David Lloyd

Yesterday I posted a panel picture of my first Mooney showing a Narco Mark 12 radio. The picture was from an old album (remember them?) and kind of blurry. I was about 65* outbound from a VOR, frequency 114.3, 18 and a half miles. Tach time was 2530. Abilene? First dozen or so trips to Carlsbad, NM, I tended to fly airways or at leas between VOR. The heading matched the leg from Abilene to Bowie. Checked my old records there was a non-business flight that matched the tach. 9/20/1982. It was a rough couple weeks. We were building a carport and I wound up having surgery. Before getting home, we got word Penny’s mother had a brain tumor and needed surgery at the end of the week. I slept for two days, we went to the airport and headed west. Yep, young and stupid. Charlotte to Little Rock to Lubbock to Roswell. Getting ready to depart Lubbock, we saw a Bellanca retract the gear during the landing. First bent metal I had witnessed. Mom got the surgery, removed a tumor the size of a baseball. It was successful but began a twenty year downward spiral. A few days after the surgery we were going down to Carlsbad, Penny and her dad to rest for a couple days, me to get a night’s sleep and then head home and return to work. In Roswell, the wind was blowing 35 with some pretty good gusts, typical NM. The FBO had told me to request 31R, which was the taxiway right in front of their office and directly into the wind. From their ramp, the Mooney was in the air before the taxiway. The next day was Carlsbad to Little Rock to Charlotte. There were three trips to NM that year. Only one or two each year for the next twenty. All that from a picture.

22-1317 Got it's airworthiness cert 12/05/1975. 22-1313 Might have got the dataplate a few ahead of yours but not get airworthy till January 1976.

The old radio appears to be a Narco Mark 12A branded for Mooney. My 1965 C had one, less the Mooney decal. Most of the older ones were 90 comm channels. In 1979, my first airplane had a 12B, we installed a crystal kit in it to upgrade to 360 comm channels. Yes, really. Picture does not show the KN74 Rnav under the bottom edge of the panel.

Once he looked at the road as a probability, he was fixated on the road and saw nothing else. Once near landing it looked like he tried to avoid a car and that didn't work out well for them. Road, lake, field, chain link fences are better than big oak trees, trains, big trucks and brick walls. Avoid hitting those head on at all costs.

Some are a flexible plastic, others are stamped aluminum. Both need to be properly shimmed. I've seen cracks in the metal ones but never seen a plastic one come apart. Both should be inspected for cracks, wear and fit every year. Bet this one had cracks for a long time before it came apart.

Might be further down the list for the C, D and G. Right after I bought my C, I was trying to fill in some blanks. Soon after my airplane was built it went to Canada for 20 years. The original logbooks stayed there, so I am missing the first 200 hours or so. I called Mooney and asked if they had the weight and balance info on my s/n. Shortly after, I got an email with all the original equipment list and W&B. On the equipment list was item 12E, External Power Supply, #950183-501, 1.8 pounds, 1.5" arm. Yep, a couple inches in front of the firewall.

Wasn't a chaffed wire. Loose screw holding the jumper from the 70A main breaker to the 50A aux buss breaker. Right beside a new breaker for the GI-275 installed last year. Do you believe in coincidence? Removed glareshield, loosened breaker from panel, tightened screw, breaker back in panel, install glareshield. Started, ran, installed latest databases for 275s and 375. All good. Will test drive it tomorrow to pick up a plane at MRN. Got a little touch up paint to do but it should be done within two weeks. Hangars appear mostly repaired, might be done next week. Two days in a row it did not get in the 90s! All is good.

Don’t think you can tighten the belt enough to keep from hitting the roof. I remember being surprised one day not to have a head shaped bulge on the top of the fuselage.

My 1975 C has the factory installed aux plug. No STC required for the factory parts. If you check the wiring diagrams in the service manual, page 9-85 is for a 1974 but probably same as 1975.

Using three cardinal headings, three 90* apart, four headings, three or four tracks as opposed to headings; on a day with light winds, all methods will be within a knot or two.

It's cut off partly but revision date of the manual shown is 8/1/81. It's what you want for your 1965. Funny, the illustration still shows the 5 piece Firestone stack.

Vacuum cleaner? I won't laugh. Did the same thing over 40 years ago. My home vacuum would only pull 3" also.

If a remote gyro for the PC, it must be a 1965 model, all other years use a T&B made for use with the PC. Helpful to know the year and s/n. Make sure the gyro is getting vacuum. If it is, is the gyro spinning? Seems like the Service Manual has a step-by-step trouble shooting guide.

.63A is way too much for any keep alive circuit or clock. It’s probably enough to pull in a relay.

Thanks Hank. Just remembered, did take a pic.

