Utah20Gflyer

That depends on what you mean by “can’t be used as such”. It’s not DME so you aren’t using it as such but you can use it as the approved GPS alternate to DME. I don’t have a DME in my plane and used my GPS instead during my IFR training. It works great.

Personally I would add an extra quart of oil to get you to 7 quarts total and carry on. Doing a top overhaul on an engine with good compression and making full power seems like overkill. Things may change and the calculus may swing towards intervention, but until then I would keep flying and buying oil. Maybe just pretend you have a radial engine and your concerns about high oil consumption will fade away.

What the hell? Couldn’t throw the G in there too? It’s the same airframe as the F.

As an another data point with the Concord axc 35 battery - I see very little pull from the alternator on the amp meter with a “good” start. Meaning second blade kind of start. In the instances where I botch things and I end up doing two longer cranks from under or over priming I remember seeing about a 20 amp charge rate but only for a very short amount of time. I have a concord ACX 35 battery currently. I would be very surprised to see a 60-70 amp charge rate from an earth X battery unless it was heavily discharged but I am willing to look at any available data. So far we seem to only have one example of a problem from an experimental aircraft. There are more variables than the battery so I think we need a larger data set. I imagine EarthX has that data set. Because there are so many variables I am sure there are cases where the introduction of a new variable will cause problems but I look forward to trying one when they are approved for the firewall forward applications. I’d be happy to come back and post what charge rate I’m seeing.

Preheat the engine. Throw a little space heater in the cabin for an hour before you fly. It will be fine. You want to fly then go fly! To me the only real question is how cold is too cold to start with no preheating and how cold is too cold for your personal preference. Where I live in Utah I would say it’s never to cold to preheat and fly but I’m not going to fly when it gets in the single digits unless I have a mission that is going to motivate me to deal with the personal discomfort of prepping the plane on the ramp. After owning my Mooney for 5 years I fly to train or for missions. I don’t fly just to fly anymore.

I just checked my I phone 11 max that I use as a flight display and was able to download the latest operating system update. So not an issue for me yet.

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.