cliffy

Its not only unsupervised interns- a local shop hired a newly minted A&P who promptly twisted the nose gear of a Comanche so hard it actually split the entire oleo strut housing open. Your shop sounds like a worthy shop with the way they have stepped up to fix the issue. I would even use them after seeing their professionalism on this issue. The mark of a good shop is how they recover from a problem because every shop will have a problem at some time or another.

I'm in my late late 70s and just got renewed but with a $200 kicker over last year Full coverage but bear in mind I fly 60+ hrs a year and have 19,000+ hrs retract. I've been with the same company for years. I kind of feel (no empirical data ) that advanced licenses (ATP, ME, Type ratings ) and lots of hrs helps along with currency beyond 10 hrs a year. Quite frankly, if you're not flying more than 50 hrs a year when over 70 you need to rethink doing it. Not only is flying ability a fragile commodity that dies away from low use but the thought process doesn't recover as fast after a layoff. Cognitive processes start to slide after 60 or so. You can't avoid it. Set your own reasonable limits (for me its now day VFR only) and stick to them. One might look around at some of us "older" pilots and our "personal limits" and see a trend in limiting our liability after decades of experience. There is a reason. Ya' all be safe out there.

You may still have gelled fluid inside your wheel pucks if you didn't remove them and clean out the puck cavity. In fact I'd bet on it. I've seen this before several times when the pucks haven't been out of the calipers for a decade or more.

It still comes to "Unapproved parts" and the FAAs desire to eliminate them from the supply stream Here is a cut from AC 21-29D regarding SUPs= 5.3.5 Conduct a visual inspection of the part and supporting documents to the extent necessary to determine if the part is traceable to an FAA-approved source. For detailed guidelines on the identification of replacement parts refer to AC 20-62. The following are examples of positive forms of identification:  FAA Form 8130-3, Airworthiness Approval Tag.  Repair station work order from an FAA-certificated source.  European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) Form 1 or Transport Canada Civil Aviation (TCCA) Form One, Authorized Release Certificate Maintenance records or release document with approval for return to service. 7/12/16 AC 21-29D 4  FAA Technical Standard Order (TSO) markings.  FAA Parts Manufacturer Approval (PMA) markings.  Shipping ticket/invoice from Production Approval Holder (PAH). Basically we as A&Ps want to see an 8130 in order to install a prop on a certified airframe. You can dig deeper into this by reading the AC itself AC 21-29D Google Fu works to find it.

It all comes out to one word---LIABILITY and who assumes it when installed on a certified airplane Go "Experimental" and the owner/builder now assumes the liability in TOTAL for everything. All "chain of traceability" for a certified part is lost once "experimental" is used on it.

I didn't know it was in such high demand :-) Actually I'm fighting a nose gear donut install problem right now. Had to order in bar stock to make a drift to get the donut bottom hole to line up with the side bars. Common issue but it needs 9/16 stock and 9/16 bolts to make it our of are not easy to find and expensive' Need to grind a ball end on so it will slide through and line up the other side to drift the main bolt in. I'll probably do a start to finish article so others will know what to expect when they do it. The main gear donuts are easy- no special tools needed.

Earth Rounders Club ? :-) @AH64Bennett Check out Honey Mooney website. He came through my home drome a few years ago.

"Brake fluid is NOT just brake fluid- Auto (Dot 3,4 or what ever) is a totally different chemical than AVITATION "Brake fluid" (5606) Due to the materials in the seals and orings in aviation hydraulic systems (for us little guys) automotive "brake fluid" will dissolve all the seals into a gooey mess thereby causing system failure. Never guess, always use what the maintenance manual says to use or approved alternates. Yes 5606 will turn to red jelly inside your calipers after a few years even if you bleed them every year. Disassemble, clean them out and reseal every 5 years or so to stay ahead of the curve. SOME very old small aircraft actually used automotive brake fluids WAY back when. And those I think were restricted to brake systems that actually had expanding rubber balloon shoe brakes. Like I said, a long time ago. Large modern aircraft (Boeings, jets. etc) mostly use phosphate ester fluids like "Skydrol" for its fire resistance. NEVER even think of using that in our airplanes. Beside one of the side affects of working with Skydrol is- as they say- "mild eye irritation" BULL CRAP! If you get it in your eyes you are blind for hours from the pain!!! Don't ask me how I know. As a small aside- Rolls Royce for decades used automotive "brake " fluid in their cars (they actually have hydraulic pumps (2) for brakes and suspension. All worked fine until the 1980s when they decided to change to a fluid very similar to our 5606 all mineral oil fluid. Many many Rolls Royce cars were damaged by using the traditional fluid rather than the newer mineral oil fluid. It costs thousands of dollars to repair a Rolls Royce if this happens. It was so bad that they designed a fluid reservoir to only accept a specific bottle hose design so the incorrect fluid could not be put in the car.

