PT20J

Full stall landings are going to be the smoothest --- if you get everything right. The Mooney wing has a pretty abrupt stall break, so if you get near stall and then balloon due to a gust, or pulling a bit too hard or maybe thermals from a hot runway, it can drop in unless you catch it with a bit of power. The best landings occur with coordinated use of ALL controls: elevator, ailerons, rudder, AND power. The worst ones occur when you're not quite "in the groove" and try to horse it around with elevators alone and run out of energy a bit too high.

It appears that a couple of your switches have been replaced. The Boost Pump has a homemade legend. The Rot Bcn is black and surely not original. Might not even be for a rotating beacon. You are not required by FAR to use your strobes during the day, but many of us do.

Mine has done that twice. First time it was the gear up relay (verified by tapping on the relay which caused the gear to retract), so I replace both up and down relays. The second time it was the gear up limit switch (verified by exercising the switch multiple times causing the gear to retract) so I replaced that. If the gear fails to retract because the emergency gear system is engaged, it stalls the motor and trips the gear actuator breaker.

I think any "neutral cure" RTV would be fine. If you want to be explicit, MIL-A-14146A is the specification. DOWSIL 3145 is compliant. That said, I know a lot of mechanics that use stuff from the hardware store in the engine compartment with no obvious ill effects. The acetic acid in original RTV is only an issue during cure, I believe. Still, it would be bad used around electronics. I wouldn't wash my circuit boards in vinegar.

Masters for silkscreens of that vintage were often made from sheets of press on letters.

Part of it is some peculiarities of the Mooney landing gear design. The laminar flow airfoil places the thickest section where the wing spar is located farther back than other airfoils. This places the main gear, which is attached aft of the main spar, fairly far aft. Then also the gear design is a trailing link which moves the axels even farther aft. This means that there is more distance between the CG and the main wheels than on some other airplanes. Some call it nose heavy, but that's not really the problem. The problem is that the instant before you touch down there is a certain tail down force and the distance between the tail and the CG combined with this force creates a certain moment that has the airplane in longitudinal balance. But the instant the mains touch, the pivot point changes from the CG to the mains which have a shorter arm to the tail. The tail down force hasn't changed, but the moment arm has shortened so there is effectively a pitch down moment. If you try to catch it and yank back when the nose drops, you will usually be too late and over pull and may lift off again or cause a second nose wheel bounce. Part of the over control tendency is that we are used to airplanes where the controls forces diminish as the airplane slows. But the Mooney's trim bungees add force as the deflection increases and so the elevators get heavy in the flare. The best way to softly land a Mooney that I've found is to get it slow before you get in ground effect (because the drag is higher out of ground effect) certainly by 50' AGL and carry a slight amount of power into the flare and then aim to reduce power to idle in the flare with the yoke still coming back as the wheels touch.

Maybe the Fs didn't have rotating beacons and the 77J (which was essentially an F with aerodynamic mods) didn't either. There were a bunch of changes made to the J in 1978. My 78J had a red Grimes coffee grinder on the belly. The pertinent FAR for anticollision light requirements is 91.205 (c) (3). It essentially states that: 1. An approved anticollision light system is required for night flight. 2. If the anticollision light system is initially installed after 8/11/71 on an aircraft type certified before 8/11/71, then it must only meet whatever the requirements were on 8/10/71.

I didn’t say it was impossible. But I would want a shop signed up before I spent any money on equipment, and I would want a complete installation bill of materials so I was sure I had everything as I started accumulating parts.

Byron, it definitely is riveted to the spar web. I’ll look at mine tonight when I go to the hangar, but my recollection is that they are Avex rivets. I recall considering drilling them out because Mooney apparently installs the bracket after the plastic trim insert in the carpeted spar cover is installed. I finally just used a box cutter to enlarge the cutout in the trim piece so I could remove it with the bracket in place.

No, it depends. Some had a rotating beacon and only wingtip strobes. You have to check the POH.

