The Mistress got a nose job! I finally gave in and had the prop rebuilt. My reasoning:

• The required ECI AD was 11 hours away,
• I got tired of being hassled by my A&P and the prop techs,
• There was a humongous nick in one of the blades and
• On my trip out and back to Las Cruces the prop could not hold speed.

I called Gary Jordan of Jordan Propeller in San Antonio (he came highly recommended) and contracted to have it done. Gary does a run from San Antone out to Abbeville Lousiana every so often to pick up and drop props off. He stopped off in Beaumont, which is on the route, to pick mine up and then brought it back to me! Talk about service and saving shipping too.

Unfortunately, since the prop had not been touched in thirty some years, the hub was grody and corroded. I needed to get a serviceable hub, but it wasn't too bad. Gary also applied Hartzell's AMOC, or Alternative Method of Compliance, to get rid of the ECI AD. What this did was fill the hub with a red dye oil. If I get any cracks they will show up as bloody red seepage--no more yearly ECI!

When I got the prop back I could not believe how gorgeous it was, like brand new. I was shamed into polishing the spinner. Now my baby is more beautiful than before. I took her up last Saturday and that new prop hummed like a bee. I think I am getting an extra few knots on climb ;-)

Questair digital OAT gauge

Picture Key:

[ gauge face down w/ fairing ] [gauge face]

[Scott gauge face][Scott gauge stem]

[Questair inside][Questair outside]

The Questair OAT is a digital gauge intended to replace the aging stem-style gauges that have a sensor that sticks out of a hole either in the windshield or pilot's window. I have a Scott gauge and it has clouded over and has also caused cracks in my pilot-side window so I looked into OAT alternatives and decided to go with the Questair. Additionally, the stem sticking out is large and detracts from the smooth lines of my plane. I doubt removal of it will have any effect on my airspeed--heck, my biggest problem is slowing her down!

One of the issues posted on a number of forums is the way Questair operates. One guy opined that:

The older gentleman who sells them is his own worst enemy from a marketing point of view, since he has no website, no email address and I have never successfully had him answer the phone. You have two options for ordering, either leaving a voicemail or sending a fax with your shipping address and credit card information, but he does return calls. He goes on vacation from time to time, and if you order while he's on vacation, it sits until he gets back.

I was visiting with my daughter in Florida when I called Questair to ask about the device and to place my order. I got the voicemail and left my name and number. Later, I discovered that my phone had a voicemail and it was Fred Kantor, owner of Questair Inc. He left a message and that was the last time I ever heard from him. I called back numerous times, left messages, etc., but no response. Fred is apparently an internal medicine physician, so he is probably busy most of the time and does this digital OAT gauge thing on the side.

So, I FAX'd my order in and in less than a week I had my unit--see pictures above. I could immediately see why some guys have had issues (I am an engineer after all). It is somewhat cheap plastic as aerospace equipment normally goes--but remember, if Mooney made this thing it would cost 1.5 AMU's instead of 0.08. The thermistor appears to be protected by a chromed or stainless bubble and the threaded shaft is a continuation of the case plastic. This latter part is the source of most of the problems others have had. If you tighten too much it is pretty clear to me that it will break, that much is obvious. The fairing that goes on the outside is of a tougher plastic, but the threads are very shallow. There is a foam washer the same ovoid shape as the fairing and what you want to do is use that washer to take the compression strain. The unknown is the thickness of the plastic window that you are mounting it to. There are extra washers and the key is to get the number of washers needed correct so that the shaft and fairing are not over tightened.

After installing it, I found it to be about a half degree off from the ATIS/AWOS temperature at the airport--so well within tolerance considering I was in my hangar. I like it because it replaces the problematic, difficult to read stem gauge and it automatically converts from degrees C to F for you with the push of a button. It also has an internal lamp, again accessed by a button. There are two batteries in the unit with a switch to select between the two--just like your fuel tanks in a Mooney. So, if the gauge fails to display, you turn the switch to give it a fresh battery. What's not to love?

Prop check

Yesterday I flew 76Q up to Fort Worth's Meacham Field, AKA Forth Worth Meacham International AKA KFTW from Beaumont (KBPT). I went up there to have my propeller checked in accordance with AD (Airworthiness Directive) 2009-22-03. The AD is an order from the FAA that must be complied with in order for a plane; i.e., one that falls under the AD, to remain airworthy. Not all Mooney's have this kind of propeller and those that don't will use that fact as a selling point.

The AD says that if you have a Hartzell propeller model in the ()HC-()2Y()-() series, then you need to have it's hub inspected by a mechanic who is certified to use an eddy current instrument to see if you have any subsurface cracks--the test is called an Eddy Current Inspection (ECI) and has to be done after every 100 hours of flying. It used to be that or every year, whichever came first. This recent AD relaxed the requirement by dropping the "every year" to accommodate the hangar queens that don't get flown much.

The prop hub is the part that holds the blades. On a fixed blade propeller, it is just the circular center section with the holes in it to mount it to the engine. On a constant speed prop, like 76Q has, the hub is a complicated unit that the two blades, which rotate on an axis perpendicular to the propeller axle, are mounted to. The hub must withstand significant forces and so is a potential failure point.

The image to the left shows the mechanic doing the ECI on my plane. He is holding the instrument probe in his right hand and touching it to various places on the hub. To get at the hub, he had to remove the spinner. His left hand is resting on one of the propeller blades.

