0TreeLemur

Interesting problem and a bunch of us have the same problem. Unless you are near Texas, cloud cover forecasts the day before will likely cause the candidate airports to shift. Thoughts: Pick an airport with a runway too short for jets- cut down on the competition for parking. Fly in with enough fuel that you don't have to buy any before leaving to save time and avoid the worry about broken pumps. Someplace with plenty of parking on the grass. Fly in the day before and camp? From me (west-central Alabama) the closest places to see totality are Arkansas or Missouri. Could go to TX. We watched the last one in 2017 near Paducah, but that was before we discovered the magic of Al Mooney's creation. We flew to Chile (not by Mooney) in 2019 to watch a total eclipse on the beach!

Just read that the lander is laying on its side. Incredible that they are in communications with it. https://www.space.com/intuitive-machines-odysseus-moon-lander-tipped-over I think it landed upright, and the little green men pushed it over on its side ala "cow tipping"

That's a great idea. Knowing airspeed and heading while crossing a VOR's radials would allow you to estimate range from that VOR. Get winds aloft from FIS-B will allow a more accurate GS estimate. I could see a moving map display with an error ellipse around ownship. Do it with a stratux, it'll cost less than $500. The certified version will be $5,000 or more. It could include DME which would be a significant improvement and more $$. If cell phone companies would transmit time and position from each tower, that would make a fantastic constellation of surface based beacons providing essentially the capabilities as GPS. Cell phone towers are clustered in cities and along highways so coverage wouldn't be necessarily uniform. Less of a problem in the flight levels. Neat stuff.

While I'm waiting on new connectors, today I hit them with a little fine sand paper, plus contact cleaner & scotchbrite. Plugged them in as firmly as possible and taped the connectors together so they wouldn't slip. They still got warm. Not has hot as before. New connectors will do the trick, I think.

Ok. I believe you. It's still tar. The weatherstripping is not only easy to work with, it doesn't get all over you whenever you are elbows deep in the instrument bay after using it. It also doesn't cling to anything. The panels are easy to remove when you use the weatherstripping. And after you remove them, they don't have black gunk on them. Many upsides with using the weatherstripping. Oh, and it works really well at keeping water out.

Beautiful evening to fly in Alabama, after getting fuel for $4.50 at HAB, my favorite fuel stop! The photo just barely does it justice. The colors reflecting of the wing were brilliant!

This is how my trim switch is wired looking at the back, of the gang: I gather that power comes in the yellow wire.. The mechanism on the arm switch depresses the arm microswitch whenever it is deflected up or down. When that happens, it energizes the orange wire, and the normally open center taps on the other two trim switches. Pushing the switch in the down direction energizes the up trim servo, while pushing it in the up direction energizes the down switch servo. Just like yours, the center switch is reverse orientation from the two on the ends. My wire colors are different from yours, but the function should be exactly the same, because the jumpers between all three switches are the same.

From cruise LOP, at TOD I reduce M.P. to 19 in. for cruise descent. As the M.P. increases during the descent, I just pull the throttle out to keep it at 19. If you keep the M.P. constant you don't really need to change the mixture because the engine still thinks its at the same altitude. Plus this is a low power setting ~60%, the mixture setting can't harm the engine. Just don't forget to richen it back up if you open the throttle for any reason. Regarding CHT's, it's impossible to keep those up when the engine is producing little power. I've read that the shock cooling is not a major issue for the IO-360. Wish I could remember where I read that and provide a source, but I don't. Maybe someone else can recall.

I tried that stuff. Yuck. Sticky, gooey, messy. In hot hangar, ridiculous, in my opinion. If you don't plan to open the instrument bay panels again, it would be great. When Mooney wrote those specifications they were still using fiberglass insulation too. I think I've still got it if you want it. Maybe I tossed it. The weatherstripping approach is SO much better.

The diagram above doesn't go with the trim switch shown in the photo. The diagram shows the three center pins wired together. The photo shows the jumper going from the pin where the green wire is, down to the center pin on the other two switches. I'm not sure why they use red and white twice each in the photo. I don't see any color stripes.

Yesterday my A&P (who is not a B-K A/P expert) replace the "Easy Button" disconnect switch. While the KFC-150 still doesn't pass its self test, a new symptom arose after replacing the disconnect switch. Now while doing the self test, you can hear the trim motor actuate 4 times, but the clutch fails to engage. I can tell that because the trim wheel doesn't move, and I don't hear the loud "clunk" of the clutch engaging. Before replacing the disconnect switch, I don't recall hearing that trim motor at all during the self test. I'm planning to make an appointment tomorrow with a shop that specializes in autopilots... I've done all I can do. The manual electric trim works.

Agree.

