Austintatious

1 hour ago, kortopates said:

Lots of talking around it but nobody seems to reference (except Mark K perhaps) the current AC 90-66C which was updated not long ago after some tragic mid-airs.

https://www.faa.gov/documentLibrary/media/Advisory_Circular/AC_90-66C.pdf

 

From that AC

"" Further, to mitigate the risk of a midair collision at a non-towered airport in
other than instrument conditions, the FAA does not recommend that the pilot execute a
straight-in approach for landing, when there are other aircraft in the traffic pattern. The
straight-in approach may cause a conflict with aircraft in the traffic pattern and on base to
final and increase the risk of a mid air collision"

I have never understood how a straight in approach to land somehow poses more of a mid air risk than a 45 degree entry to the downwind.  In either case you have traffic converging to the same position.  I can make an argument for the 45 degree entry being less risk, a few actually, but I can also make as many arguments for the long straight in being less risky.

 from this source https://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/81821/Hansman_Mid-air collision.pdf

There is a pie chart of the Track intersect angles for all the mid air collisions studied...   The most common at 54 percent is a faster aircraft running into the back of a slower aircraft.  The 45 degree converging is 12 and the 90 degree is slightly higher at 15.

[3. Detailed Analysis of Mid-Air Collisions Reported in the Airport Pattern
Out of the 112 reported cases, 50 occurred in the airport pattern. This section analyzes those 50 accidents in
more detail. As can be seen in Figure 3, over 80% of the mid-air collisions in the airport pattern happened on final,
short final or on the runway. As a result, the track intersection angle most often observed is that of two aircraft going
in the same direction. The narratives of these reports paint a similar picture for most of these accidents: two aircraft
on approach to the same runway settling into each other as they get closer to the runway. This type of encounter is
characterized by a rather small relative velocity which often results in the two aircraft only “bumping” each other.
As a result, 31 of the 50 accidents in the airport pattern were non-fatal.
Out of the 50 accidents, 9 (18%) involved at least one aircraft that didn’t have a radio. According to the 2007
FAA Avionics Survey5, only 2% of the GA fleet did not have a radio installed.]

Now, it is true that Final approach is where most of the collisions happen... however they draw no conclusion that these were due to "improper" or "not recommended" traffic patter execution by either aircraft. A conflict on final could very well occur when both planes fly the recommended pattern, especially when one is faster and they are unaware of one another.

I fly a fast aircraft and to me, a long straight in final seems to be less of a hazard than going on an excursion to position myself to enter a 45 to the downwind.  This puts me making several maneuvers in an area where If other people are trying to enter 45 to the downwind, they will be more difficult to see and  I could come into conflict with them...  However If I proceed straight in,  I have 10+ miles to listen and observe and detect non ADSB and no-radio traffic.  And I know where my possible conflicts  will be... They will either be approaching from base or perhaps I am overtaking a slower aircraft already on final... IOW, I know more precisely where to look for conflicting traffic... Also, to be fair, I am often still in communications with approach who is advising me on any traffic they see on radar for the airport.

This all being said, I am not convinced these statistics are the only relevant facts on which to decide best practices... I think that there are probably other factors not considered in the above that can be very relevant to how one might choose to enter and fly a pattern safely.  For instance, High wing vs Low wing aircraft have different blind spots.  What may give you great visibility in a high wing, you may have a huge blind spot in a low wing and visa versa.  I have seen pictures of a low wing aircraft stuck to the top of a high wing aircraft... they collided and stuck together on final, each unable to see the other. (they landed stuck together) If however the low wing had been the lower aircraft, perhaps they could have seen and avoided that collision. 

Well, I should have read the first post before voting, I misunderstood the question and thus my votes are a bit inaccurate.

In short, my answer is that I fly in a manner as to minimize the possibility of conflict with other traffic.  Sometimes this does not comport with recommendations.

A general rule I abide in aircraft and boats is to keep as much space as possible between myself and other vessels and assume everyone else believes they have the right of way. 

