Jeff_S

Yes, that's the last estimate I got when I was looking into this a few months ago. There's another thread about this where I mentioned my discussions with Paul Keener at Mooney. They know they have an issue with a fairly significant number of G1000 planes that are in this dilemma. So for now we just keep pushing.

Hello Folks. I am refreshing this thread because we are just one month away from the final AOPA Fly-In of the year at KSSI, St. Simon's Island GA. We're always looking for folks to help out with the Mooney Ambassadors booth, so if you are interested or planning on attending the event and want to help out please let me know. Drop me a PM and make sure to give me your email address so I can put you on the list. So far we've got four people total signed up, so getting a few more could help spread the work a bit and give everyone a chance to enjoy other activities at the event. And Richard Simile from Premier will be sharing booth space with us showing off an Acclaim, so if you've got dreams of moving up this is your chance to see one up close and personal. (Although I'm guessing this one won't have those new fangled winglets I saw on the give-away bird...those look cool. I wonder if there's a retro-mod for Ovations!) Jeff

It is true there is an STC. And it's currently the only way to bring WAAS and the potential for ADS-B into these birds. But that STC costs around $70K last time I checked, so this airman is waiting and pushing Mooney to do the WAAS certification for the G1000/S-TEC combo for these planes, which they are currently exploring.

Thanks all for your thoughts. On my plane, the sight fuel gauges will definitely show the fuel past 30 gallons, but it doesn't have any calibrations beyond that so you're guessing a bit. But as it stands right now, the sight gauges both show 25 gallons and yet the G1000 gauges are showing more like 30. I need to keep testing it to get some empirical data. I do know that the sight gauges are supposed to be accurate only on the ground. And of course the POH says the G1000 gauges are only guaranteed accurate when empty...how do they get away with that in this day and age!? Oh well, it's always something with an airplane...even one with all the latest fancy gewgaws. (Perhaps ESPECIALLY one with all the fancy gewgaws.)

For those folks with a G1000 setup, here's a question for you. It seems that my sight fuel gauges on the wing and the G1000 fuel gauges aren't matching up that well. The sight gauges are registering a more conservative opinion (e.g. lower levels) than the electronic gauges. Anybody have experience calibrating those so they are more in alignment?

I'm selling this Zaon MRX traffic detector which has served me well in two different planes. It detects transponder pings off other aircraft so it works to detect any plane that has an active transponder. Included are all the original equipment as well as the optional external antenna which mounts with suction cups to a window. This greatly improves the range of the device. There is one listed on e-Bay right now with real bids going to $256. Before I try that route, I'll give anyone on Mooneyspace a chance to get it for $200 plus shipping. Let me know if you're interested. Thanks! Jeff

I'm no mechanic, but it does seem to me there are burrs on the lobes. You might want to look up Mike Busch at http://www.savvymx.com and send him the pictures. If you offer to pay him for his advice he may be more willing to help out. He may be concerned that any advice he gives could open him up to legal liability, but he offers phone consultations to many of his clients and works with them to get repairs done.

I weighed this at length before deciding to purchase my O3. After discussing the situation with Mooney and others in the industry (including Garmin) I decided that it was worth the risk. As Robert has noted, there was a marked price differential between the S-TEC and GFC700 equipped planes so there is room for upgrading if needed. Having flown the plane now and tested several approaches, I've determined that the lack of LPV glideslope capability (which I did have in my J) is not really as big a deal as I thought it would be. The A/P will still track horizontally all the way through the approach, and with synthetic vision and the altitude preselect feature it's actually darned easy to program in the descent altitudes at each point in an approach and hit them easily. So I give up a few hundred feet of altitude by not going to an LPV, but I'm not a "hard" IFR flyer anyway so if the ceilings were that low I probably wouldn't be in it...or I can go find an ILS somewhere. That said, we still do have the ADS-B requirements hanging over our head, but I'm confident this will get resolved.

I realized later this morning that I got the name wrong...it's Paul Keener, not Dan Keener. I've edited my original post but just wanted to make it more clear in a separate one. Sorry for the confusion!

Oh, there is interest...I was hoping when the topic showed up again someone had some answers. When I was purchasing my O3 I talked to Paul Keener at Mooney. He is the one who seems to be tracking issues related to bringing the earlier G1000 systems into the modern world, giving them WAAS capability with the S-TEC 55X and also ADSB. The thing to do is call Mooney HQ and ask to talk to Paul. If enough people do that hopefully he will keep this at the forefront of their efforts. I know Don Maxwell and others with earlier G-model Acclaims and Ovations are pushing on this. I just read that Mooney has closed 40 more orders, mostly out of China, so hopefully that means more funding to keep this initiative up.

I have been using both in the cockpit for a couple of years now. I find that the XM nexrad picture is a bit more "aggressive," meaning that it seems to show cells bigger and nastier than the Stratus. I suspect this is because it's using a composite of more altitude layers than ADS-B but I haven't tried to confirm that. But I like having both because it's a good cross-reference, and it just adds another layer of "backup" capability in case one of them goes bad. In fact, this has been happening lately, because for some reason every once in awhile the XM METAR feed will introduce a tautly data packet or something, and it takes out all the METAR data coming from the GDL 69. This usually fixes itself on the next cycle, but it's annoying. Having the Stratus backup makes this less of a concern. Also, I really like having the flexibility of the ForeFlight map display that I can more easily zoom in and around. It's just a faster way to pick out routes around weather. And this summer, with more thunderstorm days than I remember in recent years, it has really helped me complete flights that I otherwise might not have done.

