MikeOH

I went with the mounting kit from Spruce; $20, IIRC. Somehow, I ended up with an extra set. If you want to pay postage you can have it. PM me. I went with fixed from Hooker ($420), and have zero complaints. I like being able to cinch them up real tight for take-off and landing; then slack in flight. When I need to switch tanks I just slip my shoulder under the belt, and slip it back when I'm done. I've had annoying experiences with inertia lock retractors in various cars over the years; lock-up, won't retract/tension, and locked where I couldn't pull the belt out! Had to take the damn thing apart...total PIA! Didn't want to repeat any of that with the plane! Installed them myself (NEVER again!) and had my A&P sign off the install. All-in, a little over $500. If you can find an A&P to put them in for under $300, go for it...I must have had 6 hours into the project (putting the clamps on the frame tubing is beyond difficult on the pilot's side...only a mere PIA on the passenger side) Mike

You are correct; and, I was a bit disappointed to find it pretty much the book number. However,....and I wasn't going to admit this until now,....I realized a day later that I didn't CLOSE THE COWL FLAPS!!! Not sure what that took away, but I'm going to have to run the test again; or, more likely, just stabilize at the same power setting, at the same DA, note the speed...then close the cowl flaps, and look at the rise. Then, just add that to my 168.4 mph number.

This thread prompted me to take a 'speed run' flight today. I attempted to be as scientific as possible (criticize away!), here are the conditions, methodology, and data: Aircraft: 1970 M20F, Mods: Lower cowl closure, 201 windshield, flap, aileron, rudder, elevator gap seals, dorsal fin mod, PowerFlow exhaust, brake rotation. NOT freshly waxed Test weight: 2237 +10/-20 pounds (uncertainty in 'stuff' in cabin, plus fuel burn during test) OAT = 78 F. (G3 Insight). RH = 40%. (I used an online calculator to determine the surface RH based on the temp/dew point at my departure airport and assumed the same RH at altitude where the OAT was 78 F as I had no way to determine dew point or RH directly. I do not know what error this assumption introduced) Pressure altitude = 6700 (I was trying, unsuccessfully to get a DA = 10,000). DA = 9,600 based upon PA, temp, and RH. I used the GPS method described by Prof. David Rogers (Google "horseshoe method") which is completely independent of wind speed and direction and requires flying three legs of 90 degrees heading change. I stabilized for several minutes on each leg after the GPS speed no longer was changing. Throttle: WOT. RPM = 2500 +/-20 throughout test (Horizon digital tach). FF leaned to 10.3 +/-0.1 gph. (Based on many fuel fills being accurate to 0.5 gallon vs. fuel totalizer this should be an accurate fuel flow) Drum roll, please..... TAS = 168.4 mph

OP here. I wanted to follow up with closure on this. YEAH!!! A/P working once again. Despite having crawled under the panel and finding the D-sub connector not fully seated, removing said connector and lookingfor bent pins....that's EXACTLY what the problem was; I just needed to pull the TC/RC out of the panel in order to see that two pins were shorted together due to one of them being bent. Pretty clearly done by the shop that had my panel torn apart to find the static system leak. A/P had been working just fine until then. Anyway, hat's off to Al, and Barry, at STEC (Genesis). VERY helpful and friendly advice. Based on the symptoms and measurements I made at Al's direction we thought that the unit needed to be sent back to the factory for repair; that's why I was pulling it out of tha panel. Al was originally betting it was a bent pin...and he was right!

I've never quite understood the desire to use a cover to protect upholstery. I pay a bunch of money to get new seats on a chair at home, my car, or my plane so that I can look at and enjoy using them. I accept that by using them it will wear them out; just the way it works. I remember growing up my aunt and uncle put in new carpet in their home...then put these gawd awful 'clear' plastic runners over the carpet so it didn't get dirty and worn out!! Looked like total shit; especially after it got dirty and yellow. But, they damn well protected their carpet!

WARNING!!! I am NOT an attorney, my opinions ONLY: 1) Trying to "Force" this guy, via some lawsuit/judgement is going to be a complete waste of time and money. 2) You need to address his, valid IMHO, concerns about personal liability. Thus, what you want from an attorney is advice on how to structure a deal that is "bullet proof protection" FOR HIM. If you can convince him he will NOT have ANY future liability, I think he'd part with the STC. Maybe create a shell company that takes 'ownership' of the STC 'asset"; then he, as the president of that corp sells either the STC or the company itself??? Something along those lines...

Well, when Mooney starts building planes at the rate GM or Ford does, you let me know...meanwhile, I believe in a shrinking marketplace like GA, selling high-end niche products, it behooves the manufacturer to be directly responsive. That's the attitude the "old" Mooney factory exhibited; e.g. Bill Wheat. Had I the coin to spring for a new $750K Mooney, or whatever the price is, it would now give me pause that I'd be shuffled off to a MSC if I had issues...not a warm feeling. Of course, maybe they just don't want us ankle biters distracting them from selling new planes...

Based on my recent experience calling Mooney, you are SPOT on! They directed me to call a Mooney Service Center; they were NOT interested in dealing directly with me as an owner. Disappointing, but whatcha gonna do?

