It’s Todays Flight for 2025

[Mooney in Oz]

5 hours ago, Ragsf15e said:

Guess I’m a little late to post pictures of the new bird, but here she is!  She needs some interior work on the yellowed plastics and the paint is original, but everything else is great - 1700hrs tt, 200smoh 3 years ago, maintained at Cole MSC, etc.  Looking forward to lots of family trips! (And if anyone wants to help/teach me the plastic restoration process, much appreciated!)

 

Great looking bird, including the panel. Congrats!

[EricJ]

7 hours ago, Ragsf15e said:

 (And if anyone wants to help/teach me the plastic restoration process, much appreciated!

Most of it is ABS plastic, which is the easiest thing in the world to work with for doing repairs.   There are tons of YT vids, because lots of people do it, and there are several techniques and most of them are pretty easy to do (e.g., weld it with a soldering iron, make a slurry glue/filler with acetone and ground up ABS, etc., etc).  Texture it and paint it to the desired color, etc., etc.   It just takes a little practice on some scrap stuff, which is easy to find, and you'll likely be good to go and making it look like new.

And repairing interior "decorative" pieces are all completely within Preventive Maintenance, so there's no barrier to you doing it all yourself. 

Oh, and nice airplane!   That looks like quite the score.

[Pinecone]

On 2/16/2025 at 2:56 PM, EricJ said:

It's normally been in the water for long periods of time before it flew down here.   The thing coming off of the tail of the wing tip float is part of a boom circle that was around the entire airplane.   It's also attached to the nose.   I don't know what the boom was for other than potentially to keep curious kayakers or boarders out (which I think is also why the pontoon boats were there), or to help keep leaking oil or fuel a little bit contained around the airplane.

Oil.

Most states have standards about no sheen on the water.  And radials LEAK.  And this airplane has Wright engines.

The old timers say never attempt to fly a Wright engine that is not leaking oil.  It means it is empty.

 

[C.J.]

On 2/18/2025 at 12:42 AM, Ragsf15e said:

 (And if anyone wants to help/teach me the plastic restoration process, much appreciated!)

 

I'm in the middle of a plastic repair & restore process right now. I recommend S.E.M. products, specifically their soap, adhesion promoter & paint. My results have been great. Just follow their directions. By all means get a respirator AND goggles because the adhesion promoter & paint fumes are horrible. You'll need nitrile (or neoprene) gloves and unless you want your finger to cramp up get a "Can Gun" aerosol spray trigger from Aircraft Spruce. Paint on a calm day ideally between 70* to 85*F. It's best to apply several very light coats (up to 7 or 8 in my case). It dries very fast but wait the directed amount of time between coats. If you've never spray painted before watch a YouTube video for proper technique. It's not difficult but I practiced on an old cardboard box just 3 times until I had it perfected. Leave your finished work to cure for a day or two before handling. Most if not all odors will have dissipated by then unless the ambient temperatures have been cool. 

Fun Facts - S.E.M. paint is expensive but totally worth it. IIRC McFarlane sells a limited number of colors and had it for a good price. Unfortunately, not the specific color I wanted. O'Relly Auto Parts was pricey and had supply chain issues. Amazon saved the day and was by far the least expensive but be aware they don't have returns on paint due to it being HazMat. Calculate your square footage necessary and order conservatively knowing you can always order more if needed.

For cracks in the plastic, I initially tried "Satellite City" instant glue, specifically their "Hot Stuff" and "Super 'T'" product. It has the viscosity of water which I found difficult to control and the results were not what I'd hoped for. I ended up using   7 Quarical Easy ABS Repair Tips for Easy Plastic Solutions which is an all-in-one pre-mixed ABS solution which proved to be outstanding. My headliner had some very bad cracks, splits & holes The ABS resin resembles tar and is applied from the back so no will ever see it. Time will tell if it holds up but I'm very optimistic.

If you need more specifics just send me a DM. It'd be easier to explain it on the phone.

BTW great looking Mooney. Wow!!!

[Pinecone]

FYI, I fell in love with Mercury Adhesives for instant glues.   They have from water thin to fairly thick.  And the bottles are designed to not get stuck caps.  I got my last set from Amazon.

