A64Pilot

Twin Cessna. unsure of which one, but just normal cruise, look at the exhaust under the vents. This is not abnormal

Exhausts literally wear out, the pipes etc get thinner over time from flame erosion and when they get thin enough and hot enough the steel gets plastic and deforms and holes form, it’s not like modern autos who’s exhausts last the life of the car, what you are seeing is not uncommon and of course is a safety concern

Life is often maybe 2,000 hours on many, some less. I think how they are run often is part of it, I suspicion running LOP or peak shortens life as it’s higher temp. Aircraft exhausts live a hard life, first they are designed to be lightweight above all, secondly we run at high power levels all the time when compared to Autos for example. They are most often 300 Series SS. Many do ignore flame tubes, those that do I believe are foolish, once the flame tube is gone nothing prevents the flame from impinging on the wall of the muffler possibly burning through and causing fires or putting high levels of CO in the cockpit. Replacing the tubes saves the muffler in my opinion, they lasted maybe 500 hours in my Maule but likely less, but Maule sold repair kits amounting to the muffler cap end and the flame tube, easy repair. I assume you have to fabricate them for a Mooney? Exhaust systems in general are wear items like tires, they don’t last forever, seems Turbo aircraft are even harder on exhausts

I think possibly that Rejex may help with staining, use two coats, of course the increase in benefits decrease with each additional coat, reaching all you’re going to get at three from what I have read but there is very little difference between two and three. It seems to work best if you go over the paint with machine glaze or other very fine polish, I suspicion that’s cleaning the paint is all. Be very sure the polish you pick does NOT have silicone in it, many do and many don’t tell you, but if it claims to “rejuvenate” the paint or leaves the paint feeling very slick it almost certainly does,of course silicone prevents any quality wax or polymers from adhering to the paint. I got a deal on Meguirs, unfortunately it had silicone so I tossed it and spent the extra money on 3M, I knew better, but it was priced so much better and Meguirs does have a following. It even prevents what is called “pinstriping” on my Jeep, pinstriping is when your running overgrown trail and the brush and broken limbs etc drag down the side of the vehicle leaving horizontal marks all down the side of the Jeep, pinstriping can be polished out as I suspect it’s mostly material deposited onto the paint and rarely dug into the paint, But a couple of coats of Rejex and no more pinstriping on the paint, the plastic fender flares and mirrors still get scratched though.

Does anyone know the person who posted the Youtube video of problems? Is the video still up? Has he received a letter? You can test 16 ways from heck, but until the aircraft / product is out in the wild for a significant period of time you just don’t know, and even then sometimes it takes years. For example do we know how well this stuff stores in aircraft? We have several in my neighborhood that leave for about half the year and of course there is fuel in their tanks. Will they need to drain their fuel systems? Flush? Environmental conditions come into play, I’ve maintained aircraft in the Deserts of South West Asia in Summer, Winter in Bosnia and Korea and those extremes in temp caused completely but very significant problems, even requiring different types of oil, not viscosity, but types. What was different? I’ve forgotten but it was purple and we called it triple nickel because it had 555 in its name. Normally we used 23699 of course. So until this fuel is fielded in the great white North and the Desert heat for significant time we won’t know about that too, I suspect it will evaporate quicker in Desert heat whatever that means I don’t know. Sometimes mixtures of liquids or gasses having different vapor pressures etc over time the more volatile compounds flash off or being smaller molecules leak out at a higher rate and over time you end you with a different chemical compound. Auto fuel comes to mind. And or even if in a sealed container some things just change properties over time. What’s the storage life of this stuff if let in vented containers?

I doubt it, 100LL leaves very little residue. Experiment would be to put some on a mirror, let it evaporate and see what’s left, do the same with the Gami fuel. I’ve never seen the stuff but suspicion that they way it stains is from whatever is left behind being concentrated, so a leak keeps concentrating something that doesn’t flash off as quickly as the rest. The mixture doesn’t stain if cleaned off quickly? It stains if left on? If I had to guess and it’s absolute speculation with zero evidence, but I’d guess that the Gami fuel mostly evaporates, but leaves some liquid behind and it’s whatever is left that causes the problem, maybe why soaking in the mixture doesn’t cause a problem but intermittent wetting and letting it dry does, it’s similar to a leak. The same way a tiny 100LL leak leaves a very concentrated blue dye. Wasn't that pretty much what was done in the test? The Youtube test, Gami’s test was I believe different? Again pure speculation it could be the difference in temp, humidity, what kind of wax was on the paint or who knows.

I know I voted on no ballot, referendum etc for these laws. I don’t know why you couldn’t have bought Piper and not had their liability tail. We bought Thrush with no liability for aircraft manufactured before we bought it. I doubt buying Piper would have made you rich anymore than buying Mooney made them rich.

We can continue to disagree, You don’t see any fuses on Military aircraft and I’d bet Commercial Jets for a reason. You do see them on old aircraft, just as old houses had fuses. Fuses are like vacuum tubes Fuses are cheaper, easier to implement and take less room

Fuses are also thermal. The fuse portion opens the circuit when it melts.

