AlexLev

Happy to be a part of the Mooney family and wanted to share a story! I flew into Potsdam (PTD) on Friday evening with the plan to meet up with some friends in Ogdensburg and go hiking the next day in the Adirondacks. I didn't fly into OGS since they are some price gouging bastards and really need to be the target of an AOPA campaign of sorts.. (they charge you $100 if you fly in after 4pm on weekdays to open the door for you for a single engine piston and apparently it's another $100 to fly out on the weekends). I'd rather pay for a $100 cab ride than support that sort of pricing structure for single engine pistons (although slightly off topic, but our Lyft driver back told us that if you call the local police station in OGS they will let you in and out of the airport for free). Before flying into PTD, I looked at Lyft/Uber and saw there were drivers in the area, but when we flew in, I go to request and there were no cars available. I called the local taxi company and they said they couldn't send anyone out that way since they only had one car on the road (it's about a 45 minute drive). My wife and I are a bit stranded when I see a beautiful Mooney land. It's a gorgeous 305 Rocket with a fresh paint job and it turns out to be @aviatoreb! He didn't even hesitate after talking for a bit and let us borrow his car for a night! I was so grateful to see such kindness displayed among us and hope to be able to pay it forward in the future! If any of you ever need anything around my homebase in KIAG, please reach out!

G is my first plane. I love the bird. Although, an F is tempting but I don't think I would have not bought the G had I gone around again. More about the planes condition. An F will probably do 5-10 knots faster than my G. I get 136kts (138 if I'm light) at altitude or 141-144 at higher power down low (i.e. if I run 25 squared or 24 squared). If an F was on the market in same condition for about the same price, I'd take it over the G were I to do it all over again. Fuel injection and the more precise mixture control would be nice to have, but hey at least I can overhaul my engine a bit cheaper.

Hot damn.

I do like CYTZ, but the fees there are ridiculous. More to park there than at Teterboro. Seems like the norm for a lot of Canadian larger airports (Quebec City was also crazy, but luckily I discovered CNV9). There is another FBO outside of Porter (Stolport) which has slightly less fees, I usually park there if I'm coming and departing same day.

@RobertGary1not quite, Penn Yann offers a 3 year or 2000 hour warranty on their overhauled engines IIRC. I had my overhaul done at Jewell in March (their warranty is not as good over there). They stayed on schedule and I have about 110 hours on the overhauled engine so far.

I completely agree. Needless to say, it was interesting to hear how it went down and educational for those of who have never flown VFR into OSH.

I actually loved 53A, the balls to admit he didn't have the NOTAM, ask for directions. He did so pretty respectfully and kindly and the controllers were pretty helpful. It was educational to listen to for someone who has never arrived VFR into OSH (I was a pax for someone flying in IFR once but that seemed pretty straightforward as if just doing an IFR approach).

Shot you a message. Good luck!

Heh yeah - got it fixed today. I think what happened was after tightening the alternator belt, the higher current from alternator to catch up to charging the battery tripped and maybe short circuited the breaker, so we had to replace the breaker ($160 for the part) and we also charged the battery externally before firing up so as not to have a similar problem and now all works swimmingly.

Update: seemed to be a simple loose alternator belt at first. After tightening, seemed like the battery was charging again (in fact the ampere was showing a full deflection to the right). So I was flying home and then all of a sudden, noticed a discharge again so I turned around to troubleshoot. The field wire was showing a voltage, but the battery wire was not. Turns out that it seemed to short circuit the main circuit breaker, perhaps on the high amp charge on the flight home to the battery. Ordered this ancient beauty for $160 + $80 overnight shipping (ugh): http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/elpages/klixoncb-pdlm-70i.php - Hopefully replacing the breaker will be the end of this! For reference I have the PlanePower alternator (generator to alt conversion on this Mooney).

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone! I'll call the shop and see if I can get in and test some things out before my next scheduled night flight. If the cigarette lighter is charging iPads, etc. with no issues - does this indicate there may not be a problem? I'm not really sure how that plug works and whether it's driven off the alternator, how much voltage, etc.

Was flying home in the middle of the night yesterday - had all the lights on for night flight and noticed about a 20-30 amp discharge on the factory gauge. I turned off some stuff and got it down to a 5-10amp discharge. However, my ALT INOP indicator never came on (I've had the alternator inop once and that light did come on and I noticed the needle completely deflected for the discharge in those cases) so I don't think it was an alternator failure. If I turn off everything except the anti-collision lights (during day flight), it's just slighly below the 0, which I may not have noticed in the past during the scan. Any suggestions? Could it be a bad probe? Is there a way to test if my battery is truly discharging in these circumstances? I have one other night flight planned later this week and wanted to see what I could do to figure this out beforehand. It's one of those factory gauges, nothing fancy.

Great! I’ll look for your Mooney if I end up there!

Last minute, but if anyone has no plans tomorrow and looking for a mission: check this out: https://www.funplacestofly.com/aviation-event-details.asp?EventID=23086 Good cause and every pilot and their pax gets a free breakfast. I plan to get in around 10:30am if anyone plans to show up let me know and I’ll PM you my number so we can meet up.

