exM20K

Another issue with the auto engine use: auto manufacturers change and evolve their engine design, and when they do, you’re SOL. Example is the 1.7L Thielert, which definitely had its share of problems (piston cooling nozzles and case cracks most prominently). When Mercedes went to the 2.0 L architecture, these problems became basically un-fixable. -dan

Flightaware understands wildcards. Try M20* -dan

William, I keep an Acclaim at Naper Aero Club (LL10). MX costs are unsurprising, figure TCO in the $200/hour range if you fly enough and can find reasonable hangar space. Flying characters are very nice, not as you might read on the interwebs… Things you should research: Can you get a hangar? PWK is tough, and these planes shouldn’t be left outside. Is there qualified MX on or near where you will base the plane. There’s a Mooney service center at Schaumburg that I’ve never used but not because I’ve heard bad things. Will the fit you and your 80% pax load? is getting in and out, especially the back seats, ok for you? Is the visibility out the front satisfactory? Other than a handful of G1000 and “DX” units, these planes have a tall panel. other than the panel height, I can probably help you assess room, ingress and egress, etc. Im in Florida at the moment but should be back up that way Wednesday. Shoot me a PM with your contact info if you’d like to sit in the acclaim -Dan

Ball’s in Mooney’s court.

These sorts of statistics are based on very small sample sizes and will be meaningfully changed by a handful of mishaps. They also disregard the use case environment (training vs personal/biz etc) Yes, Diamond Aircraft are safer than Mooney Aircraft during / after the crash. In the DA40: Seats are an integral part of the airframe and engineered to dissipate energy especially the "up" vector that will break your back. Seats are fixed in place to keep you away from the panel and maximize flail space No yoke shaft pointing at your sternum, though an impact with the center stick may change your pitch No fuel lines enter the cabin Fuel tanks are nestled between two massive wing spars Visibility out of the cabin is much better (before the crash) Stall speed is much lower. (49 vs 55 KIAS DA40-180 vs M20J) I endeavor to avoid crashing my M20TN, but if I had to put it into the trees, I'd rather be in a DA40. Or somewhere else :-) -dan

Kevin Surrell ran a great Mooney shop out of Flora, but sadly Kevin and Midwest Mooney are gone. @Raptor05121 's suggestion of Byerly would be my choice, too. This pre-buy checklist comes from a credible source. -dan

Bruce Chien is my AME. I’m not a difficult case, but who knows what the future holds… Great guy, knows how to get things done, and now that he has relocated to 1C5 from Peoria, he’s easy to get to with an airline flight to MDW. -dan ,

Have you checked your detector? I just sent my 6 year old Tocsin unit in for sensor replacement. Sensor is good for two-ish years. Maybe another pilot near you has something you could borrow to check your device. -dan

100% agree. Especially in the winter, my clothes and kit can push 25# or more. As you say, bags and all the junk we carry in the plane (what does a wet cover weigh?) add up. In order to have a better handle on true takeoff weight, I carry a fishing scale (AKA: the fish reducer) in the baggage compartment. My briefcase/computer bag is 15# typically. My wife’s camera bag is pushing 35. So right there is a true 50# that would be easy to assess visually as 20. pity we can’t have truckstop-style CAT scales to optionally weigh our loaded aircraft. But “don’t ask, don’t tell” seems to prevail. -dan

It’s not obvious how this illustrates anything other than a competent multi-engine pilot executing a routine engine-out landing after a precautionary shut down. in a single, this event is about half as likely to happen. A competent single-engine pilot would divert to nearest suitable field when the OP starts going. An engine-out in a single is not a death sentence, but rather is something to deal with. As with twins, many do not make it into the stats because no substantial damage or serious injuries. I have quite a bit of multi time and may own a twin again some day (waiting on Bob Kromer to make me a smoking deal on a Blackhawk C90), but until I have substantial time in type, I am certain that I’m safer in my Acclaim. We pilots are a link in the accident chain some 75% of the time, after all…. Especially we high-time studs that know it all :-) -Dan

Every once in a while, I retract the flaps after initial level-off when I see I’m 10-15 knots slow. -Dan

@aviatorebthke a look at the window and door dimensions in a P210 vs a non-pressurized 210. Airtight bladder is a interesting and new-to-me solution, but it would be very difficult for the existing windows and door latch to withstand any pressure differential. Anything can be beefed up, of course, but there goes your useful load. -dan

Amen, Jerry. If a meridian or jetprop fit my mission, I’d buy one. with another 200# of useful load, I think the Acclaim is about the perfect HPSE plane. Range, speed, climb rate, operating economics are all excellent. -Dan

Yes, the TN can touch the yellow in straight and level flight at high power and low altitude. Since turbine conversions do away with the yellow arc, there is little practical use for more cruise power in the TN. -dan

Vle on the acclaim is 164 KIAS. Yours should be similar. speed brakes shed approx 20KIAS everything else constant. Gear extended is about the same I think. so next time, try to get to Vlo, drop the gear, pull the power, and pitch for Vle. -dan

...and a creeper, preferably one that has an adjustable backrest and height. And eye protection, of course. -dan

Ditto. I spent 20 years building trading systems, and the road to ruin is paved with in-sample data to which the model is perfectly fit. Out-of-sample (real-life trading) will often show dramatically different result. Mine came back with "All Hands On Deck" for four of six cylinders. 'Scoped them, and everything is jiggy. Whew. I did send them my photos and results so that they can perhaps learn the cause of my false positive, but with small samples, the likelihood of coming up with an over-fit model is very high. The rotator issue is a single malfunction mode which expresses itself in EGT traces. The multi-factor model is a whole different animal. I'm a big fan of what Savvy and @kortopatesdo with respect to analyzing engine monitor data traces, and I'm with @DXB: Cylinders get borescoped every 100 hours and at the annual. -dan

But…. Spirit. I’d rather crawl across broken glass. I look at the whole thing differently. It’s not just about DOC $$$. The benefits of coming and going on my schedule and being able to carry stuff and pets that are a pain on airlines, maintaining some shred of dignity by not being herded like livestock onto the germ tube, and the joy and satisfaction of doing it myself are worth the extra $. of course, I’m rationalizing, but that’s OK :-) -Dan

@Harrio PM sent

Right. The AC can drop temp by, say, 20*. Keep the thermostat at 80, and you’re circulating 60* dew point air. The weekly cycle down to 70 loads the house or hangar with 50* dew point air. So far, so good for us.

That’s not how air conditioning works. The indoor evaporator coil condenses water vapor (humidity) out of the inside air. What you describe is why swamp coolers suck as air conditioners, as opposed to something like the b-kool.

St George Island, FL, a skinny island in the Gulf of Mexico and a place I don’t leave my plane outside….

This may work if the hangar is an airtight-ish building… at our SGI home, when we are not there, the thermostats are all set to 85*. Once a week, all three drive the temp down to 70* and then reset to 85. It’s said to be as good as holding a lower temp for wringing out the humidity. We are recording levels to see if true. Does use a lot less power. -de

What causes exhaust valve failure? Inattention. This stuff doesn’t pop up overnight, so building a library of borescope images at 50 or 100 hour intervals will show when something is going bad. It’s not hard, even on the TN with the intercoolers blocking access to the top plugs. -dan

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