Hank

You may, sadly, have a fuel leak. My advice is to monitor the situation. Clean it up and see how quickly it reappears. If you are in a hangar, a leak during cold weather will eventually leave blue spots on the floor because it will evaporate more slowly, giving it time to run and drip. Leaks often "appear" during a cold snap, and "cure" when it heats back up, simply due to contraction/expansion of the sealant due to temperature, and the faster evaporation rate during warm weather. Prepare yourself either way. Downtime, labor and round-trip travel somewhere--all of my good options were 700 nm or more, in three different directions. Once properly done [i.e., not a quick patch job somewhere; I did that, and in two years the leak was much worse than before and off I went to reseal], you should have many trouble-free years.

Dan-- This time you went a little too far. Reread FAR 61.55 (a): § 61.55 Second-in-command qualifications. (a) A person may serve as a second-in-command of an aircraft type certificated for more than one required pilot flight crewmember . . . Our Mooneys are not "type certificated for more than one required pilot." Your safety pilot needs only category and class, which for our Mooneys is ASEL. If you are in IMC or on an IFR flight plan and are not current, there needs to be someone current up front acting as PIC, because a non-current pilot cannot file nor act as PIC "under Instrument Flight Rules" regardless of whether it is "Instrument Flight Conditions" or not. IFR Currency is easy to maintain shooting practice approaches in VMC with any rated pilot riding shotgun. This is what I do when I don't have enough approaches in actual, and unfortunately my wife is not rated for anything . . . Becca and Byron have an easy out for this, but at least we don't have to "discuss" who gets to fly each leg. Back on topic: I visited my brother in south Georgia for the holiday. We flew down IFR, and spent a whopping 4 minutes inside of one of the very few clouds we saw, and the haze on descent at sunset was pretty bad--flying south, I could see out the left window, but ahead and to the right I may as well have been inside the cloud still. We came home yesterday, VFR with Flight Following. Some poor soul headed to Cleveland was about to get rerouted while still south of Atlanta and he offered to cancel and go VFR but ATL Center convinced him to stay IFR and accept a reroute about 15º to the right. My longest trip VFR was three days' sightseeing from here to western Wyoming, then three more days' sightseeing coming back. No flight plans, only FF, with one weather diversion each way. An early and long stop for lunch somewhere in Illinois ["Home of the Friendly People"] headed out, and Lincoln, IL on the way home because it was visibly nasty at our planned stop in Springfield. I went IFR to drop off and pick up the plane at Wet Wingologists in south Florida, but it was VMC going down; I could not have departed coming home without IFR clearance, and was in the clouds until past Orlando. Study hard, McStealth, and enjoy that there F! They are faster and slicker than my C. Learn to control speed in the pattern, and good luck slowing down. My first flight in an F, I descended like I am used to in my C by trimming down for 500 fpm, then I glanced at the ASI and saw 190 mph instead of the 165 or so I'm used to . . .

I always thought you had to be current to file/fly IFR,whether in VMC or not. Same for having current GPS database. Maybe I'm wrong?

Flight Following is all I ever use when not filed IFR. Don't get dropped much in the Midwest, except when headed where I shouldn't be VFR. But I don't depart near Cincinnati and ask for FF immediately, either. P.S.--Congrats on your new F! You'll enjoy her once you pick her up.

Aerocosmetics Wash and Wax, several cotton hand towels. No water necessary, leaves a smooth, unscratched surface behind, and holds up well.

Sorry, Carter. I fly my O-360 ROP, but there's no need to climb your Mooney with reduced power. All it does is take longer to reach altitude. Read your Owners Manual and the Lycoming book. . . . P.S.--I can't climb above ~3000 msl at 26". So I climb to cruise at 9000/10,000 msl, full throttle, 2700, but lean it a little bit as I go up.

It is possible to finish your PPL in a Mooney. I bought mine 6 weeks after my checkride. My advice: Finish your PPL in a rental, get some complex time however possible, then buy. -OR- Use a rental until your landings are consistently good, then start flying your own plane. Abuse the rental with those accidental earthquake arrivals, not your Mooney's retractable gear. I had 62 hours in my logbook, zero retract, and was still flying on my temporary paper certificate when I made the purchase. Insurance was difficult to find and expensive when I did. [Talk to Parker here about that, insurance is his business.] But I flew her almost exactly 100 hours that first year, so my insurance rates dropped by almost half. Two years later I finished my Instrument rating and insurance rates fell an additional 25%. Nothing wrong with buying early in the cycle, but be prepared to pay a little more for insurance, and if you're still a student, recognize that your checkride will both be postponed a little bit while you learn the new plane and be somewhat more thorough [there are more systems to check, and more things to do for each maneuver]. The examiner will also pay closer attention to your weather knowledge, skill and comfort levels, as Mooneys are traveling machines that go to far places quickly, crossing weather systems enroute.

My remote compass unit is installed somewhere in the tailcone.

