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+1 for @jetdriven at KGAI. Asked for an oil change while I was in the area on business and during the post change runup he noticed a sketchy sounding bearing in my starter. Juggled his schedule and found a replacement starter that could be overnighted. Was fixed within an hour of the starter being delivered the next day. Great service and likely prevented me from being stuck on a tarmac somewhere. Oh, and allowed me to get out of KGAI before the tornado hit last night….

Commercially there’s Appleton or GreenBay. Both have direct flights from Atlanta via Delta. Both usually have a shuttle available to the airventure grounds. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'll bet any good machine shop could rebuild one of these. It's not complicated.

It's pretty common for those to fall into the sump and just be left there. They won't hurt anything. If they did, thousands of airplanes would have fallen from the sky, because it's a fairly common things to happen. The usual joke is that you drop one into the accessory case and pull the sump to get it back, and there's three or four of them in there.

I wrote my own checklists, starting with what's in my Owners Manual. Then I took out things like "Radio--ON" and added things like "Avionics Master--ON" and "GPS--SET". Then I rearranged the order of sections to match my normal flow, and to fit properly on the page when printed, so that no section is split onto two pages. So it's really MY checklist! You'll learn a lot that way. Partly because it requires paying close attention while you copy from the Manual; partly because you'll be looking up things in the book; and partly because there's a lot of proofreading to do.

Ross, It's been more then 15y how I worked on it when refinishing the interior panels so I can't be sure. I remember being gray, assembled of two halves but would need to have a look to be sure. I though that Valve Assy shown below is only metals piece. I should really call LASAR and see if this is still available for a spare. List price is $33 and I can easily see hours of labor in this sheet metal marvel.

The only way to increase the amount of air to defrost is to close the air at the footwell tubes and close the vent in the middle effectively forcing air towards the windshield.

The up limit switch is in a fixed bracket and the adjustment is on the little paddle on the push pull tube, so I didn't have to worry about the adjustment.

I’ve stayed in Fon Du Lac, Appleton even Green Bay. Check Expedia. If you come in Sunday and stay the first couple days it’s easier than trying to get a room the next Fri-Sat-Sun. I’ve gone in commercially to Appleton. I think United goes in from O’Hare and Delta goes in from Minneapolis and maybe Detroit. I’ve landed in Fon Du Lac and caught a shuttle bus over - still a zoo landing though - 2 at at time.

Yes. The supply to the center vent comes from the “mixing box” on the firewall. The “mixing box” has a hot air input and a fresh air input. The output from the mixing box can be all fresh air, all hot air or any combination of the two to achieve the desired air temperature into the cabin. The mixing box feeds the footwell gate vents, the center vent and the defrost. The only fresh air only vents in my plane are the overhead vents and the pilot’s side Wemac “ball cooler”. Everything else can be blended to get the desired output temp. Edit- Rags beat me to it…

The truss and spindle should last darn near forever if properly lubricated at regular intervals. The leg wears on the bottom plate where the weight of the airplane rests on it. The later horns are hollow and should be filled with grease. I suspect that a lot are under lubricated. I don't see why a steering horn can not be rebuilt in the field.

Yes, it does both. There’s a mixing box that mixes fresh vent air from the right naca vent and hot air from the heater. Temperature is dependent on how you pull the heat and vent knobs. I was just working on my mixer box last weekend.

Welcome to aviation.

When I pull the Cabin Vent knob in my C, fresh outside air comes out of this vent. When I pull the Cabin Heat knob, hot air comes out of this vent. In the winter, even in Ohio, I usually run a mixture of both, rarely over 50% hot air. The defroster is turned on by turning the valves on the two footwell heat lines, which also blow hot air when Cabin Heat is pulled. The roof vent is opened and closed by rotating the knob on the ceiling panel between the speakers, and the footwear fresh air vents are opened and closed individually. I am blissfully unaware of any ventilation or heat in the back seat, other than the two overhead vents.

Here's a version of my packing list. A couple things I'd recommend: walk through all the vendor warehouses and around the major booths at some point; come with a list of anything you might need to purchase or update (Garmin/AOPA/Foreflight offer a discounts for renewal, Aircraft Spruce offers free shipping no matter the size of the order, Gallagher always has a booth with Whelen goods on sale, etc.); take the Warbird tram through the aircraft and plan to stay on for a bit to listen to the free ride commentary and education; bring lots of sunscreen and a camelback pack is best for on the go hydration (osh has tons of water stations to fill up); if you can stay though Wednesday night you can experience the awesome night show on Wed. Osh_packing_list.pdf

EBAY or FCA AirParts. Used/salavage. https://flyingcolorsairparts.com/45404 https://www.ebay.com/itm/175988187238 Same part sold by FCA

I have friends that have done it, mainly Canary Islands and Madeira but also Azores. As far as I know none of them were adequately equipped. A cirrus like the one I fly (SR22 G2 81GAL) went to Canary Islands direct (maybe not a great idea to stop at Morocco), luggage, life raft 4 on board full fuel (?). A more reasonable option would be Portimao-Madeira or Cascais-Madeira (Cascais has become very difficult), then to Azores. There is also a special permit to go beyond MTOW, I think I wouldn't take that option. Yes, I agree with what you say.

