0TreeLemur

Thanks Hank! I'll swing out to the hangar tomorrow and see what color they are.

Looking at the Great Lakes Aero Products www page, there are five different "styles" of replacement windows: Clear, *Green, Gray, *SC Green, and SC Gray, with * denoting OEM I guess *Green is the default. But, they don't explain exactly what the others are. I would guess gray is "smoked". Not sure what "SC" means. Why not go with clear? Is there a durability or visibility issue? Anybody have info on the meaning of these different styles?

So much good advice! Thanks to all who have replied so far! I've established a very good working relationship with an A&P who will be happy to help, inspect, and approve the work.

Thanks for your reply @N201MKTurbo. Reading "trim window to fit" - doesn't it include a layer of glass? Sounds really challenging and like something a specialist would do. Looking at the LASAR www site, I don't see side windows. Anybody know where they can be had?

I tried that. Personally, I find the MS search functionality pretty limited in most cases. The reliance in boolean terms like "AND" in the search term is pretty old-school, and actually not properly implemented because it returns posts containing the word "and". Unless you are searching for a specific unique word like a brand name, or very narrow technical term like "Turbo Encabulator ", a search using the words "window", "replace" or "replacement" turns up a whole bunch of non-window related posts. The low signal-to-noise ratio of MS in some threads because of topic drift (e.g. this post) doesn't help with discovery either. A lot of the older info is stale due to turnover in the industry and MS membership. On topic and to the point, I'd still really like to learn from any MS members who have successfully had the door window replaced in their vintage Mooney in the past 12-18 months.

Hi all, The window installed in the door of our C is crazed like crazy. At certain sun angles it is almost impossible to see through. Has anyone had this replaced? Any suggestions? Thanks-

The caps on my bird are painted something like "International Orange" like the Golden Gate Bridge. They look really nice.

@McMooney could you rent the equivalent of your E for that? I imagine that if so, it would be difficult to find?

One other aspect that strikes me is related to the age of our aircraft. There is a "musical chairs" aspect to owning what is essentially a museum piece. Remember when you could get (still can get?) classic license plates for cars > 25 y.o.? As our aircraft approach or exceed twice that limit, the likelihood that some annual turns up a really expensive problem or that some expensive SB or AD is issued increases, probably with some rapidity. You might own something that isn't worth fixing. Happens all the time with incidents thanks to our insurance companies. That fact will prevent the value of our a/c from rising too much or too fast. May the music never stop on your watch...

The shirt on the wall reminds me that I soloed 6/29/1981 with about 12 h under my belt. The total cost of my PPL training was about $2500 when I finished in Sept. 1981 with about 40 h. Because of life getting in the way with kids/jobs/moves/etc I have had two huge decadal gaps in my flying career. When I moved here to Tuscaloosa last year I decided to resume flying after last PIC in 2007. I did a BFR check-ride last June in an early 2000's model C172, the rental cost was $158/h wet!!! That seemed ridiculously high to me for 117 kts. Looking at what that C172 cost new, I guess that is what they must charge. Coincidentally, that is when I discovered the Mooney. The instructor who gave me the BFR check ride told me he had a Mooney and that he was looking to sell her. I asked for a ride, and was hooked from there on out. I calculate my cost of flying her, including the approximate cost of the engine overhaul she'll need in about 600 h (knock on wood) is $140/h wet. I never thought I would be able to afford an a/c. As an academic, my salary was just never going to support that hobby. But, two things happened- kids grew up and went out on their own. Second, the leading edge of the Baby Boom started getting too old to fly which has created a large supply of older a/c on the market at remarkably affordable prices because of relatively low demand for certain aircraft like the Mooney. "Ain't if funny how time slips away" -Willie Nelson

Hank, are they the same size, but fixed in some open position? Or are they spayed and neutered ?

