LevelWing

What benefit does replacing the entire upper truss provide as opposed to just installing the spacer, aside from it being new?

Thanks. It sounds like this will be a relatively easy and inexpensive fix. Hopefully this will take care of the issue.

I spoke with my mechanic and he's going to do the service bulletin. Does anybody know how much that spacer costs to purchase?

This definitely sounds like the issue. I'll have my mechanic fix this quickly and hopefully this will solve the issue. About how many hours does it take to fix the issue?

Thanks for the replies, everyone. I found the service bulletin on the Mooney website and will have my mechanic look into it. About how many hours does it take to make the correction? I guess I figured maybe the airspeed indicator was reading lower than it actually was and as a result the plane was skidding because it was ready to come off the ground but I was forcing it to stay on the ground.

What is the possibility that my airspeed indicator is not accurate? Whenever I'm on the takeoff roll the plane gets very squirrely and basically starts to skid around the runway until I lift off. This starts to occur around 60-70 MPH indicated on the airspeed indicator. Conversely, when I land, as soon as I touch down the plane starts to skid around the runway again. My approach speed is about 80 MPH until I'm over the runway and then about 75 MPH at touchdown. The only thing I can think of is that the airspeed indicator is off. The plane went through annual in December and nothing was noted about the airspeed indicator and I don't think he even checked it.

Mine has the screwdriver as well. It was meant to be used on the cowling hatches to access the oil, however I've found that the screwdriver doesn't work that well and I use a separate one I keep in the plane. I haven't heard from Dave since December and I've even sent him a follow up email with no response. I figured the holidays were keeping him busy but the follow up email I sent was around mid-January and I still haven't heard anything. Does anybody know of anybody else who can make something like this?

Thanks for the suggestion. I sent Dave an email and he responded with some follow up questions. He said he can reproduce this without much issue so we'll see how it turns out. I'm looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

You're correct about it being a wrapping for the keys. Here's a picture of the original casing.

Does anybody know where I can find, or have made, a Mooney key casing that looks like the original? I have a 1968 C and that nice leather casing has fallen apart and I'd like to have it replaced. I contacted Mooney and they said they don't produce them anymore.

Thanks for all of the information, I'll check out the SB and see if that can help with it. Otherwise I see no reason I can't do normal, crab style, crosswind landings.

I'm comfortable with crosswind landings in a 172 using the crab method and based on the posts here, it should be the same for the Mooney. However, as soon as the front wheel touches down the plane immediately wants to turn in the direction the rudder was pushed. I'm sure I'm missing something, because I'm not doing anything differently in the Mooney (so far) than I am in the 172.

I searched the forums and didn't find anything specific to a C model. I was told by the previous owner that when trying to land a C model in a crosswind you can't do the normal rudder/aileron corrections since the front wheel is linked differently. I have noticed that it's different in the sense that if I try to keep the rudder in when I touch down the plane instantly wants to turn in the direction I'm applying the rudder which causes me to side load the gear a bit and skid. Any tips on how to make better crosswind landings in the C model?

Thanks! I'll take a look.

Thanks. I'll see what I can find on that STC but I may just stick with a normal throttle control. I can't imagine the throttle control itself costing that much.

I'm looking to replace the throttle control lever in my '68 M20C, preferably with one that has the button lock on it (like the mixture/prop control levers). The cable is also loose and needs to be tightened, but I can't imagine that being a big issue. I've checked Aircraft Spruce and they have a universal one but not one specifically for a Mooney. Any recommendations?

I'm looking at purchasing a 1968 M20C and the owner says that he always plans for about 125kts TAS but usually gets higher than that. That seemed a little low to me so I looked up the POH (found this one). At 5,000', 2500 RPM and 22" MP, that's still 156 MPH or about 135kts. What is a realistic speed range I should expect to get (with wind not being a factor)?

Do you have Dave's contact info?

The owner already got a quote of about $800 but I don't know from who or where. He said he could either have it fixed or he could take that off the price. I suppose the way around that is to get my own quote and then go from there. Either way I don't want to pay for it regardless of how much it costs and I want it fixed right.

Everyone seems to have a different opinion on this. I told the owner that he needs to fix it prior to purchase. That way I'm not stuck with however much it ends up costing. If he agrees to the price and agrees to fix the dent, I'll put it through a pre-buy. Of course I'll make sure to get this in writing first.

I haven't ruled the plane out because of that, it's just not what I wanted to see when I looked at it. Plus the interior is pretty old. I just didn't want to buy a plane and start spending a ton of money on repairing it. If it's that easy to fix and doesn't have an impact on anything then I'm ok with it. It's a C model but it's a good entry plane and will give me something to grow into.

Based on what the mechanic said, it seems like there's a lot of work that needs to be done. Some of the issues noted were that the mags needed to be overhauled or replaced and that oil was leaking from the mag case. The mechanic also said that the tanks probably needed to be resealed and the owner agreed but said that wasn't a concern of his because it wasn't currently leaking and he didn't think it was worth the expense, especially because he's selling the plane.

Here's a larger image of the dent if it helps. The owner says it flies just fine and has no issues with it. Based on this what would an estimated repair cost be? Ballpark figure works, just looking to see how much something like this costs.

I put the plane through a pre-buy and it failed pretty badly. It needed well over $10,000 worth of work. It's unfortunate that it didn't work out but better I find out now than buy the plane and have that kind of head ache. On a related note, I found an M20C but it has a dent in the leading edge of one of the wings. The owner offered to have it repaired prior to purchase and said that it got the dent because the previous owner accidentally hit a hangar door with it. Whether or not that's true I don't know but what would it take to fix it? Is it even worth pursuing? Picture is attached. Dent

I will wait a little bit to see how the panel works for me as it's setup. I'll probably wait until I'm ready to upgrade the audio panel before I have the panel re-arranged so I don't have to have the panel changed every time. There's a Mooney service center a few hours away and I'm sure they can do it but I'm not sure how much it would cost from them. Of course I haven't bought the plane yet either; I'm going to put it through a pre-buy later this week or early next week.