skydvrboy

I'm puzzled by this statement. First, why would anyone who knows how our fuel injected engines operate be anti-LOP? I assume an AME is someone know knows about these engines? Second, why run your engine that hot? Engine performance charts will show that your CHT's would be cooler at peak, and even cooler LOP. Just this weekend I was cruising 25 LOP at 8500' (60F OAT) and my CHT's never got above 350.

Don't give up just yet! My neighbor just hung up his wings and sold his BO. His last flight as PIC was at 92 and he was still a hell of a pilot.

Nice, but how did you manage to land on RWY 80?

I guess I'll just have to bookmark this thread so I know who to call when mine goes.

Frustrating, but unfortunately true.

Duplicate Post

I remember my flight instructor talking to me before my first family vacation with the plane. He asked if I was sure I had enough fuel and I explained how I calculated the required fuel as well as the weight and balance. Then he said "Well, it will probably fly OK a little over gross, but it probably won't fly OK a little under fueled!"

When mine went intermittent and subsequently failed, it was from the wire being pulled off the terminal and had nothing to do with the switch. Not saying that is your problem, but I had the same symptoms, so something to check.

Just renewed: $1,208 Premium, $42k hull, $1MM/$100K liability. Still Falcon and still Global, though I've added another 80 hrs over the last year, all in my Mooney.

As someone who is just starting my instrument training, it's good to see that even seasoned veterans get confusing ATC instructions and need to ask for clarification.

Flying in the Caravan, as a first timer, you only have to keep track of one (1) other plane, your element lead. As long as you stay in your box (which is the reason for the training), there is nothing else to worry about. Eventually, you may work your way up to element lead and then you need to keep track of a whopping three (3) planes, the element lead in front of you and your two wingmen. You stay a set distance (15 seconds) behind the element lead in front of you and check to make sure your wingmen are in their box. The spacing between elements of 3 is supposed to be 15 seconds, though admittedly, that sometimes gets stretched out. At 90 knots (the slowest the caravan flies) that is 2277' (just shy of 1/2 mile). How much spacing does the NOTAM call for on the FISK arrival? Further, with the Caravan, you don't have to worry about someone cutting in front of you if you let your spacing get too large. The 60+ planes in the Caravan don't all arrive "at once" but rather in an orderly fashion, three at a time, all spread out by 1/2 mile or more. These comments show a lack of understanding of the Caravan procedures, probably similar to my ignorance of the FISK arrival that I have only heard about and never flown.

It struck me as funny that it's too wet for the amphibians.

That was in 2015 for me. After my first solo, the runway closed, so we took off on the taxiway and flew 30 minutes over to the next airport so I could practice solo pattern work. I figured if I had to fly 30 minutes just to get to the practice airport, I'd better get my money's worth. I did 15 touch and go landings before my instructor called me from another plane and asked if we were ever going home. Good times!

Formation flying saved me a couple knots too. I had no idea my step wasn't retracting until looking at some of my formation pictures and seeing some little thingy hanging out between my plane's wings. Quick easy fix and picked up a few knots, not to mention the retractable step is stinking COOL!

I can. I consider myself a very intelligent, well educated individual and I KNOW that I am utterly clueless in understanding how to make friends and influence opinions. I say stuff ALL THE TIME that rubs people the wrong way and I have NO CLUE that what I said would have that effect. However, since I'm aware of that shortcoming, I try hard not to say stupid stuff that will offend people to the point that they don't listen to my ideas. As a result, I typically don't respond to threads like this and just move on to one of the multitude of other great topics on MS. That said, I Mark Ford (not hiding behind my screen name) agree that we should keep ALL politics and "hot button" topics off MS. I also think we all need to do ourselves and our moderators a favor by flagging such content, even that which we agree with.

