James McDiarmid

Thanks Dude! I considered that too - the ice under the wings was mainly inboard of the main landing gear and the tank vents had no visible icing or obstructions so I don’t think that was the cause. I’ve been adding 1-1.5% IPA when flying high in similar conditions since the incident with no further issues. Merry Xmas! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Acclaim N40AU had an almost identical engine out over Oregon a couple of weeks ago - landed safely on a road, checked the aircraft over (the pilot is an A+P/IA) let it thaw out for a few hours and took off again.

Thanks! I’ll order one Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Not leaking - the attachment bracket is broken… Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Is this compass still for sale?

Thanks and Yes - the o-rings were changed back in January when the plane was in for its annual. They have no cracks and no sign of wear. In retrospect think I just took on lots of very ‘wet’ fuel the night before the flight and the dissolved water crystallised out in the cold flight levels. I used to have a home weather station and humidity here varies between 60% and 100% - living in the southwest UK is like living on a pier extending into the Atlantic… ;-) Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks for sharing the checklist Jim! I certainly learned from the incident… my 99% isopropyl alcohol delivery arrived last week Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yes… possibly… I have to admit that I hadn’t seen or read that recommendation so I didn’t have low boost pump on… having said that I have flown many hours at similar levels and not had a problem… it may have been a contributing factor Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I don’t know… my guess is that the underside of the wing stayed iced up due to the rapid descent (10 minutes from FL230 to landing) - here’s a picture - both wings had identical icing Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yes to both Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I didn’t see any ice around the cowl - just under the wings Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Can’t be sure but… maybe it was a water/avgas mix, maybe the headwind/ice crystals brought it down further, it took 2h to happen so I’m sure temperature played a role Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Engine Out 4/5/24 Hi all, I had an engine failure 3 weeks ago and I thought I’d share it with you. My wife and I were 2h into a flight from Exeter to Venice in the cruise at FL230 in my 2008 Mooney Acclaim-S. I bought my second Mooney last year - I’d previously owned an ovation 2GX but the allure of flying faster above the weather led me to purchase an Acclaim. During the flight the weather had been pretty good with the exception of the forecast tailwinds in fact being 50-60kt headwinds and consequently slowing our progress. We were in Belgian airspace and I was talking to Brussels control. OAT was -32C as we surfed through smooth air in the tops of a thin layer of cloud into a 55kt headwind. As usuaI was flying by the numbers - at best economy… We were cruising 28.0” MAP 2300 RPM LOP @15.0gph In retrospect the early indication of an issue was very occasional rough running which started 20 minutes or so before the engine stopped. Also - oddly EGT/mixture was not ‘stable’ (the mixture seemed to automatically be getting leaner - EGT increasing above 50 degrees LOP - so I was watching it and enriching in). I had never experienced this before. As a consequence of the LOP mixture instability I decided to run ROP which provided a little more stable EGT-wise until after around 10 mins the engine stopped abruptly. At this moment I received the low manifold pressure yellow (?red) warning on G1000. All 6 EGT/CHT immediately dropped to zero and the prop was windmilling. *I subconsciously monitor the sound of the engine during flight and for once it was notably absent. The airspeed was rapidly decaying so I immediately deactivated the autopilot and pushed the nose down while simultaneously declaring an emergency. Brussels control acknowledged the mayday and asked what I needed, I requested vectors to the nearest airport ‘Ostend is 10 miles north of your position’ so I started a descending left turn to the north. Boost pump selected and left on, I switched fuel tanks. Brussels control handed me over to Ostend. I kept the airspeed >100kts as we had a lot of height to lose and didn’t need to stretch the glide. Blue (prop) and red (mixture) knobs pushed fully in, the magnetos were left selected to ‘both’ and not touched throughout the emergency. Speedbrakes deployed as still very high. We crossed the north Belgian coast approximately 8000ft, I was offered but unable to accept an ILS for rwy 08 as engine not producing power - I requested and was approved for a glide approach. Soon after this we became visual with the airport but were still very high so I selected the gear down and flaps to T/O. I created a track on the G1000 extending the centreline of runway 08. We were very high on initial final approach ?3000ft… Passing 1000ft I selected full flaps and instantly (?possibly related to attitude change going from 10-33 degrees of flaps) the engine burst back into life. I put the landing lights on, completed final approach checks and made a surprisingly smooth landing on runway 08. We were met and escorted to the GA apron by the fire crew. The engine sounded normal again until shutdown. On external inspection… there was no water in the fuel. But there was around 5mm of ice on the underside of the wings. There was no visible ice on the leading edges or upper surfaces of wings so I had not been using the TKS deice system. Also the fuel tank vents were unobstructed. The oil quantity was ok. Fuel quantity was also fine - there was approx 30usg remaining per side confirmed visually. We took the train back to Exeter while the aircraft was inspected by a local shop. The engine data from the G1000 revealed FF dropping to zero as the event preceding the engine failure. The aircraft was inspected 11 days later (such is life in Europe!) - they found some evidence of ‘a few drops of’ water in the gascolator but nothing else amiss. Even though the aircraft was always kept in the hangar I had fully fuelled the aircraft in light rain the evening before the flight and had strained both wing fuel tanks prior to takeoff but I have to admit I omitted to pull the gascolator drain. As you can imagine I researched the subject of freezing avgas in some detail and found several reports of similar incidents affecting piston aircraft that were cruising in the flight levels in very cold conditions. The Mooney POH refers to this risk and recommends adding anhydrous isopropyl alcohol 99% purity to avgas to make around a 1% solution in order to remove any free water, lower the freezing point of avgas from -57C and prevent these situations happening. Another friend who suffered a similar power loss in his TB21 feels it’s more likely due to the fuel servo icing up within the engine and considers that this is less likely to happen when the TKS system is active as some of the prop TKS fluid gets into the engine bay and prevents the tiny nozzles from icing over. Two fellow European Mooniacs generously gave me a lift from EGTE to EBOS to collect my aircraft yesterday and after adding isopropyl alcohol to the fuel and a thorough ground run-up I flew home to Exeter with no issue. Freezing avgas/water was not on my radar but is a very real issue… I’ll be straining tanks and gascolator and adding IPA for long/high/cold sectors throughout the year and getting into warmer air as soon as possible if I ever encounter similar symptoms. Having seen the normally unseen underwing ice after landing I’ll also have a lower threshold for switching on the TKS deicing system in very cold conditions. Anyway - I learned that freezing flight levels can bite… Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

