Rmag

On my M20J it does not keep the ball centered on climb, it isn’t rudder trim. It’s more like a shock absorber to dampen turbulence on the yaw axis.

We’ve done several autopilots in various Mooney’s. I don’t recall ever drilling out a belly skin to do this.

My M20J has the yaw damper. Can I notice the difference in turbulence? Yes. Is it dramatic? No. Maybe 10% better. My M20J naturally does not have much of a Dutch roll yaw tendency in the first place. I assume the other mid bodies are similar? I’d say it’s really an optional thing for the mid body. Long body probably more noticeable.

As a Garmin dealer I tended to always keep my avionics firmware up to date with the latest and greatest. Occasionally I would start to get Concierge gremlins where it would not work right. Sometimes shutting down Garmin Pilot (swiping up on the iPad, and swiping away the active program) would fix problems. But usually what needed to happen was a Flightstream 510 firmware update, and then the gremlins would go away. So if you ever get your GTN firmware upgraded, just ask your dealer to make sure your 510 is current as well

The GFC500 in my M20J is rock solid on the pitch axis. It holds altitude very tightly, in fact in smooth air, I can even feel the tiny micro adjustments being made to keep the plane exactly at its altitude without deviation. Regarding IAS mode, I never use it in turbulence as the turbulence causes airspeed fluctuations as the plane is being pushed up and down by the turbulence. The autopilot then tries to correct the fluctuations, so you play a game of nature changing your airspeed, and the machine trying to correct. Forget about IAS in turbulence and use VS or Pitch. In normal operations if I use IAS it is typically on a climb out after takeoff and I normally hand fly to the airspeed I want and then engage the AP and IAS. Since it is already roughly at the airspeed I want, there is no oscillation. Conversely if I am at 120 knots and I just engage IAS and quickly dial 100, the plane is going to pitch up very strongly to get back to the 100. It is usually too strong and it will overshoot 100 and then rapidly pitch down to get to 100, and maybe have 2 more of these oscillations in lessening degrees until it stabilizes. All this can be avoided if you establish your airspeed first, then engage the IAS within about 5 knots and use the wheel to adjust to your exact target airspeed. When you engage IAS, it will engage at your current airspeed so you should not have any oscillation. If you do this, just change your IAS in smaller increments if you want to change IAS. Avoid large rapid IAS changes. Regarding oscillations, I have experienced small intermittent oscillations in the yaw axis in smooth air. Originally it would cause an abnormal disconnect. Eventually Garmin recognized this, and it was fixed with a firmware update. In smooth air I can still slightly feel some slight intermittent movement in the yaw servos that did not need to happen. In mild to greater turbulence it works fine. Now I just fly with the YD off when its smooth as the M20J has a really good yaw stability naturally. If I start hitting bumps I turn it on.

GTN 750 is a certified navigator 6.72 is the latest software. GTN 750 Xi most current software is 20.23.

I can claim it. Congrats @RobertGary1 Heli’s sure are fun!

@jetdriven For me it was because I already had everything installed before the autopilot upgrade. So we just used the same location that the KFC 150 was in. Didn't want to pay for the time and expense to drill out rivets and reconfigure my avionics stack just to put the AP up top. But if it was a full install I think I would put it there. I think more people are putting them in the top stack because new aircraft are putting them there, and the new AP's are used for heading, altitude, climbs, descents, etc. functional control knobs that are used frequently in flight. If you have a larger glass PDF you have nice size AP mode annunciations, but if you are flying G5's or GI 275's it probably is nice to have the AP control head in a more visible spot so you can see which mode lights are illuminated. That being said, I have not had any problems or regrets having it in the bottom of the stack. It is easily accessible there. I would guess people putting it on the right side are only doing it because they ran out of space to put it somewhere better. I wouldn't purposely put it there.

@Philip France 13 I sent you a message

You either get the skill real quick or crash...

Just got the software upgrade for the Garmin Smart Glide functionality. The below video is my testing it out in flight...

