Nokomis449

I have the nose enclosure and a few other minor mods like gap seals and brake swap on my '68 G model. Last week I flew the 3-legged GPS course and input my speeds into the online computer, and it says I was getting 142 knots at 7,500 and 9,500. I was pretty happy with that, considering I have 2,200 hours on a tired engine.

I'm no Albert Epstein, but I'm pretty sure your turbo-normalized 1975 M20F doesn't have a carb to drop. It's fuel injected.

If you look behind the curtain, you'll find a slew of gas generators that fire up to pick up the slack when the wind dies down or the wind turbine is "off line" (broke). Each windmill costs 3-4 million dollars to construct, plus the cost of land/lease and infrastructure. Can they ever pay for themselves? http://www.windpowerengineering.com/policy/environmental/8-6-mw-natural-gas-powered-generator-plays-well-wind/ http://www.windustry.org/how_much_do_wind_turbines_cost I've flown over them a few times on long trips and the first 500 or so are really neat to see, but then it becomes just miles and miles of blight. Hopefully they're green enough to justify/recoup the cost.

In a nutshell, it says that IF you have your tanks resealed, you must make sure that water trapped on the "uphill" side of a rib has a path {hole) that allows it to flow downhill to the lowest part of the tank so that it may be sumped. The holes are there from the factory, but apparently some repair work has covered them up, with the result that water can be trapped above the rib, and then travel down to the fuel pickup during flight.

Timeout - My '68 G model (680092) has a vacuum step. It's my understanding that the vacuum to operate it comes from the engine, not the instrument vacuum pump. amiwrong? War Eagle!

And you should also be pointing into the wind and put in enough cross-control to equal half the gust factor so that if you inadvertently lift off during runup, you can slip back onto the runway.

He also said this in the article about slipping a Mooney (emphasis is his) - I want to emphasize that IN NORMAL FLYING, THERE IS PLENTY OF MARGIN - no need to worry about the tail stalling in your M20K or long body Mooney. So a tailplane stall IN NORMAL FLYING is not going to occur at 90kts, so we can take that off the table. I've read plenty of NTSB reports, including the accident mentioned. If you want to scare yourself about how often people make mistakes in airplanes, check out http://www.kathrynsreport.com/ daily for your daily dose of what not to do. I've also read a million Mooney articles by Bob Cromer and I highly respect his work, including this particular article. In fact, I'm pretty sure my 90kt speed is directly due to this very article which I first read long ago. I was lucky enough to learn to fly my Mooney from a CFI who had owned the same Mooney, and who has taught me aerobatics (not in the Mooney), upset recovery (in the Mooney), and everything else. I am just as comfortable slipping my Mooney at 90kts as I am slipping on my Wrangler jeans. I have personal limits - when landing, I only do it on final, after getting into landing configuration, and I keep the speed nailed. I go into a lot of small grass fields where slipping and short field landings are the only/best way to get in. I've been taken to the limits of the Mooney's performance envelope and shown what happens when I exceed them. If everybody had an instructor as good as him, slips and stalls would be respected but not feared. I regularly practice slow flight (minimum controllable airspeed), stall at altitude both power on and power off, do 50deg turns, and other maneuvers that keep me proficient in the Mooney. I know the difference between a slip and a skid. So let me rephrase my original answer: I would slow to 90kts, configure for landing, and when I'm established but high on final I would SLIP SLIP SLIP until I decide I can safely land or initiate a go around. (slings some cake)

Mike also mentioned 75 Kts - I said nail 90. Big difference.

75 Kts? Where'd that number come from? Perhaps you're thinking skid and not slip. A skid can lead to disaster, but a stall during a slip tends to level the wings for you. Here's an excerpt from someone else's description of a stall during a slip: Often, if an airplane in a slip is made to stall, it displays very little of the yawing tendency that causes a skidding stall to develop into a spin. A stalling airplane in a slip may do little more than tend to roll into a wings-level attitude. In fact, in some airplanes stall characteristics may even be improved. And here's a link to a BoldMethod article that says the same thing: http://www.boldmethod.com/learn-to-fly/aerodynamics/slip-skid-stall/ Otherwise, FOODFIGHT!!!

Nail 90 Kts and then Slip Slip Slip to the fence.

Yep, you can spend all day at 12,500, but only 30 minutes at a time between 12,501 and 14,000 without O2.

Was there last weekend, camping at the Kickstand Lodge and riding the Cherohala Skyway, Blue Ridge Parkway, 276, 215, Moonshiner 28 and The Rattler. We make the trip several times a year. Western Carolina Regional in Andrews, NC is a nice GA airport pretty close to some great motorcycle roads.

