1980Mooney

Exactly. By filling the tanks you can easily add about 400 extra pounds of fuel that you don't really need right over the mains - and you will kill the shock discs even faster. You are right - a short body with 52 gallon tanks sits on the same shock discs as long bodies (most with 100 gal. tanks - even the early ones had 89 gal.), and anyone with Monroy's which have about 100 gal.

Is this what you mean? https://www.liveatc.net/archive.php Are you looking for Tower or Approach/Enroute recording? You have to specify date and the right “feed” If think that they only keep 30 days of history.

Geez - $800 for an appraisal? "You send them all the info and they do the appraisal without having to actually inspect" Seriously? Maybe Annuals will be like that in the future. We take our own compression readings, take some pics....send it all to your IA and he signs off without having to actually inspect....

Do you still have the original fixed prop? Or has the plane been converted to a "C"?

You may find this reprinted AOPA PILOT review of the 1984 Mooney M20K 231 interesting (April 1984). https://aeroresourcesinc.com/proj98-ci/WebContent/uploads/198404-1984 Mooney M20K 231.pdf

Pre-Buy is another hotly debated subject. Just make sure that they look closely for interior corrosion -

Sorry about that. Unfortunately, I can't find a 231 POH anywhere online free now. The old sites like Sparrow Flying Club, Delta Aviation, Monticello Flying Club, etc either no longer exist or no longer have a 231 and as a result took down their 231 POH pdf.

This is a great resource for all things Mooney: https://www.knr-inc.com/shop-talk-articles.html This may be too much too soon but the Continental engine has it's own quirks and additional manuals to supplement the Mooney M20K Service Manual. (operation, adjustment (especially the continuous fuel injection), overhaul) https://www.knr-inc.com/shop-talk-articles.html?view=article&id=94&catid=25 https://www.knr-inc.com/shop-talk-articles.html?view=article&id=98&catid=25 https://www.knr-inc.com/shop-talk-articles.html?view=article&id=38&catid=25 https://www.knr-inc.com/shop-talk-articles.html?view=article&id=118&catid=25 TCM SID97-3E (again) - Tennessee Aircraft Services, Inc. http://www.kellyaerospace.com/articles/ContinuousFlow.pdf https://pceonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/M-0standardpractice2017-01-15.pdf Continuous Flow Fuel Injection Systems Adjustment Specifications and Instructions (twincessna.org) Cont. Motors SID97-3G (Latest) https://www.scribd.com/document/433794061/TSIO-360-Overhaul-Manual

@Crawfish Also - The "manualslib" M20K Service and Maintenance Manual is the only one that I have seen that has the Electrical Schematics. You find them in 7 "Envelopes" after Chapter 91-30. You definitely want to download and save this one. You will find all the mechanical parts in the Parts Catalogue. You will find all the electrical parts in the back sections of the Service and Maintenance Manual. (Chapter 91) As stated above you will find all the wiring and electrical schematics in the Service and Maintenance Manual after Chapter 91 - referenced to Serial Number of your plane.

You can download the Service Manual for free here. https://www.manualslib.com/manual/1368102/Mooney-M20k.html#manual

The Parts Manual is in the Downloads Section here on MS

https://www.oesc-aero.at/downloads/POH_Mooney_M20K_OEKOG.pdf

This is a "leaky" topic. - It just seems to keep dribbling out....

From your post and pics your plane appears to be a 1967 M20F Executive 21 that was for sale not too long ago. When I take what I think your N number is and search on the Aircraft.com site I find three (3) advertisements. The oldest from about 1999-2000 claims that it was painted in 1990 in "a Mooney ‘252’ Scheme". Perhaps a second narrowed look at the logs may turn it up in the 1990 section. As @LANCECASPER and @PT20J noted, there is bondo and there are shims where the cowling mates. As your pic shows, your plane has been modified. I can see the "201" windshield. The ads say that the F cowling was replaced with a full "201" cowling. The original Cowling mounting flanges on the F did not have the offset or step down for the J fiberglass cowling. Somehow these cowling flanges on your plane were added/modified. These Mooneys are handmade planes to begin with. When you add in the numerous bespoke modifications I am not surprised that you are finding bondo where things didn't quite match up. I would look in the logs for the date of the "201" cowling modification. There may be additional painting that was done immediately after. The second advertisement on Aircraft.com for what I think your N number is, circa 2005-2006, says that the plane was painted in 1999 (again? or typo?). Also I see from AviationDB.com that there was a gear-up landing in 1984 that involved a flapping oil fill door and loss of a spinner in flight. When you strip the plane you may find there is some bondo covering/smoothing out vestiges of that fubar. @EricJ suggested "the best thing to do would be to remove all the loose filler and the paint around it and see if there's hidden damage or just a bend that got filled in.", Once you start pulling on that bondo you don't know where it will end. You will probably wind up peeling off a lot more bondo/paint than you expected. The problem is that water will get in those open cracks and cervices. In addition accelerating oxidation of what might be exposed aluminum underneath, when the water freezes it will keep lifting more bondo and opening the cracks wider. It's a dilemma. As Eric suggested "If you have a local aviation paint shop you might try calling them and see if they have a best practice for dealing with such things." I personally would be cautions about physically opening the cracks further and peeling the bondo off. I would try to patch/fill the cracks and spot paint until the time of the full strip/repaint. But that is just my opinion. If you don't mind (large?) areas of primer visible around your cowl, then start peeling with a thin plastic putty knife.

