Utah20Gflyer

“I was under the impression you were a premier Mooney shop” could very easily come across as snarky if said with elevated emotions. Have you considered that you could have contributed significantly to how the phone call went? I’m not implying Don (who I’ve never met) reacted correctly, but you can’t control what other people do, only what you do. Maybe you needed a cooling off period before having that conversation. You need to accept personal responsibility for how this all went down. Did you vet this shop before you put your plane in their care or did you just assume because other people said it was a good shop that it was the right shop for you? Did you discuss expectations for communication? Did you ask to talk with the mechanic who was going to be doing the work on your plane beforehand? Did you discuss what the procedure was for shop caused damage? Did you discuss how decisions were going to be made on what was going to be fixed and how pricing was going to be communicated. In other words Don did not just do this to you. You are a co creator of this scenario. If I asked to talk to the A&P before they worked on the plane and they said “sorry, you can’t talk to them directly” Do you think I would ever put my plane in that shop in a million years…. No, there is no way. If you think this just happened to you, then it will keep happening to you. I say this with a genuine desire to help you, I hope it came across that way.

When you say your spring is worn are you taking about the spring not pulling the handle back because it has lost its springyness? Or are you referring to the cosmetics? If it’s the springyness it could be the spring is worn out or the whole assembly needs to taken apart, cleaned up, lubed and reassembled. IE too much resistance in the assembly for the spring to work properly. If the issue is cosmetic then I would say clean it up and put it back in. You can’t even see that spring under normal conditions. I’m not even sure if I have one or not.

I’m sure the 330 has the same timer as the 327. It really is the best aviation timer I’ve ever used. Try it out next time you get up in the air and see what you think. I’ve tried using the timer on the GPS and my I pad but it just takes too long to get to it and set it up. Also it takes those two devices away from how I want to be using them. The timer on the Transponder is basically stand alone and takes maybe two button touches to get it ready. Starts with one touch, stops with one touch, resets with one touch. It’s perfect!

I get my time from the clock in the gps (Garmin 355) which has hours and minutes and then use the timer on my Garmin 327 transponder for seconds - timing holds, etc. I used to have a LC2 but found it to be very user unfriendly and got rid of it. So essentially I’m splitting the requirement over two devices. I feel like this works because the GPS is what you use for release times and ATC reporting and they don’t want to hear about seconds. The timer on the transponder is really simple and user friendly. Until someone convinces me otherwise I think this fulfills the legal requirement.

Personally I wouldn’t try to figure out which cylinder(maybe two) is the weakest link and try a repair and see how that affects the overall situation. A lot of the oil consumption issue could be cause by one or two of the cylinders. A top overhaul might be euthanizing a bunch of cylinders that still have life in them. I don’t think compression in the 50s is necessarily a big issue by itself but a quart in 3 hours is fairly high oil usage. I’d consider it time to start doing something. If you just want to be done with it and can actually get the cylinders you could just write a big check. I would do the incremental approach. But that’s just my preference.

Personally I prefer to work WITH the mechanic to maintain my plane. That way I always know what’s going on and get to be involved with the minutiae of what is happening. There are lots of things that come up and decisions that are made. I like having an experienced mechanic there to bounce questions off of and help make the right decision. I did the engine portion of my annual a week ago and there were literally dozens of things we talked about as we worked and that is something you can never get if you drop off the plane and pick it up when it’s done. Even if the mechanic is the best communicator in the world you won’t get 1/10th of what happened when you weren’t around. Some might not have this arrangement available, some might not want it even if they could have it. Personally I wouldn’t want anything else. As to Don and his shop, I have zero personal experience. Seems like he does a lot for the community which I appreciate. Sounds like most of the complaints revolve around communication about a conflict. Maybe that isn’t Don’s strength? That doesn’t make him a bad guy or his shop a bad shop, that means that could be one of the limitations if you use them. Every shop is going to have its strengths and weaknesses.

I thought I saw news that gear production was resuming. I’m unsure of the timeline but replacements should be available in the near future.

My plane is missing the trim jackscrew boot. I’ve considered replacing it but have subsequently decided I don’t think it is worth it. The jack screw is already in an enclosed area and gets cleaned and lubricated at least once a year. Additionally as has been brought up already it does make it more difficult to service the mechanism with the boot in place. Weighing the benefits and drawbacks I don’t see a compelling reason to replace it.

I try to lube the flight controls every 30-60 days. Basically if I’m doing my preflight and I’m not in a hurry I’ll grab the spray can I keep in the plane and hit everything that is accessible without unscrewing things. My understanding was that Triflow is the correct lubricant.

I get a tick from my strobes but I can’t hear it when the engine is running so not an issue at this point.

I have an almost new 1 inch vacuum gauge I’d sell. Let me know if you are interested.

My last battery test on my GI 275 went a little over 90 minutes. 4 hours would be nice but an hour and a half seems perfectly adequate to find a place to land at my leisure.

My understanding is the GI 275 is only supposed to be installed by Garmin approved shops. The G5 on the other hand can be installed by any A&P.

I’ve found that personal relationships are paramount in the aviation community. If you stop in and introduce yourself and build a relationship with the person I find it’s much harder for them to ignore you. Fortunately for me I’ve always found local sources for work which makes a pop in a lot more convenient. If there is a shop within an easy Mooney flight you might consider an in person visit? Maybe combine it with a 100 hamburger?

I think the KN 75 is a much better setup than the KI 214 so I think you dodged a bullet there. You could be right about it being the splitter. Hopefully it will be that instead of the TKMs. My audio panel is a little more than an inch down from the top to avoid those steel tubes so 47U could be right about someone angling everything on purpose to wedge it all in. You might consider getting rid of the ADF and moving the autopilot to that position so you can move the audio panel down. There are so few NDBs now a days I’m not sure ADFs are worth keeping anymore.