Fritz1

I keep fingers crossed, replaced elevator bellcrank on the Bravo last winter, was working itself apart, known problem in the design of the part, factory part $900, took about 3 months, they reengineered a lousy riveted part into a very good integrally milled part, think that was a good price, was expecting $3k, you need two parts that are bigger than the elevator bellcrank, maybe factory price is not that terrible and helps them to keep the doors open, food for thought...

call the salvage shops like BAS

Lumbar support is a good idea, both mechanical lumbar supports in my seats were broken, replaced both of them, really helps on flights over 1h

how are CHTs? was the oil cooler flushed? check baffling

good advice, I never use the AP disconnect switch unless there is an emergency, using the AP disconnect switch everything goes out with a big bang, think I found a trim switch but also ordered three 1SX74-T microswitches just in case, to my best understanding there are reset springs in the switch assembly in addition to the microswitches and these loose power, switch worked for 2000h

Interesting, I am wondering about this myself, I bought the Bravo with a 200h factory reman engine, used Shell W100Plus until about one year ago and then went to Phillips 20W50 Victory against the advice of my A&P IA, immediate change in oil consumption, two bottom plugs that were typically oiled up became bone dry all of a sudden, either the Phillips is a much better oil or leaking valve guides coked up so they are not leaking any more, I do not have any sticky valves yet, thinking about going half half, W100Plus in Summer, Phillips in winter, the Lycoming appears to be prone to coke up valve guides with certain oils, just can't quite put my finger on it

my electric trim switch, in particular the left side clutch switch has become sticky in the down position, contact cleaner helped a little but I think it needs to be replaced / repaired rather sooner than later, the BK part is 200-09187-0000, think part is $3000 and may not be available, any ideas who has one in stock? The assembly has 3 microswitches that can be replaced which may fix the problem, does anybody have part numbers for these microswitches?

As stated, pay the bill, walk away and explain to the shop why you are not coming back. Finding a competent mechanic will be more difficult. Nose around in your local area. The owner assist is a good idea, but it has to be done in a way that the mechanic makes more profit per hour than without the assist. I do all work in my hangar, passed A&P last fall, no IA, do annual together with IA who is an old salt and has full time job, pay $100/h, I do all the legwork, order parts, he always finds something that I do not think of. I treat the IA well, he is a friend of mine and his son worked for me for a while. Flying 100h per year, the Bravo requires about 200h of maintenance per year between annuals and replacing burnt out bulbs. The IA has forgotten more about airplanes than I will ever know, indispensable part of the operation. I keep fingers crossed that you find the right guy.

Being a transplant myself I can relate to what you are feeling, there comes a point where you have a subcutaneous sensation that you do not fit in any more, man, moment, machine. I left Europe over 30 years ago, cold war was over, the Messerschmitt company (MBB) got acquired by Daimler Benz with the goal of downsizing the defense business, by boss who was the CEO got fired with pretty much the entire board, as chief of staff, fifth wheel on that wagon, I went with the ticket, party over, got on a plane the next week to the US and moved in with a friend whom I had sold an airplane 10 years earlier and started a US job search from there. There are many places in the US where the small town America feeling still exists, a one mile airport runway connects to anywhere in the world. In order for an aviator to fly he needs a place to come home to, that place better feel good, therefore: 1.) Find job, everything else will follow suit 2.) Find common denominators, especially for the wife, ways to build relationships around the home The location is almost irrelevant, what counts is the people. The older you get the more difficult it becomes to leave everything behind, family, friends from high school, military service, college, places where you worked. Today my business is almost entirely run over the internet and via phone. My wife is from Virginia, her family is here, college friends, work acquaintances, doctors, car mechanics, builders, cobblers, yard guys... I typically work 6 six days a week, 60 hours and change, without my wife having her social infrastructure I could not keep going at that clip. In a nutshell: There is an unlimited number of suitable locations, the $1 million question will be how well and how quickly you and your wife will be able to connect based on what you have in common with the people who live where you go. Safe travels, I keep fingers crossed!

Camping at OSH is a unique experience, done it a couple of times in my 20s, usually there is at least one massive downpour, camping done right requires a lot of equipment, wife and toddlers sounds more like a RV or maybe a hotel room within driving distance, these days I typically leave the airplane in Milwaukee or Waukesha, hotel room in Miwaukee, drive up for a day or two, the night airshow is impressive, transatlantic flight adds another level of complexity, not trying to be a party proper, in order to do the camping you need to hook up with some guys who have all the stuff, I keep fingers crossed

sent me thinking, never had any water but will replace my small fuel cap O-rings since I do not know when this was done the last time and will put a a quart of isopropyl in to each tank every now and then to get rid of any traces

LASAR and Don Maxwell come to mind, get illustrated parts catalog and figure out part # for starters, BAS salvage is a good source, the thing about the salvage parts in this case is that they may be as badly worn as yours and the installation is a lot of work, cleaning the existing holes is a good idea in the meantime.

