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I had the same problem. They'd had the specified lube service from the Mooney Factory Svc Center, were overdue by pure hrs for a factory refurb. The problem became less frequent. Lubed/serviced again at annual this year. They seem to retract fully these days, esp. in warmer weather. So some of this might be exercise. I get the sense that limit switches need adjusting/cleaning, springs might become weak, etc. Pulling the breakers pulls them in unless the springs are broken. To be clear, if you want them "greened up", a factory refurbishment is the official way to go. Again, I wish Precise Flight offered some nuance in this regard.

Hi everyone, Based on the strong interest I’ve seen for a solution like this, I’ve gone ahead and started designing a replacement overhead eyeball air vent for our Mooneys. After some prototyping and refinement, I'm happy to share that the design is moving forward and is close to ready for production. I will make the promise of getting any order shipped by August 29th 2025. To get a better sense of demand and help fund the initial run, I’ve opened preorders on my website. If this is something you've been looking for or needing, you can check it out here: https://www.smcustomproducts.com/shop/p/mooney-m20-overhead-eyeball-air-vent Your feedback and support are really appreciated—whether you're ready to preorder or just want to share your thoughts. I'm always open to suggestions as I fine-tune the final version. If you aren't interested in a Preorder and would just wait until I have the production unit ready you can fill out my contact page here and I'll email once it is ready: https://www.smcustomproducts.com/contact Thanks for looking and fly safe! — Sam Mose, Old Chub

True, but even an appraisal isn’t going to help. Typically they’ll limit repair cost to 70% of hull value expecting about 30% of hull to roughly equal salvage value. So more than 70% of hull it’s cheaper for them to total it and write the check. Now maybe if the owner has already asked the underwriter to increase hull value and was still awaiting a response when the gear up happened? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I am glad that at least one person here has a positive experience with insurance companies. I deal with various insurers in my line of work quite often and, regrettably, my expeirence has not been that great. When I had a personal claim on my plane few years ago, the insurance did pay the claim and offered me a renewal for the same plane at a greatly inflated premium (something like 4x what I was paying before the claim) and declined to insure additional plane that I acquired. After all, most insurances appear to be represented by the famous law firm Dowey, Screwem & Howe

Me too. I always spray the screws with LPS before reinstalling. Rarely have any problems. Lee

VFR 8500' today.

Resurrecting an older thread just to see what people who have had the dynon system now for awhile, what the like, don’t like, would do differently if they were to do it again in the future. Including their autopilot, how has it been performing etc.

I always deal with my insurance company when I have a claim because, the other party's company has an incentive to lowball me because I am not their customer. My insurance company has the incentive to deal with me fairly because they would like to keep me as a customer. I asked the adjuster if it would affect my rate and he said no because it was not my fault. (Ultimately USAIG did collect from the FBO's insurer, but it was due to a quid pro quo involving an unrelated claim). I understand that many do not like insurance companies, don't trust them, and believe that they are getting screwed on premiums. That just has not been my experience.

I had this trouble at one point last year, and it turned out at reinstallation after routine servicing my shop had inadvertently located a canon plug for the brake's wiring such that it got in the way and blocked complete retraction. Something like a zip tie was apparently all that was needed in the end. --Up.

Don, when I pull the breaker it rapidly closes all the way alan

I have a JPI711 which is a 700 but with certified TIT unfortunately because the 700 and 800 are not primary for tit i either have to go jpi900 or reinstall a certified tit gauge if i want to go tio the 730 or 830. Jpi does not have any more new 700 or 711 screens but said if i found a good 700 screen they can apply it to my 711. Would you have any just 700 screens available? Or screen on a faulty main 700 device?

Before you do anything have the retract springs replaced. They used to be fairly inexpensive, but have since increased in price. I replace mine yearly preemptively. That is likely your problem.

Of course not. THAT was my point; you have no way of knowing what caused the change. You act like making a claim will NOT raise your premium. Again, why would I make a claim for something NOT my fault when it could raise my premium? I'm going after the party that caused the damage! I'd file a small claims action before I gave my insurance the opportunity to raise my premium over it!

I’ve tested this in my F. It climbs just fine with full flaps and the gear hanging out, but if you expect it to do so at 100kts, you’re kidding yourself. One needs to climb at a much steeper angle and slower speed.

Fwiw, my premium for 25-26 is the same to the cent as the premium for 24-25.