The guy on my right shoulder with the horns and the forked tail is asking if there's any chance you can fly with the current owner's CFI *before* making the deal? Your insurance company isn't responsible for damages yet, and CFI time is CFI time so 5 hours of instruction in the same plane while someone else owns it should satisfy their TIT requirements. The guy on my left shoulder with the halo is saying that if you have low Mooney time yourself, you would be better off/safer to have some Mooney-experienced company along for the initial long cross country ride home.

A local shop has quoted me $4,100 (to Garmin) to upgrade my 430 to 430W, plus about $1,000 labor for the antenna install and I assume the GPS connection from the 430W to the ADS-B Out transponder. If the 430W would slide right in today and work, I could delay ALL labor until I settled on the ADS-B Out hardware and was ready to install it. That's why I'm asking.

Just spit-balling here, playing the "what if" game. I have a non WAAS 430 in the panel, installed circa 2002. Tentative plan is to upgrade it to WAAS when I decide to upgrade to ADS-B Out, but I assume I'll need the new antenna installed, too. If I buy this 430W, do I have to install the antenna at this time, or will the 430W operate (even without WAAS capabilities) with the current antenna? I'd rather have ADS-B and the antenna installed together, at a later date.

I think the big one is an old Remington Rand mainframe, and the long skinny one is an early word processor with optional manual backspace.

A few years ago I replaced my worn-out muffler with a brand new Knisley Welding exhaust system, which replaced everything from the risers to the tail pipe with the only thing being re-used was the heater shroud around the muffler. I'm thinking the parts were about $1600-$1700 plus sweat equity and the result was a noticeable performance improvement. I still have the old core, risers, and tailpipe if you need them. Risers and tailpipe are all in good shape and the IA said the core is definitely rebuild-able.

My two "outside" stories: 1 - Many years ago a Mooney owner flew to Oklahoma. He had the tanks topped on arrival but inclement weather set in, it rained for days, and he left the Mooney on the ramp and flew home via airlines. A month later I was sent to fetch the Mooney. During preflight I drained a few cups of water from one tank before going to the FBO and bringing the manager to the Mooney. I showed him how weeks before, the fuel guy had improperly closed the fuel caps, which allowed weeks of monsoon rainwater to enter the tanks. His line guy then finished sumping a gallon or more from each tank. I still have the free FBO cap they gave me as an apology, but it would definitely have been a bad day for me if I had only checked the fuel level and skipped the sump during the preflight. 2 - We regularly fly to Baton Rouge to visit our two kids that are there (Geaux Tigers). On one recent two day trip, I arrived back home with a nearly complete bird nest in the tail cone. Also, Louisiana birds LOVE to perch on Mooney tails and props and leave their calling cards. It almost sounds like you need a throw-away 150 for commuting, and a Mooney back home for pleasure.

Yeah but you have to do a whole new W&B, silly.

Just to be safe, I'd split the difference and store with one tank full and the other tank empty.

I've had no problems with Condors. I just don't understand why the tubes are almost as much as the tire! I pick and choose where to skimp and where to splurge - the Condors were cheaper than Goodyears. I'm jealous of all your flying - have you birddogged that private grass strip on the Georgia island for a camping trip yet? I'd be a threat to fly down for a weekend trip.

I too like F's. Especially the 180HP ones.

Our saying in the 150 (that I still use today in a fixed gear) was "Gear down and welded".

Birds fly cross-country all the time with nothing but a birdbrain. Even if my Mooney and I weren't IR, I wouldn't hesitate to fly coast to coast VFR. In fact, I've canceled IFR and continued VFR before. I've flown VFR with a 2nd aircraft to the Bahamas and back, no problem. An IR will make you a better/safer pilot, but honestly being VFR-only doesn't limit your range at all. Just be weather aware and time-flexible and go wherever you want to go. Side story: After landing at home (Alabama) from Dallas after a VFR flight without flight following, the FBO guy handed me a phone number and said a guy wanted to talk to me. I said "Huh?" and he said "I got a call 20 minutes ago that they'd been tracking a plane on radar, it was descending into here, and to not alert the pilot but to call them back with the tail number, type of plane, number of occupants, how they were dressed, how many bags they unloaded, who met them, what they were driving, etc. I'm not gonna do their work for 'em, but you can call 'em back if you want to". Turns out the guy wouldn't tell me what department he worked for, only that my flight had been picked totally at random (uh huh) for an "exercise". I told him everything he wanted to know, and even offered some advice - I had given a PIREP enroute which would've given them enough info to identify me, if only they were plugged into that side of the FAA. "Good day, Sir".

This zoomed and cropped pic is the best I can do tonight... but it shows how long the tailpipe is.