DonMuncy

Amelia, Contact me off line. I can help you. Check me tonight. I will be leaving town for a few days midday tomorrow. Don d.muncy@sbcglobal.net 214 360-9293

For those of you interested in covers for your fuel caps, I have a set that I won as a door prize at one MAPA convention. I believe are no longer available. However, I think I can give you everything you need to manufacture a set. They are made up of three components. First is the covers themselves, which are perfectly circular and approximately 6 inches in diameter. The size must be large enough to cover an area around the gas cap with enough extra for the sealing material. Mine are made of some kind of plastic, which is semi-rigid, but a non-bendable aluminum or even a clear plastic like plexiglas or lexan would work as well. Mine are about 1/16th inch thick, but again, I don't see why something a little thicker wouldn't work as well. Second is the sealing material. It is merely a strip of foam rubber like one would buy to fit around a door for weather stripping. It is sold at hardware stores here and has a self adhesive on one side; you merely pull off a paper strip and adhere it to the outer edge of the cover. This weather stripping is about 3/16ths inch thick and 3/8ths inch wide. Neither of these dimensions are critical, but it must be bendable enough to go around the cover without buckling or wrinkling. Lastly, the fastener. Mine use what I call "super velcro", but is more technically called "recloseable fastener". One type is "3M Dual Lock Reclosable Fasteners", but there are others. (Ordinary Velcro is not strong enough). On mine, the fastener is about 3/8th inch square. (Too small and it won't hold; too large and you couldn't pull them off.) One side of the fastener is permanently glued to the cover and one half to the lever of the gas cap. Depending on whether the cover flexes a little or not, you may have to shim the fastenner away from the cover. Ideally, when the covers are installed, the foam is compressed a little to keep water from running under it. Let me know if you have trouble finding the fastener material. I either have some left from a project, or can locate some. Also, let me know if the above description doesn't make sense some way. I'll be glad to help if I can. Don

I recently flew with a friend who does some aerobatics. He tells me that they always remove thier tie downs before flight lest they come off during flight and hit another plane. This appears to be a solution looking for a problem. I have never had one come off, have never heard of anyone saying one came off, or read any accident report mentioning that one came off. I have read the previous threads about removing them for flight but (until the one mentioned above) never knew of anyone who removed theirs for any reason other than to install jack points. Does anyone else remove theirs. Don

Are you one of the Ferris family? While I'm on the point, why is it that so few of those on this (and other) lists, don't use their actual names. I had earlier suggested that everyone put their picture in their gallery. I would add that it would be nice if everyone had their name in there somewhere. I like to have names and faces to go with posts. Don

I don't know if I can match you on the grey, but I'll bet I can beat you on the age. Don

I would encourage all members to include a picture of themselves in their photo gallery. It is nice to put a face to the posts we see.

I originally contacted Sherri when I decided to buy a Mooney about 8 years ago. I bought from someone else, but have since met and dealt with both she and Paul. They are both top-notch and highly professional. I highly recommend both of them without the slightest reservation. Don

Plus, the MAPA convention each year is extremely valuable. Don

Michael, Have you looked at Pecan Plantation. It appears they are building a new runway. It would probably be an up-grade and the old one is lighted and 3500 feet. Don

My 231 has an empty weight (calculated) of 1950. That yields a useful load of 950. Full fuel (72 gals or 432 lbs) leaves 518 for me, passengers and baggage. I weigh 150, leaving 368. I hate to admit it, but my flight bag is about 20 pounds. leaving 348. So, with full fuel and no baggage, my 3 passengers can only weigh 116 each. This also ignores little details like your handheld GPS and all the coats and things people stuff in their pockets when they fly

I have the electrical schematic for my 231 on the flash drive Mooney gave me, but it is extremely difficult to read, due to being sized down to a page. You can blow up any section and make it easy to see, but it is virtually impossible to then trace a wire from one section to the next. I took it to a local high class copy outfit and had them copy it on as big a page as they had available. It is better, but still not great. You are welcome to copy mine, if it is what you need, and we can figure out how to get it done. Don 214 360-9293 d.muncy@sbcglobal.net

My 231 is a 3 person, full fuel and reasonable bagage plane. Wth 4 normal sized adults, you will have to leave out some fuel. I checked recently and found that to carry me (150#) and wife and two hefty friends (approx. 200# each), I was good for about 2 hours fuel.

I had a "Bitchin Betty" installed a few months ago. It is the one which operates off the same sensors as the stall warning and gear alert horns. I have not had it come on due to my inadvertance, but have "tested" it. The voice is such you could not miss it. (After the installation, I had the avionics guy turn the volume down, as it was originally god-awful loud). My belief is that it would take a complete idiot to do a gear up landing with it operating. It has the same level of warning for stalls, and I hear it quite often landing. I think this would also be very hard to ignore unless a pilot was frozen into elevator-up mode trying to avoid an impending crash. I considered the other types that have their own stall sensors, but this one is quite a bit cheaper, and I think it is well worth the cost. My belief is that the original horns are not loud enough to penetrate good headsets, at least to the extent of arousing ones consciousness ot the problem. Don

My 231 runs noticeably smoother, at least at idle; I can't tell any difference under power, but I assume it must be soother there also. This has to be a good thing.

The late Norm Smith (the Mooney Miser) sold some gas cap covers. (I won a pair as a door prize at the MAPAconvention several years ago). I have only used them a few times since I hangar my plane. They shouldn't be too hard to duplicate. If anyone has any interest, I wll send (or post) what I think it would take to build yourself a set. Don Muncy d.muncy@sbcglobal.net