0TreeLemur

In terms of FAQs I think of Qs like these: 0. What constitutes a pre-purchase inspection? 1. I'm considering buying a pre-J model Mooney. What are the gotcha's? 2. I'm considering buying a J or newer Mooney. What should I watch out for? 3. I just bought an pre-J Mooney, what should I consider doing first? 4. My tanks are leaking, what can I do? 5. What maintenance can I do as an owner on my Mooney? 6. Is Mooney transition training important? 7. I'm a new Mooney pilot and I'm having trouble slowing down. How? 8. Is the PC system worth keeping? 9. What is SB208? Why is it important? ...

No, I don't have Larry Ball's "Those Remarkable Mooneys", nor do I have Garrison's 1980 "The Complete Guide to Single Engine Mooneys". Garrison's article is unfortunately not definitive about the Mooney tail, so I suspect that his book isn't either. Do you know if Larry Ball talk about the tail design and the advantage of a swept-forward rudder at high angle of attack?

Thanks for the encouragement. I was inspired by Garrison's article to improve the "Design" aspect of the M20 page. With your help maybe we can get it done. If you can find that advertisement, that would be really cool to see and another bit of evidence. Oh- some interesting quotes, including at least one attributed to Al Mooney here: http://www.mooneyevents.com/quotes.htm

Those would be great topics for a FAQ section!

Sorry to have you waste so many words. My understanding is not the issue. My problem is that I have a troll editor who is resisting my attempts to incorporate this little gem of knowledge regarding the swept forward Mooney rudder into the M20 article on Wikipedia. He insists on a good 3rd party reference. The 1996 article from Flying by Garrison (?) that Skip referenced at the beginning of this thread is insufficient for this troll editor because Garrison wrote both that it matters, and that it maybe doesn't. That is the problem with requiring 3rd party verification from the lay press. What is needed is a good reference report or article saying that a forward swept rudder has more effectiveness at high angle of attack than a normally aft-swept rudder, using itty-bitty words, with no uncertainty. I could write dot products with fancy sketches all day, and that won't matter. Any written independent article that says exactly what we know will be most appreciated, so that I can edit the M20 wikipedia page to say this. I added it, including the reference to the 1996 Flying article, and he deleted it, because he is "experter" than me. Well, I'm not gonna give up that easy. Any help you can provide, ideally written in not too many big words or high level mathematical notation will be appreciated. Someone on the MooneyPilots.org or some such place said that there was an interview of Al Mooney from years ago where Al discussed all this. Anyone have a reference to that? Thanks.

There is a so-called "expert editor" that I'm having a disagreement with right now about the utility of minimizing spanwise flow with a forward swept rudder at high angle of attack. Any data or especially a publication that supports this notion would be helpful. No rush at all, this is a hobby project, but I would love to hear about anything you can find regarding the M20 tail. Thanks, Fred

Yesterday on an IFR practice flight from TCL to ANB, in cruise at 7000 ft, T=1C with a freezing level forecast to be at 8000 ft, I looked up from my scan to see this. I was flying through supercooled raindrops that were freezing even though the air temperature was above freezing. My request for lower was immediately approved, I took this photo in the descent. The wings looked just as bad as the windshield.

It does sound like it might be a treasure of design info. Please share with us all you can.

A select group of known users with editorial authority can identify threads or pieces thereof, edit for clarity, focus, and content, and move them into the FAQ. They should not be controversial, nor should they be editable by normal users. This work should be done offline and just posted when ready. Did you try that? Properly done it will be frictionless and controllable. I publish a lot. If your past experience went sideways it was not correctly designed and/or implemented.

Don't worry, I can fix this. My dad's a TV repairman. He's got an awesome set of tools. -Spicoli, Fast Times at Ridgemont High

I really like having it on the right side. It is not in my primary scan so I don't waste time looking at it too often. It is still easy to read on the right hand side of the radio stack though, and I look at it just the perfect amount. After we put it in, the CFII who gave me Mooney transition training and later my IR said "don't fixate on it". Good advice. It is a heck of a lot more legible & useful than the Garwin cluster it replaced that used to be installed where the Accutrak II now is.