Does your premium ever remain UNCHANGED the next year? Premiums go up and down every year based on the number of factors including claims made by the insured. The smart question would be did your premium go up appreciably at renewal after the claim? I can tell you that my premium actually went down slightly at renewal after my bird strike claim. Did it go down because I had a bird strike? Hell no, it went down because renewal coincided with a softening of the insurance market and the birdstrike didn’t count against me.

There’s so much advice in this thread on the ins and outs of insurance but I’m not sure that it’s based on expertise. There is a good chance that the shop that scratched this plane has a hangar keeper’s policy. If they do, this is a covered loss. The scratch happened whale the aircraft was under the shops care, custody and control (CCC). If the owner submits the damage to their hull insurer, the hull carrier will likely subrogate against the shop (unless the claim is so small that it’s not worth the effort). In terms of rate increase, probably a good idea to talk to your underwriter. I've had two small claims in nearly 30 years of flying. A bird strike and a ground incident; both were under 5K and neither caused a notable increase if any in premium at renewal.

No. It went up. But I increased the hull value due to inflation. Every year, I ask Jimmy what he thinks he could sell it for and I increase the valuation to that amount. I think it's pretty scary that my 31-year-old J is worth north of a quarter million dollars. Before the new paint job, with the new glass panel and rebuilt engine, that's about what I had in it. Now, I'm underwater again, but a few years should recover that. Conversely, my 21-year-old Volvo XC90 airport car is worth so little that I removed the collision and comprehensive coverage from it. BTW, I asked Parker if he could do any better and the underwriter wrote back," That's all I've got. The gear ups are killing us." So, blame the insurance rates on the pilots, not the insurance companies. I haven't had a lot of claims on my auto, home and airplane insurance. But, I've always been treated fairly by my insurance companies. The only beefs I've had have been trying to collect from the insurance companies of other drivers that damaged my cars. Progressive and Geico were just jerks.

When I see the shop putting my cowl on the floor, I ask them to go get me some fine sandpaper so I can do the same to the hood of their cars.... Ask for a screwdriver and tell them you are going to key their car just the same, but don't worry you have some sort of matching paint and will fix it just fine.... The local BMW dealer did the damage shown below to my wife's car - about the size of a quarter on the front hood. They fessed up, booked it into a reputable repair shop and fixed it, no questions asked, and apologized each time. I don't think the whole hood was painted, but I can't see the repair. Don

I won't name the brand, but I remember having an interference issue in the gear well or gear doors with new tires on an M20K. I changed brands for a more rounded cross section tire and it was fine. If you PM me, I'll go look what I installed in the end. Aerodon

Word of caution on retreads - I thkn that there have been some issues documented elsewhere on MS with retraction when using certain retreads as the wheel wells are pretty tight on Mooneys and if the tore is too lagre, it may affect the operation of the gear mechanism.

One other potential in this accident is flap setting. The J will climb out takeoff flaps or no flaps, but on a hot day it will be a dog of a climber if gear down and flaps are full. I scared myself once early in aircraft ownership when doing a (planned) go around at a 3100 airport at 1000 ft elevation on a 90+ degree day, half tanks, 2 people. Flaps got stuck full down (we tracked it down to the down-limit switch) and the plane would barely climb out. Still wouldn’t climb well, clearly felt on the back side of the power curve. Sped up and the air load unjammed the over limited flaps and then climbed out normally. Since then my config for IAPs or a planned go around is half flaps to minimize config changes in flaps and trim during climb out. This accident also highlights the importance of a pre departure briefing. In 15 years of flatlander J ownership, I haven’t encountered many sets of common conditions where I’ve exceeded about 1300 ft ground roll. I use a standard of 20% beyond the calculated ground roll. So my departure briefing is this, out loud: “If not off by XX hundred feet, I’ll call stop and we’ll notify ATC and taxi off the runway. Once airborne, we are committed to forward flight. No turn back until 800 feet AGL.” Experience can tell you whether your aircraft is performing as expected. I think tragically, this pilot lacked the experience to know something was not right until well into the accident sequence. Third point - someone posted a nice ForeFlight takeoff calculation. Make sure to include a safety performance factor greater than one.

BL Aviation out of Quebec Canada Just had mine overhauled great service, quick turnaround, good price.

I get 18.3 gph on a SL TO run and note 1280 for my normal TO EGT. It’s just my particular airframe. I use 1280 as a leaning target during climb. My richest peaks at about 1475. You’re not far off from me.

So, your PREMIUM remained UNCHANGED the next year?