Jeff_S

Also, the air intakes on the front of the cowling are not quite as small and streamlined, and to me the nose just looks a skosh "boxier" or something.

It'll work out ok because the fuel servo reduces FF when you reduce throttle (power) , but if it runs as well as most 4 cyl lycs do LOP you should be able to run it as cool LOP at 200ft as you can at 7500ft... Why not just pull to deceleration richen to peak and lean... My engine does beautifully at 1500ft WOTRAO 28.5" 2500rpm and 45 LOP...in the dead heat of a Mid-Atlantic summer... You're probably dead-on right. I will freely admit I'm learning as I go so I'll try this out and hopefully add it to my repertoire. My initial rationale for pulling throttle at lower altitudes was to reduce power below 75% so I felt comfortable leaning...based on my study of Deakins et al and their articles. But I have since experimented with keeping throttle up even at lower altitudes and do realize I can keep the CHT's down if leaned correctly. Thanks!

Wow, I've been doing practically the opposite of you. Except for descents and landing, the throttle stays full the entire flight and I control power with the prop knob and mixture. And I will add that yes, throttle stays WOT for climbout and cruise at altitude, but in low-mid altitude cruise I tend to bring it back to reduce power a little bit to let me get to LOP settings safely. Of course, IFR ops and normal descent/landings require varied use of throttle as necessary.

"Hear hear!" for those who don't touch the mixture knob on descent. I, too, just leave it alone in most circumstances. I'm already LOP in cruise so there's no danger of increasing CHT's as I go down (since descending has the same effect as leaning) and since I'm not trying to draw full power the fuel flow isn't an issue. If I sense the engine is starving of fuel a little bit I may gently add a skosh of fuel, but never full rich. That just floods the cylinders, wastes gas and fouls the plugs. But I will admit, I've flown with a few other folks who I could see getting a little antsy when I didn't reach for the fuel knob. I understand the power of ingrained habits.

Seems like the decision has been made on this one, but for future reference, Mike Busch in his Savvy Aviator webinar series did a whole hour on magnetos, and he also recommended a few shops for IRAN/overhaul work. Note that in contrast to his usual position on condition-based maintenance vs. time-based maintenance, the mags are the ONLY component that he still recommends be sent out for IRAN at the 500-hour interval due to their importance and the fact that problems can creep up quickly and have significant consequences.

I have the Horizon digital tach which gives me a nice little yellow light when the the prop/MP combination falls into the yellow range. Other than powering up for the run-up, I don't recall EVER seeing that little yellow light come on in normal operations. My J was my transition from fixed-pitch to variable-pitch prop and it confused me at first, but based on reading and experimenting I found I only need four settings. Max prop on takeoff. Reduce to 2600 for climbout. Reduce to 2500 in cruise. Reduce to 2400 if I want to slow my descent, but otherwise, have at 2400 for the pattern. Everything else is managed with throttle controlling MP. Easy, and never a yellow zone in sight!

Dang, KSaunders from Dawsonville GA! When I logged into MooneySpace today I thought I was in a time warp. All those photos of a Cherokee on the front page made me think I was back in the Piper Owners' Society forum where I used to hang out. Having moved up to the J from a Warrior, I can tell you it will be a welcome change. Good luck with your hunt. I've seen some nice J's on Controller lately, and one Ovation that just popped up that made me really seriously think about an upgrade. Seems well-equipped and owner has just dropped the price to $169,000...I think it was '91 model.

My experience matches most of the others here. We put in 7 quarts at the change, and I can usually get 10+ hours before it gets down to under the 6qt mark on the dipstick. I can tell when this has happened because the oil pressure gauge settles right at the bottom of the green in cruise. After that, I usually get about 5 hours before adding another quart, and I just keep that up until the change. I will say that I switched from AeroShell 15W-50 to Phillips 20W-50 about a year ago, and started using AvBlend, all at the advice of Jerry Manthey during one of his last clinics. I don't have solid, long-term empirical data to support the following statement, but it does seem like my oil use has dropped a bit, the oil seems to stay "cleaner" longer, and my Blackstone Labs oil analyses just keep getting better.

I was going to suggest that it was a sneaky instructor testing you on this emergency procedure, but from your description it sounds like he wasn't in on the prank. Glad to know things worked out.

First, I replaced the stock landing light with a Whelen LED bulb and the effect has been great. I just leave it on all the time now for visibility. Second, there is an STC to add a second light to the cowling. I think LASAR has it, but you can look it up. Not sure if it applies to J's or just the older models, but that's the one I've seen.

Yes, my 201 sure glides a lot better than my Warrior did. During my familiarization flights with the CFI, I was coming into the home drome and Tower asked if I could take a short approach to help with flow, but I declined, even saying something (stupid!) like "negative...new airplane". So of course they ended up giving me a 12 mile downwind...suckers! But your experience doesn't sound quite familiar to me. If you are at 100 or even 90 KIAS and drop the gear, then flaps, you should start coming down pretty quickly. You didn't say how far past the runway edge you went on downwind, but in that configuration and speed, with the runway under my left wingtip (sight picture) and turning base when the runway end is at a 45° angle, it's a pretty consistent descent back to earth. Maybe you have reduced drag from an excellent wax job!

