PMcClure

For Hot Start, I use the following: Throttle Full Mixture Off Prime 10 sec on Low or 5 seconds on High Mixture full Close throttle then open to 3-4 half turns Crank While cranking, turn throttle slowly in until engine catches Reduce throttle to idle

Wouldn't mind sharing notes on airports and spots. I have a good collection in NC and TN but always looking for other options.

Pictures for effect. Any fly fisherman will recognize the Brown, Rainbow and Bookie qualifying as the Appalachian Slam. I used Atlantic Aviation in Executive. They treated me very well and kept my plane in a hangar and no extra fees or surprises. I was the only prop on the ramp. Getting in and out of PWK is a little challenging but Chicago Approach was very easy to work with.

I did arrive low on fuel (about 15 gal as I recall) as I was not sure if I could reuse it or not. The bill from Banyan was for 99 gallons for a 89.5 gallon plane :). I did not notice any paint damage, however, the manual sight gauges are now crazed and foggy. If I had to do it again, I would replace these new. Cost - I don't want to go look at that invoice again, but over the wire was nearly $14,500. From what I can tell the quality of work looks excellent. Only disappointment was the fuel sending units. I am not familiar with the detail operation of the CIES gauges, but avionics shop that repaired them reported sealant on the mechanism. Also, the installation of those things was very tricky so it doesn't surprise me that they may have been disturbed during this type of work. I just wish it would have been identified before turning the plane back to me.

Thought it may be helpful to give a PIREP on Wetwingologist in Fort Lauderdale. I had a serious leak on the right tank that wasn't getting any better and decided to reseal with Edison at Wetwingologist. Communication was great and I had the month of August when I knew I would not be flying so Edison worked me in during this time. I flew down, dropped off the plane at Banyan FBO and spent the weekend in Fort Lauderdale with my wife. In September, I flew back to FXE to pick up the plane. I had to reschedule due to weather and Edison was not available to meet me on the new date and he left the plane at Banyan. The tank repair looks excellent but I did experience an issue that left me a little disappointed. All 6 fuel sending units (2 manual site indicators, and 2 each wing inboard and outboard) were frozen on 2-5 gallons. Wings were full of fuel. Edison was unavailable so I had to decide to depart as is. I was able to free the manual gauges with a swift smack. And I freed 1 of the in wing sending units with some maneuvers in air. But ultimately I had to have the units removed, cleaned and re-installed by my home shop. Edison offered to fix the issue, but I would have to fly back to FXE and spend a day or 2 in a hotel. Ultimately, we worked out a compromise on the cost to repair but I would have preferred that their functionality was verified before putting the aircraft back in service. I am still working to insure the sending units are working correctly and it is really a pain in the @#$ to have to deal with this after paying so much for the repairs and also having spent so much $$ and time installing and lining out the new CIES sending units 2 years ago. All and all, I would do it again with Edison, but thought this info may be helpful to the next guy.... A few suggestions: 1. Plan on replacing the wing drains when doing a reseal. I think it was $500 per side. He does not quote this in advance but you surely will want to do it when going to all this trouble. 2. Banyan was a nice FBO but expensive. 100 gallons of fuel at over $9/gallon, plus $50 per day ramp fee and $50 each way tow to Edisons. After some discussion, they gave me a discounted rate and comped 2 days of ramp fees. Still well over $1000. South Florida is always expensive, but Jeeze Louise! 3. The warranty is nice, but consider the cost of returning to FXE to have work done. Round trip air fare, Banyan services, hotel, etc...

