IndyTim

That's a fascinating website. I love the mods he made to his E. I've always been a fan of simple, lightweight, efficient performance and he has really maximized that.

I imagine the MMHC (Mooney Mile High Club) is a pretty exclusive group. This is where an A36 cabin would make quite a difference.

Don and dtoelke, thanks for the corrections re: Merlyn.

Technically, it's a "centripetal accleration". There is actually no such thing, in the terminology of physics, as a centrifugal force. Just sayin'. :-)

No, they are not mutually exclusive. I would guess that many, if not most, 231s have been upgraded with both GAMIs and intercooler at this point. If you are looking at a 231, in addition to the intercooler, you also want the Merlyn automatic wastegate. Any plane can be so equipped after purchase, with enough money, but I would be a little more confident in a plane that had wastegate/intercooler already, since both work to better manage engine heat. Equally importantly, the wastegate will help prevent overboost and improve turbo performance overall. Not to say that a 231 cannot be operated well without them, but it does require good, and consistent engine management to avoid overboost and over-temp conditions. For me, the wastegate would be the most important to have, of the three options under discussion. But that assumes the plane is in sound condition overall, especially engine and landing gear but that includes everything else! There is a lot going on, from a workload perspective, when you are climbing out and ATC is talking at you and you've got weather around.... etc etc. Especially in a turbo, It can be easy to miss staying on top of your manifold pressure and engine heat. This can lead to very expensive repairs before too long. Both wastegate and intercooler will give you a little more margin of protection in those scenarios.

Are you looking at a turbo bird? GAMIs and intercoolers are apples and oranges - each serves a different purpose. The GAMIs can help balance and optimize fuel delivery across each cylinder, resulting in smoother operation, arguably better efficiency and maybe performance. GAMIs may help you achieve better lean-of-peak (LOP) operation. The intercooler, on a turbocharged engine, stands between the turbo and intake, and cools the compressed air (which has been warmed by the act of being compressed), prior to entering the intake manifold. The result is increased power since the cooler air is more dense. Tough question, which is better. I assume you're looking at a 231, and I guess on one of those I would choose the intercooler.

Do a query here for the plane's N number and serial number (2 different searches). You want to turn over every rock you can find to dtermine if the plane has had damage. http://www.aviationdb.com/Aviation/AccidentQuery.shtm This tool saved my bacon about 24 hours before I was going to buy a Bonanza.

Ahh... youth. The stuff I did....

Congratulations, and welcome to the owners' club! Best of luck with getting your ppl. I went right on and got my IFR rating after PPL, and I'm glad I did - really forced me to internalize all the numbers for various phases of flight, and helped me get much more disciplined (read: stable) on my approaches. But one step at a time...

Welcome to the boards, and good luck with your learning experiences. Lots of folks fly to Destin, so you should have no problem finding a Mooney to see in person.

Glad you handled it safely. I had mine pop open during runup, after my carefully-instructed right-seat passenger closed it him/herself (notice how carefully I'm avoiding attribution of responsibility). Ultimately, it was on me - I don't care who is in the right seat, I view it as my job to check it. I've mentally rehearsed the scenario: FLY THE AIRPLANE. Slow down, establish a nice holding pattern on autopilot, THEN deal with the door. I'm much more worried about the baggage door. My understanding is that, in Mooney, an open baggage door will significantly affect the handling of the aircraft.

and then...??

Longest overwater leg is 674nm in the Goose Bay-Narsarsauq-Keflavik-Wick routing. Very doable even in an stock M20K with 72 gal usable, especially going east. Although I would certainly want the extra 30 gal from the Monroys before attempting, just because. Coming back west would still be doable with reserves, but might require flexibility waiting for headwinds to drop. And for weather to clear.

I suspect I run mine unusualy light - I pull back from 39" to 35" about 2000 ft agl, and drop the rpms to 2550. I still run full rich for a while, might come back a scosch but watch my CHTs like a hawk. I want them at 380 or less. My TIT is never above 1525 or so. I've seen a number of places that full power is recommended all the way to cruise altitude, wonder if there is any downside to running the way I do? I also agree that running ROP, around 13.3-13.5gph is the only way to go above 17,000. Too hard to keep CHTs in range if LOP up high.

Bring your Gatorade bottle...

