AaronDC8402

Oh. Got it. I had secondary motivation for traveling from Knoxville to Maryland.

Is there a specific schedule this needs to happen on? Or is an ASAP kind of situation? I would probably try to talk you into bringing them to TYS if possible.

We have completed the initial Lycoming test flight procedure. No anomalies. The engine runs incredibly smooth. The biggest issue at this point has been keeping temps down. The rubber flap on the top of the engine baffle keeps flipping backwards in flight. Temps are staying about 360-370 in cruise when the flap is in the correct orientation, but jumping to 400 when it inverts. The engine seems to sit about 1/2" lower now than before overhaul, and I think that is accounting for the extra space allowing the flap to flip over. I haven't test flown it yet, but I think I've resolved that issue this morning. I should get to fly this afternoon or tomorrow to confirm. The power isn't impressing me yet, but it sounds like that's expected to increase slightly as everything wears in. We also had the HP+ STC previously, but went back to the non-HP+ on this overhaul. As for automotive engines, I know from my work experience that Mercedes test runs every engine on a test stand fully instrumented. The cars are also test run after final assembly of the vehicle. At that point, there's not much to break in.

Oh, and thanks for asking this question. I really like threads like this. Since I RARELY ever hear a departure or arrival clearance, I like reading about it in an effort to stay as current as possible with them.

I know that an altitude with the line under it indicates that is a minimum altitude. Are those minimum speeds for each leg as well? I'm not sure I could hit those numbers in a nose dive after the wings fell off. That would have been reason enough for me to either reject the clearance or at least ask about it.

Our engine was not affected by the latest SB. Sounds like descents are going to be interesting. Keeping the power in and descending are two things that don't go particularly well together in a Mooney. I guess the good news is that we'll already be down lower than I typically fly.

We're picking up 1ZX from an annual turned engine overhaul on Tuesday. We previously had the Firewall Forward HP plus STC, but opted to not use the 10:1 compression pistons in this overhaul. So, the engine is a standard IO360-A3B6D that would be in most M20J's. Triad did the engine overhaul, and AGL Aviation did the removal and reinstall. I will be asking Triad and AGL the same question, but I'm curious to hear Mooneyspace's opinions as well. What's the best break-in procedure and schedule for oil changes during the break-in period? Triad ran the engine for a couple hours on their stand, and AGL has ground tested the engine some. Lynn at AGL is giving us a 2 1/2 hour break in flight procedure that we will complete before our final departure home. From what little I know about new airplane engines, I know they typically use mineral oil in the first hours. For how long do you use the mineral oil? And what's the purpose of mineral oil vs regular oil? Any other general advice for helping get this engine last well into TBO hours? The Firewall forward overhaul was at about 1650 hours when pulled. In it's defense (if there is one), the plane sat for about a year and a half before we bought it with only an occasional ground run.

If you're comfortable with an in-the-ear solution (Halo's, etc.), I don't think it gets better than that. If you're a real CB and handy with a little electrical work, you can build your own headset for cheap (<$100). I built the one I'm using now, and haven't had my Lightspeeds out of the case since then.

I spent A LOT of time troubleshooting the panel lights in our J. A common suggestion on this site is that the potentiometer is bad. I started with changing those, and they worked for about 1 flight, and quit again. Ultimately, we had an intermittent short in the wiring. My non-A&P suggestion is to start with taking the potentiometer out of the circuit essentially straight wiring them through the breaker and the cap fuse. Use the breaker as a switch. If they work fine, maybe it's the potentiometer. If the breaker is popping or the fuse is popping, you know it's a wiring problem.

My half French co-worker couldn't quite make out the writing well enough to translate, but he forwarded the picture to his mother and a friend. Here's what we've got so far. Pour l'ami Hirsch For my friend, Hirsch En souvenir de journées mélancoliques In memory of melancholy times Mirage d'une ? Mirage here?

@highlowfastslow, do you know which version of firmware is on your G5? Supposedly, the updated firmware (v2.6) solved the issue you're describing.

