Bob_Belville

http://www.mooneyevents.com/chrono.htm

You don't say!

I don't know but I do know that insurance plays a big role in my A&Ps decisions. These guys assume a lot of liability. (As an aside this small businessman has had to drop health insurance with the implementation of the "Affordable" Health Care Act. The rates and deductibles went up so much it was out of the question. His wife works in the business, they have 3 small children.)

I could not understand why the altimeter was not going up like a rocket at that speed.

I don't think that consideration went into the calculus but certainly CG is important, With 4 adults of roughly the same size the CG for my E is right at the rear limit. But that would probably be true in M20 model through Js at least. For those who strain gnats, the CG moves with fuel burn. The fuel arm is 48.4 so CG moves aft if you start with aft CG and forward if your CG was forward of 48.4 on take off. Of course tall guys like you need to take into account which hole your seat is in. Old Wilbur is wagging his skull. I've never owned a J but istm it might have been a tweak to the spar assembly that allowed them increase gross. Someone here will know.

My M20E, first produced in 1964(?) has a max gross of 2575#. Standard fuel capacity is 52 gallons. The M20F, first produced in 1967(?) has a max gross of 2740#. Standard fuel capacity is 64 gallons. Same engine, same wing, same gear, same empennage... different certification date. While folks are reluctant to admit it in writing, I suppose that when the longer, heavier plane with more fuel capacity was certified the powers be, in order to keep from reducing full fuel useful load, simply looked more carefully at what a gross could be. While the roomier F cut into the E sales there was zero economic return on any work spent on increasing the E's gross. It might be illegal to choose carry a greater fuel reserve and taking off 100 overweight but I would contend it is not reckless. Flame away.

Definitely not a Mooney.

I have an old Crossfire that gets me to the airport. It's no Vette but it is a fun little car.

Unless the DA is pretty high the difficulty should be limited to the landing. And that is dependent upon the pilot more than the machine. If Dr.Bill chimes in he is based at a 2800' field with tall trees at both ends. He probable knows if he can easily get his E in and stopped in 1500'. I suspect he can. Book take off roll @ gross @ 5000' & 80F in an E is 1330' (2270' over 50' obstacle) But at 2200# @ SL & 59F take off roll is only 675'. Any headwind will of course improve these numbers. Gotta love Es!

12 seats left per Mike's nice web site as of now...

We're registered for Summit! Yea. This pic was taken on the occasion of Nancy and my 50th anniversary in July.

Some of you may have seen my panel, a layout I decided on 2 years ago. If I had it to do again I don't think I would change a single thing including the GDL88 which powers weather and traffic on the GTN750. (the GPS on the right, out of this pic, is a Garmin 696, a great backup to the certified boxes.) "Glass" is the 6 pack and also the engine monitoring instruments replaced by the JPI EDM 930.

Hire a George.

Nice list from SuperDave. The ref speeds, solid HSI, GPSS with almost any A/P TAS, winds, altimeter with altitude alerts... I'm with Marauder, after almost 2 years with Aspen I would hate to go back. (My "glass" includes GTN750 and JPI 930 which all integrate and reduce workload and scan.)

After Oshkosh bookings Mooney production is presumably sold out for almost 2 years.

With proper instruction and experience you will be able to move up to a Mooney shortly after getting your PPL. Many on this forum, myself included, started flying Mooneys with much less than 100 PIC time. And a Mooney should fit your mission perfectly. An IFR ticket is much more useful than a ME rating. And much more work to achieve. A Mooney will give you much lower operating costs than a twin or a Viking. Your acquisition budget is borderline low for a plane that will be completely satisfactory. There are plenty of Mooneys for sale below $50k but I doubt there are many with a reasonably modern panel, an engine that will not need overhaul for several years and a presentable interior/exterior. Panels and engines are expensive. Get a ride in a Mooney. But be careful, most of the folks here will confirm that Mooneys are awfully addictive.

My 930 was installed 11/2012 and at that time JPI wanted it back to them for any changes. I believe that SOP has been loosened with upgraded firmware which allows more, non POH defined, to be changed in the field. My manuals with the supplemental instructions is at the airport. Send me a PM and I'll get back to you with the details though you might have to have EDM firmware upgraded to use. E.g. I know I can now enter alarm values such as CHT @ 400 without affecting the POH high limit of 475. I could also change the assumed rpm factor for the Hobbs which in now 2400 if I wanted to. I think the Hobbs can now be reset but I will have to check new supplemental manual to be sure.

Hey B26, if you had a fancy engine analyser you could post a FP pic that looks like this:

25 psi is fine. Low pressure alarm is 14 psi. (High is 30.) FWIW, my electric pump maxes out @ 20 psi (when the engine is not running and the throttle and mixture are closed.).

I have had the PFD1000 for almost 2 years. While everyone is different, you should not have any problems adjusting when VFR. You'll still have steam gauges for airspeed, AI and altimeter and you will probably be looking at them quite a bit at first until you get use to the tapes. There are quite a few nice features that you have not had with steam. If you have a GPS tied in I suppose you'll have GPSS and TAS. GPSS is great but it will take a little practice to find out in which conditions it will go suspend. Before doing a real approach you'll want to be comfortable that you understand the whys and wherefores. I do not have SV. The screen is pretty small and I am not sure it would be worth having but someone who has it may give you better advice. (I have a big screen GTN750 so situational awareness is not a problem. It can always be added. Just add money and stir.

ISTM we need to be realistic with our expectations. If I buy a nice car for $40k, what will it be worth in 10 years? Not much if I drive it 20,000 miles a year, even if I take good care of it. I once paid $50,000 for a used 500MB hard drive for a Data General mini computer (new would have been 100k). In a few years the drive was worthless. If an airframe is analogous to a car and avionics is like a computer or other electronics we would expect to see significant depreciation, even if we care great care of out machinery. My plane is 49 years old. The panel is getting older every day and for electronics, like a dog, every year is like 7 years. We are actually lucky in a way that there's any value in such old machinery. These are not collector items, they're a tool, a (wonderful) ride.

Unless you fly near gross wt. you should expect to beat the book speed for gross (2740/2900). I'm a little faster than that in my old E but I'm usually @ 2300-2500#.

I agree, I think I would just disengage GPSS and use the 750 map page to manually fly the hold. I probably use the HDG bug to make the turns. When released I'd just have to hit GPSS on the Aspen to continue flight plan.

And disengage GPSS? Using the HDG bug on the HSI and reversing it every 2 minutes, manually timed?

I suppose one way to do it would be to use user defined waypoint(s) which can be defined based on radial and distance. You could then insert waypoint pairs and go from one end to the other inserting as many cycles as you need into the fltplan. I don't know if you'd do pretty racetrack courses or not -- with 4 wp you could. When cleared to proceed you would use dir/fltplan/next fix.