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My A/C failed on the Lancair and I found it to be the A/C drive unit shaft. After much searching I was given the name of a machine shop in a small town called Athens, WI, just west of Wausau. I was told the shop was owned by a Mennonite with exceptional machining skills and very fair pricing. During the work process the owner indicated a fascination in the fact I built my own plane and after talking about it with his kids, he mentioned they were excited as well and commented how much they desired to ride in a small airplane someday. I told him I would pick up the shaft when completed by flying my Mooney over to his local airport (3 hour drive, 35 minute flight) and would gladly give his kids an airplane ride. He had the shaft done in one day (Wednesday), and I had him make me a new pulley as well, which he completed this morning. Looking at weather, I asked if this evening would work to fly his kids and he stated that it did. He asked if a couple neighbor kids could get a ride too, and I said yes. I arrived at a local airport and had a greeting party waiting for me. The politeness (and curiosity) of everyone was simply amazing. I did two flights, with 3 kids each flight, flying over their houses and their small little town. On each flight the oldest boy in the front seat got to fly the plane for 5-10 minutes. Upon completing the second flight, I asked mom and dad if they wanted to go and they insisted I should get home before dark and they had flown before, but were amazingly grateful the kids were able to fly. Then one of the younger girls walked up and gave me a plate of some awesome brownies she made this afternoon for "their pilot". As I flew home I thought about the impact the flights had on these truly humble kids, who clearly live a lifestyle of a much more simple means (and I say that more out of respect and admiration than anything). Sometimes we get LUCKY, sharing what we love with others and then getting the rewarding, yet humble feeling I experienced during my flight home. Pretty COOL. Tom

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!

Hey everyone, I'm the pilot involved in this crash. I started writing up a summary of the events leading to to my accident but I'm having problems with my old laptop. My frostbite hands make using my phone and iPad difficult but I'll try to throw up some facts and field questions when I get a chance. The FAA is still investigating, but I'm 99℅ sure this was caused from CO Poisoning. This was the 3rd flight of the day and in hindsight I had CO poison symptoms most of the day. The heater/defrost was run full-on the whole time. 5 hrs after the accident CO Poisoning occurred as a possibility to me, my levels were then tested 15-18X higher than normal. I didn't have CO detection in the plane. I was dumb and naive to think that I would "know" when I was effected. I was way wrong! The problem was that the CO degrades ones cognitive ability to the point where you can't connect the symptoms with the cause. I passed out in the climb and woke up in a field. I am the luckiest man alive. Allot of things helped to have the great outcome I have been blessed with. 1- I was in a Mooney. The airplane gave it's life to save mine. I'm a huge believer in the "steel cage" and the full spar. 2- I was wearing a shoulder harness. I still busted up my face, I'm not sure how, but I don't think I would be here without it. 3- STec 30 auto pilot. I was flying with the heading bug when I passed out. The electric autopilot kept the wings level all the way down. The original PC system may have worked just as well, but the engine was windmilling from 12k to the ground. I don't know if there would have been enough vacuum. 4- it happened in the climb. I only have alt hold so it was tracking heading bug and trimmed for climb. As I was in the initial climb I still had in full power with full rich mixture. This resulted in a fuel burn in the 17-18.5 gal/hr. And only allowed the airplane to climb to around 12.5k. if it were leaned at all I would have went much higher, for allot longer. Being that I was oxygen starved and unconscious it probably would have been fatal. 5- ATC was awesome. Because of them search and rescue was underway before I crashed. After I woke up I had to get myself to help, once I did emergency responders were to me in a few min. My 121.5 ELT was working, but if I had a 406 I bet I would have been pulled from the airplane before I woke up. 6- luck, luck, luck, divine intervention, miracle, what ever you want to call it. I'm banged up, but should recover 100℅. I came home from the hospital on my daughter's 3rd birthday. It doesn't get any better than that. Cheers, Dan

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!

Hey Folks: It's been a while since I've posted and for that I apologize. I've been working diligently to keep Mooney alive and kicking and to put us in a position to become self-sustaining so we can concentrate on the more important stuff: Developing the retrofit landing gear to increase useful load and building brand new Ultras. Although we have kept parts moving, I'm well aware that there is frustration at the delays and in some cases, your inability to get certain parts. Some of this is a result of supply chain issues and some of it is that we simply don't have the resources to purchase the vendor inventory we need. I promise you that we are working on ways to remedy this. Many of you have written or called me offering your support and suggestions. I can't tell you how much I appreciate that. Some of your ideas are great and if I haven't been able to implement them, it's simply because we don't yet have the resources. We have just formally re-opened the Factory Service Center. One way you can support us, is to book an appointment and have the factory service your plane. We're competitively priced and whether it's for an annual or some vexing issue that no one else seems able to fix, come down to Kerrville and the folks that built your plane will take care of it. We'll also show you around the factory and if I'm available, I'll stop by so we can talk Mooney in person. The service center number is: (830) 792-2064 and the email is FSC@Mooney.com We look forward to hearing from you and I thank you for your continued support. Warmly, Jonny

