1980Mooney

Actually you are understating the share of pilot-related accidents. Only 7.2% of accidents were attributed to mechanical issues that could be found. The cause of 28% of the accidents was designated as "Unknown" - but most likely pilot-related.

Actually it was clear. Everyone glossed over the fact that LASAR did inferior work, did not catch their mistakes and sent you a crap part that wasted you and your mechanic’s time. Everyone wants to ASSUME that this is the FAA’s fault.

What do you mean when you say that the first LASAR rebuilt nose truss had a “fitment issue” requiring you to send it back? Are you saying that LASAR got the dimensions/ jig alignment wrong during welding? Or did they send the wrong truss? Why would there be a “trial and error” fitment issue? That doesn’t sound like a bureaucratic/paperwork issue.

Of course the genesis is the characteristic of the pilot. But it is so, so much easier to just dial in and "follow a magenta line".(actually let "George" follow the magenta line) Its like playing a compute game. If you are dependent upon dialing in and finding the intersection of two VORs or finding the offset of a DME while hand flying you know much more quickly when you are not up to the task and that you will not be able to hand fly the plane if the "magenta line fails".

"@kortopates I'd echo that to say that in the era of steam gauges there was MUCH more instrument uniformity from one aircraft to the next. Modern panels have so many unique quirks that currency is minimum price of entry, but not even remotely in the realm of proficiency. How modes change, how the approach sequences, where you find the "gotchas" with equipment surprises....and I'm still surprised sometimes...and this is with an all Garmin panel...once you start mixing and matching a lot of the time the quirks rise exponentially." This is more of a problem with our 20-60 year old planes that become more and more bespoke with each modification. Newer planes like Cirrus have more uniformity. "The hard part is that you can't simulate every single issue you might run into. Sometimes it's obvious and easy...sometimes it's a head scratcher and it won't be figured out that flight. I would argue that more capable and integrated panels with a fully featured autopilot afford a WAY larger safety margin for the GA pilot. But they come at the cost of more sophistication from the panel requiring more sophistication from the pilot. .... So the level of safety afforded is only as good as the pilot." It offers way more safety margin until it stops working or the pilot cannot understand it. It allows (lulls), pilots that are actually "less sophisticated" into believing that they are more sophisticated sometimes with disastrous results. TNFLyGirl - preliminary indicates she had problems operating Century 2000 autopilot (she even posted YouTube of her struggling with it) https://asn.flightsafety.org/wikibase/348680 https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/ntsb-report-contains-key-information-on-high-profile-accident/ https://asn.flightsafety.org/wikibase/181528 The latest Pilatus crash - pilot told ATC of autopilot problem

That was the OP’s registration for his plane in 2006. His current plane’s registration is N9154X https://www.flightaware.com/resources/registration/N9145X

It sounds like he is ordering an engine for a different plane. But to his point, if you go to AirPower and search Lycoming IO-540, or O-540 or TIO-540, every 540 engine of every type/model is “On Backorder”. - New, Rebuilt and Overhauled. But all the Continental 550’s also show “On backorder”. I seem to recall looking at this a few months back and they had Continentals ready to ship back then. Not a good situation for owners

Found the background on the Craig Fuller behind this. Also why the subscriptions are doubling and why you are getting links and advertising to relevant and non-relevant crap... https://verved.ai/blog/how-craig-fuller-built-a-usd60m-media-empire ."Strategies for Transformation: Raising Subscription Prices: He increased subscription prices from $8 to $30, resulting in a more sustainable revenue model. Content Quality Improvement: Invested in the editorial team, expanding from 3 to 30 contributors, and upgraded the print quality. Growing Advertising Revenue: Improved ad sales by focusing on intent data, targeting more relevant advertisers."

Good point. Very confusing. None of the press releases makes any distinction.

