The-sky-captain

Did anybody here watch the new ASF video on AOPA? It was a C model Mooney doing the impossible turn and being sucessful. The cool part was the fact that an onboard camera caught the whole thing live. At the time of his engine failure he was only 500' AGL and he made it back without a scratch. IMO that is way to low to execute a 180 (1000 AGL is my personal limit) and I probably would have landed straight. Once again... I'm in my armchair so take it all with a grain of salt.

Quote: LuvFlying Did you install it yourself or have an A&P do it?

BTW... I got the Reiff. Great product.

Bryan- The shiny spinner looks good in the new pics you posted.

I do not have the transponder problem but I do always hear my strobes pulsing in my headphones when I taxi or am sitting still. Is this pretty common?

Weird story... I hit a bird on my FIRST lesson. We were on about a 1/2 mile final and I was nervous as all get out trying to figure out the whole power/pitch thing to land the plane. All of a sudden a bird bounces off the windscreen (which of course I blamed the ensuing porpoise on:)

I agree about flying more with the IR, I just got mine a few months ago and it has really opened up alot of days that were off limits before. i too am right at 200 hrs in the last 12 months. It never gets old:)

Is it standard annual procedure the clean the injectors?

Quote: edgargravel Bodie: The Chief Flight Instructor at our flying club (7000+ hours and a winner of the Abrahmson Canadian national air safety award) once told me about the best safety device to take flying: "You can control lots of things and the better prepared you are, the better things will turn out. You can't control everything, and if you realise that the best outcome is the one where you were prepared for almost any eventuality, then you will do weill when it happens. Keep planning for it to happen, and hope it does not." You are your own best safety device.

That's the only thing that irks me about flying is the unknown issues an engine may have. I control everything that I can (preflight, sufficient fuel, not flying into bad wx...) but there are some things that even an annual, much less a preflight, will catch. Good mx and an engine monitor are definately a must but still not bullet proof.

A freind of mine has a sweet Bo so I have spent a little time browsing their chat page in the past. They have an interesting thread about how many of the members have had an off airport landing. Surprisingly a large number of the members have experienced this and wrote at length about the circumstances and outcomes. I have never been in that situation, and hope to never be, but I have trained for it and feel that I would handle the issue if it came up. My biggest scare came with about 10 seconds of engine viberation due to contamination. I thought it would be interesting and informative to hear if anyone on this forum has been through this and how they handled the situation.

Why does the POH for my '77 J list the TBO at 1600 hrs? Am I mistaken on the 2000 hr TBO time or has something changed in the last 32 years to make them up the time? I noticed this when I bought the plane last year and had kind of forgotten about it until browsing it on a flight this week.

Quote: KSMooniac I see no measurable difference on my '77 J and never use it. In fact it was completely deleted on the later model J's and there is a kit available to do so for our planes. As I found out a few weeks ago, the deletion kit is *much* cheaper than the rubber seal between the ram air ring and the cowl! Before I paint my plane I will either apply the kit (needs to be painted after installation) or switch to a LoPresti cowl that retains ram air and makes it effective. The Pre-J planes I flew (a couple F's and and E) it was good for a solid 1" of MP when used, though.

Today on my flight back from the in -laws I noticed my #4 EGT varying from 1285-1320 like clock work. As soon as it hit 1285 it would reverse trend and climb up to 1320 and vice versa. #4 is always the coolest of the four but this is the first time I have ever isolated it on the JPI and watched it for any length of time, which was about 5 minutes. All CHT's were normal as were the other EGT's. Any ideas to the cause? On another note it was a great couple days for flying in my neck of the woods. Hope everyone had a great holiday.

So who all is flying somewhere for Thanksgiving? I've got a short jaunt to central Arkansas to visit the in-laws. (The flight is the best part of the holiday:) Fly safe everybody.

I test flew a new Piper Matrix yesterday afternoon. It was a sweet plane and had a beautiful avionics package, huge wingspan (compared to the J) and had that new plane smell.. It made me realize that the Mooney line offers so much bang for the buck when it comes to flying economically. When I do move up from the J I definately want to stay within the family. The only way I could ever see myself crossing lines would be if I had the need of twin...

Quote: KSMooniac In your case at 900 SMOH and 200 on "your watch" I think it would be prudent to do the IRAN treatment like I did just to re-baseline it during your ownership. In my case, it was an old overhaul with the 2 previous owners running almost 1400 hours. In the grand scheme, it isn't a ton of money and should give you a greater peace of mind while flying behind the single engine

Jose'- Thanks for the info. Scott- Your previous symptoms are exactly what I am up against and the repair is really tempting to do being that the price isn't to bad and annual is coming up soon. That being said there are a few "sexy" things I am wanting to do at that time to the plane that are pretty costly. Other than the oil breaking down quicker what are the ramifications of not doing the repair and to continue pouring in the oil?

Administrator - This has happened to me numerous times. Have you looked into this and checked to see if it's a known bug with a patch available? I didn't do anything different when I started MooneySpace so I don't think it's something I'm doing.

I like the idea a few of the members have had about setting up a seperate area for vendors. I think it would be very helpful to have a page to click on to see if there are any Mooney friendly vendors in your area

My hanger staples are zip ties, various cleaners and lubes, Rejex, various diameters of scat hose, the usual tools ( screw drivers, pliers, rachets...) creeper, rolling stool, safety wire, dry erase board to track squawks, large trash can, small fridge, safety wire pliers.... That should get you started:)

Guys, thanks for the words of advice. I do change my own oil so I know that it is not a dipstick problem and I generally climb at WOT and 2600 and cruise at WOT and 2400. I have actually started cruising at 2500 due to some MAPA reading that encouraged it and have not seen an increase in consumption. On a trip to S Dakota recently I burned 3 qts on the way and 1/2 on the way back... go figure. I forgot to mention that I do have an engine monitor and everything checks out there too. I must admit that engines are not my line of expertise but plane ownership over the last year has taught me alot and I am learning something every day. I plan to take a hard look at the problem come annual and see if I can find a remedy and hopefully get it fixed. Another take on the problem is that if it does not turn out to be a safety issue/major engine problem why spend big dollars to get it fixed to save a quart here or there. A guy I know flew an Arrow to 2900 hours that burned a little more than mine for the last 2k hours. That being said I am the type of person that spares no expense when it comes to my safety in the plane so I want to do what needs to be done. Finding out what that may be is the issue though:) Keep the thoughts coming, I appreciate it.

ROP. Just beginning to look into the LOP realm. I keep 6qts on the dipstick

Okay, I would like your expert opinions on my oil consumption. My plane burns about a quart every 2.5 hours. It has remained constant in the year and 200 hrs that I have owned the plane. The engine has a little under 900 hrs on it and about 10 years since OH. The oil tends to turn black very quickly. My compressions are good, mid 70's. I have never found metal in the filter and the oil analysis looks good every time. All in all the plane runs great, and the engine is smooth, but it bugs me that the oil consumption is so high. Fellow pilots say don't worry about it if it stays constant, which it does. I have no leaks and the belly stays clean for the most part in referance to oil. I have read that honing and re ringing the cylinders would help. Any ideas on a price for this? Any comments would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Eric- The spinner lookes AWESOME! Can't wait to see it on the plane.