Oliver

I would say that's how ours were. Until they weren't. Maybe they retracted a bit slower. They however also started to come down immediately and hydrolocked after a little over 4 strokes. We however found it quite challenging to fine adjust the retraction speed as simply tightening the lock nut already impacts the speed.

Thank you very much again for all your responses. The flaps were working perfectly and only started to act up once the temperatures dropped to around freezing. When we overhauled the pump, we alos very thoroughly flushed the system and filled it with fresh fluid. Shadrach offered a chat, which I gladly accepted, before we rip everything apart again.

It probably doesn't hurt to also re-do the actuator and the hose between it and the pump, I however don't see how a leak there could cause the current symptoms. I'm rather thinking that the pump somehow sucks air when it's cold, what is however strange since it doesn't leak any hydraulic fluid. I know, most pilots seem to be happy with their hydraulic flaps, what makes it even weirder that we keep having these problems.

Hello, We keep having problems with our hydraulic flaps in low temperatures. It feels like we're pumping against against an air spring. We had the hydraulic pump overhauled about two years ago as we were having the exact same issues during the winter. Everything was perfect over the summer, the symptoms however reappeared as the temperatures dropped to around freezing. Frankly, we are tired of this and don't see how we can fix this problem for good. One option could be to convert it to electric flaps, what however appears to be a lot of work. I am also not quite certain of how we would even source the required parts, as I believe that the original conversion kit it not available anymore. The other option would be to drop it off a shop who has experience with the hydraulic flaps. We are based out of 1D2, just outside of Detroit, MI. Any recommendations for an experienced shop? Oliver

People keep mentioning Uber, Lyft, crew cars or even the line boy's personal vehicle. These services tend to be available only in larger cities. Great, if that's where somebody wants to go. The VAST majority of airports in the US however doesn't have any of that. Some have crew cars but even then there is always the risk that somebody else snatches it up just before you get there. Not great if your entire plan for the weekend depends on it. My wife and I once spent a night in the plane, because the crew car was gone when we arrived at 10 pm and there was no taxi service or anything else available to get us into town, which was several miles away. Most small airports are between 1 and 5 miles out of town. I think a folding bike (if it fits) or a OneWheel (for us short body Mooney owners) are a good way to cover such distances. I certainly prefer an uncomfortable ride over a loooong walk. Somebody also asked about e-scooters: That's what we originally wanted to get, they are however all more than 40" long, whereas our baggage compartment is only about 36" wide. We probably could have somehow made it work but they would have then taken up a lot of space.

As per your profile you have a M20k. Our E has (like the C) a smaller baggage compartment. We can't even get our 2 Daher Uno in. Ideally I would want two electric folding bikes, it's however just not feasible. Particularly not on longer trips, when we also have to fit luggage.

I guess I need to make more friends. I somehow never know anybody in the places to which we're going and Uber / Lyft is more of a thing in bigger cities. At least in Michigan. I like the idea of the OneWheel in the frunk. I also drive a Tesla, a OneWheel might come in handy on longer road trip that require charge stops!

It's certainly easier to get hurt with them than with a bike. However, since I became interested in them a few months ago I joined a few OneWheel groups on Facebook and Reddit. All the injuries I've seen so far were due to people doing stupid sh*t. People ride them on single track trails and use them to commute to work, it therefore seems that they are reasonably safe. I am aware that they are not for everybody. For those who enjoy things like that, they are however a super compact means of transportation.

I thought I'd share this as I know that others are having the same problem. We like to fly to smaller airports of which most don't even have a courtesy car. Even if they do, we can't count on that it's still available when we get there and they also usually can't be kept overnight. To drive the last miles to where we want to go, we have two Dahon Uno folding bikes. While there are great, only one of them fits in the baggage compartment, the other has to go on the backseat. Loading the bike on the back seat is however a pain, the two bikes also take up most of the cargo space. Electric scooters turned out to be too long, we therefore settled on a OneWheel PintX. For now we just bought one, to see how we like it. The plan is however to get a second OneWheel. The PintX has a range of up to 18 miles and a top speed of just under 20 mph. Other than that they have a bit of a learning curve, they seem to be a great solution for us. They take up very little space, in fact ours even fits next to the folding bike into the baggage compartment. The only real downside I see is that driving on public roads is in many areas tolerated but technically not legal, just like an e-scooter or an electric skateboard. I attached a few pictures of the OneWheel in our baggage compartment, with and without the bike, as well as of my wife riding it.

