Skywarrior

I've had luck with TriFlow. But, it doesn't last long - reapply as needed. The summer heat seems to be the culprit. You and I are both in southern states, and Summer really heats up the plane's interior, and the yoke shaft has increased friction against the rubbing blocks.

To make me fly more smoothly, my instructor advised me to rest the 'outer' part of each hand on its respective thigh, then use finger tips to hold the yoke. It works well for me. And, as a Bravo driver, I've found that I need to use two hands when flaring before landing. That nose is heavy...

My Bravo's POH specifies 2000 RPM for runup, but several instructors have advised me to use only 1700 or 1800 RPM, to reduce the chance of drawing rocks into the prop, causing nicks. Also, since you're not moving, a lower RPM reduces the chance of overheating (well, for a little while, anyway). (The best way to check your mags is to do it in flight.) For general engine advice, I recommend articles/webinars by Deakin and Busch.

At high altitude and high power setting, I would strongly recommend running 200 ROP. Yes... seriously.

The turbo-related costs I've had were caused by imprudent operation by the previous owner(s). I had to repair pitting in the exhaust transition pipe, and had to put in a new butterfly valve (wastegate). The original one had *disintegrated*. Both problems were caused by excessive heat. I try to be conservative when operating the engine. Hopefully that will pay off for me.

Be sure to contact Brian Nelson, on here as "orionflt". He owns a vintage Mooney and is an A&P. He lives NW of Philly. Chuck M. (in Lower Bucks)

The fact that he considers his F to now be a J says a lot. I hope you don't have to deal with him much...

My numbers are about the same as these other folks.

I'm not an electronics expert, and I didn't stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night... but it sounds like a 'box' somewhere depends upon being hermetically sealed - but isn't.

Does an 'E' have a static system drain tube?

While I like the Mooney Bravo (of course), it would prob. be overkill for your stated needs. I wanted a plane that could climb to 10k feet quickly, and that had lots of interior room. Reasons? My wife won't accompany me if there's extended turbulence - and I don't like to fly alone. Plus, I'm big. Here's my suggestion: buy a used Cessna 150 and learn in it. Beat the snot out of it when you're learning to land. Get nice and sick of how damn slow it is. And get the license. Then sell the 150. THEN... peruse the used A/C market again. I think you'll prob. gravitate back toward Mooneys... but who knows? It can be titillating to read through airplane ads and dream... (a friend's wife calls them "airplane porn"). Another suggestion: Stay 'in the moment'. Set goals, like 1. Get PPL 2. Research used A/C market 3. Find financing (if needed) 4. Research insurance options Don't be like me - I found an airplane I thought was really cool - even though I hadn't touched a control wheel in twenty years. I bought it and then had to slog through re-learning how to fly in an airplane that just seemed to be a beast. Sure - *now* I feel comfortable flying it. But, ya know what? I prob. would have been just as happy patrolling the local cow pastures in a Piper Cub. I guess I'm saying, "Don't put the cart before the horse."

Hello, all - Walking through the local Sam's Club, saw a new DSLR camera from Sony: DSCH300. It uses a CCD sensor, vice a CMOS sensor. That should mean that it uses a Global Shutter, vice a Rolling Shutter. So, it *should* be able to shoot inflight video without any propeller artifacts. Right out of the box. No filter needed. That would also give it better low-light capability. Particulars: - 720p video (hmmm, not 1080...) - CCD Sensor - $180 (ooooh!) - No GPS connectivity, like the Garmin VIRB has... - No included mounting hardware. - Don't know what the audio input story is... I'm gonna buy one, since the price is so reasonable. I'll report back...

Keep an eagle eye on TIT, CHT and EGT. Don't push the limits. At high power settings, you must run much richer than you might think - up to 200 deg ROP (if you're not running LOP). Or, lower your power settings for usual flying, and only "pour the coals to it" when you really do need the extra power. You can get a lot of power out of a Rocket, but that doesn't mean you always *should*. As Chris Rock says, "I could drive a car with my feet... but that doesn't mean it's a good ****ing idea !!"

