Davidv

I’m may be overly cautious by asking this question but has anyone installed the lopresti hubba hubba caps on their aircraft? I put them on and they seem to extend ever so slightly outside the edge of the tire and want to be sure that there won’t be a problem with clearance when I raise the gear. Again, overly cautious since they have an STC for the M20, but wanted to check with others before I go flying.

Quick update to this, on a recommendation of a paint shop (and others here) I went to Finishmasters and had them match the color. The store down here also carries Axalta AF-400 which is a very common aviation grade paint (not cheap unfortunately). I need to mix it with an activator that paint shop was kind enough to provide free of charge since Finishmasters only sells it in gallons for $325. I’m going to get a small sprayer and hopefully paint the leading edge soon.

+1, I’ve been pretty happy with their products and they are relatively reasonably priced.

Someone around here (Airparts in FXE) recommended going to a marine paint place to have that done. They don’t have aviation paint but heavy duty marine grade which others have used in the past for touch up and I suppose would work?

Thanks Lance, but unfortunately mine doesn't have this. I'm considering going with the rustoleum as others have mentioned...

That reminds me of a story of when I was buying a used work truck before the internet and the the seller described the color as “baby shit yellow”. I’m not sure what GM was thinking with that color either.

Thanks, I’ve got about 5-6 bare spots that are each about an inch wide or less. A few on the vertical are maybe 1.5 inches.

I just found this older thread as I need to fix some chipping on my vertical and horizontal stabs. I guess I need to slow down. I can’t seem to find my paint color and while I can take it to finish masters, I’m curious if anyone else with the same color scheme has used a good touch up/kit method. See picture of paint scheme below:

I may have broken the Bravo endurance record today! (Kidding, but see below, flightaware counted my stop in SC as flying time). Besides flying around a lot of weather in FL, a very good day to fly! The second picture is a SW 737 that they vectored around me and the third is JFK and NYC.

Exactly, I’m not sure if Mooney understands that a strong market for older models is good for them as well. If demand goes up, prices go up, depreciation goes down and people are more interested in forming over $800k for new.

Thanks @ArtVandelay looks great. And it wasn’t until just now that I realized how great your screen name is :).

I just put a baffle pirep in a new thread, let me know if you have any questions.

Just wanted to give a quick pirep on my new baffles from @GEE-BEE. Overall I’m very happy, previously my hottest cylinder ROP was about 391 down low and it was tough to keep them under 400 up high. After the new baffles nothing is over 375 below 7,500. I took it up to 17.5K on Friday and was able to keep all cylinders between 370 and 389 with cowl flaps closed. To my surprise, every piece in the kit matched my original baffles (even though some were in such rough shape it was tough). I had nightmares of an IKEA like experience with one missing piece at the end. However, this was probably easier since I had original baffling. Phil Jiminez was nice enough to do it while I waited and only charged an extra $10/hr for watching and asking questions (kidding). Even though Phil and Mike did all of the work the tip I would give is to fold the top baffling forward before you connect the top pieces. It seems to be very well sealed in my cowling except for some small waves at the top that I can see through the front when the cowl it on. We will have to address at some point. I’ve attached a picture below when it was about 90 percent done (still had to screw sections together)

Mike, thanks again for starting this, I really they take a look as well. I’ve said this before but even their website is anemic. Using the tag line “a new Mooney is probably already on your radar” is pretty weak. Imagine going to BMW’s website and seeing in large letters on the homepage “You probably already want to buy a BMW”. I think you would be navigating pretty quickly to the Mercedes site at that point. They highlight 9 features of the acclaim with one of them being “Longest Flat Plate Drag Area”. I can hear it now: “I know the cirrus has a parachute honey, but this one’s got the longest flat plate drag area!!”. How about trying to sell the plane as also a business tool with more practical stories from owners or examples of point to point flights that could be made more efficient than commercial? The plane isn’t exactly a family traveler, but to get me and one more person from point A to point B in a hurry there is almost no faster and economical choice. The ideas on how to present this information better are boundless (and yes, I know it’s easy to play fantasy football (business) than be the actual coach), but I hope they take some of the info on this thread seriously.

This is great, and highly accurate. Reminds me of the first minute of this video:

Because they know that we may be the most particular/obsessive (both a good thing) group of airplane owners and they would be tagged in every post/question

You know a thread has gotten out of hand when you see the word “CAPS” and at first you aren’t sure if someone is talking about someone else’s grammar/spelling or a parachute system :).

Thanks @carusoam, just as a precaution before heading back to FL next week on a 6 hr flight I’m going to uncowl with a mechanic to see if anything looks out of the norm with the fuel pump. However, if it was really dripping during the flight I would assume I would be seeing some anomalies on my fuel pressure? I supposed it’s possible that the residue on the gear door and belly streaks could have been from right after startup due to excess priming, but weird that it would still be wet immediately after shutdown.

Thanks Alex, I did some troubleshooting over the phone with Sandel and it turns out some of the settings were wrong (including the one on page 17 I believe that says “ILS OFF”. Now I’m chasing another issue in that it is above 20-30 degrees off course with VOR guidance but seems to be accurate on the ILS. Planning on calling Sandel on Monday.

Saw this at 6B6 on Friday. Probably more fantasy than reality at the moment but it’s a 7 passenger piloted drone (I guess we can call they a helicopter right?). There was a hydrogen refueling tank right next to the concrete pad. It supposedly can stay up for 4 hours. sorry about the orientation, despite editing it on my phone still can’t get it right.

Quick update on this if anyone has any thoughts( @carusoam after I posted this I read a lot of what you responded to in similar posts - very helpful). The rubber tube no longer is dripping fuel after the flight. I spoke with some other people including someone at lycoming who was pretty sure it was the sniffle valve just doing its job. However, after my long flight on Friday I noticed it was definitely dripping some fuel in flight (when previously mostly dry in flight). The bottom of the tube was wet and I can see some streaks down my belly that cut through the normal belly oil. We all know that nothing cleans oil better than gas right? :). Any thoughts? Bad fuel pump diaphragm? My fuel flows are all normal. 30.6 gph on takeoff on my Hoskins and pretty steady at 38-40 psi in flight. Although, I’m not sure where in the fuel system these measurements are taken...

Thanks, and what altitude was that picture above taken at?

29/2400 for me. When you say you didn't see much of a change was the temp still 203 or slightly above?

Quick question for the others on this thread - my oil temp is consistently 190 or below on flights below 10k. Yesterday, I was at 17.5 and my temp crept up just above 200. I know with the turbo working and higher altitude it should go up a little but was hoping to see if others have seen the same at higher altitudes.

This is a very good point, I don’t know the average income/wealth demographics of someone buying a new cirrus, but I would contend that the shrinking of the top 2-9% makes the new airplane market stagnant if not smaller which means there’s much more competition for fewer buyers. The minimum income to be classified top 1% in 2018 was over $700k. The minimum for top 5% was 300k. I would imagine that the 300k-700k income ranges would be a very good market for new airplanes, especially when you look at the current financing market (20+ yr amortization at ~5% interest rates which means you can finance $500k at around $3.5k per month ). So the numbers would definitely support a shrinking applicable market. Yes, the top 1% is growing but by definition, that’s a smaller number of people and probably includes many who would spend more than $700k on a new aircraft.