Lessons Learned Owning/Flying Mooneys

[81X]

10 hours ago, Joe Zuffoletto said:

In a long body, be VERY careful if you need to go around. Trim for landing is nearly full aft, while trim for takeoff is slightly forward. If you don't get that trim moving aggressively forward while adding power, you could be in for a departure stall.

This is one of the reasons that my default landing configuration is with takeoff flaps.  
 

First, not as much trim change is needed to go around, and second, you  don’t need to make a flap change induced trim change since you can keep the flaps as is until you’re well established in the go around climb.  
 

Lastly, going from full flaps to partial flaps in a go around scenario is highly distracting for me since you have to either know the timing really well or watch the flap indicator.  Even worse trying this in IMC on a miss, at least for me. 
 

To answer the original post- don’t ever total up your expenses on the airplane.  If you do, be certain to burn the evidence afterwards.  

[Hank]

44 minutes ago, 81X said:

To answer the original post- don’t ever total up your expenses on the airplane.  If you do, be certain to burn the evidence afterwards.  

And then have a stiff drink to help you forget even what the first digit was . . . . 

[Pasturepilot]

One does not have to be a Mooney mechanic to work on a Mooney, but choose a good Mooney mechanic for the pre-buy. 

Don't assess your wealth by looking at other's wallet (or at their instrument panel, paint job, or engine bay). Your airplane is yours, and your mission and situation is unlike any other's. 

Arguing over speed is useless. Your plane is faster than a Skyhawk and slower than a King Air. When you start splitting hairs with other owners over a few knots, remember that weight and balance, errors in instrumentation, an engine's health, a few nicks filed out of a propeller, and the variety of antennae these birds sport can make the difference of a few knots. 

There's a lot of stuff to learn about these birds that isn't in our manuals (especially the older ones). But, don't take tribal knowledge as gospel until you've tested and reliably proved it for yourself. 

 

[KLRDMD]

On 2/9/2021 at 6:02 PM, 81X said:

This is one of the reasons that my default landing configuration is with takeoff flaps.  
First, not as much trim change is needed to go around, and second, you  don’t need to make a flap change induced trim change since you can keep the flaps as is until you’re well established in the go around climb.  
Lastly, going from full flaps to partial flaps in a go around scenario is highly distracting for me since you have to either know the timing really well or watch the flap indicator.  Even worse trying this in IMC on a miss, at least for me.

I haven't done a go around in years but I land 100% of my flights. I'm picking the lower energy landing and that's full flaps unless there's a really good reason not to for that specific landing. It doesn't make sense for me to alter my risk acceptance profile on 100% of my flights for something that might happen on 0.1% of my flights. But maybe that's just me.

Edited February 11, 2021 by KLRDMD

[JimB]

I have had my F for over 2 years now. Before I bought her I looked at everything. Once I looked at the used market, prices, maintenance costs, capabilities, useful load, efficiency, etc. I focused on finding a Mooney. Specifically the F model seemed to me to be the best combination of really good used market prices and capabilities. You get the injected 4 cylinder 200 hp Lycoming 360, around 1000 lbs of useful load and the mid body for possibly $1000s less than a comparable J model. After 2 years of flying her and numerous other aircraft brands (Cessna, Diamond, etc) and occasionally looking at the used market, the lesson I have learned is that she is still the best value out there...by a lot. So as long as I can keep flying and afford to keep her, she is a forever plane. Nothing that I can afford or meets my criteria even comes close.