Better solution would have been to install a breaker. But fuses are much cheaper and are easily installed inline. I despise hidden fuses A fuse does nothing that a CB can’t do, difference is of course a CB is resettable a fuse means you have to carry spares which was required back before breakers, probably a Commercial rule like the 2D cell flashlight was. Where the CB is has nothing to do protecting the device it’s connected to, but where the CB or fuse is important as the wire up to the device is unprotected, but it’s not prior to the device For this reason any device connected to a battery for continuous power when the aircraft is “off” like say a clock requires for example that the protection device be within 1 ft of the battery, either way the clock is “protected” but being close to the battery means only 1 ft of wire that could cause a fire isn’t. But I am confused how a CB or fuse protects a device, protects it from what? Internal shorts? It’s broken then, Anything else that I can think of that will cause excessive current to blow a fuse or trip a breaker means a wire is shorted, the device is broken and drawing excessive current of the protective is incorrectly sized.

Yes I know, but it has many negative effects that only benefit the Lawyers, it makes the named defendants have to defend themselves and they do that with Lawyers. It also drags the process out exponentially, which adds many billable hours for the Lawyers. I have no experience thank God, but it seems that many, possibly most Lawsuits have nothing to do with the truth, but with enriching Lawyers, personal injury comes to mind.

Neither would likely function properly in an icing environment, but also ice build up, even in small amounts changes the airfoil, and therefore changes the critical angle of attack, so neither would be particularly accurate

Been at least 50 years ago and I do not have personal first hand knowledge of this, this is second hand from a Bell Helicopter employee. But a wealthy person purchased a brand new Bell 206, being as it was a military derivative aircraft the low fuel warning lights said 20 min fuel on the Caution warning segment because the Army reg required a fuel warning when 20 min of fuel remained at normal cruise, during the factory training this individual received at the factory he signed forms three times attesting that it had been explained to him that this light was an indication of low fuel and depending on rate of fuel consumption that the fuel remaining may not be 20 mins worth. The POH of course had warnings and stated how much fuel quantity was remaining when the light illuminated. Well on the way home the aircraft ran out of fuel, he froze never reducing the collective or taking any apparent action so he crashed and died. The grieving Widow sued of course, the basis of the Lawsuit was the aircraft ran out of fuel 15 min after he reported to ATC that he had a low fuel indication. The Widow got a Huge settlement. The pilot was shown to be grossly negligent of course, all he had to do was land in any of the open fields he was flying over, he wasn’t IMC, didn’t execute an Autototation etc. But Bell Helicopter had DEEP pockets and I’m sure the Jury felt sorry for the Widow. Outcome of the Lawsuit had nothing to do with any fault of Bell Helicopter

The legal system is administrated, run and policed by Lawyers. Who do you think it primarily serves and protects? In my life I’ve been party to one lawsuit, and that one was a class action one, the open cell foam / synthetic stucco one on houses, and believe it or not but I received enough money from that to mostly fix my house, with me doing a lot of the work myself of course and some money out of my pocket. The Lawyers I’m sure received far more than the people with the rotting houses. This Gami thing differs from the Mobil 1 “thing” in a couple of to me very important aspects. First it’s way too early to asses anything against Gami, I think at this point there is zero proof? But secondly and more importantly I don’t think even if there becomes proof, even damning proof that there will ever be any significant litigation. Because I think George if that’s his name is a Lawyer and being a Lawyer Gami is organized, set up or whatever as an organization with little to no assets and he himself is very well insulated from any litigation from anything Gami does or doesn’t do. Not ascribing any kind of negative thoughts against George, but if he’s any kind of decent Lawyer he’s far more aware of what the possible outcomes of any possible lawsuit are and has enough sense to ensure that he and his assets are as protected as possible. Sp I think any Lawyer hired to sue Gami if I’m correct is going to find out that Gami has essentially no assets, and George’s assets are pretty much untouchable, without spending a large sum and years, so they wouldn’t take the case. So I think this is very different than the Mobil oil fiasco. But we are getting way ahead of ourselves as I don’t believe there is any proof at all. Only reason I bring this up is for anyone who believes they have been harmed by this fuel, I think it’s unreasonable to expect anything other than your going to foot the entire bill to fix your airplane yourself. Fault in my opinion has little to do with successful out come of Lawsuits, it’s the depth of the pockets that does.

Funny you call it Pro-Seal, that’s what it’s called in the Army everywhere you go. At the Thrush plant they called it B2, one is a brand name, the other the viscosity and pot life, nobody calls it by it’s proper name. On edit even if it was slosh and Gami eats slosh, slosh is an approved aircraft sealant, I believe Mooney top coated the sealant with it? We didn’t at Thrush and our tanks were much bigger, the aircraft operated off of much rougher strips and our landing cycles were much greater than Mooney’s and our tanks sealant lasted just as long as Mooney’s Oh and we except for the main spar web lay up sealed our wings after shooting them together. I don’t think you could shoot entire wing skins wet.

