0TreeLemur

In early 2023 I flew into Miami Executive (TMB), which is located less than 10 miles south of MIA. I parked a few nights at International Flight Center FBO while I attended a meeting. Nothing negative to report. Pricey as you would expect. FUN getting into if you like that kind of thing. I do.

IIRC, that's very similar to what the resistance units in my M20C were. I think nominally they are 30 Ohm senders.

I just read the AvWeb article here about the FAA PAFI and the woes it has caused. The article says that George Braly of GAMI made a presentation at OSH this year that the article and associated comments suggest was very interesting. Did anyone attend that who can summarize? Or, is there a recording of it somewhere that I can watch? Inquiring minds... Thanks, Fred

Normally, it is not hard to remove a drain valve. That said, removing them can create unanticipated problems that one might wish to avoid. For instance, unbeknownst to me the steel bracket inside the left tank that retained the sump valve on my C was corroded. Removing that valve caused that bracket to fail. That was a time consuming repair. In the spirit of risk mitigation I'd suggest that if there is a way to do the calibration without removing the valve, do that. Particularly in an older Mooney... It's easy to run a tank dry too. Plus you get to fly while doing it.

According to the instruction manual, you must do the calibration for each aircraft due to peculiarities with tank geometry and sender types and properties. The procedure is well documented in the installation instructions. I've done on two different Mooneys. Rather than remove the sump drain valve, which in my experience is asking for problems, I returned from a trip with about 10 gallons on one side and the other side ran empty. While filling the empty tank, I recorded numbers on the JPI (setup menu) for empty, 1/4, 1/2, 3/4 and full fuel levels. Then I siphoned all the fuel I could out of the tank with 10 gallons remaining, went flying, ran it dry, and repeated the procedure for that tank. It's not too bad, a fun day at the airport. If my J had a prop on it, I'd fly down and help you with it!

Agree with this fully. Earlier this year the KFC-150 in my J was acting up so I took it to a shop, who tried to sell me on a 50 AMU big-G panel upgrade. Since I had not budget for that, I chose to work with @Jake@BevanAviation , and now my KFC-150 is working great. All for less than 4 AMUs. Maintaining a legacy system is a pain sometimes, but since you are active on MS, you care enough to accomplish it. On the plus side, components of legacy A/Ps are abundant because so many are being removed for big-G upgrades!

The JPI EDM900 in my J is powered by the master bus, not the avionics bus. It has a USB "mini B" port on the front. At the end of a flight after I shut down the engine and turn off the avionics master, I plug a USB stick with a short 1/2" USB-A to USB-Mini B adapter into the JPI. It asks "Download new data, or all data". Press "new data". It takes about 15 seconds to download 30 hours of flight recorded every 2 seconds. Then I switch off the master. Once I get home I just plug that USB stick without the Mini B adapter into my PC and upload the data to Savvy.

Thanks Skip! Just what I was looking for. -Fred

I'm pretty sure I screwed up. When I retract the gear in my J she quickly accelerates. By the time I got off and she started to settle, I there wasn't enough runway left to land on.

My Doctor laughed his off when he got to that one! He asked me if I had one and checked the box.

The McCauley B2D34C214-A prop on my M20J started leaking grease, so I removed it for a reseal. Thinking forward to having an A&P reinstall it, I don't have a manual for this prop. Looking at the McCauley www page, I did not find one to download. Does anyone happen to have a pdf they might share? Particularly interested in a document showing the stud installation torque spec. Thanks, -Fred

The C I bought in 2017 had a Brittain wing leveler. Loved that thing, especially in turbulence. Over the first three years I owned it I added the Accutrak II magenta line follower, the Accuflite heading bug chaser, and the PC/AH II Dynertial rate of climb control and altitude hold. It took work to find the parts, but none of them cost more than 1 AMU each when bought correctly. With the help of advice of Brittain fans here on the forum and an A&P who was willing to let me do the installation research and provide guidance, I had a full two-axis autopilot capability for probably less than 6 or 7 AMUs. I flew it in some soupy IFR conditions. The Brittain equipment is extremely well thought out, reliable, and I would say elegant. That is a cost effective certified A/P option if you have the patience and desire. As far as I know, Brittain will still provide STCs for correct installations at no cost if you can locate the equipment.

