I really enjoy it - and Angel Flight is a way to help others. But someone told mom and today I feel like the kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar, vaguely embarrassed. A few weeks ago I was informed that I need to make my way to Angel Flight Central’s gala on Nov. 18 in Kansas City, there to receive AFC’s 2022 Pilot of the Year Award. Then today I was surprised to receive a call from the CEO of the National Aeronautics Association. At a ceremony that will likely be held at Oshkosh next year, I am to receive the NAAs Distinguished Volunteer Pilot Award. It’s a good thing I was not flying when I got either piece of news, I probably would have put it in the ground. My aircraft, as many of you know, is nothing special. A 231 with an engine now well over TBO, oil leakage from the rocker covers has reached the incurable stage, we are waiting for a new Conti to show up. It is Mooney’s most manual version of a turbocharged piston. And yet I have safely carried well over a hundred patients and their companions, all shapes, types, and sizes, even found a way to cram a collapsible wheelchair, the patient, and patient’s mom into the plane (definitely within W&B), and on occasion, cargo to the weight limit of the aircraft. We need more folks. If I can do it in my lowly 231, you can do it!22 points
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I decided to fly my 1994 M20J MSE to Sun 'n Fun this year despite the terrible winter. It's got to get better, right? Got from the Seattle area to Twin Falls for fuel on Monday the 27th and then stopped by snow showers. Made it to Shreveport LA the next day via Santa Fe for fuel (the Santa Fe terminal is still under construction and will be until Sept.). Wednesday morning the airplane started very rough with #1 cylinder not firing. Clogged injector or stuck valve? 350 hours on a factory rebuilt engine, so I guessed injector. Went to local auto parts store and got a wrench and some carb cleaner and cleaned injector. No change. No local mechanic available; apparently he only works when he needs beer money. Shreveport is only about 70 miles or so east of Longview TX so I called Don Maxwell who immediately swung into action and sent Mike to rescue me. He staked the exhaust valve in #1 which got it running and I flew it to Longview where Don and Paul and Mike performed the rope trick (they like to call it Rope-a-Dope) and reamed the valve guide. Don graciously loaned me his truck which I repaid by filling the tank. Great guys, the Maxwells. I didn't see Jan, but she is reportedly busy planning MooneyMAX. I gave up on Sun 'n Fun due to the weather forecasts and frankly I was a bit beat. Flew to Payson AZ and visited a friend that moved there form southern CA and built a great home. Then to get back home. With the weather so bad in the pacific NW and the freezing level down near the surface, the only reasonable route for a non-turbo, non-FIKI airplane was low up the coast so I stopped in San Jose CA to let the weather clear a day and then flew home. There were a few low clouds and heavy rain showers along the coast, but nothing like what I flew in in Ketchikan when I flew Beavers up there. The only glitch was that the FBO at San Jose broke a stop off the nose gear towing it. But, Mooney has the part in stock and I'm letting the insurance take care of it. About 30 hours flying to not get where I intended, but as I told my wife, if I really needed to get there I would have purchased an airline ticket. The journey is the adventure. Skip21 points
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21 points
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An OP takes a moment to share a fairly excruciating if not traumatic experience with us here at the board that involves death, family and children. Then by whatever methods, the thread is allowed to devolve into a pissing contest. As a community, i find that in terribly poor taste. A thread of this kind should genuinely be about providing an ear for the OP, supporting the OP, lending a helpful hand, and hopefully not pulling out the rulers for appropriate measure. There are hundreds of other threads for that. IANAL, and what’s typed is strictly my own opinion.20 points
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The long range fuel tanks have been brought up a few times lately and I wanted to let everyone know the STC is going to continue to be available. Don Maxwell Aviation along with a partner has purchased the STC from Jose and is currently putting kits together to be available by the end of the year. Our current run of kits will be a total of 30 and if you’re interested in purchasing a kit you can contact myself at Don Maxwell Aviation or Kellen Kester at (812) 240-6223. We hope to have these available as soon as possible.20 points
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Hi, Friends! After a year of panel, interior, powertrain, and other updates, I have finally picked my 67 (68) M20F up from the final major planned maintenance - paint. Mural artist Matt Kress, in conjunction with Ace Aircraft Refinishing in Bartow KBOW, extended his artwork to an airplane for the first time. After a brief planning discussion, all artistic control was given to Matt... and one rule - I was NOT allowed to receive any visual updates (my idea). The 'unveiling' was this weekend and I could not be happier! Allow me to introduce "Anomaly."19 points
