Fritz1

There is a control algorithm in the battery minder, regular charge up to a predetermined voltage, then trickle charge, also temp dependent, I use only one with two same age Concords charged in parallel, gives you 20 Ah to run avionics in hangar, swing gear, test lights etc. and the minder recharges the batteries thereafter. Regardless I think one of my Concords has had it after 6.5 years, did not swing the engine yesterday, will investigate, maybe main solenoid, but chances are one Concord battery is dead after 6.5 years. Minder does probably not make a difference for an airplane that is flown at least every two weeks, nice to have though as a small ground power unit and in case airplane sits more than 4 weeks.

David was a good guy, will miss him.

interesting, my horns are pointing down in the Bravo in cruise, this may be different between a short body and a long body, I even know a guy with an Eagle that put little fairings at the bottom of the horizontal stabilizer in front of the horns, position may also be dependent on rigging of elevator bungees

As stated before, clean real good with mineral spirits, use baby powder or white dye penetrant developer spray, run enough to develop the leak, ground run may not be enough, probably a trip around the pattern will be required, land, pop the cowl and analyze the oil flow pattern, you may need two or three clean ups and test runs to really figure it out. When you are confident you fixed it, fly for 30 min and then verify leak is gone. Persistence kills any leak!

After some back and forth I bought Meyer A521 Jacks, two I bought new and another two used from a hangar neighbor. The 521 is a 21" jack, using the 21" jacks you cannot lift one main up and then insert the other jack, you have to insert both main jacks and then bring them up. This means any jack taller than 21" is trouble for a Mooney. I use the 3rd jack to bring the nose up which is the correct way for a long body. If you just hold the tail down the door will not close any more which indicates undue stress in fuselage, you may be able to use use just two jacks in a mid body or short body. Bottom line, I think 21" is the max that will work in a Mooney.

1600 is the max TIT that I want to see, cruise typically 1560-1580 dF at 100dF rich on 1st EGT to peak, beware of old TIT probes, they tend to read low, 18-18.5 GPH is typically a good fuel flow at high speed cruise 30" 2300 rpm which computes to about 78% power and which is the max that you want to extract out of that engine continuously, running peak TIT per POH is only possible at lower power settings, let's say below 65% keeping TIT below 1600 and CHT below 400, this gives you long range cruise close to POH numbers

tough call, $30k is the medium range for Mooney, if you want an excellent job it will be more and may take 3 months, ask the painter if they vaporize the stripper, you may have to travel a bit, get 3 recent references from each shop that you are considering, talk to the owners, if you have never had an airplane painted hire somebody as a consultant who had lots of airplanes painted, visit the shop every week or have the consultant visit every week, when in doubt pay more for stuff that has not been discussed in the initial quote. The biggest problem with aircraft painting is that most shops do not have any environmental controls, this means a paint booth with precisely controlled airflow, temp and humidity, they paint in some garden variety hangar instead. The few shops that do prefer to do jets where a paint job can run a couple of hundred k. Bottom line, look around, talk to people, and then choose wisely, big commitment, once a job is started it is virtually impossible to extract a semi finished plane, ask me how I know

hmm, really wondering what is going on at Lycoming, the only thing special about the AF1B are the cylinders, the cast is different to accomodate the oil injectors, the exhaust valve guides have external grooves to drain the oil into the rocker box, anybody got an explanation for the tremendous delivery times?

This repair is pretty standard, any MSC will be able to get the part rather quickly

feels like lead times are shrinking, reman engine might still be over one year out, call air power and two or three of your favorite overhaulers, the engine is good for about 2500h, might need a cylinder or two overhauled by then, my only concern is how the valve seats in this engine will hold up with unleaded fuel, only time will tell

1.) 1700h on two mags replaced at 500h makes 6.8 mags, about right 2. ) probably Gill batteries with no minder 3.) probably too lazy to clean plugs, go for Tempest fine wires, they really make a difference in the Bravo engine 4.) turbo is typically good for 1000-1200h, 1st owner may have smoked it 5.) exhaust probably smoked by 1st owner, weakest spot on the Bravo check the turbo transition with a mirror from behind, this is where the the bogeyman lives like with all Mooneys check for corrosion especially around the stub spar Brian Kendrick is one of the the most knowledgeable guys around, if you can get him to do the pre-purchase he will find all the hidden gems and then some If you buy it, make sure baffles seal perfectly, biggest bang for the buck getting CHTs to where they are supposed to be

I rather run the system on the ground and watch wetting and drip pattern, royal mess but beats having none or boots, would like bleed air though