IF YOU ARE TIMING THE MAG (MAGS)- USE ONLY NEW LOCK WASHERS EVERY TIME A MOUNT NUT IS LOOSENED-PERIOD! IF YOU TIME THE MAG AND TIGHTEN A CLAMP BOLT WHILE DOING IT -REPLACE THE LOCK WASHER WITH A NEW ONE BEFORE YOU FINSH THE JOB! THIS IS A HARD AND FAST RULE IF YOU HAVEN'T HEARD IT BEFORE. NEVER REUSE A MAG LOCK WASHER- EVEN ONCE. I CAUTION AGAINST USING A HARD MAG LOCKING TOOL WHEN TIMING- MANY WILL FORGET IT IS IN AND WIND UP BREAKING THE MAG. CAPITALIZED HERE ON PURPOSE- BECAUSE PLANES HAVE GONE DOWN BY REUSING A MAG LOCK WASHER.

First your main ship's battery is your "backup" power supply in case of an alternator failure It is vitally important to know how good your battery is and how long it will power your systems Do you do an annual battery capacity check? If not DO IT! Most IFR rated Mooney owners who actually fly IMC DON"T do it --BIG MISTAKE! A secondary power supply is not a bad idea IF you do lots of IMC work. If not -an alternator failure is a bonified emergency declaration. How long do you "think" it will take you to get down if IMC? Now double that estimate. DO you have enough battery capacity to do it? If you do suffer an alternator failure have you given any thought to how you will download the electrical system to save battery power until you land? Turn off all not needed equipment. Pull breakers if necessary. What do you absolutely need and nothing more. Turn off all outside lights (EVEN at night) you don't need them in an emergency. As far as the battery goes, just because it started the engine for this flight doesn't mean it will power the airplane for an hour Starting the engine actually takes very little of the battery capacity so a bad battery can and will start the engine. Have you ever come out to your airplane and tried to start it and it only grunted. Dead battery. How much capacity do you think it had on the last flight if you had a generator failure? Don't even think of jump starting a dead battery and charging off into IMC conditions Most battery manufacturers say it takes 3 or more hours of continuous flying to to fully recharge a dead battery Where will you be if 15 mins after takeoff the alternator quits? The same goes for VFR flights - No jump starting and flying-- its always a bad idea.

The red and white airline? :-) BTW @Captnmack Weatherford TX ? There used to be a fly in community there called IIRC Tailspin Airpark Is it still there? I knew the developer who started it many years ago. Chuck Becum (sp?)

Me and that white stuff don't get along! That's why I live in the desert.

We kill'm faster than we build them And the clan grows smaller each and every day. One day in the future the last Mooney will die. Crashes aside, how many Mooneys are sitting rotting away at airports all around the country? Mooneys that will never fly again

That's the airport. I have a relative that hunts that property and has seen camo'd up guys around the airport but never interacted with them. I did notice cars around a building at the small old "airport" just to the north. That's why my comment on black ops. Got the numbers off Google with no other reference as to who it was. My Google-foo must not have a high enough clearance. A small aside- I used to do training in 727s at Miami T&T airport out in the swamp west of MIA. Nothing there either but a runway when I was there, Now its turned into Alligator Alcatraz

Me up high in the flight levels on big iron It can go way out in front of the windshield like long spears It was fun to call up new hire FAs to the cockpit and show them "the fire" at night :-)