glenn reynolds

I'm pulling my unit out in the next couple of weeks and it does have the warning low vacuum flag. The unit is less than a year old, but my vacuum pump failed, so I bought a G5. I'll also have an electric standby vacuum pump if you need.

I went to this thread as I paid for a replacement stall warning switch on my ovation during the prior annual. So a year plus later and I'm still reeling from the sticker shock. I was so stunned the mechanic showed me his invoice for the switch: $4,500.00 and that's US dollars. It turns out that when you have TKS known icing system installed, which my mooney does, they replace the switch with a heated unit, which costs $4,500 bucks. Then to add insult to injury the STC for the known Icing, changes the indicator light so it only illuminates when the heated stall indicator (or pitot heat as they are on the same switch) burns out, BUT if you leave them on while taxing, the stall switch overheats and burns up! switch costs $4,500 bucks Indicator light only comes on when it fails, so you don't know it's on If you leave it on, on the ground, it smokes So another source would be CAV air who does the TKS installs must have a box full of like new, non heated stall switches. Good luck

IF your a flight into known Icing (FIKI) the G5 may NOT be approved. I just purchased a G5 and read the install manual only to find it says "STC not approved for FIKI aircraft" which is a bummer as I'm FIKI. I'm doing more research to determine what my options are but I saw this information ONLY in the install manual. It maybe that the G5 can't be primary in FIKI aircraft, and it maybe legal as standby, or it maybe legal, but not with the stc. This thread has a lot of discussion about installed price so here is my two cents: Pacific Coast Avionics publishes a catalog with installed prices listed. They quoted ten hours to install the G5. this included removing vacuum system, blanking vacuum accessory pad, power, ground and gps intertie with gps (otherwise you need to install an antenna) and pitot splice in. Seemed fair if not cheap. There is no question that if you bundle it with other work the labor goes down as the panel is open etc.

could be as simple as shot orings inside the female connector. usually easy to remove with an oring tool. however you need to use a flouroelastomer oring. Call mountain high and they can help you.

I fly IFR as often as not and have the following thoughts: When I need to look at the engine information I need to see it all in one glance or assessment. You have followed that same logic for your flying instruments with a well organized flying layout, so then why do you break your engine info by putting the engine analyzer in the lower left and the remaining engine gauges on the right? To make an engine scan you would be required to look in two places, not good. When you stop looking at your flying gauges is when IFR starts to go bad, your planed engine scan is not a head motion i would want IFR. you want to be able to look at the engine instruments as a whole and then get back to looking at your flying instruments. One idea is to make your glove box the size of an Iphone (no door, just a lip) and then you would have room for an engine instrumentation layout. I recently installed an Angle Of Attack and really really like it. A panel rebuild is a good time to look at your options. I find that the Angle Of Attack can be wonderful on night landings at unfamiliar airports as my touchdown is slower yet safer. it looks like you will have two radios. typically i am talking to approach on com1 and I preload tower (com2 primary) and ground (com2 standby). When aproach hands me to tower, I put my hand on the dash eyebrow and punch the com2 button on the audio panel. I do this for several reasons: there is often turbulence down low so I like to have my hand supported by the eyebrow, on approach - in the pattern, this is a time when I need my eyes looking at anything but where the buttons are. I'm either looking for traffic of flying the needles. I agree with the others that one of your priorities must be ADSB and there is really no sense in re-installing your transponder. The current backlog for avionics shops is six months and it won't be getting shorter.

I have a gns530 and a g500 installed and can offer a few comments. First about the g500. The display is awesome. Bright sunlight, pitch black at night, it adjusts and is very easy to read. I've not flown the aspen, but I sure would want to confirm that the screen is as good. next comment on the databases. You may or may not want to pay to put charts on the g500. It would seem that putting charts on is an option and costs a lot of money extra. I just finished flying a series of instrument approaches all at night and all ifr. I found that I had the approach plate on foreflight as I can overlay it on the map and vary the opacity so I'm ready for the missed with no further workload. The g500 has the route depicted as pushed from the gns530, But I have the GNS 530 on a different scale so I have the whole approach and traffic all visible., while the g500 is zoomed in tight. My GNS 430 is set up for the alternate airport with it's approach loaded. I do pay jeppsen about $800 per year to update the safetaxi information but I will be switching to garmin as they seem to be a much better deal using their bundle pricing. I can highly recommend the garmin flightstream 210 as it allows foreflight to send flight plans to the gns530 which is brilliant when I get a clearance change inroute, which seems a required procedure when flying in southern California.

