Ned Gravel

PPL at 33 in 1987. Bought into an Arrow partnership in 2002 at 49. Bought my Mooney in 2005 at age 52. In 2002, I had 120 hours. Today I have over 600, more than 450 on my E model and an instrument rating. I am a 59 year old man, living the dream of a 14 year old boy.

dmc: As an E model owner with a J-Bar, I can admit to an obvious bias. I ended up with a Mooney primarily because of a winter incident (groundloop after landing) that totaled the aircraft and the partnership that owned it. Pipers are not supposed to be flown when the ground temps are colder than -25 deg C. The nose gear broke something during its retraction and when it came down 90 minutes later it was no longer on my team. I could not keep the left wing from swiping the snowbank on the left side of the runway (about 4 feet high on that day) and groundlooping (albeit at less than 25 mph). No one even close to being hurt but scared nonetheless. That incident made me wish for more robust mechanisms of putting the gear up and down (I wanted a retrac again) and the only contender was a J-Bar Mooney. The incident also taught me about the difficulties of partnerships (but that is another story). I also would like more use of the floor between the seats that is taken up by the J-Bar but that is less important to me than the direct mechanical linkage between my right arm and the wheels. My wife says that my take offs are like watching water fowl launch into the air with their feet tucked away right after take off. All that does is give one bragging rights. When to actually bring the gear up has already been debated on MooneySpace and there are some very wise people here with good understanding of when it is prudent to do so. But, and this is where I really like my J-Bar, because it is such a simple system, there are other advantages to it. Dave has already alluded to the extra complexity (and cost - albeit small) of the electric addition to the original Mooney design. I have none of that. Pure simplicity. Muscle memory actions in your cockpit flows will provide positive reinforcement of both the gear up and gear down activities to doubly support the green and red lights on the panel. Within a year or so (if you fly it often enough) the gear up/down indications will come as much from that as anything else before you confirm by looking at the lights. For me, this is a positive means of staying out of the "have landed gear up" column and staying longer in the "will land gear up column." Finally, I have the means to exercise the emergency gear extension procedures every time I conduct an approach to landing and I regularly practice it. In fact, every time I land my Mooney. My opinon. But I am biased.

I agree with George. I am not an instructor, but I would not recommend your ab initio training be done in a Mooney. When you are learning to fly you will run into a whole new dictionary of incomprehensible terms, and ideas, and requirements, and laws, and, and, and. While you are trying to make sense of all that, and keep your head on the swivel required for good VFR ops, you do not need the added burden of a GUMPS check to stay out of the column of "those that have." (landed gear up) Staying in the column of "those that will" means learning on less complex aircraft with less complex systems. This is the sweet spot of learning how to fly. It is relatively uncomplicated (compared to instrument, commercial, ATP) flying. Enjoy it for what it is - newfound freedom with a boatload of responsibilities. I learned on a Cherokee 140. And you should probably learn on something as uncomplicated as that one. A Cessna 150/2 or 172 or equivalent. Or an old low wing Piper (Cherokee or Archer). These aircraft are stable in their flight regimes, docile when compared to a Mooney, and very forgiving to newbies. That is why they are often used as trainers. Then, when the itch hits you for speed and capability, pick something that demands things of its pilots - like a Mooney. At that point, you will be up to the demands. Just my opinion. Fly safe.

The site is up and working. I registered today. One Mooniac and his friend (not so much of a Mooniac) will bid our wives adieu and cross the border into an Airventure this year from Canada (via Madison Wisconsin of course).

Go with the Concorde. I had the Gill until four years ago. Never looked back.

Quote: davidmarten Becca, While we don't have our own Caravan tent (yet) we do have a group photo, catered BBQ/beer/wine, and hats/shirts/patches. Are you interested? The Carvan guys have been doing this for 15 years. This year is the first formation flight (no more gaggles), that's why I'm here...teaching formation training. Wanna go to the clinic in Grayson, TX this spring and try your hand at it?