And there is a medium viscosity flexible version

https://www.amazon.com/Mercury-Adhesives-M300FM-FLEX-medium/dp/B01K5YHJUE/ref=pd_lpo_d_sccl_3/139-9850247-7007301?pd_rd_w=Ywdju&content-id=amzn1.sym.4c8c52db-06f8-4e42-8e56-912796f2ea6c&pf_rd_p=4c8c52db-06f8-4e42-8e56-912796f2ea6c&pf_rd_r=VFDC6A37A4VCDYBVYPWJ&pd_rd_wg=m3pRj&pd_rd_r=2b7475b4-456a-42ad-9bcb-b7c2e57d9d65&pd_rd_i=B01K5YHJUE&psc=1

 

[EricJ]

Look who we parked next to at Sedona yesterday!    Didn't see Matt, just his airplane.   It was still there when we left mid-afternoon.    There was also a very, very nice F-model just across from us.

 

[Hank]

17 minutes ago, EricJ said:

Look who we parked next to at Sedona yesterday!    Didn't see Matt, just his airplane.   It was still there when we left mid-afternoon.    There was also a very, very nice F-model just across from us.

 

The tail on that plane in the background ("Matt"''s plane?) has its tail on backwards . . .

[toto]

4 minutes ago, Hank said:

The tail on that plane in the background ("Matt"''s plane?) has its tail on backwards . . .

I think he’s talking about YouTuber Matt Guthmiller

 

[EricJ]

1 hour ago, toto said:

I think he’s talking about YouTuber Matt Guthmiller

Yes, I probably shouldn't assume people know that airplane.

[toto]

2 hours ago, EricJ said:

Yes, I probably shouldn't assume people know that airplane.

He seems to be flying an L-39 or a TBM so often these days, I almost forget that he has a Bonanza.

[EricJ]

59 minutes ago, toto said:

He seems to be flying an L-39 or a TBM so often these days, I almost forget that he has a Bonanza.

I kinda stopped watching his channel when he started the L-39 stuff.    He lives at the airpark in Alpine, WY, which I visit occassionally because I know other people who live there, so I get some of the neighbor updates about him that way.

[toto]

22 minutes ago, EricJ said:

I kinda stopped watching his channel when he started the L-39 stuff.    He lives at the airpark in Alpine, WY, which I visit occassionally because I know other people who live there, so I get some of the neighbor updates about him that way.

Yeah, same. His story is interesting, and his Bonanza content was reliably good. But I never really understood what they were doing with the L-39 business, and the weird Amazon TBM that was supposed to be used for another around-the-world flight has been a head-scratcher. Alpine is a nice airpark, but there’s plenty of other aviation content from there.

[Ibra]

Picked aircraft from it's annual,  and flew VFR the afternoon in Belgium and night in France, finally I bited the bullet and installed new LED to replace old bulbs, following advice from  Mooniacs here ! 

That's a nice call sign (goes well with "OH-FBI")

Sunset over Amiens (LFAY) 

Edited March 6 by Ibra

[EricJ]

Had a big weather system come through and dump a bunch of snow, so we went up to take a look.   This is the Sedona area on the way back.  You can see the airport on the mesa toward the upper right of the pic.

[Echo]

I recently returned to Iowa from Arkansas and had a significant headwind out of the north. I was in cruise at 5500’ burning 10.3gph.  2500rpm and 2350mp. On landing I went no flaps. Wind was19 gusting to 36 @290. Landing was uneventful on 31. My indicated airspeed on final was 120-100mph or sink was significant. Here was groundspeed. 

[Ragsf15e]

Two weeks ago spring arrived and our skiing went to crap.  Decided to go visit my parents down in Nevada.  First trip in the new airplane and must have been doing something right because we had a tailwind both down (Fri) and back (Sun).  Only 20kts on the way down though, the way back was even better!!  Apparently we even did an aileron roll!

 

 

[Hank]

Just finished annual and flew her home. It's was just under two weeks, and I didn't quite forget how to fly.

The weather was gorgeous, mid 70s, clear skies until I took off; that haze was surprising after the clear winter days, and surprisingly low as i flew 20-odd miles home at 3000 msl, right in the brown yuck.

And who doesn't like a video? My wife did this on my first takeoff, around the pattern and down, to make sure everything works right.

Check out those fast gear moving up!