MB65E

It was a bold statement… Flat out yes, do I flight plan that no. 201 windshield, most airframe mods. Baffling/cooling drag lets no light in with a flashlight shined from behind. Oil cooler baffling. Flaps and ailerons are rigged at the lowest drag settings. 2 blade prop Lighter than any J. BY plugs, 25°+ timing Flown at the aft CG limit. I would like to put aileron gap seals on. And an annoying leaking right fuel tank. Yours should be pretty quick with the J cowl. I’ll see if I can get additional data points, -Matt

Mine is. KTAS. -Matt

Circle above TPA, above the Delta or whatever. Im not leaving the lateral confines of the airport with any newley installed components. -Matt

Such a large piece of rotating material compared to Lycoming’s design. Thanks for posting the SB I wasn’t aware it was such a known issue. -Matt

Friend/Customer’s airplane. It flys really nice. Reminds me of a hot rod tripacer. Darn thing is a truck! Light in pitch. The old Hartzell keeps trucking but we wanted to play with the Extra 300 prop on it. The Extra was upgraded to the wide cord MT scimitar. The wide cord MT performs about like the Hartzell Claw. Better braking performance than in the past, which means more thrust too. Funny it showed up in braking performance. Be fun to play with it. The folks that do the MT STC’s sorta laughed at me. -Matt

Funny I want to put an Extra 300 MT on a M5 540 Maule !! Everyone freaks out at the counterweights and says why would you want to do that. Well the old 2 blade Hartzell needs OH and I have two spare MT’s. But no STC for it. -Matt

The two blade option is called the Trailblazer propeller. It’s STC for some Cardinals and other Lycoming powerplants. Hartzell has the similar 3 bladed prop on the Cirrus line with both Lycoming and Continental versions. I’m not aware of the STC for the m20 with that prop on it yet. Hartzell has the better blade technology at this point. -Matt

Aviall has the best price on the PR1428 that I used. $50 cheaper than spruce. -Matt

Totally acceptable! The entire blade could look like that in fact. It’s a wood core blade wrapped in glass. They have improved their paint products over the last 10y. The white blades’ glass would bubble and crack in the past. Their spinners are Kevlar. Super had to work with. Great propellers, just not as nice as the newer Composite Hartzells. But for the price they are awesome!! -Matt

Look how the 20:1 gears don’t have the typical worm gear curvature the 40:1 gears have. For what it’s worth Tcal, your gear looks highly serviceable to me with only light wear. I’d offer to buy it from you and go back to the 20:1 set if mine ever did fail inspection. -Matt

Fuel planning west of Dallas is pretty easy. Not that many airports. Say you could do 600nm legs. Well, when you plan it out there’s nothing at 600nm available. You may be able to pit early to get in a leg at full range, but not really worth it. And then there’s weather. Do what you are comfortable with. Don’t stretch it. I’ve done 625nm west bound legs with my stock 52g tanks. JAC-STS but the winds were pretty light. Always try to call ahead to the FBO for fuel. I’ve been screwed a few times. Just because the chart says so and there’s no notams means nothing to some smaller airports. -Matt

The actuating rod end threads appear like they are moving too. Make sure the jam nut on the steering link from the rudder pedals is secure. Play looks acceptable to me. -Matt

Thanks, Worm gear 101 if you ask me. I didn’t see anyone post pictures of the gear themself and wanted to provide a data point. -Matt

Please post a picture of your actuator gear itself. I believe many are scrapping gears prematurely for scalloping. I believe the new gears have the scalloping. As long as the backlash is not over 1/2 tooth, the gear should still be good. Mine was scalloped with ZERO ware.

Mike, HRD in Santa Clarita is where I send all my bottles for work. They do rafts too. -Matt

Great looking wheel well and Gear I must say. I’m impressed. -Matt

Looks like a lot of energy was dissipated by most of the airframe components and the fence. Flaps were down, partial gear. The main gear doors appear to be the only thing not bent on the entire airplane. Lucky he got out, the cabin door looks like it wasn’t going to open. -Matt

Ahh, should have been more clear. It captures the valve stem, safely locks down, then the inner stem inserts into the valve stem and spins the core out. All the air can then deflate while having the core safely caged. -Matt

Yeah, cutting the valve stem seems strange. This is what my good friend/mentor, Lynn Hadler, showed me. I still use them! Valve core removal tool PN-968RB -Matt

Looks really nice. You also have some Gills in the side cowls too. The intake scoop is interesting. I’ve only seen additional scoops for oil cooling. -Matt

Goodyear tubes would crack at the seams maybe 5-7 years ago. -Matt

You can still get R-12. Even in CA. -Matt

Great project for you David. We all figured your last airplane wouldn’t be the last. I’d leave it original and invest the effort in better things. Hope you bring it to Oshkosh!! How’s the corporate gig and Warbird? -Matt

The Overhead works really well in Moonies, Falcons, and CJ’s. :-)!! -Matt

Make sure the software version on the 430, matches the drawing you have. On the 530 with current software. The lower connector no longer uses pins 60-64. The RS232 needs to go into the upper connector for rs232. The drawing I had said that 60-64 were available for RS232. Wired everything up…. No 232 data!!! -Matt