FloridaMan

Wait til you hit some severe clear air turbulence in New Mexico like I did last week. HOOooooly sh*t.

We cut the first filter 41 hours after I bought the airplane. It was clean, though the oil was pretty dirty. We also drained the oil cooler during that change. Today's oil change was 31 hours since the last change at the end of September. I'm holding on to the filter to cut it as soon as I get a filter cutter. I've put 105 hours on the tach since I took delivery of the airplane in June.

Seems to look almost virgin after about 10 hours. Between 10 and 20 it starts looking like used motor oil. My first oil change was at 41 hours and my A&P prescribed a 25 hour interval with how dirty it was. My consumption is around 1qt every 5-10 hours. I run conservatively ROP -- I try to stay around 75 degrees ROP, but sometimes don't catch it in time and have found myself cruising as much as 200-250 ROP. I'm getting better with it, but I've got feeling the richness is fouling the oil.

I've been changing my oil and filter every 25-30 hours. My engine's got over 1400 hours on it and the oil seems to get dirty pretty quickly. I've heard some pilots talk about changing the filter every other oil change. Do any of you do this?

I finally filled up that ugly blue "Cessna" logbook my friend gave me. Now I know why he bought something else when he started flying. Do I start the first line with my first flight logged as a continuation of my previous logbook, or do I use it as some sort of total? How do I go about transferring/duplicating endorsements that aren't on my certificate (complex, high performance, et cetera).

I'm in Las Vegas at the moment and may head to California before returning to Florida, or I may not. I'd have to warn you that flying across the southwest during this time of year can produce some exciting moments that will make you understand why good cardiac health is required for flying.

I always use takeoff flaps as it seems to ensure the plane doesn't hop down the uneven runway as much. I also often use full aft elevator and add some right rudder to hold the centerline and keep the plane in ground effect on my takeoffs unless it's windy. I feel like it just gives me a little extra practice with the controls. On takeoff, as I turn onto the runway, I have a thing I do that I call the "three 3s" where I have three groups of three items that I run through when I turn onto the runway. Sometimes you're lean, waiting for tower and you get cleared with "no delay" and have to rush. My 3s are this (67F): 1)[Verify trim,flaps fuel selector] 2)[fuel pump, lights, transponder] 3)[Prop, mixture, throttle]. The reason for the first set of three is that I've dropped people off with weather approaching and forgotten to reset my trim. I've also failed to engage the lever for the flaps (hydraulic) so when I put in my takeoff pumps I ended up doing a no-flap takeoff.

I've had the plane hiccup on me numerous times when switching tanks. On long cross country flights that I expect to be five hours, I try to get three hours on one tank before switching over so I can be relatively sure that I'm going to have an hour of reserve when I get there. When things start getting close, I watch the fuel pressure gauge. I've seen it drop once and I switched tanks before the engine stuttered. Then, about 15 seconds after switching, it started to sputter and then recovered. Interesting to note that the tank took 34 gallons when I filled it and there seems to be more debris in the cup when I sumped it than normal.

I've got a '67F w/ LoPresti cowl, Powerflow exhaust and GAMI injectors. The plane makes good power at altitude, though I almost always have the ram-air open in cruise. The previous owner said he had no trouble with three people in the plane and half tanks at Leadville, but I'm new to high altitude operations. Bruce Jaeger had me do my stalls and recovery at 9000ft to familiarize me with the characteristics at higher DA. I don't have a calibrated EGT. On my runup here in FL, I lean to where I see a 75 degree increase in the EGT after increasing RPM, but before checking the mags. I've heard it said that you should break out the POH if DA exceeds runway length. I'm looking at landing at Plainview, TX and North Las Vegas.

Let me add that another trick you can use is to keep your airspeed up and load the hell out of the wing. I've seen guys go aggressively from downwind to final at 120mph with the plane dropping like a rock. While I don't do this in the pattern, I do use steep S-turns to get down from altitude under power.

So did you buy the plane? I expected to find a Mooney with a gear-up in its history when I went looking -- it seemed that all of them had one at some point. The one I bought ended up being a NDH airplane, but that certainly wasn't a requirement. For what it's worth, it seems like that's not a bad price for the airplane, but you could probably find one with a 430 and a sloped windshield for the same price.

After reading about the performance gains you guys are reporting for your Top Props, I started to think that maybe I should consider one if my gov't contract gets renewed at the end of the year. Is it possible to sell a used prop/hub? I figured if it's ok to do it, my prop was overhauled last year and I don't have the old AD hub, so someone might want it.

I'll be doing some work at some hot and high fields out west this week (6000+/-). How do you guys manage your takeoff and landing configurations at these types of fields?

I want to add; I've recently changed my own procedures as, after flying for hours in hard IMC I popped out into VFR and started my approach. When I advanced my prop to full-forward, my low vacuum light came on and my vacuum pump came apart on me. I'm not sure that RPM changes are worth doing if only moderate changes would get you safely into a missed approach.