Fly in with the Mooney Caravan. Camp beside your aircraft. Spend at least 4+ days and take it all in. Flying in yourself and staying on the grounds will be a WAY different (WAY BETTER) experience than flying commercially and staying in a hotel.

With resulting power loss. Who builds the new performance tables, takeoff distances, etc?

That central shaft that I was talking about is on the steering linkage not the aileron shaft. I wish that the steering linkage was field repairable with a bushing rather than have to send it in to be rebuilt

The power to the gear motor in the up direction runs through NC contacts in that switch. When the gear reaches the end of it's upward travel, the tab on the retraction rod activates the switch which breaks the circuit and stops the motor. Similarly, if the gear won't lower, it could be a problem with the gear down limit switch.

Based on context, it may be (or have been) a CWS switch. It would be spring loaded like a PTT switch. You hold it down, and the AP will let go of the controls permitting easy human inputs until you release the CWS switch. In my J, this returned the KAP 150 AP back to the same settings. In my R with STEC 55x, the CWS release puts me into a reduced wing-level AP mode, losing the HDG/NAV and ALT setting. Not sure which yours might do. Try it! Another yoke mounted switch you can have is a remote flip-flop for the radio or remote for xpdr IDENT. Just me $.02 worth -dan

It has air-conditioning, and it still fit great. Thank you for the kind words, Brandt! We didn’t even know the tornado was coming ! And really a plus one for Aerotech in Kentucky, I called them at 4:20 in the afternoon and that thing made it out and was in our hands the next morning at 10:30.

That's the one to put on. The one Continental puts on - the Iskra is junk. Unless it has Air Conditioning, it's the easiest airplane starter in the world to change.

I believe you are getting shafted also. I would make one attempt of sitting down with the owner and calmly presenting your concerns. Calmly and confidently tell him what you think is fair for both of you (maybe split the extra labor?). At this point I wouldn't go further than that or they'll hold your airplane hostage. Get it signed off and get it out of there and don't go back. (Also just a point of reference I keep my logbooks locked up and shops that work on my airplane get a .pdf of my logs, if they request them. I ask for stickers that I'll put in my logs. The shop never has possession of my logs.) Education always carries with it tuition. Your education here is never go back. Once it's done please share the name of the shop so someone else doesn't sign up for that course also.

Engine swap/rebuild, mow & go!

It should be clear if you look at the schematic for your serial number whether it’s wired this way or whether there is a fault.

The fuel diverter is actually still in the plane. :-| I asked the shop to cease any extra work that's not required and I can hopefully do it with a fellow mooneyspace member (who's also given me the appropriate amount of grief for it not being done) when I'm in the mid-west this summer. And James was fantastic. As a new-ish plane owner, and curious about the mechanics of it all, I always love mechanics that take pride in explaining their work. He took texts, emails, and calls. He text'd me a few days ago asking if I was at TBO yet. Good dude.

It could be slung using the motor mounts, remove the tail and use the huck bolts, remove ailerons and use the hinge points. Without the engine and prop, you are probably lifting 1100 - 1200 pounds. Ron

Nice. James is also fellow colleague of mine at Savvy Aviation. It would be good time to at least replace the old flexible baffling if not also re-work the aluminum baffling. Glad you caught removing the fuel diverter!

Last Saturday morning above western North Dakota. It's amazing how green it gets here... for a few weeks.

I just went through this. The switch may be repairable if you have the time and talent. I almost went down that path, but ultimately went with a new switch because of time and not having the tools or work bench I used to have back in the day. I did have the shop keep my old one, so it may end up on Ebay some time if I ever get around to it. As for your $1,800 price, if some shop has one on the shelf and offers you that price TAKE IT!! There was a price increase a year or so ago and I confirmed I wasn't getting gouged with my old mechanic. You're now looking at $2,100+ if they have to order one.

