DXB

Seems most likely just a transiently fouled plug on #1. Or maybe a partially clogged injector?

"Trust is earned in drops and lost in buckets." -Kevin Kelly. Unless you are retired and have nothing better to do, I'd cut your losses and move on. Maybe spend the extra effort on building a relationship with a new shop you can trust. Sadly, your story is not uncommon. My previous trusted shop had done reliable and sometimes exceptional quality work for me for years. Then came the year of the ADSB mandate. An excellent younger A&P had just left, and the capable senior IA in the shop was instructed to rake in as much $$$ as possible by doing one ads-b install after another. That IA, who I had known for years and trusted, went out of his way to emphasize me when I brought in the plane that he wouldn't be signing off my annual this year - I later understood why and wished that I had taken his subtle hint to turn around and run. My annual was signed off by another IA I'd never met, and the work was complete garbage - worse than that described in this thread. The shop owner acted indifferent to the situation - I coerced whatever remediation I could out of him (which was painfully little), paid my bill, and moved on. You can forgive a shop that screws up but not an owner without integity.

I've been all over the US and Canada, and lately been struck by the excellent amenities and overall quality of life in multiple medium sized places in Virginia where I've flown the Mooney in recent years - specifically Charlottesville, Richmond, and perhaps even Roanoke. My temperament sounds fairly similar to yours, and I looked closely at a job in Charlottesville (that didn't pan out in the end), but otherwise I would have been very happy to move there. There was even some hangar space available! I bet these places would check most of your boxes. And you can get up and down the east coast very easily from those locations in the Mooney to many places that are lovely to visit but you wouldn't want to live year round. I would definitely NOT suggest Philly - my current home of the last 20 years - it checks zero of your boxes . Please let me know if you do find the perfect spot, and I'll put it on the list for my retirement options...

I imagine cleaning this deposit area off without pulling the jug should be feasible with the right tools?

I got a bill from Vector by email a couple of weeks ago for $300 past due. The tail number in the bill was not mine. They managed to link my last name and email to an LLC apparently owned by someone of the same last name. They got a reply to go f*ck themselves without further explanation. Then the airport contacted me trying to collect. They got a more detailed explanation, including a critique of their decision to work with such a predatory business.

So 8 months not flying, now returning to an M20C you have about 600 hrs in... My guess is that your basic flying skills will be fine, but you'll be awkward on the radio for a while. If you're instrument rated, you'll definitely need some focused practice to get proficient again. Day VFR flying will come back very quickly on its own. However, the added stress (and inevitable small gremlins) associated with a fresh engine install makes having an instructor along sound like a good idea. For comparison - my M20C was down for overhaul recently, but only for 3 months. I had ~1300 hours in the plane up to that point. I used the 3 down months to get my tail wheel endorsement in a J3 cub with no radio - wonderful and eye-opening experience. I also did an IPC in a PA28 shortly before I got my Mooney back - that was a total mess given the different avionics and autopilot and overall lack of familiarity with the plane, but at least it got my feet wet again with more procedurally complex flying. I didn't do any specific Mooney refresher training before picking up my bird. My first flight near the field was actually quite easy - no deterioration in ability to handle the plane, but I felt like I had marbles in my mouth every time I went to speak on the radio. That issue lasted about 10-15 hours. I then flew some approaches again with my regular Mooney CFII, which was very helpful. I feel fully back to my old baseline of proficiency after about 30 hours on the new engine and flyng a handful of approaches in actual.

Would love to read this!!

Beat me to it - I immediately envisioned trying to skip a targeted ad for men’s hair growth products obscuring my georeferenced approach plate as enter low IMC.

I'm a little confused by which fuel line came loose at which fitting. It sounded like it may have been the one from the firewall to the engine driven pump since it had a firesleeve on it and also possibly had been messed with at tecent engine reinstall? On the vintage birds the line from the boost pump behind the firewall is distinct and wouldn't be touched. I don't know anything about the J's fuel system though.

