Leaderboard

Solved I took off a few hours early from work and headed over to the airport stopping by my AP/IA's hangar to borrow his little hand pump pot. The system was working fine before I rebuilt the master cylinder and since the only thing I touched in the system was the master cylinder it made sense that somewhere in there was the problem. I removed it and given the fact that the fluid from the reservoir side was draining out until I put a plug in the line there was no blockage there. I hooked up the pot at the caliper and gave it a couple of pumps and the fluid ran out of the end of the line where it hooks up to the master cylinder, no blockage there. I removed the snap-ring and pulled the shaft out. Everything looked like it was in the right place and in the right order. There's a cotter pin that goes through 89 and also the end of 86. I removed the cotter pin to remove 86 and when I did found that I didn't have oring #87 seated all the way in 86. There is a little groove in 86 that it is supposed to be all the way down in. Because it wasn't seated all the way it was actually sealing the gap between 86 and 83 and not letting any fluid pass back through. I got 87 seated all the way in, reassembled, and put it back in the plane. Hooked up the pot at the caliper and it easily pumped fluid back up through this time. A few pumps at a time and then checking the level in the reservoir, a few pumps, check level, once it had raised the level almost all the way I snugged the bleeder needle back down, and removed the line to the pot. Checked the brakes, not mushy but good and firm. Pulled the plane out, started it up, brakes held fine. After letting the engine warm up ran it up to 2,200 rpm and brakes still held fine. All is well.

Don't put it back together like that! The springs are in the wrong spot!!! I don't have the manual in front of me to remember which side they should be on, but they're supposed to be outside the joint between the flange and nut. Not in between the flanges!!

I'm late to the party on this thread. I too believe the OP did a fine job of handling the situation. The smart move might be to simply keep my head down, but instead I'm going to open myself up to criticism by offering an alternative position on Mooney baggage doors. Door security has been thoroughly discussed but I do not believe I've seen/heard of a single instance where a "properly latched" baggage door has inadvertently opened either during take-off or during flight. If there are confirmed instances of this I implore you to share them. For several years I both latched and locked the baggage door in my M20-J prior to boarding. Now, in the past few years, after considerable thought and discussion I now choose to "confirm" proper closing/latching but purposely DO NOT "lock" the door. I know that I'm not the only person who does this. My door is either fully open or it is securely latched; this is a checklist item for me as well. I firmly believe it is most important for a first responder to have easy immediate access to the plane's interior in the event of an incident or accident. If I am incapacitated my survival may depend entirely on the efforts from the first person to arrive on scene (who may or may not be trained fire/rescue personnel). While I would prefer to have the cockpit door ajar or functional I cannot count on that and the baggage door is the next best option for ingress/egress. I do know that my interior emergency release mechanism remains functional even with the door locked but that does me no good if I'm incapacitated in some way. Either way it would be a bad situation (having to be dragged out the baggage door) but at least bystanders would have a chance to do so if they could open the door from the outside. Differing opinions are welcomed, but the risk of a damaged/departed baggage door seems much less to me than the risk of entrapment to a disabled pilot. CNoe

My second Pfizer was sore muscles and swollen lymph nodes in my armpit for a few days. I got fever and chills on the first and second nights after. My wife told me to suck it up after getting my “man vaccine”. For little kids getting vaccines there is data that tells us immune responses are not as good if you pre medicate with Tylenol or NSAIDs, so I avoided pre medicating myself until I got fevers. Dose of ibuprofen and the fevers / myalgia resolved in about 40 min. Did the same thing the second night. Single dose of ibuprofen only after I got fever/chills. @Amelia one of the big physician bulletin boards there are a lot of those local site itchy bump pictures floating around. Likely a delayed type hypersensitivity reaction (your T cells are working into the local area along with your innate immune cells). Means the vaccine is working and should resolve after a week. We got our second doses at the same time together. First time I’ve been hopeful about this pandemic in a while. But now we have the South African variant community spreading in South Carolina. And the Brazil variant has been identified in MN. Not good news. The SA variant will likely be here in NC in a couple of weeks if it’s not already. But it shouldn’t change anything practically speaking for now. Vaccine likely gives a partial immune response. The new J&J vaccine is one shot and looks to be partially effective in South Africa, so that’s good. More data needs to come quickly- but for now wear your masks (yes double up), continue to social distance, get the vaccine when your turn comes. @ilovecornfields the kids we’ve had with multiple inflammatory syndrome have been sick as stink. One required a ventricular assist device, others in heart failure. I’ve seen much more new onset type I diabetes in the past year than I should be. The kids do get affected by this - some for the rest of their lives - and they don’t deserve it.

