DXB

My #2 lasted 7 years before going crazy alarming whenever it wanted and not allowing me to silence it - this can lead to some in flight and post flight drama. It could not be remedied, and my avionics guy said this cheapest option often goes bad. I replaced with the slightly more expensive #1, which he recommended and has been problem free for the last 3.5 years. I hope it stays that way.

Basic Med is a FAR greater success than I predicted. I wonder if any physicians have caught blowback from signing off medicals they shouldn't have. I suppose not since accidents due to pilot incapacitation remain very rare events even in the GA world - which was predicable based on the (albeit limited) Sport Pilot experience. Honestly, physician liability and resistance to signing it off was my greatest concern when it appeared on the scene. Once the Canadians accept Basic Med, I'll probably go that route too, given my lack of aspirations to be in the flight levels, carry lots of passengers, or make money flying. Unfortunately US relations with Canada are at a new low at the moment, so that may take some time as yet...

It's great to find an occasional AME who wants to help pilots, but never forget they are accountable to the FAA Medical Branch, not to you. Carefully worded factual information from medical specialists can greatly help address nonissues capriciously flagged by the FAA in the medical record - I myself have played this role a couple of times to help pilots. However nothing stops a frivolous medical certification challenge by the FAA better than a lawyer showing them why they are about to create a bunch of work for themselves, only to arrive at an embarrassing outcome before an NTSB judge (or in extreme cases even a civil suit in federal court). I will never communicate with the FAA medical branch again except through one of a handful of attorneys they know well. No issue is too small to get a lawyer when dealing with these folks. Doing so from day one would have saved me a ton of hassle and worry - money extremely well spent. One can inadvertently dig the hole much deeper by going it alone.

Definitely don't sell your airplane or give up. Definitely do prepare for the very worst from the FAA Medical Branch and act proactively. If the process went smoothly for you without expert legal representation, you got very lucky. Like many if not most bureaucrats, the docs at the NTSB medical branch care much less about actual service than creating an appearance of usefulness - their priority is finding he path of least resistance to creating a facade of protecting public safety. Their fundamental laziness and indifference, which are the only things that would would make a licensed physician take that kinda job in the first place, also make them cave pretty easily when an astute attorney appears capable of creating extra work for them or exposing their rank incompetence before an NTSB judge. My message is not just that the NTSB Medical Branch is often capricious in its actions against pilots but also that they have vulnerabilities that provide a means to manage the serious threat they pose to your medical certificate. Also it is best to do everything possible to avoid the SI hellhole in the firstplace.

Once can and should write out a narrative for the clinician to document and sign if they are comfortable with its veracity. It's nice if someone with a medical background writes the narrative - I have personally done it for others in need. Also electronic medical records (e.g. Epic) do allow entry of edits and addenda well after the note is signed at the time of the visit - folks should not hesitate to ask for this to be done if necessary. It is also a very wise alternative to have one of the handful of lawyers nationally who are versed in aeromedical issues guide the clinician on the documentation the FAA wants to see. This approach costs money, but one should never leave anything to chance when dealing with the FAA Medical Branch - be as proactive as possible. They are not your friends - just lazy bureaucrats tasked creating a fake facade of protecting public safety.

Very sorry your dad had to go through that. He had a very typical SI encounter - nothing has changed. Some of their most absurd SI requirements are imposed through the HIMS program - a glimmer of hope there is a bill before congress to force FAA to reform that program. But the key is never to get dumped into an SI or HIMS bin in the first place - that will usually make you give up (or put up with living permanently inside a Kafkaesque dystopia if one is an airline guy). One more glimmer of hope - the NTSB judges that hear appeals to medical denials/deferrals have gotten more pilot-friendly in the last year or so for some reason. Their longstanding MO had been only to rule in favor of pilots if the Medical Branch had made an egregious error in applying their own oppressive written rules to pilots, resulting in very few reversals. Now they seem to be actually looking at the details of the situation, resulting in more rulings in favor of pilots. The downstream effect is much more hassle for the Medical Branch buffoons in defending their actions in front of an NTSB judge, making them more likely to cave up front if you lawyer up with someone experienced in communicating in the language that might produce a reversal by an NTSB judge. For this reason, I can't emphasize enough the importance of (1) extreme caution in communicating with any physician, and being very proactive in influencing how they document any issue in the medical record - for instance the "sleep apnea"diagnosis might have been averted up front here through reframing the semantics, using a different diagnostic code (2) Doing everything possible to avoid getting put in the special issuance category in the first place (3) Getting a lawyer IMMEDIATELY at the first sign of trouble with the FAA - there are a just handful of individuals/firms nationally that are particularly facile at dealing with the Medical Branch, which suddenly tends to act more reasonably when all communication is on their letterhead, not directly from you. (4) DO NOT SEEK HELP FROM AOPA PILOT PROTECTION / MEDICAL SERVICES. They often align their "advocacy" with the positions of the FAA Medical Branch, to a degree that one top tier aeromedical attorney described to me as legal malpractice.