"Already read all that. What I'm not liking is that pretty much the entire source of info about LOP operations comes down to the same group of people (GAMI and APS). If it's so great, then I don't understand why the manufacturers aren't recommending it or at least other pilot groups that reach the same conclusion independently. Also, most of the info about it seems to always point to continental." Lycoming has a circular on it. I'm pretty sure it's already been linked, but if not you can find it on their site. They generally acknowledge that LOP is well-known and not a problem, but their official position has been that it's too complicated to fly that way without the appropriate engine instrumentation, which wasn't available to GA pilots until the last few years. "Anyone know of any good info for LOP on Lycoming in Mooney? Some power setting tables for LOP operations, graphs, etc? Cause I've seen nothing but continental based stuff. Yet it seems that the Lycoming has a better shot at running LOP with stock injectors." Read through the suggested material again and particularly find the excellent chart for the red-box zone. It will show you exactly where to set your fuel flow for either ROP or LOP to stay out of the red-zone. As long as you're doing this you will be safe from detonation and pre-ignition. You may still not like your temps, though, so you still have to experiment for yourself. "If I'm having these problems with CHT from 25-75 ROP, how did folks fly Mooneys for the last thiry years without engine analyzers or LOP?" A well-maintained Lyc engine in a well-ventilated Mooney is pretty impervious. People just flew, kept it generally ROP and didn't worry about it except at annual time! But that doesn't mean there isn't a better way...

Also, it depends on whether you're running ROP or LOP. I won't debate the merits of either here...take your pick and fly how you want. But ROP will show higher CHTs especially in these hot summer months. In climb, it's not uncommon for #2 and #4 to show hotter simply because there's less airflow back there, but once in cruise that shouldn't really be a factor. So the fact that #4 stays hotter does indicate something's different...maybe baffling? Or an injector issue?

Quote: Becca Anyone visit with the Yellow Jacket Flying Club folks? I had good times in those airplanes when I was back at Georgia Tech (well to be fair, they sold a lot of the airplanes I had good times in and replaced them, but a couple are still around). Between the Mooney Ambassadors and YJFC being out there, I was tempted to make the flight all the way from Houston, but life got in the way.

Quote: lahso Thanks to Barry for posting the youtube link. I appreciate it. Jeff, no one is proposing hate of anyone. That is silly, and taking the conversation down to that level is not necessary.

Hey Everyone, Special thanks to Leigh McArthur, Dave Snyder and Darwin Puls for attending the Mooney Ambassadors at PDK Good Neighbor Day yesterday. We had a nice diamond formation of four stellar 201s on the ground, and drew many enthusiastic kids and Mooney lovers. I snapped just a few pics which I attach here, and will post on the Facebook site as well. Cheers, Jeff

Quote: meddesign I was also leery to put that website into my browser... But I did. That is just an amazing video about the bush flying in South America.

Mac201 was crying about this on my shoulder the other night, right up until I opened the fridge in the hangar and gave him a beer! (Well, I offered him a beer, but he was going flying or somesuch so he declined.)

I splurged on the Goodyear FC IIIs last year, all the way around, with the leak-guard butyl tubes. Yes, they are more expensive, but they look great, and the tubes are awesome. I have checked my tire pressure three times over the last year, even during the winter, and they haven't lost one pound of pressure.

I inherited my Precision vertical card compass with the plane but echo the other sentiments...it's the bees' knees. So much easier to manage and use, especially during those devilish moments with your CFII doing some IFR refresher work and she fails all your avionics! (Admittedly, the vertical card compass doesn't serve as a backup AI in a worst case scenario, but if things really get that bad in the clag then someone up high is telling you something!)

Quote: N4352H ... This event was greatly exasserbated by (at the time)having recently studied vertical gusts and g-loads in a turbulence advisory circular...

I would echo Jim's comments to a T. It was great to meet Jerry personally and get his take on various things like oil treatments (he SWEARS by AvBlend) and other tidbits of knowledge that just flow out of his mouth but don't appear in the manuals. If you are an A/P or aspiring do-it-yourselfer the manuals could be helpful as they come generally right out of various Mooney service docs, SBs and the like. But if you run away from any tool more complex than a screwdriver (that's me!) and really just want to better understand the technical operation of your aircraft, the manual from the course isn't going to help as much.

Hey Folks, Making a get-away to Amelia Island in a few weeks. Any PIREPs on the airport and FBO there, McGill Aviation? I looked on AirNav and it got a few good reviews recently, but some pretty mediocre ones over the years. Not that I have much choice in the matter, but if anyone can pass on pearls of wisdom on dealing with them that would be great. Thanks!

Randy, the STC will apply retroactively but if you are trying to be perfectly legal, and an FAA dude ever wants to scour your logbooks and get picky, then you would technically have needed to file a form 337 and get an approval BEFORE having installed the light. This all assumes that you actually made a log entry. If you didn't, then go back and do it now and everything is cop-ascetic. There is a school of thought (espoused by the Aviation Consumer folks) that the LED landing light replacement is not even considered subject to these regs, as it is not a "major" airframe alteration. And admittedly the regs are vague. I just had my A/P put in my PAR36 light, which already had the STC, and he originally thought he was going to file a 337 just to be totally legit (which is required even WITH an existing STC). But I whined about the extra $25 charge for doing so, and he finally decided to call it a "minor alteration" and just told me to keep the STC paperwork in my logbooks. To shorten my long story, this is not something you need to lose sleep over.

Very common story. With my wife it was fear of motion sickness, not flying or dying in an airplane. She trusts my piloting skills, just not always what Mother Nature is going to throw at her. In this case, flying during the least turbulent times of day is preferable, but more than anything, there has to be a destination that she wants to get to, namely one with a beach and cool rum drinks waiting. That proved to be the thing that got her over the edge and into the plane. Now she's even (reluctantly) considering a trip to the Bahamas!