gmonnig

I've pretty much believed that I could fly any single piston plane without getting too nervous...... but there are a few that give me pause. The 4P, Glasair III, and SX300. They are just such hot ships that an engine out seems like a death sentence. I'd take the Lancair ES-P over the 4P any day. Fixed gear, bigger wing, 1500lb useful, pressurized, 240kts and way more docile in the pattern. The LX-7 fixed a lot of the 4P stuff but I guess it doesn't really matter. They are all hundreds of grand out of my price range!

My dream plane has always been a 310D. I've came so close to pulling the trigger several times, but reality sets in. I don't have the mission for one and maintenance would be impossible to justify. I probably don't even need a four seat plane anymore, hence the reason for this topic. My seats in the Mooney have been folded down since I bought it and the pull to experimentals has been exciting.

If you were to sell your beloved Mooney, what would be your Experimental aircraft of choice? RV10? Sling TSI? Velocity? I am kind of leaning towards simple design like the new Sonex Highwing or RV8. Just curious what Mooney drivers would lean towards.

I get this 100%. I am very hands on with permission from two A&Ps and the most difficult stuff done by my "dealer.... Garmin Dealer that is". I too hate paying for multiple subscriptions that drive up the fixed costs of flying and Garmin has a monopoly on avionics now. It's irritating enough that I am at the cusp of going experimental so I can do all of the work on my plane. To save a few grand a year on annuals and not have to wait months or a year to get work done on the Mooney is a huge benefit. I'm gonna start a new post on what people would build, if they could.

I'm a controller and have given no-gyro vectors quite a few times. I even gave an old King Air A90 no-gyro vectors last summer. Got him where he needed to go. His HSI was messed up, IMC and I just asked if his Attitude indicator or turn coordinator was working. He gave the affirmative and away we went. "Half standard rate turn to the right.... Start turn.... stop turn." Gave it a few minutes then updated his heading again. Pretty easy. I did ask if he could fly a heading with the compass and he said maybe but the reverse sensing messed with him in the clouds. Got him to VMC conditions and magically the HSI came alive again. The Attitude indicator and a controller is more help than the compass when poo hits the fan.

I have been considering a deposit on this kit. I want to see if fly first. The older our planes get, the more interesting Experimental aircraft get. They are probably within a couple weeks of the first flight.

It does in fact power the gmu11. So in a total power loss from the ship, you will have heading info from battery backup. Not sure about the G5s but it does on the GI-275.

I have a few of these switches. Bought a bunch off of another scrapped Mooney. Which switch is it or do you know the amps of the breaker?

Ah Ok, so maybe not the G5s. I had dual G5s in my other plane but kept the whiskey compass with that setup. I'm definitely not trying to be defiant here. My situation is unique because I did a single piece windshield mod and the old compass wouldn't swing mounted to the center bar anymore. I bought a new panel mounted Airpath and it worked perfectly in "one spot only" on the panel, right where the attitude indicator normally went. I flew in this goofy setup for the summer. When I did the GI-275, a third compass was not purchased to go on the center post because it supposedly wasn't necessary. I figured no need to by whiskey compasses to total a G5 if I didn't have to have it. My friend did his IFR checkride in his Mooney with G5s and an INOP compass. Before the checkride he verified with 3 DARs of the legality (because it would fail you on a checkride), 2 of the 3 said they interpret the FAR as it being totally legal. He obviously passed his checkride with no issues. We are both FAA guys too, so not trying to slip one by the big guys.

You do bring up the point that has me hung up on the compass thing too. The Type Certificate. But if the FAA classifies the GMU11 with certain displays to be used as primary magnetic display, then that satisfies the requirement of FAR91.205. Even back in 2017 they were talking about this with the dual G5 setups in Cessnas. My plane is in annual but I'll dig a little deeper into this since my A&P is a Dynon and Garmin dealer/installer. I'll report back in a week.

Wonder how Garmin got the TBM940 certified without a compass? I get where people are coming from with this but how many levels of protection do we need? What if a screen goes out? A-Well there’s a redundant screen? What if the ships power is lost? A- The units have a battery backup. What if the magnetometer goes out? Well the screens are connected to a waas navigator and revert to ground track, still better than a compass. What happens if you must shed an electrical load and can’t keep the GTN powered, and simultaneously lose the gmu11 heading reference? Well, it’s time to start cranking the gear down to land….. and I still have four battery backed up screens. Both 275s, the Tie breaking AV20S, and an iPad running with a Stratus 3 ADAHRS. The iPad approach could certainly save the day. It’s a miracle that I used to fly IFR with a single vacuum pump, single nav radio, and paper charts. Kind of gives me the chills now.

Yeah I don't have the install manual in front of me but I'm pretty sure with the HSI and reversion switch, it has a different requirement. I know a single 275 with vacuum instruments for backup does need the Compass. The GI-275 3-in-1 is the multifunction display and not the HSI, so I'm guessing there's a difference in there.

