0TreeLemur

One of these day's we'll have to have a race around Alabama.

That's cool. What other speed mods do you have Hank? I suppose you have the cowl intake mod that eliminates the drag-inducing 'open mouth to nowhere' below the prop. What else? 201 windshield? We re-assembled the doghouse very carefully sealing up any gaps and holes last year. Also the carb heat box and hose are in good shape. My Mooney looks like it should cruise at 160, but 143 is all I get

Thanks- I guess I had the misfortune of selecting several people who had not entered anything there. It would be GREAT if MS members would make it a point to at least put something there about themselves... Is this info visible to people who aren't logged in? Maybe that would be one requirement?

Howdy, When I click on a users' icon, I see their personal page. On that page, two tabs "Activity" and "Albums" show. However, when I click on my personal page, I see a tab called "About Me". Why can one user not see another user's "About Me" page? Am I missing something, is there a way presently to see other user's "About Me" page? If not, there should be because it will might help us learn about each other, background, interests, etc. I suggest that when you click on another user's icon, three tabs should appear "Activity" "Albums" and "About". No reply expected, do with what you will. Thanks, Fred

Hi Bill, It is probably not a big deal, but I'm not 100% positive. I have noticed this annual that when the gear are up in my '67 C, the tire is not exactly flush with the belly. Rather. the brake disk and aft portion of the tire hang out into the slipstream, which probably pushes the gear up into the wheel well and helps to close the gear door gap in flight. That's one theory. If true, then the gap is not an issue. My A&P wanted to close that gap by adjusting the gear door. It only took two turns of the front turnbuckle to mostly eliminate the 1/2" gap. If true, then this also suggest very little effect on cruising speed. My cruising true air speed at mid-altitudes (5 - 8kft) 24square is about 143 kt, which by all indications I've seen is ballpark. YMMV. IANA&P. Good luck, Fred

Last week my 70 year-old A&P laughed when I pulled out the Mooney 100h/annual checklist. He said "If we do all that stuff it will take a month and cost $5 to $10 thousand". His philosophy is "Lets make sure she's airworthy, the AD's are met, improve what we can, and note the repairs that need to be done in the next year". That is his philosophy. He used to work for a Mooney service center. He rebuilt the brake cylinders by replacing the one o-ring, which had mostly turned from round to square, because he noticed a bit of brake fluid leaking out. That is when he noticed that the hydraulic/brake fluid was much more viscous than when new. His "to-do" list of repairs needed in the next year includes replacing 3 rod ends on the rudder push rod- these are three that are actually in the tail, not the empannage, and replace the bushing and bolt on the right main retraction truss pivot. Next annual I plan to replace all the brake/hydraulic hoses, which appear to be very old, if not original equipment.

We've been using these. https://toolguyd.com/stanley-screwdrivers-diamond-coated-tips/ They increase grip and reduce the likelihood of head damage.

Hi Clarence, I'm pretty sure that this is what my A&P plans to do. I haven't looked yet, but I assume there is a bleed on the flap actuator cylinder? We will get back on this Wednesday. Thanks for your advice, Fred

Today, minor adjustment to right main gear door. Raised gear with a/c on jacks and the gear door touches underside of wing on the wing-tip end and is about 1/8" shy of touching the wing on the belly end. Next task is to try and completely flush and replace the hydraulic fluid, which has transmogrified into a substance with the consistency of honey. Maybe it is time to overhaul the parking brake while we're at it?

I just gotta say- I got such a kick out of reading what you guys have typed in this thread. Akin to being a fly on the wall at an aircraft design bureau... Stuff that as a fluids guy I never think about any more. Thanks to all.

What does 'SI' mean? I want to know so I can know what I hope I will never need. -thx.

Ahem.... I believe you are mistaken sir. What you are referring to is the TURBO encabulator.

