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Wife and I took our 11 week old first child on his first flight today. Filed for 5000, ended up cloud surfing the tops at 7000. Saw someone before me suggest taking out the right seat so my wife sitting back seat with our son would have plenty of leg room. Worked like a charm. Kid loved the flight. Can't wait to do lots more flying as the 3 of us. Wife wants another child sooner than later. Need Jimmy to find me a FIKI long body once or before the next one is here. But for now she was thrilled with how much leg room she had. Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

I'm gonna quote myself and explain why I thought putting the gear down was not a given in this situation: In September 1996 I bought a new Mooney TLS Bravo, and in early summer 1997 a friend needed me to drive him up to catch a commercial flight in Austin TX. No problem, I'll fly you to Austin Mueller (now closed). He had flown with me many times and knew that hot starts in Texas summers can be tricky. We went over it before we ever left the ground. He was going to exit the airplane, get his bag, shut the baggage door and walk behind the airplane to the FBO for his ride to the terminal while I kept it at idle and didn't have to shut down. We landed, taxied, we went over it again, he exited, got his bag. I got my clearance, taxied, took off and shortly after take-off I heard a loud bang from the back of the airplane - the baggage door has popped open on my new airplane. I was sure it had probably exited the airframe and had taken the tail section with it. @RedSkyFlyer's pictures are exactly what I was imagining. I let the tower know what happened and that I was coming around to land on the perpendicular runway - all the way picturing what my airplane must look like. I turned final and wanted to get this thing on the ground to assess the damage. On final, a Delta pilot waiting for take-off, who had heard everything, says "Mooney, check your gear down". I got that horrible feeling. I would like to think that I would have made a short-final gumps check, but I'm not sure. After all was said and done after landing and then taxiing to the FBO and looking over the airplane, I closed the baggage door, locked it and there wasn't a scratch or a bend anywhere on the airplane. I had turned a minor distraction into what could have been a major problem. Although I already knew this, after that it really confirmed that gear up landings can happen to anyone - all it takes is something out of the ordinary thrown in the mix. Don't ever say it couldn't happen to you. Again, great job keeping your calm and getting it down on the ground safely to be able to share this with us. Ever since that flight I always lock the door with the key and give it one last tug just to be sure after loading bags.

22nm after take off, mid point between Charlton Park(Private) & Fairoaks (London) the baggage hatch blow off which then could caught & wrapped it’s self firmly around the right hand tail elevator. We immediately lost lift and declared an emergency with ATC who had us on a basic service, lucky we were within distance of a 770ft grass / gravel strip between some solar panel farms. Other than the damage to the elevator and hatch looks like we were extremely lucky to walk away unharmed. (3:52) in the video

Going to visited the AC today with my mechanic. I’ll keep you all in the loop once I have more info/photos. If anyone has a spare hatch door for a model K I maybe in the market....... think mine is a little unsalvageable. Couple of questions arisen from the chain; it would be nice to have a definitive answer: “To lock or not to lock” the baggage hatch, passengers or no passengers it should surely be the same procedure, a flight is a flight right? In how much detail would the emergency latch been checked by the CAMO in the ARC? I see it on point 16 on the Mooney 100hr checklist, if there was an issue with the inside latch I expect it would have been pick up, only complete Friday PM less than 24 hours before the incident on Saturday. Ps thank you for all the kind comments, my wife and I really appreciate it, lots to take in. The first question she asked when we got in the cab home was ‘how long do you think it will take until we’re flying her again?’