Cowl flaps are fixed unfortunately on the G as well. And regarding Lake Placid: it's definitely a strange airport, I did my initial IFR cross country with my instructor there and have had one more instrument approach into it before when there were clouds before, but last time I actually broke out and saw the field. This time I was in solid IMC and even though I was in no danger of hitting any obstacles and having ForeFlight open with the terrain page would have probably helped ease my discomfort, so that's a good tip -- I still wanted to climb as much as possible as quickly as possible on the missed.

If you look at the approach plate for LKP, https://resources.globalair.com/dtpp/globalair_09371r14.pdf - the MAP is not over the airport. LKP is in a bowl in between two mountains and often times is clear where everything else may be fogged in, so even though I was IMC at MAP, LKP itself only had a few clouds (but I didn't get that information until I was flying the missed, since the airport wasn't staffed until that point). And yea - I noticed my CHTs high but at the moment didn't prioritize that info just to make sure I didn't mess up the missed approach.

@kmyfm20s I would hope I was full rich during the approach, although I cannot specifically remember right now. I have a carb engine and they told me it was set as "too rich" causing the intake port to be all caked up with excessive carbon. I think they set it a little less, at the consequence of a little higher CHTs but I generally can keep it below 400F during climbouts. On the hotter days, I just need to be super conscious of it and can't have any ground idle time, which means getting clearance ahead of time, loading into 430 before starting engine, etc.

Well, I messed up yesterday. I was flying IFR to Lake Placid and had no idea what the weather was over Lake Placid (since it doesn't report wx), but nearby Saranac Lake was reporting IFR ceilings. I knew Lake Placid was in a bowl and often times is VFR when nearby airports are IFR. I kept calling Unicom to ask about weather conditions over the field, but no one answered since it was before 9am. Boston center asks me what approach I want and I ask for the Rnav 14 into LKP and get down to minimums and I'm in the soup hand flying. There are peaks taller than me around me that I can't see and I'm somewhat uncomfortable, although I'm dead center on the approach. At MAP, I'm still in the soup so I go missed which is a climbing right turn to 5000 from 3320. Well, in that short climb up to 2000ft, my CHTs spiked to about 435 (well the hottest cylinder anyway, the others ones were probably 404, etc) (redline is 450) in the climbing right turn. I climbed at VY because I just wasn't comfortable being in the soup and having peaks higher than me around. I stayed dead center on approach the whole time, but didn't dare put my nose down too much because it was like 90F and my climb rate was otherwise anemic. I got the CHTs under control after reaching 5000ft, but felt so bad, especially since I just recently overhauled the engine on the bird. However, I don't think a minute at these CHTs really hurt anything (or at least that is what I'm telling myself). I then fly over to LKP and sure enough, I could see the airport and did a spiral descent down. Well, here's another mistake: I was a little too high on final and initiated a slip. I touched down, but the airplane bounced 3-4 times before settling down. I should have gone around after the first bounce, but I was afraid of getting the engine super hot again in the climb (would have been fine it's only a thousand feet and I'm VFR at this point) and missing our ride out of the airport (that should never stop me from going around!). I have over 400 hours in this plane and I think it's the first time I bounced her. Luckily, nothing was damaged except my pride and ego in that landing, but jeez...I couldn't stop thinking about it for the whole day. Lessons learned: 1) When flying to LKP, before initiating an instrument approach, go direct field and see if it's VFR there (if Unicom doesn't answer). Maybe avoid shooting an approach in if it's an extensively hot day with high density altitude. 2) Never hesitate to go around because of external pressures. I'm happy there was no prop strike and only my ego was bruised, but it could have been worse. 3) @Sabremech - maybe your cowl would fix the higher CHTs on these Vintage birds?

Did you do it yourself? Mechanic? How many hours did it take?

@HRMHow much are they on Aviall? Is there a way to order from them if you're not a business? Cheapest I've found so far is http://www.chiefaircraft.com/ld-j11968-14.html at $109/each and I think free shipping if you buy over $500 worth.

Update: The problem with my kx175b was just that; a broken knob. One of the little screws inside it shaved off to the point it wouldn't catch. The fix was just replacing the knob. My avionics guy took a quick look and fixed it in a minute. However, that unit is now my backup because it turned out my buddy had an unused mx170b in his basement. I popped it in and using it indefinitely and keeping the kx175b as a backup or whenever my friend decides he wants his unit to sell or whatever.

Bought two years ago with 900SMOH, overhauled 2003. Put 300 hours on it. Engine started making metal about 75hours in..during overhaul, two lifters were severely spalled. Plane did have a period of sitting when I bought it.

Do any shops pull the interior during the annual to take a look at the tubing? Even Don Maxwell doesn't..

You can try Pray Aviation http://www.prayaviation.com - the complex plane they have is a M20C, so I am sure the instructors are probably pretty decent Mooney pilots.

That seems really cheap if you had new gear biscuits put in. Did you supply the parts? My annual this past year was $2400 (first annual) and I didn't really have any significant squawks. They replaced instrument filters, inspected nose gear, tightened gear clamp on steering linkage, removed a birds nest, cleared manifold pressure line, sprayed corrosion x, charged me some labor for repacking the bearings, checking caliper, etc and changed a brake line. Pretty much it. They billed me 3.5 hours for checking ADs so that added to the cost.