Utah20Gflyer

Do you have any feel for when the approval will happen for the M20C or in my case M20G? Id love to get my useful load over 900 lbs. Thanks

My flapper is riveted as well. Interestingly my carb heat fitting is angled while yours looks vertical. A angled pipe creates an ellipse which makes the hole extend father to the rear. I wonder why there is a variation? It looks however that my airbox has always been the way it is, I do see multiple log book entries about repairs so the current set up could be as a result of repairs that were made. What is for sure is that it’s been this way since I purchased the plane.

Climb and cruise performance seem good. Generally I get 145 knots which for a G model is above average. Based on close inspection of the air box it doesn’t look like anything ever extended farther back than the current flapper. But on the other hand I find it surprising that the carb heat isn’t completely closed off?

Hello Mooney type people. I have my carburetor off getting overhauled and noticed my air box needed some attention. The brass bushings that hold the flapper shaft are badly worn and I’m working on getting the replacement bushings. While I was playing around with it I noticed the flapper does not completely close off the duct to the muffler shroud. See attached picture. What say you? Normal or am I running around with carb heat all the time unnecessarily? I have a carb temp gauge and my carb temps can get down into the 20s sometimes so I’m thinking maybe it’s negligible. Also when I do apply carb heat it takes at least an inch of knob travel before my carb temperature starts to change. Thanks!

If it leaks no matter what the fuel level then you probably have a sealant failure along the bottom corner of the tank. Personally I would try a repair unless there are multiple leaks or the sealant is in terrible condition. I have a similar leak that only happens when the tank is full which means my leak is at the top corner. I am planning on addressing my leak this next annual via a patch. You can verify the exact location by applying soapy water, tape a piece of glass over the access panel opening and then applying vacuum to the tank. Opening the farther forward access panel probably won’t tell you much of anything. The fuel flows around and makes it very difficult to determine where it is coming from. You really need to determine that from the inside of the tank.

I would recommend getting the Instrument rating first in a rental airplane and then shopping for a Mooney. I didn’t do that and as a result it took me much longer to do the instrument than if I had done what I’m telling you. Owning an airplane is a part time job and requires a skill set that you will need to learn. This competes with time you might be spending to learn instrument flying skills. You also might find that after you do your instrument rating that what you are expect from a plane you own may change. Yes you could fly “basic IFR” but personally I don’t want to do it without a modern WASS GPS navigator. It’s not that it can’t or even shouldn’t be done. It’s just a realization that I want things to be as easy as possible if I’m conducting single pilot IFR.

My cold weather start procedure 1. Master on 2. Fuel pump on 3. verify fuel pressure 4. mixture full reach 5. pump throttle 5 times 6. Fuel pump off 7. Wait 1 minute 8. Fuel pump on 9. verify fuel pressure 10. throttle 1/4 inch in 11. Crank engine Waiting the one minute makes a big difference on my plane. Most of the time if I botch a start it happens to be when I am impatient and don’t wait to crank. After switching to a light weight/high speed starter my starts got easier. Only difference for a normal temp start is two pumps of the throttle and wait 30 seconds. If I were on a trip I would start at 35 degrees without a preheat, but when I’m at home I preheat below 45 degrees. It makes the starts a non issue. I really like getting a start on the second blade.

I’m also a fan of the toggle switch/breakers because you can get them for 30-35 dollars from spruce all day long and there are no covers to break. I agree that the “Modern” switches look nice but to me they aren’t worth it. I wouldn’t switch if I just needed to replace a cover for a modern switch, but if I were redoing a panel I would be tempted to convert to all toggle switches.

If you can get the engine to pass the mag check during run up I would have no issue flying the plane 30 minutes to get the Mag overhauled. My first maintenance step for ignition issues is to pull the plugs and clean and gap them, check for damage. This is something you can do yourself and is worth the effort to learn how to do it. There is a limit to how much you can clean the plugs by running lean. Mechanically cleaning them out of the engine is the gold standard. The suggestion to switch plugs around to see what happens is a great diagnostic step as well. Ultimately most people think it’s not great to run mags past 500 hours. So that maintenance is baked in and should eliminate the Mag as the culprit. So other than easy/cheap stuff just get the mag done and see what happens. The shop should have a spark tester that can further vet the plugs. If it’s not a mag or plug issue you can look at wire harness.

It’s important that covers fit well and are very tight to minimize this issue. My cabin cover also has a soft inner liner and is a relatively heavy material which helps with that issue. Approximately once a year I polish/clean my windows using auto paint buffing compound. It’s probably the same stuff that comes in the kits but it’s cheap and plentiful. As always polish in straight lines, no swirling. I’d imagine with enough elbow grease they will clear up. These materials aren’t aggressive enough to make things worse, so I wouldn’t worry about that. If that doesn’t work there are more aggressive tactics that can be used. Let’s hope that’s not required.

Congratulations!! I bet that is a big relief!

Looks like a self destruct switch, but the only way to find out for sure is……………

One thing to consider is that in the west where you takeoff at 3500-6500 MSL that in the summer the turbulence starts low and moves up through the air mass as the day progresses, this means your time window of smooth air is narrow. So if you fly in the early morning you can go up to the normal 9500-11500 MSL and you have smooth air. Later in the day (10am-Noon) the air in that range is really bumpy but a couple thousand feet higher it is still smooth and also conveniently cooler. I’ve had some miserable flights at 11500 and 12500 staring at some clouds slightly above my altitude that I know if I climbed above them I’d be in smooth air. Unfortunately in the summer the climb rate to get another 3000 feet is pretty dismal. For example, earlier this summer I was flying from Spokane to Salt lake at 11500 and was getting bumped around which was making my wife and two of my kids very uncomfortable. I spent a while doing a series of zoom climbs and eventually got up to 13500. At that altitude it was nice and smooth all the way from WA to UT with the exception of the decent into our destination airport. Eventually it will get bumpy at 13500 and you might need 15500 for smooth air. No guarantees of course but this is how things generally work. Without a turbo you aren’t getting to 15500 in the summer. If It sounds like I have turbo envy it’s because I do. One other consideration is that if you want to file IFR there are many MEAs that exceed my naturally aspirated Mooneys capability, especially in the summer. My Mooney is fine if you respect its limitations, but sometimes I don’t like those limitations.

When I get some free time I need to give my doghouse some love. Your work looks amazing!

In Utah the terrain is quite high and you’ll likely reach it before you get out of the Salt lake approach area. So it doesn’t make sense to launch without being able to clear terrain VFR. Although SL approach can get very busy sometimes I’ve never not been able to get a clearance in a reasonable amount of time. This is probably because I’m based out of the KTVY which has a departure procedure that doesn’t conflict with KSLC arrivals or departures. I understand this isn’t the case for KSVR which does conflict and KBTF which you can’t get an IFR departure from. If I flew out of one of those two airports I wouldn’t want clouds lower than 5000-6000 AGL. If I flew on the east coast I might consider much lower but I don’t have any experience flying in that area. What I would accept if I found myself there would depend on terrain and airspace considerations on a case by case basis.