11 Weeks, my airplane is repaired. Two salvage elevators from Lowen, strip, inspect, repaint, new hardware etc. Internal parts looked good. Bungees were disassembled, cleaned, greased. Rigged. Should have invoice to send copy for insurance reimbursement tomorrow. If you are wondering about the delay, there are several factors. Like most other shops, the one here is busy. Annuals booked months out. Anything else they try to fit people in. Several other planes were damaged in the same incident. They were in line before me as I was a day late. One of those repairs involves a new or very well kept Piper Saratoga that suffered damage to the stabilator, right wingtip, left wing and a big dent in the fuselage roof. Rumor is, $75-100k. Who gets more attention, a $10k job or $100k job? The hangars themselves, the airport announced today the repair contract has been awarded, they will keep us advised when we can return. Did the test flight yesterday after it cooled off to about 90*. I think it did as it should although in cruise flight the elevator counterweight, both sides, is slightly up rather than being in-trail. Up 1/2-3/4". Never paid attention previously but I think it was very close to being in trail. Maybe it is correct now, wrong before. Maybe it is my old, faulty memory. For you guys with C models, what does it look like, just you up front and no baggage? I don't think I have ever left an airplane sit more than 3 weeks when something did not break or malfunction the next flight. Record is intact, ten minutes into the flight the 70A circuit breaker popped. Turned around and headed back. Near the airport, I pushed the breaker in, everything came back up. Voltage normal, gear down, flaps down, over the numbers it popped again. Accompanied by an electrical burning odor. 45 Seconds later it was pretty distinct when I shut the engine down. Never had a main CB pop before. Diodes, field windings, brushes, broken wires and voltage regulators, but never before the big CB. Didn't think that alternator had enough beans to trip 70A. It's going to be obvious when found. I'm betting a chaffed wire.

We now need a new panel placard: No fat guys with golf bags

Good suggestions above, but if you are really curious about your airplane's performance, test it yourself. Make a couple charts similar to those in your POH, load the airplane to the appropriate weight and fill in the blanks. Gear up, flaps up, full throttle, 2700 RPM, cowl flaps open, power boost on, mixture rich (by 6 or 7k, start leaning) and at Vy based on pressure altitude. Don't try this on a hot, bumpy day, go instead on a cool day, no winds or turbulence. Write down the time for each cardinal altitude. Repeat at least once. Average those times. How do they compare to the POH? Then, if you want to try with the power boost off, a lesser RPM or faster airspeed, make another chart. My old C is slow but does seem to climb near what it should. Seldom I climb at Vy, always faster, less climb rate.

The GI275, G5, Dynon Skyview all will display a bearing pointer, probably the G3X also. I have entered the NDB as a GPS waypoint and had a bearing pointer to follow it as a practice NDB approach. Doubt it would be either legal or sensible, but it was good practice and showed a new CFI how it was done back in the old days...or old country.

In the second picture, the rear of the car appears to be against the fiberglass cowling. The bumper of the car is pushed in, probably by the corner of the fuselage just in front of the wing. Likely the engine cowling flexed quite a bit and the valve covers, engine and engine mount got the force of the impact. If that is the case, I would want my insurance helping decide what inspections need to be done and by who.

Another case of new poster, unusual question, never checked back.

Dynon uses a shunt readily available, rated 40mV/40A. Big G probably uses the same.

I have had a couple Skytech starter solenoids fail intermittently. Not the relay on the firewall, the one on the starter that levers the gear into position and engages a set of contacts to energize the motor. Yes, that set of contacts is redundant to what Mooney already had. Some other airplanes use a hot wire from the master relay to the Skytech—see their website for a diagram and explanation. Starter relay is the same as used on a Ford F-350 for about $50, not that anyone here would be so bold.

Unlike the old analog amp meter in my airplane that only shows a battery charging or discharging, the Dynon could be installed in one of several configurations. It appears to have been installed in this case, to show the current going to or from the battery. With the alternator operating properly and a charged battery, the display should show one or two amps, just maintaining the battery. After starting the engine, the amp reading would be considerably higher for a short time as the battery is recovering from the high amp draw start. A minute or so, it should be less than 10 amps, within 10 minutes it should be back to normal, one or two amps. Something similar for the alternator being off for whatever reason and then on again. If the alternator goes off line in flight, the total amp draw from the battery will be seen. Two or three amps for the Dynon display, another amp for the transponder and ADSB receiver, another three or four for the GPS/navcom and audio panel. Strobes? Nav lights are about 10. An old GE light bulb or pitot heat really runs up the amp bill. The voltage looks in line for what the book says, 13.6-14.8 volts at 80*F. That's a pretty generous range. 14.8 seems high but that's what the book says. My adjustable voltage regulator is set to 13.9. Without your wife in the plane, pull the alternator field breaker and study what the voltage and amps show. How much load can you shed? Can you fly 30 minutes on battery and do an ILS and still power the gear down? No problem? What if the nav lights and strobe were left on? It is a lot better to find this out on a nice day. Another thought: 4 Amps charge to a good battery might include a couple amps to power a Surefly ignition hardwired to the battery.

The Model C was initially named the Mark 21, later Ranger. It has the 180 horsepower engine. The Model E was named the Super 21 when it was introduced years after the Mark 21. It was later renamed Chaparral. It has the 200 horsepower engine.