Mark89114

They missed all of the takeoff video....as far as i can tell.....that is the excitement part.

The problem is they are voting with their feet and moving....spreading their idiocy eveywhere.

But it didn’t fail at the dents.....

Well, I just flew 5:45 today from VA to AR and I was done. Something about being in the constant noise and vibration takes its toll. I think my longest day was 6.5, had to stop for fuel which helps a bit. I also had someone else along to pay attention and talk to.

Just a word of wisdom on this whole topic as this just happened to me yesterday. Make sure you leak check them, while it might seem like a trivial gasket replacement for whatever reason they are fussy. Over the years, we had finally gotten the gaskets to stop leaking, apparently it is a known issue with the IO-550? This annual we had to replace a cylinder, reused the thicker silicone/neoprene gasket as it was firmly bonded to the valve cover with sealant, see previous note about long term issue of getting them to stop leaking. The cylinder head replacement and reinstall of the covers and subsequent leak test was no issue. Flew a couple of test flight no issue, an unrelated EGT probe and uncowling and the mechanic went back and tightened up the valve cover screws, that was just enough to squeeze the gasket out of position. I took a quick test flight to get cheap gas and saw this oil pouring out of engine cowling. There was a mess of oil coming out, would have been a big issue if I would have been on a longer flight. Removed the old gaskets and installed the "rubber paper" looking ones that came with the rebuild kit. Still took some finagling as they continued to leak. Eventually ended up removing the spark plug wire hold down and voila not more leak. The plug wire hold down seemed to be interfering with the hold down. My informational session for the day.

No.

Everything is current, airplane is hangered, doesn't fly in much moisture. I check the pitot static drains and alternate static. Question is how do you test the drains for leakage? That pitot one is riveted in there, I think and I don't recall any access. Will look next time. Pushing into yellow, it doesn't vary, 90-130 it jumps quickly up and down in landing/final approach it is pretty steady. Right now just throwing it out there to see if there is any collective wisdom. I will try to get some video. Thanks. Mark

The airspeed indicator in my 2000 Ovation is reading “funny”, 90 to 130 kias, it seems to jump around a bit, up and down 3-4 knots, doesn’t appear to be an issue faster or slower. Again this is just approximate. Just curious if airspeed indicators wear out? I am assuming some type of gears connected to a bellows internally? Or is it the lines feeding the system? I do check the pitot and static drains, and pulling the alternate static air doesn’t seem to make any difference. Just looking for thoughts on where to start troubleshooting.

I agree, seemed strange how the right wing broke off when it didn’t even hit, that I saw. And the specs weren’t particularly high for a modified ground loop.

I love my Mooney for traveling and that is how I use it....average leg length is probably 3+ hours, I want to get back to aviating. The ultralight “type” airplanes, low and slow is something I have an interest in doing. My interest was piqued by the endless YouTube videos and a recent Craigslist ad in the aviation section (yes CL now has an aviation segment). That airplane was a 2 seater, semi cockpit contraption, upon further investigation it doesn’t have N number and apparently a lot of them aren’t legal as they exceed the weight limit, the legalities escape me as I haven’t done the appropriate research, just starting. Hopefully, someone on here with the common sense to own a Mooney has looked into this before and can give me some high level advice.

At least he is honest.

What requires a cowling to be replaced? Aesthetics, supposed speed improvements, better coolong?

Ok, as most people know electricity is a funny thing and some mechanics are good at it and some aren't. We probably weren't as efficient as we should or could have been at diagnosing the problem summarized as gear not working...... We checked all switches, relays, etc. For some reason we were not getting power to the main relay, power that runs the motor up and down, not control voltage...last thing we checked obviously, because it is a simple wire from the CB to the control relays and who would have suspected that? The gear actuator power wire has 3 canon plugs from the CB to the actual relays. One is hidden back behind the CB panel which would have made us cry if we had to get into that one or replace the CB as there is no free wire to move the panel out. The other is the belly of the plane which is easy to get to and the third is in the lower sidewall. Removed the side panel and all of the labels have since faded away...... We were able to trace the wires from belly up to the proper connector. Removed the connector and the power pin was showing signs of wear and arcing. Tested for voltage from CB, that checks, cleaned up the pin a bit and now we have voltage to the relays. Put everything back together and all tested good. For whatever reason that connector decided to fail when it was on the jacks after we did the nose wheel work. I feel qualified to help diagnose other Mooney gear issues as I am familiar with it completely!!

Beacause I am lazy....what is the operational difference between the theee models? What is everybody buying?