I have the new software loaded in my Mooney. It’s an update to the GTN 750 Xi, G500 TXi, and GI 275. Three new AFMS’s in the supplemental section of the POH, three new pilot handbooks downloaded… Tested it yesterday. Works surprisingly well. I’ll do an in flight video on it soon.

Do you have a baro-corrected altitude source connected to the GTN 750 like a G500, G5, GI275? VNAV will not work without it. If you do not have a baro-corrected source you want your GTN set back to VCALC instead. Also it is possible to set a VNAV constraint that cannot be achieved for example you are at or under the constraint, or you are currently flying at a heading perpendicular to or away from the waypoint. This is likely not your problem since you were at Flight level 120 and 42 nautical miles out.

I have a Garmin dealership, I have experienced this problem. It is the Yaw Damper. It is not an install problem, it is a software problem that will be fixed later this year. Garmin’s response to me was, “What has happened in short, is when the units are built they’re using surface mount components that have tolerances to them just as any component does. With the software tolerance being so tight and these components ranging we’re running into random disconnects like this especially with the Yaw damp servos in these systems which is why it will fly perfectly with it not engaged.” This is why you will have some but not all people experiencing this. I have been flying with the YD off and have never had disconnects since.

An experienced painter can blend either. What becomes difficult is trying to blend old worn sun-faded paint, etc. To do good blends you need to know the tricks that come from years of doing them. I Agree with @A64Pilot above regarding Sherwin Williams Jet-Glo is a good paint. As is Axalta. Also agree that PPG is cheaper and not as good, but an experienced painter can use it. We mostly spray Axalta which used to be DuPont. But we will spray Sherwin, PPG, Akzo Nobel if required by a specific fleet customer that has a whole fleet of one kind of paint, etc.. We never spray automotive on aircraft.

@SLOWR426's pictures are a basecoat clearcoat and it looks like either automotive paint, or a poor-quality aviation paint modeled after automotive paint processes. With automotive paint the basecoat completely dries and then you put clear coat over it. The clear is just laying on top of the base color, and over time you get what happens in the OP’s pictures. I previously made a thread why you do not want to use automotive paints on your aircraft here: Is using automotive paint on airplanes legal? - General Mooney Talk - Mooneyspace.com - A community for Mooney aircraft owners and enthusiasts Modern Aviation paint is basecoat/clearcoat however the clear is applied as a wet on wet application so you get a chemical bond to the basecoat. Paint applied this way will never have a separation of the clearcoat like the OP’s pictures. The benefit of this that when you polish/buff the aircraft you are cutting clear, and never cutting into the actual basecoat color. There is also aviation paint that is a single stage paint which does not get a clearcoat. This is what should be used for a person not wanting a clearcoat or not using metallic or pearlescent paints. Metallic or pearlescent paints require a clearcoat. The negative with single stage paint is that when you polish and buff the paint, you are cutting the color of the paint. Each time this is done, it slightly damages the colored paint and over time makes the paint lose its luster and look chalky or flat.

Glad to help and save you some $$$ along the way.

Until that 1 engine quits at night, or over water, or mountainous terrain, then 0 turbine < 1 piston

Half hour of labor? Hour absolute max.

How do you know this?

I’ve found chorus of “Bohemian Rhapsody” to be more reliable...

The last time I had repetitive problems with databases transering I got the firmware on the 510 updated to the most current Rev. and since then I have had many months of trouble free transfers.

It’s a setting in the configuration menu which is normally set up by a dealer. You can get in there yourself by holding the home button in when you boot up. You can screw things up if you don’t know what you are doing in there though so beware. There is a switch between Terrain Proximity and Terrain Alerting. If you have another device like a G500 TXi that provides the Terrain Alerts you set the GTN to Terrain Proximity so you don’t get double alerts. if you don’t have another device that gives the terrain alerts you set the GTN to Terrain Alert. In the config menu it is: GTN Options/Terrain/Terrain Alerting

No

A couple of months ago I sold my perfectly working KFC 150 complete system to @Alan Fox. Might want to see if he has the trim servo still.