vik

With the kind of "support" I got from Duncan I would not touch anything coming from them! The product by Bendix-King (now Honeywell) with STC backed by a random radio shop, both known for "great" customer support - sounds like asking for a trouble. It took them years to finish STC for the already mature product (TruTrak) - just to be pulled by FAA right away due to mistakes made in designing those few hardware parts. If something happens down the line, just be ready to be on your own and fly with a paperweight for years, or, bite the bullet and redo all from scratch by putting in a better product with a much better support history. There is no perfect solution for Mooney, just an expensive, but a more capable and reliable one with the support that will last for decades and the one that sounds like a total waste of time and money down the road. Take your poison, but notice how quickly the other brand fixed a problem that popped up recently. Even though they had to send people expensive replacement hardware for free. I am not fan of the brand. Rather the opposite. But I can't deny the facts. On the other hand, it will be 5 year "anniversary" pretty soon for BK KI-300 emergency AD. Still, no resolution. Well, it does not matter now. I am pretty sure that all owners already pulled it out and put another instrument in. Who wants to to have their plane placarded "VFR only" forever? Lucky me, I did not have that in my plane, but people who did probably lost ~$10K in hardware + installation in addition to 1-2 weeks (optimistic) while the plane is in the shop. This is my personal opinion though. I hope other people had better experience when they needed support from BK or Duncan. It is pity how a great AP used by so many happy experimental folks got screwed up by a couple of companies so quickly, leaving earlier Mooney owners with only one reasonable option for a modern AP. Sad, but not a new story.

Can also be worn brushes. Easy to replace.

I had two Michelin tubes fail on me, few years back. One day I found one main gear flat. The air put in leaked out right away. The hissing sound was heard close to the valve steam. Examination showed that the valve steam almost separated due to the rotten rubber around it. I recently installed new tires and new tubes. The manufacturing date on the tube confirmed that it was about one year old. Sure enough, I took apart the other two wheels to check. The other main one had the same problem and was ready to give up ghost air. The manufacturing date indicated it was about 1.5 years old. The nose one was a different size (5x500) and did not show this problem, but I replaced it anyway. Chief Aircraft refused to exchange tubes under the warranty. Still keep the tubes as a souvenir. Not surprising that I stay away from Michelin tires and tubes. I also had Michelin car tires develop a bulge on a side several times. But those are different tires and a different failure mode most likely. I stay away from Michelin tires. We are probably incompatible. And I never purchased anything at Chief Aircraft again. Not saying that other distributors would honor the warranty. I only know that Chief Aircraft did not. Vik

No, KX-165 has a built in VOR converter, while KX-155 requires a CDI with a VOR converter.

Before saying that EarthX LFP battery has half the capacity of Concorde RG-35 or Gill G-35 lead acid batteries go test the real capacity of your two-three years old lead acid battery. You will be unpleasantly surprised. Maybe that is why the NEW lead acid battery has to have 33 Ah. Another thing to consider is that many, if not most, of the radios will stop working when voltage drops below 10V. Now look at the LFP and lead acid batteries voltage charts. You will have a better idea which chemistry will cut your navigation/communication first. I know people who fly hard IFR all the time and replace lead acid battery during every annual. Real world experience is priceless! There is a good reason to treat a lead acid battery just like the motor oil. Yes, it still works and cranks, but, as usual, the devil is in the details. Vik

The value of a used Aspen -> 0. First, an Aspen dealer will have to ship the unit to Aspen for recertification $$$. You won't be able to do it yourself. Second, the unit will have to be installed by an Aspen dealer $$$$. After all that $$$$$ the cost of the unit itself is a small change. I looked into this as well and asked few shops around about the costs. It was a hard pass. Vik

Actually, it is approved for certified a/c. Not all, but Mooney with aft battery is included. Vik

I still have a generator and its regulator from my conversion of E model sitting in the box. PM me if is interested. Vik

You may want to recalibrate the battery indication in your unit. Let the battery discharge completely by running the unit on the battery until it dies and fully charge after that. The % of the battery remaining should realign with the battery state. You should get your 100% capacity indication back. The test will also show how long the battery will actually last in static condition, as I am not sure you can do the test in flight. If I recall correctly, FAA certification requirement is 30 min. My guess is that Garmin puts 1 hour to be on a safe side and to account for more CPU/GPU load in flight, which will burn the battery faster. Vik

