joepilotmooney

I met the president of a newly opened avionics shop in western Wisconsin (New Richmond). They had a booth at the Minnesota Pilot's Assoc. meeting last month. Seem like good knowledgeable people and they had openings for new work in September - amazing. Let me know if you need the name of the place. Their tech is former 3M FD employee.

Seems there's plenty to see on youtube to take it in and out...never mind!

Will do that thanks. It's just a little hex wrench that goes into the hole in the middle that you turn I think?

Went up today and there was a scratchiness in both our headsets. Tower read us 5x5 on both radios (#2 seemed fine). But we read them quite scratchy on the G430. Seemed a little better when we came back after an hour. Maybe loose antenna cable somewhere? Appreciate any ideas. Have also notice recently the nav ID is not working at all on the G430. Joe M20J

Thanks Jake and OR too for the help.

Rich, THANKS for giving me a little hope for this!! i'll let them know.

Flew with my mechanic today as he tried to adjust the AP while in flight. He could not get the 3-5 degree slight S turns from stopping as we tracked heading and NAV modes. The avionics shop on the field told him it;s likely resistance build up behind the connectors of the servo's and control heads. Can anyone else corroborate this? I am not in position to replace the old AP, plus it would take months from what I hear, and 40 AMUs or more. Is there just the one servo (for aileron control) or two for this set up? And how hard to get to it? It sounds like it might be worth them trying to clean up the connectors on my 78 J. (My alt hold is separate Stec unit).

For sure lose the DME and ADF (unless flying outside the Us or in AK maybe), I have a DME but everything I do is with a G430. So the DME is useless to me. In 17 years I've never even used the #2 VOR receiver. In fact it's been removed since it was inop. Good luck! Joe

Thanks Jim, will keep this in mind... Joe

Thanks for sure worth considering that...

Good feedback! So sick of the cold up here. Have never lived in the SE but look forward to the change. For food, I think Atlanta will work fine, a broad spectrum similar I hope to what we have in the Twin Cities' which is probably more Vietnamese, Mexican and Thai places than most places. I couldn't believe all the hills in Atlanta when we visited last week -not like here. Reminded me of San Fran. Thanks for the PM.

Yikes, am paying $200 now.

Will likely be near Decatur - just east of downtown. Good to know LZU and RYY are possibilities, they don't seem to be toooo far out.

Good tips, thanks!

Thinking of relocating to the ATL area in a year or so. Anyone with ideas on how difficult it might be to find a hangar/shared hangar around there? I imagine Peachtree is out. And probably not too bad to tie down for some months while waiting, as the weather is nothing like Minnesota. Welcome any comments

I am now figuring I will plug in the battery trickle charger a couple days ahead of our trip, since I have to plug in the heater anyway at that time. (Flying out of Manistique, MI) So at least the battery will be fully charged when I go to start, even if it is real cold outside, I should be ok? The heater I am using is from aircraftheaters.com, and it works really well so far. You place it on top of the motor through either engine cowling air inlet. It just sits on top in there. We have the cowling plugs and that keeps the warm air in. The cord is like 40 feet long I think.

Thanks guys - I've had to put the battery box cover back on once and it was a real chore, so I don't want to do that again, esp. if it's 20 deg F out!

Thanks Pete; well up her in the great north, everyone has car jumper cables so good there. I wonder where I can get this plug you speak of, (that would plug into the fuselage port?)with some leads on it that could connect to a battery or just car cables?

I have a set of the Mooney external jumper cables back at the hangar. Have never actually needed them so never keep them in the plane. But I am up in the UP of MI and the plane is sitting for a month. I am wondering if I ever have to, is is possible to use standard auto battery clamps to connect to the rectangular external port on the fuselage if necessary? There are two pins there, so might need a smaller set of clamps? Any ideas from folks on this?

I always use full flaps on landings, even in strong gusty x-winds (in our J). Unless I am way too fast, I carry just a bit of power to the roundout, (like 12 inches? I don't really look!) then flare and right around a few feet above the ground power to idle, and hope to hear the stall horn (unless gusty). So, sounds like yer pulling power too early... I would definitely recommend against using anything less than full flaps, since you want the lowest stall speed.

Wow that looks like a cool fly-in. Have landed our J on grass several times, and we have the low hanging gear cups (some people remove them for grass) - so not much clearance at all. Still if its a nice smooth and dry strip, have never had a problem.

I've had issues too using Keyspan and my new laptop. Old laptop worked ok years ago. I think it's due to the higher speed laptop? I am going to go try it again next couple days, but last time it said it was sending data and there was none. I don't want to pay $200 for their little USB box...

Thanks gentlemen!

Recently my seat rails have become very sticky and I've see Tri-flow mentioned in threads on site. I think a long time ago I had used white lithium grease spray. What are all of you using for this application please?

All, Just got out of annual, and while the AP wasn't touched, when I test flew and turned the Century 2B on, after 2 seconds of sitting there, it commenced a sharp turn opposite of where it was supposed to turn (wing level mode). Then on heading mode, same thing happened. And it was a steep turn - had to disengage the AP. Any ideas from anyone? It's been working just fine up until now.