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Hi Goalstop - my name is Kyle, a fellow M20E owner and Garmin employee. Can you possibly pass along the details directly to me please? Kyle.Ludwick@Garmin.com. We would like to help with this issue! Apologies in advance for the trouble you've gone through. Kyle19 points
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I sold my PA30 Twin Comanche last year while the market was/is good. Wasn't using it for work or pleasure and even though the PA30 is one of the most economical twins it was still expensive to fly. Two engines, twice the gas, especially after owning a Mooney prior. Even though I missed my flying fix, I just couldn't justify the prices of anything that caught my eye. I've been without a plane for about 9 months now. We all know the Mooney is the speed efficient bird so I started thinking about another Mooney, but prices are pretty tough, and I still couldn't find the right fit for my mission and budget.. An occasional scan of the usual places didn't really pan out for me.... Until This!!.... I was doing a search while drinking my morning coffee last week and what do I see pop up.. My sweet old girl.. 7741M. Couldn't believe it!! While I liked the Twin Commanche and a super solid bird I always missed 41M. Lots of great memories, nostalgic trips from TN to New England, lots of learning and upgrades over my 5 yrs of ownership. Cutting to the chase.. I couldn't resist and made an offer to buy her back. The seller and I went back and forth a few times and finally came to terms. The contracts are in transit. Looks like she is coming back home in as good of condition as I sent it her. A few more hours on her, but she's got new bladders and that's a plus. Maybe some things are just meant to be.. I'll keep you updated as it moves along!! -Tom19 points
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I purchased my '67F N9611M a few years ago and have flown the pants off of it, going from my home base of Mexico City to Airventure (2x), Victoria BC (6x), the Caribbean, lots of places all around the western US and all the way up to Yellowknife NWT via Saskatchewan. I've flown N9611M over 650 hours and that means I've spent a bit more than that inside of her. As cozy as she is, she was in need of a little help. While the seats, carpet, and lower upholstered panels were re-done by the previous owner, they left the plastics as-is, cracked in some places, ruptured screw holes in many places, and a general yellowing effect which didn't look great with the brighter upholstery. Below is a photo of the original interior: As you can see, the previous owner decided to leave the original upholstery on the arm-rests and the "vintage" plastic panels look a little dated. Frankly, had the panels been structurally sound I probably wouldn't have touched them but hours of long x-country flying had taken their toll on the arm rest seams and from time to time my elbows would get pinched from the open seams. I also had a theory, still to be tested, that the panels in their condition were letting a bit more noise into the cockpit than originally intended. With all this in mind, a couple of months ago I began the process of disassembling the interior of the aircraft in order to move all of the pieces to my workshop and begin the restoration process. This was the second time I had removed some of the interior, the first being during my pre-buy, but this interior removal was certainly more thorough and involved more electrical connections and visits to Mooneyspace to figure out how to get those darn circular vents off. The de-install went well and I found an airframe still with zero corrosion and only mildly decaying foam fiberglass insulation and foam, generally in pretty good shape for an old bird! Once at my workshop, I surveyed the damage and found that there were three intact panels in total, all window frames, and the rest had some form of cracks, punctures, or other deformations with the worst offenders being the footwell side plastics, the ceiling panel, the door, and the pilots side lower panel. In my research, I had found that there were two main schools of thought when repairing and re-beautifying the panels. One, was to follow the Aero-Comfort system of reinforcing the panels and then covering with a fabric or leather. I had spoken to Hector a couple of times and was impressed with their product and found him to be knowledgeable and helpful, however I really enjoy my 1000lb+ useful load and wanted to add as little weight to the aircraft as possible. While super-lightweight coverings do exist, and would have solved another problem with the window joins (which I'll get to later), the weight consideration, getting FAA approved products into Mexico, and cost all played a factor in deciding to restore the panels via option two. Option two, which I went with, was to fix