Bigdaddie

Still recovering from back surgery. Maybe in a few days I'll pull the belly pan and take a look before I tear into the interior.

I'm going to start at the belly pan. The residual fuel needs to be cleaned up anyway. This is going to turn into a project I can see coming. If I pull the interior, I might as well do the insulation kit that has been sitting in a corner. With the seats out, might as well change the rollers. And so on, and so on. Good time to buy a new Milwaukee screw gun. The Chinese one I've been using is okay for light work but ANY excuse to buy a new tool. Oh yea, start with a NO SMOKING sign in the hanger.

You're right. 3/8" is a more common fuel line size.

It would not have had to be sudden. I had my third blood clot in my leg in October (that’s what you get when your “other airplane” is an Airbus A350 with 16-hour legs). So, I haven’t flown the airplane since then but have been out at the hanger dabbling. I also had back surgery since I figured I would do a heavy maintenance visit on my body while I was out of work. That precluded any serious bending for inspection. My guess is that it is the rubber fuel line since the tank is pretty much dry (reads “0” on the Garmin G500 with the CIES senders). If it was the sender, I would think there would be usable fuel remaining due to their location. However, the senders were replaced with the avionics upgrade 1 ½ ago. Does anyone know if the rubber fuel line is ¼”?

Yea, I was just too lazy to move the flapper way out of the way.

I'll take a look. No AVGAS smell in the cabin.

Took a run out to the hanger. I DO, in fact, have a fuel leak coming from the belly pan area. When it warms up a bit and I heal up some more, I'll pull the pan off and see what’s leaking. My luck dictates that it will be the most expensive component there. But hey, for a 45 year old airplane and what it does, it’s worth every penny.

No stains on the floor. Well, maybe one about the size of a coffee cup under the center fuselage. I would think 25gal of AVGAS would make a bigger mark. There should have been about 25gal remaining in that tank. I did a quick look inside the tank but most of the fuel would be inboard of the filler neck at half tanks. I'm going to take a camera out there and have a look inside the tank. It had major avionics update 1 1/2 years ago including CiES fuel senders. I just had back surgery a couple of weeks ago so my ability to do too much work is still limited. I can't believe someone broke into the hanger and just took fuel, even though that was my first thought. There’re 2 Bose headsets, a GPU, BestTug and other goodies out there, all undisturbed. Thanks for the ideas guys.

Yea, thought of filling the tank IF we had fuel on the field.

We have a 1980 M20K. I was out at the hanger updating my Garmin databases and was met with fuel imbalance message. The G500txi showed “0” fuel in the left tank and 26gal in the right tank. I should have had about 50gal remaining in the aircraft after my last flight (25 each tank). The left wing gauge also showed close to zero. Since there was no fuel on the hanger floor, my first thought was “who took my fuel?” Are the wing gauge and the inner fuel transmitter tied together (I have CEIS senders)? I can’t believe someone broke into my hanger and just took fuel and left everything else alone. It seems like there’s fuel in the tank when I shake the airplane.

And then there are these: https://shop-us.garrettmotion.com/spare-parts-v-band-clamp-560-gtx47-gtx50-gtx55-gen-i-gen-ii/p?idsku=694&cc=USA&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAAClrzvdL2S1vlAxJ98H0rsZwwltu8&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIiO3CxqCKjQMVORFECB2nfzUsEAQYBSABEgIaPvD_BwE

What about a field approval to use replacement clamps. I know, not going to happen...

I'm originally from GA, but what you said about jets is correct. I flew the 737, 757, 767, 727, and MD88. The 757 had pretty large pitch changes with power changes. So much so you really didn't want to leave autothrottles (auto thrust in Airbus, go figure) on too long on approach if you're hand flying. I've had it make lage power changes on short final which can really screw up your stabilized approach. Now fifi (Airbus) autotrims in normal law so you notice no difference. If you're ILS needles centered at the FAF, you can pretty much fly hands off to MDA/DA in calm air. As a matter of fact I've scewed up some approaches by attempting to make that LITTLE correction. BD

It's hard to tell in the video but it seems like you gradually reduced power and went to idle about the time you crossed the runway pavement. In my K, if I start at 75kts and pull the power to idle, it takes maybe 10 seconds to be at stall warning unless you let the rate of descent to increase to an alarming rate. At best glide speed which is 76-87kts depending on weight, with gear and flaps up, the descent rate is 700-800 fpm. I'll have to experiment but I'm guessing I'm like 1,200fpm or more at idle with gear and flaps down. The only way to keep a stabilized approach is to trade airspeed for descent rate and this has to be timed just right. The difference in airframes and engines is very interesting. BD

And I have a three blade prop which exacerbates the sink rate without power.