Give me the details once you get it figured out and I'll post it through the Southeast Mooney mailing list. We've got around a hundred or so folk on the list from the general Southeast area. Many of them follow Mooneyspace but probably not a majority. I look forward to it! Jeff

Hi Robert. I looked at 446PC and flew it with Richard Simile once, but couldn't come to terms with Premier on trading in my J. It was a nice machine. Those speed numbers seem pretty impressive. I was cruising home from Cincinnati in my O3 yesterday at 9,000', running 2500 RPM and WOT and 182 KTAS. I had it at 16GPH though because I'm still doing a bit of engine break-in and didn't want the CHTs too high.

Yeah, Joey Cole has moved to Dalton now so there's not as much reason to have another gathering of Mooneys but it was a fun show to be sure, and will be better this year since the T-Birds are out of sequester. I may try to get up there again.

Michael O'Neal out of PDK is an excellent instructor with lots of Mooney time. I know he routinely ferries one of his client's Ovations from Tennessee and back for maintenance, and he does my BFRs. I don't like putting people's phone numbers on the internet so I'll send you his contact info via PM.

RPM also will factor in, as manifold pressure will go up if you drop RPM. That said, just flew home from Charleston SC to Atlanta last weekend at 6000', OAT was about 16°C as I recall, 2500 RPM, and the MP was 24". It rose from 23" to 24" when I dialed RPM back from climb at 2600 to cruise at 2500.

Here's one thing to consider. I don't know what avionics Joe has in his Acclaim, but it could be that they need a plane with the G1000/S-TEC 55x combo to use for certification testing so they can finally get this configuration WAAS certified. That would be very good news to many of us.

So I'm showing my J to a prospective buyer this week on a clear sunny Atlanta morning. I knew he had just retired from the Air Force, but hadn't thought to ask him what he did in the AF until we got together. Turns out he has 4000 hours in F-16s. Real nice guy, low key, exactly what you want in a fighter pilot I'm guessing. We get out to the practice area at 3000' and I say "your controls." Not 2 seconds after he says "my airplane" we're in a 60 degree bank to left and all of a sudden Lake Lanier is looking mighty close out my window. I do commercial steep turns for practice as well, so this wasn't too alarming, except it takes me a bit longer to get to that degree of bank. But I was fine, right up until he whips that thing right over to another 60 degree bank on the right side, at which point my head and my stomach started to protest. "Whoah Nellie, you gotta' take it easy on us civilians" I told him, and he immediately apologized and edged us back toward level flight. I think if I'd have known it was coming I could have prepared for it and taken it better, but the sudden change got right to me. But that feeling quickly passed and we had a good flight. I flew a GPSS-RNAV approach so he could see how that works in our "modern" cockpits. He said all the American F-16s still have round gauges and he'd never flown a GPS approach before. I guess only our exported planes have all the goodies. Finally we were coming back toward PDK and I just mentioned that I plan on 5 miles per 1000' of descent needed. He quickly calculated "okay, 2 degree angle" faster than I could have pulled out a calculator. These guys know their numbers. He told me that they plan on a 10 degree angle for their descents, and reminded me that since the F-16 has actually a shorter wing span than the J, yet weighs 20-times more, "they don't glide all that well." Talk about a nose-dive! Anyway, he is a great guy and it was fun to get just a hint of a perspective on what it would be to strap into a plane like that. Although if I did it for real, I would want to make sure the plastic bag was ready!

Well, you've left some variables like temperature out of the equation, but the book example in the POH says that 65% power at 6000' and temperature of 20°C is 155 KTAS. So if you think you're getting slightly greater power in your test, and you're a skosh higher, then it would be a bit higher than that. Other factors to consider are what prop you have on it, as the book is based on the standard McCauley 2-blade. Here's a link to an online POH for a J, in case you want to do more research: http://www.deltaaviationllc.com/Nav%20Page/POH/M20J%20POH3203B.pdf

I fly because it releases my mind from the tyranny of petty things. - Antoine de Saint-Exupery

The POH says that with A/C turned on, airspeed should suffer by about 1.8%. So not the 5 knots noted above, but some slight degradation of airspeed could be expected.

I'm seriously considering it but need a few other pieces of the puzzle to fall into place first. I expect I'll make a final decision about a month before the event.

I use a product called Wash-Wax All that you can get from Spruce and many other places. It's a spray-on, wipe-off product that does a great job cleaning the dirt as well as waxing the plane. For the greasy underside there is a Belly Wash version which is more gel-like so it stays where you spray it and cuts through the grease and oil.

It looks faster than it seems to be, based on the stated performance.

Those West aircraft are manufactured just 120 miles up the road (I-85) from Atlanta in Walhalla, SC. And Maule's are made here in Georgia. Who'd a thought that the Southeast could be a proving ground for some really great backcountry machines?