@toto Have you been following the latest? You are going to start getting a lot of crap not related to "Aviation Consumer"... Craig Fuller, background and funding unknown, has acquired all the aviation brands plus more. First a freight management related platform named Freightwaves (no relationship to avaiation!). Then all the aviation media brands. https://www.flyingmag.com/flying-acquires-five-major-aviation-media-brands-including-avweb-aviation-consumer-aviation-safety-ifr-and-kitplanes/ Renamed it Flying Media Group. He has acquired AvBuyer and FindaPilot.com recently. https://www.flyingmag.com/flying-media-group-acquires-findapilot-com/ https://www.corporatejetinvestor.com/news/flying-media-group-buys-avbuyer/ Put out a slick magazine earlier this year called "Ultimate" with Flying, Plane&Pilot, The Aviation Consumer, Aviation Safety, Kitplanes and IFR. It also pushed selling real estate at a luxury fly in community that he is developing - 1,500 acres in the Sequatchie Valley of East Tennessee and designed a luxury fly-in community. Then bought marine, model railroad and astronomy media. https://www.amediaoperator.com/newsletter/breaking-flying-media-group-acquires-marine-print-titles-from-bonnier/ Now he splits the Media business from the Software data collection business. He renames the former Flying Media Group media business as "Firecrown" and acquires it personally. The Software data collection business is named Freightwaves Sonar https://www.amediaoperator.com/newsletter/craig-fullers-firecrown-acquires-freightwaves-media/ https://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2024/jan/31/freightwaves-spins-off-media-outlets-into/ Firecrown: "our purpose: to build engaged audiences in marine, aviation, supply chain, and other lifestyles and hobbies, and create multi-dimensional enthusiast ecosystems that feed their purpose." "Today, Firecrown is the largest media platform in aviation, recreational marine, supply chain, and model railroading. The goal is to replicate the content-to-commerce model in recreational marine that has worked so well in aviation. https://firecrown.com/about/

Further observation: Remember this happened back in 2015 to the then 62 year old pilot The FAA was in the process at the time of reducing the number of VORs No reg then or even today requires GPS for a plane to be IFR capable. https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-14/chapter-I/subchapter-F/part-91/subpart-C/section-91.205#p-91.205(b) Today pilots assume (and are totally dependent upon) that you MUST have GPS to fly As you say flying is becoming more about skill in pushing buttons - "BUTTONOLOGY" I bet most GA pilots that think this guy is "an embarrassment" could not today hand fly IFR by VOR and without an autopilot. Many of the posts on MS are obsessed about upgrading to more and more capable/integrated panels with more capable autopilots that can fly Visual Approaches (VFR glideslope), Smart Glide, etc This was a pilot and plane in transition. The pilot/owner seemed like your typical enthusiastic and thrifty new Mooney owner on a budget. He bought his Mooney in June 2013 for $41k (his 3rd plane each a step up) When he bought the plane it just had two VORs, one with ILS and the ads say it had DME at one point. It had a Garmin 155 on the yoke. He "upgraded" to the Garmin 396 in the panel. Something else is in the upper right hand side of the pane but cant tell and the description is lacking. He joined MS in July 2013 and posted a lot on MS discussing his upgrades like his panel. He seemed to have a lot of interest in his plane - the ad says he repainted it in 2015 The incident happened in December 2015 The last time that he ever visited MooneySpace was July 2016 He sold the Mooney in mid-2019 I can only suspect that this killed his interest in GA flying. Between the incident, likely remedial training, the prospect of more spending on more technology that the "thrill was gone". More and more the future seems mainly to be about the panel and "buttonology" now. It is no wonder that we read about horrific crashes where the pilot/owner cannot control the plane in IFR when the autopilot fails or kicks off (both GA and commercial). The plane is just a hulk to haul avionics more and more. And there was a time in GA when everything, every bill started in $1's K, Now days the discussions and bills seem to start in $10's K.....

If your favorite restaurant moves to a new location with new cook and employees and gets a "F" rating from the Health Department, who do you blame? The Health Inspector or the restaurant? Do you keep eating there? Many are assuming that this is the fault of the big bad old FAA/FSDO. It is possible that the local FSDO is applying the regs consistently and it is the "new" LASAR that can't get their collective act together. As @kortopates highlighted likely LASAR underestimated the task. This is not a case of equipment/processes/suppliers/people "that have been flying safely for years...". They don't have the same welding vendors, virtually none of the same employees (is it only one maybe?), maybe a different steel supplier, etc. As @PT20J speculates maybe they failed the record-keeping/traceability audit. Then again maybe LASAR F'ed up worse than just paper work - It is easy for them to blame the FAA. Until LASAR explains their shortcomings we will never know how serious this is and who is at fault.

