John Mininger

On a little bit of a sidenote, I remember Mike Busch saying one time that one of his clients had a pre-ignition event. It turned out the electrodes on one of the plugs heated up and became red-hot, because there wasn’t sufficient heat transfer to the head, because the plug had not been torqued correctly. Turned out it was only finger tight.

Interesting. The last time that I asked this question to the SureFly guys at Sun N Fun or Oshkosh they said that even though the SIM could handle a wider gap, the plugs should still only be gapped to the mag spec. But when I looked at the current SureFly installation manual, it says up to .035. Third page: f0684a_5c901873262249e59c4cb300f0fc8bbb.pdf (surefly.net) My Slicks only have about 350 hours on them. I was going to wait until they hit around 500 to change over to SureFly. So I haven't really been following the latest SureFly news. Has recommending a .022 to .035 sparkplug gap been a fairly new change? Thanks John

I'm just curious Skip. Just hypothetically, what do you think the optimum gap would be for UREM37BY plugs running on SureFly? Again, just hypothetically of course. Say, you were running an IO-360-A3B6 in an RV-7 with a SureFly ignition system. John

And thankfully Kerry's articles are still available on his website: ShopTalk Index (knr-inc.com) It would be great if an archive of all Jerry Manthey's articles were available. I have to think that MAPA still has them.

The top cowling on my 1977 J is going to need some fiberglass work in the not-too-distant future. It has a lot of spyder cracks, and the holes for the Camlock (or in my case, CLoc) fasteners are getting rather enlarged. I talked to a local aircraft paint shop. They said that it would be a very labor-intensive job. If I’m looking at thousands of dollars anyway, I might consider a Lopresti cowling. But I have no idea what they cost, or if they’re even available anymore. Anyone have any suggestions?

It does seem that with all the Cies senders being installed now, the time to do a fuel stick calibration is when the new senders are calibrated.

I had my panel replaced a few months ago and I had my old Klixon switch/breakers replaced with Tyco switch/breakers. Tyco Circuit Breaker W31 Series | Aircraft Spruce

What was the other 50%? We did spray some avgas on the threads of the jackscrew as best we could to clean it. We then put some grease back on it. That didn't seem to help much. John

Interesting. I have to admit, I've never tried going stop to stop on the ground. I noticed the problem when triming up on short final. And it doesn't just slow down, it stops. My serial is 24-0278, 77 J. I'm going to PM you. Thanks John

Thanks Skip. Do you know if you release the trim switch and then trim-up again, does the 24 second timer re-set for another 24 seconds? Because when I do that, the servo still has trouble moving the trim up on the second try. John

Thanks. He was going to call Garmin. But I haven't heard back from him yet. John

A few months ago, I had a major avionics upgrade done on my J. Overall I am more than pleased with the install. One chronic issue that I’m having though is the pitch trim servo on the GFC-500 is not moving the trim up much past the take-off indication point before it just stops. The old autopilot that was removed was an S-Tec 55 and that pitch trim servo had no problem moving the trim to wherever I wanted it. So, I’m not sure if there’s a problem with the GFC-500 servo itself, or there just too much friction in my trim system that the Garmin servo can’t handle it. It does seem tight with the hand wheel when it goes much past the take-off indication. The tech who installed GFC-500 said that it does feel tight, but not as tight as some of the Saratogas that he’s worked on. He said the GFC-500 servo works OK on them. He suspects a bad servo. Anyone else run into this problem? John

Don/Paul, Last year there was streaming video (and recorded, I believe) of the sessions available for purchase. Will video be offered again for 2024? Thanks John

I remember the late, great Ron Blum saying one time that in his investigations of accidents in the traffic pattern, something like 80% occurred while in the take-off or go-around phase. Not the infamous base-to-final turn. I can believe it. I've practiced go-arounds and loss of engine during take-off procedures while at a safe altitude. You learn to PUSH real quick!

