0TreeLemur

In the summer of 2018 we landed in Cedar City, rented a car, and toured all around southern Utah and northern Arizona. We did a lot of driving but we saw a bunch of national monuments: Cedar Breaks, Bryce Canyon, Escalante Staircase, Capitol Reef, Moki-Dugway, Monument Valley, and Glen Canyon. That took 4 days. Overflew the Grand Canyon on the way out.

Your poll is incomplete. I would almost never make a large avionics purchase from a random person on eBay. When I bought a 430W in 2018, I searched the classifieds of aviation www sites, found one that seemed to be a worthwhile purchase, called the seller to discuss, and made a deal. That option is not on the poll, so I didn't answer.

When you switch it on, it goes through an internal calibration using 1g orientation to know where it is relative to the vertical before you move. That takes less than about 1 minute. This way it compensates for the panel angle.

Good point. This is an approximately 1 amu reason to get your tanks resealed there. That plus palm trees.

Deep South Aerospace in Okolona, MS, has done some fine work on my a/c. They installed a 430W, Appareo ADS-B transponder, and a Brittain Accutrak II, and it all works! Very nice folks to work with.

The AV-20S AOA indictor is not even close to accurate in my instance either. I contacted the manufacturer (Aerovonix) before they were bought by uAvionics, to inquire about why I couldn't calibrate the AOA sensor in our M20C. I received the following email in italics from Bill Shuert, who was their CEO before the buyout: Sorry to hear about your issues with the AV-20-S. The AOA has been challenging to set up in the Mooney. You can disable the AOA page in the set up menu by cycling down to the AOA line (highlighted) then pushing the right button will disable the page. You will need to go into the AOA Limits and move the lower limit to its lowest number then do the same with the upper limit--this will ensure you won't get any pop up notices. Thanks again for the feedback. The AI agrees perfectly with my vacuum AI. That is really nice. The TAS indication is not accurate. Recently I contacted uAvionics about that, and was told that they are looking into it. I use it for its timer functions primarily. Knowing that it has a backup AI with a 30-minute battery is just comforting.

I have thought about doing a trip like that. I've done a lot of work in the Caribbean and have friends I could visit. But- when I trained in Australia we flew to Tasmania from Melbourne in a Cherokee, and we had a life raft on board. Looking back on that experience, flying over the open ocean was a lot like instrument flight. You must agree that getting anything out of a Mooney in a hurry is problematic. We've learned from MS that when our airframes go in water, they leak like sieves. Floating time is negligible. There was a recent thread here on a water landing in a wetland and the plane filled with water immediately. I'm curious - are you taking a raft? How do you plan to get it and you out of the aircraft in the unlikely event of a water landing? Please don't think that I'm throwin' cold water on your plans, the decision is yours. But that thought keeps me from making a long leg over water. Not sure what the odds are of an engine failure during that particular multi-hour round trip, but they aren't zero.

This thread is older than me, and I'm barely older than my Gemini-era Mooney. Read the quote in my signature block below....

I guess they would need vibrators. We have 4- or 6-cyl. vibrators attached to our altimeters!

When we redid the panel in our 'C, I wanted an airspeed indicator with kt on the outer ring, and mph on the inner. So, I bought a really nice used one and to test it I bought a U-tube manometer cheap. After verifying that the ASI was accurate, I sent it to an instrument company to verify have them paint '67 M20C arcs on it. Love it. Wow, Interesting. I don't think the pitot tube on my a/c has a hole there. I'll check. Last Feb. or Mar. I posted on this forum regarding a "belching" pitot tube that seemed to not be draining properly. At that time I looked it over real well and don't remember seeing a hole there. I disconnected the pitot line inside the wing and blew back out through the pitot tube with compressed air to make sure that nothing was plugged up, as was suggested by one MS'er. No problems. This "belching" has happened a few more times when flying through rain. The pitot tube on my a/c seems to be designed to occasionally need to "belch" to get the water out.

Yet, an airspeed indicator is required as part of TOMATO FLAMES for VFR flight. Come to think of it when they tested my pitot-static system last year, they paid little attention to the airspeed indicator, mostly just to be sure that they didn't send it into unapproved pressure territory. As they depressurize the static system to simulate a climb, they must also depressurize the pitot tube to prevent overpressure on the anaroid element or differential pressure transducer inside it, depending on type (analog or digital).

