ghovey

Mooney needs to sell what they have been good at-SPEED. They also have a great opportunity to market fuel EFFICIENCY. But if you have been to one of the air shows back when all of the manufacturers displayed product and watched the potential buyers (and their spouses) look at the various airplanes--and try and sit in them you will know the biggest issue Mooney faces. Airplanes designed before America got FAT don't have general appeal because they are not comfortable. Mooney has to have an employee sit by the door of the airplane just to show a potential customer how to get in. And please don't try and sit in the back seat. When I talk to people about my Ovation all they want to know is how fast I go. Then I tell them my fuel burn LOP and they are stunned. And if I can get them in the airplane (which isn't that easy) they find it to be roomier than they thought. But if a Cirrus were sitting next to me, or a 210 or a Cessna 400 or a Bonanza almost everybody would say those airplanes were more comfortable. Comfort sells. Mooney cannot succeed on price. The new Mooney's will be expensive. So let's go with what brought us the reputation we have and keep making sexy looking, smokin fast airplanes for people who want to FLY.

Well, I read through all the comments on this topic and I am glad we all got that out of our system. I applaud anyone willing to take a risk in an industry with great challenges. Will they succeed? Possibly with the support of their customers, their dealers, their service centers and their ability to come into the market with products that are well designed, well built and affordable. The same formula that has eluded every small airplane company for the past thirty years. So it is a very big challenge and I wish them success. And yes we will all be there to cal BS if they don't succeed. But in the meantime there are new owners and they have my support. Now, can we please upgrade old G1000's to WAAS?

If you buying a Mooney to fly internationally, other than to Mexico or Canada then you are probably better off not buying an Ovation 2. Mexico is never going to have the ground stations required or impose a real deadline in the next 15 years IMO. Canada does not require ADS-b and has no deadline. I think a much more serious issue affecting your decision is what happens when you can't get 100ll for our engines. Much bigger problem. And an actual current problem if you are flying internationally. By the way the FAA is currently recommending that aircraft flying exclusively below 18 k install the uat band because of congestion on the es band. Go figure.

Regarding the ads-b 2020 problem for non waas g1000, The garmin gdl 88 has an option of a separate waas GPS in the unit that is designed for this problem.

The Avionics Shop just replaced the electric trim switch and also reran the wire through the Yoke. They think it is solved.

Broken wire in the yoke wiring harness

22 cubic feet should be good with a cannula and a flow meter. It is really helpful to be able to dial in the altitude and have it set the quantity/volume for you. It will last much longer. if you are going to have 3 or more folks using it then you need a bigger tank.

22 cubic feet should be good with a cannula and a flow meter. It is really helpful to be able to dial in the altitude and have it set the quantity/volume for you. It will last much longer. if you are going to have 3 or more folks using it then you need a bigger tank.

THe folks at Precise Flight are top notch. I had my speed brakes removed and overhauled at 1000 hrs. Then about 175 hours later we had a problem with one actuating before the other. Removed and sent back last month and covered under their warranty they fixed it and they now work great.

Well if I figure it out I will post the diagnosis.

I noticed it was failing as I watched the pressure go From 1100 to 0 in about 5 minutes and yes I did begin going down

The electric trim on my Ovation works fine on the ground, works fine in autopilot mode (for climb or descent or altitude hold), but in the air the electric trim switch will not activate the trim, either up or down. Back on the ground the trim works immediately, in the air it doesn't matter if the gear is up or down. Any ideas, I am wondering if there is a grounding issue.

The times when you fly into congested airspace and ATC Dumps you into the approach, or like in Tucson coming over the hill and Approach says keep your speed up and you are descending at 215 knots groundspeed and then two miles from the runway says "resume normal speed contact tower" sure you can go around, or pop the brakes pull up the nose, drop the gear and land. Speed brakes are great, but I actually don't use them that often.

Get a decent size bottle and don't be afraid of using it. And if you fly really high bring a back up, why? Last summer at 17000 ifr my built in o2 system had a total failure, no problem just descend, except I was flying from Sw Colorado to South Dakota and had not cleared the rockies and there wasn't a great low altitude solution due to granite. I did have a back up, I never thought I would use it for that reason.

