Kwixdraw

Be sure to check the oil pickup screens too. You may find big chunks in there and that bad stuff won't show up in your oil analysis.

Check for a short in the gear switch wire loom behind the radios. I had one back there some years ago that would pop the breaker only during climb out gear retraction. Would cycle normally in level flight.

One of those recent M20f fatalities was a buddy of mine. It appears he had the personal airliner thing going on in his noggin. Called work and said he was going to be about 4 hours late coming in. Called his dad and said he was having some engine problems after possibly getting some water in his fuel. Must have thought he had the problem solved (though I don't know how he might have determined that) and took off with his fiancee on board. Had an engine problem on take off and tried the impossible turn. Not a good result. Just err on the side of caution and you'll stay much safer.

Check out Big South Fork Airpark. Lots going for it and there is still space in the founders club. Speak to Bill Armstrong and tell him the Mooney guy from California sent you. Stop in for a visit and get him to cook you dinner too. He's a really excellent chef. Cliff

How could you resist a deal like that? Good luck with the twin.

Quote: N4352H 1) The Bonanza doesn't offer 150lbs more payload with full tanks. More often than not, that 150lbs of payload flies out of the back of the CG envelope in under 2 hours. The final 2.5 hours of fuel can't be flown with 4 seats full...even with youth in the rear. 2) You have to drop the gauntlet and not dilly-dally. I did it for 10 years. If you want to haul the family.....buy a larger plane. F and V series Bonanzas won't offer you more than a Mooney. 3) If you are developing a taste for Bonanzas, buy an A36. You can haul your family and CG issues virtually disappear. Comparing Mooneys and short body Bonanza's won't solve your problem. I have learned all of the above the hard way.

If you are going to change your own oil be sure to clean the filter screen for the oil pickup too. Look in the FARs to see how to log the service in your log books properly. You will want to have the service manual and AC 43.13 open nearby when you do the work just in case some friendly FAA types happen by while you are doing the legal work on your aircraft..

If you have an oil change coming up soon that would be a great time to really clean the engine & firewall area then look for leaks after a short ground run. Some can be very messy and hard to find at the same time. Oil return hoses from the rocker boxes are hard to see if things don't get real clean. Your A&P should be able to help point out some common problem areas. If you cowl up and fly away then look on your own, things will be too big a mess to find the problem. You have to remember there is a tremendous air turbulence going through the cowl and cooling baffles. The oil will be all over after any flight. You might also look at breather lines. If you are overfilling the crankcase the breather will puke oil all over until it reaches it's own comfort level. You won't be able to keep it at 8 qts all the time.

Well all I can say is that all GA airplanes have pretty low Va speeds and we push the limits hard most of the time but few break up. I suppose it's a matter of how big a thrillseeker you want to be. I prefer to slow down. Then again I never enjoyed flying in much turbulence so I'm probably not the guy to comment.

Much of the desireability would be that the aircraft as a kit could be modified to the owners taste and you don't have to go kiss some FAA pogue's behind to do something on your aircraft. If you build it you can get a repairmans cert to allow you to sign off the "condition inspection" that replaces an "Annual" for a certificated aircraft. You also save because you don't have to put a G1000 in it. You can get avionics that are just as capable at a much lower cost because they don't have to be TSO'd. Spaceship One had Dynon EFIS in it. I'm sure if Garmin had something better that would have been in it. Of course you give up that cookie cutter production quality that allows you to say,"They all do that." Each one is unique and some are then better than others as far as safety and performance. There ain't no perfect world.

You have to consider the weight that Va was determined at. I believe it's usually at max. gross so if you are under that weight you want to be under that Va speed also since the weight of the aircraft makes it harder for the air mass to accelerate it.

A lot of the problem with GA is the utility that it offers. Business people can do a lot of what they did by actually flying somewhere, right here on the internet. Hey the US postal service is in a downtrend too. Same reason. Who wants to wait for snail mail? Who's going to spend a half mil on a plane when they can get the job done without all they outlay of time and money. Mooney can't do much about those facts.

I have been told there is no problem with the powdercoat process. The company I used to do my engine mount says they do quite a few pieces of aircraft landing gear parts without a problem. Their process only requires 375 F for about 30 minutes. It might be a good idea to ask whoever you are thinking of using how their process works. Another thing you might consider is having the parts inspected after they are blasted. I had mine run through again as their glass beads were much finer than I use in my blaster and it didn't seem to get some of the light corrosion off of the tubes after one go around.

Thanks. I was debating doing this to mine. I have one of those fairings aft of the wheel well that got damaged to the point that I took it off. It was bare metal under there with lots of corrosion so I figured I would take the other one off before painting. Since they were off it seemed like a good time to be rid of them. The gear doors are pretty hammered too from dirt strip ops.

Yes I see what you are saying. Wouldn't it be possible that there was a fault in the fitting for the orfice and though the pressure Indicated a change it was just a faulty gauge indication? Was thinking the easiest think might be to hook up a test gauge to see if it shows the fluctuation.

Although Piloto is very experienced and I am still working on my A&P I think you might also check your gauge. According to my recent classes the fuel pressure gauge in an older plane may have an orfice in it to smooth out fluctuations in pressure. You changed the pump already and no change. Thoughts Piloto?

I need a picture on the cooling baffle that mounts the air filter for a 201. Mine was broken when I bought the aircraft and the broken part was tossed and smoothed out. I'm rebuilding the baffles and airbox and need to see how this originally fit. Any help out there?

Scott, Did the low profile doors go with the brake caliper rotation mod? Did they allow you to remove the fairings behind the wheel well?

Corrosion-X/ ACF-50 is good stuff. Just had a discussion on this with my A&P instructor. We were talking about an old MOA article claiming that these products could prevent the spar cap corrosion we sometimes find in Mooneys. His position was that they could not because that corrosion is "intergranular corrosion" that is caused by incorrectly done heat treating. The corrosion begins internally as a galvanic reaction between molecules of the metals making up the alloy that crystalize before the heated part makes it to the quench. Once you see the evidence of this corrosion the damage is already severe. TheACF-50 can actually help some electrical connections.

Also with all due respect Skybrd, if this Was detonation, you were flirting with disaster trying to diagnose this problem in flight and then risking your engine to go there again on the ground. The pressures involved in true detonation are extremely unhealthy to engines and I would not recommend anyone follow these methods to find out what the problem was. How long did the engine fly after this episode? Detonation puts severe loads on everything and it's not uncommon for rod bolts and other parts to fail after a bout of detonation.

Quote: DaV8or Lots of people are interested, just no one is willing to pay. Those engines cost around $500,000 and so there just aren't enough people out there willing to spend around $1m for a four passenger plane. If there were just a way to make turbines cheaper...

Geez you're no fun.

Anyone interested in a turbine powered Mooney? I was thinking that RR300 might be just the ticket.

Was that a carbureted engine on the Tailwind?

Second about everything that has been said. I think the lifespan of the tank seal depends a lot on how you use the plane and good maintenance in other areas. Rough/dirt strips are going to be a factor in lots of ways. My gear doors are pretty beat from the previous owners trips to Mexico. Even resort strips are not always very smooth. Bad shock donuts will send the shock of touchdown through the whole structure and promote those nasty leaks. Letting the landing gear go until you have some real slop in the operation is a Bad idea. Just like the post on changing hardware to get rid of a loose tail, I think you could do yourself some real good and just replace the nuts and bolts in the gear every 3-4 years and grease well in between. It would be cheap insurance and you would have no doubts about everything being in top shape.