Seth

My former 1967 F model had a three blade prop and was fast for an F - an honest 147/148 high speed cruise. It even touched 150 now and again in the winter months. It had the original windscreen and the lower cowl enclousere. There were other speed mods, rotated calipers, some fairings, and of course retractable step for a 1/2 knot. It also had bladders There was NO vibration (sometimes an issue with a three blade on a 200 HP), GREAT Climb, and again, good top speed, even with the twisted wing (67 model year). That being said, I never flew it with a two blade prop. The former owner made the conversion. The general consensus is that most 3 blade props but not all reduce speed by a few knots, and almost always give you better climb performance, and more drag in landing, when you pull power. -Seth

Bill - I have been routed over P-40 in the passed and stated "Just to be clear, you want me to overfly Camp David" with the response being "affirmative, Mooney 1165N, fly heading 080" or something like that. It was actually my old plane, 9567M, and due to storms and other traffic I was vectored and did overfly Camp David in IMC. As for this past weekend, it was an easy trip up, and an even better trip back. On the trip back, last night, my sister was on board, and we overflew my younger brother's college campus after his graduation. We climbed through a cloud layer at 5,000, and broke out on top around 6,000 feet, to a setting sun. My sister got to experience emerging from a cloud layer and really got a feel for how intoxicating a smooth flight with clouds and a setting sun can be - I may have gotten her hooked on flying. Thanks again for the advice for dealing with the TFR. It was a great weekend and great graduation. Take care, -Seth

I got to Allentown, PA, ABE, just fine. The TFR did not start until 5:30, but they didn't want me to fly from GAI to EMI, the usual departure routing. Once they had me idetified after departure, instead of a heading of 35 which takes me to EMI, they had me fly 060 for a few miles, into the BWI Bravo, and then turned me north, and then had me continue my own navigation toward Lancaster VOR (LRP). The only negative is by brining me closer to BWI, I was lowered from 7000 to 5000, and got the heat bumps, thus, my passengers were not as comfortable. Total flight was maybe 45 minutes airtime. I too usually file IFR for longer cross countries, but short hops, I'll usually file VFR, like this one, and often, with flight following, but I admit, not always. I'll call in for the return flight and we'll see if the TFR is extended tomorrow afternoon/evening. Thanks again, -Seth

Thank you John and Jim! I'm headed out for the flight - if you see some F-16s around 5:00, it may be me! I'll also call in and check sunday, and may just IFR it back as well. Take care, -Seth

José- Maybe a little overkill, but safety first! It's a good idea. During my transition training to a Mooney, with a whole two hours retract/Mooney time, the instuctor pulled the engine power in the pattern after I had lowered my gear, on short final I was well lined up, and I retracted my gear thinking it was time to put it down now that I've made the runway. I quickly put it back down, but we did a go around anyway. Good lesson. I had not yet gotten used to the gear position, and knew I had to put it down once the runway was made, I guess completely forgetting that I had just put it down on downwind. My gear is now electric, but that taught me a valubable lesson in "green light over the fence" to always double and tripple gumps check. It has take me a while but I'm finally okay with not manually moving my arm and physically checking the johnson bar is in place as part of my gear down procedure. -Seth

As the news tells us and as many of us know, there is a TFR over Camp David today that is larger than the usual Camp David TFR. A 10 mile ring of no fly zone and a 30 mile ring restricted airspace. The fun part - I'm flying up to my little brother's college graduation this afternoon. I am based at KGAI, within the DC SFRA, and VERY close to the 30 mile reach of the TFR. In fact, my usual route takes me through the TFR - KGAI - EMI - KXLL. I plan to read the TFR carefully, and due to this situation, not chance a mistake on my part and file IFR. I'm pretty sure I can navigate around the TFR just fine, but by filing IFR, ATC should keep me clear. However, just for clarification, for those that are familiar, if I were to file my usual route that will cut into the 30 mile ring but keep me well clear of the 10 mile right, since I'd be on an IFR flight plan and in two way communcation the entire time, then should I be able to fly within the 30 mile ring, just not the 10 mile ring, or are they going to keep me clear entirely and probably just take me over BAL (Baltimore)? If I follow ATC command and they fly me into the TFR, with of course me pointing this out and stating, bluntly on the tapes, that "To be clear, you want me to fly into the G-8 TFR" and if they say yes, do you still get in troube for doing so? I realize many of us on MooneySpace are not familiar with the DC/BAL/Philly terrain, but for those that do know, thank you for responding. -Seth

Quote: M20F It is in the hole the bar goes into you can stick your finger in the hole when the gear is up (bar on the floor) and cycle the light red to green. It is possible to get a green light and not have the bar locked in. I always forcefully pull down a couple of times to ensure the bar and thus the gear is locked, more then once it has popped back out.

