Yooper Rocketman

Oh, don’t get me wrong. I just paid $800 for 5 elevator bearings that wouldn’t be sold to me without the brackets. Found out later I can buy a BETTER bearing by itself, and all 5 likely under $100. But at least now I have an extra set of brackets I can have new bearings pressed into the next time they are worn. Tom

Ok Scott, I’m a fan of you and your posts, but think about it ..... you are still getting service from a company that hasn’t produced your conversion in, what, 15-20 years? As a business owner, that’s still something that deserves a “little “ appreciation. Next time post on the forum your request. Some dumb sh*t like me might have pictures or a spare they can supply for less money. (Coming from a guy flying a Lancair 15 years out of production and appreciating ANY support from the OEM). Tom

BTW, this was a great topic to bring up reminding everyone to check how they are filing, even those of us that have been filing ICAO Flight Plans for a while. I went in and checked all the planes I fly for accuracy of my data, and found several minor mistakes I was able to correct. Tom

Paul, In 15 years, when you take custody of my Lancair, you'll see that problem a lot less (step climbs and level offs). Once they see 4,000' a minute, or 250 knots when they level you, you'll get moved up and out pretty quick. (grin). The most common challenge is getting an initial climb to 2,000' above the airport and not getting turned over to departure quick enough. Once they've seen me a few times, I get sent to departure while the gear is getting stowed. Tom

I had the same problems. Even when updating them on delays they would be looking for me before I even landed. My favorite was getting a third of the way across Lake Michigan, where I really needed the safety of radio contact, and they would call me with “radar services terminated, squawk VFR”. REALLY? Getting the rating and filing IFR ended that problem!!!

Sorry, never answered your question. About 20 man hours. But ............................ I WAS HAVING FUN !!! (LOL) Tom

Agree with Dan

I still feel bad we didn't connect during your last trip north. Might be for the better it ends up on a future trip as I hope to see your new bird! Sounds a lot like a Rocket other than no turbo. AND we all know how much I like Rockets!! Tom

Paul, Based on my knowledge of your piloting skills, AND how you flew my Lancair when we went up, I have zero doubt you could fly this until too old to fly, and do so safely. I suspect Aaron and Erik could as well. Tom

Aaron, I eat my breakfast every morning while catching up on my forum's. Reading your post with a mouth full of cereal and milk by the time I hit the end of your fourth line I spit milk all over my keyboard and screen. Took me 5 minutes to clean it up. ABSOLUTELY HILARIOUS!!! Tom

A. That's why I posted this. So everyone knows there's a price to pay sometimes for owning, building and flying a bird like this. It's not ALWAYS fun. Tom

I haven't posted on this thread for a while, but since this is a continuation from the build, thought it most appropriate to post here. Just over the last month or so a noise developed in my left wing. I could hear a small "pop" when fueling it and once in a while when stepping up on the wing to board and taxiing. I initially checked and found my rear spar bolt could be torqued a bit tighter, and an interference of the gear leg to carbon fiber on the belly. Correcting those items, the noise didn't change and, in fact, started getting more consistent and louder. After that trip just over a week ago, a mercy flight from KRST to KSAW, and one Young Eagles Flight, I determined I could no longer fly the plane without finding the noise. I had a friend help me horse on the left wing while I searched for the origin of the noise. I was able to narrow it down to the top of the main spar, but could see no interference at the gap between the wing and the wing fairing. It became painfully evident the wing needed to be separated from the fuselage. The entire interior had to be removed, flight controls disconnected, the wing tip removed and all wiring and pitot hosing disconnected, rolling bench supports under both the root and tip of the wing, and 2 wing main spar bolts removed (holding BOTH wings.... yep, had to support the other wing during the process too) as well as the aft spar bolt for the left wing. That meant removing a silicone sealed (for pressurization) cover. Oh ya, fuel removed and fuel lines too. ARGH!! So, once pulled a foot (wings are so tight that required a ratchet strap affixed to the wall and the wing to assist two men pulling as hard as they can), I found a witness mark on the spar that had all the over spray primer rubbed off and carbon fiber showing nice and shiny. Wondering how that was rubbing, as the possibility of the wing "bending" enough to cause this was nearly impossible, considering how close the mark was to the spar bolt and the substantial size of the spar at that point, I stuck the spar bolt in the spar and detected a bit of movement. I measured the bolt ..... it was .747". Researching that AN bolt spec, I found manufacturers "accepted" tolerance was .744" to .749". The .751" hole still had anodizing in it, so clearly it was not worn. I called my guru down in TN, as well as our LOBO (Lancair Owners and Builders Org) maintenance guru, and both felt the bolt to spar bushing fit was fine and within tolerance. So final determination was the factory wing mating procedure is to "build up" a small area on the spars for the spar box to be tightened against during that process. Once all measurements and wing positioning is good, the spar box is bonded to the fuselage floor. Where the carbon fiber was showing was actually part of the area where it's raised up. I simply needed to remove about .010" of the build up. In addition, having another Lancair IVPT in my hangar being finished up, we grabbed his bolts to see if they fit better. They were perfect, but were clearly some other material (lighter weight and dark in color). I called the owner of the other Lancair and found he had gotten Titanium Bolts made (from a Grumman/Lockheed supplier), and they were exactly .750". I researched the tensile and shear on those bolts, concerned about deviating from the original AN bolt the factory was using, and found they were 300% stronger in tensile (not really a benefit) and 250% stronger in shear, albeit a whole lot more expensive. I installed the wing, installed all the Titanium spar bolts, and horsed on the wing. Noise gone. That was one labor intensive job to get rid of an annoying and uncomfortable noise. Tom

