xrs135

Talked to Kyle at LASAR today... he was astonished that the rubber donuts on my nose gear are originals from 1967. He said that's the first time he's ever seen that. The crazy thing is that they are still in ok condition. I'm going to go ahead and have them replaced with fresh rubber... but I was just wondering if anybody else has original rubber donuts or if I hold an unofficial record?

I'll typically follow the POH procedure with my C when it's cool/cold out. If I give it 4-5 pumps of throttle it will start 1/3 of the time within a couple turns. If it doesn't, I give it two more pumps before immediately trying again and then it starts right up!

Wingtip vortices and rotorwash vortices are no joke! There is a reason why air traffic controllers are constantly giving you wake turbulence advisories. Don't take them lightly, and most of all fly cautiously.

I don't see how a few miles north or south would be any better than where he was. He was RIGHT over the top of hwy 50 - That's exactly where I would have been!

The Alpha inertial reel belts end up being $816 shipped... and the fixed LASAR belts are $650. The question is am I going to enjoy the inertial reel belts $166 more? I probably won't even be wearing the shoulder harness portion except for critical phases of flight...

I'd say you need to get it looked at one way or another. When I got my 68C I had ZERO experience with the J-Bar, and I've never had an issue unlatching or latching the gear handle. It should be an almost effortless process, certainly not requiring pressure from both hands.

I'd like to be able to tackle this by myself (I'm somewhat mechanically inclined) but I'd feel more comfortable if I had somebody to help me out. I've read some stories of people having a hell of a time doing this install by themselves. That's why I thought I'd just fork out the money and have somebody do it that knows what they are doing. Looks like you did a great job with your install - I'm jealous!

Do you think if I brought a pair of Alpha harnesses to LASAR with me that they would install them for me? I think all they have are the manually adjustable shoulder harnesses there - but I'm not 100% sure?

Yep, I already have FF tied to the GPS... It's GREAT! I'm pretty sure the carb temp probe is a pretty cheap and easy add on, so I'll probably do that. The other 'extras' will be depended on how the rest of the annual goes!

I'd absolutely LOVE an Aspen... My checkbook would not!

I was worried about that. I guess I will be keeping my poor man's DG, and eventually get it overhauled.

I don't really like my DG anyway. I could kill for a heading bug, or at least N, S, E, W markings. Mine is about as primitive as they get, AND it precesses like crazy!

Yeah, I thought about just sending the DG away myself... but I'm just going to ask them how much it would be to swap it out with an overhauled one at the fields' avionics shop (assuming they have one?)

I'm having my annual done at LASAR next month. I've started generating a small list of squawks, and things I might like to have done while I'm there. A few extra things I'd like done while the plane is down: 1.) Shoulder belts on the front seats. 2.) JPI carburetor temp probe. 3.) Overhaul my DG or buy a refurbished DG. Is there anything else extra that I should consider having done? Especially since it will be sitting at LASAR, I figure that there will be an abundance of parts should I need anything special.

Here is all the info on the Scimitar Top Prop. The only limitations apply to the M20E and M20F. http://hartzellprop.com/products/top-prop/mooney/m20a-g-m20j-2-blade/

I'm not 100% sure, but that looks a lot like the prop I have, which is the Hartzell Scimitar Top Prop 2-blade. No limitations if that's the case.

I've got a 68' M20C as well! Great bird, you'll enjoy it!!

I love Magnificent Frigates!! I've spent a lot of time watching these guys in Mexico as well!

Hey now, not all of us! I was a Mooney owner at 27, and I'm still sub 30!

$1850 for a FULL reseal?! That's a deal! Weep No More runs about $6700 + tax for a full reseal in the C. Bladders seem to be significantly more expensive to me... On the O&N website, they have an old price from 2011 of $6,050 listed and that's before labor and tax! I'll likely have to make this decision sometime in the near future as well.