Business Ethics is a standard course offered and required both at the undergraduate and in MBA programs. If you want to see what happens when a business loses its way ethically look at Boeing. It largely started during the USAF tanker competition when their CFO was bribing AF officials for information on Northrop’s data, extended with the 737 Max debacle and has culminated with the door blow out. All of it can be traced back to management’s lack of ethics in pursuit of profit. Ultimately their lack of ethics have failed the people thy were supposed to protect. Their shareholders, their customers (ask Southwest why they can’t fly their planned schedule) and the innocent souls who boarded their airplanes. Trust is only earned by the ethical. Right now no one trusts Boeing.

Here's the returned engine, installed. You'll notice that apparently the previous owners didn't comply with SB CSB19-01A, and James installed the old parts. If you have the old primer system, it might be a good time to get that fixed. Also James painted the oil cap. He said he's done this on hundreds of engines. He sandblasted and painted over "OIL 8 QTS" which is illegal, so we had to put a little label on it. Would be nicer if it said it on the paint, and was painted yellow.

It'll be a lot lighter without the engine, so takeoff roll will be much shorter. Maybe they can fly it out that way.

Took Mooney for family camping during airshow at OldWarden (EGTH) Followed by goodbye to Daks (DC3 and C47) on their way to Cherbourg "Then, it's a dogfight"

I just went through this with my 77 J project. I could take dimensions of my old skins but you really need your old skins to make an effective copy, they aren't just square and of course you need to match all the holes exactly. If you're just looking for an estimate of how much material to order, I bought 10 ft of 48" wide, .032 2024T3 from airpartsinc.com. That was plenty to make all new skins and I have a decent bit leftover. Repairing/fabbing the bulkheads that hold the skins is the hard part...

DIBS! I'll put some marvel mystery oil in the crankcase and fly er home to Georgia. Yeeeehii! No worries on that paint job since it'll be ready for aluminum polish by the time I get here. On a serious note, what a damned shame. That one should have been saved long ago.

On the ground whenever I pull the gascolator in pre-flight I visually check to make sure that it has stopped allowing fuel through. I've seen it a few times over the years when I had to fiddle with it to get it to stop. I would be hesitant to pull it in flight, not knowing for sure if the fuel has stopped.

I have never understood why FBOs tow aircraft with abandon with tow bars. If you are using a tow bar, better do like the airlines and have someone riding the brakes. The only way a large aircraft should be towed without a brake rider is with a cradle tug agin, like the airlines. I've had two runaway jets. One I was pushing back from Dulles and the tow bar disconnected and I hear "Captain!......" from the tug driver (as the headset is ripped off his head), I then saw the tug and tower distance themselves in front of me. I gently squeezed the brakes so as not to put it on it's tail and we re-attached. Other time in Dublin Ireland in an A330 the signalman gave me the "chocks in" signal which means release the brakes. As passengers were disembarking I heard a loud banging noise. I did'nt like what I heard so I sat down in my seat just in time for the airplane to jump the nose wheel chock, the ground crew failed to chock the mains (a requirement for "chocks in"). The aircraft started to roll back. Good thing I was there. There was two 767s parked right behind us, the Airbus would have totaled them both. Turns out the ground crewman was a new guy and the station manager wanted to fire him. I asked her not to and said, "He learned a hard but very valuable lesson and I don't want to have to re-teach it to another FNG."

That’s a whole new take on a “short body Mooney”. Exciting to see one come back to life.

Obligatory pedantry from a high-density-altitude resident: manifold pressure at a specific throttle position changes with density altitude. So if you adjust the switch to trigger at, say, about 12" MP around your sea-level airport, it won't trigger above about 8" MP when approaching an airport that's 4000' higher than your home field. That means it might never trigger on a normal approach to that 4000' field. So... if you operate out of both high DA and low DA airports, your options are to have the switch trigger at annoyingly high MP, down low; or potentially not trigger when you need it, up high. We choose the former because of where our airplane is based, others might understandably choose the latter.

When the quick profit from a sale could not be had, everything and everybody walked away. It is a zombie company that has one thing a real value. An FAA production certificate. As long as there is free rent and enough revenue to make a payroll and keep the lights on, it will zombie walk on.

It sounds backwards, actually. Activating some transmitters without a load (e.g., an antenna) can damage the Power Amplifier in the radio. If there's an antenna or cable of the proper impedance connected it shouldn't be able to tell one from another. If there's nothing connected, then it's not unusual to expect damage if the transmitter is activated.

I’ve used SEM and thought it was outstanding. No issues with adhesion. I actually thought it adhered remarkably well. I scuffed and cleaned the plastic before spraying. I believe the SEM web site recommends products and procedures for plastic prep prior to spraying.