The shortest unit of time in a man's life? 9 months. <drum roll> Really, the stock answer to the question of which Mooney to seek is "What is your mission?" Short body (C & E) are really great two person airplanes, with enough back seat room for little people. If your mission includes hauling non-small people in the back seat, then the F it is. The O-360 in the C does can produce carb ice any time the dew point is greater than freezing and the carb temperature is below 32. I use carb heat as a precaution flying through clouds or precipitation when the carb temperature as indicated on the engine monitor says I should. One time I forgot, and sure enough, carb ice developed. Other than that I think one could safely say that this engine is one of the most robust and reliable aircraft engines ever produced. The IO-360 gets you 20 more horses, but at the cost of a fuel injection servo and injectors, with additional maintenance and fault pathways. The long body F comes with a slight speed penalty all things being equal. Good luck. The C is perfect for me and my co-pilot, and an occasional passenger.

When my avionics guy tested the pitot-staic system in our M20C last summer, he showed me that the drain hole on my pitot tube is on the back side, not the bottom. Then he put a piece of electrical tape over it.

My co-pilot and I, reflected in the nose of a beautiful Beech 18 at Destin, FL, while we reflect on the classic beauty of a flying art piece! Happy New Year everyone!!!

You are welcome- my painted in 2002 Mooney has many oily fingerprints that have sorbed into the paint- especially around the doors and engine, and a mineral spirits wipe has no effect- very similar to the ones you address in the vid. Love your work.

This was a great year for flying. I finished the IR that I started in 1983 and flew a total of 123 h, all in our 1967 Mooney Mark 21. This happened in 92 flights, the longest of which was 4.2h. Flew her to Dalton, GA, today for her annual and some new shock disks. Looking forward to a 'bouncier' 2020! Happy New Year y'all!!!!

I agree. Unsure that it is 1 amu nifty since I already have a Stratus 2. The uploading flight plans from iPad to 430W I envy. Guess I'll turn knobs for a while.

What is an FS210?

Couldn't tell. Too high. I was at about 500 AGL when I declared missed. Went back up into the clouds and could only barely see the rwy directly below when I passed over that end.

Yes. Verified the dots and dashes, on both ILS receivers.

I just had a thought from somewhere back in my apparently paying more attention and better trained reptilian brain. The BHM approach controller held me at 4,000 and vectored me to a point outside the FAF, and had me keep up "maximum forward speed to 5 mile final". I'd bet that in my haste to follow instructions, I locked onto the false GS that is above the real one. As I tried to descend along it, it was too steep for my established 500 fpm 90 kias glide, and it dropped out. I did see the runway as I passed over it after I declared missed.

Returning from a trip today, ceilings at 500-600 ft, while shooting the ILS 04 into KTCL, with KX155 and 430W(VLOC) showing the same indication, the glide slope dropped out. Twice. By dropped out, one moment I was established on LOC and GS, the next, the GS indications went haywire, indicating that I was way high. After 10 sec. or so they came back. My VS didn't change, I was still well above DH, and it seemed like a reception issue. After 10 sec. or so, they dropped out (down) again. I was not about to go chasing them so I declared a missed, and came around and shot the RNAV 22, which transpired without issue. This funky GS behavior happened simultaneously on both the 155 and 430W. I'm guessing that there is something wrong. Maybe the splitter between the two receivers and the GS antenna? Somehow there is some strange interaction or feedback that is affecting both, or my GS receiver is bad in both??? That seems very unlikely. Anybody seen this kind of behavior before? If we had an avionics shop on field at KTCL I would have them look at it, but sadly there is none. All the avionics shops nearby are too busy to give a little ol' 52 y.o. Mooney the time of day. Thanks.

This video ROCKS. You gotta respect this dude's work ethos. I'm gonna study this video and try some of those techniques...

What we need is a good set of instructions written by someone who knows all the steps and magic potions. There is another video of the same person working on an older Malibu that has oily fingerprints that have absorbed into the paint like on my a/c. I started watching that one, but he is not so explicit about techniques/materials in that vid. Good stuff.

On a big cross-country in the summer of 2018, from Alabama to Utah and back, our slightly leaky on both sides C became a 1 gallon overnight leak from one tank. It just happened. We had our tanks re-sealed last Oct. and despite the cost, have been happy with the results. No leaks. No fuel smell. No worries.