1980Mooney

The Acclaim POH states that Preflight Inspection includes : Nose and Main Landing Gear - Gear, Shock Discs, Tires and Gear Doors ……INSPECT So the answer is “yes” you are supposed to if you adhere to the POH. And if you are checking tire pressure you have to crawl under regardless.

The low this morning in Idaho where the OP resides was 44 degrees F this morning........

Odd. My comment above was in response to a post and quotes by @Scottknoll yet you responded to it and defended Scottknoll's comments as if they were your own comments/post.

@M20GforMe Since you are taking an active role in the Annual and repair, do you have the Service Manual and the Parts Manual for your G and the Lycoming manuals for the O-360? These, along with others, are in the "Downloads" Section here on Mooneyspace.

Just curious - did you replace both o-rings on each cap? The big outer one and the small one around the shaft? I know you are new to ownership and things may appear simple. You removed the cotter pin and nut, then decompressed the spring in order to disassemble? And you reassembled, didn't lose that half moon clip and adjusted with proper spring tension so that is stays closed but does not bind? Great job if you did both. It's a learning experience.... From SB (Service Bulletin) M20-229A,

I think you missed that the OP is a Student Pilot. When flying with the CFI, it is the CFI that is PIC. Since the CFI has been PIC on every flight with the student OP, the CFI can definitely "Ground" the aircraft......

Just be careful if you are attempting to buy a used one online rather than local and in-person. And even local and in person there are pitfalls. Due to the price and lack of availability, these are favorites for online scammers. The Inogen G5 and identical OxyGo Next were introduced in 2019. I searched OfferUp, Mercari, Craigslist and eBay (they sold them at the time) back in 2021. There were a considerable number of what appeared to be legitimate lightly used units for sale at the time. I spoke to a couple individual sellers in New Mexico and Colorado (natural markets due to the high altitude) that advertised on Craigslist that seemed honest and legit. I ultimately found a lightly used (about 120 hours) OxyGo Next locally in Houston on Craigslist for about $400. I have searched again recently looking for a second one. I added Facebook Marketplace to the sites. The market is different now eBay will no longer sell full portable units. It is because what @Marc_B said above - the FDA classifies this as needing a prescription. If you post a unit on eBay, it will be taken down by the moderators. Yes they sell parts and accessories. There are "bait and switch" scammers online. On OfferUp I called a seller and they said the "portable in the ad has been sold but I have a stationary 120 volt unit I can sell you". The condition could be crap. Get visual confirmation of Total Hours Used. I found a local G5 recently with 15,000 hours on it. On Marketplace, I contacted a seller in Texas. They sent video of the unit and seemed legit. But then things got weird and ultimately they could not provide evidence of shipping. PayPal reversed and refunded my payment. If you find one locally being sold by relatives of someone who no longer needs it, be cautious if it has been sitting for a long time (like years). If the relatives left the battery installed in the unit sitting for months/years, it will likely be fully discharged. The Inogen/OxyGo batteries are LI-ION. Fully discharging a lithium-ion battery is harmful and can cause irreversible damage. They may be shot. (There are a lot of shot "used" batteries for sale on these sites). The batteries used to be ridiculously expensive but prices have come down. Some places wanted $680 for a 16 cell (double capacity) battery in 2022-23. They are about half that now, but since they are made in China are probably going up. Buyer beware.....

@M20GforMe - as a new owner you are "drinking from a firehose" right now. I can tell from your quote for the Annual that you are using Coletti Aviation at KLOT. Mooney M20 Annual Inspection | COLETTI AVIATION There aren't any PIREP's on Coletti on either Mooneyspace or Beechtalk so it is hard to say anything about their experience, but their pricing seems to be pretty transparent. Maintenance | COLETTI AVIATION Looking at your list, there are some things that another A&P (actually it is the IA) "might" let you "kick the can down the road", but it can be "pay me now or pay me a lot more later". For instance, it appears there is corrosion on the steel tubular fuselage cage - 4.5 shop hours to address it. You definitely want to do it. Then there is the corrosion on the Push/Pull control tubes. I had the same issue when I changed A&P - the old one signed off on the surface corrosion, but the new one would not. In the end it was better to stop the corrosion sooner rather than later. You might be able to spread some of this out over future Annuals but spending more money to put your plane back together, fly to another A&P, pay them to undo your plane again - and then perhaps write up the same list of discrepancies becomes a real money loser. Read this article by Mike Bush - others have referenced Mike Bush who is "Savvy Aviation" EAA_2011-05_is-it-safe-is-it-airworthy.pdf

Perhaps you did not see that the shop found corrosion on the engine mount and prescribed Corrective Action of "Strip down, clean and paint to prevent reoccurrence". If you are having the engine pulled (for issues you highlight) and if they are removing the engine mount frame, then it would be really cheap/"penny wise" to not replace the Lord or Barry mounts at the time. @M20GforMe - corrosion allowance is only 10%. I don't know your mount tubular dimensions, but it might only be 0.035- 0.065 inch thick. That means that corrosion of only 0.004 - 0.006 inches renders it unairworthy. That could be one thick hairs width. Then you get into welding it. It would be best to address it while the engine is out. Otherwise the cost becomes huge if you have to do it in the future.

Please don't scare/mislead a new owner - that is classic Mooney CB. @M20GforMe (CB is "cheap bastard" in Mooney-speak). No shop is going to give you a discount if they have a mechanic in training working on your plane. The shop rate is the shop rate.

Can you elaborate? On Steel fuselage frame, engine mount, landing gear members, control rods? Structural aluminum inside the wings? Filaform?

You didn’t mention if there were any events prior to finding this: - How long/flight hours ago did you or partner last record tighter/normal spreads? - Was any work done on the engine recently or recent Annual prior to discovering the high spread?

The dive shops I go to in the Houston area have pure oxygen.

Absolutely correct. @highflyer77 there was a recent topic about Monroy tanks and @Pinecone commented: "If you fill main with aux empty, fuel starts moving into aux. So when you stop filling main and put on the cap, the level in the main is still going down. So you fill the aux, but the main is not full, so the level in the aux goes down and leaves you short of full. Filling aux first means fuel is moving from aux to main. Then you fill the main, which reduces flow from aux to main. So you then top the aux after doing the same to the other side and you are much closer to full." The shop that did the W&B had no way to accurately know how much fuel that you had in the tanks to start with - and they had no way of knowing if they actually filled the Monroy and Mains all the way to "Full Fuel".

"hot summer months"....I see that you are near Boise, Idaho. "hot"?....seriously?? I noticed that your 9 day forecast shows that the Low will be 49 F and the High with be 71 F. And I see that your current Relative Humidity is 18% right now with a High that might touch 86. Here near the Gulf Coast the High is in the 90's and the Low generally is about 75 F. Earlier this week the Low was 81 F. Relative Humidity was 99-100% this morning. Even in the 90's F, the relative humidity never gets below 65%. It gets really "fun" when the Tower tells you to hold for release, or if there is a lot of landing traffic. We would KILL for your "hot summer" flying weather.