Better than New: The Refurbishment of N205J Mooney N205J is a 1987 M20J model “205 Special Edition (SE)”. It differed from other M20J “201’s” at the time in that it incorporated a few changes: 1. Fully enclosed gear doors 2. Rounded window lines 3. 28 volt electrical system 4. Electric cowl flaps with infinite adjustment 5. Upturned wingtips with forward facing recognition lights and aft facing position lights 6. Gear extension speed increased from 132 to 140 knots The 205 SE came right as the general aviation market was in decline, so only seventy-seven 205 SE’s were built spanning two years. N205J was previously owned by a business associate of ours. N205J was hangar kept most of its life. It had original factory avionics, paint, and interior and was a low time aircraft with only 1885.5 hours. It had Precise Flight Speed Brakes installed. So why did we put so much money into a 1987 Mooney? I am one of the owners of SureFlight Aircraft Completions which specializes in paint, interiors, and avionics. We made it a “project plane”. We worked on it when we had any gaps in our schedule. Now that it is complete, we have a demonstration plane to show and fly customers that showcases SureFlight’s capabilities. It’s an awesome Mooney to fly! First stop was Henry Weber Mooney Authorized Service Center at neighboring KLNS to perform the pre-purchase inspection. The important thing for us was to have a good airframe and engine to start with. We took care of some maintenance on the airframe, overhauled the prop, bought a new governor, put new gear shock discs in, etc. We had them complete an annual at the time as well. We had the engine sent out to Columbia Aircraft Services for an Inspect and Replace as Needed (“IRAN”) which included new Camshaft, Lifters, Bearings and Rings. While it was there, we had the engine converted from the Lycoming IO-360-A3B6D to the IO-360-A3B6 specification to eliminate the D3000 dual magnetos in a single housing, driven by a single driveshaft. The engine now has two separate fully independent Bendix magnetos. We had the cylinders removed to be sent out for nickel plating. After the engine came back, Henry Weber reinstalled it with new Lord mounts and made sure that the engine and engine cowlings were properly aligned. We added GAMIjectors calibrated fuel injection nozzles and then went to work on the full refurbishment of N205J. Avionics: The aircraft was equipped with a factory original avionics suite from 1986, except the addition of an Apollo GPS. It all came out. All the wiring was removed and replaced. A plastic panel is created to make sure everything looks correct before fabricating the metal: Yokes are painted black and a metal panel is installed: And then filled with equipment: · Fully Electronic panel; Eliminated Vacuum System · Garmin G500 flight deck with Synthetic Vision · Garmin GAD 43e autopilot interface for G500 · Garmin GTN 750 GPS/Nav/Comm Navigator with Telligence Voice Control · Garmin GMA 35c Bluetooth enabled remote audio panel · Garmin GTX 345R ADS-B In/Out remote transponder · Garmin GNC 255 Nav/Comm · King KFC-150 autopilot (the only thing that remained from the old panel) · L3 Avionics ESI-500 Standby Instrument with: Altitude, Attitude, Slip/skid, Vertical speed, Aircraft track, Synthetic Vision option, Navigation option. Magnetic heading option. · JP Instruments EDM 930 Primary computer for RPM, Manifold Pressure, Oil, Fuel, Battery, Engine data. · AirGizmos iPad Mini 4 panel dock · Nimbus Aviation Electroluminescent Circuit Breaker overlay. · ACK E-04 GPS Emergency Locator Transmitter · Guardian Aero 451-101 Panel Mount CO Detector · MidContinent MD93 Digital Clock/USB Charger. Paint: We painted a new King Air 300 for the Mayo Clinic earlier in 2016. We loved their colors. We knew that these would be the colors we would eventually use on the Mooney. Stripping: Everything that is not stripped is covered in foil. Windows are removed to be replaced with Great Lakes Aero Windows SC (Solar Control) Grey installed with Extra thick .250” windshield. All flight controls and gear doors are removed to be painted separately, airframe is etched and alodined in preparation for epoxy primer. After primer, an Axalta White Pearl base color is applied. N205J is painted in all Pearlescent paint which requires a clearcoat after each color is applied. This is one of the reasons pearlescent paints cost more. Paint Scheme Layout: Axalta Cumulous Grey Pearl is applied to undercarriage, wheel wells, airframe, and then clearcoated. Axalta Sable Pearl accent stripes are applied and then clearcoated. Final Prep for the Axalta Dark Blue Pearl: After all the pearlescent colors are applied and clearcoated, exterior placarding is applied, and the entire aircraft is re-sanded for a final overall layer of clearcoat. This gives the airplane a wet, glossy look and deepens the color, smooths edge lines between accent stripes, seals the placards, and it also provides a more durable and cleanable finish because you do not cut into the color when polishing. Flight controls are hung and painted separately: Cowlings and access panels are installed with new stainless steel hardware. Flight controls are balanced and then reinstalled. Interior: Unfortunately, we forgot to get some good “before pics” of the interior. It had blue velour seats with aged and yellowing plastic panels. Old seat covers off. Repaint the seat frames. New covers sewn for the new foam buildups. Upholstered seats with custom Mooney Logo headrests. We repaired cracks in several of the plastics, and repainted with a textured paint to hide any old imperfections. We decided against covering the panels in ultra-leather to save weight. We fabricated a hatch behind the hole for the windshield bar that holds the compass for easy R&R of the glare shield. Painted a flat textured black. Looks like new. The interior goes back together with repainted plastics, new carpet, new door seals, and new upholstered seats. After it was all complete, we put the aircraft on scales. The new weight and balance was 17 lbs lighter than before. We also performed the gross weight increase to increase the gross weight from 2,740 to 2,900 giving the aircraft a new useful load of 988 lbs. Mooney N205J – Ready for Takeoff! Update 6/21/2018 Since Garmin came out with the G500 TXi we updated the Mooney by removing the Garmin G500 and JPI EDM 930 and replacing it with the G500 TXi with integrated Engine Information System (EIS). Here are photos of the conversion: EDIT for 2021: L-3 ESI 500 removed and replaced with Garmin GI 275 backup instrument and a Garmin GFC 500 Autopilot.

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.

I’ve gone back-and-forth on how to make a post like this. I want to tell a story of my experience, but it’s also so important to highlight a specific group of people on this forum that helped me accomplish a goal I’ve had for more than a decade. When I was into my 30s I never thought I would be a person who would be a pilot. I loved airplanes but I always assumed it was for other people, not me. I was well-established in a career, and just just really didn’t give it much thought. But that all changed, when my wife gave me the gift of a discovery flight for my birthday in 2009. Without trying to get too deep into that story, the point is I did become a pilot. I am now a pure addict, and will be for my entire life. And when you become a pilot, I think the first thing we all think of is how to get our own airplane. Or we at least dream about having our own airplane while we accomplish flying for a living. But I bet it still comes up as a possibility sometimes. But I also know that for many of us that possibility seems unrealistic. Even impossible. But it’s not. Well... I bought an airplane! A real one! I can’t even type it without welling up. Now there’s a reason that that statement carries such weight for me. I was never a person of great means and was someone who was never really in a position to buy such things. I mean, I’m just a mail carrier... I’m not even a cool one that got to fly an airplane to deliver it! But on the other side of that token, I had also never been motivated as much as I have in aviation - and by the people I’ve met in it. Because of those people, my amazing wife and my motivation, I was able to accomplish and check off one of my great goals in life. I bought an airplane!! I OWN a damn airplane!! How cool is that? This is the part where I have to give people some kudos that have become some of my best friends and just some truly awesome people here on MooneySpace. In addition to that, my first airplane buying experience was truly exceptional. It was about as detached from my expectations as I think it could have been. It was a completely unexpected experience. I’ve been lucky enough to fly so many wonderful Mooney’s, because of these gracious pilots. But I had finally decided that it was time for me to look for an airplane that would be special to me. It wasn’t just a thing for me to own, it really was something I wanted to be proud of and take care of. It was a big deal for me. These wonderful people and good friends gave me advice, tips, spreadsheets, and all of the things to do to find the airplane that was right for me. In addition to that I think they were just as excited for me as I was for myself. And that made it even better. So then one day one of the people I had admired on this forum was selling his best friends airplane, after he unfortunately passed. It was something he was doing for that family and just wanted it to go to a good home. He wanted someone to take care of it, for it to be special. This next part is how I know that people around me were vested in my success. I never had a chance to even see the post, before my friends were text messaging me about this airplane. Within minutes. As I write this though, I realized they may not of actually been vested in my success, they may just have been trying to find a way to get me to stop bothering them to fly their airplanes. Seriously that might actually be the real reason. Nevertheless, they helped me through every part of the process and I can’t thank them enough. But thank you @gsxrpilot, @N9405V, @Bryan, @acdc, @JNDZ, Kiwi. There are others too but, they either don’t use this platform or I can’t remember their usernames. Hehe. But please know that you are included in this, and I am talking to you too. For those of you who know who these people are please feel free to tag them. Now back to my process of buying an airplane. We all know there are tons and tons of stories about terrible buying experiences. Unfortunately there’s a lot of sleaze in this business. But moreover, a lot of un-empathetic people. So my expectations for purchasing an airplane were made very clear to me early on. I was going to probably be dealing with someone with much more wealth than I and would not be very amenable to a process that was financially epic for me. This was not what happened. Not at all. Every person I talked to, told me if I was going to buy an airplane from anyone, it would be this person. They were right. In epic fashion. From the moment I talked to @Yooper Rocketmanfor the first time on the phone until we shook hands on that cold day in Iron Mountain when I bought his best friends airplane - it was the most wonderful experience I think a person could have. He was helpful, patient, honest, friendly and truly one of the nicest human beings I’ve ever met. He told me these wonderful stories about his friend and that airplane. And then we flew it together like he and his best friend used to. He was visibly melancholy. I was welcome in his home, with his wonderful wife. I was welcome with his friends. But the most important is that I was welcome into his Lancair IV-P Turbine... My God that thing... I’m not kidding, that was one of the coolest rides I’ver ever had in an airplane! I don’t say that lightly either. I’ve flown in a Nakajima Kate, a Nanchang CJ6 and even a Curtis Helldiver to name a few. But back to the story. Because of my friends, I was able to find an airplane that wasn’t just an airplane. It was its own story. It was this special thing that had memories and history. It was something for me to take care of. That’s when I realized I wasn’t buying a thing, I was being given stewardship. And because of Tom I was able to receive it. I will honor that. I will add new memories and more history to pass on to someone else one day. Probably after I spend too much on the panel and run out of money. Until then though, I will never be able to repay my friends for what they gave me without even knowing it, and wanting nothing in return other than my success. I thank you. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have people to go tell all of the details about my airplane to, even if they don’t wanna hear it. And update my MooneySpace profile with MY tail number! 5AA3AE01-7C81-4507-BBBD-FB1F8C11025B.MOV

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.

