PT20J

Should I drift the thread by telling my engine fire story? Of course not.....but I will Senior year in high school and know-it-all buddy stuck the distributor back in the engine of his '57 Chevy without timing it. "Doesn't matter", he said. Of course it didn't start, so he rustled around the garage and found a can of ether that his father kept for euthanizing rats (don't ask) and dumps a slug down the air horn. Didn't replace the air cleaner, of course. Get's in and cranks up. I was just turning dusk and it was BEAUTIFUL!

If you replace screws, reference the IPC and order the correct lengths. Many of the kits you can buy don't have the right length screws. If they are too long, in most places it just means it takes longer to remove inspection panels. But, there are a few places where the wrong length screw will interfere with something and a couple of places where the wrong length screw will damage control tubes and too long screws in the fuel tank access panels are a common cause of leaks.

Ah, now I understand. Thanks for the clarification.

Clearly the evidence shows that the G100UL stains and damages paint. However, if it also damages tank sealant, it's curious that the tanks would not continue to leak after returning to 100LL.

Did you mean full UP trim? I once did a trim runaway experiment in my M20J and going full down trim at cruise speed required in excess of 40lbs pull (measured with a spring scale) to avoid extreme nose down attitude.

I looked at mine today. There is a lot of clearance with the tail in takeoff trim position. But, it would be easy to deform the fairings if, for instance, the airplane was lowered off jacks onto something (not saying this is what happened to @GeeBee's airplane -- it's just a possibility). There is a drain hole in the bottom of the stringer skin and the fairing that should be kept clear. I had previously put some Teflon anti chafe tape on the inside of the fairing. Anyway, it appears that this is an area that might be overlooked during inspection and might be good to give it attention.

Of course parts prices are getting ridiculous. Tempest, Hartzell, Lasar, etc. But, scrapping the plane when the part to keep it flying is available at a fraction of the value of the airplane seems to me to be a drastic and emotional overreaction. That was my point. These things are antiques. The last Dukes actuators were built almost 50 years ago probably before a lot of Mooney owners were born. Old airplanes are cheap to buy and expensive to maintain. That’s just a fact. But a $5K gear (if that’s what it turns out to be) is cheaper than converting to an Eaton actuator and certainly cheaper than buying a newer airplane. I never said I was OK with Lasar’s pricing. I just said if someone wanted to scrap their otherwise good airplane because it needed gears and they objected to the price then I would take it off their hands.

Call me when you are ready to scrap it and I'll take it off your hands and truck it away at no charge. I can buy the gears for maybe $5K and sell it for $60K and pocket $55K and we'll both be happy.

My 1992 J has the fairing that curve under the tail and they don't cause wear on the empennage skin. Something is unusual here, without examining it, I have no idea what the problem is.

Planning to be there Saturday.

The fairings are not all the same. Later models do wrap around the bottom. I don’t think it would be possible to have a tail strike hit this area without serious damage to the tail tie down and rear bulkhead of the tail cone. But regardless of how the damage occurred, the issue at hand is how to repair it and prevent recurrence.

From the photo, it looks like the damage is on the empennage stringer rather than the tailcone. Item 12 in the drawing. Really odd that the fairing could do so much damage as it is pretty thin and I’d expect it to wear through first. The damaged skin may be structural. Frank Crawford can supply repair instructions.

A couple of things about ADS-B weather that I've noticed: 1. Unless you are at an airport that has a ADS-B ground station, you can't get the weather until airborne. This isn't an issue for me because I like the weather depiction on my iPad with Foreflight better than the Garmin equipment and Foreflight will cache the weather data from the internet and then switch to ADS-B once it's available. 2. Be mindful of the ADS-B look ahead ranges because if you zoom way out there may not be data available and radar loses resolution as you zoom out. 3. I have found that it sometimes takes a long time for the graphical TFRs to show up. I always get them from Foreflight connected to the internet before launching as I don't trust ADS-B to show them all. Skip

It works but it's too long to get onto all the zerks on my plane.

If no circuit breaker pops, it is either the down relay or the down limit switch. The switch is sealed so you can't get contact cleaner to the contacts, but sometimes the plunger gets gummed up and sticks so spraying the plunger with contact cleaner might free it up. With the airplane on jacks and the gear up, you can spray and then exercise the down limit plunger several times. For good measure, you can do the same to the up limit switch with the gear down. If the down limit switch is bad and it is 1CH116-6 that switch is obsolete and the replacement is a 1CH1-6. Edit: Also might be the gear switch on the panel.

You should use the speeds in Section III of the POH/AFM for your airplane. Best glide occurs at a specific angle of attack, so the airspeed will vary with weight. This is because lift = weight and if the angle of attack is constant then CL is constant so the airspeed has to be variable. The heavier you are, the faster you need to fly and the faster will be your descent, but the glide angle will not chsnge.

Glide ratio and one glide speed are entered in config mode. There is no adjustment for weight. But after Smart Glide activates the GFC 500 in IAS mode, you can adjust the airspeed up or down with the thumbwheel.

That pressed in zerk is a PITA on my plane. I usually have some trouble getting it to take grease. It helps to partially retract the gear and move the wheel up and down slightly while lubing. The fitting is an Alemite 3019. It doesn’t have a checkball because of its small size. Here’s a link with lots of good info about zerks and they sell a tool for setting a new pressed in zerk. https://www.huyett.com/grease-fittings-faqs

Aerosnell 7

According to Timken, the optimum adjustment for maximum bearing life of tapered roller bearings is zero end play and slight preload. I’ve always adjusted wheel bearings on cars and airplanes using the manual method described on page 6 of Timken’s manual. https://www.timken.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/5556_Bearing-Setting-Brochure-1.pdf

Some of these displays do not appear to be configured properly per the STC. Engine gauge Display Option should normally be selected as Auto in configuration mode.

Paul The Maxwell’s are great folks.

In the takeoff trim position, the elevator should be aligned in trail with the horizontal stabilizer. On Js and earlier, the trim assist bungees will hold it there. Set it and adjust the cable to put the indicator in the proper position.

Did you clean that or did it really not have any grease in it. I used to replace wheel bearings every few years when my '78 J sat outside. Even my '94 J that has always been hangared has minor corrosion pits around the seal area. The felt grease seals need to be kept oiled and even then they let water in. I switched to the new molded rubber seals and haven't had any issues. But they are not for CBs