Unless there is a class action lawsuit, I believe that you are liable to your mechanic to pay for all those expenses. And you remain liable for all the fixed costs while your plane sits idle on jack stands. Did they send you a prepaid mailer or did you incur the cost of shipping it back to them?

No idea. It does not show up in the NTSB database or the FAA Incidents (ASIAS).

Right. There is a vent on the filler neck (yellow circle on IO-550G below) . The orange hose on that vent is connected to the vent that you see coming out the left side bottom of plane. If the funnel is not in the filler tube past the vent hole and you pour oil too fast, it will burp back through the vent (path of least resistance). I have an IO-550A with a taller filler neck and it happens.

This discussion has been skewed by the title. There is no doubt that the pilot made mistakes. Some felt bad for the pilot. Others condemned him as an unqualified VFR pilot that sullied the reputation of Mooney owner/pilots who incredulously believe this could never happen to them. But a lot of incorrect assumptions have been made by many making comments. First of all this happened back in December 2015. https://www.natca.org/2016/03/14/jeffrey-schuler-new-york-tracon/ The owner/pilot was Instrument Rated. He joined MooneySpace and actively posted from 2013-2016. His MS name was "garysuperpilot" At the time of the incident the owner/pilot was 62 yrs old He got his Instrument ticket in 2007 From 2001-2004 he owned a Cessna 150, N714CA From 2004-2013 he owned a Piper Cherokee 140, N9939W In 2013 he purchased his M20F, N9525M. He sold it in 2019 https://www.aircraft.com/aircraft/24911601/n9525m-1967-mooney-m20f On MS he said "..I purchased a 67f model in may for 41k. It had new paint, fresh overhaul 10smoh (was a local shop however) , new schimitar prop, and a new interior. On the minus side it had limited avionics. It only had original wing leveler, kx 155 w/ gs, mk12w/ head, dme, fuel flow totalizer, and rather old audio panel. It also had an alternate static source and backup vacuum system." "What I have done is panel mount a 396 GPS which I bought used for $500 and yoke mount an iPad mini w/fore flight. In 2014 on MS he said: " Yeah, I've been flying IFR for eight years and still don't "enjoy" a minimum approach all that much. I remember being told to set minimums your comfortable with. I don't feel as indestructible as I did 40 years ago and try not to take chances I don't need to. Flying needs to stay something I love to do and not something I have to do." And in 2015 on MS he said: "(yoke mount) +1 ipad mini. w/foreflight standard ipad blocks too much" So on the day of the incident, he may or may not have been current. He may or may not have checked any weather before departing - apparently not in sufficient detail. Obviously he was not proficient that day. He did not do his VOR checks before takeoff based on his comments about VORs. But he kept his cool while in the clag as @Joshua Blackh4t noted. He never sounded panicked. He hand flew the plane on the VOR approach and landed. This was "way back in 2015" and he did not have a fancy integrated panel and autopilot like so many are dependent upon today. As @C.J. noted this is not Mooney specific. I wonder how many current Mooney owner/pilots, with fancy integrated panels and autopilots, could hand fly if they lost GPS or their panel. How many can even still fly a VOR approach? How many still even have VORs in their plane? Think about the next 5-10 years as pilots become more and more dependent upon more and more capable integrated avionics. I see so many accidents where the pilots depend upon the autopilot but lack proficiency to hand fly when it fails. This may have happened to the ATR in Brazil. It also appears to be the case with the recent Pilatus crash in Wyoming - they told ATC the autopilot failed before they lost control.

