Yooper Rocketman

I'm at the office right now, but will be heading to my hangar in an hour. I will take a picture and try to get you some dimensions. Tom

I haven't had a line guy yet fill my plane completely unless I supervised the filling. I have the dumb sh*t "anti-siphon" paddles, the ones that seal off the tank if you are stupid enough to take off without the fuel cap on. Before installing the long range tanks, I routinely ended up 8 gallons (4 per wing) short if I didn't add 4 more gallons SLOWLY after reaching the paddles with fuel (which NO LINE GUY will ever do). The only way to completely fill that last 4 gallons is to vent the tank out the actual fuel tank vent, which means a very slow fill at the end. Now with the long range tanks, I fill the inboards to the paddles, fill the outboards, return to the inboards and slow fill until to the cap, then install the cap and return to the outboard again and top off. You DON'T want to pull your inboard cap at this point, or you will port fuel over. Regardless, if your fuel up needs to be full (long flight or cheap fuel), you are much better off fueling the plane yourself. Tom

Which one?

I certainly believe there can be an attitude that IFR pilots are "better" than VFR pilots, but as has been noted, the skills of each group spread the spectrum from poor to very good. I couldn't use my plane for my mission without the rating, but rarely log much IMC time. I have always stated to my local pilots, you are not on a cross country flight until you stop for fuel and your next leg is still outbound (although 201er has kind of destroyed that concept). I have a friend that routinely flew from the U.P. of Michigan to St Pete, FL several times a year, and never possessed an IFR rating. I would fly with him anytime. But.....he had a lot of times he sat wanting to fly down or back because of weather he could have easily flown in with his IFR ticket. He wasn't resisting the rating, just couldn't find time as a truck driver to complete his ticket. I've got 8 states (including Alaska) yet to complete my 49 (will never fly to the Island), but then I am REALLY OLD. I posted earlier this year a situation where my sister's life was saved due to "training" to get her IFR ticket, even though she never obtained the rating. Might be a good read if you didn't see that post. Tom

DItto for me on the Madison FBO. But the policy has no bearing on me. I will never stop at an FBO and not patronize them without purchasing SOME fuel. I had one time recently with Jet Center in Green Bay where I couldn't put fuel on because of picking up passengers but assured them I would be back in 3 days and fill up. They waived the fee and I filled up with 50+ gallons several days later. That said I stopped using Executive Air on the Green Bay airport about 2 years ago after being a regular customer for over 20 years. They adopted a new policy that required a full top off or a ramp fee. My Rocket holds 105 gallons and is NEVER topped off unless I am doing a really long cross country flight. I read Air Nav comments as to the policy change, got direct feedback from our local CFII that the policy was being enforced, and then called the FBO to verify this was actually the case, even explaining how that wouldn't work for me and I would likely put more full on than many would by topping off. They confirmed the policy. I posted on Air Nav why I changed FBO's ( https://www.airnav.com/airport/KGRB/EXECUTIVE_AIR ) and I got a phone call the next day. They said they would waive the fee FOR ME (I had done a lot of business with them over the last 20 years), but that was their new "general" policy. I don't like "special treatment" and as such, told him I had made my decision and wasn't changing my mind now. It was clear the new FBO manager had screwed up, because by the time he posted a response to my comments, their policy was changed, trying to make me look like I was uninformed. Bottom line; do your homework before arriving to an FBO as to their fees, realize the FBO's don't make money to pay the airport lease, lights and payroll without revenue from us, and it's almost always a better bang for your buck to just order fuel and you are making a statement that you appreciate they are their providing us service. If you feel you are NOT being treated fairly, find a different place to part with your money. Tom

I've had flat nose tires on landing twice in the last 4 years. I had the elevator back in my stomach trying to stop it without a prop strike. Had more clearance than I thought when I got out. You definitely need to watch your loading and W&B. I have holes in the seat rails for full aft on the passenger seat. Have no idea how they got there but that helps a ton with a heavy passenger. I've even made them ride in the back seat if I couldn't make it work. Tom

Nor mine

Well, Wednesday after flight testing a bunch of stuff around the airport we decided to fill the belly tank and wings completely (164 gallons) and head straight west to the westerly limit of my test area (about 150 miles west). Mechanically the plane has been flawless. My test pilot said he would have no problem taking it the Florida after the second flight (can't, but still pretty nice to hear from him). We tried pressurizing for the first time and got enough to go to 16.5 with a 10K cabin. Once I could hold a decent course and altitude my test pilot pointed at my TAS on the G3X. It was 300 knots. We're not even to the sweet spot on this bird (24k-28k). I can't wait to see what she will do up there. Anyway, it's been so stressful I have had little time to ENJOY this bird. Looking out at my wings, wing-lets, the engine cowl, and back at the horizontal and elevator, it dawns on me "I built this with my own hands, in my garage, and it handles 300 knots like it's been flying for years". Absolutely amazing! Thought I would share our take-off yesterday morning. If you look at the runway markers we are off by the 1,000' point. As we climb to the south towards an amazing sky, the plane looks like it's heading home to the angels. Sorry guys, I'm giddy now!! Oh, as a last comment. I get more excitement (and more positive feedback) from my Mooney friends than the Lancair community. I share my stuff with YOU GUYS FIRST!! You guys ROCK! I might have to keep my Mooney so I can stay on this Forum. Tom

