kmyfm20s

Since #2 cylinder and the oil cooler are in close proximity and showing the problems did you happen to check to see if something was blocking the airflow from cooling them? It might be worth a check. As for the fuel pump just check the historic data I bet you just happened to notice it since of the other issues and is fine. My J’s and current planes fuel pressure is lower on the mechanical than the boost.

Clean off the old 40 year old grease brefore applying the new grease the best you can. I know every time my plane comes out of annual the crntrol feel noticeable more lubed then it slowly reverts back but never have been unusually stiff.

Total turn off for me and awkward! I thought the delay from them running up to the plane was because they were pulling a walker out of the SUV. They must know their demographic and it doesn’t look like me but hats off to the #1 seller of GA airplanes!

The fact that our Mooney’s cowls don’t let us open them easily for engine inspection is something that definitely bothers me. I like the Beech planes in that aspect, easy preflight engine inspection. I look the best I can at oil changes between the cooling fins for any signs of cracking or gas exscaping, of course you cant see all the way around them but something better than nothing. The few cylinders I looked at that suffered head separations looked like they would have shown early signs before the separation happened. I not sure though if you would have had to be unreasonably observant to have caught it in advance. Below are pictures from a 421 that happened at takeoff. The picture angle doesn’t show it well but in person you could easily see where there was old cracked areas leaking and the majority on fresh fractured aluminum.

Very cool!

I had no idea, I am so sorry for your loss! You will be in my prayers.

Regardless it doesn’t seem like they transitioned into their new toy slowly. Sad and unfortunate!

To me it looks like a control linkage broke.

Awesome! I took some time off around 2007 for about 4 years. It was so great to get back in the saddle again, enjoy! BTW, good looking bird!!

It was more than being left in the rain but I understand what your saying. I agree being that being involved with your maintenance is important. I’m hands on with my plane. Change the oil, filter, bore scope, compression check at every change. My mechanics signs off on my repairs I do myself and a MSC does the annuals. I fly my children in it and it needs to be safe!

My K factor is pretty spot on and I see between 28.6 and 29.3 GPH at sea level takeoff. It has worked well for me to manage CHT’s is some pretty nasty summer time temperatures we see in the California deserts. Some days I still need to use the low boost pump. APS used to recommend 10% of rated Hp but I think they decreased that recommendation. Past 29.3 I would see some performance decrease on takeoff and flooding problems on landing and roll out.

Added my experience to this thread

I guess it is time for me to come clean. I never mentioned my experience before because it has been my observation that if anyone says anything negative about Dmax they got dog piled on and part of this story is embarrassing to me. I first want to say have great respect for Dmax’s knowledge. I have learned a lot from his articles and I know he has contributed a lot to the Mooney community. This is why I chose him to do my PPI because I was buying this plane unseen. I wanted the Guru to tell me the truth about this plane and if it was as advertised, I asked him to be my eyes, ears and test pilot which he had no problem with. He always answered the phone calls and was easy to talk to. He was very likable! Clearly he has a lot positive reviews but unfortunately I had a negative experience with his shop. My experience was with a PPI, I am sure the plane was never looked at after sitting in the shop for 3 weeks or maybe it was a newbie mechanic that was put in charge of my plane, I don’t know. This was a plane that the previous owner had annuals with him for several years prior and for sure the last annual before I bought the plane. He didn’t hesitate to throw money at this aircraft. Unfortunately after purchasing this plane the best thing that happened to me from a financial perspective but not from an ego perspective was that I put the on it’s belly. Ironically it was the first landing at my home field bringing it home from purchasing it in Texas. It was at exactly my 2930th hour of flying and I have a MSC on field. (FWI, I even went though my check list and the gear down light turned out to be the speed brake light in reality. I was on an IMC approach which changed to minimums just prior to landing. Let me just say I thought I greased the landing but was shocked by the sudden and violent stopping of the prop. Speed brakes were new to me and gave me the sensation of the gear being down and they required just enough manifold pressure to keep the horn from going off, a story to be told latter). This list is from memory of the missed items on this PPI from 4 years ago. The rest I can’t remember off hand. 1. Frozen break caliper. This would have been obvious to any mechanic that even taxied the plane. 2. Oil filter I requested to be saved by previous owner after last oil change to be inspected. Still sitting in back seat when I received the plane untouched. Even after asking about it. 3. Inop air conditioning system. Only worked at idle on warm days not under power on hot. I am now an A/C pro if anyone needs help. Prior owner who is good guy replaced virtually every part to chase down the Gremblins but minor success. 4. 2 induction pipes with several small holes creating EGT’s to be all over the place. Even after I ask him to fly the plane to check the GAMI spread. Prior owner said he never could run LOP so I was going to have that looked into being corrected since it was at the shop. 5. Some shaft that for the A/C compressor that had an AD and was 5K for the part itself that was never mentioned. The engine shop would not put the engine back together with out replacing and insurance wouldn’t cover it because it should have been done in their opinion. I wanted it replaced regardless but it was frustrating. 6. Tail strike damage. (Prior prop strike disclosed by owner). 7. Flap completely out of rig with some adjustment tabs damaged(not really sure what they are) 8. Plane out of rig. These last 2 Items I requested to be check on a test flight with the prior mentioned GAMI test. Those are the stand out items. Some others I can’t remember but were minor. When flying home the plane was slow and had to be flown fairly ROP because being out of rig and the induction leaks. Thankfully everything except #5 was covered by insurance. I of course went ahead and overhauled the engine for the extra expense. The plane has been amazing since repaired and is very fast, flys true and has been reliable. It is a solid plane now with damage history that hasn’t change the performance at all. The best shops and people can over look planes and I highly recommend getting a different shop to do the PPI than the shop that has done the prior annuals on it.

