Fritz1

ball swivels in instrument panel

Check the ball that swivels in the instrument with the steering joke shaft, make sure it moves freely and does not wedge the shaft in any position, clean as needed, trim to landing position, move the elevator by hand about the position where it is during landing, it should drop under its own weight and not bind in any position, trace the elevator linkage from the elevator to the joke, see if anything is binding or broken, lube everything according to service manual, do not lube the ball or the joke shaft, just catches dirt

patched my wing walk with Randolph grit brush on material and then spray painted with truck bed liner stuff from auto store to have uniform surface color

as stated supra, install new condenser and see what happens, during COVID I had two dud mag overhauls from QAA, may have been a coincidence, use Aircraft Accessories of Oklahoma now with good success

Second Oasis in Wilmar

concur, the Bravo engine also appears to like lower RPM, I am running 30 " 2300 and TIT is about 15 dF lower for the same TAS and fuel flow compared to 29" 2400, feels like more complete combustion in the cylinder, the Bravo exhaust and intake are not well tuned, the slower it runs, the better, minimum is 2200 RPM.

as stated before, jack it up move the nose wheel left and right to see where the slop is, a lot of times the slop is in the idler bushing, #10 bolt that needs to be tightened or replaced, put on thread locking compound so it does not come loose again easily.

Yes, electric joke elevator trim goes through the autopilot and is disabled when autopilot is un-installed, aircraft is legal to fly when correctly placarded

The POH only gives cruise figures for peak TIT power settings which produce excessive CHT and TIT, I typically cruise at 30" 2300, about 78% power, 18.5 gph, 100 dF rich on 1st cylinder to peak which produces about 176 KT TAS at 12,000 ft, my aircraft has TKS, others may be 3-5 KT faster, going max cruise power 34" 2400, about 90% power typically increases cruise by 11-12 KT, flow goes to about 21.5 gph to keep TIT below 1580 dF, In a nutshell, the POH performance figures not realistic, engine durability requires higher fuel flows, to keep CHT below 480 and TIT below 1580, the sweet spot of the Bravo is around it's critical altitude of around 21000 ft, 188 KT TAS, 18.5-19 gph 78% power, she will reach 200 KT when pushed to max cruise power, about 22 gph, think when pushed to the limit at 25,000 ft the Bravo will reach 215 KT

think the problem with the combo mag is the internal timing is set by two set of contacts and the external timing can only be set by rotating the single housing, so the contacts must be set exactly with the same correct gap for both mags to fire at the same time which is apparently difficult, but that is hearsay, I have never timed a combo mag myself, timing two mags with two housings is much easier, not so sensitive, you can rotate each housing individually to get the mags fire at exactly the same angle BTC, I use a metal pointer clamped to the one housing half in the separation plane so that it almost touches the flywheel, your can get the timing within less than .25 degrees with a good old buzzer, I put marks on painters tape on the mags to remember which way to turn for more or less advance

I use 3 jack points for the Bravo, held the tail down once and realized that the door was hard to close which told be not to pull down the tail, the jacking takes 5-7 min with Meyer jacks on wheels, no idea if it really extends the life of the donuts, it just might, I keep the jacks under the wing tips and scoot them in when I need them, Lasar combo tiedown jackpoints stay in the wings all the time

Baffles should contact the cowl with a preload, don't count on ram pressure to close the gaps, check with cowl on, use light and borescope to find gaps

I wrestled my left panel out once to repair the oxygen valve control cable, not many screws, you will probably have to re-drill for most of them, the new panels rattle less, look much nicer, but they are also heavier

You may find newer seats on salvage, simplest solution though is to figure out why the backrest slips off the cam adjuster and repair the existing mechanism

I had my 2000 Bravo resealed by Weep no More in 2019 since it had gone through multiple patch jobs, was leaking minimally, but I wanted to get it painted, think the cost was $11k, no leaks since, I kept the tanks filled to the brim whenever I can, the sealant dries out when the tanks sit empty in high ambient temp, brittle sealant cracks under hard landings on old and hard donuts, I put the Bravo on jacks whenever I do not fly it for more than a week, short bodies were almost 900 lb lighter than a long body fully fueled, donuts still the same

I have a KFC225, took it out for repair and flew the plane home without it, elevator trim did not work, but rudder trim did, KAP150 most likely the same

As you said something has changed, the combo mag has its intricacies, you may want to find somebody that really understands this mag and have it overhauled

Always match fuel flow and TIT, I typically run 30" 2300, 18.5 gph, this typically generates 1580 dF TIT which is about right, TIT probes when operated conservatively have a service life of 300-400h at best, TIT probe and fuel flow transducer rarely fail simultaneously, matching both you will know from experience which one is off, as stated before the TIT probe will read low when it fails which is dangerous

Very good point, I was wondering about that myself, poh gives numbers for best glide, prop coarse pitch, turbo engines do not take well to rapid power reductions, so my standard procedure is midfield, center of runway 1000 ft 20", pull power to idle, gear down and approach flaps when landing is assured, however, this is babying it, to practice it for real you would have a flight instructor pull the power when you least expect it, preferably from a high power setting, which does not agree with a turbo engine, thoughts?

landed with the system running once, temp below freezing, forgot to turn off after landing but no smoke after shutdown, makes sense that the TKS fluid evaporating would produce a smoke plume under certain temp / dewpoint conditions but never seen it

The real problem with the impulse coupling Slick mag in the Bravo is that the Skytec lightweight starter turns the engine too fast for the impulse coupling to engage when the engine is hot, the Slick mag booster helps, but it is only a partial solution, the real solution is a retard breaker mag which I have sitting on the shelf, but need to rewire the ignition switch, the best mag solution would be to keep the impulse coupling on the left, install retard breaker mag on the right with the Slick mag booster, I still pondering the legality of that, during Covid I had two dud mag overhauls in a row by QAA, never again, use Aircraft Accessories of Oklahoma now, good success with alternators, mags, turbo wastegate, good guys, reliable and responsive, the electroair is a very complicated system, the ignition advance below 24" does not help a turbo aircraft because it hardly ever runs there, no experience with the surefly, rather new system, bottom line: keeping one mag and overhauling it every 500h might be the most reasonable approach right now

Mags, electroair and surefly all have their kinks, the mags are predictable and reliable when serviced every 500h, good idea not to put all eggs in the same basket, I had the Bravo for 7 years, put about 700h on it, tried the electroair, went back to two mags slick start on the left, fly 100 dF rich of peak, 30"/2300, typically 18.5 gph, about 78% power, engine runs smooth LOP with GAMIs and fine wires, but I only do that for lean tests at 60% power, 78% max power cruise is only possible 100-125 ROP, the fine wires make a huge difference in the Bravo engine, run smoother, lower TIT, the electroair started better than the impulse mag, especially hot, but had other disadvantages, the slick start mag booster has solved all starting problems

Absolutely agree, heated hangar the night before is best

Oasis in Wilmar is a service center, they can probably help you out

The Reiff XP with dual oil pan pads and oil cooler pad has plenty of power when used with cowl plugs and a blanket, folks use that in Alaska with good success, covering at least half of the oil cooler is probably a good idea