pinerunner

I agree with this totally. You need the monitor to evaluate your GAMI spread, decide whether you even need GAMI injectors, run LOP without shooting in the dark, and its great for catching engine problems early and saving $$$ in the long run. I threw in fuel flow on my EI UBG-16 and have been very pleased with it. Busch has a great video that you can find easily through his SavyAviator website in the archives. Free. I'm not sure how quickly it will pay for itself in reduced maintenance cost, but I bet within 5 years or so. I like the peace of mind knowing my CHT's are where they belong. you can also make a bunch of friends here by posting your numbers and asking a question; like bees (or bears?) to honey. Dave

I routinely use flaps for takeoff in my 63 M20E but I can see one point of sense in what your CFI taught you. I our older E models the maximum flap extended speed of 100 mph is very easy to exceed. Taking off without flaps will require a bit more speed but has been saving you that hassle. You'll need them for shorter strips so you might as well bring them into your reperatoire. With 50 hours you're probably well aware of the importance of speed control in these planes. I take that maximum flap speed very seriously and often wish they'd made my flaps a bit more rugged. Your decision as PIC!

What about Avidyne?

Hi All, This is somethng I've wanted to know about for a long time. Really good GA airports to stay ovenight or even a few days if the weather turns bad. It would be great to know a buch of ideal stopover spots all over the country with a nice hotel and food right there. Anyone got favorites? I tried googling for this and got results aimed at passengers on airlines and not GA pilots.

An engine monitor with data dump capability is the first upgrade I'd make if it didn't already have it. I got an EI UBG-16 and am quite pleased with it and the company's help with technical issues as well. Helping make LOP possible is a nice part but I think the troubleshooting power is even more important. Mike Busch has a great webcast that you can find through his website that gives you a good overview including detecting valve problems early. I've read online of sticky valves wearing down camshaft lobes and the owner of one of the M20's I was looking at told of one he knew of (he blamed it on LOP operations which I don't believe). An engine monitor, used right, would have caught that early and an IRAN on one cylinder instead of a total teardown to replace the camshaft would have saved $$$$. My dad got by without an engine monitor but I never want to.

I have a KNS80 in my panel too. I just spent a little over $800 replacing the one that came with my M20E, which was just too far gone. I like my KNS80 which is high tech compared to my training days in the 70's. Since I laid off flying for a couple of decades for financial reasons it seemed pretty cool when I bought N1289X a couple years ago. Now I'm working on my IFR rating and I can see some on its shortcomings. On the trip back with it I had the experience of tracking the station instead of the waypoint; you can tell it either with the push of a button. I was dehydrated and tired, hours into the longest x-country of my life, and inadvertently got 20 miles off course while approaching NY city VFR. With that old box it was easy to get it right but also easy to get it wrong. While I'll continue to use it getting my IFR and some ultra-simple first IFR flights, GPS is clearly the next Nav radio to go into my plane and I thinking that despite the cost I'd better go straight to WAAS. I'm thinking that in the scramble to get WAAS in the last couple years before 2020 the proce will go up. Thoughts? Most affordable WAAS solutions?

The older instructors get easier to find after you finish your training. You meet people, then more people, next thing you know you run into someone who would have been perfect and a great deal too. Make as many flying friends as you can and see what turns up. If you can't stand waiting pony up for the more expensive route.

This is a great route for saving money and kind of illustrates one possible extreme. If you do this I would shop for the instructor first and put myself in the hands of someone that you feel VERY good about. I guess the other extreme would be to take a couple weeks off and go somewhere that offers an intense program that you can go through. No surprises, known price. Like drinking from a firehose but for a young engineer..... You might be able to find an instructor who's also an engineer in his full time job who you'd be able to get a good read on before you put yourself in their hands. Have fun.

Well I went to it this Saturday. No Mooneys showed up ( I drove for an hour since N1289X was having its compass fixed after dripping oil on me). Had some nice snappy hot dogs. About 15 total planes showed up bunch of Skyhawks, couple J-3s one with clipped wings), and others. The constellation tour turned out to be they let us in the door and 20ft up to a roped off spot where we could look at the factory floor. The connie was surrounded by scaffolding and your could basicly see nose area and left wing. Approximately 75% of the aluminum has been or is being replaced since they found more corrosion than expected. The airport manager told me they regard it as an "experimental" fly-in since it was his first and was largely on short notice. They'll try again in the spring. I had fun. Hope for fly-in at Martha's Vineyard that someone talked about.

I noticed that too and wondered what to make of it. Did he actually go into the red zone to find peak so he could set his 100 ROP? But he was straight about the poor aerodynamics of the old guppy mouth and gave a good overall comparison of the starting models. I wonder what Kromer would say these days about engine operation.

I just registered for the free DUATS service that I had read is available to everyone online. It looks like you can do a lot with it including weather briefing and flight plan filing online. Any comments? Favorite ways to use? Am I the last to learn how to use it. Dave

I've been reading this post avidly since I don't have GPS and am pondering the best entry into it. I've got a great bunch of radios if it were 2000 (or maybe 1990) starring the KNS80 VOR/DME RNAV and I can't afford to throw them all out (well the Loran IS a waste of space) and start from scratch. I have a friend who is willing to give me his King KLN-89B which would give me nonprecision approach (seems pretty good) for the cost of installation and an antenna but it doesn't look like it could ever do WAAS, which will be required and might even need a different antenna. Maybe the free KNL-89B would be more expensive than going straight to the most cost effective GPS-WAAS that will still be good in 2020. I've had my eye on the Garmin 400W as the best GPS WAAS bang for buck. Comments?

