Utah20Gflyer

I have the electric step conversion and like it quite a bit. The retractable step down will cost you 2-3 knots. If you faired it I’m sure the penalty would decrease but there will still be a penalty. Personally I would do the electric conversion. You’re doing work and spending money either way, why not do it “right” and get the best possible results.

Personally I like having two modern Comm radios so I can get ahead of things. For instance at a busy airport you can have clearance, ground, tower and departure all ready to go. If it were my plane I would definitely add a radio but would do so in the easiest way possible. I would consider a comm radio that fits in a 3.125” instrument hole or another option would be an audio panel that has a Com radio such as the PS engineering PAR 200.

I would try to sell as is at a discounted price to account for the needed work. I don’t think that the financial risk and headache of doing major work is going to be worth it considering you never intend on flying the plane again anyway. Let the person who wants to fly it handle that. It really sucks that a highly depreciating event happened right before selling.

Wow, your Mooney is beautiful!

I did my private in a Cherokee. It’s the Ford Fiesta of airplanes.

If it were me I would either learn to be content with what I had or buy a K model or an Ovation. A vintage Mooney is the Honda civic of airplanes. It fills its role nicely but it isn’t a sports car. If I needed to buy a new prop because something is wrong with the old one then yeah, I’d spend more to buy the faster version, but planes are already expensive to own so why blow money trying to squeeze out a few knots out of a perfectly functional plane. Next annual you could check rigging and make sure your gear doors are nice and tight. The step being down will cost you 2-3 knots. Do you have the retractable step and is it functioning correctly? A clean and waxed plane is supposedly a couple knots faster, is the plane all polished up? Weight kills speed…are there things that can be taken out of the plane to save weight? An aft CG helps with speed. Have you tried putting everything you can in the baggage compartment? In cruise move your seat back? None of these things will make a big difference but you might be able to pick up 5 knots without spending any real money.

I would agree with the notion that you should get the plane on jacks so you can evaluate the landing gear. You won’t be able to determine what kind of play there is unless you do. In my case the first annual I had to go through the whole system and replace lots of parts to get it airworthy again. That was very time consuming.

Aero motors could likely have a replacement to you in less than a week, they are probably half the cost of a new one and build in improvements the original fuel pump lacked. Give them a call!

Having to do approaches in low IFR in the middle of the night with a minimally equipped airplane sounds like the opposite of a good time to me. There must have been intense external pressure on that group to entice them into this scenario.

During an oil change last year I found a broken cylinder hold down stud. Fortunately it wasn’t a through stud which I think would complicate the process of fixing the problem. Fixing mine required removing the cylinder and an interesting process to remove the broken stud piece that remained in the case - but was broken off below the surface. I’d imagine the fix for a through stud will require removing two cylinders. I would certainly contact the manufacturer for their input on the proper procedure for removing and replacing a through stud. Hopefully there is a precedent for doing so while the engine is still installed.

I’d consider buying this airplane under 3 conditions 1. plane was already at my airport 2. I had a lot of extra time 3. The owner would take my offer for 5k

A 201 instrument panel with a Johnson bar looks unnatural!

I have this exact problem. My solution was to toss the tiny washer that went with the screw. Apparently there were enough threads at the bottom to make the screw work. I still have the original screw holes so when the time comes this solution doesn’t work I will drill out for the next size and tap it. I may do all three because having one different screw is annoying. One last suggestion. Sometimes if you insert a thin piece of plastic or paper in the hole it will tighten things up enough to hold firmly. I would consider this a temp fix because of the annoyance factor. But if you want to fly before you perform the real fix this usually works.

I agree with your point. I was making a narrow observation about a class C airport that approach, clearance, tower and ground are essentially the same entity. I get that center and a class D airport are probably not going to coordinate. Or a Delta under a Bravo. It would sure be nice if they did but that’s a bridge too far at the moment. I do expect approach and tower to coordinate at the same airport but maybe that is too much to expect at the moment as well. Being proactive as you suggest is prudent.

I flew into GEG Spokane international a couple of weeks ago. I was on flight following with Approach which handed me off 12-15 miles out to the tower. So seems like this is what the tower wanted in your situation rather than approach directing you into the traffic pattern. That’s understandable but they should save their anger for whoever was running approach. Personally I’ve always considered approach, tower and ground to be different parts of one entity. If I land and tower gives me taxi instructions as I clear the runway should I have to worry about being yelled at by ground for doing what I was instructed to do? How are we supposed to know tower hasn’t asked approach to send people into the traffic pattern for them? If they aren’t then why are they not giving the handoff at the right time? If this is how ATC operates then how are we supposed to trust them? I get their jobs are difficult and I don’t expect perfection, but don’t blame the guy who did what you told him to do. That just creates a toxic environment.