Will try and keep this clear but I tend to ramble..... Replaced some nose steering parts due to wear, that required the nose gear to be removed, put it all back together and we had the plane on jacks so we were doing the testing for an annual. Nothing looks mechanically wrong, in terms of binding, etc. Gear ran up and down, did it several times and then the 4th time, gear only partially retracted. Put gear switch to down and gear went down, all normal indications. Tried it again, and it worked. Tested the manual extension and it worked fine, reset everything, tested again, worked normally, thought we would try the electric again and it only came up halfway. Would not cycle down with electric. So used the manual system to extend. Reset everything and now won't even partially retract. All of these operations on ground require us to use gear bypass button and the CB IS NOT popping on the gear actuation circuit, no CB's are popping. The motor isn't getting warm, when it was working. We have couple of theories, but it was like 100 degrees today so we quit..... Do CB's fail partially? Damn near impossible to get behind the CB panel and test. The gear relays are clicking like they are receiving a signal and we do have 24 volts on one of the pins when the gear is in up and the override button is pressed. Thinking maybe the contactor is shot internally? We have banged on them, but no luck with that technique. We briefly ran the motor directly, very carefully with an old battery, but it ran out of voltage before we could run it though a full cycle. Maybe a bad spot on the armature? We have the wiring diagrams online, but they are about impossible to read. Does anybody have a better easier to read version? Our current best guess is the relays are bad, but we are unsure why there are two? Guessing one is for retract and the other for extension? Again no wiring diagrams to trace it out. Thank you, Mark

Did some quick and dirty research and got typical internet sales and marketing nonsense, found numbers from 2200 to 3600 feet for required landing distance, no idea on weights, temps, etc. Back when I was flying a Hawker 800 professionally we weren't allowed to do anything less that 4500 without getting permission. If you read the performance charts that number could be ridiculously low, seems to me like 2500 feet, obviously that was max effort, standing on the brakes. I never had to do anything that dramatic but I am sure it would shake and rattle everything loose. As someone else mentioned carrying extra speed over the fence is the biggest user of runway. I flew with one guy, supposedly more experienced that floated a thousand feet every time. He was a moron, one time we used 4500 feet in a Citation 500 series which is easy to fly. You would be surprised at the number of borderline competent people flying jets, this incident just proved that.

Not to speculate....but is/was dale the pilot? The nascar guys have a poor record of safety when the driver is also a pilot.

Too soon????? Over statement of the century.....it has only been 4+ years? I think the price point is too high for what we are getting.

I apologized in advance for my poor verbal description!!! In figure 1, it is Part 33. The bushing isn’t even labeled under this diagram, it is about 1.5” long, which doesn’t look like the diagram. LASAR said this was the correct part, except for the OD getting bigger, which is where the mystery comes from, the screw as shown in diagram is now a std bolt, which means it doesn’t fit into the nicely machined countersink on the airframe. The original bushing in there had cracked in half and the bronze part was out of round leading to sloppy fit. Somewhere along the line something has changed and we are not aware of how to proceed. I will update everybody Monday if I get to this.....

Bear with me on my descriptions and dimensions, on the road and don’t have access to details. Summary is, airplane in for annual and a lot of slop was found in linkage that resides in nose gear well that drives nose wheel steering. Decided to replace worn parts as needed, despite no issues. This linkage pictured is attached to right side of nose gear well underneath a tiny little access panel. The bushing internal to this part had cracked and was broken. Ordered new part from LASAR and the OD is 3/8” and the original was 1/4” (dimensions are TBD) but summary is the new bushing is bigger. Original plan was to get new bushing, under assumption it was same OD and just manufacture the new brass bushing as Mooney doesn’t sell the brass part pictured. We(mechanic and myself) assumed they superseded part with larger bushing. However, before we start reaming holes larger need to verify proper course of action. My machinist removed the brass bushings and the ID is 1/4”, so the new oversized bushing fits perfectly. The question is, what is the proper repair procedure for the pivot that is welded into cage of airframe? Trying to get this repaired over weekend, but will wait till Monday to contact experts. Thank you, Mark

A HOLD????? I would declare an emergency and ask for penalty vectors...…..

And that is sad news....

So does this mean we can buy the KI-300 an adapter and actually replace our KI-256? They have the STC but can they deliver the actual product? It has only been 3 years......

I just recently started getting in flight with stratus and foreflight. Not 100% sure how it works or what the reliability of it either.

I just flew into Midway last month. No issues. I arrived at 9 am approximately. Also no weather to be concerned about so that probably optimizes things a bit. Landed on 31L and a quick taxi to Atlantic. Didn't think the fees were outrageous, gas price was gouging, no delays leaving either, it was IFR but not bad, was going southbound which probably helped a lot. I wouldn't worry about it.