You are welcome. I was turned on to that product by @Hector who lives in south Florida and flew his C through lots of heavy rain with no problems. After I installed that stuff, in October of '19 I flew my C sealed with that weatherstripping through the remains of tropical storm Delta across Arkansas. I had rainwater coming in the shark-fin vent, and pouring out the aft vents. Rain was coming into the vent faster than the drain tube could take it away. No instrument damage! This weatherstripping solves the problem. I'd do a real good job of cleaning all that old stuff off using whatever nasty solvent required to get it off. Prior to installing the weatherstripping in my C, it was sealed with a thin rubber membrane and some silicone. Yuk. The weatherstripping adhesive sticks well to bare aluminum, and is super easy to change out.

I'd think that a high-quality battery charger would include a robust current limiter circuit and protection if it were to fail to keep from starting a hangar fire. For that reason, I seriously doubt that this problem results from over-current. It seems more likely poor contact in the connector. In regards to what @LANCECASPER wrote, it is the Concorde battery version. The label says 12V 8A. In fact, I own two of these. One has the regular-old clip-on battery connectors and it includes a 15A fuse. The other one, which came with our M20J, has the "Audio Authority" connector that plugs into the aircraft. It seems to have no fuse, but maybe there is one in the connector that I don't know about. The black end of the "Audio Authority" connector shown in the original photo in this post is the one that has partially melted. Yeah, I could swap out the chargers and see if the connector gets hot, but I don't want to do that. I like the look of the Anderson SB50 connectors. I contacted the company mid-week as suggested by @Fly Boomer, but as of now, no response.

That stuff is terrible. Goops are really bad too. This is the stuff to use, with a photo showing how to install it. On a flight from AL to CO, I had an expensive water-entry issue while parked outside after I was diverted on an IFR flight plan due to a line of convection that extended from Amarillo to Chicago. After I installed this stuff, I never had another problem. Replace it annually because it loses its flexiblity over time. It is the best solution. Leave a gap for the rain channel to do it's thing. Use an awl to pre-puncture it above the nut plates and the screws just go right in. Good luck.

A hangar mate flew me in January to pick up my J after its annual in his 180 hp Skyhawk XP. It had been four or more years since I had ridden in one of those. On a cold day, it climbed like crazy, but was doing so at 75 knots. The Mooney requires us to keep up the speed to cool the engine. I never climb at less than 100 knots after I clear any obstacles. If I do- it's almost always because I went into "Gee I'm flying in a plane!" passenger mode and forgot to raise the gear...

Avidyne Skytrax 200?

Hmmm. When I bought this J it was only turning about 2630 rpm on takeoff. I complained to my A&P and the governor required adjustment. Now it makes 2690-2700 rpm.

I live close to Sea Level. On takeoff, full power with full rich EGT on my IO-360 is about 1250F with a fuel flow of about 19 gph. I climb full throttle, full rpm (2700) to cruising alt. Once I get to 5000 ft, I'll lean until the EGT rises to about 1250F. I'll lean every 1000 ft or so to keep it at 1250. I fly out west quite a bit. In fact, I learned to fly there. At density altitudes greater than 4000 ft I was taught to take off with the mixture pulled to an extent that kind of comes with experience. My instructor during my pp training had me pull it about an inch in a C152. Last summer I took off from a field with a D.A. over 9000 ft. I had the mixture pulled about 2 inches on takeoff, and used that 1250 EGT to adjust it once the engine got up to full power. It took forever to get off the ground and I was on a 6000 ft runway so I had time to watch it. I agree with @EricJ, your redline should be 2700, and that red arc should be a yellow arc. If your engine is not making 2700 on takeoff, you should have your governor adjusted so that it does. If you don't have one, a great first upgrade for an older Mooney is an engine monitor.

Could you see the curvature of the Earth from up there?? Seriously, how long did it take to get to 17.5? 30 mins?

Thanks. I e-mailed them.

Yep- I've been using it while troubleshooting some ADS-B in issues in the hangar. My J has the quick-connect ("Audio Authority" as the man in the video calls it) shown in the video installed. That's the connector on the right-side of the photo in the OP. My hypothesis is that the problem stems from the aluminum connector with high internal resistance.

Yes- original connectors. I have to believe that for what it cost, the designer of the Battery Minder built in a high quality current limiting capability with internal fault detection. Just the connector is hot. The wire is not getting hot. It seems that high resistance in the connector is the most likely explanation.

Both are getting hot. In the photo above, the charger is on the left, and the connector to the battery on the right. Looking at the degree of melting, I might be convinced that the battery-side is getting hotter?

This connector on my battery minder is getting hot. As the photo shows, hot enough to deform the plastic. Anyone else had this happen? Clean or replace with a different connector? Thx, Fred