RJBrown

Rumack: Can you fly this plane, and land it? Ted Striker: Surely you can't be serious. Rumack: I am serious... and don't call me Shirley.

Years ago I was flying Denver (APA) to Phoenix (FFZ) in my Rocket. Normal cruise at 200 knots. John and I were up front and 2 girls were in back. Air was smooth as glass till we crossed the Mogollon rim. Hit a bump that bounced all our heads off the roof. Knocked the headset off one of the girls and she didn't know it. She did not realize the increase in noise was normal and freaked out thinking the plane was coming apart. Pulled the power back quicker than 1 inch a minute that time. Once she calmed down she had a good laugh over that one. Desert winds can be wicked.

What is worst is a beautiful flight out followed by a car ride back and forth to a nice flight home. Last fall I flew Denver's APA to St George Utah. Drove 9 hours each way. home on Sunday and back on Friday to retrieve the plane. Two CAVU flights surrounding what was really strange weather for the desert.

Quote: fantom Mod Works has been closed since Hurricane Charlie about five years ago.

At the same time as paint on my 1980 231/Rocket I add a few speed mods and TLS style landing lights. The speed mods were cosmetic only in retrospect. I loved having the lights in the wing. Not a cheep mod but I thought it quite worthwhile. The lights in the nose are a constant maintenance pain. There is so much vibration it shakes the filament out of the bulbs. I only added them to the left wing because of cost. My current plane has them in both wings and it is great. Adding to the left side and leaving them in the nose is what I recommend for others.

An 86 rocket is a 252. The earlier 231 based Rockets use a cable. All the parts are different from the cowl to dash. I don't think you can get there from here. Sorry.

Quote: DaV8or A California resident buys an airplane from anybody anywhere and they will pay tax on it . Not only that, but it can be as much as double what some of you guys pay!

Congrats on bringing N800MS/N808MS to Colorado. I had that plane under contract in Jan of 09 and sent it to Lone Star for the pre buy. I spent a full day in Texas looking at that plane. Lone Star was great to deal with. I guess that after the seller refused to make it airworthy for me it got fixed right. I wish they had honored the sales contract I had on that plane. My loss will definitely be your gain. I think you have a winner in the Bravo. I am curious what it finally sold for. I was able talk to the person that did the engine, it was an interesting story involving lawers and insurance. It was originally 800MS then MS808 when I looked at it then back to MS800. PM me if interested in my experiance looking at your plane. Randy

Alan I like your idea for switching between owner assisted and MSC. Who did you use and what cost were there? Randy

Domed pistons???? Wouldn't that be called..........a HEMI? Hemi is short for hemispherical combustion chamber. The shape of the combustion chamber and location of the plug were what made it a HEMI. HEMI is a Dodge trademark word. Most automotive engines today use that type of technology. The term as used by Dodge is pure sales hype.

My experience dealing with brokers 2 years ago consisted only of discussions over the phone. They seemed to have a vested interest in pumping up the market. I made offers on planes that were inline with sales I had tracked only to be treated rudely. AAA was the worst being verbally abusive and hanging up. I believe the pressure placed on brokers by the down market created quite a bit of frustration for them. Anyone who had carefully tracked the market would not have believed the prices ask. I believe that patience, a sales contract that protects the buyer and escrowing everything including the deposit is the way to go. Remember the broker works for the seller NOT you. The more he can pump up the deal the better it is for him. It has got to be a tough way to make a living, especially in the last few years. Having to lowball sellers and highball buyers just to find a middle ground would be quite a grind. Last fall a broker in Iowa told me over the phone that they owned a Rocket. I ask him if he was in a position to take my J in trade. He said they had taken the plane in on trade for a Malibu turboprop and owned it. He repeated that they were in a position to entertain a trade. I even outlined a basic proposal in dollars. He said he would have to see my plane but it sounded reasonable and we set up a meeting. Fortunately the trip was just a side trip while visiting my in laws in Illinois. It gave me a chance to take my father in law, a retired Air Force SAC B52 pilot, on a 266 mile round trip. Every thing I had been told over the phone turned out to be a lie. The Dr still owned the plane and NO one was interested in trading. Some may be better than others but my experience shows them to be a bunch of used car salesmen.