My son is on his second set of Baby Banz. He used the infant set on his first flight at 9 months old and several flights since then. At 2 1/2, he's just now outgrowing the infant size Baby Banz, and he has a larger than average head. We also put cotton balls in his ears along with the muffs. He isn't always compliant with keeping the ear muffs on, so the cotton balls are an extra layer of protection. Wearing your headset around the house a couple times with the kid wearing the ear muffs can help get the child accustomed to wearing them before you get in the plane. I think it'll be a few more years before I let my son wear anything that plays any audio at all. At 2 1/2, I don't trust his ability to tell me if the sound level in his headphones is too loud or not. I would hate to be blaring cockpit audio, autopilot disconnect beep, and gear warning horn into his ears. Based on my relatively limited experience with kids, I don't think I would trust that judgement until the kid is 7 or 8.

What did they end up charging you?

There are camera filters that can take that out too.

I just checked my order from AS when I ordered a few replacement fasteners for our 89 J. The 2700 series fasteners have two sizes that are used to connect the upper cowl along the horizontal seam. The only difference is the length. The two part numbers I ordered were 27S3-4 and 27S3-7. I don't remember which is the shorter or which is the longer. Most of them are the short length. The rear most fastener on each side was the longer part number.

We also have a CNX80 and G5. G5 comes on with master, and CNX comes on with avionics switch. The shop that did the install said the G5 is supposed to be wired to the master per Garmin instructions. I've never seen the issue you're describing. I'll be on the look out for it now though.

The story I was told about the Ovation 3 being parked with the Cirruses was that the Mooney pilot's brother was being dropped off to pick up his new Cirrus.

It's not really a plant in Knoxville. It's their fulfillment and maintenance center. All business operations are done in Knoxville now also, but plane building is still in Deluth, MN. The Cirrus guy showing us around said there are 800 employees at the assembly factory. That's a lot of man-power. I didn't sign any non-disclosure directly with Cirrus. This was one stop of an event being hosted by the airport authority. However, we were asked to not take pictures inside the buildings.

I had the opportunity of touring some of the Cirrus facilities at TYS yesterday evening. Since this is my home airport, I'm used to seeing lots of Cirruses, but something looked a little out of place yesterday. Can you spot the anomaly? In case not, I also uploaded a zoomed/cropped version to really give it away. We sat through a presentation by the VP of, I think it was, customer relations. Cirrus really is going out of its way to be the luxury brand in general aviation. Considering the initial cost and operating cost of a Cirrus, I'm not ready to have one over a Mooney. But, if I were considering new planes at new plane costs, I'd probably be a little less concerned with operating costs.

We're expecting Triad to be done in a couple of weeks. We're two weeks into an estimated 4 week turn-around from Triad. I'm guessing AGL will take a few days to get it installed and buttoned up. With some luck, the plane will be in the air again first week of June.

This was almost our exact situation as well. Jewell was great to talk to, and a friend recently had his engine overhauled by them. In the end, costs were starting to add up the same, and our mechanic already works with Triad on most overhauls. So Triad got the work.

Triad has our engine for overhaul right now. I'm looking forward to seeing how they do with it.

We had Gann aviation in LaFayette, GA install ours for $600 and we bought the unit from Sporty's at retail cost. Gann offered to install for $2,600 including the unit, but couldn't get a hold of one at the time for several weeks. Install cost seems to depend a little bit on existing equipment. If you've got a usable GPS source (as we did) install is very straight forward. If not, another antenna has to be installed.

We just dropped off 1ZX there over the weekend for annual. I had a little bit of trouble at the last minute with my ride back to Knoxville. Those guys went way beyond expectations in helping me figure it out.

There are a lot of Mooney owners that won't care if it can't drive an autopilot. Some of us have autopilots that use the turn coordinator, and need no connection to the HSI or AI. Since it has a magnetometer, I assume it's self aligning. My existing HSI can't show multiple nav sources, so I'm not too worried about that. I've got about 20 hours behind the Aspen in a 182RG, and I never used the multiple nav source at all.