Slick Nick

Fore-aft slop in the piano hinge can sometimes be cured with a little bit of safety wire in one or more of the gaps. Gets rid of the slop.

Agree. Samir, get your airplane out of there and take it to a shop who is wiling to work with you. It's nowhere near as complicated as they're making it seem.

I just had all 4 rod ends swapped on my J. Order them new from LASAR. My shop took about an hour to install them, then another half hour to swing the gear and adjust them so the doors closed up nice and tight. Your CFI sounds a little, um... as though they need some coaching in the nuances of pilot decision making. The gear works fine, the doors close normally, why risk something like an engine failure after takeoff with gear that's stuck down? And why the ferry permit? Ferry permits are only applicable to aircraft with an unairworthy component. It's airworthy, and even if your CFI made the decision to fly it gear down (again, why?) you don't need a ferry permit to fly a retractable with the gear down. This, to me, is sounding some alarm bells about this CFI. Maybe you should be looking for another one. If the rods haven't yet been adjusted, there is no harm in retracting the gear like normal. Fly it to a shop who knows what they're doing, and have them changed in an afternoon.

@dkkim73 yes, you’ll want to run it hard and ROP to keep the temps up. I posted a thread awhile back where I ran lean of peak at altitude and couldn’t get the CHT’s above 200. My hang up with the IPA is that it can be hard on tank sealants, so I only use it if I’m going to go through a couple full tanks right away. If my destination is such that I will leave the plane sitting for a few days with the IPA in the wings, I usually go without. Something to keep in mind. Flying when it’s this cold out is awesome, the air is often still and crisp.

Airframe hours don't really matter, especially on an airplane as well built as a Mooney. It's much more about HOW that airframe was cared for over it's lifetime. I've seen 1500 hour machines that are absolutely beat to sh!t, with corrosion everywhere, and 10,000 hour frames that have been maintained meticulously and look brand new inside.

Sacrilege! Jokes aside, looks pretty good. Any plans to do the other side?

Is that a beechcraft yoke?

The little lip on the inside i think is designed to keep water out, since it makes a bit of a bend where the door does. The way your seal is installed might allow moisture in behind it. You ssid you had extra seal left over? Might be worth redoing it the proper direction.

If your muffler is THAT close to the cowl, you've got much bigger issues than just the little tab sticking out. The engine mounts are probably toast, allowing the engine to "sag" down and interfere with the cowl. Once you bend that part up, it won't be long until the whole muffler is rubbing. Post a sie view of the front of you plane, and measure the gap between the spinner and the cowl top and bottom. If the sag is noticeable, have new mounts put in.

Because the density of the air changed from your departure and landing airports. Mixture is dependent on the density of the air entering the engine.

Nice review. Is it “P” shaped like the stock one? Almost looks like you have it on backwards, with the flat part facing outwards instead of being tucked flush under the trim panel.

Looks like something is rubbing on the cowling from inside.

Idle mixture is a funny thing, because if it's set at a high elevation airport on a hot day, it will be much different than an airport at sea level on a cold day kinda thing. It's a compromise to get it dialed in for the conditions you fly in specifically. Worth maybe having it checked again however, along with your ignition system being diagnosed. An inflight mag-check can tell you a lot next time you fly. Look up the "Savvy in flight mag check".

What do you do with mixture on descent and for landing? If you're sure it's not plug fouling, it could be a mechanical issue, or your idle mixture setting could be way off. Remember, that's not controlled by the mixture knob it's preset on the fuel servo by your mechanic.

Quite possible. Lead fouling of plugs will show up on a mag check. You need to lean it really aggressively in cold temps, I would even run it at peak EGT for a bit, see if that remedies it. If I recall you've been running it really rich for a whole lot of hours, you could have finally bridged a plug perhaps. How much of your oil cooler did you block? 280 on the cylinder head is pretty cold, what was your oil?

Not only that, but the whole “known” icing thing is up for debate. Is that areas where icing has actually been reported? Technically all of the prog charts are “forecast” icing, doesn’t mean it’s actually known. What’s the actual definition of “known” icing? I’ve got many hundreds of hours flying in actual icing conditions, and I still do everything I can to avoid it, especially in an aircraft that can’t fly fast enough for a ram rise that burns it off, like a single engine piston. Unfortunately, the Pacific Northwest means icing conditions are present for almost half of the year.