Well, we left N252AD in Smithville, TX in the capable hands of JD and Laura Casteel at SWTA. It's time for the big one. Her engine made it to 1830 hours on the original cylinders and turbo. But she's definitely tired. Only one cylinder was able to make compression over about 50. And her belly is just one long oil slick all the way to the tail skid. The governor is leaking oil as well, and the vacuum pump can't seem to muster enough power to deploy the speed brakes anymore. This year's annual will include an engine overhaul and Encore conversion. The engine, turbo, waste gate, governor, and fuel pump will all go to Jewell Aviation for overhaul and conversion from an MB to an SB engine. All of the other Encore parts are laid out and organized by Laura, ready for installation. This includes new double puck brakes and all the associated parts and pieces. New control surface counter weights, instrument remapping, and the engine stuff. We will also swap the vacuum speed brakes for electric and remove the remainder of the vacuum system. And finally swap the dangling compass for a panel mounted version. We're looking forward to a horse power increase and useful load in the 1100 lb range when it's all said and done. To say nothing of a clean belly. A big thanks to @Denver98 for picking us up in Smithville and giving us a ride back to Denver in a Cessna 421. A very nice ride.

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.

I have been a "lurker" here for about the last 6 months as I considered a Mooney purchase. I want to thank Mooneyspace.com for their generous and open door policy of allowing people to look in on subjects posted. It has been of great benefit in my airplane search. I am proud to say I am the new owner of N192JK, a 2005 Ovation as of 2023 UTC yesterday. She is currently located at Don Maxwell's shop undergoing a pre-sale, now an annual and a WAAS upgrade. Thanks to this forum I was able to select Don Maxwell as my preferred place to perform the pre-buy and I have had the honor to meet both Don and Paul who are real gentlemen and have been most helpful. I will be basing out of KGVL as I live on Lake Lanier My previous airplane was a PA18-160 Super Cub rebuilt by Cub Crafters. It was probably one of the few IFR certified Cubs around and had an Aspen 1000, Garmin 420W and a Lynx ADS-B unit. I loved the airplane but my mission has changed to a need for reliable and fast transport up and down the Eastern seaboard. In my search I needed good avionics and TKS. I wanted to avoid turbo charging, preferring horsepower and displacement. I don't really want to be sucking on a tube all that much in search of performance. It came down to an early to mid 90's Bonanza or a 2000 something Mooney. Since my wife and I are not tall people and it is usually just the two of us I concluded the Mooney was the best airplane for the buck and (shhhh), it will blow the doors off a Bonanza. I have flown a lot of Beech products, even worked for a Beech dealer and I love their airplanes but if you have to write the checks........ A little about my aviation self. I am coming up on my 50th year since solo at KRHV. I have about 29,000 hours. About 8000 in GA aircraft of all kinds from C-150's too biz jets. I have been a CFI-I, a Chief Instructor with examining authority, a Line Check Airman and a Part 135 Chief Pilot. I recently retired off the Airbus A330 after a near 40 year career. Aviation has been my life and passion all my life and being a pilot is the only thing I have ever wanted to be since early childhood. This Mooney will most likely be my last airplane and I hope it will be the best! I look forward to learning from you fine folks here. You all have been very helpful in getting me to this point in my "Mooney experience"!

So, as flight coordinator for our mercy flight organization based in the U.P. of Michigan, I field all flight request calls and dispatch the pilots for those flights. I’ve done this job on and off many times over the last 25 years, taking it back most recently April 1, 2018 after a 13 year break from another Mooney pilot that got burnt out. The negative with me dispatching, I hate telling patients we can’t find a pilot. I performed 30+ flights last year, and looking to be the highest flight count pilot this year as well. I got a call from an under 60 year old vet, back in March, with cancer. He was considering going to the U of M in Ann Arbor, but decided to continue treatment through the VA. Just over a week ago he was given 2-4 weeks to live (and I’m not sure ANY medical facility could have done him any better) and wanted to know if we would transport him back to his “home town” in KY where he had most of his family to support him in hospice. Although that’s out of our normal range, I said we would do it. We were scheduled to fly out Sunday but he was admitted for issues that morning. I had serious concerns he said was “transportable” when they called this morning he would be discharged and “ready to go”. I said I needed a doctors approval he could fly and got a call from the physician ( I was clearly impressed). So, he wanted to fly in my Lancair prop jet, but I would take him in our Bonanza (rear door boarding) if he couldn’t board the Lancair. We were looking at under one hour and forty minutes in the Lancair, a solid hour longer in the Bo. My return would be and hour and a half longer too His wife, an RN, was as my minimum requirement to do the flight, so she and their 3 year old son came along and she monitored and managed his health during the flight. He WAS ABLE to board the Lancair, so that’s what we took. We had some anxious moments during the first third of the flight, but everything relaxed after that and I covered a 12-14 hour drive (not doable for him) in one hour 39 minutes. I know I’ll never see him alive again, but the smile on his face when his family greeted him, just south of Lexington KY this afternoon when we landed, was priceless. THANKS FOR YOUR SERVICE JACK!!!! Tom Sorry, no pictures. Here’s a link to the flight. https://flightaware.com/live/flight/N994PT/history/20190603/1600Z/KIMT/KRGA

Yes, the pilot is here. Yes, I recently purchased the aircraft. I flew from Pensacola on Friday and landed at W75 with about 10 gallons remaining. I filled up Saturday morning (54 gallons on board) and was planning to continue to New England. I checked the fuel during preflight as usual and I saw no water. I looked at the windsock as I finished my preflight and it was about 5 knots with a slight crosswind, but favoring 19. My plan was to back taxi and use the full length of 19. I looked at the windsock again as I was about to taxi and it was limp. I don't have a voice recorder so I'm paraphrasing from what I remember. During taxi, Unicom asked me my direction of travel. I said north. Unicom said that the winds were light and variable, not favoring a particular runway, and that no traffic was known to be inbound. He said I could use 01 if I wanted to be closer to course. At this point I was at the one taxi intersection with 01/19 and he said I could take off from there or back taxi and 180. This is where I made my first mistake. The taxiway intersection is not in the middle of the field. It is closer to the approach end of 01. But if you look at the taxiway diagram it is a short runway and the intersection cuts off a significant amount. I allowed this distraction to alter my plan and I elected to takeoff runway 01 from the intersection without fully considering the decision. There are trees not far past the end of the runway. I don't normally climb at Vx, but as I saw the trees I pulled for Vx and made my second mistake. I over-rotated and entered a power on stall. As I was barely over the treetops while I was attempting to correct, but the sight of the trees right beneath me tempered my forward pitch correction and I re-stalled. I lost lift on the left wing, rolling left. I did not have enough control to really pick a spot at that point, but I had enough rudder to keep the nose between the trees. Or I didn't and it was luck. I honestly can't say. It happened pretty fast by that point. I am a Navy pilot and TOPGUN graduate. I have my ATP and CFII. I completed my BFR in a 182 just a couple of weeks before I bought the Mooney. I am meticulous about safety and planning. I used to preach to students about the three things a pilot can never use: fuel in the truck, runway behind you and altitude above you. I frequently talk about complacency as a major cause for accidents, not just in aviation. I want to be clear, I am not attempting to place any blame on the Unicom. However, I allowed that brief conversation to distract me from my very solid plan and change to a very poor one. The left wing sheared off from the tree on the left side. The right wing entered the house with the fuselage and was leaking fuel. Debris from the structure prevented me from being able to open the door enough for escape. Neighbors called 911 and told us to stay put, but fuel was leaking and I wanted us out. A man who happened to be at the airport and getting ready to fly saw everything from my intersection takeoff to stall. He jumped in his truck and found us. He took charge of the group at the house, got the power to the house secured, apparently there was house wiring on or around us, climbed into the house and started pulling debris away so we could get out. This man subsequently held out gear, picked us up from the hospital after we were released, took us to his home and then brought us to a hotel. I am forever in his debt. The footwell crushed around my legs, but I was able to pull them out on my own only with minor abrasions. My plexiglas windshield was shattered and I have some lacerations on my head and bruising on my right arm. My wife was in the back seat next to our 13 month old son, who was in his car seat. My wife has a fair amount of bruising and soreness. My son has minor rash from his car seat restraints. Fortunately the home was unoccupied. We are very fortunate.

