FloridaMan

I fly into 48X frequently and it's possible that the "201" that someone mentioned could've been my LoPresti F. I've heard it cautioned that the mooneys with inner gear doors don't like grass. I don't fly into there when it's been raining and will usually go to FMY for cheap gas and to exercise the plane.

I sumped several cups of water before seeing a thin layer of blue on top. The FBO didn't properly install my fuel cap and I had their line manager witness that it wasn't installed correctly. I go to sump the tank and I had a cup of water with a bead of blue in it at the top. The other tank (right-side, which I didn't take fuel in) was fine, but nearly empty. I had them add about 8 gallons to the "good" tank. After sumping the left until the fuel came out blue, I started the plane on the right tank and taxied it about a mile doing hard S-turns through the taxi, sumped the left into a GATS jar until the little bit of water that the hard taxi shook free was no longer there for a few full jars. Then I sumped the gascolator for each tank for one minute each, twice, and there was no water. Then it rained hard again. I went and sumped both tanks after the rain and the fuel came out uncontaminated. I took off on the right (good) tank, climbed to 3000ft above the field, did some hard maneuvering, switched to the left and did some harder maneuvering, switched back to the right, landed, sumped again; things still came out blue and appeared uncontaminated. Departed with my passengers, taking off on the right tank again and switching to the left enroute. The engine never stumbled after all of that so it seems like I probably took care of all of the water, but is there anything else that I should do? Is it worth having a mechanic pull the drain and having them completely empty that wing?

I'm looking to upgrade to a Rocket. I have a unique M20F that I am very attached to and I know that I will not be able to replace once I let it go. I have absolutely no idea what to ask for it or how to go about selling it as there are no similar models on the market (extremely clean with a LoPresti cowl, GNS530, powerflow exhaust, et cetera). I'm leaning towards buying the Rocket outright and getting to where I fall out of love with the F and am more comfortable selling it. Though there is also the option of listing it for an asking price that may be a little steep and waiting to see if there's a buyer out there who wants my specific configuration. The other thing is that my engine is very close to TBO. It runs strong and the dilemma is whether to sell it with the timed out engine, upgrade from a shop or do a field overhaul, which I don't think it needs yet.

To reiterate, I have absolutely no issue flying my M20F from Tampa to Las Vegas solong as I don't cross New Mexico in the afternoon.

I'll take an excuse to fly to Vegas. Last time ended prematurely en-route.

What is everyone's plan if the storm heads our way here in Florida and the Southeast? I'm looking to move mine somewhere that has a cheap one-way back to Florida and would be more than happy to coordinate with other pilots if there's something I can do to make things more efficient.

You may be lucky. I was booking a flight to go look at an M20F. Before I booked it, the owner called me and told me he'd sold it and the guy had a deposit down on it. I call Willmar air service who I'd arranged to do the PPI on the airplane with, told them it wasn't happening, expressed disappointment and asked if they knew of anyone looking to sell that hadn't hit the market yet. After I purchased the airplane that I ended up with, the owner who was selling the other F called me and said that the sale had fallen through due to financing and asked if I was still interested. The other airplane was nice, but not as nice as what I ended up with because the plane that I'd initially wanted failed to come through. I ended up with this:

I don't like getting lawyers involved for anything. I had an engine failure last year on takeoff post-maintenance from a reputable shop and I landed in a field with no damage to the airplane. The same shop recovered the airplane. The FSDO was on the phone with me within minutes. My passenger's family wanted to go for blood and I had lawyers soliciting me. My losses were that I didn't make it to my destination; I was without my airplane for a couple of months, and the annual cost me probably about $2000-3000 more than it should've because of the cylinder replacement. It wasn't worth my time to hurt a shop that possibly had nothing to do with the failure, and they worked me into their already busy schedule as a "walk-in" prior to the failure. Not only do I not regret my decision to avoid taking legal action, I am very happy with my decision to have avoided it. With that said, my circumstance is different than yours and I might find myself wanting to go to the engine builder to have them cover the expense of pulling and reattaching the cylinders and verifying all of the caps are properly torqued. Losing a rocker shaft is one thing, having a connecting rod come apart is something else.

The door handle and gear doors are the best way to identify some F's, since so many F's have been converted to different cowlings, sloped windshields and one piece rear windows. This is a 1967F. Note the handle with the bar that sticks out, the shape of the gear doors and lack of inner gear doors and the twist in the wings.

I'm uncomfortable when it comes to doing stalls because of the stories I've heard about Mooneys and I haven't done them without someone more experienced with me. With that said, I've never had the Mooney do anything unexpected on a stall. I don't use the ball. I look outside and focus on something to keep the nose pointed towards. Watch videos of spins and stalls where wings drop. You'll notice that as the plane starts to stall, the pilot is unaware of the increase in yaw at the high angles of attack moments before the stall.

