toto

Cool, thanks for the link. Honestly my concern was that the G-243 line has been discontinued, and the 7243 series is (aiui) the Gill recommended replacement. Given the vast amount of support on this board for the Concorde batteries, my thinking was that I'd swap Gill-for-Gill if I could do it myself, but I would just ask the mechanic to put in a Concorde.

Steve Mooney at Air Associates (KOJC). I'll PM you contact details.

I'm looking at replacing my 11yo G-243 with a 7243 (or something else). If I can swap out a Gill for another Gill, I'll be happy to do it myself - but it sounds like the weight difference might be a problem. Does anyone know for sure whether moving from a 243 to a 7243 will require a new W&B? I'm dubious about the accuracy of weight specs from online retailers.

Netflix even has some 4k movies / shows now. You do have to pay slightly more for 4k (I think it's $11.99/mo instead of $9.99). But if you have a 4k TV, Netflix is one of the only streaming sources for 4k content.

I have an app called "Tiny Scanner" that I've used to create an electronic copy of a POH and other documents using the camera on my phone. Obviously not an auto-feed solution, but it's surprisingly useful, and accepts all different sorts of things that would be hard to scan. Tiny Scanner is available for both Android and iOS, don't recall whether it's free or cheap (but it's not particularly expensive in any case).

Hi @ohdub, did you ever resolve this question? Did you end up waiting to annual? I had nearly identical symptoms on my last flight - fuel pressure was at top of the green, but would go into the red with boost on. Carefully watching fuel flow, perhaps out of paranoia, I was seeing consistent but not rock-solid flow, varying no more than 0.2gph. The engine seemed perfectly happy. I'm trying to decide whether it should go into the shop for fuel screen inspection before my next flight, or whether this is something that can safely be watched for a while.

Do we have any engineers on this board who are familiar with the science behind ENC? (I'm more or less completely ignorant on the topic.) I've always wondered whether correct operation of ENC depends on a specific volume of air between the speaker and the ear drum, and whether having ear plugs in that space would negatively impact the ENC magic. Like everyone, I want maximum hearing protection, but I've always kind of assumed that the engineers behind these products have made assumptions about how pilots will use them, and I worry that ENC will be less effective if used in a different way. E.g., I worry that wearing foam ear plugs under a Bose headset might add some passive noise reduction, but reduce some of the active.

The records you'll get from Aero-Space Reports are identical to what you'll get from FAA, but using Aero-Space might save you some time. They have a package for AOPA members that covers much of what you'd worry about. https://www.aerospacereports.com/services/aopa-title-search-package-95 If you end up using Aero-Space for title and escrow, they'll do some handholding and provide some peace of mind. But even if you don't use them for anything else, the records search is probably well worth the $95. You can't get much in aviation for 0.095 AMU They'll also send you the results electronically within a few hours. Compare with FAA, where you have to wait for USPS mailing (even when the records come on a CD).

To echo what others have said... If you decide to go down this road, the key to doing it safely is to have a rock-solid backup plan. "Get-there-itis" is always a thing, and it can be especially pronounced if your work depends on you being in a certain place at a certain time. Some airlines (I'm thinking SWA) have very lenient cancellation policies for full-fare tickets, which allow a cash refund up to - and sometimes even beyond - your departure time. Having a paid airline ticket in your back pocket is a nice hedge​ against a bad launch decision. When you first get your PPL, you'll use the back-pocket ticket a lot. Almost certainly more often than you'll fly yourself. But as your experience (and confidence) improves, you'll find yourself relying less and less on the safety net.

I stopped flying into Boulder several years ago in favor of BJC. I actually really prefer Boulder, and being within biking distance of downtown, but I grew increasingly uncomfortable with the level of nordo activity from gliders and tow planes. It wasn't unusual to have one or more of each in the immediate vicinity of the airport. Signature at BJC has iirc a $50 ramp fee that's waived with a 15-gallon fuel purchase. The staff are helpful and friendly, and have never said a word about my being the only non-jet customer. The only real surprise was a $160/night hangar fee for a piston single if you want to park inside. Sheesh.

