Mooney Tips and Tricks
- Thread starter flymo
- Start date
Blackhawk
Well-Known Member
Give yourself extra altitude doing slow flight/stalls. Stall handling is fine, but if something goes wrong you can anticipate loosing 1000'/turn in a Mooney. If you're at 1500' AGL a two turn spin will...
http://www.mooneyevents.com/spins.html
Mooney's are clean airplanes. Land them on speed. An extra 5-10 knots can lead to quite a float, porpoising and a prop strike if you let it bounce more than once.
Have fun.
http://www.mooneyevents.com/spins.html
Mooney's are clean airplanes. Land them on speed. An extra 5-10 knots can lead to quite a float, porpoising and a prop strike if you let it bounce more than once.
Have fun.
roundout
VNAV monitor
Trim way nose up on landing. With full flaps the trim indicator should be halfway or more between the top of takeoff range and the stop. This will ensure that you land on speed. If you land too fast with the proper setting, the plane will be going too fast and you'll be pushing the nose down constantly. If you try to control the speed with yoke alone you'll be pulling hard and making it too difficult for yourself. Either is an indication that you're not flying the proper speed.
Make double sure the Johnson bar goes into the locks up and down. They have been known to unlock even though the pilot put the gear down but didn't ram it in there quite as hard as required (that's what she said). Also, on takeoff you have to bring the gear up nearly as soon as you break ground. The longer you wait, the harder it is to retract the gear - this is due to aerodynamic forces.
Does the F model have hydraulic flaps or are they electric?
Make double sure the Johnson bar goes into the locks up and down. They have been known to unlock even though the pilot put the gear down but didn't ram it in there quite as hard as required (that's what she said). Also, on takeoff you have to bring the gear up nearly as soon as you break ground. The longer you wait, the harder it is to retract the gear - this is due to aerodynamic forces.
Does the F model have hydraulic flaps or are they electric?
esa17
Well-Known Member
Ok, so here goes.
The first thing is to be very on top of your speed. If you let it get away from you then you either won't be landing on that pass or you will discover what happens when you touch your brakes with very little weight on the wheels. Sliding off the runway when your wheels lock is a very real possibility.
On take off make sure you get the gear up before you pass 80, otherwise it takes a lot more effort to get the gear up. It will take a while to get the hang of bringing the gear up from the right seat but once you get it down it's very easy. At this point you will learn what they mean by the "Mooney wave" on your climb out. The manual gear is great since it's almost fail safe but I recommend you don't do touch and goes. There is just way too much room for error. Finally with take off make sure and brief the PAX that for no reason what so ever should anything be placed between the seats since that will block the catch on the floor and keep the gear from locking up. That is no fun.
On landing two things: full flaps or NO flaps, do not use a partial flap setting because you just won't do anything but float. The next thing is trim. With full flaps, 15", and full nose up in a properly rigged aircraft you will get a nice easy plane to land. On some models, especially the ones with the 201 cowl mod, you will get a great deal of backfiring on landing. At the low power setting it will sound like a muffled "popopopop" but it can be cured by leaning the mixture out slightly. Once you're on the ground get the flaps up before you touch the brakes, see above. Once you're stopped and about to get out...RESET THE TRIM! I've seen more than one nice Mooney end up as a ball because some got rushed, excited, or just plain stupid on the next takeoff and forget about the trim. It doesn't end well.
Dropping the gear can be hairy if you put your hand in the wrong spot at the wrong time. Trim can be your friend here too. Start slowing the plane down and make sure that you don't drop the gear above 120. If you do you will run risk of cracking the gear doors on their leading edge abeam their attachment points about halfway down the door. Thats a pretty good tell for a bad Mooney driver. If you trim it for 120 and drop the gear that will almost perfectly set you up for 110. Get her down to flap speed and when fully deployed that should give you a nice decent rate and somewhere around 85. Your mileage may vary depending on how well it's rigged.
On preflight there are two really big items to watch out for. First, make sure that the pilot shakes the wings pretty hard for and aft at the tip. Some tanks and bladders have a bad habit of trapping water which doesn't make it to the sumps. Once you make a turn on the ground that water can break loose and find it's way into system on takeoff...That ends badly and I have pictures to prove it. The next thing is to check the fuel selectors for movement and you must feel the detent. They are prone to sticking.
