Davidv

I caught some nice headwinds at FL230 on the way from GGG to FXE on Saturday. It was a nice 4:00 flight which probably beat commercial by about 4:00 door to door if I had to change planes in Dallas. The last pic is me getting passed by Delta on the FORTL7 arrival to FXE. They always insist I fly the arrival when coming in from a higher altitude but usually approve my request to go direct destination when I’m halfway down. It must have been a rookie controller because he denied my request even when at 6k feet. When I saw the delta jet coming up on my 6 less than 2k above me and descending on the same arrival I told him I didn’t feel like flying through their wake. I heard a voice in the background say “tell him to turn 20 to the left!” I finally was able to get direct.

He’s an extremely meticulous Mooney mechanic who used to run the factory service center. Very nice guy and if you take your Mooney to him no stone will be left unturned. Some people like this, some not so much (leave with more Mooney and less money).

Welcome to the Lycoming world! I’ve had my bravo for a few years so there are probably many more that have more knowledge than me, but just thinking about some of my experiences: 1) When the exhaust was overhauled see if they changed the turbo transition piece as well. Because this piece is pricey they don’t always change it out when they do the overhaul. If it’s in fine shape with no pitting or other visual issues you should be fine but good to check. 2) better compressions but expect the occasional minor oil leak. It’s a pretty complex engine so this is not abnormal. 3) on your flight test take it up to 25k and see if you have to make small adjustments to MP either on the way up or down. May be density controller or butterfly valve issues. Also note climb performance. If it’s heavy this is probably the biggest difference you’ll see between the bravo and acclaim. 4) see if any work was done on voltage regulator. You may never have an issue here buts it’s a $2300 part and nice to see if it’s been having any issues or replaced. 5) if the maintenance hasn’t been so good for the last few years where has the plane sat? Just not great maintenance or sitting and not flying? My plane sat a little before purchase and I’ve had to deal with some minor things like replacing mags, overhaul speedbrakes, ect... 6) Baffling extremely important since the engine runs hot. Just make sure it’s in good shape or replace/use RTV where necessary. Those are the immediate (non-general Mooney) things that come to mind, I’m sure others will have more...

I recently heard that some people have turned their bravo up to 2700 RPM. Not exactly legal, but the takeoff performance is apparently pretty amazing.

SR-22

It’s an interesting idea but there is actually not a market for the Matrix. Piper stopped producing it a few years ago because of lack of demand. Turboprops become more efficient up high so your best fuel economy (and TAS) is going to exist at higher altitudes where you want the pressurization. Even at 17k, it’s great to have room for 4 adults but making them all wear cannulas isn’t fun. The Vne of Mooney’s at 195 is also a big limiting factor to maximizing the power of the RR engine down low. As @N201MKTurbo points out the benefits are smoother and reliability. Burning Jet-A is also a plus but diesels do that too. Unfortunately there isn’t a huge market for people who want to spend the extra $ for these things alone.

Don't feel too bad, I was guilty of exactly the same thing about a year ago with the same pitot cover (and even paint scheme!). It sounds great in theory to abort when you realize airspeed isn't working correctly but since the Mooney only flies when it wants to fly, I rely less on reaching a specific speed and more on feel to get off the runway. Given the soft cover, like you, I glanced at it when I started my roll to confirm it was alive and then turned my attention to the engine instruments and outside the cockpit. These serve as valuable lessons to NEVER skip a final walk around. In my case, I was distracted because a water main had just broken right outside my hangar and there was mud everywhere. It interrupted my normal flow and that's all that it takes.

That’s Sherwin Williams Antique white.

Not as much glass as @StevenL757but here’s my new panel porn:

I just did mine in antique white #6119 and I really like the way it came out. Very close to what the later model ovations got.

Just as an update to this, my shop got a call from Garmin thanks to @KLudwick and they in turn contacted me about rewiring the G3X so it works with radios. They also offered to pay my roundtrip fuel which was nice. Apparently the confusion was that I'd lose the frequency ID feature on the radios due to lack of RS-232 ports on the GNC255 and GTR255. I think this is a fair tradeoff for being able to tune directly from the G3X... They are also going to replace my 150 psi sensor with a 75 psi sensor. Thanks for the help @Baker Avionics and everyone else. I'll let you know the final outcome.