I could not find a web site for his business.

There cannot be a significant Meredith Effect in a Mooney, because there would have to be a rear-facing vent for the heated air. Normally, the cowl flaps are closed. Editorial: The cooling setup in a Mooney (and most other recips other than radials) is horribly inefficient. The incoming air hits many obstacles on its way through the engine compartment. The worst part is that the incoming air must change direction 90 degrees as it flows down past the cylinder fins. The clutter and the direction change greatly elevate that airflow's Reynolds Number. That means that it has very little ability to soak heat from the cylinders, due to the turbulence in the flow. And, the cooling fins are, in my opinion, too close together to allow easy airflow past them. This causes the air to want to flow *around* the fins - not *through* them. Cooling would happen much more efficiently if the air was forced to flow tightly past the cylinders in a front-to-back direction, instead of the current top-to-bottom direction. <Class Dismissed>

Compressions can easily vary between checks, just due to the varying positions of the rings in each piston between checks. But... TWO cylinders showing low compression at the same time is an outlier, so to speak. Those cylinders do need to be borescoped. To my Holiday Inn Express mind, the problem could well be eroded exhaust valves. This situation is a good rationale for spending the money on an engine monitor with downloadable data. I'm looking at getting an MVP-50P myself.

All Bravos, by definition, have 'wet' heads. All well and good. But that just addressed heat in the exhaust valve guides. A Bravo owner must also aggressively manage CHT, EGT, TIT, EIEIO... You may wish to peruse this article about Bravos: http://www.mooneypilots.com/mapalog/M20M_prepurchase_inspection.html

Pre-buy annual was $11,000. (deferred maintenance) Next annual was $6,300. (new shock discs all 'round) Recent annual was $1,600. (routine)

Just speaking from my own experience, the turbo and its heat can cause problems in the exhaust crossover tube and the wastegate butterfly valve. Those two items had to be either replaced or repaired after my pre-buy inspection. However, dot dot dot... those problems can be minimized by running your engine at a lower power setting than the POH recommends. The POH seems to have been partially written by 'old' Mooney's marketing department. Yes, the turbine blades are made of a special material that allows operation up to 1750 degF TIT. Yes, you can run the engine at high power settings at most all altitudes. But... that doesn't mean you *should*. Read or watch Mike Busch's papers/webinars on power management and causes of engine deterioration. Watch or attend an APS engine seminar. Understand how rich you really have to run a high-performance engine when at high MAP (assuming you run ROP). Anecdotal evidence tells me that at least one other Bravo owner has had the same heat-related deterioration that my airplane has had. If you're willing to view a Bravo's extra power as a resource to be called up infrequently, only when really needed, I believe you'll find it is not much more expensive to annual than most other Mooneys. On the positive side, the Bravo climbs to cool, smooth air very quickly. Once there, you can set up a reasonable power level and take advantage of the thin air and stronger tailwinds (well, *hopefully* *tail*winds). Some owners are able to run their Bravo LOP. I can't. The best I can tell, the reason I can't is that the intake manifold won't supply fuel/air mixture evenly to all cylinders. But, as I said, some owners *can*. YMMV.

Used to skydive at the Refugio airport in the '70s. The owner, Hans Vandervlug, used to say that his name sounds like a curse word. Great guy.

You mentioned that you spent a lot of time idling at full-rich mixture. Try leaning aggressively while idling, taxiing, etc. If you still get stumbling, do a lean run-up. You may have just had gunk on your spark plug tips. This same thing happened to me when I was transitioning to my plane, and my instructor had me do those steps. Took care of it. I now lean aggressively while on the ground.

https://www.savvymx.com Call Mike Busch 702-655-1359 . He can give you good advice on what to check for, and how best to proceed.

I will try to go.

Had a similar problem discovered during the Pre-buy when purchasing my Bravo. The transition pipe was severely pitted (from excessive heat). Shop sent the transition pipe to a company in Canada, who welded over the pits and sent it back. $5,000 New would be better than repaired.

Jeff S. : I can't get the plane over to PDK because my BFR is expired.