From: dst+@cs.cmu.edu (Dave Touretzky)
Newsgroups: rec.aviation
Subject: help -- I've joined the Moonies!
Date: 28 Sep 92 23:56:19 GMT
Organization: School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon

I'm giving a friend a high performance checkout/endorsement in a pair of
Mooney 201s.  Having logged a grand total of 2 -- that's TWO POINT OH --
hours of dual in Mooneys, and no solo time, I felt eminently qualified to do
this.  (And that beeping sound you hear is the sarcasm detector going off.)
Oh yeah, we both read the manual, too -- such as it is.  (Landing gear
electrical schematic?  Why would a pilot want to see one of those???)

Things are going well, but I have a few questions to ask the more
experienced Mooney devotees out there:

1) One of the birds we're flying is a 1978 model with a Piper Arrow-style
throttle quadrant.  I could swear I've seen newer Mooneys with push-pull
knobs, like in the Cessna singles and, of course, like the older Mooneys.
Was 1978 an odd year, or am I hallucinating again?

2) What's the story with the gear horn?  Sometimes it sounds a continuous
tone; other times it's a regular on-off-on-off beeping pattern.  I imagine
there is some reason for this, but we haven't figured it out yet.  At
altitude we dropped the gear, slowed the airplane to the bottom of the white
arc, and raised the gear switch to demonstrate the airspeed interlock.  It
worked: the gear horn started beeping and the gear stayed down.  So we
pressed the big red button, and the gear retracted like it's supposed to,
but the gear horn wouldn't stop.  Even after lowering the nose, pushing in
the throttle, and retracting the flaps to get mucho airspeed, we couldn't
get the gear horn to shut up.  Finally we cycled the gear again, and that
did the trick.  We plan to run through this exercise again in the other
airplane, but could someone tell me if this is normal behavior for a Mooney?
Or have we got a stuck sensor somewhere?

3) The 201 has a Lycoming IO-360 engine.  Do you ever lean this for taxi to
prevent plug fouling?  Our club is a stickler for leaning prior to taxi in
its 152s, but I can't remember anyone ever telling me to do this to a fuel
injected engine, and didn't think about it until my student asked.  I will
sometimes do it in the Seneca on really hot days, but I'm not sure it does
any good, or is even an advisable practice for an injected bird.  Comments?

4) For touch and goes, we've been doing our best to raise the flaps to the
take-off position after adding full throttle but before rotating.  One of
the CFIs I flew with says that's what he does.  But it strikes me as rather
dangerous for a pilot who's transitioning up to a complex aircraft; he's
very busy at that time, and doesn't really want to be fumbling with the flap
switch.  I think raising the flaps fully would be simpler and safer -- just
flip the switch to the "up" position and get back to concentrating on the
takeoff.  The lack of 1/3 flaps doesn't seem to hurt on a touch and go,
where you're almost at flying speed as soon as the throttle comes in.
Comments, anyone?

Thanks in advance,

-- Dave Touretzky,  "student Mooney instructor"

PS: to forestall any flames... yes, 2 hours in type is pretty low time to be
giving dual in a complex aircraft.  But I also have 600+ hours of multi
time, and lots of time in comparable singles like the Turbo Arrow and
Cardinal RG.  The Mooney turns out to be "just another retract single", and
pretty docile at that.  Engine-out landings are fun and easy.  We haven't
taken it into either of my favorite 2600 foot strips yet, but it certainly
seems doable as long as you maintain good airspeed control.  
From: jle@hpfcso.FC.HP.COM (Jer/ Eberhard)
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1992 15:47:14 GMT
Subject: Deer Whistles on sailplanes... wont work
Organization: Hewlett-Packard, Fort Collins, CO, USA