Yes, it’s an option. I generally like North up on my display. Helps this old man with situational awareness. LOL. Tom

It’s all a matter of prospective. I’m a 23 year Mooney owner, who will NEVER LOSE THE LOVE OF MOONEY’s, hanging with my Mooney friends because that’s WHERE I want to be. When the complexity and speed of my Lancair exceeds my aging body and brain, I’ll return to the Mooney ranks, excited as hell to be back in the ranks with my friends!!! Tom

I made it late to KSAW for their Young Eagles rally today. I needed to bring back a heart surgery patient (they performed the procedure yesterday afternoon....crazy) this morning, and fog delayed me 2 hours. He REALLY appreciated the 7.5 hour drive being reduced to an hour and 3 minutes. We got some pictures just before departing RST. https://flightaware.com/live/flight/N994PT/history/20190817/1250Z/KRST/KSAW I felt guilty on the TV camera thing. WTH? A bunch of locals were flying kids all morning, I show and take one group and the TV guy comes chasing over to my plane. Sorry guys....... Tom

That is one of the best pieces of advice I've seen in a while. I WILL NEVER ALLOW A VOLUNTEER GROUND HANDLER MARSHAL ME INTO DAMAGING MY PLANE.....PERIOD. We will have a discussion outside my plane with the prop stopped. Sorry to hear about Seth's damage.... and a fellow Mooney Spacer gloating about it ?????? REALLY? Tom

Did you report a Sleep Apnea problem? I'm a lot older than you and I've never had anything like this to deal with. Tom

Did a flight to Pittsburgh Wednesday from the U.P. This plane still amazes me every time I fly it. Almost 600 nautical miles, with a full ILS approach into KAGS (do they ever have VFR weather in the morning there?), in 1:45. Simply amazing. YES, that was with a bit of tailwind. Still.... seeing just a couple hours on the return with headwinds. https://flightaware.com/live/flight/N994PT/history/20190814/1345Z/KIMT/KAGC SO, as I taxi out at KAGC for my return, the ground controller asks " what kind of turbine are you running in that? I remember you flying out of here a few weeks ago." Seems cool to be remembered for the look of the plane (or performance)..... instead of "the guy that screwed up the last time he was here". As I'm climbing out from Pittsburgh on my way home, center calls out "significant radar returns" ahead of me. I'm looking at my ADS-B weather and out the window and it does not appear to be an issue above FL200 (I'm filed for FL280). https://flightaware.com/live/flight/N994PT/history/20190814/2100Z/KAGC/KIMT . It's so nice to be above all the crap when it's not major thunderstorms! It looked a lot more benign out the window than it looked on my ADS-B (it was all colored in under me on the return, not like it looks on the Flight Aware track). So, I was cleared to FL270 as I climbing through FL260, and center calls out a westbound Conquest at my 1 o'clock, about 7 miles, at FL280. I acknowledge, (and finally figure out why I wasn't cleared to FL280). He then calls me out to the Conquest, as possible conflicting traffic, who then replies "did you say a Lancair?" Center replies, "yes, a Lancair". The Conquest then says "is that 994PT?" Center doesn't reply, so about 6-8 seconds later I said "affirmative". Never heard another word from the guy, didn't recognize his N number, and STILL have no clue who it was (N369WK) ?????? Don't know if I'm famous, infamous, or someone is just messing with me??? Tom

