Utah20Gflyer

Congratulations, looks like a nice Mooney!

If your standard mission is 260 miles I’d skip the turbo. It’s not going to be worth taking the time to climb to where the turbo would make a difference. For a while I was commuting from SLC Utah to St George Utah which is right around that distance. Typically it always made sense to climb the minimum amount to clear terrain. Higher altitudes almost always showed a longer travel time. In a G model Mooney I was doing the trip in an hour and 35 minutes on average. I doubt a turbo would save you more than 5-10 min tops. I’ve heard turbos mainly help with flying east as winds up high can be strong and if you are going west the advantage of the turbo will be offset by the headwind. A lot of times will be better to duck under as much as you can. Personally if I were to get a turbo’d Mooney it would be a K model to 252/262 spec preferably with some de ice capability.

There are a lot of positive results of climate change that get ignored. One is plants now grow more easily which helps with feeding people and climate deaths are down because more people die from cold than heat. So far the doomsday predictions have all fallen short. It’s an open question whether the overall result will be good or bad. Good doesn’t get people to give you their vote or money though so you don’t hear about it.

I’ve heard a billion years as an estimate of remaining habitability for the earth, the earth will over that time period be warming as the sun becomes hotter and starts growing in size. One thing that is for sure is that long term the survival of the human race is going to depend on our ability to adapt. If we are going to survive we will eventually have to become a space faring species that can survive in conditions and environments that are incredibly harsh compared to our current planet. If a 2-3 degree temperature change in 100 years is going to kill us all like some doomsday aficionados claim then we are never going to make it long term as a species. Personally I fall in the techno optimist camp. I think the way forward is the rapid advance of technology and infrastructure. If our society it advanced and wealthy enough we can solve all sorts of problems. If we are poor and backwards because we live under an authoritarian government our options to solve any serious problem in the future is in doubt.

How about the Covid lab leak theory. Initially it was described as not only a conspiracy theory but a racist conspiracy theory. The FBI and DOE have now stated the lab leak theory is the most likely scenario for the start of the pandemic. The collaboration between big tech and the government to censor individuals and stories they didn’t like is another. Originally described as a conspiracy theory, recently verified via the twitter file releases. As for the moon landing I suspect it was real. I’m not sure the purpose in faking it other than saving money, but since the government has no issue spending other people’s money I don’t see the motive. Your traditional conspiracy theories like political figures are actually lizard people or there are microchips in the covid vaccine, etc have no interest to me. I specialize in the stuff the media and government lie about to our face with contrary information in plain site. There is a lot of that lately. I find it surprising that someone would contest that the climate change movement is authoritarian in nature and instead claim that pointing out this obvious fact is a conspiracy theory. I’d like to see some climate proposals that don’t involve centralized control over energy resources. Show me the climate change proposal that celebrates human freedom and autonomy. I’ll be waiting anxiously.

Given how many times conspiracy theories have turned out to be true in the past couple years Im surprised people even continue to use the term. It’s getting a little embarrassing. Left and Right, Conservative and Liberal aren’t really useful classifications anymore. The real separation in society is between authoritarians and people who believe in human freedom. People who are informed and people who believe what they are told to believe. People who accept reality for what it is and those who deny reality. I’m very Conservative but find lately I have much more in common with some liberals than I do mainstream conservatives, because authoritarians exist in both groups and that’s not something I can ever be down with. What ever you believe and who ever you associate with I think we can all agree a Mooney is a fine airplane: one of the best ever made!! This is undisputed fact and is certainly NOT a conspiracy theory!

What I am struck by is that the proposed solutions to climate change are either extremely juvenile; ie we will all just get our power from wind and solar, or are designed to consolidate control over all energy resources into the hands of a very small group. The first type of solution seems to be designed to get people used to energy deprivation. Making the second solution more palatable to the population. Is my tin foil hat on a little too tight? Maybe, but maybe not. All human activity requires energy of some sort and if a group can control energy they can control everything and everyone. As someone who doesn’t want to live in a dystopian future I would prefer to have a slightly warmer environment than be what amounts to being the property of another human being. But let’s bring this around full circle and make it applicable to Mooneyspace. If my observations and intuition about what is going on is correct, do you think this group trying to seize control is going to want normal people flying around their own airplanes, doing what they want? I’d think not, the continued use of your Mooney depends on normal people having the right to purchase and use energy in the ways THEY deem appropriate. This idea that access to energy is a human right is antithetical to the climate change movement. I’d encourage you all join me in pushing for this fundamental human right before we lose it.

I wear these shoes because I’m just that good!

Sounds like a frustrating start to airplane ownership. I think many of us have gone through this experience of the realities of airplane ownership being rudely foisted upon us. Airplane ownership is a lot of work and comes with risk and uncertainty. The first couple years in particular are A LOT of effort if the plane wasn’t diligently cared for by the previous owner. Doesn’t sound like this plane was. If you decide you like ownership and stick with it in a couple years your plane will be squared away and you can start really enjoying it. Personally I started with a squawk list a half page long which grew to a full page. I got all that fixed and created another whole page of squawks, currently my list is back to a half page of things most people wouldn’t even care about. My plane is very functional and enjoyable to fly and it just keeps getting better over time. Plane ownership required diligence, just keep at it.

I’d say the minimum is a WAAS GPS and a nav/com preferably with glideslope capability. An engine monitor would be high on my list as well as accurate fuel gauges. Autopilot is highly desirable although good ones aren’t particularly common in the vintage Mooneys. Unless you are very patient or lucky it will likely take a while to find one with all these things OR you can find one that has most of what you want and add the rest yourself, this is probably a more realistic albeit also more expensive plan.

