Lood

Whenever I miss it during the first hot start attempt, my procedure is about the same as that of George. I flood the engine - not more than 3 - 5 secs with the fuel pump. Then pull the mixture to idle cut off and throttle fully open. Start cranking and while doing so, slowly pull back on the throttle. As soon as the engine starts to cought, stop pulling back on the throttle and wait untill the engine actually starts. Then push in the mixture and if it threatens to die again, give it a few short bursts with the fuel pump.

Edgargravel, thanks a lot for that pirep. Can you recall what thickness you used?

Thanks for all the replies, so far. Just to clarify, I intent to have my AME do the job during the next annual, or at least assist me and I am only looking at FFA certified and approved materials. I see Super Soundproofing claims that their product won't absorb moisture or odor. Have anybody used it? http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/appages/soundproofinstall.php

I want to do a thorough sound proofing job on my Mooney during its next annual. I've had a look on Spruce, but like always, there are too many to choose from. Then, to complicate matters, most sound proofing materials come in different thickness. I would appreciate any advice on which would be the best material to use as well as other general soud proofing tips. I flew with a friend in his C170 a while back and it was so quiet inside that I only realized my headset was still on my lap when didn't respond to my questions. I've had a look behindsome of the interior panels in my Mooney and all the original sound proofing material seems to have been removed. It is very loud inside it during flight - even with a headset.

Guys, it seems that my post unfortunately hi-kacked the thread and caused some disagreement among some members. Please, forgive me - it was not my intention, at all, to start a Mooney vs Beech debate nor to cause trouble on the forum.

I had the opposite happen to me. We were on our way to a fly in in Namibia when we took off after clearing customs in Upington. I was at MAUW in my F and the temps were around 90 deg F. So I kind of plodded along, climbing to FL085 when a 300hp F33 came zooming past, soon to disappear. When we landed at our destination, the Bonnie pilot couldn't help but remark to me "I thought Mooney's were fast?" I just nodded and confirmed that they are very fast indeed. Then I suggested that on the return flight, he should take off around the same time as the Ovation, that also attended, just to kind of get closer to an apples with apples comparison. Unfortunately, he wasn't really sure what an Ovation was, so I just left it at that. Poor guy...

My DC H10-13.4's also clamped me when I started out, so I just took them in both hands and bent them open untill they were comfortable. I can now fly with them all day long - no clamping, just very comfortable. I then went further and converted them to ANR using the kit from Headsets Inc. One of the best investments I've made.

I haven't flown down at the coast for quite some time, but at my home field, my F is very happy at 15 - 16 gal. DA is normally in the 5k ft plus region.

Don't know whether you guys have heard the very sad news about the two Albat's gone missing on Sunday. The aviation community here in SA is shocked and nothing has been found yet. Bad weather is tying S&R down - very sad incident. http://www.avcom.co.za/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=82542&p=942522#p942522 Anyhow, this has renewed my interest in installing a 406 ELT in my Mooney. I fly over rural SA most of the time and land at very remote places without any mobile phone coverage. I've done a bit of look see on the internet and as expected, there are many different makes, all sporting quite a few models. And, at a rather wide price range, of course. I'd like some opinions on which of these are good and maybe which should rather be avoided.

My farm sits at 4000' and the DA is almost always at 6k ft or even more. During run-up, at 1700 rpm, I lean slowly untill the rpm starts to drop. I then push the mixture back in about an inch. As soon as I have full power on roll out, among others, I check that I have around 14 - 15 gal on the fuel flow and not more than 1250 deg on the hottest EGT. Never had a problem. I agree that leaning until the engine coughs is too lean and I wouldn't do the primary lean during the roll-out. From the moment that you've actually taken full power untill you reach rotation speed doesn't really amount to a lot of spare time - specially if you're below MAUW. I'd have my engine checked after the temps that you've encountered.

Ross, my thoughts as well. Max temp forecasted here for Saturday is 9 deg C which means that the DA will be just under 5000 ft. I can easily get 75% in those conditions. I downloaded a Lycoming Service Instruction in which they point out step by step how the engine break-in procedure should be done. It calls for a 2 hour flight with 75% during the first hour and the alternating between 65% and 75% during the second hour. There after, they recommend cruise power settings of 65 - 75% untill oil consumption stabilizes. The document warns that DA's of higher than 8000 ft will be unacceptable for break-in procedures and recommend 5000 ft. After the initial 2 hour flightand provided all temps and pressures are fine, they prescribe a full power flight of 30 min. I sort of tried to follow their advice as closely as possible.

Regarding LOP, I've read quite a lot about it and it all makes a lot of sense to me. I've even done the Gami spread test and that was very good. However, I'm rather cautious to try LOP on my own. I would prefer to have someone with adequate experience in LOP operations with when I do it for the first time. Regarding the speed, I didn't really bother to check it. I had to fly low level for 2.5 hours to get the required power from the engine. Low level flying ain't part of my normal day to day flying, so it took up a bit more concentration than normal - even more so with an engine that had just been worked on. I didn't really pay much attention to the speed, but instead, I kept my eyes outside most of the time and when inside, I was mostly monitoring temperatures. I did a calculation on what I remember and got to a TAS figure to the better side of 140kt. Power setting was WOT (23" MP), 2600 rpm and about 100 deg ROP. Alt was about 5500 ft and OAT 10 deg C. I'll do a proper speed test again on Saturday.

