dtoelke

Yes, I believe most of them do. The company I used for my loan (US Aircraft Finance) offered financing for immediate upgrades when I bought mine.

I believe that is how he is pitching it now

I wish everyone thought that way haha! Unfortunately a lot of buyers don't want to deal with the installation themselves and would prefer to purchase pre-configured. This sentiment by itself is understandable but I do think the market overweights the value avionics upgrades, and underweights core conditional items (which are far more important for cost of ownership). There are a lot of planes out there in fair to poor condition otherwise that get valued higher because of the avionics. IMO it's kinda like putting a bow tie on a bag of poop, but I'm not the buyer .

Exactly. Which is why we ended up recently lowering the price. That way, the buyer can upgrade the panel and total cost be the same or less than a pre-outfitted Mooney, plus the perks of getting to choose the layout yourself.

Almost was sold two months ago. One of the two partners buying the plane backed out after the pre-buy for unrelated reasons :/. I spent a lot of time flying the plane around California and was glad to have the turbo, but it's also a matter of personal preference. Re: the market, as I understand it's not so bad trying to sell a K, but selling one (or any plane for that matter) without a modern panel can be pretty tough.

Aircraft is now being sold by All American Aircraft. Asking price is $85,000.

Hey folks, After a lot of thought and discussion with others, I've decided to put my 231 up for sale. Unfortunately I'm at a point in my life where I can't fly enough to justify ownership. It's been an absolute joy but I'll be glad to see it go to someone who can afford the time. The details: 1979 Mooney M20K 231 - fresh annual (April 2017), 3128 TT, two total owners (I'm the 2nd), complete logs, and hangared in Southern California for its entire life until last October (now hangared at HYI near Austin, TX) Airframe: Brand new fuel tank reseal by Houston Tank Specialists (Nov 2016), 2006 paint (factory colors), 2006 windows and windshield, wingtip and tail strobes, PreciseFlight speedbrakes Engine: 405 hrs SMOH, 405 hrs SPOH, Turboplus intercooler, PreciseFlight standby vac system, installed new in 2015: turbo, GAMI's, Merlyn wastegate Avionics: EDM830 w/fuel flow, Collins AMR 350 audio panel, TDR 950 transponder, (2) VHF 251 comms, (2) VIR 351 navs, Apollo GX55 GPS, Collins DME, Century 41 autopilot w/altitude hold, sigtronics 2pl intercom, electric trim Extras: Custom sun shades, also will consider selling Stratus 2, RAM iPad mount, and two Bose headsets with the plane The plane flies great and the engine monitor indications always read healthy. Last two annuals were performed at a Mooney service center in Southern California. I've attached pictures to this post (note: I took the pictures when I dropped the plane off for the annual, so it's a bit dirty and I am not a professional photographer by any measure!) I'm asking $85,000. If you are interested please contact All American Aircraft at (830) 261-4147. Best, -Don N231BZ-vref.pdf

I will be living and working in the Barton Hills area. Will follow up on the airports mentioned above. Thanks!

Is anyone familiar with the airports/hangar situation in the Austin, TX area? There's a good chance I will be moving there from Los Angeles in the next two months and I'd like to get a jump on finding a new home for my bird. Any help would be greatly appreciated! -Don

I sent my DG in for an overhaul and when I got it back and installed, the autopilot tracks a couple of degrees left of the heading bug. Everything else appears to be functioning properly and the error is consistent. Anybody experienced this issue before? Does something in the DG or AP need to be calibrated after an O/H?

Thanks guys! I called both and think Executive Autopilots is going to be a better bet for me since they have a full test bench for the century 41. The help is much appreciated.

When it's functioning properly everything will engage on the ground. Is that what you mean? (i.e. it doesn't need to be flying to have the ailerons and elevator "attempt" to correct pitch and roll)

I forgot to mention, I'm based out of Bakersfield. Obviously the closer the better, but anywhere between LA and SF would probably work.

Can anybody recommend an avionics shop in the Southern California area that is well-versed in Century autopilots. I've been having issues with my Century 41. The pitch control works fine but the roll control only works occasionally, usually kicking in 30-60 mins into the flight (yet weirdly it works quite well for the rest of the flight, only to not work on the next flight). I'm trying to wrap up my IFR training and would like have this functioning for my checkride. Thanks guys!

Sorry Clarence I did not mean to discount your input. I think I just worded the original question poorly. What I'm really interested in is finding out if there are any other potential plugging points I haven't listed that would affect only one of the injectors and also in what order I should troubleshoot. Do I send the injector in to be flow tested, open up the fuel distributor, etc?

Shadrach you are correct. Clarence, that would be the case on an N/A engine, but would really only occur at low cruise power/low altitude for the K (when the MP is lower than the ambient). If it was an induction leak here, two things would happen: 1) On takeoff/climb, the cylinder would run richer and cooler since the manifold pressure is HIGHER (36") than ambient (~29"). In my case it's running leaner. 2) During cruise at 4500 as tested at 65% power, the mixture wouldn't be significantly affected since the manifold pressure would be roughly the same as ambient (+/- 2" depending on day). Again it's also running leaner. From this information I am 99% certain that the problem is fuel flow through the #1 injector, #1 line, or something in the fuel distributor (spider). I'm just wondering how best to approach the diagnosis. I could send the injector back to GAMI for testing but if there's a method to test the other components first I'd think that would be better.

