Mooney 217RN

I'm just looking at the entire picture here. the powerlines, the trees and fence at the end of the runway, the thought of going around looks like you're not going around. I have landed years ago at Chico Ranchaero, 2,156' X 30' That was in my E Model. i wouldn't take my Ovation in there, not a chance. It's not nearly as perilous as what I see in this photo. https://airnav.com/airport/CL56

Anyone ever see this picture before??? Mooney M20M landing on a 36' wide runway in Washington State. Can it be done? Yes. Would I do it? Judging from the photo, no...

I once before read a thread like this, and I had a moment to do a bit of research on the matter. Our airframes are quite popular. there are 48 airborne right now across the nation. That's saying something. Nothing compared to the number of C172's in the air, but still more than the number of Beech Bonanza's being flown right now. https://flightaware.com/live/aircrafttype/M20P To look at all aircraft airborne right now, go to: https://flightaware.com/live/aircrafttype/

The higher fuel flow is for the 310HP conversion...you then have 27-28 gph on departure from sea level.

Once the Global Warming alarmists and the Green crew realize that they cannot hop on an airliner for that weekend trip to the beach in Belize or that jaunt over the pond to London without JetA, they'll come back to reality. Here's the issue with petroleum in sum - there's easily a 300+ year supply of known reserves. we went from burning wood to burning coal to burning kerosene and then of course gasoline. Oil has taken us from Little House on the Prairie to where we are today. Oil has 30x the energy of wood burning. Electrical power is 2x the energy of wood burning. There's the difference, electric flight is a pipe dream that will not occur in our lifetime, if ever. I am by the way, all for alternative energy. It's not practical however as a transportation fuel.

Will Wobbe william.wobbe@gmail.com Don Kaye is also excellent, but in Northern CA

Everything checked fine at inspection. First flight post annual and this occurred. It’s going up on jack’s next week back at MSC.

I have a troubling problem with my Ovation. I picked it up from annual inspection a few days ago. I noticed my airspeed was off by 12-15 kts. We determined it was possibly the gear doors. Then today, I confirmed that the mains were not fully retracting and stowing away. The “barber pole” in the gear indicator window on the floor was partially visible. The conclusion is that the gear is not fully retracting. The MSC did not do any work on the landing gear whatsoever. It was lubed, emergency gear operation checked out, and it deploys perfectly with green indication on the floor and illumination on the annunciator panel. Has anyone ever seen this problem before and how can we fix it?

I transitioned from an E Model to the Ovation 3. Landing took work to train for it, flying it is a breeze. The Screaming Eagle is essentially an Ovation. I flew a friend's 231 quite a bit. It wasn't terribly different from the E Model, just a bit more power but more weight. The biggest issue I see in the transition to this airplane is landing it. The long bodies are heavy aircraft compared to the light and nimble E,F,J&K models. You really notice the weight landing. You have to carry in a good amount of power compared to the predecessors. A stabilized approach is critical to your successful transaction.

I've been at KOA watching KC-135's doing T & G's.

I've been told it is very tough on an engine to do T & G's by many an A&P/IA with heat being a primary concern in a tightly cowled aircraft. Going around is something you just have to do, so you do need to be prepared to go around. But to intentionally do T & G's in a complex/high performance aircraft isn't the brightest thing in the world. I often will ask the tower for the option, reconfigure on roll out with a checklist, and takeoff again. That's a lot different than a T & G. Full disclosure - I am based at a high altitude field, and the DA is part of the issue for flight safety AND engine cooling. I am also familiar with another airport where T & G's are prohibited due to runway length (2,600'). Pick your poison; I have done T & G's in my Mooney, just choose not to do so regularly.

Personally, I find the vernier controls to be cumbersome, especially the throttle. My old E Model had levers, like a throttle quadrant. I loved it. My Ovation has the verniers. The nice thing about them is that you can really dial in precisely the controls. I could do so just as well with the levers on my E Model. As for touch & go's in a Mooney - no thank you. it may take a little more effort, but taxi back and make each landing full stop. T & G's are horribly tough on an engine, and you need to reconfigure for departure. I know some people will say just do the T & G without reconfiguring, as the down flaps will offset the nose up trim. I've done that, don't like it. My first Mooney flight was in an E model while I was in flight training. It had the johnson bar gear and flaps. The flight school made it very clear - no T & G's were permitted in the Mooney.

As I understand it, no. I am equipped identically. At one time there was support from Mooney to do this, at a very expensive cost. I think it also included removing the STEC and replacing it with the G700 autopilot. I went to do a software upgrade a couple of years back, couldn't do it because my G1000 is non-WAAS. I was told then that the ability to convert to WAAS had come and gone. I don't think Mooney knows how many Ovations and Acclaims are out there equipped like this. I have been told anywhere from 45-60 at a minimum.

Caruso, this is not an AD. it was never an AD. It was about to become an AD, but TCM and the FAA were talked down from it. it is a "Critical Service Bulletin"

My date of manufacture on the engine is April of 2005. That really, truly sucks. The PPI did not note this in the AD's, I didn't own the plane when this topic was hotly discussed, I purchased it less than a year later (May 2018). Very low time on aircraft/engine. This is the first time this matter came up. And this is not an AD, which is probably why it didn't come up in the PPI. I am thinking inspect it, but don't just replace it, which requires pulling the engine AND machining/modifying the case.