I resealed this time last year. Love not dripping in the hangar any more--no more blue spots! Bladders would have cost ~40% more, plus cutting new openings in the wings and trying to match the paint. Neither is a perfect solution, each carries its own risks and rewards. Sealant breaks down over time, is heat sensitive when parked nearly empty but was used by the factory for decades and is still in use from new singles to new passenger jets. Bladders can trap water in wrinkles, inside and under the bladder, seals between bladder cells leak, they can be snagged during install or removal to replace seals, sheet metal or new caps can be done wrong, paint can not match, etc. Next time, ask a simple question like LOP/ROP or massive/fine wire!

The front strut replacement was probably due to either: 1) worn bushing, making for exciting landing rollouts [see Don Maxwell's site, "The 8-Second Ride"], or 2) towing damage by someone using a tractor or other large, heavy-duty aircraft pusher. Get someone knowledgable and experienced to check it out [thoroughly!]. Pre-Purchase Inspection is usually paid by the buyer; airworthy squawks are usually paid by the seller, or the price reduced accordingly. You'll like the windshield and the folding back seat--it's amazing what can fit with just one side folded down. In my plane, I run out of cubic feet well before I run out of useful load.

Food runs one county away: 3000 msl [~2000 agl], 30 nm Practice approaches: 3000-4500, depending on terrain Up to 150-200 nm, non-mountainous: 5000+ Over/across the Appalachians: 7500 minimum, often 9000/10,000 msl WV to Yellowstone, 8500 westbound, 9500 coming back.

And here I thought the flux capacitor was behind the back seat, under the hatch. :-)

How 'not flat' is it? I'd ignore less than twice the thickness of the metal.

If you're going to "simulate" NA operation with your Rocket, limit MP to 29" at sea level, and drop it an inch per 1000'. I get a whopping 20.2" at 10,000 . . . producing a powerful 128 hp . . . using Book values. My MP needle is calibrated in whole inches. My Sea Level chart shows 28.0" at 2700, dropping to 24.0" at 2400 RPM to 23.0" at 2400 RPM to get below 75%.

KSMooniac bought a damaged J that he's about to part out. Look in the Parts forum. Aren't the tail feathers all the same except for counterweights?

I use 0.032" on the filter, but my A&P uses 0.040" for everything not requiring larger. YMMV. There's no force exerted on the filter, you just want it to not vibrate loose. Mine has never turned according to my calibrated eyeball.

Nope. Two front seats, two sunvisors, two yokes, two sets of rudder pedals, but only I can make us stop on the runway. Why'd they do it that way? I dunno--cheaper, lighter, easier, less prone to leak? Do right brakes need their own master cylinder, or does everything run off the one down below my left knee? But I don't care, I've only sat in my right seat one time, and that was before she was mine, 490 hours ago.

So, was this Allsmiles?? I've debated portable oxygen and a meter, but refilling is a pain, and I don't often fly above 9000'. But then again, without a meter, I've never checked myself at altitude, and "feelings" are notoriously incorrect. I did just get a 98% reading from the AME at my medical last month, though.

Oopsie, Antares . . .

I have the simple epoxied-on preheater in my C, and all it takes is an hour. In freezing weather, she is very difficult to start and sometimes will not; plug in for 45-60 mins, and it turns over faster and fires right up. You tell me if the little 100W heaters glued on so far away from everything important actually do anything or not. Yes, I've plugged in parked on the ramp while traveling, with a borrowed extension cord, because she wouldn't start up, and have gone merrily on my way an hour later. Now I travel with a 100' cord in cold weather and have fewer problems.

You don't have one of these? Ignore the Brittain stuff, see the little placard at the top, just below the tach. I avoid it simply by not "operating continuously" below 15". A friend's F starts the gear buzzer below 15", and it doesn't stop when you push the throttle up--you've got to drop the gear; on my C, the gear horn squalls below 12", and politely stops when the throttle is advanced. It's only part of the beauty and simplicity of the power-on descent.

I've had the pleasure of experiencing several hurricanes and one typhoon first hand, thankfully all before I became a pilot, much less an aircraft owner. For safety of an aircraft, tied down outside during a hurricane, my suggestion is to fly it at least 200 nm perpendicular to the projected storm track. The biggest threat to your plane will not be "lifting off" due to slack in the ropes, nor even flipping over, unless your tie downs are in poor shape [old; broken down by sunlight, rain or age; frayed; or too lightweight], but rather storm-blown debris. This ranges from broken trees to poorly-tied-down aircraft to trash can lids and shingles, siding or metal roofing from buildings a mile or so upwind. The first hurricane that reaches WV will hopefully find me and my plane in the Carolinas or Georgia, as it will only come here from the Gulf and then up the Mississippi. I figure the Appalachians form a pretty good storm barrier in both directions, they just don't work well on large fronts moving across the continent.

I also have a Hartzell 3-blade on my C [bought it that way], and I avoid the 2000-2250 range redlined on the tach. I thought the face was redone when the prop was changed out? There is also the placard about "sustained operation below 15" MP" too.

You make me hungry! And jealous . . . . The Big Easy is pretty far from here right now . . .

It's the freedom -- go where you want, when you want, no traffic jams, no speed limits, no unmarked cars running radar, and it forces you to pay attention to what you're doing. While driving, I can still think/worry about other things, but not in the air (except on the airlines when worrying is a distraction from the process). Plus the view is so nice. It just feels great!