To me, the engine monitor is the best "first" upgrade to a legacy airframe. If primary like the EDM900, it lets you eliminate lots of other stuff that really cleans up the panel. I've been flying behind the EDM900 for over six years and have never been mislead by the temperature indications. In each instance when a temperature was odd, something was wrong that I wouldn't have known about without the engine monitor. The EDM900's I've used are extremely reliable and useful. Since upgrading to an airframe with a fuel injected engine, I've saved a LOT of fuel with the engine monitor. A good A/P is fantastic for IFR flight but as others have mentioned is mucho dinero and more down time.

Last week I took off on RWY 09 at Los Alamos (field elevation 7171). Winds were out of the south at 15, with a DA of "only" 8600 ft. The runway at LAM is located on a mesa, with steep drops on both the left and right side of the runway and the east end. After pulling the nose up at about 63-64 KIAS and lumbering off the ground, at about 30-40 ft above the runway she stopped climbing and started to slow. Power looked good. I had leaned the mixture during the takeoff roll to get my target 1250F EGT. So, I lowered the nose. What I didn't do at that moment that I should have was raise the landing gear. After a few seconds we flew off the east end of the mesa and gained 1000' of AGL. It was then that I realized that I hadn't raised the gear yet because of the distraction. I'm guessing that the flight was affected by descending air over the runway from a roller created by south winds interacting with the mesa. A superior pilot in that situation would have anticipated the possibility of flying into descending air and recognized the importance of getting the gear up to maximize performance. Luckily the situation did not require application of my superior skills...

Keep an eye on the ads. Good planes tend to sell fast. @Rangoon the key points I've learned through two Mooney purchases is as follows: 1. Define your mission and minimum equipment that meets your mission. Adding/fixing stuff after the purchase is costly. When you buy equipment already installed, the seller generally eats the installation labor cost. 2. Don't fall in love with anything until you own it. Be skeptical. An independent pre-buy by a shop familiar with Mooneys will more than pay for itself, allowing sale price reductions that you don't have to pay for at the first annual after purchase. 3. Look for the nicest airframe/panel you can afford that meets your mission. Use Jimmy's value guide to evaluate appropriate cost. 4. When something catches your eye, ask for and study the log books before doing any thing else. Ask lots of questions if discrepancies arise (they will). If log books not provided, ignore that airplane. 5. If it looks too good to be true, it is. Something's wrong. 6. Don't fear a mid-time engine. Fear an airplane that hasn't been regularly flown. 7. Paint jobs and tank reseals have gotten really expensive. Don't buy an ugly Mooney or one with leaky tanks. 8. Corrosion is a Mooney killer. Make darn sure that whoever does your pre-buy knows what corrosion to look for on a Mooney. 9. if something hasn't sold in a few months, either the asking price is too high or something is wrong with it. Good luck!

One thing I'd suggest from experience for high DA takeoffs is to not fixate on leaning/EGT but also get the gear up as soon as you can to help the plane accelerate.

That is correct. The KFC-150 autopilot that came in my airplane was intermittent. I took it too a shop for troubleshooting, and it turns out that the KC-192 installed was an early prototype unit. Its firmware was very aggressive in altitude hold (+/- 20 ft!) and would almost make me throw up in moderate to severe turbulence. Now I'm not prone to airsickness. I've only ever puked in the air twice- once when I got sick from a virus, and the other time on the NASA Vomit Comet. Jake suggested to me that I find a non-prototype unit with maximum mods and a P/N ending in -03 (discrete components, not surface mount soldered) which I did. It had numerous discrepancies that he repaired. I swapped out the computer, and now have a much better autopilot that doesn't try to make me puke. I was just suggesting to @BlueSky247 that installing the KFC-150 was an option with the provisos already stated. The 28 V KC-192's are much more common than the 14V models. Ebay has several 28V KC-192's listed for 2AMUs. The one or two 14V units listed are BIN for ~5 AMUs. I lucked out and jumped on one with a P/N ending in -03 that came with all three servos for 3AMUs. Deals can be had but are infrequent.