I fetched my F last Saturday after all the cylinders had been re-honed and new pistons rings were fitted. We did two 15 min circuit flights to check for and sort out a minor oil leak here and there. I then hit the road home. Unfortunately, I couldn't get as low as I needed to due to the available daylight that was left and on average, I probably flew at about 5500 ft - give or take a little. I did get 23" of MAP and kept the RPM at 2600 for the first hour. After that, I switched between 65% and 75% power at 15 min intervals and during the last 30 min of the 2.5 hour flight, I flew at 70% - all as per Lycming's recommendations. All power settings were taken from the tables in my POH. However, I'm a little worried that I might not have made 75% power. The engine shop filled the engine right up to 8 on the dipstick though. After the 2.5 hours flight home plus the initial two 15 min circuit flights as well as a couple of quick ground runs, the oil level is now at 7 on the dipstick. Like all 360's, mine aslo doesn't like to be filled all the way. It normally loses the oil untill around 6 on the dipstick before it's happy. The engine shop asked me to keep flying it at at least 75% power for another 10 - 15 hours or so and this coming Saturday is going to be quite cold here, according to the forecast. Here at home, I can also fly lower, so my intention is to do another 2 hour flight at a minimum of 75%. I'll keep monitoring the oil level as Lycoming suggests that it should stabilize at some point, provided that the rings seated correctly and that the cylinders weren't glazed. All other temps and pressures were good during the flight and the engine ran nice and smooth - all the way. I'd like to hear some opinions and advice, please as I've never done this and my good friend that has lots of experience had to leave the country for business and couldn't join me on the first flight.

Quote: N601RX ...The FAA seems to think the screen is to small.

Thanks to all for your great advice and all the links! However, I received the good news yesterday afternoon. The crankcase is sound and the oil apparently leaked out between the cylinders and the crankcase. For some unknown reason, oversized seals were fitted when the cylinders were put back after being re-honed and this seems to have caused the leaking. The engine shop is confident that all will be fine when they replace the seals with standard ones like they were. I plan to fetch the Mooney this coming Saturday and will see how it runs then. A friend will run it in the mean time to make sure all is well and that I don't go through all the trouble just to return home empty handed - like I did last week.

Hi Ross - it's a wide deck.

Dave, I'm sure that it would be possible to get a very good, used case. The problem seems not so much with cases that have been welded, but rather where a thru bolt leaked. Apparently, there are two mods that are done to prevent this and if it leaks again after the second mod, the case is being scrapped. I agree that it must be possible to ask for a case that has not been welded nor modded at the thru bolt.

The first setback on Friday was when I was informed that my crankcase had been repaired in the past. The repairs are clearly visible on the casting between cylinders #2 & 4 and this is exactly where some oil was spotted after our 10min test flight following repairs where the cylinders have been re-honed and new rings fitted all round. We did a preliminary crack detection test but it's really difficult to get in there with the cylinders still on. So, I instructed the shop to pull the pots once again and do a thorough test. I'll probably get these result tomorrow. I immediately though about going the factory reman route untill I heard the quote - unfortunately way beyond my financial capabilities and there have been a couple of instances where problems were encountered with factory remans. Problem is not in getting it repaired under warranty, but in the cost to ship it half way around the world and back. To give you an idea, a factory reman plus labour would amount to more than 50% of the airplane's value. Same with a used, yellow tagged crankcase. Apparently, the chances are that you might receive one that might not be much better than your own. That's why I thought it best to replace the crankcase with a new one if mine is indeed cracked. Thanks to all who provided advice and links to suppliers. I'll start following up once I get the final result on my engine's state.

In my F, I normally plan to descend at 300 - 500ft/min and to be at circuit altitude about 2nm before reaching said circuit. This gives me enough time to level out and get the speed under control. All dependant of where I'm flying to of course. I leave everything as it is and only check the MP about every 1k ft or so to keep it at the original cruise setting, which is normally around 21". This returns good speed but also keeps the IAS in the green. In a situation where an early descend is not possible, I slow down to a much more conservative power setting before starting the descent. Apart from two or three times when I started flying the Mooney, I've never had a problem.

There's a great possibility that I'll have to replace the crankcase...

Where or who in the US, would be best to buy new, certified Lycoming engine parts from? I got a rather nasty surprise yesterday morning and might be in for some serious repairs (read $$$$$$) on my engine. I'll have the final result of the tests, etc. by Monday afternoon and hopefully it will be good, but I'd like to start looking at all the options.

Quote: M20F Would be curious as to manifold/rpm settings to go with performance figures above. 135kts to 153kts is a fairly large swing.

Yeeez, my Mooney ain't that fast. I must add that the cylinders were a bit glazed and I had them re-honed and installed new rings all round. I'm going to fetch it on Friday and I'm sure it will perform better. I'll also have the rigging checked at the next annual. Anyhow, my figures are as follows: Usefull load = 1040lbs TAS = 140kt (that's at WOT, 2500rpm and 75 deg ROP) Fuel burn at the above power setting is normally 10gal/hr and for flight planning purposes, using 135kt seems to be more accurate than 140kt. My Mooney doesn't have RAM air anymore and the only mod I have is the Lasar cowl closure. All in all, it is a fantastic and very economical airplane.

A friend of mine always likes to say: "Talk is cheap, but money buys the whiskey."

I've been bugged with an overcharge problem for more than a year now - very annoying. At the previous annual, the initial plan was to convert to an alternator, but after bench testing my generator, it was decided that it functioned perfectly and instead, the old Delco regulator was replaced with a new one from Lamar. The sad news is that the problem just continued after a while. The voltage slowly creeps up during flight from 13.8. Switching on the nav lights keeps it steady for a while, but eventually it just goes up - to 15 volts if left alone. I now leave it to increase to 14.2 volts and then I pull the generator CB. Once the voltage drops to below 12 volt, I reset the breaker and then the voltage seems to stay put at 13.9 volts for quite a while. So, what do I do next? Zeftronics regulator or chuck out the whole generator affair and go the alternator route? I don't want to buy another regulator just find it also not solving the problem.