Pasturepilot

Head on over to the avionics/panel discussion section of the forum. Apparently it's right on the cusp of certification and believe that@Baker Avionics is poised to deliver the news as it breaks.

Stearman?

The C models are right handy. Spent the week at Sun N Fun last week. Came home to Atlanta for a few days, and flew to Northern Virginia today.

Alex, like others have said, great reading your saga of aircraft ownership and you entry to professional flying as both unfolded. Keep us posted.

It’s buried in note 1 at the very end of the TCDS. 15 lb. unusable

Here’s an affordable deep-reaching hand squeezer for a good price. https://www.aircraft-tool.com/shop/detail.aspx?id=ATSRS-3 I had a partial collection of rivet sets and clecoes from when I was a kid. Amped them both up with kits I found on eBay. It’d be pretty easy to build a good set for $300 or less.

I have the tools for this if you want to make a quick trip south for surgery.

I’m based on grass. The clippings from the runway do pile up yearly back there and require a good clean-out at annual, so I’d have to say water would also be entering as well for rainy day ops.

One does not have to be a Mooney mechanic to work on a Mooney, but choose a good Mooney mechanic for the pre-buy. Don't assess your wealth by looking at other's wallet (or at their instrument panel, paint job, or engine bay). Your airplane is yours, and your mission and situation is unlike any other's. Arguing over speed is useless. Your plane is faster than a Skyhawk and slower than a King Air. When you start splitting hairs with other owners over a few knots, remember that weight and balance, errors in instrumentation, an engine's health, a few nicks filed out of a propeller, and the variety of antennae these birds sport can make the difference of a few knots. There's a lot of stuff to learn about these birds that isn't in our manuals (especially the older ones). But, don't take tribal knowledge as gospel until you've tested and reliably proved it for yourself.

You're welcome. It was late and I was too tired to bust out the technicalities of the AC, so I just went quick and dirty with the URL.

https://www.faa.gov/documentLibrary/media/Advisory_Circular/AC91-75.pdf

Because we say it does. Don't take a Mooney owner's speed claims too seriously. Yeah, they're quick, but when folks start getting into speed comparisons, truth vanishes quicker than on a fishing pier. If a speed claim seems outlandish, make sure the owner isn't using MPH. Or just availing themself of alternate facts. If you're not familiar with fishing stories, then that explains a belief that 200 HP will push a Mooney faster than a Bonanza. (I own the 180 horse C model, and live by a slightly different set of truths than the fire breathing ovation, acclaim, and screaming eagle owners). What we really are, is efficient. If we're a few knots slower than a Bonanza, it ain't the end of the world. We'll make up the difference by taking less time to top off the tanks before or after the flight. And we're also not slowed down at the FBO by paparazzi or autograph seekers if we land while wearing flashy sunglasses.

39 minutes and not a single “because I was inverted” comment?

I’d had three hours’ sleep in the last 48 hours. I want as sure about anything as I thought I was. Thanks for catching that. The red side runs to the left aileron, and the vacuum force pulls it down, which would turn the airplane to the right. So the side that leaks (most) will be the heavy wing. So yeah. Green system = Drifting to the right. I had lost track of all the troubleshooting and adjustments on mine. I’ve fixed a number of leaky boots and cracked hoses over the last year or so. Good luck! It’s a great system once it’s operating properly.

Yetti is on the right track. By trying to use a scented gas... were you going to pressurize the system that is normally vacuum-driven? I’d hesitate putting any fume or smoke through that system since it all gets pulled through the vacuum pump at some point. The red lines do fail most rapidly. Per Brittain, find a local Parker Store to source replacements lines. A leak in the red system would cause a right turning tendency. Check where the lines pass through the gear well. Years of degreaser and being bumped by a cleaning brush cracked my red line where it passed through the gear well. Replacing the entire line in the wing is about an hour’s work if you’re working with any real purpose. I think I was right at $60 to replace most of the nylon lines.

I tell everyone that owning an airplane may have saved my marriage in the pandemic.. it gives me an excuse to get out of the house and go do something. Aircraft ownership has given me the ability to roam the country at will, with speed and comfort. My wealth hasn’t increased as a result of aircraft ownership, but my life is much richer.

