Lood

I think it was last year, or the year before when I summarized my log book to obtain exactly this info. I fly an average of 80 odd hours per year and for that specific year, I flew all alone 92% of all flights. I was considering migrating to something like an RV7. However, when they learned about this, my family quickly had me understood rather clear: It's four seats or no seats.

I only use VX when there are obstacles or high ground in the immediate vicinity and then very temporarily. Otherwise, I always climb out at 110mph - 120mph IAS - on my F. With regards to the mixture setting, peak will certainly give you optimum power, but then you have to keep a sharp watch on your CHT's. Might be different on other airplanes, but if I take off on a hot day, I find that the CHT's on my F goes up very quickly if I am not at sea level EGT or burning somewhere around 16 gal/hr at take off. This will also differ slightly with different altitudes.

Don't know the elevation of the airport you're using, but FWIW, I've taken off from a 5300' grass runway in my F, MAUW, no wind, temperature probably not more than 70 deg F. I used about 2100' of 2850' available to get airborne and the climb-out was around 250ft/min, IIRC. If there's no immediate high ground or obstacles to clear, you should be fine, especially if you are 200 lbs below and using a paved runway. First thing you'll notice is the rather poor acceleration, more so as you get closer to rotation speed. I let it run about 5mph faster than normal before I rotated and after rotation, I immediately leveled out and tucked the gear away to gain speed asap. Initial climb out was done at VX and not the normal VY plus a few knots. Make sure that you set the mixture correctly for that altitude and I would be a little wary if temperatures increased towards 80 deg F.

This F certainly looks very, very good and well cared for. Good luck with your sale - I don't think it will sit for long.

Thanks for your kind offer, Ned. I am making arrangements with an airline pilot, who offered to bring it in on his next US flight.

Well, trust my luck - Quiet Technologies don't ship to Africa, for obvious reasons. So, is there anyone here that might be visiting South Africa, Namibia or Botswana in the near future, that would be willing to bring the Halo with?

Wow, I'm having my EDM 900 installed this coming week and I can't wait. I have one question wrt the fuel gauges: Were yours also a little erratic at times and sort not indicating precisely? And are they accurate on the EDM 900 without you having done anyting to the sender units inside the tanks? I'm going to have mine connected and if the sender prove to be faulty, I'll take it from there. Most seem to blame the fuel senders, but how good are the actual indicators on the panel after 40 odd years?

OK, I accept that reverting back to manual gear and flaps is rather far fetched. However, I stick with getting a better useful load - especially on the later J and probably K models and I would definitely pursue a more reliable fuel tank setup to improve the seeping/ leaking problems.

On that new engine and at 2500, I agree that you should be way richer than either 50, or even 100deg ROP. The fact that your CHT's rise in the cruise, IAW with much more air entering the cowling due to the higher airspeed, tells me that something is leaking or something is restricting the airflow through the cowling.

Thanks to all for your replies. My Mooney is going in to get an EDM 900 installed, after which I will order the Halo's.

Agree - the front seat might restrict you. FWIW, it got a mountain bike through my F's main door. I could only remove the front wheel, but had to get it in, without being able to lower the seat post. I was under the impression that it had a quick release and I went to fetch it without taking any tools with.

For me - a J. Put in manual gear and flaps, to make it lighter and up the useful load and I'm sure you'll have a winner at a very competitive price - again.

I'm toying with the idea to get a new headset. I currently use a DC H10-13.4, which I modified to ANR using the ANR kit from Headsets Inc. It works fantastically, but it is moderately heavy on batteries and they normally tend to quit, at the most inconvenient of times. I've read only good reports on both the Clarity Aloft and Halo headsets and would like to get an idea which, if any one in particular is preferable? Regardless of the minor price difference of $166 odd, small differences that I pick up form the websites are that the Clarity offers music input - which I like to use during longer flights. However, I couldn't determine whether the music would be automatically muted during radio transmissions? The Halo's are are adjustable, which counts in their favor. So, which one would you recommend and why? Thanks in advance for your feedback.

I have the same engine and my sea level EGT is 1230 deg. As a rule of thumb, I don't like to have the EGT's go higher than 1250 deg in the climb. I fly ROP and EGT's of around 1360 deg is what I normally see in the cruise. But EGT's are apparently not all that important?