My gear does the same sort of thing, only there is a delay sometimes and then it goes down or I cycle the switch and it usually works, occasionally I have given it a little gravity help by quick nose up, checked thoroughly by a&p and no idea other than internal gear motor issue. Manual works fine.

Thanks for all of the info. Regarding EGT on climbout, it does not seem to be a problem as EGT continue to decrease unless you lean to increase them, while CHT will only decrease when %of power is sufficiently reduced due to alitude.

I just got back from KSDM (San Diego) to KHND (Henderson NV). 500' elevation at departure, 20 degrees centigrade, fuel flow at 2690 rpm, aircraft weight 2900, , wot on climbout was 27.2 gph. At 85 kts and over 1500 fpm climb, high CHT was 420 so decreased climb/increased speed to 120kts 800fpm and Cht fell to 400. After a couple thousand feet pulled the rpm back to 2550 and with cruise climb/ 120 kts cht was just under 400. Pulled rpm back to 2400 and cht fell to below 380-the 2400 rpm setting was tried on departure from KHND, 2400ft and fuel flow was around 25gph and cht never got above 390 at 27 degree oat. The rpm seem to have much more impact on cht than any other factor. Cruise- At 11,000, 2540 rpm, LOP about 35 degrees, 12.2 gph, 174 TAS, CHt down around 310-330. At 10,000 35degrees LOP usually 12.5 gph, 175 TAS and low CHT. at 2400 rpm and TAS drops to 170. It seems that I may need to adjust the WOT fuel flow to around 30 gph. Also the white box on the G1000 is 1400-1450 egt. One problem I have with the EGT is that there are individual probes for each cylinder but the single EGT number shown on the first page of the engine monitor on the MFD uses a different probe located lower down on the manifold and it reads about 75degrees hotter than the individual EGTs. There is a white box on the front page and one on the second page but with two sets of entirely different EGT readings. Either way on climbout I lean to the white box on the front page (the higher EGT number). But I run LOP using the second page and the individual cylinder readings to find that last cylinder that peaked and then lean 35degrees. I don't run LOP below 10,000 feet unless I pull the rpm and throttle below 70% power.

Thanks Don

Cris, Thanks for the tip on Midwest

Carusoam, I am familiar with the "bluezone" concept although on the G1000 I am not sure where it is since there is no blue zone on my EGT or CHT scales. There is a white bar around 1450 egt that I lean to when I have climbed above 5000 and am in cruise climb at 120+ knots. With a fairly full airplane this is around 800-600 fpm as I climb from 5-10k. Out here in California I regularly fly between 10 and 14k because of terrain and ATC preferences. The CHT issue is problematic on initial climbout. After I level out to a cruise climb the CHT is usually around 400-405 on the hot cylinder.

Carusoam, The STC of the Ovation 310 which I have states that max fuel burn at 2700 rpm is 150-160 lbs or approximately 26.7 gph. There are no numbers on the Cruise Power Settings chart amending the POH. I don't think that is enough fuel to keep my engine CHT's under 400. The main problem is that I have one cylinder that runs 50 degress hotter, but it is #3 on climbout and #5 in Cruise unless I dial the rpms back to 2400 and then everything runs within 10 degress of each other.

I assume from this discussion that there is no news from about MAC or the future of parts and or "Mooney Factory" support.

What fuel flow are you getting on climbout at 2700/WOT at sea level at 100 kts? I currently run at 29.2 but I continue to have high CHT on climbout so I have to reduce climb or rpm. In speaking with the GAMI engineers they told me to have my A&P increase the fuel flow to the low 30's. i use GAMI injectors, 05 O3.

What fuel flow are you getting on climbout at 2700/WOT at sea level at 100 kts? I currently run at 29.2 but I continue to have high CHT on climbout so I have to reduce climb or rpm. In speaking with the GAMI engineers they told me to have my A&P increase the fuel flow to the low 30's. i use GAMI injectors, 05 O3.

With Oshkosh approaching and the opportunity to talk airplanes with all kinds of folks, what is the latest speculation about the future of Mooney parts and technical support. Is MAPA or some other independent group going to fill in. I also noticed that Diamond withdrew from all public airshows, so it looks like the spiral is affecting all of the piston folks.