thinwing

I think if I had a business trip out of town and I had the choice of a 6hour drive,3hour airline(with ckeckin) or 1.5 hr flight in the mooney I owned...I would be really bummed about the no fly ban.It really comes down to a quality of life issue...how much irritation or inconvenience one is willing to put up with.Seths company will never have an appreciation of the time savings(his ability to make 2 or 3 times the sales calls or business meetings )as opposed to the rather miniscule risk.Even at 1or 2 fatals per 100000 flying hours...actual risk is low...or too put into odds..how many eons would it take to win the lottery at those odds???I think it comes down to an intelligent assessment of risks vs an "expert" advising a company what an acceptible risk is.my 2 cents ,thank god the boss I answer to i see every day in the mirror and we are usually in agreement...kpc

After reading all the posts on when to retract the gear,I was reminded of a discussion my gf and I had while climbing out IFR from Crescent City CA this weekend.She asked if the engine quit right now where would you put it down...at the time we were over the coast range with varied terrain.Deep river valleys,occasional flat spots clear of trees but mostly mountainous terrain with occasional lakes and streams.I know where my immediate action would leave us(probably wet)....so what would you do fellow Mooney Nuts in the event of of an engine failure say 3000 agl over mountainous terrain???...Earth,trees or water???

Scammers......sometimes so entertaining!!!..I had a model jetengine for sale on one of the model forums.Guy from colombia says he wants engine and sends me a cashiers check for 15000 usd.Engine was less than a third of that ...he says to send him the change!!!!The check is done on a color copier ,looks ok,but is minus the security features..watermark,lines in the paper,security holo..etc.I decided to string the guy out by claiming to have shipped the engine to the wrong address.I had him going to different businesses at opposite ends of town to "pickup"his treasure!!!I still have the check...I called the bank the check was drawn on and security didnt care!!!...I had fun with the guy for a while...caveat emptor..kpc

the other question I have is are the wheelcovers original (or just standard clevelands)that should have had a hole to allow the valvestem to poke thru???

Last year after a panel upgrade..the boost pump started acting up...the pump itself (on bravo at least)is located just behind copilots footwell....it turned out to be a bad ground...but at a loose multiplug behind the pilots panel.We thought maybe we had loosened during all the panel work..(not an Aspen Peter...sorry)but reading these posts and the logbooks I am not so sure...An msc decided to overhaul at considerable expense the fuelpump at maybe 600 hrs...I wonder if the basic problem is dirty ground connections that are not close to the unit itself???Oh ...total time to R and R a fuel pump about an hour and half..and it was the first one i have done...kpc

Will do Mitch!!!this year I am thinking of flying into ktvl in N246d...a Ventus B 15m racing class sailplane.Jana would have to ground crew for the launch so thats why she thinks Im nuts!!.....kpc

that makes sense to me...unlike the guy building the rv who has never done it before,has no permenent jigs or a supervisor to advise or kick butt to motivate..if you seperate out all the major subassemblies...I could see the hour total dropping if one employee or group is doing the same thing daily...doesnt sound like fun or a person would feel satisfaction of a good job done by only rivetting up aileron skins all day using preformed and punched parts...and a jig ..One employee could build 10s per day of these 2500 usd items.Now...its 3/4 workers or vendors looking up how to build up a seatpan...and taking 50hrs on it???kpc

I am jealous...oh well ..not this year for me...enjoy one and all....kpc

hi Jesse...Ive made 3 trips in the last 25 years or so.You donot state your intended route...inside passage or highway/trench route.I have found that there isnt any need to land on non hardsuraced runways either route unless you have to make a diversion due to weather.Your E model is perfectly capable of making the trip...but make sure you are ifr current for the trip...my favorite is up the west coast port Hardy (Vancouver island) to ketchican with prince rupert as alternate...Ketchican to juneau (atlin or whitehorse as alternate...maybe sitka)Juneau to yakatat...(no alternate )Yakatat to cordova and corodova to anchorage ..from there side trips to kenai and talkeetna all using paved strips with good instrument approaches.The highway (trench a cutoff to ware BC saves a 150 miles over the highway)route is where you will see lots of gravel strips but are not required to make the trip...than its great falls to edmonton or princ george to whitehorse to watsons lake to big delta alaska.You could take a side trip to Dawson ...than from big delta to fairbanks and than loop south again to anchorage....its a big state...2 weeks is ideal in case of weather you are not comfortable with.have fun...weather in aug probably best...kpc

Even the six will be feeling small if the backseat kiddles are all doing the.."Hes touching me" or the ever popular "when are we gonna get there!!Than it becomes not size but speed assuming he is not going to take the plunge to cabin class big enough for his kids to runarround.Of those a/c he has been looking at ,only the cherokee six has that stretched 6 seats space plus tons of baggage front and back.The problem is that even with that big 300hp (260 on older )it is no speed demon.That high lift wing was not laminar and cruises are similar to all three.The dakota would climb better than his 180 but not offer any increased space.So by lookingat the Mooneys 20 to 25 kt speed increase with half the fuel burn of the six...he is on the right track...kpc