Also vote no crack. It looks like there is just a tiny bit of undercut on the weld in that spot. I think when the part was painted there was an air pocket where that undercut is and later the paint cracked because it wasn’t attached in that spot. Of course eyeballs IRL are superior to most pictures so who knows. I think a wait and see approach is warranted. Keep in mind I was never issued a CB card and am unlikely to get issued one in the future. Replacing one used and very likely good gear leg with another used gear leg doesn’t create any value in my mind.

If you decide to upgrade to a 6 place I would recommend selling your Mooney now, bank that money. Rent a plane and get your instrument rating while you shop for a new plane. When you find what you like purchase and enjoy the lower insurance premiums and greater utility. The cost to rent a plane to get the IR will be the same or maybe less than it takes to own a Mooney. You get the experience of getting the IR with the modern equipment and since you already sold the Mooney your overall aviation budget is approximately the same.

I have a 68 G model with strobes only.

I think the best thing you can do to keep annuals reasonable is to fix things as they come up rather than deferring things to the annual. Either way you are going to spend a fair amount of time maintaining your airplane. So work on your plane a little all year round or a lot for a couple weeks. That being said my mechanic and I always find a few things that need attention during the annual. If that thing requires a hard to get part then you get the dreaded long annual. There is no getting around that. It’s just baked into the process. My annuals range from 2 days to over 3 months. On a more annoying technical note the annual inspection only includes the actual inspection. That should be a concise activity. You can have the inspection and have the IA immediately sign off the Annual with discrepancies. You wouldn’t be airworthy but you would be done with your annual inspection. So really an annual inspection should only take a couple days no matter how bad the condition of the airplane is. I get this isn’t how most people go through the practice - but I feel like being that guy today.

Sharp edges tend to propagate cracks so bevel all of the edges - holes and circumference. Eventually it will crack as it ages but it will reduce the likelihood of cracks. I also made my own from Lexan (Polycarbonate). I used my old one as the template. It was a very easy job.

Wow, this is quite the situation. rockers arms are damaged ? pushrods are all bent? pushrods that came out won’t go back in? you are being told the case has been milled beyond limits but the accessory case still fits? but the engine ran like that for 800 hours? I would say the next step is certainly a second opinion. No knock on the current mechanic but the confusion seems to be multiplying. I think an engine shop like you are talking about is a great idea.

My mechanic and I usually do my annual in two days with both of us working and a third guy popping in for a couple hours. This can work out fine but there is always the chance you may need parts that you may not have on hand. My first annual took 3 months. So you never really know. Personally I wouldn’t try to make any plans until the plane is done with the annual and ready to fly again.

The parts manual for our G model Mooneys show the Prestolite ALY-8403 as being the alternator originally installed. Hartzell says the current part number they are selling for our plane is ALX-8521 A standard alternator looks like this which is quite different than what you have installed. Im feeling pretty confident the alternator installed is not the right manufacturer. It looks as though the other companies like plane power are selling the same prestolite alternator under their own label, so unless there is a STC I haven’t come across then that doesn’t look like a proper alternator. Whoever put that 90 dollar rebuilt alternator in your plane should be nominated for king of the cheap bastards (also known as CBs on the forum).

It’s very likely that the alternator is not an aviation specific unit. The reason is not that the STC holder doesn’t use an alternator from Carquest. The reason is that they charge 3x the price to remove the carquest sticker and apply their sticker. Look in your logbook and see if you can find a logbook entry saying when that alternator was installed. Also look for any STCs for alternator conversion. You’ll probably just have to spring for an approved alternator and a little labor to swap them. It would probably be good to have the new alternator in hand before the mechanic starts looking for brackets. Could be an alternator issue rather than a bracket issue that is causing the misalignment.

When I pulled a cylinder on my engine to replace a broken stud I definitely noticed that it was much more difficult to get the rockers back in. This concerned me at the time but the mechanic said as long as we put everything back the way it came out there is nothing to worry about with it being really tight. If the pushrods really were that out of spec then the valves would never close and you would have zero compression. Given the engine was running fine previously I think that mechanic should follow my mechanics advice and put everything back together the way it came apart.