MBDiagMan

I guess everyone gives you their method. I will give you what has worked for me without fail so far: Cold, full rich, throttle open about 1/8”, fuel pump on for about one second, turn starter abou 5 revolutions and it is running Hot, mixture pulled out, fuel pump off, throttle cracked open about 1/8”, turn starter until catchers and smoothly push mixture forward. Full mixture travel in about one second. Hope this helps

Welcome to the forum Buck! I hangar an F in Mount Pleasant and have a sale pending on my previous Mooney, a C that is currently at Maxwells. There is going to be a Mooney seminar in Longview October 10 through 14. Details are available on the Maxwellaviation website. They will spend one of those days at the Mount Pleasant flight museum. Would be a good time to see multiple Mooney’s on the same ramp and my wife and I will be serving homemade ice cream in our hangar next to the flight museum. I have a pretty crazy schedule right now, but we can try to get together if you would like to see and maybe ride in my F. BTW, my late wife who passed away a few years ago was from Wills Point. Also, don’t let your flight experience make you think that flying a Mooney is beyond your reach. I went from a Cessna 140 to a Mooney after having the same doubts. A little transition training and you will find it as easy or easier than a 172 as long as you remember to put down the gear.

Great pictures! Time to get a picture of Sandy with the Mooney. Maybe some of you will meet her in Longview next month.

When I say slip, I don’t mean the mold slipping I do to align with the runway. I mean hard forward slips to lose lots of altitude.

I do agree that they are easy to land. My problem is that I am not a very good, very talented or experienced pilot. There were enough things different in the feel of my F as compared to my limber controls C coupled with my desire to get comfortable with full flap landings that made the transition more challenging than I thought it was going to be. When I went from a Cessna 140 to the C I kind of kicked the can down the road on learning the full flap landings and just started flying the C like it was a taildragger, slipping when needed and gliding it in with no flaps. This seemed like the time to learn a full flap, stabilized approach since I am trying to get into the instrument training. In the last three days I have turned the corner and feel comfortable with full flap, stabilized approaches and setting it on the runway with full flaps. It was simply a matter of going through the learning process and I am glad I did. I also agree that slips should not be needed if you are properly planning ahead.

Good grief! How about responding to what I wrote rather than what you want to think I wrote. I DID NOT write that people should not write negative posts! I said that I WILL NOT WRITE SUCH NEGATIVE POSTS, For those whose level of character allows them to do so, go for it.

A few months ago I could have made a similar, but not as confident statement about my C. When I moved to the F, modified to a point of essentially being a J, I was overwhelmed for awhile. It all started coming together yesterday, with some confidence building this morning. I still have awhile to go before I can be as confident as the above statement. I think the important thing is to try different things under different conditions. The one thing that I took out of the bag of tricks for the F is slips. I slipped the C as if it were my Cessna 140. I have been told that when slipping an F or J, jamming the rudders too fast can break it into a spin. I will pass on that until. learn much more.

So exactly where did I claim to know anything? I simply stated that I personally would not post negative comments under most any circumstances, but for those who choose to do so, they should have hard clad evidence. Without it, they are operating in a way that I can’t reapect. For those who are comfortable posting such things, it’s their business, but I personally won’t engage in such behavior.

I wouldn’t be writing such libelous posts under any circumstances. It’s just not how I operate, but I would expect someone writing such a post to include links and references to hard clad evidence.

My prayers are with these people and their families. I have been transitioning to the F and did my CFI checkout for insurance. In the course of it I bounced for the first time in a Mooney. I cobbed the throttle and got out of there. I had full flaps and it had no trouble at jumping into the air. Was a good confidence builder to know it would get up so well if need be. Wish they had been able to do it.

Fabulous!!

I am fortunate also, although no such gifts yet. Mooney M20F $70,000 Cessna 140, $22,000 Hangar, $650 per month Lovely wife that loves to fly, priceless

When is the annual due?

They are low on fluid. They need to be checked for leaks, leaks repaired, filled and then bled.

I wouldn’t bet on him being closed Monday. I went over there Fourth of July and they were wide open. He is covered up with work. If you call the main number they usually answer weekend, holiday or whatever if they are there.

Well I haven’t sat in the back seat of my split seat F yet. You make me want to put my shoes and drive to the airport just to see how comfortable the back seat is. Got a house full of kids and grandkids for the weekend or I think I literally would.