Old oil diluted by gasoline and who knows by what else vs new clean oil. Few psi up sounds pretty normal. I observed similar with the cars if an accurate gauge is installed. Check if the same happened right after previous oil changes if you can identify the dates. Other theories include a gunk washed out from under the oil pressure relieve valve. Best advise is already given - just watch it for now since something changed. Take the action if necessary. Vik

As already mentioned, only as parts. S-tec will happily sell the STC transfer paperwork for 1/2 of the price of the new system. There are much better options available at that price. Vik

Maybe the installer makes less $$$ off Dynon than Garmin, so the owner has to compensate!

This is a good news if weeks do not turn into years and if they won't drift like DG version did.

I see 2 x Kx155 (not 165) installed. This means that the CDIs have built in converters. The above mentioned GPS receivers require a CDI without converter. Several popular models exist from King, Garmin, Collins. All require different connectors/pins to make our life more interesting

If you want the cheapest option - here it is. Pull out and sell KX-155 w/o GS and its CDI. Your CDI is not compatible with the GPS. And your new GPS will serve as a second VOR if needed. There are probably few approaches left in the country that require two VORs. I did not see one for a long time. Pull out and sell DME while you can. You won't need it with an IFR certified GPS as your new GPS can substitute for DME. See https://www.faa.gov/documentLibrary/media/Advisory_Circular/AC_90-108_Chg_1.pdf Buy KLN94 + CDI and harness from me I accidentally have one sitting on the shelf. You can also buy KLN89b. Those do not have a moving map. That should not be a show stopper since you want the cheapest , but they also require annunciators to be installed, which will add to the installation and will be a wash with no moving map. Put new CDI into the hole from your old one. Slide in KLN94 and use your KLN89 as a door stop. It worth less than the shipping probably, but I might be wrong. Unfortunately, there is one extra piece of work to do - you will have to connect KLN94 to your blind encoder. It is 9 wires, but without it your installation will not be IFR certified. Keep your existing GPS antenna. KLN94 will work just fine with it. Remove GPS limitation sticker after somebody signs off your logbook. You will be able to fly all approaches except LPV. I am not sure if any NDB approaches are still available, but if they are you are all set even if the beacon antenna was already knocked off. See the AC linked above. You should break even after you sell your KX-155 and DME unless you have to pay somebody to crimp the above mentioned 9 wires. These days you might need a bank loan to pay for that labor. Since you already have an audio panel installed, you might consider buying a second com and installing it into the free DME slot. Maybe you can get a Kx97. The tray should be very similar. Switch the wires from your old KX155 and you should be done. Or iCom A-200 will also work, but will require a different tray. We are talking more $$$ though. Handheld will do in case of the primary com failure. It all depends on your mission. Sounds like a plan? Vik

Looks like you and FAA have different sources: https://www.faa.gov/newsroom/faa-revokes-certificate-santa-monica-propeller-service

Localizer is the same receiver path as VOR. The decoding is different, but that is done at the intermediate frequency. So, the local oscillator drift will affect both. In theory, LOC signal is simpler (just 90 and 150 Hz AM) and is stronger, so LOC can still work when VOR does not any more. However, if the LO frequency drifted too much (or LO is dead), both will not work. Vik

GS and LOC are two different circuits. GS works at around 300 MHz, while LOC is ~100 MHz carrier frequency. If you can not hear the audio signal more or less clear close to the VOR, that might indicate that the local oscillator frequency has drifted. There is usually a small variable ceramic capacitor to adjust it within pretty narrow band. But it is a bit tricky. You have to use a pick up coil and either a frequency counter or a scope that can measure the frequency and do averaging. Sticking a probe to the local oscillator circuit will cause the frequency to shift, defeating the purpose of the adjustment. There are other potential causes for a weak signal that decoder can not process reliably, but LO drift is pretty common. It the intermediate frequency signal that gets shifted and is filtered out by the filter, designed to suppress all the signals, but the IF one. I have seen this often as a cause for a "weak" radio, either NAV or COM. Vik

