aviatoreb

Quote: 201er I really like my Halo headset and believe it or not have stopped using the Bose since I got this. The noise cancellation isn't as good as the ANR Bose, especially on takeoff, but the voice clarity is outstanding and clearer so I prefer them. Far better value as well. The only trouble I have is the ear piece cords hang down too much. It's very rare that they get caught on stuff but it makes me look ridiculous in photos. Has anyone figured out a way to keep them out of the way better?

Quote: pjsny78 You mean like the switches in my Bravo aka $9.99 cents available from anywhere on the planet or $250.00 from Mooney Company. It's a an effing switch...Yes, I'm sure my Honeywell switch is current limiting, protects me from witches, etc. Yes, I have the part numbers, 15 from Honeywell or 250 from Mooney Company. Same with the voltage regulators....

Quote: 201er Without getting into politics again, what have you found to be the most controversial Mooney topic/debate?

Quote: Mazerbase Erik, the Icon appears to be a cool airplane but it isn't available yet and it is pretty expensive for what you get. The other, and maybe most important issue, is the way the canopy opens. It tilts forward. The most common accident in amphibians is landing on the water with the gear down which flips the plane forward and over. In shallow water, you would be trapped. My SeaRey, available now and for considerably less money, has two sliding canopies that can be opened in flight and, regardless of how the plane ends up, one or both will be able to be opened. The Icon hasn't been flown with landing gear yet to my knowledge and I'm not sure if it is a conventional or tricycle gear. The conventional gear is far superior to tricycle when trying to get up muddy banks where you can fold over the small nose gear.

Quote: triple8s Other than the Medical Card Issue, I dont see the point either. I told my wife that she better be thinking about lessons so when I do get to "that" point on the Medical Card that I'd still be able to fly. I have been really on her about this, (her learning to fly) two pilots in the front would greatly improve safety and make for LOTS more fun for both. I do wonder though if she would tell me what I'm doing wrong like when I am left seat in her G-35. Maybe Jetdriven will chime in on this one?

Check this thing out - it is essentially a segway-like principle auto-balance electric self propelled wheel. Doesn't get much portable than this thing. http://www.coolhunting.com/design/solowheel.php

Quote: jetdriven 150k can hire a CFi to sit in the right seat for 10,000 hours also. His medical then.

Quote: borealone

Quote: borealone

What do you know! I was ramp checked today. Eeesh. My buddy and I FINALLY got our act together to fly to Canada today. Just a training flight ot learn all the ins and outs of all the regs. So we flew KPTD -> CYCC. Yup. 29.8 mi. In a Mooney Rocket. Well, it was actually useful to have a fast climber since we needed to get up to 5k to pick up ATC and then dive right back down to land. Thank you speed brakes. Canadians. Nice. Return home, check in at KMSS (Massena nearest port of entry to KPTD). The border patrol was there with their truck waiting for us. He was pretty gruff and wanted to do a full search, and see all of our ARROW + passport + DTOPS + eAPIS etc info. And search the plane and pass with a geiger counter and many questions. It took 1hr on the ground total which really slows down what is a 10min direct flight, eh? Really the border guy was obviously doing a crank border guy schtick rather than actually being cranky and he was just having fun. Said he was required to check everything and it was more fun to do it as he was and hoped we didn't think he was really angry at us. Its cool. Luckily I really was a good guy with no radioactive material or chemicals on board. So he wished us well and sent us on our we to proceed the next 16mi of flying home.

Quote: scottfromiowa I thought Ian was EXTREMELY biased against the M20E. On the intro with his photo he talks about loading four and having his knees jammed into the panel? What...? Then he explains how the owner/pilot introjected and discussed the PROPER way to board the aircraft. How may I ask do you jam your knees into the panel? Your knees..hell all your legs are UNDER the panel in an M20E. For most they are close to the yoke to reach the pedals properly...He goes on to talk about how bad the panels are and how the fuel tanks leak and how they have corrosion problems...but they are fast, but not as fast as he had been told...he then went on to say that an M20E should be priced at $52k if it has a 530 and a nice auto pilot. What a load of crap. He went on to say that you either like or hate the J Bar...He then discussed how the aileron's are STIFF...without discussing the change that took place in later E Models...He didn't discuss the differences in first vs. progressive modifications by Mooney to include elimination of the crank step and outfitting with a vacuum step. He did NOT discuss the strength and fact that later Mooney's have MORE corrosion problems than do mid-60's birds...I like the fact that the plane was on the cover...I very much disliked the tone of the article discussing how this plane was such a compromise and contradiction of good vs. bad. He didn't even mention the F if you WANT more room of the same vintage. All in all a poorly unknowledgeable negatively written article that did more damage than good in promoting the M20E...IMO.

