pinerunner

I remember something like this when I first got my M20E. I was fiddling with the flaps on the ground, I think extending them and then going out to look at it all. I extended four pumps and then came up against the maximum extension limit. I had used a little more force force than maybe I ought to have and anyway it was reluctant to retract when I returned the little valve switch to the "flaps up" position. After waiting a bit and worrying that I was already going to need a mechanic so soon after buying my "new" plane it finally was able to retract again. I learned that, at least with my E, its a bad idea to extend the flaps all the way and if you should feel it reaching the "stop" for god's sake don't try to push any further. Putting extra pressure into that hydraulic system seems to make something stick. I don't know if its a quirk of my plane or if they're all like that. It would make me cautious about letting someone else fly it, especially if they'd never flown older aircraft. Some people expect everything to be foolproof.

I'd be itching to fly it anyway so flying him home would be no problem

I think you're on a great track. I'd finish my PPL first before I went after another plane, since you're close already. You certainly can do long cross country flights without an IFR but be prepared to spend a few nights in a hotel waiting for weather. Even with the IFR rating you can get stuck. Just be conservative and know your limits. F will cost a little more for the extra space. I have an E and it is possible to put people in the back but I'm short and have my seat just one notch back from all the way forward. With tall (long legged) people in front I think it becomes impossible to put people in back. I like my E and it does really get up and go. Corrosion due to dissimilar metals around the roll cage and leaky tanks needing reseal are two of the big issues to watch out for. Its a buyers market so you should have little trouble finding and buying the plane you want but if you change your mind ........ So do a lot of research beforehand and get what you really want and can afford on the first go.

I'd talk to my insurance company and see what they require. It's not greater than 200 HP so you don't need to get "high performance" sign off. I wish the rules were written so that 200 HP or greater was "high performance" cause then I could count my time in the E model as both complex and high performance. If this is your first fuel injected plane you might find that makes things a little more interesting but once you get it started its no big deal. I imagine the rules are a little tighter than they used to be but the last I knew you don't have to get a new "type certificate" if you hop from a C150 to a C152 or even a C182 to a C210. If you've got a bunch of hours in an M20C I can't imagine you're going to need much special training for the J model. If you've got access to a great instructor take advantage of it. The way I remember the rules for smaller planes is "thou shalt not attempt to fly a plane thou ist not qualified to fly". If you decide a PA-12 isn't much different from your favorite super cub, hop in and fly it without incident you've proven you were right...no problem. If you crack it up you've proven you were wrong and you broke the regulation. The onus is on your judgment. Get it wrong and you've got some explaining to do and probably the insurance won't cover you. My insurance didn't make me jump through extra hoops after I got my biannual in the E I was buying. I have a commercial but it had been a LONG time since I had last flown. The instructor spent about 8 hour with me and I think he would have spent nearly that much if it had been a Cessna. Once I was on my own the only troubles I had were with quirks of the individual plane and none at all with the fact that I was flying a Mooney.

This makes a lot of sense to me. I used to do work on a very old magnetic sector mass spectrometer. The point being there was a special type of nonmagnetic stainless steel that had to be used for replacement parts or measurements would get screwed up. It makes sense to me that the inspection cover near the flux gate might require special screws that could easily swapped out by an unsuspecting mechanic doing the inspection and make trouble on certain headings. This looks like the type of problem that's easy to check if you know about it and also easy to overlook for a couple years of time and money while you check everything else.

Bruce Jaegars "Spacial Interiors" Check out http://www.jaegeraviation.com/sinteriors

Though I'm not a mechanic, I would throw in a little mechanical advice. It looks like your Cherokee has been sitting for two or three years and will sit for at least a couple more. I'd go online and find some of the articles and videos on engine preservation and follow their advice for yours. Busch and Deakins have some good articles and Lycoming puts out some notes on it. Google gets you to this stuff easily. The basic idea is to close up the engine and use desiccant to minimize moisture and the resulting corrosion inside. There's also a special "storage oil" you can put in and use. I hope you're far enough from the sea down there in Florida so that salt doesn't enter into your equation. Aluminum aircraft can last almost forever in a very dry place but salt and moisture together make it hard to keep a plane airworthy. I'm not so sure how bad humidity alone is but I'd rather not have it if I have the choice. If you officially own the the plane then you have the right to do certain bits of maintenance yourself and the list is in the FAR's. You may need at least your private certificate; my mechanic showed me how to make an entry in the engine log for my oil change and it included putting in my certificate number. You've got plenty of time to get very intimate with this plane and inspect it in great detail and that's what I'd do while going for your private license; corrosion identification is the big thing to learn. I'd make friends with a mechanic and you might get lucky and find one who would help you and wouldn't overcharge you or try to discourage you from thinking for yourself on this stuff. Good luck.

That reminds me of a late-night movie I saw once "Bee Girls".

