Sven

A couple years ago I decided to leave the world of tried-and-true David Clark behind and find an ANR headset. Being frugal I settled on refurbished Lightspeed Zulus I purchased from Aircraft Spruce at a great price. I loved them so much I bought another set from eBay, which was a risk. It turns out that just a couple weeks after the eBay purchase they started to short out. One of the reasons I chose Lightspeed over Bose was I kept reading stories about their customer service. Last week I called them up and gave them the story of my eBay headset. Very nicely a kind gent explained to me that they no longer made the Zulus but to send them in. If it was a major repair they could not make they would offer me a major trade-in discount on a new set of their latest product. First, I was amazed he even talked to me since I was not the original owner and I bought them off eBay. If they were bad, it’s not Lightspeed’s problem. Right? So I packed them up and sent them off UPS at my expense. Today I received them back. They replaced the cords and the control box, put in a new battery and put on a new windscreen. It took one hour of labor. They serviced an out-of-warranty no longer produced headset I bought off of eBay and they did it for free. Basically they made my problem their problem. Given this level of quality customer support I felt compelled to give them this glowing PIREP. Six stars out of five!

Ours broke on our C model. Not sure if they are similar. If they are I have a CAD drawing. We had to have one made as we could not find one anywhere. Maybe it's different now that Mooney is back in business. If you find out the part is similar send me a message with your email and I will send you the CAD drawing.

The earliest passion I can remember is flying. I was obsessed with airplanes and becoming a pilot. All the early art projects my mother saved had an airplane drawn or painted on them. So, in 1981 when my instructor let me solo after flying around the pattern for seven hours, I had achieved the first part of my dream. Only a few flight hours later I experienced an engine failure, alone, in a 152 over a lake with no altitude. Not only was I going to crash but I was going to drown. That was the first time I looked death in the face and I was only a teenager. My youthful immortality “virginity” was taken from me and I was forever molded by experience. Thirty (plus) years later I am a Mooney owner and pilot. But I am a much different pilot than I was in my youth. Truthfully, it’s not easy for me to just hop into the Mooney and go flying without a care. I have always been an optimist. So what I’m about to say sounds out of character for those that know me. Back when my engine failed I decided to leave aviation and my dream. Two weeks later my instructor told me I had to “get back on the horse.” He said what I had experienced was rare and would probably never happen again. He also told me something that always stuck with me. “I’m going to teach you to fly the airplane like it’s going to kill you.” That was such an odd and discomforting statement at the time. To this day, every time I sit in that left seat I think about those words. I remember that helpless feeling of going down toward that lake wishing it were different and that somehow I would reach the shore. At the time I felt that incident robbed me of the joy of flight. And, truthfully, a part of me still fights that feeling. What that experience did for me was to bring a new level of maturity to what had been my rather youthful, naive, and dreamy flight training and turned me into a real pilot. Up until that incident I had flown patterns, figure eights, buzzed pastured cows (and a few fisherman), and generally had an idealistic piloting experience. I do not know either of these men like a few of you Mooney Space members do. We are bonded to them because we are pilots and we drive Mooneys. More than that, we are caring human beings and we long to take away this hurt from the families and friends who know them and love them dearly. Words simply fail us with a loss this deep. We train over and over for a situation like this and hope it never happens to us. When it does, we long to understand why and fight the urge to come to quick conclusions, play out scenarios and even find blame. But at the end of the day we realize that so many things in life are out our control. Sometimes we survive due to another’s intervention, our own skill level, luck, and sometimes, ironically, our own stupidity. But sometimes we get seriously hurt and sometimes we die. No doubt our community will learn from this tragedy and thereby help many others who may find themselves in a similar unthinkable situation. Life has taught us that even the best among us are not immune. But it doesn’t stop there. Every step you take to become a better pilot, you honor those who’ve flown West. Every time you take an online class with AOPA, EAA or the FAA’s W.I.N.G.S. program, you’ve honored not only them but yourself and your passengers. Every seminar you take, question you answer on Mooney Space, every time you put an instructor in your right seat and tell them to do their worst, you honor the institution of “pilot.” I can relate to our friend Dave who wonders if this is really worth the risk. Since my first incident I’ve had a near miss midair (not my fault), a complete electrical failure, and a blown tire at high speed that almost sent me “into the rhubarb” as my grandfather used to say, I’ve had a dear uncle killed by his plane and I was witness to the tragedy at Reno in 2011. I don’t tell you these things to elicit pity. Fly long enough and bad things happen. You have these stories, too. Dave eludes to it and I have certainly felt it. There are a thousand reasons why you should never fly again. And, if USA Today has anything to say about it or the real estate developers in Santa Barbara have their wish, none of us Mooney pilots ever will fly again. Sometimes I feel like I’m the most fortunate person in the world as I fly my little Mooney up and down the Northern California coast. But some days I’m fighting that fear which experience has instilled in that place where joy, amazement and wonder recently lived. In complete honesty, I went to the hangar today with the intent of flying my Mooney and thought about this tragedy and didn’t. Did I chicken out? Maybe. Will I fly again? Certainly. Maybe even tomorrow. But today was not that day. It’s cliche to say it but my head wasn’t in the game. My airport is under construction and the taxiways are all new. I’ve not flown in a couple weeks and there was a gusty but manageable crosswind. Instead, I cleaned the windows, wiped the dust off the wings, cleaned part of the belly, and talked to any pilot with a hangar door open. I loaned out a couple tools and gave away some sheet metal screws. I watched a young lady with a giant grin start her tailwheel endorsement in a beautiful Cessna 140 and listened to ATC on my handheld. Was today a loss? I’ll let you be the judge. Dreams give life to passion. Our passion is flight. But passion comes at a cost. It places us at risk. To fly is one of humankind’s oldest dreams. We are fortunate enough to have been born in an age where flight is possible and the Earth is far below us. Though reason and even experience tells me this is something I should leave to the birds I smile. Because in December of 1981 I became a bird and I left this nest called Earth. I am among an elite group of human beings that can command an airplane. We are called Pilots. Among my fellow pilots I do my best to be my best so that, should the unthinkable happen again, I have a chance to fly again. Should my best efforts be overwhelmed by circumstances I will fly West knowing that I will be replaced by some little kid looking at an airplane and wondering what it would be like to be a pilot, a Mooney pilot Mike, may your recovery be swift and your passion undamaged. Bill, peace to your memory. p.s. To astelmaszek- I've been hit by lightning 3 times and I'm still here.

