Devin

Thank you all for the information. Definitely helps me wrap my head around the concept. A little more detailed Info. I take off at 1500' elevation full throttle, full rich and max rpm, two positive rates of climb and gears up another positive rate and flaps up, after 600' AGL fuel pump off and I bring the RPM back to 2600 as I climb. I climb to 11,500' and during the climb I lean the mixture as I go as but not let the temps get hotter than 380/1500. Once I'm at 11,500' I close the cowl flaps and open the power boost. At full throttle I'm about 19 or 20 manifold pressure at 11,500' and the boost opened gives me about 1 more inch. I reduce the RPM to 2350 and keep leaning mixture till I get as close to 380/1500 without going over. When it's all said and done I'm 11,500', 20-21" MP and 2350 RPM burning about 8.5 gph. I thought I was running LOP per my maintenance guy but now I dont think I ever was. Will I see a significantly better burn rate than 8.5 by trying to get over to the LOP side or is the way I do it now just fine? I'm all about improving my skill and taking care of my engine but if it's a tricky process of getting over to the lean side of peak without messing my engine up in the process or killing it because I did the bump to hard will I get that much better economy or is 8.5 gph good and the engine just fine where it's at?

I have a 67 Mooney F and have a question regarding Lean of Peak. My mechanic at the time who flies a Mooney said just keep your CHT's under 380 and your EGT's under 1500 as a good rule of thumb. When I'm climbing I shoot for around 115mph speed. My #2 is always the hottest so I put more focus on that one and Lean while climbing in accordance with the mechanics advice 380/1500. Once I'm in cruise going cross country I would like to get LOP. I've watched a few videos on it and from what I am seeing basically you keep leaning till you get a certain temp and then the temp should start decreasing and now your on the Lean of peak side. That's where it's a little confusing because when I Lean the temps do start rising and when I get above 380 or 1500 I will enrichen the mixture to cool engine back down under 380/1500. It seems odd if I keep leaning the mixture the engine temps will start cooling on its own. In my mind if I keep leaning the engine will just keep getting hotter. I asked my mechanic and he said again just keep it 380/1500. Any advice or explanation is greatly appreciated.

Hello all. I have a 67 M20F and have to change out my elevator weights. I've had a couple mechanics say getting the rivets and old weights out won't be a problem but putting the new weights and rivets in will be. The new rivets that come with the weights are iron rivets and mechanics are not sure as to how to crush the iron rivets. Has anyone crushed iron rivets before or have any suggestions? Thank you in advance.

Thats awesome man. Thanks for the comment. Yea there has been so much valuable information on here. Im glad your plane is working out for you. I am a little nervous going into ownership but I know its what I want to do and I think makes the most sense versus renting. You can only read so much and ask so many questions but the real knowledge and experience comes from doing so I am looking forward to ownership and all the learning along the way and hopefully the learning curve wont be to damaging financially haha.

Great point. Thank you

haha

Great perspective on the fuel. I hadn't thought if that way. Thank you

Thank you so much for this very detailed response. A lot of great stuff in there and I really appreciate it!

Awesome, thank you

Ill be doing both building time and family trips.

Thats awesome! Thanks for the comment. Just to be clear though you say buy your last plane first and then later you say you agree with the slower plane for building time so are you saying you would buy the slower plane like cherokee warrior for building time and then sell and get a different plane (which would go against buying your last plane first) or are you saying get your last plane first like the Mooney and when doing a time building flight fly it slow like a slower plane?

Nice! How many stops did you have to make from Arkansas to LA?

Taking the insurance out of the equation is the cost of operating a late model Mooney with J Bar landing gear with rubber pucks and Hydraulic flaps really significantly higher than the operating costs of say a piper warrior? If I can burn less gas in a Mooney or worse case burn the same gas as a piper warrior and the landing gear and flaps are relatively maintenance free with the J Bar and hydraulic flaps then wouldn't the Mooney be about the same operating cost as the warrior or something similar? It seems like the big difference is obviously the insurance but as more hours are built in the complex aircraft and other ratings are obtained such as IFR then the insurance will start to decrease. I do understand I will pay a higher insurance rate initially in the aircraft but my thinking is why not get into the complex aircraft that seems to have way less complex costs compared to other complex planes and start building the hours right away in order to satisfy insurance enough to start lowering the premiums. My plan is to fly about 80-100 hours a month and my thought process is to purchase a plane and get my IFR rating right away in that plane. By the time I get my IFR rating I will have around 50 hours alone in that particular plane and should be feeling pretty comfortable in it and how it performs and what not so that when I take my family on trips I will feel confident and safe with them in the plane I have been flying the most in. I wouldn't want to have that experience and then sell it and go to an entire different plane that has different nuances and tendencies and start over getting comfortable with it. So the question I ask myself is if operating costs are about the same minus the insurance and in order to get insurance premiums to be pretty reasonable in a complex plain I need hours and experience in a complex plane then lets get the complex plain and start getting hours and experience. If however it is a significant operating costs difference between the two then I can definitely see the benefits of going the other way. If the experience though of flying a Mooney is what the large majority of Mooney owners say it is compared to other aircraft and operating costs are about the same minus the insurance, which the insurance costs will go down with time and experience, and I can get a better burn rate when I want to fly solo and slow yet when I want to go cross country I can go a little faster and still have a better burn rate then the last question I ask myself is why not just get the Mooney. I'm also hoping that with getting 80 to 100 hours a month I won't have to carry the higher insurance premiums to long. Again with all that said I don't know what I don't know so I greatly appreciate your comment and future comments.

Great info. Thank you so much

Awesome. Thank you