All Activity

When you say "shedding debt", remember the buildings in Kerrville are leased from the City of Kerrville in a long-term lease. A long-term lease is a liability similar to long term debt. If LASAR picks up the long term lease from the City then that sheds some liability from Mooney. If LASAR "sublets" it from Mooney - then Mooney is still liable but it helps Mooney cashflow. However that is small in the scheme of things. The Kerrville Airport Authority has not posted any of Minutes of the recent Board Meetings so it is not clear what is going on. I don't see how this "sheds the 20%" still owned by the Meijing Group of China". Meijing put a lot of money into Mooney. I bet most was via debt to themselves and is still on the Mooney Corp books making Meijing, Mooney Corp's biggest Creditor. It is exactly what the VanGrunsven family did with Vans Aircraft. VanGrunsven was selling the stock of Vans Aircraft Company to the employees, but the VanGrunsven family loaned money to Vans Aircraft Company as debt to provide the financing and working capital for it to function. Vans became insolvent and filed bankruptcy. In bankruptcy the stockholders (equity) usually get wiped out as the debtholders seek to get enough value to cover what is owed to them (either from liquidation (auction) of assets or if there is not enough liquidation value, by taking ownership of the company in order to get paid back over time). At the time of bankruptcy, VanGrunsven was a minority shareholder (like Meijing at Mooney), but in bankruptcy VanGrunsven wound up owning 100% of Vans. - just like a rubber band the VanGrunsven family snapped the ownership back and the employee shareholders got hosed. I am willing to bet that if Mooney files bankruptcy, the Meijing will wind up with 100% ownership again....

There were a few different elevator arrangements in the Mooneys. Some of them have a definite force while sitting on the ground. The arrangement you have does not. It will just center around the trimmed position. The bungees put a spring bias to the elevator depending on trim position. The bungees are responsible for the elevator not lining up with horizontal stabilizer in cruise. The bungees put the elevators in the optimal position for minimum drag, which is not lined up.

Thanks! will try that strategy out - yeah mostly interior at the moment

Probably the only way to make an O-360 detonate; start at a sea level airport or lower. During your run up lean to peak EGT. As soon as you get the gear up, close the cowl flaps and roll the prop back to 1900 RPM. When the CHTs get smoking hot, it might detonate. So, if you are worried about detonation, avoid doing the above.

Just keep in mind that the data in the Lycoming manual is for an engine on a test stand. The installed numbers are somewhat different because the airplane manufacturer designs the induction and exhaust systems, both of which reduce power output. This is why the numbers in the POH are generally different. POH's didn't exist before the mid 1970s when the General Aviation Manufacturers Association came up with a consensus standard. Prior to that, each manufacturer created some sort of owners manual that often had scant information and there was no consistency between manufacturers. If you want to play with the Lycoming data, there is an app: AircraftPower that makes it easy to try different combinations of variables.

Not really, for sure. That's a little like demanding that I tell you exactly what the weather will be tomorrow morning at 8:00 a.m. local time. I can give you a good probability, but there are too many variables to know for sure. How would someone know for sure, with absolute certainty, that what is in your individual airplane would work with the device unless they actually try it? Is your M20M an early serial number that had a 24v lighter socket or a later one that had it stepped down to 12v? Or has it been modified since it was built to another standard? Does your breaker still perform at the rated amperage or maybe not still after all of those years? Does heat play a factor, depending on where you place the Starlink, on how much amperage it will take, or does it "throttle down" if it gets too hot? And more variables I'm sure than what I can think of. The device I mentioned has worked for others, but since it is sold by Amazon you can see if it works for you and if it doesn't, return it. That is the only way to know for sure, just like checking the weather tomorrow at 8:00 a.m. is the only way for sure to know what it will be.

You can make this as simple or complicated as you want. Simple: Full rich above 75% power. Below that, lean until it gets rough and then richen until it is smooth. Richer if CHTs get above 400 F in cruise. During climb, Lycoming allows up to 435 F. Cooler is better, but the few minutes of climb above 400 won't really hurt anything and some M20Cs are difficult to keep below 400 during climb.

Lot’s of good information above… I’m also a fan of Mike Busch. I had confusion on how best to combine RPM, mixture, and fuel flow when I’m traveling, or just out donk’n around. The performance charts differ very significantly from the early vintage C/D POH supplement to the latest POH version of the mid-70s. Influence from marketing, I suspect. Basic advice from Lycoming in SI 1094D Mixture Leaning Procedures Then from the Lycoming operating manual… which is quite an eye chart… So, someone transposed that into a table… a little easier to read… (both of these are easily searched online for non-jpg versions).

