Sam Judd

These are all still available. I've followed up with a few of you via PMs.

The EDM is still available, the altitude encoder might be spoken for.

KT-74 - $1400 Mode S Transponder with ADS-B Out. Will show TIS-A traffic. Requires a compatible GPS source. Installed 4/1/2016, removed 3/23/22 with ~705 hours. Yellow tagged and working when removed. Asking $1400. Pictures: https://photos.app.goo.gl/tgTBNuYTP9HpKhM89. Price Comparison: https://www.texasairsalvage.com/main_view.php?editid1=215397. EDM 730 - $800 Displays EGT/CHT, oil temperature and pressure and voltage. Installed 12-20-2010, removed 4/27/20 with ~850 hours. Removed by my mechanic when I upgraded to a EDM 900. No tags, but it was working when it was removed. I have a box of wires and connectors as well. Asking $800. Pictures: https://photos.app.goo.gl/iYhz9o88qCtKH5NTA. Price Comparison: https://www.ebay.com/itm/224798137869. Shadin Miniflo - $300 Installed 2/28/1995, removed 4/27/20 with ~2000 hours. Just as with the EDM 730, it was removed for the EDM 900 upgrade and was working when it was removed. Asking $300. Pictures: https://photos.app.goo.gl/vMos6okfKKCnqFKY9. Altitude Encoder - Free Yellow tagged and removed 4/6/22 and working when removed. Seems like there's tons of these floating around, so free if you actually have a use for it, just pay for shipping. Pictures: https://photos.app.goo.gl/9vcReUKbsCeKZHVz5 KSN-770 (broken) - $1500 Bendix/King's discontinued WAAS IFR GPS competitor to Garmin's 650/750 and Avidyne's IFD 4xx/5xx. Green tagged when removed after ~5 years on 3/22/22. The unit turns on and the nav/com functionality works fine. However the map doesn't work and you can't enter a flight plan or any GPS points. From some brief discussion with Bendix/King's tech support, probably the internal SD card is broken and needs to be replaced. It sounds like B/K will do a flat rate repair probably between $2500 and $3000 if you're willing to deal with the hassle. Asking $1500. Pictures: https://photos.app.goo.gl/akGXN4hVDrWtKE1MA

Hi all. I recently had a GTN 750xi and a GTX 345r installed. Yesterday the GTX345r worked for one flight, then showed the following error on the subsequent three flights. message: https://photos.app.goo.gl/v1XUCRnXAwqvi66w9. The 345r would display ADS-B in data (traffic/weather) on the 750, but would not move out of standby. I confirmed with other pilots that I did not show up on their ads-b traffic displays. Yesterday was unusually hot (43+ Celsius on the ground), the plane was left in the sun for a while and the GTX345r is unusually mounted just below the glare shield rather than in the avionics bay. Today I flew for about two hours and the transponder worked flawlessly. Garmin has pointed me to the GTX 3X5 pilot guide, which has a bunch of detailed failure messages for the transponder. None of these are visible on the 345r and I think they're also not shown on the 750. If I search for 'Transponder 1 needs service' here: https://static.garmincdn.com/pumac/190-01007-A1_04Web.pdf, it looks like a generic error message, which implies that the GTN 750 will not show specific GTX 345 failure messages. My leading theory right now is that the 345r overheated, which would explain the transient failure and the fact that the transponder would receive, but not transmit. It seems like the error message does not rule out the transponder going over temperature. I'm working with Garmin and my local shop, but I have only two days before I'm supposed to leave for Oshkosh. Has any else experienced a similar failure?

I replaced it with an NL model while troubleshooting some starter issues. I sent it back to Skytec who said it worked perfectly. Some combination of cleaning corrosion and replacing relays seems to have mostly resolved the starter issue. I do think the NL is a better model, but I'd hope someone can get some use out of the this LS. Installed 9/6/2018 4766.67, removed 1/21/2020 at 5069.88. It was installed for 303.21 total hours.

The bracket came from the factory, they just happened to have one in stock. The final repair was ~6.8 hours and around $850. The part was just under $61. While my mechanic is one of the very well known west coast Mooney shops, this was the first time they'd seen this particular failure. They tried a couple of things before finally removing the tail to get access to the area with a rivet gun. It's possible that it'll be somewhat less for the next person now that they know what to do. An additional 6 hours was billed for travel to/from the airport where I was stuck and attaching the the replacement bracket with cherry rivets for a temporary flight permit so I could get the plane to my mechanics airport.

""" The fracture surface appears to be unoxidized. Reference photo. That suggests that either the fracture occurred fairly recently or it was well protected from corrosion. (possible but doubtful. The OP will hopefully expand here). """ The airplane was tied down at WVI outside. It's been outside or under a shade cover for the last two years. The previous owner said it had been hangared in CA and then NM until I got it. Thanks for the detailed report @Freemasm, fascinating read!

