Andy95W

The M20C is the king of miles per dollar. The E is a little faster, and a little more fuel efficient. But everything else about the C is cheaper: acquisition cost, maintenance, insurance, and overhaul. And having Johnson Bar landing gear is the cheapest thing going. Honestly, that combination is barely more complex than maintaining a Cessna 172. My M20C will be up for sale in a couple of years, but it ain’t gonna be easy letting it go.

That sounds a lot like an old extension relay, or dirty contacts on that side of the system. As the solenoid/relay actuates, it degrades the contactor and sparking adds carbon it. Over enough decades, the increasing carbon buildup cuts the voltage to the electric motor which slows the rpm. The retract motor uses the same brushes and armature for both directions, it swaps the +/- current to run different directions. It sounds like your motor is fine, although finding options for eventual overhaul is a good idea.

I’m not giving advice one way or the other. From a wear and tear perspective, I look at it that maintaining the flap system is relatively inexpensive, but maintaining the landing gear is potentially VERY expensive. Lifting off at a slower ground speed produces less wear and tear on the landing gear, especially the nose gear bushings/pivot points/ etc. I fly from an airport that is fairly rough, so you can guess what I prefer.

You can buy a new hub and reuse your old blades, if they pass overhaul standards, for probably about $6-8,000. Might push to $10k if your prop needs additional work, or more if you need one (or more) new blades. You can also buy a new Top Prop conversion which is brand new and includes the new scimitar blade style and a new pointy spinner. Price is about $13-15,000 and you might get some trade in value off your existing prop. Ask your local prop shop. Also, @Cody Stallings can probably give you more accurate advice, he owns a propeller shop and is a member here.

I thought you had to be a commercial pilot to be a CFI? The age for that is 18. But I definitely get the gist of what you’re saying: there are a good number of very competent young men and women instructors out there, regardless of age. In my almost 40 years of flying, it doesn’t seem to have changed much. There have always been good and bad instructors, many of whom are building time to get to something that pays more for less work. Can’t really blame them for that.

Exactly! I appreciate a good rant as much as the next guy, but doing it on Mooneyspace is kinda preaching to the choir.

Exactly my position as well.

Well, not quite. The calls to get the lead out of aviation fuel go back to the 1980s. Through a process of lobbying and education of congressmen and influence with the FAA, the deadline is now 2030. And that might not happen either if there isn’t a suitable replacement. Don't get me wrong, I’m not a huge fan of AOPA and they weren’t working alone in getting Congress to delay the ban of 100LL. But they did provide some of the effort.

Current word is that he wanted to work from home in Bend, OR but the board wanted him in Frederick, MD. Long distance relationships never work.

That’s how I was taught 30 years ago.

It’s light beige.

He somewhat addressed that. Something along the lines of 100LL causes o-rings to swell also, and it’s the owner’s fault if they have the “wrong” o-rings installed.

I was a supporter and advocate for G100UL from the moment they got their STC. I was looking forward to running it in my engine, and was glad that there was finally a lead-free solution for our engines. I attended George Braly’s seminars at Oshkosh over the years to hear and learn more. At last year’s, he seemed to blame Mooney fuel leaks on Mooneys, the Mooney design, and Mooney owners. He came across as a lawyer-turned-salesman who was using lawyerly obfuscation and deflection to shift blame away from his product. I left halfway through the seminar. Needless to say, I’m no longer an advocate for G100UL.

Hi, Oscar. Thanks for the write up. Have you ever noticed how high your amperage gets after startup? Any difference after a hot start of your IO-360 when you had to crank a lot? Thanks!

I’m still trying to wrap my head around the irony that someone named Colgan doesn’t see the need to practice slow flight and stalls. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colgan_Air_Flight_3407

I’m glad to hear you’re such a good pilot it could never happen to you.

You’re following slower traffic again, but this time it’s after a long day, you’re a little tired, and there are strong winds. You retard the throttle a little bit because the wind has increased your ground speed and you’re catching up to the slower traffic. Because you’re a little fatigued, you don’t notice your airspeed is decaying as you turn base to final. You start to hear the stall warning, but because you’re tired you think it might be the gear warning because you retarded your throttle. As you double check your gear, you stall because you haven’t practiced slow flight in so long you don’t recognize the warning signs until it’s too late. There’s a reason professional pilots practice all of this stuff, even though there is almost no chance they will ever “need” it.

Since Lycoming approved of the crankshaft when they built the engine, would they overhaul the engine with that crankshaft? Might be worth boxing up the pieces and sending it to them.

That’s pretty cool. Any chance Bruce did his checkout in the airplane?

The windlace doesn’t help seal the door, but it does help cut down on wind noise. It’s actually very noticeable even with a good door seal.

33 years and the same experience, 20 of those years in Michigan.

With our carbureted engines, the fuel pump doesn’t do anything once the fuel bowl in the carburetor is full. Once the engine starts, the engine driven fuel pump keeps the bowl full so the electric pump isn’t needed. The reason it needs to be on for takeoff and landing is just in case the engine driven pump fails at a critical time. The issue, like Hank said, is giving the fuel a chance to vaporize so it can be pulled into the cylinders to ignite. The reason engine and oil preheat fixes the problem is because the carburetor is bolted to the bottom of the oil sump, and the warm metal encourages faster vaporization. The only other thing that helps for cold starts is to pump the throttle while cranking the engine. The sprayed fuel is sucked into the cylinders, but once it fires, it’s not happy. And if it’s so cold that you need to resort to that, you should probably be preheating anyway. Good luck!

To get the “201” name, the factory took a brand-new M20J with no antennas, radios, minimum fuel, and minimal equipment. They probably also had to lean to one side, squint, and then say, “oh look, 201 mph”.

It sounds like all you really need is a safety pilot to legally log approaches, and a decent non-certified home simulator to keep your skills fresh.

Good detective work!