Skates97

My wife has a visor that just lives in the plane...

When you say it won't start is it turning the prop over or is the prop stopping when it hits the first compression stroke? I had a problem where when the engine was hot it would start to turn and then as soon as it hit the first compression stroke it would stop. Repeated tries would eventually get it started. I don't have a skytech starter but someone posted the link to their troubleshooting page. http://www.skytecair.com/Troubleshooting.htm "The Bump & Run" described my problem exactly. I replaced the starter solenoid and haven't had any problems since in about 60 hours of flying and starts in all kinds of conditions, including after flying for hours, landing in 100+ degrees, fueling, and starting back up. (You can't get much more of a "hot start" condition than that...)

I am of the opinion that as we get closer and closer to the 2020 Mandate that there will be more options at a lower price than what we have seen so far.

If we could find the combination of my temp staying where it is and your pressure where it is that would be perfect.....

If you're talking about N74770 it is a 1961M20B, not a J. I know there's someone here that flew it recently but I can't remember who.

Mine seems to sit right at about 180° whether climbing, cruise, whatever... It has the oil cooler in the nose. I do have to adjust climb to help keep my CHT temp down (just the single monitor on the #3 cylinder), but the oil temp seems to stay fairly constant. The one thing I do notice is that at full power and 2,700 rpm on take off I see my oil pressure right in the middle of the green arc, but once everything is all the way warmed up and I dial the rpm's back the oil pressure sits at the bottom of the green arc.

Hank, just to make you jealous... two things from my flight to Idaho Saturday. First one wasn't Bravo controllers but just SoCal Approach. I was on flight following and there was a guy that had been shooting approaches. He was just finishing up another one and had this conversation. SoCal: "Did you want me to box you around for another one?" Pilot: "No, but I have a check-ride in a couple hours if you want to help me out." SoCal: "Sure, just give me a heads up before you take off and I'll do what I can." The next one was with the Bravo guys in Vegas. I have always been cleared through heading north-east at 9,500'. I did hear them one time not clear someone through and tell him he needed to jump up to 10,500'. The pilot asked him "Are you okay with me going the wrong direction at ten-five?" The controller came back with "Not a problem, there's not much traffic and I'll keep an eye out for you." The pilot responded with "Thanks, I'll go up to ten-five and then just drop back down after I clear your space." But, Saturday I heard them giving a guy direct to somewhere, can't remember the fix. I was only half paying attention to the call because it wasn't my tail number... Vegas: "Did you want direct to xxxx?" Pilot: "Sure, if you can." Vegas: "xxxx, cleared direct to xxxx." Pilot: (read back clearance and then) "Wow, thank you." Vegas: "We're just here to help out whenever we can."

Congratulations on the solo! It just gets more fun from there.

If it's the one at DuBois it is a 1961 M20B. I did my PPL with them but never flew their Mooney. They did keep their Cherokee's in good condition so I assume the same applies to the Mooney. They have it listed as $148/hr wet rate. http://www.duboisaviation.com/id30.html

I slipped my M20D down about a 4 mile final to lose 3,000' going into Gillespie once. From what I have read here in the long bodies it is an issue but with a short body i think it's just another tool to use if/when necessary.

I was using a Garmin Glo for awhile. I had a flight where my tablet got too hot and the Bluetooth lost the connection. (Didn't shut down like an iPad but for some reason the Bluetooth shut down, odd...) Anyway, I also got tired of trying to remember to turn the Garmin Glo on and make sure it connected, remembering to charge it, etc... For the price it was worth it to just have the GPS with the Stratux and not worry about it. I do have a Garmin Glo with the friction mount for sale if someone is interested.

Instructions - http://stratux.me/ Instead of the battery pack you can just plug it into the cigarette lighter with a charging cord. (Or buy one of these and find a spare circuit breaker) I used: Raspberry PI 3 Model B A1.2GHz 64-bit quad-core ARMv8 CPU, 1GB RAM - Comes with the heatsinks, you don't need to buy them separately. Stratux Case with Fan, Clear Acrylic NooElec Dual-Band NESDR Nano 2 ADS-B (978MHz UAT & 1090MHz 1090ES) Bundle For Stratux, Avare, Foreflight, FlightAware & Other ADS-B Applications. Includes 2 SDRs, 4 Antennas, 5 Adapters. - Note that you have to pop the cases off the SDR's to get them to fit on the Raspberry Pi Stratux Vk-162 Remote Mount USB GPS - Add this and plug it into the Raspberry Pi if you want to have GPS sent from it to your tablet. Mine just sits on top of the glareshield and isn't noticeable. I didn't buy an SD card with the software on it. I have plenty of them laying around so just formatted one, downloaded the software, and put it on the card. It was easy to build. Depending on your IA, (or hangar elves) you can add these and then put the device behind the panel out of the way. The NooElec SDR's come with an antenna splitter so you can have one antenna going to both of them. ADS-B Antenna BNC Plug to SMA Plug Male pigtail Cable RG58 6' MADE IN USA

I guess it will hang over the sides... It can't be much bigger than that in my plane or the landing gear is never going to come up...