So what was the result? I’ve done a little looking myself and from memory the Champion filters a little finer or claims to. I don’t use Champion anything myself, I don’t think it’s worth the price

Which RV model is it? Some builders back a few years ago I believe sloshed the tanks to seal them, the slosh comes off and leaks are the least of your problems then. While it’s possible of course that a home builder could have used anything I think it very unlikely for an RV, we have several of the things here and a couple being built now. RV isn’t a cheap kit, majority of them are built with a new Lycoming and a new prop for example. Every RV I’ve seen built the builder builds IAW the instructions with a couple of rare mods, like a baggage door for an RV 14. If all these problems are coming from one supply of fuel, I’d be suspicious of that batch, perhaps they got something wrong?

If it’s ever proven that they are at fault, yes. I believe Mobil did for the oil problem regardless of engine age? However I believe the owner is a Lawyer, so surely he’s covered pretty well. Way I see it as a Layperson, is that there really is a compatibility problem, or it’s one heck of a coincidence. I have no way of knowing which it is, but I believe two things. 1. If I was using it or even used it once, I would have that documented by every means that I could starting with receipts and if I lost it, because I have never kept receipts I’d ask for one 2. I’d not use it until the issue, if there even is one is solved. Personally I’d never use it because we are certain that it reacts negatively with Nitrile, and my fuel bladders are apparently made from Nitrile. Everyone keeps saying O-rings, and they are not that big a deal, but they may be the canary in the coal mine. The bigger deal is fuel pumps, fuel flow transducers, pressure transducers, fuel servo, fuel spider on top of the engine, who knows what else, there are plastics and rubber throughout the fuel system, heck even the fuel quantity transmitter floats and they probably have seals too. O-rings aren’t really the issue because in most all cases they aren’t really that exposed, they are in grooves that when the part is assembled there is very little in contact with the liquid, but seals etc are exposed and I don’t know where Viton replacements can be sourced for those components I listed above. But then, maybe this will all turn out to be a non issue. Having worked a lot with the FAA myself I know their overriding concern is “can this reflect negatively on me?” I’m actually surprised that they haven’t stopped the sale of the fuel until the investigation is completed myself, the fact that they haven’t indicates something I think, what that is I’m uncertain

Back to have one vise grip as a back up wrench type of thing, if you hold the lever with one and unscrew with the other, then the shaft of the lever takes all of the torque. I agree with what I assume your point is, that the base of the lever is weaker than up higher. The amount of heat required to loosen the Loctite probably would have been fine too

The filter of any aircraft should not be a significant restriction if it’s serviceable, some paper ones I’ve seen are not, from I think people trying to save a buck and cleaning it, of course you can tell by manifold pressure. I suspect the J has an air filter that’s in a high pressure area and that’s what you’re after, pressure. That’s why cowl induction back in the day was more effective than hood scoops for cars, because the base of the windshield was a higher pressure area than a hood scoop. Anyway ram is less effective on a J than other models. Hood scoops especially “shaker” ones looked cooler though and sold better, but they were less effective, neither made much power at car speeds though. It seems counter intuitive but a funnel shape is not what you want for ram air, because a funnel builds velocity at the expense of pressure, your after pressure so a reverse funnel shape is what your after. Next time your at the airport look at a turbines inlet, the entrance hole is smaller than the inside in order to reduce velocity, which increases pressure. The ram on my J does work though as evidenced by the increased fuel flow when it’s open. I suspect Mooney deleted it because its negative aspects were worse than the slight benefit it gave, but that’s just my guess. I’m leaving mine alone because I don’t see how deleting it does anything that simply not using it does. it’s there I just don’t use it.

If it looks like this the below switch is it, MS number is in the Amazon pic. The tip is attached with red Loctite so it’s not going to just screw off, it’s going to take heat that I was afraid might damage the switch, of force. I used force holding the lever with one set of vise grips and another on the tip. Be careful with the plastic wheel as I think it’s made from Unobtanium. On my J only one pole of the switch is used, I did not try but am pretty sure you could switch the wires to the other side to get home or other temp repair. If that doesn’t fix it it might be the solenoids, if you’re lucky they are silver and round if so they are golf cart solenoids easily found by part number, limit switches could also be it. I first replaced solenoids, but it ended up being the switch on mine.

Fl has a min gross weight, Mooney is over the limit whatever it is but I don’t think my C-140 is, I think LSA’s aren’t tax exempt for parts. So I only buy Mooney parts now

Anything you find will need an STC most probably, that involves an IA and paperwork $$ would likely end up what a new Bendix switch costs. Welcome to Certified Aviation

STC holder and Owner and maybe the IA. I’m no Laywer but they would go after Textron too I’m sure and if they could show Textron was negligent then of course they would also pay. Remember the Cirrus that ran into some building in NY? The lawsuit among others named Hartzell, I guess if the prop hadn’t pulled them into the building they would still be alive?

Interesting, recommendation of a G meter, but no over G inspections just undefined hard landing inspections. Probably does however make the Ferry tank permit easier if complied with, but no J or other smaller aircraft. The forward CG limit comes back but rear remains the same, indication the nose gear is the weak link which is normal for most aircraft, or maybe elevator effectiveness?