Houman

I guess he forgot to extend his retractable floats... plane looks in one piece, so hopefullly everyone walked or swimed out...

Hi, During the holidays, I will be flying alot, weather permitting and I want to learn how to properly find my LOP setting trough the EDM 700 on my Rocket... I have read alot about it, read the EDM docs, Engine stuff and as well "Fly the Engine" by Kas Thomas that has chapters about my engine and LOP...( great ibook by the way ). After reading it all, in all honesty, I still feel a bit reluctant to really push on the lean side, maybe it's because I feel I don't have enough experience with it... I know it has been discussed here before, but I'm kind of looking on more of an experienced pilot's step by step on how to find the sweet spot on the rocket ( obviously running it under 75%, since it says no leaning over 75%).... Thanks very much and sorry if it has already been discussed so often here...

Looking for a cheap tow bar to attach to my atv, it seems Aircraft spruce don't have the ones I see my local FBO/fight school use with their ATV... Canadian winters are tough and my hanger is on the back side of the airport, so I have to tow it couple fundered feets in a very tight spot with a fence just at the wingtip before I can start the engine and taxi it. In summer my little gas powered tow works well, but in winter with the ice and snow it's just not cutting it. On my last flights, the longest and toughest part of the flight is to get the plane out and back in the hanger. So with that, I have decided to move my ATV from the cottage to the hanger ( I fly much more than use the ATV at the cottage anyway ).. Thanks for links on where I can buy one...

Well there is a max landing weight, in my rocket it's 3050 lbs, so 150 lbs ( 25g) less than the max takeoff weight of 3200. In no way or shape am I going over weight either takeoff or landing, I was just asking opinions on how the plane would fly near or at the max gross weight...

My thinking exactly....

And yeah, the TSIO520 NB has ample power, as for the landing, I should be fine since I will be under my max landing weight ( well like 25 lbs under ) but still under... Thanks for the heads up on the rolll and stall, I wonder if I should go near full power before rolling, I will be taking off from a 4000 feet runway, depending on the runway conditions.. usually with 2 people, I'm off way before half way, but at gross weight, if I can get the turbo boost earlier in the roll, it would be easier to take off I think.

Yeah I should have been more explicit about the limits of the rocket. The original plane ( Before conversion ) has a 2900 lbs gross weight limit, with the conversion, it is uped to 3200, but any weight exceeding 2900 lbs have to be fuel in the wings and not passenger or cargo.. So the way to calculate it ( as I understand my Rocket insert W&B figures ) is max of 2900 for plane and passanger zero fuel weight and 3200 lbs including fuel...

Hi, I have a short flight ( 1h ) scheduled soon and doing my W&B, I see that with 4 adults in the plane, I will be about 2 lbs short of my 2900 Gross weight and almost at the 3200 with fuel. I usually am super super conservative on fuel and try to always have 1h of fuel reserve, according to my calculation I would need about 22 g of fuel, putting in 38g, so almost double to make sure I have enough in case I need to divert. I'm wondering if other fellow Rocket owners have experience with flying at or near the gross weight and would you guys recommand to put less fuel to be farther off the 3200 lbs or keep the fuel for the added security... Just wondering and if my thinking is wrong here, please let me know politely....

well, I have to see how this goes and if it's all good after I had cleaned it off. If not, then the sea plane owner had told me that he will pay if there is any work to be done to clean up the wing or wax or what have you... He is actually a great guy, and a tv actor ( in Quebec ), so I guess he wants to keep his rep in good standing...

Ok, this might sound bizarre, but how can I properly clean my top wing surface if there was a spillage of automotive gas on the wing, what product should I use. Here is what happened, in the hangar where my Mooney is kept, there is an industrial jack and a friend of my Mooney co-owner stores his small sea-plane during winter there, has done so for the last several years ( before I bought in the Mooney ). I'm always uneasy to see a 80K plane on top of a 150K plane, supported by a 15K jack that is supposed to handle 5000 LBS, the sea plane is just over 1000 LBS, so should be fine, but still. Sunday morning when I got to the hanger for a flight, I noticed a big spot of stain on the right wing and thought it was oil, since it was yellow, but it didn't smell like oil and was not as greasy, I cleaned it up with a cloth, inspected the wing, and went on my flight without any issue ( beside a little yellow discoloration on the right wing ). Yesterday, after talking to the sea plane owner in person at the hanger, he told me that the right wing fuel overspill was just over the spot and the plane was a bit angled on the jack so it must have spilled fuel, and that his plane uses automotive gas, not 100 LL, that is why I had not thought of it and since it had probably happened several days before, it didn't really smell gas ... Anyway, would like to get my wing shining again, should I wax it or what to get rid of the discoloration ???? Thanks !!!