The earliest passion I can remember is flying. I was obsessed with airplanes and becoming a pilot. All the early art projects my mother saved had an airplane drawn or painted on them. So, in 1981 when my instructor let me solo after flying around the pattern for seven hours, I had achieved the first part of my dream. Only a few flight hours later I experienced an engine failure, alone, in a 152 over a lake with no altitude. Not only was I going to crash but I was going to drown. That was the first time I looked death in the face and I was only a teenager. My youthful immortality “virginity” was taken from me and I was forever molded by experience. Thirty (plus) years later I am a Mooney owner and pilot. But I am a much different pilot than I was in my youth. Truthfully, it’s not easy for me to just hop into the Mooney and go flying without a care. I have always been an optimist. So what I’m about to say sounds out of character for those that know me. Back when my engine failed I decided to leave aviation and my dream. Two weeks later my instructor told me I had to “get back on the horse.” He said what I had experienced was rare and would probably never happen again. He also told me something that always stuck with me. “I’m going to teach you to fly the airplane like it’s going to kill you.” That was such an odd and discomforting statement at the time. To this day, every time I sit in that left seat I think about those words. I remember that helpless feeling of going down toward that lake wishing it were different and that somehow I would reach the shore. At the time I felt that incident robbed me of the joy of flight. And, truthfully, a part of me still fights that feeling. What that experience did for me was to bring a new level of maturity to what had been my rather youthful, naive, and dreamy flight training and turned me into a real pilot. Up until that incident I had flown patterns, figure eights, buzzed pastured cows (and a few fisherman), and generally had an idealistic piloting experience. I do not know either of these men like a few of you Mooney Space members do. We are bonded to them because we are pilots and we drive Mooneys. More than that, we are caring human beings and we long to take away this hurt from the families and friends who know them and love them dearly. Words simply fail us with a loss this deep. We train over and over for a situation like this and hope it never happens to us. When it does, we long to understand why and fight the urge to come to quick conclusions, play out scenarios and even find blame. But at the end of the day we realize that so many things in life are out our control. Sometimes we survive due to another’s intervention, our own skill level, luck, and sometimes, ironically, our own stupidity. But sometimes we get seriously hurt and sometimes we die. No doubt our community will learn from this tragedy and thereby help many others who may find themselves in a similar unthinkable situation. Life has taught us that even the best among us are not immune. But it doesn’t stop there. Every step you take to become a better pilot, you honor those who’ve flown West. Every time you take an online class with AOPA, EAA or the FAA’s W.I.N.G.S. program, you’ve honored not only them but yourself and your passengers. Every seminar you take, question you answer on Mooney Space, every time you put an instructor in your right seat and tell them to do their worst, you honor the institution of “pilot.” I can relate to our friend Dave who wonders if this is really worth the risk. Since my first incident I’ve had a near miss midair (not my fault), a complete electrical failure, and a blown tire at high speed that almost sent me “into the rhubarb” as my grandfather used to say, I’ve had a dear uncle killed by his plane and I was witness to the tragedy at Reno in 2011. I don’t tell you these things to elicit pity. Fly long enough and bad things happen. You have these stories, too. Dave eludes to it and I have certainly felt it. There are a thousand reasons why you should never fly again. And, if USA Today has anything to say about it or the real estate developers in Santa Barbara have their wish, none of us Mooney pilots ever will fly again. Sometimes I feel like I’m the most fortunate person in the world as I fly my little Mooney up and down the Northern California coast. But some days I’m fighting that fear which experience has instilled in that place where joy, amazement and wonder recently lived. In complete honesty, I went to the hangar today with the intent of flying my Mooney and thought about this tragedy and didn’t. Did I chicken out? Maybe. Will I fly again? Certainly. Maybe even tomorrow. But today was not that day. It’s cliche to say it but my head wasn’t in the game. My airport is under construction and the taxiways are all new. I’ve not flown in a couple weeks and there was a gusty but manageable crosswind. Instead, I cleaned the windows, wiped the dust off the wings, cleaned part of the belly, and talked to any pilot with a hangar door open. I loaned out a couple tools and gave away some sheet metal screws. I watched a young lady with a giant grin start her tailwheel endorsement in a beautiful Cessna 140 and listened to ATC on my handheld. Was today a loss? I’ll let you be the judge. Dreams give life to passion. Our passion is flight. But passion comes at a cost. It places us at risk. To fly is one of humankind’s oldest dreams. We are fortunate enough to have been born in an age where flight is possible and the Earth is far below us. Though reason and even experience tells me this is something I should leave to the birds I smile. Because in December of 1981 I became a bird and I left this nest called Earth. I am among an elite group of human beings that can command an airplane. We are called Pilots. Among my fellow pilots I do my best to be my best so that, should the unthinkable happen again, I have a chance to fly again. Should my best efforts be overwhelmed by circumstances I will fly West knowing that I will be replaced by some little kid looking at an airplane and wondering what it would be like to be a pilot, a Mooney pilot Mike, may your recovery be swift and your passion undamaged. Bill, peace to your memory. p.s. To astelmaszek- I've been hit by lightning 3 times and I'm still here.

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....

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- Matt

I was looking forward to this year's Mooney Summit. Really bummed it was postponed. Nevertheless, I still wanted to hold the presentation I had planned to do, but virtually. I don't have a solid date and time yet, but thinking Thursday, October 21st at 8 p.m. EDT...will post the official time here once I can solidify my schedule. I'll be more than happy to do this assuming I can get a good number to attend (say 30 or more). If there's very little interest, I won't bother. So, please add a "Thanks" or "Like" to this post if you are interested so I can get a feeling for the number of you that might be willing to attend.

