PT20J

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

Here's what it looks like:

According to onlinecomponents.com, the V3-2451D8 switch is discontinued and the recommended replacement is a V7-5F17D8

I keep a copy on my iPad. AWBPC0001.pdf

The races are a shrink fit. Getting that loose would require removing material from the wheel. Have you verified that the bearing is correct part?

You also want to make sure it doesn't leak water. The storm window area can leak water down behind the trim panel and there is a bracket there that attaches the window that is pop riveted with steel rivets to a structural tube and if water collects there it can rust out the rivets and leak down inside the tube and migrate to the bottom tube where it rusts the tube out. By '91 I think Mooney was covering the rivet heads with Proseal, but earlier models just had bare rivets.

To check the gear preloads properly according to the manual, you have to lower the gear manually.

That seems much more reasonable to me than modifying the airplane in such a way that might cause an issue for a subsequent pilot. If someone ever needs the emergency gear system, they will likely already be under some stress and don't really need to figure out how an undocumented latching pin works.