From Bob Kromer: Here are some thoughts. I was the one who did factory flight testing investigating what happens when a baggage door is left unlatched prior to flight. The test airplane was an M20K. I had a mechanical system installed where I could unlatch (from the shut position) the baggage door from the pilot’s seat during any phase of flight. We discovered absolutely no adverse handling qualities or aerodynamic issues when the door is left unlatched and should open in flight. Interestingly, several times when the door was unlatched from the inside it just stayed in position. But if a baggage door is left shut but unlatched and does come open during flight, it most likely will open at rotation during takeoff. The change in angle of attack during rotation allows the airflow in the vicinity of the baggage door to lift it upward. It’s a noisy distraction when it opens, but if ignored it is easy to return for a normal landing. There were no adverse handling qualities encountered in any of the phases of flight we tested where we opened to door, including takeoff, climb and cruise. The key thing we took away from our testing was if someone doesn’t latch the baggage door on preflight, it almost always opened very early in the flight. Usually during rotation or initial climb. And it was a non-event. Now, having the baggage door depart the airplane is another matter. How could this happen, especially at lower takeoff and initial climb speeds? I am aware of only one other situation where the baggage door actually departed the airplane when it opened. I believe it was for an M20K that we repaired at the factory. But this door came open during a high speed descent. When it opened, the heavy air loads at 160KIAS ripped the door from the fuselage and it struck the vertical tail. As it flew past, the baggage door struck the vertical fin and cut the skin, but with no further structural damage. The airplane came to us at the factory and we repaired both the tail and the baggage door/fuselage. We did a thorough inspection of the baggage door and cabin structure before and after the repair and found absolutely no issues that would cause a properly latched door on this airplane to come open. Incidentally, the owner later admitted that someone was retrieving luggage from inside the airplane during descent when the door came open. We think somehow that inadvertently unlatched the door from the inside, causing it to open during the high speed descent. So how could a baggage door on the airplane shown below actually come off at such a low speed and hit the tail? I don’t know, the air loads at takeoff and initial climb speeds are not that great. Was the baggage door hinge broken or worn out? Did the pilot fly really fast in a hurry to return to the airport? A normal baggage door, even if it opens, just doesn’t depart the airplane this easy. I’m happy it turned out okay. Bob

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

Ok, so the bill of sale for my B is in the works and the settlement should be done this month. Once that is done, N74562 will be parts unless/until someone salvages it. So, the good news... I have been having a discussion with David (Sabremech) and the plans are for me to buy his plane (N2652W) and give it a new home! We’re working out the timing and the details but, knowing how David is, she’ll be in great flying shape. Yes it WILL have the new Sabremech cowling (drool ;o) I’ll be patiently waiting for David to get his FAA STC paperwork done for his new cowling. Once the stars align, we’ll get the deal done. David and I spent about an hour on the phone tonight going over the details and, needless to say, I’m excited. With all the speed mods, new interior, and all the great work David is doing to her to get it ready for me, I’m expecting an exciting flight back to Texas when the time comes. David and I spoke about him doing the annuals for the next couple of years with me doing an owner assisted so I can get to know the plane. I’ve always believed things happened for a reason and maybe this was the ‘plan’ all along. It’s going to be fun and I can’t wait to fly her... -Don

Good morning MooneySpace! Airspeed Insurance Agency is happy to announce that we are bringing on a new agent this morning. Paul Havelka @Paul_Havelka joins us from Grove, Oklahoma, just east of Tulsa. Paul has a background in offshore oil service and recently sold his Piper Cherokee. It's yet to be seen what airplane will replace it, but I think a Mooney is high on the list. Paul and I will be working closely over the next few weeks to bring him up to speed on Airspeed's business flow & operations. He has a few accounts lined up, so we'll have plenty of his own prospects to use in making sure he starts out on the right foot. Airspeed has experienced a successful startup and that is much in thanks to the great support we have had from MooneySpace. In fact, we insure about 1% of the registered fleet of Mooneys right now and that number grows weekly. Have a great week, everyone! Parker Woodruff Parker@airspeedinsurance.com 214-295-5055 (office) Paul Havelka Paul@airspeedinsurance.com 918-314-6139 (direct)

I just wanted to provide a little update here. I went out to the field today to look over things. First, I inspected the ga35 antenna very closely with a magnifying glass. It looks perfect and sealant is perfect. Then, I looked at the bnc connectors to ensure everything was good and not touching anything else. So I pulled the gtn breaker and verified I had gps on the iPad, then turned avionics master on.. neither the gdl, nor the aera could get gps signal. iPad gps sitting on my wingwalk was ok. I stuck my finger under the glare shield to undock the aera and then the satellite signal page lit up. I then thought, ok, something is going on under the glare shield... I pull it up a little to reveal the remote external gps antenna that is hooked up to the GDL39. Its been there for years sitting on top of the panel subframe. The remote antenna has a plastic film coating on the metal on the bottom side of it. Some of the film was worn away from the edge and it seems it was grounding to my panel, which was jamming signals. I moved the antenna to sit on the fiberglass glareshield and I could not replicate the signal jamming issue. Duuuuuuuuuhhhh

It was a pretty nice day to fly to Myrtle Beach where things are open. Jazzy the Corgi enjoyed the flight.

