Leaderboard

Flight, The steering horn was showing more play than I was comfortable with so, today was the day to fly up to Lasar for a consult and parts. The plan was to purchase whatever was needed and do the work back at my home hangar. Upon landing at Lakeport, Kyle met me before I could shutdown and waived me right up to the door. Within 10 minutes of arrival, the plane was up on jacks and the nose gear was being assessed very thoroughly. Kyle suggested replacing the horn, which I had expected. He also showed me some additional play on the nose gear assembly. I asked how much a complete nose gear assembly would be to just replace it and get on my way. Kyle said, "you don't need another one, just some bushings and new bolts". This really surprised me to find someone that honest. Another employee, Lonnie, walked over and volunteered to help me take the gear apart and replace it right now. Kyle suggested it usually takes 4-5 hours for this procedure. After thinking about it for a monent, I decided to just go ahead and get it done on the spot. Lonnie brought a handful of tools out and we went to work. We completely removed the nose gear assembly and took it into the shop for cleanup and break down. Lonnie talked to me the whole time giving me commentary on things we were looking at and how they should be on a Mooney. After a lunch in town, we completed the rebuild of the gear assembly and addition of the steering horn. The factory bushings were replaced with Lasar's oversized ones. Additionally, I needed a new CHT probe, which they had in stock, and we installed as well. At exactly 3pm, the cowling was replaced. 2:45 minutes of actual labor for each of us. My labor saved at least an hour plus for the normal minimum time spent on this job. Saved me enough money to pay my gas bill for today. This is one of those types of repairs that you cannot see and don't really feel but, it's great to know it is done and the plane is better off for it. The previous intermittent CHT was solid all the way home. Paul, the owner, came out and checked on us several times during the job. When the work was complete, Paul had all my paperwork completed in less than 10 minutes. I was paid and ready to depart in less than 20 minutes from the time we finished. I don't know what kind of service other shops offer comparatively but, these gentleman did an absolutely first rate job in a very organized manner and had me in the air fast. That is the kind of service every shop should aspire to provide. When the time comes, I would have no hesitation using them again if needed. Tim

We certainly aren't immune from awful airmanship. There are a couple CFIs I will not fly with and a couple 45 hour private pilots I wouldn't mind telling to wake me up when we get there. And there are certain planes I will not fly without recurrent training...which includes any twin if I haven't done single engine training in the last 6 months.

Here is a screen shot showing weather taken yesterday.. It was CAVU from CLT-BUY and back but you can see the showers near the coast clearly on the display. Enjoy Bill

What a great review on actual service. I've only ordered parts from them many times and felt they are a true class act.

Remove both front and rear cotter pins. Slide seat off rails at rear. Lift slightly and slide forward until it comes off rail at front. (This is the way it works on later models; I assume they all do the same.

I don't go on MooneySpace very often, but want to thank you for the positive comments about Lake Aero Styling & Repair/LASAR. Paul and I are truly humbled! Tim, I'm sorry I missed you yesterday, but so glad you enjoyed my brownies, made with "mocha chips" from Kyle's wife, Shelley! Someone in a previous posting mentioned Mike......he left us for "greener pastures" ....all on good terms. God has to close one door to open another, and we feel so blessed that He brought Kyle Kennedy and his family into our lives and business. We are very excited about the future of LASAR with Kyle here. LASAR will be celebrating its 40th anniversary on Sunday, August 23. Hopefully I attached the information correctly to this post. We would love to see you all there! Thank you for all the support you have given us over the years! Shery Loewen

The best testimonial to LASAR . I've been bringing my Mooneys to them for over 30 years. Paul knows Mooneys from end to end, and his mods are well engineered. Over the years I have had other facilities do some mods and minor services for my Mooneys. (261 conversion, and M20J), but LASAR is simply the best in my opinion. Kyle, their new Service Manager, is a gem, as have been the great Service Managers in the past. Good to read about Lonnie in the post. Hard to find anyone more knowledgeable and genuinely helpful than he is. In fact the the whole staff is. I haven't met a grumbler yet over all these years, which is a real tribute to Paul. The only thing I would wish for at LASAR would be a full fledged avionics division. Lonnie is a avionics wizard, but they need more specialized equipment, and an assistant for Lonnie to work on the newest magic boxes. And no pirep about LASAR should fail to mention the legendary Dan of parts fame. I am in awe of his knowledge of Mooney parts. Wandering around the parts bins is a real treat. I've done that once or twice "looking for Dan." I understand that Paul and Kyle will be at the Mooney Summit (Paso Robles, CA) in June. Great opportunity to meet these Mooney gurus.

I combined the request to pull my seat to take it over to the upholstery shop into this thread.

This is why I go to LASAR every year for annual. Good people and good knowledge. However I don't know Kyle yet, he's new and been there less than a year. I will meet him in July. As much as I like my time in Clearlake every year (and the Clearlake Club with Dan and Chad ) I do try to avoid them for financial reasons during the year for minor repairs. I don't know what happened to Michael, guess I'll find out in July. On the other hand, it is kind of cool to check into the Skylark, work on the plane all day and relax over at the Clearlake Club at night. Kind of a geeky aviation vacation. Good folks and a pleasant time. Just don't expect them to pull punches and find nothing wrong with your Mooney. They will find things wrong and prove why they are wrong. They will also give you every option to save money on the repair. Again, good people.

