Utah20Gflyer

I had two INOP fuel gauges and decided that instead of spending money to troubleshoot and then repair 60 year old senders and gauges it made more sense to upgrade to CIES senders and an aerospace logic digital fuel gauge. 2k in parts and now I have much more accurate fuel gauges. If it's a simple fix like cleaning up a ground then that's an obvious choice but otherwise I'd say it's worth a little extra money to modernize.

When you say the mechanic rebuilt the brakes do you mean he redid everything in the brake system or did he just do the master cylinders? Pads? Rotors? Brake fluid reservoir? Etc. It might help to know what was actually done. The comments about bleeding the brakes is on point. That could very well be the issue.

A Mr Heater buddy works pretty good without a high risk of asphyxiation. I use one in a small ice fishing tent on occasion and while on occasion some fresh air is warranted I've never ran into any issues. They make several different variations, you can use with the 1lb propane bottles or get an adapter hose to go to a grill tank. You might need more than one. When working in the cold I find a two prong approach of dressing warm and using a heater generally gets me to a pretty comfortable state.

Given the current market the plane is probably worth 50k even with all the unknowns. I get a lot of people here wouldn't pay that much but there are plenty of people who would, maybe let's call them the less sophisticated buyers. I looked at a C model before I bought my G and it needed a lot of upgrades to bring it up to what I would call acceptable condition. They were asking 45k and I offered 31k. The seller acted like I was being ridiculous. I explained my reasoning but ultimately someone showed up and paid 45k for that plane. Maybe they didn't care that it was VFR based on the condition of the avionics, maybe they didn't care all the glass needed to be replaced. They obviously didn't care about the ratty interior. Maybe someone just wanted something to fly around on fair weather days for fun, or maybe they didn't understand what it would take to get that plane back into good condition. Who knows??? All I know is that if a plane can be flown there is probably someone who will throw down their money to do so.

Which is why we can't use full synthetic oil. It can't suspend the lead in solution until the next oil change. Synthetic oil and longer oil change intervals will be a nice byproduct of getting rid of the lead, also cleaner spark plugs and no more stuck valves.

A dremel tool works nicely to slot a screw so you can use a flathead screw driver on it.

I checked my plane today, it's a G but you never know what kind of shenanigans might have happened in the past. Mine were solid units and looked good. I looked at the F model parked next to me and his were the same as mine. I don't imagine this is going to affect many people.

In the SB sample pictures you could see the transition between inner and outer sections through the paint. So I would say that's not one of the affected weights.

You will probably need to disassemble the chair some to actually see how that goes together and what needs to be ordered, unless you happen to have the parts manual, either way it looks like the seat upholstery will have to come off for the repair which I'm sure is going to be annoying.

That's a nice looking Mooney, Congratulations!

I don't think counterweight replacement requires any reskinning. It is riveted to the corner of the elevator. I believe it can be removed and replaced quite easily provided you can get a replacement part.

It would seem an over reach to ground planes where no corrosion was evident. That would be like grounding all aircraft because the spar could be corroded. If you have a corrosion issue then deal with it, if you don't then monitor the situation on occasion and proceed as normal.

My EI tach is on the far right of my panel and so far no issues reading it.

I replaced my tach last year with the Electronics International and like it. It has been very accurate and reliable although I would agree it isn't the slickest looking instrument around.

Is your rudder straight when the nose wheel is straight?

If you can find the more modern yokes you get the added benefit of getting rid of the 500 hour AD on the older control shafts.

I'd say first thing to check is make sure the nut and bolt holding the assembly together is tightened down appropriately. Then on jacks if tightening everything hasn't solved the issue then you should be able to see if the wear is top and bottom wear or side to side wear between the bolt and bushing. Each problem has its own solution.

I see CHT numbers in the 200s during runup and Taxi, high 300s do seem very suspect. Verifying it isn't an indication issue is probably the first step.

The wing leveler and aileron trim system are INOP in my plane. I disagree with the previous owner that the aircraft needs aileron trim so although I will likely fix it at some point or remove it just cause I like everything to work but it's just not a priority at the moment. I'm looking at installing a modern auto pilot and don't think the effort to fix the wing leveler is going to be worth the year I would use it. I don't think I am the problem. As time progresses my airplane gets better and better. For me that seems acceptable. Perfection is sometimes the enemy of the good. Ultimately it's my plane so I'll do with it what I want. Yeah it's sad when people neglect airplanes but it's their property not yours. If you care so much then buy all these airplanes you don't think aren't being maintained well enough and maintain them yourself to your exceptional standard. If you don't then you have failed, LoL.

I have one of those systems installed as aileron trim but it's INOP at the moment so I can't comment on it's efficacy or utility. Personally I don't see a great need for it which is why I haven't dived into figuring out what's going on with it. It's on the list but very low priority.

It only takes a very small reduction in diameter for things to start rubbing. Having replaced my rollers and seen the result I can promise you that if your seat isn't rolling smoothly replacing rollers will fix the issue. The difference between my old rollers and the new ones was only a hundreth of and inch or two. Basically a very shallow groove had been worn in the middle of the roller. A set of 8 rollers cost me 80 bucks from Lasar and I swapped them myself in less than one hour start to finish.

Good idea!

I’d be laughing to except this happened to me. I flew up to Logan Utah with my wife for her friends wedding. Everything is wrapped up and we get back to the plane and no key (this is before I had extras made). We went and grabbed the crew car again and retraced out steps, eventually we ended up at a grocery store I had stopped at and they had it at customer service. Apparently it had fallen out of my pocket when I took my wallet out to pay. That was a big relief but next on the to do list was getting 3 extra keys made. Now I keep one in my flight bag, one in my car, one on my key ring with all my other keys and one at home. Never again!

I addressed this issue at my last annual. I used a brass bristle brush and maybe wd40 (can’t remember for sure, but I use wd40 for cleaning a lot). Unfortunately I did remove a fair amount of chrome plating in the effort but it did look better after than before. So my results were similar to yours. Has anyone ever powder coated the handle instead of chroming?

At the price point you are talking about corrosion is the only real deal killer. Anything else can be made up with the price differential between what you might normally pay and what your are paying. The biggest issue with training in a Mooney is insurance. But that is also going to be a issue with a C210. I honestly would be surprised if an insurance company would green light a student pilot to solo in a C210. Keep in mind a rental plane will have insurance to cover the owner but not you. Non owned aircraft insurance is generally in order to cover your potential liability. In the case of an accident it’s highly likely an insurance company will come after you for the full value of the claim. Between the two I would suspect a Mooney would be easier to insure than a 210. I would investigate the insurance situation before purchasing.