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

Many of you asked me to post - hopefully some of you know me and it doesn’t come across as brag - but wanted to share pics of my wonderful bird - she comports like a long body but doesn’t float down - it’s power on until wheel hit - same concept of more trim trim trim - she’s heavier and a dream come true Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Well, N1017L, my 1982 Mooney Rocket I’ve owned since 2001, flew for nearly 2,000 hours, was officially sold as of 6:00 PM yesterday. Both my wife and I have pretty ambivalent feelings, having flown our Rocket into probably 75% of the states in this country, and kids memories of a lot of those trips too. My first cross country airplane in 1996 was an F model, N929PG. We flew her for 5 years, accumulating 1300 hours with my now 26 year old being 4 years old when I bought it. He used to sleep on a bed made on top the luggage in the baggage compartment during many Michigan to Colorado trips in the early years. The buyer, a very quality guy out of Austin, TX, began the initial inquiry and commitment to purchase during the air show in Oshkosh of this year. He said once we talked extensively about the plane, he was buying from the owner more than just the plane. I was not bashful disclosing things that I would address if I continued ownership of the plane, and a good review of my logbooks made it pretty clear I did not hold back on any maintenance throughout my ownership of the plane. He came up and inspected during my annual, which began in August and was not finished until November (engine overhaul on another thread). He had say in every aspect of the overhaul and never got a final number from me until two weeks ago (I was waiting on all the OH bills to come in). We were $5k apart on his expected number and my final number, and he hadn’t accounted for the $5k prop OH. A tip to other purchasers, he’s getting a lot of items that don’t normally come with the sale. His only request to meet my number was getting a Flight Stream installed, which I provided for the sale. By not beating me up he got a lot of stuff from me I would not have been compelled to provide otherwise. I’ve really enjoyed my participation on this forum over the years. I joined Beach Talk about a year ago, participated for maybe 4-6 months and although most were pretty decent people , I found some so caustic I’ve not been back in 4-6 months. On the other hand, this forum is the BEST ONE I’ve ever been privileged to belong to. I will stay for a while, believing 22 years of Mooney ownership and owner supervised maintenance might be of value to a few of you here. Many of you have followed my Lancair project through the later build years and the two years I’ve flown it. It’s done, reliable, and a great cross country machine. I hope as old age creeps up on me, and I no longer feel competent in the prop jet, to return to the Mooney fold for my last years flying. You guys will never lose this pilot as a huge advocate of the Mooney airplane! Thanks a ton fellow Mooniacs!! Tom

Along with an extensive (loooooong) annual - I broke down permanently fixed the dreaded fuel smell in the cabin and blue stains under the wings. Huge shout out to Charlie (the Mad Scientist), Griggs Refinishing and LASAR! They were amazing support partners and vendors for my mechanic and I through the entire process. They nailed turn around for part orders and overhauls. They gave the best phone and email support you could imagine and always served with a smile. Their expertise is second to none, they even helped identify a prior incorrect W&B assessment that gained 18lbs of useful load back. My crew is loving the new odorless cabin, and I’m loving the peace of mind. This annual also left me with a power flow exhaust, so I’m getting used to the new sound and different performance/fuel burn rate... And if that wasn’t enough, we also picked up a new family member for 63V - welcome 1218X to the hangar. She’ll have a little mending to get before flying, but it looks like we may have saved her from a death by stagnation. She’s only got 1700 total hours on the airframe and engine. She should be a great fall/winter restoration. Fun times, more excitement, parts orders, and more updates ahead! Pics included for visual enjoyment. ~Abe

My wife took a great picture without editing believe it or not. Something about having the wing in there just balances a good photo.

Hello friends! Hello from Chambersburg, PA - LaQuinta Inn! Near N68. So here's my story ... KPTD-LETUS-ART-SYR-KIGX - initially low to stay VFR out of icing clouds that eventually opened up to unlimited severe clear and I climbed to 16500 to enjoy a nice tail wind - 240-240GS for what was looking like a 2:30 trip. Somewhere in Southern PA (turns out right about HERE) talking to Washington Approach.... After a hand off they remind to maintain 16500 VFR which I confirmed - clearly because I am not in approach traffic for those jets going to Dulles and Reagan. Shortly thereafter my EDM blinked at me a oil pressure in the yellow warning. 28. Huh - that's not what I want - so I turned around to get my POH to see what is the normal range and in that much time by the time I turned back the oil pressure was 23. Uh Oh I have a problem and I looked up the nearest airport. Then in that much time suddenly I lost power. First power went to like half thrust and then to no thrust - but never did the prop stop it was windmilling. And still smooth so I doubt a piston blew. So I immediately turned toward what I found was nearest - N68 - which was something like 12 mi away - and I was at 16500. Actually that is one of the reasons I like to fly high - just in case this ever happened. SO then I told ATC I had an emergency my engine is out and I am heading to N68. They initially told me to maintain at or above 14000. I told them unable (or maybe I wasn't so cool and I said I can't my engine is out). Then I heard them moving other airplanes around. So then they told me airport 7 mi to my 12 o-clock can I see it? I said no I'm high and I can see on the gps it must be under my nose. My plan was to get right over the airport and spiral down. So I got right over the numbers at maybe 12k? And started making turns over the airport looking down at the numbers - 24. I asked ATC for the wind direction. At first I heard it was a severe cross wind but then I asked to confirm and it was as I thought - from having already prepanned my runway at KIGX (ok far away) that it must favor 24 (from the synoptic). Sure enough it did. Phew. Something like 20kts from 26? At 8k the engine turned back on briefly but then I smelled something burning so I killed it. Then I was afraid there would be a fire. SO I tried to get down a little faster. I was not doing best glide because I was high over the airport. I was doing commercial spiral descent. This is a good maneuver. It was really the thing for the day. get right over the numbers and look down at the numbers as you spiral down - even if you are at 12k. I also have a smoke hood that I keep behind the pilot seat and I put it at my ready just in case. The smell of burning was faint but there. Oil pressure was negligible. The EDM is flashing at me. ATC wanted to give me a hand off to Harrisburg approach but I told him I am overloaded right now and flying a glider so could I stay with him please and he said yes. And then I called to CTAF at N68 since I didn't know if it would be busy and the last thing I wanted to do is to dead stick into a ,mid air collision. I told an engine out emergency and coming to 24 - I can't remember the exact words for anything. I was very vert flush with adrenaline at this point but I was still doing all the things as I should. I was watching airspeed, watching my landing point, and talking when needed and managing a possible fire and coming down as fast as reasonable. I opened all the airflow ports into the cabin but not yet the side window since the smell was only mild. AT 3k I decided to not make any more than this one last turn. Last thing I wanted to do was to come up short. Or worse to let myself get slow trying to stretch a glide further than it will stretch. Then I popped out all of my drag - gear, speed brakes and flaps. So at the end of the last turn I was maybe 2k? I pointed right at the threshold and flew over the trees at maybe 100? Thanks to a strong head wind - despite crossing the numbers at maybe 90 and a good long float I still had a reasonably smooth landing and rolled by half the runway and had a proper amount of speed to roll off the runway. Yay! I think I just used up one of my nine lives. Then I got out quick in case it was on fire. But it wasn't. Also as I was rolling I told on air traffic control channel I was safely on the ground and some other pilot relayed that he sent the message to atc. Then soon the airport manager drove up in his truck. He had left for the day to go home but got a call from ATC that someone was coming in dead stick. - me - He was very happy to see me. I was even happier to see him! And I was even happier than that to see me! Then the local fire station brigade showed up. I shook some fire man hands and thanked them for coming. And they said they were happy to see me! Then the air traffic controller from Washington Approach called me on the phone to check up on me. And I said thank you thank you to him! I know my voice was shaky...and no doubt besides being scared I had a big shot of adrenaline..but I was assertive and said and did all the things I was supposed to do. Thank goodness. I had such a big shot of adrenaline that by the time I got out of the airplane I realized my hands were just completely shaking and my voice was shaky. But I did all the things and I stayed on my numbers and decisions and flew that airplane all the way to the stop. What happened? I dunno....I suspect a turbo, or I spoke with Bennett and he suggests it could be a frozen oil cooler valve of some kind. But there is no spilled oil mess. So I don't know. Would that cause an oil burning smell? Either could cause a loss of oil pressure right? I doubt it blew a cylinder since it was never shuddering - just smooth. So on the lucky side - despite being a tiny airport, it is sort of a jumping airport and the manager has his airplane getting its 100 hour tomorrow am and the mechanic will be there and he said he would have him take a look at my airplane first thing. I am doubting that it would be small enough to be fixable on the spot - some kind of parts will be needed I bet. Hopefully not a complete new engine. Oh well - at least I am sitting here safely on a hotel bed typing about how a new engine would be annoying. Even the paint job is still in shape!

It took 3 years and about 70 hours under the hood. On Friday March 10, I passed my instrument check ride! Big day for me. Learned how to fly at 51 and now 56. Glad to have done it in my mooney. Got kicked around a lot on Friday with the wind up here in the Midwest.