Bingo

Boy "Little Timmy" is doing great! I still think some one has a side bet on how many replys it will get before year years eve. Since no one has mentioned Obama ticking people off for at least two pages I thought I'd throw these two blurbs into the mix. http://www.globalresearch.ca/obama-approves-raising-permissible-levels-of-nuclear-radiation-in-drinking-water-civilian-cancer-deaths-expected-to-skyrocket/5331224 http://reason.com/archives/2014/07/06/raising-the-epa-radiation-limit-will-sav/ The second one explains why and in particular how linear no-threshold models have created such a problem. One of the vids on the http://energyfromthorium.com/website describes how the the LNT model got started, rammed through science circles due to one guys fame and finally started just being assumed to be true. It shows how highly educated people can find ways to be ignorant, even while having good intentions(if you call wanting to pat yourself on the back a good intention).

While the data used at the start of this thread can be criticized for its lack of a denominator, Busch admits this and points out that its the best he could do and why. I think it does a great job of backing up the adage "Be on guard right after work has been done."

I just noticed that 90% of the posters in this thread are of the "Won't leave" category. I predict that by the time its done the rest will have graduated to that category as well.

Hehe, We're going to set a new posting record thanks to "Little Timmy". I have a two part answer to our energy woes. Part 1: Nuclear Just watch "Pandora's Promise" and/or watch a few of Kurt Sorensens vids which help make it understandable for the nonengineer. Part 2: And what will we be putting in our tanks? Well there's a Navy chemical engineer who's making Jet fuel from CO2 and Hydrogen that she gets out of sea water. You have to put energy in of course (nothings free) but in a world where no fossil fuels were coming out of the ground we might still be getting fuel for our Mooneys. Some research will be needed but the real hump is regulatory. And what's my favorite regulatory rant? Hmm.. I think I read that GAMI's 100UL fuel could be blended up at most refinery's and delivered to us tomorrow but for one guy at the FAA dragging his heals. That get's me irritated.

Don Maxwell wrote a great article that you can find at his website www.donmaxwell.com under publications. I tried copying and pasting the whole link in but something stopped me. While I goggled my way to this site for the fuel leak issue the other articles there are great too. I'm headed right back. Even though I apparently live here I take field trips!

Watch out for the pythons. Oh I just got promoted to "Lives Here"; is that a good thing?

Personally I believe in the ideal man-machine interface. Dumbing down the human side isn't part of that. An example for me was my kids and the neighbor kids playing video games fifteen years ago. They'd set up a LAN down in the basement and go at it. They were all using hot keys and setting up their own macros to do customized moves on each other. Icons were available but those that only used icons were just left in the dust. Pilotless airplanes is as bad as nonpilots regulating aviation in my book.

I think if you crash a Mixmaster you end up sandwiched between the two engines.

I've always thought the Cessna 310 was about the sexiest looking twin ever. Two engine out there and wing tip tanks to boot. Some of them are even for sale cheap for some strange reason. If you've got the itch for something bigger that ought to help scratch it. Then comes the part where you feed it and maintain it.$$$!!! You'll never fly something more cost effective than your Mooney. Hmm. Asking a bunch of Mooniac's to recommend an upgrade to a twin?

and this leads to the scary scenario where the oil in the cooler gets REALLY cold on a winter day and very viscous. Then the rest of oil heats up to where the vernatherm closes, forcing the oil through the obstructed oil cooler and literally popping it or at least deforming it until the oil flows and the pressure is relieved. Winter, arctic, flyers have to do things to keep the oil cooler from overcooling.

I'm pretty much in the fix when it needs it. I also mostly trust my mechanic who's also an inspector. I combine that with avidly reading the Busch/Deakins articles and watching the vids. Then I discuss with my mechanic. I actually like working on the owner servicable parts and tracking leaks and puddles to their source. Oil testing, engine monitor. We've got quite an arsenal of tools to either give us some peace of mind or make us crazy. Take your pick.

OK now you've got me! How much difference between Airtex and Aero Comfort? I'm on the verge of ordering Airtex carpeting. Would Aero Comfort give me something extra for my dollar either in final quality or in fit and ease (less fuss and bother) of installation? I plan on following up the carpet with Spatial Interior even though I'm currently tight with the dollars.

If you could arrange for it to be pointed into the wind the whole time then maybe not so bad unless something blows into it. But 45 kt side winds on the tail feathers makes me nervous. That's not the kind of load it was designed for. I'm glad I'm in a hangar. Say I just got upgraded to "Lives here"

I'm saving my dollars for this. I really think its an upgrade that will add value to our old planes. Ease of inspection, looks great, more room.

I bet you were smiling though when you found out how fast it could go. I wonder what would happen if you pushed them all the way forward.

It was John Deakin in Pelican's Perch #66. The most controversial thing he recommended in that article was a large drop in RPM and not so big a drop in MP to get the power down. He was basicly saying the "never set the MP oversquare" was an OWT (with the exception of during takeoff I suppose). He didn't go full rich for landing either but kept it leaned all the way to touchdown. A key problem would be if the pilot needed to make a go around and went for full power with just the throttle. Very lean and the engine would sputter as most of us have observed in leaning for idle. If it were just rich enough to be able to develop power you might overheat (it wouldn't be as bad as at the start of the takeoff roll though since you would have a good flow of cooling air). His answer to that was that pilots should be making adjustments to all three knobs anyway for every major power change. To do what he suggests safely requires a major retooling in engine management practices from the simple practices that we start with and entails a very personal decision. What do you trust yourself to do consistently?