I’d call it about 75% complete. Clarence

I installed Medco locks in the baggage door and side door a couple of years ago. For some reason, the baggage door lock will not release the key unless it's in the lock position. So my baggage door is always locked. If it's not, the airplane keys are in the lock and you won't be starting the airplane.

I wish I could say more definitely. As you know the two striker plates where the rod go into the door frame are steel - secured with a pair of small bolts. The only way the door can open is for the latching handle un-latch so that the rods retract to clear the strikers. When locked they can't possibly do that, which is why years ago after 3 of these occurring at MAPA PPP's the board adopted the policy that they must be locked before flight. Most of us won't fly with anyone without the door being locked. I know many are concerned about being trapped inside after an off field landing but I do believe the window can be easily broken by rescue personnel if it can't be kicked out by an injured occupant. But given how these doors can and have been known to depart in flight I think I'd rather keep it locked. Most of us have the emergency release on the door which bypasses the lock as well.

Whenever I try to break up a thunderstorm with my airplane, it just makes the storm mad!

Hi everyone, first-time topic-starter....long-time lurker. I've been obsessively reading everything on here as I am looking to buy my first plane. I've put a deposit on one and I just wanted to crowd source some wisdom from this esteemed group. About me I started flying when I was 15. Today I'm a ~700 hour Commercial SEL, CFI/II and I will have my MEL and MEI finished by the end of the summer. I made big career moves about 2 years ago and started flying again after a 15-year hiatus. I got burned out in various business roles and decided I wanted to be a pilot (or do something in the aviation space) so I quit my job and finished all my ratings. I was ready to slug it out as a line instructor at American Flyers at ADS when an interesting opportunity came up at a big flight school in Arizona. More to that story, maybe I can share that some other time. The mission I want a capable cross-country performer that is relatively economical. I'm basically looking at the Mooney "billboard"--max speed, max efficiency. I also want something I can be proud of. I started looking at Cessna Cardinals, and I can't totally express it, but they're just sort of boring like a Cessna 172....or in the car world a Toyota Camry. A Camry is a fantastic car...I drive an overgrown Camry (Avalon)....but I don't pretend it's sexy. I wanted a little more sex appeal in my airplane. Reality set in, and I realize that 80% of my flying will probably be local, and with only 1 pax. It's just me and the wife. So there was a brief detour down the EAB route. I like RVs....I'd take an RV-6 through 8 any day. My 91 year-old grandfather-in-law is currently building his 5th RV in Florida (RV-7a). I have been watching, but I haven't found an RV that I love...and I have no time/interest in building one right now. I even considered an RV-12...performance of a 172, but half the operating costs. If a Cardinal = Camry, an RV-12 = BMW R1200. At the end of the day, an airplane is meant to go far, fast. If I just wanted a light local cruiser I would probably get into gyroplanes (which is of interest to me down the road). So, I'm back at the Mooney. As a native Texas son, it's a history I can get behind and I love the community I've seen here as well as the knowledge-base and support for what are now 60 year-old airplanes. I've looked at C's, E's, F's, J's...really any of them fit my mission pretty well. I don't put the premium on mid vs short, and I'm equally indifferent on carbureted, johnson bar, etc. The biggest deal for me is I want a nice clean plane that has a panel components from this millennium. Even though I learned to fly a six pack, I fly G1000 equipped Piper and Diamond products 20-30 hours a month...and it's hard to go back to steam gauges all the time. So, to summarize my requirements list: Clean mechanical, paint and interior...looks nice and is something I can feel proud of. I don't want a project right out of the gate, I want to fly an airplane. Avionics from this millennium, IFR capable As fast as possible (speed mods) within my sub-$100k budget Autopilot So, I've basically been looking for what everyone is looking for. There's a lot of nice stuff out there. Nothing is perfect, and even though we're in the midst of a pandemic, good stuff moves quickly. I have had a half-dozen emails, texts, phone calls that ended in "Sold yesterday!" Enter N6026Q Perusing Mooneyspace, I fell in love with @David Lloyd 's M20C, but his wife had other plans for me ... He was kind enough to point me in a different direction. So, I looked at it and got intrigued. I reached out to the broker. "UNDER CONTRACT, I'LL LET YOU KNOW IF ANYTHING CHANGES." Ugh. Buying airplanes is hard. http://www.cornerstoneaircraftsales.com/inventory/1965-mooney-m20c/ Well I'll be darned if the broker didn't email me yesterday and say that it was available. (Story goes: owner was trading this in on a Baron and the Baron deal fell through.) So, I've jumped on this one...the deposit is funded and the contract is under review. Positives 200HP engine (Lasar STC) on the M20C airframe. Aspen PFD/MFD, Garmin 650, ADSB Nice interior, clean paint. Lots of other LASAR upgrades Flown 50-100 hours per year over the last decade (100/yr in the last 2-3 years) Negatives Mid-time engine (1316 SMOH) with an older overhaul (1995) Paint isn't what I would pick, but it's growing on me in a retro 90s, tie-dye t-shirt sort of way. Brittain Autopilot....but hey, what can ya do. At least it works (per broker). Can't find anything about Cornerstone....the broker is associated with the current maintainer, JB Aviation Maintenance...both out of IL. But the broker has been pleasant and responsive to work with so far... @gsxrpilot are they on your list? What happens next? I know the popular refrain...MSC PPI, check for corrosion, @Parker_Woodruff is working on my insurance quote, etc. Now I'm looking for other feedback as I have the weekend to get my ducks in a row: Does anyone know this airplane or broker? What is the closest/bestest MSC to Chicago/C77? Anybody see anything that makes you go "hmm"? Why has this one been sitting since March? Is the price too high? Is the paint too ugly? Is Johnson Bar LG better than electric LG??? (Just kidding. We don't need another thread about this...) I really appreciate the help and feedback!

