FloridaMan

No answer in this thread, but it might help point you in the right direction. I've heard it said that you want Lord mounts, but I don't know the part number for them.

I just read your initial post again and I think I may have experienced something similar. At full rich mixture on takeoff and initial full power climb, I would experience what felt like misfiring. Leaning a bit to where the fuel flow numbers matched book make the misfire go away. The second, and I included that in a private message that I sent earlier, is that we discovered my mechanical tach read 60-100 RPM high. I believe that @Yooper Rocketman mentioned that he had seen the mechanical tachs in rockets read high before. The significance of this is that at an indicated 2200 RPM and low manifold pressure settings that you might just be bootstrapping. I observed the same behavior in my rocket as well, and after discovering that my tach read a tad high, I realized I was running less than 2200 RPM during the test. According to Mike Busch, this may be evidence of "Bootstrapping" If you're flying a turbo and climbing up to the Flight Levels, you'll probably find that you can't use bottom-of-the-green RPM without "bootstrapping" (a condition where the wastegate is completely closed, the turbocharging system is operating unregulated, and significant MP excursions become evident in flight). The cure for such boostrapping is to increase RPM in small (50 RPM) increments until MP stabilizes. If you still have difficulty stabilizing MP at high altitudes, you may have an induction or exhaust leak or some other engine problem. The best way to diagnose this is to perform a "critical altitude check" as outlined in the service manual. Critical altitude for a turbocharged airplane is the maximum altitude at which the engines can develop full takeoff power. For my T310R, that's supposed to be 16,000'; for a T210 or 340 or 414, it's 20,000'. If you can't get full takeoff power at the airplane's rated critical altitude, then you have a problem that needs to be found and fixed. https://www.avweb.com/news/airman/184350-1.html

Twice in my F did I kick myself, but never have I landed with my gear up. I was always in the habit of doing the fingernail check on the Johnson Bar repeatedly. Then I flew for 10 hours at 11,000 ft one day and landed at ABQ with a slight quartering tailwind as directed by the tower. After clearing the mountain ridge from the east I had to do a 270 to the left to get low and slow enough to land instead of a 90 degree to the right. As I’m in the flare I am stuck pulling on the throttle trying to slow down because things didn’t seem quite right. Fatigue, altitude, and the higher than I was used to groundspeed had me thinking I needed to pull power. As I settled onto the runway I thought “Oh fuck: my gear!” But, having the mental conditioning earlier in the approach to have been aware that shit was nonstandard, I had already put it down early as a precaution. Noticing something unusual in an approach should be an automatic “go ahead and drop the gear” cue. The second was at an uncontrolled airport in Florida. There was a foreign helicopter student who couldn’t accurately or consistently report where the hell he was in the vicinity of the field and a Cessna on a long final invited me to go ahead of him. On base I wondered why I had trouble slowing down. My cycling hand found the missing gear handle on base. My general rule is to keep my speed up and to slow aggressively, drop the gear as soon as possible, and to not pull power to slow anywhere near gear speed until I do it aggressively and drop the gear as part of the transition.

We all know that it's the Big Fuckin' Rocket and not the Big Falcon Rocket. I think Bezos takes it one step further. He might as well have painted it pink while he was at it.

I have long range tanks with the flapper in the inboard tanks. Is the capacity listed on the inboard tank below or above the flapper? If it's above, how much more fuel can you get into the tank if you nurse it in past the flapper?

What's this 2 gallons of water that can't be drained? I've got the long range tanks in my Rocket with two sump points on each wing. Is there something that I should be aware of regarding a potential hazard?

I always hold it for three seconds. As part of preflight, I open the cabin door, slide my body between the door and the wing, place both hands on my wing and set my ass on the wing walk (make sure you're not wearing pants or a jacket with metal rivets or zippers that could scratch things), lean over and pull the ring for three seconds, then get up and continue to sump my wings and look in the tanks. This is the fastest way to check it and beats having to walk all the way around the wing and having to get in the plane to reach it.

I wrote all of the GIS software for a government project years ago; subsequent organizations have tried to get me to sign a non-compete explicitly prohibiting me from working for ESRI. I wouldn't sign it -- not that I'd care to work for ESRI, but I guess they hand concerns over having someone that could do the bare metal GIS computations and graphical rendering without 3rd party software being sniped by someone with deeper pockets. Here's rendering of data that I, and a couple other testers, collected with an iPhone app that I wrote. The UI isn't all that pretty and I'm using a publicly available base layer, but all of the METAR/TFR/AIRMET/SIGMET data is displayed and rendered on the fly. Clicking the path gives coordinate info. I could easily pull out JPI data and display it just the same. On a technical note, it's running on a Windows 2012 server with 7200 RPM drives. http://airwaysandrunways.com/Flights/Default.aspx

I wrote a piece of software that turns JPI data into logbook entries and includes start/destination airport and computes how much was at night based on computing sunset.

