PeteMc

I understand getting the speed up. But which way do the blades flex when you start that process. I was thinking there was more of a flex when you go to slow and the mass of the helicopter pulls down away from the blades when you go to slow down, then (my term) bounces back up and can some times cause the blades to flex. But that's just my guess based on how inertia and mass can react with a moving body and flexible pieces.

There was an "expert" on that said that with those kind of helicopters, an improper auto rotation procedure could cause the blades to hit the boom. I would then think the blades would all shatter off as we saw in the video of them missing from the helicopter and appearing to fall in pieces. I know very little about helicopters. But I'm unsure about the "experts" comment because I wouldn't think there would be any initiation of auto rotation until much lower when you use what little inertia you have from the blades to use up to slow you're contact with the ground/water. I would think it would just be full collective in the appropriate direction to build up the speed/inertia you're going to use when you get down very low. Any "rotor heads" here that can educate us?

I use the spray on cleaners too. But the Foam Cannon looks great for after a long XC or if you've been doing a lot of flying when the Wx is bad and you haven't had time to keep up on the Spray/Wipe cleaning. I'm thinking the Foam Cannon would be great just to cut through that first layer of grime and making the polishing cleaning a bit easier.

Thanks!

I was looking at this thread again and noticed you use the Foam Cannon. I'm not a big fan of pressure washers with planes, but do you know if it will work with low pressure or even out of the faucet pressure and still get a good foaming action? I like the idea of a pre wash with the foam to dissolve the grime and rinse most of the dirt off. But again, personally I don't think you should be pressure washing a Mooney. It would be too easy to actually push grime and grit into areas you don't want it and you'll never get it clean... Until your mechanic has to start taking things apart due to the corrosion.

Kind of my point... And in theory it only has to happen on the first call. (And I should have written it out like @AJ88V did.) Enunciate only on the first call and I bet you'll be fine: One <beat> Zero <double beat> one <beat> fife <double beat> Echo. I get that they may still blow it when they look at it, but most of the human nature part is the INITIAL mental registration of your N# (or anything else that can get swapped). If you make note of it and call it out, subconsciously there is a good chance they'll make note as well.

Might be all in the cadence... Try "NY Approach, Mooney 10 15 E" and see what happens. Sort of like the phone messages I love to hear where some one leaves there phone number rattled off faster than I've ever heard any controller give a full route clearance. Sure, THEY know their own number and can rattle it off that fast. But not really helpful for the person they're leaving it for.

My preference is a sweep second hand. Not sure if I have a Mitchell aircraft clock or not, but it sure looks like one of their very basic analog clocks. Problem with the digital is that there are more "digits" to remember. With the sweep hand you just mentally picture the clock and you know where 1 minute is for your Holds, etc. For an actual approach, I used a kitchen timer clipped to my Lapboard during training. Now days I have a timer in ForeFlight. Another advantage of a clock with hands is for fuel balance. I look at the minute hand and if it pointing to the right side of the clock, I should be on the right tank, left should be left tank. So if I was talking to ATC or just contemplating my navel, if I'm unsure if I switched tanks, I just look at the clock. And then there's your Engine Monitor... the cheaper the clock the less reason not to add the EDM900. Talk to the mechanic and let them know you want to add an EDM and as they are looking at the plane, keep that in mind for work that can be deferred. There may be some things that can wait a year that will let you get the EDM. There also may not be and may be some other big ticket items, but if the shop knows the big picture going into the Annual it can only help.

And have you shared the names of these shops? I was lucky when I first got my plane that I already knew some Mooney owners. But I'm guessing @Thedude would love a list a KNOWN good Mooney shops in the area since it looks like he may be a neighbor of your if he was thinking about Top Gun.

Interesting... Hopefully @Thedude was told going into his purchase by multiple people that the first Annual (at any shop) is going to be expensive. They are not going to know the plane and they are not going to know what the prior mechanic had on a list of rotating maintenance to keep the plane safe, but to spread out the costs. So I think any shop is going to make sure everything is "fixed" before signing off. But if you go to a non Mooney shop, you don't know what Mooney specifics might be missed - or screwed up.

Call now since it is your first and you're a new customer. They'll probably tell you to call back, which is fine. But get on their radar now. And are they the shop you are currently using for oil changes and any other minor things that come up? You want to build a reputation with the shop you're going to be using, and it works both ways. I recently moved, so I'm building a new relationship with the shop here. But I could call the shop I used for decades a day or two out and see if I could come in for a quick oil change and seldom they'd say no. They'd also put in a loose booking for my Annual before I even called (months out), because they knew when I typically liked to have it done. But they also had no problem calling me and asking if we could move or delay things if they had an AOG (Aircraft On Ground) for someone that just came in with a problem that was going to prevent a trip or some other timely issue. I didn't have a problem since it was a two way street that worked out for both of us. (I think I prob. only got one or two calls over the years asking for a day or so delay.)

Be sure to try and find an LED bulb that works. Odds are you'll never need to change it again.

I don't have the link for the plan, maybe it's when you go in the "Order" or if you're logged in as a User. But in the help section they do state: Supports aircraft ground speeds with <250kts, land and ocean: Mobile Priority at $250/mo.

"GBLB" engine? I know of the GB my K originally had and the LB when I did the engine. Not sure what a GBLB engine is.

In the M20J POH I looked at, it says approx. 12" MP (13-15 for the 231). If you have a PDF of your POH, try searching for "gear horn" and it should come up. To check it, you pull the power back in flight with the gear up. Adjustments might take a few flights if it got wacked or came loose and needed a major calibration.