I just moved from a ‘63 C to a 66 F. I had gotten familiar and comfortable with the C. Many things are alike on the F and a few things are seemingly to me much different. A friend of mine has an F with a three axis auto pilot, assumedly a Britain. I flew it before buying mine and the controls, at least the elevator seemed really stiff as opposed to my C that had no autopilot at all. Now that I have MY F, it has a non functional PC. It has heck for stiff elevator control. It is giving me difficulty getting used to it. It seems that it is as if you run the elevator with the trim wheel rather than the yoke. The controls on my C with no autopilot are almost as floppy as those on my little Cessna 140. Would removing the Britain components have anything to do with this? Would fixing the autopilot, if I could find parts, have anything to do with this? Has anyone ever experienced this or should I just throw in the towel and send in my pilot certificate. Thanks in advance for your comments and sha4ing your experience.

Wow!!! Looks fabulous!

Yes, we all want to see him healthy and around for awhile. He has already been around awhile. Yesterday as we were on final for 18 at Longview I jokingly asked him if he had ever landed an airplane there before. He said yes, since 1968. Fifty years of flying Mooney’s. Amazing! His son is definitely following in his footsteps, so there should be Mooney expertise in Longview for many years to come.

Don landed at Mount Pleasant this morning right on time. We flew a little and he had people waiting on him back at the shop so we got my friend the M20 F owner and retired professional helicopter pilot and helicopter instructor. He rode in the backseat to Longview. I got a few things out of the C and we headed back. Longview is a training ground for air controllers so everything is by the book. I am more comfortable going in and out of a pasture in a taildragger and I expect those controllers also would prefer that I did that instead of trying to get it all correct on a controlled field. Many things about this F are different from my C. I got by with flying my C as if it were a taildragger, but it is clear that I will have to seriously step up my game. In addition I am working on my IR, so I need to get comfortable with her so I can continue my instrument training or go back to my Cessna to complete it. Anyway, one picture is Don and myself and the other is her tucked away in her new home( pardon the hangar mess.)

Thanks Paul! Well the C was my forever plane until something unforeseen changed that. I sure hope there isn’t some other kind of surprise in my near future. If not I hope she and Sandy and I have many years together.

Thanks Marauder! My C is beautiful too. It’s bitter sweet seeing my C go. I have a sale pending.

Some of you probably know that I fell and injured my shoulder, preventing me from handling the Johnson Bar gear of my forever plane M20C. I looked into changing her to electric gear. It was going to be an ordeal if I did it myself, especially with a bad shoulder, and was gonna be time consuming and expensive to have someone else do it and I somehow felt like I was downgrading that sweet little C. I began looking for an electric gear plane and wanted a little mor back seat room anyway. The weekend before July 4th., I was poking around and saw this plane on Barnstormer. So, many things seemed to fall in place. It was at Maxwell Aviation which is less than 50 nM from my home field and they were open July 4th., so Sandy and I drove down there to look at it. Don was there and gave me a good run down. He said he could swap avionics with my C. I had just gotten through doing a 345 in the C and I didn’t want to give it up, and I wanted to keep my WAAS 430 and card compass. I called Don that afternoon and we made a deal. He said that he would be gone two weeks to Oshkosh, so I knew it would be a long night wait, but it seemed worth the wait. After getting back they were hopelessly behind and Don was bent on flying it several hours and shaking it down tnoroughly since it had basically been through a restoration. Obviously I wanted it shaken down well so I waited and just kept watching flightaware. Some of the other things that fell in place were simply because I was buying it from Don, Paul and Jan. They are competent and trustworthy, and just great people to meet, visit and deal with. If I had bought from elsewhere, where would I have taken it for prebuy? Given their reputation I knew I could trust them with no worry, so I simply wrote a check and didn’t have to fool with escrow and title search. The plane: Since they have access to various items they added lots of modifications, 201 windshield, 201cowl, speed brakes, new custom panel done by Kevin, their sheet metal guy. The panel included a JPI instead of a clutter of engine gauges. It now also has the 430 W, the GTX 345 and NAV/COM with glide slope. It has new paint, a nice interior, shoulder harnesses. I have been about to bust a gut with excitement while waiting, so I have delayed writing this roll out thread. I flew to Longview this morning to have somewhere to fly and she was sitting on the line outside and it turned out they were trying to call me yesterday to let me know she’s ready. Don is going to fly it to Mount Pleasant for me tomorrow morning since I have to get a CFI checkout for insurance before I can solo it. Have you ever seen a 69 year old kid at Christmas? Once I have it home I will get a CFI in the next few days. i am attaching a video of Don taxiing out for the first test flight after restoration, a picture of the panel before panel work and a picture of Kevin giving her the first bath. More pictures to come after I get her home. 81F6E1EC-DB2E-4F39-AFFB-0546FF14A701.MOV

Too far ahead of him to see it? Oh, surely not!

Yes, but they look they are probably comfortable. Function over form.