I keep my plane inside year round so I don't mess with changing oils much, even when I'm at an outstation I'll have the plane put inside overnight so the engine never really gets "cold." If I am somewhere say, for lunch and it's cold outside, just putting the cowl plugs in and parking away from the wind usually keeps the engine nice and warm for a couple hours while I'm gone.

You’re right, there’s not much you can do about things like landing gear pucks, etc. just be cognizant of how brittle things can become in the cold temperatures and try and be as gentle as you can. Cowl flaps open for start, close them up as soon as the engine is running and keep them closed you will not need them at all when it’s that cold. What are you doing to clean frost and snow off of the airframe? Have you got wing covers and stuff?

I always wondered if those things even worked. I just picked me up the new Lightspeed headset with the built in detector.

I guess in that case, you’ll need to do a really thorough preheat on the engine, ideally starting the night before. Have you got cowl blankets and stuff? Also try to preheat the interior to protect your avionics, plastics, etc. Ground lean the engine out after start and get it as hot as you possibly can before run up and subsequent application of takeoff power. You should see an initial rise in oil temp, then a drop as the vernatherm opens and allows cold oil to circulate back into the engine and through the cooler, then another rise in temperature which would indicate all of the oil is now flowing properly through the engine. Once the oil is hot cycle the prop a few times and observe the oil pressure drop and rise, too high of oil pressure is just as bad as not enough. You can blow out your oil filter and engine seals. If the battery is in good condition, it should be able to start the engine no problem, maybe give it an 8-10 second prime. Oil pressure with that thick of oil may be very slow to rise on startup, so keep an eye on it. If you don’t see any within 15-20 seconds, shut it down. The book says 30, but I always thought that was way too long. Once she’s hotted up and you’re airborne, you’ll want to lean in the climb and aggressively in cruise to keep the temps up. Running too rich in the winter keeps the engine too cold and can lead to a lot of corrosion inside. Enjoy the crisp, cold air!

That oil is too thick for that temperature. Even 15-50 is outside the optimal range. Section 8 of your POH will list the proper oil grades. 20W-30 is what's recommended for below 10*F. I fly in -30*C temps all the time. That's our best, "crisp" flying weather out here in western Canada. You will need to tape up your oil cooler. I run 2 strips of tin tape, cover HALF of the cooler (I do the bottom half) and it keeps the oil around 175*F. I've added a third strip, to cover 2/3 of the cooler before to experiment, that keeps the oil closer to 200*F which you will want if your plane has spent any time at all outdoors, but remove the last strip any time it's above about -10*C, and leave the other two in place. My airplane is always stored in a heated hangar, so preheating is not an issue. If your plane is kept at all outside, when it's THAT cold, you could potentially end up doing hundreds of hours worth of engine wear in the first 30 seconds after startup if the engine is not thoroughly preheated. By the time you mess around with cowl blankets, plug in heaters, etc you're still only left with a lukewarm engine, frozen cabin, frosted up instruments and brittle plastics, in addition to a frost covered airplane and windshield, iced up control surfaces, etc. Don't forget that even things like the grease inside you wheel bearings and gear linkage can congeal, and put an enormous load on the gear and flap motors. Engine aside, you need to treat the rest of the airplane with care. Everything is brittle. My suggestion, just pay the fee and have it brought into a nice warm hangar the night before. Most places only charge $50 for a night. I've got lots of hours on my Mooney flying in frozen temps, but starting off with a warm airplane is key. Airplanes absolutely love the cold air, but they hate "being" cold if that makes sense.

That exactly why Mooney designed them to be removable. I rarely use tie downs, so I just keep them with my pitot cover, cowl plugs, etc. Super quick and easy to screw them in when needed. Most ramp staff is even familiar with this and I’ve had them do it for me after passing them through the storm window. I should add that this is with the stock tie down loops. If they get stuck thanks to some tight tie downs pulling on them it’s enough to stick a screwdriver through the eye and loosen them.

I’ve used both. The -00 were meant to be used with the resistor on 28V planes, and the -01’s were meant to be wired straight to 28V.

That’s the way to do it.

I know lots of J's flying around without the inner doors. I was instructed to take mine off if I ever plan to land on taller grass. There are shim washers that align the doors properly when closed. Make sure you don't mix them up or the doors will be misaligned on re installation.