Denver98

Thanks for the info!! It reinforces my feelings about keeping that area protected.

If I were to make a guess based on the staining on the paint, I would bet on it being a fuel system vent. This stains were similar to the stains on the right gear door.

This seems to far forward to be the battery vent. Here’s an expanded view. A quick research leads me to believe that the smaller, recessed vent is the battery vent.

Ok, so I’m not sure what comes out of this vent but whatever it is, it’s not good for paint and it very hard to remove. The good news is, it will come off with a very aggressive pad and compound. After I washed the surface dirt away, it felt like 60 grit sandpaper. After several hours of work, it’s now very smooth and it looks much better. That said, it has caused pitting in the paint, almost to the tail tie down, that I can‘t correct. So, for those of you with newer or new(ish) paint, I highly recommend cleaning this area and getting that area protected with a ceramic coating. I will post all of the materials I’ve used here in the next couple of days. -Scott

Some more before and afters. I took the before picture on a nice day back in January. It was another nice day here and I had just finished the tops of the wings, so I pulled it out the hangar for some pictures. Notice in the after picture, the rudder vs the vertical stabilizer, I haven’t done that surface yet. The results continue to be surprising.

....like David Justice with the Oakland A’s....We’re going to squeeze out the last bit of shine that paint has to offer. (Money Ball paraphrase intended) I’m really starting to miss Baseball.

If you were closer to DFW, I could probably make that happen.

This entire project is going to take me around 60 hours. -Buy enough products to do 4 SUVs. I’ve run out a couple of times. -Get the good polish rags and wash them nightly, they need to be clean. -Have lots of light. -Wear eye protection and face protection especially when working under the aircraft. So far the best system I’ve come up with is clean the area you think you can do that day, then work the clay bar, cut and polish in sections. If your going to do the ceramic coating, apply that after you have a large section of the plane polished, if you can wait until the entire airplane is polished the do the coating. We’ve been flying 2AD, so I’ve tried to get the areas that get the dirtiest, ie gear doors and belly ceramic coated first. Once coated, those areas clean up MUCH easier. Just except the fact that you’ll end up do a section twice.

I’ll get some of the wingtips tomorrow or Monday

Sorry I’m not better at taking pictures. Just me and my IPhone.

After the polish.

After the cut compound

After clay bar. I tried repeatedly but this would not flip correctly.

Before any work.

Having access to @gsxrpilot’s awesome Mooney 252 has been just awesome. It has allowed me to fly my favorite piston single airplane. It has gotten me back into general aviation and helped me stay mentally sharp. I’m not going to lie, I was loosing my “captain” brain and this has really helped. So, to give back, I offered (in exchange for some flight time) to do a full paint correction on the Mooney. I’ve been working on this in my spare time for about a month, it’s been a big job, but the results are worth sharing. It’s been a solid five step process, clean that surface, clay bar, “cut” compound, polish and finally ceramic coat. The results have been dramatic, almost surprising. All of the products I’m using I bought from a local Colorado Company, Adam’s polishes. Here are some of the before and afters. I took some video early on and will shoot a little more now that I’m almost finished. I’ll try to edit that and post later. Enjoy.

Nah, I’ll take that 385hp, 3000 TBO Diesel engine EPS is working on.

It’s funny, I was JUST looking at this airport, it’s close enough to Amarillo to make it worth the stop. Although ForeFlight doesn’t show it THAT cheap. Hopefully we’ll see a drop at BJC soon.

I’m going to bid for a 6 month leave of absence from AAL. I will keep my non-rev and JS benefits, so, I’d be happy to help move mooneys around. If you need help, let me know. I just hope I’m senior enough to hold the VSLOA.

Considering that UAL is the biggest tenant at DEN, I’d expect to see lots of blue tails parked at DEN. AAL is going to park 450 jets, 130 wide body jets and 320 narrow body jets. If I had to guess there will be a lot of Red, White and Blue holding down concrete in TUL, SAT, AUS and DFW.

I am new to Mooney forums but not new to Mooneys. I got away from Mooney flying and GA as I progressed in my career but felt it was time to get back to GA flying. It is interesting the topics that spark a ferocious debate, lots of personalities here with LOTS of experience. But I’ll bet that we can all agree on one thing, stabilized approaches lead to good landings and a fewer go-arounds. An acceptable flap position for landing the Mooney is “AS DESIRED”, so up to full is an acceptable landing flap condition. Know your airplane, know your landing field conditions, including NOTAMS, and fly a stable approach. If the approach is ever not stable, a go-around is the BEST course of action, especially within 500’ AFL. Each of us has our own technique and procedure for that technique and over time it becomes a “techcedure”. It is probably what causes such long debates. At 500’ each us, regardless of flaps, should be asking “Am I in the window?”. Target airspeed for desired landing configuration (no more than +10 knots, minus ZERO), on glide path, tracking centerline and gear DOWN. My first jet airline check airman repeatedly said “on speed, on spot” and he never said one negative thing about the “firmness” of my landings as long as I was on centerline and in the touchdown zone. On speed, on spot and if not go-around.

I’ll confirm that the no flap landings were easier and MUCH smoother. I really liked the feel of the airplane in ground effect with no flaps better than with full flaps. I will definitely practice with different flap settings but given a long runway, no flap will probably be my preferred flap setting.

This wouldn’t be Mooney specific but my wife would be happy to do an ATC Q and A type of content article. Which could lead into additional discussion or technical ATC articles. Not to worry, she’s a much better writer than I am.

Wow, what a beautiful airplane!! If I was in the market for one, this would be it. I’m sure you’ll have no problem selling it.

Now I want to go to Oshkosh and bring, what feels like, bootlegged Tequila from Casa Sanchez in Leadville, CO. It is by far the best Tequila I’ve ever had! We drove to Leadville on Super Bowl Sunday, just to get our previously bought bottle refilled! So, for those of you looking for an “excuse” to fly into Leadville, when the airport reopens this summer, this is it! As for Single Malt Whiskey, we like Stranahan’s from right here in Denver. Michelle (wife) and I were part of their volunteer bottling crew in January. Each bottle of Stranahan’s is bottled from start to finish by hand. These two bottles were part of our “thank you” for bottling. Yes, we bottled both these bottles. If you get a bottle of Stranahan’s batch 234 odds are I put the label on the bottle. For those of you visiting Denver, the Stranahan’s and the Laws Whisky tours ARE GREAT! Both distilleries are within about 2 miles of each other. (Quick note about LAWS, their tours have been suspended until April due to upgrades to their distillery) https://www.stranahans.com/tours/ http://www.lawswhiskeyhouse.com/tours/