I'm not a mountain expert, but the first real family vacation by plane was to KCUT in a 150 HP warrior. We were a couple hundred lbs. below gross and it was no problem. If landing on 08, the runway falls away from you at the beginning, so you may float a bit more than normal. As others have said, stay light and watch the density altitude, you should have no problems. As a side, you might want to try no-flap takeoffs at the higher airports. That's what was taught in the mountain flying course I just took. Your takeoff roll will be longer, but you will be able to climb out of ground effect sooner without the extra drag. For reference, we did a no-flap takeoff out of Glenwood Springs (5916' MSL; RWY 3305' X 50') and it worked out very nicely for clearing the trees and rising terrain off the end of the runway.

So is there some requirement to be a Mooney Specific Instructor or is it just an instructor who has a significant amount of time in a Mooney? My instructor certainly wouldn't call himself a Mooney Instructor, but he owned and flew a '67 F, same year, make, and model that I was transitioning into, so I thought that would be sufficient. Also, this instructor list from the Mooney Flyer, is it vetted in any way? At the top it says "If You Are A Mooney CFI/CFII, And Would Like To Be Include In This List, Please Send An Email..." Can any instructor straight out of school say "Yep, I have a CFI and a retract endorsement... I can teach people to fly in a Mooney!" and be added to the list?

Fill out your profile details, specifically where you are located. Someone on here will know of instructors in your area... or perhaps one of our instructors on here is in your area. I wouldn't limit your search to flying schools. In fact, many "schools" are downright terrible places to learn to fly. Most flying clubs have instructors that will teach in the club aircraft. Join the club and you'll have a whole network of other pilots to bounce questions off of and learn from. Another great option is to find an independent flight instructor and rent a plane from a local airport. Or vice versa, find an airport that rents planes and ask for recommendations for an instructor. The smaller the airport... the better!

@Kb Brar You'll see I reworded my post. I don't think this has anything to do with you as the student, but was directed toward the instructor. You can't be expected to learn what the instructor hasn't even attempted to teach you. I've heard far too many horror stories of bad instructors out there that are just milking their students for hours. There is a lot of difference between taking a student for a flight and actually teaching them to fly.

Don't take this the wrong way, but how do you calculate weight and balance before EACH flight without knowing this? I know some are more interested in just going up for a flight than actually learning to fly, and there's nothing wrong with that if that's your desire. But if your goal is to learn to fly and get your license, you should be a LOT further along with 15 hours under your belt. If I were in your shoes, I'd be looking for a different instructor.

I think you'd be better off buying a Chevy Suburban! I fly the F model which is near the top in terms of the useful load and my full fuel payload is 642 lbs. Of course with 64 gallon tanks, I can leave some fuel out and still travel a fair distance. Even if you find an M20C with a useful load of 1050 (I think most are closer to 1,000 and under), you will only be able to put in 41 gallons of fuel without exceeding gross. There are other planes that will fit your mission much better, perhaps a Cherokee 6. On the other hand, if you can cut your gear down to only the essentials, I don't think there is a much better first plane than an M20C. But the "right" plane is one that fits your mission.

Check the very last line on the page. https://coloradopilots.org/content.aspx?page_id=22&club_id=612720&module_id=319185 The flying portion is a flat $250 paid directly to the instructor. My instructor was a Mooney specific instructor who previously owned and flew a J model, but currently flew a 182. You will be assigned an instructor based on your aircraft, so your instructor will be familiar with flying a Mooney. The ground school portion of the course was generic to all aircraft types, so some of what you hear won't apply to your plane.

That was part of the training. The worst thing you can do is fly right over the center of the valleys. It leaves you with only half the space to turn around if you need to get out. If you fly close to the windward side, not only do you get the lift, but you turn into the wind if/when you need to escape, further reducing your turning radius.

That is obviously the inner extreme, but we were trying to stay 2-3 wingspans away from the mountains, that jut in and out. If you got too far away, the lift completely disappeared. It reminded me a lot of formation flying, just with slightly more separation.

Actually, the updrafts were slightly more nerve wracking than the downdrafts. When you're flying in the updrafts, you may only be 30' away from the mountainside. The only time we flew through the downdrafts were after we'd already crossed a ridge and by then we needed to lose altitude anyway. Part of the course is teaching you where the updrafts and downdrafts are going to be. As a result, we spent about 70% of the flight in the updrafts, about 25% neutral, and only about 5% in the downdrafts.