Ragsf15e

Thank you for sharing, and you’re right, very happy nobody was hurt! I also have a ‘68F model. Any idea when the gear rigging was last checked? It should be at each annual, but did it actually happen? And if yes, did the mechanic have the required mooney rigging tool? I’m just curious. It might be up earlier, but was it jbar or electric gear? The’68 was built as jbar but some like mine were modified at the factory with electric.

It’s interesting that there’s quite a wide variation in seemingly similar power settings at the same altitude.

Interesting that they are different, but here’s the one for an F on their website. Honestly, I think I paid close to that for my throttle cable 5 years ago.

What was your ff at that setting? thanks, drew

You might pull the battery/avionics cover from the side of the fuselage and look down at the static tubing. Should be able to tell if there’s water.

Both Bruces and Macs are popular here. I have had a bruces for 10 years and it’s still serviceable. Either will probably be fine.

It seems some military aircraft do have adsb out, but when I got out (admittedly ~9 years ago) there were whole fleets of aircraft with no clear path to get it. It’s not so simple as a quick transponder upgrade in a very complicated, integrated system designed in the 80s. I think some of them you’re getting on the ADS-R (rebroadcast) traffic that atc radar is seeing. Not sure why you didn’t get that from the B2… maybe ATC can’t see it either!

We probably don’t have anyone with a Dynon AP installed yet. Possibly try Beechtalk or similar for an airframe that has had the Dynon approved for a while? They are likely going to have airplanes with the Dynon and similar ones with the gfc500?

Your likely going to find that reworking your baffling is going to help a lot more than a cowl closure.

If it makes you feel any better, the vertical stab isn’t as critical (although it will increase drag if it ices), and, well, you can’t see it from the cockpit so you don’t have to worry about it, right?

Sad to hear that. Was this on a public airport?! That’s terrible. I would definitely claim that.

My insurance doesn’t have a deductible… does yours? Mine would definitely be worth the claim.

Interesting. Mine (the picture above) also has the lasar cowl closure but the screws are as pictured?

And we’ll all have to be careful comparing ours to this as the lights changed over the years… the “unsafe” light on my ‘68 means the gear is completely up, ie it’s unsafe for landing. This is a normal condition. Mine could do exactly as described, even not fully pull the gear in if I had some sloppy ball joints in the main gear area… but again, mine is older. You need to look at the wiring diagram for your specific year.

Terrible picture, but I circled the screws with the countersunk washers.

Yeah, I was gonna chime in but I didn’t have much to add although I did buy new ones a couple years ago. As @Vance Harral said, the IPC was cryptic and it took me a couple tries to get the correct screws (I’ll have to look at the hangar to see which ones). There are definitely four machine screws (two each side - one front/one rear) on the top cowl the have the larger washer that Vance described. Then there are the four slightly shorter ones across the front. I was eventually able to figure out what I needed from the IPC and get the correct setup.

Is the circuit breaker popping or the motor stops running without the circuit breaker popping?

Hopefully it works. It’s been a while since i messed with it, but I think they played around with exactly how “Program” mode is entered so it depends on your software. I had mine sent back and updated to once and it came back much different…

Here, try these instructions to get to factory mode, i think they are very slightly different…

Hmm, mine might be the second oldest? Installed 2012… but I changed the temp units successfully, so it’s possible. Try holding those two buttons before turning on the unit? I remember getting into that mode being harder than it seems it should be. Maybe search for the install manual or look through any old documents you have for it?

Obviously I agree with what you said about immediately working to get out of moderate (climbing, descending, turning, etc) and not cruising in it… that being said, other airplanes I have flown with tks did well in moderate ice (maybe not that long) as long as you got the system on before you started picking up ice. You will have random ice protrusions that begin to make some drag where the fluid isn’t getting (like maybe wingtips, top of tail, etc). I’ll be interested to hear from someone who has actually flown a Mooney in moderate ice for a little while. And just to say it again so that we’re all clear, deice systems on the small planes are mostly just for climbing through a layer or descending through a layer of ice. Not for cruising in. Neither of us is suggesting that.