I think we must have gone to the same person.

Check the intake gasket and make sure the nuts are tight on the collar holding the pipe into place. I have had those get a little loose before creating an air leak.

In addition to Paul there is Chuck McGill. I doubt he will do it because he so busy training 210 pilots these days but it might be worth a try. http://www.safeflightintl.com/

If someone has heart disease and dies of a heart attack everyone understands. If someone has mental illness and commits suicide everyone condemns them. In both cases they had and organ in their body that failed. Brain failure happens and it’s not pretty. It’s hurtful because people don’t understand. I would much rather him have crashed that plane not killing others than have a work place shooting and if people copycat that vs shootings I’ll take it.

Same here, frustrating!

I have know idea what the weather was doing at the time of the accident but this look really unfortunate. That field looks like a perfect place to have landed in an emergency. Very sad, RIP.

Piloto can do a fly over air drop with his tube.

I had a B-cool for a short period of time but then purchased a plane with factory A/C. B-cool worked well for taxi, takeoff and climb to cool enough altitude. I fly out of exceptionally hot areas so for others it may last longer. The more humid the ambient air the colder the air would feel. It does not add humidity to your cabin it removes the humidity since it is not a swamp cooler. The heat exchangers condensation is from moisture pulled out of the air and it then drains into the ice. The swamp cooler type units work well in the dry hot climates. It’s best to use a mix of block and cube ice but mostly block. I added as little water as possible and only enough for initial circulation through the pump. If you store your cooler in the hot plane basically your first bag of ice will melt and turn into the necessary water for the pump to circulate. The problems with FBO ice is that it’s wet ice which is not as cold and melts fast. The good thing about FBO ice is it’s usually free:) Convient store sell good ice but it’s expensive. Since my office that I flew to was in the hot climate I would freeze custom size blocks of ice there. I would take my cooler with me to the office and keep it by the fridge so it wouldn’t get hot in the plane. When I was ready to go I would throw the block of ice in the cooler drive to the airport put the unit in the plane. Go grab 2 bags of ice from the FBO add them and about 16 oz’s of water to the cooler and start it up. I would then Preflight the plane and The interior was cooled off by then. That was my routine for 1 1/2 summers before I bought my current plane with A/C. Worked well but it was a hassle for someone like me that was flying 3x a week hauling coolers and ice everywhere trying not to get my dress clothes sweaty, wet or dirty.

The factory!

Only a preacher with their own fuel farm could fly one of those!

If this is the same place it says you can land planes there. https://www.blm.gov/visit/el-mirage-ohv-area

Where is it? Is it marked on a sectional?