Finally got around to creating the video I wanted to make from my last flight with my Mooney. Felt a bit like therapy reviewing all the footage.

You'll no longer be using the Mooney Annunciator, but you'll instead be using your JPI with a much more robust set of alarms and message that you won't miss the Mooney Annunciator. The JPI makes up for it in spades! You have a low fuel level for both Left and Right tanks plus you have many more messages and alerts that are programmable including: Fuel required to either Waypoint or Destination and Fuel Reserve - By default these are at the next waypoint and you'll have to change the proocol on your GPS (if my memory is right) in order to show required and reserve at the Destination - since the Destination comes from the GPS. Then there are also enabling advisory limits, programming pre-alarms which are user defined alarms that comes on earlier than POH defined limitations for almost everything including CHT. So for example rather than waiting for redline CHT warning you can program a pre-alarm for any CHT at 400F or whatever you'd iike. You can do the same for fuel values I believe. Truth is I am always watching my fuel reserve at destination I don't think I recall ever seeing a low fuel alarm!

Used sheepskin covers... AKA “pre-farted”.

You should still get vaccinated even if you had Covid and recovered. No need to get antibodies. The vaccine results in you making much more antibody than you’d get by natural infection. So there’s a benefit. It will be like you got Covid three times and recovered - you’ll have a robust immune response. Vaccine immunity may last longer than natural immunity as well

That’s my wing! So close to greatness! I’ll never wash that wing again. Lol

I sort of restored a 1951 M38 Jeep last year. It had been sitting in a construction lot for about 20 years. The engine in it was designed in 1923. The cam and lifters looked brand new. OK full disclosure, the engine was rebuilt in 1968...

“Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”― Benjamin Franklin

Thanks! I had to take a break from social media for a while since I couldn’t reconcile what I was seeing every day in the hospital with the crazy stuff people were posting on the internet and it made me want to rip my hair out. One of my colleagues said it felt like he was a fireman trying to put out a brush fire and random people would just show up, pour gasoline on the fire and tell him there’s no fire. I don’t know if any of you could tell, but it was making me a little irritable. I guess for better or worse, at this point it seems like most people finally “get it” it’s just a shame so many people had to get burned before realizing what was in front of them the whole time. Like someone else posted above, I’ve seen more people die this year than I have in the last 10 years combined. You start to get a little numb to it since there’s only so much you can do (high flow oxygen, decadron, proning, remdesivir, intubation..) Several of my colleagues have been diagnosed with PTSD and frankly I’m surprised it’s not more. Seeing the children with the post-COVID inflammatory syndrome really broke my heart too as many of the parents were under the mistaken impression that COVID doesn’t affect children and said they would have made different choices if they had know what could happen. Seeing children punished for adults bad behavior really takes a toll on you. That being said, I actually feel more hopeful now than I have anytime since February. Somehow I managed not to get COVID or give it to my family which is nothing short of a miracle given the number of patients I saw and how many of my colleagues got it. My wife and I have been vaccinated and it looks like we finally have a chance of getting this thing under control. I’m finally looking forward to flying with a CFI again since, understandably, there were few willing to share a confined space with an ER doctor at the height of the pandemic. I certainly don’t blame them. Hopefully we can start the healing process and move beyond this very dark chapter in all of our lives and come out the other end as better people.

We picked up the Mooney predator this weekend so we can make it fly again. Out of all of the restoration projects we’ve done this will probably be the most exciting Mooney we’ve worked on and I’m going to keep this thread updated with our progress as much as I can. With the help of some former and current Mooney employees who have worked on it we hope to have it flying soon with maybe a few updates along the way and hopefully those who have dreamed of fly it will get a chance.

