Fritz1

during annual in March we discovered a small elevator bellcrank that caused excessive play between the elevator halves, small handmade part riveted together from three sheet metal plates, bushing, bearing the whole thing about 4" long. As a quick and legal fix we replaced the loose hylock fastenters with monel rivets. Consensus was that this part would be $2500 to replace if it were a Beechcraft part. The Mooney part had a lead time of 13 weeks and a price of $800. When I got the part I was amazed, Mooney had re-engineered the part to be integrally milled in one piece. No doubt they lost money on that part. Soo, parts prices will go up because they have to. About the same time I was approached by an MSC wondering if I was ready to fund parts production at Mooney with a fixed amount per year, lots of questions, nothing ever came of it and now Lasar stepped in. Problem still remains, parts production needs to be funded to build up inventory, by how much? probably by the amount of 6 months of parts sales. So, instead of moping, who is ready to step in? 300 owners at $3000 a pop makes $900k, enough the get things moving funds to be released to Lasar and/or Mooney for inventory buildup by a board of the the 3 largest donors? The whole thing blows up, guess what fonds perdu as the French say. In the end gotta pay the piper! Whoever is interested in being part of the solution, please pm me.

BAS parted a Bravo out starting about 4 weeks ago, maybe they still have the entire link, otherwise owner produced part, any machine shop with a lathe can make it, worth a try to coax the material specification out of LASAR or a MSC

numbers look realistic, think for longevity max TIT is 1600 and max CHT is 400, as log as these numbers are not exceeded the engine can be run at 78% power in cruise, think the peak TIT numbers can be sustainably achieved at the bottom of the power chart, let's say below 60% power for long range cruise, with that in mind the engine is not that much of a primadonna, just my personal opinion after running it for about 650h over7 years

in to the salvage places I would call each and every Mooney service center, somebody has that motor sitting around or knows how to repair it

The 201 windshield is riveted flush to my best recollection, not sure about round head screws on bottom of wing, my airplane does not have them, there are people that can add up such drag counts, never got that far, if the cowl closure is done next simple thing are flap gap and aileron gap seals, should get you 1-2 kt, see how that feels, windshield is time consuming and better done by somebody who has done a lot of them, tie down rings can be replaced with Lasar combo jack points

I had all the mods available in 99 including the low profile gear doors, one piece belly, 201 windshield, the whole works, hindsight the flap hinge covers did not help, everything else did, most of the stuff is still on the Lasar website, did not have scimitar prop, after it was all done airplane got painted which probably helped, the E with the short body is the fastest 4 banger, least amount of wetted surface, controls more responsive than the mid body, that might be the determining factor whether to soup up or not soup up if the airframe and the engine are solid

sounds like the bird is doing just fine, I had a G-model in the late 90s, stock it would do about 135 kt TAS, with all the speed mods it did about 155 Kt TAS, everything but powerflow exhaust and Lopresti cowl. The best bang for the buck are the Lasar cowl closure and the flap gap seals. Call Lasar and see if they currently make them, can't imagine not making the flap gap seals. It all really depends how attached you are to the current airframe, buying a modded airplane is certainly less expensive than doing it yourself, however no airplane flies as well as the one you have souped up yourself, the journey may be the destination

pre-purchase should be more thorough than an annual, focus is different though and directed to identifying show stoppers, if you find one early, stop the pre-buy, if things keep looking promising complete the prebuy and have it signed off as an annual after you bought the airplane, this is your one and only chance to get to the bottom of the story without having to pay for somebody else's sins, annual on a short body is typically 25-30h, pay for the prebuy, selling price then gets negotiated in view of the findings, if no deal you are much better prepared for the next pre-buy, an E built new today would probably cost in excess of $500k, the maintenance responsibility you are getting into is commensurate with that amount, caveat emptor = buyer beware

like the big toggle mag switches, had an electroair installed once upon a time, with those small black mag switches it is hard to tell if they are on or off, I stayed with the key switch because I would have left the mag switches on one day for sure, key in hand or on glareshield = mag off

yes, as stated before check for corrosion on steel tubes under side windows, on main spar, on stub spar, nose gear leg and truss tend to get dinged when airplane is jackknived, think max allowable dent is 1/32" I keep fingers crossed!