the panels from behind, and then paint. The trick would be to figure out how to fix them so that they wouldn't break again, at least not for a long time, and then how to paint them in both a color and sheen which fit with the existing upholstery scheme. First thing to figure out was what material we were working with. According to the manufacturer, Spartech, it's ABS plastic. Yes, there are some special mixes and flame retardant elements in there but it's ABS. The next thing to figure out was the best way to repair ABS plastic. After exhausting the interior plastics threads here on Mooneyspace which all offered different options for plastics reinforcement including glue, fiberglass, and tape(!) solutions, I turned elsewhere for inspiration and found it in a lovely video from an Australian gentleman. It seems that the best way to reinforce ABS plastic is with ABS plastic! Being in Mexico City, it can be difficult to acquire the right, certified materials for any job and while they do exist, proper caution is wise. Case in point, after visiting a construction market to purchase ABS welding rods, I tested the rods and found that they were smoking considerably on a piece of test material. When I returned to the market to ask the vendor about the product he'd sold me, he confessed it wasn't pure ABS and instead had a PVC mix at somewhere around 15% which was causing the smoking and would have resulted in an inferior repair. I had read somewhere that Lego blocks are manufactured out of 100% pure ABS plastic, and so went off on a hunt to dig up some white Legos. Luckily, Mexico City has a lot of Lego and just around the corner from my house was a Lego seller with several 40 gallon drums filled with used Legos, sorted by color. Scoop! After bringing back the legos and verifying with a test piece, I started to weld the panels back together. Some photos below showing the extent of the welding pre-sanding. Below you'll see a before and after sanding of a hole repair. And a couple of shots of the footwell panels which were quite damaged from years and years of use. Special note: these panels were especially de-formed and I was able to straighten them using a heat-gun on the low setting before then welding them. I'm not sure how to post my own videos here but I have some nice ones of shaking the panels and flexing them to try to break them again and they're flexible and strong as can be expected. The only time I managed to re-break one was when I flexed it on a non-sanded weld. Maybe it was the thicker plastic section hitting the thinner section at an angle? With all of the panels welded and sanded, it was now time for paint. I chose an oyster white to soften the appearance of the interior and went to work. In the first picture, you can see the difference in color between the yellowed original panel, the original color seen where the strap covers had blocked UV exposure, and one coat of the new color. And below is all of the panels laid out for painting, with the floor panels in the bottom left playing around with colors. After rattle-can coats of paint on each panel, they were ready for install, and yesterday I went out to the plane to begin assembly. I'm re-doing the headliner but have been itching to fly so thought I'd put together the plane to see how things look before final assembly. And once again, the before picture for reference. Installed, the panels look very good. There are a couple of paint imperfections, mostly in deep corners, and I think a better paint product (or maybe more skill on the part of me, the painter) would have solved this issue. That's where I've gotten for now, next up is: headliner and ceiling panel install de-install of the panels to upholster the arm rests with the same material as the seats install of freshly painted passenger headphone jack covers (more on that next time) sourcing and install of those thin window joining strips I'm looking for help with adhesives recommendations for both foam to aluminum and foam to vinyl, as well as if anyone knows where to find those little strips which go between the windows?18 points
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Here's an idea; limit your legs to 2½ hours. Never had a bathroom issue with that. New airports, new experiences. Quick stops, get out and stretch your legs. You're refreshed for the next leg.18 points
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We just completed "Phase 2" of a 3-Phase modernization of our 1965 M20E. The first phase was redoing the panel last year which included a JPI 930 install, CIES senders, all new circuit breakers, new Garmin GMA 345, new Garmin GTX 225, IRANing the 430W, new engine controls, all new switches, a new, powdercoated and laser-cut 1-piece panel, new headset plugs, new antennas and digital coax, and a few other odds and ends. Phase 2 is the interior, and we chose to go with AeroComfort due to their stellar Mooney reputation and first-hand experience with one of their planes and oh man am I glad we did. As most here know, Hector is absolutely fantastic to work with, and the whole project was on-time and on-budget. We did a full interior with them and dropped the plane off at SAT to let them do the install. Along the way, we installed Alpha Aviation inertia reel seatbelts, replaced all the insulation & soundproofing with new, and had a custom leather wrap done on the yokes Hector recreated from a picture. I'll let the pictures do the talking... PICTURES BEFORE / AFTER COMPARISON18 points