5 minutes ago, Hank said:

That's what I used to think. Then I did some work along the runway where I used to be based . . . It's not often you get a chance to wind up the car, so I did.

The runway was only 3000' long, and I know where my little C usually takes off at 70 mph. So I went back to the stripe and gave the top model Accord everything it had, smoking tires and speed-shifting. I was at about 60 mph at the point where my C was at 70 mph and rotating for takeoff.

On the other hand, I've never ridden in a Rocket or any Mooney with the 310 hp upgrade, but the turbonormalized A36 with 285 hp didn't bother me as being "too fast." Guess it's all a personal thing . . . .

I mean, obviously there are cars that are slower, there are also cars MUUUUCH faster that are commonplace on the road...  That being said, did you account for wind?  Your car is measuring groundspeed, your plane is looking at airspeed... If you are typically taking off with some headwind, that would account for the difference making those two specific vehicles the same.

On 3/1/2025 at 12:54 AM, donkaye said:

It's always been said that you can never have too much horsepower.  Over the past week I found that personally not to be true.

The student, who just got his private a couple of weeks ago, purchased an Acclaim Type-S that had the 310 HP upgrade.  I've got a lot of time in Acclaims, but hadn't flown one with the 310 HP conversion.  We flew it from near Oklahoma City (KOUN) to San Jose, California last Sunday.  Because it had air-conditioning and TKS, it was load limited.  We did the trip with a 10 knot headwind most of the way and 2 fuel stops in a little under 7 hours.  I trained him all week and being a young 28 years old I was able to sign him off on his High Performance and Complex Endorsements by the end of today.

At full power you're pushed  back into the seat and the vibration is more than I like.  We used full power for the short Palo Alto and Livermore short runway, but a more comfortable power setting was about 30" MP or about 90% Power.  On takeoff with full power its burning 38 gal/hr, and in cruise its about 20.5 gal/hr.

If you're thinking about doing the upgrade, I might think again.

If you are having vibrations, you might want to look at that...

In my rocket, I do not find the 305 HP to be excessive at all.. that being said, I fly jets for a living.  But I dont see how anyone could find the acceleration intolerable, it really isn't that quick, the average automobile accelerates faster.  However, reducing runway required and having great climb capability greatly adds to safety IMHO... I will take an overpowered aircraft every day over an underpowered one.

I agree with the fuel part... Even the added tanks don't add enough fuel to make a turbine make any sense... You will have no range.  Just look at the Meridian, terrible range with the turbine, because it was a piston aircraft they adapted to turbine.  That is nearly always the case.

I don't agree about the speed concerns or weight concerns.... That is to say that there would be nothing about a turbine that would result in operating at speeds in excess of what the airframe is safely capable of.   The Rocket has 305 HP and it can be flown at full power.... Any turbine that would fit into the mooney nose will likely be less than 305 HP.

Furthermore, even if you could somehow add enough fuel to make it make sense, I doubt that fuel would be more weight that the weight savings from switching from a heavy piston motor to a turbine.  The weight savings would be substantial.

If you are running a surefly mag you need to be sure that the pressure sensing tube is curved to point rearward or has some filter or blocking apparatus to prevent rain/moisture from entering the tube.

My partner was flying our Rocket for an extended period in the rain.  Moisture got into the tube and caused an e-mag failure and a precautionary landing.  Had to get a replacement shipped out and installed to continue the trip.

On 11/4/2024 at 9:50 AM, Ricky_231 said:

I've had them replaced on my K.  Here are the part numbers:

LHS: 550060-001
RHS: 550060-002

Lasar has (had) them, but I got them from wentworth for $500 a pop.

Thank you!

OK, I am on a mission...  The reason is of little consequence, but lets just say that I want every bit of speed and efficiency the airplanes can get and AFAIK, you cant just go removing parts off an airplane without a CDL... So I want the parts that are supposed to be on my airplane to be on my airplane.

