Vance Harral

Going rate for a T-hangar in Longmont, CO (North Denver Metro Area) is $300/month. Relatively new hangar (built 2005), bifold door, electricity included.

Our airplane (the one in my avatar) was gear-upped and repaired in 1991. It was not a significant concern when we purchased it in 2004, and I can't recall ever once worrying about it in the 15 years of ownership since. The incident is well documented in the logs, was pointed out by the honest seller, and we paid a price in accordance with that event and others. When it comes time to sell, we'll be similarly honest with prospective buyers, and accept the fact some of them may choose to use a 30-year-old gear up incident as a price negotiating point. Whether it actually has any impact on the sales price will just be a matter of market conditions - maybe none, but maybe some, and in the latter case I wouldn't begrudge anyone offering a slightly lower price based on the gear-up. I would feel uncomfortable selling to anyone who felt a 30-year-old gear up in a 45-year old airplane was actually a meaningful safety risk, as opposed to just a price negotiation tactic. It would indicate they don't understand the nature of old aircraft - or aircraft ownership in general - and would be likely to harass us about every imperfection anyone found in the airframe for years after the sale.

Just one guy's opinion, but I think past a certain age point, a "no damage history" ad starts to look negative rather than positive. The reason is that old airplanes are extremely unlikely to have zero non-wear-and-tear damage events. NDH claims on such airframes make me think the seller is either naive, or outright dishonest. A circa 1980 airframe is 40 years old at this point, and 40-year-old airplanes nearly always have least minor damage events: couple of hail dents, a little hangar rash, a patch where a cowl screw or inspection panel pulled through due to over-tightening, and so on. I'm sure a number of those airplanes have never been crashed into a hangar or gear-upped, but that's not the same as NDH. Each person has to decide for themselves if an NDH claim is legit, but I'm quite certain there are more NDH claims in ads than their are actual NDH airframes. I think we'd all be a little better off if the NDH purists admitted that philosophy is only practical on new-ish airframes. It would go a long way toward combating the incentive for owners to fudge or omit logbook entries.

You don't have to get a new exam every year. You do have to "check in" with the FAA every year, in the form of sending them compliance paperwork, including a status update from a board-certified sleep physician that usually requires an appointment with that physician. Some people manage the paperwork dance with the FAA entirely on their own, via certified mail. If you choose that route, you have to wait for the FAA to respond with your new certificate, and turnaround time varies. I choose instead to pay $150 to visit my AME, which is what he charges to eyeball the paperwork that's going to the FAA, check that everything is in order, and use his issuance authority to give me a new certificate on the spot. In terms of hassle, it's about as irritating as getting the actual physical, yes. But there is no exam, and it's not possible to "fail" this non-exam checkin with the AME for any reason other than OSA compliance itself.

I'm guessing the hold they wanted you on was the one published on the approach charts, as Mike referenced. Requesting clarification is an obvious choice, and I'm sure you did. So the question this raises is, how do controllers know about "published" holds? I'm assuming ATC rarely/never looks at the approach plates and enroute charts pilots do. My guess is that "published" holds are somehow depicted on their radar screens, but I don't know how it works in practice.

Unfortunately, you can't convert a certified airplane to an experimental-amateur-built type certificate, which is probably what you meant by making your Mooney "experimental". An E-AB type certificate allows broad freedom to fly the airplane, as you see the RV/Kitfox/etc. crowd enjoying, but requires you actually build the airplane. With a lot of hassle and paperwork, you could probably convert your Mooney to some other type certificate which would allow you the same broad maintenance leeway as E-AB, e.g. experimental-exhibition, or restricted. But it would severely limit the type of legal flying you can perform. You wouldn't be able to just jump in the airplane and go for a $100 hamburger run anymore. More info here: https://www.faa.gov/aircraft/air_cert/airworthiness_certification/sp_awcert/

More likely they were lost by someone who disassembled the caps to install new O-rings in the inner shafts. The first set of caps on our airplane were missing these washers too. They "worked", but one side was pretty wonky - I think in part because without the sacrificial washer, the cam-shaped corner of the lever wears against the bulk of the cap. We bought some second-hand units which had the washers and they work better.

Apologies for the confusion. I coulda sworn the individual parts were broken out including the cotter pin. But when I looked in my parts manual I found the same thing as you: only the O-rings are broken out, the rest of the cap is only referred to as an assembly. The critical point is, you want aircraft-grade, cadmium-plated cotter pins, like these: https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/hapages/cotterpins2.php. If you just go to the local hardware store, you're likely to wind up with mild steel cotter pins with no plating or other corrosion protection. These are much more likely to rust, and consequently fail and/or drop contaminants into the tank. I bought an assortment of cad-plated cotter pins from Spruce a while back, put them in a fishing tackle box along with other miscellaneous hardware, and use a few at every annual: fuel tank caps, seat rail pins, etc.

