Mooney M20J Drivers

[joris]

After four years ownership of a very nice TMG I took the bold decsion to move up to a faster bird. I own now a 1978 M20J as my mission profile is 600 Nm. Anybody want to give advise? Maintenance and Operating the aircraft. The bird has KFC150 with flight Director, electric trim is B-RNAV, Storm scope WX11, GNC430, KX155 and gtx 330 mode S equiped...No De-ice ...

[joris]

Is there a Hot Prop EASA STC available..?

[IO540]

There may be a TKS prop option.

Lack of de-ice can be an issue but isn't too bad if one keeps one's flying to non-frontal conditions.

I've sent you an email, joris.

[joris]

Hopefully one available for more aircraft

Aircraft Deicing - Kelly Aerospace ThermaWing™ (http://www.kellyaerospace.com/thermawing.html)

[bookworm]

IIRC, MAPA (http://www.mooneypilots.com/) has some good stuff.

My practical recollections include:

* The cabin light switches don't go through the master, hence it's possible to knock the baggage compartment switch inadvertently and flatten the battery

* If the emergency gear extension handle between the seats is not properly locked, the gear won't retract

* The M20J needs precise pitch-attitude control compared to a lot of similarly powered and sized tourers. Nail that, and it goes where you tell it to with ease.

* Crosswind take-offs are more exciting than crosswind landings, because you get relatively little lateral grip as you approach Vr.

If I had one these days, the first thing I'd do is fit an engine analyzer and fuel flow totalizer.

[IO540]

hence it's possible to knock the baggage compartment switch inadvertently and flatten the battery

Another great feature shared with the TB20 :) Some people just take the bulb out.

[joris]

thanks..;-), it has the shadin miniflow and a JPI is on the list

[bookworm]

Some people just take the bulb out.

Is there an STC for that? ;)

[IO540]

Maybe not but if you replace it with a blown one, that must be 100% legal :)

[joris]

Any recommendations with regardto engine analyzers or are the all crap? :ugh:JPI, Ub-16 or any other..?
thanks

[IO540]

JPI is the most commonly sold one in Europe, and it works. Some issues with the data download but I have never played with the others so I don't know... EI (http://buy-ei.com/) is another one which may be better; they certainly seem to have thicker-wall probes.

For fuel flow, you can either go for a JPI with that function (if you can stand the already horrid user interface) or go for what I have which is a Shadin Microflo (https://secure.sarasotaavionics.com/product.aspx?id=235) (shadin.com has been down for ages and I hope they haven't gone bust). All fuel flow metering systems use the same transducer from Floscan, P/N 201. These are really very good, if correctly installed (see the URL I emailed you). I get errors on mine generally below 1%, with occassional excursions of 5% or more indicating a "wrongly adjusted" airport pump, and funnily enough all of those are in southern Europe ;) On my last fill I got a 0.13% difference. You link the output to your GPS and it shows a computed FOB at the programmed destination, which - barring big wind changes - is usually within a gallon or three as soon as you level off in cruise.

[cessnapete]

I ditched one in the Med in 2007, doesn't float very well!!

[IO540]

Why did you ditch?

[joris]

there is already an older Shadin digital miniflow in the aircraft however no digital engine monitor...just was looking at this:
NEW G3 Graphic Engine Monitor (http://www.insightavionics.com/g3.htm)

maybe overkill..?

[IO540]

I like the SD card.

A major hassle with the EDM700 is that it holds only so many hours of data and if you don't download it often enough, the buffer "wraps around" and the entire download is corrupted. JPI have struggled with this issue for years; very early on their MS-DOS software would search the data until it found a valid flight and decoded from there on, and their current bloatware also manages to do it, but for years I had to send the corrupted .dat files to JPI who reluctantly would decode them.

If this thing can write to a decent size SD card, that's a good solution.

[englishal]

I was going to buy an EDM-830-4C, along with Oil pressure, oil temp, and TIT probes next week and hand carry it home in the hand luggage :) But they can't get it to me in time... :(

This comes with a USB flashdrive key to download the data - plug it in and downloads to the flash drive, then you download this to the PC...

Looks sweet, and can be mounted in any way around....

[cessnapete]

Ditched due engine failure. As a/c now in 200m of Med, will not discover reason.
Had just under half fuel, engined windmilled not seized. As only 3000ft asl when failure occurred no time to assess further.

[dirkdj]

I flew a M20K for a while. It is very unsuitable for all but the smoothest of grass fields due to the geometry of the nose gear/prop position. When the nose wheel dips about 3 inches the prop will come down twice as much. Friend had a prop strike while parking in the grass in Spain, only 5 flying hours after a complete top overhaul due to bad cylinders. I think the nose is longer on the M20K than on the M20J.