Think the vac line does not go to the Moritz but to a pressure transducer in the pilot footwell

considering the alternatives, maybe the swamp cooler from arctic air or B-cool is not that bad, inexpensive, pre-cools in hangar off ship battery connected to battery minder, top off ice before you pull out, topped off B-cool works for about 45 min until most of ice is melted, if you need more, use two of them, most FBOs have ice machine, stays home in winter, I use mine 3-4x per year, have TKS so permanent installation is really not an option, FL and TX may be a different story

whoever is interested in trials and tribulations send me a PM with their phone #

Yes, long story, uninstalled the system and got a refund

As stated before these are for sale commercially, sometimes a lightly used set comes for sale when an airplane is sold, I have a 25 year old Bruces canopy cover that held up quite well and that I used for travel, a fair amount of know how is is in the choice of the fabric, the liner and the sewing, you may be an expert with a swing machine, then maybe start by getting a 60" roll of paper and make templates

had dinner in NYC last Friday night, did not feel the usual exuberance and vibe in my favorite steak house, maybe just a quiet evening, maybe things are not going through the roof as we speak, add to that uncertainty about parts supply, avgas supply, airplane sales prices are off covid / post covid highs, drop is almost imperceivable, like houses 1-2 % is listed for sale total about 200 Mooneys on controller / tradeaplane, has not changed much

welcome aboard, probably best to jack it up, check the gear rigging, lube all the zerk fittings and practice retraction, gear doors may be rigged too tight, if that is the only issue the new bird has you are a lucky SOB

concur, annual sounds about right, discrepancies are about twice what one would expect, I would go there in person and ask the shop manager to provide a verbal breakdown of the hours spent on the discrepancy items, there may be something hidden in there that sucked up 10 hours that you might want to know about, a good shop manager will sense it if things don't add up, thereafter write a check, useless to argue if otherwise happy with the shop

my benchmarks at 17,000 ft are 185 KT TAS 2250 RPM 30.5" 18.5 GPH 1580 TIT 380 hottest CHT typically on #4 cylinder, GAMI injectors, about 0.3 GPH spread, 900h on a factory reman, I have TKS which I think scrubs off 3-5 KT, typically take off at gross, any luggage goes as far aft as possible, I tried 90% power 24/34 for short periods to see what it does, flow goes to 21.5 GPH to keep temps in check, speed increases by about 11 KT, the fastest I have gone for short periods of time with that power setting is 205 KT in 21,000 ft, sealing the baffles really helped my temps, Tempest fine wire plugs appear to reduce TIT, more complete combustion in the cylinder, extrapolating all that to 25,000 ft the TKS Bravo will probably reach 215 KT TAS with throttle and prop firewalled, fuel flow will probably go to 23--24 GPH, the highest I have taken the Bravo is 23,000 ft, boost started dropping off from 34" passing 21,500 ft, passing 22,000 ft climb was getting anemic, something like 300 ft min, sweet spot for the Bravo is between 19,000 ft and 21,000 ft, everybody believes their own press, that in mind I think this is about as good as it gets in a piston single, anything that goes any faster costs at least three times as much to operate, the weak spot on the Bravo is the exhaust, it really pays to keep TIT below 1600, I check the exhaust for cracks religiously every 25h oil change, none found so far, keep fingers crossed!

to my best recollection factory parts biz used to be $5-6M per year, everything revolves around that number, a lot of the know how resides with the few people left in Kerrville, hope Lasar makes a go of it

This has been discussed ad infinitum, think Don Maxwell said if it does not rattle, don't replace it, lubing the actuator per service manual is a good idea, I have never seen a broken spring and do not know anybody who had one break, think the part is $2500 and the labor typically runs at $800

This is a rather large sheared off bolt, thorough inspection of engine and nose gear is in order before flying plane

On the bravo engine tach pickup is mounted to bottom of the right mag if memory serves, maybe broke off or loose, there is a panel mounted certified RPM gauge that has LEDs, have seen that in Bravos as a patch after the Moritz gauge died and also in Eagles that have the 310hp 2700 RPM STC

yes put plane on jacks and then hit all the grease fittings again, some take grease better when the load is off, automotive stores sell rubber conditioner for door seals, maybe that needs to go down center stem, can't imagine that being corrosive, nose gear donuts see lots of oil, personally I have not seen one that was damaged by motor oil

got a replacement boost pump last year from Aircraft Accessories of Oklahoma overnight, they have done a lot of work for my plane over the years, reliable and responsive