I probably won't make it, but my vote would be 1R8.

I always wondered what that bracket was on the gear.

Certainly better, but the snake works well enough and is less of a financial commitment

This, or something similar, is a must-have. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0785H3XR7/ref=sspa_dk_detail_0?psc=1&pd_rd_i=B0785H3XR7&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_p=21517efd-b385-405b-a405-9a37af61b5b4&pd_rd_wg=kNFjF&pf_rd_r=RMYBKK8VT51BEVBXCYSW&pf_rd_s=desktop-dp-sims&pf_rd_t=40701&pd_rd_w=YSz8A&pf_rd_i=desktop-dp-sims&pd_rd_r=9163461b-f347-11e8-88d2-3b20857d970c

This is the screwdriver you want for panel screws. https://www.amazon.com/CRAFTSMAN-948025-Pieces-T-Handle-Driver/dp/B00QB80UH8 along with Apex bits. You *really* want good screwdriver bits and a bunch of replacement screws on hand (see the Illustrated Parts Catalog for the right part number. There are differences between the AN screws and inspection panels are stressed in flight). A&Ps have tricks to getting tough screws out, but ensuring you're straight on the screw and have good pressure, sometimes working a tad tighter and then loose can get a stubborn screw to come out. If you bugger up a head, replace the screw with a new one. And to repeat myself: do not use anything less than a perfect screwdriver, preferably with a long, straight handle to ensure you're directly aligned with the screw. https://apexbits.com/446-2R-Apex-1-4-Phillips-2-Hex-Insert-Bits-Limited-Clearance.aspx Also, don't pull screws out of your fuel tank panels. I've seen people do it.

Thank @cujet for noticing and filming it.

3 blade on the Rocket

That comment made me think about how to handle that situation when reaching low altitude. I'm guessing the exhaust gas velocity isn't high enough to spool the turbo way up. Mine will start to bootstrap at around 2100 RPM and 26". I wonder about behavior at high power settings and low altitude if the exhaust velocity without forced induction could get high enough to spool up the turbo. If that could happen, which I'd be skeptical if it could reach full RPM without boosted exhaust, then on the one hand, it seems like the turbo could spin way faster than it's designed to do, but on the other, we can reach critical altitude in these planes to where the wastegate would be closed and we still can't reach a full 38" of manifold pressure. I'm also curious if you leaned the mixture when this happened and, if so, how it affected the engine running.

Doesn't bother me at all. I'll see what I can put together. These are off of my notes, but empty weight is 2203.6; I don't have my arm/moment written down here, but it is very forward. I'll see if I can get the numbers at the airport today for you.

Thank you for posting. You might save someone from an adrenaline dump and the sick feeling that follows by giving greater confidence as to the cause of a loud pop and rough running engine at altitude.

I flew into Farmingdale (KFRG) a few years back. Sheltair, IIRC, was around $12/day there and the LIRR is not far and will take you right into the city. As an added bonus, I had an alternator issue on the ground there and it exposed a cracked spinner bulkhead. There was a Mooney Service Center on the field that got me back up and out of there.

I've been alternating lately and I much prefer the J-bar. The only advantage of the electric is the higher extension speed, though I feel that being able to fly faster with your gear out and then use the speed brakes to slow down requires even more discipline to ensure you have your gear down. With the J-bar, my right hand goes in a little circle when I'm on approach and one stop on that circle is my fingernail between the J-bar and the latch. My hand one time alerted me to my gear not being down when an approach sequence was interrupted and I went from #3 to number one with a "fly directly to the numbers" and a tight 180.

You don't need an autopilot in an M20F; I hand flew mine for 1100+ hours all over the country in all approved weather conditions. I use the KFC200 in the Rocket frequently except I still hand fly my approaches as the pitch control hunts more than I like. The M20F is a sweet flying airplane with very different flight characteristics from the Rocket and long body Mooneys I've flown. Wing loading and controls are much lighter and it is a more enjoyable airplane to tool around and go sightseeing in than the Rocket -- one reason I'm holding on to both planes for the time being. Even with the autopilot, the Rocket still requires some footwork for coordination in the climb, et cetera. In the F, I use my feet for small course adjustments and touch the trim wheel every now and then; it really isn't bad as you're supposed to maintain your scan and situational awareness anyways while flying.

I keep my RPMs as low as possible and lean aggressively on the rocket. That little vortex is sucking up all sorts of shit into your prop.

I think I'm getting some in around the door seal at high AoA in the climb. Turning on the heat or opening vents clears it out.