AlexLev

Was descending from 3500 to 2300 last evening. Time was about 830pm, into my home airport. About a second before impact I notice a flock of about 4 birds off the right side and then hear a “clunk.” Report the strike to ATC, damage seems limited to some paint coming off this 5 year old paint job. Impact was the right wing. I think they were geese, but only one seems to have hit at an angle. I’ll see if I can send the snarge over to the FAA or Smithsonian for identification during the report. Grateful it wasn’t worse.

https://www.facebook.com/gold.standard.aviation.one/videos/1519540618154327/?hc_ref=ARRr2_LZkhmSTPt3zC4TRk1yCjfbynNULunyiXa0RG9wt1jgGebsJlArgXcWKBkTOmA&fref=nf

This is some scary stuff. Prelim accident report for the wing separation incident on April 4th. https://app.ntsb.gov/pdfgenerator/ReportGeneratorFile.ashx?EventID=20180404X13226&AKey=1&RType=HTML&IType=FA An airplane manufactured in 2007 with metal fatigue on the spar, undetected at annual just 28 hours prior. Although, I don't know how extensive the 100 hour annuals are. Gives me a little bit if an unsettled feeling flying a 50-year old airframe...especially one that likes the yellow arc so much.

The way my flight instructor explained this in the past is some of the protective elements/additives in the oil start to breakdown after 10-15hours. Not a super technical explanation, but hopefully someone with more knowledge can provide more insight.

How do you know a lobe is worn? How severe? If metal is not showing up anymore, that’s a good sign. You could replace the cam/lifters for about 8K, I imagine..or do the whole overhaul for about 12-14.

I just had my engine overhauled after a camlobe spalling + two lifters. Crankshaft was in good shape. A lot of the crankshaft is protected by the bearings, so I'm not sure what sort of failure you had...whether it's just some shavings coming off, or something more spectacular, but if it's the former I'd bet that your crank is fine. My cost to overhaul the engine was about 13.5K all in including the R&R. No accessories except ignition harness + fuel pump + oil pump housing.

I'm thinking of flying from Buffalo, NY to California sometime this year and also curious on some of the best routes for my M20G. Anyone's that made similar trips, I'd love to know some good routing for an M20G.

It's the 100 Sae 50 Mineral Oil from Aeroshell that's in the plane now. The pressure is at 95-99 on take off, and then 87-90 during cruise (non engine monitor gauge), just the default needle.

Just got my plane back from overhaul and the oil pressure is set very high -- it's at the top of the green during cruise and yellow during take off. Curious what are the consequences of higher oil pressure? Could this prevent camshaft spalling (reason for my premature overhaul) in the future? Is it bad for the crankcase? Bearings? I'll check the Mooney Service Manual PDF as well to see what is recommended, but curious if there is any wisdom in leaving it as-is or whether to adjust it down.

Ugh, I just gained ten pounds...time to go for a jog. edit: reweighed myself in jogging clothes and it was a false alarm. amazing how some jeans and a sweater can add 10 pounds, WTH!

Thanks! I’ll give Uber a try. Great tip about the calling ahead. May try to get in on the weekend to pick her up.

Looks like it’s completed. Planning to pick fly her back on Thursday morning. Anyone available to help me get from Memphis to Kennett on Wednesday evening?

Yeah not sure I'd want to pay 10k for god knows what when I can fix what I have going on inside my engine for about the same price, maybe even 1AMU less...unless Stephen knows something we don't about his engine?

Blackstone doesn't analyze filters, just aviation laboratories. My experience with them and metal wasn't super helpful--they did give me an AMS #, but Lycoming told me that AMS could refer to: crankshaft, camshaft, any gear...etc...so it didn't really narrow anything down. It turned out to be the cam and lifters, which it almost always usually is. Oftentimes you can tell just by what the metal looks like...if you posted a picture of it on a magnet, I'm sure we could give our non-expert PPL opinions

@928kc was super helpful when I was looking at a plane in Albany and even took me in my first ride in a M20J. Less than a few months later, I was the proud owner of a Mooney. Best of luck!

Nice looking plane/panel and @Diver721 nothing stops you from making an offer.

@bluehighwayflyer I am pretty sure it's kept hangared..I did ask them to and they said they would do their best and last I called them they said it was sitting in a hangar. I don't ask every day and maybe they move it around as necessary, but I trust they are keeping it well. They gave me a 3-4 week timeline when I came in and looks like they will be right around that mark, but I know the volume of their engines increased quite a bit (they had 3 when I came in, now they have over 10)...so it may take a little longer.

Sorry you're dealing with this. I feel for you! I had the same thing happen with 3-4 clean changes until it started making metal. Have you seen the metal? Is it still flyable? I was making a little metal, but still the IA felt okay to sign the plane off during annual and I chose to fly it in for the R&R since Jewell's price on an R&R was very competitive. It was within Lycoming's guidelines on how much metal is "okay" in the filter. Jewell has been doing well and so far, for an O-360 it's come in at $14,500 including the R&R, which includes a new carburator, ignition harness and fuel pump. It may be a bit more for an IO-360, but their prices are all pretty straight forward on the web site. I would add a few K for the inevitable accessories you may need to replace. To fix the metal you might be looking at $8000-9000 without an overhaul, as long as the metal wasn't so huge that it really damaged some internal components.. You are in Arkansas which is right next to Jewell too. They have been doing a good job with sending me updates and it seems like they are right on schedule. Here are some of the latest pics they sent of them doing the bottom components (attached): I am hoping the engine they rebuild will last to TBO and beyond, but so far have been happy with their communication and timeliness. Time will tell how the engine will fare, but @aaronk25 speaks pretty highly of them and was the reason I went with them!

I want to do my CPL in the Mooney too but am currently overhauling the engine. What's a good period before being able to do the CPL maneuvers and not harm the freshly overhauled engine? 50 hours? 100?

Is anyone able to successfully run LOP with a carb'd engine?

Couple more updates - they said the cylinders + crankshaft look to be in good condition and will just hone the cylinders as part of the overhaul. They are recommending resurfaced lifters by ASL -- which I hope is a good choice. I'm not really sure, but I fly 200+ hours per year so I am hoping the activity will keep the engine in good health. One surprise was they are recommending to replace the carburator. It was overhauled in 2011 by the previous owner about 600 hours ago, so I thought it would be in decent shape...but they say it's clogging up the intake port - see pic. I wonder if this could have been caused by the camshaft not opening the valve enough due to the wear? I don't think I'm running too rich? I had a mag failure, so I wonder if all that extra fuel could be from the time I ran too rich on one mag for about 10 minutes in flight before making a precautionary landing. Replacing the carb doesn't add that much relative to the entire bill already so I'm inclined to just do it...

Thanks to this thread, I just upped the insurance value by 10k on my M20G. Extra ~$117 premium per year, but worth it.

Well that was fairly quick. Found the culprit. The lifters and camlobe. Not a huge surprise. Seeing the pictures, I'm glad we are doing it when we're doing it. Oil pump housing ended up being a little damaged from the metal too. See pics below.

Any suggestion for someone in the midst of an overhaul to not have to go through this again? Should I have the new lifters be from Lycoming? Not really sure what the engine shop is going to do.

I have friends who have been hitchhiking through the US, Mexico and Canada for the last few years and have mostly great stories to tell about human kindness. You run into a weirdo every now and then and I certainly ran into some personalities, but I think in a world constantly bombarded with negativity on the news; people are too scared to trust each other. It was great that 3 different drivers found trust in me and vice versa on a day where a school was shot up in Kentucky and collectively we learned that people are not all doom, gloom and crazy and shared stories and helped each other out. To each their own though.