Hillard

Thanks Scott - there will be a few of us in Australia that will be interested to listen in.

When the fairings had been removed, they were not in as bad a condition as they looked. So my A&P used his plastic repair kit and they came up like new. At 65% power at 7000' they make about a 3-4 knot difference in TAS. I decided to order a new inner gear door through LASAR and am waiting for Mooney to supply it.

Thanks for those ideas. I will have them removed and take them to a specialist repairer that welded up a crack in my dashboard. At USD250 (plus freight plus tax) each for new ones, I’d like to find a repair option if possible. I take the point about the their deliberately being a softer material but think that carbon fiber should not bena problem if the gear is correctly rigged - but I’m interested if others take a different view.

Brad, The aft gear fairings on my 1995 J model are cracked and broken so I'm keen to replace them - but not at the prices Mooney charge! Any chance of your making a carbon fiber set for me? John Hillard My Beauty, Australia

Juergen, I'd think hard about whether you want to get rid of your vac system. I had a KI300 and 310 fitted in December and have had to replace the Ki300 twice due first to an overheating issue and then (with a replacement unit) where the KI300 failed a couple of times after about 30 mins in cruise (see attached photo - the vac A/H tells the truth). I agree that the system works well - when it works - but I am very glad that I'd kept my vac A/H as a backup. BK have been good about replacing the units but I think that there has to be significant doubt about their reliability. regards John

My vac ah sits right beside the ki300 so I’m not relying on it. I’d not heard about it being prone to upset but will check it in march. In the mountains in summer here, turbulence is not hard to find. The glitches are disappointing but I didn’t want to overhaul my ki258 and needed something to drive my kap150. If all else fails, I’ll fit a garmin 500txi but I’d prefer to avoid them if i can. We often hear that reliability is the great advantage of these solid state instruments but I haven’t seen any real evidence for that. I’m on my fourth IFD540 box in five years and I have friends who have had multiple failures on garmin stuff. then again, maybe I’ll just overhaul the ki258!!!

He is. And I'm pleased to say that Bendix King have shipped the replacement already. I'm now away until mid March but will then test the replacement and report.

I've now done 15 hours flying (and 9 approaches incl ILS, RNAV, overlay NDB, hold) with the KI300 (and KI310) since having it fitted in December . The main issue with it has been overheating. I've now replicated the problem by leaving the plane in the sun without a cover - it initialised fine at temperatures to 38degC but did not at 40degC. It would not leave the "heating mode" and start the "alignment" phase - I ran it for more than 10 minutes before shutting down. These are high temperatures but not extreme for Australia and the USA. BendixKing say that they will be send a replacement in the hope that this is just a bad unit but I'll be interested in others experiences with it in high temperatures. My take on it so far: 1. It does everything that the KI258 did in driving my KAP150 autopilot but with a bit more precision. 2. The speed and altitude tapes are useful but they are not really a backup since they run off the same pitot static system. The built in VSI has been surprisingly good as it is effectively an instantaneous reading and does not have the lag of the main instrument. 3. I chose to leave my vacuum system in and just replaced the worn out KI258 with a cheap vacuum A/H in a secondary location on the panel. If your vac system works then I can't see why you'd want to remove it. I've never had a vac pump failure perhaps because I replace them at the same time I have my mags overhauled. They are a relatively cheap part. This gives me triple redundancy for attitude as I have the backup vac pump on the vac A/H and the battery on the Ki300. 4. The KI310 is a surprising large (5.8 x 5.25 x 1 inches) box for what it does. It is very tight behind my panel so, to find a place for it, we had to remove the DME. I'm now away for five weeks but will do some further testing on my return after the replacement KI300 has been fitted. By that time, I'll have to do a long trip to test it in 40degC temperatures but will do so.

I’d not be overly concerned as the reaction when the KI300 went offline was similar to what I’d experienced in the past when the KI258 needed an overhaul. But it is disappointing as I’d hoped that the digital KI300 would just disengage the autopilot quickly enough to maintain straight and level. i’ll be in touch with BK shortly to see whether they can suggest what caused the problem.

