EricJ

Yes, 27, but it's essentially just two spherical rod ends connected together. Those are generally standard parts, so if you can figure out what each part is you can just replaced the rod ends. Sometimes those have the part number on them, or you can take the dimensions and figure out what it is. McMaster-Carr is a good place to start when looking for those: https://www.mcmaster.com/rod-ends

You can disconnect the control cable at the governor and see whether it is the governor or the cable that is having an issue. FWIW, in my case the cable and control feel were fine. It wasn't evident that the governor had an issue until it failed runup. Control feel was always normal.

You can go to Superior Air Parts website and download a document called "Engine Management 101", written by their VP after many years in the engine and cylinder production businesses. I attended an AMT webinar that he presented recently and learned some new things about cylinder testing and maintenance that I've already found pretty useful. He had good notes on engine operation to manage temperatures, etc., and also says that CHTs that are too cool can be detrimental. https://www.superiorairparts.com/

The other day somebody on FB was looking for a replacement alternator belt and said they couldn't find the one they needed at aircraft spruce. They posted a pic of an installed Gates belt with the PN showing...and several people noted that you can get those at many auto parts stores, amazon, etc., etc.

I contact them to report forest fires or ELTs, which I've done probably a half-dozen times in the last five years. I don't think I've contacted them for anything else, but it's always been nice to know they're there, especially in the event of an equipment failure or something.

So I bought one of these, with the USB connection: https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/inpages/flightdatafc50.php It arrived yesterday and while I haven't put it in the airplane yet I put it on my bench and powered it up, mostly to see what the current draw actually is and whether the USB port affects that. I had only downloaded the manual for the non-USB version, but have since downloaded the manual for the version with the USB port. There is a power wire for the direct battery connection, and a separate wire that powers the backlight and the USB port. The backlight/USB port wire connects to switched power so it only draws when the master is on, so even if you leave something plugged into the USB it won't drain the battery. I did confirm that powering it with the battery connection alone it draws 0.00065 A, or 0.65mA, just like the manual for the USB version says. That's not gonna bother your battery for a long time. It's super easy to program and I set the time, date, etc., without even reading the manual. That's light years better than the LC-2, which for me requires reading the manual regardless of what you want to do with it. It does a lot of cool stuff, including a timer that's easy to use, and a flight timer that records how long the switched power has been turned on, plus the G-meter, and plus a display of the voltage at the battery connection, and OAT if you connect a probe. The USB port can also be used to access a data logger, do software updates, etc. So far I think it's a really nice clock and very impressive for the price. Here's the support page with links for manual downloads, etc.: https://www.fdatasystems.com/support They make some other cool stuff, including a CO detector that can interface to other integrated electronics, etc.

I'm seeing a shop that was asked to repair or replace a cable and did that. In order to do it the tech had to clearance a non-stock panel. This is not really that far out of the ordinary. Whether there was a communication issue is being told only by one side, and many of us have had enough personal experience with Don and his shop to know that what is described would be fairly atypical. That doesn't mean there wasn't a mistake or failure at the shop, but I think it does mean that this particular horse is a bit over-flogged, imho.

Kurt spoke at our local IA seminar last month, as previously mentioned, and went in to a lot more detail on the effects of G100UL fuel on materials, including some slides on some rather extreme swelling of gaskets and o-rings. He made some very significant points on issues related to that fuel while still being reasonably diplomatic. I came away with an even less favorable view of G100UL.

I just ordered one of these since it should be an easy replacement for my decrepit LC-2. We'll see how it is. I'll post a pirep if I remember. https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/inpages/flightdatafc50.php

I think that was the guy from Eagle fuel cells, the folks who make many of the OEM and replacement bladders. Since they're in the middle of the materials compatibility concerns his perspective was interesting.

That'll probably drop gross weight for a lot of airplanes. That seems unlikely to be popular with GA. With the warbirds they can just not carry ordnance any more.

You can get large tantalum caps these days, but they're expensive. KEMET makes a 1200 uF cap that can handle 50V, but it looks big and even at Mouser you have to call for a quote. You could put two or three in parallel, but I'm guessing they're expensive. They make a 3900 uF cap, but it's only rated to 15VDC. You can get film caps that size with >1kVDC rating, but they're over $200/ea. So, dang, the CBs may be stuck with electrolytics. It is admittedly the more practical approach.

FWIW, a tantalum or film capacitor, or essentially anything other than electrolytic, might be a better choice there. Electrolytics don't age well, which is why they turn into problems after a while. Electrolytic and tantalum capacitors are polarized, so there's potential for installation error, so be careful about that as well.

