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in to the salvage places I would call each and every Mooney service center, somebody has that motor sitting around or knows how to repair it

Of course, not giving the mag remnants to anyone until we settle on whats going on. It's also not out of the question the FAA will want to see them.

They may have seen something in the logbooks. You can ask them why they noted damage history.

If QAA is going to pay for the teardown, I'd want that in writing before I turn over any evidence to anyone.

During my pre buy yesterday, the AP noted damage history on the form. I looked up N79338 on your list and cannot find anything. Is it possible it was missed or was the AP mistaken? Thanks.

I don't know how my plane compares to MS members here. I have a 1990 J with no special mods (other than avionics) and removal of speedbrakes. Flying at 10,000 feet I usually get: - 139 Kts TAS @ 2.200 RPM LOP 7.5 to 8.2 GPH - 155 Kts TAS @ 2.400 RPM ROP 9.5 to 10.2 GPH According to Savvy analysis of my data I'm right at the average of the fleet (similar make/model/year/engine).

Yeah, the 3-blade prop is going to come with a cruise penalty. I also have a SureFly and GAMI injectors on my plane so I can run it really smoothly LOP which will get me down to the 7.5gph range at the same speed.

Not every anomaly is as benign as a Cessna window opening when you gave instruction. A nose cargo door opening on some light twins will render the airplane unflyable.

With my AeroCruze install, I opted for a PMA cig lighter socket vs usb install, just in case I use something that needs that type of socket… -Don

Some wisdom from Beechtalk:

Small update... Western Skyways has my engine and has started disassembly. Hopefully more news there soon. I met in person here in Orlando w/ the rep from Champion so he could inspect the impulse coupling debris in person and photograph it. He was obviously pretty circumspect in his commentary but did say that while they have seen impulse failures of this type, he has never seen them with this low time and insinuated that they don't trust QAA/Hartzell's claim that these were new couplings. They want me to send them the parts for analysis in their lab. Getting another look at the coupling myself, it is clear as day that the rivet holes are very worn out, they're oversized and elongated enough to be obvious to the naked eye. I think even if I were to accept that these were "used" couplings, the chances of the identical failure in <100 hours is simply too improbably to consider. Probably even an unmaintained and uninspected coupling should be expected to carry on well beyond 500 hours before this sort of failure would occur. I also separately received a call from Certified Engines, my original engine shop, saying that they finally settled up with QAA/Hartzell on the previous mag explosion (QAA paid them) and they told me they were informed by QAA that they would be paying for this one as well. I don't have that in writing from them yet though. I haven't sent the mag parts to anyone yet because I want QAA/Hartzell to give me their view on what they want to occur now. The most direct warranty claim is through them, however I certainly understand their point of view that this is not 'their' failure (if these were indeed new couplings), which is obviously why they wanted me to involve Champion. From my point of view, the cleanest solution is that QAA/Hartzell agrees to cover the teardown expenses, takes possession of this mag (and the previous which they now paid for), and pursues one consolidated claim against Champion. Then they can decide under what circumstances they release these parts to Champion, and I am no longer in the middle. Still no firm agreement from the parties though... and I do periodically see email traffic back and forth, so I know they are communicating behind the scenes now.

Or just take it to an electric motor shop.

Thanks for the recommendation, I will give BAS a call.

If I still owned an airplane with cowl flaps with an electric motor I would call BAS Salvage and tell them to put me on the list when they get in a Mooney with electric cowl flaps. I would figure out a way to get the motor “rebuilt” so I had a spare. Mooneyspace is much about keeping an aging fleet flying.

I flew mine back from California to Texas with the cowl flaps wired in the half-open position. Temps were fine all the way back

It's in the shop now, might be worth a try.

I appreciate the insight, I will call around there and see if I can find someone to say yes.

Which means they still have half of their workforce there. I was told by the first few people I talked to in 2014 that they didn’t do that anymore. I kept calling and kept talking to people politely and kept asking whoever I could talk to, “Who did they think could make this happen?”. There have been many people on here in the last 11 years who were told the same thing. Some of them gave up and others got their cowl flap motor “rebuilt”.

If you’re grounded (or soon to be) anyway, i might take it out, disassemble, clean the internals, and test the motor on a clean 24v source just to make sure it’s not something with the wiring or switches.

Here is the link to the article if anyone is interested. Alabama motor manufacturer laying off half its workforce - al.com

I tried emailing Bobbie but the email address no longer seems active, it was returned as undeliverable. There is a news article from this summer that says they cut half their workforce at the Dothan location.

That was also their official position when I had my cowl flap motor go bad on a Mooney Encore in 2014. Whether Ms. Bobbie Eldridge is still there or not or her e-mail still works, you just need to talk to the right person. (By the way, I sent her a gift basket when I got my motor back.)

I did talk to LASAR and they are looking into what they can do.

I did call the Dothan location and they said they stopped doing it back in the April/May timeframe.

Depending on the price per unit, there may be many interested in a group buy as well! shelf stock aka future proofing seems like more and more of a good idea personally!