I believe that MAPA still sells new copies for $20 or so. They're kind of hard to find, on the second page of the "merchandise" section of the MAPA website. http://www.mooneypilots.com/merchandise.htm#!/The-Al-Mooney-Story-by-Gordon-Baxter/p/11936820/category=0

For what it's worth, I always read AirNav FBO comments before making a decision about where to park overnight. If an FBO has a tendency to charge hidden fees, this is usually obvious from the comments. And when something like an ownership change has produced significantly different prices or quality of service, people often write about it. I really like hearing a first-hand account before I leave my a/c with a new FBO. And I also like to mention to the FBO that I read the online reviews, which implies the possibility of positive (or negative) feedback depending on my experience.

The initial buy-in depends on installed equipment and what size binder you want, but figure $180 or so with shipping. Nice system - I've been using it for ~15 years. The FAA has gotten better about owner AD notifications, but I really like the ADLog annual summaries. Quick once-a-year comparison against your logged signoffs to ensure that nothing is missing. (And with luck, the vast majority of applicable ADs in your binder are "permanently complied with.")

Yep, Fritz mentioned this up above. I do think the UMA units look much closer to the original. I was sort of shocked to see that the EI tachs haven't changed in 20 years - seems like a missed opportunity. The current EI factory manual was last updated in 1997.

Great, thanks for the offer. I may take you up on that if it turns out that the tach itself is the source of the problem. The plane is an '89, and I'm still a little confused about the installed equipment. The mechanic consulted Mooney tech support before even opening the cowl, and they were the source of info on the tach generator. He has since shipped the tach generator off for repair, though I don't believe that the indicator has been completely ruled out. I should know more in the next few days.

Ouch. Apologies for missing the point of your original reply - I didn't make any distinction between an electronic tach and a tach that uses a generator. I do have copies of the J mx manuals, but I'm obviously not a mechanic and certainly don't have the knowledge I would need to steer the shop in the right direction. This mechanic has never touched the plane before, but I was hoping to avoid needing a ferry permit to a shop that I know, and I was assured that he had "plenty" of Mooney experience.

By serial number, my a/c should have the tach connected to the mag. In either case, when the mechanic says that he has traced the problem back to the tach generator, what's he likely referring to? I don't want to start replacing things if there's just a worn connector somewhere that needs to be tightened or resoldered.

For what it's worth, here's a shot of the affected 2.25" stack in my a/c.

Looks fantastic!

My A&P seemed to know where the generator could be sent for overhaul (not sure where). But he was concerned that it might take a while. The EI install could be done in a day. I'll let him know about KCHD - might be the same place he was thinking of.

Mine is a post-205, pre-MSE J, branded as a 201.

Your photo of the all-EI setup doesn't look bad to me. Was it strange to have the EI tach by itself before you replaced the MP and fuel flow gauges?

M20J (201)

Hi all - I have a broken factory electronic tach that went from perfect to intermittent to completely dead in a day. My A&P has determined that the problem is in the tach generator, and that it's no longer possible to buy a new replacement generator. His recommendation is to buy the EI R-1 electronic tach as a drop-in replacement. This would be something like $1100 installed. I've read with great interest all of the various threads on tach replacement, and it seems that most people go with the EI unit for 2.25" applications. I'm not wild about the EI units, which have a curious LED arc, and appear not to have been updated in the past 25 years (so I would be replacing a 25yo factory electronic tach with a third-party electronic tach of the same vintage). I think that the LED format is odd, and replacing only the tach without doing MP and EGT would look particularly odd. I do not have an engine monitor, and I think that my preference would be to install something like the EI CGR-30P unit that could replace the factory gauges. EI is running a nice rebate offer right now for the CGR-30P, which would be 4x as expensive as the R-1 installed, with far more functionality. But the CGR-30P is a 3" display, and would not fit in the 2.25" factory tach hole. My understanding is that there isn't a 2.25" engine monitor that can replace the primary tach, and I don't have an available 3" hole unless I'm ready for major panel surgery. Any advice? Am I better off just buying the R-1 now? Something else? Would I still want the R-1 later after installing an engine monitor that's a primary replacement? (Is having an electronic tach even useful in the event of an electrical failure? Doesn't the tach die along with the engine monitor?) Hope I'm not beating a dead horse with this thread - would appreciate any thoughts.

It does seem odd. The AAA ad shows about +50 engine hours, so it's possible that the owner has moved it to Texas. Flightaware suggests it was heading in that direction a couple weeks ago.