Ricky_231

Yikes - I kept thinking "what if I'm allergic? what if stings me in the eye?". The worst part is I was probably at 500-700ft AGL at this point, and the Dulles Bravo only 500ft above me. So on top of everything I'm having to balance neither hitting the ground nor busting airspace. I thought about turning on the AP then I remembered it's porpoising like crazy in ALT mode! It was just one of those days... Yesterday was quite the opposite though - what a day to fly! So there's that :-)

Alright - whatever it was, it's gone. Couldn't replicate the issue today - all gauges in the green, performance normal. I'm still going to get the sender/gauge checked, and keep an eye on things. Also, no hornets - DOUBLE WIN!

Today's preflight is going to be especially paranoid

yep - i just had my ASI overhauled, so a lot of fiddling behind those gauges

isn't that the thing with pig fat in it? does it work?

Middle of the green - mid 100s. Phillips 66 20w50. It usually goes up a bit on takeoff, but I had never seen it pegged to the right on the red line. Also, when I turned around to come back and land, I pulled power to 21-22" and the gauge just stayed there on the red line. It only went back to normal after I started taxiing to the ramp. But then, on the second flight, before the hornet encounter, it was behave normally again. That's why I'm starting to think @carusoam's #9 is a serious contender.

I've seen hornets AROUND the plane before - I think they live in a defunct aerostar across the ramp from me. I believe they share the aerostar carcass with the gazillion birds that live there too. I always do a very thorough walk around, especially during mating season looking for bird nests. Today I even opened up the tail panel to look inside. No nests of any kind. Unless it's inside the cockpit, like under the seat. But talk about a nightmare scenario. At least I *think* it wasn't a murder hornet :-)

Let's see: 1) agreed 2) thought about that - will have it checked 3) 75oF... and i let the oil temp rise to mid 100s before doing anything 4) good to know 5) no - the runup was completely uneventful 6) I do not - I've an EI UBG-16 engine monitor - no recording though 7) no changes there - a regular run up + takeoff 8) indeed :-) 9) THAT'S what I'm thinking - wonder where it got flushed out to though - hence the early oil + filter change on my mind now 10) zilch... like I said, plane's been behaving really well lately, and even today - the rise in temp was as every other time, even the changes in pressure were consistent with previous startups/runups (close to the top of the green on start up, oil is cold, slowly decreases as engine warms up, goes to the bottom of the green when in idle by the time I'm at the runup area, increases when I do the mag check, varies slightly with prop cycling, slight drop in then back to normal)

Maybe I’ll add “check for hornets” on my preflight checklist. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

This afternoon the weather was just perfect. Low 70s, winds calm, and I had a couple of hours to spare. So I put on my newly acquired Mooney t-shirt (there’s a whole thread about them) and headed to the airport. Preflight was fine, run-up went as usual. No red flags. Plane has been behaving quite well lately save the porpoising autopilot (also another thread). On take off roll, full power, I proclaimed the usual “everything in the green” out loud, except it wasn’t. Oil pressure was high - all the way up to the thin red line. I tried to abort the takeoff but it was too late - I was already at rotation speed, and then in the air. I kept an eye on the oil pressure gauge and nothing, pegged all the way to the right. Called tower immediately and told them I’d be returning to field because of a possible engine malfunction. They cleared me to land immediately, I did a lap around the pattern and landed. Pressure only went down on taxi. Then I ran into a couple of buddies on the ramp that heard me on the radio and we talked about the issue for a while. 30-40 min. At the end of which I decided to give it another go. Same deal - preflight, runup, takeoff. Everything great - this time actually in the green. So I headed to the practice area where I planned to practice a few commercial maneuvers. Then I noticed I wasn’t picking up speed as usual. At this point I’m already paranoid, but realize the gear was still down. My head was clearly not in the game anymore. But I thought I’d push through and do a little flying. That usually makes everything better. Then a HORNET flies right in front of my eyes. INSIDE the cockpit. And it’s angry. It’s trying to go somewhere but keeps hitting the windshield. Then it comes at me. I try to swat it away. A HORNET. IN THE COCKPIT. I opened the little pilot window and kept swatting. It flew out the window. I was still at 1000ft, completely distracted from flying the plane or anything else. That’s how you end up in an NTSB report I thought. I called tower again and called it a day. Some days I guess we’re just not meant to go up. Anyway I thought I’d share this little tale here. Incidentally, if anybody has any idea what could’ve caused the high oil pressure indication... temps were all good. I thought maybe the sender is faulty, or the relief valve clogged with some small impurities or congealed oil. Or maybe a clogged oil filter. I’m due for an oil change in 5 hours anyway - I’ll probably move that up a bit just to make sure everything is new and clean. Thoughts? I’m going up again tomorrow or Friday to see if it happens again. The oil pressure, not the hornets. The continental engine manual make no mention of high pressure. Only low. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

