Kwixdraw

Perfect answer. Go somewhere else or pick something else to do. Much of why I said to get some of your ground school going and a few demo flights in is because you will get a lot of these questions answered for you. Example. Flying to Tahoe you have high altitudes and some times it can get hot there, even though we think of it mostly as a winter destination. In ground school you will learn about "density altitude". Performance of aircraft goes down when they are in high, hot, heavy and humid conditions. This is where that turbo helps, by the way. You won't have much performance if you are loaded to max gross weight at 7-8000 feet and it's 80 degrees out. Your aircraft will be performing based on something like an 11000 ft density altitude and you Will notice it. We have people crash all the time in the local mountains because they don't plan for the density altitude they are dealing with at 7700 msl. Thinking about your original post. Maybe you could find someone to take you up in a C-182. That might be a very good aircraft to own and learn in and it would be useful to you for a long time until you get your instrument rating and some flight time built up.

I doubt an insurance company is going to make it very viable for you to learn in a Mooney. I learned in a Cherokee and was behind the power curve for a while in an Arrow before buying my 201. With the flights you are talking about, zipping over the Sierras, you are certainly talking turbo time and financing that learning curve can get seriously expensive as well as being unsafe for you and your family if you get yourself in a bad position. They didn't call the v tail Bonanza the fork tailed doctor killer for no good reason. Too much performance at an affordable price for too little pilot knowledge and experience. Please don't take that as an insult to your ability but it takes time and experience to know how to judge the safety of a flight operation when you get away from the home airport. In Calif. we don't see a lot of the weather they see east of the Rockies and yet there are conditions out there that will kill you quick. Remember how long it took them to find ol' what's his name when he got caught in the rotor wave near Mammoth Lakes? Do yourself a favor and take a few demo flights then decide if you like a high wing or low wing aircraft. Join AOPA and read everything they have about buying and owning an aircraft. Talk to owners at your local airport and see what people like and dislike about their airplanes and see what fits you. Grab a set of ground school videos and get some of the book work out of the way and then you will have a better idea of what you need to consider to fly safely. Work out a few flight plans and see just how little difference 10-15 knots makes in trip time on the direct route and how much time and money that speed or lack of it really makes. Mooneys are great aircraft but you can stuff your head in the ground if you get out of shape down low.

You'll be better able to keep tabs on the engine after it's overhauled anyway. Once it's broken in and stabilized you can start the oil analysis to monitor whats happening and compare it to what you see in the screens and filter. Things will make more sense and you'll be able to feel confident in the engine.

Try Sacramento Sky Ranch. They build all kinds of hoses and test them properly. You may want to think about replacing the entire hose if it has a lot of time on it. They are supposed to be replaced every five years anyway.

The reason for your intermittant mag problem is probably internal arcing on the distributor block. You didn't say what kind of mags you have but basically the center bushing being loose suggests that the insulating packing in there is bad and allowing the spark to jump to ground internally. Mags have to be pretty much perfect to do what they must.

That last was from me not GPXD

If Norm is correct you probably ought to get your aircraft in to have a borescope inspection of the exh valves done asap. Don't wait until one of them lets go.

Soda is supposed to be very mild, for use on delicate surfaces and should wash away with water. It is touted as being the choice for light metal where rippling the metal is a concern and on composite surfaces. Supposed to be harmless to chrome and glass.

Ya done good Mitch.

On the gear doors, do the overlapped doors last better than the early style. Mine have had extensions riveted onto the front and they are erroded away too.

To blue them (a process of oxidation) you would have to remove them and strip all the chrome off. Cold blue is certainly not durable enough and probably would not give the appearance you are after. Hot blueing would probably be as expensive as rechroming them since they would have to be well polished. I would think you would have to get a field approval to do it legally.

I did it Scotts way back in the early 90s. Flew in misery every time she was in the plane for a few years until I caught AIDS (Aviation Induced Divorce Syndrome) and gave her the dumpola. Wish I'd have gotten into flying before I got married. The new (good) wife knows how things work in the real world and is used to me walking into things when something interesting flies overhead. We live close enough to Chino that we see a Mustang or T-6 fly over fairly frequently. She knows not to be between me and the door when "Merlin" or "round motor" come out of my mouth. I'm just trying to figure out how to avoid painting the J purple so she feels like she is participating in it's restoration.

