MikeOH

Good thing I have a 1970 M20F...the lawyers weren't swarming at that point, apparently

@carusoam I made it quite clear what I was going to do with the information.

I think your logic is flawless. However, the POH cite above hardly describes anything close to that process. In fact, it is in a bolded section AFTER the pre-flight checklist. It's AFTER telling you how to shut and lock the door, and it doesn't mention even remotely how long to drain, let alone which tank. Cliffy's comment about crud and at annual (which likely doesn't happen, unfortunately), I'm going to periodically position a decent size jar that is greater than the sump and line volume, and drain for long enough to fill it. THAT would be a worthwhile check; I can look for crud and all that water that is supposedly lurking in there. I'm sure NOT going to do that before every flight and fill-up. Which is likely why the POH does NOT have it as part of the check list itself.

Wait, I thought we were talking about WATER?

Sigh...what's the point? I want to KNOW if there is water. That's the point of sumping the tanks, isn't it? If I see water I'm damn sure going to do something about it! The POH excerpt to pull the drain after you're already in the plane is pointless.

Maybe, but that is NOT what I said. You are most certainly NOT CHECKING for that water. Per the POH cite above you are already ensconced in the plane at that point.

Hmm, what is the point of doing this? You are already IN the airplane; they just told you how to shut the door for gawd's sake. You're sure not checking for water in the sump!

BINGO! Exactly how I handle it. It's probably about time for me to check the sump to make sure it still works, but since I've NEVER found water in the tanks I'm not about to start draining the sump before every flight! As you say, IF I find water in the tanks I will most definitely be THEN draining the sump.

Solution: Buy a plane that has been flown 100 hours/year for the last couple of years. The airworthiness bugs have been worked out. Upgrades are your own fault

True, dat. But, nothing looks and smells as good as leather...mmmm. Comes down to functionality vs. pizazz

My plane has them, but it wasn't something I was shopping for and, if you took them away, I wouldn't really miss them. But, when SoCal keeps me at 5,000 AGL until 5 miles from the airport they sure are kinda nice

Yep. And, sadly, this is why I only fly my wife and kids. No friends or those interested in learning about GA, unfortunately. I'm paying around $1300 with $100K sub-limits; going to $1MM smooth would over DOUBLE my premium!! Not worth it just to give rides, I'm afraid.

Yeah, pretty useless website. But, I bought my shoulder harness from them in November 2017...so, they were still around then. Wife made me take the HOOKER patch off the webbing, however

Another big +1 for Pacific. I had mine gone through about a year ago. They are right by my home drone (POC) and drove the cooler over and picked it up less than a week later. Real easy to work with.

Nylon zip ties are pretty strong

You could be right, but at this point, it seems the Surefly has provided sufficient evidence that it should be sent to the manufacturer. The damming result was the drop in CHTs when you turned it off.

My suspicion is that an electronic mag does NOT have a fixed timing; rather, its advantage over a conventional mag is its ability to vary the timing. I have no doubt the timing is perfect for starting....it's during climb/cruise that I suspect the timing is out of wack.

Glad you are narrowing this down. Have you called Surefly? Maybe time to pull that Emag and sent it to them.

A couple of random remarks for the OP: That J might be a good deal... for someone that does NOT have your requirements and has been around airplane ownership for awhile. Those KX-170s are bulletproof...but are at the utter nadir vs the GTN you are waxing poetic about My age addled brain needs at least a flip-flop so I can go back to the last freq and ask for the new one again Not long after I got my F, I had the static and transponder checks performed as I was getting ready for long family trip...well, we depart into IMC, and here's why I don't engage an AP until I"m several thousand feet AGL, I click it on and WHAMO rolls hard to the left, YIKES!! Disengage and go back to hand flying.... for the next 4.5 hours! Then got to do that for another 4.5 hours on the way back! It was some work to hold +/-100 feet for that period. I won't go into how the shop screwed up my autopilot doing a static system check, but I learned you better check EVERYTHING after your plane comes out of the shop regardless of what they worked on. Bottom line: You really want an AP if you are going to take long trips... even VFR. It's easy to turn off if you have one; a LOT harder to turn on if you don't

Just noticed you don't have your medical. Do NOT delay this, and do NOT show up for your medical with ANY history that you do not FULLY understand what the AVIATION ramifications are. Especially a DUI or psychiatric visit. High blood pressure, diabetes, any ER visits, ... These things CAN be dealt with, but you don't want to find that out when you apply for your medical as you can't "back out" after starting the exam...and then the clock is ticking and you can end up with a denial.

$2500 for basic inspection is spot on! My F has run between $3000 - $5,000 including repairs.

IMHO, Hell no!

Dude! There should be major demerits for posting that sacrilege here

Only thing better would have been Bill Wheat's sig for the factory production flight test!

WOW! How in the world did you troubleshoot that??? Hats off to you!