MBDiagMan

No gasp or dismay here! I love the 170! It’s the big brother of my 140. Sounds like an F or J is what you’re looking for. Do you need it to be IFR? If not, one should be in your budget. If you want IFR and autopilot, find one already equipped that way. I bought my first Mooney over four years ago, and getting rid of my sweet little taildragger never entered my mind. Both my planes have different missions. My F, which has been modified to a virtual aerodynamic equivalent to a J, would be really close to your price range if it were for sale. It has a great panel but no autopilot beyond the standard wing leveler.

Great and valid point. The chance of a leak is slim, but having working gauges of some description helps identify that. Your post brought to mind the difference between a low and high wing in this regard. On a low wing you can see the caps and see that they’re secure. A few times on my other plane, which is a high wing, I have had the thought “did I get those fuel caps back in place firmly?” It’s nothing but in flight paranoia because I always check them, but being able to see them while in flight is comforting.

That’s a GREAT C panel!! Nothing to do there!

Thanks for the great and detailed replies. My apologies though. I should have specified instrument approach. I think Danad’s numbers gave me a great starting point. I also like 90 knots because it is below both gear and flap speed. I’ve been out of the Mooney due to engine overhaul since January. Trying to get a good instrument approach guideline again. Before the engine work I was working on using the speed brakes to stabilize before the FAF and then at the FAF pull down the brakes, put down the gear and readjust power upon picking up the glide slope. Any thoughts and experiences sharing is welcome and appreciated.

The title is the question.

I’ve been to that museum. It’s the best museum of civilian aircraft I've seen. As far as a warbird museum, my biased opinion is that Mid America Flight Museum in Mount Pleasant, Tx is the best old warbird museum. Everything is airworthy, My bias comes from my volunteering there and my hangar next door to the museum.

There’s one in every crowd.

The inertial reel harnesses were in my F when I bought it. If I were buying them from scratch, the only ones I would consider paying for would be Hookers. Not because I know and like Jack Hooker, but because I have Hooker Harnesses in my 140 and love them.

I am SO glad that about six months after being fed the ferry tale in late 2018 that I went ahead and fixed my PC. At least I have SOMETHING. Had I continued to be so gullible as to believe them I would still be completely hand flying this beast. The PC does help considerably. So glad I didn’t continue to drink the Koolaid.

Quick follow up: The engine is finished and I am back in the air in the Mooney for the first time since January. I pondered this a lot including processing the great feedback I got on this thread. I made a number of landings in my head. In the course of the engine break in flying I did this week I have made five landings, all full flap and for the first time I feel almost as comfortable landing the F as I ever did the C. I think the break through was starting the round out lower than I used to. I can bring it down close, hod it off, bleed the speed and settle it down. I’ve even done a few really good approaches in it too. Thanks for offering your comments, support and sharing your experience.

I have 5.3 tach time on it now. The only thing not really right is that it is very difficult to hot start. Thinking we might should have done the fuel system even though it was done just before I got the plane. It flies strong and has only used one quart of oil.

Maybe you’re right but it doesn’t look like fuel to me.

My Moms name and my wife’s Moms name were both Joyce. The C I had previously was named Joyce. After I hurt my shoulder and couldn’t handle the gear any longer I got this one, so we named her Re-Joyce. In our minds, Rejoice also enters the equation.

Flew one round and came in for a cursory check. Ran perfect with good vitals. No leaks, no smoke and no smell. Then went above the airport for an hour still running perfect, sounding perfect and feeling perfect. They decowled it to adjust prop governor and change relief valve shims. Oil pressure was at the bottom of the green. Just some final tweaking. By all indications at this point, I think it will be a great engine.

The DLC will go a long way toward solving the corrosion problem, but it’s not a panacea. The time in service thus far has proved quite encouraging.

