Lood

Could anybody help me out with the correct oil cooler part # on my 1967 M20F, please. Also which is best, Aero Classics, Aero Classics HE Series, Meggit, NDM, etc? My oil cooler is not in good shape anymore and I want to replace it during the upcoming anual.

Your friend is wrong - full stop! Conditions are never exactly the same, temperatures vary, DA varies, wind direction and speed varies, everything is variable and this will call for slightly different settings. What is your friends' advice when you set and leave everything and your speed and/ or height is not where it should be? Still leave everything...? For my F, the ballpark settings are as follows: Downwind: 16" MP, 2450 rpm, gear down and take off flaps = 100mph IAS Base: 12" MP, 2450 rpm, another norch of flaps = 90mph IAS Finals: 12" MP or adjusting power to maintain the correct glidepath, air speed, etc, full flaps, pitch FF = normally 80mph. When I'm light, I'll approach at 75mph over the fence. My home field is at 4000' AMSL and like I said, these settings might very well vary on different days.

It will probably give a slight increase in MP, but not a good idea to bypass the air filter on or near the ground. Chances are very real that you might suck dust and/ or other foreign material, directly into your engine - not good. "Ram air", on older Mooney's is basically the same, but the recommendation is only to use it up high, where the air is clean and free of anything that could hurt your engine. Ram air, apparently, gives 1" extra MP.

After having my KX155 fixed in the shop three times, I just chucked it away and bought a brand new radio. The KX1xx radio's are very good, but I don't think they're worth throwing money after. It just seems that there are other options available at reasonable prices, which makes more sense, to me.

I wasn't so lucky. Don't know whether the wind noise was too much, but my Engine RPM never settled down to a fixed rpm. It was always chasing all over the place, giving all sorts of readings.

I once had a similar problem with one of the CHT's on my EDM700. Upon checking, I found one of the terminals not being crimped properly, so with engine vibration, it didn't make good, continious contact. I crimped it properly and made sure that the terminals fitted tight - problem solved. Could aslo be the probe as mentioned above.

RIK, there isn't really any reason why you can't go from a C172 to a Mooney, or from a 110kt airplane to a 180kt airplane - as long as nothing goes wrong or deviate even just slightly from the normal routine. If you're not used to 180kts and something out of the ordinary rears its head, the airplane will be ahead of you in the blink of an eye and really bad things might happen, fast. These do not need to be major things, but even simple events like an unexpected amount of traffic converging at your destination, something on the runway which calls for a go-around, a hold-up at cruise altitude by ATC to accomodate other traffic, which leaves you with too much height to loose in way too little time. It's the small things that cathces one out in a fast airplane and many such events results in the pilot becoming a passenger in his own airplane. It would be a good exercise if you could get someone with a 180kt airplane to give you control from the right seat and fly it into a busy, controlled airport. Things can happen extremely quickly and in a fast airplane, the luxury of time can become non-existent. Good luck!

In all honesty, that so called third person couldn't be much more than a baby or a small child? Two adults in the back of any Mooney will certainly not leave any space for a third person of any noticeable size? The long bodies do have miles of legroom, but they don't really excell in the width department, like just about all other 4 place GA airplanes.

Pardon me for jumping on board here, but I've seen the same in my F lately. Most flights were done in very windy and severe turbulent conditions though, so I'm not sure whether those conditions had something to do with it. My oil pressure fluctuation seems to coincide with the rpm fluctuations of about 30 odd rpm. My conclusion is that the prop is "hunting" due to the changing wind speeds and turbulence? I will do a test flight in still conditions when I get time to see how the oil pressure behaves then. Unfortunately, I don't have the OEM gauge anymore, only the EDM900. I would appreciate any idea's and I'm surely going to check where my EDM900's sender was mounted.

I'm always at 75 deg ROP, with everything else balls to the walls.The sweet spot part normally depends on the wind...

