Ragsf15e

Someone smarter maybe has a better idea, but I’d be suspect of the starter solenoid. When you turn, that solenoid should immediately connect the fat cable going to the starter with the battery and spin the prop. On second thought, maybe that part is working and the starter isn’t immediately engaging teeth in the gear? It would be useful to (very carefully!) stand near the pilot side of the engine with the cowl off and turn it over. If the weird noise is coming from the front (starter area) or the firewall (solenoid) that might narrow it down.

Well the donuts could be involved then. I’ve heard some had an airspeed switch too? Do you know if you have both? Doesnt help you now, but Mooney has a service letter and kit that installs a bypass switch which allows you to get the gear up if the squat switch fails. @Marauder has good pictures. Sometimes it happens when it’s really cold.

Step one - does your airplane have a squat switch? Most don’t, only a few years. It’s in left gear well if you do. You can pull the gear warning circuit breaker to shut off the warning and let your brain think if the problem reoccurs. That warning is designed to be distracting and it works!

My opinion, so take it for that… navigation is the least of your worries if you have a major failure. The key is being sure you’ll have an ADI. If you have an ADI, then follow the comm out rules for lateral and vertical with your phone, ipad, etc and you’ll be fine. I can navigate very close to 430w capability with my phone. Obviously no glide slope, but I have FF on 2 phones and an iPad. That’s 3 x gps. The one thing I would like in addition to an ADI is a radio. With a radio you get nav (no gryo vectors), terrain and traffic avoidance and other help from atc. Maybe even an ASR approach. I have a portable, but your 430 would be nice for comm. The extra navigation it provides? Meh. Not necessary.

My g5 batteries are ~4 years old and are still fine on both ADI and HSI. I have tried them both off ships power for over 3 hours and they still had ~20% remaining.

Jeez, I think @ilovecornfields has a pretty well thought out and common sense approach to airborne decision making.

Ok, so not 250, 6’, but there’s a video around here. Maybe @201er? Someone did it and it was surprisingly fast and easy. I do think it was a smaller person…

Kinda what the other guys are saying, but typically you want to start new instrument pilots under the hood with things like straight and level, turns to a heading, constant rate/speed climbs, timed turns, and the dreaded “vertical S”. This first part is where you internalize the different power settings, pitch, and configuration to use for different phases. Then you move to intercepts, tracking courses, holding, etc. Introducing navigation systems while maintaining the perfect speed, heading, altitude from the first part. On early flights you might just see/get one approach on the way back. Halfway through your IR, you can really start learning from multiple approaches. If you keep just doing approaches, You’re probably skipping some skills you either think you have or don’t know you’re missing. That being said, we weren’t there. Do whatever you and your CFII agreed on. However, switching airplanes isn’t going to make it easier. With respect to your 400 hours and your previous instrument work, Learning how to fly instruments is about starting back at the basics, only doing it much more precisely and without looking outside. There are some free instrument syllabus online that will lead you through each flight/stage. I’d be familiar with those and follow one in general.

Imo, I’d stick with what you have and know. The 231 is a great airplane and you will learn how best to handle it in instruments. You should have some goto power settings for vectors and approaches that very much simplify operations. They should be nowhere near power or temp limits as speed isn’t required in that phase of flight. You need a very simple ~120 kts level setting that you can just set mp, prop, ff and forget without worrying about it. If you want the ovation, just to have it, go for it. But it won’t make the majority of training much easier and it will come with lots of gremlins that you have already worked out in your current airplane.

Yes, if you load an IAF, you still have the option to activate as vectors to final or go to the iaf. If you load vtf, that’s your only option to activate.

So there’s a guy with a good reputation also at Prineville. I haven’t used him, but a few on BT have. His shop is right next to the “terminal” at Prineville. His name escapes me, but he’s an older, very experienced guy. Maybe not mooney specific though…

Good chance they have one ready for exchange or will do yours fast. They are good.

To expound on the shower of sparks, it starts when the key is turned to start (turned against the spring tension), the starter is not engaged until you push in the key. There is usually a split second where the buzz is going before the prop turns. The “juice” has to activate the starter solenoid too, so there’s another place you could be having an issue…

The PA46T I fly doesn’t have one either. Haven’t noticed it being necessary. No gyro vectors or ipad track be fine if i was really hurting. On the other hand, thank god the F-15E has a whiskey compass! We got a big software upgrade right before we deployed to Afghanistan in 2007. I swear I had to navigate solely off the magnetic compass twice during that deployment. One time at night, and there are zero cultural lights there. I was just leaving the tanker and everything went black. I was down to a real old and questionable electric gyro backup ADI (peanut gage - which is conveniently placed just above where the fuel selector is on a Mooney, and we had a center stick) and that compass. I really wanted to get out of that tanker track without flying into Iran while we reset everything (and kicked the airplane a few times)! The other time was above an overcast near the Pakistan border. Happened to have the group commander as my wingman and I didn’t want to give up the lead! INS was out to lunch. That Jet thought it was in India! Airborne alignment with a 1980s INS is dicey. I had to let him lead for a while lest we end up over Islamabad.

Thanks. Nice job handling the problem! As others said, these are typically set to fail to avionics on. Weird that yours went off.

Solstice flight in Spokane Wa! -15c on the ground, -22c at 9,500. All CHTs in the mid to upper 200s ROP and LOP. Heater barely keeping it tolerable. Climb from the -1600’ Density Alt was greater than 1500 fpm! Awesome airport mx crew at felts plowed my hangar taxiway first just so I could get out past the 4” of new snow!

Ok, I’m searching for it. That’s good info. Can you tell me where in FF?

Wowza, that probably wasn’t fun! Nice job thinking of the phone. How did you have their number?

It has an IO-390 too…

Also a good choice. There were a few Encores built with tks, but not many and they are hard to come by.

I live somewhere with ice too (Pacific NW). I’d highly recommend the TKS. Probably an Ovation would be fine. You will have less stress over ice and more dispatch reliability. There are a few Eagles (M20S) with tks which are basically Ovations too. They would also be good.

If you’ve got cash burning a hole in your pocket, you can buy an io-390 from lycoming and add 10hp.

I agree that you might be able to source a case and rebuild your current engine. Good luck and nice job!

Just for fun, have you guys tried pushing in both the mixture AND the throttle at the same time to relieve the pressure? I know much less than @PT20J about the fuel servo, but I have noticed that when I prime, if my throttle is all the way back (like the 800rpm mentioned above), my pressure will build and there’s not much flow even with mixture rich. Pushing the throttle in say halfway and pressure drops, flow is good. Just be advised… if you “relieve the pressure” at a fuel stop and then try to start, there’s a good chance you’ll be flooded as the fuel is going to flow into the cylinders.

@John Coughlin, exactly what @Sue Bon and @Marauderpointed out. Things that could be the cause for delayed Gear retraction. Squat switch (left main gear - do you have an electrical switch there?), airspeed switch (if no squat switch, then you have an airspeed switch), or limit switches (in the belly). The airspeed switch allows Gear retraction above about 60kts. It’s normally located immediately behind the airspeed indicator behind the panel. It’s fairly large and brass colored. There are pictures around here. Search Mooney ASS or Airspeed Switch. On second thought, don’t search ASS. That won’t end well.