Brent

Skip, I just installed a clean all-Garmin glass panel, including a G3X, so I'm about to go through your learning curve. I managed the twenty-minute flight home last week (after four months of not flying anything), and I'm taking the plane out tomorrow to start figuring stuff out. I've read the manuals, but the only way I'll get it is flying and trying. So, a dumb question: the old ammeter gauge was net zero for normal. I understand net zero, and I understand all the equipment is going to draw some level of power. But the -24 amps or whatever it was caught me by surprise. Either way, I guess the absolute power draw rather than the net aero is normal for the Garmin EIS, yes?

A guy I work with happened to send the attached article on Mooney wet wing tanks today. That caused me to look to see what's on Mooneyspace regarding "reseal." In addition, my colleague is a long-time export in aircraft sealants, and he offered the following regarding my J Model: "your 1985 plane s/b PR-1422B, over coated w/ PR-1422AW brush coat, then finished with PR-1005L slosh coat. This is the same sealing method that was used on the Lockheed P-3’s." To date, my 1985 J-model is on the original tank seal and leak free. I try to keep fuel in the tanks and avoid drying the sealant out, but I have only owned the plane for four of its 36 years. A little luck probably helps, not to mention that belt and suspenders three-step process mentioned above. Hope this proves of interest. I appreciate seeing the maintenance manual pages above. Mooney IFT Leaks.pdf

I just had a Concorde RG-35Xc "fail" a load test today during the annual inspection. First I don't know what the load specs are, so hard to know what "fail" means until I talk to someone tomorrow. The battery was installed in December 2017 and has been hangared and on a battery minder ever since. However, the airplane has been sitting in an avionics shop hangar for ten weeks not on a charger, so that probably didn't help any. This is not my usual shop for annuals, either, so I was a little annoyed with the battery thing, which is why I came to Mooneyspace tonight. But I'm not going to argue this one. I'll just roll with a new battery and see what I get. I will say I thought I was getting a little less crank, but I never came close to not starting.

I'm in the same boat. I have a mixed panel now with Aspen, Apollo and Garmin plus an S-TEC 30 autopilot. I looked at Avidyne, Aspen, Garmin, Genesys/S-TEC, PS Engineering, et al. I decided to go with all Garmin. I have a lot of respect for Avidyne and Aspen, and I was keen to use a Genesis autopilot so I could use the same servos. But in the end, I just like the features that Garmin offers, and I also wanted lower risk on the integration. They were all going to be expensive packages once I got past one or two boxes. So even though I'm leery of being "boxed" in, I'm going with Garmin. This is my first and last plane, and I expect to fly it another 10-15 years, so I'm getting what I want now. I hope they won't obsolete me to death, but we'll see. (I'm actually more worried about having access to affordable (well, viable, anyway...) 100LL gas in 5-10 years.)

Just wait until Boeing buys Garmin...

Another potential issue is just walking by the unlatched baggage door on pre-flight. "I know a guy" that happened to three months after he acquired his Mooney. Door flipped open on takeoff. Pilot realized the source of the noise and breeze about 500' AGL just below the overcast. Declared an emergency, made a U-turn and landed safely. (As I taxied off, the tower asked if I concurred the emergency was resolved. I said yes, and that was the last I heard of the emergency declaration part.) Sorely bruised ego, slightly bent piano hinge, still functional door. Oh, and the plastic liner blew off, so I got a little training in interior plastics work. Although it wasn't the issue, I always fly with the door locked now. I saw the other comments about the safety release - does that emergency release indeed bypass the lock?

I would buy a pair of LED recognition lights for the J model right now.

I came across this search feature on FlightAware today: search by aircraft type. So here are the so-called M20P planes in the air in and around the US on a Thursday afternoon.

Welcome. I’ve been in a J model since December 2017, and I enjoy owning it. Mooneyspace was my gateway, including a guy who took me up for a demo flight after I first logged on. I like the advice above to finish you PPL then get good transition training. I did transition training with a great instructor near San Antonio, which was a good start. Good luck.

As orionflt said, acrylic windshield and lens polishing kits make use of either a polish with a mild abrasive or progressively finer grit abrasive - super-fine sandpaper. 3M Finessit and Micro-Mesh are a couple products used in the window business. You can improve optics at the surface with these materials. However, with age, acrylic may exhibit sub-surface haze or cloudiness due to material degradation, moisture absorption, etc., that may not be polishable. As another member wrote, on the windshield, be careful with localized polishing as that can induce distortion. First step ALWAYS: flush the transparency with plenty of water and get any dirt, dust and grit off.

I like the traffic on the Aspen. I’ve got an ADS-B In datalink, but not on the panel displays.

I’ve got an old MX20 off to the right on top of a 430. I’d like to do some upgrading, and the MFD wouldn’t be a bad option. But I spent my whole allowance on the plane...

I tried it early on and went back to 360. But being more comfortable with the different looks, I’ll try the arc view again. Thanks for the reminder.

