0TreeLemur

We did a "social distancing" tourist flight today. I have always wanted to see what it looks like at the very tip of the Mississippi River delta, a place called the "Head of Passes". Here's what that looked like. BTW- bought fuel for $3.40 at REG. That's cool. Lil' Sister is ETOPS (Engine Turns or Passengers Swim). View looking approximately east. The line to the south is scud in a marine boundary layer.

See my post just now in this thread. PM me if you have any questions.

It is good to dream. I write to convey my experience as a first plane owner. We have a '67C with manual gear. We bought it in late 2017 with about 1350 on the engine. The pre-buy turned up very little. All AD's had been complied with and we were eager to own. Being noobs, we didn't really realize all the deferred maintenance that going to come due in the first few years of ownership. After about 1 year of ownership the left tank started leaking badly, so we had both tanks re-sealed. The prop. governor went next and was too old for repair so we replaced it. Prop balancing was next and that revealed really worn engine mounts that needed replaced. We discovered some minor corrosion on the steel tubular frame in the cockpit and decided to get that examined and epoxy painted by a Mooney Service Center (MSC) to make sure there were no corrosion show-stoppers that were missed in the pre-buy. Got lucky there. This last (3rd) annual we decided to replace the 16 y.o. shock disks to protect our investment in the tank reseal. We did some optional stuff to like re-do the panel for a six-pack layout with a GNS430W and ADS-B out. Now the prop need's IRAN'd because Hartzell is nervous about how long it has been since it was opened up. Luckily my kids are grown and we could afford do all this. Add all that up and it is about $45k. Buying a plane that has been impeccably maintained and is in the shape you want, with recently resealed tanks and replaced shock disks (like mine) would definitely be the way to go. For calibration, my "accountant certified" spreadsheet which includes $3000 est. for annuals, $250/mo hangar rent, $1200/y insurance and the total cost of overhaul at TBO says that with $4.50/fuel she costs us about $175/h to fly if we fly 130h/y, which is what we've been averaging. When I was young with a new family there is no way I could have afforded that. Perhaps your financial situation is able to sustain that level of cost per hour. If you buy the right plane that doesn't have the deficit in deferred maintenance that ours did, your costs per hour might be a bit less. Also, you might get reimbursed for your flight time which would be great. Good luck. PM me if you have any questions about any of this.

After reading the preliminary report referenced in my previous post, I am left wondering how this would have been best avoided. The pilot said that he saw a clear path, yet acceded to follow the instructions of a controller sitting in a dark room. This after the controller cleared the pilot to do whatever he thought best. From the report: The pilot stated "I thought I was gonna shoot this gap here, I got a gap I can go straight through." The controller acknowledged and advised that was fine if it looked good to him, but that he showed moderate precipitation starting in about 1 mile extending for about 4 miles north bound; the pilot acknowledged.About 1633 the controller asked the pilot what his flight conditions were, the pilot responded, "rain three six eight." There were no further transmissions from the pilot. Hail outside the CB? Seems unlikely but possible. Scary stuff and a good cautionary read. Again the link is here: https://app.ntsb.gov/pdfgenerator/ReportGeneratorFile.ashx?EventID=20200303X93345&AKey=1&RType=Prelim&IType=FA

Thanks! Sadly, old CJ2A's went through a period of massive abuse back in the 70's-90's when they were seen as worthless. I have seen a lot of heavily adulterated examples. This one is essentially pristine except the electrical system was converted from 6VDC generator to 12VDC alternator/starter. All the body parts are original and mostly undamaged. Each one that goes to the scrap yard makes mine more valuable now...

My classic vehicle collection. The jeep is a 1948 Willy's CJ2A with the "Go Devil" flat head engine that produces that sound of freedom you hear in just about every WWII movie. While both are 4-cyl, the jeep engine has only half the cubes, will run on 65 octane fuel, with Vne of about 39 KIGS.

A photo I submitted to AVWeb for consideration for "Photo of the Week" was one of three selected this week. Nice multiple silhouettes of '03L after a night flight. See it here (photo 3/3): https://www.avweb.com/multimedia/gallery/picture-of-the-week-april-2-2020/ The photo is titled "Returning to the Nest" because our hangar complex is called the "Eagles Nest". Wishing ya'll good health.

Is that a bone yard, or are those furloughed aircraft?

The standard ground test for a TC is this: when making a turn on the ground, the TC should indicate a turn in the direction of turn. As @carusoam astutely noted if the PC system is activated, it should move the ailerons in a direction opposite your turn as if trying to counteract the indicated turn.

Great point. Here's the way I look at it. Fuel costs about $40-$60/h for a Mooney depending on how cheaply you buy your fuel and how fast you want/can fly. According to my expense spreadsheet, that is less than 25% of the costs of operation per hour, all expenses considered and pro-rated into the cost of ownership. I sure hope they don't just decide to put us all out to pasture and stop making the stuff.

