PT20J

My concern would be that if an airplane has been sitting a long time without being inspected and maintained that any corrosion that did start would have advanced uncorrected.

I close mine and leave the switch in the closed position. It shouldn't make any difference because the limit switch turns off the motor, but it might mask any tendency for them to open in flight. I'll try to remember to put the switch in the off position and see if they move. How long after you close them does it take for them to open? Skip

What I was speaking of is the tendency of the ailerons to float up from their static rigging during flight. This was a problem with the Predator. I knew the test pilot at the time that flew it and he told me that the ailerons floated up so much at high speed that they flexed the push-pull tubes to the point where they would bind on the guide blocks and the stick would stay pretty much wherever you put it. The Mooney M20J maintenance manual calls for the aileron rigging to be 0 to -2 deg down.

No, I was thinking more about the difference between $1MM smooth liability and lesser coverage and/or sublimits due to @amillet's post. We all want credit for our hard-earned experience, but after a relatively small number of hours in type and an instrument rating, the insurance companies don't seem to care. Richard Collins wrote that one reason he sold his P-210 was the inability to continue to obtain insurance at the limits he wanted. Many companies just don't seem to like old pilots. And, they hate retracts and seaplanes -- and most especially amphibs! Last renewal, a direct quote from the underwriter was "the gear ups are killing us." Five years with no gear ups would be the best way to get rates down. Skip

Possibly. The 1978 was only 7 years old when I bought it and had about 1000 hours total time. The 1994 was 24 years old with about 1200 hours total time when I purchased it. Neither seemed to have much lost motion in the controls, though, but I don't have the two airframes together to compare. All the Mooneys are heavy in roll because the ailerons are wide in chord and short in span to get the required area while giving more wingspan to the flaps. The greater chord increases the hinge moment. Also, the control wheel has less mechanical advantage than most other airplanes. When comparing the older models it is also important to note whether the ailerons have beveled trailing edges. I believe the bevel (a standard method to reduce control force) was added when the PC system came out to make it easier for the servo to manipulate the ailerons. Skip

The problem with all these comparisons is that it's not clear that we are comparing apples to oranges. Since the insurance has two major components, hull and liability, it would be good to know how the year-to-year pricing compares for each. Also, it would be good to know the coverage limits. Skip

I owned a 1978 J (squared off wingtips) 30 years ago and now own a 1994 J (sculpted wingtips). It's been too long for me to compare aileron forces, but I did notice something else:. In the older airplane, both ailerons tended to float up a slight bit during cruise, and I don't notice this with the later model.

When I was volunteering at the museum, we bought parts for our P-51B from Cal Pacific Airmotive. Cal Pacific is similar to Mooney in that they are supporting a relatively small fleet of an out of production airplane. Cal Pacific owns the P-51 type and production certificates, so they can make whatever part you need. But they aren’t cheap. If Mooney ends up just being a parts and service business, I would expect parts to remain pricey. Skip

I believe that the icing risk with ram air is due to the fact that ice laden ram air can plug the impact tubes in the inlet of an RSA fuel injector servo.

If I suspected it had stuck a valve once I wouldn't run it again until I did a wobble test. The risk of more expensive damage isn't worth it and the test isn't invasive.

Sounds like you have never worked in a manufacturing environment. Somebody has to take the order. Someone has to schedule it into the production flow. Someone has to pull the drawing. Someone has to pull the parts from stock. A machinist and a welder are likely involved to make the part. Someone has to paint the part. Someone has to inspect the part and make sure it conforms to the drawing. Someone has to package it and ship it. There is record keeping involved. There is shipping cost. Mooney has to make a profit. Mooney only sells parts through MSCs and they have to mark it up. There is a lot of labor in there and it is good old USA labor that even in West Texas is a lot more expensive than Chinese labor. They're cheaper each if you are making 200 of them, but nowadays Mooney is probably making parts to order. They would probably love to make 10 and have nine for stock and ship one, but they probably don't have the cash to do so. No one but Jonny knows how many bills the previous owners left unpaid on his desk. In the grand scheme of airplane ownership $600 isn't much and I suggest that we all suck it up a bit and buy stuff from Mooney to help them out. If they go completely dark, it will get hard to get some parts which are not so easily owner produced. BTW, Mooney is not the worst. My A&P recently was quoted TWENTY THOUSAND dollars by Beech to make a throttle cable for a Sundowner. He ended up having McFarlane make one. Skip

Trying to reduce induced drag by messing with the wingtip vortices alone is doomed to failure because the vortices are not the cause of the drag but rather an effect of the airflow around the wing. Finite length wings shed a vortex sheet that creates a downwash and this is the source of the drag. (The downwash has the effect of tilting the lift vector aft. This vector can be decomposed into a vertical component that offsets the aircraft weight keeping the aircraft aloft, and a horizontal component which is the induced drag). The longer the wing, the less the downwash and the weaker the vortex. An infinite length wing has no downwash, vortices or induced drag. The shorter the wingspan, the greater the downwash, vortices and induced drag. The reason the Reno racers clip the wings is that at high speed they don't need as much wing area for lift (recall that lift is proportional to both the wing area and the square of true airspeed) which causes parasitic drag. The simplest way to decrease the wing area is to shorten the wing. At race speeds, the tradeoff in increased induced drag caused by the shorter span and decreased drag due to the reduced area is beneficial. They pay for this in higher landing speeds, however, which is why it doesn't work for a Mooney. Skip

Shorter span increases induced drag but reduces parasite drag to the extent that the wing area is decreased.

Methinks y'all overthinking this

I believe you are correct. Unless the Pilot's Guide is listed as required to be on board in the limitations section of the AFMS, you don't need to carry it. I once calculated that all the manuals for my new panel added up to around 2000 pages. I don't have a bookcase installed in my airplane. I do keep current versions of the documents on my iPad in the airplane and I print out each AFMS and place them all in the POH. Skip

350 hrs on IO-360 factory rebuilt. Compression high 70s. Using Phillips X/C 20w50. Gets 12 hrs/ qt with new oil and 9-10 hrs after 50 hrs. I usually run between 6 and 7 qts. Tried 5-6 and didn’t notice any difference in consumption or oil on belly.

Probably depends on the viewing angle

I don’t know. But I’ve noticed several tall TV towers (1000’ to 2000’) that have synched strobes and it makes them very visible even in daylight.

Trek suggested warranty@garmin.com. Skip

I just got this figured out with Garmin. They switched to a new warranty system a while back and my email address didn’t get transferred. I did verify that all my warranty information is entered. So, it is likely that your email address got dropped also. You might try contacting aviation.registration@garmin.com. One thing I have learned is that a lot of Garmin’s internal systems are not highly automated and humans make mistakes from time to time. Skip

That’s for the experimental version which is similar, but there are differences in the forbidden certified version.

The cigar lighter or the aux bus bar on the pilot’s side rocker switches are easy access points to measure the bus voltage. The light connector at the glare shield is an easy place to measure the light voltage for the glare shield lights.

Well the really annoying part is that a lot of details that can affect your equipment choices and installation options are only described in the installation documents which, even though you paid for the equipment, Garmin forbids you to have. And to rub salt in the wound, the G3X certified Pilot’s Guide - which was poorly edited from the experimental version - still has numerous references to “refer to the installation manual for more information.” Even though the Garmin dealer agreement prohibits dealers providing the installation manuals, there is nothing that prohibits allowing you to read them in their shop and make notes. Skip

Nice panel and a good reminder that just because you spent a wad of money doesn't mean these old things won't break something tomorrow.