madreg98

I have a 1988 M20J with 500 hrs following a factory reman. Had a conversation with my on-field repair shop who does the annual and they said that every two years they inspect the exhaust manifold gaskets with the expectation of replacing them. Is this typical?

I apologize for bringing up the usable fuel topic. After a search on the forum I see that there are a number of threads on the subject. I will refer to those.

Thanks for all the response. Have convinced him to remove vacuum system but he is still digging his heels in on the ADF. We agreed to table for future discussion. BTW-the GFC500 is amazing. Also got back about 25lbs of usable. Which brings up another topic. I have been told that the usable weight of a typical aircraft is not very accurate due to its starting from a factory calculated number and modified by various AP's along the way via calculation as well. Is it worth going through the exercise of actually measuring weight and CG especially if you are trying to max passengers, baggage and distance? I had my AP unoffically weigh my plane after the GFC500 upgrade and he told me to not do an official since the usable was less than the calculated.

Installing two G5's in M20J. Partner wants to keep original gyro for backup while I want to clean up panel and increase usable weight by removing vacuum system. He also wants to keep old ADF for am radio. Opinions?? Plane has 430W. We also use ipads with Stratux for secondary panel.

Just purchased a 1988 M20j. Panel has two G5's, and a Century attitude indicator that drives a Century 2000 autopilot. The G5's are not totally compatible with the autopilot so need to keep the Century attitude indicator. The original AI and one of the G5s is located vertically in the center of the six pack. I would like to switch the other G5 with the original AI so I have both G5's in the vertical alignment and put the original AI someplace on the panel. I am looking for a reasonably priced electronics shop that could do this. I fly out of KSGJ but can go where I have to in northern FL or southern GA. I have used Island Aviation in the past but Gary at Fernandina Beach closed up shop. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

need to get from the Jacksonville area to KCAK with my instructor the first or second week of April. Will be purchasing a nice M20j and hopefully flying it back to KSGJ. Anyone interested in ferrying two people who will "share the fuel" cost please let me know. Wife won't let me fly commercial and it would be a long rented car ride.

thanks for the info. They are no longer an MSC and I talked to them. They were the group that said they haven't worked on a Mooney for a while. Maybe it was just the guy I talked to.

Looking for a good prebuy for a mooney at Arkon-Canton. Spoke with AP on field and he didn't sound very familiar with mooney's and he couldn't even discuss scheduling until the second week in April. Was hoping to close by end of March. Anyone know of a reputable AP in that area? Dennis