@Andy95W, let met get this straight- you insert washers into the coils on the spring so it can't collapse when you unload it? Must not have that many coils? How do you hold them in place before you unload the spring? Tape? Clever though! Thanks.

Glad you got it solved too. My a/c is on jacks- need to lube those up/down locks and the sliding collar.

Regarding our investigation on why the right main landing gear door hangs about 1/2" open when the gear are raised, we dug into this deeply today and I have more to report. No gear rigging done today. None of the push rods seem bent. We performed the preloads and they were within spec. Down and locked seems ok. No unusual motion noted in the gear mechanism when in the down position. After checking the preloads, we removed the wheels from the main gear to do the brakes, and my A&P had me raise the gear so he could examine them in detail. That was different. By comparing the left and right main gear mechanisms, one key difference was observed. Pushing up or pulling down on the right main gear leg caused flexure in the push rod as shown in the photo, but not in the left main. It seems that the retraction truss hinge denoted with the red arrow in the upper-left is worn, which is allowing the force on the main to produce some slight lessening of the stress in that push rod when it is in the up position. Did not seem to happen in the down position, I suppose because of the preload stress disconnecting loads on the gear from the push rod. That explains why the gear door is not touching the underside of the wing despite being adjusted fully "closed". The wear in the retraction truss pivot point is allowing the right main to "sag" a bit when fully raised. Anybody dealt with this one? It seems like I need to order one of those parts (where hand is pointing)- retraction truss hinge or pivot?? Figure 1. Right main landing gear in up position with tire off.

Thanks Andy- he has those. Much appreciated! BTW- my inner engineer was itchin' to adjust the rigging on the gear- my A&P immediately expressed skepticism that it was needed. I'll give him a notch more credit...

Thanks for writing Andy. My A&P has the gear pre-load test tools. Is there a separate set of rigging tools, or is that what you are referring to? I'll take what you wrote to the hangar with me today. Then I'll put the two bolts that I removed at location "B" back in position and forget about rigging gear. Thanks for sharing your knowledge, experience, and observations of past threads.

It's also amazing how sharp those little bent metal tabs are around the back end of the nose gear well. Huh? What is that electric motor?? Where is the Johnson bar?? What kind of alien craft is this?

Our first annual update. There are two issues that my A&P is investigating. First, rudder motion is about 1/2" side to side with feet on the pedals. He says that it should be no more than 1/8". Looking for warn rod ends. Second, right landing gear seems to be out of rigging- when gear are full up, it is short of touching upper limit of wheel well by about 1/2 inch, which coincides with an approximately 1/2" gap on the gear door. Left main gear is full up. We'll try adjusting tomorrow. Long day, but hugely interesting for us! I find it seriously incredible the amount of "stuff" that happens in that 4" deep space below your feet in the M20. And that the aluminum floor is 0.032" thick. Oh- installed LED indicator light in parallel with fuel pump. That is cool.

Yesterday I was using a diamond tipped Phillips driver. Put enough torque on the heads pushing up from the crawler to start to fail the heads. I tried some penetrating oil with PTFE and tried again after an hour or so, to no effect. They are stuck.

I'm going to sick Big Dave the A&P on it tomorrow morning and see how he does it.

We just ended a long day of screw/panel removal. There are 3 stuck screws with partially stripped heads that will wait for A&P to deal with on Tuesday. Fun day in a brightly lit hangar. We are both tired. Thanks everyone for the input! We're looking forward to Tuesday when the fun barrier is broken!

My diabolical plan is to get the plane outdoors, in the clouds and rain, as soon as this annual is complete and I finish my IR. @carusoam when you say "Fogging" is that via aerosol can or something more complex like an actual atomizer?

@Boilermonkey I have not heard of corrosionX before. Sounds like a good product. I"ll order a couple of cans. Thx.

Thanks Clarence. The same A&P did the annual last year has some software that prints out applicable ADs based on model and S/N. He went through all the logs last year. It will be interesting to see how he follows up.