Ragsf15e

Yes, mine is like that too. It’s only on when the gear is all the way down. It works regardless of the cockpit lighting settings as well. It sounds like @Hank only works with cockpit lighting on?

Interesting. Mine has that light separate from the cabin lights. It comes on when the gear is fully down and makes it easier to see the indicator window.

Mine is like that too but also has a light that comes on underneath the floor indicator when the gear is down. Does your C not have a light under the floor indicator?

My above post is how mine was solved… here’s a 3 page thread on low voltage…

I had the exact same issue. It took 2 years and many thousands of dollars. Finally found the corroded connection myself with a digital voltage meter. I’m not saying this will do it for you, but it takes less than an hour and is easy… Get a dvm. Remove cowling. Get alligator clips attached to the alternator output so you can stay away from the prop. Have a friend stand on the brakes and start the engine. Measure voltage at your cigar lighter to ensure it’s really low. If it’s below 14v, then Measure voltage at the alternator output. If you see 14v there, next check the voltage further back (i used the connection at a noise filter attached to the firewall). If 14v, check it where power comes through the 60/70amp fuse in the cockpit. If 14v, check it on the bus behind the circuit breakers. You’re looking for the connector where voltage is 14v on one side and less on the other. Mine was on the bus where the alternator input connected to the power bus. Once you find it, it’s easy to fix.

I’m guessing these are the stops? It hits the head of the bolt before the tubes hit? So if yours completely broke it dropped off on the ramp and the fbo person was likely aware…

Ouch. did anything happen to the stops in the tail? And what does the tail look like when those are the only stops?! I basically don’t ever let an fbo tow my airplane. I put a sign (1/2” pvc is good) through the nose gear hollow truss that says don’t tow, call owner. Most places have been ok with me just pushing it where they want me to tie it down.

I use the “power boost” any time above about 2000’, clean air and not imc. I also run full throttle all the time unless I’m in the pattern, instrument pattern or sightseeing. However, I’m always higher than you as I’m out west. You probably want ~75% or below power, so around 23”/2500 rpm or less for engine longevity according to lycoming. The mixture is up to you. Peak isn’t the hottest and it is fine up higher. In fact, it’s probably better than lean of peak if you get down around 60% power (up around 10,000). Around 50 rich of peak will be the hottest. You probably won’t want to be there. you need to learn about 100 rich of peak or ~20 lean of peak and the reasons to use them. Of course you can use other settings, but these are a starting point. Up around 8000’ you can use full throttle and experiment with the mixture without hurting anything because youll be at a low power due to the thin air. I wouldn’t experiment down at your 2-4000’ cruise as you could actually hurt it - which is hard to do in an na 360, but you could potentially get really hot or even detonate down there.

I crossed the Cascades that day too. It wasn’t a good day to cross in a non-fiki airplane, imc, with a non (or maybe barely) current instrument pilot in a new to him airplane. The next day (or maybe 2 days later) was clear and beautiful. I don’t think the ice or the autopilot or even his lack of currency/proficiency killed him. I think his judgment/overconfidence killed him. He should have sat in a hotel and waited for vfr weather. Hindsight is 20/20, but I think he should have been able to judge that one better.

Just be glad you didn’t hit the prop on that 3rd bounce! That’s the normal ending. Much more painful to both the ego and wallet.

I feel like it helps a lot with an idling engine but I didn’t measure the change. Couple weeks ago I did a bunch of these and pulled it back. Felt like I’d pulled up the gear!

I’m going to throw out one more technique that’s different than these are usually taught. We used this for emergency engine out landing in the USAF T-6. Pick your aim point while on downwind, usually ~500’ prior to your touchdown point but depends on winds. Configure with only gear abeam aim point. Turn base a couple seconds later. Now here’s the difference… hold that aim point no matter what (except for a low speed limit, say 80mph). So you hold the nose down to “fly into the impact point (aim point)” and note your airspeed. You’re hoping to see something just above your desired final airspeed and increasing (slowly). As long as you hold the aim point, you can use airspeed as your primary energy indicator. If it’s increasing, use flaps, slip or elongate your pattern. If it’s steady, do nothing. It takes a little practice to be ok with this technique.

One other way to “increase” energy is to pull the prop control all the way out. It’s a noticeable improvement in glide and normally we do these things without pulling it. In a real engine out glide situation, the prop control may already be out because it’s a good thing to do to increase glide range.

You should maybe put the suppliers info on that sketch too for saving. That was a great find!

I personally do them a little higher on energy (faster) than your speeds. Not because you want to land faster (you don’t), but because you have lots of methods to kill energy and no way to get it back. So i plan to start with no flaps, add in half during base (~90mph) when I’m starting to be sure about my winds and perch point working, and then full flaps and/or slip on final when I’m really sure that I’ve nailed my aim point and speed.

Some of these relays (possibly not on your newer model) are electronic switches mated to mechanical plungers. I haven’t taken one apart, but it would be interesting to see which part failed? Edit: oh, I see yours is the solenoid. I was thinking it was an up limit switch… Also, consider yourself lucky that it didn’t work perfectly on the ground and for the next 3 weeks and fail again on an ifr flight at max gross weight… intermittent problems are the worst.

Yes, you can display pressure altitude but that goes blank with the error message. My setup goes directly from the G5 to the transponder via serial cable. No more encoder with grey code! That’s why it’s weird.

Yes, I agree. Although I don’t want it broken, it would be a lot easier to fix if it was properly broken! It’s been in there about 6 years. I agree with re-racking it, ill give that a try. I did stick my head under the panel and everything is secure, accessible, and looks like great wiring.

Was the fuel and oil properly accounted for?

I also use hot start technique after initial start. If it doesn’t start, you can always do a cold start. If you do a cold start first (prime it), you can’t take that back.

So two times now on consecutive flights my GTX345 has popped an error message “No Altitude” or something like that (I need to look up exactly what it said in the manual). Sure enough, atc said they lost my altitude. It’s using my G5s as an encoder and they don’t show any errors or anything weird with the altitude. Both times I turned off the transponder, turned it back on, selected “alt” and it worked perfectly. Both times it was just after takeoff, and the transponder then worked flawlessly for a 3 hour flight. Any thoughts? Anyone know what kind of troubleshooting an avionics shop would want to do if it keeps happening? Heres the error, but I don’t think it lost contact with the g5s as it then worked fine for 3 hours?

I’ve had a similar audio issue after maintenance and it was due to the ignition leads not being tightened. In fact the top 4 were all loose. Might just want to check there’s no fraying and all are secure at the mag and plugs.

Possibly, but most of the Mooney ammeters are set up to just show current to/from the battery, not the total power being drawn by the electrical system.

I would check (and probably just redo) the radio ground. The vr is another good thing to look at though… Heres another thought… swap the antennas in the back of the radios and see if it switches to comm 2. That way you’ll know if it’s a shielding issue with the antenna or a power issue with the radio. I know it’s sometimes difficult to get to the back of the radios…

Yeah, I agree with you, maybe I was wishful thinking that he was solving the problem for those of us with the vintage cranks, but you might be right.