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#11
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Have you ever flown\owned a Mooney?
Matt Barrow wrote:
Not that speed brakes aren't useful, but: http://www.avweb.com/news/maint/182883-1.html (Reprint from Kas Thomas' TBO Advisor) Quite right. When they are useful is when you get a close turn on to the final and "maintain present speed 'til the marker". Happened just yesterday. Our speed brakes are vacuum-operated Precise Flight, apparently a bit of a rarity, probably an aftermarket installation from the 80's. |
#12
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Have you ever flown\owned a Mooney?
I've flown an M20F and did not care for it much. It felt cramped and
claustrophobic and wasn't a heck of a lot faster than my Cutlass RG. The panel was an ergonomic disaster. -- Dan C-172RG at BFM |
#14
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Have you ever flown\owned a Mooney?
In article ,
"Matt Barrow" wrote: "Clay" wrote in message ups.com... Mooney is a great airplane. The laminar flow wing likes to go fast and not slow down. Too many pilots land the Mooney too fast because they do not plan their approach. There is a company at the San Antonio airport that installs speed brakes in the wing. These things are great! You can leave your power in and desend without shock cooling the engine. Not that speed brakes aren't useful, but: http://www.avweb.com/news/maint/182883-1.html (Reprint from Kas Thomas' TBO Advisor) I flew a couple of them 30-40 years ago -- great 2-3-place planes, but CRAMPED for four full-sized people! The Super 21 would cruise about 170 mph and would sip fuel. Recently, I have flow formation with a 201 and a 231. Their climb rate leaves something to be desired, but they cruise about 150-160 mph indicated. It usually takes them awhile to join up, due to their lower rate-of-climb. A friend (my wingman) had a gear problem in his 201 last Saturday, but he was finally able to crank the gear down by hand. The brushes in the motor had given up the ghost with the gear in the half-retracted position. |
#15
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Have you ever flown\owned a Mooney?
Dan Luke wrote:
I've flown an M20F and did not care for it much. It felt cramped and claustrophobic and wasn't a heck of a lot faster than my Cutlass RG. The panel was an ergonomic disaster. The real speed boost didn't kick in until the J model. |
#16
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Have you ever flown\owned a Mooney?
Doug Vetter wrote:
I won't belabor the point of small cabins except to say this: you have to sit in one to appreciate it. If you're going to spend 100K+ on something, you might as well test driv...er, fly it first and make the decision based on concrete data rather than a bunch of usenet opinions. Good point. Absolutely correct. A few downsides of the M20J... - Maintenance under the cowling is a hassle -- it's tight in there. On the plus side, come annual time things get a lot easier because you can remove the belly panel(s) and expose many critical systems at once. This reduces the time for needed inspections. Removing the belly panels on mine requires removing about a million screws. At some point there is an improved design with fewer screws. Also the cowling has a lot of screws. You have to remove the cowling to see inside, except for the oil filler door. You have to remove the cowling to replace the landing light. There's access to behind the panel by removing the glareshield. - Lethargic climb performance on hot (95F) days above 5K. It needs a turbo or maybe 20 extra HP during those times, but on the other hand it's rarely 95F here on the east coast and when it is, all airplanes suffer. Can't say I've particularly noticed this. - The laminar flow wing is not without its problems -- rain and even bugs on the leading edge can lower cruise speed by anywhere from 3-10K. And just don't fly the Mooney in ice. Agreed. The rain effect it quite noticable. - While pushrods beat cables any day and it's very enjoyable to fly straight and level or in shallow turns, IMHO the Mooney is more an instrument platform than it is a true "pilot's airplane". Quite so. - The baggage door is too small. It's sometimes necessary to wedge larger bags in via the main door and over the seats. Baggage door opening: Above ground(sill): 46" Entry width: 17" Entry height: 20.5" |
#17
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Have you ever flown\owned a Mooney?
I am a '78 Grumman Tiger owner here who is toying with trading up to a
Mooney. Not sure which one, perhaps a 201 for starters or maybe a 231. It would have to be a later model to give you a significant speed improvement. I've flown a few different flavors - my friend bought an F-model with the 201 cowlings and some speed mods, and the speed difference between that and a Tiger is certainly less than 10 kts. The R model (Ovation) is a real speed demon, but now you're talking about some big bucks. It's also roomier than the F and K I flew, but still very cramped. I've also worked on Mooneys. How do you fix a prop governor leak on one? Start by taking the engine mounts loose from the firewall. Otherwise you won't get to anything. Mooneys are very time-consuming to service; everything is much too tight. For the same reason, you really need to buy a good one - a lot of maintenance corners get cut when it's just so much hassle to get to anything. In general, I don't care for Mooneys. In fact, I would prefer the Tiger - not as cramped, way cheaper to maintain, way better visibility, almost as fast. Michael |
#18
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Have you ever flown\owned a Mooney?
The panel was an ergonomic disaster.
Sounds like an old Mooney. The same can be said for all pre-70's airplanes, flight instrument all over the place. I've seen some C-182s that make my head spin with airspeed under the yoke, DG in top center etc. -Robert |
#19
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Have you ever flown\owned a Mooney?
And just don't fly the Mooney in ice.
Actually, the Mooney is one of the very few single's out there than can be purchased with known-ice. The 231's had this as a factory option. None of that boot junk either, real weeping wings that provide ice protection all the way back. The Mooney was built to get the business man to his meeting quickly. -Robert |
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