So that part came from my alternator, I was about to replace my Voltage regulator when I saw this screw came off alternator bracket making the alternator wriggling and not producing enough power to charge the battery. Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

No worries on falling asleep. Just watch the TAS and GS. That will keep you motivated!! Tom

Well . . . a nine year follow up on this post. I was thinking of getting back into a Mooney back in 2011 and looked at N1152L. I made a trip out to Georgia with the idea of giving it a close look and maybe flying it back to Texas. Looking over the logbooks when I got there before I ever saw the airplane told me everything I needed to know - lesson learned I should have asked for scans of the books and saved the trip. There had been about 10 logbook annuals with almost no time each year, same AP/IA, same wording, absolutely nothing done to the airplane once I looked at the airplane in person. Fuel stains everywhere, nothing had been lubed in many years, tires dry rotted. etc, etc. Very sad. I drove an hour back to ATL and flew back on Delta the same day. If they would have given me the airplane I couldn't have found a way to make the numbers work with everything it needed. (Engine, prop, panel, interior, fuel tanks - plus a lot of deferred maintenance on the airframe.) Later that year I saw that someone from Uvalde TX had bought it and I thought good for them, someone found a way to make sense of buying it and getting it back in the air. In early 2015 I see that it had a gear collapse in Beaumont TX (https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=172715). The reason I follow up on this post is that every month someone comes on Mooneyspace, just like I did, and is looking for a cheap Mooney. The best advice, it costs money to maintain a complex airplane, budget for one that has been maintained and don't get stars in your eyes about buying a cheap one and flying it as-is for free. I heard that the guy that bought it didn't insure it, so the collapsed gear cost him whatever he paid for the airplane basically. Glad that wasn't me.

If you’re in good enough shape to crawl back and egress through the Unlocked baggage door after a crash, you’re in good enough shape to have kicked out any of the windows. I think I’m gonna stick with locking that thing religiously.