This will show you the difference between old and new. http://mooneyspace.com/gallery/image/29409-/

Another name for it is a Binding Post. McMaster is an amazing place to find strange hardware (and the normal stuff) often cheaper than Spruce. http://www.mcmaster.com/#binding-posts/=oy8w0y

The backfilling procedure worked flawlessly. I've attached a few photos that will hopefully illustrate things for wishing to follow. It's important to use hose clamps. Once you pressurize the pot, which I did to almost 20 lbs, anything that can leak will leak. Save yourself some cat litter absorbent and use the hose clamps where you can. I'm not sure what order these will appear so I'll comment on them alphabetically. On the actuator attachment you first need to slightly pressurize the pot ridding the line of air. As the fluid reaches the end of the hose slide it on the actuator fitting with your hose clamp ready to seal it off. I made fluid catch jars from clean new Mason jars with holes cut in the lids. They both actually had lids but this photo shows one of the lids off. I used two and you'll see why in the Reservoir Tubing photo. The Fittings photo show how I connected the hardware that came with the pressure pot to the line that connected to the actuator. THe pressure Pot line wasn't really long so I needed to add a length of tubing. This is how I did it. Pressure Pot: I got this on Amazon right here and it even arrived on a Saturday with Amazon Prime. I paid $58 but it was well worth the price in time saved and mess not created. I even used the same method to backfill my brakes. It worked amazingly well. Reservoir Tubing: I went for safety since we just installed a new interior. I put hoses on both places fluid can exit the reservoir. I'm very glad I did as it came out both places. Sorry I didn't take a picture of the entire fittings contraption I rigged. I packed it with old rags to prevent any leakage from hitting the new carpet. I bled the system without assistance. I did have to jiggle the small actuator arm on the flap pump itself (not the actuator that connects to the flap). This is the small arm that "dumps" the flaps. Mine didn't want to behave in the open position. By moving it back and forth the fluid moved through the system and out the reservoir tubes. A huge thanks to Shadrach for this amazing procedure that saved me time, frustration and a giant mess.

Thanks for all the wisdom and the replies. I've ordered a pressure pot which Amazon will deliver tomorrow per Shadrach's suggestion. I'll let you know how it turns out. I'm the guy with the unconverted D model.

The bane of my existence is the Mooney flap pump. There's always an issue. It's either leaking, not pumping at all, or it's leaking (did I already say that?). For the third time in four years I've installed a new kit from LASAR. Only this time the kit had an interesting option. On the large piston instead of two leather spacing washers there were two rubber washers. I decided to go with the rubber instead of the leather. Magically, there's no leak out the air hole. And, the pump handle is now spring loaded and returns to the down position when not under pressure. My questions: Is this normal? Is the handle spring-loaded favoring the down position? Because of the tightness of the leather washers I've never experienced the spring-loaded feature. Maybe there's more like me out there who've never experienced a spring-loaded flap pump lever. And did I mention it no longer leaks?

Mine broke, too. I found an autocad file for the support arm and went to a friend who made me one. It's perfect. It won't let me upload the file but if you PM me I could email it to you.

It's an adjustment issue. On the flap pump there is a slotted screw (standard) surrounded by a lock nut. Loosen the lock nut and turn the screw to the right (in) just a butt whisker, as my grandfather would say. Then try the flaps. It's best to have a friend cycle the flaps while you make the adjustment or you'll get very tired. I think the manual says you want a 10-12 second return from full down to full up. When you have it fully down you can apply some up pressure to simulate the wind and see if they drift up. If they do adjust the screw in a little more. If that doesn't work you might have a bubble in the system or maybe your fluid is low. That's what has worked on our speedbird.