Hi all, After several busy weeks I was finally able to fly last week and run a GAMI spread to diagnose the overheating issue of cylinder 1 on takeoff/climb. Not a massive overheating mind you (~390-400 deg) but still much higher than normal. Below are the screenshots from May this year (poor data rate but it gets the point across) and the one I took last week. You can see that the May spread was very good (about 0.2 gph). The one from last week however shows the cylinder 1 peak occurring roughly 1 gph higher than the rest of the cylinders; the other cylinders all look the same as before. To me this indicates a partial fuel blockage in either the injector itself or the feed line/distributor. I removed the injector before the flight (since I suspected this might be the issue) and everything looked clean and free. Reinstalled and flew the plane. Do y'all agree with my diagnosis? What other parts are susceptible to plugging? Since it's only this cylinder and total flow rates are normal on takeoff and cruise, I'd think it would be something downstream of (or in) the fuel distributor/spider. Should I send the injector back to GAMI to get it flow tested first before I do anything else? -Don

Thanks guys. I will pass this along to the mechanic!

I am having a fuel flow issue and was hoping y'all could help me pre-diagnose before I send it over to the shop. Flew from CA to CO on Friday. Flight went fine, no issues whatsoever. I started up in CO today to take my dad around for a spin before I fly back home. On climb I noticed unusually high CHTs, to the point that I had to back off power to 60-70 percent to keep them under 390. Brought the plane around and landed. Once I had my dad out of the plane and was ready to head back to CA I tried to start it again. I've used a structured hot start procedure since day 1 and it's never failed me (circulate fuel line, then prime and start). This time it didn't work. Itook a disgusting number of tries, with the engine almost catching a couple times but always seeming starved for fuel despite a full rich mixture. Eventually I got it going (after a jump for my dead battery) by getting on the primer after it caught. This is something I've NEVER had to do before with the starting procedure I use. The DA was about 8000 ft (75 deg at 6000 ft). For reference, I've been at much higher DAs and not had this issue. Anyways, I finally got it started and took off again. First thing I noticed (should have noticed before) is that the FF was lower than usual (18-19 GPH vs the 23ish that I normally see at 36"). Bam, that explained the high temps since the mixture is too lean (by why). I reduced power to 70 percent, pulled LOP and climbed at 300-500 FPM to cruising altitude. The rest of the flight I noticed the following items: 1) The FF did not want to stay put. It would regularly drift between 8.7-9.1 GPH with my usual cruise setting (65% LOP). Normally it's rock solid wherever I put it. 2) The cylinder temps were not steady either. Again, usually after 10-15 minutes in cruise they settle in and remain there for the rest of the flight. This time they were all varying by 15-20 degrees, one of which was causing me fits because it would occasionally move up through my alarm setting of 380 into the 390s with little warning. 3) The mixture control was "soft". By this I mean that the changes that happened to my fuel flow (as monitored by a JPI830) were not representative of my movements of the mixture control knob. Sometimes I could turn the damn thing a half turn and get no change to the FF, other times I would move it a fraction of a degree and the FF would jump (or fall) almost 0.5 GPH. 4) The cylinder temperature spread was atypical. I'm familiar with the temperature spread across the cylinders during cruise and today they did not look normal. My first thought would be that the engine driven fuel pump is bad. Unfortunately my M20K does not have any fuel pressure gauge or indicator so there's no easy way for me to tell. Any other thoughts?

Found it. If anyone needs to know in the future, it's the IND-450

Does anybody happen to know the model number of the Collins DME equipment used around '79? I had a digit go out and forgot to grab the model number before I left last night. Trying to get a jump on the repair since I'm scheduled to take my IFR checkride this Thursday. -Don

Thanks everyone for all the helpful comments. I think the idea of comparing real performance to theoretical is a great idea/application that hasn't really been addressed. Jim, your point about Xavion (a wonderful piece of software btw) is a valid one, but at $20/month there's a significant price hurdle. I believe that most of us would check TO&L regularly if it were very convenient to do so, especially if it only cost something like $10 for a one time fee. Right now there really isn't anything out there at the "so cheap i don't even think about it" price point, especially for the numerous Mooney models out there. Whoever makes something like this (whether myself of someone else) certainly isn't going to get rich, but that's not really the point. I'll keep y'all posted on the progress. At some point I'll need POH scan donations

Hey all, I haven't been able to find an app that contains power chart calculations and am considering making my own. Before I do I'm curious if anyone other than myself would find it useful. I have a decent amount of programming experience but there are some initial development costs to get in on the apple marketplace and I first have to justify it to myself. I'd also have a lot of extra motivation if I knew it was something that would be useful to others. I currently just have a couple of power settings at standard temperatures in my head that I use, but it would be nice to have a quick and easy confirmation especially in non-standard conditions. This would be for those people like myself who find pulling out the charts a hassle and have an iPad in front of them anyways. Thoughts?

Actually the M20K has stops at the 15 deg angle. Very easy to bump against while towing.

This isn't a question but rather a reminder to other owners to check your nose gear before flight if your FBO tows the plane. Before I bought my M20K I read somewhere that the limited nose gear rotation made it susceptable to over-torquing by powered towing equipment. So I added it to my list of pre-flight items and made sure to check it often. I also brought it up to the FBO manager so they were aware. I went to fly the plane yesterday and while checking the gear noticed one of the turn stops was broken off. So I retraced the tow path and sure enough found the busted part on the tarmac. Fortunately, the staff quickly admitted the fault and the FBO will be covering the repairs. I bring this up because, had I missed this on the pre-flight, odds are the FBO would have plausible deniability and refused to cover the repair. Just another one of many reasons to perform a proper pre-flight.