Both our M20K rockets at one point, FOR SURE had the plastic fairings behind the main gear wells.  I know this two ways... On one of them, I WATCHED as the mechanic removed the broken and shattered ones AND the rivet holes are still there .  On the other, The holes for the rivets are present in the shape of the fairing flange.

Now, As I understand it, there would be no reason for these fairings to be installed if there were no smaller inner gear doors installed, as it is the small inner gear doors that actually fair up against the aft fairing.  So, that brings me to those inner gear doors.

I can find NO reference to an M20K of the 231 variety having those smaller inner gear doors. The ones that attach just outboard of the tire... I cannot find part numbers for these doors. I cannot find diagrams for the MOUNTING hardware for these doors.

So, Before I go bugging people that are trying to work for a living and pay their bills, can anyone send me in the right direction to get my hands on these doors AND the mounting hardware for them?

This is for an M20K (NOT J) a 231.... the 252 is completely different.

Haha... I Could write a book....

My company G650 has been in the shop at Gulf stream undergoing yearly maintenance.  I go to pick it up and like a good little pilot, I do a thorough pre-flight.  First catch is that whoever reinstalled the Radar altimeter decided to put blobs of fairing compound or whatever they put over the fasteners but never shaved them flush like they are supposed to be before painting over the blobs.... Other antennas (all were removed as part of the work) had big globs of painted pookey all around them as well. No attention to detail.

Then as I do the interior portion of the preflight, I find the brakes are acting up... turns out, despite opening up the brake system, they never bothered to bleed the brakes and the system was quite full of air...   The only clue was when I charged the accumulator, the pressure stopped rising and even fell a few hundred PSI... It is only because I was paying really close attention to everything that it was even discovered.

THEN on top of that... literally a few days later, the line workers backed a Falcons Elevator into our winglet!!!  This is insane, but somehow, all they did was scuff the paint on the TE of our winglet.   The falcon looked worse off, but still possibly just a paint ding, They had not examined it yet when I was told. ( I was no where near that event!)

I have been thinking a lot about this stuff lately, probably because of my annual and me revisiting this thread... 

I know there are good mechanics/shops out there... In fact, I believe most of them are probably actually very good.  I think the issue has got to be that they just don't really care to give the attention to detail.  The focus is on buttoning up the job and going on to the next one to make the money.  And I get that.  Paying attention to detail takes time... which means you have to charge the customer more... And most of the time slapping it altogether quickly probably works out... if only 1 out of 10 times you have to double back to work on something again because it got done improperly  then you are ahead of the game.  And for that to happen, the mistake has to be bad enough to be blatantly obvious, OR the pilot/owner has to be paying really close attention if it isn't.

 I am still left wondering... Is this chain of issues my fault for not being involved enough?  Is it just a string of bad luck?  Or is it that these sort of mistakes happen often but simply go unnoticed by most people?  Or is it some combination of all of the above?

3 hours ago, 1980Mooney said:

I think you missed my point.  You have the ideal situation.  You have a partner/owner/pilot located near the shop that did the Annual. You have no need to "stay 2 weeks in timucktoo".  Your partner can put his eyes, hands, ears on the plane, work and the A&P/mechanics as frequently as need be or as often as you wish/direct.  Your partner can visit regularly to check progress on your punch list of squawks (and remind them if they got missed well before the plane was signed off).  You said this shop has a good reputation (not "fly by night").  Sometimes people just need some reminding and nudging especially if they are completely loaded up with work.

It sort of sounds like you are completely "hands on" and your partner is completely "hands off".

Yes... bingo...  It would be better if the shop was near me.

On 10/12/2024 at 6:09 PM, Will.iam said:

No i haven’t which day does the cleburne breakfast flyin occur?

They do them on 5th Saturdays... not sure when the next one is.

https://www.cleburne.net/Calendar.aspx?EID=11106

On 10/11/2024 at 11:07 AM, 1980Mooney said:

 

 

You started this topic a year ago saying that you used the same A&P for Annual in 2023 as you used the prior year in 2022.  After all your venting of frustration last year are you saying in this latest venting that you used the same A&P again this year for Annual?

