pwhicks

Unfortunately, no. I have the same AP on our 201. Century has moved on from any enhancements to that model. The options are to add a separate system such as STEC for altitude hold or replace the entire system. I am going the route of replacement for the Garmin GFC500 and dual 275s. None of the options are cheap and this has option has the best integration and functionality. The Century 21 also does not provide flight director information to our Aspen which is a negative. The aspen will go away in our next upgrade to the Garmin.

I do that route several times a year and just pick a few NAV AIDS that keep me along the coast and let the controllers tweak it in the air if MOAs light up. I have a family with me who like to eat at the stop so KHSA wins quite often as the stop. Pilot gets a free meal and it’s a nice place. KMEI is another popular stop for us with cheap gas and free hot dogs. They will lend you a car if you want better food. Weather along coast usually determines which of the 2 I actually stop at. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I would look into a Purple Simply Seat cushion. They designed those to help people in wheel chairs. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

In addition to high headwind scenarios. It would be pretty easy to stay slow enough to forget the gear when staying in the pattern practicing landings or after a go around. Our J never really gets above 120mph in that scenario as I’m having to back of the throttle to stop climbing. It is also the only scenario (so far #KnockOnWood) that I caught myself not descending correctly and realized I missed it on the downwind. When I’m coming in to an airport visually from cruise speeds, my first step is to slow down over the top or from the diagonal (usually having to climb slightly) and drop the gear to try to get slowed towards flap speeds. With instrument approaches, I don’t find the same conditions and potential issue since I’ve stabilized my settings miles from the airport and am waiting to throw my gear to catch the glide slope. I’d be interested to see what % of gear ups are during visual conditions. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Mine did about the same symptoms until it eventually couldn’t drive my Century AP in a straight line and I was stuck hand flying home from FL to TX. It did turn out to be the Vacuum Pump which had shredded itself internally (hence metal frags on the screen) and was also leaking oil (minor). Maxwell diagnosed and replaced from an East TX shop nearby. It wasn’t THAT expensive to fix. Now that there are other excellent options are out there and more coming, I am planning for a non-vacuum fix in the future if either the ADI or vacuum pump act up again with all money going towards modern options. Your options will likely be a decision tree of goals and interconnected systems. The Dynon etc. will be a great economically positioned option in a stand alone requirement that isn’t connected to an incompatible AP. My AP is fed from my ADI and has rules for compatible sources. If you have a great long term AP today and can use an Aspen or similar to replace the AP signals, then that compatibility will give you a few options to consider. If you need to drive a brand new AP upgrade and, for instance, if you want a GFC500, you need a Garmin G5. If you are looking at the Bendix King as a future path, another set of options exist. TruTrak...other options. I’m dialing in my end goal, which is a replacement for my Century 21 AP to fly coupled approaches with altitude hold and GS capture. That limits my options, but at least it narrows the field to something I can quickly validate or invalidate. Since it’s been 7 years since Rudy’s fixed up my ADI and 3 years since my vacuum pump was replaced, I’m starting to get ready to have to do something on the gremlins timeline.

Me too! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Don, I did this with a gallon gas can after tank repair a few years ago. This is on a ‘79 M20J. The stick is the generic stick available from the pilot shops measured from the flat wing bottom. It took 9 gallons to even have anything to measure. It took 33 to fill to the lip. Stick Gauge : Gallons (unusable factored) 1.25 : 9 2 : 11 3 : 13 4 : 16 5 : 19 6.5 : 21 7.5 : 23 8.5 : 25 9 : 27 13.25 : 33 You can see my patience adjusted after I got to the tabs. I didn’t do anything special for grounding since I was using plastic jugs/funnels.

