201Steve

It never ceases to amaze me how common it can be for two separate issues to show up around the same time. After valiant attempts to prove they’re related, you just end up concluding it was just coincidence.

@carusoam you da man! Water built up about 2” in front of the drain valve

Hello friends, I just had my first experience with a pitot static failure. For the first time since I’ve owned my ‘77 J, I was forced to leave it outside. :( Had a little bit of rain, etc and it hung out on the ramp for 3 days. Hopped in to take off, airspeed came alive and kind of stuck at 55knots next thing I knew I was airborne so after cleaning up the airplane and keeping a shallow climb rate to build speed, it only climbed to about 68 - 70 knots. After confirming gear was up, flaps were up, I went to GPS ground speed which read about 115 knots so felt comfortable that it was indeed not reading correctly on IAS. Climb rate was showing crazy and altitude also acting erratic. Long story short, I went to alternate static and everything stabilized. Where do I start to trouble shoot? I did not see any obvious obstructions to pitot or static port, but it seems to me like there is blockage somewhere. Thanks for any feedback

Just figure out how your going to cover the extra $30k now. You’re going to do it anyway, might as well consign to it now and be looking in the correct pool. =)

Also cool!

Just curious, does anyone around here have Serial Number “1” for any model? I have a J, would be cool to have S/N 24-001.

I’ve heard of people using LLC so they can sell the airplane by way of selling the LLC instead of the a/c and therefore, offering incentive to the new buyer that there will be no registration change and depending on your local situation, no sales tax. The biggest disadvantage to this is making sure that the LLC (the airplane) does not have any debt associated with it, which is difficult to confirm absolutely. You buy the LLC and you buy the LLC’s debt, if any.

I hear a lot of people say things about insurance being higher and longer training, so get a Piper/Cessna, but it’s less talked about that the acquisition costs of buying two airplanes instead of one you’ll keep indefinitely probably exceeds the higher insurance/longer training time.

Good to know, thanks for the link. While I don't disagree, it's still only theory. I've been trying to find "accident rates by aircraft type" but all I can find is stats for commercial models.

That's insinuating that the proportionate accident rate in a Mooney is higher than the average rate in other types of the same class, which would be news to me. This kind of highlights my point that, FLYING is dangerous. I don't know that there is any more inherent risk in flying a Mooney wing than a Piper wing. If there is data on this, I am curious. I'm not here to de-value or scoff at type specific training but it's simply not possible for the 4 people listed above to train everyone who gets in a Mooney. I know there are more than those 4, but you get the idea. What do we do with rest of them? Tell them it's too risky? Is that reasonable? Use the best training available to you, sure. For some of us, it's not available immediately.

For the record, I also, would love to fly with these guys. I also value expertise. Very much so. I disregard “expert testimony” from people all the time because it isn’t type specific expertise (not just aviation). I think the easiest way to say it is, a good instructor is a good instructor- and that includes their determination of whether they are capable of the job. How you make that determination early on is a little more challenging. Scoping them out, so to speak. @carusoam I agree mostly. My thinking is a little more broad, not necessarily specific to this one post. It would be challenging for sure to add the extra performance of one of the high performance (over 200hp) Mooney’s during primary training. What really bothers me are people discouraging less experienced pilots from Mooney. I don’t think it’s there intention to guard the airplane, and I’m sure it comes from a place of safety concern, but if you read some of the rhetoric, it can be depressing! I can say this from recent experience, that it had me wondering if I shouldn’t just stick to a skyhawk. Thank god I had some people in my corner telling me to work hard at learning and go for the Mooney, because I would be stuck in a slow suv if I didn’t! Lol I absolutely love my J model and I’m glad I had people tell me It was OK. We are all terrified of screwing it up, I am for sure. I have great respect for the airplane. It’s serious business, but it’s depressing seeing the discouragement. And honestly, it’s really not one person. It’s more of of the compounded information leads you to: this is going to kill me. I guess I’d just like to see a little more encouragement amongst our own. The media does just fine on its own making aviation seem like a death sentence. As for MAINTENANCE, I’m still guilty of Mooney expert fever. I hired a guy to diagnose and repair an ignition issue in my Jeep CJ. A very good and knowledgeable general mechanic. I just didn’t have time to fool with it. He just ended up swapping out the distributor. A couple weeks later, when I had more time, I took the distributor off playing with the timing, and realized the drive gear on the distributor he installed was a hardened steel gear. He’s a good general mechanic, but he had no idea that the gear on the Camshaft was iron and is cast into the cam itself. Hardened steel on soft iron trying to turn together, well you know what’ll happen. I changed the gears, but I only knew it was problematic bc I’m more knowledgeable about my 258 i6 than he is. A way better mechanic no doubt but he didn’t know. (As I type I feel like I’m making a case against myself on the instruction part ). Well, I enjoy the conversation. Let’s be encouraging. =)