I assume you mean sleep apnea - one should be able to get around that. But remember the FAA Medical Branch is a bureacratic meat grinder that will casually end your flying career for no real justification at all. It is run by bottom barrel physicians with almost zero incentive to understand the detailed reality of any medical situation. They will not do the right thing unless forced to do so. GET A LAWYER WITH EXPERIENCE IN AEROMEDICAL MATTERS IN DEALING WITH THE FAA. I can recommend a couple of excellent ones and share my related experience with the medical branch if you want to PM me. THIS CAN CERTAINLY WORK OUT IN YOUR FAVOR, BUT YOU HAVE TO BE VERY PROACTIVE IN DEALING WITH THE FAA.

Try this one - cropped a bit, adjusted contrast, circled with red oval. You'll have to take my word for it that it is the only oil to be found on the engine or anywhere under the cowl.

Prop was IRANd 140 hrs ago, same time as engine overhaul. Back of blades appear immaculate.

I’m requesting a little diagnostic input on the first oil leak to arise on my engine post overhaul. It is at 140 hrs and just under 11 months SMOH and has functioned flawlessly so far. Today, when I reduced power to idle just before landing, I got a sudden little spritz of oil mist on the middle of the windscreen. Upon landing, I noted a tiny bit of oil running back along the front of the top cowl. Upon examining carefully under the cowl, it appeared immaculate – no oil to be seen (so it must not be a big leak). The only exception is in the picture attached. There is oil that appears to be running down from the fitting connecting the prop governor oil line to the right front of the case. This is a strip of oil from the fitting down the right front side (pic attached). I don’t see oil anywhere else. Can one be confident the leak is from this fitting? If that’s the case, I’m a bit surprised there’s no oil blowing back across the base of cylinder #1. What is the best course of action here? I also wondered if the leak might be from the front crankshaft seal, but I would expect oil on both sides of the engine in that were the case.

A bit slow for a stock E. I take a strong principled stand against the folks here saying to put up with it - you didn't buy this thing to putt along at 143 - 148kts! You wanna be seen getting outrun by my well-modded C??!! How's that for a motivational pep talk? Cheapest speed mods are rigging it perfectly and waxing the wings. Make sure gear doors close fully. Timing advance in cruise from a Surefly will give you a clear benefit also for not too much money. The powerflow helped my C a good bit but may not do much for the E's engine/exhaust setup. The cowl closure looks nice but does nothing. Brake caliper rotation and flap gap seals are cheap mods that actually help a bit. Most other mods do very little. The 201 windshield is hard to find now and is a very expensive way to get a couple extra kts. Same with a 2 blade top prop. The windshield does make the cabin feel more spacious, improves visibility and perceptibly decreases prop noise.

I bet one of the major engine shops could help you source one...

My only exception to gear down then flaps, which makes it very unlikely to forget the gear, is FISK arrival into KOSH. Half flaps with 2300/18" and gear up gives you a stable 90kts in the C with a bit extra stall margin when putting along at slow speed.

I was very lucky to find a nice clean doghouse that matched my C on Ebay, and I installed it when I overhauled my engine. The favorable impact on cooling even after having previously done everything I could to patch up my decrepit old one was dramatic. Sadly folks are unlikely to find any help from LASAR (which effectively IS the Mooney factory now) or anyone else with their doghouses. Owners without sheetmetal working skills / resources are likely out of luck. And these doghouses were still intrinsically terrible cooling designs even in perfect condition and degrade pretty quickly from vibration. Still hoping for the @Sabremech as a more durable solution....