Sole owner. I was in a partnership with 10 others on an Arrow in 2002-2003. Too many people. Too many differing agendae.

Quote: flight2000 I use it above 5,000 feet in clean air. I usually see about an inch increase in Manifold pressure as well. Brian

The results may be skewed by the wording of the poll. Anyone who answers is defacto admitting to be a "prop tugger." Probably too late now to change it to "Prop Tugging Poll" I guess to concentrate on the activity and not those apparently doing it. "Now Joshua, if you don't stop pulling on that prop, you will go blind!!"

The owner of my MSC puts one hand on the root of the prop blade to move them all the time. He has taught me a lot about looking after my aircraft, including this aspect.

Quote: flyboy0681 I never came across Factory Direct before. The M20J sample is in my colors, just wonder if they can get rid of the three blades in favor of two if I order one.

Quote: docket I did factory direct models with the full interior -- its awesome.

Quote: 201er So let me see if I understood this correctly. If you fly rich of peak on a multi viscosity aeroshell oil, you should add the oil after your flight. But if you fly lean of peak and retract your gear only when no more runway left behind and use phillips with cam guard, then you should add it before the flight. What am I missing?

Mitch: Am I reading this correctly? Do you two have "his" and "hers" hangers?

Jose: That is what I use too.

Quote: Immelman ......My very tongue-in-cheek answer is that one should only tempt fate in this circumstance if the insurance is paid up, engine near TBO, and airplane could use a new prop .....

My E model has the manual gear and the gear down limit speed is 120 mph. But I can tell you that the airframe will not accelerate to faster than 140 mph with the gear down in level flight. Don't ask me how I know this. As for the flight to get your electrics looked after, good luck. Been there too. How would you feel if the last thing you had to do on your walkaround was to cut the generator belt? The generator was fried (long list of electrical issues back in 2005/6) and I was taking it to Clarence. He discovered that it had apparently been mounted incorrectly. Add to that that the regulator was not doing its job very well and it was also time to change to the Zephtronics regulator. Stay safe.

My mechanic is 200 nm away. Best Mooney mechanic I know. He is a cook that eats his own cooking. He has an E model as well.

Quote: 201Pilot Congratulations! My wife loves the convenience or shortened travel time too. When we get up above the clouds, she usually naps....sometimes all the way to touchdown.

Quote: DonMuncy Thanks, I figured the answer was something like that. I had hoped that each airport had a taxi diagram, so I could put it in my plate binder, and just switch from one plate to another to go from arrival, to approach, to taxi.

We have the same sort of approach in Canada. Don't need it for flying in our own airspace. But mine was checked by a US CBP at a US port-of-entry (POE) when I crossed to go to Oshkosh in 2010. I am not sure why, but our two governments both require the operators of foreign aircraft to have and carry the license that makes them official in the operation of their on-board communications systems. Station licenses are also needed for operation in our neighbour's airspace.

Quote: PJ_M20E I decided to stick with generator until next time... It should work out to less than have of cost of alt conversion and historically plane has had no appreciable electrical sqwaks. Of course if I end up pulling it out again next year...I won't be ashamed to acknowledge you told me so.

I too am replacing my generator for the Plane Power conversion one next month during my annual at Tri City. Its a little lighter than the generator and I won't be popping fuses on climb out into IMC because I was taxiing for so long at too low a power setting to charge the battery.

I am thinking about using something similar for engine pre-heating so I googled: "30 amp 2 Switch GSM Remote Control Relay" and found a website at http://www.gsm-auto.com/.

Eddie: I feel your pain. Three years ago, I was where you are now. Dripping oil that looked like it was coming from the through bolts. The local engine shop guy came over to the MSC and we did a little test that proved the crankcase had lost integrity somehow. Turns out it was a 7" crack that started behind number 2 and travelled down and backwards. I opted for overhaul because there were just too many things that needed doing. If I had Shadrach's knowledge and experience, I might have taken the job on as he did. But I did not and I do not believe I would do so today. I now have a bright sparkly engine that runs real solid and has 200+ hours on it.