teg916

Columbia is pretty, but probably a little out of the way for somebody coming down from Sac to pick you up. I can't comment on the other airports in the area as I haven't landed there. You should be able to find lodging near Yosemite, but for a place to stay in the park, you normally do have to make reservations well in advance. Yosemite is a very worthwhile place to visit.

Whenever I file a flight plan on Foreflight, and get a different "expected" route, I amend my flight plan to match the expected routing. I think that is a good way to avoid confusion.

Fuel injected engines can definitely be tricky to start when you're doing a hot start not too long after engine shutdown. If the engine is not been shut down for a very long then you do not need to prime. It is hard to tell if the engine has been shut down long enough to where it needs to be primed. If the engine needs to be primed and you do not, it won't start on your first attempt. If the engine does not need to be primed, and you prime it, then it will be flooded. This is the procedure that I have started using. It seems to work although I don't always start the engine on the first try. First I will try to start the engine without priming. If that does not get the engine started, I will prime the engine and attempt a second start. If that does not work either I will assume that the engine is flooded and go to the flooded start procedure. Usually this will allow me to start the engine on the first or second try but sometimes I have to make 3 attempts.

This plane has a dimmer switch that dims all of the annunciator lights. Low voltage, Gear locked, gear unsafe, power boost, etc. They are not the style that are twist to dim/push to test. It looks similar to this panel. I'm not sure what the relation is to the throttle switch. The diagram does show that it shares a power source with the gear unsafe light. The throttle switch sends power to the horn. It is picking up a stray voltage from somewhere. Maybe I have a shorted diode somewhere, but the diagram does not illustrate any diodes.

Anybody have this issue in the past? Mooney M20F with a Johnson bar. With the gear down, and locked, throttle to idle, and the dimmer set to dim, the red light will illuminate along with the green light. If you push the throttle forward, the red light goes out. If you select the lights to bright, the red light goes away. The wiring print I have does not show how the dimming switch ties into the system.

I have one. I think it is great.

Take it apart, clean, and retorque. If that doesn't fix it you will probably need to replace some parts unfortunately.

First cross country in the Mooney. Granted I had some tailwind helping me, but that is a good ground speed.

Sunshine flyers in KAUN has a Mooney M20E for $170/hr wet. http://www.sunshineflyers.com/

Thanks for the chart. The numbers below 7500' are almost identical to my POH (some of them are identical), so that gives me a pretty good idea on what to expect. I do have some mountain airport training, and some experience. I'm definitely not an expert. The Mooney is new to me though, so I will definitely be going to a long runway the first time I head up high to see how the airplane performs up there. Thanks for all the help.

I have a nearby airport that is a bit nutty on the fees. KMHR is a class D airport. They charge $20 just to drop somebody off, unless you buy 10 gallons of fuel. Their fuel is almost $1 more expensive per gallon than the local class C airport, KSMF. Makes no sense, especially since there are lots of other nearby airports with good fuel prices, and no crazy fees.

I am definitely going to try an airport with a long runway first to see how she performs. How much difference do you normally see in takeoff distance between 5000 foot density altitude to 7000 foot density altitude?

Good point. Mooney M20F

My mooney POH only shows takeoff performance up to 5000'. What is strange is the landing performance goes up to 7500'. There are airports around me higher than 5000', especially when you take density altitude into account. Does anybody have a resource, or some rules of thumb for the mooney going into higher airports?

I hadn't heard of them. I am new to Mooneys. I will have to check them out.