I used chris brand at pacific coast avionics. I got four quotes from four shops and pca was not only the low bidder by far, but their sales team new more about the ovation install than the other three shops! As an example: wanted the g500 upgraded to synthetic vision, other quotes were six grand, pca charge me $4500 as that's the cost of the unlock key and they would not charge to install it as all you have to do is insert the unlock chip. I't takes me about 14 hours to fly my ovation cross country, and I wouldn't do it just to put in avionics but I did learn that getting multiple bids and meeting with several shops really helps figure out what is important and what is maybe not so important. As an example, I use foreflight and so I installed a garmin flightstream 210 so my ipad can upload my flight plan to the gns530 and vs versa which is a feature I love. I have flown with both the garmin audio panel and a ps engineering panel and frankly the garmin voice recorder is MUCH better so I will likely scrap the ps engineering audio panel I currently have. I fly ifr and find that pushing the playback button on the garmin audio panel to repeat the new routing or frequency is really great. However the PS engineering unit also records MY transmissions! This is pointless and makes the playback or recordings pretty useless as you have to keep clicking to try and go back to the controller section of the recording. Good luck

I found that the clearance between my yoke and the cigarette lighter socket on my ovation did not allow enough clearance to use the sportys 28 volt adapter as the yoke hit the cords etc. I reviewed the amp supply for the lighter, removed it and installed three 2.1 amp usb outlets. Do note that USB outlets are sold in two power output configurations, low 1 amp per port and 2.1 amp (there is a third 2.4 amp but it is certified and sells for about $400). An Iphone will charge on 1 amp, but foreflight on an Ipad MUST have 2.1 amps to stay viable. Next you need to match the voltage of your plane. I found that 28 volts and 2.1 amp per port meant that maybe one in twenty of the units on amazon were a match even though I searched for exactly the voltage and amps I wanted. The amazon version cost me $12 per unit. The blue power unit which is certified and sold through aircraft supply houses sells for $200 to $400 depending on size etc. I installed one in the back seat arm rest and two up front on each side of the panel, using the correct size wire all run from the lighter. mechanic signed it off as a minor as we made no change to the power demand by simply replacing the cig lighter. Now we have better cord management and life is good. No interference or electro magnetic frequency noise issues

I think Steven nailed it. I do see significant variations in my tank level indicator. I always have a full tank in winter months and since it takes as much as fifteen minutes to prime the system, I can consume a gallon or two for priming alone when crossing the U.S. The system is very accessible in my M20R as you simply pull the rear seats to see the tanks and pull the belly panel to access the pumps and tubing. Typically pump systems don't like being run dry so I carry a five gallon jug of refill fluid for my cross country trips to reduce any inclination to be stingy with TKS Fluid as it's very economical when replenished from the fifty five gallon drum in my hanger.

There are labs which will run a burn test on any material you want and the price was not outrageous when I checked a couple years back (about $35 per test). I work with first responders who have been on scene at a general aviation crash site and far too many accidents do involve a post crash fire. There is no question post crash it may take some time to be extracted from the wreck. There is no question that there is a copious amount of avgas available. There is no question that the fuel tanks are often compromised in the crash. When I have a choice, I always purchase burn resistant materials for my plane interior.

Aircraft spruce sells a seat bottom cushion made up of three densitys of temperature sensitive foam which I had in my prior airplane. I put 1800 hours on that seat and it was awesome. It is true that it took about a minute to warm up and conform but excellent long distance comfort.

