jackn

15 Hr oil

I did a 'Top End' last November on my K. This is what I did. 1st flight; 2 hrs 75% pwr, 2500 rpm, very rich(1350 EGT)(some will argue for lop). Removed cowl, checked everything! Did not change oil. Ran it at 75% 2 hrs/flight, very rich, varied rpm 2400-2500, for 20 hrs. Changed oil(oil analysis key). Next 30 hrs; fly normally, 65 - 75% pwr, lean normally, change oil(oil analysis). I used Phillip x-country, no additives, for first 50 hrs. Now I fill to 8 quarts + camguard. No oil on belly, uses approx 1 qt per 30 hrs, and oil stays golden. Key is to run hard but stay cool.

Had a similar leak, not as bad as yours but was driving me nuts. Nobody back east could find it. While flying to Colorado, stopped at BJC, Denver Air. They told me they see these issues a lot. One hour and it was fixed. The O2 dial was not moving on its own though.

I think a trip to Texas is in my future. Been thinking about giving AeroComfort a call anyway. Just waiting for waterski season to end.

How did you find the induction leaks?

I bought my hanger from a guy in the auto racing business. Garagetek squares. Kind of over-the-top, but provides great insulation.

Last night I watched the NOVA program on the accident investigation into the Air France crash from Rio to Paris. Three pilots. Here's the thing. While re-creating the chain of events, with 2 experienced pilots, they made all the right decisions and therefore avoided the crash. I guess when you are safe on the ground with no souls in back, it is a lot easier to make the right decisions.

Here's a picture of the LASAR tiedown/jack.

Quote: DaV8or Wow. That must have made him feel better about the flight. Translation- "It's pretty easy going up, but getting down can be tricky... so you have that to look forward to."

Out here, we seem to always have a gusty x-wind. Last week, another 90 degree x-wind14g20. My passenger asked if we would have a problem. I told him 'not on takeoff but we'll be careful with the landing'. On takeoff, delayed my rotation a little bit for more speed, at about 10 feet above the runway a gust must have gotten behind my wing, cause we dropped about 5 ' in a blink. Having the runway coming up at you like that really got my attention! Landing was a non issue. I always use full flaps.

Quote: jlunseth There is one other way of doing this, and that is the "Big Pull." The JPI technique for LOP leaning requires you to move slowly through peak and over to the lean side. This means that you will be operating each of the cylinders in the "red box" for awhile. Instead, you can pull the mixture smoothly through peak until the power starts to drop off, then move it forward to restore power. From there, you can actually use the ROP leaning mode of the JPI to lean LOP, because the JPI doesn't know which way you are leaning, it just wants to know whether you want to reference the first cylinder to peak, or the last. If you are already on the lean side because you have used the Big Pull, you can then go back towards peak and ask the JPI to use the first cylinder to peak - that's ROP leaning mode in this case. Once you find it and start going back further lean, the JPI will be displaying degrees lean of peak of the cylinder closest to peak, which is what you want. If you do this a few times, you will eventually find the fuel flow that your engine likes best for a particular power setting, and you can just do the Big Pull to that fuel flow.

I stand corrected. Got distracted while watching your video.

You are in RoP mode. You need the 830 to be in LoP mode. After pressing LF, and before leaning, you need to switch modes. Don't remember which buttons you need to press. See manual.

I was told that, only it isn't tape, it's paint. A lot cheaper than a whole paint job, spent my $ on TKS instead.

I had the leading edges painted last year. I intended to install TKS, I didn't want to place the panels over unpainted metal. The original paint still looks great though. I may re-paint in the future. I did not notice any speed change.

I found this on Google Earth. They look like Mooney Mites. Not sure.

I have an '87K. You mentioned that you traced the leak to the tank, but I had a similar leak and found the leak inside (see photo). The fix was only a gasket. Hope this helps.

Will Do. I was told that when we first get our pilot certificate, we are given two bags. One is full of luck, the other is empty of knowledge. The objective is to fill the bag of knowledge before we empty the bag of luck.

I agree what has already been said. On a practical matter, If in VFR conditions, and nearing my destination, I'll cancel IFR but maintain advisories. That way I won't have to worry about class C, and can request a class B clearance (if needed).

Just a follow up on my previous post. I pulled other plugs just to compare, and found just about all had higher resistance, but looked fine. (What's going on here?) I used emory paper and compressed air to clean all electrodes back to shiny metal. resistance all declined back low. Starting and ground operations improved, and I believe CHTs were 10 degrees cooler. I mentioned this to another very experienced Mooney guy on my field. He was well aware of this. he told me he keeps 2 sets of plugs. At about halfway to annual, he'll replace the plugs, and clean/ gap the old ones. Just wanted to pass this on. I guess I'll stay with Champion massives for now.

Chris, you bing up an interesting question.. My 'K's elevators cruise orientation looks to be about the same as your Bravo. Surface up, horn down slightly. My trim is set just a little down from neutral. It make sense that you 1 1/2' longer body would require more trim down to counteract the elevator. Why the engineers at Mooney decided to set it up this way is a mystery, for the reasons you mentioned. I don't believe it was just an oversight though, so I wouldn't go bending any metal just yet. I'd like to find out why myself.

Quote: testwest Hi Butch We will be switching our Champion massives for Tempest fines as soon as I baseline our engine performance with the new JPI EDM-930 that is being installed right now. We have not had any runup issues yet, but I bet we find a few plugs with higher center electrode resistance than ~5000 ohms or so. I wrote an article about Champion resistance issues for the Aerostar Owners Association last year. Everything you need to know is here: http://www.chanceaviation.com/tempestProdInfo.htm You can download the article from that site. I believe "fouled plugs at runup" are actually high resistance plugs that are not sparking at all. I also think that the resistance does diminish a little when the plug bodies warm up, so the "burn off" method is actually only heating the plug bodies enough that they decide to start working. I can check this theory (or someone else can) by taking a high resistance Champion plug and heating it in an oven to 300 deg F or so and measuring the resistance again. Wear your oven mitts, though! I also believe any attempt to establish a GAMI spread and make changes to reduce it must first start with a good set of spark plugs. I think many folks who have not been able to get good LOP engine results may have misbehaving spark plugs....but did not know it and blamed something else. You have a JPI engine analyzer.... can you download your engine data? Do you have EZTrends plotting software? Also, for subsequent data, can you set your data rate to 2 seconds, go do a flight with the old plugs and do a real slow GAMI lean check....then after changing to new plugs, go out and repeat the same thing at the about the same weight, cg, altitude, temperature, and power? Such data would be most illuminating.

I transitioned from a 172(great plane) to a "K". The Mooney is different. Your takeoff/landing, traffic pattern work has to be re-learned, but if you learned how to fly, you can easily learn how to fly the Mooney. I don't care for the current panel of that plane. You can find one with a 430/530 and a better A/P and an HSI probably for the same money.