Andy95W

Must be another weird metric conversion thing. For me, $40k hull, $1M smooth, $750/ year

Mine is between the seats and I practice every single flight. (Solidly reliable Johnson Bar.)

I've tried 1800 and my engine really didn't like it much. Engines like smooth and mine wasn't. Try flying at Carson speed, 1.32 x Vy, about 138 mph Indicated, and considered the best balance between speed and fuel burn. Works out to about 19" and 2400 rpm and very smooth.

Get roller tappets and separate magnetos on your reman engine from Lycoming. And a Power Flow exhaust system if you want a bit more power.

Try ebay. Surprising what you find there. Also try essco: https://www.esscoaircraft.com/c-5202-mooney-maintenance-parts-manuals.aspx?pagenum=1

Ya gotta love it when a plan comes together. Glad it worked out so well.

If you can afford to buy an airplane, then the M20C is a great alternative to either a 172 or PA-28. Similar acquisition cost, practically the same engine, and if it has manual gear and hydraulic flaps, nearly as easy to take care of as the Cessna or Piper. Of course, this doesn't take into account any gotchas like corrosion or bad engine- but that could happen with the Piper or Cessna, too. Maintenance will be 10-15% more in the M20C, In my experience, less if you can work with a knowledgable A&P and do a lot of work yourself. Insurance will be significantly higher until you gain experience in the Mooney and get an instrument rating. Just a guess, but insurance for the 172 might run $1000/year, the M20C would be $3000+ for the first year, $2500 the second year, $2000 the third etc. This may be a good question to ask the group here. If you can afford the insurance, get the Mooney. One additional item to add to your budget- pay $75 for a small refrigerator so you can have cold beer for your hangar. Best way I know to make friends and get help with maintenance.

If you are looking to upgrade, check out this website: http://www.aircraftsecurity.com/other-aircraft/ They produce PMA'ed locks for aircraft, Mooney included. Very high quality and supposed to be "pick-proof". I installed a set in an Aztec and it was very straightforward.

I agree. I would be reluctant to give a BFR to someone who didn't want to do it in his own airplane.

+1 I glance at the tachometer but the engine monitor is what I use during the magneto test.

Wow. Very thorough. Don't think I can add anything to that. Please keep us posted. I'm looking forward to learning something new when you get it tracked down.

Yup. Oil leaks are a b!t€h. Unless there is a crack at the suction screen area (doubtful) I don't think that is your culprit. I do think, IMO, that since the suction screen is the low, rear part of the engine, that is where oil would tend to go before dropping off. Keep looking, if possible from top to bottom. The most likely culprits, based on the volume, I would guess would be either the oil return lines from the cylinder heads or the case/oil pan mating surfaces. You've got a TN by your type- does that mean turbo normalized? If so, you may want to check your exhaust. I'll freely admit I don't know much about your TN system, but high pressure oil to cool your turbo could certainly be leaking internally. Stranger things have happened. Please keep us posted.

Okay, when I say "nice afternoon project" I admit there will be some cussing involved. But any afternoon spent with your Mooney is nice, right? 2 hours if the stars are in alignment and everything goes well, 3 - 4 if it doesn't. You could probably do the job without disconnecting anything, but I'm not sure I would do that unless Paul Loewen from LASAR was assisting. Disconnect the easy stuff like p-leads, engine cables, vacuum hose and make sure there is enough slack in wiring harnesses and hoses to move the engine 1-2 inches. Accessories don't have to come off but it sure is easy to bang the vacuum pump on the engine mount. That's where it's helpful to have a guy who has done it recently assist. And I don't mean to disrespect anyone when I singled out Paul Loewen- I wish I had half the knowledge of Don Maxwell, Russell Stallings, Ronnie (Dugosh)' or Jerry Manthey, to name a few.

Good luck with your transition training, you're gonna love it. You'll find the Mooney flies like an airplane (just better). In the meantime, take a look at the "Downloads" section of Mooneyspace at the top of this page. There are a couple of different M20C Owner's Manuals you can download for free and start reading and studying.

With a cherry picker and a guy who knows what he's doing to help it's a 2-3 hour job plus 1 hour of beer drinking. Nice afternoon project. Without someone who has done it before to help, you could very easily damage something important ($$$).

Over two Mooneys, my experience has been that the following 4 mods will get you the best bang for your buck (mph per $): 1.) get rid of unneeded antennas 2.) rig properly by someone who knows what he's doing 3.) cowling closure 4.) flap gap seals BTW, I have also found better cooling withmthe cowl closure and better rate of climb with the flap gap seals. IMO, my 64 C looks good with the cowl closure, but your F may look better with the ARI - but then you'll want the 201 windshield. And dorsal fin. And tail root fairings. And wingtips

Just had eddy current inspection today by H&S Propeller out of Pontiac, Michigan. $200 and it passed. Pretty knowledgeable guy, said he had seen two hubs fail, one while in for overhaul, not eddy current. I asked out of how many and he said "thousands?" And he wasn't sure what engines those 2 were on- could have been aerobatic or a 300 HP application. I like my odds with sticking with the eddy current inspections every 100 hours, unless they jack the price up or Hartzell comes up with a prop that will give me 200 mph from my C model.

Tell him he's weird and don't let him borrow your airplane again! To answer your question, IMO, as long as it is smooth, I wouldn't worry.

Okay, so after looking back through this topic, and another one from a year or two ago, I have counted a total of two props that failed the eddy current inspection: the one that Cody mentioned above that flew for a year on a Piper Arrow and one that came off an aerobatic airplane. Does anyone know of more? I already have faith in my prop (properly inspected), but I will have more if it really is that rare to fail. Lastly, does anyone have any experience with the Top Prop/Scimitar propeller, specifically on an M20C? Better performance? Quieter? Smoother?

-a- It was a joke. I own a 64 C model. Compared to that, everything else is a long body. I have a friend who owns an Ovation 3. I give him grief about how weird his airplane looks and how strange his electrical gear system is.

It may not be avionics noise. Try turning off your strobes/rotating beacon. Try doing a magneto check at low power when it is making the noise. If that doesn't affect it, turn off your alternator or generator. If it doesn't make the noise with the engine not running, it is likely magnetos or alternator. Good luck!

The "Long Bodies" are covered in great detail. You are talking about the M20F - K, aren't you?

What the heck is "Instrument ground time"? Is that some metric thing?

You should be okay, since the canning process creates a slight vacuum in the jar, altitude will only decrease the resultant pressure differential between the jar and its environment. The wine discussion was the opposite, with greater pressure inside the wine bottle than ambient. I say SHOULD be okay because if anything happens I'm not cleaning up the mess. Good luck!

I have a GE installed and one spare. When they are both gone, I will get the Prometheus. But I have no idea when that will be!