kommers

I still can't believe what happened today, it is next to incredible but true. I was taxing along the hangar blocks and mine is in the last row so I had to make almost 90% left turn from the main taxiway to the aux taxiway to get to my hangar. Mine is a third hangar on the block and once I turned left I immediately saw Piper Comanche sitting on taxiway, revving up 2 engines and completely blocking my way. I think something clicked in my head and my instincts of the car driver kicked in so instead of just stopping I instinctively pressed left pedal to avoid head-on (which would never happen because his plane was not moving, just getting ready to do so..) So, by doing car-like move to avoid another plane, I simply smashed my left wing into the hangar door. Well, I put damaged plane in my hangar and Comanche rode past me and departed. I went for my mechanic and 40 min later I brought him to my hangar. While he was doing inspection, I heard the prop noise, stepped out and saw the same Comanche coming back from his short flight. This time he stopped because my car was in his way. I re-parked the car on the grass strip on the right side of the taxiway, clearing his way and what happened next was incredible: he decided that he still doesn't have enough space so he pressed left pedal to keep himself clear of my car and the next thing I heard was screeching metal sound as he smashed his left wing into his hangar door, damaging his wingtip exactly in the same way as I did. Can you imagine this? Two pilots trying to avoid each other on the taxiway, making the same mistake in two separate incidents separated by 40 minutes in time, and causing the same damage to each plane ! When he got out of his plane I approached him, we looked at each other and just laughed, although crying would be more appropriate considering the outcome of our stupidity

yes. this is something probably made by Lasar in 90's. Their stuff is on the felt.

Today, while trying to avoid head-on with another plane on taxiway, I accidentally hit and destroyed left wingtip and the lens. The wing tip is on the pictures below (before the damage). I wonder if anyone can recognize the model of this wingtip and advise where I can get a replacement. This thing is made of fiberglass, that's all I know for now. I doubt that it is repairable since it is ripped open ( strobe light managed to survive) The fin is also damaged and needs to be replaced

Company that makes shoulder belts: http://www.alphaaviation.com/ and this one makes covers: http://www.airplane-covers.com/ I bought these items from them. They are also selling via ebay

On July 26 2015, i.e. a year ago, my Mooney 20C was involved in the incident (gear folded 3 sec after the landing) which resulted in a plane writeoff by the insurance company. I wasn't a party to the incident, flying Cessna trainer at the time when the whole thing occurred. Plane was piloted by my wife and her CFI who were on the policy. FAA report cited mechanical malfunction, leaving both pilots blame free. Later that year, I bought a Mooney 20J and the same agent and same underwriter issued me a new policy, the only stipulation for the low cost premium was that neither my wife or her CFI are to be added to it. So, my current policy has only my A/P mechanic and myself on it I had this new policy since last October, but today, I received a letter from the underwriter which stated that my policy is not be renewed and the reason is "previous loss". Has anyone experienced similar situation? I could understand underwriter's rationale if I were involved in that incident, but I wasn't. Moreover, they let me obtain another policy for my new Mooney and suddenly decided not to review a year later. This sounds weird and I am also concerned that I may have problems finding another insurer. Aside from looking for another company, what would be your suggestions? Thank you for you input !

Well, in that case it is not Rocinante. Possibly Rocinanta

That's funny, because Rocinante is actually a male horse of Don Quixote. Are you sure now that your plane is female?

I call mine Pegasus and Mooniara. Funny, we are going to acquire a new collie pup this October and so far, we have only one possible name for him: "Mooney"

I''l check it and if you have some extra, I'll buy them

Thank you for trying anyways. I really appreciate all your help and any idea from brotherhood of the Mooney pilots is very welcome !

Mine are curved and I'll send a photo tomorrow

We are trying to replace left strobe that stopped functioning, but my mechanic is having difficulties locating it. By his words no one makes them or repairs them. Any thoughts or ideas? thank you

I am not 100% sure if the Ovation parts will work. My main concern right now is to find the right side pedals as they are different from the left side

The main thing is to find the brake pedals right now. It appears that they are different from the left side

I don't qualify for fly-in's until I get my IFR ticket Besides, my new J is already showing its temper by first failing the flap switch and now the vac pump. let me repair it first . Also, I trust my own hands more than my eyes. If I observe different technique in landing LB than M20C, chances are, I will bounce my next landing in J . It would be like asking a centipede which leg she uses first to make the first step

