Jeff_S

Okay, stupid question, but what is that oval-shaped thing just aft of the cowling on this Ovation? Mine certainly doesn't have this, and the manufacture date is just a year earlier. Is that a light that shines out on the wing? I found this aircraft on Flight Aware and the picture from the right side doesn't show a similar thing. Just curious...

This was a fun topic to go through. I'd never seen that Mooney compilation video before, and he was mostly correct, except that the 310hp modification didn't hit the official Ovation until the Ovation 3 model, not the 2. (It was available as an STC to the O2 before Mooney incorporated it into the O3.) As to real-world performance, although I haven't flown anywhere near as many planes as @Schllc, I concur with his general assessments. Except for one. In an all-out low altitude balls-on-fire racing config, an Ovation 3 will beat an Acclaim. This I know from racing against them at 1000' AGL during Sport Air Race League events. The reason is that Acclaims almost always have just the 280hp engines, which limits their RPM to 2500, where an O3 can go to 2700 RPM. I know there's a 310hp STC for the Acclaims as well but I don't believe they are widely deployed. And Acclaims use cowl flaps to keep cool at low altitude/high power settings, whereas the Ovation requires no cowl-flaps...thus much less drag. So, higher RPM and less drag will give the Ovation 3 an advantage over an Acclaim right up until the altitude where the turbo advantage kicks in. This assumes similar "appointments" as has been indicated already. To the OP, good luck with your decision. I have flown my Ovation 3 for 10 years now and I love it. But I would say that if I were looking for a different plane that would allow me to travel longer distances more comfortably, I'd move to an Acclaim, which would give me the ability to fly up and over a lot of weather that kicks up here in NE Florida. But of course, this would require having built-in O2, and maybe TKS (although I know at least one Acclaim driver that routinely goes to 25K without it) so it would reduce useful load. So many trade-offs! Good luck!

Based on the OP's description, I wonder if this is just the simple changes that will happen in-flight with an Ovation. You know you'll need right-rudder on takeoff with that IO-550. But you'll equally need left rudder if you are descending with any speed. And conditions can change in flight as Mike has suggested. The OP isn't saying that the trim indicator is moving...just that he needs to re-trim in flight to keep the ball centered. My approach to this is to ignore rudder trim entirely. I leave it set correctly for normal cruise flight. Then I use those pedals down by my feet to keep the ball centered when necessary. Even with a lengthy climb, if you ascend at roughly Carson's speed (130 KIAS) there is almost no trim needed. A lengthy descent might require a bit of left rudder, but it keeps me in touch with the airplane to do all this manually. Steep turns and all commercial maneuvers require some amount of rudder work, but it's good practice. I am not a mechanical expert by any means so the other suggestions may be good too. But if you don't think you're in any danger, you might just see if this is the normal yaw associated with different phases of flight before spending any more money.

In addition, check for corrosion on all contacts. I had an intermittent (really, a one-time) issue with the main alternator going out in-flight. I was close to home so I flipped on the backup and just completed the flight. Once on the ground, I tested everything and it worked fine. The A/P investigated and found corrosion in the wiring, which is pretty common here by the ocean. We cleaned that up and have had no issues since. Well, except for right after annual the Oil Pressure suddenly dropped to near zero while taxiing back to the hangar from the shop. Freaked the technician out! But again, corrosion in the cannon plug running between the sensor and the G1000 component was the culprit. That's my go-to first step now when anything wonky happens that could remotely be related to electrical. Just something to keep in mind, since the OP lives in Washington and maybe in the rainy parts.

Alright, nobody else commented on the obvious, so I will. The OP says "I have a water leak on my rear" to which I say "there's a different forum for that!"

I've not had that exact situation, but I did get a Master annunciator and Alt Warning light last summer while flying home, in IMC no less. Once I got on the ground and retested, everything was fine, and of course it didn't act up in front of the A/P. However, living by the ocean as I do, the first culprit to check is always corrosion, and the A/P did say he found a lot of that on the various connectors and he cleaned it all up. Since then no problemo. Hope your answer is as easy.

I see someone has given you the official data from the STC. The MAPA Safety Clinic has a list of power settings that you would use in an Ovation, and it is relevant because an O3 will behave like any other Ovation except at takeoff, where you can benefit from the extra HP. But given this is a copyrighted material, it's not good mojo to share it. However, here are my power settings for various stages of flight that I've worked out over many hundreds of hours: Takeoff: Firewall everything until 1000', then 2600/WOT until desired altitude. Pull back mixture to maintain desired CHTs. Cruise: I use 2450/WOT/LOP fuel because it's a little quieter, but most folks would say 2500 RPM. Your choice of ROP/LOP but with the GAMI injectors I like LOP for cooler CHTs with only about 5 knots TAS reduction. Standard descent: Depends on how fast you want to descend. Leave it where it was in cruise and just manage MP to stay below the redline if you want! But for a controlled descent that keeps about the same speed as cruise I'll dial back to 2400/20". I would use this for an extended descent that keeps me on the vertical nav glide slope pretty nicely. Loafing along/pleasure cruise: 2400/20"/LOP. Gives you about 150 knots at 10.5 GPH...sounds like a J-model, doesn't it?! IAP: 2400/20"/LOP for the outer segments, dial back to 2300/17" by the FAF, then 12"-14" down the glide path as needed to keep 100 KIAS. In the pattern: 2300/17" to slow to gear reduction speed on downwind. Gear down/pitch down abeam the threshold, hold altitude to slow to 106 KIAS. Extend full flaps all at once and start 180° carrier turn onto final, pull MP to 12-14" as needed to maintain descent at 100 KIAS, then manage power as needed to slow to 75 KIAS over threshold. Keep applying nose up trim...that IO-550 is heavy! Pull power over threshold, should reliably land by the first instrument approach markers. Oh, speed brakes during the entire descent are OK by me! Lastly, race configuration: 2600/WOT/26GPH will make you a winner and keep your engine temps in the 350°s. Unless you're racing me, of course! Have fun!