I serve on the airport board for the Tri-County Airport in Bonifay & Chipley, Florida. Last year one of our projects was to work to migrate the airport off of the over-used 122.8 over to a lesser used frequency-- of which there are quite a few to choose from. It was a lengthy process, but I thought you guys and gals might find it interesting. Here goes: Got the Airport Board (good folks, by the way) to recognize that our sharing 122.8 with all the other small airports around us had the potential for some safety issues, and that moving to a lesser-used frequency only made good sense. (In fact, the FAA and AOPA recommend it.) I used online tools to get a list of all airports within a 120 mile radius of ours, and created a report listing the airport, distance and CTAF frequency each were using. I then looked up the multiple CTAF frequencies available (nice article on the AOPA website), and compared them against that list. Found only one airport using 122.725, and at about 100 miles distant- so that was our logical choice. I presented the report and frequency recommendation to the board, which approved it after lengthy discussion about safety issues and discussing how we would notify our local pilot community and those in our area. A note about 122.725-- most of the older King and Narco radios only have five digits; they display 122.72, but it's actually 122.725. (One of our most commonly asked questions.) Now to the FCC bit. I got details on our proposed antenna location at our FBO (it was our existing location) and transmitter power, height of antenna, etc. Then went to the FCC website, and after a few phone calls to their helpdesk, I finalized our application in their system (after some minor wrangling). Six weeks later they ok'd our application, assigned us a "call sign". Some back and forth with them about some details, but not too bad. I simultaneously discussed our choice and thoughts with our FAA FSDO as well as our FAA representative in our state that "handles" our airport. I also discussed with our Florida DOT airport guru. All said they thought we were on the right track and had "no issues" with what we had planned. Our FDOT guru even gave us an attaboy. One of the FAA folks gave me the name of the person that helps enter and track that in the FAA database. VERY helpful. I formally submitted our requested change to the FAA, and included our FCC approval documentation. After several managers and folks at the FAA reviewed it, I got an email back stating it was approved "without comment" after about six weeks. At that point, I was instructed which FAA database to use to enter it into a second time(??) and eventually worked with the FAA guru in Oklahoma City who helped me do so, and who next gave me a planned "chart release date" of November 5th, about four or five months out. Key point: We planned the cut over date to be on the upcoming chart release date. In other words We didn’t put it into affect until the charts said it went into affect. Less confusion. When we got six weeks out from the cutover, I reached out to all of the EAA chapter presidents within 75 miles and told them of our new frequency and cutover date. We also emailed Cairns and Tyndall Approach and gave them an early heads up. We had two large banners printed up listing our new CTAF and the effective date. Posted one on our vehicle entry security gate, and the second one at the fuel farm. (We plan to keep those up about two years.) Our airport manager did some research, and confirmed that he could change the DIP switches that control our runway and taxi lights, and he tested doing so. Important detail. (He did not make that change until November 5, however. ) We pushed out one final email to all aircraft owners based on the field at the one week out mark. When I went to bed on November 4th, my ForeFlight charts and information had the old frequency. The next morning (November 5), Foreflight listed the new frequency on its charts and information for the field. How about that? Since our ASOS did not allow us to record a message, we had volunteers with handheld radios the first two weekends after the change was made. However no one used the old frequency. The result? A seamless cut-over come November 5, 2020. No issues. Amazing.

You have to take it apart. It’s a bit of a pain which is probably why it gets overlooked. I doubt its necessary every annual, but every few years would be a good idea.

Update: finally got the baffle seals replaced with ones made by @GEE-BEE. I also compared this to the McFarlane ones and I like Guy's better. They are more flexible and as a result easier to fit around the baffle. The top seals have a forward slant and fits nicely once the cowling is in place.

If you can stretch your budget a bit, Jimmy has a nice one coming in a few weeks. 1994 M20J 'MSE' 2625 Total Time. '0' SMOH '0' SNEW Prop (Hartzell 2-Blade 'Top Prop') NEW Garmin GFC-500 Autopilot. NEW Garmin G-5 EHSI. NEW Garmin G-5 Attitude Indicator. NEW GTX-345 ADS-B In and Out. NEW JPI-EDM 900 Primary Instrumentation. NEW GMA-345 Audio Panel with Bluetooth. (That's about, $90,000 in new avionics, engine and prop currently being installed!). Garmin GNS-530W. Garmin GNS-430W. Very Good Paint (New Paint in 2006 in a Modern Scheme). Nice Tan Leather Interior. Damage history details on request. Fresh Annual Inspection by Maxwell. $179,000. Available Mid-February.

Hi CNoe, I too do not lock to aid first responders. Apparently ‘Locked or unlocked’ it wouldn’t have made a difference, the internal handle which was incorrectly installed in our situation overrides the lock function. Kr Steve

Facebook posts seem to indicate the assets were purchased (or similar arrangement) by AMI-AWI who do pretty good work themselves. AWI did mine last time around and the fit was excellent. Aircraft Spruce uses them too... Will see if it affects prices at all. I ended up at AWI last time because Dawley had a long turn time but AWI was quite fast.