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!

I know a few of you are already aware of my incident on 09/30, but I've been hesitant to post anything until the insurance company made their determination re repair vs write-off. Also, having a forced landing off-airport is an awkward situation to find oneself in, and I've needed time to process the event and my responses to it before opening the topic up for discussion on an open forum. Aircraft background: M5779R is a 1985 M20K (231) with many positive aftermarket mods, including GAMIjectors, intercooler and wastegate, 3-blade McCauley prop (hot), Aspen PFD, JPI 830, Garmin 430, and Garmin ADS/B In/out transponder. The engine was rebuilt in 2016 prior to my purchase, and had less than 100 hrs SMOH when I bought it in 2018. I have flown her nearly 500 hours since then. I had a great deal of work done at annual last year, including replacement of the #6 cylinder, Prop governor overhaul, new right-side exhaust header, replacement of ALL belts and hoses, new gascolator, and multiple other smaller jobs. At the time of the incident 79R had flown 143 hours since last annual. On the date above I was flying from KABI to KDGW in a clear VFR sky to do some hunting with friends. I had stopped for fuel at Borger, TX, and was about an hour into the second leg of the flight at 12,500' when I had a sudden partial loss of power. I had been cruising at usual settings, 32" MP and 2450 RPM and 11.0 GPH (approx. 50% power setting) with a 12 knot tailwind. With the power loss my manifold pressure dropped below 20", but RPM's stayed around 2400. My first thought was that I had a fuel flow problem, so immediately switched tanks and hit the low boost switch. No change. Airspeed had dropped significantly, but the autopilot was holding my altitude and the engine was still making some power. IIRC, CHT's and TIT were fine, but the JPI was reading 20% power output and dropping. Half of my brain was trying to puzzle out the cause of the power loss, but the larger part of my brain was saying, "Look for a place to land, establish best glidespeed, try to restart the engine, and declare an emergency," over and over again. So that's what I did. I looked around at the flat eastern Colorado terrain, saw no airport; looked at my Foreflight moving map, and saw the Limon airport about 25 miles ahead of me and no other marked airfield. My airspeed was still above best glide at this point. Looking back on it now, I estimate that the time elapsed up to this point in the emergency was about 20-25 seconds. The engine was still running, so a restart was obviously not necessary; so I pushed the prop control full forward and there was no change. In fact, I noted that my RPM's were starting to climb irrespective of the position of the prop control. This was my first clue that I had an oil pressure problem. I then looked at the oil pressure gauge, and it was pegged on zero. This was the "Aha!" moment, and I went fully into my power-off landing checklist that I've had stamped in my brain since my earliest flight training. I switched off the magnetos, which caused immediate slowing of the aircraft, and of course also meant no vacuum pressure, so I began setting my attitude manually to best glide (88 KIAS). I keyed the mic and informed Denver Center I was declaring an emergency. The controller, who sounded very young, immediately experienced a 2-octave increase in his voice pitch, by which I gathered he was pretty new to this situation. I advised ATC I had lost power and was descending without power, and intended to land on either a road or an open field, unless he could vector me to an unmapped airfield closer to my position. I started at 6500' AGL, and estimated I had about 10 miles maximum glide range. There were several roads and a paved highway ahead of me, so I simply maintained my heading and descended at best glide speed. As I got closer to the ground it was apparent that the highway was far too busy with vehicle traffic to safely land on, so I decided to try for the nearest east-west gravel road, which I estimated was just within my glide range. However, it became clear quite soon that I wasn't going to get that far. As I dropped below 1000' AGL, I lowered my landing gear (I still had lots of battery power for the gear motors) and advised ATC I'd be landing in a pasture. I maintained clean configuration for airspeed, and the mains touched down a about 70 KIAS. I kept lots of backpressure on the yoke to keep the nosegear off the ground as long as possible. When I could keep the nose up any longer I started braking, but almost immediately hit a shallow cowpath and the nosegear collapsed. I skidded to a stop within about 50 yards of the cowpath. When the airplane stopped, I made sure all switches were off, unfastened my seat belt, and exited the aircraft. There was no gasoline smell, and no smoke, so I didn't hurry. I found I was less than 100 feet from the county road I'd been hoping to land on, and about 150 yards from the paved highway. All kinds of vehicles were turning onto the county road to check on the "crash scene". One kind young man offered the warmth of his car to sit in while I dealt with the necessary phone calls. ATC at Denver called within a few minutes (to see if I was alive), and of course my first outgoing call was to my wife to let her know I was down but OK. ATC got emergency services on the way and I was soon talking to the sheriff's deputy, fielding calls from the FAA and NTSB, and so forth. Eventually all the ducks were lined up as well as could be, and the deputy gave me a lift to a hotel in Limon, where my wife picked me up in her truck the next day. My insurance company has decided to sell N5779R for salvage, and I've signed the bill of sale. Unfortunately, I hadn't anticipated the rise in airplane prices this year, or I'd have re-insured her for what I could sell her for today (about $80,000 more than I paid for her!). I was not injured in the incident. I attribute this to the sound construction of Mooney aircraft, and to the thoroughness of my flight instructor(s) who drummed the engine-out landing checklist into my brain. At no time during the incident did I feel scared or panicked... I just did what I knew had to be done and flew the airplane all the way to the end of the landing rollout. Easy-peasy. I know a lot of people don't have as happy an outcome when they experience an engine failure. I realize that I was fortunate to have perfect conditions for my off-airport landing, or I might not have had as happy an outcome myself. If I had been over rough country or mountainous terrain, or flying at night, or IFR over low ceilings, my landing may have been a crash. But because I had clear visibility and plenty of flat terrain to choose a landing spot on, it was relatively uneventful. On the other hand, if it hadn't been for the cowpath that collapsed my nosegear, I would likely be having my airplane fixed right now rather than shopping for a new one. I share this experience with my fellow Mooney pilots because it may help someone else in their aeronautical decision making process or in their flight planning process. I am an avid reader/viewer of aviation-gone-bad articles and videos myself, am constantly learning from them. I hope this experience might help someone else be prepared in case of an emergency of their own. Postscript on the engine failure: when I landed, the entire belly of the airplane was covered with engine oil. I did not remove the cowling then and there, as more than one helpful idiot has suggested I should have done (including the guy from NTSB that called me 20 minutes after my airplane came to a stop in the pasture) but when the salvage crew got it to a nice clean shop and pulled the cowling they found no sign of a catastrophic oil line failure, etc. What they DID find was an oil breather tube covered with oil, and a splatter pattern in the compartment suggesting that an oil passage blockage had occurred somewhere in the engine resulting in the sump oil being blown out the breather tube. There was still about 3 quarts of oil in the sump, and the crankshaft still turned, so my delay in shutting down the engine apparently did not seize it up. I was just informed yesterday by the insurance adjuster that the engine is going to be torn down and inspected as part of the salvage process, and he will keep me informed as to the location of the blockage. FAA and NTSB have both signed off on the incident as an engine failure, and I have not been cited for pilot error. So that is something of a comfort. Postscript on aircraft damage: in addition to the collapsed nosegear, the right main gear was damaged (framework within the wing bent). Two of the 3 prop blades struck the ground and were severely bent, which of course necessitates and engine tear-down and inspection. The engine mounts were not damaged, but there was some deflection of the airframe back of the firewall which the insurance adjuster estimated would require significant repair costs. At this time I still don't know what damage to the engine and/or turbo may have occurred to cause the power failure. So I'll be airplane shopping now. I love the 231/252 platform for a lot of reasons, and I am strongly tempted stick close to home in this respect. Jimmy Garrison at GMax (formerly All American) says he has a lot of options in that area if I'm willing to be patient, and can stomach the high current prices. But I'm somewhat concerned about the growing scarcity of parts for Mooneys, as the factory continues to not make them. So I may stray farther afield into the land of Bonanzas, Cessnas, or Pipers. I guess we shall see. PPS 12/19/21: I posted the following last week farther down in the thread, but I am copying and pasting it here to save folks having to scroll down. I received an unofficial report on the engine postmortem. The engine crew looked first at the turbo, expecting to find the exhaust to be full of oil, indicating the failure was in the turbo (as the loss in manifold pressure suggested). However, there was no oil. The turbo had seized, but that would be expected with almost any loss of oil pressure. The crankshaft had not seized, and still turned easily… they found there was about 3 quarts of oil still in the crankcase. The culprit proved to be a broken exhaust valve in the #4 cylinder, which fell into the cylinder and punched a hole in the top of the piston. I w@s surprised to hear that, as I heard nothing that sounded like any engine cylinder eating a valve I’ve ever heard before (in automotive and small engine applications). The engine guys suggested I might have had enough power to keep the engine going a bit longer, as it was still making some power… but if I had done so, and tried stretching it the 25 miles between the point of failure and the Limon airport, other nastier things might have happened, such as an engine fire. All in all, I think what was basically an uneventful power-off landing in a field was the preferred option, as opposed to a high-speed and high-angle descent in a burning airplane into a fresh crater.