Im sure it’s more when flying an A10, but it took 6 or 7 times on the boom to get an F15E from Idaho to Lajes, Portugal. We took off around midnight so we’d be landing in daylight or just to make sure our circadian rhythms were 100% destroyed. I never figured out which. 6 fighters to each pair of tankers. Fly with them through the night cycling all 6 through about every hour. Use up all their gas, then two or three more tankers taking off from the east coast join up and the first two land while the fighters start sucking down the new gas. When the sun comes up you’re overjoyed because 7 or 8 planes all together in the dark (and invariably the tankers head straight for the thick clouds) is really not fun. Unfortunately, when the sunrise happens as you head East, you can’t see a GD thing. I remember refueling with a blinding ball of light that had tiny wingtips protruding out the side of it barely visible in my peripheral. Not fun. After that, its all trivia and snacks and comfortable daytime formation for another 4 hours while you keep it topped off in case the tanker breaks and you have to divert to iceland or something. Then you land, unfold your body, drink a couple of gallons of beer at the club/bowling alley, roll your commander down the lanes, pass out and do the second half of the trip (to the middle east) in ~36 hours. And that’s only for 6 of the 20 or so jets in each squadron. It’s a serious logistical nightmare especially considering how many planes break along they way and have to get rescued by maintenance and then join another crossing.

For some reason you have to be pretty specific with avionics shops about removing old equipment and especially wiring. Sometimes there’s 20lbs of old wires between the panel and the tail! You aren’t crazy to have it removed, but expect it to take a while if you want the remaining wiring and circuit breakers sorted out.

I might try to turn on the avionics, engine off, and try pitot heat on. I think id also try that with the engine running. Most mooneys are wired as an ammeter showing current to/from the battery. A load meter showing total load is used on other models (Piper) though so maybe your shop wired it that way? The G1000 I fly shows ~34amps in cruise with 3x g1000 screens, Gfc 700, LED lights, and 2 x pitot heats. It’s not a good comparison, but it’s a lot more.

Yeah, that’s not a good time to get a spurious warning like that! Slight aside for a story here, but eventually it links… Back around summer 2007 I was at Green Flag in Las Vegas spinning up to deploy to Afghanistan. GF is different than Red Flag as it (at least use to be) strictly air to ground and close air support exercises. Well one night I got to lead a 2 ship close air support mission with live strafe. Awesome. Id of course practiced this before, but never with live bullets, just “nerf” computer simulated. The mighty F-15E is kind of a bear to strafe well, especially at night. Especially if there’s terrain around (we were on a mountainous range and training for Afghanistan). The gun is designed for air to air on the original ait to air only F-15C. It’s canted up 2.5 degrees to help lead a turning aerial target. So in strafe, you have to aim short of the target so you are pretty steep. Also, it’s only 20mm and range is around 8000’ slant range. And you need to be at 450kts so you can pull 5Gs to maneuver away from the ground after you shoot. It’s nothing like an A10 shooting from 2 miles away and 250kts. There’s a very short, 5 second window to have the pipper on target, be in range, shoot, and then pull 5 Gs (hopefully after letting off the trigger) to avoid hitting the ground. From a 30degree dive, we planned to bottom at 500’. Lower if we used 15 or 20 degree attacks. In the daytime it’s pretty fun. Nighttime, on NVGs, with the very narrow field of view, it can be terrifying. Again, id never done it live at night and certainly never in mountains (i was stationed in North Carolina). So the first hot pass was, well, exciting. We (there’s a WSO in the back seat of an F15E) rolled in from ~7000’agl, 30degree dive into pitch darkness. I couldn’t see the target, but my WSO had it in the taget pod and was lasing it with an IR beam that I could see in the nvgs. At 8000’ slant range and 30degree dive, I opened fire. Then all hell broke loose. The sound and smell of the gun was expected (it’s just behind your right shoulder and blasting 6000 rounds per minute). What wasn’t expected was the super disorienting bright flashes of the gun in the nvgs and the weirdly oriented new “horizon” line created by the tracers. I was quickly wondering if i was in a bank, but no time to think, off trigger and pull! That’s when my wso did exactly what he should do, but I told him never to do it again! He dropped a stream of flares to practice defense against a shoulder fired sam. As I pulled up, slightly disoriented, my own shadow (flares below illuminated me) was very close above me and just slowly moving forward! I thought 100% it was my wingman who was supposed to be 2 miles behind me! I slightly let off the pull and just tried to get away from the wingman until it disappeared. Me, “Holy $&@/! Did you see #2?!” WSO, “no, but that flare was really bright!” Me, “2, posit!” #2, “On final, hot!” Me, “Beelo (WSOs callsign), never drop another flare at night in your life!” Thank goodness I got to strafe in the daytime in Afghanistan and not at night!