I am not sure where you are getting that notion. Cirrus sales of SEP are more than double Textron. In 2023: Cirrus sold 612 SEP Textron sold 292 SEP (180 of the total was low-end 172’s almost exclusively for training/flight schools. Only 5 Bonanza’s were sold) https://gama.aero/facts-and-statistics/quarterly-shipments-and-billings/

These numbers are bunk. A SR22T is supposedly 10 kn slower than a SR22 through 14,000 feet? - total crap. And an Ovation is 13-15 kn slower than an Acclaim at 6,000 ft, while both airplanes are the same weight, same airfoil, same fuselage, and each plane's engines are at 65% cruise power, “best performance" meaning both are ROP either at 201 HP (65% of 310) or both are at 182 HP (65% of 280)- ?? Complete Crap. Aviation Consumer should be ashamed.

These anecdotes referencing "Cirrus engines" having different life are rather fanciful. As if the Cirrus is running some radically different engine. They are all Continental 550's of one form or another. CIrrus, Mooney, TTX - Their 6 cylinder engines are all siblings from the same Continental stable - some identical twins, some fraternal twins. Continental has experienced a number of manufacturing problems over the last 20 years and a number of recalls. I think it has less to do with the airframe manufacturer or pilot and more to do with the engine manufacturer as @philiplane highlights. One thing in Mooney's favor was that they originally de-rated the 550, limited RPM to 2,500 and HP to 280. That may extend the life some but many converted to the 310 HP upgrade and 2,700 RPM so it is probably moot. But the main reason why it seems that there are more Cirrus SR22 and SR22T with engine issues, is because there are so many, many more Cirrus flying with Continental 550's. For all we know, the actual life of a Continental 550 in a Cirrus may be statistically equal or even better than other airframes when evaluated as a function of the entire flying fleet. Source: GAMA Deliveries The numbers speak for themselves. That is why there is support and availability for Cirrus. It is also why it is hard to get Mooney to pay a third party supplier to manufacture a proprietary part - the population is too small. Also highlights why there is limited financial incentive for Mooney or Garmin to develop G1000 upgrades.

OK here it is for your 1967. You can find all the electrical schematics in the back of the Service Manuals which you will find in the "Downloads" Section of MS - just click on "Browse". Notice that they connected the hot + lead from the battery to the lug on the Aux/External Power Relay (Solenoid) instead of to the Power Relay like on later models. When the Aux/External Power Relay is energized (that is when the 3 pin connector plugged in and attached to a 12 v. power cart or car) then both the main ship battery and external power source are connected in parallel.

Note that it was an "Option" as shown in the drawing for E and F models. It was also an option for C and G using exactly the same schematic.

Here is the Mooney Electrical Schematic for your pre-J F model showing the Aux Power adapter.

That may be true on some Mooneys - maybe the later ones with multiple batteries. But on the M20J, the plane's battery and aux cable which is connected to the power cart/car engine are wired together in parallel when the Aux contactor closes. There is no bypass of the main ships battery ever. M20J Ser. No 237 M20J Ser. No 1256

Following @N204TA highlight of Piper 1 pin vs Cessna/Mooney 3 pin external power adapters: Are you saying that your Mooney has a Piper style single pin receptacle mounted either internally or with a weather proof external door? (Like pic below?) If so it was not installed by Mooney at the factory and it is not the the Mooney Retrofit External Power Receptacle 940115-503 "Installs external power receptacle M20E,F,J,K". Mooney used the Cessna style 3 pin external power adapter. (see below). If you actually have a Piper single pin connector then check your logs to see who/when it was installed. PIPER STYLE ONE (1) PIN CESSNA OR MOONEY THREE (3) PIN ADAPTER

Well it took 50 seconds to drop the initial 1,000 ft from 17,000 to 16,000. After that it was dropping at about 11,500 - 12,000 fpm. Elevation at the crash site, Vinhedo, is about 2,500 ft. So the final descent from 16,000 took about 1 minute and 10 seconds. I am sure it was terrifying. The Juan Browne YouTube above at 3:20 shows video of the descent from 5 different viewpoints. It is amazing that so many people were looking up tracking it in the sky and had time to video it. I suspect Doppler effect caused the screaming prop noise to fluctuate as it spun 360 degrees and caused to people look up.