Where are you located? I just had Sal in DFW rebuild my four cylinders. One was the first to show major signs and 2 others also followed soon afterwards. Oil consumption was up. Mag checks were different. Oil traces on bottom plugs and oil on the exhaust side of plane. It still flew Mooney fast out of climb. Have you looked at the plugs on that cylinder? Stuck and shot ring for me. Also when they were previously rebuilt 500 hours prior by a previous owner, Sal was not impressed with several things as he inspected on tear down and the bore was worn to tolerance on the 3 that showed blow by. I saved the piston that the ring was digging into that needed replacement. Glad we found it before it let go in IFR with my family, which would be normal Murphy law. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I bought our 201 on eBay before I had a license after 1 hour of student training. I don't recommend that as an example! I didn't quite realize the extent of that abnormal decision until I heard people at the airfield restaurant talking about THIS GUY who... I joined them in the convo for about 15 minutes until I said...I think you are actually talking about ME! Priceless moments in life...they are now the chatty Kathies that are super friendly now. Fortunately, my instructors and now Mooney family friends did everything possible to train, help, challenge decisions, and support. This forum can help you connect with that Mooney family. We have been blessed with a great plane that we upgraded quite extensively and have definitely experienced the ownership experience of wet wings as you have been initiated in earlier posts. The plane is wonderful. I trained on the typical Cessna fleet and transitioned right after. IFR immediately following. Less than 5 years later we have 500+ hours on our 201. The family loves it. Does the plane have an autopilot that will satisfy you for the future (AKA alt hold, glideslope capture, etc)? Replacing vacuum gauges on an older frame is normal. Replacing AP too has been expensive estimate. TruTrak please hurry! I agree with the previous poster on historical repaired damage incident. That is far different than recent damage and recent repair. You have to have faith in the machine or pass. It is your life and those you cherish most. Things that we also had to do over the years to get her (aka Alpha) back to proper shape was gear disks, nose gear dent damage, starter, alternator, voltage regulator, prop maintenance, wear items...there will be extra bills once in a while. Alpha had very few hours for about a decade. The Mooney is a phenomenal plane that you can transition to as your first and potentially lifetime airplane. It's been a great experience for our family! We are off to the beach tomorrow! You REALLY need a Mooney CFII as your transition instructor. MAPA has an active list which will have someone in your region. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Exactly the same thing happens with our '79 J. I emailed our avionics shop last week about it. Easy way to excite everyone by dialing the fuel guages to zero. I impacts our fuel gauges, fuel pressure and oil pressure. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'll try to dig up my panel pics, but did a similar project. Our end result for part 1 was Aspen removing turn bank and hsi's. At the time, Aspen didn't have a certification to control the Century autopilot so I had to have vacuum to the artificial horizon. That has now changed and someday I'll G5 or second Aspen and let the Aspen control the AP. Added 750, flight stream 201, gdl88, GTX transponder and GMA audio while keeping kx155 for secondary radio. All worth it. Had to recently replace my vacuum pump which only controls my auto pilot aka the secondary artificial horizon. Will be happy when I can remove that too. Flight Stream 501 would be nice for updating the 750. Since our project, the Garmin audio has built in blue tooth available. Wish I could have that too now but its rip and replace. If the options were available when I had the panel open, hind sight would have done it all that single event. If my artificial horizon starts to act up then phase 2 will begin...g5/or Aspen 2 along with altitude hold. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

^^^^^^ This shutdown process works very well. I do the same every time except I settle to about 1200 RPM when I shut down. Cold Starts are always simple after a 3-5 second mixture full rich Boost. Hot Starts are also very simple with only having to smoothly add mixture when it fires.