Actually, looking that plane it looks like it's a little high on the price to begin with. You should be able to get a decent E/F with a mid-time engine, 6-pack on the panel and a 430 (probably non-WAAS) for around $40k. Unless you're just planning on tooling around VFR, the expenses on that Mooney that you're looking at would quickly exceed the price difference with something a bit more equipped.

I am 158KTAS based on the 3-direction tests that I've done. I don't have the inner gear doors, but I have the LoPresti cowl and powerflow exhaust. I usually see between 144 and 163kts in cruise.

They say the B52 is planned to be in service until 2044 -- 92 years after it was initially in service.

I think $3000 is a bit steep on the biscuits. IIRC, it was somewhere between $1400 and $1800 for mine at a reputable MSC. It was discovered at annual that mine were 20 years old and overdue for replacement. I didn't notice anything wrong with the way the plane performed on landing. Filiform corrosion is very common and easily addressed. Where you want to look for corrosion especially is under the rear seat. There's a thread here that explains it. Unfortunately the mechanic who performed his prepurchase inspection didn't know to pull the back seat and look at the spar underneath the inspection panels: As for repairing tanks, Don Maxwell has some information on his site regarding this as well stating that a full reseal may not be necessary: http://www.donmaxwell.com/publications/MAPA_TEXT/_overlay/Fuel Tank Repair_How We Fix Them 2-05.htm

I'm not there; I just saw that Mooney in a picture in an article about the airport at burning man. It, of course, was filled with comments hating "the rich" and how they wish they'd see some of these rich people "who don't belong" crash and burn. Funny how hypocritical this whole "love and acceptance" thing can be.

If I had the money for a new 22T, I'd have a Citation I

This is exactly what I noticed. I had some friction with the IA on this as he went ahead and made the call without first consulting me. The cylinder that was replaced was #4, but #2 is the one that runs hottest now. For the first 50 hours or so, there would be oil on the side of the cowling, but that's gone away finally.

Not normal. When mine was first installed I had an issue with it. The IA who installed it inserted a small restriction in the line to the MP sensor and it is incredibly stable with no "jumping around." It occasionally will shift 0.1 here and there, but it's no different than an analog needle trending on a steam gauge over time with altitude/temperature changes.

Just pulled my JPI data. Last annual I had a chrome lined cylinder installed after the previous cylinder ingested FOD on takeoff. Prior to the new cylinder, oil temp held 180 and CHTs were consistently < 400 and I'd keep my cowl flaps closed operating in the hot southeast summers. I don't think I had a single data point of a CHT over 400 degrees. After the new cylinder, I have to open the cowl flaps on climbout or the CHTs would past 415 and oil temperature would get slightly over 200. These are still within spec and cruise values would return back to 180 and < 400. Could that chrome lined cylinder be creating enough friction to raise my oil and cylinder temps like this? The Lycoming docs I've read say to keep the cylinders under 435 on climbout and 415 in cruise, so I'm technically still in spec, but the climbing temperatures and higher than normal oil temperature strikes me as being at the limit.

Thank you N601RX! I think I met you at SnF a couple years ago. Guitarmaster, I would recommend you get yourself a vinyl or a laser cutter to prototype your new panel for fit. http://www.ebay.com/itm/40W-USB-DIY-Laser-Engraver-Cutter-Engraving-Cutting-Machine-Laser-Printer-CO2-/260825065645?hash=item3cba62a8ad:g:~0wAAOSw65FXqFDw for $295 is a great deal, but can only cut an area that's 8" x 12" Another option is to use a vinyl cutter and cut large sheets to check your template fit. I found this product online as well: http://www.xpanelsoftware.com/ , though I haven't tried it. I don't know the regs on cutting your panel, but I've had discountsteel.com laser cut parts for me in the past for pretty reasonable prices.

This happened. http://www.ntsb.gov/about/employment/_layouts/ntsb.aviation/brief2.aspx?ev_id=20110111X92431&ntsbno=ERA11IA110&akey=1 I hate to say it, but if I lost something like that, I would not stop until it was found or I completely ruled out that it was nowhere it could cause harm.

I forced mine down in a field going hot because I needed to stop before the neighborhood. The field was full of 4ft weeds and multiple terraces and drops. I was around 2500-2650 lbs and my gear held up fine.

I had a chrome lined cylinder installed last annual and noticed higher temps and increased oil blown out for the first 50-100 hours after the install. I'm guessing there was increased blowby during break-in.

Nice, so there's a rocket owner in Florida. Where are you?