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I look at my next door neighbor and quietly compete with him on yard. He used to cut and bag his own grass. We both had push mowers. I am a mulch guy. Always thought bagging was a lot of extra work emptying the container and putting yardy out every week. He now hires a company to do his yard. My competition was to under spend him. I bought a honda powered zero turn Cub Cadet for my <.5 acre yard. A ridiculous tool for the job, but I can cut the grass in 15 minutes. The mower requires a seasonal oil and filter change and a seasonal blade removal and sharpening. (I cand do both in an hour in my garage over winter) The mower was $2500 ten years ago. I have SO paid for it vs. PAYING others for that 15 minutes of time I lose. Neighbor and I are BOTH happy. I just have more money and satisfaction of looking at a freshly cut lawn that I completed myself. I value that. In the vehicle maintenance area Porsche and Ferrari think very highly of their maintenance hourly rates. I have had so many oil change mess ups by shops over the years that I trust this task to no one other than myself. I enjoy listening to music and working in my own garage. The money savings is significant and again, I KNOW job was done right.

That was the case with mine as well. Something that helped me a lot for this task was a kevlar mechanic's sleeve and taping up the edges of the inspection hole. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B009A5BPVE

I bought a derelict 1956 172 for $13000. I sold it in January for $37000. I put about $5000 in parts in it and about 200 hours of labor, so I broke even.

You SO HAD ME at do your own work...because you enjoy it AND because you KNOW it was done correctly...AND THEN you REALLY got judgy and even when you say you are NOT you talk about the debt culture. I get that too, but you can only live YOUR life and CONTROL, to a degree, what you do and the results. As far as I am concerned do whatever you want with your possessions and life...BUT when someone comes here asking what I think of entertaining that plane for that price the first comment of RUN AWAY was based on knowledge and experience. Those that see this airframe as a future flying member of the fleet I just can't agree. There are PLENTY of Mooney's flying and the fleet needs parts donor aircraft. Nothing wrong with that. The bonus is no one was injured and no insurance was engaged to get there. Just benign neglect. As a fellow debt free get your knuckles black and bloody guy. I salute you. Stopping the why don't others...Is the key to happiness.

I got my A&P and IA so I didn’t have to pay someone to work on my plane. Plus I wanted it done right. I can change the brakes in my truck in less time than it takes to take it some where, and it is a lot cheaper. So it doesn’t save me any time to take it somewhere.

I don’t look down on anyone, but to me some things I don’t get, like the debt culture these days. If you’re paying for others to do the work, if the rate is higher than what you make,, it’s still your time, and you’re going to have to work MORE hours to get the work done. How if it’s work you really don’t want to do…

Aithre is a small company focused on aviation. They have some interesting products in the experimental market. I did not have good luck with their forehead/ear oximeter but their service was good. You could probably call them and chat about pros and cons.

This post shows some progress: FlightAware shows it's back in the air regularly: https://www.flightaware.com/live/flight/N9153Z

I have a Pair of GI275s with a King KFC 150. Works well! My alt preselect functions are not available on the 275 but everything else works great. I’m not familiar with the KAP but the KFC has a flight director and it works well with the GI275s. No regrets.

For all things autopilot @Jake@BevanAviation

Bumping this up as I’m in the middle of my instrument training and lack of annunciator lights is making things a little harder. Seems like top row of lights are out, anyone know how hard they are to replace? Going into annual end of month and wondering if it’s worth looking at fixing the lights. TIA for any help! On a separate note, we’re trying to get the NAV mode working but without success. The DG and heading mode works fine. My GTN 650xi is in GPS mode and I can see the desired track on the Bendix/King HSI but when I turn on NAV with the AP it does not track towards to keep the line centered. Could be I’m pushing the buttons incorrectly, just hitting NAV on the AP. But would welcome any suggestions to see if it’s pilot induced or just not working.

Do the subject avionics play well together? What functions on the 275 are not available with this setup? Specifically, does the flight director work? What about altitude pre-select? Glide slope/glide path coupling?

