Weekend in Kerrville, TX

ejensen

ejensen

Pattern Altitude
Gone West
Joined
Feb 23, 2005
Messages
2,390
Location
Fort Collins, CO
Display Name
Display name:
Eric Jensen
Had a great trip to Kerrville this weekend. Left Friday and came back yesterday. It was a Colorado Pilots fly-in. Weather caused a few cancellations but 28 folks still made it in about a dozen aircraft. Most came a day early. We couldn't leave early so had to wait until 1900Z to get out. Still managed about 45 minutes actual. Denver was real helpful on the pop up clearance. Could have stayed VFR but would have had to backtrack north and east. Very nice tail wind, max gs was 217 knots. Made the trip in just over 4 hours. No wind time is 4:40. Made it just in time for dinner but missed the wild flower tour.

The Mooney factor is worth a visit, even if you fly C, B or P (or G Anthony;) ). I think 90% or better of the jigs, tooling and machinery that built my plane 38 years ago are still in use. Factory is old but clean and busy. They turn out 2 planes a week.

Hill Country is nice but I hear summers can get bad. We did an afternoon kayak on the Guadalupe River.

The home Sunday on a very beautiful day. Wind shifted so we had a small tailwind most of the way. Very smooth will the heat bumps started. Even got clear thought DEN class B right over APA, downtown Denver and BJC.

Had another pilot along, a 182 owner. I let him fly the leg from Kerrville to Amarillo. His first Mooney flying. Fun to show someone your plane. He did great.

It doesn't get much better.:yes:
 
Did you happen to see the Acclaim...the new 280 hp twin turbo charged model?

Len
 
Len Lanetti said:
Did you happen to see the Acclaim...the new 280 hp twin turbo charged model?

Len
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I saw one at Sun & Fun Sunday. This particular aircraft had an eye catching paint job that I wouldn't want to live with but the plane is impressive. One puzzler is that the salesman insisted that it's normally aspirated brother (Ovation) has the same 25,000 ft ceiling (the Mooney website quotes 20,000 which is more believable). In any case the attention to detail / fit and finish work was well beyond what I've seen from C, or even B.
 
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Len Lanetti said:
Did you happen to see the Acclaim...the new 280 hp twin turbo charged model?

Len
Click to expand...

Yep, it was back from Florida. Looks pretty much the same from the outside. And the paint job is eye catching. We talked to Paul and Gretchen, the pilots who flew it to SunNFun. Trued out at 234 knots at (I think) 23,000. Fuel burn in the low 20s.:hairraise: I believe the hp limits and the ceiling are certification issues. Paul, their test pilot, was sure it would top the promised 240 knots when the got the engine setup right. They were still tweaking.
 
Eric,
Did Brent Rognlie go with the group? Newly minted pilot from 48V - he and I worked for Gretchen in Louisville before she moved down to Mooneyland.
 
gkainz said:
Eric,
Did Brent Rognlie go with the group? Newly minted pilot from 48V - he and I worked for Gretchen in Louisville before she moved down to Mooneyland.
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He wasn't one that made it. He might have been signed up. I don't have the full list.

Gretchen is doing great. She is trying hard and made big strides in the 15 months she's been there. Hope she can continue and Mooney survives. She said they had reduced the hours to build from 3500 to 3000 but needed to get to 2600. She said those last 400 were going to come hard.
 
Sounds like a great trip Eric. I'm a big Mooney fan, so I have to get down to Kerrville at some point. 20 GPH, sounds like a high fuel burn, but I'm not familiar with that engine, so don't know what is "normal".
 
Anthony said:
Sounds like a great trip Eric. I'm a big Mooney fan, so I have to get down to Kerrville at some point. 20 GPH, sounds like a high fuel burn, but I'm not familiar with that engine, so don't know what is "normal".
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I've never flown behind something that big. And I'm sure they weren't at economy cruise. :) Speed sells airplanes. My friend with the Bravo does economy cruise at around 16.
 
ejensen said:
I believe the hp limits and the ceiling are certification issues.
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From the what I think I know files...I've heard that the HP is limited to 280 due to pitch authority during power on stalls. I think I remember reading that when the Ovation came out when someone questioned why they picked 280 HP when the engine puts out more HP in other installations. If the pitch authority story is the reason I wonder how there can be an STC for use of the liquid cooled 350HP Voyageur engine in the PFM (reference is the aircraft that has been for sale for several months)

Ceiling of 25,000 limit based on O2 delivery system limits...I think a pressure delivery system is required by the FAA above 25,000...I'll bet Dr Bruce knows the details. Interesting to think about being in the flight levels with a system that contains lots of single point of failure components as, literally, your life line.

Len
 
I've only seen the paint via the Mooney website pictures...it took a few minutes to realize it is the logo stretched along the side..I thought it was very cool...I liked it a lot more than the barber pole they created in the 80's.

Len
 
ejensen said:
Yep, it was back from Florida. Looks pretty much the same from the outside. And the paint job is eye catching. We talked to Paul and Gretchen, the pilots who flew it to SunNFun. Trued out at 234 knots at (I think) 23,000. Fuel burn in the low 20s.:hairraise: I believe the hp limits and the ceiling are certification issues. Paul, their test pilot, was sure it would top the promised 240 knots when the got the engine setup right. They were still tweaking.
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Wish I'd known you were up in Kerrville over the weekend. I'm just down the road in San Antonio, could have come up for a quick visit (it's only an hour or so in the car, much less by air). I know Paul, too, good guy, and great test pilot....

bill
 
Len Lanetti said:
From the what I think I know files...I've heard that the HP is limited to 280 due to pitch authority during power on stalls. I think I remember reading that when the Ovation came out when someone questioned why they picked 280 HP when the engine puts out more HP in other installations. If the pitch authority story is the reason I wonder how there can be an STC for use of the liquid cooled 350HP Voyageur engine in the PFM (reference is the aircraft that has been for sale for several months)
Click to expand...

