T. Peterson

John D, This is the gentleman to whom I was referring. What he just wrote is excellent. Never mind my dribble! T.Peterson

I enjoy my K, but most of my trips are over 350 miles. I fly at 11 and 12000. I burn 13 gallons an hour to get 165 kts true. Most do much better but I don’t have Gami injectors or intercooler. I find there is a big difference even within the same model because some guys have the technical savvy to really dial in their engines. Unfortunately, I don’t. One fellow here gets the same speed as do I while sipping fuel at 10 gallons per hour or less. He is running LOP and up to 34 inches of MP. And his engine is over TBO! That’s dialed in!! My engine starts to melt just thinking about those numbers! If I run anything over 30 MP, I have to cool with fuel. In the winter the cylinders stay cooler than TIT, but in the summer I have to closely monitor both. That’s just my experience and my experience is based on less than a year of Mooney ownership.

Wow, Shadrach! That was an outstanding piece of writing and logic.

I have not seen it!!

Excellent article. Thanks for posting.

Wow! It was implied in another thread that my post was harsh!

You are very gracious. Thank you.

The cheaper airplane has almost 9000 hours on the airframe and a timed out engine. Call Don Maxwell or Jimmy Garrison, but I don’t think you can overhaul that engine for anywhere near 30 grand. I am no expert but I would be more interested in the ugly airplane for 110 to 115 than the other one for 95. 85 on the other one might interest me, but I think the engine would be more like 45. The 8900 airframe hours is a big detractor for me.

I do not for a minute doubt your integrity or for a minute suspect you of nefarious motives. I absolutely admire your efforts and hard work. If 100LL is available for years to come then I have no issue. My concern is not with you at all as you can’t control the EPA or the political environment. But if the government steps in and essentially grants you a monopoly by eliminating 100LL before there is any other option I may simply be priced out of GA. This would not be due to greed on your part, but is simply a law of economics. Competition drives pricing. After all what does it even mean to use the term, “priced competitively”?

If the government has been able to put up with 100LL this long, I sure hope they will put up with it till there are at least two different companies supplying alternative fuel. Entrepreneurship is the very warp and woof of our capitalist economy, but so is competition. I wholeheartedly salute the efforts of these gentlemen and wish them a very successful return on their investment. If their product is as good as claimed, the market will vindicate them. But if the government removes any other alternative than one company’s product it is no longer entrepreneurship, free enterprise or capitalism. The very idea of an entrepreneur is that he invents or develops something that persuades customers not that they are bent over backwards under the weight of government.

If it works out that way I will salute smartly, but somehow the glossy hype rarely meets expectations. We will see.

Wow!! Very nice!!

I’m very envious of your engine! You have it dialed in. I don’t have Gami’s or an intercooler. I tried duplicating your numbers and I can’t get close. The engine would melt. When I have to overhaul I will add in all those other goodies provided the wallet can stand it. In the meantime I have to run 29 inches and 13 gallons to maintain 165 kts true. I can go slower, but then I should have just got an E model. I can also run LOP but then I might as well ride a bicycle and burn nothing. I could run the TIT a little hotter, but I don’t like it exceeding 1580.

Go Diamond!! And anyone else that can develop a viable diesel that uses JetA!!

Very nice picture! I love the prairies. My grandfather homesteaded in North Dakota and my maternal grandparents are from Moosejaw Saskatchewan. My mother remembers watching Gordie Howe play in the open ice rink in Moosejaw. My grandfather was an avid hockey fan and would take mom and her brother to the games when they were just little tykes. Mom is now 93. I can’t imagine sitting in an outdoor rink watching a hockey game in that weather, but they did!

Timing lights is great, but beware of the car in crossing traffic that is pushing a yellow light.

God bless good ole Yankee ingenuity!……..errr……CANADIAN ingenuity!! Well done! Very cool solution……err…..warm solution to a cool problem!

“Go capitalism!” OORAH!!

A lot of smart fella’s will chime in here with the exact technical advice that you need to fix the instrument lights. My experience is that panel lighting inconsistency is one of the most consistent things across aviation in a multitude of different airplanes, big, small, young or old. Those rheostats seem to just dare you to find the setting you want without flickering or self adjusting to something else. I say all this to encourage you not to allow the instrument lighting to diminish the wonderful experience of taking your “co-pilot for her first flight in our new J.” Her comment, “reminds me of our first date”, is the wonderful significance of that flight and is the real stuff of life. Don’t let panel lights detract from that moment. Maybe that’s too mushy for Mooneyspace, but I guess as I age I am just becoming more of a sentimental old fool, but I kind of wish it had happened a little sooner.

Their plans to hire 87000 regulators and increase ramp checks and check rides.

That’s precious!!

I realize this is a 6plus year old post and it’s probably a moot point, but 36 gallons is the answer.

Absolutely! The fellow or gal that sold the airplane should take it back.

Perfectly said!! Key to IMC flying is scan, scan, scan!! Auto Pilot is for later and should never ever be allowed to cause deterioration of your scan. When I was learning instruments as a young Marine at Whiting Field I was really struggling. An excellent flight instructor was instrumental in revolutionizing my instrument skills. He had never flown with me before but after reading my training jacket he correctly deduced my problem. My scan was weak. I was fixating on one parameter or the other and slow to catch a drift in something else. All the other instructors would just yell, “heading!”….or “altitude!”…or “Speed!” I would dutifully fix that issue while something else went to pot. As we were briefing the upcoming flight, this instructor said, “ Torrey, (we were on a first name basis, he called me Torrey and l called him, Sir. ) I just want you to keep your eyes moving around the instruments. DO NOT STOP to interpret what you are seeing! Trust me on this, your brain will do it automatically. What you have to do is keep your eyeballs moving!” With that nugget, off we went flying. I worked hard to follow his advice, but would still fall prey to fixation. When that happened he would not shout or even point out the offending parameter, but would very quietly say “scan scan scan”. Of course I would immediately start moving my eyes and the results were simply remarkable. I went in one flight from dreading instrument flights to loving them! I have shared this story with many many pilots and I hope it benefits them as much as that outstanding instructor benefited me.

Your thinking is so shallow! Of course we need more check rides. Everyone knows that more government regulation makes life better for all of us. If we had more check rides the FAA could hire 87,000 more regulators just like the IRS. Oh my, life would be so good!