Matt Ward

There was a recent post on here about when to put flaps up after takeoff and it got me thinking about the whole gear/flaps/pump process after takeoff. I went to the Mooney PPP to see what they have to say and it's a little tough to unpack: In my E, I typically climb at Vy which is 90 KIAS and expect to get in the neighborhood of 500 FPM (~5600 field elevation, close to gross weight). I take off on a runway that's about 5000 feet. If I'm reading this PPP right, with respect to raising the gear: -no usable runway: round numbers, I probably takeoff within about 1000 feet. The POH says I need nearly 2000 feet to land. That suggests to me that "having usable runway" means I haven't passed the 3000 foot markers. Flying 2000 feet at takeoff/climb speeds probably only takes ~15 secs. -to 1000 feet: getting to 1000 feet AGL, is likely a ~2 minute affair. At that time, I'm probably 2.5 to 3 miles away from the airport, clearly no runway remaining. -full power Vy climb...not to exceed 80 mph...: in my E, Vy is about 90 KIAS or 103 MPH or so. The "not to exceed 80 mph" part is close to Vx, or 70 KIAS. That's nearly rotation speed which is about 60 KIAS. So if I break this down, it's either telling me to 1) retract the gear about 15 seconds on my home runway, 2) 2 minutes after I takeoff, or 3) immediately after I takeoff when I hit Vx-ish. My normal procedure is that I look for about 200-300 AGL and then do gear, pump, and flaps (about 400-500). What are the established best practices on this? The POH is pretty vague as it just says "airborne and under good control".

This is really good info. I'd like to check this out regardless of what I do with the alternator. I'm not exactly sure on how though as my time behind the panel is extremely limited. Would asking my A&P to "check for any loose ground wires" be the appropriate way to frame this?

Thanks. I think you're right. QAA has an exchange for $495 which seems like the best option. I'm going to leave my Plane Power VR in place - no reason to replace it right now, I don't think.

I've got an InterAv 015-01237 alternator in my 1966 M20E. It's got about 1300 hours on it and is 16 years old and is starting to wear I think. The reason I say that is that I'm getting consistent crackling static in my 430W that is eliminated by pulling the Alt Field breaker. My JPI shows consistent 14V and I haven't seen any anomalies in my engine monitor data. I also haven't noticed any noticeable performance degradation in flight of my electronics. My guess is the alternator is telling me a diode is bad and before it totally dies, I want to look at replacing it. What are the best options for this given that InterAv is no more? I think QAA will overhaul them but should I look at moving to a different alternator altogether? I've got the Plane Power voltage regulator and I think they make some sort of kit but I'm fuzzy on if that's the right option or not. Thanks for any help!

I've read all his books and concur, they're fantastic. But another way in is his Youtube channel. You'll find most of the stories and anecdotes from the books are in the videos. Go back a couple years and start with the basic ones: troubleshooting, rough running engines, spark plugs, etc. It's a great primer.

I meant to follow-up on this a while back. My A&P recommended Tulsa Avionics Services (918-838-8711) for this fix. The guy there is called Kim and he couldn't be better. Turned it around in no time and was half the cost of anywhere else. Seems to have done great work too, excellent communication to boot!

It's here:

I started a post about my 20+ year old pucks where the founder (?) of this company chimed in. Lots of people more knowledgeable than I weighed in. Do we have knowledge of any MSers that have actually installed them and can offer a PIREP?

I had to take mine apart recently to fix some wiring issues; you may find some leads in this old post.

Greg at Mountain Air (KBJC) works on my Mooney as well as lots of others. I highly recommend him.

Looks like MI to NE to CO and then crash leaving CO, if this is all correct. https://flightaware.com/live/flight/CGTVS Odd the flight history only started this week - maybe that's just the way Flightaware tracks CA birds?

Looks like the prelim NTSB is out. I'm really surprised the temp was only 78F. CO is in the middle of one of the worst heat spells in years. We've been triple digits this week on the front range. https://app.ntsb.gov/pdfgenerator/ReportGeneratorFile.ashx?EventID=20200707X80954&AKey=1&RType=HTML&IType=LA On July 7, 2020, about 1344 mountain daylight time, a Mooney M20TN airplane, Canadian registered C-GTVS, was substantially damaged when it was involved in an accident at the Central Colorado Regional Airport, Buena Vista, Colorado. The pilot was seriously injured. The airplane was operated as a Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 personal flight. A witness, who was located at the airport, reported that he observed the airplane takeoff from runway 15 with no problems noted. The airplane then suddenly impacted the runway surface. A post crash fire ensued. The witness responded to the accident location to assist the pilot. Postaccident examination of the airplane revealed the fuselage cockpit and cabin area, and forward right wing were consumed by fire. Flight control continuity was established to all flight control surfaces.