I'm not sure of the specific units, but some GI 275 variants can be installed by an AP, others need to be installed in a Garmin shop. I think the difference might be with the ADAHRS and Auto Pilot versions.

Do you hear or feel it, or just see it on the instruments?

I still have my external DUAL GPS/ADS-B device from before I upgraded my panel. So that's my backup if I loose everything. So I don't have any need to have GPS in my iPad, but if you want it as just GPS backup, it is a consideration. As for updates, etc., I'm already paying for Internet in my phone, so no need to have it in my iPad that I might use once or twice a year. Not a lot of money, but I just don't see the need. I haven't had a Cellular GPS since they first came out, and it was only for that one iPad as I always had Internet and GPS from other sources.

Sure, if you HAVE a Tanis heater! And I get Paul New's point... But did he clarify how much "old" oil was really retained? My guess is that it is not much in reality. And if you're changing the oil frequently, is it really an issue? Well... I guess if you're having engine issues and you're always getting all sorts of crap in your oil, it might matter.

So 48oz, 1qt oil & 16oz of Cam Guard, got blown out the oil vent tube. You want to put 7qts in max at an oil change. Run the engine and make sure everything is okay and you may show 6-7 qts. Let it sit a day or more and then check, where you may find you have MORE than 7qts. Since you probably ran the engine to get the oil warm before the oil change, all the engine parts were still covered in oil. It will take a while in the TSIO-360 for that oil to move down out of the engine.

I'm guessing you may not have flown that many places or only smaller airports. Or you've been damn lucky! But in addition to NY I can actually pull up "landing fee" since the late 90 from: CA, MA, MD, MT, NH & TX. And I know I've paid landing fees in MULTIPLE other states, but it was just on the fuel bill and I didn't break it out. The ones I'm reasonably certain of are AZ, CO, IL, WY and maybe SD. I haven't paid any here in WA yet, but I have heard of a few airports that do charge them (BFI I believe is one). And I'm excluding the large Airports, I paid over $1,600 when I had to make an emergency landing at JFK when I lost a cylinder. I don't remember what the Landing Fee portion of that was, but it was up there. It may have been over $100 and I think partially because of the time of day I landed. The rest was Ramp and Service Fees for the time the plane was there while the mechanic figured out what was wrong, order the parts and then do the repairs so I could fly out. And if I remember correctly, they even cut me a break. Regretfully with so many St/Co/Cities cutting their budgets, fees have popped up at a lot of airports. Many are waved if you buy fuel or they are only a couple of bucks, so if you don't actually look at the fuel bill closely, it blends in with the other taxes and you may not notice it. I remember a Ramp fee in TX that was pretty high, maybe $8, and the FBO said it was the city's fee, not theirs and they could not wave it.

Now that's a reason for the Bill in MT or anywhere else. And as someone else said, it should be a Fed law. I've seen a bunch of thread pop up in all sorts or groups yelling and screaming about Vector being a "fee-based bottom-feeding" (sorry @dkkim73 ) because... They used technology to offer State, Co. City or whomever, a less expensive way to process their Landing Fees that they were going to send out anyway. And they used ADS-B because, sorry folks, they CAN. So the issue should be the first part of what dkkim73 pointed out "...prevent use of public ADS-B data for other than safety and navigational purposes..." and everyone should just stay away from the Landing Fees and Vector. That's just going to be "whining" in the view of those you want to get onboard to get behind any kind of ADS-B Bills throughout the States or Fed. And again, one big downside is that it is States, Cos & City governments that are probably the biggest clients of any company that wants to help with Landing Fees or any other kinds of billing in the future. There are a number of people in our Gov... and close associates that would love nothing more than to privatize ATC. So that ATC billing MIGHT be because you flew through someone's airspace as in other parts of the world. This is nothing new, they've been talking about it for years. But now they're in a position to potentially do it. (It's a shame how MOST of them (any side, any time) talk a great talk, then change when they get in "power." Then the few that are there to really do good, get rolled over.)

DON'T YELL AT THE MESSENGER.... Just pointing out that at the Airport I was based out of for a few decades (KFRG) had the Ops people sitting in the window listing to the Twr/CTAF and with binoculars to make sure they got the N# for the landing fee. If it was night and they didn't hear the N# and couldn't read it, they drove out on the ramp. KFRG is a NY State Airport. The Landing Fees are unlikely to go away. So my tax dollars were paying for this extra person to sit there with all the benefits and overhead above the salary. So the technology, IF DONE CORRECTLY, would save NY State residents money. Also, over the decades, there are a LOT of Airports that started charging Landing Fees that had nothing to do with ADS-B, so by blocking using ADS-B is not going to stop the landing fees, if anything, it is going to add the cost into the fee to do it manually. AGAIN, before you jump on me, think about it. Are the fees in MT, or anywhere else, going to stop because of the ban on ADS-B use for tracking landings at an Apt? As for Vector and the incorrect billing I've heard occasionally happens, I'd rather see a Bill that allowed me to charge for my time to correct that billing error!! As we're not going to stop the fees. Or maybe a Bill that required them to include a Pic of my plane actually ON the Runway included on the invoice.

Same thing for me. Figure out the MP setting for your plane that will give you the speed you want in the descent with the gear down. Then set for that power well before the FAF. About a half dot before intercepting the GS/GP I drop the gear and you start down as you intercept the GS/GP. Then, as the others have said, when you break out you can easily adjust the power to slow and add flaps as needed.

I had just seen him hit the snow berm the first time I watched it. Totally missed the wabbling wings and sudden increase in the sink rate in those last few seconds. But even so... I hope there's a new note for those that maintain B18 that there will be no snow berms at either end of the Rwy.