Are Mite control surfaces fabric or metal? Also, what is the cruise speed and fuel burn? Are they VFR only or can they be IFR certified? -Seth

Nice design. You must have long legs. I land and takeoff with the seat full foward. I knotch it back by one during cruise flight. Part of my decent checklist is to slide my seat into landing configuration. I also double check that during the downwind gumps check. Otherwis I'm not going to have good braking authority. I'm also 5'6", so probably one of the shorter Mooney Pilots. -Seth

I used to change it every 35 to 50 hours in my former 1967 M20F - usually due to cross country flight and when I could get it changed. I used Aeroshell 15w50 With the Missile and the price of the overhaul, I'm changing it every 30 hours. If I go over due to a cross country by a few hours, that's okay. Otherwise 30 hours. Phillips XC 20w50 and once I get 100 hours on the engine, camguard as well. I changed the oil on the Missile and used mineral oil (break in oil) at 10 hours and at 25 hours (10 and 15 hour interval) and then swtiched over to Phillips XC 20w50. I changed the oil about 30 hours later at 55 hours and I've put another 20 hours on since then. I do not wish to discuss oil type in this thread nor hijack it, just wanted to be speicifc as to what type of oil I'm using for informational purposes. Regardless of what oil you use, I used to be okay with 50 hours, but after speaking with Bruce Jager when test flying and then picking up my Missile, I have decded that about 30 hours is when I'm going to change oil going forward. For now, that's about when I've added a quart of oil and it's time to add a second quart. -Seth

Quote: smccray I do think that Cirrus is doing great work bringing innovation to GA though Garmin/avionics. The integration of the perspective system is impressive and the keyboard brings a usability that's a step above a standard G1000. I think the hypoxia functionality in the autopilot is a welcome addition to GA. However, not sure I'd get that excited about an integrated satellite phone.

Mike- Great write up. Wish I could have made it. Look forward to the next one! -Seth

I'd take a TMB 850, or maybe even a TBM 700 over the SF-50, but I admit the SF-50 does look neat. Any further devlopment on the D-Jet? I know Piper stopped development of the Altaire. As long as I'm dreaming, frankly, I'd take a P-51 as well! Maybe 7-10 years from now while still keeping the Mooney, as mentioend before on the boards, I'll get a group of pilots together to purchase a longer distance, greater occupancy, pressurized travel machine for longer flights that we can together own for cost purposes. But for now, I've got my Mooney. -Seth

I do not use a dipstick. I check the tanks before EVERY flight, even if I haven't filled up and it is a quick turn around. I have fuel flow and also know exactly when I filled up, and keep a log of how much fuel I put in and when. Often, I do not top off anymore as I have a 98 gallon capacity before every flight, but do top off the mains often enough. I like to fly with at least one, if not multple hours of fligth time, in reserve. After listening to the members on this board, I do now sump before every single flight, again, even quick turn arounds. If the engine is stopped, I sump and visually inspect. If there is way less gas then there should be, then I know there is an issue. -Seth

Quote: Lood Maybe something like this: http://www.saravin.com/

Quote: jetdriven To set the record straight, a Commerical is a license, and a taildragger is an endorsement.

Quote: danb35 You don't need a class 2 medical to get a commercial or CFI cert, nor to teach--but you do need it to fly "for compensation or hire" or to otherwise exercise the privileges of the commercial cert. Like many others here, I'm planning on getting the commercial (and possibly CFI) just as a matter of self-improvement.

I have made two precuationary landings and probably should have made two more. 1. During training in a 172. I lost my alternator during my long cross country. I realized it when my radio transmissions were not being picked up, no matter what I was trying. I saw the low voltage reading (needle to the left) and diverted to the nearest airport. It was VFR but being that I was "amped" up, I came in pretty fast and used a lot of the runway (didn't plan my decent that well with all of 25 or 30 hours at that point). There were some wiring issues with the brand new alternator casusing some sort of short (probably why the replaced the old one). I had turned off everything I could and when I got near the aiport turned the master back on to see if I could get the awos and talk on the radio - I was able to do both and the FBO / unicom was able to direct me to the maintenance bay when parking. 2. Mooney Missile - After an oil change I took off and realize the cockpit was filling up with not smoke but thicker burninig oil type of misting smoke. Immediatley annonuced that I was not departing the pattern and then landed. During the first oil change some oil got on thte manifold inside the heat shroud which when it go hot, burned off the oil and thus filled the cockpit with a light burning oil smell and vision issues. Both of these landings were at aiports and I did have enigne power for all of them. I'll post about my non precutionary landings that I should have made in a future post.