It's definitely beneficial and I'm not knocking it. That said, while I trust its terrain modeling pretty well, I'm less trusting of its wind model, and think it could be misleading. Foreflight has no way to actually measure the wind around you. So it's just using some forecast model, the granularity of which is much coarser than the actual distance you can glide at piston altitudes. Anecdotally, I've flown around the pattern many times in surface winds that should have made the glide circle quite oblong, and yet it was portrayed as generally symmetric. Bottom line, even with the glide circle, you need more than a quick glance at Foreflight to know how far you can glide in any particular direction.

You want the cotter pins with the specific part number called out in the M20E parts manual. You can order them from Aircraft Spruce, or other online aircraft parts suppliers. While these are "probably" the same cotter pins as the ones in my M20F, I'll let an M20E owner chime in to be sure. If you don't have a parts manual, you'll want to obtain one from Mooney.

The thread you want to read is here: My guess is that when your mechanic "re-greased" the jack screw, he just slopped some fresh on the jack screw shaft, through the opening in the empennage. That's fine for regular maintenance, but once every 10 or 20 or 50 years, you've gotta pull that thing out, disassemble, and clean/re-grease it. Among other things, it provides an opportunity to check the bearings which the shaft goes through.

$35K is light for sole ownership, but would be excellent for a 2-person partnership in anything up to an M20F model. That's just acquisition cost, though. What is your budget for fixed and operating expenses after purchase?

Not a deal killer by any means. But for what it's worth, this would turn me off on a prospective partnership, and would likely have caused me not to join the very successful partnership I've been part of the last 15 years. People who buy the airplane first and only then cast about for partners are communicating they want things "their way" right from the start. Choosing the partners first and then acquiring the aircraft communicates that all the partners are willing and able to discuss and compromise on big choices. This isn't to say that if you have your heart set on a Mooney, you have to entertain some other brand. But if you're highly fixated on a particular model, and especially if you're inclined to buy a specific airplane first before consulting your prospective partners, sole ownership is probably a better route for you.

This was and remains technically legal with respect to 91.155. However, the FAA is on record as saying they consider operating in the clouds without a clearance in class G airspace to be a violation of the careless/reckless clause of 91.13. See https://www.ntsb.gov/legal/alj/OnODocuments/Aviation/3935.pdf

Installation of altitude hold components varies by make and model. There are actually three "boxes": the pitch damper, the altitude hold control unit, and the altitude reference chamber. Often all three are bundled together such that they look like just one or two boxes, but they are three units. In our 1976 M20F, the pitch damper and altitude hold control unit are in the front of the airplane, just behind the firewall with the avionics; but the altitude reference chamber is in the tail. I'm not sure why ours is installed that way, might be as simple as lack of space.

Brittain was still answering the phone as of a few weeks ago, but they seem to be in hibernation/recovery mode while the new owner gets up to speed. They weren't able to supply parts when we spoke to them, so we bought a salvage part from Texas Air Salvage instead. Hopefully this is a dynamic situation that improves on a weekly basis. Certainly worth giving them a call: http://www.brittainautopilots.com/

I've been pretty happy with PIClife: https://www.piclife.com/ Bought a 20-year term life policy 10 years ago. As Skates97 says, by the time the term is up, I won't need the life insurance any longer. No aviation exclusions on my policy. Note that PIClife is essentially a broker, they work with different underwriters to find you a policy. My underwriter is Lincoln Benefit Life.

We called Brittain last week about an issue with the solenoid that seals the altitude reference chamber in our B-5 autopilot. They are in a "slow ramp up" mode with the new owner. Not much available in the way of parts (we wound up buying a salvage part), and it's unclear if they're doing any new development (e.g. integration with Garmin G5). Mostly they appear to be just keeping the lights on, answering the phones, and sending occasional support documents at this time. I'm cautiously hopeful Brittain will remain a viable concern, but I'd keep your expectations low for now.

Thanks for the help, Marauder. Unfortunately, based on an educated guess about your serial number, the yoke shafts that were in your airplane before your upgrade are likely not the same part number as the ones in our airplane. I also note that the blueprint pics you posted don't include our serial number. The last of the F models are a bit of a strange flock. Mooney was in the midst of changes that would become the J, and many of the parts in our airplane appear identical to those in a 1977 J, despite having different part numbers (I suspect it's the same actual part, but renumbered). You can see this in the applicability chart for yokes and yoke shafts. S/N 22-1179 through 22-1245 and 22-1247 through 22-1305 have yokes like your old ones, and spec P/N 710005-506 for the right hand yoke shaft. S/N 22-1246 and 22-1306 and on have the newer rams-horn style yokes as in the J, and spec P/N 710005-508 for the right hand yoke shaft. I don't know the difference between a 710005-506 and 710005-508 shaft any more than I know the difference between a 710005-508 shaft and the replacement 710072-508 shaft, but one presumes there is some sort of difference. The J parts manual specs P/N 710064-502 for the early J model yoke shafts. Again, I don't know if that's really any different from the one in our airplane, or just the same part with a new P/N. I suspect this is the sort of thing where only Mooney knows the full story.