After spending a year looking for the perfect plane I bought a 1990 M20J MSE 2 years ago. I had flown my previous plane, a 1980 M20K / Rocket for 800+ hours. I thought the economy and efficiency of the J was worth the performance loss from Rocket. After flying N1079V for 2 years I find myself flying less and missing the Rocket more. I would like to sell and find a Rocket. The MSE is equipped as delivered with the "Classic Plus" package, a 1000+ stormscope and a electric standby vacuum system. It has about 1800 TT engine and airframe. Paint is original and seats were redone in fabric. Very clean and unmolested airplane. Offers over $100,000 considered. Aopa Vref $114,000. Thanks Randy Brown

There are times when utilizing the maximum range of a aircraft is helpful. One such flight was from Brownsville TX (BRO) to Denver's Centennial (APA). The distance is 900.5 Nautical and the still air, no reserve, range of the plane was 1000. To increase my safety I chose to run off one tank Knowing my full 45 min reserve was in the other. At 14500 MSL, 9500 AGL I flew along with one hand on the fuel lever waiting for a stumble. Felt the stumble and switched over. Landed with 10 gallons. Centennial suspended arrivals with me 30 miles out. KNOWING my fuel situation allowed me to spend fuel holding over cassi (VFR) instead of rushing off to a different airport, or declaring an emergency. That plane had a fuel totalizer I trusted but I still felt more comfortable getting it all out of one side before switching over. I never want to be in a situation where I have the "some" fuel in the "other" tank but don't really know how much and am forced to use it. One time years ago I had a low oil situation. The plane was down to 2 quarts having blown 5 over if less than an hour. Once over an airport 5000+ AGL I attempted to shut down to protect the engine. It would not stop rotating no matter how slow I got. One thing this showed was that air was still pumping through the engine and past the turbo. Any restart did not include running the starter. Before using this method I recommend it be tried comfortably above the airport of you choosing to get the feel of what YOUR plane will do. As for me my 231, same plane as a Rocket and the current J all performed this type of exercise faultlessly. If you PLAN to do it the swap only takes seconds and is a non event.

SEM makes a whole line of plastic repair supplies. Check the website for a lot of interesting ways to fix plastic. Flexible Ure-Weld, SEM # 39406, is a 2 part material I used to fix mine. It works like epoxy but remains flexible when cured. Jet driven's idea does sound good maybe better than what I used. Definitely do not use epoxy or fiberglass resin as it is not flexible and just breaks because it is brittle.

Our government has gone astray. The #1 priority of the federal government should be national defence. To look at the buget numbers the #1 priority is buying votes to get reelected.

Quote: 201Pilot If a K model does not have built in oxygen, do you feel that is a deal breaker? Or do you recommend having a portable oxygen system on board as a backup to the built in? Is it economically feasible to retrofit a built-in oxygen system to a K? Only the 1979 K models came from the factory without oxygen. It was standard equipment from 1980 on. Some 79s have had it added. Some are OE like and some are not. If you are interested in a 79 find out what it has for O2. When I had my 1980 K I had BOTH on board and portable systems. There will be times when there is no way to refill and you will need the backup. When flying solo in the 20s I always had the backup sitting on the RF seat set up and ready to go. Even now in my J I ALWAYS carry oxygen. I miss the turbo more than I expected. If I find a reasonable way to upgrade I will.

I had a horrible experiance with Mod Works before they were put out of our collective misery. After that bad experiance I had the need and called Mooney mart. The same person that oversaw the disaster at Mod works answered the phone. Needless to say I have had no direct relation with Mooney mart. Even with everything in writing from me and my insurance carrier Mod Works used body filler to fix wing panels they had contracted to replace. They charged the labor of replacing but only bondoed the wing skins. I understand the two companies were started by the same people.