Along with the G3X I bought the GNC255A and GTR225. I also have a GNX 375. As I mentioned, I only bought the radios because I thought I could control them from the unit. I’d be open to you helping but as you can imagine by the money I spent, either Garmin or my installer needs to make this right because essentially the equipment is not operating as advertised.

Thanks Greg. I know this is very complicated and based on the amount of changes to my panel (posted in another thread), I'm pleasantly surprised that everything seems to be working well. However, my one issue now is that my radios and transponder don't talk to the G3X which it should. Since my installer says they can't, I'm trying to work through Garmin to see what my options are. I only bought all of this equipment because it's supposed to work together. From my standpoint, it's on Garmin to make it right if my installer is adamant that it doesn't (it absolutely should).

Thanks, configuration gives you the option to select from 4-5 different sensors but none of them are the 150 PSI garmin one. There is a custom option but then you need to do a calibration. As @Baker Avionics, probably best to just do it the right way and put in the sensor that the G3X has already been set up to accept. Also, given your extensive knowledge of my engine, do you think I'm going to see any differences since the pressure transducer is no longer in between the injector and upper deck? Apparently Garmin couldn't use my existing sensor that I'm sure you're familiar with. I'm currently seeing 21-22 PSI with the 150 psi sensor which should theoretically be in the low 40s with the proper one.

Thanks! Just as I suspected... It looks like my other option in the config module is to do a custom setting and calibration for the 150 psi... I don’t know how to do that, is it hard?

Thanks Greg. When I spoke with my installer this morning he said it shouldn't matter if it's 150 PSI. In any case, I told him to send me the 75 PSI senso since it doesn't sit right with me that the configuration is specifying one sensor while a different one is on the aircraft. I'm not sure if you know the answer to this, but I would expect the sensor is not "smart" in that it sends an actual reading to the EIS but rather sends an electrical charge that corresponds with the calibration on the sensor. If this is the case, it would seem intuitive to me that the 150 PSI sensor would be transmitting a signal that resulted in exactly half the actual PSI.

I ordered the Hubba Hubba caps but returned them because their convex design rubs against a rib in the gear housing when retracting (at least on long bodies). For that kind of money they better be perfect.

Thanks Anthony, yes, I'm not saying it's the answer yet but also very weird there wouldn't be any Garmin options to choose from. I checked the firmware and it's the latest.

As an update, I may have found the root cause of the issue. I went into the configuration mode of the EIS in the G3X and a 75 psi Kalico was selected. I checked the actual pressure transducer and it's a Garmin 150 psi. It's odd that there are no Garmin fuel pressure transducers to choose from in the EIS setup mode. I'm thinking that if it's a 150 psi sensor and the software thinks its 75 I would be indicating about half of the real pressure. I'm going to call my installer in the morning.

Yes, I just haven’t removed the sticker yet.

I'm not trying to knock other pilots but it's always surprising when people don't know their own TAS. It's really the only measure of true performance. Before I had a fancy EFIS with a temperature gauge I would use my ASI to calculate TAS and sometimes pull out the e6b to verify. It was mostly from the natural Mooney paranoia that your airplane is slower than everyone else who has the same model .

Tell me about it. Why do I always feel like I’m the only one who gets screwed over by aviation service providers . He even said they spent all these hours on the phone with Garmin! My understanding is that it’s pretty straightforward in the install manual. When I went into config mode yesterday there are also 2 RS-232 ports being unused!

It should, my installer inaccurately claimed it couldn’t when I picked it up so I need to go back and have him do some additional wiring. Fortunately, everything else seems to be working fairly well... I’m hoping he doesn’t put up much of a fight when I speak with him about it tomorrow since the interoperability was the main reason I went with the new Garmin radios rather than keep my King ones.

That's one good anti-theft system!

I figured I'd post a picture of my new panel here in case anyone has any questions about the setup or is looking at doing something similar. I've only flown with a few times now but the GFC500 is living up to its reputation so far in flying approaches, IAS climbs, ect... Since I didn't have a big JPI prior to the upgrade I really like using the MFD during cruise flight to put the full engine instrumentation. I put a bunch of the legacy equipment for sale in the classifieds section but feel free to PM if you're looking for something else I didn't list since it may still be in a box. Top pic is on A/P while testing out flying holds...