The last thing to do is teach them about flying single pilot. When you're flying a manual gear Mooney solo before you even start the engine make sure to buckle the passenger side seatbelt and sinche it down tight. If not, and this will happen a few times, the unlatched buckle will fall down between the seats and keep you from being able to lock the gear.
I'm sure there is more, but thats all I've got for now.
The first thing is to be very on top of your speed. If you let it get away from you then you either won't be landing on that pass or you will discover what happens when you touch your brakes with very little weight on the wheels. Sliding off the runway when your wheels lock is a very real possibility.
On take off make sure you get the gear up before you pass 80, otherwise it takes a lot more effort to get the gear up. It will take a while to get the hang of bringing the gear up from the right seat but once you get it down it's very easy. At this point you will learn what they mean by the "Mooney wave" on your climb out. The manual gear is great since it's almost fail safe but I recommend you don't do touch and goes. There is just way too much room for error. Finally with take off make sure and brief the PAX that for no reason what so ever should anything be placed between the seats since that will block the catch on the floor and keep the gear from locking up. That is no fun.
On landing two things: full flaps or NO flaps, do not use a partial flap setting because you just won't do anything but float. The next thing is trim. With full flaps, 15", and full nose up in a properly rigged aircraft you will get a nice easy plane to land. On some models, especially the ones with the 201 cowl mod, you will get a great deal of backfiring on landing. At the low power setting it will sound like a muffled "popopopop" but it can be cured by leaning the mixture out slightly. Once you're on the ground get the flaps up before you touch the brakes, see above. Once you're stopped and about to get out...RESET THE TRIM! I've seen more than one nice Mooney end up as a ball because some got rushed, excited, or just plain stupid on the next takeoff and forget about the trim. It doesn't end well.
Dropping the gear can be hairy if you put your hand in the wrong spot at the wrong time. Trim can be your friend here too. Start slowing the plane down and make sure that you don't drop the gear above 120. If you do you will run risk of cracking the gear doors on their leading edge abeam their attachment points about halfway down the door. Thats a pretty good tell for a bad Mooney driver. If you trim it for 120 and drop the gear that will almost perfectly set you up for 110. Get her down to flap speed and when fully deployed that should give you a nice decent rate and somewhere around 85. Your mileage may vary depending on how well it's rigged.
On preflight there are two really big items to watch out for. First, make sure that the pilot shakes the wings pretty hard for and aft at the tip. Some tanks and bladders have a bad habit of trapping water which doesn't make it to the sumps. Once you make a turn on the ground that water can break loose and find it's way into system on takeoff...That ends badly and I have pictures to prove it. The next thing is to check the fuel selectors for movement and you must feel the detent. They are prone to sticking.
The last thing to do is teach them about flying single pilot. When you're flying a manual gear Mooney solo before you even start the engine make sure to buckle the passenger side seatbelt and sinche it down tight. If not, and this will happen a few times, the unlatched buckle will fall down between the seats and keep you from being able to lock the gear.
I'm sure there is more, but thats all I've got for now.
flymo
Well-Known Member
esa17, that's exactly the stuff I am looking for. Thanks so much for your insights. For an update on the airplane, the pre-buy was finished today and it looks like a solid, well maintained airplane. Besides a loose aileron hinge bolt, and a rubbing cowl flap linkage, everything else checked out well. I am looking forward to getting some more Mooney experience in it. I just need to talk the owner into trading the LORAN unit for a 430. 
Roundout, yes the F model has the hydraulic flaps. They seem to be just about as straight forward and simple as the landing gear.
Roundout, yes the F model has the hydraulic flaps. They seem to be just about as straight forward and simple as the landing gear.
milleR
Well-Known Member
:yup: Yup, even when you have a passenger in the seat next to you, make sure they have the correct belt, it's a little embarassing to ask them to trade at this point in the flight. I'll never forget the look on my wife's face when I said "ummm honey . . .
?"
Blackhawk
Well-Known Member
One other suggestion is to go through the NTSB data base and see what mistakes others have made.
http://ntsb.gov/ntsb/Response2.asp
http://ntsb.gov/ntsb/Response2.asp
TUCKnTRUCK
That guy
:yup: Yup, even when you have a passenger in the seat next to you, make sure they have the correct belt, it's a little embarassing to ask them to trade at this point in the flight. I'll never forget the look on my wife's face when I said "ummm honey . . .
I know this is like... way off topic, But... based on your forum ID, I always suspected. Awesome Bike!! i've an 04 track beast and an 01 for the street. love em
Just wasn't sure till you changed your prof. picture