Fritz1

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

At at max cruise power 78% the Bravo shows around 195 dF oil temp at -30 C ambient and below, your Reiff heater has plenty power, see if you can run another cord for a an electric cabin heater, let's say at least 1500W, then the cabin will be cosy when you get in, otherwise windows will frost over quickly on the inside from your breathing

Engine Preheat is a must, seal the wemac vents on the sides real tight, you can tape over the pilot side, seal any leaks in cold air ducts on the copilot side, in the heater box on the copilot side there is a butterfly valve with pass through holes for cold air, you can tape them over for max heat, I use an alien 1500 W heater to preheat the cabin, Reiff with two pads on the oil pan and one on the oil cooler and heat bands on each cylinder, if you don't have a defrost blower use anti fog spray on inside of windshield, dress warm, I have flown the Bravo into -40C weather, but always put in heated hangar the night before and run engine and cabin heater, the defrost blower keeps the windshield clear during taxi, heat is marginal during climb but quite sufficient in cruise, I never covered the oil cooler since Bravo oil gets plenty hot, you may try covering half the oil cooler. Preheat as much as you can, that will help during taxi

The value is around the core value of the engine and the propeller, you can buy this aircraft if you find somebody that is proficient in major wood repairs and declares the wing airworthy or repairable, properly treated wood can last for centuries, glue not so much, choose wisely!

Maybe just take the oil lines off and see if that tells you anything, after A&P looked at it probably clean everything and spray suspect area with developer and see if that shows any cracks

Loctite thread locking compound is red, any maintenance done around the turbo?

Welcome aboard, sorry this happened to you, glad you walked away. The question is whether removing and re-torquing the pulleys is part of an alternator overhaul. Sounds to me like at least one pulley was removed and not torqued correctly. Moving forward you will learn who you cant trust and form relationships with the people you trust. Typically it takes 3 types of guys to keep a Bravo going, an engine guy, an airframe guy and an avionics guy. Assisting in maintenance and annuals typically improves the outcome as long as you do not cut into anybody's profits. Trust, but verify, being there in person increases mind share. The Bravo needs 25 oil changes, lubing the waste gate shaft with mouse milk goes with the oil change. Each time look at the turbo transition, that is the big Y in the exhaust, and check for cracks from behind with a mirror. The exhaust is the weakest spot of the Bravo engine. The better you understand your airplane the more reliable it will become and the better the relations with your shops and vendors. Fly safe!

The Lasar jackpoint tiedown combo does not cause any perceivable drag, leave them in, I jack my plane up if it does not fly for more than a week to take the weight off the donuts, Lasar jackpoints are perfect for that

Yes, good point

dynamic balancing will most likely take care of the vibrations, I had mine balanced at 2300 rpm, still runs smoother at 2400 rpm, something about the resonance frequency of the entire system, not an exact science, you may get another result the next day and may need 2 or 3 sessions to get it really smooth, the Lord mounts are installed with a specific torque, re-torquing them probably can't hurt, the engine mount is bolted to the fuselage with four bolts, think 1/4", checking tightness of these bolts probably can't hurt either, engines sound and feel different over open water or mountain ranges when you are out of gliding range of any airport, your A&P can check blade tracking of the prop and feel if the blades have excessive play, if the A&P does not know how to do this, fly the airplane to a prop shop and see what they say, they will typically do a re-seal up to 700h and thereafter recommend an overhaul

The wrinkled peeling paint looks different from any fuel leak that I have seen, the million $ question is whether the G100UL actually ate the sealant or whether there was a leak before and the G100UL unlike the 100LL just eats the paint now, either way this is highly interesting

Tough call, there are about 3 shops in the US that do this well, they are typically booked 9-12 months out and do a good job, airplane sits in the shop 2-3 weeks and you have to get it there, sooo, how many hours is the do it yourself job going to take, what are these hours going to cost you versus paying somebody that does 50 airplanes per year. Every job has a learning curve. My tanks were done by Weep no more 5 years ago and they don't leak. Flew the bird to Wilmar, picked it up about 2 weeks later. Oasis is an excellent Mooney shop, they can fix other stuff while the bird sits there. No regrets.

Thanks, that is what I was hoping for, got 6 cases of XC 20/W50 in my hangar, my AP/IA is an old salt, ran a fleet of Robinson helicopters with Lycoming engines for a while and says he was reaming exhaust valve guides unless using the W100plus, maybe OWT and he never really tried the XC, I will keep using it because it really reduced my oil consumption by at least 30%

I switched from Shell W100 plus to Phillips XC and saw a significant reduction in oil consumption and less plug fouling, my AP/IA is suspicious that the XC might be coking up the exhaust valve guides, and swears by the W100 plus. I am undecided, maybe run the 100plus in summer and the Phillips in winter. If the valve guide story were true, oil consumption should go back up slowly again with the Shell since the carbon in the valve guides slowly wears off. Thoughts?

J models, especially late ones tend to have the highest resale value as a percentage of ex factory sales price, have seen them listed at $250k, however as stated succinctly above doing your own upgrades like a lay away purchase is an expensive and time consuming endeavor, especially avionics are typically worth 30 cents on the dollar when the plane gets sold thereafter, soo finding a plane that is close to what you want is less expensive midterm, good airplanes come for sale and they typically get snapped up within a week or two, figure out what you want and get ready to pounce with purchase amount or financing ready, prepurchase technician lined up and insurance lined up

Learn as much as you can from reading for sale ads and logbooks, Jimmy Garrison is a good resource, contact Savvy, see what they have to offer, establish an upgrade and repair budget on top of the purchase price, on a 25 year old airplane this can be another 20% to 50% of the purchase price to be spent within 2 years, start looking for a hangar, enjoy the ride, the journey is the destination

check as stated by 47U, if SOS dead think about a slick start booster, 3-4 times the bang of SOS, I had a dead SOS on my G-model once upon a time, replaced slick start, fired within one blade cold or hot

Most likely boost pump shaft o ring, a lot of overhaulers have them in stock, my boost pump started leaking a bit one day last summer and seized at the next start the next day, fortunately in front of my own hangar, no start, my A&P said these pumps are good for about 2000h, mine had 1850h, took about 3h to replace

yep, it is that time of the year, if running an entire tank on high through the system on the ground while squeezing a copious amount of fluid into the non-flowing panel does not fix it a purging pot is required, might be best to contact CAV aerospace to find a shop that has one, nothing but a brake bleeding pot hoked up tho that particular panel, but have to find a panel connector, if you are anywhere close to CAV aerospace, let's say within non stop range the simplest way to fix this might just be going there and let them check out the entire system, most likely the membrane in this panel is just dried out and you need to run and squeeze in lots of fluid to make that panel flow again, then running each pump for 5 min on the ground on high will keep the membrane moist and all panels will kick in with 3 min when you need them