Utah20Gflyer

I have the electric step conversion and like it quite a bit. The retractable step down will cost you 2-3 knots. If you faired it I’m sure the penalty would decrease but there will still be a penalty. Personally I would do the electric conversion. You’re doing work and spending money either way, why not do it “right” and get the best possible results.

Personally I like having two modern Comm radios so I can get ahead of things. For instance at a busy airport you can have clearance, ground, tower and departure all ready to go. If it were my plane I would definitely add a radio but would do so in the easiest way possible. I would consider a comm radio that fits in a 3.125” instrument hole or another option would be an audio panel that has a Com radio such as the PS engineering PAR 200.

I would try to sell as is at a discounted price to account for the needed work. I don’t think that the financial risk and headache of doing major work is going to be worth it considering you never intend on flying the plane again anyway. Let the person who wants to fly it handle that. It really sucks that a highly depreciating event happened right before selling.

Wow, your Mooney is beautiful!

I did my private in a Cherokee. It’s the Ford Fiesta of airplanes.

If it were me I would either learn to be content with what I had or buy a K model or an Ovation. A vintage Mooney is the Honda civic of airplanes. It fills its role nicely but it isn’t a sports car. If I needed to buy a new prop because something is wrong with the old one then yeah, I’d spend more to buy the faster version, but planes are already expensive to own so why blow money trying to squeeze out a few knots out of a perfectly functional plane. Next annual you could check rigging and make sure your gear doors are nice and tight. The step being down will cost you 2-3 knots. Do you have the retractable step and is it functioning correctly? A clean and waxed plane is supposedly a couple knots faster, is the plane all polished up? Weight kills speed…are there things that can be taken out of the plane to save weight? An aft CG helps with speed. Have you tried putting everything you can in the baggage compartment? In cruise move your seat back? None of these things will make a big difference but you might be able to pick up 5 knots without spending any real money.

I would agree with the notion that you should get the plane on jacks so you can evaluate the landing gear. You won’t be able to determine what kind of play there is unless you do. In my case the first annual I had to go through the whole system and replace lots of parts to get it airworthy again. That was very time consuming.

Aero motors could likely have a replacement to you in less than a week, they are probably half the cost of a new one and build in improvements the original fuel pump lacked. Give them a call!

Having to do approaches in low IFR in the middle of the night with a minimally equipped airplane sounds like the opposite of a good time to me. There must have been intense external pressure on that group to entice them into this scenario.

During an oil change last year I found a broken cylinder hold down stud. Fortunately it wasn’t a through stud which I think would complicate the process of fixing the problem. Fixing mine required removing the cylinder and an interesting process to remove the broken stud piece that remained in the case - but was broken off below the surface. I’d imagine the fix for a through stud will require removing two cylinders. I would certainly contact the manufacturer for their input on the proper procedure for removing and replacing a through stud. Hopefully there is a precedent for doing so while the engine is still installed.

I’d consider buying this airplane under 3 conditions 1. plane was already at my airport 2. I had a lot of extra time 3. The owner would take my offer for 5k

A 201 instrument panel with a Johnson bar looks unnatural!

I have this exact problem. My solution was to toss the tiny washer that went with the screw. Apparently there were enough threads at the bottom to make the screw work. I still have the original screw holes so when the time comes this solution doesn’t work I will drill out for the next size and tap it. I may do all three because having one different screw is annoying. One last suggestion. Sometimes if you insert a thin piece of plastic or paper in the hole it will tighten things up enough to hold firmly. I would consider this a temp fix because of the annoyance factor. But if you want to fly before you perform the real fix this usually works.

I agree with your point. I was making a narrow observation about a class C airport that approach, clearance, tower and ground are essentially the same entity. I get that center and a class D airport are probably not going to coordinate. Or a Delta under a Bravo. It would sure be nice if they did but that’s a bridge too far at the moment. I do expect approach and tower to coordinate at the same airport but maybe that is too much to expect at the moment as well. Being proactive as you suggest is prudent.

I flew into GEG Spokane international a couple of weeks ago. I was on flight following with Approach which handed me off 12-15 miles out to the tower. So seems like this is what the tower wanted in your situation rather than approach directing you into the traffic pattern. That’s understandable but they should save their anger for whoever was running approach. Personally I’ve always considered approach, tower and ground to be different parts of one entity. If I land and tower gives me taxi instructions as I clear the runway should I have to worry about being yelled at by ground for doing what I was instructed to do? How are we supposed to know tower hasn’t asked approach to send people into the traffic pattern for them? If they aren’t then why are they not giving the handoff at the right time? If this is how ATC operates then how are we supposed to trust them? I get their jobs are difficult and I don’t expect perfection, but don’t blame the guy who did what you told him to do. That just creates a toxic environment.