Haha, that's about what I figured. We already had the lever removed, I then just snipped off the wire on both ends. With the lever out, it is easy to take it apart and to see how it will go back together. The new 0.055" diameter spring steel wire is supposed to arrive today. I will give the housing (if this is the correct term) and good rinse with LPS-1 and then put the new wire in. The old wire was REALLY stuck in there, decades of old oil pretty much turned into glue. It took all of my strength to get it to move, after the first few inches it however became suddenly very easy. Anyway, the plan is to push the new wire up from the pump end, connect it to the lever, reinstall the lever and to then connect the pump end. Should be easy peasy, right?

Thank you! We were planning to only replace the wire, so that's good. I figured that if I ask my doctor to amputate two or three of my fingers, I should also be able to re-attach the cable to the lever.

OK, thank you for your help! :-)

Thank you for your response. Do you by any chance remember if you had to remove some of the avionic trays and the mixture / prop cables?

We struggle to disconnect the cable for the hydraulic flap control from the small control lever in the cockpit. There is neither enough space to remove (and more importantly reinstall) the nut and the bolt, that holds the end of the wire nor is the bracket that holds the cable removable without taking much the panel apart. Is there an easy trick to this? Oliver

I assume you managed to get it fixed!? We want to replace ours but struggle to get access to where it attaches to the lever. How much stuff did you take apart to replace it?

"[...] its southerly course its ground speed increased to 240 knots. [...] Engineering analysis and testing by the airframe manufacturer predicted the onset of flutter to occur at 241 knots. [...]" OK, it's groundspeed and not airpeed, but if anything the N231BY crash is proof of the good engineering that went into Mooneys, as flutter occured pretty much exactly where predicted. So, yeah, stay within the published envelope and you'll be fine. No need to add extra safety margins, as the Mooney engineers already took care of this for you.

??? I was responding to MMsuper21's statements that 170 kts TAS would exceed the M20E's Vne of 165 kts, which is however defined in CAS and not TAS. At typical cruise altitudes, 165 kts CAS would however translates to over 180 kts TAS, hence at 170 kts TAS the wings will stay on.

Yes, but this is CAS. At a typical cruise altitude, this translates to +180 kts TAS.

We have a M20E with a few speed mods. We are getting around 150kts TAS @ 8,000 ft and 10 gal / hr. I understand that a J would be only slightly faster, given the same conditions and fuel flow. Where the E shines, though, is take off and climb performance, as the shorter body is lighter.

Wow, their interior kits look really nice and seem to be quite affordable. Interesting. I could have sworn it was also wider on the shoulders but probably it was indeed just the additional space at the armrest that lead to this perception. Oliver

Haha, not really but I still like your answer. It‘s just that the cockpit felt so much more spacious than our M20E that I have a hard time believing that something relatively minor like new door panels could be responsible for that.

I am aware that this is an older thread but can't find a definitive answer to the cabin width question. I sat a while ago in an Ovation and thought that the cabin is quite a bit wider than the one of our M20E. I don't think that it only had more elbow room, I also felt to have more room at the shoulders. Did somebody actually measure the cabin width of a J or newer model? If yes, at what point did you take the measurement? I would then take the same measurement in our M20E. Oliver

I called LASAR today, but they are not making the kit anymore. They gave me the number of Paul, the previouse owner, but he seems to be gone until next week.

I'm interested in this as well, may I ask if you found out if this conversion kit still exists?

This might or might not be a factor for you: I understand that the G5 can be installed by a local A&P. I'm not sure if this is also possible with the Aspen.