This one looks like a great blank slate to modernize, assuming no gotchas hidden in airframe. I would seriously consider if buying a short body now

More thread drift alert My engine rebuilder told me that it's worth the hassle of retorquing the through bolts and then everything else linking the case halves about 1000hrs into the life of the engine since the bolts do stretch a bit over time . Supposedly it reduces risk of events like this in addition to a preventing oil leaks and case fretting? Any insights on best practice on this?

Um...that's awesome!! I would love one! I think it was called the Mark 21 through 1967, and the Ranger name appeared for 1968 model year. Based onmy serial number 680002, I have the 2nd "Ranger". And who are you calling ugly?! Let me know what I can do to make it worth your while to send one my way.

Various older forms of fiberglass it looks like, not asbestos. The folks hoping for my demise can stop salivating now...

I was joking about the immediate threat of death, but asbestos does have a unique and potent combination of cancer-causing properties. When it fragments, it generates fibers that have a critical combination of 3 features: (1) very sharp and stiff (2) very fine and light, allowing them to float all the way to the outer lining of the lung (pleura) and impale themselves there. (3) impossible for immune cells (macrophages) to digest or wall off at this location, leading to chronic immune activation and ultimately mesothelioma (cancer of the pleura). Interestingly, fiberglass has features (1) and (3) but lacks feature (2) - the fibers are generally too heavy to float deep into the lung. There is some link between fiberglass dust exposure and mesothelioma, but it is much, much weaker than for asbestos, probably for this reason. You have to have a large, sustained (typically occupational) exposure to asbestos fibers to devlelop clinically evident asbestosis. By contrast, even a few of these fibers in your lung can ultimately cause mesothelioma - hence even modest exposures are best avoided, and people rightly go apesh*t when asbestos needs to be handled in a way that causes it to fragment.

You're probably right - it looks pretty much like this. Tacking this stuff with a stitch gun over the old materials in the foot wells shouldn't be too hard... https://www.soundassured.com/products/fire-retardant-acoustic-fabric?variant=45293361397918&utm_campaign=gs-2021-06-21&utm_source=google&utm_medium=smart_campaign&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=17518101047&gbraid=0AAAAADiZDVTaGw9_7gsEXMZ1EZygrZXWp&gclid=CjwKCAjwk7DFBhBAEiwAeYbJsTqyqokx5iicq23eDzEJTUH9uOOXqF1tZRB2MhmUO94pbxlgORVZFxoCDMUQAvD_BwE

I'm thinking of the ensuing pandemonium in the Vintage Mooney community that a positive result would bring, plus the airworthiness directive whose cost will total our planes I'll hold off for now unless someone has real info that asbestos might have been used

Thinking of using this black nomex fabric to cover over the ugly disintegrating areas - thoughts?? https://www.pegasusautoracing.com/productdetails.asp?RecID=3136 Maybe use a simple stitch gun to tack it in place over the old material?? https://www.amazon.com/MicroStitch-Tagging-Gun-Kit-Fasteners/dp/B001CE8JPQ?th=1

It does indeed look like a very sturdy golden/amber fabric encasing fiberglass - just not sturdy enough, as it has come apart at the bottom of the foot wells behind the rudder pedals, and in a few spots above. It seems like one should just fasten some more fabric over it in the areas that have just opened up. I don't see any way to replace it fully without entirely dismantling the avionics, most all else behind the panel, and the panel itself. Even then cleaning it out will be a messy job. I might even tackle the patch job myself if someone can tell me what fabric to use. I want to avoid doing a sketch job with dissimilar materials so as not to inspire regulatory scrutiny (or premature demise in a fire).

I was afraid to bring up the same question....but does anyone know? It is spontaneously fragmenting through gaps in the fabric that encases it. I may already be screwed after my recent unprotected clean up of bits of it lying around in the foot wells. It's a very nicely updated plane otherwise - I'll leave it in my will to a Mooniac TBD who has appropriate hazmat skills.

BUMPING THIS HIGHLY RELEVANT THREAD. While doing a thorough cleaning of my M20C interior over the weekend, I noted the decrepit condition of my 57 year old firewall blanket on the cockpit side: multiple holes, decrepit fiberglass shards leaking out from them. As @N201MKTurbo notes, this looks like a massive job to do properly. Has anyone come up with a satisfactory stopgap solution?