For me, the bottom line is to protect the engine -- in particular, the cylinder heads. LOP, ROP, red box, EGT, leaning for takeoff are all good discussions, but as you experiment with different settings and techniques, you will probably be okay if you keep all your CHTs below 380 or 390. And keep in mind that CHT is not an instantaneous reflection of throttle, prop, and mixture -- good idea to make small changes, and give your instruments some time to show a trend or settle into a steady state before further changes.

The breather tube is close to the top of the filler neck. The funnel will get you past that and seal with the filler hole to the case. When you are making your funnel, wrap electrical tape around the flex tube before inserting it funnel to create a seal so the Flex Seal does not leak out the bottom as it cures.

@Wapst, just take one of each screw, washer, nut, etc., that you want and fly or drive to Aircraft Spruce. They can identify them and sell you bulk quantities of each.

If you are looking for exterior screws, I'd be careful buying the kits. I've found wrong length screws in them and there are a few places where too long a screw can damage a control push-pull tube. It's not too hard to sit down with the IPC and make a list and order what you need.

@oisiaa I'm a fan of Mike Busch. Here are two comprehensive videos that should answer most of your questions and also prompt some thinking and more questions.

I think just by feel, that there does not appear to be any resistance or spring pushback. I was honestly deferring to them, but I didn’t feel any slack or troubling feeling in the controls. From pushing gently up and down on the elevator the bolt moves all the way out and in. Since I am deferring to them I took it on faith that it must be wrong, but maybe it’s fine. My A&P has owned about a dozen Mooney’s so I just listen to them. The pics are of me pushing and pulling.

How did he determine the springs were weak? I don’t think there is a way to know that from the handling of the plane. Considering there is one for each elevator, which one is weak? The left or right? The springs can break. If you remove the bungee, they are easy to disassemble. If you do disassemble them, clean, repaint and grease them. They probably haven’t been serviced since they left the factory.

What is ask price?

As an aded bonus, you can test your CB! I tested my G5 in my F… circuit breaker worked as advertised! I ended up using a different power source.

Mooney Gear.pdf Brand new Eton gear actuator for sale. Was a replacement for my 1989 252 which got sold. Purchased from Mooney Aircraft.

Just keep your chts below about 400 in climb and maybe 380 in cruise. After that you can work on fine tuning your technique. Maybe read about leaning in climb using target egt? maybe try cruise above ~7000’ and you’ll be faster and below 75% anyway.

I did see and ordered a thin funnel from amazon today. How far down the oil filler tube is the entrance to the breather tube??

I doubt you can get an O-360 to detonate no matter what you do. I would quit worrying about that. You will do better thinking about it in terms of your wallet. The worst thing you can do is forget to lean and it will cost you money. If you over lean, it will run rough as soon as you start to lose power. They don’t run LOP very well, so you will be running ROP. Your best bet is to keep an eye on your CHTs and richen up a bit if they get too hot, which probably won’t happen.

Not always. It is automatic based on MAP/RPM and Fuel Flow and what has been entered into the configuration. I would compare it against the POH, go to an altitude specified in the POH like 7500ft (checking against density altitude to ensure that's the altitude the engine is really at). Set a 75% power setting, then see what the G3X reads-out.

Oh man, that's a highly debated question . I'd recommend starting with the Lycoming O-360 Operators Manual, it's about as comprehensive as you can get as to the operation of the engine. Running the engine at > 75% power all the time is a recipe for not hitting TBO FWIW. As far as the relationship between peak EGT, power setting, and where to avoid both detonation margins and get the most life out of your engine, check out this article: https://www.savvyaviation.com/red-box-red-fin/ . The TLDR is: above 75% power, run full rich (this is also what Lycoming who made the engine recommends...). At 75% power, don't go leaner than 150deg ROP. At 65% power, you can basically run the mixture wherever you want. Some nuances to that, but that's a good rule of thumb to get started. What I would recommend is to find a Mooney CFI in your area and go on a XC flight with them, they can teach you engine management techniques for your airplane in different phases of flight and help answer these questions specific to your equipment.

Also, can I trust the % power readout of the G3X? Is that reliable and accurate just based mathematically on MAP and RPM? If that number can be trusted then I can at least know at a glance when I'm below 75% power.

A lot of interior screws, especially if the interior has been redone, are not necessarily aircraft screws. You will have a better time on line or at the Ace Hardware.