That could well be part of it. I didn't hear any details Saturday but there were many conversation going on all day long. What I heard was a general statement to the effect that they were already approved up to 280 and did feel it was worth all the testing that would be required to up the limit on the type certificate. It did ring a little strange as there is a 310 hp STC out there too.

On another note. Mooney did license the 'Weep No More' process from Willmar and will use at the factory.
 
wsuffa said:
Wish I'd known you were up in Kerrville over the weekend. I'm just down the road in San Antonio, could have come up for a quick visit (it's only an hour or so in the car, much less by air). I know Paul, too, good guy, and great test pilot....

bill
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Yeah, I should have posted before the event. You'd have been more than welcome to join us. If it hadn't been a CPA fly-in, I'd have been looking for some POA or AOPA boarders. On couple's son did drive over from San Antonio. Said it was about 45 minutes.

Paul was a very nice guy. Gretchen drew a name and the lucky pilot (not me darn) got to fly with Paul. They flew a test sequence he needed to fly anyway. Vne dives, stalls, engine restarts, etc. Souned like a blast. Flight was over an hour. When they got back they were joking about doing a spin. Gretchen got a funny look on her face. Guess Paul is know as the spin king so for a second she wasn't sure. Guess he's trying to figure out a was to set a record for spins. Current is twelve and his target is twenty. Paul joined us for dinner Saturday.
 
ejensen said:
Guess Paul is know as the spin king so for a second she wasn't sure. Guess he's trying to figure out a was to set a record for spins. Current is twelve and his target is twenty. Paul joined us for dinner Saturday.
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Exactly. Paul's goal is to set a record for spins in a Mooney. In number of turns before recovery.
 
The owner of the M201 I rented at Dakota Ridge opted for the bladders shortly after putting it on the line. He lost a little capacity, I think, but was generally satisfied with his choice, IIRC. I'm not sure if putting in the bladders was any quicker than the re-seal, but I think it might have been.
 
ejensen said:
I've never flown behind something that big. And I'm sure they weren't at economy cruise. :) Speed sells airplanes. My friend with the Bravo does economy cruise at around 16.
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I'll stick wth the 4 banger. ;)
 
Anthony said:
I'll stick wth the 4 banger. ;)
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Me too. He was on the Baja trip and I was never that far behind. Maybe 30 miles - KTUS-MMLT
 
gkainz said:
The owner of the M201 I rented at Dakota Ridge opted for the bladders shortly after putting it on the line. He lost a little capacity, I think, but was generally satisfied with his choice, IIRC. I'm not sure if putting in the bladders was any quicker than the re-seal, but I think it might have been.
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I've been looking at the options. Bladders are tempting especially now that they have an additional bladder so I wouldn't loose fuel. But I don't like the weight loss, or the mods they do to the wing. Plus bladders don't last forever either and they can trap water.

Local guys (now out of business) copied the Wilmar process as best they could on my left tank and I was real happy with the way it came out.

Any the guys at wetwingologists think the have the answer too. They're the scrapers.
 
ejensen said:
I've been looking at the options. Bladders are tempting especially now that they have an additional bladder so I wouldn't loose fuel. But I don't like the weight loss, or the mods they do to the wing.
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How much useful load do you loose? Is the Wilmar process a stripping and sealing?
 
I think I lost about 20 or 25 pounds useful load when I had the bladders installed in my Mooney...the upside for my year C model is that with three bladders per side I get about an extra 6 gallons or 30 minutes of fuel...of course the 6 gallons weigh 36 pounds and I don't care for partial fueling with the Mooney (too hard to really know fuel onboard) so that comes off from cabin load.

Len
 
Hey nice write up Eric, now tell us all how to get tailwinds on both legs of an out and back.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
Hey nice write up Eric, now tell us all how to get tailwinds on both legs of an out and back.
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Thanks. It was real nice of you and Bill to arrange the wind shift. I fully expected to fight the norther going home.
 
ejensen said:
Thanks. It was real nice of you and Bill to arrange the wind shift. I fully expected to fight the norther going home.
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It's all that hot air coming out of Austin :D

Actually, there are a couple of times that I've gotten tail winds both ways. I actually managed to get a bit of tailwind both ways going to Phoenix a couple of weeks ago. The other times are catching the counterclockwise circulation at the outer edge of a tropical storm system. Had 25 kt tailwinds one time a day or two before a hurricane hit the Gulf Coast.
 
I was fortunate to have a 25kt tailwind going to SnF and a 15kt tailwind going from SnF this year. The highs and lows were fortuitously positioned for both flights.
 
wsuffa said:
It's all that hot air coming out of Austin :D

Actually, there are a couple of times that I've gotten tail winds both ways. I actually managed to get a bit of tailwind both ways going to Phoenix a couple of weeks ago. The other times are catching the counterclockwise circulation at the outer edge of a tropical storm system. Had 25 kt tailwinds one time a day or two before a hurricane hit the Gulf Coast.
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It was a strange weather shift. Friday, a wedge of desert air was pushing east. Kerrville was 90 degrees with 4% humidity. Next morning was 40 degree and more normal moisture.
 
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