I think it is a bit of overstatement. I went from short body M20C to full length M20J and I didn't see any difference whatsoever in landing technique. I would cross the numbers anywhere between 75 to 90 mph and still land the plane without a bounce. I think I bounced Mooney during the landing about twice in my entire life. I do think that Mooney is forgiving the high approach speed, the key is to catch the right moment to flare and of course, to catch the right moment to pull the throttle all way back. (given your runway is long enough )

Well, the preliminary report from my mechanic implicates vacuum pump alone. As to the foggy glass, I attribute it to the water condensation; I am pretty certain I saw water droplets on the internal side of glass and my wife confirms it since she was frantically scanning all the instruments when we smelled that foul odor. The smell itself is still unexplained but as I found out, the previous owner did some customization there including that Wolf air/oil separator and extra inline filter. I'll keep this thread updated as I learn more

Directional Gyro failed at the same time... About a week prior to this I got my GNS430 upgraded with WAAS. After the upgrade, autopilot stopped working completely. I took it back to the avionics shop, they apologized and fixed it , then tested it on the ground. I didn't turn autopilot on ever since until yesterday, but did so while I was flying in vicinity of my destination airport in SC. The whole thing happened about 2 hours after that, on my way back to Atlanta

Yesterday, I was doing a round trip to South Carolina in my 20J and on my way back, approximately 40nm from home airport, cockpit suddenly got filled with pretty nasty odor, something like burning plastic or insulation, or burning lubricant, etc. It gave me immediate headache. At the same moment I noticed that artificial horizon glass got so foggy that I couldn't see anything on the gauge. Finally fog was gone and I noticed that the gauge failed along with heading indicator and suction gauge. For whatever reason, tower radio became very distant and barely audible although I am not sure if this is related. Well, it was light and we made it safely to home airport but I had to keep the pilot window open for the remainder of the flight since that smell would not go away. The obvious answer was that the vacuum pump failed but my mechanic said that he doesn't understand the nature of that awful smell, because, by his words, pump usually goes down silently and without causing any odor issues,nor can he connect radio issue to the whole situation since radio sounded distant and muffled only when I was up in the air, but was perfectly ok right after we landed. Any ideas? Thank you for you input

We decided to install brakes on the right side of my M20J. Lasar quoted an exorbitant amount for the kit. My mechanic said we can do it for much less if I find the parts, like cylinders, etc, elsewhere. So, my question is: does anyone have these parts that he wants to sell? thank you

Well, I wasn't in the airplane when this happened so my wife is more traumatized than I am. Yet she already overcame her fears and irt was she who said that we must resume flying, not me. Long story short, yesterday I landed Mooney 20J in our home airport and put her in the hangar. The new chapter of aviation in my family has begun...

Guys, It appears that on Saturday, Oct 10 I will be a proud owner of Mooney 20J. I flew 20C, but since I have no flying experience in J model, I will need CFI with Mooney to spend a couple of hours with me before I can fly the bird home. Plane is located in Chester SC. Thank you for your replies in advance!

Time to close this thread with my final update: I have sold the damaged plane to Mooney shop that will restore it and putt back to service. My bird will live and fly again! Once back from vacation in the end of September, I will finalize the list of 20J candidates and will have one of these birds finding its home at LZU, hopefully for a long time to come. I was pleasantly surprised to see insurance quotes not being drastically different for 20J from 20C even though the replacement plane is going to be more than twice as expensive and my insurance history now includes one claim.

To Sabremech: David, FAA finished the investigation but I got the notion that they had no desire, nor the the expertise to pursue it at the level that would deliver conclusions that can be of real value to Mooney pilots. In the end, they classified it as "incident", failiing no one in particular and establishing mechanical failure as the most probable cause. From my side, I can only state what I already know: my wife and her CFI did the routine flight that they used to do a few times before, they did a couple of landings in another airport prior to retunring to the home base and they followed the same routine procedure of latching the gear in down position and checking it 4 times before the landing. They both stated that green gear light was on at the moment of landing and it stayed on to the moment when the gear started folding. The Mooney shop that is going to buy our wreckeage from us mentioned that they routinely deal with such kind of accidents and that it takes a slight misallignement in manual gear mechanism for the entire assembly to fail this way. Iust passing the info I have, not adding my own take on it...