I'm on staff at two hospitals. One is NYU Langone. They sent the following E-Mail last week: The Dangers of Double-Masking in the Workplace You may have seen reports in the media this week advising the public to wear two masks to help protect against new variants of Covid-19. However wearing two masks in the workplace is too much of a good thing. Official guidance from NYU Langone’s department of Environmental Health and Safety (EH&S) remains consistent—wear a face shield over your N95 or your surgical mask, if additional protection is required. Wearing a surgical mask over an N95 respirator can interfere with the N95’s seal and actually make you less safe. N95s, worn correctly, provide you with excellent protection by themselves. They weren’t designed or tested to be worn with another mask over them. When an N95 is not required, a single surgical mask provides the right amount of source control and protection in patient care environments. Cloth masks can be worn in non–patient care areas, but they should have at least two layers, cover your nose and chin, and have adjustable straps to ensure a good fit. Single-layer masks, bandannas, scarves, or gaiters are not allowed.

So is it OK to call the original variant the Chinese virus?

I just like taking tests...

I never thought the sheepskin was attractive, and it just seemed like it would be hot and get soggy with sweat. I didn’t actually realize I liked them until I flew with them for a few months, then took them off. I missed them so much I put them back in and ordered some for my truck. they really do make the cold warmer and the hot cooler. I will have them in anything I fly now. they make any seat, more comfortable to me. to each their own.

And possibly not. Regardless, I highly recommend this shop and Greg’s professional service. A small shop with top quality attention to each individual customer. His reputation precedes my recommendation. I give the highest marks. Incidentally, I have no affiliation with Greg or his shop, other than having had exemplary fuel tank service several times, including patches on my Ovation and complete strip and reseal on an E model. I also experienced some parts dealings via Greg, again finding him high on the fair and integrity list. A stones through from PDX.

I have a hard and fast rule, my wife gets to name the airplanes we buy! She named our M20J “Jane” when we bought her, which she abridged to “Plain Jane” because of her downright ugly 1978 paint job. (“But she had a great personality .....”) After Hawk Aviation gave her that fantastic paint job three years ago, Audrey redubbed her “Plane Jane.”

Not sure if your yokes are like mine but this is how I’d did my 70C yoke switches for my Stec-30.

I always use my real name when we’re talking super models unless one gets pregnant... then it’s back to my old New Jersey alter ego.

An article written by Commercial Pilot Kate Murphy and published Jan 23, 2021 in the NYT that is relevant: GPS_spoof_article.txt

When I was shopping for my airplane, I brought my wife out to the airport to look at a J I was interested in, when we walked into the hangar she looked at the registration (C-GWED) and she said "Her name is Gwendolyn". We bought the plane and the name stuck.

I have lots of names for mine -- Usually when I'm working on it -- none printable.

I have a very small social circle. One of my friend's daughters got the 'rona. I think she's 25, 26 tops. Months later she has a tremor that shows no signs of abating. She used to cut hair. Another old friend of mine got it, now he can't breathe right. He was an actor. He's my age. I'll take the vaccine thank you. I'm plenty frightened of the 'rona, it can really do a number on someone my age. My neighbors got it and were fine. Others get it and have a catastrophic disease. It's random and difficult to predict. I'll take the vaccine. I'll take government monitoring if there is any, still beats potential catastrophic disease.

Problem solved. It was an old instrument vacuum hose behind the panel that had not been plugged. SBs pop right up at idle now.

In the clinical trials they divide the volunteers randomly into two groups and vaccinate one of the groups. Then they wait while both groups are potentially exposed to the virus through normal activities. Once they see a certain number of cases in the unvaccinated group they compare that to the number of cases in the vaccinated group and calculate the efficacy. For most diseases this can take years but in a pandemic they quickly reached a useful number of cases in the two groups. In both the Moderna and Pfizer trials they found about 95% efficacy and nobody in the vaccinated groups had a severe case of COVID-19.

Get the damn vaccine folks. I've had young students get the 'rona and be wiped out totally for a week. Something that can kick a 20 year old's six is going to do a number of mine. Get the vaccine. It's the only way we're going to stop the virus and get things back to some semblance of normal.

I have two flight students who took a pause last March due to CoVid. One is an ER physician & the other a surgeon, both frequently are around patients with the virus. Back then it seemed prudent to keep our distance. I am scheduled to get my second Pfizer injection in a week and they are now both fully vaccinated. So we plan to resume training next month. We still will be wearing our masks in the cockpit.

After over 80 million shots given the number of people having serious reactions is exceedingly small, so I’d say it’s a much safer bet than COVID. https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/covid-vaccine-tracker-global-distribution/ My wife and I finished our vaccine series a couple weeks ago with nothing worse than a sore arm and are going to both be vaccinating people next week at the County clinic. This is a good document for general questions about the vaccine. Premedication is currently not recommended. https://www.idsociety.org/covid-19-real-time-learning-network/vaccines/vaccines-information--faq/

Nice dedication... https://www.oregonlive.com/entertainment/2021/01/jimmie-rodgers-famed-singer-of-honeycomb-and-other-hits-dies-at-87.html -a-

If you have a local A&P school, many of them have night/evening programs that take about two years. You'll have a reasonable chance of actually knowing some things when you're done, and a lot better chance of passing the written and oral/practicals exams.