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

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

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

I did just like @EricJ, I modified my baggage door to have an emergency pull handle. Like his, if I lock my baggage door the emergency pull will not work. So I do what I've been doing for 20 years of Mooney ownership: if the door is closed, it is latched. If the door is unlatched, it is completely open. It is now so much of a habit that even if I've taken the airplane apart for an annual, I still latch it if it's closed. ×

A replacement door may not fit as well, since they're kind-of sized for the airplane at the factory. There is a very old article around on teh intarwebs (and I think maybe even here) on a simple way to add an interior release for the older hatches. I have a very early J model that does not have the interior latch and is not eligible for the retrofit. On my airplane the method in the article, while simple and effective, would have prevented me from ever using the lock again, so I came up with a very similar simple alteration and installed that. On the older doors I don't know of any simple modification that will allow the door to be opened from inside while it's locked, but I fly with mine unlocked, anyway (horror!). This is what I did:

I’ve been doing more night flights lately and as a bonus the sunsets have been really nice. Benefiting from shooting approaches every time (suggested a few months ago on MS) because of the dark surroundings...farm land on all sides.

I happen to have the interior out of my 1994 M20J and I spent some time looking at the baggage door hinge and lock this afternoon. This picture shows the door with the exterior handle in the open position: Here's what it looks like with the exterior handle in the closed position: Note how far the latching pins protrude in the latched position. There is no way that the door is going to open if the pins are engaged unless perhaps the hinge gives way and allows the door to shift. Here's a shot with the interior emergency handle pulled open: I labeled two springs, A and B. Spring A creates an over center force to hold the mechanism either open or closed. In addition, Spring B acts to hold the pins in the latched position and did so (albeit less forcefully) even when I removed spring A. I noticed that to open the door with either the inside or outside latch, the lever has to be pulled forcefully over center. Even if the hitch pin was removed from the inner lever, I don't think the door could open unless something pulled on the lever with enough force to compress spring A and move the mechanism over center. The piano hinge is riveted to the tailcone skin and the door. It is recessed slightly so that the tailcone skin retains the hinge pin. The design seems very secure. I don't see how it could open unless something was broken or it wasn't latched. But, in cases where it is not latched, I would expect that it would open on takeoff as others have reported. In this case, there was a delay. Skip

Took Snoopy to visit my mom and install a solar charger in her car (since she hasn’t been driving anywhere).

I verified the effects of rain several times flying a jet with a sensitive AoA. Go into a shower level flight, A/P on, auto thrust on, yep AoA increases, come out decreases. It happened with building, steady and dying storms. We all know humidity decreases air density (those H2O molecules have to go somewhere) so it is only natural that AoA has to increase, which means drag increases. Power requirement to maintain level flight increases. A slight increase in power for a given throttle position would be expected in fog or mist (aka water injection) both for turbines and recipes, heavier than that however and you might see a power decrease. 13 knots difference however is likely more down draft than humidification.

It was a beautiful day today and I had my first x-country since getting the plane back from the shop. Flew KMYF to KHMT and had lunch at Bambi’s Hangar One Restaurant (well worth a stop - they make the best fresh pies!!). Afterward, I filed an IFR flight plan to KOKB to try the hold with the GPSS functionality added by the Aspen EA100 - was pretty cool. The autopilot did a beautiful teardrop hold entry and entered the hold without any input - makes it effortless and too easy. Flew back to KMYF happy for such a great flight. The sky was busy, the restaurant was full and there was skydiving activity at KOKB. It almost felt like the good old days...

To answer the original question, no I don't. It never rains in Seattle.

Well, fwiw, *I* own Mooney N3555N now, and after fixing a bunch of squawks, and a very thorough annual, she's a great plane. @BobW if your dad is still around, please let him know his bird is getting the love an attention she deserves after a few years of neglect. The attached photo is from last night, I parked at KFTT (Fulton, MO) over night, and spotted a '67 M20F on the ramp. I live in Michigan, and she's hangared at KARB (Ann Arbor). I'm flying her about 350 hours a year.

David, May I ask why you felt the need to respond to -a- in the manner you did on his response to Craig after Craig replied to -a- on his post about his experience with a similar failure due to a radio antenna blocking his GPS signal? I do not see where he addressed his comment to you, and, like you, he was sharing a failure mode he experienced in flight. From my perspective, I did not see -a- devaluing your contribution in the least but rather sharing his different experience, which is something many of us have. It left me confused as to the reason behind your response. Looking at your signature line, it is apparent you likely have had experience and situations many of us here will never encounter. I believe many of us are interested to hear how those of you flying for a living handled them in the hope we can learn from you. I hope you continue to share them with us. Regards, John

Yes; the hail turned to heavy rain by the time it got to EDML where the plane was waiting; the seller's car got damaged though.

