Ok folks, we all fly Mooney's to go fast. My 1968 F model goes a few knots less than book (I know book was optimistic), but I'd like to get a few comparisons to see if it's about the same as others or if my 16 year old engine overhaul is starting to catch up with me.
So here's what I did, I flew a speed test at 10,500 and 7,500 and I'm putting the results below. If anyone else has a chance, I'd like to know how your bird comes out on a similar test.
The only speed mods I've got are the sloped windshield and the Lasar cowl closure (which cools nice, but I doubt it goes any faster)
The speed check is very accurate and you only need 3 legs, 90 degree off - like North, East, South. You just write down the GPS groundspeed on each leg. It's actually more accurate than doing all 4 directions and averaging because it uses math to take out the crosswinds you'll have. The calculator is at http://www.csgnetwork.com/tasgpscalc.html. If you note the temp and altimeter setting it'll also give you the density altitude and the actual winds.
I used 100' ROP for the test (although I normally run LOP which is ~6 knots slower).
I used WOT, 2500 RPM, RAM air on for both runs. Weight was about 2400 lbs.
My 7500' TAS was 142.6 Knots and the density altitude was 9465'.
My 10,500 TAS was 139.9 Knots and the density altitude was 11,951'.
Thanks for anyone that wants to use this as an excuse to go fly and report back!
Rags