If @BlueSky247 can identify a shop that has experience with the B-K equipment and is doing a big-G upgrade of a KFC-150 system, it could work. Better yet if he has a friend in the business. There are always removed systems for sale here and there in varying degrees of completeness. I have two each spare servos for my KFC-150 system. I bought three here on MS for $750 total from a member who did the big-G upgrade. One set came with all the mounting hardware for the servos in the tail. The only thing I'm missing is the aileron servo mounting hardware, which I don't need anyway. The KC-192 flight computers are easy to buy for 28V systems, but more difficult to find for 14V aircraft. Maybe someone here on MS is removing a system and can help him out? I will swear by @Jake@BevanAviation's ability to keep this old stuff working well. The KC-192 I sent him had multiple faults which he repaired for less than 1 AMU!

You seek new equipment, but I did the same investigation and found that there presently isn't a real good non-Garmin solution in existence. Like you, I didn't want to spend the > $50k on a whole panel upgrade. One alternative solution is to buy a complete working B-K autopilot that someone else removes from their Mooney as part of a big-G upgrade and have it installed in your Mooney. I have KFC-150 in my J. I had the A/P computer (KC-192) IRAN'd by @Jake@BevanAviation . Since April I've flown over 60 hours and it works flawlessly. After flying 500 hours behind a Brittain system (Accutrak II, Accuflite, and PC-AH/Dynertial) in my C, I love the KFC-150. It flies RNAV approaches like its on rails including glide slope. Advantages: spare parts are relatively cheap and plentiful. Jake has intimate knowledge of these systems with quick turn around. They couple to Aspen PFDs. Disadvantages: they require analog inputs, which means either BK analog attitude indicator or digital to analog converters between the Aspen and autopilot. It's not the hot new thing so unlikely to add value to your Mooney. If you know a shop doing upgrades you might be able to work out an installation deal in advance.

At first glance, these seem great. However, I hear from my son who is in the instrumentation industry that these connectors have known reliability issues. I personally would not use one of these on an airplane, especially in a location that experiences a lot of heat.

Efficiency.

Don Maxwell's shop in Longview, Texas, is the premier bent-metal Mooney shop in the country. They can and do work miracles. Give them a call and talk.

As a federal employee when I travel for business using my Mooney, here's what federal travel policy allows: 1. Current (f.y. 24) GSA personal aircraft reimbursement rate = $1.76/mile 2. Look up GSA one-way contract air fare for city-to-city pair $X 3. Calculate 1-way personal aircraft reimburseable mileage as: $X/$1.76 In short, I cannot be reimbursed an amount greater than the negotiated contract air fare between those two cities. At least I have the freedom to fly myself and avoid the airlines if willing. I seldom get reimbursed for the true cost of the flight, but I enjoy the freedom and time savings. Sometimes, the contract air fare is so low that it just makes more sense to fly commercial. I always book a flight any time I plan a trip as a backup. Since federal tickets are fully refundable I cancel it if I decide to fly myself. In every case so far, the cost of my trip to the federal government is less if I fly myself than if I fly commercially, because it eliminates expenses such a driving to the distant commercial airport, airport parking, and usually one nights lodging and associated per-diem to accommodate airline schedules.

Aside from what you mentioned, I really like to have a small bottle of window cleaner and a microfiber cloth. After along cross-country the windshield is always covered with bugs this time of year. It's really nice to start clean when you takeoff for your return. Also, if you have a cover take it and cover your plane to avoid baking the interior while sitting outside in the sun all day.

I landed at U42. Arrived early afternoon from the southeast. It got real busy real fast trying to duck under and stay below the Class-B, avoid traffic and restricted airspace. Wish my co-pilot had been with me to help look for traffic. It worked out, just too busy to enjoy. Service at U42 was "meh". Nobody greeted me. A fuel truck guy stopped to tell me that I was parked in the wrong area. I was on my own to find the right area, which wound up being out on a helipad with one broken tie down ring. Had to schlep all my luggage 300 yards across the ramp on a hot day. Here's the sight that greeted my entry to Spanish Fork descending from 12,500 on arrival. Departure was a piece of cake. I left shortly after 0700 and was cleared into the Bravo on my climb-out!