That is right. The radio just downconverts the signal to a lower frequency and sends that "video" also called composite signal to the head, where the decoding happens. The radio just decodes the audio morse code, which is AM. LOC is much easier signal than VOR and can be generated with any decent signal generator that has AM modulation or with two signal generators. One has to have an input for external modulation. 90 and 150 Hz AM modulation for left and right (or right and left, I do not remember which one is correct). VOR signal is AM modulated by the magnetic direction (+ audio identifier) and a subcarrier around 9.6kHz which provides the base phase, both are 30 Hz signals. If you have a good scope, you can see the AM (audio) modulated composite signal out of the radio. This will tell you that the radio works. I think most radios also generate the voltage to flip the nav flag if they detect the carrier frequency. The CDI head just decode the signal. This might not be true for all of them though. Looks like it is time to learn some radio stuff Vik

I have all the pieces for doghouse baffle from E. Feel free to stop by and see if something will work for you. Vik

I have MVP-50P configured for IO-360 for sale with no rebates and no tax if anyone interested

KLN94 uses CF card and not an SD one. In addition to the above mentioned CF card with the nav database, there is an internal flash memory chip and an external one, mounted at the back of the tray. The later two hold the configuration settings. There is an option in menu to save the current configuration to the external chip or to load the configuration from the external chip. All this to quickly swap the radio if needed. Looking at the KLN94 manual, it looks like U6 chip on the main board is kaput. Not sure the replacement part is available. Even if it is, it will be quite an exercise to resolder it You might want to look for a replacement unit or the main board. Vik

The voice alerts are triggered by grounding the pins at the audio panel. If you can, check the condition of the wires going to those pins. They might be shorted to the airframe periodically. Vik

I never opened Plane Power voltage regulator, but if it is done right, the over voltage protection circuit should be separate from the voltage regulating circuit even though it resides on the same circuit board. The voltage regulating circuit controls the current (not voltage) in the field coil to maintain 14V (or whatever the target voltage is). If everything works correct, this should be enough to avoid high voltage as the field current would be reduced to maintain the correct voltage under any load/rpm. If the current regulating transistor is shorted for example, the current thru the field coil will be constant, limited only by the resistors inside VR. Then, the alternator output voltage will depend linearly on the load and rpm. Once it gets over 16V at higher rpm, the over voltage protection circuit will step in and cuts the field current. The over voltage circuit can periodically try to release the current for few ms to check if the condition still present and if it see < 16V it will revert to normal operation. This might explain the alternator come back after the rpm drop. This is the theory. Practice can bring something more interesting or simple. Try resetting the circuit breaker that feeds VR first. They are known to drop the voltage under load. Given the symptoms, this is not likely in this case, but few seconds you spend on the test well worth it. Vik

Well, do a test on your 2-3 year old AGM battery. Drain 16 Ah (using a light bulb for example) and try to turn on your avionics. See what will work and what does not - you will be unpleasantly surprised. Many radios and displays will not work even at 10V. The old lead-acid batteries, even the high quality and fresh ones, have a pretty high voltage drop as they discharge, not talking about Concorde or Gill certified batteries, which have surprisingly short life time and seem to lose capacity very fast. On contrary, a LiFePo4 battery will keep the voltage drop to the minimum almost to the full capacity discharge, allowing you to run all needed avionics. I did the discharge test on several older (2-5 years) Concorde and Gill batteries and the results were always not as good as I hoped. So, my conclusion is no IFR without the alternator if your Concorde or Gill lead-acid battery is more than 1 year old, but you have about 1:30-2 hours with ~10-7A drain from a LiFePo4 battery, even if it is several years old. Besides, forgetting your master switch on will be a frustrating experience, but will not damage your Li battery. Charge it with 15-20A current while making up an excuse why you are a bit late and forget the whole incident. Putting some aft ballast is a much harder to deal with mentally. We work so hard to make the airplane lighter to increase the useful load. An ELT and a remote transponder on the shelf right behind the battery should help a bit. Maybe a small ballast put as far aft as practical is reasonable solution too as it won't take much of a useful load off. Or getting a dog companion for the rear seat ... or it is time for another child Many solutions.