I fly my family of 4 from DFW to NY and FL a few times a year in our '79 201. They were adolescent when we started that. They are now full sized young adults. (5'6" daughter and 6' son). The kids still happily climb in and go see Grammy! It has impacted how we pack and fuel load now involves planning vs taking 64 gallons every time we fuel as we used to be able to do. It usually works out since we get hungry too! My first and only trip to Denver with passengers had high DA in the afternoon in September and that was not an experience I enjoyed with the mushy climb. It validated the advice of morning take offs and light as possible. My lesson learned for upgrading the plane we bought is that finding a good condition plane with the autopilot you want already installed is a good idea for your wallet. Finding one ADS-B updated with a 750 would be an even better bonus saving the labor cost part of the upgrade. The options to date for AP in the 201 have stayed pricey. Maybe the new FAA changes will help with competitive options. The 201 has been a great choice for us since we can afford to keep it maintained and fly it with the budgets we have as a family. I plan for 155k TAS and fuel plan 11 GPH. We usually do better on the TAS 158k to 162k and also on the fuel while flying with settings based on avoiding the Red Box theory dialed in with the JPI. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'm troubleshooting a similar issue. The UP trim works great. The DOWN trim, I hear a click and the clutch engages which makes the trim wheel stick, but I can overpower it to manually trim down. For a while it only worked in the air...now it is UP only and DOWN has a click. My AP suggested the motor is tired. '79 M20J has a Century II AP no Altitude Axis.

http://wsvn.com/news/local/south-florida-couple-who-crash-landed-in-flagler-county-shares-ordeal/ Here's a follow up interview which was later in a comment on a Facebook post from a witness. Great ending to a scary moment.

My engine comment wasn't specifically saying...you do this...you'll have this happen. There are tons of people on this forum with a wealth of experience and knowledge and history. My point if elaborated further was that moving from a 2 knob plane to a 3 knob plane with a lot more going on and happening faster, I found it very easy to have the engine in the "red box" or areas of temperature my mentors didn't recommend for periods of flights. The JPI helped a lot...the EGT guage on the plane failing did not help... At cruise altitudes, it probably is pretty to close to pull to Rough then a couple turns for a nice Lean of Peak or Peak. My first few months of flying I was NOT good at knowing what I was actually doing with the engine settings, although I was doing plenty of things...and sometimes I had to stop fiddling and just fly. I am grateful for the amount of material available online to research and learn.