Jose, while I was on vacation, flying Alaska there was an ongoing search for a missing plane and every time we briefed the briefer asked us to look for the plane. As this went on for three weeks I spoke to lots of folks about elt and far to many made this comment: "elt? Of no use, first thing to break in a crash is the elt antenna and we can't get a signal". The search and rescue guys did however Iike the units like "spot" for two reasons: first even if the transmitter is distroyed searchers know where you were within ten minutes of crash. Second reason, if you and the transmitter survives the crash spot shows any movement and thus rescue efforts roll as opossed to recover efforts. Our next Alaska trip will use one of the spot like units

Please see the attached tks installation drawings. They show the orientation of the "j" nozzle. Mine has the fitting safety wired so it won't come loose as easily. TKS drawings.pdf

Travis, I'll jump in and offer my comments: I have 1,600 hours in a Cessna 182. I bought half the plane from a friend, bought the other half after ten years, then put 23 STCs (fun and cool modifications) on the plane. It carried my family (two adults + two kids) six trips across the US, two trips to Mexico, Five trips to Canada and a month of sky camping in Alaska. Not only did i learn to fly, but the plane took me through an instrument rating. I can only say that this was the safest, absolutely best plane for our use. We could gets parts and service anywhere. We stuffed more gear into that plane than would fit in our car to get to the airport. The plane was stunningly forgiving, stable and saved my bacon more times than I care to remember. One way airstrips, rough strips, ice, extreme endurance etc. My insurance was $900 per year. It wasn't uncommon to have an annual for $1,000. fifteen years later my kids leave for college and now I need to go visit them. It's just my wife and I and occasionally a single young adult (they really are not kids anymore). So now I fly a Mooney ovation. There is nothing forgiving about landing a mooney. Do it wrong and you have a badly damaged airplane. The Mooney won't carry full fuel and full cockpit in the eyes of a family. The Mooney is considerably more expensive to own than a Cessna, simply look at the production numbers. I stepped UP to a Mooney when the time, money and mission was right. The mooney is very very fast. The Mooney is a fantastic airplane, but I would not recommend it for a brand new pilot who wants to fly his family around.

The issue with the teflon pipe tape is not the teflon but the individual applying said tape. It MUST be wrapped so that the first full thread (most people use two to be safe) Thread grooves have NO tape so there is zero chance of getting teflon "bits" or "strings" into the vacuum system as this contamination will cause failure of equipment. As too many folks don't get this right, it is a common practice to tell folks not to use it at all. The damage isn't just from excessive initial application, but on the removal of "tefloned" fittings it is normal to leave behind in the female fitting strings of teflon which must be removed 100% or same issue. My point is that if there are ALREADY teflon tape fittings on the vacuum system it would be a really bad idea to take it apart just to remove the teflon. there are paste pipe thread sealants which can be used, however the same exact rules apply, the paste sealant must not be allowed into the system, thus be very careful to only apply it behind the first male thread groove (and never the female fitting).

I don't want to high jack a TKS thread with an altitude conversation, but do note that the temps were minus 29 C and there was NO other traffic so control was fine with our "slow climb to flight level 20" request. Since that flight, I just returned from Boston and almost same situation: significant blizzard on the ground at western Wyoming. Filed for 18,000 west but due to low temperatures, control could only give me FL 22 or 16,000 but in this case the weather tops were 14,000 so I stopped my climb at 16,000. This three hour flight from wyoming to San Francisco was through at least two hours of icing from surface to 18,000 feet but again didn't need the TKS system for that leg. the whole Thanksgiving Holiday trip took me from San Francisco to phoenix, to Texas to Florida with much of the that route requiring that I keep the TKS system primed as the icing came and went. One Gallon TKS used. the next Flight from Florida to Boston (six hours) had icing forecast for new england, but I only primed. Next leg from Boston to San Francisco was much worse weather with lower icing, fifty knot headwinds which significantly increased my travel times and limited my ability to climb higher, so i used three gallons of TKS fluid. As I was carrying a five gallon drum of refill TKS fluid in the baggage compartment, the ships TKS tank was always full and I had no hesitation about turning it on. On longer trips like this one, the priming can add up as the wings loose prime thus when entering an area of icing I like to prime which consumes fluid.

