AerostarDriver

This is me in a nutshell, if I am not upfront, I am in a world of hurt.

I have 2 GTSIO-520-C20 engines for sale with props. Would be interesting on an L model.

All I am going to say at this point is that I have learned a lot. Additionally, if you're interested in making your Mooney(or radial powered airplane) perfect, I highly recommend Mike at Round Power Aviation in Orange, Ma.

Not presently a problem.

Presently living in a sea of part numbers and copied the wrong one: 740156-003 False alarm on the bushing, Clarence already helped me track those down.

This is the boot that goes over the trim jack screw. 914081-003

My effort to locate a trim duct/boot for an E model has come up with nothing, only to be told they are on backorder indefinitely. Has anyone come up with an alternative like scat hose?

If you haven't done it all ready, gap seals and gear rigging are good ones to take a look at.

They are the bushings which the tail pivots on. They are also not just a regular bushing but rather a steel bushing which is over machined and then chrome plated back up to final dimension.

I am on the hunt for 2x 914081-003, Mooney has a 14 week lead time, once approved, and I have been waiting for approval since July. Anyone happen to have a set or have an idea on where to source them?

The GI-275 removes the need for a GAD 13 and GAD 29B which can simplify some of the install. I have dual G5s and dual GI-275s, one MFD and one EIS. If I could have times things differently, I would have gone all GI-275s.

I don't know if this will help but I received this from Mooney trying to hunt down my own issues.

Refocusing, I am looking for shop recommendations in the northeast beyond just airmods which is the only shop I am really familiar with. Any recommendations?

The paint on the "new wing" matched close enough to the fuselage. No paint required. I want to be clear, I do not believe DMAX did the "repair" but I am disappointed they did not find it.

Actually, the wing came without navlights, DMAX purchased and installed Orion 650s (without approval) So they absolutely had the ability to look inside the wing in this area. My experience with DMax has been extremely poor. They had the airplane for a little over 8 months with almost no communications. They sent us the invoice when complete with a bunch of work we did not approve of(Replacing an INOP AI when I had purchased G5s to replace the AI, installing Orion navs when I had purchased some already ready to install them when the airplane returned, not so much of a complaint but lack of communication is frustrating). When we got the airplane back the plane was a mess, dirt and wasps nest all over the interior, stall warning horn did not work, gear warning horn was not connected, pitot head was not connected. The Orion sync wire was shorting to airframe ground. Our nice tow bar was not in the airplane and the tow bar they replaced it with was no where near as nice. My new IA is now rerigging the gear that DMAX installed, so the hole in the wing is just insult to injury at this point.

The spar and the rest of structure appears healthy and straight, in the photo looking in the wing you can see the stiffener before the spar is straight. So AC43.13 says we can do a patch, the restriction is the very tight radius of the leading edge and the forward stiffeners in the bay that effectively set the size of the doubler.

In the ongoing saga of my ownership experience, I discovered a problem as my IA and I were rolling the airplane in to hangar for the annual. We discovered a crack in the paint on the leading edge of the wing which I don't remember being present when the airplane became stranded after the engine quit recently. We started inspecting the crack and realized that it was a rather significate crack in the aluminum skin. Looking in the wing from the navlight hole shows that the crack was stop drilled and filled with some sort of filler. After some stripping and sanding we were able to see the extent of the damage. My IA is concerned that due to placement and access, doing a simple doubler and flush patch is going to be difficult, he is willing to try it but honestly recommends getting the airplane in a ferriable state and getting it to a shop that specializes in sheet metal repair. I would like to try to not have to replace the whole skin but it is possible that may be easier. I am familiar with Airmods but I am not tremendously familiar with anyone else in the northeast. Any recommendations on shops or alternative repair options? For those keeping track of my saga, this is the wing that Don Maxwell's shop installed on my airplane back in late 2020. When we got the invoice for the wing swap, the airplane that donated the wing had an NTSB report from a gear up, when I brought up the damage history with the folks over at DMax, they responded with "Well it doesn't have corrosion and we inspected it when we installed the lights, control surfaces and gear."

I have located a tool for my Aerostar E, thank you for all the help!

MAIN GEAR RIGGING TOOL - GSE030007-100 — LASAR

Lasar appears out of stock on the "main gear rigging tool" but I am on the hunt to find a tool to use for my annual next weekend. If anyone has a lead on one I would be happy to buy it or compensate you for allowing me to use it. Thank you!

Some photos from inside the fuel servo.

Might be easier to ferry it. My M20E used to live in Japan for a large part of its life. It flew across the Pacific twice. 110 gallon ferry tank in place of the rear seats.

Had one of the recommended on field A&Ps take a look. After some talking and dissection, we found what we believe is the culprit, a stuck poppet valve was allowing unmettered fuel flow to the metered side of the fuel servo. The only way to get the engine running was with the mixture in the full lean condition. The fuel leak was driven by a new intake gasket leak that had fuel dripping down the tube to the oil sump then down to the fuel servo.

The JPI will no longer save my fuel quantity inputs, it is scheduled to be replaced with a GI-275. Both tanks had well over 20 gallons and indicated on fuel gages on the other side.

All throttle changes I am doing are reactionary to the RPM decay and the MP increasing. Base and final you can see the EGTs just drop away every time MP increases.