@Parker_Woodruff got me essentially the same rate as last year with my hull value reduced about 13%. Outstanding in this market environment. “Parker helped me lose just 15% on my plane insurance.“

I think my USAF experience isn’t the best model for this because being able to bail out right down to the landing gives you some “room to maneuver”. Like flying to a longer field with crash crews. If the airplane becomes uncontrollable on the way there? No problem, eject. Or doing a controllability check? If the airplane goes out of control, eject. In general, I think the methodical approach you’re talking about is highly desirable. However, I also don’t know how hard he was having to pull or roll. Just to circle down to the field. I guess my thought is that he definitely had that field made, unknown structural damage, and difficulty maintaining control (unusual forces). I think you might not want to try flying far or for long in that condition. I also think structural damage isn’t necessarily fixed. It could get worse. What if he hit some turbulence and the door riding on his elevator Shifted and jammed it? All in all, if he had flown successfully and methodically to a bigger field and gone over little ones, we’d be saying great job. But I think landing soonest has some merit as well.

Hi Alex, welcome,, best way to get that ball rolling around here is to let us know about your mission how many PAX useful load as well as bags etc. I think I may have beaten Anthony to the welcome wagon once again. PP short body only, not a Bravo oner

Went to see AC, unfortunately the damage is a little more extensive than I first imagined (without taking off the tail) you can see that the airframe has twisted to the right all the way up the tail and the skin is deformed down the side of the fuselage half way up towards the baggage door on the right. Really hard to see in the photos. The impact from the door has also pushed the horizontal stabiliser back a good 10cm compared to the left side. You can see the 1cm gap thats been created at the joint where it connects to the empennage. Finally, and most worryingly the debris & stuffing from the hatch door was blocking the elevator fork from moving freely hence why it didn’t just fly away, as a consequence the flight controls are all strained & warped from the opposing force of using the trim to control the AC on the glide down, the metal linkage has also been bent slightly showing the strain that was on the AC. - more info to follow regarding the emergency latch & pin position. The additional photos are the skid marks through the field. Turns out Membury used to be an old RAF base used during the battle of Briton, I have draw out our flight path on the old map in green and red. My wife compared the incident to being hit by 88mm flak cannon. A toast to ‘The Few’.

I believe that is called the Mooney Standing Ovation.

I learned from Mooneyspace a long time ago to always keep that baggage door locked. In fact, on the ground, I never close it without locking it. It either stays open or gets closed and locked. Great job keeping it under control and getting it down safely so everyone could walk away. And bonus points for capturing it all on camera and sharing.

It's a little hard to visualize the mechanism from the drawing but the lock secures the outside handle while allowing the inside handle to still unlatch the door for emergency egress. The inside handle is supposed to be secured with a hitch pin attached to a lanyard. The plastic cover is to prevent items in the baggage compartment from snagging the lanyard and pulling the hitch pin loose which could allow the door to become unlatched. From the second picture of the incident, it looks like the hitch pin is still engaged and attached to it's lanyard and the inside latch is in the open position and the cover is missing. The hitch pin appears bent as if the latch had been closed over it instead of being inserted after the handle was placed in the closed position. If this were the case, the handle would not be secure. This would not be evident during preflight inspection if the plastic cover were in place.

I had a pretty rough day today flying. Since I’m still a student I’m renting. Preflight this morning went ok except the last renter left the key in the ignition (off thankfully). Got the weather and taxi clearance to the runway, and started my run up. After the run up, I turned on the lights to enter the runway and heard a popping noise through the headset. Ammeter showed negative charge too. Well that wasn’t going to work. Tower told me to taxi back via the runway all the way to the hangar. CFI booked another plane on the way back. By the time I was taxiing out with the new plane, they had the cowling off and were troubleshooting. I took off and we decided to just do some short and soft field take offs and landings for a little bit. First trip around the pattern and dropped flaps, soft field So full flaps. It was a nice landing, and on roll out, pull flaps up, full throttle, started my climb, hit 1700, and smoke in the cockpit. Not a lot, but enough. And a popped breaker for Comm 2. So my next landing was a full stop. Got back to the hangar and the tach time was 666.4. I called it a day.

