MichMooney201

All, Quick question and help for my 78J please. As some of you are aware I have gone through a couple of major redo's in the last 5 years with the new engine, EI engine monitors and the latest being the addition of Garmin radio's and audio panel and 2 GI-275's to power the new GFC-500 auto pilot. All is working well and is a treat to fly. There is a hiccup that has arisen that may or may not be related with all this work. With the EI CGR combo gauges installed, all of the lights in the annunciator panel have been voided by going onto the CGR's or eliminated from the plane like the ram air function and associated peices and parts, with the exception of the Gear Unsafe and Gear Safe lights. Latest hiccup is the Gear Safe light does not illuminate when the gear are indeed down and locked, but it will illuminate when the annuciator panel light test button is pushed during the run-up checklist. Per the wiring diagram, the Gear Safe light gets its power from the same wire that provides juice to the gear light located on the floor when the gear is down and locked, and that light works fine currently. So the question is two fold. Is anyone aware of a TSO'd switch , device or whatchamacallit that will allow me to remove my annunciator panel completely and just have two lights on the dash for gear safe/unsafe? I had originally asked EI to move those lights to my CGR's and they politely declined due to the potential liability of the landing gear. So maybe there is not and option out there that I have yet to find? Second half of the question...has anyone here had this issue and if so could a potential remedy be shared that might be different from completely eliminating the nearly empty annunciator panel? And if someone has done so in the past, perhaps a FAA field approval to put lights in the dash for gear safe/unsafe, although this last option is absolutely that...I'd rather removal of my fingernails by pliers than attempt a field approval.

Above picture of the new panel...and man what a difference. Lafayette Avionics suggested the A/P to the top of the stack based on numerous other customer comments and it makes a difference. I picked the plane up in a bouncy day and having the dials located where they are made everything easy to tune. Also, the left hand dial controls all the functions on the GI-275's so inputs into the 275's are 1000 times easier than trying to touch screen or use the dials on the 275's themselves. My only complaint on this install is that I didn't spend an extra $1000 or so an change out all the Klixon switches to new style metal switches while the plane was ripped apart. Also, I cannot speak highly enough of the complete and meticulous job Lafayette Avionics did with this plane. Any minor detail was covered, discussed and implemented with zero change to the quoted installation price. I did, based on his recommendation, add two Stratus USB chargers to the panel at an additional cost of $420 bucks. Included in the total install was the G500 A/P with auto trim, GNX 275 transponder with GPS, Garmin 345 audio panel and the GNC 255 and GTR 225 radios.

More pictures…plane should be done this coming week.

Irmin I had the exact same thing happen to me save I was not using Garmin equipment but I lost my oil pressure on my Electronics International setup; and I had removed all of my legacy gauges so I did NOT have a back up comparison and did the same as you, emergency and to the ground I went...rapidly. I did not have a wiring slack issue but my oil pressure sensor just decided to quit after only about 4 months installed. I called EI and a new oil pressure sender was on its way and installed at the FBO I happened to land at in Eau Claire, WI...problem fixed. So yes, just the oil pressure sender is replaceable; at least for the EI sender but your setup appears identical to mine. This is of course if it is indeed the sender and not the wire harness clip end that has malfunctioned. The way those clip ends are manufactured are pretty robust and you would have to loose all electrical contact in order for a 0 psi reading to register from a bad clip, but weird things happen daily. Installing a new sender and a run test would give you your answer pretty quickly without messing with an ohm meter and trying to figure out how the sender is sending signals. Garmin tech might be helpful what the sender is supposed to put out for signal but I am not certain as I worked with EI on mine..

Stopped to see the plane this week and took pictures of the progress…or destruction depending on your point of view.

and there you have in a nutshell why we fly Mooneys...they are slippery suckers...

4th spot over from the left on the left panel...where the VOR's used to live.

So I had to chuckle reading your comment about the 80's video game display...one of the main reason's I chose the EI CGR-30 combo gauges are how modern and crisp the display is, and to be very frank the reason why I chose the Electronics International setup over the JPI. I would go one step further to say the tech and sales support from EI is nothing short of phenomenal. In my opinion the CGR-30 combo gauge far exceeded competitive offerings for very similar investment costs. The set up took out all the gauges across the top of the panel, fuel, oil, etc; took out the MP and Tach from the far right of the panel and has left open some serious real estate in the panel for all the new stuff going in and then some. I will be posting pics as soon as this whole thing is finished up.

I just resealed my prop and the oil residue I found before fixing had a spray pattern on the cowl from flight ...yours looks like it is leaking while sitting. Clean it really good and run it for an hour and inspect again. That doesn't look like a leak from flying from the prop...I also have a 78 J.

