M20F

Quote: Parker_Woodruff and to see a significant savings in time, you need a trip longer than 600 miles.

Quote: johnggreen When I put my airplane into my hangar, I can pull it out with an almost certain knowledge that nothing unforeseen has occurred in my absence.

Quote: johnggreen Sorry, but proper protection for something as fragile as an airplane is just a necessary cost of ownership.

I have flown airplanes outside for 25 years primarily. Other than some paint fade, a little window glazing, and some light hail damage, no issues. Obviously location drives some of this and I am in the Chicagoland area. Over 5 years you will spend $31K which buys a lot of paint, windows, and interiors if even needed. While I wouldn't pass a hanger up and they are nice for storing tools/beer, financially I have never been able to justify one in my area.

Quote: jasong

Anyone know where to order replacement covers, I lost one of mine recently.

Quote: Parker_Woodruff Your CFI-I is also PIC when giving instruction.

Quote: Piloto

Left handed and use one of these which works great in the lap http://sportys.com/pilotshop/product/9218

Quote: MATTS875 How is the best way to test to see if the step retracts? I just watched a youtube video of a mooney taking off but the step never retracted. mine has the manual johnson bar for the gear

Whether LightSquared gets their license or somebody in the Obama Administration is fired, the unresolved portion will still be GPS can be easily interferred with and we have no suitable back up to it.

Quote: testwest I try to make my posts helpful for the recipient as well as maybe giving some info to third parties who are here to visit and learn, did not mean to "give you a lesson", as it were.

Quote: aschardt You've got something not working right if you're only seeing 140kts at 12,000 with the turbo normalizer. I'll typically see 160-165kts running 26.5/25 and 13-14 gal fuel flow at 12-14k altitudes. I'll admit I've never pulled the power back while running the turbo, not really sure why you would. The goal is to go high / go fast. Floor it and watch the temps!

Quote: N9154V Is your Turbo working correctly? I do not have a turbo, but with my stock 69F I can get 140K TAS at 12,000 ft. I would think that you would get better speeds out of the turbo than this. Hopefully Ken Reed can comment on this. He had a turbo F. Ron

Since I picked up my M20F have been running through various tests to get a more factual basis for fuel burn, speeds, etc. This weekend on a trip went up to FL190 which was a density altitude of @21,500ft. I leveled out of the climb with about 25in/2600rpm with turbo fully in (normally I climb 26/26) so got full performance up in the climb and about 500FPM at 120mph. When I leveled out I dialed the manifold on the turbo back to 23 and then spun the rpm back to 23 (I normally cruise 23/23 or 24/24 or 23/24 still figuring out what works best in terms of speed/fuel/noise) and as soon as the rpm came back the manifold dropped like a rock (down to 18-19 inches). Pushed the rpm's back up and the manifold came back. I finally settled in at 23in/2400rpm and got around 150kts true which is what I see essentially from 15,000 up depending on temp/pressure. Soon as I tried to lean it though same issue the manifold would drop to 18-19 inches. Other issue is at what should be about 67% power I was burning about 16-17 gallons an hour which even with no leaning seems awfully high. I have flown at 17,500 (probably around 19,500 density) and haven't had this issue so sort of puzzled. At 17,500 at 23/23 see about 150kts with about 9.5-10.0 gallons per hour burned. Overall real happy and have sort of settled in at 12,000 feet / 140kts TAS as where I like to be burning about 9-10 gph (lean till rough and then push it back in some), where the winds make sense 15-17000ft works well at about 150kts (19 gph in the climb at 26/26). Would though like to understand what the deal was this weekend as while I wouldn't plan generally for Class A being able to squeak up another 4-5000ft at times can get you over stuff so would like the option.

Departing 27 at OSH, turning south and racing the Concorde departing on 18. It won about midfield, lept into the air, and cut south to west right across our path of flight after burners blazing. Words cannot describe but those 90 seconds or so are so clearly burned into my mind I can remember it with full and total detail.

Would be curious as to manifold/rpm settings to go with performance figures above. 135kts to 153kts is a fairly large swing.

Quote: RJBrown Since AAA and Mr Garrison backed out Mr K received no value for his money.

Quote: KLRDMD

I just bought a M20F from AAA and here are my findings from primarily dealing with Dave M. 1.) I called expressed interest in the plane and got some various good/bad points on it. Full log books sent no problem. Was clear that until deposit was paid the airplane was for sale. 2.) I had a friend visiting San Antonio who stopped in and saw the airplane and they detailed things like Com #2 worked but was squeaky and some other issues 3.) Called and offered basic deal of purchase price + Don Maxwell annual as tentative offer which Dave advised worked in theory. 4.) Went down, saw the airplane, flew the airplane, had an appraiser (Paul Whetstone highly recommend) come out and look at the airplane. All good and issues were openly discussed and clarified. 5.) Worked out a deal which had a minimal shift down on the price as I felt the purchase price was in line with what aircraft was worth to me (does any other price really matter??). Included in the deal was an annual with Don Maxwell with them paying all squawks and a 20hr prop pulled off a plane they took in trade that was priced at a steal into the deal. Shook hands/wrote a check. Without getting into a lot of details the annual worked up a fair amount worth of issues some known some unknown at the hand shake (wrong bolts in elevator, Ford truck parts used in unique ways, plumbing fixtures in vacuum system, all new pucks, brakes, tires, rerigged, new rheostats, bunch of other stuff), they paid for it no questions. The prop required STC and due to back plate issues a new spinner which was shipped from Hartzell the day I arrived to pick the plane up. I felt pretty bad (though liked the deal I got) for Jimmy and Dave on the prop deal because they lost on that no question in my mind but carried through on their word with no problems. Whole deal took about 6 weeks. I have about 30hrs in the plane now and everything works great aside from some rigging issues due to bent flaps which couldn't easily be fixed but are not a huge deal. I have been up to 17500 on a ISA +++ day at 26/26 with room left in the turbo, radios work great (comm #2 antenna replaced), auto pilot works great, no oil burn, no fuel leak, no problems. I can't comment on other people's deals only my own. While my deal turned out a lot better in theory than I thought it would that is more through circumstances (stuff being broken) and AAA keeping true on their word and paying for it. If everything would have been perfect and it had been a flawless annual would have been just as happy. I felt Don and his team did well by me as did Jimmy & Dave (and Paul Whetstone pointed out some concerns which turned out not to be concerns but he gave some good sage advice for a reasonable appraisal fee). I would definitely recommend all of them to anyone. The only word of advice I would offer is Dave, Jimmy, and Don are all Texan's and they are a different breed which you need to adapt to. They definitely don't like to deal too much on price (see other posts and I picked this feeling up doing the deal), but if you are fair to them they in turn are fair to you. I would think if you try to stick it to them they are going to stick it back a bit and they probably are smarter on Mooney's than you are. This isn't to imply that any of the people who felt wronged on this thread did this; I am just giving my small opinion (this paragraph) and the facts (all the preceding paragraphs) out of my deal.

www.moapilot.com/pdf/Dec02/dec02_pt1.pdf Page 9

Looks more like a racoon than a squirrel :-)

I reccomnd having a Oximeter (http://www.amazon.com/Finger-Pulse-Oximeter-SM-110-Carry-Wrist/dp/B003TJH3LI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1306786546&sr=8-1) if you intend to fly high. Getting a small bottle as a back up source is a relatively small investment as well. Hypoxia and carbon monoxide kill far more people than they should and are very cheap/easy to identify.

Anyone have some feedback on http://www.allamericanaircraft.com/default.htm from reviewing the forum postings seems to be generally positive. Any reccomendations for a pre-buy in that area?