You also said that your partner-owner lives near that shop.  That sounds like your partner should have been the ideal liaison to get things right.  And you said that the shop is "nice people" which sounds like they are easy to work with.

We like perfection in services but the regs state that the Owner/Operator is primarily responsible for maintaining the aircraft in an airworthy condition.  Your partner should have done a thorough preflight inspection after Annual and reviewed that work was performed per your request ("the shop failed to address my squawks or inspect the fuel indicating system").   Yet he flew off with a wing inspection panel missing.  It sort of sounds like your partner was not very engaged.  I get it that not every pilot/owner is mechanically inclined but he could have at least verified that they addressed your squawk list before picking up the plane. Am I missing something in your description of the situation?

 

Yes, I used the same shop... We had not intended to do so, but circumstances pushed us towards doing it there.  The convenience outweighed the other considerations.  This is not a fly by night shop.... I think most of the issues are in fact due to them having high demand.

And Believe me, I agree with you... I was not at all happy with my partner not seeing the missing panel.  It in fact plays part in my frustration with feeling like if I don't have my sleeves rolled up and do it all myself, stuff goes wrong.  It is HIS airplane too FFS.

As far as the squawks go None of my squawks were airworthiness items.  The fuel indicating system is working, its just that I dont trust it given I saw what appeared to be a stuck float or some other anomaly, because it appears to function about as good at you can expect those older systems to 99% Of the time...  I just had that one time and started thinking maybe there is something that could be looked at with scheduled downtime.    The AP has also been temperamental ( it works, just have to finesse it on occasion)and wanted to get a look at it too.   And a few of the instrument panel lights are dim... 

So, after weeks of downtime, sure, my partner could have not accepted the aircraft and us been without it for who knows how long... Obviously the shop didn't care to do any of that work... Why would I keep it with them even longer after they demonstrate this... after they clearly misled me that they would make time.

IDK if that is what you are missing and things make more sense to you now... Obviously I cannot type out all of the details here...  Seems like you are trying to suggest this is really the fault of myself... and I cannot disagree with that.   It is my fault I used the shop again.  It is my fault that I dont go stay 2 weeks in timbucktoo to oversee all the work... It is my fault I have decided to remain in the certified world even though the maintenance situation for me has been untenable.

You are completely correct....  And for me, the only solution I see is to get away from the certified world.... And believe me, I am working on it.

11 hours ago, Will.iam said:

I live in DFW area we should get together sometime.  SWTA is an excellent shop as well unfortunately because they are good they are hard to get into.

were are you based out of?

Plane is at KFTW... I fly professionally out of KDAL.

I looked up SWTA.... they may be a real option for me!  I go to Rockport regularly and they are on the way.   Not really much more logistically sensible than Maxwell though... I will keep them in mind, thank you.

Do you ever go to the Cleburne breakfast fly ins?

DFW

We have decided to just take our aircraft to Maxwell in Longview from now on.

10 hours ago, Shadrach said:

Weird that an overly rich mixture manifests symptoms on cold, dense days but less in the warm months. The opposite would make more sense.  If you took it into the shop complaining of an overly rich mixture, I’m not surprised it came back leaner.  A misfire that is induced by a rich mixture would be preceded by a significant power loss.  Are you sure this issue was caused by a rich mixture? 

 

 

Uhh, yes, quite sure....  There DEFINITELY was a loss of power coupled with a stuttering and the highest I saw the fuel flow was over 40 GPH.  That was in the winter in very cold temps.  In summer the flow would go to about 36 GPH when it was supposed to be 32.

Backing off full power to 35" reduced the flow to normal and all was fine, still plenty of climb power at 35"

36 minutes ago, Shadrach said:

this reads like a number of things could’ve happened. Have you verified that the injectors are in the correct position? It’s possible they removed them to clean them and did not reinstall them in the proper cylinders.