I had the same paint coming off rivet issues...I think this is caused by the paint applied too thick at the factory and stresses on the rivet heads while the wing is getting stressed during turbulence.So far I have been just been touching up rivet heads with same catalysed paint than color sanding 2 weeks later...I do it every annual...the rest of the paint job is fine ...I have thought of painting just the tops of the wings but that would make paint even thicker plus add weight...kpc

Hey remember when plane and pilot had B T as one of their "ask the experts"column.Oh those were the days!!!

it looks the same as my 79.oo model...price on these gizmos really dropping since I bought mine...to check its accuracy take a reading at sealevel and compare to same individual at 12k...and yep natures airconditioning ,go up high!!..kpc

So I see after googling Halon...about a couple hundred types and yes not only does it smother the fire but reacts with o2 at the flame interface,reacts with the fuel to make it noncombustible,chills the object by converting a liquid stream to gas at room temperature (like co2)but works at concentrations as low as 5% so you dont asphixiate yourself in a small cabin.Also implicated in destroying the ozone layer so that no new halon is being produced...its all supposely recycled in new fire exstinguishers.Great stuff really!!!..kpc

Thanks for the Pirep...reminds me of a night I had to park the Mooney in springfield..a little ag strip 20 nm west of Yancton...really sweated out a supercell moving in and no way to hanger the Mooney...fortunately no hail storm that night..it pounded Yancton instead!!!I agree with you about the turbo...full gross takeoffs at 6/7 k field elevation are a non event...never landed at leadville though...kp couch

I think folks are confusing the different types of fire extinquishers...dry chemical blows a cloud of white dust...very messy and due to the alkinline chemical will attack avionics...Co2...very cold fog/snow erupting all over...would ifr the cabin...Halon...colorless,oderless gas that is inert and smothers the flame by displacing oxygen...most expensive but also the type supplied by Mooney for my Bravo.I have had to use all three to extinquish model turbine fires....co2 worked the fastest while halon was the most expensive to replace...norefill...personally I am glad one is back there in the little recess in front of the back seat...kp couch

Ken...my experience with the Big engine continentals(I dont see the air scoop on top of the cowl in the avatar picture so yours must be a "B model)that they were happiest at 25 squared...that worked out to be closer to 30 gal and hour.Mine had alky props for ice protection and that was it...it would carry more ice than the mooney wing though.Make sure your spar carrythru is free of cracks and that landing gear moter/transmission has been serviced.I did have to replace 3 or 4 jugs during the first engine run and than none on the later factory new engines i hung in 2000.Oleo struts were a constant problem as they would leak down...you want about a hand with in the main scissor.I used to take 5 and 6 seats out and put a couple 50cc mini bikes back there to get arround...great fun...goodluck with new bird..sinc kp couch

Aaron...no offense but I really dont think so guy!!!!sinc kpc

congats Ken....There are definitely times I miss my D55 Baron...great control harmony and very fast...not as fast as the Bravo...but would climb out at 1500 ft per min and cruise at 16ooo with a 20 gal total fuel burn...and had a ton useful load....not a missprint...2000lbs...and would go into short strips I wouldnt dare put the Mooney in...still...paying for 2 of everything....good luck..kpc

Maybe not Dave,he might have mistranslated "Mooneyspace"into "money area" and thought he was going to get some..LOL..KPC

Peter...40 in to 13 k !!!! I didnt realized you 231 owners pushed them that hard!sinc kp couch

dmevans...thanks for the controllers pov.I see you state your location as Hayward so I assume you work oakland center or one of the norcals and you might have even worked me .I frequently file for high teens low twenties and my climb is typically 500 ft per min in a cruise climb to altitude.These altitudes are chosen (as you are no doubt aware)to climb on top of weather or for terrain avoidance/smooth ride.I have noted that I am always cleared as filed at these altitudes but your mention of transitioning of turbine a/c from enroute to terminal through them is interesting.I assume you could always turn a merging target left or right if you ended up with a conflict??Anyway sorry if us little guys increase your workload but us with turbocharged equipment run best at these altitudes and as another controller pointed out to me ,no body but turbocharged piston aircraft are using...thanks for the input..kp couch

same here,...I use the flaps (takeoff first notch)especially when heavy which is most of the time.The nose wheel bouncing is a product of the non oleo strut design and any iregularities in the runway.A fine touch on the elevator as well as proper trim cam smooth these out ,so a little time with a good instructor should help a lot.And then,again ,everyonce in a while I will encounter a "hump" in the runway when I least expected it and go bouncing down the runway...what fun!!!..good luck ..sinc kp couch

Hi there,last time we went we flew into lake union w55(you could only do that once in a mooney though).The thing that impressed me was the traffic...I would pick closest to your hotel but have used renton krnt due to freeway construction...have a great time.PS...curious about your avatar...one of the more intreguing characters of all I discovered in the stand...kpc

or a bravo....