I'm an FAA controller and pilot. I can tell you that it totally depends on where you are in the country and each individual situation. An aircraft on an IFR flight plan just has more strict separation standards than a VFR aircraft, and odds are we will be talking to you a little bit more than a VFR aircraft. Workload-wise (IFR vs VFR) it honestly doesn't matter... it's just different. VFRs can be challenging in that you don't always know exactly where they are going and what they are doing. Whereas if an aircraft is IFR, you have total control of what the aircraft is doing and where it's going. The important thing is that we are TALKING TO YOU. The biggest thing with small guys on IFR flight plans is that can often clog up the system a little bit just due to performance versus IFR jets. But that's just the way it is. I'll give you a couple examples... If there is an arrival/departure into or out of one of our satellite airports, we have to reroute all of our high performance jet departures onto a totally different departure procedure that often sends them in the completely wrong direction - not the most efficient thing, but at least it gets you up and on your way. This is just to protect the airspace around the satellite airport, especially in the event of a missed approach. We HAVE to continue the weird departure procedures until we get word the little guy is on the ground, out of the way, OR if he cancels IFR. As somebody at RHV mentioned in an earlier post... sometimes satellite IFR departures can even shut down an entire airport such as SJC... and this is completely correct. It's not a bad thing, it just slows guys down momentarily in order to protect airspace. That's just the nature of the system. Another example would be a little guy departing Reno IFR. All planes departing Reno IFR absolutely HAVE to be on a departure procedure or ODP due to the high terrain surrounding the airport. A small plane on the Reno7 departure off 16L is going to be tracking the localizer backcourse until climbing above the MVA which is 8,400-12,000ft depending on what direction you are going. So sometime this results in another IFR aircraft to have to sit on the ground awhile for entrail spacing. Again, that's just the nature of the system. Really though, what it comes down to is that we are here to help you out no matter what it is you want to do. If you want to fly IFR, fly IFR. If you want to fly VFR, fly VFR. But my words of advice are to always, always, always have flight following or radar advisories. You are silly if you don't. If the controller is too busy, he will let you know, but most likely they won't be. For me, if I want to fly somewhere IFR, especially departing out of a place like Reno. I depart VFR with advisories (if the conditions permit) and pick up the IFR in the air. This way nobody is delayed behind me, I can turn on course immediately, and everybody is happy. If there is even the slightest chance of encountering any IMC along my route of flight, I'll go IFR. But if it's CAVU everywhere, it's VFR flight following every time. Hope this helps some people out. If you guys ever have any questions about anything ATC related, just let me know!

I'll probably end up ordering that piece eventually. I'm going to let it gel for a little bit, as it's not super high on my priority list. I was slightly confused, but that makes sense that they send it so you can cut it to fit each individual plane perfectly. What did you use to cut it? Exacto knife? dremel?

This is the original piece that I could use as a template if I wanted to try something myself. The previous guy attempted to refurbish this piece, but when he put it back in, it was too fat and the gear wouldn't lock. So now, I have the very thin aluminum. Looking at Plane Plastics, I'm not sure which piece to get exactly, because neither of them look exactly like this one? The K740054-503 looks the same as my piece until you click on it. So I'm not 100% sure? http://www.planeplastics.com/airplanes/mooney/m20c-j/page18/

The previous owner fabricated the piece that is in there now. The problem is that it is made out of very, very, very thin aluminum (to avoid the problems with J-Bar). The paint is starting to come off a little, and it dings and dents pretty easy. I actually do still have the original piece that was taken out... just looking for a more clean/durable/professional looking solution. I'll look into Plane Plastics.

1968 M20C we are talking about here. No, I'm not talking about the instrument panel. I'm not even sure I would consider this piece a 'panel'... but it's the piece on the floor that pretty much runs from the base of the Johnson Bar, all the way back up between the front seats to the end of the Johnson Bar when the gear is in the retracted position. So it's essentially a floor piece. Mine is kind of tattered and needs replacing. Any ideas of where/how I can get a replacement? I can take pictures if you guys don't know what piece I'm talking about