Quote: flyboy0681 Interestingly, a chart from the article shows that 56% of SR20 accidents resulted in fatalities vs Mooney's 29%. However, when looking at overall fatal accident rates, Mooney topped the list at 1.9 versus Cirrus' 1.8 and Cessna's .45. These numbers are from 1997 onward for Cirrus and Cessna, but the Mooney stats go back earlier in the 90's and covers the M, R & S series only.

Quote: Becca So, I actually think, having sit in a Mooney and Bonanza and a Cirrus and a Warrior that a Mooney is indeed a tight plane. I understand volumetrically they are very similar, but the question is where the volume of your body is placed. Me, personally, I have short legs (and require rudder pedal extensions), and have to pull the seat very close to the panel (not as close in my J as some of the older models, but still close). Thus, I don't get to take advantage of all the "leg" volume that adds into that volumetric total. Maybe I'd feel different about the space if I was 6' tall and long legged. But to me, that's unusable volume. Whereas, with our center panel of throttle/prop/mixture levers, the width is constrained, and I continue to have my head fairly close to the ceiling, since I am short, I have to raise my seat. In other words, the volume is there, but its an ergonomic problem that makes it cramped, comparitively. Not to complain about my beloved Mooney, it is not unusably cramped and all small planes require you to get a little "close" to your friends/passengers/copilot, and the other advantages (speed, price, fuel efficiency) make the "cramped" worth it.

Quote: orangemtl But isn't the survivability with the parachute still only like 50/50? Is there any control of the parachute or does it plop you wherever it takes you be it power lines, lake, or edge of a cliff?

Quote: eldeano AMEN: They do not know airplanes, so they fall for the sex appeal!!!!!! Marketing!!!!! The well educated pilot that has owned other planes, and flown multiple types knows better. I have flown DA 40 180s!! step above a 172, but not as rugged for training, all kinds of maintenance issues. Not a high performance airplane. I would rather own a 172. SR20s Not bad for a low performance airplane but horrible at high altitude! Not near the performance of a Mooney with the same HP. SR22s, add HP to try and make up for poor airframe performance. Crazy maintenance costs, insurance costs, and not great performance. They are comfy and filled with gadgets, but at a cost with weight and performance. Columbia's are sweet. They have a very tight push pull rod system, that is solid. A ttx corvalis would be awesome. I delivered a Caravan to Cessna for a tks conversion. I asked about the fiki vs inadvertant ice system for the ttx and was told Cessna will never call it FIKI for liability reasons. Cessna is currently being sued for icing issued in other airplanes, despite favorable NTSB reports. Bottom line the current state of GA, you can get some pretty awesome used airplanes for the price of a new LSA. Not to mention the price of a Cirrus sr-22 GT3.

Quote: KSMooniac Oh my! Beautiful. That reminds me of a story in Flying back in the 80s when they decided to do a joint feature with Road and Track (or similar) and take two new $1xx,000 machines and race from somewhere in So Cal to Arizona or Nevada (can't remember). It was a Ferrari vs. a 201, leaving from a residence and arriving at a hotel so that the pilot needed to account for the ground time at each end. The Ferrari had a team where the non-driver worked the binoculars and CB radio so that it could be a max speed run without going to jail. Of course the Mooney driver won!

Quote: sreid Have you flown much in early Cirrus's? I don't know anyone else who would say their interior is remotely close to "Lexus". More comparable to a late '80s Ford. And I'd expect the maintenance costs to be considerably higher than a comparable Mooney.

Quote: allsmiles Don't smoke in the cockpit!

Quote: Seth Due to the information on other threads about water in the tanks, I did not want to hijack another thread, so I created this one: I usually sump first before doing anything else (sump then check oil) during preflight because that way the wing is not stirred around and water won't move away from the sump. Once oil and fuel suping (and visuall checking fuel levels) are completed, I then finish the preflight, or pull the plane out of the T-hanger and then finish the preflight. After fueling up, either a truck filling up or at a self serve pump, I do not sump, as the fuel has stirred everything around, and there is no real point to, or at least that is what instructors have told me time and time again (though that may not be correct - hence one of the questions below). If the truck fills up my plane at my hanger, I always sump before the truck arrives when the fuel and hopefully any potential water, has settled to the sump. If I go flying right then, I'll not sump. if I put the aircraft back in the hanger, I'll sump during the next pre-flight. Every time I start the engine, I sump both the right and left feeds from the center pull up ring inside the cabin on the floor, regardless if I just landed a short while ago and it's a hot start or not. I have never found water in the Mooney tanks, but if I did, I would sump an extra two or three fuel testers worth and then gently rock the wing and check again. i have found dirt/debris in the past while sumping, but that was rarely. Questions for Mooney pilots: 1. When do you sump during your pre-flight? 2. Do you sump after new fuel has been added? 3. Does rocking the wing actually do anything, or will water collect regardless at the sump location? 4. Has anyone found water in their tanks after leaving their aircraft in a hanger (maybe hard IFR flight or bad fuel - or bad hanger roof!!)? 5. Does anyone reuse fuel that they sump? Do you use a filteter device and place it back in the wing or put it into a generator or other motor device for actual fuel use? Not trying to stir the pot, just seeing what others do to enhance my own standard operating procedures. Take care, -Seth

