Found an excellent real-world review - now twenty years old - of the M20R that Carenado has chosen to model. They get very deep, discussing lack of cowl flaps, heat soak on the ramp, climb performance, and the “Blue Arc” on the EGT gauge. You can read that here.
They also discuss the conversion of the older 201 and 231 to the Continental 550 that the M20R has installed, and give good performance metrics both during climb and at cruise.
The article is long, but worth the read if you’re interested in flying the Mooney “by the numbers” in the sim.
The Mooney can fly now the GTN750 with the Working Title Technology (WTT).
This brings you new features not available with the stock framework (flying all leg types, holds, visual approaches, etc…)
This is the same technology that is used in the G1000 Nxi.
See on Aircraft
I’ve been flying the updated Mooney (1.5.1) most of the day today. It still lacks proper speed at altitude… about 20 knots shy of book performance. Climb rate starts to “droop” past 6,000 feet and is down considerably by 10,500. I could not get better than 165 KTAS at 10,500 even at Best Power. Fuel Flow is about 12.5 gph.
Between 10,000 and 12,000 feet the demonstrated cruise should be 185-187 KTAS with fuel flow of about 15.0 gph.
Something changed between initial release and now; the Mooney used to cruise right about book values with corresponding fuel flow. It is still a nice aircraft to fly, but with the reduction in performance it is about as fast as the Turbo Arrow, which flies better and lands silky smooth. The Mooney has a tendency to “plunk” the nose wheel down no matter how gently you grease on the mains.
Is this what I think it is?! Did they fix the ridiculous trim bug that prevented it from ever being properly trimmed out and always under or over trimming?
Are other experiencing issues with not being able to click certain buttons in this aircraft? It is up-to-date for me but not working properly. Is this now abandonware from Carenado? It wouldn’t surprise me if it is.
My favorite airplane. Most of the GTN750 has been tested with it.
Just the Up/Down button in the autopilot not working but you can control the VS with the small altitude selector.
I spent the morning mapping a spad.next profile for the Mooney w/ the GTN 750 and am struggling with a few configurations I’m wondering if you or others could help with. I wish dev docs were published with all this stuff so I could get a clear list of the simconnect events and lvars I should use.
Engage/Disengage Autopilot
Seems like there’s no toggle-able event, and I need to create conditional logic based on some value to detect the AP on/off state, and then fire the respective on/off event? If so, what variable am I looking for to give me that?
Pushing this seems to switch AUTOPILOT ALTITUDE ARM between a value of 0|1. So in theory if I check if the value is 0 and then set that value to be 1 that should work, but it does not arm. Likewise, the reverse (shown in the top part of the screenshot), does not disarm it. Am i missing something? I’m able to configure the actual altitude and VS selection just fine.
Detecting which com frequency is being set
On the G1000, I have the little indicator telling me whether I’ll be modifying com1 or com2 when I turn my knob, and I have a custom local variable for the currently_selected_com that switches between them which I push the com knob in. In the Mooney with the GTN 750, they are two completely separate radio units. My switch logic between com1 and com2 still works, but I have no visual indicator as I would in the g1000 display to tell me which is currently being modified. Does that exist somewhere and I’m just missing it? Does the GTN 750 only have the ability to modify the frequency of Com1?
We can help only on the GTN750 part. Autopilot and altitude selectors are Carenado gauges and they have implemented their own logic.
About the COM1/COM2 question: In the Ovation, the GTN750 is connected to COM1/NAV1 and theorically you can’t set COM2/NAV2. Anyway there is an option in the setup page that allows enabling COM1/COM2 switch and so, set COM2. When this option is activated, you can switch by pressing the volume knob. See the documentation.
That’s helpful, ty. Is there any visual indicator of which is selected for input? I actually don’t mind using the secondary radio system, but I have no visual indicator of which my knob is modifying the standby for like I would in the g1000.
In this image you can see for example that with the teal arrows, the standby frequency of COM1 is selected, so turning the com knob will change that. If COM2 were selected, the arrow would move down to it. That’s the sort of indicator I’m looking for.
The G1000 manages both COM1 AND COM2 but the GTN750 is managing COM1 OR COM2. In the Ovation this is COM1 so you really don’t need an indicator. You just have to know that the GTN750 is connected to COM1.
Now, as I said, we have added a non standard feature that allows you to change both COM1 and COM2 frequencies from the GTN750. Just activate the option in the System / Setup /options pages and you will get your indicator + the possibility to switch COM1/COM2 by pressing the volume knob.
THis option is not really necessary in the Ovation because you have a separate panel for both radios.
Check our documentation chapter " Switching COM/NAV index".
If you have an Xbox check the marketplace, I know other Carenado aircraft have been released on Xbox but I don’t know about the Mooney specifically - this video was created way before the Xbox release of MFS and now I’m apart of a team developing our own aircraft for the sim.
Is VNAV and FLC a thing with the AP in this plane? I’m not quite sure how I’d approach shooting RNAV approaches, or the best way to use autopilot in the climb phase.
Also, what is advised for RPMs and speed for landing? I’d love to get more info on what you do at different stages of flying the pattern in this bird.
Weird behavior tonight trying to land at KPRB with mild 10kt crosswind on the RWY 19 VOR approach…
Approaching at 80kts with full flaps and gear down I experienced extreme skid behavior that persisted even after landing. Correction with rudder was a guessing game. Anyone else experience this at slower speeds in this plane?
