hubcap

Myrtle is a 1982 model. When I purchased her 5 years ago she was equipped like yours with the fixed waste gate and no intercooler. Since I purchased her, I added the Merlyn Black Magic and a TurboPlus intercooler. These two enhancements are very useful and worthwhile in my opinion. The Merlyn takes care of the bootstrapping issue but you will still need to monitor and adjust the manifold pressure during climbs and descents. I fly pretty conservative numbers in order to take care my engine. I always fly LOP which still gets me 170 KTAS at 17,000’ while burning 10.2 GPH of fuel. Learn to fly the numbers for your airplane and it will make life much easier, especially flying IFR. The easiest way to learn to fly the numbers is to attend a MAPA class.

@Pinecone makes a good point about TURBO instruction being a must. Is your plane a 231 or a 252? There is a significant difference in the engine management of the 2 different models.

Congratulations! You now own one of the finest traveling airplanes in general aviation. It is a high performance aircraft and it won’t tolerate low performance pilots well. You now have the ability to fly in the flight levels and travel long distances quickly while burning relatively little gas. Keep in mind that high performance turbocharged engine can be roasted in a couple of minutes if you aren’t paying attention. Personally, I wouldn’t want to fly a turbocharged engine without a good engine monitor. Three things I recommend - 1. Get plenty of Mooney specific training before you fly your plane…and especially get good instruction on how to properly use oxygen cannulas before flying on oxygen above 12,500’. 2. Get instrument rated as soon as possible. 3. Put the gear down before you land.

Myrtle has the TurboPlus Intercooler and the Merlyn upper deck pressure controller. My typical numbers are 27” of MP on the gauge (which works out to 29.x” after conversion), 2400 RPM, and 10.2 GPH fuel flow. The TIT will be ~1,550 F. Those numbers give me: 150 KTAS at 12,000’ 160 KTAS at 15,000’ 170 KTAS AT 18,000’

Did you use the Garmin editor to create the file?

Thank you Craig!

That is interesting. The clamp I bought from RAM was installed on Myrtle a couple of months ago. The IA said it was tight but it fit.

Personally, I am a fan of Garmin. I live about 15 minutes from their location in Kansas and I know a number of folks who work there or who have worked there. I consider Garmin to be a very solid company with great products and they actually take good care of their employees. I like their products and their support.

Sent the fuel pump off and had it completely re-built. Spoke with the IA this morning. They installed the fuel pump but can’t get 24 GPH at 34” of MP. Increasing the pressure did not increase the fuel flow. Must be something else. He is going to make some calls on Monday.

I ordered two of these from RAM. The IA installed the other one during Myrtle's annual. These are welded and work on the TSIO-360-LB among a few others.

I have one that I will give you. It worked fine when it was pulled out. Send me a PM.

I feel very fortunate. The folks I use schedule annuals a year out. I already have Myrtle scheduled to go in February 12th. It will take 1 - 2 weeks for the annual unless they find something that requires ordering parts. When we know we are going to be sending mags, fuel pumps or anything else out for overhaul, they pull those items first and get them sent out right away. On average the annuals have averaged 2 - 3 weeks total.

I had a G500 before I upgraded. It doesn’t have an internal GPS. The G3x does have an internal GPS, but it isn’t certified for IFR use..

Very nice panel. In my opinion the 231 is very capable and worthy of a excellent IFR panel, should you choose to invest the $$. I doubt I will get all my upgrade money back when I sell, but there is a lot to be said for really enjoying flying with a great IFR panel. When I upgraded Myrtle's panel I figured I should get at least 15 years worth of use out of the panel. I am 2 years into it now, and NO REGRETS. It was a lot of coins but it helps pay for itself every time I fly.

What is happening is that when you set the MP to 34" sometimes you get a fuel flow of 24 GPH but then occasionally you only get 19 GPH with the same setting. Same with other MP settings, but I used that for the example in this case. The fuel pump was rebuilt a little over a year ago. Sent the fuel pump back to the guys that rebuilt it this week for their evaluation. They seem to think they know what is wrong with it. The MP setting doesn't give a reliable fuel flow at this point. Sometimes its correct and sometimes its not. It's not a gauge issue because the TIT temp matches the fuel flow on the gauge.

Thank you sir. It seems there is a problem with my fuel pump........that was rebuilt a year or so ago. The fuel flow is fluctuating with the same MP setting.

Thank you. Those are the correct numbers for the LB, but I believe there is a step by step process to set it up correctly that I need as well.

Thank you for the information, but it doesn't cover the TSIO-360-LB engine. I believe that is for the engine in the 252 and Encore.

Does anyone have a digital or hard copy of how to set up the fuel flows on a 231 with the TSIO-360-LB engine with the Merlin upper deck pressure controller and the Turbo Plus Intercooler? I know the system is pretty complex and there may even be tribal knowledge necessary. Thanks!

I purchased Garmin Pilot and I will say the "Smart Charts" feature is very nice. I am certain it will take a while for me to get up to speed on Garmin Pilot, but it is half the cost of Foreflight, so that is a win.......along with Smart Charts. I suspect it will interface better with my panel than Foreflight, but that isn't really a big deal to me at this point.

Our new airport manager took over a couple of years ago. He has been aggressively ensuring that all the hangars are occupied by planes that fly. We still have an estimated 18 month wait.

To be fair, the ONLY thing I use my IPad for in the cockpit is to review approach plates. Everything else is on the panel...... traffic, weather, etc

I just purchased Garmin Pilot. I know it works, it is way cheaper than ForeFlight and I believe it will continue to improve...........and I expect ForeFlight to stagnate at best and cost more. I will run them parallel for the time being until I get up to speed and comfortable with Garmin Pilot and decide if i want to make the switch permanent.

Just read that Foreflight is reducing the features available to those who don’t purchase the Performance Plus package. I already purchase Performance Plus but I will be taking a look at switching to Garmin Pilot. I think the future of Foreflight is on a different trajectory than Garmin Pilot. Garmin is dedicated to aviation. The new owners of Foreflight are not.

That very well could be the case. It will be interesting to see how much the new owners increase subscription prices next year when they are actually running the business.