FloridaMan

I'm sure you've heard, but to anyone reading. Don't fly under flocks of geese. They will dive on you. http://hangarspinning.blogspot.com/2010/11/whats-that-goose-doing-at-6500-feet.html

Maybe he'll start using it instead of twitter

Cows don't only eat grass They also play fetch And like music

Probably a shortcut for the manufacturer to change some numbers for margin of safety. Was this published after the Mooney test pilot died in that landing accident?

That was always my attitude -- that identifying the problem at Vx would cause too much airspeed deterioration and I would find myself immediately behind the airplane. I found that when I lost my engine that maintaining airspeed was natural and I had to consciously hold altitude and load the wing to bleed off airspeed prior to descending. I believe that in other airplanes that are less efficient that a Vx climb would be more likely to get you in trouble. Vx of 95mph in the M20F is just below best glide of 100mph. Vy is 113 - (1mph per thousand feet). You cross the numbers at around 80. I now try to get altitude first as it improves sight picture and shortens your distance covered and improves your odds of making the runway or the field at the end.

You should have a caliper to measure things. https://www.amazon.com/Anytime-Tools-Caliper-Reading-Standard/dp/B00B5XJW7I/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1538671508&sr=8-8&keywords=caliper

Had I followed the green line when I had my engine failure, I suspect I might have been able to have landed on the remaining runway. I can't fault myself for taking the yellow though as winds were 9G16, direct crosswind +/- 45 degrees, it was over 90 degrees and I was at max gross.

Heavy and with the CG more rearward, you may feel like it wants to have a little pitch oscillation on takeoff. My stall warning routinely chirps in the Rocket on takeoff as I tend to use a lot of backpressure to keep the weight off the nose and then roll forward to build speed in ground effect. If you pay attention, you'll note that the plane will drift left if you're not quick on the right rudder with the P-factor; I guess that's one of the disadvantages of a tethered nosewheel in that you can't have the rudder already applied on the takeoff roll, though I'm not sure how you could have a free castering retractable wheel. Even the P51s tailwheel was tethere; I'm guessing for the same reason.

You should always go into buying an airplane with the plan/ability to replace the engine unless it’s still under warranty. With that said, that one looks like a candidate to start making metal and unless it’s priced accordingly, I’d keep looking. An 800 hour engine at 50 hours a year for 16 years is still a risk, but I’d still consider it an 800 hour engine. I bought my first Mooney with 1100 hours and 17 years on the engine and got another 1000 out of it over the next five before it ate the camshaft, but it was consistently flown 50-100 hours/yr.

I'd say the mid-body (F/J/K) Mooneys have more room than a PA-28, and the wings don't fall off either.

80kts sounds a tad high. Will you be landing at 2,900lbs? I'd say I've landed at or above 2,900lbs in the rocket which, as far as I know, is about the same airframe except for likely being at the forward side of the CG. I was trained to cross the fence at 80kts. Vso * 1.3 puts me in the mid 70s. At 80, I'd float over 1000 ft and 75kts would get me in nicely. I will say that below around 85kts and heavy, airspeed will deteriorate very quickly and you have to kick it with more power than you're used to or you'll get behind the airplane. In the M20F, landing close to gross weight of 2740 (it was common for me to stop with passengers 5 minutes from home and top off), I'd still cross the fence at 80mph (70kts). As for where you said "approach speeds should be 80 instead of 71," does it say that specifically? Or does it say "approach speed of 80kts". The reason I ask is it sounds like there could be confusion with your final approach speed vs the speed you transition to on short final just before the flare.

My F will cruise at 158kts true. The rocket will do maybe 220kts true when rolling coal. Now, for a technicality on the 180 vs 200HP engine, see the post by @cujet

I suggest you replace all of your alternator wires. You will have more issues with them if they’re old. I ended up AOG twice due to bad wires, and had an engine failure on takeoff that landed me off field after an alternator repair.

I have the Monroy long range tanks on one of my airplanes, but cannot find the STC paperwork. I have the 337s for them and the logs of who did the install. I've heard that Monroy is not issuing the STCs for the time being, but does anyone know if it's possible to get the paperwork replaced?

You had it through discipline, resolve, and intelligence. They say the Ivory Coast of Africa used to be a nice place.

France is worse. I advocate that we send France a bill for WW2.

Also, to save everyone else the math. We're at $1.32 per GBP. So that was $435.51 for 25.1 gallons.

That sucks, dude. If we'd remained under the crown, the world would still be riding horses.

You're not factoring in that if you buy right, you can fly it and get your money back out of it. It will cost you more to fix one up than it will cost to get one that's already right. It's why so many solid airframes that have sat for so long end up getting parted out.

Is it a drop, and if so, what does it drop to?

I had a similar experience with LASAR on my PPI this past spring: inconsistencies with what I was told on the phone and what showed up as my estimate. It took them a while to do the PPI, but they disclosed that they were busy up front and when I called them and mentioned the price difference they made it right. The discrepancy was they quoted the PPI as an annual when I got the estimate in my email. I called them and they changed it to a PPI and we were all happy again. Edit to add: My overall experience with LASAR was very good and has been positive over the years. I think this is just a growing pain that they need to figure out as inconsistency in expectations invites further suspicion.

I'll take my two Mooneys and have a go-fast and a slow spare and the extra half million in the bank. Just kidding. I don't have anything in the bank.

Prior to flying retracts, I would always pull the mixture out about 1/4 inch, even if I was doing a low altitude local sightseeing flight in a 172. I developed this habit so that I'd have something to do when returning to the airport environment, and I'd kick myself when I'd forget. I also don't set my takeoff flaps until after doing my runup checklist. When I turn onto the runway, I verify flaps, trim, fuel selector; if my flaps aren't set, I missed the checklist stage, which I can't recall ever happening outside of high workload training flights. Even so, there were two incidents where I came close. Once, after flying for 12 hours above 11,000 feet with about 50 hours total in my M20F, coming into ABQ I was in the flare and thought "oh fuck, my gear!" Fortunately I'd dropped it early in the approach to help me get down after clearing the mountain to the east. The second was at F45 (North County just north of West Palm Beach, FL). There was a student in a helicopter on the comms who wasn't exactly sure where he was in relation to the airport and a 172 on a 5 mile final. The 172 called out for me to go ahead of him. I kept gaining speed and couldn't figure out why. Then I reached to do my fingernail check and caught that my gear was still up. I have landed the rocket a couple times forgetting to retract the speed brakes and I believe speed brakes could put me at increased risk, though I have a solid habit of checking the gear down light as I cross the threshold and reviewing that I had previously checked the football in the floor.

The one nice thing about the EDM-900 is that I already wrote a piece of software that converts the data to logbook entries for me and I'd have to write a version to handle the EI data. (airports, night flight time, cross country, et cetera).