Frosty

On my M20A the nose gear doors had holes burned/scorched in the fiberglass by proximity to the exhaust in addition to many years of wear and tear. I took them off, sanded them down, and rebuilt them using S-Glass using AeroPoxy, standard fiber glass repair techniques. I found a local body shop that could match the paint and a friend with a paint gun to refinish them. My A&P inspector had no problem signing off installing refurbished nose gear doors. They worked great, after linkage adjustment, when we swung the gear and looked like new.

Quote: HopePilot "How did you get from 10 feet to 500 feet per minute with an anemic rate of climb?" ...In other words, I had good airspeed in ground effect, but I traded most of that energy when I made the initial climb. As we started to climb above ground effect we discovered we had an unusually low climb rate... ...All I can say, is don't raise your flaps (all the way) and gear at the same time on a hot day, because you won't like the sensation.

Quote: jetdriven How did you go from being so fast that the airplane ballooned into a climb at the flare, to where you had to apply full throttle to just have a hard landing? It takes a while to bleed off that much speed, perhaps ten seconds.

With my K, there is a very significant nose up bias with either the the gear or the flaps coming up. Both at once requires both hands on the yoke to keep the nose down and would be a serious challenge using manual trim. On any take off or go around I start the electric trim first to get a head start and keep the gear and flap motion sequential. The PNF interfering with a qualified PF is unacceptable. Starting the flaps at the wrong time unexpectedly is serious (potentially fatal). I fired an instructor, & lost a friend, because he pulled on the yoke causing us to ballon on a hot landing. I knew we were hot and was waiting for the speed to bleed off, he wanted the nose up. Immediate full throttle resulted in a hard landing instead of broken airplane.

Boy has this topic ever wondered from subject to subject. It started with a question on shock cooling, covered ROP-LOP, POH v.s. GAMI/American Pilot, engine temperatures, throttle management, percentage power, and mooney mpg effeciency. I'll add a couple of thoughts but I won't quote my POH or Braly, just thoughts, or maybe better expressed as my philosophy based on reading many sources and boiling it down. The critical temperature for aluminum is about 350 degrees. Above that temperature it starts losing strength. Somewhere north 400 the effect gets serious, 450 is excessive (my opinion). I like 380 as a target for max CHT and start making adjustments to cool things down when any cylindar exceeds that. For my engine, TSIO360LB in a 231, I don't worry about shock cooling. I just plain don't believe it is a factor for CHT's below 350. If I start under 380 I'll be under 350 before I get a 30 degree drop. On the other hand if I started at 450 I might be concerned about sudden changes. For the record: I have both feet planted firmly in the WOTLOP camp. Big pull to lean early when climbing to altitude and stay lean until I start my descent by leaning agressively, way before I start reducing MP. By the time I start reducing MP my CHTs are 320 or below. Shock what? My engineis already cool. Also I don't mind running a tank until it's dry. Hows that work out for shock cooling... WOT cruise fuel set to stay under 380, then out of fuel until I switch tanks. My JPI doesn't show much CHTchange, not enought to cause concern. Understand, I am not suggesting anyone else should run their engine this way but it works for me.

Quote: cwright27 Thanks for the help guys! Good info. Am I right in assuming that what the factory TIT gauge is reading is a sum of all the egt's going to the turbo and when one cylinder peaks and comes down that temp is reflected in the overall temp that the gauge is reading? I guess the problem going LOP with the factory TIT gauge is that there's no way to tell when the last cylinder has peaked and setting 50 degrees lean based on that last cylinder.....

Quote: Parker_Woodruff What altitude were you getting 166 knots? Was that KTAS or KIAS?

Quote: Parker_Woodruff Hey Frosty, Congrats on being able to do a LOP in a 231. What fuel flow are you getting and from what MP & RPM combination?

Chris, is your GEM certified as a replacement fot the TIT? My JPI could be but isn't. Your GEM may be more responsive but may not be accurate and isn't 'legal' if not certified. Frosty

I have a 231 with an intercooler and merlyn, not a 252 but close. I pull LOP climbing out, one big pull maybe 1000 AGL when I am assured of making it back to the runway worst case, then climb LOP adjusting to maintain 350-370 max CHT. I am using a JPI for CHTand EGT and the factory TIT but the TIT has never been a factor flying LOP. It seldom gets to 1400. I have 15 years and 1500 hours since factory reman. The engine is running strong and sailing thru annuals. I can't imagine ever wanting to go back to flying ROP.

Quote: Skybrd One of my friends was flying his M20A Mooney non stop from Albur... New Mexico to Inyokern and ended up running out of fuel about 15 miles short. It was dark when the engine quit and he set the plane down on a curvy road heading west. Some would say he was real lucky but I think he was helped from the Lord. His wife and him came out unharmed but the plane was totaled. The only reason why I wrote about this is to let you know it could happen to you and you might not want to push your plane's endurance. I think my friends accident was partially due to strong headwinds. Fortunately my friend has a newer Mooney and still flyes. -- respectfully, Darrell

Has anyone suggesting removing the KNS80 ever used one. I have one in my 231 and consider it a very capable RNAV unit. My 231 also has a reman LB, intercooler,and merlyn. My avionics are King with a coupled approach capable KLN90. I am waiting to replace it with a 530 when the used units start coming down in price. Saw a pair coming out of a TBM offered for $5K last week.

My wife won't get in a vehicle that doesn't have a name. Our M20A was "Penny". The M20K was christened "Belle" before our first flight.

Quote: AustinChurch I've been working on mine off-and-on the last few years and life just keeps getting in the way. Doesn't it ever!!! I've had that same experience. Each of the last 3 years was going to be the year I got my instrument. I was making good progress in Sept before the doctor told my wife she has cancer. She finished Radiation and Chemo at USC Norris Cancer Institute (impressive capability, great service) the end of Jan. She spent 4 days in the hospital last week but things are slowing down. Yesterday was the first time since Sept I had time to go to the airport. Get my battery serviced and a through preflight and I'll be ready to knock the rust off and get back at it.

I can't say much for ELT reliability. When I pancaked my M20A on a road in the dark it broke the wing but didn't trigger the ELT. I was using flight following and they had the Highway patrol there before I finished walking around the plane. I fly over some pretty remote country between California and Kansas. I like the 406 satellite coverage.

Oh yes, a couple of other points. Make sure to clean them well to get rid of any oil. I used a final wipe down with alcohol. My edge trim was hard and shrunk up and there was no way it could be salvaged so I did buy new trim from Plane Plastic.

I skuffed the back with sandpaper, cut fiberglass to fit as required, brushed on resin, laid cut pieces of plastic drop cloth over the repair, and then clamped with a variety of boards, blocks, and angle iron to straighten warped sections. I covered the ashtray openings with fiberglass. Mine were also badly yellowed. When all the cracked places and pulled through screws had been repaired I painted the panels antique white. The armrests and trim I repaired using leather repair kits. Mine were bad enough I had a chance to try several different kits I found online using Google. The "Professional Leather & Vinyl Repair Kit" "The original LIQUID LEATHER " with a heating iron included worked the best. I sprayed them with vinyl 'paint' from aircraft spruce. They were the original burgandy and I went with navy to match the 'new paint' done in '93. I had doubts about coverage but the old color doesn't show throught at all. I have before, I will try to get some after pictures to post.

I looked at them, decided that they would fit, then decided to rebuild my original panels instead of trimming and 'painting' theirs. Takes time but I am happy with the results.