dcjohnst

Just got my J-model back from the shop after some major work. had to change out the doughnuts, among other things. One thing they found was that the nosewheel had become wobbly--or maybe it had been wobbly for quite a while. Decided to place some metal rings to change the camber of the gear on extension. This has helped quite a bit. Since then, I've heard from a number of folks who have this problem and it appears to be somewhat common. I'm just wondering if the rings are a durable fix? Those rings must be under a lot of pressure between the weight and the leverage on them. Any chance they will crack at some critical time? Any advice on how often they should be inspected?

The saga of my nightmare first annual with my beloved M20J 'Allegro' is drawing to a close! She went into the shop in late May for what should have been a quick turnaround annual. I had just bought her eight months earlier, and, I thought, what could possibly go wrong? She had an intermittent glitch with the auto-trim, but otherwise, she fulfilled all of my hopes and dreams for being an owner/pilot--something that I came to in my mid-50s. So, I had to replace the doughnuts, no big deal. The break fluid had hardened, so had to completely drain and replace that, not a simple job, but hey it's not gonna kill me. Turned out they had to pull out the servo and rebuild it to fix the intermittent auto-trim, OK, it's starting to add up. Then disaster! They found a finger-nail sized piece of steel in the oil filter. Weeks of testing with scopes and a full metallurgy analysis to make sure it wasn't just something left over from when she threw a lifter back in 2006. And, it turns out, that's what it was: just a piece of junk that had slowly worked its way through to the bottom of the engine and finally reached the filter. But the shop owner didn't want to sign off on the annual. So, off goes the IO-360 to Penn Yan for a rebuild. I am sweating the financing like a farmer at the bank trying to get a loan for next year's crop knowing he has cancer and will be dead before he can harvest the crop. What choice do you have? I ask you, brothers and sisters... And, of course, I'm worrying. I'm in good hands with a great Mooney mechanic at Freeway, but I'm still worrying. Should it be nitrided or chrome? Are they going to give me new cylinders or refurbished? (I'm good with nitrided and one rebuild, by the way.) Then, suddenly, the economy improves and every type of aviation shop is suddenly packed with business and my machine has to stand in line. She moves back out to my hangar. I check on her from week to week, but looking at her sitting up on blocks with a non-functioning engine block in her nose for balance just breaks my heart. It's like watching your old dog on life support. It ain't right. And I'm renting an old Piper Arrow on weekends and hating it--although I did learn a lot because it's a somewhat more forgiving experience. And here it is almost Thanksgiving, and FINALLY, the FedEx truck pulls into the shop driveway with MY ENGINE!!! I don't know how many of you have ever had the chance to un-crate a newly rebuilt engine, but for an old duffer like me, it's like being a 6 years old at Christmas all over again. It looks amazing, and they hang it back on the plane and she starts looking like an airplane again. A couple weeks later, the propeller comes back from being overhauled, and it's just as smooth as a baby's butt. A week after that, the servo gets put back in and the whole thing is re-attached to the flight director. It's practically a new airplane except for the control surfaces and skin which was all in good shape since she's always been hangared in good climates. I still can't fly her yet. The chief mechanic of the shop took her out for a sprint down the runway and the nosewheel started wagging this way and that like the wheel of a beat-up grocery shopping cart. Not sure what happened there but probably came out of adjustment when they replaced the doughnuts. There was a service bulletin awhile back that talks about the need for a washer-like shim that needs to be located at the top of the mechanism to keep the wheel aligned laterally. Evidently, you can't buy that part at Home Depot, so that will take a couple days. In the meantime, I'm practicing rough weather landings in the Arrow. I'll try to post a couple pics when they test fly her. I don't know if I'll ever be a true Mooney pilot, but I am certainly a true Mooney owner now. Or at least I've paid my dues. Thanks for your support and guidance folks.

Wow! Did the overhauls occur at regular intervals? Or do you find that you have had to OH more frequently as the engine gets older? When I used to work on ships it was pretty common to see 50 or 75 year old engines. If you maintain them properly (and sometimes even if you don't) they just keep puffing along...

Wow, Thanks for all the replies! A lot of good stuff on here... Well, it's finally gotten down to the nitty-gritty, and I just cut a check for a cool upper 20s k overhaul and re-mount. I always knew my precious bird needed love, I just didn't know how much! Welcome to GA aircraft ownership, or so they tell me... Jeez Turns out that the steel in the oil filter --verified by very good metallurgist--was most likely left over from an incident eight years ago when she threw a lifter body for some unknown reason. Seems to me that they should have noticed something in the filter during the pre-buy inspection a year ago, but they say they didn't and I don't question it. But the chunk they found in the filter during my first annual this spring was nothing you could ignore and the shop wouldn't sign off, and I don't question that either. Just keep writin' those checks! No desire to mess around with a potentially lethal mechanical issue. So, I told 'em to do it up right like they were going to fly their kids in it. Makes my pocket book considerably lighter, but I sleep well at night and that's worth something. The shop (a very reputable one) tore down the engine and found nothing wrong! The camshaft was a bit worn and probably would have caused problems eventually, so I just went for an overhaul. I cried a little. And I don't drink, so it was real tears. But now I have some new questions: 1) what's the difference between nitrided and nickel replacement cylinders? 2) is there any functional difference between an overhauled cylinder and a factory new one? 3) they don't offer roller tappets cams on overhaul. What am I missing? That is to say, what is all the fuss about roller tappets and what am I missing out on? Thanks guys...

