Utah20Gflyer

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.

I had a work trip to Kanab Utah this weekend and ran into another fine looking Mooney. I believe this Mooney is associated with UteM20F who is a forum member. It’s nice to show up at a random remote airport and see another Mooney. My Mooney is the left one.

What a tragic situation! RIP Fred! He came across as a really nice guy. When I bought my Mooney I took the attitude that until proven otherwise my new plane was trying to kill me. It never did and eventually with some time I decided to give it some additional trust. Not total trust though, I still won’t fly over sustained mountainous terrain and limit my flying at night. Additionally I assumed I might do something stupid as a result of my inexperience and the plane could fairly assume I might be trying to kill it. Both the plane and I are fallible parts of a system. I don’t know what the facts of this accident are, but to me it is a reminder that extreme caution is warranted when a new combination of pilot and airplane come together. An intermittent mechanical problem can be confusing and presents a huge challenge to a new owner. It complicates diagnosis and makes it difficult to confirm the problem is fixed. It’s really a worst case scenario for someone who just bought a plane. It could be the accident wasn’t a result of a mechanical failure, but witness accounts have indicated the engine wasn’t making sound when it impacted the ground. So maybe it was. We will have to see what gets revealed in the investigation.

That’s an air horn that makes the Stuka dive bomber sound when you put it into a dive. It’s purpose is to strike fear in the hearts of Cessna and Piper pilots.

From the drop box pictures it looked like it at one time needed a whole new wing. Did that happen or did some other type of repair happen. I don’t think I’d want to fly a plane whose wing spar was bent and then straightened back out.

Some people have purchased a compatible LED bulb off Amazon and installed those. They create much less heat.

I’m going to commit heresy and just say that while I love my Mooney it probably doesn’t make sense to build airplanes the same way they were 60 years ago. This makes the equipment you would be buying from Mooney worth almost nothing. If you modernized the construction then you would essentially have a new airplane that would need to be re-certified. So why even buy the old company? Make a LSA trainer, a Mid body with doors on both sides, a long body with a new wing and gear, six seats and a rear door, and redesign the Mustang as a six place pressurized turbine. There have been advances in design over the years. It would make sense to combine the positive attributes of the old Mooneys with new features that would make them better. You don’t need old Mooney to do that. I propose a New Mooney, we could call it Nooney? Anyone have 250 million to make this happen?

If you go to an automotive paint supply shop they have books with colors in them. It should only take a couple minutes to find something that approximates the one you like.

If there was a plan to make money with the purchase of Mooney then I’ll put in 10k. But that’s a big IF. What is the plan? Buying the company or its Assets is just grabbing a tiger by the tail. The operating capital required is going to dwarf the initial purchase price. So how exactly are the Assets and a huge pile of money going to be converted into sellable products that create profits to sustain the ongoing operations and make my 10k investment turn into a 20k investment?

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.