A new engine for the Mooney

I drive to Hasselt to visit my mother, who’s 89 years old now. After staying overnight at her house together with my son, my mother drops me off the next morning at the Genk-Zwartberg airfield. Today, we are going to pick up the Mooney of our flying club. The plan is to fly the Mooney to Luxembourg, whilst trying to land on the new Parking 5 which just reopened for General Aviation visiting pilots

The issue of the day is the Mooney itself. The long-awaited new engine has just been installed. This means the Break-In period starts with some consequences for the family flying trip which will start in a day or two.

The adventure starts

In the late morning, I take off in Genk with a shallow climb angle with my son sitting in the co-Pilot sear. Flying to Luxemburg does not take long. However, because the engine is new, I need to fly at 75% at low altitudes. I don’t like that too much as only 5 minutes ago, I saw some F-16 coming over at low altitude and high speed. Anyway, I filed a flight plan and directly after take-off, I contact the Liège approach asking for a crossing clearance. The friendly controller approves and I am able to stay on his frequency, even when crossing a small for of the CTR.

After Liège, I climb out a bit as the hills are getting higher, but I remain under the clouds. During this Break-In period, I should remain at 5000 feet. Normally, I’d climb out twice as high on this route. In order to get a correct piston ring seating, I need to fly this plane at 65% to 75% cruise power.

Flying at 5000 feet or lower is recommended and flying over 8000 feet will prevent simply the new engine from reaching the sufficient cruise power for an acceptable Break-In says the Service Instruction. Not done.

Before I know it, I already cross the Luxembourg border and the air traffic controller of the Luxembourg Approach guides me to the Airfield. Everything when smooth. I watch out not to do a descent at low manifold pressure. I have speed brakes on this plane and use them to lose altitude. This goes very well. No waiting line in downwind and In no time, I am in final and cleared to land. Perfect.

Parking 5 of Luxembourg Airport

The Parking 5 of Luxembourg Airport just reopened for small planes as I fly with. Today, I’m going to use it at first as a Guest. It works well. My wife is so kind as to pick us up at Luxembourg Airport. Shortly after, I’m sitting again behind my desk at work as I have a huge workload to finish these days. Play hard and work hard