At 68% power, I plan: at 10-11,000 --- 165kts LOP, 170 kts ROP add 2 knots for each 1,000 ft altitude from there. I see 182 kts ROP at 17000, and 192-194 kts ROP at FL210-220. I don't normally run LOP above 16000 - easier to keep temps down running ROP at higher altitudes. And when I'm high I'm usually there for speed anyway. Tou can interpolate from there. No software that I'm aware of, although fltplan.com does a nice job of altitude planning w/r/t winds, but you have to set up all your speeds at different altitudes and phases of flight, manually. Once set up, it works well.

I kept telling my wife I'd like to do this. For some reason, she's not warming up to the idea.

Congratulations Greg. Good choice. I love my 252 - Parker's old plane. The 252 has tremendous flexibility in terms of speed, altitude, and range. It flies like it's on rails, is a fantastic IFR bird with multiple redundancies, and like all Mooneys is a strong, well-built aircraft. Parker helped with my transistion training as well -- he's local to your area. Feel free to get in touch to discuss operating a 252. For me, the three topics that I struggled with the most (so far) have been: a) how to control speed on descent in order to not be fast on touchdown. (both air- and vertical speeds need to be managed) how to manage engine temps, especially at higher altitudes where the 252 really shines c) not really a problem, rather a learning curve: what the true performance numbers and power settings should be at various altitudes, allowing me to best plan for weather and winds.

CAV Aerospace wouldn't quote non-FIKI when I worked with them about a year ago. Only FIKI. Cost was $58k installed on an M20K.

You might need to do some work to get it running smoothly LOP. Try the GAMI lean test to see if your injectors are balanced. http://www.gami.com/gamijectors/leantest.php Don't run so lean as to cause engine roughness. In my TSIO-360, I just can't go very lean, maybe 25deg LOP. But being able to find LOP and operate there safely is a necessary skill in my book - sometimes LOP is the best way to keep the engine cool, or to extend my range. Having said that, I tend to run ROP about 2/3 the time. I'd rather go faster, especially on westerly segments where I 'm bucking a headwind.

Beautiful. I was happy with Aerocomfort. My A&P said that he was skeptical when I told him I was going to ship everything down to them for recovering. But when he got it all back, he said it was the best work and easiest to reinstall that he'd ever seen.

Mine is a TSIO but I believe the principles are the same. When hot, I don't prime, pump or anything else. I crack the throttle, go full rich, and it almost always fires right up. Question: when did you last check the timing on your mags? That was the culprit when I went through a period of hard starts.

My uncertainty is around the boundary between IFR and VMC operation. If it's IMC it's generally obvious: fly the approach (without or without vectors to some identified waypoint). But when transitioning to visual there are gray areas. I understand the concept of getting to the runway threshold expeditiously but was (erroneously as it turns out) under the impression that I should follow VFR pattern procedure in doing so (where there were no other instructions to the contrary). Given that tower maintains responsibility for separation under this particular scenario, I concur that VFR pattern protocol isn't applicable, AS LONG AS I'm not doing anything unexpected. Hence my earlier question about what the tower is realistically expecting. But I still think there is gray: depending upon one's position with relation to the runway threshold, there could be more than one reasonable way to get to it, and in lieu of specific Tower instructions, I hold there is (potentially) an opportunity for an incident. I agree that, as with just about every other gray area I can think of, it always pays to just ask, if in doubt about ATC's meaning and/or expectations.

How are your headphone jacks and audio? If I had my interior out again, I'd do an audio panel and stereo jacks. If I was looking for stuff to do, I'd also look at putting in one or two hot USB jacks. And another pocket to hold stuff, somewhere on a sidewall.

De-iced 252 with Encore conversion is a possibility - useful load would still be close to 1000 lbs. I agonized over these very same questions, wanted a FIKI 252 or Bravo, but couldn't find a de-iced one in my budget when I bought. I love my 252/Encore, but if I only had budget for turbo OR TKS, I'd choose TKS unless I lived west of the Mississippi. There have been a few times when it's been nice to have the turbo to climb to FL210 and get above the clag. But I didn't HAVE to go that high. On the other hand, there have been times when not having FIKI TKS has forced me to change my schedule, or cancel altogether. I'm a chicken - I won't push the boundaries around ice. So that sometimes means cancelling. If my plane had FIKI, there are 5 or 6 trips that I would have taken on in the past year. How about this rare bird: a 201J with TKS and 200 hours SFRM: http://http://www.controller.com/listingsdetail/aircraft-for-sale/MOONEY-M20J-201/1988-MOONEY-M20J-201/1327233.htm