I’ve had a ki300/310 fitted but have only been able to use it for about 2 hours so far (too much bushfire smoke where I live). The unit looks and feel pretty good and flew a coupled RNAV well. However, I had a failure on my last flight when the ki300 failed with red bars across everything. It was a 35 degree day and the aircraft had been in the sun all day so I suspect it had overheated as my ipad shut down as well. The speed and altitude tapes came back after about 15 mins and the ah did briefly before staying off for the rest of the flight. It first showed “heating” and then “aligning” but did not show anything other than red bars. At that stage, I’d not known how to force it to shutdown and restart but I do now. The following day I started the plane on the ground and everything worked. I retained my vac system on my no 2 ah so it just meant that i needed to hand fly.I’m travelling now and will be back later this month. Smoke permitting, I’ll then do some extended flying to better test everything. I’ll try to fly it on a hot day to see whether the ki300 shutdown will happen again and whether a reset will fix it.Btw the autopilot put the airplane into a steep bank before the ki300 failed presumably because it puts out garbage before it fails.

I've just ordered the KI300 and KI310 for USD4773 total. The M20J/K/L were included in an AML issued last month for the KI310 and I can't understand why Bendix King haven't even made a press release about it. I'm in the bind of having a late model J with a King avionics and IFD540 that I'm happy with despite the KI258 needing overhaul. I can't fit a G5 (as it is not approved for the IFD540) and can't source an Aspen Max system as stock is not available here yet. I realise that Bendix King have over-promised and under-delivered with their recent products but, at that price, it is worth a try.

Mikhail, You are not alone. When we fitted it in Nov 2017, my A&P spent quite a few hours figuring this out. What has been your experience with the two traps (referred to elsewhere in this thread) that Lycoming set for us in doing this installation?: a) the prop oil line supplied with the engine from the factory cannot be installed due to interference with the engine mount; b) the different fuel pump now supplied with the engine (and supposedly equivalent) puts out a pressure higher than the 30psi limit imposed by Mooney. I'm interested to see whether Lycoming have made any effort to address these issues that have been raised with them in recent years.

Jonathan, I fitted an factory overhaul IO360-A3B6 engine to my J model in November 2017 and found that the fuel pressure was running at 30-35psi. Lycoming had supplied a different and supposedly “equivalent” fuel pump. Apparently this different pump runs 30-35psi. My A&P would not sign it out as the factory sets the pressure limit to 30psi. The engine importer paid to supply and fit a new fuel pump with the old part number and it now runs at 22-25psi. Apparently the higher fuel pressure should work just fine with the engine - but it does not conform to the airframe manufacturer limitations so it is not legal.

Dan, I (finally) picked up the plane on Monday and have done 6 hours so far. Temperatures have stabilised and all seems to be going well. You'll be amused (but probably not surprised) to know that Lycoming have invented yet another impediment to the fitting of this engine to a Mooney. We started it ten days ago and everything was fine - except that the fuel pressure gauge was pegged to the right. We then found that Lycoming now fit a different (and supposedly equivalent) fuel pump to that engine. A search on Google showed that other people are finding that it actually runs at nearer 35psi - a fact that Lycoming freely admits. This is a problem if Mooney have a limit of 30psi as manufacturer limits trump component manufacturer limits. It appears that there are a number of people in the US right now running their engines under the fiction that their gauge shows 29psi. The engine importer here recognise the issue and replaced the fuel pump with the old model (at their cost) and, guess what, the fuel pressure is back where it should be. The one remaining issue is that the prop control is sitting about an inch out from the firewall. It does not affect practical operations but it does look odd. Did you find the same and, if so, how did you modify it? regards John

Despite this issue having been around for at least six months, mooney and lycoming appear to have done nothing to resolve it. We have just discovered this issue after starting up an overhauled A3B6 engine last week. Everything was fine except the fuel pressure gauge is hard over to the right. No response yet from mooney or lycoming. Despite it being listed on the type certificate and marketed for the 20J, the engine supplied by lycoming is incompatible with the airframe in three respects: a) fuel pressure higher than mooney limit b( prop oil line supplied interferes with engine mount and has to be replaced at your cost (usd500) c) extra parts required from mooney to rig prop control cable (another usd500) Did lycoming tell me any of this when they supplied the engine? - no. I’ve only discovered it from mooneyspace. The engine supplied is not “fit for purpose” and lycoming appear to care not a jot. I treat their statements about “customer care” as utter garbage.