81X

Anybody heading over there tomorrow?

Removed form a 1985 Mooney M20K 231 (14V), all should be under ebay values. If I'm over market and you're interested, PM me to make a deal. KI 256 Flight Director/ Artificial Horizon P/N 060-0017-00 tagged "CV as removed" or something like that but working when removed. Has about 400 hours on it since last overhaul. $700 KC 192 Computer P/N 065-0042-02- $1,500 KAS297B Altitude/VS Selector P/N 065-0065-00 working when removed, display fading a little and sometimes had to pull the knob once or twice to get into VS mode- $300 KS 129 Trim Servo P/N 065-0052-04 tagged serviceable as removed - $800 KS 178 roll servo P/N 065-0051-02 tagged serviceable as removed - $800 KS 177 Pitch Servo P/N 065-0050-04 tagged serviceable as removed. Housing is cracked but intact - $700

14V Primer Diverter on the TSIO360- was going for $2,800 when I looked last year. I see list prices of over $3,500 if you can find them now. Fortunately you can find 1-2 shops that will IRAN them and even more fortunately Continental SB 19-01 removes this part.

I’m certainly game for declaring Saturday the 7th “Mooney fly in day at Triple Tree” and am planning to fly my 231 there. If you haven’t been to SC00, it’s a really cool airport to visit and worth the trip. I met a couple of other Mooney drivers at the young aviators fly in earlier this year and would be great to meet more! For the super ambitious who camp the night or are local, there’s also a SC breakfast club fly in at 9am over at KCUB on Sunday the 8th. Also a lot of fun and informal. http://southcarolinabreakfastclub.com/2019-schedule.

I saw a 231 in for annual when mine was in and they had the standby mounted to the exterior firewall. I would strongly prefer it in the tail for balance, do you know what the factory location is for those? Related, anyone have one for sale? Also, @J0nathan225, no secondary bus should be required but there is a secondary regulator and annunciations on the k in the field approval I attached above- check that out.

I reached out to B&C last year for my K as I was going all electric. They provided me with the attached 337 which appears that at least one M20K has been successful. The write up on the 337 is very compelling (and common sense). Unfortunately for me, my speed brakes are vacuum actuated, and the conversion kit from vac to electric is a mere 6AMU, so for now, the B&C is out. 337_BC410_Mooney_M20K_N44CG.pdf

Seems pretty normal for the heat of summer. For example, on a typical July/August SC day, it's 90+ for most of the day. After landing and below 1000RPM, my TSIO360 oil pressure is at the bottom of the yellow. On a rare day like today where it was barely above 70, the post-landing taxi was more in the middle of the yellow arc. Same oil, filter, etc., but the oil was certainly cooler than a normal day.

In other news, the latest oil analysis showed extremely high levels of silicon.

Yup. Text alerts came up BIG for seeing the brief appearance of the elusive Blue Angels. CAEB7920-2196-4E7C-A12F-40D5D6337162.MOV

Well, there’s the legal useful load and the load in which it will still fly. Just overboost that 231 and that baby will haul some drugs!!!!

I would have first said, "Oh, KRAP, a hold" and then asked what kind of KRAPpy instructions those were when all one wanted to do was make a not so KRAPpy landing at KRAP. In all seriousness, I'm assuming you were still enroute and not cleared for or told to expect a given approach. If that's the case, it's one of the most important things I learned in instrument training- controllers make mistakes; some soft (forgetting to issue a descent until super late) or hard (issuing a hold that doesn't exist for the phase of flight). Consistent communication and querying is critical.

Don, great to hear it's resolved! I now have about 70 hours on my M20K Since the GFC500 was installed and for those who have flown in the southeast in summer- it's bumpy! The GFC500 continues to impress me with its capabilities and how well it handles the airplane in all regimes of flight. Just for fun, I had the 500 fly the GTN750's visual approach into Charleston just yesterday and it was kind of neat to have while finishing checklists and such. Also, @donkaye, I did check for the specific adverse conditions mentioned in your first post, and they don't exist in my K. Lastly, +1 for the Garmin team- they are top shelf individuals, they really care about the products they build and it's proven in great execution.

Mooney Summit, but I believe registration is full at this time.

Great concept! Include a parachute and airbag seatbelts for the risk averse and you might be onto something seriously cool!

I guess so. It was just odd not being listed in the “overhauled items” list.

I'm not following. Aren't the options new or overhauled cylinders with new pistons during a major? Just curious which option made up the $60K.

Being an M20K 231 owner just like this, there's a lot of throttle fiddling on the takeoff roll since it doesn't an absolute pressure wastegate controller. Consistently monitoring to ensure full power without over boosting makes this difficult when you don't have a lot of time due to a short runway combined with little/no margin being heavy.