Short term, inexpensive solution to seeing over the dash. Got this and my 13 yo son uses it. It fits the size of the seat perfectly. Booster Cushion

Is that Jabba the Hutt's lesser known cousin, or was that Jabba's cover name when running Black Op's?

Puddle is probably the wrong word. When I was climbing at 2,500 there would be a spot right below the breather hose where it sticks out of the left cowl flap opening where the dust would accumulate, sticking to the small spot where the oil would drip and spread from. Since climbing at a higher rpm the spot is a little bigger, maybe about 2" in diameter when the plane has sat for a couple of days after a flight, and you can see a little wetness on the floor. It isn't an oil leak, it is directly below the breather hose and it is obvious that is where it is coming from. I'm planning on the same type of experiment and will see what it yields for me. In my case, I think it is blowing out the breather judging from the extra residue down the left side of the plane and the extra that I notice below the breather hose after flights.

Interesting observation. When I first got my plane I was backing off to 2,500 after takeoff and I would see about 1 qt every 8-10 hours. (Recommended climb setting in my original POH is 2,500 and in the 1977 M20C POH is 2,600). I keep it at 6qts and would add 1/2-1 qt to bring it back to 6qts when doing pre-flight if I was down to 5-5 1/2 qts. After reading the same article that you mentioned as well as a number of posts here I had been climbing at 2,700 for the first 3-4,000' or so and then backing off to 2,600 for the remainder of the climb. (Yes, I have read all of the posts about how it doesn't hurt the engine so I don't need a refresher course on that. ) I have noticed that I have been adding a quart every 4-5 hours since making that change. I don't think it is burning any more oil, there isn't any dark soot down the right side of the plane, just the white/powdery deposits that from what I have read on here is normal and good. I have noticed additional oily residue on the left side (assuming coming from the breather) and there has been a little more of a puddle under the breather on my hangar floor than when I was climbing at 2,500. My completely unscientific thought is that at the higher rpm perhaps it pushes more out of the breather and running at a higher rpm for a longer period of time the cumulative effect is that I go through more oil. The more experienced/knowledgeable folks can offer their input, but I think I will go back to a 2,500 rpm climb for a few flights and see if it takes me back to the 1qt every 8-10 hours.

Will do. If we make it there I will write it up.

Thanks for the advice, have a great time at OSH.

Questions for anyone, but I'm guessing @mooneygirl and @MooneyMitch might have the most information. I did a little looking around but didn't find a thread on this. I was going to just send out a PM but thought I would post a thread as it might benefit someone else somewhere down the road. My wife and I are looking to go fly somewhere and do a little camping July 27-29th. We were considering Kern Valley L05 or Columbia O22 but both of those will likely be in the upper 90's low 100's... However, the weather at Oceano looks much better (as long as I can plan arrival/departure around the marine layer.) Do you have to make reservations, or can you make reservations? If it is 1st come then do they typically have spaces available? (I read it is only for people that fly in so I'm guessing that will help.) Any times during the day when the odds of not having a marine layer are better? I know what it is like and how to plan around it here in the LA area but not sure what it is like further up the coast. Good restaurants in walking distance of the field? Any other pointers/advice?

Congratulations!!

Good, I thought I was going to have to call up HR and have them write-up the elves. If that happens I run the risk of them leaving and taking up residence in a different hangar and then I have to go through the whole hassle of putting out ads, getting resumes from elves that have only built toys in the far north and never worked on a plane (even though the ad always says "experience required"), drug tests (which for some reason the elves have a problem with), background checks, and then all the rest of the on-boarding process. It makes me tired just thinking about it. (Actually wasn't concerned, I have a very friendly, helpful, knowledgeable AP/IA)

Hadn't noticed that, can't believe I haven't fallen out of the sky yet... I guess I will have a chat with the elves and find out what they've been up to.

Just a bit of a milestone. On July 7th, 2016 I met my CFI at the airport and we made three trips around the pattern before I dropped him off at the base of the tower and taxied to the end of runway 26R before taking off into the air all alone, my first Solo Flight! It is hard to believe that a year has passed. Since that first solo flight a year ago so much has happened. I had 15.6 hours of flight at the time, I have flown another 124 hours since then. I passed my Check-ride on Oct 15, 2016 and received my PPL. I made my first actual long distance cross country to Arizona and took my dad on a short flight. I bought a Mooney! I made another 197 landings, flew over 7,800 nautical miles, landed in a total of 5 different states at a total of 28 different airports. It is still like a dream that I have my pilot's license and I have my own plane. I still get a rush every time I push the throttle in and start rolling down the runway. I hope that feeling never goes away. I can't wait to see what the next year brings.

The Blue stuff is available on Amazon as a package with a pint, a gallon, the little scrubber, and a couple of microfiber towels for less than the price of the pint and gallon from Aircraft Spruce. Where we live with Amazon Prime it was free same day delivery. The scrubber took the bugs off easily that I had to work hard to get off before. I've used Pledge, but this stuff does seem to work better. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00X04JRMU/ref=yo_ii_img?ie=UTF8&psc=1