TargetDriver Posted December 8, 2016 Report Posted December 8, 2016 I know it's not Mooney but ...It is really cool. So last week I'm on a flight to Northern Sweden to a flight test range and our commercial carrier is beginning the descent into Stockholm. I grabbed this picture as morning broke and we were over a solid cloud deck. Even the picture doesn't do it justice...The colors were actually much more vivid than the picture shows. This is one of the reasons we get up early for that sunrise flight in our own planes ! Sure wish I could get my K model up that high to get these pics (39k ft) ! ... other than those winglets being about 10 ft tall... maybe if I put those on my Mooney.... 3
Hank Posted December 8, 2016 Report Posted December 8, 2016 Beautiful picture! Uou can buy a 262 and legally fly in the upper FL20s, but don't think any single recip will reach FL39 . . . Ask @Bennett how well that works. 1
201er Posted December 9, 2016 Report Posted December 9, 2016 14 hours ago, Hank said: Uou can buy a 262 and legally fly in the upper FL20s Didn't know they made a 262? What did they do to manage 10 more knots than the 252?
Hank Posted December 9, 2016 Report Posted December 9, 2016 (edited) 11 minutes ago, 201er said: Didn't know they made a 262? What did they do to manage 10 more knots than the 252? Might have been a 261, I'm a little fuzzy on them. @Bennett ?? Edited December 9, 2016 by Hank
kortopates Posted December 9, 2016 Report Posted December 9, 2016 Didn't know they made a 262? What did they do to manage 10 more knots than the 252? It's a 231 STC mod to firewall forward give it the 252 engine (TSIO-360-MB vice the -GB) with a real turbo installation. Something everything 231 should have gotten from the start. The marketing label has nothing to do with speed. I don't recall if it actually got the FL280 service ceiling but that's really not that practical for most of us. But it kept the original 14V system.
Bennett Posted December 9, 2016 Report Posted December 9, 2016 The 261 and the 262 are essentially the same conversion from a 231. From firewall forward the standard 252 engine and cowl was installed. A second alternator was normally fitted, along with a one piece belly pan then all sorts of speed mods and fairings were installed. Many added ram air for the magnetos to control missing. It was usual to remove the step, and move the comm antennas into the wing tips. Some of us added a third gear door to fully enclose the main gear, and added overlapping nose gear doors . But what gave it more speed in the higher 20s was a special McCauley "high altitude" two bladed prop. This prop has a different built in twist. These conversions with this prop were no faster than a 231, and maybe a bit slower, up to about 18,000', but then the prop was like another gear in a car. These props have a heated leading edge. Many/most of the 261/262s had long range tanks installed, and they were/are/ great traveling machines. Critical altitude was around 24,000', and they were very fast at FL270. I made many trips crossing the country, west to east, with just one fuel stop by flying high (FL270) in winter, catching the lower level of the jet stream. On one trip ATC verified a ground speed of 315 knots average over several hours. Cold and mushy controls, but the speed was worth it. The Trophy 261 vs the 262 was just marketing between Coy Jacobs, Mod Squad, and Tim Combs at the Mod Works,although at one point they were partners at the Mod Works, and some 261s, like mine, were built at the Mod Works. I think mine was the first of the 261s, and a brand new Continental engine was installed (and immediately ported and polished). She was a great aircraft, but way overkill for the weekend $100 hamburger run. Coy took his virtually identical 261 into the lower FL30s with a pressure oxygen system. Coy eventually bought mine (after I beat him on a cross country flight). The POH was just about identical to the 252, and the Service Ceiling was 28,000' Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2
aviatoreb Posted December 9, 2016 Report Posted December 9, 2016 15 hours ago, Hank said: Beautiful picture! Uou can buy a 262 and legally fly in the upper FL20s, but don't think any single recip will reach FL39 . . . Ask @Bennett how well that works. The P51 mustang is a recip and it has a service ceiling of 41,900. But it might be cheaper to buy a jet.
TargetDriver Posted December 9, 2016 Author Report Posted December 9, 2016 Bennett, thanks for some very cool background on the 231 heritage. I seriously doubt mine will ever evolve to those lofty creations...but maybe we can park next to each other on a ramp somewhere and your '61 can wow my '31 with tales that legends are made of. Seriously, the 315 kts is killer ! I've seen 213kts on mine at one point... Had to take a picture ! ha Aviatoreb, I just found out that there's a '51 within 30 min flight time for me at Sonoma County airport... Now I just have zip down there and drop the $$$ for the bucket list check mark! 1
Bennett Posted December 9, 2016 Report Posted December 9, 2016 The 261/262 conversions did indeed retain the 231's 12 volt electrical system. While I had two alternators and regulators, only one bus and one battery. I would have preferred a separate bus for essential avionics, and the ability to select batteries, but I never got around to having this done. In ancient days it was much easier to work with 337 forms for one off modifications, although I did have to some work done in CA, and some in FL to find favorable FISDOs. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
flyboy0681 Posted December 10, 2016 Report Posted December 10, 2016 On 12/9/2016 at 9:38 AM, Bennett said: The 261/262 conversions did indeed retain the 231's 12 volt electrical system. While I had two alternators and regulators, only one bus and one battery. I would have preferred a separate bus for essential avionics, and the ability to select batteries, but I never got around to having this done. In ancient days it was much easier to work with 337 forms for one off modifications, although I did have to some work done in CA, and some in FL to find favorable FISDOs. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Any pictures of it from before you sold it?
Bennett Posted December 10, 2016 Report Posted December 10, 2016 Any pictures of it from before you sold it? I do have some photos which I can scan next week (I think they are in my hangar), and provided I can find them, I will post a few. The panel looked like the Silver Crown catalog, and at a Homecoming at Kerrville, Coy, as presenter, ran a slide of that panel, quipping that there wasn't any space left to even mount a one inch vacuum gauge-I already had a two inch gauge. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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