Smiles201

See previous threads on charging system gremlins, especially wiring issues on master switch. There were a couple of threads earlier this year on this and other forums. I had similar problem turned out to be bad wiring.

I was in partnership with two others in a 201. Worked out great. There are partnership agreements available online, through AOPA. Having one partner is enough, takes the biggest bite out of the costs. If I could get in on a Rocket partnership, I would not think twice, even if I didn't really need the performance, especially if there was a good buy out clause, or if I lived in a area where there would be other interested partners to sell my share to. Remember, even though there are two other very agreeable owners, and the plane looks nice, need to do a pre-buy and consider negotiating the price a bit.

If it were summer time I would never depart APA at gross, even early AM, and would never advise someone to do so who has never departed a relatively high altitude airport. I would gladly make a fuel stop for the piece of mind of better performance. Leave 150 - 200 lbs under gross, until you gain experience. Fly around the pattern before deciding to add more fuel. Your mooney will feel like a 100 horsepower 172 at APA compared to flat land performance. conservative advice

It would be more helpful and more accurate to try and figure out what would lead a good pilot to make a poor decision. He may have felt pressure to get home, to show his passengers his skills, or felt that he would be okay because he had handled strong winds before. He may have fooled himself into believing that he would get some updrafts once he reached the hills on the eastern edge of the valley. At least every year or two someone crashes here due to downdrafts in high wind. A few years ago a bonanza with seven on board went down about 40 miles east of angel fire, the pilot was based in phx, probably not familiar with the affects of high winds in the mountains. This is a chronic problem, good pilots making poor decisions. One we all have to watch for.

I used to be based at KSAF, and hangered with Santa Fe Air Center. Friendly, helpful, and reasonable. The other FBO had a bad reputation for piston operators, but that may have changed, it's been ten years....

Altitude hold is a minimum requirement if you are planning to fly anywhere beyond the pattern, IMHO. Vertical guidance is nice if you fly alot IFR. You will feel better if you renegotiate the price.

Hate to say it, but overloading is for either the very rich, or for single people with no children who don't care if their liability insurance does not cover them if something bad happens.

See thread on 'pulsing lights' earlier this month in General section.

Been there, done that --- and got to meet the Marines!! Stuck WOT, first plane, Just got PPL total experience 74 hours. Time in Type 2 hours (PA28-180). In retrospect, it was a good experience. At the time, I was young, inexperienced and a little scared. Anyone who's been in a difficult situation knows that you don't typically think as clearly or quickly as usual, but I knew there was no way I was going to cut the mixture and try to land at my home field with a 2500 foot runway. I had no idea when to cut the mixture, and no idea of gliding characteristics. Got my mechanic on the radio, and he advised me not to try and force the throttle closed, as that may create worse problems. Somehow I did think clearly enough to recall an airport with 10,000 foot runway close by my home field of Leonardtown MD. Called the tower at PAX RIver (Patuxent Naval Air Station), declared an emergency, they cleared the airspace, and I spiraled down to Runway 14....someone from my home field got on the tower frequency and said "don't land on the first 100 feet!" That was never a consideration, as I was not going to cut the mixture until I was close to the threshold (Later I found out that they have an arresting cable on the end of the runway to practice carrier landings). Plane glided quite a ways (of course a mooney would have glided much further!), total non event until I stopped on a taxiway. Lots of trucks, soldiers, and questions, before they were satisfied that this was not a terrorist operation (they recently got the first Tilt Rotor V22's and had other hush hush projects I imagine). The plane was searched by several marines, and no one was deterred by my name dropping my Admiral landlord and former PAX commander (Don Becker, flew A6's back when). Eventually they realized I was an inexperienced private aviator who declared an emergency and treated me to a very interesting and fun visit to the tower, and some minor paper work. Problem was mechanical fault in the carburetor.

One of the best air museums is at Liberal, complete with an early mooney designed Culver V.

Thinking about this some more, forget if 0.1 volt is the correct number, but the point is that their should be a minimal drop in voltage, and you have too much of a drop somewhere. Also, I had bad master and bad connection on my field wire at the alternator.

Of course, most mechanics do not understand electrical systems and will replace voltage regulator and other components before actually testing the system. Don't ask how I know.

I had this in my previous plane. Turned out to be bad master switch. My understanding is that what happens is as the plane ages wiring and switches fail and develop more resistance, alternator increases output, then gets triggered down, then up, hence the back and forth on your gauge. You have to check the voltage drop between every wire, switch and connection from the battery to the alternator. With master on, engine off, should be no more than 0.1 volt drop at every juncture, can be hard to trace, could also be loose or bad connection, or other Mooney gremlin. IMHO. Good luck!

Plane would fly poorly, easy to stall, hard to recover. It would be difficult to keep nose down. Check accident reports, some have survived by sliding seats forward and/or having passenger move into footwell !

When requesting advisories, first contact just with call sign, do not state VFR or they may ignore you, after they acknowledge you state position and request, and you will be given transponder code and advisories even if they are busy. (they_center)

Is it possible that the genius who created your new w&b sheet mis-weighed your ship? Hard to believe empty weight gained so much in seven years.

Used to fly a 1980 J out of KLAM (elevation 7171), and have visited higher altitude airports in Colorado, If you have no mountain experience, take a mountain flying course with an experienced instructor; all NA planes feel different at altitude. High altitude must be planned for (temperture, winds, load), but presents no special problems for a well running Mooney. Primary issues are: know your POH, usually operate well under gross, especially in summer, depart early in AM to take advantage of lower tempertures, plan for downdrafts/updrafts (terrain, wind and heat related), and become familiar with changes to Vx and Vy at altitude. If I recall correctly, Telluride has steep slope to West and drop offs North, East and South. So, if you know the winds, you will know effects on your climb performance.