For a couple of years I've been advocating a FAQ section because there is a wealth of information on this site. This wealth is obscured by the odd search engine that places primacy of information on how recently it was posted, not in optimally matching the search string content. Most folks don't know to use outside search engines to search MS. That should be the first article in a MS FAQ: Searching Mooneyspace What I observe is n00bs join MS, get excited about all things Mooney, ask questions that are frequently answered by other n00bs, poorly. That is unless @carusoam gets to it first. The problem lies in the fact that most likely there is a thread that answers their question expertly. Thinking to the future, I still think having a place where threads that contain mostly complete re-hashes of commonly asked questions with a chain of good answers should be collated in a FAQ section. In the absence of a FAQ, would it be possible to nominate threads to that level? Would it be possible to change the thread name somehow to indicate that it is worthy of reading by nOObs? Maybe we could have a "spring clean" where good, informative, threads are nominated, and those deemed by old-timers (not me) to be worthy are put in a FAQ section of MS. Just an idea. I'd be happy to help. I'm sure others would too. After 2-1/2 years of actively monitoring this site, it is tough to see the same questions being asked repeatedly and the quality of the answer depends on who is answering. What folks get now ranges from good, to bad, to potentially dangerous, and occasionally excellent. Well, we have some threads with excellent answers on this site. They have become needles in the MS haystack. I think it is time for a FAQ section. Another benefit: it will free up more time for us to resolve important issues like ROP/LOP operations, cloth vs. leather, two-vs-three blades, the fate of the Mooney factory, and the effectiveness of @Marauder's loading strategy on CG during boarding.

The Brittain T&B is both electric and vacuum driven. They can be had on online auction sites in working condition for several hundred dollars. What you need depends on the year of your a/c. You should spend some time searching these pages. There are many, many folks who in the past asked the same question you asked, including me. Learn from their stories. Cutting and installing a new panel is relatively inexpensive if you have some skills. A primary engine monitor is not prohibitively expensive to install if you can find a certified mechanic who will let you do some of the work.

The MSC that did my annual in January of this year did that when they replaced the shock disks. They bead blasted and painted the gear. They do not recommend powder coating. Powder coat is brittle compared to paint, which has more flexibility. Impacts by granular materials can cause powder coating to chip off more easily than properly applied paint.

My intercom is mono. I'd love to have stereo and a new PS engineering stereo audio panel with virtual surround, but that ain't gonna happen for quite a while.

Thanks. Old 10.20 headset is definitely mono.

In my humid climate, that is a temporary solution. Chrome plugs are the way to go.

I have an old David Clamp headset with brass plugs that keep corroding and become intermittent. I ordered and received new replacement chrome plugs from Spruce. But, the new ones are stereo. With regard to the photo, when using a stereo plug to replace a monaural plug, do I connect to contact 1, 2 or both? Thanks. Free toaster to whomever answers correctly first.

No worries- here's an example why: Last month (Jan.) we had the annual done on our '67C. While replacing the shock disks we were informed by the MSC doing the work that the nose gear shock tube was worn out. With the factory closed and LASAR out of stock, I sought a used part on MooneySpace by contacting a few folks on here who trade in used parts. A serviceable part was in my mechanic's shop in less than one week, at less than half the price of a factory new part, which was unavailable. I'm not worried about the factory closing.

Does anyone have a copy of this article that they can scan and send me? I'm having a raging battle with a self-appointed editorial troll on the M20 Wikipedia page about this issue. Really pissing me off. I'd love to have a scanned copy of this article so I can cite it. Thanks.

I was worried about alien life forms. Too much X-Files back in the day.

If you can drive up to a glacier I think that would count. Canada? There are no "style points" in glacier ice getting that I know of. In my case it was a US Air Force C-17 to McMurdo from Christchurch, NZ, then via Eurocopter to McMurdo Dry Valleys. That photo was taken on the last Sunday of the field season during a little down time spent on the "beach" at the foot of Canada Glacier on the shore of scenic (and frozen) Lake Hoare. The return involved commercial flights from Christchurch-Sidney-Honolulu-Los Angeles-Dallas-Denver. Two red-eyes. Good times. I met a wonderful elderly British couple once that went to Antarctic Peninsula from Argentina on a Russian cruise ship. They gleefully told me about having to be tied into their bunks before going to sleep to prevent being flung around their quarters by the seas at 60-degrees south. I'll take the C-17 any day.

Best served with a piece of 10,000 year old glacier ice near 78 degrees S, 163 degrees E.

Here is a photo of the one we took out of our '67C. It was grounded to the airframe, with the shielded +14V power line, and never produced noise. If yours is the same model and similarly configured, then it probably needs servicing or replacing. Running a ground wire all the way to the battery sounds like a lot of work, particularly if your battery is in front of the firewall like mine. I suspect that your problem will remain after you do that, based on my experience. I could be wrong and often am though.... Good luck.