Stephen

Agreed I do think it is low. None of the ones at my home field maint shop are pilots.

Thanks M20. I agree, it should be fairly straight fwd with most any issues identifiable on the ground. Just wanted to tap the collective thinking of MS for any tips.

Thanks team Mooney. Great thoughts I am getting the test plan together. I will use the weekend to go over everything I can to triple check per Yetti and other's advice. Still trying to coordinate with a Mooney literate CFI on the RTS flight.

Hi Paul, that would be nice to have a shop like that close (drive not via Mooney). In lieu of that, Rick at Blue Sky Aviation has been working engaging Don Maxwell on a number of others (Don recommended Rick @ Blue Sky for my PPI). I did have a rigging session scheduled with DMAX (on 4/10?) but this JPI/CIES install went long and blew that date away. This was Blue Mountain's first CIES/EDM 900 on a Mooney and it turned out there were some items discovered along the way that they need to tool/stock up for that were needed but not called out for in the installation information for both systems (and some of the other work). The didn't charge me for learning curve but it took a good amount of time to onboard it and that has really stretched out the timeline for the post-purchase maintenance. One of the reasons I want to get this thing back in the air is to get this down to DMAX and get it rigged up perfectly; it is definitely not. I am also planning on having DMAX do my first Annual in Feb 18 to get a super thorough going through. So, I really have taken the advice to hear on working with DMAX, but am also trying to collaborate with my local shop to get them spun up on more Mooney specific capabilities.

I 1000 % agree with doing it personally; I just do not thing my game is at the level to handle an emergency compared to Dan, the advanced CFI at Summit Aviation at KVBT. I have reached out to him but have not heard back. I might need to find another person but Dan is one of the only significantly Mooney experienced CFI's in the area that I have been able to find. I'll keep pinging him and look for other options. The shop are all A&P's, no pilots so they can't do their own RTS or believe me they would be.

Thanks Matt I'm at KROG in NW Arkansas. Thank for the advice.

Hi -A-, I removed the Strikefinder head, tray and ultimately will delete the antenna and harness due to having stratus/XM weather and to start de-bloating the airframe. She has a pretty thick empty weight and I am trying to trim it back down.

Great thoughts so far, keep em coming! I am taking notes. A point of clarification. The instrument removal is on me the shop didn't do those; plan was to get it flying again and save up some additional AMU for an AI upgrade and take it to an avionics shop to have pilot side panel re-done (since the EDM as a primary created lots of "holes" in the panel due to redundant / old instrument removal and the AI I am looking at is also certified as primary and will create yet more). I could have my shop do it; they offered, my thinking was that the avionics types (different airport/state may be better qualified and faster to do a general back of panel wiring cleanup including dissecting out the old harnesses and antenna removal. The shop did remove all the old EDM harness, just not the other avionics which I removed. All that said, if this is "stinkin thinking" I want to identify that and be safe. HYETT, good call there; I have already asked a high time mooney experienced CFI to do the RTS flight. In my opinion, I only have about 10 or so hours in the plane and don't yet have the experiential depth in the aircraft to be the best choice to do it... still working on landings etc.

Greetings gentlemen! I have my F coming out of a fairly heavy maintenance session and would like to get your collective guidance on things you would do, check etc on a return to service flight. For context, I had : a new yoke shaft installed, CIES fuel sending units installed, EDM 900 installed, shoulder harness installed, landing gear re shimmed to avoid a castle nut to landing gear tube clearance issue (see separate post on this issue), VSI replaced, VOR removed, strike finder head removed, old Shaden FF removed, old JPI CHT/EGT removed, ADF head and controller removed. MP/FP gauge removed and tach removed. Wiring harnesses (as applicable) were not removed, but wires were capped. No antennas were removed. Whew, I think that about covers it. Obviously triple check the work of the mechanics. The tanks have been filled (for EDM calibration) and leak checked and drained to flush already. The gear have been swung post shim adjustment. I am planning on reweighing the plane due to so many in/outs of gear. Beyond that, what would you guys do to "T" up a safe and successful return to service sequence? Thanks in advance! Stephen

Seems like the chat room doesn't work correctly or may have some browser incompatibility. When you first come into the chat room, the text window is blank and it's hard to prove, but I'm pretty sure when you greet someone that enters the room they see nothing even though the present members are typing. Something is definitely weird going on. Seems like folks want to use it; there are 5 in there now. But no text is flowing. I'm using Safari on OS Sierra 10.12.3.