Buying a complete used KFC150 might have some issues. First, how do you know you have every little bit and piece? It’s common to find the servos and computer used, but there are lots of special mounting bits. Second, as Byron said, you’ve got to find someone willing to install it. Most shops wouldn’t touch it. What if they spend a couple of hundred hours installing it and it doesn’t work right? I know a guy that bought a used Aspen and a GNS 430 cheap at Oshkosh and still can’t find a shop willing to install it.

If you have a tail strobe then it’s there because it is required. The reason I mentioned the POH is because you are required to have one and so it is a readily available reference that everyone has access to. If you look in the Limitations section there is a Kinds of Operation Equipment List that will indicate that 3 strobes are required for night IFR or night VFR. None are required for daytime flight. The Limitations section of the POH is FAA Approved (check the page footer). So, operating at night without three strobes is a violation of FAR 91.9.

Per the POH, 3 strobes are required for night, so I guess you’d be OK if you only want to fly during the day.

You have to check the effectivity. There are a couple of different installations depending on the backseat. My MSE has the lower configuration in the drawing moved to the left behind the pilot’s seat and pop riveted to the spar web because the levers for reclining the back seats would not allow the original mounting on the centerline.

It’s a strobe. My MSE has a strobe in each wingtip and one on the rudder. The white position lights are in the wingtips.

I keep the iPad on the yoke with ships power, but I would not rely on it to replace any certified equipment. That said I have found ForeFlight/iPad better than the panel mount equipment in a number of instances: 1. Both ForeFlight and ADS-B use tfr.faa.gov as the TFR source. However, this site does not have the "stadium" TFRs associated with major sporting events and ForeFlight uses other sources to depict these. Also, Garmin has had issues displaying all TFRs. A few months ago it issued a fix for a bug where a TFR lasting more than one day was depicted on the first day only. Recently, when Biden visited Seattle, the GTN depicted the VIP TFR but the G3X did not. 2. ForeFlight allows setting the transparency of overlays but the G3X does not, so if I have radar or terrain selected on the G3X, map features below are obliterated. 3. The GNSS receiver in the iPad receives position from Galileo, GLONAS, QZSS, BEIDOU as well as GPS. Maybe something will work

That's probably the best you can do. The standard Rochester gauges use a screw through the tab to attach the dial and the whole assembly mounts on top of a tank. Mooney obviously wanted a version that would mount flush with the wing and so the Mooney dials are glued in with RTV -- some better than others evidently.

You could call Sigma-Tek. I found them responsive in the past. The cluster unit is easily removed from the panel and you can take it apart and trace the wires from the back panel connector to the individual gauge connectors. That's what I did when troubleshooting a fuel pressure gauge. The wiring from the back panel connector to power and ground and sensors is in the Mooney schematic. The cluster unit is well built and it seems unlikely that a wire broke. The individual gauges remove from the front by loosening the screw. That will give you access to the pins on the backplane and the gauge. Once out you can also take the cover off the gauge and see if the stop is sticky. D'Arsonval meter movements have an armature that rotates against the tension of a hair spring. When power is turned off, the spring snaps the needle against the stop. If age makes the stop sticky, it can cause the needle to stick. Sticking at the off position but coming to life when tapped is a classic symptom.

The newer Mooneys use high quality connectors. Most connection issues are at the alternator because that’s where the most vibration occurs. I presume these were checked when the alternator was replaced. There have been some reports of loose connections at the alternator and master switches.

That makes sense. Cooling airflow is different in climb: more volume, but less pressure differential I would think. Also, exhaust back pressure decreases at higher altitudes. I would try pressure testing the exhaust with a clean shop vac and a spray bottle of soapy water.

From your description it sounds more like a mechanical issue with the meter movement than electrical. Schematic for connections to the cluster is in Mooney service manual for your airplane. Used gauges are available online. Sigma-Tek also overhauls these.

The bottom is the hardest to get the seal placement right. The front, top and rear are held in place by pins, hinges and latches, but not the bottom. Also, the bottom has the cutout for the hold open arm and the curvature of the door corners doesn’t match the fuselage.

Ross, easiest way to do this is to aim a heat gun at each cylinder near the probe and see which rises on the monitor. BTW, are you using bayonet probes or spark plug gasket probes?

I bought some 3M clear tape and covered each dial with a piece of it. It helps keep the moisture out and should keep it attached to the wing