Except, a few Ovation 3s came out late in 2006 and still had the S-TEC A/P. I know because mine is one of them. But it's got the factory-painted Ovation 3 so it was considered as such. I sure wish I had the GFC700, but the S-TEC still gets me where I'm going.

Thanks all. I wondered about a welding repair but wasn't sure if there was enough metal to work with. I may look into this. And yes, there is definitely some friction between the arms and it doesn't slide freely, but it was never anything that seemed unusual. Anyway, I have some things to work with now so I appreciate the thoughts. Cheers!

Hey all. The end of the baggage door retention arm (not sure what it's officially called) broke on me yesterday so I need to replace it. From what I can tell, it seems like I should be able to do this myself. It screws into the door frame under the trim on one side, and into the door behind the plastic panel on the other. Does anyone know the official name and part number for this part, and where to procure one? Is the Factory the best source? Picture below of where it broke off right at the tip on the door side. I appreciate all the help, as always. Thanks!

Just a quick follow-up to thank everyone for their input to this thread...I learned a lot of good info. I believe that my and Rich Junkin's choice of MLW (his with reductions for some fuel weight) were designed to meet the same general goal of giving a basic foundation for all future calculations. I'm also glad to see I'm not the only one who really likes to have 10 gallons per side on landing! But I also like the idea of just nullifying it in FF by using Max Weight, although I don't know what this looks like in the graphic. I didn't know it was possible to go back to the legacy W&B system but I may look that up. Certainly FF has gotten more and more sophisticated with their attention to larger carrier and business planes, but so much of what they've added in the last few years is lost on us little guys. Cheers!

Hey all, I had cause to dip back into ForeFlight’s W&B module recently to determine if I could take an Angel Flight that was requested. It presented with a fairly robust husband, wife and toddler child plus 50 lbs of their luggage, enough mass that I knew my normal mental W&B calculation would not suffice. And FF confirmed my suspicion, as it would require takeoff with barely enough fuel to meet my personal minimums for fuel on landing. But the W&B calculations in FF showed a metric I didn’t recognize: Max Zero Fuel Weight. I scoured my POH and found no such limitation. So perhaps this happened with a FF update and my infrequent use of that module kept it hidden from me. But it got me thinking…how would I determine such a number? I haven’t found a way to remove it from FF, so I put my thinking cap back on to see what logic I could apply. I settled on the Max Landing Weight of 3200 lbs, figuring that a worst case scenario would have me touching down with just enough gas to taxi to the ramp. That may be fairly okay, or wildly stupid, which leads to my question. In planes like ours, what would be the rationale for a Max Zero Fuel Weight and if there is any, how should it be determined? To finish the story, I rejected the flight. I do know that the first leg of the trip was completed by another Mooney pilot, so if s/he is here on MS my hats off to you for squeezing that load into your plane. I admit that the factory A/C in my system has significantly reduced my useful load, but here in Florida that’s an easy tradeoff to make!

I once heard some advice that seems to be fairly useful. Break the inspection into two parts. Aft of the firewall is mostly just cosmetic perspective except for one thing: open all inspection panels and make sure the aluminum is "beer can shiny." In other words, check carefully for corrosion throughout the body and frame. Everything else is pretty easy to repair/replace as your budget allows. (On a Mooney, I would add that a good check of the gear pucks should also be done.) Firewall forward is where the fun begins, and that's too much to put into a single post. Ask for recent flying history, oil inspection reports, review the logs, etc. Compression checks will only tell you so much. If possible, get results from an engine monitor. Seeing the 10 most recent logs, and even paying to have them analyzed by Savvy, will give you a LOT of detail that wasn't available to buyers in a previous area. Lot's more to consider beyond just these things so this is where you should spend the money on a pre-buy with a mechanic you know and trust. Good luck!

Agreed with what everyone else says. Each plane is a little different, and the engine can also have an effect on power and airspeeds. I would say that what you're seeing is a bit slower than my experience, but TKS is a real "drag" on the wing (ha ha!). Clean airfare and wax really does help. I have the A/C which carries a weight penalty for overall useful load, but the extra weight in the back actually helps reduce horizontal stab drag so that increases speed. I always throw an extra 50 lbs in the baggage compartment when I'm racing for this same reason. But the other thing you haven't mentioned is what the atmospheric conditions were for your test. The book values are (I believe) based on a standard day, but heat and higher/lower altimeter settings will also affect the results. I get the fastest TAS in the winter, and then slower in the summer. So it could also be that your test conditions didn't match what the book was showing.

Rudder trim? Isn't that what feet are for? Just kidding...sort of. I have to admit I don't touch the rudder trim in my Ovation, except when it comes back from annual and somebody ELSE touched it to test it out. Then I get it back to center while in-flight and leave it there. I realize it can be helpful especially on take-off, but it was never part of my checklist in any other plane so I just didn't add it to this one. There are enough gizmos to play with already! Of course my Acclaim buddy David never stops reminding me about the SB for runaway rudder trim that I'm supposed to have done, otherwise I'm going to DIE DIE DIE (or so he says in his texts). What can I say...living on the edge!