A big reason why I partnered in my current Rocket was that the other owner had a hanger. At my local airport that is now destined to close in 2 years, there is no hangars available, if one wants to rent, well if you are lucky to have one free, then it is quite outrageous and if someone wants to sell their hanger, well it will stay on the market for a short 30 seconds before it is bought. After spending a while on tie downs, I would never ever ever ever want to go back outside. The plane stays so much nicer and everything works better when it hasn't been frozen for 2 weeks in our Canadian winter... My opinion only, but I guess it is pretty shared, stay in if you can...

Good luck with this, one peice of advice for what it is worth, make sure you have enough on the side to pay for 1st year unexpected maintenance. It does come up. In my case, it has been an adventure partiallly owning a k model Rocket Modified, but it is alot of fun to se that ground speed at over 220 kts when getting somewhere. As my co-owner said, speed = money = Mooney...

Happy thanksgiving to our southern friends and pilots... Fly safe everyone !!!

Talking about the fuel, I was wondering if anyone has an idea for the rocket fuel burn during taxi, climb and decent. I'm really conservative on fuel, but now that Foreflight has these settings configurable for the plane, I want to add them in to get a better idea for my fuel planning. I know this might not be the most efficient way, but I want to have at least an hour of fuel left on every leg, even during the day... the times I have not followed my own rules on this ( on my Beech Sundowner ), I was amazed how the tank looked after landing and couldn't believe how close I had become to starving the engine...

I would suggest buying the AppleCare package next time you buy an Ipad, I have had my Ipad 2 replaced because I dropped it, no question asked at the Apple Store. It costs about 100$, but well worth it, specially if you are using it as an important part of your flying. I carry an Ipad Mini and my Ipad 2 as backup as well. It now permits a paperless cockpit...

Hi, Anyone knows where I can buy a cowl winter cover for a M20K Rocket with the bigger cowl that comes with the conversion. I like to use it when travelling and wanting to keep the engine warm for those 200$ burgers... Thanks !!!

Well the plane was in the hangar, so it was somewhat warm...

Hi, following an earlier post couple of weeks ago about how to winterize the rocket, my mecanic has told me that he can't find anything officiall from Continental for TSIO 520 NB... As I understand, I need to tape the oil cooler or something. It would be amazing if a Rocket owner can take a picture of their winter setup so that I know exactly what to do, any speciffic help woulld be great. I went flying yesterday and it was a bit cool and my edm oil indication took about 10 min of running at 1000 RPM to get over 80 so that I can start taxing... Thanks !!!

Wow, amazing plane, I bought a 1979 Rocket couple of months ago, yours looks much nicer inside... Good luck with it, they are amazing planes...

Thanks, I finally bought a Yaesu FTA 550... it had the best set of options and accessories with decent price...

Strange, it doesn't work on my IPAD mini, it says no barometer available...

Hi, Looking to buy a VHF transceiver portable radio for that once in a lifetime emergency where both radios in the Mooney are not working. I see on Aircraft Spruce many models, but wondering if there are any of them that fellow pilots prefer, my requirements are : Good lasting battery, chargeable from the cigarette lighter or USB and with a jack to connect my headset to it, since the Rocket is pretty noisy. I don't need VOR or GPS on it, I have a 650 on the plane and 2 ipads, unless it is really worth to get the VOR functionality on it, don't remember the last time I used VOR, probably for my PPL couple of years ago... Thanks !!!

I'm a Mooniac, but I would still choose the jet in back if I had the choice between the 3... 2nd choice would be the Mooney...