Great post. I get by with a little nose dip halfway. I wouldn't have called it easy but not too bad. I've always ignored the brake tapping advice I've seen in the past and it never occurred to me that momentum might matter. I think I just got upgraded. Thanks to all. Dave

Update; Lufthasa has promised one tour of their Constellation restoration project at 10:30 in the morning at KLEW as an attraction for the fly-in. Its on. I've found a recipe for double fried french fries and a place near the airport that sells cheese curds so poutine is looking like a real possibility. Since its Maine I'm thinking of inventing a gravy with a bit of lobster and plenty of butter. Maybe a kind of thin lobster bourguignon. I've got a couple weeks to play.

So, in the end, have any of the carburated folk found a sweet spot where they could run their M20C LOP. It appears the answer is no.

In one case I remember reading of the handle of the Johnson flew off while retracting the gear. My understanding (I haven't been able to find that post or site again) was that the head of the handle had worn away to the point that it broke loose and the spring-loaded mechanism shot it over the pilots shoulder. I believe that with the help of the passenger the broken handle was located, stuck in place, the gear extended and latched, and decent gear down landing made. It made sense to me that that could happen sense its hard to be gentle with it when bringing the gear up and there would be metal on metal rubbing. With someone in the right seat it wouldn't be hard to inspect the head of that handle. I wish I knew where to get a replacement for it if it looks very worn out. I think the Johnson bar is simple and easier to keep reliable than electric. But the word foolproof shouldn't be in our vocabulary, except as a dark joke.

I have a UBG-16 which I got as an upgrade to the USB-8 that came with my M20E 2 years ago. I've been pretty happy with it and the folks at EI, who have responded quickly to the couple of issues I ran into (a bad memory box that couldn't tell time right and a swap for ring probe vs bayonet). They are easy to talk to when you have questions. One issue that I've come to realize is that the data rate in burst mode may not be as fast as I'd like. Busch has a great vid on these monitors that you can find through his Savy Aviator site where he shows what it looks like if you've got a valve problem; little spikes about once a minute in the EGT. With the valve issues associated with our Lycomings being able to catch a valve problem early may be the biggest selling point for the engine monitor, even more than making LOP doable. There's a minimum data rate you've got to have to see these spikes well and I'd be picky about that when shopping for a new monitor. I'm still assessing if I think my UBG-16 is good enough. It doesn't seem to record the point per second rate that I remember reading for the "burst" mode in the manual but instead gets about 6 data per second. The manual says 1-9 sec scan rate so I guess mine is set at 9. Maybe there's a DIP switch that my A&P set slower than I'd like, after all who'd want a 1 second scan rate. Otherwise I like my UBG-16 fine. I use the data dump and look at the data on the ground more than I try to use all the cute tricks you can do in the air so I don't care (much) which monitor does those the easiest or best. I added in a fuel flow which I really like and there are a bunch of channels that I might add something else. Dave

I'm just happy to be minimizing lead deposits and lowering CHTs a bit, even if I need a lower MP setting to get there.

I agree. My GAMI spread, even after a bit of injector swapping, doesn't allow me to go very low in the fuel flow WOT so I drop the MP too to get where I want to be. At the lowest power settings, like for landing, I actually go for peak EGT at 2500 RPM after dropping MP enough to get the prop to minimum AOA. I just want it simple for landing so, full RPM after dropping power back a bit, adjust throttle until 2500 RPM (now I can treat it like a fixed pitch prop), then (following Busch's advice to those with simple planes) I adjust mixture to maximize the RPM. I'm at a low power setting so can't hurt it and figure I'm minimizing lead deposits and keeping the CHT's from dropping more than they need to. I leave it alone throughout the rest of landing, using throttle to adjust RPM's just like a cub. For go around mixture full then throttle (but if I forget and do the throttle first not a disaster). I think WOT is possible and good for some systems and situations but not a rule that we have to follow. I did get brave and do a big pull WOT after a climb the other day. The air was a bit rough and I was into the yellow arc on my old M20E so backed off to my current favorite setting 24 squared with big pull and set to 8 GPH. I watch the CHT's a lot when in doubt. Opps, I just noticed I wandered into a "Modern Mooney Discussion"

This is a telling piece of information. I was drooling over the LoPresti cowling but decided to stick with my original and the easy access one gets to the back of the instrument panel. Now I'm doubly glad to have the original. Dave

I have one thought to add, seeing as I just swapped injectors for the first time. Hehe. I noticed you mentioned fuel stains around the injectors. Injectors screw in using NPT threaded fittings which are tapered and "snug up". Mine don't show blue stains. If they were loose enough you might have enough backword flow in between intake strokes to send some of the fuel from A to B or at least to change air to fuel ratio in A since it is getting extra air. A bit of wear or corrosion on the NPT fiting might create too much leakage. I'd try just a little snugging up on the fitting.

I did come across some nasty pictures of what can happen if the oil cooler not preheated enough and filled with congealed oil. The pressure back-up can deform or even pop it. So if using 100W in winter be very sure about good preheating. Bucsh reccomends Multigrade in winter to his clients and 100W in summer. I'm leaning towards that myself at this point. Along with the cooler tape.

I'd like to know more about using that aluminum tape. Do I need a mechanic in the loop to technically stay airworthy?

I bet you fly it frequently too Shad. That's a key point.