Almost every one of my oil changes I do on my own. For the reasons you mention above. The only real downside to the Ovation is that the oil change is a bitch compared with the E Model I flew for almost 20 years. I had a LoPresti Speed Cowl on the E Model. I could disengage the linkage on the cowl flap, pull it down, and easily reach the quick drain without removing the lower cowl. The Ovation requires complete cowling removal to do an oil & filter change.

My annual inspection was just completed, and on the squawk list is CSB05-8D. This requires the inspection of the camshaft gear on a multitude of TCM engines, including mine, an IO-550G. In my case, the engine just missed the cutoff date by a few months on the manufacturing line. Total bummer. I did some research on this and there was a thread here 5 years ago about this Service Bulletin. Haven't seen anything more recent. Does anyone have any feedback or opinion on this matter? I am surprised it was never an issue on prior inspections, because the plane is affected based on the manufacture date of the engine. It's never come up before, hence my curiosity. As there's no lack of opinions here on MooneySpace, I am seeking the same CSB05-8D.pdf

The heat sleeve on a fuel hose is outside of the steel braided rubber. I lost a high pressure fuel line in flight, and I have that hose in my hangar. I am intimately familiar with the construction of those hoses. You'd need a pretty big hole in the steel braided rubber hose to pick up that amount of fiber. The only way you'd get that is friction or heat. Mine failed because my former shop clamped the hose abutting an exhaust stack, thinking it was an intake tube.

I religiously change my oil and filter at or before 25 hrs Nothing wrecks an engine faster than dirty oil.

That looks like carpet fiber. There shouldn’t be anything in your fuel system that produces fiber material like that except your fuel filter.. And nothing in a fuel dispensing system would have fiber in it spare filtration. Somewhat strange.

I believe it’s all about where you fly. TKS is meant to get you out of a problem. I intentionally purchased my Ovation without TKS or A/C. Where I live, flying into icing is a certain death sentence. And because of the location, air conditioning is not a necessity.. I don’t want the extra weight or the loss of airspeed. On the other hand, I have friends back east that won’t buy a plane without TKS. My flights through IMC are limited to stratus and smoke, I just say no to icing.

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again. Mooney probably made the very best quality aircraft in its class. But the company made two mistakes. First off it stopped manufacturing their entry level model, the 201. My first M20 was an E Model. They probably shouldn’t have discontinued that. By failing to manufacturer the “lower end” they wiped out generations of buyers. Nobody coming out of a 172 with 250hrs is going into an Ovation or Acclaim. But you can easily be a low time pilot and get into a 201, learn it, and fly it. No flight school is going to have an Acclaim or Ovation on their flight line. But I have seen E Models, 201’s and even an M20S at flight schools. Finally, Mooney has been absolutely horrible at marketing their product. They’ve relied on outside sales reps which is always a recipe for failure. combine these two basic business shortcomings, and well, we are where we are...

Rick- Saw your post. I have a complete J Model exhaust system at Top Gun in Stockton. I dropped it off there one day when I picked up my Ovation from their shop. No longer needed the J Model exhaust, as I don't have the other plane any longer. $1,000 and it's yours, including all stacks. Call Mark over there and ask if they can ship it to you.

Pardon me for weighing in, but here's my two cents on this - The M20S is a great plane. I looked hard at getting one, but decided for the M20R Ovation 2GX. I came out of an E Model. I flew the wings off that 1974 E Model over 19 years. When I stepped into the Ovation, it was a handful compared to what I was accustomed to. I would highly recommend you reconsider on the Eagle. It took me a significant amount of time to transition into the Ovation. I can't see how someone could do their private pilot in one. That said, I have a good friend who is a really phenomenal CFII/MEI/ATP. He is a Mooney certified instructor. He did a private pilot's license for someone that got a 201. All this person's training flights were in a 201. I can see that as a reality. When I did my initial flight training 20 years ago, the flight school where I rented from had an E Model. I did some training in that. I would highly recommend an M20J 201 for flight training. You need a Mooney instructor however, no question about that.

Greetings fellow Mooniac. I had a beautiful E Model for 19 years, and couldn't help but reply to your post, as I know the feeling. The E, F & J models just want to fly. They don't want to come down. Chop & Drop is not a good technique or option. JoeC has it down, 1" reduction of manifold pressure per minute and push the nose over to descend at 500' per minute. If you want to accelerate your descent a bit, take 1" of MP off every 30 seconds, or 2" per minute. You won't shock cool the IO-360 by doing that. Joe is also correct, the key being to plan enough ahead so that you have the time to descend. Another little math trick I used in the E Model was to take my time enroute to my destination and divide it by 2, multiply it by 1,000 and see what altitude I was at. So if I was 16 minutes out at 8,000', I better start that 500 fpm descent. That's a rough WAG, but it works. Just push the nose over and decrease manifold pressure, keep your prop set right where it's at until you're in the pattern out of governing range. My new Mooney has speed brakes It's a whole new world for me. Blow the planks and down you go. But realistically, the 2,000 +/- hrs I put on the E Model really helped me with stabilized descents and approaches to carry over to the Ovation. I can bring it down using the same technique without the speed brakes. No speed limitations on those speed brakes, blow 'em and you're coming down/slowing down. Good luck F Model Driver.