To tie this off, I've got the plane back. It took a ferry permit and conversations with three separate FSDOs, but at least everything is working again. The tail indeed had to be removed. It was about 6 hours of labor to drive to/from my mechanic's home base, do a temporary repair with cherry rivets and deal with the ferry permit/FAA. It was then another 6 hours or so to replace the temporary repair with the permanent one. @Freemasm I'll PM you to get an address to send the part.

After some back and forth with the FAA and the NTSB, my mechanic was vale to work out a temporary repair and a ferry permit today so I could bring the plane back to the shop. It sounds like @Freemasm is right and the fix will involve some fairly substantial surgery including removing the tail and/or trim assembly. I did get a few more pictures of the part: https://photos.app.goo.gl/6UsusgKjthD5cxncA. To my untrained eye, it looks pretty much identical the other failure shown in this thread. My mechanic will save the part, but we have to give the FAA first crack and the factory probably gets the second. If neither of them want it, I'll get hold of it and work with @Freemasm. I'll also follow up a bit more with the process around communicating with the FAA/NTSB later on. So far everyone has actually been quite responsive and helpful, but I'll save detailed comments until this is definitively over.

@Freemasm - Note that the part picture is from a different poster. Maybe they also have experienced a similar failure?

@Freemasm I'll let you know. For what it's worth, my mechanic hasn't mentioned any substantial repair beyond replacing the part that broke. What's prompting you to think the tail needs to come off? Thanks! I hadn't even heard of this system before, so I appreciate the clear explanation of how it works and why it felt the way it did.

Thanks! About 5200 hours. I always do a control test during my runup. I noticed nothing abnormal until after the incident. Then the pitch force felt quite heavy when pulling nose up, even on the ground I reported it to the NTSB via phone the night of the incident. I had one follow up call. Both times they basically said they'd only be interested if I discovered substantial damage. I've sent them the picture and haven't heard anything yet. I'd be totally happy to work with you on this. I can make sure my mechanic preserves the part. It won't get replaced until next week. I'll pass along your other observations to my mechanic, thank you! Will do, I'll make make sure I get hold of the old part. I'm not sure what the helm bearing is? I could ask my mechanic?

I took my '78 J out last Friday night to do a short night cross country and get my night currency back. After my first uneventful flight/landing, I ended up declaring an emergency doing pattern work. On short final I felt/heard a bang and the nose dropped about 5 degrees. I initially thought I might have done something silly with the flaps or trim and went around. Shortly after starting the go around, I realized my pitch control felt all wrong. I declared an emergency and landed uneventfully. In retrospect I realized that, among other things, I'd been pulling up with full nose up trim to maintain the proper go around attitude and airspeed. Usually this requires lots of forward pressure prior to trimming. I'd also had to pull back on the yoke to slow below 80 knots on final even with full nose up trim. In the flare I was able to keep the nose off the ground with half flaps, but only barely. It felt like I was landing a 182 with full flaps, not an M20J with half flaps. On the ground I didn't see anything visibly broken or damaged. The manual and electric trim both felt normal. The flaps and trim indicated their normal range and the empennage and flaps appeared visually to move the normal range. However, the elevator remained in a significantly nose down position, even with full nose up trim. Normally it ends up pretty close to level with the stabilizer, but in my case it still showed nose down. Here's a comparison of my airplane post incident with full nose up trim and a regular M20J with full nose up trim: https://photos.app.goo.gl/N6zpThBSttuuXP2R6. My mechanic took a look today and found the elevator assist tube attach point broken: https://photos.app.goo.gl/KWZDTawRLRJBxLv99. There's definitely some things I could improve on during the flight. I should have used no flaps on the landing. Get-home-itis was much stronger than it should have been. I'm glad I had a group of Mooney pilots to talk things through with in real time.

Over the last month or so I've had an intermittent problem with my starter. On the first start of the the day, the first time I turn the key and push, I hear a click but no other noise and the prop doesn't move at all. If I release the key and repeat, the starter starts turning the prop right away. Every subsequent in the same day turns the prop over right away. The click on the first start of the day happens about 50% of the days I go flying. The starter is a Skytec 149 LS which was installed almost exactly a year ago after similar intermittent issues with the same model progressed to the starter not working at all. My mechanic thinks it's unlikely to be the starter after just over a year. We've replaced the starter relay and cleaned the battery ground with no effect. My mechanic wants to replace the master relay next. The issue is difficult to troubleshoot because it's intermittent and only happens on the first start of the day. If it's relevant there are also a couple of other electrical issues. The digital tach and fuel totalizer usually restart when the starter actually starts cranking. The ammeter wags in flight despite have replaced the master switch and cleaned the contacts several times. If anyone has any suggestions I'd appreciate it. If nothing else comes up, we'll probably end up replacing the master relay and if that doesn't work, I'd imagine we'll send the starter back under warranty.