Hello to all of you....... A few more words on the M22. Aircraft was repainted from bare metal in a small paint shop close to London in 1992. The M22 has always been hangared and the paint still looks very nice. Polished every year for the last 20 years !! Engine overhauled in the US. Project completed in 2016. Long project but fully documented. Engine has now around 150 hrs since overhaul and runs like a dream. I tried to keep the aircraft as original as possible. Installed a EDM 900 as primary to avoid to be grounded in any problems with the old gauges. All still running ok. Also installed a new Garmin 330 ES transponder to be complying with the latest requirement in Australia. I know that there is M22 in South Africa. I was in contact with the owner a few years ago. The aircraft did not fly for around 20 years now. One M22 also in Switzerland. A few photos taken this afternoon (except the one in the air) ....

Another early morning... 1) Holey Cow! That’s a lot... 2) What brought you to MS at first? I came here seeking info regarding a Missile... 3) What was your first post? I had questions concerning OWTs related to Continental engines and Rocket Engineering... 4) The most fun of those posts start with the phrase ‘Welcome Aboard’... hope that felt inviting... there are about 150 of those written... 5) A few words I learned along the way... like door welt or welting or tinnerman nuts or speed nuts... MS is a great place to learn aviation vocab... 6) Not all posts are perfect... some may even be incorrect... ever send me a PM? I get a few notices every now and then... 7) I ask a lot of questions...? 8) I have met so many mooney pilots... 9) I have learned and re-learned so many Mooney things... 10) Extra thanks to the MSer posts that helped me select training, hardware, procedures, iPad mounts, apps, and pireps... MS is such a great place, with wonderful people... You probably didn’t get here accidentally. It’s been great being here with all of you. I hope I helped somebody out along the way... Oh... the 25k... it’s just a number... the number of posts I have managed to hit send after writing them... not all have made the cut... Thank you for including me and best regards, -a-

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, Jonny

So I could be smiling like this!!!!!! For a little while I’ll be the newest Instrument Rated pilot:) Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Just wanna say a couple things about a fellow Mooney driver. Something I have witnessed with a couple other Mooney drivers in the past. Except this time it was Me an My Family in need. So this last Saturday my family an I took a quick 52min trip from DRP to MEZ to accompany the in-laws at looking at some houses in the area( relocating from Dallas Area). All went well, had a great time with them an seen some nice properties. Sunday rolls around for the departure home an we make our way to the airport around 2pm for the trip home. We load the Rocket up Strap in an prepare to light the fire. It was a cold night an a cool day so I hit the ol girl with 10-15 seconds of low boost then turned the prop. She popped an caughed a little bit, but clearly wanted more blue coolaid. Turned the switch off an prepared to prime some more but the starter was still turning the propeller. Master OFF stopped it!!!!! Master ON engine turns over!!!! Called my A/P an he said I needed to peck on the relays lightly inside the Battery compartment. Thought one maybe hung up. Doing so then walking around sticking my hand in the side window flip the master on/off to verify if I was getting anywhere with this. I wasn’t. The last shot at this ended with me flipping the master On then Off agin with the props still turning for awhile with master off, Starter fully engaged an cranking!!! Bout needed some new Huggies after that. During Conversion with my A/P bout this, he had mentioned Bryan had an issue with a Relay(s) at some point in the resent past, May wanna give him a call, So I did. Just to pick his brain. We talked about my issue for a couple Minutes, Then he offers to come give me an my family a ride home. Now this is Sunday Folks when most guys like me are in the process of making sure nobody steels the recliner. Not this guy. Like a warrior he herd a Mooney was down(broken), an he was willing to throw out a lifeline to some folks in need. Bout 40-50 minutes after we talked 755FM rolled on at Mena to scoop us up. Flew us our Luggage an a football home while giving me a hour of solid instruction on the Ins/Outs of the GTN750( Impressive black Box to say the least). We get to my home airport right at dark. Tried to put some Gas in his Encore, but the fuel pump card readers screen was unreadable. So he went Home with No Gas, No Compensation of any kind!! He wouldn’t even Consider it. The Selflessness of one, made the day for three much less stressful. That’s something I have witnessed on a few other occasions with people in this community, an it’s something that will not be soon forgotten. Bryan is a hell of a Guy. This is a great Brotherhood to be a part off!!!

After 400hrs of smashing bugs in brand C, I finally bought a 201! I spent a great deal of time here reading various threads during my decision process. So thank you! My name is Andy Chambers and I'm based at KSTS (Santa Rosa, CA). As far as my wife knows, this is the second happiest day of my life!

After being without an airplane for 9 days, I am back in the game with an M20K 252 TSE. I picked the bird up with a fresh annual from New Philadelphia, OH yesterday afternoon and flew it home to Austin, TX (KHYI) last night. While I still need to learn how to properly fly her, I'm thrilled with the purchase and enjoyed the flight home. Of course, I spend most of the flight reading the POH while the KFC150 did the flying. I've certainly got a lot to learn after 400 hours in an M20C. Here's a picture that explains how thrilling it is to be flying a 252 after flying an M20C. There are three pieces of information that explain it.

Hi, and thank you for all of the well wishes, analysis / commentary. I am the owner / pilot sitting here in my hospital bed at 11:30 pm on a Friday night (highly medicated) thanking my lucky stars and the fact that I was in my Mooney. The steel cage did its job ( and I was able to see and kiss my 18 mo daughter today). I will share whatver I recall over time from this experience. First thing that was done to the plane when I bought it two years ago was the addition of shoulder harnesses. Did not leave the ground with me in it until that was done. Without getting into all of the details now I will cover the basics (again, I'm on strong pain meds and in a lot of pain / discomfort at the moment dictating to an iPad ). My main / obvious injuries are as stated by someone else in the thread, fractured l1,l2, pretty nasty cut on left eyelid and black eye / bruising of left eye. Bruised ribs, sprained right hand, cuts, scrapes and bruises on both arms, also wearing neck-brace full time as prescribed for soft tissue and ligament trauma in neck area. No injury to lower legs but bruising on thighs. Again this steel cage of the Mooney and the shoulder harness saved my life. As for the initial reports, I did not exit the plane on my own. Someone helped me out of the plane. My last memory before impact was " I'm coming in a bit steep .. It's gonna hurt...." I ended up putting it down in a pretty clear area with some small brush. I was told that the initial indication of touchdown and where the plane came to rest was about 250 feet apart. What I can tell you is that this was a post annual test flight / flight home to my home base. After a normal preflight and extensive run up multiple times, I decided I would depart 28 and then head home. The engine sounded great and ran strong on rollout through several hundred feet. I typically pull the gear soon after while I am still within a speed that allows me to lift it without excessive force. Once gear was up, and climb established, I pulled flaps, leveled wings got to about 350 agl and the engine went silent with no sputter or warning. At that moment I first pumped the throttle then verified fuel was on and electric pump was on with mixture full rich. After that I picked the grassy area north of the runway as my target, I initiated a very shallow right turn knowing it was down wind but feeling it was my best and only option at that moment. It was the only place I felt I would not hit power lines, cars on a busy road or trees. I held that shallow turn all the way down to my target and leveled the wings at the very end. At that point I was headed downwind and was very low. I pulled back to slow down and flare but headed down wind (gusting 19), I was out of time and altitude so I don't think the flare helped much.... From what I remember it was a pretty flat hit with slight nose down ( reminded me of the visual perspective of being on final aiming for the numbers but never having the opportunity to pull up and transition to a rollout and without flaps and gear for drag) by the time I pulled back and held back pressure I was on the ground. I am falling asleep as I write this and will try to add to the conversation in the near future. Have a good night. And let me know if you have any questions.