I have an Aspen PFD, GNS-430, and S-TEC 30. The equipment is more experienced than the pilot, but I’m happy with the setup. I flew a VOR-DME approach with an arc the other day, and in GPSS mode, the system tracked the arc and led the 90-degree turn inbound off the arc nicely. The display can be a little busy for the size, but it has really grown on me as I have gotten increased command of it.

Nobody is immune. I know a long-time, high-time pilot who had a gear-up landing a couple years ago. He had been instructing in fixed-gear planes all day. Flew his personal retractable a few miles back to his home airport. Got distracted by people he knew in the pattern. Perfect landing - except gear up. You can imagine how he felt after that semi-sudden stop and all that came after. Appreciate all the tips above. I'm one-year in, and I think a lot about how to have enough consistency to avoid what has happened to many better than me. Closest I have come thus far was in closed pattern when the speed never got real high; there was some distraction - bird, balloon, traffic, or something. I'll use some of the short final tips here posted here.

Oh! It included the analysis, too. Important variable here that I forgot.

Yeah, my first L.A. oil change was a surprise at $260. But to be fair, it included some preventive inspection work and picking up and returning the plane to my hangar. So basically a house call.

@base698, Sorry to read about the surprises. I have to believe your future costs will be lower and average everything out. Here's my experience: Bought a 1985 M20J from a broker located at Kestrel Airpark, Texas. First time buyer - did what research I could in the year prior while I worked on an instrument rating. I had no issues about the broker or the purchasing transaction. I was a rookie, and had to put some trust in the other side, but I never felt uncomfortable. After the pre-buy, I put in a $3000 hold-back because of the oil analysis, though the consensus among all stakeholders is the numbers were high because the plane hadn't been flown. Anyway, they accepted the holdback, the theory turned out to be correct, and I released the money after 20 hours or so and another oil change. Costs DEC 17: $1000 Pre-buy inspection DEC 17: $2000 Buyer-directed maintenance after pre-buy (gear actuator "no-back" spring, gear door strut bearing, spark plugs, oil, glare shield light, misc.) JAN 18: $600 Two consecutive oil changes related to the holdback provision and need for analysis APR 18: $240 for a software update on my GNS-43W GPS and GTX-330ES to fix an ADS-B issue flagged in a registered letter (yay!) from the San Antonio FAA FSDO JUL 18: $1250 Annual inspection JUL 18: $375 Shim worn linkage in nose wheel steering Now, the above must be qualified with the information that the owner before me spent about $20,000 for a Mooney Service Center annual and a lot of (deferred?) maintenance. Going forward, I worry about declining compression values on my IO-390 engine - no aftermarket cylinders. Nearly a year in - no horrible surprises, but I figure everyone gets their turn in the penalty box sometime. So we'll see. Thanks for starting the thread.

SDFlySurf, Congrats on the license and the plane. When I bought my M20J in December 2017, I had 270 hours on a 30-year old license, 100 of which was recent in a Cessna 172. I had two hours in a Mooney, including a demo flight with a guy on this forum and a 1.5 hour orientation lesson in a J Model operated by Pinnacle Aviation at KCRQ. The broker I bought the plane through in Texas set me up with a really great guy who had done transition training for the Mooney factory. So I went to San Antonio in December with three days blocked out for the training (cost was $350/day for the instructor). I had read all the manuals, etc., in advance. We did an hour or two of ground work on Day 1 then flew for 4.2 hours, 11 landings and a good barbecue lunch in Llano. At the end of that first day, a Wednesday, the instructor said, "Well, we should be done by noon tomorrow, so you can get up to Dallas ahead of the weather." (I was going to meet my wife at my in-laws for Christmas in the Dallas area, and there was a cold front headed south that was going to hit on Friday.) On Thursday, we flew for 2.9 hours and 11 landings. We landed back at Kestrel by lunch, and Bob says, "Everything looks good. How do you feel?" I felt fine. But I thought there surely must be some kind of rule against Brent jumping into a Mooney and flying off by himself to wherever he felt like going. Nope. Filed a flight plan, got in the plane without asking anyone for permission, and flew to Grand Prairie. Go figure. Anyway, to answer the question: for me it was 8.6 hours of transition training, including the 1.5 at KCRQ. I had to fly 10 hours dual, and 5 hours solo for insurance. I'm really enjoying the plane and figure I should have decent technique and a handle on the settings after, oh, 500-600 hours, max.... Enjoy.

Hey, where'd all your instruments go?

Thanks to everyone for the suggestions on my lost intercom issue. UPDATE: Got back in the plane today and jiggled the audio panel box. Problem solved. Sooooo....yeah. Loose connection to broken or loose wire back there, I guess, but not quite ready for the avionics shop.

Thanks, Hank. I “jacked” around with the jacks and wires, but I’m going to take a closer look.

Pilot error if it happened. I'll give it another try. I'd blame it on my wife, but she just let me buy a plane.

Thanks for that suggestion. I think I cycled everything I could cycle. Picture of the SL15 face attached. SL15 Face.tiff