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My wife and I had a great time at Air Venture. After having the plane painted I decided to have it judged this time around and we came away with the Lindy Award for Outstanding Mooney in the Contemporary (1956-1970) Category! More pics over on the (newly redesigned )blog. https://intothesky.com/2023/07/30/oshkosh-2023-in-the-books-with-an-award/18 points
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Just wanted to throw up some pictures of my 65’ E interior job. I’ve been working on this on the side while I was doing my panel upgrade in 22’. I ordered SCS carpet in brown and Airtex upholstery in biscuit (ordered at Oshkosh, delivered in Dec). Seatbelts were down by Aviation Safety Products in GA who did an awesome job and about one week turnaround. My wife did the vinyl work using our Sailrite sewing machine including the boot around the controls (post 65’s got that plastic cover), wind lacing around all openings, and the armrests. My aircraft did not have the headrest built into the seat structure, so I fabricated them out of a square tube, 1/2” diameter aluminum tubing , then riveted it all together. All of this was way more work than anticipated, but that’s airplane sh#t for ya…..18 points
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I don't know what to tell you Walt. Sorry you are having those bad experiences. Not all shops are out to rip you off. I have worked in aircraft maintenance for over 35 years mostly on the airline side as a Chief Inspector/Director of Quality Assurance. Now I run a part 145 repair station maintaining a fleet of flight school aircraft as well as doing outside customer work. I try to run our shop the same way we ran the airline maintenance department. We have a great budget and no reason ever to cut corners for any reason. The outside work is really just filler and to keep things interesting for my maintenance personnel but we approach maintenance on those aircraft the same way. We don't need the outside customer work to keep the lights on or make payroll so I try to be very reasonable (actually more reasonable than I should) on everything. We don't up charge parts or charge extra fees for anything. What has really been an eye opener for me are the aircraft owners. Someone has an expensive nice aircraft, pays thousands of dollars in hangar rent and insurance every year (I know this because I have my own aircraft), wants their aircraft fixed NOW, and then gripes about every little thing on their invoice. Meanwhile they are buying things like a $3200 EIS system on a carbureted O-360 so they can save gas because they went to Oshkosh and the salesman told them they would save 10%. And don't tell a customer a flight control bracket that you found cracked and broken during an annual inspection costs $400 (Used. Again my cost, no up charge). You would think the whole world was going to explode... Even after you show it to them I get asked, "Well isn't there a cheaper alternative"? One would think they would be pleased it was found before it let go in flight. You bought a 50 year old aircraft for goodness sakes for over $100k and you pay over $7 for gas for it! You want to it ready to fly every minute of every day. Did you really think it was going to be inexpensive to maintain it? Do you really want the maintenance on your single engine aircraft to be "cheap".18 points
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I am just putting this in the general section so maybe it can help anyone that is experiencing the issue that I was. I have a 63 C model with an O-360-A1D. After a long hiatus of flying, waiting on a cylinder (since August), I was able to get the airplane back in the air. However, when I tried to start it for the first time since August, it was tough to start. The prop would barely make it over the first compression stroke and I would have to release the key and try again. While trying to start, the voltage on the EDM 900 would drop to 8 volts. If it made it over the compression stroke then it fired right up but getting over that was tough. My first thought was a weak battery. It had been kept on a battery minder the whole time but maybe the battery was bad. I also thought it could be the starter as well. So, I followed a recent thread about someone else having starter issues (the one that was smoking) and downloaded the Sky-Tec troubleshooting guide and followed it through. I did every step in the guide and everything checked out fine. The battery was solid. After 48 hours resting (not on the charger) the voltage of the battery was still 12.9 which according to battery minder is a good battery. All voltages across the battery, the solenoids and the starter itself were all within what Sky-Tec would call normal. The starter to ground