DS1980

Wow, that took a left turn.

The Bad (No STC) outweighs all goods. Some folks on here have acquired STCs. Ask them about their cost, even for something less complicated than the Thermawing. You may find it absurd, which it is.

It should be running cooler than 380F at 100 LOP. That's REALLY lean. I would recommend getting a per-cylinder monitoring system. You can run LOP with your instrumentation, but you're really not going to get the big picture. Your engine seems to be quite capable of LOP, since you can go so lean and still be smooth. The key is that if it is running smoothly, as that indicates all your cylinders are producing the same power. I have attached the red box. Inside the red area is where the engine is producing Internal Cylinder Pressures (ICPs) that from a metallurgy prospective are not good for an engine. Please notice that if you are running at 60% power or below, you cannot hurt the engine by experimenting. Now you can upset the engine by taking it to extremes, but you can't hurt it, so get into the POH and find your HP charts and determine what setting will put you at 60% or below. Also, getting back to your temperatures. The "hot" issue at the moment, on the forum anyway, are weaknesses in the baffling of some engines since we are getting into summer. I would suggest taking a look at yours or having a mechanic (one that knows what they are looking for) take a look. As I said, 380F at 100 LOP is hot. And about LOP: the entire point of LOP is to fly more efficiency. There are settings LOP that are more so than other. Best Efficiency, although not completely known, will be somewhere around 15-30 degrees LOP. Try to stay "richer" than 50 LOP and see what your temps are. You should be able to run here, although I am concerned your CHTs may be too high. As you mentioned, 380 should be a max.

I have never heard of leaving the mixture full rich on taxi for engine cooling, and while I am not advocating deviating from the POH, there have been breakthroughs in the understandings of engines and spark plugs since 1968. I would suggest you explore the writings of Mike Busch and John Deakin. You are not producing enough power to worry about CHTs. What CHTs do you eventually see if you aggressively lean for taxi? If your mechanic's work was correct, I would say you're not climbing out fast enough. There are many views on airman ship, and while most are perfectly safe, there are some tricks to take advantage of the Mooney airframe. In Vegas, I would climb at Vy until I was at an altitude that I could either turn back or pick a spot in case the engine went south, I would then transition to a cruise-climb. This would put me about 120 mph. I would be climbing at 500 fpm at the same speed the Cherokees were cruising. Maybe you're already doing this, and maybe you need to speed up a bit on climb out. I can't remember, what are your cowling flaps? I think they're fixed?

Did she go downward as well? Bazinga!

Yea, I'm leaning toward baffling as well, assuming the connections are correctly located. It's either running the air upwards or sideways. I like N201s ground test idea. I think that has the answer. When will you be able to do a ground run?

Thank you for the explanation. And thank you Bob for inventing the wheel. And no thank you Steve Jobs for making it a constant joke to put "i" in front of everything. And no thank you Bill Gates for Windows 8, which is what this thread was originally about. That folks, is called bringing it back full circle. And a full circle is a shape that can easily be made in Paint using Windows 7. I have no idea what I'm talking about.

I have no idea what anybody is talking about.

Maybe the CHT gauges are installed incorrectly. Maybe there's something that's causing the air to redirect above the front cylinders and back down over the rear cylinders. Did the fronts run warmer than the rears even before the baffling was redone?

We just bought a computer with Windows 8. We will be "upgrading" back to Windows 7.

When I owned a rental I could write off traveling expenses to and from. I don't see why the mode of travel would matter. That's a quick phone call to your tax man/woman/transexual.

"My exhaust valves showed a little carbon at annual so thought I would burn EGT a bit hotter." By running LOP?

I'm still trying to figure out when this thread went from exhaust to grill. Oh, its PTK. I should have known. He's the guy that didnt believe Camguard when they said they were now required in rebuilt Continentals. Where did that get him? Oh yea, to the truth.

Even if running LOP wears our exhausts faster, I would consider this acceptable. Cruiser illustrated the mathematical reason and from a mechanical standpoint I had a complete exhaust failure when a mechanic did not torque the nuts properly and both headers fell off into the cowling. A little noisier but nothing more. Still don't think LOP is the cause though.

It's possible you're not running lean enough. What do you run at? Also I would ask your mechanic to explain LOP to you. If they are unable to expand on this thinking of LOP burning exhausts, you need to get another mechanic. The belief of OWTs by a mechanic is evidence of character traits of people you don't want working on your airplane.

Excellent airman ship.

Um, ok

I guess you could make the Sears building hover if you put enough engines on it. I thought the "roadable aircraft" that are coming out are horrible. That thing needs to be euthanized. No doubt that cost a fortune of taxpayers money and what did they accomplish? A hovering short bus. Go government. But thanks for the post.

If it's not in the MM, how is it a required procedure? Was an AD/SB/SIL issued for it?

Byron-was it you that said something about 33 feet was the magic number for surviving the typical forced landings? Might not have been you but that # stuck in my brain.

So the distance from impact to the airplane stopping is a few feet?

What do you think it would add to the cost? Are people ready for a $900,000 piston single?

I cannot think of another plane that you can land in trees and have the press print "two men on board escaped without serious injury. One was taken to hospital as a precautionary measure." This doesn't even consider the minimizing of property damage. I love the Mooney. I would adore it if it had a MAPS.

Have you been a parachute puller?

I wouldn't have thought it would come down that slow. It's nice having that ace up the sleeve if the airplane does something the pilot didn't ask it to do.