I had a leak in my right tank repaired at Air-Mods and Repair Inc at Trenton-Robbinsville NJ (N87). They also repaired a couple broken rivets on the landing gear spring bracket while they were in the tank. They did an excellent job with both. A little far from the Rochester area though. I have no idea what their current status is. airmodsflightcenter.com 609.259.2400

I'm planning some flights around New England next month. Does anyone know if Basin Harbor VT (B06) and Plymouth Muni NH (1P1) are suitable grass fields for a J with outer gear doors? Thanks

Being that it will be in the avionics shop in about 10 days, that’s what I’m thinking. Thanks Eric

I will definitely tighten it. But it's hard for me to imagine that it went from no leaks to a stream without an actual break. Thanks

Yesterday, while climbing out of the home airport, I noticed what looked like fuel actually running in a steady stream from under the panel on the passenger side, down onto the floor where the passenger’s legs would have been. Thank God I was solo. I shut down everything except the engine and landed ASAP. When I got the airplane on the ground and stabilized, I discovered it was fuel and it looked like it was running down off the line that runs from the firewall to the fuel pressure gauge. I checked the higher connection on the inside of the firewall, and I was able to slightly tighten the nut. But if the problem was caused by a loose connection, I can’t imagine that it would have been loose enough to create a steady stream of leaking fuel. Has this happened to anyone else? I haven’t removed the fuel line yet. It looks like a heavily reenforced line. Ironically, this happened two weeks before the airplane was scheduled to go into the avionics shop for a major panel upgrade. Including a G3X with all the primary engine instruments.

I remember sitting in the annual Mooney forum at Oshkosh about 4 or 5 years ago when Mooney was still trying to build and sell new aircraft. I don’t remember who the presenter was, but I’ll never forget what he said. I’ll paraphrase because I didn’t record it. “It takes 1200 plus man-hours to build a Cirrus. It takes 1800 plus man-hours to build a C-172. It took us over 6000 man-hours to build the Acclaim. And with experience, we hope to get that down to 4000.” As wonderful as our Mooneys are to fly, their manufacturability was from a different era.

I also made two additional "boxes" that are 4" and 8" high. You can probably see them in the background of one of the pics. I'm sure that some combination of 4, 8, and 12" would work on soft ground.

Here's a "For What It's Worth. I had a rather unpleasant after hour flat tire experience about a year ago. Since then, I've done some things that will make it easier to jack the plane next time something like that happens. I was somewhat intrigued by the jack that @A64Pilot linked to on the beginning of this string. So, I ordered a 2-ton version of the jack. I figured if it didn't work for the Mooney, I could always use it for other jacking projects. The only thing I did to the jack was drill an indent with a 9/16 drill for the jack point to fit into. Amazon.com: Powerbuilt 2 Ton UniJack Combination Hydraulic Bottle Jack / Jackstand in 1 Unit, Compact, Portable, Wide Base, for Unibody Sedans, CUVs, SUVs, Cars, - 620470 : Automotive I had made up some heavy plywood boxes, with a 2x4 in the center after my last flat tire experience. And I also installed the combination stainless tie-down/jack point kits that LASAR sells. STAINLESS STEEL TIE DOWN/JACK POINT COMBO - SS TIE DOWN WING — LASAR It works well. Below are pics:

Thanks Don. And yes, it does appear that my ship has indeed, come in.

Does anyone know if the GNC 355 will interface with ForeFlight for transferring flight plans? Garmin lists GarminPilot as being compatible with the 355, but it doesn't list ForeFlight. I talked to a guy a few years ago who said that he could transfer flight plans from ForeFlight to his 355 just fine. I'm having some extensive avionics work done in July. And with Garmin's recent advisory to plan on replacing your 430W, I guess now is the time for me.

Does anyone know if there is going to be a Summit this year? I couldn't make it in 2022 because of a scheduling conflict. I just want to get it on the calendar ASAP if there's going to be one in 2023. And I know that these events don't magically happen by themselves. They happen by the work and dedication of the few people step up to the plate and organize them. So thank you!