According to a consent decree after his 20,000th post, Anthony ( @carusoam ) is the Dean of Mooneyspace. First to welcome new folks, often first with the best correct answer. Don't think Cliff Claven. Think Dumbledore and you'll be closer. Not a psychoanalyst. PP-SEL IR only.

To block off the unused tach sender port, my A&P/IA cut a circular piece of thick gasket material that fits snuggly in the bottom of the existing cap and re-installed it. It serves to block off the small opening in the cap where the cable passed and seal the engine.

On my IFR check ride- I was waaay cool, established, stable descent with a lot of trim under the hood. All was great until the DPE said "go missed". Throttle in, and boy did I have my work cut out for me then! Pushing really hard on the column with my left arm while turning that itty-bitty trim wheel as fast as I could with my right hand. I can imagine he must have had a grin on his face...

Thanks. Teleworking brings out the P.E. in me.

That's what I thought. Thanks @cliffy and @M20Doc . Much appreciated.

So, parts arrived from A/C Spruce. Pop quiz: Are Tinnerman nuts installed as in A) or B)? I think I know which one it is, just want to be sure. Thx.

Imagine an optimized cooling duct that eliminates the dog house... That would be cool. (pun intended)

I've been teleworking for 3 full weeks. This means that I'm spending 5-7 hours per day on online teleconferences. Multiple trips for meetings I was supposed to attend are canceled, including my attendance to big conferences that were canceled in the U.S. and Europe. I was supposed to go to Vienna in early May. That's not happening. My typical commercial butt-seat-mile count averages 30,000-50,000. This year, 0.0 and counting. I'm getting really tired of being at home on telecons almost full time, and would consider a long trip in my C using personal time off just to get out of the house- after I get a nose gear door fixed Saturday, that is.

Question- where did you order those assorted sizes of rivets in small lot sizes? Spruce only sells them in larger lots of about 1000. Thx.

Ok I'll get 'er done.

Thx Clarence. I did notice that the left one has a little fore-aft slop. I'd estimate it to be < 1/16". How much do you think is too much?

@M20Doc, can or should we reuse the old Tinnerman nuts that my co-pilot found lost in the grease, or just use all new ones?

UPDATE: Today we removed the forward belly panels from LHS and RHS. Here's what we discovered: The piano hinges on both sides were fastened with an assortment of mostly #4 screws on both sides, of various lengths, all but one with a pointy end, and only three used Tinnerman nuts. My co-pilot found six Tnuts unassociated with screws on the left side in the miscellaneous agglomeration of quasi-gritty and used ta be sticky substance formerly known as lubricant as she cleaned the area. Oddly, the Tnuts on the LHS had loosened. This indicates that either the wrong type of screws were used or the Tnuts lost their grip somehow. Plan of action: order new type-B screws with Tnuts and replace them all on LHS and RSH during next weekend's social-distancing at the airport. Regular preflight now to include jiggling the nose gear doors to make sure they haven't worked loose. Thanks to everyone for the guidance. -Fred

Aha. As usual, thanks for your reply! I did not know that you were a MSC. Too bad you're so far away! In another country! -Fred

Friday I thought about making a round trip flight from Tuscaloosa, AL to Laramie, WY, going west Saturday and returning today to rescue a son who is stuck at a college that has canceled classes. The forecast I saw Friday night for today's weather made it a no-go for me. Looking at your screen cap, the models were pretty close and it seems that they helped me make a good call because freezing level interactions in precip or clouds would be impossible to avoid along the route. Remember the radar beam gets higher off the surface the further you get away from the radar. Out in your part of the country the radars are pretty far apart so they don't do a good job of showing you where ice might be a problem. Ice in any form just can't be messed with in our planes. About three weeks ago on an IFR practice flight here in AL I encountered freezing rain at 7000 with my outside air temperature sensor which mounted in the wing about 30" outboard from the cabin indicating that it was above freezing (+1C). It happened really fast and accumulated much quicker than I would have thought with an airframe that is above freezing. Windy.com shows modeled freezing levels. Those models are initialized using the twice-daily weather balloon data so they have some validity and are quite good. Remember, clouds below freezing can still be supercooled water drops. Any time you go into a cloud and the temp. is less than 0C, keep an eye out for ice accumulation on the leading edge. Picked this up in about 120 seconds after I penetrated a cloud layer at 8000 over Little Rock, AR in Feb. I knew that the tops were about 8,500, so I asked for higher and got above the clouds. A Cirrus trying to climb up through the clouds after taking off from Little Rock was picking up enough ice that he told the controller that he was unsure if he was going to be able to climb through it. He made it. I'd just say that until you get more experience, avoid anything that looks like a freezing level interaction . Wait until it warms up to spread your IFR wings. Be a chicken.