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The glareshield on my 1994 J is a royal pain to remove. The one on my 1978 (without the hump in the center) was a breeze. You are right that it is a tight fit and most of the u-channel I found is too thick. My painter buys his from Textron because Cessna uses it and it's the only source he's found for it. But, I think the silicone window beading that Jaeger sells would work as it's pretty thin. I use a couple of tricks I picked up from other MS posts when removing my glareshield. First, I remove the compass from the center post. Then, after removing the glareshield screws, I slip a couple of thin plastic sheets on either side between the A pillars and the glareshield to make it slide more easily. Lastly, I lift the front edge up towards the top of the windshield and pull rearward which seems to give the most clearance with the least flexing of the plastic.

Did the glareshield still fit ok? Mine seems pretty tight and I don’t think there’s anything along the back protecting the window (which looks bad there). Also when you take out the glareshield do you take off the trim pieces between the front and side windows? Those seem to block complete removal.

I admit to using SS screws because I like the way they look and I've never had an issue. But there are disadvantages. Stainless is softer than carbon steel, and it it easier to cam out the head if you overtighten. Stainless will gall. Heat and friction cause this. There is also the corrosion potential. I have never had an issue with corrosion around the fasteners, but my airplane is in a hangar. If it was outside on the gulf coast, I would probably use cad plated steel screws. To avoid the camming and galling, I tighten and loosen screws with a ratchet screwdriver rather than a power driver to avoid turning them too fast (galling) and overtightening (camming). I also soak the screws in ACF-50 before reinstalling which provides lubrication for the threads and perhaps some corrosion protection.

I’ve flown in there on the ILS and RNAV 05 and circled to land on 31. 31 has rising terrain and looks high but np in taking off. I usually do a downwind departure to the southwest if taking off 31. VX climb then VY to traffic pattern… 13 is right traffic btw… -Don

Subs? The folks in Portsmouth were the planning yard for the program I supported. Thanks for the refresher.

Different actuator. These gears are in the Dukes/ITT actuators. The springs are in the Plessey/Eaton actuators used in later models.

i think the incident reports get filed because of the subsequent gear up landing. I’m not sure that the reports I listed are a complete listing. I only searched the AIDS database for “no back”. Also, there is no guarantee that every incident was reported.

I did the lower inside of mine by hand with Novus, but it took a long time and mine wasn’t too bad. I would try Micro-Mesh which is a kit of several progressively finer grits of sandpaper. I used it to remove scratches on the side windows of my previous plane and it was pretty fast. I believe Mooney puts teflon tape on the edge of the glares shield which I replaced, but I found that it still scratches the windshield so I put some window trim edging on it.

Update: Put a couple of hours on the airplane since annual. I had the prop rebuilt with new bearings and to replace some leaky seals, and figured I'd have it dynamically balanced once it was reinstalled. Before balancing, the prop checked out at 0.25ips. Its important to note that I don't know if it was that bad before the prop rebuilt, but that was the starting point, which is pretty terrible. After 6 iterations, they got it down to 0.05ips at 2500 RPM. They attempted to get it dialed in even further, but wound up just chasing the same amount around the plot. I am happy with 0.05ips. After flying the airplane, I can confirm a VERY noticeable difference in vibration. Especially now when transitioning through the "forbidden range" on short final, the glareshield doesn't vibrate nearly as bad as it used to. I was charged 4 hours labor. I tried several cruise RPM's yesterday, and everything from 2700 down to 2200 is smooth as silk. For anyone else considering a balance, it's well worth it.

Just in terms of funny comparisons. At some point I was talking to a friend from Germany who flies gliders, and the first thing he asked was what was the glide ratio of the Cherokee I owned at the time. When I told him his reaction was “what are you flying, an upright piano?”

https://www.acehardware.com/departments/tools/power-tools/rotary-tools/2823730

Even when i was doing primary in mine, much of the time doing touch and goes i would leave gear down.

I hate that place. My only advice is to remove the glare shield to get better access, but I’m sure you already knew that.

My understanding from various (probably not comprehensive or trustworthy) anecdotes is that the spring is more likely to fail on retraction than extension. So you’re more likely to pull the handle up and have the gear stay down. If that’s true, then I would expect many of those events not to be recorded in an official report. Dunno.

If you have ever been to Mackinac island, where cars are not allowed, you know what a pollution problem horses represent. Even though they have "poop patrols" and aprons behind the carriage horses the air constantly reeks of horse poop, which means there is a high coliform count in the air (read sickness). They are also a huge safety hazard. As we were going down to the ferry a piece of building insulation blew across the road, spooked the horses and as they backed in fear the wagon started to jack knife and tip over. My brother and I were hanging off the side like a couple sailors on a healing sailboat to keep the wagon upright. It is a reminder how dangerous life was in that time.

I vary RPM by altitude: Up to ~3500 or so, 23/2300 4000-7000, 22/2400 7500 & up, WOT-/2500 It greatly simplifies ATC step-climbs and descents, as well as approach entries.

Thanks Osuav8ter, payment made via your website. I'm in LA (from Australia) in 7 days and will get it sent to the crew hotel. The bloody thing worked when polarity was corrected. Then most worked. Now none work I'm told. Cheers.

So we have 12 years and 19 years between incidents (4 total) and how many gear operations in the entire fleet did we have in that time? Not exactly a risky issue in the big picture. IF I had an electric suck'm up I don't think I'd be too worried. A lot of other things happen more often than that. Can we say "stall, spin" or "forgot the gear" ? Lots more vulnerability there than a simple spring - fleet wide. Would I change the spring? Probably if it hadn't been changed in 30 or 40 years, just to be proactive but I certainly wouldn't lose sleep over it. Considering the possibility of maintenance induced failure and the complexity of the replacement I'd sure be going half way across the country to find a shop that has done a bunch of them. Might be a good excuse to install new 40:1 gears at the same time.

That is very true, people and government seem alarmed these days with pollution, however, there is literally nothing new under the sun ! I recall reading the most polluted day in history of Paris was in 1900, the solution was switching to ICE cars (politician are exactly the same: making laws on the fly, showing they are doing something, taxes and bans here and there…). https://earth.org/data_visualization/air-pollution-in-paris/ Around the year 1900, Parisians knew they had a serious pollution problem. No, not smog and particulate matter, they said, but the dung from over 80,000 horses carrying people and loads around the city everyday. Officials decided to test moving horse-drawn vehicles to the verge of the Champs-Elysees causeway, while motorized vehicles would be given the center. The contrast between the manure-laden and rubber-smoothed aisles left people convinced (translated from a French article in the “Figaro”): “It is easy to see that, from a hygienic standpoint, automobiles whose exhaust is rapidly absorbed by the air, are preferable to equestrian carriages.” https://www.lefigaro.fr/histoire/archives/2016/07/01/26010-20160701ARTFIG00300-en-1900-le-pic-de-pollution-a-paris-est-du-aux-moteurs-a-crottin.php#:~:text=En 1900%2C on compte près,%2C de «parfums pernicieux».

Yeah, the novus works reasonably well too but I need to find some kind of an orbital polisher to get inside the windscreen, especially low, close to the glare shield. It’s really hard to put any oomf into it by hand there.

Am i the only on that does 2350 or 2300 lol

You know the kits that are for polishing out your headlights will do wonders for your windshield.

I was there on 4th of July. The airport was good. No problem.

I am flying to Hot Springs (KHOT) on Monday. I see that runway 05/23 is closed. Has anyone flown there recently? Just curious as I have never landed on 13/31, and it doesn’t have an instrument approach.

1894 was peak horse shit in NYC. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_horse_manure_crisis_of_1894