First and formost terrific job handling this!! Combined with a little luck, your skills let you walk away from a dire situation, and the aircraft basically being fine is a nice bonus. As far as I can tell, the cause seemed likely to have been a transient obstruction like ice in a distal portion of the fuel system. The leak discovered at the fuel hose attaching to the engine side of the firewall (proximal to any such obstruction) is serious but seems like a red herring here since you had good fuel pressure measured distal to it before and after the engine quit. I only wonder if you have a data logging engine monitor to help sort the events out a little better. Your engine failure catches my attention because I've previously experienced two in flight anomalies, documented here on Mooneyspace in separate threads complete with engine monitor data (see below), that I ultimately attributed to small amounts of ice in the fuel system on cold winter days. Of course my carb'd fuel system is quite different, and my engine didn't quit, but both events did scare me. A useful discussion point here might be: what is the best SOP to mitigate risk of ice crystals plugging fuel system components when operating in cold temps? Sumping may not catch such materials, which could have already been present in the fuel when it was pumped at very cold temps. How cold should it be for one to think about it? What other factors contribute? I know Avgas itself freezes at <-60-72F or so. I also know one can add up to 1% isopropyl alcohol to fuel. When should one do this routinely? Does one need a full 1%? Will that small amount of alcohol dissolve crystals that have already formed? Does anything need to be done to mix the alcohol in? I find very little written out there on this topic. I think that answering these questions might give you the confidence to trust your bird again in the frigid northern latitudes - there's nothing intrinsically unreliable about it.

250 hours is a rather early failure! The greatest of multiple benefits of the Surefly in my view has been added reliability over the rather delicate and primitive internals of a magneto. Since these have been in service for a few years now, it would be great to have aggregate data on failures. I imagine most must make it to 2000hrs without issue?

Appears to be the right thing - equivalent part to the Donaldson P10-7122 filter that I use on my C model. I actually didn't realize a Tempest version existed (and it's $10 cheaper on Spruce!). I converted from a Brackett filter to Donaldson a while back - sorry I don't remember details of how mounting changed but it may be different if converting from a K&N. I think we just removed the plastic housing for the Brackett, and the receptacles for the bolts were already there. I seem to recall Donaldson claims their airflow rivals the K&N, much better than Brackett, and with better filtration than K&N without the oiling mess.

I think it may be important to qualify the role of high temps. At a given relative humidity, higher temps will increase corrosion rate. However, below about 40pct relative humidity, there is minimal corrosion irrespective of temperature. In winter, heating the engine uniformly (both cylinders and sump) will drastically lower the RH as long as there's a path for moisture toe escape, so the increase in temp doesn't matter - this is a great strategy in cold parts of the country. Here the heat is a very effective dessicant. (Think of your dry skin when running the heater at home in winter). I'm not certain, but in wet humid parts of the country, running the engine heater in the summer may be less effective at keeping down RH, and in presence of high moisture the high temps may become counterproductive. A dehydrator may make more sense - it would be nice to see some data on this. On a related note, I'm pondering either the Black Max or the Drybot for summer use. The cost delta is significant in favor of the Black Max, but I like that the Drybot can plug into either oil filler or the breather. Any guidance from folks on pluses and minuses of these two options? https://www.rpxtech.com/drybot.html https://flyingsafer.com/2065

I circumnavigate clouds that might harbor poorly conceived Mooneyspace surveys.

Dunno about ply rating specifically, but I have direct knowledge of a similarly absurd ramp check in Buffalo on my friend's G model. They said his data plate, which was riveted in one of the front air inlets, was not acceptable and had to be moved to the factory location in the tail immediately. In reality, planes came from the factory with the plate in either location. He tried contesting with the FSDO initially but decided it wasn't worth the fight and just moved the plate. The whole affair was Kafka-esque.

FWIW, here's my story. I just had my C's O-360-A1D overhauled last fall after contacting several of the decently reputable major overhaul shops east of the Rockies (Columbia, Penn Yan, Western Skyways, Poplar Grove, JB, Zephyr, Airmark, Signature). The best quoted price / turnaround time combination was Signature (~32k, 8-10wks). Timing however is contingent on any components that need to get sent out to get re-worked coming back in a timely manner. My crank was sent out and came back in 6-8 weeks. However my case, which had some fretting, was predicted to be very slow coming back (it ultimately took 4-5 months). To avoid delay, I ended up sourcing the correct Divco-refreshed case off ebay for 6k, and the shop bought my old case from me when it came back for 4.8k. My engine was finished in 12 weeks, which isn't bad. Overall Signature and specifically John Buckles were decent to deal with, particuarly on the front end. There were some concerns (I think fairly minor) and annoyances during the assembly phase and after the engine delivery (happy to discuss offline). Since I had the engine pulled and re-installed on the field, I appreciated that they let me use their hangar to store the plane while it was down free of charge. If you decide to use Signature and particularly if fly your plane there for removal and reinstall, I can give you lots of guidance on who to work with on the field for that work and how best to work with them - feel free to DM me.