Quote: xftrplt

Quote: AlexR Don't know if it is true, but according to Aviation Consumer...there is really only one grade of Oxygen which is low humidity. I all come from the same sources in the same tanker trucks. Per Aviation Consumer, medical oxygen is humidified at the hospital by passing the oxygen through water. They say welders, aviation, and medical are all the same and can be used....for what its worth.

I learned something interesting regarding the difference between welders oxygen, medical oxygen and aviation oxygen yesterday. I take my portable 22CF bottle to a gas supply outlet for a large regional company. The outlet store has mostly welding equipment in the store front but it is part of a larger company that distributes all sorts of gas in metal cylinders. They have medical O2 and welders O2 at the store there and they ship my bottle to Syracuse to the company center where they have an aviation O2 filler. Typically the medical stores and hospitals well either receive a filler medical cylinder from this company, or otherwise they will receive bottles to fill. So I am lucky that this outlet store is maybe 10 mi from my house. I had a discussion with them as to the difference between the various grades. They said primarily aviation O2 has a much lower water (humidity) content whereas medical O2 is specifically mixed to have a certain amount of humity in it for more comfort. The reason for low humity in aviation O2 is to prevent freezing of the O2 in the lines. The reason is that there is only one grade of aviation O2. The guy says that they even get shipments of many very very large O2 bottles from Burlington from the airlines. What that means is when a 727 wants to fill its bottles which may be stored in a cargo area, and that airplane may fly up at say FL43 in the winter, at say -60C up there, well you need a carefully regulated allowable water content in the O2 to prevent freezing in those lines. But since there is only one aviation standard, maybe we do not need that in our Moonys flying at FL20, especially if your bottle is sitting in the cabin with you behind your seat. I do live in a cold climate and ground level temps can go down to -35C on record setting nights (not this year!) but the fact is I do not typically go flying below say -20C since it is just too unpleasant the process of pulling the airplane out of the hangar and preflighting when it is much colder. So call the lowest OAT I will likely see to be ~-40C. Furthermore, the bottle sits in the cabin with me and I have excellent cabin heating with the rocket conversion, so cabin temps are much much warmer. So, I went ahead and had them fill with medical O2. I figure that besides the convenience that they would fill right there while I waited 5 min instead of shipping it out and having to come back in a week, that the extra moisture is good for the soft tissue in the nose, and the lungs, etc. I do think that I will pay attention to not leaving my bottle in the airplane overnight before a flight in case it is an extra frigid night before a flight. I usually check the airplane and runway conditions the evening before a flight in the winter anyway, so now besides ensuring the engine is plugged in, retrieving my headset to warm it up, I will retrieve my bottle.

Quote: KSMooniac ChrisH posted a report of a Rocket accident likely due to flutter above, which I had not previously known about. I recall reading about a J that broke apart during a night IMC t'storm penetration in East Texas several years ago. Those are the only known breakups to me, but I haven't done an extensive search either. Both of those incidents started with bad pilot decisions and were not the fault of an airframe weakness IMO. Few airplanes are built to survive every conceivable speed and atmospheric Wx condition. I read about an account in a K (I think) somewhere around the Denver area that had a loss of control incident that resulted in a dive and a high-G pullup, but the pilot was able to land safely. Afterwards the upper wing skins were observed to have been wrinkled and the insurance company scrapped the plane. That damage was simple overload, and not flutter. It appeared on ebay sometime later after getting "fixed" in Kentucky. (draw your own conclusions here) It is safe to say without reservation that there is no widespread problem with structural integrity or flutter with any Mooney airframe.

Quote: KSMooniac My Encore Conversion has different counterweights than the original 252 (And Mooney charges a pretty good amount for them). But the Rocket has the same counterweights as the original 252, if my understanding of the Rocket conversion is correct.

Quote: jetdriven Because the M20TN flutter limit was raised higher than a M20K. As far as his article goes, an RV-4 is an RV-4 is an RV-4.