I’d strongly agree with converting the left side panel to standard configuration as a first step. The panel is the foundation that you will be building everything else on. The whole panel gets taken out when they do the upgrades you are looking at anyway so it’s more efficient to do it at the same time.

I just went from an EDM 800 to a 830, it’s a very affordable upgrade to get a much better and more usable screen. All the old wiring and plugs are compatible, you just pull out the 700 and put in the 730, connect the plugs in the back and configure, my shop didn’t even charge any install since they were in my panel anyway doing other stuff and I took on the configuration challenge myself. You get to see all of your CHT/EGTs and five other values simultaneously. Plus larger color screen. I think the screen only is 1500 new, although in my case my avionics guy had a used one he sold me for 750.

I’ve used Blackstone since I bought my Mooney but since my sample size it one I can’t give any sort of useful commentary other to say I am satisfied with Blackstone.

I believe Mike Busch (Savvy Aviation) has a webinar on YouTube about an hour long addressing this exact issue. If you haven’t listened to that yet it would be a good intro to the topic.

I leave my alt field switch on full time, right or wrong it’s one less thing to think about or screw up somehow.

I feel your pain! I had some avionics work done recently and my back seat was removed when I wasn’t there. I volunteered to put the interior back in and when I got to putting the rear seat back in I didn’t have a clue on how it went in. Fortunately between Mooney space and some trial and error I got it back in. My seat backs have a fixed pin on one side and a spring loaded pin on the other so I think I have a different set up than you do. There weren’t any bushings involved.

If I were to do the 201 windshield it would have to be with the small access panels, to completely lose access to the back of the panel is to high a cost for a primarily cosmetic upgrade.

After having owned a vintage Mooney for several years I’m not sure I would want to get rid of the super convenient access to the back of the panel. 201 windshields sure do look nice though!

Did all of this effort create a quantifiable increase in safety? If so where is the evidence? I want to see the numbers. Could the time spent on all of this have been spent doing something different that would have increased safety more? If your true goal is safety you can’t just do something to increase it, you must do the things that increase safety the most! When is the last time you heard about an accident caused by 20/25 vision? You may say “what about see and avoid?”. My answer to that is every instance I can think of a minor difference in vision wouldn’t have mattered. Who is more of a risk, a newly minted commercial pilot with 250 hours and 20/20 vision or DonKaye with thousands of hours and 20/25 vision? Does this really make sense in the terms of safety? At some point we need to demand real safety programs based on evidence rather than federal job programs masquerading as safety programs. We need to demand better from our government! Now that I got this off my chest I got some kids on my lawn I got to go yell at!

Sometimes I will use the rudders to steer the plane when I’m in cruise flight and eating a sandwich or drinking something. How else am I to snack and fly a heading at the same time without an auto pilot?

I was mostly joking, but also expressing some frustration with the aviation industry and the bureaucracy that’s developed. Thank you for your well documented post, it’s obviously much more valuable than my sarcasm. I think we are overdue for a review of the current safety regime. We really need to look at whether what we are doing is providing the result that was intended and whether there aren’t better ways to accomplish the goal we are striving for which is to protect human life. I have noticed many times the correct answer to complex questions are counterintuitive. Without a precisely stated goal and a way to test the efficacy of a new rule we have no way of knowing whether it is creating a positive or negative result. Just look at the 1500 hour rule for the airlines. We know time in type is more important than total time when it comes to accident rates but we force pilots to waste time going around the pattern doing touch and goes. A type of flying which has almost nothing to do with the skill set needed for operating a jet. This will likely get people killed. An STC for a common electrical switch seems like a good way to degrade safety in the name of being safe.

Does the wire have to be STCd too? Just wondering.

I had a PPI done and also paid an extremely experienced Mooney CFI to test fly the plane and give me a list of squawks. I paid 1800 for the PPI which turned out to be a complete waste of money. I paid the CFI 250 to test fly it and that was the best 250 I’ve ever spent. The test flight turned out to be much more valuable than the Prebuy. I’m sure it’s not that way in many circumstances but that’s how it turned out for me. If I was to do it over I would only do a prebuy if I was able to work side by side with the mechanic, otherwise I just don’t think it’s going to be worth anything. I guess I lost my trust in mechanics I don’t know.

Personally I am a fan of covers especially cabin covers. Sun seems to be the biggest factor in the damage done to anything stored outdoors including airplanes. Second biggest factor is likely water. A cover protects the airplane from both to the degree to which you cover it. In regards to covers scratching windows I haven’t seen any indication of something like this happening. In fact I think covers prevent scratching because if you clean the windshield before you put the cover on then it hardly ever gets dirt on it that needs to be cleaned off, and it’s the removal of dirt that scratches the windshield. No cover and your windows will have dirt on them every time you show up to fly it. Maybe if you buy a super cheap cover that could be an issue but almost all good covers have microfiber on the inside, also it’s extremely important to have a proper tight fit and to have it locked down on the plane so it isn’t flapping around, a cover made of heavier material is helpful. I’ve watched my cover in 45 knot winds and it hardly moves, that is what you are going for. I currently have a cabin and tail cover, I am likely adding wing cover this year.

I run 2700 rpm and almost full rich at 100 mph until I hit 1000 agl. Then I usually go to 2500 rpm and leaned at 120 mph for the cruise climb. Once at cruise altitude 2400 rpm and leaned out as much as possible. I run full throttle almost all the time other than approaching an airport and landing. I don’t have any alt air, although my plane has two static ports across from each other in the tail.