No, KFC225, and it is right aileron up with left tank empty in cruise, bird still wants to go left from the prop torque in spite of left tank being empty

Typically this requires engine, avionics, paint and interior, hardly ever found in one place, Aeromechanica in Switzerland appears to be doing a fair amount of Mooney work, start there and see what they can do, unless you want to fly the bird over the Atlantic

total usable fuel in a long body topped to the fuel cap O-rings is somewhere between 101 and 102 gal, no risk of fuel spill, vents are still way above that level, I typically take off on the right tank, run for 1h, then run left tank down to close to zero, land with all remaining fuel in right tank, never felt any imbalance, even with left tank empty and right tank full you have left aileron up in cruise, POH is silent regarding fuel imbalance, you do not want your minimum fuel divided between two tanks, my personal minimum landing fuel is 17 gal, which is about 1h in the Bravo

Mooney parts come only downstream of the wastegate, if there is a gasket directly at the turbo exhaust intake it is a Lycoming part, I never had my turbo off, but looking at pics of my exhaust I do not see a gasket at this location. Call Main turbo in CA or Brian Kendrick in TX 830 370 1190 to get the inside story.

excellent job getting the bird down, the previous threads have covered the mechanicals, in order to regain confidence in the bird the best thing for you to do is to go over every possible source of failure together with your mechanic, check and/or retorque all the lines and fittings, check and/or overhaul fuel servo. Thereafter slowly reacquaint yourself with the airplane, ground run, traffic patterns, widen the circle. You may never find out what really happened, ice may have formed somewhere in the fuel system at least contributing to the event. No engine runs as well as the one you have fixed yourself. Fly safe!

I do the same, put old Jepp binder with POH in front of fuel tank selector to deflect airflow from vent up, no passengers in rear seats, plenty warm in cruise for pilot and copilot down to -30dF ambient, even open headliner cold air vents a tad sometimes, fly 100 dF ROP,

Anderson plug on left side of baggage compartment hard wired to #1 battery with fuse to run B-cool icebox, that thing is awesome, pre-cool in hangar, keep running while pushing airplane out, get into cool airplane, start engine on #2 battery, keep running B-cool during taxi and climb, runs about 1h when filled large ice blocks, turn back on for landing and taxi

factory flap gap seals are the simplest thing to do, they have a small gap unlike the lasar seals, flap hinge covers get knocked off, gain of 1-2 kt cruise, and maybe 100 ft climb, call Lasar or your favorite MSC and ask for factory flap gap seals, to my best recollection the long wingtips on were required to make the stall speed of 61 kt with the flap gap seals, not sure if the regular Acclaim has those long wingtips

make sure none of the cold air hoses are leaking on the right side, none of the WEMAC valves are leaking, no cold air getting in through cabin floor, heat valve in front of firewall opens completely, the heat valve in the control box in the passenger footwell has bleed holes in the the butterfly, I closed those, cozy cabin down to -30F ambient in cruise, climb different story airflow insufficient, need all heat for defrost, the real critical part in really cold conditions is taxi, even with full defrost blower windshield starts icing up internally, I run alien heater in the cabin in the hangar and keep clean microfiber cloth handy to wipe off frost internally, once airborne defrost blower has plenty power and heat, I typically climb on full defrost and slowly switch to cabin heat during the climb, in cruise no defrost required everything she got goes into cabin heat, all air vents closed, still, fur lined boots and warm coat help

I had a similar leak in my Bravo, very slow, right at the gauge, found with water throwing bubbles, tightening the fitting just at tad fixed the leak, no leak since and that was 3 or 4 years ago, have an O2 tank on a cart in my hangar which I treat with great respect, annual rental costs about as much as refilling the tank, use one or two tanks per year, swap them when they are down to 700 psi, main reason for having tank is that FBO usually bent my O2 door, financially owning the tank and the equipment is a wash at best at the slow rate that I am using tanks

minor leak that nobody noticed, easy to fix, white paint easy to blend, work it out with the paint shop, they overlooked the leak so the paint is on their dime, the leak is on your dime unless they want to take responsibility because they overlooked it, chances are remote that this leak was caused by paint stripper

I am with Don, ROP, 30" 2300, about 18.5 gph, about 78% power, Gamis .3 spread, Tempest fine wires, my engine just does not appear to like LOP, no intake or exhaust leaks, think you can do max 65% power LOP, going higher than 65% temps will go through the limits, semi religious question maybe, smarter people will find good reasons either way

Matterhorn White is rather forgiving, however as stated before all depends where the painted surface is and how large it is, noting wrong with giving a small spot a try, if it looks worse than before you can still take it to a shop, cowls and anything that you can remove is easy because you can take it to an auto paint shop with climate control and they will most likely do a good job, bottom line, try a small spot with the Matterhorn White, see how it turns out, cover the rest of the airplane well