The hub was fine and I learned a good deal from the A&P who did the check about hubs and propellers. Apparently, only two of these particular hubs have ever failed, both offshore, I believe he said the UK, and under questionable circumstance; i.e., other factors may have caused the crashes. He said he has never seen a cracked hub in all of the ECI's he has done. His instrument has been well used and I noted that it is just an X-Y o'scope with a signal generator.

Every time an AD is issued on a GA aircraft it is generally accompanied by an uproar, the magnitude of which is proportional to the costs involved in complying with the AD. This inspection is no different and the new change will be viewed with great relief by many owners of airplanes since they will no longer have to have this check done yearly. A plane can go for years without this inspection as long as it isn't flown--but then you have to ask, why own a plane?

As to the flight, it was easy. I flew direct to DARTZ, an enroute fix along VFR flyway V239. I chose DARTZ because it was well clear of the DFW Class B airspace. It was a good thing that I flew there first because ATC was specific in telling me to stay clear of the class bravo. I thought that was a bit rude, but it turns out that the FAA is very cautious about letting VFR flights into Class B airspace. When I left FTW, they cleared me into the bravo immediately and I flew away through it. My guess is that if you are leaving, then you are a lesser threat.

Some pilots avoid a Class B like the plague. I personally think it is sort of neat to be listening to the radio and hearing Continental two-zero-five-one climb to flight level three-two-zero or Southwest one-zero-seven turn left heading zero-two-four. You know you are flying with the big boys (girls too!) when you hear those sorts of things on the frequency you have been assigned. When I hear Mooney five-niner-seven-six-quebec I know that the jet jockeys are hearing it too and wishing they were buzzing around in a sports car instead of steering an (air) bus around full of passengers.

It took me three hours to fly up and one to fly back. I took my time going up, had a bit of turbulence and headwind as well as the indirect route via DARTZ. On the way back, I flew a direct return course with a tail wind and let all the stops out. My Garmin clocked me at 212 MPH max ground speed. This is essentially why guys fly Mooneys. For the amount of money invested, you cannot buy a faster plane, period. In fact, the plane is so slippery that it is hard to slow down.

I've served my time...

All Mooney airplanes are complex aircraft. What that means, according to the FAA, is that the airplane has flaps, retractable gear and a controllable propeller. These elements add complexity to the pilot workload and so any pilot who wants to fly a complex aircraft needs to be trained specifically for these elements. I had only flown Cessna 152 and 172 aircraft and although I knew how to use flaps, since these both have those, the retractable gear and propeller were new to me.

Does this restriction mean that I could not fly the Mooney? Not at all. In fact, there was nothing to stop me from firing up 76Q after Ed left her with me and taking her up and away to all points anywhere. Of course, if the FAA caught me or if something happened then there would be, for lack of a better term, issues.

No, the big controller in the US is insurance. If I rammed my Mooney into someones house I most likely would have the bejeezus sued out of me--regardless of whether or not I survived the crash. If I did damage to the plane, I would have no fall-back to have it repaired. The insurance company looked at my experience level and required me to have ten hours of dual with an instructor before I could solo the plane. What this means is that I had to fly 76Q with a CFI qualified in complex aircraft for ten hours before I could fly her myself and have insurance coverage. Along the way, I needed to get a complex endorsement by an instructor. The endorsement is an entry in a pilot's logbook that says he is ok to do something. In this case it meant that the instructor was satisfied that I knew how to fly a complex airplane. There is no minimum requirement of time, either with ground school (classroom type training on the ground) or in flight time. The ten hours was more than adequate for me to get the endorsement.

I have joked about being "sentenced to ten hours", but the reality is that it was a necessary and sufficient time. My Mooney is without question a complex aircraft. The cockpit workload is an order of magnitude above that of a 152 or 172 Cessna. Mooney pilots like to call their airplanes "slippery" and I have added that term to my pilot jargon. The plane is slippery, there is just no better term to describe it. Combine the speed of the plane (yes, they are fast!), the slippery factor and the complex aspects and you are now piloting just a bit more than a trainer-type aircraft. I greatly envy the pilots that have been fortunate enough to have gotten their PPC (private pilot certificate) in a Mooney.

At one time the FAA classified 76Q as a high-performance aircraft. In those days, complex was combined with high performance. Now, the two are separated and in order to be high performance, the engine has to be greater than 200 hp. 76Q has a 200 hp Lycoming IO-360-A1A engine in her. This is a fuel-injected powerhouse that allows ground speeds of 193 mph. Well, the latter is what I have seen off the GPS. Typically, you want to be cruising at 163 mph versus 113 for your Cessna 172.

I did my familiarization training in San Antonio with Bob Cabe of Flight Training, Inc. After he signed me off I flew myself from KSAT (San Antonio International) to KBPT (Southwest Texas Regional). That first solo flight was like being on a drug and the landing at BPT was the best I had done in my plane. I had VFR flight following the whole way and then got cleared into KIAH (Houston International), one of the busiest airports in the US, Class B airspace. I heard big jets getting cleared to 35,000', or flight level 350. It was phenomenal.

The buying of N5976Q-1-2-3

Hello all who wander here.

I now own a 1966 Mooney M20E Super 21 airplane.

I purchased this plane from E. A. Grimshaw of Lake Charles Louisiana.