resistance was .1 ohms which according to Sky-tec is fine. The battery to ground however was almost 1 ohm which according to Sky-Tec, anything greater than .2 ohms needs to be looked at. So, I removed the negative battery cable which is grounded to a stud on the engine. I cleaned all the washers, cleaned the battery cable ends themselves and cleaned the area on the engine where the ground connects. I reconnected everything. Rechecked the resistance and it was .2 ohms. The engine fired right up with no resistance on the compression stroke and no drain on the battery upon starting. I was amazed that a single ground issue could cause this kind of a problem. Mind you, I know very little about electrical stuff. The trouble shooting guide saved me a lot of money on a new starter, new battery, and just throwing things at the problem etc... It did take a while to do all of this. To access the ground from the negative battery terminal, in order to get a wrench on the nut, I had to remove the intake tube on the #4 cylinder. But it saved me a lot of money, so I am happy, and it is nice to be flying again after 4 months.17 points
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In my information consumption of the Richard Mcspadden fatal accident, I came across this excerpt. I heard it, in his own words, in the last two minutes of the most recent AOPA Hangar Talk Podcast, dedicated to his memory. It was striking enough that I felt it useful to transcribe his words into text here. Please excuse the grammatical exceptions, used to enunciate his words. Well said indeed. "Gratitude, consumes me when I fly my Super Cub. This bright yellow magic carpet that takes me to wondrous places- physically and mentally. Morning flights are especially magical. The air is smooth. The Super Cub rigged so well, that it's akin to having an autopilot. I can take my hand off the stick to sip some home roasted coffee. Or adjust the satellite music flowing through my headset. I feel some warmth from the paltry cabin heat which knocks the chill off my legs in sporadic waves. I'm viewing an imax movie out my front windscreen but I'm not just watching the action- I'm in it. Immersed in this spectacular panorama. The smells and sounds are real, and I'm so grateful to capture it. well aware that it's transient; both in a moment, and in a lifetime. Flying has brought so much to my life. In many ways, has been my life. The feeling of gratitude to the many people who boosted me here comes back frequently. In ways, it seems unfair that I was exposed to aviation and given opportunities few have. And I feel a growing urge to give back. Cast a wider net. And expose more people to this splendid experience that can change the trajectory of a life. Flying inspires, and fosters connection- in a community. And we could use more of that now." -Col. Richard "Spad" McSpadden17 points
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She’s done and back home. After 7 years of researching with the help of y’all, designing, re-thinking and re-designing (insert infinite loop here) I couldn’t be much happier with the outcome. Important to note that one of the things not visible on the panel is the remotely mounted Guardian CO detector that’s interfaced with the G3X. I had a major CO event in a very well maintained airplane that was successfully caught by my Sensorcon and now I will not fly without a CO detector. The Sensorcon is still in my flight bag to be used as a backup and when flying with students and friends in their airplanes. Big shout-out and thank you to Dan Bass @DanM20C for making us all aware of the importance of reliable CO detection capability and keeping a close watchful eye on the exhaust system. Time for me to step away from the keyboard and spend what’s left of my life’s savings turning dinosaurs into aviation adventures in my “new” ride. Again, thanks for all the help. Cheers, Rick EDIT: I changed the picture to show the panel powered up. Also, it shows I added white "OFF" labels to the top of the magneto switches on the Electroair ignition panel. I found this helpful in the transition from a rotary key switch to make sure I turn them off, and also makes it easy to confirm they're off looking through the window from the outside. They disappear into the switch body when they're turned on. This fine work was done by Precision Avionics Specialists at 6A2, Griffin Georgia. https://www.precision-avionics.com17 points
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Glad to hear that Anthony is doing well, smelling the roses and getting more sleep since he's taken a break from Mooneyspace. Just a Private pilot, not a sleep specialist. LC17 points
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In September I dropped the plane off at Art Craft in Santa Maria for painting. Arrival time was about 9:30am and the forecast was for clear skies by 10am, so there was a chance it would be broken up enough to arrive VFR. I departed KFUL VFR to do a little formation flying enroute with my friend. The marine layer had not broken up at all, solid from about 2,200' MSL down to 1,000' MSL. Picked up IFR enroute from Santa Barbara Approach and flew the RNAV 12 Approach into KSMX. Full video from the request to touch down. Countdown timer shows flight time remaining. All coms between myself and ATC included, the video is sped up between coms.17 points