I have the SlickStart system on mine. I tend to hold the starter in while I advance the mixture, even after it tries to kick over. From my understanding, the SlickStart showers the cylinder with sparks instead of timed ignition while the starter is engaged, so I like to keep it coming until I'm sure it's starting. On other airplanes, I'll let off the starter on the first cylinder firing and see if it "catches," but I've found that on mine if I let off at that point, I'll often have to go through my start procedure again. With the exception of when I lost the left mag, the plane has never given any trouble starting (hot, cold, whatever).

I was thinking some steel pipe fittings you could thread together, rig up an old airplane tire, a DC motor and a battery -- sort of like the tow bar that comes with the Mooney, but with a wheel on it that you can use to lift the plane's front tire off the ground and a DC motor with some sort of drive to the wheel. www.mcmaster.com has the parts for anything you could dream up to transmit power and motion. If you wanted to get creative, you could probably take a set of bicycle sprockets and crank and make a real WTF contraption to walk the thing in with.

Looks like it'd be way cheaper to make your own. The front wheel of the Mooney with the tow bar hole actually seems like it'd make it real easy to fabricate something. If you want, we could make a quick project out of it. There's no sense in tugs costing so much.

I plan to fly from Florida to Las Vegas later this month with my high tech halloween costume and then meander my way back.

What's the standard on dealing with line guys? Do you guys tip? If so, how much? I know a lot of pilots that never tip. I never even knew it was expected until a friend said he always gave the first handler $10 -- then I felt like a dick for not doing so.

These are good questions. I'm based on the gulf coast in a hangar that sometimes has water in the bottom after a hard rain. Apparently, that's what $550/mo gets you down here. My plane was completely corrosion free when I bought it in Minnesota 3 months ago. Where are the first places that I should look for any signs of corrosion? The plane has had the SBs taken care of and had a 337 on file for a tubular structure repair by the pilot's left knee (supposedly common on these) back in the mid-1980s.

Long post made short: Trim should be between takeoff and full nose-up (remember you'll have to fight this on a go-around). Try landing with takeoff or between takeoff and full flaps. With that configuration, the plane should settle on its own. Now, the rest of my post: On landing, your trim should be somewhere between takeoff and full nose up. I follow the standard 100/90/80 over the fence, but have crossed as high as 95 and still gotten the airspeed off and settled smoothly and firmly. Try coming in with less than full flaps, especially if it's gusting. You *should* be able to land with full flaps, but it requires that you judge the flare a little more accurately (I'm still learning myself and will often not use full flaps, especially if I have passengers and it's windy). I will sometimes use the throttle to soften the touchdown if I flare too high. My biggest issue is landing on the mains and having the nose wheel hit and then come back up with the mains firmly planted. If I'm going too fast, I'll feel the vibration from the nosewheel spinning while I'm holding the nose up. I think I land with a stabilized nose-high sink instead of a well-judged flare. It makes for smooth touchdowns, but I have a feeling it's why the nose will sometimes roll and come back up on me. One thing you may want to try is horsing the plane around a little while you're on your approach, especially after a long flight. It'll help you feel how the plane responds to your inputs given the weight, density altitude, et cetera.

You can buy the perfect plane and still have something get you. My plane had been had as good of a maintenance history as you could ask for -- 20 years of maintenance by Willmar Air Service, and a set of upgrades and maintenance items that made you realize the previous owner did everything that the plane needed. The previous owner flew it regularly and expertly. He had put 2500 hours on it in the 20 years that he owned it. On my maiden trip home, the left mag coil decided it was time to burn up and left the pilot I was getting my insurance checkout with and myself stranded in the middle of nowhere in TN. If you plan on flying IFR, get yourself a Dynon D1 for $1425 and add it to your panel. Nobody has any business flying IFR without a dedicated (read:not ipad, and especially not the novelty apps that don't use an external sensor) backup attitude and heading indicator. Added: Don't do a partnership. I spend around $2000/month on my plane, but that includes fuel for flying about 20 hours a month, a 550/month hangar (necessity in Florida), my Garmin database updates, and the upgrades I'm slowly adding to it. I think you can do it for $600/month if you don't need or want a hangar. My bill from the FBO is about $1200/mo, which includes my hangar and all the fuel I buy on the field. I spend around 300-400 off the field for fuel, so I'd say you should be able to do it for $600/mo with a tie-down and flying < 10 hours/month.

Several months ago there was a "C" model being liquidated by an FBO that lost their contract. I think it was going for around $29k and was possibly a decent airplane. I'd say you should be able to get a sound "F" with a dated panel, mid-time engine and possibly a minor speed mod or two once you start getting closer to the $40k mark. Edit: The airplane you posted the listing for may be the type of airplane that I just described. I'd spend the money to have Lake Aero or Top Gun do a prepurchase on it and I'd try to get it for less than $30k.

Impossible for the straps to be reversed. The fronts have snaps and little triangles at the tips. The rear has the standard clips. There's no way to reverse the straps.