Clarence, I think you're on the same wavelength as mechanic... Got my fingers crossed hoping for connecting rod. Remote possibilities, but the other possibles are even more remote. Might be something else nobody's thought of. I understand not trusting Lycoming, but Continental's better? We're a captive market and they're murdering us... No wonder nobody wants to fly anymore.

Turns out I should have said "alloy steel" in the filter, not "stainless." So it's crankshaft, connecting rod, or counterweight. That's a laboratory finding so pretty definitive. The more I learn about replacing an engine the more sickening it gets. Just goes on and on and on... So, maybe gonna spend more time working to get a more specific diagnosis before going to extremes here... Thanks for your help!

Let's say you're faced with an engine that has had a bad cam shaft and lifter problems (threw a rod once) and now has stainless steel in the oil filter and you're not quite sure what's going on but the engine only has 1400 hours and you're beginning to suspect that it's just a bad engine that chews up cam shafts. It's just one thing after another. Do you rebuild? Swap out? Buy New? Does anyone have any idea about the NET cost of these options for a Lycoming IO-360 on an M20J (i.e. after trading in the existing motor which can probably be rebuilt depending on what's wrong with it, and nobody really knows yet what's wrong?)

I go up to NYC this Friday for orientation. I'm not sure what it can do. My M20J has G500 and I'm wondering whether a bluetooth could be rigged either directly or through iPhone and into the glass. There is also a web app, CloudAhoy.com that might be useful, and there are some companies working on putting TCAS and other goodies in it. I don't think it would replace the glass panel, but would probably give you a few useful bits of information related to your phase of flight (t/o, landing, navigating restricted airspace, etc. I'm really into it so I'm eager to hear anything anybody's heard...

I noticed how many people want pressurization. Amen! Are there any engineers in the house? Wouldn't it be possible to turn the interior plastic panels into carbon fibre panels with some high performance gap sealant between them? This would create a rigid interior balloon inside the aircraft. Then you pump up the balloon using exhaust to operate a hyperefficient linear pump drawing fresh air from a clean external air-scoop, humidify it somehow. This gives you, effectively, a double-hull with the interior carbon-fibre hull fully pressurized. I don't know enough about carbon-fiber, but seems like it should be able to handle the pressure without affecting the exterior hull just as a highly pressurized Coca-Cola can can stay in your refrigerator without bending it out of shape. Control rods, fuel lines, etc. would fit in the semicocque hull or in a pressure sealed locker under the floor. After you strip out the old plastic panels and replace them with carbons there might be some increase in weight (decreased load) but it might not be that much. The big problem is what to do about the windows. But given the size of the windows on the 787, there must be a solution. As for the door, this is the one circumstance where one door is actually an advantage because you would only have to retrofit that door with an air-lock. Am heading out to Seattle this week for my real job. Thought I might drop by Rocket Engineering and ask them about it. But if those brainiacs are working on it already, they would just tell me I'm nuts. It seems like a pretty obvious STC to me given the trend toward more altitude, power and avionics in GA.

Hi Folks, I am beginning a search for a plain 1990s M20J MSE a/c with a good IFR package. I'd look at an Encore too if there are any out there. It would be my first a/c, and getting me my instrument rating will be its first mission for me. Yes, people have told me to buy a high-time Piper first, but no I am not going to do it because the airplane market is so dysfunctional. I want to buy a plane I can stand to fly for several years. That way, I only pay for one soul-crushing depreciation instead of two. Folks in DC arranged a flight in a Mooney C for me and what a great airplane! I was so pleased, I was a little shocked. Sure beats the pants off a 172. Why not buy a "C"? I've met people who were very satisfied with their mid-1990's J. What I heard was that mid 1990s J's were built after the company pulled itself back together, got back to basics and put anti-carrosive material in the fuselage and wing components. (Fewer fuel leaks?) The C's I have seen have corrosion problems to some degree, maybe it's just the damp DC climate. Both J's and C's stick to the Mooney philosophy of low-drag speed generated by a cheap-to-run, reliable four cylinder io-360. But J's have a slightly longer fuselage and less TT and pretty much the same fuel burn. Less money spent on fuel and maintenance means better care for the a/c and more time in the air learning to become a good, safe pilot. Am I right? I have insurance commitments and (soon) financing and a tie-down for sure and a wait-list spot for a hangar. No rush, but if you think you might want to sell your MSE eventually to somebody who appreciates all things Mooney and the care that owners lavish upon them, you might let me know!

Craig, Not that I'm interested... no, no, not at all. That old bird isn't still for sale, is it?