Nice! I have a panel mount compass too but just didn't install it with the Garmins. There is only one spot where the compass can be corrected and it was exactly where the AID resides. So I'm gonna let my buddy try to install it in his Mooney. Otherwise, a new compass will be for sale on here shortly!

Legit question, my plane has a pair of GI-275s and no whiskey compass. Does the G3x touch with magnetometer not fulfill the requirements for magnetic direction device? The manual on the -275 says that it is a replacement for primary heading. It's not approved for EASA registered aircraft though.

My 65’ E is the coldest airplane I’ve ever flown in. I have all new hoses, so nothing blocking them. Checked and lubed up the heat box on the firewall, it’s working ok. Now I’m on to finding air leaks. My over head vent is permanently open for some reason so there is a little air coming through the four overhead vents. They can/are closed but I might have to make a cover to go over the exterior vent. There just isn’t a lot of pressure coming through the vents. Hell by time the air gets to the defrost holes, it’s not warm at all. Super weird. Good luck! I wouldn’t want a turbo on my E just for the fact that I’d freeze to death at FL180.

I've flown behind all of the screens and ended up with the 275s in my E. I had a pair of G5s installed in my Comanche 250 just two month before they announced the new "GI-275". I put about 500hrs on those G5s and really liked them. The reason I didn't do the Aspen, in the Comanche or Mooney, was wanting to get rid of the vacuum system all together. The Aspen required a backup for IFR, or a second screen. So the G5s had redundancy, battery backups, played nicely with my GNX480, Stec30 and gave my autopilot GPSS. I am extremely pleased with the GI-275s in my Mooney. They aren't smaller than the G5s screen since there is no bezel. They are very sharp and if you think they are cluttered, they can be customized to show whatever you want. Problem solved. Most people just get used to all the info. I only have 4hrs behind the 275s and feel comfortable. Only thing I've told myself is IFR approaches are much easier on the dedicated HSI screen. It shows all the good info you need and none of the clutter of the enhanced HSI.

I thought it'd be nice to put a glove box in. And definitely a mount for an iPad, maybe even fit the pro. I have a custom mount on the center of the yoke, but I hate having extra weight on a control surface. There aren't a lot of places in the Mooney for iPads.

It does look clean! I have two 275s already, so a third would look like I'm flexing a little. I was planning on this E model being my forever plane and have spent money to reflect that. But I must say, I've been thinking about going experimental. I think engine monitors and a GFC500 will put me at the top 5% of E's out there, and will certainly put me in the "call for price" category..... which sucks

Very true but I actually have a ton of panel space. I have room for two CGR on the pilot side. That means the entire copilot side will be blank (already have it ready for install). Since I have a remote transponder, I still have room in the center stack for the GFC500 head. It might look weird with a completely empty copilot panel!

I'm having a hard time deciding between these engine monitors or none at all. My Tach is probably original and its making a lot of noise. I know it's on its way out. I've been shopping and best i can tell, a single Garmin EIS or two CGR30s are going to run $5k. I'll probably work with my A&P to install these. Or maybe I should just replace the Tach. Ugh, airplanes...

That's probably where I need to start. The GTN is not new but now that everything is connected to each other, including the USB port. So now it's confusing on what subscriptions I need and how to load each thing.

Weird, I think they did load up the terrain via USB. I'm going to try and load my backup card for the 650 with a new update. Hopefully that'll clear things up. The maintenance shop was confused by the message and thinks the card might be messed up in the GTN.

I recently got my 275s installed. We loaded up all the software and databases through the GSB-15 USB port. Took forever since the terrain is a gig or two. Upon completion, I noticed the message in the attached photo. After a few mins while taxiing to the fuel pump, the GTN650 came back on like normal. After leaving the fuel pump to fly home I got the message again. My GTN database is expired since I was not flying IFR but would that cause this corrupt message?

I sold the entire system to Mr Friday. It was definitely working when it was removed. I was actually reluctant to take it out of the plane since I wasn't sure when I would get the GFC500 installed. Using the switches on the control head was a little weird. I feel like they weren't labeled well, or they didn't make sense to me. The guy I bought the plane from gave me the crash course on using it but in the moment of purchasing it, I was just impressed that the old system worked so well with a new Garmin 650 navigator. Flew it all the way from the south tip of Florida to Kansas City with the autopilot doin it's thing. It wasn't removed until September I think.

LASAR did a great job making me a 9hole panel and a copilot side panel. Just got my panel powder coated and turned out great. If you don’t need that many holes in your panel, I think the 8hole setup has a little more spacing. The one I have is very close spacing. I think around $500 total for both? $150 for powder coating. The Gi-275s, AV20S and Garmin USB port are still missing in this picture.