Another sheepskin hater here. You sit too high and are too far forward they are too thick. Mess up the seat position. Makes the seat too short to support thighs properly. You lose the thickness of the cover in rear seat legroom. My dad who was 8” shorter than me loved them in his Mercedes. I was uncomfortable between them and the wheel and I’m only 6’ tall. As low as the seats on my Mooney could go I would occasionally hit the ceiling in rough turbulence. Less headroom would be a not starter. Do they stink too? photos below are the seats I had redone years ago. The big improvement was the high back. Much more comfortable that way.

Channeling a Kn62/64 to a KX155 is very easy. There is a serial buss, it only takes 2 wires. You can channel it to other navcoms, but it takes a lot more wires. In my old Mooney the DME was not channeled to the navcom, tuning it manually was not a burden.

I don’t think you’ll find it in the regs. But there is some language in the STC install manual that pretty much states where the AP disco and TOTO switches reside, then shops interpret that within reason. I haven’t personally laid eyes on that STC install manual. @Baker Avionics can probably give us some insight. For practical purposes, @kpaul I think has a vintage style yoke so should be able to let us know how they did it with that particular setup.

Skip the hull coverage and get a quote for liability.

Good job Ross! This is a pet peeve of mine and I wonder why more fields don't change. Freqs 122.8 and 122.9 ridiculously oversubscribed in many areas. Not only clogged with the training crash-n-dash traffic, but I've noticed a general lack of etiquette with folks talking about all kinds of stuff on CTAF frequencies,often 50+ nm away. Why can't 122.52 be a CTAF? What about 122.67? Why do so many airports have to be crammed onto two of the available 720 frequencies??? Major safety issue, especially when you are turning final, and some other aircraft announces a turn to final but either mumbles the airport name or doesn't say it at all.

Welcome aboard, new guys! +1 for speed brakes and more HP... I have a tall Class B area to the East... When going East, the extra HP is great for clearing the top of the Class B... When coming back the brakes can be helpful for getting back down after crossing over the top of the Class B... For the most part, the brakes are an excellent tool... for when needed... most people don’t need them very often... Now... if you are trying to control your landing speed with precision... speed brakes are pretty good at using up some energy... The brakes do lose there strength as the air speed decays... Speed brakes are required for Long Bodies... not a requirement for other Mooneys... PP thoughts only, not a CFI... or mechanic... Best regards, -a-

Owned mine for 20 years and I share your strategy. Unless you know what mission your next flight will be you don’t want to lock yourself into a fuel load. Also just the big difference in climb. For a short local flight I carry 20 gal and it climbs like a bat out of hell. Why struggle off the runway with 65 gal? I’m also unconvinced about the hard landing theory unless the goal is to stretch life out of sealant that is already rigid and cracking. Sealant that is pliable should be fine and our birds only deflect so much.

1. On downwind - "Boost pump, Gear, Mixture, Prop" 2. On base - "Hey dummy don't forget your gear" 3. On final -" PUT THE GEAR DOWN NOW!" 4. After crunchy sounding landing - "You aircraft insurance number is......."

Check Gear Check Airspeed Check Altitude Check Fuel Bonus: Check Checking Account!

I would stick to Matterhorn white on the leading edges, cowlings, doors etc. I have seen entire 1ftx1ft sheets of paint come off on late model sr22s. Having metal on your airplane that can be etched and primed will have better results. We had a pearl white on a Lancair, every spot that was touched up you could see. The metallic blues tend to be harder to match than the whites. I guess I'm just sensitive to it. I think I see every repainted door while driving in LA. The problem is it can be a perfect match, but the fact that the paint won't mix/flow with the old paint you will always see it. The metallics just make te imperfections stand out due to the way the sun angles hit it. Say you wanted to add a modification to your cowling and then needed to repainted it, you will always see the area that was repainted. -Matt

The shade itself is a smoke colored plexiglass (It is possible it is Lexan, but I don't think so). I got it from a local plastic distributor here in Dallas. I'll be glad to get as specific as you like. I, too, have LASAR visors and one cracked. I got the material, made a template and turned me out a couple. I don't remember how much it cost, but it was probably under $15. If your source is too expensive, I can get it here and turn out one (or whatever you need) for the cost of the material and shipping.