Peter Rejto

Pinecone, I must be blind, but have searched high and low for Jimmy's guide on The Mooney Flyer site and a few recent back issues with no luck. Perhaps he isn't updating this any longer? Anyway, I hadn't realized that as an AOPA member I could use VREF for free! I have a better sense now of the current market value in the USA. Thanks all! Peter

Thanks Art. I've written and will see what transpires. If anyone on the forum would be willing to look over the specs for my aircraft and give me a private opinion I'd be extremely grateful. emai: prejto at oberlin.edu Thanks!

Is it appropriate to ask for help here in determining what a fair price in the USA might be for my N registered '78 M20J (which happens to be in Australia)? I've decided to sell this plane. Selling in Australia will likely require conversion to VH registry which is not inexpensive. So, the thought of returning it to the USA, or marketing it in the USA, has a certain appeal. I'm finding it quite hard to know what price it might bring. I won't post any details of the aircraft until I get some feedback as to whether asking for this help is okay! Thanks in advance! Peter

Yes, to a GTN650 and it works extremely well for routes and approaches. I would assume it would work with the G1000 but doesn’t work with “aviation out.” I forget the name of the new protocol. If the G1000 has that protocol I can’t see why it wouldn’t work. Peter

Old post or not, it’s an interesting read. I have mechanical speed brakes in my J and have never had an issue since they were installed back in 1992....controlled by a lever near the trim wheel. Dead simple. Funny thing a few years ago during a BFR with an instructor not too Mooney experienced. I pulled on the speed brakes approaching the airport to more easily get slowed down and to get to pattern altitude.....and eventually I put down the gear. After the flight to instructor told me he was waiting for me to possibly forget the gear since I was somewhat below the gear down speed when I did activate the gear. I suppose that is something worth keeping a bit in mind. The speed brakes might somewhat mimic the feeling of the plane getting slow with the gear down. I think the feel is quite different as well as the sound (and of course, there is the normal gear warning horn). Still, perhaps worth keeping in mind? Peter

I thought I’d give an update to this thread. Finally I was able to bring my plane back to Bankstown (YSBK) for the refitting of the Shadin Miniflo with a wiring diagram supplied to me by AERODAN (many thanks!). He obtained the diagram from JPI and it involved putting two diodes near the transducer. Seemingly all good! However, on an extensive recent trip (of over 30 hours) I discovered a very strange anomaly! I can’t make sense of it. When I’m navigating towards a user created waypoint (Gamin GTN650) the Shadin will not properly display the correct fuel to the destination waypoint while the EDM730 does. If I turn off the Shadin and restart it it will initially read the correct fuel to the waypoint and then progressively show a larger and larger discrepancy compared to the EDM730 as it correctly counts down. If I shut the Shadin down and restart it will then again show the correct required fuel but fail to count down properly. I should add that both units always agree on the actual fuel flow so it must have something to do with data coming from the GTN. This behaviour only (so far) has occurred with user waypoints and not waypoints contained in the GTN database. I can’t for the life of me make any sense of this.....too weird to be true? For the majority of my flights the two units agree very closely in terms of fuel flow and fuel to waypoint. Peter

I've finished for the moment. I can't complete until I get a few additional fasteners from Skybolt. I think what I've got now is much better than before, but I guess there is only so much one can do with a 44 year-old cowling and 29 year-old paint job! I wasn't aware that the first 6 fasteners starting backwards from the prop (3 each side) need to be fully removed in order to fit. I found out the hard way. I may need to remove two more camlocs as getting the top cowling on now is proving harder than I like. For the moment I decided not to remove the painted grommets on the lower cowling.. I may change my mind about that. The nicest part of the repair was getting the two camlocs fixed in place on the bottom of the cowl near the nose gear. The holes are giant! Fortunately the kit contained two oversized camlocs. Even so I had to file out two thin washers to put on the inside of the cowling. With the extra washer the fit was very tight. I was just able to get the oversized retaining ring fitted. Hopefully these hold up!

Thanks for all the tips. I have manages to pry off the lock rings....took a bit of fussing, but done. Then I discovered that the row of larger fasteners running over the top of the cowling all have very enlarged holes through the fiberglass such that the retaining ring would have no purchase. I've had to drill/file out a number of thin washers to put underneath the fiberglass so the lock ring will function. This job is a lot more labor intense than I imagined! I received a very curt unhelpful response from Skybolt. It appears so far that nobody there is willing to answer questions from a non-engineer sort of person (me!). My questions were straightforward enough but ignored (so far). Peter

Is there a way to install the retaining ring on the camloc without the special tool shown in some videos? I did buy this tool (SK-T26) but I cannot get it to work for the smaller camlocs and the split ring retainer. The video on the Skybolt website shows it working with the washer type that holds the Camloc firmly in place. The videos I've looked at using a different tool seem to show that the center stud and one leg will fit and then the remaining leg is pushed/forced though the split ring. The retaining rings I was sent seem to be too small. i/e., the center stud will not go into the split ring center hole with one leg inserted. Also, what is the method for removing the grommet retaining ring for the larger camlocs short of buying the removal tool SK-T27? Thanks! Peter

I don't have the IPC, but not sure that would help me now. I trusted Skybolt. I've written and I hope I can trust them to respond. In the meantime I've drilled out a couple of the dimpled washers and now they fit and look reasonable, but I can't see why I should need to do that. Anyway, I will update when I get some news, hopefully on Monday! P

I just brought back a Skybolt kit from the USA for my 78 J. Maybe I'm just stupid but for the life of me I can't make sense of some of what I was sent. 1. The package included 3 different packs of flat head screws of different lengths. No idea what these may have to do with a 78 J cowling... 2. I need at least 14 SK28S3-5S and only received 10. Two of the camlocs work fine with the -6S size, but not the rest. 3. I was sent 25 DP1085-20SS dimpled washers. I cannot figure out how these fit to the SK28S3 series. Re the 4 camlocs just behind the spinner I had to use the old existing dimpled washers. I have not even started on the lower cowl yet. Maybe it will go better! Bad luck, or am I not seeing something obvious? Thanks! Peter

Thank you! That's a good document to have on hand. I did install the HSR-83P plugs and they are performing very well. Peter

Yes, for sure! But the bungee chords really saved me when I got stuck at an airport with no mechanics/shops open...

Lots of great ideas here! What I like about the bungee chords: 1. Easy to carry around. 2. springy and flexible so that helps when raising the cowling up. 3. Numerous places to hook on when lowering the cowling. Nothing to cut like safety wire. 4. Very easy to attach to cowling after removing rubber coating from hooks. The foam is just to keep the bottom of the cowling from getting scratched up...light weight so hardly counts weight wise in the baggage area.