Unfortunately, no. It's been running 100 degrees here in SoCal and I'm just not motivated to go crawling around my panel in this heat! Thanks very much for the contact; I'll give Al a call.

I am NOT an AP/IA, but agree with the above...EXCEPT, there is a replacement weight (430053-501) which is attached with SCREWS (NAS623-3-1) rather than the original part (430016-501) which has the iron rivets (430026-999). This is from the "J" parts manual, but the original weigh P/N: 430016-501) is the same on the "F". Basically, it looks like you replace the three 'thru' iron rivets with SIX screws (3 from the top, and 3 from the bottom) into the "SPARES REPLACEMENT" part. Here is the footnote from the parts manual: 1. 430053-501 IS SPARES REPLACEMENT FOR 430016-501 WITH NAS623-3-1 SCREWS (6 EACH).

Horizon digital tach and G3 insight... both agree with each other within a few rpm. Yes, I have checked my K-factor; it is within 1%. Thanks for the input as those items are definitely worth checking!

And, combined with the schematics, could be an important clue to pre-locating, so to speak, likely locations for the short.

Yes. Pull the CB, or get it to trip! Then, use the ohmmeter setting to probe the switched side (NOT the side of the CB going to the buss!) of the CB to ground. It will likely read close to zero. That will confirm the short. Unfortunately, it then gets difficult as it's a mass of bundled wires...a schemtic will help as you can go to where the schematic indicates and disconnect, then recheck to ground...move on to the next location...not going to be easy. I'd probably start by crawling under the panel with a bright flashlight and trying to look for something that doesn't 'look right.' Some evidence of a burn mark, or bare wire, look at points where wires might chafe against metal.

Honestly, I think you'll be better off trouble shooting WITHOUT the box to worry about!

I'm not sure that's 'unfortunate'

Here are the pictures of my control box when I had it on the bench. You can just see the black rectangular connector on the wire bundle. Sorry, I don't have any showing how it mounts in the plane. The shaft on the lower left is the dimmer control, the smaller control is the 'push to test' button for the warning lights. In the next to last image you can just see the Adel clamp if you look real close!

Your 1975 may be different than my 1970...the control box in my plane is at the very TOP of the panel; right under the glare shield, and the connector is just to the right, not quite in the center. I can try and help with troubleshooting the box, IF that is it. As Marauder suggested, it could well be near the CB since they were messing around there.

Hmm, this sounds VERY similar to what happened to me recently. Not coincidently, right after the avionics shop messed behind my panel! Same symptom, the gear warning CB popped and would NOT reset (like yours, immediately popped again): dead short. There is a control box just under the glare shield on the pilot's side. Inside is a bundle of wires held by an Adel clamp. In my case, ONE wire (the one in the gear warning system) had been clamped UNDER the metal part of the Adel clamp (NOT inside the rubber grommet insulated part like all the other wires). This was pretty clearly a factory error: the insulation was crushed during assembly and it took nearly 50 years to wear through! The shop moving things around must have been the last straw. Odds of it being the same cause in your case...????? Here's what I did to troubleshoot: Remove the glare shield, locate the control box and you will find a bundle of white wires exiting the box to a connector close by. Disconnect the connector and turn on the master. In my case, the CB no longer tripped. I'd have to go back and look at the schematic, but I'm pretty sure that it was conclusive that meant the short had to be within the box. Another MSer provided me a schematic of the control box. If you troubleshoot down to the control box being the issue, let me know and I can get you the schematic. Frankly, while learning how the box worked was fun, the reality is I found the problem by a VERY careful visual examination. Good luck!

Just wanted to thank everyone for their input; most appreciated! After I sort this out, I'll post back...who knows, it may well be more than one thing responsible for my high oil temps and having to climb at reduced power to keep my CHTs under 400....fuel flow was a thought, but timing, baffling, vernathrem, plugged oil cooler...

Good! That's what I thought, but appreciate the confirmation:) It's interesting that several pilots are reporting near my number of 16, but the Savvy data is up around 18...going by the statistics suggests I should get to the bottom of this. I'm going to start with making sure the mixture control is really going full on the FI Servo. I also wonder if there are slight version variations in FI Servos and, given how old our planes are, that some may have had an improper FI Servo installed??

Interesting...I'm having high oil temp issues, as well. But, they are tending to happen during cruise, not so much on climb out. Definitely OAT correlated, but not perfectly. That is the delta between OAT and Oil temp is not a constant, but oil temp is definitely lower at lower OATs.

Thanks for that! My totalizer is similarly accurate; so, I believe my 16 gph numbers. What do you see for CHTs on take-off?

Hmm, at take-off my EGTs are in the 1200-1300 range, but at cruise (LOP, 8.5 gph) they run in the mid to high 1400s. Anything to worry about there?

Oh, geez...now I have contradictory data from Marauders....I don't know what time it is, anymore!! I do have a Powerflow exhaust, as well. I've also heard a 10:1 rough rule-of-thumb...200HP needs close to 20 gph.

Very good data there! It strongly suggests that I do NOT have a fuel flow issue. I guess I need to look elsewhere for my high CHTs and Oil Temp. Your data are a carbon copy of mine....except your CHTs look great!