Yeah, I grew up in my Dads car shop and have seen some things myself. In this case, however, this is exactly what my Lycoming cam and lifters looked like after a long storage period, and it was a result of corrosion. The line of corrosion across the lobe was almost certainly a result of it setting still for some extended period of time, and almost certainly it set against the lifter who’s face is seen in the picture. I can not see the adjacent lifter, but I would be willing to wager that it is worn but not spalled. The corrosion causes a pit that starts tearing out one small piece at a time much like a pot hole. Those small pieces look like a Christmas Tree ornament when seen in the cut open filter. The currently produced Lycoming DLC coated lifters are said to virtually eliminate this problem. I believe it.

Sure looks like you would find iron in the oil filter. The lifter concerns me much more than the cam. That is where I was with mine in January. We split it and found other things wrong to a point of doing an overall. I fully expect that I could have run mine a while longer, but it was a metal flake producing factory and I wasn’t comfortable letting that go through the oil pump before being tapped by the filter. It’s only my opinion, but I’m very pleased that I got my hands on a set of the new Lycoming lifters with the DLC coating. If I were you I would at the very least replace the cam and use a new set of Lycoming lifters.

Please reread what I wrote. I’m not talking about departure. I’m talking about a non precision “dive and drive” approach.

David at Aircraftspecialties in Tulsa. He apparently is always ordering them and waiting on them. He is a young guy in the parts section. He knows his business, easy to deal with and very customer focused. It will probably take some time, but call him and talk to him. He will get them as soon as he can.

I don’t fly over the runway a foot above waiting for it to settle. That’s what I TRY to do in the Mooney. I have a couple of thousand landings in the 140. I just drop it down and pull back when it feels right and it stalls onto the runway. That is much of my problem landing the Mooney. You can’t land a Mooney like that and old habits die hard.

Ha! You’re right! They could jut multiply the TBO numbers by 1.3!

Seeing a large number of results can be as, if not more, informative than chemical analysis. Results is what interests me most.

For a non precision dive and drive approach it’s plenty good enough. Actually you add a little to the descent rate for that. On a precision approach your flying the vertical needle anyway, so it’s only a guideline. It works wonderful for me. I’ll make note not to waste time flying with you while you’re focused on getting numbers to the last digit rather than focusing on a safe approach.

My 1100 hour IO 360 was sorted and running great when last August at Annual it showed metal in the filter. When I saw that I was perfectly willing to pull a cylinder and look around. All that revealed was a very slight line of corrosion on a cam lobe, but we couldn’t see the front lobes as well as the rear where we pulled the cylinder. My IA mechanic recommended flying it 15 hours and sending off an oil sample since we had not taken a sample at the annual. I did that and the sample showed iron. We agreed to start tearing it apart. Cylinders came off and revealed two front lifters spalled. Thought it could get cam and lifters and go back together good to go. Kept peeling the onion and found worn bearings and the crankshaft and case didn’t look great, so time to overhaul. I took the crankshaft, rods and other parts to Aircraftspecialties and the case to CSI. Sent mags to Missoula, MT. The lead times on both exceeded 8 weeks. I took the wide deck cylinders to Sal in Prosper, Texas. (if you go to Sal’s you won’t be able to leave until he shows you his pristine 1957, 270 HP Vette that he’s owned since he was 17 in 1961). The crankshaft had to be plated and machined and ended up .003 under. The case came out wonderful. The mags were back in short order. I was on waiting lists all over trying to get the new DLC coated lifters. It was beginning to look like I would have to put it back together without them when David at Aircraftspecialties came through with a set and a Lycoming cam. Sal thought the cylinders would work out well and I was glad because they’re tough to get new right now. They were nickel so he had to send them out to certify the nickel. He was calling them low time cylinders and said they came out great. They got it all back together and started it Thursday with only one full revolution. It really sounds great, but there was silicone seal on a baffle that he wanted to cure before I flew it. My schedule won’t permit flying it until Tuesday. Cant wait. If you see a plane flying racetracks above KOSA Tuesday, that will be me. I expect to get it tested and run in before our family traditional get together in Galveston for July 4th. There were lots of things that I got sorted on this plane before all this. It think it will now be a great plane!

https://www.aviationconsumer.com/industry-news/oil-supplements-worth-it-for-many/ The Camguard blurb in this article indicates that it is largely an anti corrosive.