I can contribute to this thread first hand. Last year, I was "THAT guy". Labor day, 2014, I was educated by my father in law on the used airplane market as he was shopping for his 201. I instantly went from flying as a unrealized dream to...this is gonna happen and soon. I set very specific goals and pursued them hard. I got my medical Sept 8 and jumped in with the first CFI I met in a sketchy 172. Meanwhile, I was searching for a plane and rented a hangar in advance since the airfield nearby is packed. In early October, I flew my new CFII who was also a A&P to Maine with me to pick up my 201...with the caveat that we might have to fly home commercial (her caveat). We bought the plane and started our way back to TX. I got to fly the 201 from take off to airport in sight...me landing was not a good idea. I also can give advice to the people who ask about not doing a pre-buy. New guy...didn't do a pre-buy and some things were missed that were unexpected major expenses later in the year such as a dented nose gear truss (4AMU). The most dangerous impact of not getting a pre-buy was not noticing a few abnormalities with the engine maintenance when a part of the engine (one of those tubes on #4) worked its way loose and we lost half our oil between KY and TX on a 5 hour leg. Back to the point...>$4k for student pilot insurance with a hull value set at $60k. The plane needed some fairly vigorous TLC from our local trusted mechanic...all the while I still wanted my license! After finding out how expensive it was to fix ANYTHING on the plane and having several things needing immediate attention prior to me flying it again, I continued on with a 152/172 regimen. My mechanic is his wisdom might have slow rolled on fixing things too. I am totally thankful that I did rent the Cessnas. If I had done any of those early landings in my Mooney, my fuel tanks would have worked like a crop duster sprayer. I also learned that the first year of plane ownership, you find out what was deferred by the previous owner. My shock disks were 10-15 years old...technically passed the "tests" but rode like a hard tail. Brakes were not going to make a second year...etc. After replacing them at annual, it is night and day different and I'm thankful I didn't learn on the plane and abuse it more. I passed my Private check ride before Thanksgiving. Now, here is where I personally think it is OK to think about getting transitioned to a Mooney. I had my 201 a little early and paid the price for insurance, storage, etc. I didn't fly my plane again until after I got my license and things stopped breaking enough to get and stay airborne. Jerry Johnson start teaching me Mooney flying in my own plane. Jerry and I flew several times before he signed me off in the 201 satisfying both the insurance company and my Complex rating. Not being a pilot prior...engine and prop management was the hardest thing to grasp (JPI 830 helps). If you are flying your own plane, you will not want to do the lean to rough and then back a couple twists...that will translate into a bunch of money in the future. You will need a mentor or three. My next goal was to get as many cross country hours as possible to start my IFR process as well as get familiar with the Mooney. I flew it just about any time it wasn't snowing or lightning wanting as much experience as possible without others lives in my hands. By March my wife and I were ready to go on our first trip...which was FL. VFR... We had 5 days and we wanted to see my family. VFR made it so that we saw the family for 18 hours (including sleep). Staying free of clouds is sometimes pretty difficult. We had to fly via OH with snow below us to get home...and we eventually had to leave the plane in OK and catch a ride to TX...perfect trip. Well, perfect if you mean it was intended to motivate me to get my IFR rating and realize that I was at the beginning of a lot a lessons. In OK, I learned you have to check for water EVERY time...I had so much water in my left tank, 8 cups came out before I saw any blue (hmmm, when was that o ring changed last in that fuel cap?). The "new" plane had radio issues on our trip and I dropped it off at Trevor's in Denton immediately upon our return and found out what it costs to upgrade a panel...in this case almost the same as I paid for the airplane itself...but hey, we're 2020 compliant now and we're in this for the long haul, right? If you had asked me my budget on Labor Day and then checked with me on what was spent by May...before the $8k "annual", I would have said that would never happen. If, I had that budget to begin with (and I could not have), other well loved planes might have been within reason. We love our plane and it is customized now and my mechanic blesses it...so satisfaction without remorse is the only way to live with it. After getting the plane back in May, I had a consortium of CFII's that worked together to achieve my goal of IFR in a month. It took multiple CFII's to hit the target due to scheduling and my "goals". TX in May is a good place to learn about clouds. I also found it good to hear different perspectives and get critiqued with different words and concepts. It took just under 40 days but we got through my check ride 2 days prior to our next scheduled cross country trip that was schedule for Dad's 75th birthday! Learning IFR in the plane that you are going to fly is worth a TON. I am very familiar with the GTN-750, Aspen and other tools at my disposal now (210 interface, etc). The Mooney has been an excellent efficient platform. When I needed "hours" in the log book, I could fly 6 to 8 GPH and enjoy things. When I want to get somewhere, we put the throttle to the front and go. My insurance dropped to 1/4 of what it was the first year with double the hull value once I had my IFR rating and hours built . More importantly, I have become immersed in my love of flying and owning my own Mooney has allowed me to fly when I couldn't or wouldn't with a rental. My first year, I had 260+ hours with over 40 IFR, 40 simulated, 175 cross country, 80 dual, and my favorite...218 hours in our 201. If the airplane was a sunk cost, I "saved" money on my training. To rent something even close for the 200+ hours I flew the Mooney it would have cost between $25k and $40k. My average GPH was 8 at $4/gallon and the engine fund gets $15 per hour. I rented the 152 for $95 wet. No brainer. If you can afford your own Mooney, get it! If you are still occasionally finding yourself trying to crack concrete on landings...rent until you have more practice. I also found Cessna CFI/CFIIs do NOT understand how to fly the Mooney like a Mooney CFII. Get the right instructor for learning how to fly the Mooney.

I have 2 brand new brackets (U shaped) that I purchased from Mooney (via Don Maxwell) several months ago. Turns out I didn't need them and they are sitting in the hangar awaiting a new home. PM me if you are interested.

Would that 201 wing recently posted be an option? Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Here are some pictures I took today as seen from the Battery Access Panel. http://mooneyspace.com/gallery/image/36844-/ http://mooneyspace.com/gallery/image/36843-2015-07-15-114327/ http://mooneyspace.com/gallery/image/36842-2015-07-15-114254/

It is a '79 J Manufactured in 12/1978 24-767 SN.