My Avidyne has a page that shows relevant air data calculations, including headwind and crosswind component. Many Garmin glass products (G5, G1000, etc.) will display computed wind components on the PFD, which is also nice. A glance at those during final, even on short final when you're low, can be very useful to assess wind. They're not high-precision computations, but they can be very useful. There are airports around here that I visit reasonably often that have unreliable wx bots or no bots at all, so this can be very useful.

It's more likely vapor lock/cavitation at the input to the mechanical pump, which creates low pressure/suction at its input during pumping. The low pressure at the input to the pump may approach the fuel vapor pressure when the system is hot, so turning on the boost pump increases the fuel pressure at the input to the mechanical pump, reducing the likelihood of boiling/cavitating. As more ambient temperature fuel flows through the system it may cool the mechanical fuel pump enough to increase the fuel vapor pressure at that location and decrease the likelihood of cavitation. The fuel downstream from the mechanical pump will be at higher pressure due to the pump, and so also less likely to boil. The fuel in the distribution lines can boil after shutdown once the supply pressure is removed at engine shutdown, but generally won't before that.

There may be a good reason for cutting that arch in the panel, especially if you asked for maintenance to be done on that control. I was speculating that maybe there was interference with the lock, and if you had complained that it was "sticky", that might have been the cure. Otherwise, if the cable was put in while the upper panel was out, it may have been the only way to get to it to address the problem without removing the upper panel. I've no idea what communications were or were not done, I'm just speculating that there may have been a very good reason for making the modification, especially if you asked for it to be looked at.

Lol...it was where I grew up, and we spent our childhoods and younger years trespassing in the place. It came up for sale after the 2008 real estate crash for pennies so we bought it. I regret selling it. It was a lot of fun to fiddle around with. We did have occasional problems with trespassers getting through the gate at the adit so we put up a security camera.

I used to own a historic silver mine, which was basically a tunnel network in nine acres of hillside. Keeping trespassers out was always a worry, especially since it was easy to get lost in there if you weren't familiar with the place. Not surprisingly, we couldn't get insurance for it. I also co-owned my grandmother's place with some siblings, and it wasn't very far from the mine. My regular insurer and our insurer for my grandmother's place both said that it would be easy to add the mine to an existing policy for local property, but the owners, i.e., the insured, had to be the same for both places, which, unfortunately, it wasn't. But if it's easy to add a mine to an existing policy, I'd think it'd be reasonable to add a hangar. I'd definitely pursue that.

I was gonna say that, that sometimes particular controllers don't like to be challenged at all, especially if their workload is high at that moment (which is typical around here). Asking "say intentions" sounds a bit more like a challenge than just "confirm" with a question behind it, e.g., "confirm heading xx for Nxxx. That sends me away from the IAF." You can still get bit back, but at least you'll be more confident that they're not sending you off to time out or something.

Croswwind/headwind components can be computed easily with any calculator with sin or cos functions. I can do it on my phone. Nerd power.

Depending on how long it's been, I'll treat a warm start like halfway between a cold and hot start. In other words, give it some boost pump for two or three seconds rather than the usual duration used for a cold start. If it repeatedly catches but won't stay running, then try giving it boost pump just as it catches and see if that sustains it...which I've found I have to do at high DA.

A buddy has a PA-28-180, I have an M20J. The cabin dimensions are very comparable between the two, in width, height, length, etc., they're basically the same in the general dimensions. The differences are not enough to matter in a purchase decision, imho. My non-turbo J model Mooney flies fine up through well into the teens, and I've had it as high as 18k ft. If you need to go up there routinely, you'll probably want a turbo. If you just need to go up there once in a while, a non-turbo is probably fine depending on the details of what you're doing. I live in the southwest, where it's pretty normal to fly above 10k to stay out of the terrain, and I used to fly back and forth between AZ and SoDak frequently, which required crossing the continental divide somewhere along the way. I've never felt like I needed a turbo, but requirement vary depending on personal preference and the details of what you want to do.

On a J model the engine baffling routes high pressure air to the front of the alternator, and is open to the alternator core. In other words, the high pressure air will naturally flow through the alternator rotor, so there may be no benefit to any additional shrouding. This is visible through the cowl inlet without removing the cowl. A normal preflight includes reaching in there to check the belt tension, so it's easy to see.

If the DPE has been identified just ask them. It's not an unusual issue so they may have dealt with it before, or they may just quote the reg.

Another alternative, although maybe not practical before you need your check ride, is to slide-in upgrade your 530 to an Avidyne 540. This allows a digital time display on the top (mine is configured that way) with seconds that qualifies as the clock. I also have an LC-2 that has proven to be a maintenance hog, enough so that I'm no longer interested in trying to figure out what it's problem du jour might happen to be. The UI is not great on those, anyway. There's a comparatively inexpensive FDS GT50 that might work, https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/inpages/flightdatafc50.php