A BIG thanks to Shadrach (Ross) and gsxrpilot (Paul) for his MooneySpace Map. My family and I were on route from Peterborough Ontario Canada to warmer climate when we had a charging system failure showing 11.6 Volts. We landed at Hagerstown at sunset and called it a day. Early Christmas Eve morning I remembered gsxrpilot created MooneySpace Map. I used the MooneySpace Map and I was able to look up Shadrach who is based in Hagerstown. I sent Shadrach a PM and he came down to the airport the same time I arrived. We removed the original voltage regulator and cleaned the contacts. Ideally, I would have replaced it but all the service shops were closed for the holidays. We then noticed the SCAT air hose going to the back of the alternator was touching the terminals on the alternator. It is very possible the wire in the hose was making contact with the terminals and grounding it out. We put some RTV insulating pipe around the hose and started her up. To our delight we got 13.8 Volts. We had a great flight on flight on Christmas day to Kissimmee Florida with time to enjoy the sunny afternoon. I can't thank Ross Shadrach enough for spending Christmas Eve day out in the cold and away from his family getting us up flying again. And, Paul gsxrpilot for creating the MooneySpace Map and allowing us to be part of it. You guys saved Christmas and I am very grateful. Stephen Skinner

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

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.

Hey JT! I wanted to thank you for your kind note and words of encouragement. In fact, I located this post on my own a while back and meant to respond but as you can imagine it was easy to get sidetracked. So please accept my apology for the long delay. To your point, I think it's important that the Mooney Community have access to the company. As a Mooney owner I never felt a connection to the company even though I relied on the engineers, metal workers, electricians and other artisans every time I turned the key in my 201 or Acclaim. I'd like to change that dynamic and as you've probably gleaned from my interviews, reconnecting to the Mooney Community is a priority. In the coming weeks we'll be building out a new website and it will allow me to communicate with Mooney owners and advocates more directly. Eventually, the site will also invite participation from the Mooney Community so everyone can have more of a seat at the table so to speak. As you correctly pointed out, we're working to get over this "first hill." I'd be dishonest if I told you it was easy. There is a reason Mooney finds itself in the position it's in and it will take an awful lot of work to undo some of that and get us going in the right direction. But the one thing I am confident of is that Mooney is still the best single engine piston out there and always will be. "Like flying a Ferrari in the sky" I like to say. That reputation still has some gas in the tank and I promise to do my best so that Mooney can rise again. In the meantime, we'll keep the parts going and look to offer improvements to the fleet. I probably won't have time to respond to all the questions and suggestions I expect will be posted, but I promise, I will read each and every one. Thanks again, JT Best, Jonny Pollack

Picked up my 201 from maintenance, got a CO alarm on my sensorcon right on start up. I figured it might be blowing exhaust back in because I did start down wind of the exhaust. Opened some ventilation. Kept an eye on it during taxi and run up but the alarm was still blaring. I figured the only way to find out if it’s ground CO or a leak is in the air. So, I took off around the pattern. Normally these ground CO alarms would reduce in climb and clear up once leveled off. It was 50-70 on the ground. Still 20+ on downwind so I turned back in and landed. Reported it to the mechanic and he tightened the exhaust bolts. Said one of them was a little loose. I think if it weren’t for Dan Bass, I probably still would not have gotten around to getting a detector and this would have gone unchecked! Thank you Dan and thank you Mooney Summit for the life saving discussion. Dan even recalibrated my sensorcon last Oshkosh. It’s all been false alarms up till now with ground exhaust blowing back in or being really close in formation. But this is the first time there was an actual problem and the detector was the only way to find it. They had replaced the muffler so I had a heightened awareness but without the detector there was no way of knowing it was actually leaking.

I know it is not directly Mooney related but he did ask when he could start transitioning into my airplane about 5 minutes after. Almost 19 years after his first flight instruction. I think I was more nervous than he was.

We've got friends fighting for life in the hospital and you come on and your first ever comment is this garbage? You're seriously concerned about your insurance premium going up? This is the last post I'll ever read of yours and hope to never see you or your Mooney on a ramp anywhere I fly.

Flew down to Fort Lauderdale to pick up my girl from Edison at Wet Wingologists East after getting her tanks resealsed. Before I left, she got parked in front of the FBO buildings and trees and I thought she was looking particularly good and had a nice background. So I just wanted to share.

I started the day as a VFR pilot and ended the day as an Instrument rated pilot. Today was IFR check ride day. I have to say that this journey has probably been one of the hardest things I have ever done. I am proud of myself, and yet keenly aware of missing my Mom and Dad who would have been beaming. I was raised with no limits. They taught me that I would do anything I put my mind to. I want to thank those of you who have taught me, supported me, challenged me and loved me through all this. I decided to take a sunset flight as a treat after the ride. Life is so good. #IFRMooneyGirl

I was the pilot. My passenger was a 2016 graduate of the same university/fraternity. If I’d had a chute I would have pulled it (we were ~1800’ AGL descending into KBUR when we lost the engine). My primary concern was my passenger and those on the ground. I looked for the darkest side street I could find (10pm in Glendale on a Friday night, the major roads were clogged with traffic). I just flew her until I couldn’t. In maneuvering to avoid an apartment building I (think I) stall/spinned her into a tree. That Mooney fuselage protected us very well. She wasn’t perfect, but she was solid. I’ve had her 4 months and flown her 65 hours (she was down for ~10 weeks getting avionics work done, which I knew when I bought her would be required), everything from pattern practice at Chino to 12K IFR trips to Utah and Arizona. Two A&Ps have worked on her. I’ll advise when I know more about what happened last night. All I do know is, as far as I know I kept in control of the plane as much as possible, and whatever skill I have as a pilot was heavily augmented by luck (no damage to property on the ground, no injuries). Now I’m sore, stiff, exhausted, and bowing out for at least a little while. I do believe I’ll have another Mooney someday though.

And in case you're wondering... Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

One of the reasons I decided to put my Acclaim up for sale a couple weeks ago is that my wife won't fly with me any more here in the Rockies. Too much turbulence for her taste. Well, 3 days after listing it for sale my name came up on the waiting list for a hangar in Petaluma, CA (O69). Wasn't expecting that! Petaluma is near my second home in Marin County, CA. My wife loves flying on the west coast. Much smoother air, much shorter flights to get to interesting places. So, after a few days of deliberation, I decided to take my Acclaim off the market and relocate it to Petaluma. Pretty darn excited about it!

Logged my 250th flight hour and passed my IR checkride. Woohoo!