Bob_Belville

I spend a week or two each summer or fall at KIWI. Hope to get back there in Sept.

Canada, Marsh Harbor, Abacos.

Jim Cancil, Planecover, Salisbury MD (the other cover maker who advertises in Mooney mags) also makes custom plugs. When I first bought my E, I was in an open on one side T hanger so needing something right away, I cut a couple of hunks of urethane foam to shape and covered them with nylon socks I had laying around from Delta Air Business Class freebees. Connected them with a badge lanyard that had alligator clips on both ends, added a "remove before flight" streamer. socks match blue trim of plane. I guess I'll get some store bought plugs sometime... I should mention I have a J cowl on my E.

Legitimate question. I recently had to re-solder one of the wires on a Telex ANC after a passenger, she shall be nameless, got tangled in the cord getting out.

Get a stormscope. I recently navigated through a front with several cells. Nexrad showed a good bit more color on the GTN 750 than was really much concern looking out the window. OTOH, where the stormscope had clusters was black as sin out the window.

My OAT probe for the EDM 930 is on the port side below the rear window. The shop used the same hole that had been an OAT probe used with an old Davtron 5 function instrument that was mounted on the far left of the panel which might explain the location.

Yeah, my first Mooney (also a '66 M20E but w/o brakes) was a problem arriving at my home base IFR, particularly from the west. The airport is 1266 but terrain to the west is well over 6000 and I'd be within 15 miles of the airport needing to loose 4 or 5000 feet. Back then the only approach, an ADF to rwy 3, required another 1000 fpm dive, often with a tail wind. (Cross the NDB @ 4000, 6 miles from the runway.) Brakes would have been a great help. Of course if I slowed to gear speed and put the gear down early I was OK but I was also going to be busy when I had to go missed.

B26, my gear restriction is the same as yours, 120 mph, my flaps are even lower - 100 mph. The brakes could be used in level flight to reduce speed but that's not all that useful. Where they are useful is in higher speed descent. In my E I am routinely cruising in the yellow arc, In smooth air I can push over the nose and pull back the power to 15-18" and with speed near red line get 500(?) fpm. But if I'm getting near the airport or if the air is bumpy enough to make red line not an option I can deploy brakes and see 1500 fpm without shock cooling engine. When I get to pattern altitude and level out the brakes will help get the speed down to gear speed. At that point I will retract brakes - the gear is plenty of drag to slow to pattern and flap speed. I probably use the brakes on 1 flight out of 10. I used them returning from Maine last month when I had been maneuvering build ups, still IFR, and wanted to drop below the broken clouds. I used them going into Sun n Fun in April is a similar situation to get 1500 fpm while still bumping through the scattered layer in order to get down to where I could cancel IFR and join the herd arrival.

I have the manual speed brakes on my '66E. Precise Flight Inc STC SA5708NM. Done by a previous owner in 1997. Trouble free, can be deployed at any speed and very effective at high speed with much less effect when slow. All good. And compared to other choices relatively inexpensive.

Jose, I have to pull the CB to my "check landing gear" lady due to false alarms. Neither my A&P nor my avionics shop have any great ideas. The problem seems to be in the radar altimeter rather than the throttle limit switch.

I suspect WAAS equipped aircraft get better handling.? http://www.faa.gov/nextgen/snapshots/slides/?slide=22&cid=TW178

Look in the files section of the home page for an excel spreadsheet for W&B for my '66E that I just uploaded. I think the administrator screens additions to this area so it might take a little while. It is a very careful and detailed worksheet which anyone should be able to modify and adapt for their use.

I see some odd arm lengths in some of the replies above. The rear seats should be @ 70.7, baggage @ 93.0, hat rack @ 114.0 fuel @ 48.4. (I'm assuming C is the same as E which might not be so.)

Your front seats have 6 positions with arms from 36.5" to 44.0". (Each notch is 1.5") Be sure to use the forward positions in your calculations when you have rear seat passengers.

Well, I can agree that oil sump will read higher the next day than it did immediately after shut down. (I think that's likely true with multigrade as well.) Byron seems to me to be saying the oil level will still not be at equilibrium after several hours with straight weight.

