PT20J

Stock M20Js don’t have aileron servo tabs. Does your airplane have an Aero-Trim installed?

First of all, these things were rigged correctly when they left the factory. The stall strips were put on with duct tape and after a couple of flight tests to get the position correct for stall with wings relatively level they were riveted in place. Unless the airplane has been damaged, the rigging shouldn't change. But what happens is that people mess with them over time and get the rigging messed up. You can check a few things yourself per the KNR article. If it's not right the best thing to do is to take it to a Mooney Service Center that has done rigging and has the travel boards and have them set it up correctly.

I believe Byron @jetdriven has replaced windshields, so he would likely know if the windshield retainer could be the problem. Don Maxwell told me that when the storm windows leak, water often runs down between the window and the trim. It collects on the window retainer channel that is PK-screwed to a tube and rusts out the screws and that's how the water gets into the tubular structure. But now that I think about it, if water runs behind the trim I think it would go into the wing root and down to the belly. I don't think it would get on the carpet. But it's easy to check.

Bummer, Rick. I’d check the storm window gasket by spraying it with a hose just to be sure. The NACA scoop for the knee Wemac vent should have a drain hole through the fuselage skin at the lower aft corner. I’d check that it’s not obstructed.

Never hurts to check connections. Always check the simple, inexpensive things first.

If I understood your response correctly, you have isolated the problem to the door latch mechanism within the door itself. Most likely it was out of adjustment and extra force applied to the outside latch bent the rod as @Rick Junkin suggested above. This would fit your symptoms ss described. But, you’ll have to open it up to really see what’s going on.

Yes. It’s on cylinder 3.

The latching mechanism is connected to a bellcrank rotated by the inside lever. The outside lever is connected to the same bellcrank. There is a procedure for adjusting everything in the service manual. You’ll have to remove the inside trim to figure out what has changed and what needs adjusting. If it were mine, I wouldn’t fly it until I got this straightened out because the way everything is interconnected it may not be secure even though the inside handle appears to latch it properly.

903-643-9902 dmaxwell@donmaxwell.com www.donmaxwell.com

Gee, Don. If money isn’t an issue and you want the best, I think Mooney still has an Acclaim Ultra they’d sell you.

support@mooney.com

Lubricating might work - for a while. Try to get the lube only on the joint around the knurled knob. If you get it on the ball it will just make matters worse. What happens is that people lube these things and the lube attracts dirt and gums them up. The real solution is to remove them, pull out the retaining spring wire, take them apart and clean the parts really well. BTW it’s the same with the eyeballs where the yoke shaft penetrates the panel. Don’t lube them.

Also, it wouldn’t hurt to call Don Maxwell. He’s happy to answer questions and share his knowledge and he’s seen just about everything.

However it is getting in, remember that CO in the exhaust is high at rich mixtures and very low when LOP.

I might put it on jacks and retract the gear and then pull on each main wheel and see if I could duplicate the effect. If so, I’d watch all the linkages and see what’s going on.

Using the RAM parts I listed above

Email Frank Crawford at Mooney and he can look it up for you.

I installed a USB power cube behind the panel (on it's own breaker) and ran a braided cable under the yoke shaft to the iPad to charge it in flight. The cable is completely out of the way and invisible during flight.

Leg room is not a problem. But the design puts the instrument panel closer than many. Often people put rudder pedal extension on so that they can move the seat back farther from the panel. Extension kits are available in 1.5" and 3". Later models had vertically adjustable seats. If you buy from Jimmy Garrison (great choice) or another broker, you are going to pay a mark up -- he's got to eat. But the broker provides a service by weeding out the junk and being realistic about pricing.

I have a M20J with a GFC 500. I made a conscious decision not to add the yaw damper because I wanted to minimize the stuff I have to deal with operationally (you have to turn it on after takeoff and off for landing) and I wanted to minimize unnecessary equipment which requires maintenance and can fail. The mid-body Mooneys don't have the Dutch roll tendencies like Beechcraft products (worst ride I ever had in turbulence was in a Duchess), there's not a lot of adverse yaw, and the aileron-rudder interconnect already aids in coordination of rudder and aileron. I don't regret my decision a bit. What you will likely find is that those that have it like it and those that do not don't miss it.

A lot depends on the design of the induction system. The Piper Warrior II had a carbureted 0-320 and the POH has a procedure for setting power using the mixture control which actually results in running LOP. WOT LOP_20190615_0001.pdf

I read somewhere that Leroy Grumman worked out the folding wing mechanism for the Wildcat with a pink pencil eraser and a paperclip.

People can make this infinitely complex, but it's really pretty simple: First, yes the throttle position (over the normal cruise power range) at constant altitude will not affect mixture. The primary function of the servo is to meter fuel according to airflow in order to maintain a constant fuel/air ratio. The mixture does change as altitude changes because the servo measures airflow volume not mass and so as you climb the number of oxygen molecules in a given volume of air (i.e., the air density) decreases and the mixture will richen. Extra fuel beyond what is required for combustion can provide cooling and is required at high power to prevent overly high CHTs. Lean mixtures and high CHTs can cause detonation. But Lycoming approves leaning at powers below 75%, so at powers below that you can do anything you want with the red knob and not hurt anything. Makes it fun to experiment. The engine power and efficiency depend on how much air it can ingest, so throttling is counter productive. Thus, the "best" throttle position is wide open (WOT). So, if you climb a normally aspirated engine to some altitude where WOT yields 75% or less power then you are free to set the mixture to achieve whatever result you desire. Somewhere around 100-120 deg ROP gives best power, fastest speed and highest fuel consumption. Somewhere around 50 deg LOP gives the best efficiency (most mpg) but lower power and lower speed. Often at higher altitudes, peak is a good compromise. At lower altitudes you can reduce the manifold pressure to something below 75% and then it is safe to lean. This is good enough to start with. Some like to run WOT at all altitudes for the increased efficiency and there are techniques for doing this safely, but I think it is easier to just reduce power first until you really have the hang of it because it is always safe. Others will, I'm sure, disagree with me.

This probably won’t help — but just in case When the gear is down, link 27 connected to the rudder rotates the steering horn 30 about the pin attached to the structure 10 and this turns the nose gear leg 35 to steer. When the gear is retracted, the gear leg rotates up and back about the shaft 31 and any rudder movement just rotates the steering horn around the bolt 34 at the top of the gear leg 35. Besides the limited movement of the steering mechanism that makes it easy to damage the leg when towing, there is also the fact that the steering is rigidly connected to the rudder so that when landing in a slip in a strong cross wind, the nose wheel will be off center when it touches down and you need to let it center the pedals by releasing pressure or you head for the rough.

The rigging looks good. The engine is new and makes static rpm and the climb is good. Sounds like instrumentation. The standard "pitot-static" check really only checks for static leaks - the pitot connection is just to balance pressure on the pitot to avoid damaging the airspeed indicator. It's easy to check the pitot system for leaks. Just pressurize the pitot somehow. The standard way is to use a long piece of surgical tubing and roll it up. I found that difficult to manage and bought a large diameter syringe and connected it to the pitot tube by a short piece of vinyl tubing with a few wraps of electrical tape at both the syringe and pitot to avoid any leaks. Be sure to cover or plug the pitot drain hole. This makes it very easy to set 150 kts on the airspeed indicator. Then note how well it holds for one minute. The spec in my M20J service manual is not more that 10 kts drop. If the pitot system is tight, it will do much better than that.