100% agree re pulse-oximetry… I also carry 2 and monitor regularly. Marc, how did you tweak the mic in your alps mask to get it to work? I’m about to return mine to MH. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Hi all! I’m late to this discussion - I’m a medical doctor originally an ovation 2GX owner but last year started operating an acclaim out of the southwest UK. The acclaim performance is so good up high that I often climb up high and use O2. I like the O2D2 system very much but my experience is that it needs to be turned up above ‘normal’ if going above the mid teens, particularly if venturing above FL180. Usually one of the F (FAT!) settings gets my sats up into the 90s - I’m a fairly fit 57 years old, 90kg and 6ft tall (so not morbidly obese) but I’ve always noticed cognitive impairment above 8000ft altitude. I got into the habit of carrying a supplementary O2 size E cylinder when I first got my acclaim as the built in O2 had a leak. It’s a habit I’ve kept up even after having had the leak repaired because of the major inconvenience of having the onboard tank refilled. We just rotate the E cylinder through the hospital O2 supply and it’s inexpensive and very convenient. Having 2 tanks also adds redundancy although the cabin tank should be secured in place. I also bought a couple of high altitude masks from mountain high with built in microphones (for $$$). There are 3 sizes and it’s important to select the one that will best fit your face. Above FL200 the mask gives me a better O2 saturation than cannulas but the microphone was absolutely terrible… ATC gave it 1/5 - (it’s a David Clarke mic wired through a Bose adapter) I ended up reverting to the original Bose mic and tucking it inside the mask - it worked just fine with no significant leak. It may just have been a QC issue with the built in DC mic but my advice is to just buy the regular high altitude masks without the mic and tuck your headset mic in. Anyway… happy flying! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Hi all, I need to ferry my M20TN from Willmar MN to the UK. Can anyone help? Thanks in advance… Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks MooneyFlyer, I had a Goodrich Skywatch TCAS installed in my last Mooney and found it helpful. Thanks for the tip re: FLARM…, I’ll look into it! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks Lance, the avionics shop need the installation details from the STC/ maintenance manual to cover retrofit and integration - any idea where I can find this? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Hi all, I’m considering installing a Garmin GTS800 in my M20TN. I’m going to be basing the aircraft in Europe where TIS/ADS-B traffic is not available. Is it possible to do this installation as a retrofit or is it factory only? Has anyone else done this? Thanks!