Shadrach

If you are able to get some info, please report back.

I had not thought about that to be honest. I might give them a call. Looks like Isaac sold his Mooney in 2018. If you look up his N number, you can see his full name, and where the plane was registered during his ownership. Maybe you can track him down and ask.

Don’t make me angry Drew, you wouldn’t like me when I’m angry…

Much better if you flip them around backwards. They make better tail draggers…

I honestly had no problem opening and closing the door to retrieve the seat belt tail. I don’t remember exactly how I set the airplane up. Maybe trimmed for nose up… this was at least 6 years ago so not fresh in my mind. Just remember that I was expecting it to be a problem and was pleasantly surprised.

Perhaps. Looking at ADSB data from other AC in the area at the time of the accident would give a better idea.

I did not know that “Fantom” had passed. I always wondered what became of him. I enjoyed his aviation insights and his dry sense of humor. How long has he been gone? Seems everyone has had trouble with a door close in flight. I guess I’ll have to make a video demo. Did you and Gary slow down? I’ve never tried it at cruise speed.

It’s pressure altitude so it can be off by hundreds of feet. As much as 300’-500’ off is not uncommon. The inaccuracies are usually consistent throughout a pretty large range of altitudes, e.g. if I level off at 4500 and then climb and level off at 8500 the ADS-b data might show 4760’ and 8775’.

I’ve never had a door pop but I once departed with some seatbelt webbing closed in the door. I had moved the pax seat forward for some reason and the part of the door with the belt tail hanging out was on scurry from view. At some point in the climb, I heard a slapping noise. Took a few seconds to realized what I had done. At about 3k I slowed to 100mias. I then opened the pilot side window (don’t think it mattered one bit given the size of the cabin vents but remember reading about it so I did it). I then unlatched the door, retrieved the seat belt tail and closed the door. It was not difficult at all. I have very good mating between door jam and door (absolutely no leaks) so maybe that helped. As to ASI increase with door opening, you raise an interesting question that leads me to believe that my alternate static source is open. If I open the pilot side window in flight, my indicated altitude jumps about 80ft and my IAS jumps a few knots.

perhaps there is a pressure drop in the cabin affecting IAS? like when opening the pilot side window in flight. Cant imagine it would affect the airfoil much nor the ram air at the pitot. PSA. A door pop does not require a RTB. Door can be closed in level flight with little trouble.

This is a full service forum. Seriously though, imagine trying to steer a motorcycle with the front end configured like a shopping cart...fork out in front with a trailing link and the axel well behind the pivot.

Figure 32 from Factory IPC for 1966 MY Item 12 is the vacuum valve assembly. I may have a spare in my hangar. Service Manual download link at the very bottom PC service Manual here.

If you tried to steer a shopping cart from it's steering pivot point, it would handle horribly.

It’s shown in he Mooney IPC as well as the Brittain maintenance manual. I’ll get copies to you as soon as I am back to my computer.

It’s clear that he had a door pop after departure but that in and of itself did not seem to cause the accident. Tower controller was the portrait of accommodating and professional. I imagine there will be security camera footage of the final moments. Grateful that no one on her ground was injured. RIP.

It’s likely not a risk and presents a fine short term solution in a pinch. As a long term solution, it looks like needlessly deferred maintenance. If a window regulator on my car fails, I’ll duct tape the window shut to keep the weather out until I can schedule the repair. I would not call it a permanent solution. The HV system is well designed and when properly maintained, does not leak from either cold or hot side. The Wemac vent (plum cooler) on the pilot side should not leak air either.

Non pressurized turbines answer a question that no one is asking.

Truth be told the heating and ventilation system is the one of the cheapest and most straight forward systems on the airframe. It requires so little that it is often neglected. Having a properly sorted HV system makes for much more pleasant all season experience.

1)I don’t know what the metal plate you’re talking about looks like as the earlier birds like mine have a push/pull control with a button lock. Good chance a machine shop could fabricate that part. Just need to remove it to have it reverse engineered. You definitely want filtered air during takeoff. 2) reads to me like your heating and ventilation system needs to be thoroughly inspected. The slider that you mentioned does not have a seal, but it should be fairly precise in its movement, and sit flush against the side of the mixing box. The cable and slider door should be lightly lubricated at annual.. if it’s not closing completely with the cable, someone needs to find out where it is binding.

I covered every part of the interior walls with .5” super sound proofing from Spruce. I also made ceiling panels out of it and covered them in same lightweight ultrasuede that I covered the plastic panels with. I don’t know that it made a huge difference in noise reduction. It did eliminate almost all rattle and vibration from the interior. The interior now has a much more refined and warmer “feel” as all surfaces are upholstered. More importantly, it really evened out interior temperatures in the winter. My bird has a blast furnace of a heater, but before insulating it was tough to keep everyone comfortable in cold temps. You could keep the back seaters warm but at the expense of cooking those up front. It’s much better now, not perfect but if people wear layers, we can keep everyone comfy even at single digit OATs.

Do you still have a compression tool on hand? Whoever does the installation will need to compress the shock discs. I would also look closely at the collar. I am not sure that the bolt hole is centered on the collar. In other words, the dimensions may differ meaning that the geometry of the gear might be affected by on which side of the collar if facing up. Seems odd that installing new, uncompressed discs on would require a spacer when old discs did not. There was not a lot of difference in thickness between my old and new discs but there was some. The new disks were definitely thicker if only marginally.

So then, my sub two hour fill and bleed success was not affected at all by putting a vacuum the reservoir... That's actually good news. Given that I likely spent 30 mins screwing around with different hoses, fittings, zip ties and clamps to adapt the MightyVac to the reservoir, it was actually took just over an hour to do only the stuff that mattered. I guess it is better to be lucky than smart...

I’m being a touch pedantic, but the theory actually counts on the fact that the fuel in the lines will boil out and “pre prime” the intake manifold with fuel almost immediately. You can hear the fuel bubbling, hissing and moving through the lines almost immediately after shutdown. If the plane sits for too long, the fuel vapor that has boiled into the intake manifold dissipates and you are left with no prime and little to no fuel in the injector lines. This is no problem of course as you can just add more using any number methods discussed here multiple times over the last few decades.

Thanks for the explanation gents. I look forward to reading more and doing my own experiments. Should be easy to cobble together some clear tubing to observe the behavior of air in tubing. The reason I employed the tactic in the first place is due in part to my practical experiences bleeding the cooling systems of water cooled rear and mid-engines Porsches. Under those scenarios the reservoir is the highest point, the water pump and coolant passages through the block and heads are clustered near the low point as are the combination of soft and hard pipes traveling all the way to the front bumper through two or three upright radiators (depending on model) with coolant passages much higher than the rest of the plumbing. Using a vacuum to fill and evacuate air from those systems is best practice. indeed Porsche sells a $100 coolant system vac rebadged with their emblem for $500. Trying to fill and bleed without a vacuum system can be a challenge that sometime necessitates jacking the ass end and burping the system by reving the engine. Perhaps the best method for the Mooney is to put a vacuum on the reservoir with the system empty and draw fluid individually at each low point until it reaches the reservoir.

If it starts using the the flood procedure, then it is making spark. That does not mean it is making spark at the right time. You can check idle mixture next time you shut it down by leaning slowly idle rpm. You should see a rise of 25-50RPM as the mixture hits best power on the way to idle cut off. I think this is likely ignition related and would focus on the starting mag (Surefly).