I feel like I have let Kyle down by not doing the same PIREP here as you just did!!! Yes LASAR is awesome! I cannot express how much customer service and attention to deatil goes into even the smallest jobs there. Kyle is a straight shooter, he knows my background and I know his. He appreciates I know what hes talking about and not BSing me, Guys they are a factory authorized Service Center and they are factory trained.....you get what you pay for out there...Mooney just doesnt hand out Authorized Service center signs....he wishes other owners felt the same way as I do and obviously HELITIM does too as noted from this post. Back in Feb they replaced my nose truss, steering horn, all bushings and bolts in all the gears, and ensured the tensions were all correct....this was part of my pre-purchase inspection as the IA who had been maintaining this aircraft the last 12 years told me he doesnt own the tools to do the tension checks......WOW!!! I too a couple of weeeks ago flew in, Kyle marshalled me right up and we went to work on my leaking MAG compass. Him & I did the work, Pual was there to meet me as well and I met the crew on hand, all great guys! I mention to Kyle "Hey I notice on takeoff my tach exceeds redline and I pull it back immediately to 2700" I ask Kyle "prop governor or tach?" he says one way to find out, he hand me an optical reading tach, pushes my plane back out, says get in and take her to power and see what the optical tach reads....I discovered my A/C tach is reading 150 RPM high! Need a new tach! 3hrs later I was outta there and all compass gaskets and diaphram replaced plus new fluid, cleaned lens....and the bill was absolutely reasonable!! Yes LASAR is awesome and the new servive Manager Kyle is awesome! Need to order new tach soon...but I know it reads high, so all good actually

Looks like they spun it in. Sad, very sad. I have quite a few hours in Cherokees, Arrows and Lances. They are not the best gliding aircraft but they do glide just fine. I think everyone should go out this weekend, climb to a few thousand feet, establish 85mph/knot (short vs long body) climb, leave your gear out (to simulate real descent rates with total power loss) and pull the power back. It takes effort to maintain airspeed. You must push the nose forward, do it quickly...

Ross he is my update; today I flew a 30 minutes flight , landed straight in ,but slowed it down, 75 over the numbers , full flaps, held it off ,.... touched down good, but no stall warning buzzer, maybe a little fast. taxied back to the hanger ,shut down, sat around like I was letting some one off, maybe 5 minutes. True hot start did not touch anything. boost pump off , mixture closed, throttle left at 1100, where i shut down at . master on, turn key to crank , it catches and i go mixture full in, then i have to ease the throttle in a bit and then that is too much so back out with the throttle . IT worked well. thanks for the help carl

What should I update? Fortunately both the plane and I made it through the checkride

FWIW....I shared the link to this thread with Kyle so he could share with the guys in the shop as well

Tim, thanks for the write up on LASAR. Very impressive work.

Flew to BUY to pick up the neighbor (hanger owner next door). Seems he went to breakfast club Sunday morning and a guy in a 4 wheeler backed into his prop and bent it back c 2 inches. He took the plane to a shop at BUY to have propellor fixed and engine tore down and inspected for the "prop strike". The insurance agent told him not to worry, they would get their money back from those responsible. He's down for 6 weeks !! Weather was CAVU but bumpy below 4000... Out at 3500 back at 4500 smooth. Very little traffic on the screen. Bill

Great thread! Awesome testimonials. Lasar should print and frame on wall for employees to see. This kind of a reputation is difficult to obtain and even harder to maintain. Great to read. Congratulations to LASAR! Keep up the outstanding work.

You're fortunate to be close enough to visit them. I had a worn steering horn, and I could definitely feel it. I posted threads about the wobbling front tire. Jim (bluehighwayflyer) recommended LASAR and told me what to do. My IA replaced my horn with a rebuilt one, and it has made a HUGE difference. Smooth transaction and great experience.

Yep they are first rate and I'm lucky enough to hangar right across the runway from them. Even before I bought my Mooney and was flying my 150 they treated me great even though I was just looking in on the Mooneys that were there at the time. Lake Aero is the main reason I ended up buying a Mooney. When my Cessna had a failed airspeed indicator they brought it in removed it got it serviced and installed in a few days.

ADS-b... What I learned is that all components must talk to each other and not all are created equal. The GPS, transponder and the ES must hold hands. If they won't then no compliance. So, when you are looking, make sure whatever you choose is compatible with the other components in you airplane. In a way, guys like me are better off having nothing in the airplane to start with.

I don't think getting a CFI rating will make you a safer pilot but for sure getting an AP rating will do. The Air Force and some airlines prefer pilot candidates with an engineering degree. José

Fastest Four seat Factory built Normally aspirated All Aluminum Airplane 310hp, 2,000lbs empty or 3368 MGTW... Approximately 6.5 Lbs/HP empty, 10.9 full up.. Still in production No fabric No wood TN version also available for those who desire max speed at altitude. That's a class of distinction..! Go Mooney!