Quote: 201-FLYER People on this forum are probably going to disagree with me about this but here is my 2 cents...lets assume for a second I own a plane, and that plane still has a LORAN in it, and this LORAN has obviously been inoperable for some time. I could only think of two reasons I would still have that LORAN in my plane. 1) I think the unit looks pretty sitting in my panel taking up space and weight or 2) i dont have the money to pay someone thats capable of removing it. If you think the later is true then the following questions begs to be asked...what else has been defered or overlooked in the aircraft over time? My thinking applies to all aircraft for sale and not just this one.

Bravo gets an gross weight of 3368 and the limit for a Rocket is 3200. They share the same wing and tail but the Rocket has 35+ more horsepower. The airframe is lighter on the Rocket so the "legal" load is greater. The legal difference is from the landing weight, the bravos gear was upgraded. Rockets outperform Bravos at any weight. Built in O2 is standard on both so that is already taken in to account. Modern avionics weight less. Full usefull fuel was 606# on my Rocket. You spout numbers but don't compare them to anything. Face it other than the gear weight limit every number favors the Rocket. In fact I believe that Mooney FOLLOWED Rocket to the Continental engine because they "had" to.

Quote: jlunseth While the concept is cool, there are always two issues with the high HP Mooney conversions. One, the airframe Vne is still the same, so there is a limit to how fast you can go. Two, there is about enough useful load for a pilot on a diet with no charts in the back seat. But then, I used to drive a little English two seater, so who am I to talk.

This bird has been for sale for 3 years. People who chase the market down and dont sell lose out big. Behind the market is behind the market. This one appears to be ahead and might finally sell. When I bought my MSE I priced a lot of Rockets and all the owners were defensive and prideful. I should have waited even longer than I did. Prices are still sliding. I am one of those people that think a Rocket is a Better airframe/engine combination that the TLS/Bravo ever thought of being. It took Mooney many years to finaly copy Rocket and use a Continental engine. If you can afford to upgrade the avionics a Rocket will ALWAYS come out ahead of a TLS in every aspect except resale. I looked at another Rocket last summer. He just woke up and dropped his price $34,000, still might not sell. There are a couple of Rockets advertised at over $200,000. Those guys are just wasting their time. I have seen a lot of planes "for sale" that were only on the market to convince the wife to get off someones back. When there are Bravos under 150 there is no way a Rocket will sell for over 200.

Try First Pryority Bank http://www.1st-of-pryor.com/ They want our loan business.

When I fly westbound from here is when I miss the turbo the most. With 16500' MEAs 20 miles west of where I sit my J is just too weak. It was nice to see speeds over 300 going east up high in the Rocket. But looking down on the rocks west of here was the real bonus. Even the J can impress with speed down low with a tailwind. This was also in level flight. 232 kts @ 13500

I know cars and airplanes differ quite a bit BUT: Most current car makers recommend oil change every 5000, or more, some as high as 10,000. They say coolant is "lifetime". The maintenance recommendations are pushed as far out as possible for the car to reach its "TBO" of 100,000 miles. At that point they want to sell a new car they don't want their stuff lasting beyond that. The same car maintained properly will last closer to 300,000 miles. Change oil 2500 and all fluids every 30,000. Most lemons are "made" by their owners. If, and that is a big word, your oil is changed every 25 hours and you treat the engine carefully and conservatively most will last well beyond TBO. Even a TSIO360LB in a 231 can do it with a LOT of care. That said the original engine in my 231 was replaced at 1200 hour TT and 100 hours after I purchased it. My current 1990 MSE J has 1800 hours and I am considering replacement. Both planes had averaged just under 100 hours per year and were owned by someone else for the majority of their life. On the second plane I had learned not to trust the care of the dreaded DPO. I have the reserve for an engine and every hour I get I consider "free" TBO is just a number. Maintenance and care are key. Poor care and a hamfisted pilot and you will never make TBO. Meticulous care and a gentle touch will pay off in increased safety throughout the life and some "free" hour near the end.

When we fly our children and other relatives worry. After landing my wife sends out a text "The Eagle has landed" to put their minds at ease.