For what it’s worth, Sparky Immerson talks about proper fuel sumping technique in his book. This was something I never knew but have adopted.

I used Sporty's and thought it was great: iPad version, web version, and Roku version. I think the videos are fun and really well produced. I spent a lot of time listening to them on my runs. Plus, they never expire. You'll want to pair it with a written prep test book - I used ASA for that I think.

Congrats! Not to hijack, but curious: all things being equal, does the Commercial do much to lower insurance beyond the Instrument Rating?

This is one place I urge a little caution. The sales price & upgrades are the easy money to spend - it's entirely discretionary. The unexpected $5-10K (or more!) maintenance is what will make the difference. Ensure your budget will allow for that near certainty. Many of the planes in the $75K range are going to be +-50 years old and you'll be replacing more stuff than you might expect. Also, there is good money to spend and bad money to spend. IMO, things like interior & paint fall into the latter because they don't seem accretive to me. If it's a first plane, my personal advice, is to spend as little as possible so you really get it right on #2. I'm on my first plane and think about it like a first car: it did 90% of what my present car does, just with a bit less flash. You're probably not going to lose a bunch of money on these things unless you go overboard or really get into a lemon and end up parting out an old plane as a hobby. Mitigating the latter is probably more difficult than we'd like.

I've got the same altitude hold on mine. You pull the top one on and then adjust the pitch trim with the bottom. The two lines are sort of "in balance" indicators - that is how I think of it at least. I don't love it because it requires so much nose up trim in my plane; I may have failing servos. Mine holds me +-500 feet, enough to get ATC' attention. I don't use it since I can trim it out much better. I've got the manuals too if you need them, I can scan them I suppose. I have the PC disconnect on my yoke. I almost never touch it. When I first started flying it, I did combinations of velcroing it down, rubber banding it down, and holding it down with my thumb. It doesn't matter at all to me now - I just let it do its thing - it's very easy to overpower. If I'm landing in something really nasty, I might squeeze it with my thumb, but not likely. You can also pull it straight up and out if you like that. The heading track should be great. It works as advertised - it will follow the track on your NAV1 (Narco?) or NAV2 (KX155?). It may be wired to follow a GPS track - mine is - but that's installation dependent and not something that will auto-magically work when you add a GPS. The High/Low sensitivity is a mystery in planes I've flown with it - that is one I've never truly been able to figure out. The AP in mine requires the PC to be operative, FWIW.

Awesome!

That's the service bulletin I'm looking for. Supposedly it lays out how to tape it. I'm not sure how it should be taped.

The step won't retract. The initial "tug" on the step seems too great for the servo. My guess is the old rubber is too rigid. I took everything off, inspected and cleaned, and found a tiny pinhole in the rubber boot. I fixed that with silicone and it seems to not leak anymore. But, the pressure isn't enough to overcome inertia. There could be a leak somewhere resulting in too little vacuum pressure - I just don't have a way to test this.

Thanks. I am familiar with the electric step and will be doing that if I can't get it fixed - just trying this first. I assume the 67 C step is the same as in a 66 E. How much are you looking to sell it for?

I'm working on my retractable step and found the service instruction below. It references another document, Brittain SB #004, which I can't find anywhere. Does anyone have a copy of it? https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/4147179/technical_documents/service_instructions/sim20-8.pdf Thanks!

Are you saying you're getting 26" at 10,000 feet in a NA engine? I routinely fly 10-12K in CO and get 20", maybe 21" with the Power Boost.

In the air is fine. That’s what I figured. Just hoping it was something I could address. It’s not worth moving the antenna!

My COM2 is my 430W. The comm antenna for that radio is on the bottom of the plane. When I'm on the ground making radio calls, that radio is basically unusable. From multiple places on my home field and other fields, I get the old "that transmission was garbled" from the other party. I'm trying to troubleshoot it but honestly don't know where to start. Seems like the problem could be in the Garmin, the coax, the antenna, or any of those installations. In the air, the communications with this radio are fine. And on the ground or in the air, the nav functions are fine. Any tips on what I should try? Thanks!