Ragsf15e

Have you taken apart the chain assembly and turned the jackscrew by hand to see which part is binding- chain/wheel or screw?

As the other two guys said, just needs cleaning and new grease. There are lots of threads on the same issue. Other possibilities, there’s a “friction screw” on some models it’s sideways into the manual trim wheel if I remember right. It could also be old / hard grease in the chain assembly directly underneath the manual wheel (in the belly).

If you get it running, nice and hot, then do a mag check, SF is fine, no? If so, I’d think it’s unlikely the SF. Was the engine completely off for the prop strike check? Are the mag grounding wires on the correct mags? Because it sounds like it starting on the right mag… Also, it sounds like you had a good workable hot start technique before, but it might help to say exactly what you’re doing to hot start it just to help the troubleshooting. I have same setup with SF on the left and hot starts are pretty easy as you saw before, so clearly something is amiss…

Sometimes i think people report +\-10 kts windsheer when they hit a couple bumps down final. Especially if they aren’t stabilized.

Is it only you in the airplane and limited baggage? Or maybe two people and limited baggage? When you’re real close to fwd cg limit it’s harder to set the nose down gently or keep it off.

Any thoughts to just doing an overhaul at a reputable shop? They can do it as well as a reman even on an old engine. I realize that the deposit might be an issue but with such a long lead time there might be a way around that? It might save half that time or more…

Ominous looking 13k peaks across the valley from kmmh as we got ready to depart this morning. Took off at ~745 am and the DA was already 8800’! Planned a short flight, so we only had 30gallons of fuel and she climbed out real nice even with four of us plus baggage!

Stec has a 30 year old analog option (I have an stec 30a) which nobody installs now. The newer digital stec is not approved for Mooney. If the stec30a works as mine does, it’s great but it doesn’t fly a “coupled” approach with or without gps. So sure, the autopilot will work without gps but it’s not a good comparison. The gfc-500 is head and shoulders above any of the older autopilots and likely much better than the other new ones (doesn’t the Aerocruze have a pretty high minimum altitude on approaches?).

Thanks, that helped a lot.

I had it pulled back a bit because of the bumps, but usually I do descend under full power if it’s smooth although I don’t normally change the mixture until entering the pattern. If I started LOP, and add a little through the descent, I guess I wouldn’t know exactly where im set? If I don’t change mixture during descent it stays lop even though the servo is slowly increasing ff during the descent. Do you start lop descent and then start adding a little mixture as you descend?

Awesome results, enjoy!

I agree it needed to be leaner on landing, however, i cruised lean of peak and left it there during descent. That works fine during the descent and lower power entering the pattern, but it needs to be set richer (not as much as i did) to set up for max power in case of a go around. If i just left the mixture at cruise setting it would be much too lean if I tried to go around. Hard thing is having a better guess for the optimum full power position that high. I agree I probably was way too rich but don’t have a way to set it perfectly in the pattern without going full power and setting target egt like on takeoff/climbout.

Thanks. I guess I missed the part about high DA in the other thread, but I remembered you guys saying yours idles ~600… I actually checked mine at home today before takeoff and it was at 500-550! It ran ok there for a second and I just thought my surefly was awesome! Well apparently that high DA thing is real.

Fun flight today! 617nm, KSFF to KMMH (Eastern Washington to Central Calif), fully loaded with wife, two kids, maybe 50lbs below mgw with 58gallons of fuel. Still landed with ~18! First time running a tank dry too… watched for the pressure to drop and caught it without even a stumble - thanks MS! Weird thing for me though… density altitude was very high on landing. Say 9500’. I didn’t go full rich in the pattern but maybe 1/2” from it. On rollout the engine died. Wife and kids were a little freaked out but I’ve heard that can happen. Was a little embarrassing (although I had enough smash to roll off the runway and turn onto the ramp). The fbo called on ctaf and said, “when you get the engine started, follow the golf cart to your parking spot.” Thanks for noticing . Thankfully the engine started relatively easily. So what happened? Throttle all the way closed, too rich, flooded it is my guess?

Also, there’s a circuit breaker for the gear warning on mine which will shut off the alarm if it gets stuck on. I’ve had to use that once because the alarm is brutal.

Or, if you wanted to shut off your gen/alt, pull the field CB (or shut off the master, but obviously that kills a lot more). Most VRs (at least newer ones) have built in over voltage protection too.

It seems that the throttle switch is working, but the one on the downlock is not. That’s where I’d start.

New cylinder or door handle? I think it makes a difference…

Many of us do appreciate you going through all this and dealing with the naysayers/complaints/negativity. Hopefully there is eventually a way we can keep these Dukes planes going (without significant $$ to convert to something else).

12 yo shock discs on an F are practically new…

Gns355 is real nice and will be supported for a long time. Cheaper than a gtn 650 but that’s another option. Finally an avidyne 440 would work as well. Personally I like garmin.

It can possibly work the other way too - if all your accessories are old and run out, then factory maybe makes more sense instead of adding in oh of each individual accessory.

Make sure you compare like services. New/reman usually comes with all new accessories (fuel servo, alternator, mags, etc). Overhauls maybe some, maybe not.

Yeah I agree with that in cruise. I had a significant exhaust leak and it just barely raised my cruise CO. It was very noticeable on climb and on the ground though. I did have a few old “pass through” holes in the firewall that are now sealed. It might have been the big dog of “leaks” too as an exhaust riser came completely disconnected from the cylinder…

One other consideration… since it’s only in climb, it’s most likely exhaust going out the exhaust pipe that’s getting into the cabin through one of the ways discussed above. If you were seeing it in cruise or on the ground, I’d be looking for an exhaust leak before it exits the engine compartment. However, looking through the exhaust is a reasonable step. It can be pressurized and soap bubbles if needed too.