Certain costs are hard to predict, component failure and other unscheduled maintenance, E.g. Other costs are easy to list: Fixed annual costs: (My E, insured for $100,000 hull, hangered @ MRN) Annual inspection $900. Hanger $3000. Insurance $1230. Garmin/Jepp/XM/other $1500. Total annual (minimum?) $6630. ELT battery, IFR cert, etc ? Hourly: mostly fuel @ 10g/h $55-$65 per hour Oil, filter, misc supplies < $5 /hr. Not included, depreciation, engine pro rata But the right way to think about it, IMNSHO, is not to calculate a total hourly cost. The $6 grand is the price of admission. The operating cost is less than $70. Make your fly/drive/fly commercial/stay home decisions using that number.

Have you confirmed that? 200 F 50W oil will not drain down out of a 400 F engine in the summer time in a few hours?

John Brenda, powder coating sounds like the way to get a tough finish that should last a long time. I know the Feds frown on powder coating yokes because of the heat involved. Did you get your powder coating for the JBar "blessed" by anyone? We have a shop that does PC near by and I could probably take them my bar while the plane is in annual at the end of the month.

Dave, thanks for the explanation. I suspect the differences in engine temps and climb profiles are going to be pretty trivial between taking off w/o flaps vs. 15 deg flaps to 2-300 AGL. By the time we're to @ pattern altitude we're flying at the same power and airspeed. One or the other of us might be slightly more down range.

Dave, your comments seem to be contradictory to me. You use flaps for obstacle clearance but then state that flaps degrade climb gradient and rate. I'm not sure what kinds of flaps your F has, my E is hand pump hydraulic so I simply flip up the valve right after locking the Johnson Bar in place. In a few seconds I am clean and terrain permitting I'm looking for 120k or so to climb as cool as possible. From about 300' AGL we're in the same mode. I'd just rather be in my Chrysler Crossfire than in my Mooney when I'm doing 80 mph on the ground.

(this 1968 accident was my Mooney, many years before I bought it. Note the probable cause:) 14 CFR Part 91 General Aviation Aircraft: MOONEY M20E, registration: N2566W FILE DATE LOCATION AIRCRAFT DATA INJURIES FLIGHT PILOT DATA F S M/N PURPOSE 3-2768 68/8/17 OAKDALE,CALIF MOONEY M20E CR- 0 0 1 NONCOMMERCIAL PRIVATE, AGE 39, 448 TIME - 1410 N2566W PX- 0 0 2 BUSINESS TOTAL HOURS, 250 IN TYPE, DAMAGE-SUBSTANTIAL OT- 0 0 0 NOT INSTRUMENT RATED. NAME OF AIRPORT - OAKDALE TYPE OF ACCIDENT PHASE OF OPERATION STALL: MUSH TAKEOFF: INITIAL CLIMB PROBABLE CAUSE(S) PILOT IN COMMAND - FAILED TO OBTAIN/MAINTAIN FLYING SPEED FACTOR(S) PILOT IN COMMAND - MISUSED OR FAILED TO USE FLAPS PILOT IN COMMAND - SELECTED WRONG RUNWAY RELATIVE TO EXISTING WIND WEATHER - HIGH TEMPERATURE WEATHER BRIEFING - NO RECORD OF BRIEFING RECEIVED WEATHER FORECAST - UNKNOWN/NOT REPORTED SKY CONDITION CEILING AT ACCIDENT SITE CLEAR UNLIMITED VISIBILITY AT ACCIDENT SITE PRECIPITATION AT ACCIDENT SITE 5 OR OVER(UNLIMITED) NONE OBSTRUCTIONS TO VISION AT ACCIDENT SITE TEMPERATURE-F NONE 85 WIND DIRECTION-DEGREES WIND VELOCITY-KNOTS 315 5 TYPE OF WEATHER CONDITIONS TYPE OF FLIGHT PLAN VFR NONE REMARKS- QUARTERING TAIL WIND 5 KNOTS. NO FLAPS. TEMP 85 DEG.

I always use t/o flaps. Not sure why I would want to keep bouncing down the runway building an extra 5-10 k before rotating?

I suppose you removed JBar and flap lever and sent them off for re-chrome and powder coating? Approx cost? Time?

ISTM Fantom makes an important point. We're in no danger of running out of shops to install avionics, paint and interiors. Even engines. Unless someone builds some new ones sometime, we will run out of sound airframes even if personal aviation continues to wane.

Me too... I'll be interested in any ideas!