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16 points
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Once a pilot, always a pilot. Never say you’re not a pilot, because you are.16 points
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We've completed the interior refurbishment project on our 252 just before Christmas and here is how it went. We had found a local upholsterer that works mainly on classic cars but had experience with aircraft as well, even N registered ones (we're in Germany). He told us, he would only use materials conforming with 14 CFR Part 25.853 and could provide a certification package for it. Moreover he was capable of fixing damages to the plastic panels and respray them. I asked my A&P if it was OK for him that I do the work under Appendix A to part 43 (c) privileges and he said no problem. We decided to do it together with this year's annual inspection and replace all windows at the same time. So I removed all the interior panels, carpets and the seats before the annual, and then, together with my A&P removed the old windows and he later reinstalled the new ones. In the meantime the upholsterer worked on the interior. After three weeks everything was finished and we could collect the parts at the upholsterer's shop. He had fixed damages to the plastic panels with small glass fibre patches and the paint looked really nice. We had the windlaces redone as well and when we collected the parts, he gave me a box with all the old material. In there I found the old windlaces cut open, so I asked if he reused the foam. He said he had to, as he couldn't find certified foam of that round shape. I thought to myself, let's hope that the factory was that anal 30 or forty years ago The dark brown parts are leather while the lighter is Alcantara. The carpet is actually surplus material usually used on airliners - the upholsterer had contacts where to obtain it including certificate. Reinstalling the panels was quite a chore, especially the headliners but in the end all went well and here is the result: Frontal view New windlace Pilot's seat The new carpet Rear seats RH rear seat Baggage compartment Rear seats removed16 points
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I'd suggest not lifting a finger to help these plaintiffs lawyers at least until there is an NTSB report firmly implicating a spark plug failure. Those vultures latch on to anything that might have happened that could be traced to a manufacturer of in order to leverage a windfall settlement, and they succeed far too often based on the most tenuous evidence. They do little to serve justice but are a major contributor to our operating costs.15 points
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15 points
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For this year's New Year's Eve, I made a little crossword puzzle for you guys to solve. Anyway, thanks for all the support and fun this year. I wish you all a wonderful new year Oh... and I also wrote another poem... *ahem* It's come and gone, this year we've shared With all the goods and bads And even though we lost some greats We welcomed great new add's It's over now, this year we've had With all the bads and goods Discussed a bunch tech-ni-cal stuff And flying under hoods As the year dies down, I hope for all Safe flights and lots of fun May you stay aloft with turning props And engines that always run MS Crossword.pdf14 points
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14 points
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Well I’m a couple weeks late in sharing, but completed my first ever solo and excited that it was in my M20J! Sure beats the 152s I started my training in. And man does she just jump off the runway without my meatball CFI tagging along Been a long time coming with relearning everything after switching to the Mooney, mag rebuild and SureFly install, winter weather, etc etc. Have done a few solos and dual XCs since, with XC solo slated for next week.14 points
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I get your point and don’t disagree in general. But when it comes to Clarence (M20Doc) it’s really not justified. The obvious proof is the amount of time he spends on MooneySpace answering questions, giving advice, and posting parts and service manual pages. All as a public service, for free. And there are probably fewer than 10 MooneySpace members who use his shop in Kitchener, Ontario, so he really doesn’t profit from his time here at all.14 points
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Being an airline pilot I have free flying on any company.... I needed to fly from Florida to NJ this week for family stuff.... I could not stomach having to ride on any 121 carrier, beging for a ride, dealing with the pax and gate agents, figuring out which website to use to sign up with, getting denied at KCM...its all a major hassle.. So I fueled up the Mooney and flew 800 nm north by myself...dont care that it will cost me 600 dollars just in gas and parking fees round trip.....and I saved about 90 minutes on total travel time.14 points