1. Mooney's and grass is no bueno because of the small prop clearance. I would suggest you be a soft field landing expert and because Mooney's land fast, a short grass field is trouble. To bleed off excess airspeed by keeping the nose off the ground almost ALWAYS results in going airborne again eating up more runway so if you could find one with speed brakes that would help probably. To be honest, and I am in love with my J, grass runways and my J are a non starter. Grass is the one thing a Mooney does not do well. Usefull load is the other thing they don't do well but 900-1000 lbs is what you get. 2. Great info already provided above. 3. You see lots of gear up damaged Mooneys. Replace the skid plates and your engine overhaul and away you go. My J had a gear up landing back in 1980 and you would never know it except for the log book entry. I would not worry about a Mooney with a gear up landing history if repairs are well documented. 4. I'm putting a GFC500 in my plane right now, however I have probably 200 hours in the last 2 years hand flying cross country trips. Mooney's and the pushrod controls are like driving a porsche compared to a 1982 Caddie Fleetwood. The safety of an autopilot is undisputable but when you are cruising and trimmed in just right, hand flying Mooneys is just a joy. (My experience is comparing Warriors and 172/182's to a J)

You are right on that one...1 hr for the GI 275 compared to 4 hours for the G5 for battery time. G3X requires a backup instrument like the G5 so now the math gets expensive fast. $2200 more for dual GI275's over dual G5's with no difference in installation costs. A G3X plus the backup G5 is close to $10K more over dual GI275's installed. The 275's have numerous functional benefits over the G5 and are touchscreen units. I didn't stop to consider backup time of 1hr vs 4hr but I think if I were to lose an alternator in flight I would be on the ground before the hour was up, and with having duals I could shut one down immediately on loss of alternator and have a 2hr ish backup if required. Thanks for pointing this out as I am now going to devise a very specific approach to a loss of alternator casualty in addition to considering a dual alternator setup or 2nd onboard battery. I also run a Surefly so electrical security airborne is getting to be very important.

I do have an engine monitor as there is a pair of Electronics International CGR-30's in the panel which was a great upgrade in itself. I too would love a big PFD and am holding out to buy an Ovation or Acclaim when I turn independently wealthy. Until then I am going to "limp" along at 150kts and 9.5 gph in this upgraded J.

Time to spend some more money again as the plane went into the Lafayette Avionics today to get some new toys. Dual GI275's, GFC500, GNX375, GNC255A, GTR225 and a GMA345 audio panel. $50K ish upgrade that I anticipate will work fantastic. Major driver for this plane is that it flies cross country almost 100% of its missions and I am still salty about the $6K I spent at autopilots central that fixed my Century IIB for maybe 5 months before it broke again a few years back. After talking with a few folks I knew the autopilot upgrade was probably the greatest upgrade with the largest impact on flying considering how I fly. The GFC500 seems to offer the best integration with a few other Garmin upgrades to tie everything together between the EI CGR's and running Fore Flight. I considered the STEC but I needed new radios too as 1 of my Collins radios has next to no range and 1 Collins nav is inop. Because I use Fore Flight almost exclusively I couldn't justify a 650 or 750 so the GNX375 fit the bill for GPS and I've already sold my Stratus ESG/2S. So there is my rationale for upgrading to a Garmin suite and why i chose what I did, and I wasn't willing to drop $100K on my $100K value airplane. With all that in mind, I would love to read some comments about what I maybe missed or what I should really pay attention too. This was a budgeted purchase so the G3X was not an option, so we can overlook that discussion please. There is fantastic knowledge throughout this group so I really appreciate the sharing of it...I wish I had time to scour this website for days to glean all of it. Many thanks in advance for the upcoming comments; or apologies if I start another virtual fistfight of opinions. You guys are great though!!

I literally just completed what has been a over 2 year project replacing my single drive dual mag in my 78J. The engine swap didnt take that long but the time it has taken to do the extras did, including EI engine monitors, SureFly electronic ignition, etc, and its been flying about 150 hrs during this whole project. I can tell you a rebuilt Zero time engine from Lycoming is worth every penny, enough so that when I TBO this engine out I would very strongly consider doing it again and forgo the overhaul route. The difference in cost between overhaul and reman is instantly made up in the increased value of the plane which now has a zero time engine in it. Additionally, most of the components on my reman were new because Lycoming has not received many of the A3B6's back in cores. So many benefits IMHO to going the reman route verses overhaul...the biggest and only downside is the upfront cost of the extra $7500ish. I could go on about a reman vs overhaul but it just went really well in my experience, especially considering what my end goal was. Fuel economy is also a great benefit with electronic ignition, another reason to deep 6 the A3B6D, along with simply starts, hot or cold...all the time! I digress....