 

With regard to the fuel system, I hate to say it, but this is something you need to be actively involved in. They may have leaned out your your fuel flow in an attempt to get it under “red line”.   Like anything, if you were asking to have something addressed on your Aircraft, you need to be very specific about the desired outcome. When I had my fuel servo overhauled, I wrote on the intake ticket that I wanted it set as rich as possible within the specification range. The servo I got back yielded a much cooler running engine. My EGT’s were ~ 60-80° cooler then they were prior to rebuild. They did exactly what I asked. Had I just said rebuild it, who knows what the outcome would’ve been. 
 

I feel your pain. You might be a good candidate for Savvy Maintenance. It seems like lightning is striking the same place over and over again.

I considered this... we checked to see that they did not mix up the cylinders for the injectors last time around, but I have not checked it for this time... I am close to an oil change and will do it then.

You make a good point about being specific.  The reason I was having them adjust the fuel was because at WOT the fuel flow was going so high the mixture was getting rich enough to cause misfires  ... I would have to back out of the throttle to stop it... Which wasn't a big deal, I would just go to 35/25 pretty quickly after T/O, mostly a problem in very cold weather, not so much in the hot weather.  That was the issue I told them about since we are about to be in the cold.... I didn't mention trying to keep it rich to have it run cool because that was not the issue.

I am about convinced there is something else happening in my fuel system that is causing the #5 to run lean.  Perhaps contamination in the fuel manifold or the number 5 fuel line.  I have had gami adjust the number 5 injector 2 or 3 times, each time trying to cause 5 to peak later than the other cylinders, but still number 5 is peaking 1st or second.

I did the Savvy thing a while back. I did not find it terribly helpful other than their pre-buy assistance program. They seem to have a lot of experience with Cirrus and I have no doubt that they are worth their weight in gold for those who own a cirrus. 

Going through the annual "mess up a good airplane" routine again..... So I thought I would document it here so all yall can chuckle at my apparent bad luck.

Plane went for annual, was doing very well overall... Shop was asked to perform an annual and address a few minor squawks... In fact, before even sending it to them I SPECIFICALLY asked if they would be able to take the time to address the squawks and extra work which consisted of a few instrument lights being out.   I also asked them to THOROUGHLY vet/adjust the fuel flows and to inspect the fuel indicating system as a tank ran out on me with about 8 gallons still showing on the gauge...

Well, the shop failed to address my squawks or inspect the fuel indicating system... they simply didn't do it.  They adjusted the fuel flows and it is now very strange, something is wrong... I don't believe that it is a danger but it just isn't right and on top of that, whatever they did now has the #5 once again running hotter than it ever has after all the effort I went through with GAMI to get it under control.  I have no idea what they could have done to cause this, but I do know that it is a drastic difference from when it went in.  Before I would see maybe 390 degrees when climbing out and would run about 370 in cruise... Now I am seeing 410 degrees (470 is redline)  in climb and about 390 in level flight... Furthermore, I cant lean... that is to say, with the mixture knob all the way in for the climb, when I reduce the throttle and the RPM, the fuel flow is already where it is supposed to be... I used to have to back it down about 3-5 GPH to bring it to what it should be.

And, as a nice little bonus... the cherry on top of the miserable maintenance crap pie I have swallowed all but 1 annual since owning this aircraft... They forgot to re-install an inspection panel.  The other owner accepted it from the shop, didn't catch it and then brought the plane to me... I accepted it and did normal pre-flights.  Flew it a few times and then when I went under the aircraft to tie it down I see the missing panel underneath the wing next to the gear door.  Shop cant find it, says  "it may have been stolen"..... If that happened, it was a polite thief because they put the panel screws back in without the panel there.

I'm close to being able to bail on the certified world and go experimental... real close and I cant wait.  I am tired of people taking my money to mess up my aircraft.

23 minutes ago, N201MKTurbo said:

Where would you put the filter?