I echo this sentiment. As a person who strongly believes in at least the legacy brand, I was completely un-impressed with the Mooney company presence at OSH. I was over at their exhibit for 15 minutes, not a single person came and talked to me and it wasn't because they were busy. Terrible. Also, many of you saw me in a really ratty old hat, and as such I was in the market for a new hat. A new Mooney hat would have fit the bill perfectly. After what seemed like I was bothering someone to ask about buying some Mooney gear, I was instructed to go on the speed shop website and just buy it there. Terrible. The loyalty and enthusiasm of Mooney owners doesn't come around often and I agree strongly with others that this is a completely untapped, somewhat free resource. In addition to the obvious current owners, I met a few former Mooney owners that went to pressurized aircraft or twins but still really loved their Mooneys that they sold. Just look at all the Mooney events- the Caravan, the Summit, this site, the regional Mooney groups. Moral of the story- the aircraft are great and the following is really strong. I think one of the more important things to ask here is focused a lot around why people are buying new Cirrus aircraft vs new Mooneys; their capabilities and costs are similar enough. The formula comes down to knowing your customer base and how it's changing. Why are people buying Teslas vs ICE cars? A really nice Honda Accord (30K for a top of the line) vs a Tesla (48K for a mid-level 3) are both great, reliable transportation. Teslas are improving the vehicle experience AND moving the industry forward, not just improving on what you've got like the Accord. People want more of this experience change and are willing to spend a little more for it. It's about the experience and lifestyle which is partially set by the brand image, marketing, and of course the core product. While there are some needed product changes, I don't think Mooney is grossly failing at the core product here, it's the brand and marketing. Those new Acclaims and ovations were incredibly nice on the inside and outside, and we know the craftsmanship is great! I believe the second is also risk perspective changes. In my non-scientific opinion, I feel that people are much more risk averse these days since the margins of safety for everything has significantly improved over the last 20 years or so. Airbags everywhere in cars, advanced crumple zones, advanced airline pilot training, car seat technologies, food safety, antilock brakes, the list goes on. This increase (or perceived increase) in light GA safety standards was brought en masse to light GA by Cirrus with a simple parachute and the "safety/simplicity of fixed gear" which they marketed the hell out of whether the data supports it or not. While Mooney has a great legacy safety platform with arguably one of if not the strongest light GA airframes, it's somewhat outdated by the perceived standard set by Cirrus. My thoughts- get a parachute & other modern standard stuff (composites, maybe?), leverage your customer/enthusiasm base, rebuild the brand and market the hell out of the things that are important to people these days and then there will be 400+ airplanes rolling down the Kerrville factory floor per year.

You only need two, one for roll and one for pitch. With that setup, you will need to manually trim which seems kind of silly when installing such a capable AP. These two come with the base AP. In my opinion, the strongly recommended minimum is 3- roll, pitch, and pitch trim. The fourth which is optional albeit really cool is for the YD; this can really help improve the ride in rough air.

Factory new or OH cylinders?

Absolutely. It’s all in the rate of landing aircraft per minute/whatever time unit. Is that rate larger during normal Fisk ops or larger than the moment ATC changes that to the time they stop the change... As for the non-quantifiable items- while I didn’t get to fly it this year, the Caravan seems infinitely more fun than the Fisk, which is why many of us fly!

I’m assuming this is a non-Merlyn non-intercooled GB engine and if so, this sounds like somewhat normal behavior (second hand knowledge). I flew my LB, intercooled, Merlyn’d 231 at 15k home from OSH on Wednesday and only had to trail flaps as I got further south/later in the morning (warmer OAT) while burning about 12.5GPH ROP at 28”. I am able to develop full power (36”/23GPH) at that altitude with about 25% throttle travel remaining. While this may be years off for you, having a factory reman done when it’s time for overhaul will get you the LB with the bigger induction which will help with cooling. Add in a Merlyn and Intercooler and you’ll get even better cooling/detonation margins, get a much higher critical altitude, reduce/eliminate turbo bootstrapping(surging) and be closer to a 252 config which has a proven superior engine setup. Also as a bonus, TBO will go to 2,000 from 1,800.

Clearly the Cherokees were late and the Mooneys were early because Cherokees are quite slow and Mooneys are quite fast. Firsthand experience- former Cherokee and current Mooney owner. Also something to ponder is whether or not the mass arrivals help or hurt the Fisk landing process at OSH. On one hand, you’re definitely landing more aircraft at a time with the mass arrivals- 60+ in 9 minutes is impressive and was just plain cool to watch. The question is whether or not the buffer time before and after these mass arrivals which closes the mass arrivals runway negates this benefit. Does anybody know what the controllers typically do here? Are all runways closed to the Fisk during mass arrivals? What’s the before/after buffer times?

It was great meeting you all! Thanks to the organizers for this, see a bunch of you at the Mooney Summit!

I don't think I could have put it better! I unfortunately couldn't do the Caravan this year for the exact same reasons you mentioned. Transponders on & ADS B has made RIPON entry so much easier- just look at where the tail end is, plan to get to the end of the tail where there's a gap, and go. We got cut in front of just before Ripon, but I think they poured the coals on (or were already too fast) and it spaced out nicely. We also arrived early which is probably one of the more critical ways to make the Fisk "easy". The arrival alerts on Sunday/Monday sounded like a huge mess. That said, the Caravan would be way more fun and I'm hoping to shake loose from work next year! The leadership teams in the Mooney community are incredible, and do a fantastic job organizing things like this, so, to the leaders and organizers of the great events, thank you!