If you're looking for wine, Sonoma County is the place. Napa is overrated. I echo Dave's suggestion of going to Healdsburg. It's a fantastic little wine town. As the saying goes around here, "Sonoma makes wine, Napa makes auto parts." The owner of Sonoma Jet Center at KSTS owns a Mooney. There's a few of here on the field. Rent a car and drive into the city. Stop at the Golden Gate Bridge on the way into SF and enjoy the sights.

The Tinnermen nuts on the doghouse are #4 standard. They were hard to find. I found them at McMaster-Carr. A pack of 50 is about $14. http://www.mcmaster.com/#clip-on-nuts/=kzgql3

I just discovered a free Mooney app in Apple's App Store. It has the Mooney logo and the developer link goes to the Mooney website. However, it looks like Mooney didn't write it and a company called AMT & Soul Holding. Does anyone know if this is a real Mooney app or is it a general app made by someone not associated with Mooney? I just want to practice safe downloading and not catch an STD (Sickness Through Downloading).

In the longer version at about 8:15 there's the famous scene of the plane flying through a hangar. That hangar is called the Butler hangar and happens to be right next to my hangar, built a few years after this movie was made. It's a bit rusty and needs a little work but it still houses a few planes for the Pacific Coast Air Museum at KSTS, Santa Rosa, CA. It's the second most famous landmark at the airport. You can see it on Google Maps here. It's fun to point it out to friends and visitors but they need to be a bit older to remember seeing that movie.

Unfortunately ours was riveted in place so there's no easy removal. I'd try to get a good look from the top somehow and if you cant see where the problem is cover the box with tape when you wash the plane.

We have an early 1963 D model. We recently replaced our headliner and found all kinds of surprises. One of them was a vent box. This may be the source of your leak since it's the largest hole on the roof. Unless you tape this box off when you wash your plane, water is getting in here. And if the box has holes from years of corrosion then this is the source. The low end of the box has a drain tube that follows the roof and drops down the side. It eventually ends up coming out of the bottom of your plane and is probably the only tube on the belly not near the engine. Sorry I don't have a photo of that. I'm going to try to attach photos but it seems no matter what I do and no matter carefully I follow directions I can't post photos. During our "restoration" we did replace the badly-aged connecting tube that goes from the box to the aluminum tubing. It is just a short clear tube held in place with the old metal ties. I used a much more durable and flexible hose ad reattached it with hose clamps. Just for kicks I also took a stiff wire with a small chunk of fabric on it to ream out the tube which wasn't clogged with anything, thankfully.

We have an early 1963 D model. We recently replaced our headliner and found all kinds of surprises. One of them was a vent box. This may be the source of your leak since it's the largest hole on the roof. Unless you tape this box off when you wash your plane, water is getting in here. And if the box has holes from years of corrosion then this is the source. The low end of the box has a drain tube that follows the roof and drops down the side. It eventually ends up coming out of the bottom of your plane and is probably the only tube on the belly not near the engine. Sorry I don't have a photo of that. I'm going to try to attach photos but it seems no matter what I do and no matter carefully I follow directions I can't post photos. During our "restoration" we did replace the badly-aged connecting tube that goes from the box to the aluminum tubing. It is just a short clear tube held in place with the old metal ties. I used a much more durable and flexible hose ad reattached it with hose clamps. Just for kicks I also took a stiff wire with a small chunk of fabric on it to ream out the tube which wasn't clogged with anything, thankfully.

This guy was at Oshkosh this year and I spent some time talking with him. He's a fellow Mooney driver and he said that if they don't have the part they'll make the part. Be sure to look at the whole website as all the different Mooney models are all there. http://www.planeplastics.com/airplanes/mooney/m20c-j/

Check out the wind map today. It does a great job depicting the winds Isaac is throwing at the folks in the south. Hopefully, it calms down soon and gives those folks a break. http://hint.fm/wind/

Quote: Immelman I did this mod for my 66E and am quite pleased. I was billed about 9 hrs labor for this, and I did the R&R of the interior trim bits, as well as dealing with mounting the compass on the center post and painting it. I did 3 out of the 4 the side-windows myself (paid my A&P to teach me how to do the first one), but the windscreen was too big for me to bite off an chew. Just removing the fasteners on the old windshield required removing radio racks for access.. some of those are very tight.

You can also find a few manuals here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/38422661/Mooney-Spare-Parts-Manual I've got a couple you can find on the side bar to the right. Be sure to click "Next" to see the others. There's no copyright on these so they are free to share. It's too bad some folks are selling them for so much. We have a copy machine that scans quickly and turns it into a PDF. I'd love to see more folks doing this and helping each other out as I think the ebay route is not a fair deal. -Sven

You landed in 16 feet? Your Mooney must have a tailhook. And that quarry must be 1000 ft deep.

This plane and logo launched a thousand dreams as a kid. Sorry to see it disappear. However, growing up near Minneapolis and Northwest Orient Airlines, I think their newest logo was brilliant, immitating a compass. And here's a link to some iconic Boeing products and some bygone airlines: http://www.flickriver.com/groups/boeing_classics/pool/interesting/

I wonder how many of those NASA "Get out of jail free" cards this guy has used?

Pictures! Or it didn't happen!