Utah20Gflyer

Pirep time. So I finally got my plane back from it's 3.5 month annual and had an opportunity to fly it. The vents work as I expected with the air flow hitting me directly in the face in the centered position. Airflow is low on the ground but once in the air is more than adequate. The vents are attractive and should be much more durable than the ABS plastic deflectors the plane came with. Overall I am very pleased with how the project turned out. I just wanted to thank everyone who contributed to this process. It was helpful to have input from lots of people with much more experience in many different areas. To those interested in aquiring something like this I am still planning on producing something in the future that people could purchase but it's going to take a little while to make that happen. I'm thinking along with vent adapters I may try to produce a lot of the levers, etc that can be difficult to find for our older birds. To keep the costs down they will be owner produced parts. I need to think that through though. I understand that inspecting a part for quality fit and function can qualify a part as owner produced even if someone else made it. Anyway, I'll post more projects in the future. I have two in the beginning stages now. Thanks again!

The supply chain issues are both real and seemingly random. So it's possible it was something completely out of their control or it could just be an excuse. I just got my plane back after a 3 and a half month annual so I feel your pain to some degree. It sucks to own a plane and not be able to fly it.

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3074623 I think this is what you may be looking for. If you know someone with a 3D printer it looks like an easy print.

I just installed CIES senders in my plane a couple weeks ago. As kortoplates said you have to have a device to process the signal coming from the CIES gauges and know when to indicate something like fuel quantity or a low fuel condition. Unfortunately I don't think anyone has thought it worthwhile to make something that would be a bridge between a new digital device and the analog warning light as most digital devices can already provide their own warning. In my case I already had a JPI 800 which can't do fuel indication but already does a lot so I didn't want to spring for a new expensive primary engine monitor. Instead I used an aerospace logic digital fuel gauge. It was a little over 900 dollars and was a pretty simple install. I wouldn't suggest using the old Mooney analog fuel gauges. It will make calibration much more difficult and may in the end cost you more money than a new fuel gauge while giving inferior results. The aerospace logic gauge turns the fuel reading yellow at 8 gallons and red at 3 gallons. Thats sufficient warning for me. Overall I love them, I had completely inop fuel gauges before and it's awesome to have that function back, and much more accurate than ever before.

I don't know enough to give you a definite answer but I know one of the big advantages of the GI 275 is it's ability to interface with older equipment including autopilots. I'm not sure about your application but may want to check and see if the GI 275 can drive your autopilot without the GAD43. I think it does with a 500 dollar add on. I have a 355 and like it quite a bit. If you are keeping the 530 I don't think there is any reason to upgrade to a 650. Although since you already have a wass GPS you don't really need another one anyway. You could just do a 225 to get another com or a 255 if you wanted another nav/com. That would save you some money.

Not trying to hijack this but why is leather being used for a fuel system gasket? What properties does leather have that you can't get from other available materials? Pardon my ignorance... Thanks!

I used #6 stainless machine screws with a few extra washers and a nylock nut, that's on an older g model Mooney however.

I was thinking you could add some vertical fins that go from the base to the dome, it would make the base much stronger and could possibly assist with the warping issue.

Those look good, Could the issue with the ABS be moisture related? I haven't tried printing with it yet but understand it can have issues if not dried adequately. Are you going to install a gasket around the perimeter of the base? Maybe double sided tape would be a good way to seal it against the plenum and also provide some support?

I'm considering different paths forward at the moment, including uploading files to thingaverse and also potentially fabricating parts and selling them. