RobertoTohme

My SE has the Stby alternator and had both vacuum pumps removed at the factory service center back in '09 when I refurbished it completely. It's the same setup as on the Acclaim now, and other than testing it every now and then to make sure it works, never had to resort to it. A must for an all electric plane.

And probably close behind the Citation on legs <350 NM....

That is true; once you get a multiple entry permit, its good only for entries FROM the country you arrived when you got it. I have my yearly multiple entry permit from the US, but when I go to Costa Rica and come back through Tapachula I have to pay for that one too. Don't get mislead; there are plenty of airports of entry, and the process is the same at all airports; you just run into not friendly officers at some of those airports; some of them are borderline @$$holes, some are pretty easy to deal with... Luck of the draw.

Chris, When you decide to do it and considering you're based at Austin, clear at MMAN (Del Norte-Monterrey); they're friendly as it can get and they work nothing but private flights. From there you can head anywhere you wish to spend time in Mexico without a hassle, just have your arrival paper flight plan closing handy as it's required for filing further flight plans within Mexico, and the reason to that is that the date on it starts the clock for the 6 months the plane is allowed to stay in mexico. It didn't use to be that way, but there's plenty of mexicans with N registered planes based in Mexico (I don't blame them, dealing with DGAC is a nightmare) but seldom flew outside of the country, so now they check the last entry date to verify it's within the 6 month entry permit. Also, flights within Mexico don't require flight plan closing in paper anymore, regardless of VFR or IFR; this is a fairly new ruling that started about 2 - 3 months ago. International arrivals still require the paper closing and the miryad of stamps of the different authorities; that's the one you carry with you at all times.

+1!

Let me share a fact about mexican eapis.. If you are a Part 91 operator, you're still not required to file it. The word of the law says "it must be filed on the official web portal of the INM"... and it happens that the portal doesn't exist, so legally, they can not pin you for that. I have personally checked this fact with a couple of friends in Mexico that happen to be Federal Judges, and FEMPPA (mexico's version of AOPA) has actively pressured the government and got an agreement that until they come up with the portal, the cockamamie system the government came up with of emailing an excel file with the data is treated as a "nice to have", but it's not enforceable. With the above said, it's up to you if you want to send the info via email or not and if you do to make you feel safer, just print the email and have it with you; I assure you nobody is going to ask for it since the agents at the airport don't get it; it goes to a central computer on some obscure building in Mexico City and nobody monitors it. Don't ask how I know but I DO know. Now, if you're Part 135 or 121, that's a whole other story; I'm also a Part 135 operator and the requirement imposed by the government is to file electronically thru Honeywell's ARINC portal, contracted by the government (without a bidding contest, by the way) where you as an operator have to sign up for, pay a stiff annual fee and 260 dollars per manifest, whether inbound or outbound. These are the facts... Whether you want to follow my advise or not is entirely up to you. When and if such portal becomes available in the future (I doubt it for Part 91), I'll be first to know and will post the information here accordingly, with links to the correct website. P.D. I fly in as Part 91 so I never file, and the charter fleet goes as Part 135 and we, or should I say our customer, gets stiffed with the $520 per round trip on top of the charter rate.

If you haven't done the flight already, don't complicate yourself; it's pretty easy: file the VFR ICAO plan in MMCU, and 20 miles out from Presidio call ABQ radio advising you're on a VFR plan inbound Presidio and you need a squack code; they'll issue one and just make your standard calls on unicom. Customs know you're coming because of eapis, and you won't be talking to anyone in mexican airspace after you leave Chihuahua boundary... As to the "horror story" published here, Where's the part that "the pilot should get all pertinent information related to the flight intended"? Yes, aviation authorities in Mexico are generally crappy and it's costly to land in mexico's airports, but if you do your due diligence there are no surprises, just the time consuming dealings with their red tape and fees payment. It's sad that some members here, out of plain ignorance, pass on the opportunity of a great vacation or business deal. I can safely assume that no one here (or other brand forums for that matter) has more international ops to mexico from the US than I do, since I average more than 50 ops per year for the last 9 years, plus a couple coming from central america that clear at Tapachula, Guess What? Never ever had a problem! So if we do the math, that's over 470 ops without a hiccup; you just need to know what docs you need with you and mind notams, for which Baja Bush Pilots or Caribbean Sky Tours can brief you on quickly and efficiently.

I found the excel file... If someone needs / wants the numbers, send me a pm with your email and I'll be happy to share. Joe, I emailed you the file already. RT

I see you finally bit the bullet Joe, congrats! I knew you'd enjoy those climbs... As to my old post with the numbers, it's somewhere here in the Modern Mooney forum but it's old... Should have been a post around 2007 - 2009 since I sold my Acclaim in '09... I'll look if I still have the numbers file and if I do, I'll re-post it. Regards. Roberto.

When conditions aren't right, remember, there are no emergency takeoffs...

And Cirruses too!!

Under normal operation conditions, your limitation is Vne (red line); however, in an upset that results in Vne exceedance I wouldn't hesitate to deploy them... Better have the airbrake mounting base bent than risking structural failure because of the overspeed.

Check out L3 Avionics Lynx NGT1000... Lists for $2,521 and complies with the ADS-B out mandate; it hooks up to existing mode C and S transponders; it may require a control panel that lists at $1,223. After all, you just need to be "out" compliant. Looks like this is my way around it...

Chances are you'll get flawless performance from a G1000; I've flown it for years first on a DA40 (G1000 launch customer), then the Acclaim, TBM850 and now on a Sierra modified citation 501... That's 9 years without a fault on any of those installations, and except for the DA40, all of them have been WAAS, and all of them except the citation, have had the GFC700 autopilot.

I truly doubt the filter and fuel governor adjustment are the culprits... 2 years after my factory refurb that cost the speed, and the factory had already shutdown, I sent my plane to Dugosh for an annual and they raised the issue that the fuel governor was out of whack; it got overhauled, readjusted, and the speed is still missing. The timing had been checked and rechecked too, so that's not my issue either....

Off from original thread subject, but out of all the hot-rods I've flown, the M20S is the one I never liked to get towards tail heavy; the other 2 fly nicer the closer I load them to the aft limit.

I've loaded it almost to the edge of aft limit and it does 2 kts better; balance is not it since it just moved about 1/8" forward from what it was before (empty), and tried to compensate with more cargo in the back... Believe me, it's been 6 years of tinkering with it and nothing had worked.

You're not alone on that boat... I took mine to the factory back in 2009 for new paint and interior, and ever since it's been a solid 12 knots slower. Final weight after the work done was +6 lbs from incoming weight, so that's not it; balance shifted 0.15" to the front due the removal of the whole vacuum system, both primary and aux, so that's not the culprit either. I've had Brian Kendrick himself mess with the plane several times with no improvement. For those who don't know who Brian is, he was the manager of the factory service center before the shutdown and now works by his own. We have explored rigging, seals, baffling, you name it, and couldn't get the speed back up to what it used to be. He mentioned the fact that most planes had leaks in the pitostatic system that gave higher numbers, but I've got enough groundspeed data over the same courses with similar wind conditions over the years that proves that this was not the case either, and my plane has 2 independent air data computers that match, so the wind conditions are verified. The only thing I notice is that the tail doesn't fly where it used to, but I've been swore to death that it's rigged properly so the only thing that comes to mind is that I somehow had a misrigged tail for years that escaped the annual checkups before painting it.... If you find your lost knots please let me know how! I'm most interested in getting mine back too.

Earning my commercial on my Eagle was a lot of fun... That's how you learn to truly appreciate what these fabulous planes can do!

I can tell you firsthand that the Mooney soul is alive and well on the TBM; it feels like an oversize, slightly heavier M20... Back in '09 when I first flew the 850, it was a deja vu moment as I felt I had flown the plane before, which made the transition pretty easy for me. I can't say the same thing of other planes I've trained or typed on.

Hint for the next MAPA convention: TBMOPA holds a pinch hitter course during their convention for attending spouses, given by a roster of TBM approved CFI's, and have a high success rate in signups for the course... No TBM has been bent in any of those courses, so I assume it can be safely done. Trey has the connections to that group as he's a TBM instructor and he wrote the original syllabus for the training course when the plane came to life in the US many years ago, so he can easily put together something like that for Mooney wives or significant others that you may want to get trained for such an emergency. Trey, if you're reading this you're going to hate me for the added work to your schedule, but "You 'da Man!" to get it done.

The RR250 @ 18,000 ft is 25-26 gph, @ FL250 drops to about 18 gph but TAS decays; this is what it does on the Tradewinds Bonanza and again, this is a helicopter engine that doesn't do well at altitude. For the PT6 with the severe de-rating on an application like this, somewhere around 28-30 gph would be my guess based on my TBM experience; TurbineAir lists their Bonanza at 29 gph @ FL250 so it's got to be close to that.

For the record, both versions of turbine Bonanzas have the same factory spec VNE; they're just flown with different climb profiles and higher altitudes where IAS decreases and power back accordingly in level flight to just below VNE. Another example of this procedure is the Piper Cheyenne Blackhawk modified, where you're bumping VNE if power not reduced accordingly. So, doing the math for a PT6, 175 kts IAS @ FL250, ISA +10 (-25C), would true 263 kts. For a RR250, 175 kts IAS @ 18,000 ft, ISA +10 (-15C), would true 232 kts. The RR250, being a helicopter engine by design, is most efficient in the mid teens, whereas the PT6 sweetspot is the mid 20's. There may be takers for that, specially where avgas is in short supply or unavailable.

I discussed this topic on the Mooney Wishlist thread here a few days ago… That's where Mooney was heading with that "cooperation agreement" with Rolls Royce shortly before the factory shutdown; sounds like sticking a RR250 on a long body, like the Tradewind Bonanza… I, for one, would look seriously into that as a retrofit for my Eagle.

I understand your positions as well, and agree that a G1000 is overkill for basic VFR; unfortunately, looks like these days aircraft manufacturers are making planes that are IFR capable with all the bells and whistles, apparently under the direction of their market analysts who think that's what the market for a new plane has to have... Perhaps not ideal for some, but that's reality. Pricey? Hell yeah; Will manufacturers listen? I seriously doubt it.