You don't see your prop blade deflecting like that when moving by hand on the ground . Yes they really do that. If you stand to the side of someone doing a TO power run-up you can see the prop disk profile bend fwd toward the tips.

No worries. We saw you come in and said Hi but the chat probably didn't show up; its a little wonky

No worries, I just thought it would be fun to talk to a few MS'ers live...it is! Chat room definitely has some bugs though. People are coming/going in & out and I am greeting all of them but I don't think they are seeing the text. The refresh interval on the chat text may be way too long

I figured, it was just a bit of shameless social engineering to lure some fellow mooney drivers into the chat room

Orion and I have been chatting...it works but seems to have some bugs...fun times though

DUH...it already does that...just never anyone in there. ... suggestion withdrawn.

Just curious. Hard to know if anyone is in there. if a red badge was put on it with logged in members in the chat room ....say like: Might add a new interesting live chat aspect to MS....kinda like a pickup basketball game.

Nice!

Update, CIES units in EDM 900 In, we are doing the fill calibration tomorrow. Heads up if anyone does this pay CLOSE attention to the dome nut plates on the fuel tank access panels (including but not limited to the oval panel right by your fuel cap). Apparently when the panels were installed by a prior owner's mechanic , either 1) someone used too long of screws or 2) excessive sealant was used on the screws and when they were screwed into their flush position the sealant hydraulically locked the screw prior to it bottoming out and becoming flush with the skin. This resulted in pressure blowing the ends of the domes off and running down/partially sealing some, others not as well. That resulted in some of the panels weeping fuel around the screws. When the panels were removed, it wasn't apparent that the (sealed over...mostly) dome nuts were *all* compromised. So, if you have weeping panels, this may have happened on your aircraft. This aircraft was apparently sealed up by one of the commonly mentioned wing re-seal shops and i think this likely happened there. We had to order and replace all the domed nuts.

(Emphasis and parenthetical commentary added to Oldguy's quote). As a serial entrepreneur and investor, I would humbly suggest that brutal truth and opportunity both lie between the arrows.

I was actually in San Fran during that thing doing a Data Robot training class....wondered what all the gratuitous pot smoking and demonstrations were about...until I got the 420 story. ..... oy vey

Glad they do and glad for every unit Mooney et al sell. The mba in me just can't personally figure out the economic rational of our ("team mooney's" ) market strategy.

"Best way to make a small fortune in aviation is to start with a big one."

Good point; I used to care for a PA31T fleet, so am familiar with their maint/ops. Maybe we were lucky but ours were pretty reliable...recall the cabin heaters were a bit of a pain. But assuming a person has a very big small or medium business and has a business justified aviation justified aircraft budget in the $1M zip code - all things being equal, I think the Cheyenne at 500-700K has a far greater chance of facilitating offsetting top line revenue than the Ultra (for obvious reasons). That is why business level aircraft for medium+ sized businesses (who could afford these high 6 figure aircraft budgets) look like Cheyennes, King Air's, and the 7 figure planes: TBM, Pilatus, Citations etc... So, the ultra seems like it has to have to sell to independently wealthy persons who want a toy (at that point who cares about maintenance/ops costs), or more likely business owner/pilots who can afford planes in that financial zip code, but can't/won't do a pressurized turbine or have an low need for reliable dispatch (??). Pretty small niche. Like I said, wealthy toy buyers aside, I do not get the economics.

2nd Saber's logic. They are > 3/4 of a million dollars! Who the heck drops that kind of coin on a single engine, unpressurized, recip aircraft? I do not get the economics. To be sure, ** I'm glad someone does do because it seems like the price drops by 40-50% in a few years with the used unit that has 500-800 hrs on the airframe and eventually those become the 30+ year old planes that I could currently afford. To drop that much you kind of have to have benjamin's to burn. If I could business justify dropping that much coin, I would probably go for something that would have range, load and dispatch capabilities similar to the airlines: Just my .02