Practically all the big general aviation welding shops are now owned by Tailwind Technologies, which owns Hartzell and other aviation businesses. They bought AWI in Jan 2020 (AWI had already bought Kosola and Associates in Albany, GA back in 2013). In Jan 2021, they bought Dawley - they shut Dawley down, moved equipment and consolidated in AWI Minneapolis. In July 2022, they acquired Acorn Welding in Canada. I have no idea if the level of service has declined or prices have increased yet but they obviously did it to consolidate, cut cost and reduce competition. (aka - as our B-School friends would say "driving efficiency"...)

Your Ovation has superior stopping ability compared to the Rocket 305 and Missile 300 conversions. They retain the single piston brake calipers found on the lighter J and original K. They are marginal at best with the added weight of the TSIO-520 or IO-550. And if the Rocket/Missile is loaded up anywhere near the MGW of 3,200 lbs and/or you land a little too fast they are less than awe inspiring. Sometimes it doesn’t feel like the brakes are doing anything - like they are fading - as the runway exit which the Tower wants you to exit rapidly approaches.

At least it will be in one piece when it lands. That is until they have to cut the tail off to trailer it out.....

“This works for multiple passengers as well. ” Flying with friends must be a real scream in your plane…”Can someone pass the bedpan to the backseat?” …. “Thanks for warming it up for me!” ….

Are we talking about the same airspeed switch that has been discussed here before? Either a gold colored VEP switch or the fatter bare aluminum colored Whitman-General switch? In either case you only have micro switches for a potential heat source which is not much. With the VEP switch, that is a big disk of aluminum to dissipate any heat. See the first 2 threads. With the Whitman-General switch the tubing is not even connected to the switch. It is tee-ed off the back of the ASI. See last thread and pics. If the microswitch shorted out (almost impossible due to the switch design - it usually either sticks open or closed) it would trip a breaker. I can't see how that could melt any tubing Something doesn't make sense in their description or your understanding.

Since you moved from a pressurized Meridian to an Acclaim, I assume that you were hoping to still take advantage of the speed in the flight levels in addition to your desire for long legs between stops. Have you mentioned to your wife that she may performing these proposed gymnastics (climbing over seat into back, kneeling, straddling, and climbing back in front) while potentially needing to have an oxygen mask on?

No one ever said that a B-Nut was a bolt - not sure how you got that. But you torque B-nuts/flare fittings just like bolts. With a bolt (or nut on a stud) it is to create tension and to prevent the bolt (nut on stud) from backing off. With a B-nut it is to create compression on the flare joint and to prevent the nut from backing off. Maybe you are trying to make the point of tension vs. compression. You can assemble many things with bolts or nuts on studs that are only hand tight. They will look proper but also come loose (back off) with vibration. Lug bolts/nuts on your car wheel are a good example. I hope that you don't make a habit of only tightening B-nuts/flare fittings merely hand tight as in your example. Torque procedure at 5:30 in video On jet engines they torque each B-nut three (3) times.

I see that the hourly shop rate at the local low tech/no tech “no thinking part change philosophy” NTB tire and automotive repair shop is now $149/hour. It’s probably just a matter of time before we should start planning on A&P shop rates of $150 - $200/hour. After all A&P’s actually have to think and diagnose the issues related to our handmade (many times modified and deviating from original design/manufacture) airplanes. They actually add value. It makes sense that they will (eventually?) seek higher compensation than the ordinary, minimally trained automotive repair chain.

We get that. However as @hubcap said "There are two sides to every story, and at this point we have only heard one side." I previously asked if there was some dispute or issue but got no reply ( i.e. delivery/loss in shipping/non-receipt/damage in shipping or discrepancy of "advertised vs. delivered"? Was there a post-delivery request to pay in multiple payments over time?) . The OP said "If the mods look at the pm traffic there is no mistake in what is going on. ". Well what is going on? A few more facts would help understand whether this is a binary issue. I suspect that there is more to the story. Like @FlyingDude and @donkaye I have never shipped anything until I have payment in hand. The risk is on the buyer and I have been a buyer many times on different sales sites. One time after I paid, the seller never shipped but I got a refund. If it is a black/white issue then my answer to the OP is report it as theft. I noticed that the OP was previously selling some Garmin avionics on MS - if this is the item at issue, then I would also report the serial numbers to Garmin as stolen. And the suggestion about "banishing" anyone from MS is a waste of time. All they have to do is change their screen name and log back on. And anyone can search and read Mooneyspace without even becoming a member so what is the point?

Were there any issues about delivery/loss in shipping/non-receipt/damage in shipping or discrepancy of "advertised vs. delivered"? Was there a post-delivery request to pay in multiple payments over time? Anything that makes this less than a "black and white" issue?

Good point.