See above https://mooneyspace.com/topic/53707-looking-at-buying-unairworthy-m20j-for-45k/page/2/#findComment-921027

I just saw the pictures. They suggest the plane has been stored outside which is not good. There is rust around the fuel opening in the wing. Also not good. You do not want to be opening up seams in the airframe. You will be likely spending more that $100,000.00 on this airplane, and likely multiples of $100,000.00. You need to look everywhere for deal breakers, and will need an honest, very experienced person to perform the inspection. It is an airplane that could likely present to you hidden corrosion that will bite you in the ass if not realized up front. You need to know for sure that this is a good candidate to be a major project. This is likely not a $100,000.00 fixer upper, but that answer can only be made after very close examination, John Breda

Needless to say, corrosion in the airframe is a show stopper. Was it stored inside or outside. Mine had been stored, in pieces, indoor near Dallas, TX, inside a hangar. There was no corrosion, nor was any found as we ]went completely through the airframe. It depends what you want. I bought mine as a project airpl;ane. My biggest problem was finding honest and competent mechanics as I had endure three dishonest ones before finding the people that helped me make this project a success. It will be a complicated project and you will need to go through each of the systems of the plane in detail. It will be an opportunity to completely update a J to a very nice and capable plane if you want that, but you need to determine, without surprises that it is a good candidate for the investment of money and time. John Breda

If I remember correctly, mine had some sort of locking nuts on the end of those screws and I had to hold them from the inside. It was definitely not an enjoyable project, and I am thankful that the cuts and abrasions did not leave scars on my forearm.

I completely rebuilt a 1968 F Model to a state of being better than a J, and performs like a J. I was an Oshkosh winner 2X, 2018 - Outstanding Mooney, and 2019 - Lindy Award best of show in class. The connection of the tailcone to the roll cage is the weakest part of the Mooney. If it needs no attention, do not separate it. The airplane cane be moved on a flat bed truck, remove the engine and engine mount, collapse the nose gear, take off the empennage, and put it on the flat bed with the wings aligned along the length of the trailer. A lot can be done to these planes. Find people who have done to work successfully that you plan to do and seek out their advice. I do not know enough about your engine, but get some expert advice. It may be ferryable, or you can do an IRAN or overhaul from where it sits and then fly it out. John Breda

Could some Bravo driver please share their engine data for a flight or two recently flown. Especially if when you set descent power you reduce MAP and then set 2000RPM and lean to peak(or rather your TIT limit). And then go rich only shortly before landing. My EGTs behave strangely and I’m investing it. Example: https://apps.savvyaviation.com/flights/shared/flight/9918044/7b2f4c42-0682-4108-bc82-6710a969fd1a See at 00:29:45 timestamp, EGT3 stops being hottest and moves to middle of the pack just as I reduce RPM to 2000 for the descent. Then as I go mixture rich the order switches again and EGT3 is hottest again. My main question is if this is normal behavior, i.e. do other Bravo drivers see the same?

hmm, if no other major system is done, i'd prob could get it done for about 100k engine overhaul 40000 + paint 25000 + 35k for avionics sounds reasonable basic avionics not complete overhaul 2x gi-275 / g5 + garmin gi375 + garmin 215 should work those kx170bs will work forever if not you can buy a box of them for 1000$ heck drop it off at zephyr and get the paint and engine done at the same time

Thanks Old search through emails confirmed a PN3A. Thanks PT! -Matt

guilty, I spend all day changing the oil on birdy but only like 30 mins for the car.. just enough time to drive to autozone buy oil and filter then swing by the quickchange. thinking it's way less hassle to change the oil on birdy than leaving it for my IA.

Thank you rich, the painted in place is something I did not consider. With regards to checking out through the access plate, it is about 14 inches back from the leading edge, as evidenced by 14 inches of cuts on my forearm as measured from my fingertips. I tried looked at it through fiber optic bore scope and holding i phone in hand, with little luck. I'll give it another go tomorrow with the paint in place in mind. Still I wonder why the service manual picture no way represents the actual aircraft. Jer

It is probably painted in place. You can remove the cover plate under the wing and look up in there and see how it is put together. Don’t worry about adjustment. There will be enough witness marks to get it back the same way.

Under contract

Best advice I have for you is to take the interior pieces out put them in a box and ship them to Hector at Aero Comfort. Even though they are in rough shape they will come back repaired and covered in Ultraleather looking much better than new.