In a nutshell, as far down the line as possible before the injectors.  In my other aircraft, I have 2 inline filters right before the carbs and a third filter as the fuel comes out of the tank. They all get changed every annual and they filter down to the micron level.

1 hour ago, EricJ said:

Nope, just screens.    The final screens in the fuel system are very fine, though, and stuff has to be pretty small to get through.   Sometimes the stuff that clogs the injectors is from deteriorating seals and hoses past the filter.

Wow, that seems like pure insanity.

2 hours ago, MikeOH said:

Showing my ignorance here, but is there a fuel filter?  I know nothing about 305 Rockets, but I'm pretty sure my M20F only has fuel screens that are suppose to be checked/cleaned, but I'm not aware of a replaceable filter (e.g. paper pleat, foam, or?).

Well, I am confused on this too... I know there are screens, but during test runs after an annual we found a completely clogged injector...  Given how small the orifices are I cannot imagine there is not a pleated fuel filter in this system somewhere... For crying out loud, we have that on even the crummiest boat engine setup.

I'm not sure why the most simple of questions is so difficult to find answers to sometimes, so I'll bug all of you!

There is 0 mention of fuel filters in the M20k manual.  0 search results for "fuel filter" here on mooney space.

A google search for "Mooney fuel filter"  yields a ton of results for OIL filters.....

I simply want to know how often the Fuel filter needs to be changed...  I assumed it was to be done every annual, but I am not sure the shop did so.

84 M20k Rocket

oohh, didnt check date on thread.

Still available  Price reduced

Autopilot  P/N 065-0042-03  = $1300.00 + 100 for packaging and insured shipping ( I will get it to you as fast as I can for the $100.00)  or free local pickup, no 100$.

alt pre-select= Free, if you buy autopilot... if you buy AP and don't want this please say so.   If you want

Servos = 250.00 each or 700.00 for all 3  + actual shipping cost.

Servo part numbers

1 x   P/N 065-0051-02

2  x   P/N 065-0052-14

On 3/12/2024 at 11:26 AM, LANCECASPER said:

Check with Darwin Conrad up at Rocket Engineering in Spokane, WA.

If he doesn’t have them, then it’s time to talk to @DonMuncy about some much better visors than the original Mooney visors.

I took my visors off and I dont regret it at all.  First off the ones I had were prone to hitting the windshield and scratching it...When I put a new windshield on I didnt want it getting scratched. Now I have a small mesh Sunblocker with plyable edges and suction cups that I can put wherever I need it. It lives up high center windshield stuck via the suction cups, with the "frame" bent around the center post and takes up very little windown.  I have the rocket speed chart on my Ipad if I need to reference it.

Well, I have to update this nightmare one more time as I think I have ironed out the last of the problems. 

I cannot remember if I had mentioned it or not, but after the annual that began all this craziness, the number 5 cylinder was running even hotter than it usually did... It has always been my hot cylinder but it was significantly hotter than it had been.  I had been working with gami to narrow the gami spread.  I knew that they had removed and cleaned the injectors so I figured this was the reason for the change.  It was strange because the hotter temp would sort of come and go and vary with each flight.  Of course we are trouble shooting and analyzing as we went... Once I had what seemed to be a decent set of data, I sent it off to gami for a tune of the injectors... and I asked them to try to make the number 5 the most rich of them all (still trying to keep the gami spread tight)  to attempt to keep its temp down.  I got the new injectors and worked with an A&P to install them...

Upon removing the number 5 injector, we found a loose chunk of rubber floating around inside the injector... Either an old rubber seal was used or it was not put together properly...nonetheless, the piece of rubber was blocking airflow from the pressurized induction system and causing all sorts of fuel flow variability and restriction.

After putting in the new injector a few months ago, the engine is running very well with a tighter gami spread and a cooler number 5 and I think I am happy and confident things are how they are supposed to be.

I swear on the next annual, no one is touching anything that does not 100 percent HAVE to be touched on my airplane.  So sick of mechanics breaking my plane by doing inspections.