PT20J

Basic Aviation Training Device. In the FAA parlance, you cannot call it a simulator (unless you are Microsoft which copyrighted "Flight Simulator") unless it has a motion base and replicates the flight characteristics of a particular airplane.

Someone hereabouts had one crack.

Sigh.

It’s all in the IPC (illustrated parts catalog).

Is LASAR actually rebuilding these again, or are they just ordering them from Mooney? The factory has been building batches of new trusses every so often. When I got mine, it came from Mooney and another MSC was 10% cheaper than LASAR quoted for the same part from the factory.

Should be fine. It depends on where the probe is. If you want to check the instrumentation, two easy checks are swapping probes to see if temperature follows probe or stays with the cylinder and heating each probe with a heat gun to check that they are connected to the proper channel.

Twins are a different beast. Because of Vmc considerations, they are designed to land and takeoff at higher speeds relative to Vs than singles. If you keep a Mooney on the ground too long on takeoff, it will wheelbarrow you into the weeds. The best sustained rate of climb is going to be at Vy. If you accelerate to a higher speed, you can zoom climb for a few hundred feet, but eventually the ROC will decrease. Bob Hoover’s signature maneuver was a roll on takeoff. If you watch a video you’ll note that he would lift off as soon as possible, level off very close to the runway, retract the gear, accelerate in ground effect to a high speed, pitch up to a steep climb angle and have enough energy to complete an aileron roll.

Unloading until light in the seat is a good habit to form because it prevents the biggest spin risk which is a secondary stall from an ineffective recovery attempt.

The problem we had with the DC-3 was that apparently the data plates got switched at Douglas during the conversion but the FAA had signed off on it, so getting the FSDO to correct a 75year old FAA paperwork mistake was something they didn’t really want to touch.

A really good exercise is to do a soft field touch and go without letting the nose wheel touch. The pitch forces are constantly changing and keeping the pitch attitude where you want it takes a fine touch.

In case anyone might be under the illusion that I am immune I will recall my experience at this year’s Santa Maria PPP. I had the great pleasure of having Paul Kortopates as my instructor. I haven’t been doing much instruction in recent years, but Paul is very current. When he asked for a soft field takeoff I thought, “#&$@, I haven’t done one of those in years.” We had to do it twice before we were both reasonably happy and even then it did not look anything like Bob Hoover taking off in the Shrike and building airspeed to do a roll on takeoff. But, I’m working on it.

You may be overthinking this. The G3X is powered by the main bus. If you don't turn on a bunch of other stuff, the current draw is pretty low. You can certainly run of the battery long enough to install updates without draining the battery significantly.

That's called "Engineer's disease." I'm still in search of a cure.

I reread a bunch of this thread. It seems to me that Don is advocating advanced techniques that need to be practiced in order to have them in your bag of tricks should you ever need them. They are not going to work well if you try them out for the first time when it counts. In my experience, pilots are very comfortable anywhere within the envelope of the airplane they have been flying when they take their private or commercial practical test. But over time, they start flying cross countries and don't practice steep turns, slow flight, stalls, maximum performance and cross wind takeoffs and landings. Instead, they fly comfortably near the center of the envelope. And, they become increasingly uncomfortable flying anywhere near the edges. They become apprehensive about flying slowly or stalling and that's why their approach speeds gradually creep up until they don't want to land on any runway shorter than 3000 feet. If that sounds like you, go fly with Don -- or another experienced instructor -- and explore the edges of the envelop until you are comfortable getting all the performance your Mooney is capable of providing.

I've owned two different Mooneys for a total of only 13 years. I've still had to fix a lot of problems. These are needful things.

Tell Garmin. https://www.garmin.com/en-US/forms/ideas/

No. The G3X has chart files that are large and take a long time to download and to install. Depending on which GTN you have (original or Xi, 650 or 750) and what subscriptions you have, there is a lot less data and a faster processor in the GTN. Remember, patience is a virtue

Well, they have to figure out where to place those stall strips somehow.

There is no reason to fear stalls, if done at reasonable altitude and the ball is in the center. The biggest mistakes I see are 1. Not keeping the ball centered. 2. Slowing faster than 1 knot/second. 3. Having an unnecessarily nose high pitch attitude at the break. This usually happens in power on stalls if power is added before getting slowed to about 1.1 Vs. 4. Trying to correct a wing drop with aileron. 5. Pitching down excessively during the recovery especially for power on stalls. I do stalls during a flight review until the pilot feels comfortable.

The shop can print out the AFMS but they can’t make the pilot read it.

Spins actually take a couple of turns to develop to the point where the aerodynamic forces are balanced. Before spins become developed, they are called incipient spins. Incipient spins are usually easily recoverable by prompt application of controls. After a spin becomes developed, depending on the design of the airplane, it can take multiple turns to recover if recovery is possible.

I think the problem Rich is alluding to is that all you know is that the control won't move, but until you remove the cowling and look at the servo end, you don't really know what's going on, and if the cable has somehow become disconnected from the mixture arm on the servo, there is no way to know where the mixture is set. So, if it were mine and I needed to fly it to someplace to get it repaired properly, I would pull the cowling and take a look and maybe safety wire the mixture arm in the rich position (it's stamped ICO and R to mark the positions against the stop for each condition).

All the Mooneys were test flown and the stall strips adjusted to meet certification requirements of not more that 15 deg roll when corrective control input is delayed for 1 second. The Mooney wing is pretty sensitive to small variations in shape. It is not uncommon to find the stall strips placed noticeably differently on the two wings due to manufacturing variations. My airplane had a right leading edge wing ding that was apparently bondo'd between the landing light and the wingtip. If you look hard you can see a slight irregularity in the leading edge, but you have to look for it. It always drops the right wing a little in the stalls.

The Mooney sits on the ground at a positive angle of attack. Lift is a function of both AoA and true airspeed squared. As the speed builds, lift increases and when the airplane leaves the ground, it is set up for a climb. To stay in ground effect requires lowering the nose as the airspeed increases which takes a push on the elevator. This is contrary to our normal procedures and will not go well unless it is practiced.

I think most of us have made that mistake a time or two if they will admit it There is a lot of give in the flaps at the 15 deg position and this naturally relieves some of the stress. Technically the white arc is for full flaps -- Mooney never published a speed for partial flaps except on a few M20Js (205s I think) where it is 126 KIAS. I wouldn't worry about it.