I fly an ovation with TKS fitted. Most of my trips are two persons so an additional five gallon can in the back puts us on a good trim for cruise (only for long trips like my current trip to east coast). My wife simply won't fly with out tks as we fly over the sierra where the minimum IFR altitude is 14k, We almost always have a forecast for icing in the winter. Unless head winds are an issue, I'll file for 20k feet, knowing I can always come down but climbing with ice is an unknown so why even talk about it. our last flight to Vancouver we had moderate icing forecast, we were in heavy precipitation (yellow on the xm weather), but we were at 20,000 feet and the temp was minus 29c. We had no ice building on the plane (i did prime the system, which takes about 15 minutes at normal flow). I wouldn't consider putting myself in that position if I didn't have TKS. We arrived at our destination where the freezing level was 5,000 feet, and the ceiling was 2,000 feet with an RNAV approach that went to 250 feet agl. My wife was in charge of the need for TKS (she watches the wing) while I shot the approach and the TKS was never activated. You could say that since we didn't actually use the TKS system, we didn't need it BUT, there is NO way I would make that flight with out TKS. So we flew from San Francisco to Vancouver and return all in IFR conditions in the late fall/early winter and came home with the same six gallons of TKS fluid we left with. I feel this is an excellent tool for winter operations.

I have removed my ashtray and am using the ashtray as a template to fabricate an iphone holder. Aluminum box, lined with stick on velour or faux felt. so far i've made one cardboard mock up and will make the aluminum version in the next couple weeks. An actual airplane shop should be able to make it in a couple hours. if you don't have the tools and inclination to use aluminum, then abs plastic which can be solvent welded would be a reasonable alternative.

Looks like a new or like new set of heat shields window inserts. All nicely labeled for which window they go in and all stored in a spiffy new blue bag. I have two sets so don't need this one. Aircraft spruce sells this set for $250. I'm asking $125 and I'll pay shipping. glenn reynolds

You are not allowed to remove your factory pitot to install the AOA. The new Angle of Attack must be completely independent of all certified equipment. Otherwise the installation would need to go through extensive flight testing to prove that you still airspeed.

In good condition.

Garmin Angle of Attack AOA update. Boy is the Garmin unit a pain to install! I attempted to save mooney money and purchased the Garmin AOA instead of the more expensive Alpha. The plane is Garmin avionics equipped so it didn't seem like any risk at all. A couple of key issues for the install. the Garmin probe mount is extremely limited in the angle it will allow you to compensate as provided (5 degrees!) so if you can't mount the unit within 5 degrees of the wing chord, you must modify the mount. As the mount is too large to utilize the forward inspection plates on a mooney m20R this means you must modify the mount. The Alpha install manual is MUCH better written. The alpha unit has colored tubing to better keep track of which is which. Lastly after a month of fooling around with mounting plates, mods etc. the unit still doesn't work. With Alpha you are a phone call from the actual manufacturer and real advice. Garmin tells me to talk to a dealer, but I have yet to find one with ACTUAL experience with the Garmin AOA so it is a time and materials vacuum, which actually makes it cheaper to throw the Garmin away and simply buy the Alpha as I'll save the cost of the alpha on the install labor. My loss, your learned from others, benefit.

I installed the alpha aoa on my c182 and liked it so much I have spent the past month trying to install a Garmin aoa in my Mooney m20r. One month later it still doesn't work. A couple of difference between brands. The alpha manual is really good. The Garmin manual not so much. Alpha color codes the tubing so you always know which tube is which. Not Garmin. The Garmin bracket is large and so on the m20r wing you can only install it in large access panels whic are at 48% of chord not ideal. Next the Garmin does not have enough adjustment to get the angle correct. The alpha is very adjustable.

I installed an AOA (alpha Brand) in my prior aircraft a C182. I had over a thousand hours time in type and was stunned by the information that I got from the unit. To cover the significant areas: Base turn to final. We know this can be a killer, yet my AOA showed that my routine pattern speeds and turns were not even close to a caution light on the AOA the data was so compelling I climbed to eight thousand feet and did some steep turns at stall speed and found that I had MUCH more margin than I had thought, this allows me to focus on scanning for aircraft and the pre-landing as I no longer had to worry about a stall and YES I absolutely keep the AOA display constantly in my field of vision. Second benefit. Came off a tight valley strip flying against incoming wall of fog. I needed every once of performance the plane could give me. The AOA meant I was 1,000 feet above the fog bank which I never could have done with out it. finally, the AOA took an easy hundred feet of landing distance off my landings. Frankly this was the best $1,000 bucks I've spent on the airplane and I'm now installing an AOA on my M20R. Thanks for listening