Sorry I couldn't make it over Saturday morning for that turbine ride I promised you. That funeral popped up on me unexpectedly. Let me know the next time you're in my neck of the woods and we'll get that ride for ya. Tom

I ALSO strongly agree with @carusoam and @kortopates. If not having been a Rocket question (for which I might be the highest time Rocket pilot “active” on this forum), I’ve passed over prior posts by you because I find the font difficult to read. I no longer fly it as I have moved up. But I’ve stuck around this forum because I felt, at least occasionally, I can contribute something useful from my 23 years of Mooney ownership (and 25 years working on them). I won’t go where some on Beach Talk went with me ( and a few just recently with a new member here) indicating “senior members “ should be off limits for newer posters to “question” or “ disagree with”. All members should have that option without getting their hands slapped. I no longer participate on Beach Talk for that very reason (and I have considerable Bonanza time as well). I WILL say though, Anthony ( @carusoam ) and Paul ( @kortopates ) are contributors that are both knowledgeable and respectful, and I DON’T skip past any of THEIR posts. Lastly, I hope you enjoy your ownership experience with your Rocket half as much as I did. It took an amazingly more capable and faster plane to move me off my Rocket. It’s an tremendously capable airplane. So impressive my expectations of a 3-5 year build on its replacement took 17 years because of how well it performed for me. Tom

You don't need to (Cascade). I drag a full bottle out to the airport every time I need to fill. I'm lucky if my big industrial tanks drop 100 pounds during a fill (and those bottles are always filled 1,800 to 2,000 when I grab them). I take them back to the fab shop at my dealership and they use them until they are empty. They go through 2-3 bottles a week, and I usually have 3 full ones in the rack. I DO have oxygen in the Lancair so would top that off anytime I have a bottle out there. When Chad was a smaller shop, he was using my O2 system. As he got larger, he wanted genuine "Aviators Oxygen" so offered to buy my filling equipment. He really didn't buy it, he gave me 5 free fills (which turned out to be 3 instead of 5), then was going to fill me for $25 from then on. A few years later my fills went to $50, and their "Cascade System of 4-5 bottles" was only topping me off to 1600. In all fairness, it was his guys not meeting our agreement, he was super busy with the growth of his business, going from 3-4 employees to probably over 30 now. I made up my own equipment again and decided instead of keeping two bottles at my hangar (with the associated lease costs) I would just grab a full bottle from work and return it after filling. It worked fine with the Rocket. Don't need it nearly as much with the pressurized bird. Tom

And not to take away from Scott’s thunder, what a beautiful upgrade. You will not be disappointed with the HP upgrade!!! And what a great looking airplane!!! Tom

And that coming from my ONE MOONEY FRIEND that never has the time to stop and see me every time he FLIES RIGHT OVER MY AIRPORT? At least @gsxrpilot felt I was worth the time to stop by and get some “stick time”, I might add, “LOG ABLE STICK TIME” in a turbine. Guess I know who my friends are. Maybe the rest of my friends are afraid PAUL set the bar too high!!! TOM

I didn't think there was such a thing, an overpowered airplane?? Tom (with 724 HP on a 2500 pound plane).

So how much you saving keeping that plane somewhere else besides KIMT? I used to fill my Mooney with a fresh topped off bottle every time (taken out of my stock bottle supply at my dealership). Probably only uses a couple bucks worth the O2. If you're working at the VA in IMT, we could work out a pretty simple arrangement...... and I have the filling equipment at my hangar. Tom