Most likely old fluid, run an entire tank on the ground and it will most likely go away, then run about 5 min on each pump every month, once it stops dripping in the hangar it is time to re-prime, i typically use 7.5 to 10 gal per year, 2.5 gal jugs, the system is reliable and powerful, pumps need exercising, membranes need to be kept wet so system flows on all surfaces within 3 min

taking the rear seats out of the Bravo makes loading luggage much easier, also gives you another 30 lb of UL, think I have used the rear seats 3 or 4 times in 7 years, heavy stuff always goes in the back, you will never reach aft cg limits in a Bravo, no matter how you load it, max load in the luggage compartment is 120lb, rest goes into the back seat cavities,

both are excellent planes, the Acclaim is faster and newer, much better cowl, the Lycoming wet head may be more rugged and have more thermal reserves, going down to South America on business several times a a year, however, is asking a lot from either one, sounds more like a turbine mission

ouch, this is really ugly, I will rinse the bird asap and put corrosion X into the tail, I have not found any corrosion so far, but it appears the TKS fluid gets under the paint, orginal paint was coming off 6 years ago, I had the bird painted and paint is coming off with primer again in some areas, I typically use 15 gal per year so having the 55 gal drum sit around and possibly go bad does not appeal to me

Before I bought the Bravo 7 years ago I spoke to owners, lots of shops and to Jimmy Garrison, there are no perfect airplanes and I was seriously considering an Encore. All the shops that I spoke to stated that the Lycoming was more reliable and easier to work on, more adapted to take the heat from turbocharging. Jimmy Garrison owned a Bravo himself at the time. I bought the Bravo with a 200h factory reman, put 650h on it and never had to cancel a flight due to mechanical issues but once when the boost pump gracefully died in front of my own hangar this summer with about 2000h on the unit. At about 80% power the FIKI Bravo will do 185KT TAS in the high teens at about 18.5 gph 100 dF ROP, 2400/29", 1580 TIT and 380 max CHT with all baffles sealed and fine wire plugs. I think this is about as good as it gets for a piston single. You can put an Acclaim propeller on the Bravo, speed goes up by maybe a knot, climb increases significantly by about 100 ft/min. The only thing that is missing is the Acclaim cowl, nothing is perfect. The Bravo is nose heavy, mine has 6lbs of lead in the tail, luggage always goes as far back as possible, you will never reach the max rear cg even for icing conditions, without luggage and by myself the Bravo lands with max up trim with full flaps. The Bravo engine has thermal reserves. My airplane was bought new by Scott Heck from Bozeman MT and he traveled to Seattle across the cascades frequently. He said more than once he had to firewall the Lycoming and pray to the Lord to climb out of the icing in the high teens, engine took the beating and Scott still lives in Bozeman MT.

Highly recommend owner assisted annual, make it clear up front that you do not expect any discount, you will typically discover things that the AP/IA does not or does not deem important and you can fix them in addition to what he does, two sets of eyes see more than one, when decisions are to be made you are right there, it helps to bring bagels, cash and other valuable consideration, the best annuals I have ever had were with Brian Kendrick in San Marcos, he sees things that other people don't and he test flies the airplane what most A&P IAs are not able to do, he does not need any assistance, with most other A&P IAs assistance is helpful and welcome, sometimes you have to nudge yourself in, convince the guy that you will not cut into his profits and not cause any trouble but want to be part of the solution. Once a relationship is established the guy will work on your airplane instead of working on airplanes of owners that have pissed him off.

enter the co-pilot with negative weight

I had a similar problem with one of my retract tubes in the fuselage, rod ends had worked roll pins loose, slippage almost 1/8", bought oversized roll pins but my A&P AI insisted on using monel rivets instead, worked on a lot of helicopters and said the monel rivets were an approved replacement for the roll pins and would work better than the oversized roll pins, sure enough, no slippage after one year and no oversized hole in the rod end and retract tube

Takes about 10 min, remove stop bolts on rail front and back, slide seat out of rail, remove seal belt, take seat out of cockpit, do not ding wing skins

Semi religious question, some guys like contis, some guys like lycs, kinda like Beemers versus mercs and Chevy versus Ford, there is no rational answer, the best one is the one you feel most comfortable with, they all have their pros and cons

A subject of ultimate complexity, the 252 has the best overall airframe / engine balance, the Bravo has sodium filled exhaust valves and oil cooled exhaust valve guides, talk to shops that maintain and overhaul these engines

paint itself typically does not cause any measurable speed increase, however a lot of people add speed mods before doing paint, like e.g. flap gap seals, aileron gap seals, in the extreme a Lopresti cowl, scimitar propeller, doing all the above you may be able to squeeze another 6-8 knots out of a J at considerable expense, best bang for the buck are the flap gap seals producing 1-2 kt

spruce sells vac tubing by the foot, that yellowish stuff really looks like surgical tubing which tends to collapse, good idea to get rid of all of it and clean what remains of the vacuum system the best way you can, replacing the vacuum pump might not be the worst idea either because it most likely ate some of the debris and they go without warning, dry vac pumps go 500h at best, if you don't have an electronic backup horizon get one, real life saver. I will not get rid of my vacuum system, independent source of energy, will drive an instrument when all electrical is out after EMP from nuclear blast or zombie apocalypse!