marcusku

Another +1 for Aeromotors. They charged $500 for the overhaul and turned it around in 1 day. Seems like a great shop!

I've used them before as well. I think they are very knowledgeable and do good work though maybe not the cheapest. Pete, the owner is really impressive what he can figure out. He replaced a couple of capacitors in my autopilot computer and got it to work again.

I know this topic has been beaten to death. In cruise at 2500 rpm, 22", 50 LOP I see a difference of 60-80 degrees. Is this ok? At 50 LOP my max egt can be about 1470-1480, is this acceptable. What EGT is too hot? I know the blue arc goes to 1450. Could be in my head but running in this configuration I notice very slight hiccups, is this normal in LOP or should LOP be just like ROP?

H35W28V does appear to be correct based on appearance. Upon closer inspection it appears I need to desolder and resolder the new bulb to the wires. Not impossible, but wondering if there are any better solutions?

Turns out the above part number is different for mine. Any clue what the part number is for this bulb? (2004 Ovation)

Thanks for the reply, we'll see how it goes. I didn't spring for the LED at this time since the bulb was $245. Until the plane is paid for I'm avoiding the "nice to haves" vs "need to haves".

This is probably a dumb question but it wasn't obvious how you get to the bulb to replace it.

Thought I would follow up on what was discovered. It turned out to be the thrust block behind the actuator creaking. We tightened/lubed the hardware in that area and the noise didn't quite go away but was noticeably reduced. That thrust block does flex a bit when the gear fully extends, more than I would have guessed. My mechanic says he's seen this quite a bit.

I did poke around with the stethoscope. The place I heard it most through the stethoscope was on the big brace that the actuator pushes on. It was less obvious on the actuator itself-hard to tell if I was hearing it through the stethoscope or not. The noise happens just before the gear is fully locked.

On my last flight I noticed a noise I hadn't heard before while deploying the retracting the gear. The mechanic on the field feels confident it's an issue with the gear motor/actuator. My normal Mooney mechanic says he's heard it before and likely not the actuator - though he hasn't seen it in person. Besides the noise, the gear appears to go up and down normally. Anyone else heard this one before? Videos below aren't great but I think you can get the picture from the sound. One is up and the other is down. Mooney Landing Gear Creak1 (youtube.com) Mooney Landing Gear Creak2 (youtube.com)

Earlier in this thread it was suggested that sight gauges remain accurate once down to in my case 30 gallons, but it sounds like that's not the case. So there must still be fuel in the aux tank area when the level gets down to a level the site gauges can pick up. At some point I'd like to replace the Moritz gauges with a JPI 900. If one replaces fuel senders at the same time, will they read the whole range of fuel levels? Or will they only be accurate once down to a certain level?

My question is similar to the beginning of this thread. I have a new to me Ovation and am trying to figure out how much fuel I have in the tanks. The Moritz gauges aren't working properly and the JPI fuel remaining wasn't matching what the site gauges were reading. Earlier this week the site gauges read 20 & 25 gallons, I filled to the bottom of the standpipe as shown in the picture but only 61 gallons went in suggesting that the site gauges weren't indicating enough fuel. (45+61=106, 12 gallons short of 118) I did wait a couple of minutes to make sure the fuel had made it everywhere in the tank. I reset the fuel computer to full or 118 gallons. Currently the computer says 40 gallons left while the wing gauges say 35 total. At this point I don't know if the fuel computer is accurate either but I'll have a better idea on that if I fill it the same next time around. My question is, should it have been 59 gallons to the bottom of that standpipe? Maybe the wing gauges actually aren't accurate until a lower level, say 15 gallons remaining or something?

Thanks for the replies. Sounds like I may have been over thinking it in terms of salt getting everywhere inside the airplane.

As near as I can tell, it hasn't had any recent treatments so I'll have to look into that. It's going to live in WI now but we still get plenty of humidity here. It was hangered in its prior life so that helps. I wonder how much salt is really in the air? Since it doesn't evaporate the only way it could make it on the airplane is in dust form.

I recently moved into an Ovation and one mark against it was it last lived in Ft. Lauderdale. It doesn't have any signs of corrosion and the obvious areas of the airplane are clean. I'm wondering if I need to worry about "salt dust" in internal areas? If it exists I can't imagine there is anything that one could do? Many areas of the airplane can't be hosed off. Appreciate any suggestions.

These are always tough to hear about and this is no exception. I embarked on a very similar flight 1.5 hours earlier. I took off from C59 to IWD. I decided to get my instrument clearance on the ground and was glad I did since I didn't get approach until I was through the bases. Bases at C59 were about 900' AGL (1,900 MSL) and tops were about 4,000 MSL. Visibility below the bases was decent where I was but once on top it was quite hazy and you could not see a horizon but could see straight down to the cloud layer below. Looks like his altitude topped out at 2,800' so based on the conditions I saw he never made it through the cloud layer.

Anyone know the part number of the internal o-rings? The parts catalogue shows some o-rings but those don't appear to be the internal ones. My A&P was hoping to have those ahead of time if he takes it apart.

Talked with Lasar and Mooney, looks like the trouble is Airight is currently out of business so it's not possible to get a new one. It appears the options are to find a used one or find someone willing to take it apart.

My fuel selector is leaking, my mechanic found the same thing that they are not supposed to be rebuilt so they don't want to take it apart. What ended up being the solution for yours?

I haven't noticed anything on how the engine runs, full throttle or idle. I haven't noticed any blue stains around the servo. EGT in cruise is generally in the low 1400's at 24" & 2400 rpm running around 50 degrees rich of peak. When it fluctuates the lowest I've seen is 19-20 psi when it normally about 25. At idle its around 27-28 psi. It doesn't drop much on runup though does some under full throttle as you'd expect. When it's fluctuating flow goes up to 10.6 gallons/min when it's normally 10.0. Sometimes pulling a tiny bit of throttle out will make it stop and the pressure go up.

I have two gauges with two separate sending units and they seem to agree so I think the sending units are okay.

I had the restrictor checked and cleaned but I'm still seeing the fluctuation. They did say that I had a bit of leakage at a couple of the injectors. They are GAMI injectors, could injectors be causing anything? Any other ideas?

If I choose to send in the fuel servo to get looked at, what's good place to do so? I assume this is a specialty thing that most shops wouldn't do?

Yes the two gauges use separate transducers. I haven't checked that fitting. Would I be looking for a leak or blockage with the hole? I've also noticed that fuel flow seems to be higher when it's fluctuating--about 10.6 gal/hr instead of 10.0 gal/hr when the pressure is reading higher and not fluctuating (same power settings).

I still haven't gotten to the bottom of this problem. I've replaced the gascolator o rings and the fuel selector o rings, inspected the fuel lines going to both pumps. To recap, I occasionally get fuel pressure fluctuations from 25 psi down to 22 psi. Also, sometimes fuel pressure is slow to build after start up, other times it snaps right up. I have a two gauges and they seem to agree. Am I chasing a problem that doesn't exist or is this not normal? I've also observed that a slight reduction in throttle during the decent will make the pressure come back up.