Aerodon

Getting a little off topic, but sometimes in my electric car I can get up to 25% regeneration. Services only required every 2 years, and I would not be surprised if the brake pads last 50 or 75k miles. Turbo props and jets get a lot of the energy spent climbing back on the way down. Single engines, not so much. Aerodon

I don't think you will be so lucky - its just a display, needs to be fed the information from the other boxes. Aerodon

DallasAvionics.Com has all the spec sheets including footprints. Aerodon

I needed to cut some parts this afternoon, so while I was at it I drew and cut the parts required for pedal extensions to do a trial fit. Now to find some 4130N in 0.063 and 0.125 to cut the final version. There is a local company that can water jet them for me, and they also have some CNC presses that can be programmed to bend just the right amount to create the joggles. Not very cost effective to do this in the overall scheme of things, but I tried 2 Mooney service centres and neither bothered to reply to my email. I take it that they are not interested in small orders, or not available? Aerodon

I am in the process of drawing these and getting them made as an owner produced part. I'm willing to provide a CAD and machining service to others, as long as you understand the OPP process and that I am not selling airplane parts. Aerodon

Don, just start with 30.00 for an injected unit and it will be close. Then follow the K-factor calibration procedure in the book and after a couple of flights you will be sorted. Unlikely you have a return flow transducer in an M20K. Aerodon

I've installed JPI ammeter shunts, they call for 1A inline fuses near the shunt. If the wire were to break (on either the + or - side) downstream of the shunt, you would have a pretty good short to ground. I would say Mooney just used 1A CB's, and hopefully they are close to the shunt. Aerodon

Building and re-building are too a large extent different skills and resources. It might only need the last 25% of the production line, what are you going to do with the rest of the space? The factory has type certificates and parts manufacturing approval and ability. So there are really only two things to do: 1) manufacture and distribute parts for existing fleet - probably does not leave a large amount of space or employees, but I am sure could be profitable. 2) manufacture existing line - I don't think the M20 series could ever be competitive with the Cirrus. Is a function of the design and construction methodology. If you could get a substantial portion of the labour done in a foreign country at 1/3rd of the labour cost, then you have a viable strategy. I'm sure the short body could have been converted to diesel for way less money. Any talk of new designs is just a non starter. If I had a bunch of money to develop a new design, I don't need a legacy design or factory to hold me back. I need a strong lead designer and team that can put together a clean sheet design. It probably needs to be composite, and then probably built in Mexico or offshore (Icon, Cessna TTx etc.) . And then look how those turned out. Also, this is the wrong group to speculate. All I really care about is ongoing support for the existing fleet because i am one of them. Whether a new Mooney has a parachute, autoload, more payload, cost $600 or 800k really does not make a difference to me because I'm never going to be in that market. If I were buying a new plane, 'manufacture stability' would be vey high on that list. Without it, your resale value could be zero (Adam A700), low (Mooney), or high (Beech, Piper Cessna, Cirrus). The first time I saw a rendering of the M10 I thought it would be a failure. It does not look good, did not fit into the Mooney mantra (speed and economy), and is in a crowded market. Mooney could have probably bought something like the Symphony rights for way less. Yes the Ultra has been a nice revision. But by now users have got a hate on going for G1000's. One idea that doesn't seem to have been tried very hard is the RR300 / 500 turbine (did it ever get certified). That would be a game changer and fit into the Mooney mantra. Aerodon

Did you see the recent test flight of the DA50 retractible. Composite, diesel engine, under 10 GPH, 20,000 feet, nice big fuselage. Performance - I'd settle for a real 180 or 200kts with range and payload. Manufacturers track record. Incremental change to product line. That is how successful manufacturers go about their business. Aerodon

This is the sad part of it: "None will be producing aircraft parts, however, which is certain to concern Mooney owners". If all 290 employees laid off were making airplanes, and they made 48 a year, then that is 12,083 person-hours per plane. I think Cirrus are in the 2000 hour mark. I recall reading a long time ago that Mooney were at about 4500 hours per plane when Cirrus were at 3000 hours. I may be out with these numbers, but I think the point is valid. Aerodon

I'm naked without my 660. We have a GDL52R and 660 yolk mount hardwired into our plane, and I use it for my #1 all around data source. Including weather, music, TFR's etc. And a record of all my flights; and tracks. Up until the recent software update, its been 100% reliable. Aerodon

Just updated my 660 to V3.6, and the flight log is corrupted. Data is garbage, and selecting a flight causes the unit to crash and restart. Has happened to multiple users. Garmin is working on a solution, but is still allowing users to download and trash their flight logs. Don

I know they show it next to the Pilots left knee in a PA28, but they don't say it has to be there. A lot of PA28's had the autopilot there, and it fits well. Also Pa28's have only 8.5" of vertical stack, so it is a challenge fitting everything in. And most of the settings can be controlled on the G5, so I don't think that is a bad location. Granted, I would like the 'level blue button' to be accessible from the copilots position. Aerodon

Brad, I can tell you first hand that you will have much improved Nav performance just by using the correct splitters and combiners. Sometimes its easy - One Comant splitter can provide separate outputs for each GS and each VOR. (1 in 4 out). Typical for GNS430/530 combinations. Radios like the GNS480 and SL 30 need a combined Nav / GS signal. I use the Mini-Circuits ZFSC-2-1 to split the Nav antenna signal to nav 1 and nav 2. These have a wide frequency range necessary to split the signal for both VOR and GS frequencies. And them sometimes you have a combination of the above. You may have to split the Nav 2 signal into GS/VOR, use a Comant splitter with the exact descriptions. Don't try drive a GS receiver from a VOR 'output' from the splitter and vice versa. Don't leave any ports open, and don't use t connections as shown in you picture. You will get remarkably better performance, even with your old cables. Aerodon