I can’t figure out why there are so many Mooney drivers that act like a Mooney is an SR-71. “Make sure he’s an expert in Mooney instruction” “if he’s not a Mooney master, you’ll probably die” “Ensure that his soul has been christened by Al Mooney”. Ok, relax... I’m just being dramatic. I’m way less experienced than most people and I accept my position in the dish pit. I equally love the passion, but I am finding it very over the top that so many people are consistently making a persons situation more difficult by insinuating these scenarios that somehow an instructor in Idaho who also happens to train tail wheel is too far removed from the ability to fly a Mooney. It’s an airplane. It has its own characteristics. They all do. I would hope that any CFI would know that. If he didn’t, god help us. A well rounded instructor that has flown various aircraft Should not be type limited because they don’t have 2,000 hours in a Mooney. I say this from experience. I felt like people were making me think if the instructor didn’t have a Mooney tattoo on their forearm, I was doomed. I ended up doing my complex endorsement when I got my J with a CFI that had about 2 hours of Mooney time because there was no Mooney god available to me within reason. We went up in the airplane, learned it’s habits, and whaddya know, we were able to fly the airplane! I was shocked based on what I’d read. ****It would have been nice to use someone with a Mooney tattoo, and I actually look forward to the opportunity, but it’s a process of fine tuning...which is true of anything you fly. I’ve also done a lot of homework on my own. Asked questions, sought out other owners.... but for crying out loud, it’s a complex airplane not a skunk works developed rocket ship. I’ll probably draw eyebrows from this, just know that I respect you, this is just my position.

Whoever/whatever you use for help, it goes a long way in being part of the process by doing lots and lots of reading.

+1 for getting it now. +2 for the username.

Mooney’s get better MPGs than big trucks. We should all receive a medal from Al Gore for our noble contributions.

How does one test said connector? I have a similar problem on my com2. Zero radio experience but trying to learn.

Seems like spending $3,500 on a TKM, I'd almost rather find a used 430, spend an extra $1,000 to also have another GPS. I don't understand why basic radios are still so expensive.

Thanks for the feedback! Will probably be a good first project on the panel to get familiarized with the innards.

If your budget is $250k you can probably have a nice twin for $150k and have that extra 100k as your operating and mx reserve. Assuming you don’t blow both engines, that 100 grand would go a long way. I can only afford the 90% of the mission rule, but god knows if I could afford it I’d probably waste a bunch of money for that 10% scenario! Lol. “Hop in fellas! Bring the wives!”

Andddd he couldn’t help himself. NTSB veteran walks to the scene.... sniffs the air around him. “Brian!” He proclaimed to his assistant. “Do you smell that?” Brian replied promptly, “of course I smell it sir... it’s Rotella!” “I’ve seen this trick a thousand times. Get this sample out to the lab at once, nobody gets away with the Rotella swap on my watch. Case closed!”

well sure. Not that big of a deal to address that.

I have a KX170b installed as navcom2 that I’m having a little trouble with. It is barely useable for communication. If I dial in the ATIS, I can barely hear it until I’m like 2 miles from the field, can’t talk on it without getting feedback in the ears. The VOR indicator that its hooked to seems to work pretty well so it’s not totally useless... but in the market to see what folks might have laying around they part with?

My Hangar mate has a Piper Seneca. He uses basically an oriental rug or mat as his floormat in the airplane. I kind of like the homey feel It gives the airplane. Obviously his floors are bigger due to larger aircraft but it got me looking at having some carpet mat cut to the dimensions of the floor in my J model. It’s basically 2 foot long by 1 Foot Wide on the pilot side and 2 foot long and 11 inches wide on the right seat. It makes the dimensions particularly challenging to find some thing to be proportional to the pattern but I’ve been looking at different mats With an appropriate pattern that I could cut and re-him the edges. Also with my year model will have to cut a circle in the middle to access fuel selector. Two part question here. Does anyone have experience with this similar idea and second does it sound interesting to anyone else if I make something that works? See pic of an an example of type.

I was quoted $20k from a shop in FL on the GFC500. I started asking how that figure broke down and it sounds like they are simply referencing figures they are used to charging for autopilots in the past. My thought is... $7,000 for servos and head + $1,500 misc hardware + $4,250 labor ($85x50 hours) = $12,750 TOTAL. (Assuming already equipped with g5) Where these additional thousands of dollars are being allocated I don’t know but as I said, sounds like they are operating on the “rich airplane owner who can afford an autopilot” ethos where it’s not a big deal to throw in another $10,000 bucks of cushion. It will be interesting to see how they ultimately respond to the new market, many of which would not be willing to spend the same amount of money as those of the past who were willingly walking in ready to spend at least $30k. With shops as busy as they are right now, it’s not like they “need”the work, so I suspect it will Take some time for some shops. I don’t know.

I am looking at replacing my King HSI with another G5. I have one installed already as a backup Attitude indicator. Working toward eventually going GFC500 Autopilot, but can’t swing the cost yet. I’m looking at, for now, adding the g5 HSI and linking it to my Century iib autopilot. From what I thought, the gad29b adapter would drive the autopilot and I could scrap the vacuum system, but my Avionics shop is telling me I’d have to keep the vacuum driven attitude indicator, as that’s where the ciib gets its information. Can anyone confirm this? Maybe @bradp ? ‘77J