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I have an update to share that I think will be of interest. First, have a look at the photo below. It is a photo of the filter PRIOR TO the event. As you can see, the filter is seated fully. If the mechanic did pinch the quad seal causing it to become displaced upon tightening, it is my assertion that this is due to a poor design and the manufacturer should mitigate the problem. Unfortunately when I contacted Challenger and spoke with their CEO, she elected to have their attorney contact me and demand that I send the filter and seal to their chosen lab along with my aircraft to their chosen shop in their home state. No offer was made to offset any costs. I elected to ignore this demand for a period of time during which I could determine what my damage, if any, might be. I did the following: 1. Ground run the engine for 1 hr. Cut open and inspect filter and remove oil screen. The deposits found in the screen were all carbon. There were a few particles of non-ferrous metal in the filter. 2. Fly the aircraft in VFR conditions for 5 hrs. Cut open another oil filter and remove the oil screen again. This time, no particles were found in either. 3. Fly the aircraft for an additional 13 hrs for a total of 19 hrs since the oil addition after the event. Drain the oil, cut open a third oil filter and send an oil sample to Blackstone for analysis. Here is the result: As you can see, it is a near perfect report and the trends are all in a positive direction. Next, I borescoped each cylinder. No issues to report. Compression checks were attained. all cylinders were 76-78 / 80. At this point, I consider this issue behind me although I will additional oil samples for analysis. BTW: As for Challenger, I will contact them to update them although I am very disappointed in their stance so far, I will also file an SDR with the FAA now that I have more data to report. Lycoming will not analyze any samples that are from engines that are not currently in warranty so that was a non-starter. For those of you who recommended immediate removal and teardown of the engine, I hope my decision to go another route does not seem reckless. I feel that I made the correct decision given my own personal risk tolerance and the data that was generated along the way. Thank you all for your input.14 points
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The plane is based at my home airport. It’s a pretty active partnership. The plane is (was) pretty regularly flown by many or all of the partners. I think there may be 1-2 new partners so sucks for them if this is their first experience in airplane ownership. I find it hard to believe anyone who flies IFR regularly into GAI, let alone is based at GAI would be unfamiliar or unable to spell the BEGKA waypoint. I am curious how this will all play out with liability. i was not impressed with the pilot’s post accident interviews. In one he said to the reporter “well I’m trained to fly in that weather as long as it isn’t icy or a thunderstorm” (along those lines) which conveys he likely didn’t have any sense of personal minimums. One things you might not be hearing in the compressed versions of the LiveATC floating here is there was a Cheyenne on the approach to GAI in front of him who went missed, never saw the runway, and diverted to FDK. The accident pilot was aware (heard, discussed with ATC) of that and continued pressing. I was at GAI about an hour before the accident and the fog was so thick the ducks were walking, if anything the weather may have been slightly worse than the ASOS history reported in the thread.14 points
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I have a 1979 231 that I bought in February of this year. The airplane had sat in a New Mexico hangar for 6 years, so I was a little nervous about this my first annual, even though the airplane has to date performed admirably with a 100% dispatch rate. I took the airplane to Mr. Maxwell on August 24 and received it back on September 13. After about 10 days I received a written quote listing about 36 discrepancies. On the phone Mr. Maxwell went over each one. He was very patient and professional. I asked him to fix it all. Two items were not repaired as we are waiting on parts, but fortunately neither affects airworthiness. The final bill was a little over 5000.00 and a couple of hundred below his estimate. My wife and I left his shop in Longview Texas and immediately commenced our vacation, flying directly to our eldest son’s home in Dexter MO. The next day we flew to our youngest son’s home in Sellersburg, IN. The airplane has performed flawlessly and I am very grateful. I enthusiastically recommend Mr. Maxwell and his team. I am pleased with the quality, pricing and timeliness of the work. I also very much enjoyed visiting with Mr. Maxwell, a very gentle-spoken and knowledgeable man. Torrey14 points
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14 points