M20F

Have the same one and it works great and prefer it over a cannula, though generally if I am going to be on O2 I am going be around FL190 so need the mask anyways.

+1

I would reccomend the next time it doesn't start running jumper cables directly to the starter from the battery. If it engages than you know it is something backward in the chain causing the problem (i.e. the starter isn't the issue). If it doesn't engage and you are hooking up correctly it is the starter, try hitting a couple times with a rubber hammer and see if it starts. This will often unstick the Bendix. Obviously be careful not to kill yourself attempting this.

In aviation we are quick to try and demonstrate intelligence but often slow to demonstrate wisdom. Great post.

Haha 90% of my flying is ten seconds off the ground the autopilot goes on and stays on till ten seconds prior to landing, lots of GPS's in the middle. Believe me I am all about easy. My lazy 8's are acceptable and maybe to some being air show perfect on those is what excites them about aviation. For me though it is all about the mental challenge and everyday I learn or discover some new thing about aviation, there just isn't anything more really to learn about stick and rudder.

Ross I enjoy a good airways cross country each year as well and love doing it with paper charts. Love sitting down and highlighting the route, figuring out all the ground speeds for each leg with an E6B, etc. To me it isn't just practice but so much fun. Then sitting in the plane doing ground speed checks with a stop watch and radials. Good times!

I tend to practice VOR, NDB, localizer back course, etc. which I can fly close by me. Flying a GPS or ILS isn't all that tough and so I find working some of the more esoteric stuff just improves everything. What we practice most is whomever is the safety pilot giving bizarre enroute holds, routings, etc. to really mess the PF up and the loser buys lunch. Nothing like being told hold 237 radial of VOR XYZ at 10 DME with right turns, 5 NM legs and as soon as you start to enter the hold told to fly instead to intersection XYZ and do something even more bizarre. I find it better practice and to be honest a lot more fun. We record the ground track and discuss over lunch.

I can do 48 gallons, 4 x 160lbs, 60lbs of baggage, and 2lbs in the hat rack and be maximum weight/aft CG in my F which is recently weighed/calculated. I can't see how you could do it in a C would redo the math or reweigh the plane as something is off.

This topic always amazes me because you talk about knowingly flying 2lbs over gross on a forum and people go insane about how dangerous you are. You bring up weighing a plane and everyone says don't do it because you will lose useful load. I reweighed mine immediately when I bought it (against the advice of a top MSC who said of course you will lose useful load). I know exactly what I have and that being said there have been times when I have flow "aggressively" but at least I knew what I was factually working with. Your mileage may very but to me knowing the facts lets you make much better decisions than doing so in a dream world.

I purchased from All American can't reccomend them enough. I took mine to Maxwell for an annual prebuy which they covered all the airworthiness items. Reccomend both experiences 100%.

I find vortex generators handy if you need to cut your hand on something......

Many others have included this in their posts but the real key to landing a Mooney is hold it off till it wants to land. If you screw up and come in at 165kts and have 15000 feet of runway just holding it off will result in a decent landing. When in doubt just go around it is a lot less embarssing than crashing :-)

See post #34 in this thread.

I found this video from Mike Busch to be very informative, I use Phillips X/C plus Camguard. http://www.eaavideo.org/video.aspx?v=1149666747001

The last thing I would add is for most flying under the hood be it straight and level, maneuvers, or doing an approach is easy. Trying to figure out where you are or how to get from A to B is the real challenge. Most people solo (wich successfully done means you have learned to fly) in 4-10hrs for their PPL but very few get it in 40 or even 60hrs. Flying is easy, it is all the other stuff which is hard.

Couple things that I see. You fuel flow is low, Rocket lists 22 GPH at FL240 cruise (http://www.rocketengineering.com/content/rocket-conversion) so seeing 22.5 in the climb if you weren't leaning indicates the mixture needs adjustment. Second 200hrs is meaningless without a time reference on the rebuild. 200hrs on a six month since top/major engine is different than 200hrs since top/major in 20yrs. Lastly climb rate isn't relevant (500 FPM reference) it is about IAS/TAS so without knowing the speed hard to provide feedback there.

I just finished reading Unbroken and the death statistics from pilot error provided where astounding. Yes they jumped in those planes with 100hrs but 1 in 3 died due to pilot error, only a small percentage died to enemy action in comparison. Certainly the greatest generation because in spite of those odds they went out and did it, but let's not make it seem that they were ace pilots after almost zero training hours.

If you intend to practice with a view limiting device than you need a safety pilot (http://www.aopa.org/News-and-Video/All-News/2013/August/1/Pilot-Counsel-Safety-pilot). If you are landing at airport XYZ and want to just do the ILS with no view limiting device as example than you are good to go. If you learn bad habits early on it is very difficult to unlearn them. I would reccomend flying some with an instructor or with a competent IFR pilot a bit to ensure you are doing the right things.

Students aren't real pilots and I don't disagree with practice and proficency it is easy enough to fly a Mooney. I personally wouldn't reccomend training in one though.

Same thing in iPads. It wouldn't annoy me so much if it said "cold" instead of "hot".

All that number reflects is the maximum "demonstrated" crosswind, it isn't a limitation.

God speed

I love what he has done but 68 was the start of cost cutting and flush rivets and other things went, 67 is the year to have for an F. A TN J would be to me the ultimate but aside from a few oddly modified turbo bullets not aware of many. Why TN didn't take a stronger hold is really a mystery to me. There are a couple TN 400hp Commanches out there which if I could, I would.

You just need a TN system and long range tanks :-)

Gracias!