I am no Don Kay (Mooney flight instructor extraordinaire) and these are just my findings after flying high performance aircraft for over 40 years. Any Mooney Guru feel free to correct me on any of these points. I have over 15k hours with about 2k of that being single engine general aviation airplanes and much of that as a CFI. I bounce (no pun intended) between an Airbus A350 and my M20K, so finding consistency has been tough as I start the flare at 50’ in one aircraft while I feel like I’m landing in a hole in the other. Through experimenting, the old adage of “stabilized approach” is very important. Your numbers are right on (even though you have an Ovation and me a M20K, it’s the same wing) using 75kcas when heavy and 70kcas at lighter weights. Make sure you’re stabilized at these speeds by 500’ with checklist complete; if you’re flying an instrument approach, I highly recommend that this be done by the FAF. Now for the fun part. You can’t fly a Mooney like a 172 and pull the power off when the runway is “made” because (for me anyway) this sets up way too high of a sink rate. You also can’t carry power to touchdown unless you have a 7,000’ runway. The transition from final to flare is very important. This is what I have found sets up a normal sink rate and reasonable energy at touchdown. 1) Be on speed and stable (mixture, prop, throttle, and flaps) set at about 500’ AGL. Sometimes I use the last 10degrees of flaps to adjust my speed or glidepath if not right on. 2) About 500’ from your intended touchdown point (horizontal distance not AGL) quit looking at the airspeed (unless it is way off) and start reducing the power toward idle while starting your round out. 3) At about 10-20’ above the runway the power should be idle. Keep increasing your back pressure and, if done just right, touch down on the mains with the stall warning just going off and when you are using significant nose up elevator pressure. Some people like to trim nose up while in the flare. Be careful, as adding go around power will result in significant forward stick forces to maintain proper go around attitude. Speaking of go arounds: 1) If you bounce, GO AROUND! 2) If you float and start porpoising, GO AROUND! 3) The BIGGIE. If you touchdown nose wheel first, GO AROUND! There is no saving this landing and will likely result in a new prop and engine IRAN. I have attached a couple of references I have found helpful. Take care, fly fast on little gas but do it safely! Steve Wayne Fisher on Landing.pdf Landing Cheat Sheet.pdf

I've been looking at this place. You'd have to take the stance that you don't know how it got fixed. I haven't checked in a while, but arn't the clamps like gold these days? http://www.turbo-power.com/

This is where I place mine.

Yea Continental engines are crazy at hiding oil. I get a reading of about 1/2 quart more after 24 hrs of a flight and about a full quart after several days.

I have two G500txis and a GTN750txi. I rarely have to reference the iPad. I did today to check the MEA on my route but 90% of the time, the info on the G500 is enough.

This is where I mount my iPad Pro. I only use it in cruise. I take it down for takeoff and landing to improve the visability.

I flew 2 hrs and the airplane sat for 3 days. Oil level: 7.5 qts. So after flying about 4 hours, just a little oil on the gear door. I think it's getting back to it's happy place. These engines REALLY don't like to be filled to capacity. I should know that because I taught students that for years, but now I'm old and stupid.

I actually listened to an episode of "Ask the A&Ps" where Paul New stated he never warmed the engine up before changing the oil because you end up retaining much of the dirty oil for reasons you stated above. I just plugged in my Tanis oil pan pre-heater in for maybe 30 minutes and the oil drained quite nicely.

This is from the TSIO360LB Type Certificate Data Sheet: Oil sump capacity, qt.8. 5 usable at 26° noseup and 5 useable at 18° nosedown So I would think that 5qts would be the absolute minimum for normal operations; not to say that less than 5qts would be okay at normal flight attitudes.

5qts is getting a bit low for me. I think they get that number from the engine type certificate data sheet which specifies the minimum amount of oil for operation. I'm flying to work tonight (airline pilot) and it should be about 1.5 hrs. I'll post an update when I get to Sydney, AU tomorrow.