well it seems this didn't generate enough traction or attract enough attention to spark action from the powers that be

This is the best I found on the interwebs: https://www.sportys.com/pilotshop/mooney-logo-cap-white.html But I don't love it. Gonna keep looking...

Where can I get a cool Mooney hat to go with my brand new T-shirt? I need something better than my AOPA trucker hat! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Whoever owns that shop needs to thank you - I just bought one too!

Ha - that's what I was hoping to hear. When I was pre-flighting today I felt the elevators were a little 'sticky' as you put it. Didn't connect the dots - but that's the sort of thing I was hoping for. I'll try lubing it up tomorrow while rationally trying not to be too optimistic :-)

I'll try that

A few flight hours ago, my Century 41 AP started acting up - it'd porpoise if I hit ALT mode before stabilizing after climb/descent. Fine. I thought it was just a matter of not abusing the system - so I started leveling off first, then hitting ALT. No problem - super smooth sailing. Now the past 2 flights, there's nothing I can do to stop it from porpoising. And it gets pretty violent so I have to turn it off after 2 - 3 cycles. I can tell it's having a delayed reaction - it'll be pointing the nose down, starts picking up speed and pitch up, then rolls the trim up (and vice-versa). Has anyone here had a similar issue? Was it an easy fix (reprogram/calibrate the unit) or something more complicated. I just had the Attitude Gyro overhauled a few months ago because it had an issue.. hope it's not it again. Thoughts?

+1 - best purchase i've made in a long long time (not including the mighty mooney of course). The smell of fresh ground coffee goes up the HVAC ducts and out the vents in my bedroom - the best way to wake up.

if you notice, on the continental -LB1 manual (and on the K POH), they say if you have a "large filter" (POH calls it "external filter") you should change the filter at 50 hours and the oil at 100hrs. Not sure why you'd do that though.

Interesting - my local flight school does oil changes at every 50 hours on their 172s.

K with -LB1 engine - Continental says 50 hours (pic below). On average I add about a quart every 10-15 hours (varies depending on whether it's been mostly long xc flight vs. bunch of short hops, maneuver/pattern work flights). 7 qts is it's happy place, so I don't let it drop below 6.5 - I'll add a half a quart if needed. As stated above, oil is never dark - pretty much looks like it just got out of the bottle all the way to the oil change. I use Phillips 66 20w50.

I signed up for aerobridge but so far there have been only a handful of missions available and they were all really far from where I am... I wonder if any of these other organizations have a more pressing need right now, or more activity on the east/NE coast.

Yeah I had that same reaction. Somebody on MS posted a video of speedbrakes being deployed in the rain and you can clearly see the effect on flow over the wing. Interesting that on the King course, when they talk about spoilers he says they’re for reducing lift and increasing drag, but then when he introduces speedbrakes he specifically says they only increase drag. I guess that you could say that it increases drag relative to lift as you reduce lift... Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Started working on my commercial ground school so I can take the written when all the madness is over. Look what I found in the "secondary flight controls" lesson:

so who can make this happen?