After climbing from 9,500 to 11,500 on one leg of our recent trip around the Wild West I leveled out, trimmed, and leaned the mixture. After a few minutes I realized that I hadn't closed the cowl flaps. My thought was "AHA! we'll really go fast now!". I closed them and really couldn't detect the increase within the precision of the AS indicator and noise of the GS reading on the GPS... Disappointing. I'll be interested to hear how that changes the results in in your next test. Looking at the Flight aware trace of that flight leg, I think I closed them about 54 minutes into the trip after I climbed from 9,500 to 11,500. The speed plot really shows no difference in reported GS. That result suggests that closing cowl flaps at 11,500' (DA about 13 kft) in a C with a LASAR lower cowl mod. represents a sub-kt speed increase.

I thought that was crazy fast and I gotta do some serious mods, until I re-read and noticed your speed unit was mph. Converted to kts, your TAS is a very ballparkish for a pre-J Mooney 146 kt.

Junction of the Mississippi and Arkansas Rivers, 27 August, 2018.

The eroded volcanic necks near Indian Wells, Arizona, in the painted desert.

Meteor Crater near Winslow, AZ, August 26, 2018. San Francisco peaks/Flagstaff, AZ, in distance.

The Grand Canyon photographed by my co-Pilot, looking west from approximately the north entrance of the Tuckup VFR corridor at 10.5kf, August 26, 2018.

How weird, the leading edge of the vertical stabilizer slopes backwards!

Thanks @gsxrpilot. We picked late August because the weather out west is usually the nicest that time of year. This year the monsoon flow of moisture up from the southwest was still switched on so we had to dodge some storms. It would have been nice to have a turbo. The density altitude the morning we departed Laramie, which has field elev. of nearly 7300', was 10,400'. Takeoff took a long time chewing up a LOT of runway. Kind of like a 747 takeoff from LAX to SYD. I'd guess the takeoff roll took probably about 45 seconds consuming about 2500' of runway, and the climb out was not breathtakingly fast. About 300-400 fpm was about all we could muster with full tanks, and my co-pilot is really light. Together we average out to about two standard Mooney 170 lb humans.

It was really a really cool trip. The trip took 15 days, we have a lot of family out in that part of the country. I'll post a few enroute photos soon after I get them downloaded. The thread and before/after photos of the new panel is here.

This reminds me that I did an altitude chamber ride at Ellington field (Houston) back in 2003 as part of my training to ride on the NASA vomit comet. Come to think of it, I don't remember whether or not that one had any E-stop's, but it was crewed by a large NASA staff both outside and in. The fun bit was that our flight included a mix of NASA/civilians and USAF fighter pilots. The competitive nature of the fighter jocks led three of them to a fight to the bitter end over who would last the longest with their mask off at I think a pressure altitude of 26,000 ft. After about 3-1/2 minutes I got to witness a human being drool then drop his forehead on the desk. The other two were not as entertaining. The second one just ceded without passing out, then the last one conscious just grinned and put his mask back on.

Me too.

My co-pilot and I have gotten to know our 1967 M20C well since we acquired her last October. With the help and supervision of our A&P plus a good instrument shop, we took a tired example of a Mooney M20C and brought her panel up to modernity thanks in no small part to some advice given by MS members. She now has an 8-pack panel layout, JPI900 EDM, GNS430W, and Appareo transponder with ADS-B in/out. To celebrate we took her out on a "victory lap" around the Rockies in August, covering 2838 nm in 26.2 h flight time. We really spread her wings with max. cruise at 12,500, and 208 mph g.s. at top of descent approaching Amarillo thanks to some ridiculous winds. We faced headwinds more often than not, even on some eastbound legs! The haze from the numerous forest fires out west severely limited visibility particularly in the northern portion of our trip into Colorado front range and into southern Wyoming. We visited friends and family, plus toured Bryce Canyon Nat'l Park, Cedar Breaks, Nat.'l Mon., drove down the Moki Dugway and across Monument Valley, overflew the Grand Canyon N-S via the "Tuckup" VFR corridor at 10,500 ft., and orbited meteor crater near Winslow, AZ. "Little Sister" as we call her performed admirably.

My maint/repair manual says 80 in-lb torque for the sump drains on the C model. That's not much. You should look up for your model if different. PP only. Not a mechanic.

I use the same slotted PVC but I glued a tee on the other end. The total length is 8". I velcro it to the top of the nose wheel well. It is happy as a clam there, always waiting for me next to might right calf, when I need it. Shown here.