@Misiu02 Before I continue, lemme say I own a C model. My wife and I use it for roaming the continent and it’s a great bird for us... but, I understand the challenges that family can present. The mooney cabin isn’t so much cramped, as it is unconventional for the uninitiated. There’s legroom for the front seats but the seats themselves sit kind of low within a cabin that isn’t super tall to begin with. It can feel more like a sports car or a go-cart to folks expecting a family sedan or minivan. I know you threw the F33 Bonanza out there as an option. have you considered the Bonanza-lite, which is branded as the Debonair? The flying club where I grew up had one and I spent a little time in the back seat as a teenager, on $100 hamburger runs. It’s got a Bonanza-sized cabin, Oleos on all three legs for rough fields, and the fuel burn won’t break the bank. It’s got 1200 lb useful load, too. I see one on barnstormers in the 60’s that would probably need paint and interior. You’d still be well under the 100K budget. It’s also a little faster than my C model. I’d say something about the cost of Beechcraft parts but I paid something like $80 each for washers to shim my mooney engine with. So much for my lifetime habit of referring to Beech parts prices as the Mercedes among Chevrolets in general aviation! I mean, we’re here because we love Mooneys, but we’d hate to see you wind up with one and not enjoy it.

Something caused me to put the champions up top. Maybe the new spark plug socket was hitting the doghouse walls? it’s been months and I’m not certain I remember what was for breakfast today!

I ran into similar problems... and started thinking I was crazy. My 7/8 spark plug socket I’ve used since I was a teenager wouldn’t fit. And the newfangled tempest plugs were missing the top of the doghouse. So I installed the tempest plugs on the bottom and stuck with champions up top.

Ok, this is a sliver of a memory of a post I read here once so don’t hold me to this. May have been Ross or someone else that posted. But.. I think the flap handle doesn’t move the pump through its entire range of motion. It can have air trapped in it that may only be released if you disconnect it from the handle and pump it though its entire stroke. I hope that’s correct, helpful, and makes sense. J

My M20C POH makes no mention of a VSI being required at all.... Unless I'm reading the required equipment list all wrong. Wouldn't be the first time.

Another way of doing a G5 install that would eliminate another gauge would be to do a G5 attitude indicator. That'd get you off the mechanical gyro horizon and you could ditch the VSI since the G5 has one built in.

Thanks. Seeing as how I’ve just got a pair of Kx155s and an iPad, I’ve got a lot to learn before installing my upgrades.

Someone will probably step in and say this would never work, because of (insert reason here) but an idea of how they might get away with these shenanigans. Make two raids. Raid one: Only hit birds with incredibly popular avionics installed. You can be ugly with this operation; if some metal gets bent no big deal. Hang on to the boxes nabbed from this trip for raid number two. Raid two: requires more precision, a little more surgical. Armed with the boxes stolen from the first trip, find birds with identical equipment installed. Swap the (assumed to be reported as) stolen box for an identical box. Don’t damage the planes, you don’t want anyone to think these birds were disturbed. The stolen avionics from the first raid would be reported, but with those boxes already installed, nobody would check the serial numbers against the database for a while, until they go in for service. By then the trail is cold, any fingerprints are long covered over and wiped away. This process doubles the effort required before making a sale, but might cover the tracks long enough. The boxes netted in the second raid, similarly, would have been sold and installed before anyone realized THOSE serial numbers were also stolen. Are database updates serial specific, or will they work on any box running the specified hardware?

I mangled my baggage door link at Kitty Hawk last month. Technically, my wife did it but at my direction, so I claim credit for the kill. It bent over so the door wouldn’t open or close, and collapsed on itself covering the screw head I needed access to for removing the thing. Nothing like standing at the birthplace of aviation, with a giant rain cloud about to bust open, and me wrestling the thing loose with a pair of vise grips and a screwdriver. And of course, folks were hanging on the fence to see the flurry of activity on the ramp! Aircraft ownership is so glamorous. If the other sources don’t work out, you might also try Alan Fox. I thought mine was a lost cause but an afternoon with a hammer, an anvil, and a hydraulic press rescued my support and it lives to fly another day.