That's what you have to do to "attempt" to keep it at or below 120 knots for gear retract when you blow past 80 knots for rotation and it's almost 120 at lift off. I did much better today! Tom

Well, It happened today. 7,955 build hours, 17 years and 9 months of hard work, it officially became an airplane today!! This is the second flight, my first in the left seat. What an absolute amazing machine!! Tom

Thanks for that info. Can't say I was aware of that issue! Tom

Pretty much thought that was a given, as you are the only Mooney Space member to visit during the build!!

Ahhh, you were the first Mooney guy on the list already!! Especially a fellow Rocket Guy. Tom

You're on my list of guys I want to give a ride to!!

Well, it made noise for the first time today. Airworthiness Inspection tomorrow and if we can knock out some electronics issues it might even fly soon. Just a couple notes. Yes, we forgot to reattach the nose gear actuating links after removing the lower cowl (swinging in the prop blast). The red streamers hanging from the nose gear area are attached to a nose gear safety lock, to keep the gear from an undesirable retract. The burp in the engine part way through is my engine guy testing the emergency fuel cut-off. Tom

I will still need paint and interior. Will likely own the Rocket for another year anyway. My engine builder is on his way up right now to conduct final checks on the install and hopefully run it today. http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N213JC If all goes well maybe I can post another video of it actually running. If no complications, we get our airworthiness inspection tomorrow and maybe a first flight tomorrow afternoon or Thursday. After 17 1/2 years, this is getting exciting!! You know you're getting close when the work sessions end at 3 AM. Tom

Eventually, but not for a while.

Pretty neat day on Thursday. First engine crank to get oil topped off. If no more major setbacks, my engine guy will be firing it up on Tuesday and we will go into airworthiness inspection on Wednesday. Tom

Yes, I always pump it a couple pumps before closing the door (use 4-5 for normal flight closure) when leaving the plane outside while traveling. I had found rain penetrated the door a couple times prior to that procedure. Tom

I fought leaky door seals in my first two planes constantly (or the door fit too tight). I have had the inflatable seal for 15 years and wouldn't want it any other way. We are currently fitting the inflatable door seal on my project plane as I speak. Tom

Just an update. I ordered the hose from Tiger Direct for under $12 and it ships UPS ground for FREE. I even called to make sure this was right and the lady almost got mad because I questioned that. Oh well, new hose will be here in a week or so.

Had to make a quick trip to our Florida home to repair Hurricane Mathew damage. Saw a very nice sunrise over Lake Michigan on the way down, with a slight tail wind. You know you bought property on a neat place to vacation when are driving to your home with the traffic like I had in front of me. Tom

My coiled hose running from my hand pump to the inflatable door seal has degraded pretty badly. I have cut it off and reattached it several times and the hose just simply needs to be replaced. I called and left a message 3-4 days ago, and then emailed them yesterday (Bob Fields Aerocessories) and have received no reply. The website seems current and the hose they depict on the website has different connections, so I wanted to be sure to get the right one ordered. Anyone know if they are still in business or another option to purchase this hose? Tom

I had one shortly after purchasing mine, in a situation I would NOT have had with my F model. I was taxiing on a ramp where they were doing construction work and a large dump truck was driving past me fairly close. I veered on the ramp, watching him more closely than the ramp, and taxied over a drainage grate with about a 1 1/2" drop. It was enough to hear a funny noise. Getting out I found damage just enough past my IA dressing out (in other words, $2000 back in 2001). I called Darwin Conrad and he recommended a couple things. Make sure the nose tire is at 49 lbs! Change the nose gear donuts every 4-5 years. I've done both and added one more precaution. I taxi with the elevator all the way pulled back. It will raise the nose up another inch just from the prop wash. Never even had a close call after implementing those three procedures.

Headed to our new (to us ) Florida winter retreat to spend a hard 4 days working on it (a week ago Saturday). My best friend headed down the Thursday before with our "Florida car", trailer, golf cart and of course; tool box. We beat him there even though we left Saturday AM (had a bit of a tail wind and got to see sunrise over Lake Michigan). My wife commented we will not be able to make these first 4 or 5 trips for more than 4 days, as we were exhausted by the third day (took us until the third day to get the hangar clean enough to store the Mooney in). The house we bought is really nice on the inside, but the the 84 year old owner had not done much on the outside in a long time. The home is on a taxiway, so we share the road with airplanes. We headed over to Fairhope (Mobile area) AL midweek for the Lancair/LOBO Annual Convention this past weekend, dodging thunder storms and heavy rain the whole way. http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N1017L/history/20160928/1830Z/7FL6/KCQF Trip home yesterday was a cake walk. Tom