Thanks for the info I am leaning towards the EI units as I can afford them.

benign prostate hypertrophy .

Have no fear... Try your skills, you may be good at it. You can always put the old one back, or hire the guy with the skills. For a few AMU more, I went with the O instead. I think the chair removal may take three steps... Cotter pin, slide front off the front of the rails, then the back off the back of the rails... When you have the chair off, look for the small nylon wheels that are supposed to be there. Get the replacements... Best regards, -a-

And the nice thing about bladders is that if they start to leak you can add cialis to the fuel because the ad says it controls BPH!

Co-pilot seat removal. Remove cotter-pins at back side of seat rail. Slide seat back off the rail.

i know nothing of your questions. but i am leaning toward trig's solutions . abs

ryan an i think alike . but what is interesting is the number of people who know where planes are in india

At the risk of pirating the thread, it occurred to me to wonder how often CFIs kill themselves in crashes. We often hear (rightfully) that we should train with a CFI, but do CFIs practice what they preach to the extent their likelihood of crashing is substantially less than us ordinary mortals. Would getting our CFI certificate automatically increase our chances a tremendous amount. It would be interesting to see some statistics.

When an engine fail at low altitude the pilot options are very limited even for a CFII++. But an engine analyzer can help in preventing an engine failure. José

This airplane is sold....Thanks for all of your interest. Good luck in your search !

I generally attend 8 -10 Wings seminars every year (I have taught three in the last year). The San Carlos Flight Center sponsors many Wing program seminars each year.. Even ancient pilots like me can learn something new at these seminars. On the average, there are Wings seminars most Wednesday nights and noon on Saturday. These seminars are very well attended, and SCFC members can watch them on the internet if they can't attend in person.

Since you're nearly done and about to leave Weep No More let me give you a "stupid pilot trick" I pioneered after departing from Paul's place. I departed in poor weather, flew about an hour over a thick layer and then switched tanks. When I did so the engine began to stumble badly so I immediately switched back to the original tank while worrying about what had gone wrong. Naturally, I assumed the worst, which was that some free floating sealant had clogged the outlet inside the tank (it's a tube with a small screen on it), meaning I would have to return to Weep No More and have Paul fix it. Well, fortunately I continued on course until I had about an hour of fuel left in the original tank, landed and checked things out on the ground. I couldn't duplicate the problem there, which seemed mysterious. I took off again but, wondering if some of that sealant might ultimately find its way to the fuel spider and cause a real problem, was uneasy for the next several hours. So what was it? My guess is that, naturally, Paul empties the tanks to do the work, including the fuel lines. Almost certainly the engine stumble was due to the air bubble working its way through the lines on the second tank. It probably would have cleared up in seconds but I was so quick in switching tanks that I didn't give it a chance. I sure didn't want to make an IFR approach with a dead engine. And the whole time I was cursing Paul for what I figured was his sloppiness. The lesson? Be sure to run both tanks on the ground before take off.

Put a glass panel in. You only live once!

I watch my mag compass bounce all over the place than I switch my foreflight on and Read the mag heading...no bouncing or fluid required!!!

Flew to Downtown Columbia SC today for the first time. A VERY nice airport and friendly people. The $10 landing fee was waved since I was there less than 2 hours. They have a nice crew car and a nice BBQ place nearby. There is also a B25 museum there and it's one that was recovered from lake Greenwood in 1984. They are doing a fine job restoring it. Weather was CAVU and traffic was light . BILL

First start of the day was normal and made for Yolo county airport a new destination for us we programmed the Garmin for our destination and off we went. As we were underway I noticed the steer on the Garmin was a few degrees different than my planned heading. As we were getting closer to the field things did not look right so I stayed 1000 feet above pattern altitude and once close enough it was clear we were over flying Woodland field that is about 6 miles north of Yolo. Made the turn to the south which put us on the down wind for our destination. Small gathering but my wife won a raffle so that was fun. I'm not sure why but I think the Garmin gave us the wrong field even though it was showing the correct runways and frequency. Lesson learned trust your flight planning above all else when things don't agree. Side note, I sprayed silicon into the bendix as recommended and since it was the easiest thing to try. Hot start was perfect.

Actually, one of the reasons why GA in Guatemala is big, is that the road infrastructure is bad and dangerous. So many people who can and need to travel around the country buy GA airplanes (mostly Cessna and Beech, depending on the money and places they have to go). For example a 75 mile trip from Guatemala City to Retalhuleu may take you by car 4 to 5 hours, while it only takes you less than an hour to get there by plane. The only problem is the lack of good runways, charts and of course ATC facilities in a country with many volcanos and tricky weather . This makes flying complicated and dangerous too, but less dangerous than driving.

M20J - My home airport is in a mountain valley (5,600' runway ele), so I always reduce power enough to get the gear out so I can decend to pattern by the time I reach the airport. On downwind I'm at 18 inches with flaps up. At the numbers I go to 13 inches then I deploy full flaps while at the same time holding nose up trim. Once I'm at full flaps I let go of the trim, this will give me 80 knots. I fly base without changing anything, then on final I adjust power to compensate for wind and start putting in more trim to get down to 70 by the fence.