Don't know if it's the same over in the US, but here in South Africa, you don't always have the option to refuel on the other side. I do a 580nm flight (return) to another farm, every 4 - 6 weeks. Although I do keep a drum of Avgas on that farm, just in case, I opt to only use it if really necessary, because it's a real challenge to get it there in the first place. So, I need to carry my family, with bags, for at least 600nm and have the legal reserve when I land. My F suits this mission perfectly and while there are indeed two refueling options along the way, neither are along the direct route and the dogleg to refuel just doesn't make sense.

Aaron, is that an EDM 900 that I spot on the right in the first picture? If so, would you mind posting a picture of it sometime, please?

Thanks John. After all the problems I ran into with regards to this installation and the cost to replace the senders, I decided to just have the EDM 900 reprogrammed to exclude fuel quantity and continue to use the stock fuel quantity gauges instead. I would be interested in your price though. I got a quote of $2700 for a complete set of replacement senders - that's without shipping and tax. Convert that to our South African Rand and these will set me back just about as much as the EDM 900 did! Ridiculous and not at all economically viable.

I bought a brand new EDM 900 to instal into my 67F, but this is turning into somewhat of a nightmare - read: expensive! According to our regulations, it's either all or nothing, meaning that the installation cannot continue if I do not do it complete with all the functions that the EDM 900 offers, connected and fully functional. First problem is my fuel senders. They've NEVER worked properly and if I want to install the EDM 900, they are required to be in 100% working order. I'm having them tested, again, but I already know the outcome. According to my instrument guy, the senders can worn through on the inside and if this happens, they cannot be fixed. So, where do I go, in search of new, certified fuel sender units? Are there anybody else, besides Mooney who makes these and what would a good estimate be on the cost of these four units? I'd appreciate your feedback.

+1 for the Bendix!

Thanks guys. However, I just learned that my brand new EDM 900 will fulfill both these functions, so I'll not bother to get this fuel flows' needle fixed.

Thanks to all for the replies. I would like to emphasize that the gauge is working perfectly well, apart from the indicator needle needing a bit of repositioning. It basically indicates low with the same distance that the needle shows on the picture. IAW, if the needle was set to indicate right on "0" with the engine shut down, it should also give the correct reading with the engine running. I'm not sure whether this gauge was installed afterwards, I bought the plane with it in the panel and I'm rather confident that it is indeed a FF gauge and not FP. I've attached a cell phone pic, so pardon the poor quality.

My F sports the MP/fuel flow combination gauge and ever since I bought it, back in 2008, the fuel flow gauge was off. When the engine is shut down, the indicator needle on the fuel flow is not indicating right on "0", but rather "-2" gal/hr. Sadly this fault is also present during flight - the gauge thus always indicates about 2 gal/hr short of the actual consumption. Not a train smash, as I do have a JPI with FF, but I get extremely annoyed by things not working as they should. My question is: can the fuel flow gauge be opened by a qualified person, and the indicator needle be moved and reinstalled in the correct position? I've never seen the inside of this gauge, so I'm not sure whether the needle could just be pulled and adjusted or moved to the correct position? Apart form this, the gauge does function properly and as it should. I would appreciate advice from anyone who might have knowledge of the inner working of a fuel flow gauge.

If the vibration was purely due to the wheels spinning, you would also have had the same vibration during the take-off run or just after take-off, before you tuck the wheels. My guess would be that you might have created a flat spot/s as a result of the hard landing, leaving the wheels substantially out of balance.

A high speed, light weight starter does indeed improve starting, but like a few other posters said, you must also get your technique right. If not, you might still get stuck, even with a high speed starter. Remember that these starters draw a huge amount of current from your battery, so if you miss two, or so starts due to wrong technique, you might not have get another chances before the battery calls it a day. FWIW, I had my Skytech starter fail after two years and I replaced it with a B&C - never looked back.

I had the same two years ago and ended up replacing the crank case, among others, with a brand new part. Although this cracking does seem to occur rather often, in reality, it really only does so after quite a few thousand hours, or 30 odd years, which is probably not too bad, I suppose. I wish I had known about this heavy duty version when I replaced mine.