Andy95W

On my first Mooney (67 C) I installed a Bob Fields Inflatable Door seal pneumatic switch. Looks like a normal toggle switch and allows you to turn it on and off like it was electric, but when engaged the pushbutton on the yoke still works. Install it off the same line that goes to the yoke switch in series. Not sure how legal that was, but it was a very elegant and effective solution.

Concorde batteries and Tempest sparkplugs for me. Makes you wonder how Gill and Champion stay afloat.

How about bringing out a stripped down J with a simpler engine? Maybe shorter with a carburetor instead of fancy fuel injection? After that, in order to capture the flight training market, they could offer a fixed gear version. With a little thought, they could convert it to retract once the owner got his/her license. Perhaps call that the M20D? Nostalgia is great, but there are good reasons the factory isn't producing the C, J, or K anymore. It is the same reason they stopped producing the E in 75, the F in 77, and the C in 78.

People who can afford to buy a new airplane don't much care about $50,000 difference between a new Ovation and (what would be) a new J. So why build a new J? In the meantime the rest of us will continue to buy and fly $30-150K C-K's.

Thats the difference between indicated airspeed and true. Indicated is what the airplane feels and true is how fast you get there.

Thanks for posting the pictures, we're sorry we missed out!

After talking with their sales people at OSH, my wife had an interesting insight about Cirrus people: she said they're like the Justin Bieber of General Aviation. A punk kid who thinks alot of himself but everyone else wishes would just shut up.

I'm putting one on my baggage door. My current is worn out and rusty. If nothing else, I'll never again wonder if I latched the baggage door. BTW, true Minor Alterations (of which this probably qualifies) do not need a Field Approval, just a logbook entry.

Take it in your Mooney. If you can make it through your BFR from hell, you won't have a problem. You can later add the ATP multi and you won't have to worry about your written running out.

Mine's the same way. The faster I go, the harder they are to close. Makes me feel good knowing they're doing their job. Seems to work good if I close them just after level off as the airspeed just starts to increase.

I would think the worn cam lobe would generate less heat, but I'm not an expert. I really like the idea of swapping spark plugs as the cheapest and easiest thing to do if you haven't already. I seem to remember something about preignition/detonation causing high CHTs and because of the earlier than normal ignition event, less heat going out the exhaust so lower EGT.

Very descriptive write up. My suggestion is to double and triple check the exhaust for leaks and replace the exhaust gasket while you're at it. I worked on an engine that the exhaust flange was not perfectly flat and we had to use a blo-proof gasket and a copper gasket to get it to seal. Difference with that was that we could see the exhaust evidence. Yours might be hiding on the back side of the exhaust pipe. Hot exhaust gases can raise the temperature in the vicinity of the CHT probe to give an indication like you're seeing. Not very common, but possible. Good luck, please keep us posted.

And you won't blind others around you at night while taxiing with your wingtip strobes on. (Like the Cirrus guys do.) And you'll have a backup anti-collision light for redundancy.

+1 I met him around 1997-98 at the factory and at the time didn't realize who he was until I started hearing the stories. Then I checked my logs and saw his signature.

I needed new aileron pushrods and got brand new ones from the factory- they fit the M20B - M20TN. I've been told the basic wing structure is the same as well.

It is prudent to keep an eye on it the first flight, but other than that just run it normally. Your plan sounds good to me- but there's a lot I don't know either.

Found the thread: http://mooneyspace.com/topic/1037-calibrated-fuel-sticks/?hl=%2Bfuel+%2Btank+%2Bdipstick+%2Bmeasurements#entry10560 What a great idea. Gonna make a one and save the $20 for the Universal dipstick. I have been just keeping track of tach time, since I seem to consistently burn 10 gal/hr. Doesn't really seem to matter if it's local sightseeing or a cross country, I can estimate the fuel I need to top off +/- 1 gal.

+1. Same with mine. Personal ethics and a general sense of giving a crap makes a huge difference. I know some really good mechanics that are now heating and air conditioning repairmen because it pays more and they don't risk their careers every time they fix something. Average shop rates in my area are less than most car dealership rates. I've had a customer drive up in his BMW and argue about the nuts and bolts he had to pay for when we changed out his engine mounts. And you know damn well that when he gets an invoice from his BMW dealer to work on his car he just strokes a check. Sorry, I'll get off my soapbox. Didn't mean to hijack the thread.

Would love to see a picture of the destroyed distributor. On the Bendix magneto, the distributor contactor is attached to a gear whose shaft spins in an oil impregnated bushing (bearing). There are some oil impregnated felt pads that help keep oil in the vicinity of that bushing. I suppose that could overheat and start to chew up the shaft or the torque could crack the plastic distributor block that the bushing is mounted in. Definitely an abnormal situation and one of the reasons we have two! (Here is where we can dredge up the dual vs. single mag argument) (And maybe the flaps on takeoff in case you lose a mag thread)

Well, the best "gadget" is a well trained, current pilot. After that, it probably comes down to what you are worried about... 1.) how you fly the airplane 2.) what's going on inside your engine that hasn't seen the light of day since the engine overhauler But I like what David (Sabremech) said: the engine analyzer won't help after the engine quits, the AOA may keep you from stalling as you try to stretch your glide to your crash site.

Mike Busch has a lot of valid opinions about not performing unneccessary maintenance, with the exception of magnetos. He agrees with the 500 hour inspections. IMHO, you should definitely do something with them. You might consider doing one a year starting at your next annual, or both if any issue whatsoever comes up.

I agree it can happen to any magneto. But if it happens to me, I suffer the loss of a magneto; if it happens to you, you lose the engine.

Okay, so I tried pulling my RPMs back to 1800-1900 today, and the engine was smoother than I remember it being. Noticeably quieter, too. Does anyone know of any downside to running the engine that slow? My C seems to be really smooth between 2350 and 2450. Maybe I just feel weird about pulling the prop back to 1800.

Okay, so purely looking at numbers: 150 hp C172M = 110 kts. @7.5gph = 14.66 nm per gal 180 hp M20C = 145 kts. @ 10 gph = 14.5 nm per gal Since I don't want to join CessnaSpace, I'll have to keep my M20C and go fast instead. To answer your question about speed mods, I've bought lots of 'em. They're all good for something, but not necessarily speed. Wingtips look cool. Flap seals add climb rate. Cowl mods aid in engine cooling. Since drag differential increases to the square of the speed (if I remember my physics classes), there will be less difference at low speed than high.

Must be another weird metric conversion thing. For me, $40k hull, $1M smooth, $750/ year