skykrawler

Jake is very helpful on these King systems. When I bought my airplane there was no cooling hose connection the KAP150 autopilot. I resolved that. The voltage regulator, which throws off a lot of heat, is immediately below the 150 at the bottom of the stack. Usually I direct the right side Wemac ball vent in that direction to help out. I've been planning to tap the fresh air scat hose on the right to feed some air directly to the gap between the regulator and the 150. I also noticed the small outlet from the airbox forward of the wheel well blows air (hot in the winter!) directly at the input to the avionics cooling fan. Since it points straight down I taped a T pipe fitting to it to make it blow out sideways.

Seems unlikely the autopilot did not disconnect. It is more likely the autopilot miss-trimmed nose up (wasn't there an AD?) such that when disconnected the forces were high.

Those are prob the power and ground for the avionics cooling fan.

Hard to get a bad landing in a Duchess

Service instructions found here: https://mooney.com/contact-2/ Personally I was aware of the stepped nut mod, but not replacing the trim screw on the J. I doubt it is still available - and if so, at some stunning price. An Airworthiness Directive could ground tens if not hundreds of aircraft. I would add that the maintenance manual description for adjusting the chain tension is not particularly good. Loosening the four screws on the gearbox to adjust the tension is virtually impossible without removing the assembly from the airframe - there are things in the way.

If the corrosion in the wheel well is forward part, its main spar. If it's aft, it's the sub-spare that supports the aft gear trunnion (not as bad). It doesn't look like any of that started in the past year. Presumably everything has been carefully inspected now.

Survivability is not discrete, there is a range. In this accident, two survived. The instructor was killed and the student the more injured.

My understanding of the RSA system is the flow divider is the principle means of controlling mixture at idle. The reason is the airflow at the throttle is too low to provide impact pressure to the (4) pitot tubes located at the opening of the servo. The Avstar, design-wise seems to be a clone of the RSA in most respects. From the Avstar document: "In most installations the flow divider is fed with metered fuel from the fuel injection servo - fuel is then supplied to each nozzle. The flow divider ensures that equal amounts of fuel are fed to the nozzles at engine idle. The flow divider maintains fuel pressure, and this guarantees positive fuel shutoff when the servo is switched to idle cutoff. After entering the flow divider, fuel flows through the central bore of the flow divider spool valve to the diaphragm’s lower side. At idle, fuel pressure from the servo, acting on the lower side of the diaphragm, generates a force to overcome the flow divider spring. This lifts the spool permitting fuel to flow through the precisely machined outlet ports in the valve bushing. Fuel then flows directly to the nozzles. The fuel injection servo sends a fixed amount of fuel to the flow divider in response to airflow through the servo; hence, the valve opens only far enough to allow that amount of fuel to the nozzles. At idle, the spool valve opens only very slightly and the discharge pressure from the flow divider is negligible. Therefore, the fuel to individual cylinders at idle is divided by the flow divider. When fuel flow increases in response to engine demand, fuel pressure rises in the nozzle lines, and the flow divider valve is fully open. At this point, fuel distribution to the cylinders becomes a function of the pressure drop in each fuel line."

FWIW ..... Don't think it matters what the GPSS convertor is set to once the STEC30 is set to Hi-Trk. In the case of a missed approach you might consider leaving it set to GPSS. Then to follow the missed approach course disconnect the autopilot and re-engage autopilot in HDG to follow the GPSS steered MA course (somewhere in there the GPS has to be told to provide MA guidance).

Curious phrasing......'attempted forced landing.' If you fail the attempt do you go around?

Usually there is a hint that can be found in a log entry or a 337 describing an installation. Nobody here has a clue about what's in your panel.

The affect can be similar with digital display of voltage (or whatever signal). I have three displays of voltage - and they're all a little different. Probably wouldn't even notice on an analog instrument.

There seems to be some robustness there. It's reporting a fault, telling you what to do, and continuing to perform the primary function of attitude, altitude and airspeed.

"On December 10, 2025, the NTSB added the event on their database as a class 4 investigation and assigned the "defining event" as "fuel starvation." " "An NTSB Class 4 investigation is a focused, often remote, review to determine the cause of an accident, common in general aviation (like agricultural aviation), led by an Investigator-in-Charge (IIC) who gathers facts for a final report, but typically doesn't involve extensive on-site teams or lengthy public hearings like major air carrier crashes"

Check the downloads section - pilot operation handbooks.