A great deal of what is discussed on many aviation forums lead to information that saves lives. I know many of us have had potential issues when flying while some have not. Learning from these situations can only help us all as a whole. Have you every made an emergency or precautionary landing? If so, please give the details so that we can learn from it. Was this landing on or off the airport? Did you have full flight controls? Engine power? Weather issues? Fire? Etc . . . I know it is a hard choice to make, but I've heard of people stuck in bad weather and simply landing on a road vs crashing due to the weather. That would be a precautionary off airport landing for weather purposes. If you have made multiple emergency/precautionary landings, please use the greater emergency in the poll, but do tell us about it in body of your response. I'll note mine in my next posting. Thank you again to everyone for sharing - even if you didn't make a precuationary landing but maybe should have. Take care, -Seth

Where do you put the fuel after sumping it from the tanks? Do you throw it back on the ground? Use a filter and put it back in the tanks? Power up something else in your hanger? Let me know, as I'm curious what most of us do. To simplify the poll, consider this only for your home base. I understand things may be different on the road. So far, I do not put fuel back in wings, I instead either put it into a generator I keep in my hanger or throw it on the ground (which is bad for the environment, but I admit it). When I'm away, it goes on the ground. I probably should get one of those fuel sumps with a screen, and reuse the sumped fuel as long as it seems safe, but want to know what your standard operating procedures are. Take care and in advance, thank you, -Seth

I plan to get my commericial I just haven't yet either. Got my class II medical and it's been a year this month. I worked on the manuvers and got all the required time in for the ratings, the day and night cross countries, landings at towered airports at night, etc . . . Then I sold my plane, and since the Missile had a fresh engine I wanted to break it in before working the engine too hard for power off 180s and such. Now that I'm at that point, it's a goal for the next few months to knock out the Commerical rating - I purcahased the study buddy app from Sportys for the ipad and hope to take the written soon. However, I've also spent a lot of money on aviation in the past 12 months, but I do plan to continue to pursue the commerical rating. Then it would be CFI. Then multi, then either multi CFI, or CFII. I'll pop in the taildragger rating at some point as well. My long term goal is to in addition to my normal work (Financial Advisor, which I have no right being since I own and airplane and that is a great way to spend money as opposed to having it work for you), get my CFI and teach twice per week or so at the local flight school. I got my cousin into flying, who became a CFI at the local flight school, and now flies for American Eagle - they basically have given me an open door to be a CFI for them part time. It's always good to continue to learn. -Seth

You know, that may be why my bladders never had any water contamination in the 1967 F model for the first 1.5 years it was tied down before I put in in a hanger. The bladder install makes for a much better seal - the new caps right? The Missile has four caps and I sump now very carefully, even when it has just been sitting inside the hanger and after the sumping discussions we've had on MooneySpace. As always, thanks to everyone for important bits of information. Lifesaving information. -Seth

Great job! You can always tell the future pilots when you see a pack of kids and an airplane zooms by. The kids all look up, and then go back to doing what they were doing. Except for the few that are still looking up into the wild blue yonder. They have the calling, they are your future pilots. If you do have people sit in your airplane you are not familiar with do an intense pre-flight before you go up (not that you ever do a non-intense pre flight). Check for chewing gum where it shouldn't be, make sure that all levers, controls, toggle switches, everything is set properly. Be safe. Again, good job. -Seth

I was looking at adding a Britain autopilot system to my 1967 F model before I sold it as the wing leveler worked just fine, and the Britain autopilot systems basically use the wing leveler to level off on course. http://www.brittainautopilots.com/ Much less expensive than modern alternatives. The factory still supports and overhauls the units but does not make them anymore. That being said, I very much enjoy the KFC-200 in my Missile! -Seth

Patrick's business card even had a twin on it. He was very interested in moving up to a twin, but boy did he love his Mooney and love flying. We met at the Giant's playoff game fly in (thank you to all who set these fly in's up - I think it was Mike) and he and I communicated by phone a few times afterward. He really loved flying and was very happy with his new paint job. We chatted about the cross country flight to get it painted. To find out about the crash and his death last week while out of town at a conference was terrible. I actually had his card in my briefcase at the time. This may be the wrong place to mention this, but unfortunaly incidents like this illustrate a very important issue: make sure if you have loved ones that depend on you that you have adequate life insurance, advanced health care directives, a proper will, and if needed, appropriate trusts. I hope that the fly in on Saturday at Cape May went well (I really wanted to be there) and I hope since many of the NJ pilots group attended, including those that knew Patrick, that stories and smiles were plentiful remembering him. It's always hard when it hits close to home. My thoughts are with Patrick's and his passengers loved ones and family. -Seth