Bob E

Central OH base annual cost 2023: My shop is familiar with this aircraft and has done the annuals for the past decade.

Very few celebrities actually own their own jets. They get more privacy and far more flexibility by using NetJets (which is essentially a huge private airline) or some other private jet service that guarantees them the right-size jet for the flights they need for the number of people they want to bring along. So in most cases, actually tracking a celebrity would require knowing which private jet they are boarding and when. Such info is almost impossible to find, since NetJets never discloses passenger info.

Before I could afford a hangar, my M20C sat on the ramp in Columbus, Ohio for 30 years. If you need tips on how to preserve a ramp Mooney, let me know. If you have the all-metal original factory throttle, mixture, and prop controls, unless there are problems that graphite lube won't solve, the only one I'd recommend replacing would be the prop control. I tried painting the throttle and mixture controls. Mixture control looks great. The throttle control doesn't take paint well since it's handled too much so I ended up peeling the paint back off. Replacements should be easy to find. Just search this forum for "vernier." Some people prefer red for the prop control and blue for mixture; not sure if there's a standard color scheme?

Same. Find a belt with solid leather, not bonded.

Yeah, when I reupholstered my seats with the Airtex set, that's when I also replaced the rollers. My AI entered the Airtex seats and really liked the nylon rollers but didn't see a need to mention them.

I think you'd have to cut off the flange -- there's no play between the sides of the roller and the seat frame holding the roller axle.

Ragsf15e: YOU ARE RIGHT! Thanks for this. My profuse apologies to everyone who bought the Grainger rollers and noticed that they're too loose -- I totally forgot that I also used bushings! Here are the bushings. I don't have the receipt but I may have gotten them from Home Depot. The cost was negligible. NOTE: You have to cut the bushing in half:

Maybe, that's an interesting point. I'm pretty sure they aren't DIY rollers, since the shop that did my annuals back then obtained and installed the replacements! Just for fun I'll check; I'm pretty sure I saved the old ones that weren't split.

The nylon rollers aren't loose at all on my '65 C. I'd recommend just giving them a try. If for some reason the're too loose when installed on your seats, you've lost less than ten bucks, and at least you have some nice rollers you can use for something else!

Yes, they roll fine, and are quieter than the original rollers. The fit is just right - not too snug, not loose.

Wow, I learned something! Thanks. In the past, when my seat rollers split in half (about one or two each year), they looked like wood to me. Thanks for the info!

[Jan. 23 UPDATE! See page 6 on this forum - The Grainger nylon rollers I mention here also need bushings, which you also can get from Grainger or Home Depot.] On Nov. 7, 2020 I posted how I replaced my original wooden seat rollers with nylon ones. The files are in the "downloads" forum. Topic is "Adding headrests to M20C, and replacing original wooden seat rollers with nylon," but really all you need is the photo below showing the spec and where you can get them. The nylon rollers are a direct drop-in replacement for the wooden ones. Before and after photos are below. I replaced mine in 2018 and the nylon rollers are still like new.

I love it! Ok, I'll go ahead and just recopy my earlier comments here: -------------------- As the owner of a ’65 C for 35+ years now (third engine, fourth interior, lots of aviation upgrades) I can give you some quick info: · Mooneys tend to be forever planes. Once you buy one, you want to keep it; people sell them mostly to get bigger and faster planes if their family grows and they have the money. · Probably the most cost-effective aircraft there is in terms of dollars per knot of airspeed. At 10,000 feet I burn about 8.5 gph at 130 knots. (180 hp carbureted) · Incredibly stable airframe. Excellent crosswind landing capability. · The carbureted version seems to be far less susceptible to carb icing than other airframes. Not sure why that is. · The Johnson-bar version is way better than electric gear: bulletproof, REALLY easy to use once you get the rhythm right, virtually zero maintenance, higher useful load. · Far more cost-effective than a Cirrus, and much more forgiving. Lots of low-time pilots are buying the farm in their expensive Cirruses. · Noisy - -noise canceling headsets are a must, and make distance flying really pleasant. · ALWAYS keep a small vice-grip in the seat pocket. When you least expect it, the pin holding the inner door latch to the shaft will break, trapping you inside. It’s happened to me three times in 35 years. THINGS TO PAY ATTENTION TO · If the nosewheel shakes on landing, it needs a new bushing that makes it like new again and will last for another few decades. Lasar has the part. · Don’t let the landing gear donuts lose tolerance; if they do they provide less cushioning and landings will stress the gas tank seals and other parts. My gas tanks have never leaked because I make sure the donuts are in good shape.) · Invest in bent-stem (metal stem) tubes. Standard tubes have a straight rubber stem that is blocked by the hubcap and as a result is always bent, putting a strain on it. Sooner or later it will give out and you have a flat main tire, usually on landing. Happened to me twice. See attached photos · The fuel selector-gascolator needs to be cleaned every few years. That’s a special Mooney part and is hard to replace, so keep it maintained. · Biggest minor annoyance: The wooden seat rollers – they wear out and split. They are easy to replace with nylon rollers for literally $5 if that happens. I posted how to do it on Mooneyspace. · If you take the seats out, it's inexpensive and pretty easy to upgrade them yourself with Airtex vinyl and to add headrests. (Photo) I got rid of the vacuum-powered PC system; I don’t need the step (I keep it retracted) or the wing leveler – the airframe is so stable I really don’t need it.

I've owned my '65 M20C for 36 (!) years now. Someone asked a similar question last August; here's my response: https://mooneyspace.com/messenger/43859/?tab=comments#comment-161512

Not sure if it's something you're "missing," but here's my two cents' worth: The KX-155 with glide slope is basically a forever radio. It won't become obsolete until they eliminate the ILS, which isn't going to happen. Keep it. Ditto for your KY-196. A used Garmin 400W (a 430 without the nav/comms) can be purchased for even less than the cost of a 430. (About $4000, not including installation, compared with about $11-12,000 for a 650). Aside from being budget-friendly, a 400W would accomplish several things: First, by keeping your GPS separate from your nav/comm and comm radios, you avoid a single point of failure. (Accidentally trip your avionics master switch and the Garmin will take seemingly forever -- when you're airborne -- to reboot, and then you'll have to go through the menus to set it up again. The 155 and 196 are is instant-on, and they don't lose their frequency settings.) Second, since the 400W is a pure GPS unit, you avoid having to use menus to operate the radios. Nothing is simpler than a KX-155 when you're trying to update your approach leg on your GPS, and ATC gives you a frequency change! Third, with a combination of KX-155 and 400W you can always navigate with two systems simultaneously - one as a primary and the other as a cross-check. Some other pilots have told me that touch screens in the newer GPS units are sometimes a hassle in turbulence as compared to the knobs and buttons on the 4xx series. (I haven't had a problem with the iPad's touch screens, so I doubt that it's much of an issue.) The 400W (like the 430W) will interface with the Garmin Canbus and thus with all Canbus-compatible Garmin products you might add in the future: G5's, transponders, and FlightSteam (bluetooth interface to iPads), etc. The 4xx series are extremely reliable. Their biggest disadvantage is their antiquated data card -- you have to download the navigation database update to a spare data card every 28 days and then swap out the card in the 4xx unit. Antiquated, but it works fine. Whenever my Foreflight wants to auto-update, I update the data card as well and the next time I go out to the aircraft, I take my iPads AND data card rather than just iPads. There are tons of 430s around and the data cards and software will be available for many years to come. See my panel below. VERY simple and easy to use combination.