It's one thing to be vectored through the approach course and then given a turn back to intercept. Here I was first told to intercept it on a heading that took me slightly away from the approach course, then when I finally noticed the error and spoke up, I was given a 60 degree intercept angle in close to the final fix - a stressful event for a rank amateur like me while hand flying in the clouds. Also I'm confident I was not too fast - I always pull power back to 18"/2300 (~115kt IAS level) in late stages of getting vectored onto the approach, and in contrast to your Rocket, I fly a humble C model Regardless, subsequent discussion on here and with others has made it a useful learning experience. I was again flying the same approach in nearly identical weather conditions a couple days ago. I felt much better prepared, but unfortunately the controller threw me a softball with a <30 intercept angle well outside the gate (the kind of thing I previously felt entitled to ).

Whoever you are, thank you for being a friend of the aviation community, and welcome to Mooneyspace!

perfect

I like and use the "confirm" phrase , but in this case merely confirming the instruction might not have helped point out that the instruction made zero sense. I think the instruction was clear in my mind and the controllers mind (fly 040, intercept the GPS Rwy 6 approach course). She just did the math wrong, perhaps thinking I was on the opposite side of the approach course. I also like the phrase "say intentions for XX"(learned from this thread) if I'm having trouble anticipating what's next, but it doesn't really seem to apply here either. The controller's intentions here were clear but also nonsenical. I ultimately spoke up and just said "uhhh... I don't think 040 intercepts the approach course". My mistakes here were that (1) I took too long being baffled before I spoke up and (2) I then I accepted a large intercept angle on a heading of 120, which I then forced to work out with too steep a turn in IMC - I should have said unable and asked to get vectored back around. Part of the reason for my excess passivity here may have been related to knowing that this particular controller gives pilots a lot of sass when she gets stressed and/or they dont do exactly what she wants. I was busy flying the airplane while entering IMC and not looking to consume bandwidth in conflict with her. I still should have spoken up earlier and asked to get vectored back around.

I'm not sure the M20C POHs have any info on demonstrated crosswind. I can't find any in my '68 POH, or even the '74 POH that I keep on hand due to its more detailed performance charts. That said, 17mph sounds about right - the Bob Kromer article linked below cites 15kt as as well within the envelope of the short body (page 7-8). I also find experientially that crosswinds in that range put the rudder pedal near the floor, so I feel that I have adequate guidance for crosswind landings in my short rudder C. https://themooneyflyer.com/issues/2013-AprTMF.pdf What I would love to know more about is max crosswind takeoff limits - I think the plane can handle similar crosswinds for takeoff, but I have zero data to rely upon.

In this case it was probably best that I refrained from calling them right after I landed and ranted on Mooneyspace instead

This is why I love posting my minor misadventures on here - learning from more experienced folks and picking up new tools like this to better handle the situations. The reason for posting was not to identify clever ways to get the controller in trouble (though I was pissed when I landed) but rather to develop new neural pathways to manage previously unfamiliar situations - here being given an intercept vector that doesn't actually cross the approach course, and then getting one that was way too steep when I finally managed to speak up a bit too late. As an amateur, hand flying an intercept in IMC (with my basic autopilot) is fairly bandwith consuming, so I'm not likely to come up with solutions to novel problems if they come up - I need a pre-rehearsed mental toolkit. Here I felt in over my head for a minute or two but hopefully will be more ready next time.

So I'm flying into KPNE this morning. Field is reporting 600 OVC with the RNAV Rwy 6 approach in use, and I'm gettng vectored by Philly TRACON, heading in the general direction of the field from the south, kinda expecting to get direct WAMCA as the IF based on my position. I'm descending through 3500 with an almost direct tailwind, and I'm then told descend 2500 and fly heading 040 to intercept the final approach course. I fly 040 for a few moments before realizing that takes me away from the approach course. In retrospect, I think the controller subtracted 20 degrees from 060 rather than adding it (080 would have been about right). After a few moments confusion, I speak up and get told to fly heading 110 and then 120 and am cleared for the approach, though now I'm uncomfortably close to the FAF. I'm also skimming the top of the clouds at this point, where I have to do much more than a standard rate turn to avoid flying through the approach course. I then descend and land uneventfully, thinking I probably should have said "unable" and asked to get vectored back around. I'm pretty confident it's against the rules to be given a 60 degree intercept angle, and I recognize the controller's voice from prior encounters in which she seemed erratic and also had too much attitude. I thought about calling TRACON once on the ground. Am I over-reacting? Or not irritated enough?

True - though he also didn’t report to the FAA in 24hrs, but I guess one can cut him some slack there since he was freezing his ass off in the middle of a lake for the first 12hrs.