I had some .010 stainless steel sheet kicking around and I cut a piece about 3/8" x 4" and glued some 150 grit aluminum oxide sandpaper to it to get into the crevices. I also used a small wire brush.

Are you sure rain was causing the performance hit? It could just be the downflow caused by the participation. Whenever you are flying in a sinking air, you are essentially climbing to maintain altitude. If rain in and of itself was the issue, it would be included in the performance charts.

Finding the a&p that will let me do the work in Caddo Mills in the main problem — that and I run my own business so taking the time is the other. Since I’d rather fly than rebuild ‘another’ plane again (been there done that), I’m going to accept this outcome. Maybe 10 years ago I would for sure but, after all the things I’ve had to deal with recently, I’d rather fly. Appreciate the input! -Don

If it's technically totaled, buy it back from the insurance company and FIX IT! I bought a B with far worse damage from landing gear collapse 15 years ago and repaired it expertly (thank you very much). Asphalt rash damage extended from tip to tail, dinged a couple flap hangars and had LOTS of bent and cracked bulkheads, stringers and metal. The prop hit the HARD asphalt under a "no power" condition and the only thing damaged on the engine was the prop. We magnafluxed ALL the rotating steel parts and crankcase on the engine, added new lifters, bearings, bolts, gaskets and put it back together Cost less than 8K total when you DIY with AP assistance. Found an overhauled McCauley prop for $5k. I was lucky, but just because you have a bent prop doesn't necessarily mean that you will have a $35k engine repair bill. Yours hit soft dirt. Chances are really good that if it wasn't under power and hit at idle, you probably have minimal damage to the engine but anything is possible. a good screening test is to put a dial gauge on the flange and read the run-out. If you have under 0.010" you likely don't have a problem. Flanges can be straightened up to a point. I had a plane with a bent flange on an O320 and I sent the crankshaft in for straightening. 20 years later it's still running smooth.

Love the video and the Dynon looks great. You say at the beginning that the Mooney cockpit is an inch smaller than most other airplanes. Maybe I misunderstood, but let's not propagate the myth that Mooney cockpits are narrower than other comparable airplanes. The seating position is lower, there is no room under the seat like there is in a Cessna, etc. But the Mooney cockpit is actually wider than other comparable airplanes. And you're probably sitting closer to the panel than in other airplanes. But the Mooney is wider... Cessna 150 38 inches Cessna 172 and 152 40 inches Grumman AA5 41 inches Cessna 182 42 inches Piper PA28 42 inches Bonanzas 42 inches Cessna 206/210 has 43 inches Mooney cabin is 43.5 inches

My GTN 650 also had a shorter range than my older Narco. When the Narco failed, I put in a 16W GNC 255B just to make sure I had the range. I finally was able to get better performance out of the GTN when I replaced the RG58 with new RG400. Night and day difference Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

I've got video (need to edit and post) of a landing Scott, @Denver98 and I did at KDEN a couple of weeks ago. I'll get it posted hopefully next week. But our experience was the same. We landed, taxied across the whole ramp, about 5 miles, to the other side of the airport and took off again. I was greatly aided by Scott in the right seat handling the radios and as an American Airlines pilot, very familiar with the area, the ramp, procedures, etc. As @201er said, there were lots of things that were hard to see from a Mooney eye level. We also benefitted from Scott's wife Michelle, a tower controller at KDEN and working the tower that day. What a great experience!

Anthony must have finally gone to sleep he normally welcomes new posters. So Welcome to Mooney Space. Do you fly a Mooney Bob what part of Gods green earth do you reside

If they painted the inspection panels while they were on the airplane I would be very concerned about how many more corners they cut, like rebalancing the control surfaces correctly. At this point I’d remove the panels, knowing that you’re damaging the paint and then ask them to re-paint them off of the airplane and then I'd re-install them with new stainless screws.