Pooldoc, on my '67 F, I can actually put in 34 gal per tank, when I fill them right up to the top. In fact I always do this when refuelling before any longish flight. However, I've found that if I fill the tanks right to the top and leave the airplane outside on a hot day, the fuel will expand when the wings heat up and it will simply vent out through the overflows. When the fuel level is such that you can actually still see it, but the dipstick just can't measure it anymore, directly below the fill cap, you are spot on with your finding. There will still be around 7 gallons of fuel in the tank.

Very nice! Looking at my F's panel, I would even be happy with just half of your "before" panel.

I alos bought a Fuel Hawk universal dipstick from Spruce. Drain the tanks completely and then start adding fuel at 5 gal intervals. The dipstick comes with a chart on which you plot the different fuel levels. This way, you will have a dipstick that is specific to your airplane and trust me, these are extremely accurate!

I always plan to drain the oil after a flight. I hook my home made hose up to the quick drain, open it and leave it over night. The hot oil runs out almost like water I can assure you that absolutely nothing will be coming out that quick drain by the next day, regardless of whether there is still oil, wherever in the engine or oil lines. That oil won't ever drain out in any way. Interesting about flushing with Avgas, Piloto - I like the idea.

Nylon bushings also make a lot of sense to me. I was thinking that the metal on metal mechanism with the u-bolts might wear out over time. Nylon bushes should last long and can be repalced if worn. Good advice.

I've found Vref to be rather accurate, especially on older airplanes. I actually used it quite extensively in the last month and on three different airplanes, I always came out within $2k from what the selling agents' Bluebook appraisels were.

Well done!!! I've always wondered why Rosen wouldn't bother with the older Mooney's but now I have the solution...

And that's what I enjoy so much about the vintage Mooney's. They are very capable to take you to far away places, at respectable speeds, burning little fuel, but then they're just as good if you want to go for the Sunday afternoon plod around the pot, at 90mph.

Wow, amazing! I never thought our old F's would actually manage 17k ft, still climbing. Just for interest sake, what fuel flow were you seeing up there?

That's a huge problem for us here in SA. If you order something from the US and receive the wrong part, you're pretty much stuffed, because in many cases, the return shipping costs will far exceed that of the item itself. I once received a KX155 nav/com that didn't transmit. The seller was more than willing to honour his warranty and fix the radio, but sending the radio back and forth to the US was just not viable. Andy, you should maybe try a reputable interior shop. Some these guys can do magic on old interior panels and you won't know the difference afterwards.

Indeed Tony. The most noticeable part when coming back on the power to simulate LOP FF, was the amount of nose up trim needed to maintain altitude as well the the much higher nose attitude as a result of the low speed. I always knew that there was some degree of saving involved, but never realized that so much could be saved. Doing the math on my average annual hours, I can actually save almost R12k per year. That's almost 50% of a normal MPI!

Welcome Andy! Always nice to see new countrymen joining Mooneyspace. Congratulations with your Mooney and if I may, where about are you situated?

Hi Tony, Well, I did my flight yesterday and here are my results. I must add that I might not have given things enough time to settle after going LOP, but the result are indeed eye opening. I think I've just convinced myself that LOP is indeed the way to go. I can save more that R6k in fuel, on my trips to the Kalahari alone!! FWIW, the exercise, to set ROP and then power back to the LOP fuel flow is not worth it at all. Although I did use substantially less fuel than when ROP, the speed decrease is rather dramatic - 19kts in my case and as you'll see in the table, the temps stay put. Below is my simple table: ZS-EMH Data.pdf

M20F is definitely out, except if you can get one with a turbo.

Hi Tony, Wow, you did indeed go through a lot of trouble getting all that data together! It actually motivates me to go through the same exercise next time I do a long flight - which is going to be tomorrow . My engine runs very cold as is, so I don't intend to go LOP to improve on engine temps and I am able to claim VAT back on Avgas, so the price also doesn't bother me much. What I do want check with the new engine and overhauled prop though is the TAS. Then I also want to settle in the cruise at my normal 75 deg ROP setting and note down the FF and IAS. Then do the same at 10 deg LOP. After that, I want to go back to my normal 75 deg ROP setting, let everything settle and then pull the power back to the same FF that I got at the LOP setting and compare the speeds. Have you maybe done anything similar.?