The week before last, it was a beautiful day as I flew from Pell City to Macon County Regional (1A5). What a beautiful and scenic mountain airport with a very full ramp. I had initially planned to land at Jackson County (24A) but as I was doing take off calculations and reviewing density altitude, gross weight, etc... I figured Macon was a safer bet. 24A is 3210' at 2856' compared to 5000' at 2034' elevation. Fall colors were in full display as my son and his friends and I caught about 12 trout each from the Tuckaseegee River. Woke early on Monday and caught 3 nice trout before flying to Shelby, NC for a business meeting then flying to Chicago Executive that evening. Winds were 30-40 knots and gusty on approach but still managed a greaser landing. That evening I amused myself about standing in a river in the morning, in a factory in the afternoon and Chicago for dinner. How good is Mooney life? After a full day of meetings and an evening at Gibson's, I chickened out on weather and flew commercial to Cleveland for 2 more days of meetings before flying back to Chicago and catching a cab to Executive for a beautiful flight home to KPLR. When talking to clearance for a VFR departure, they asked my initial heading which was 177 degrees. He replied, "NO ONE departs from here going south. State your intentions...." A quick look at the charts is self explanatory, so I departed to the east and flew under Bravo until Gary, IN. Now if I could only figure out how to post pictures again, I would add a few......

I stand corrected after watching the interview with him this morning. He seems like a very level headed, common sense type of person and did an excellent job saving his and at least 2 other lives. While he definitely has "some knowledge" of how planes work, he never had any formal flight training. He kept a level head, didn't panic and followed detailed instructions from help on the ground. Good job sir! And the pilot is expected to live and be released from the hospital this week. A

And why were nav screens dead? NBC new interviewed the controller/instructor tonight. Says the plane defended 3000 feet in 16 seconds while they pulled the pilot off the controls. Reported giving power setting instructions etc which supports off recording discussions. Pictures of the plane stopped right on centerline on runway and saw a short video of the normal flare and landing. Maybe not a stunt but still doesn’t compute for me.

Let’s hope i am wrong. I would like to believe the best in people but there seems more to the story here.

No doubt, but I don’t even hear 10 seconds of instructions. 2 seconds in and he is turning and descending at 550 fpm. Hope I am wrong but sounds like a stunt to me.

Something is fishy here. I have handed the controls of the Mooney to several newbies and never could they control heading or altitude much less a controlled decent managing power settings. And rarely will a Pax know anything about transponders or radios. And considering the weather, even a student pilot would have some difficulty landing.

Was waiting for some criticism!! A little left but beeeep chirp chirp. I’ll take it any day….

I come to this discussion late, but may have some input as a Tesla 3 (6 months) and Mooney owner. Actually, my wife is the Tesla 3 owner and I am only fortunate enough to drive it when she allows. Her BMW was rear ended and totaled. A replacement was more than 12 weeks out and very expensive. She ordered the Model 3 over the phone and picked it up 4 weeks later. I was a bit skeptical at first, but we have both taken to it and prefer to drive it on trips and local. Her stated reason in buying it was to "stop paying our enemies for oil" and using "American energy". But this was probably just a cover to justify a car she really wanted. But since having it, I can say, it costs about $0.04-0.05 per mile to drive and about 1/3 to 1/4 the cost of driving the BMW it replaced (direct costs only using current gas prices). Equivalent direct cost is about 100 mpg in the BMW for direct costs. Both home charging and trip charging has been very simple and intuitive. Advertised range is 350, but we probably get more like 300 due to speed and driving habits. My wife's nickname is Zippy for her driving style. We have several trips over 400 miles now. Most of her driving is in town and this car is perfect for that. Roadtrips are greatly simplified by using the Tesla superchargers. I am not sure I would own another brand without having the access to the superchargers. These two things (home charging and supercharging) are game changers. Acceleration and handling is better than any street legal car I have driven. Comfort is a B-. But better than the BMW. There is more interior room than the BMW for about the same size car but I find the Tesla seats too small and not very comfortable. My F250 is more comfortable (not fair comparison). Interesting, the adaptive cruise control is better in the F250 than the Tesla. We do not like the autopilot much. There is an upgrade for several hundred dollars a month. Not interested. The autopilot can be described as driving with a new teenage driver - nervous and constantly watching. What I do not understand is all the hate and misinformation about Tesla. They are good cars. Not perfect for everyone or everywhere, but a very good car and performance and range is impressive. I am an ICE guy - have more than a dozen ICE's under my care. But I really appreciate the advantages of the Tesla. I recall from my Thermodynamics classes 3 decades ago that ICE's are about 25-30% efficient. Depending on where you get your energy (Alabama is hydro, nuclear, gas and coal), it makes sense that emissions would be less from an electric car, but I have yet to see a fair calculation. The Tesla is not a "cheap" car, but it was cheaper than the BMW and so far is a better car and cheaper to drive than the BMW. I don't see how the Tesla model could translate to a Mooney type aircraft for now. The car is very heavy and planes have to propel and lift the aircraft. Turbines are probably a much better weight to power ratio.