This is a cautionary tale about maintenance-induced failures. AD 77-17-04 requires 500-hour inspections of yoke shafts. Our 1976 M20F actually left the factory with ram's-horn yokes and large-diameter yoke shafts of the type found in M20J and later models, so one is tempted to argue the AD "shouldn't" apply. However, the AD is technically applicable to all M20F models, and the associated SB M20-205B only permits discontinuance of the inspection if the OEM P/N 710005-508 is replaced with P/N 710072-508. I don't know what the difference is between a 710005-508 shaft and a 710072-508 shaft, but there is no record of a replacement of the former with the latter in our logbooks. Hence, we've dutifully pulled the yokes off every 500 hours for the inspection. The AD was due again at this year's annual, and when we tried to remove the set screw that takes up the slack, the head broke, leaving most of the screw embedded in the yoke, with no way to turn it. Various techniques were tried to extract the screw: drilling, screw extractors, etc. A half day's worth of labor by professional mechanics was expended trying to solve this problem. Their ultimate solution was to simply wrench the yoke off the shaft, and this has scored the shaft pretty badly. The head A&P at the shop has polished the score mark, multiple A&Ps have opined that the shaft is still airworthy with the score mark, and they're willing to sign it off as airworthy. We're "mostly" OK with this, primarily because the shaft in question is on the co-pilot's side. But we'd just as soon replace the shaft in the near future. So now we're on the hunt for a replacement. None of the salvage shops we've contacted has this item in stock. LASAR has reached out to Mooney on our behalf, but Mooney says they'd have to fabricate a new one. We're waiting on the quote, which I expect to be astronomical. Really hoping @Alan Fox, @acpartswhse, or someone else here on the boards has a line on a replacement yoke shaft. We do generally trust the shop, and believe the risk of continuing to use this yoke shaft is low. But the no-apologies fix is to replace it. Anyone have a source for this particular item?

Yep. They climb up the mains into the wheel wells, enter the wing where the retract rods pass through the wing to the wells, and thence through the holes in the wing ribs to wherever they like. Ask me how I know. Some Mooneys have "rat socks" where the retract rods enter the wheel wells, presumably in part to prevent this. Our airplane doesn't. It's unclear to me whether it left the factory that way, or if some prior owner removed them.

+1 on the Steelie ball. Easy to pop the iPad Mini on and off the yoke quickly, in either portrait or landscape orientation, and I can tilt it around to various angles to avoid glare.

I should clarify. When I said I only had to re-do 3 of the 9 rivets, I meant that I replaced all 9, but I botched 3 of the replacements, and had to drill them out and start over. So I actually placed 12 rivets total. In addition to the rubber seal, the ram air door consists of three pieces of metal: two flat "sandwich" plates, and a third dimensional piece of metal which captures the actuator plate. RLCarter is correct that you have to drive an initial set of 3 rivets to fasten just the two the "sandwich" plates around the rubber seal, then the final 6 rivets go through all three pieces of metal.

Last July, @chrixxer graciously shared a "never again" story about foreign material in the intake of his M20F here: Mooneyspace collectively identified this as a portion of the ram air door seal. I got an uneasy feeling when I read the story, because we've never replaced the ram air door seal in 15 years of ownership. In fact, there's no record of ours ever having been replaced in the logs, and I think there's a good chance it's original from 1976. Last fall, I took a close look at the seal, and it definitely showed signs of cracking. I made a note to look at replacing it during the annual this spring, and ordered a new seal from LASAR a couple of weeks ago. So... we removed the ram air door yesterday, and found this: Here's what it looks like after drilling out the rivets and removing the aluminum plate "sandwich" around the seal: New seal from LASAR was only about $60, and I got to practice my riveting skills: It's not difficult to remove the door. Just remove the air filter, pull the ram air knob to open the door, and remove the three screws that secure the actuating plate to the door itself. After doing so, the door slides right off the actuating plate, and can be pulled out the front of the cowl. Yes, you have to drill out the old rivets and install new ones, but I'm a total noob at this, and I managed to do it without damaging anything (I only had to re-do 3 of the 9 rivets. ). For those of you with the ram air door - whether you use it or not - strongly encourage you to take a look and consider replacing the seal if you haven't done so in a while. When you get to looking at how the assembly goes together, it's pretty obvious that if a piece of the seal comes loose, it just goes right into the fuel servo. At $60 for the seal and maybe 1-2 hours of labor for a professional (it took me about four with adult supervision), it's cheap insurance against a potentially catastrophic failure.

That's indeed possible, and in fact likely. The purpose is to protect you, the owner of the airplane. Since the pilot flying the airplane was "qualified", the insurance company will reimburse you for your hull loss, and for any liability attributed to you, in a timely manner. They are then likely to try to recover their costs from the pilot. This is why smart pilots flying non-owned aircraft (particularly CFIs) either carry their own independent non-owned insurance, or insist on a waiver of subrogation from the insurer of the airplane they are going to fly.