The real problem as I see it is that you aren't going to know some of this until you have things apart. You get the prop off and send it in and a couple days later you get the "got so bad news" call. You get the engine apart for an overhaul and find out the tappet holes in your cases are going to need rework @ $xxx a hole...it gets to be a deal where you wish you had taken the plunge in the first place but you didn't think you were going to get to this position. Ah the joys of aircraft ownership. I think the roller tappets are a good thing for the most part but you need to realize that if you have a prop strike they all get to be replaced as a precaution..$$$$

Two words....Warp Drive! OK, fantasy aside, I could see someone with an engine that had several overhauls under its belt and a lot of hours going for the IO-390. Biggest hitch is that the thing has to be installed at a Lycoming master service center or whatever they call them. The local one to me knew nothing about the STC and never called back with the info they were supposed to get. I guess they have too much work to be bothered. I like the idea of the roller lifters but unless I'm misinformed Lycoming is installing them in all their engines now so it's really nothing extra over rebuilding the IO-360

If the shafts have gotten to the point where they have pits that keep blooming corrosion, wipe them with a little straight vinegar and let it sit a few minutes. Polish them then coat with ACF-50/Corrosion-X/ Boeshield or something similar. Flitz is great stuff and works great on hazy plastic lenses and such stuff. If you need just a touch of scrubbing power use a paper towel to apply it instead of a soft cloth.

Yeah the old art deco switches were kinda different weren't they.

Shoot, if you think Mooneys are bad you should try a Bonanza with flaps and landing gear switches right next to each other. As with all flying, practice and methodical operation is the key.

Am I mistaken or are the overlapping nose gear doors a factory part? I read somewhere that they are supposed to cut down wind noise in the cabin.

I figured the wallet would decide it it was going to be a 32 or 32R.

Try Dri-Slide. It's available at most motorcycle dealers for cable lube. Spruce may have it too.

Given the concern for outgrowing the aircraft I might also suggest you look for a Piper PA-32. Six seats and very flexible CG and max gross limits. Maybe it isn't the ego bump that the M-20 or Beech is but they can be very useful aircraft.

MJC may be on to something with the rigging. I know my aircraft had not had the "best" maintenence before I bought it and some of the aileron end links had been replaced so there may be a problem right there. It will be correct before it goes airborne again though. Still I would say it was me being a clod in my example and an instructor not knowing when to say enough is enough.

IMHO the only tricky part of the stall in a Mooney is just staying calm and ahead of the aircraft. I had the experience of the spin entry but it was with an instructor who wanted me to do something in a way I was unfamiliar with, and when I was a bit rusty to begin with. We went very deep into a departure stall and while the aircraft was wallowing around a bit I got antsy and input some aileron which immediately stalled the wing and rolled us over. Got a great full windshield view of the ocean for a second or two but pulled power and recovered OK. I wouldn't want to do this again but there is another reason not to besides the obvious aerial gymnastics. The IO360-A3B6D has dampers on the crankshaft and you really shouldn't be horsing the throttle on that one from high settings to idle as in the case of my adventure. This could damage the pins and bushings and detune the dampers to the point that they are not protecting the crankshaft from excess torsional loads. I prefer my crankshafts in one piece. I would go with Parkers advice that you find an instructor that has a rep as a Mooney qualified instructor and have him show you the ropes without doing stupid stuff and risking your butt or your engine.

You don't want to be pushing it that hard anyway. Go to the Van's aircraft website. Van has an article in there about why you shouldn't cram the biggest prop twirling device in the airframe that can possibly be shoved in there. I think it's Martin Hollman at Aircraft Design Inc. that sells books and computer programming for those who must experiment. You should see his cgi demos of flutter modes. Long and short is that you don't want to be pushing redline at high altitude and hit some unexpected turbulence....it's a long fall from up there when the wings come off or the tail departs.

Your IA shouldn't have a problem with pop rivets. For the lower front sections of baffle seal they have sheets of the material you bought and you can cut it to shape using the original material for a pattern. If the original is too bad you can tape some stiff paper to the metal portion of the baffle and trim it to shape for a pattern. You may need to cut some little slits in it to allow for areas where it wants to pucker.