A little old news, but flew to Augusta for the day. My buddy won the lottery for Monday's practice round. They were both GA newbies. Managing the traffic and special instructions at Daniel Field was a little intense, but basically like flying an instrument approach in weather. Video is our landing back at Pell City that evening. My friends both say it will be one of the most memorable day of their lives IMG_4136.MOV

Been in a mountain wave flying home from Charlotte. 50-70 miles from the mountains and 2-3k above the highest peak. Saw an airspeed of 90 knots (in my F) before killing the AP and riding the wave. Was shocked to see that speed difference so far from the mountains.

Just an update to close this out. My A/C is blowing cold again! And just in time for Alabama heat. The drier was from Vintage Air: Vintage Air 07321-VUC https://www.summitracing.com/parts/vta-07321-vuc. The compressor was: Sanden SD5H09 5073. https://www.acparts.com/product/new-original-sanden-compressor-5073/ Was quoted from Mooney over $3500 for the compressor and $3500 for the drier with no availability. The Compressor proved to be a stock automotive unit and the drier is pretty much universal, just some work to find one that would fit in the same spot. Hope this thread helps someone else down the road.

Alabama to NC coast in 2 hours. New ground speed record for me at 250 knots. Was treated like a king at Albert Ellis (KOAJ). Hope that 60+ Knot wind is gone by the time I turn home! https://flightaware.com/live/flight/N1051K

Mine was replaced at a cost about $500 (I think). Not with my log books but will take a look when I am back at the hangar and see if I can get a part number?

Just a little update for anyone interested. I ordered the Vintage Air drier and it arrived yesterday. The set-up is universal, so the binary pressure switch can be installed on either side, which solves one problem. However, the stock Enviro pressure with has different threads than the Vintage Air Drier. I am not really sure I can find an adapter. So, I ordered a universal binary switch and also the vintage air switch today. Since the compressor and drier are stock automotive units and the binary switch should not care about voltage, I believe it should work. If it does, I will post the part numbers for everything for a trail for the next poor soul to run into these issues. Talk about making a simple thing complicated - Mooney and Enviro sure made this hard.

Thanks Anthony. I had the same thought yesterday and went out at looked at my custom 1955 Chevy. I think I installed the part I need several years ago! I researched some vintage air parts and ordered on from Summit Racing yesterday to be delivered today and foe about $40. Hope this will be what we need.

No current stock, price or leadtime, no quote. Thanks for the inquiry. Best regards, Aeroval, Inc.

Thank you- I have emailed them. According to the inter web, there are over 3200 of this part # available, but everyone I call says they don't have them. There are many universal types but the devil is in the details of thread size, port configuration, etc... When searching for a universal or alternate option, there are too many options to find exactly what we need. Let's hope Aeroval comes through.

Close, but no. The fitting for the low pressure switch is on the wrong side.

It looks very underwhelming for Mooney to ask $1200. The part number cross- references with a Citation. Still no confirmed price or availability found. Enviro systems isn't your typical part supplier- but this part is very generic. At this point (with only a few hot days left in 2021), I am determined to find a different solution than paying such a stupid price for such a simple part. If I could find a catalog like we did for the compressor, I am sure I could find a substitute replacement. But so far, it remains a mystery.

I have a call into a local A/C shop that we know well to ask his opinion on reusing the old part and any other options. Care to share this contact? Looking at the part, the top does not look welded on, just sealed or press fit.