FloridaMan

Is your fuel cap on straight?

I'm developing an electric light aircraft air conditioning for ground/taxi use that uses no scoop and is "portable". Even in south Florida, I don't find flying at low altitudes to be all that unpleasant, but the time on the ground is painful. The best investments I've made have been the "cool scoop" that goes in the window and sheepskin seat covers to go on the leather to prevent swamp ass, wet back and duck butter.

Shoulder straps are an absolute necessity. I will not fly in an airplane without them. My grandfather, a WW2 fighter pilot, crashed a Baron in 1962 and spent the last 40+ years of his life scarred up like Tom Cruise in Vanilla Sky because he hit the panel. He was the only one seriously injured in the crash. Plane was fueled the night before an early morning flight. He inspected it so he could go home, sleep a few hours and go. Someone either flew the plane after inspection or stole fuel out of it. If you've ever flown with me, you'll note that I am religious about looking in my tanks, checking my dipstick and sumping/smelling fuel before getting into any airplane. I lost a close friend to a Jet-A instead of 100LL fueling mishap recently, and we had a member here @SantosDumont who was fueled with Jet-A when he didn't even put in a fuel order. One of my flight instructors had to take a 709 ride after a former student of his crashed a Cherokee on a road in Florida coming back from Disney. The accident required major reconstructive surgery on the pilot's face because he hit the panel. Cause of the accident? Fuel exhaustion. He had a receipt and paid for the fuel, but the fuel did not end up in his plane and he didn't look in the tanks to verify.

If you're at a high enough altitude for the airplane chute to be effective, you're also high enough to put one on your back and bail out.

I think mine's mounted on top of my engine near the spider. I think it should be in a location with a lot of vibration as the one in my Rocket sticks and the one on my M20F is dead-nuts accurate.

You forgot that at teardown all parts must show no sign of changes from new.

2700 RPM and Vy is 113 minus 1mph per thousand feet.

Yes. Print out the PDF, tape it together, trace and cut.

Before going too far to look into it, check the gaskets on the fuel level senders. My M20F was dripping and it ended up being a failed sender gasket.

I use the RadarUS+ app and love the 6 day pressure/precip map. While it isn't a full two weeks by a longshot, you get an idea of the forecast at your destination within a week and what you might expect enroute.

Don't make the mistake of thinking that a Mooney Service Center will do you any better.

Depends on the model. My M20F is very light on the controls and the Rocket feels like a truck in comparison, but gives a much better ride in turbulence at the same time.

Nope. The attitude indicator in that plane is a little weird. Level flight is when the horizon is on the top of the little circle in the middle. That's pitched up a few degrees. On cold days, it'll cruise in the yellow at 5000ft. Here in Florida, at 1000ft I can push towards Vne in level flight.

Even on my old engine on the last long flight before overhaul at 2200 hours and with a spun bearing that I hadn't yet discovered I was getting 500fpm in my M20F through 15,000 and this was full fuel, 350lbs of passengers and bags. I run 2700 all the way to the top of my climb and cruise at high RPM at altitude. I recommend getting your engine checked. You may have something very wrong with it, and not everything that could cause you to see such poor performance could be expensive. Your tach could be reading high (my Rocket's tach read 100rpm high). Your mags could be timed incorrectly, have an intake restriction, or you could be using the wrong speeds. For my M20F, published Vy is 113mph - 1mph per 1000ft. I have the LoPresti cowl and with the ram air open I was seeing 17 inches through 15,000; I would expect 15 - 16 inches without the ram air. Here's a video:

I suspect the ram air of the LoPresti cowling made a significant difference up high.

You forgot this one: https://www.controller.com/listings/aircraft/for-sale/33127231/1986-mooney-m20k-305-rocket?dlr=1&etid=1&pcid=1002312 I bought my Rocket from Lafferty and had an excellent experience.

I think I burned a total of 14 gallons for the whole trip, and I probably could’ve leaned more up high.

That’s not even level cruise in the rocket.

I think around14”. I could have climbed more aggressively and I should’ve leveled off for a bit at the top. I regret not doing it now and collecting data, but it was uncomfortable.

Well, I guess I can go to 17,500 and get the numbers for there with 978UAT. FL220 is somewhat impractical unless you’ve got some rippin tailwinds or want to put a lot of distance between you and weather below you or the ground, or if you have to go over a TFR that’s boxed in by weather, but it’s nice to know that it’s an option if you really need it. It took 20 minutes to get from 17,500 to 220, though I wasn’t as aggressive in the climb as I could’ve been.

Same destination as departure with a waypoint in between

Damn. I should’ve pushed through that. I felt it wasn’t done yet.

Probably around 2200-2300lbs

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