MB65E

Welcome back!! And no Maintenance issues? What a bad ass little Mooney!! Such a sweet trip. I think you inspired many of us. -Matt

Thanks Paul for all you do! Well Stated! -Matt

I would try to change the throttle cable if I had cash on hand. It sounds like you are proactive enough to realize the situation. Ours was done at 3800hrs and came apart. Get ready, that big lawnmower cable is $500+. -Matt

Clean it, and re-seal the screws. Additional PRc might be required around the edge of the fitting. For that small of a leak I would not worry about pulling the fitting out. I agree it should not leak after a year from a pro tank repair place. -Matt

Grand Junction is a good overnight. Durango, . SantaFe, 4-corners, Amarillo TX has a Fairfield and a Buffalo Wild Wings walking distance from the hotel. Tac air provides good transportation. Easy day the next day back home. -Matt

Any experts ever rig the elevators to have some twist? That way the flaps can be sucked up all the way, the ailerons don't need to be bent. I just replaced a few rod ends on in the elevator linkages and thought about it. You could trim off the pitch change with the elevator trim but the twist might be enough to correct roll tendicies. Finally- smooth elevators... One has 9 ribs and the other has half that? What's that about? -Matt

My 65E has the steel tubes painted a brownish primer/paint. The H-Stab is zinc cromated. Small steel angles in the fuselage are painted. No skins in the tail are primed. Nothing in the wings except the centers of the spars. Main, Rear, aft carry thru. All random to me... -Matt

There is a Kit from Mooney to install the twin pack landing lights in the wing like the late models. Then you can worry about cracking or crazing the lense. I remember the kit was not to expensive itself, but the labor would be. Laser, Don or mooney would know. Some one posted the SB Kit number here a long time ago. Good Luck! -Matt

Glad to help! Wish I could find them in LED's they do get HOT. -Matt

A508-28 I believe. If it has the little bayonet socket. Spruce should have good pricing. http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/elpages/whelenstrobesystema600.php?recfer=4538 -Matt

Nice post Rod! You should publish it some place! I think Aviators enjoy the last freedom we still have left in this country. I have learned so much about life in the last 5 years. Having 2 kids under 6 has changed me in more ways than I could imagin. I only hope that these little airplanes bring all our families closer. Many more thoughts on what you mentioned. Too early to wright it all down. All the depressing info on the news, the crash in Sussex, Justin Wilsons Indy crash, and just the randomness of life makes you stop and think a bit. I think all the bad in life pushes us to make more good out of things. I truly think some times when I fly the world would be a better place if everyone had the view we all have. Let's all enjoy the View from our little airplanes. Fly Safe, -Matt

The Insight g series can be primary replacement, at a lower cost than JPI. The SWTA panel STC used the 201 gauges. I have the STC but wanted drawings on the cluster I have. I had a few Inoped items...I called them, all the drawings were lost in a tornado and lost all the data. I would not install the J gauges unless you already had them in the panel. Same issues as the old clusters. Best bet is to bring the airplane into the 21st century. -Matt

The sticky mounts stay on all the red bull airplanes. 250K and 10+G! It's all in the condition of the paint. Hope the trip is going well D! Great pictures, I like the cloud layer pic. I bet the camera doesn't do it justice! I think it's great your able to share your trip with everyone! How cool!! -Matt

Scott, their foam and leather. Local shop guy wanted 500/ hide. So on to my next option... So it looks like I'll be using my wife's machine. I'm planning on adding some foam to the top of the stock seat back to kick it forward a bit. I always feel like I'm falling back in the seat. -Matt

Looks Like a nice clean machine!! -Matt

I was quoted 1600/seat for the front seats of the M20 at Oregon aero this year! Times have changed I guess. They don't have a kit for the M20s unlike the RV series. Currently at a hot rod shop now. Lol.

WD-40 will get the residual gunk of once the layer is removed. -Matt

Just saw one on barnstormers yesterday. I believe the PN was the same.

Anyone see the AeroShell cold flow demo at Oshkosh this past year? I thought the 15w50 demo vs the Phillips was impressive. It's not really relative in warm climets but it got my attention. I know several of the turbo Reno guys use Exxon so I don't think switching from 15w50 is a bad choice. -Matt

Well done! Nothing!!...except a good pic of your airplane! Congrats!! -Matt

It was an hour and a half of soaking in light brushing of the aileron. Soaking time was about 15 minutes per side. I did a total of two thin coats. When I was finished we use the bucket of water to rinse the aileron a couple times. A pressure washer would be ideal but as long as you had good water pressure the hose application would be fine for the rinse. I think two guys could strip the entire aircraft in a weekend. I would call Kevin and order a 5 gallon container of the stripper I think that should be enough to do the whole airplane. The part that I liked about the stripper was it was less corrosive than anything else on the market. Good luck! -Matt

I just used the accuchem product to strip an aileron. It was totally cleaned of all its heavy old imron in about 1hrs time. No aggressive pads or scrapers were needed. Kevin, a sales guy here posted on MS a while back. Great product, minimal time. For comparison, the rudder I stripped took 7hrs for the best stuff from Home Depot and pep boys. Oh and I only used about a 1qt on the aileron of the accuchem, vs 2 gallons on the rudder!!! Thanks Kevin!!! -Matt

I'd rather not add the hourly cost on my E. I'm at day 3 of my annual. My airplane partner is helping. We are 42 man hours into the inspection. I don't know where the 20hrs comes from. Maybe, 20 hrs with no service items and no issues. I can see 30k on a bravo for sure!! -Matt

I have always liked the DC microphones! I used a boom DC mic on my helmet I built up. The stock military style Mic was garbage and would not work with the gtn650. The DC mic was much better with the GTN's. -Matt.

Sweet! If you had 5k in cash that should do it. But Don't use the money to upgrade anything unless it's a safety issue. Save it for the first few years. Enjoy it! -Matt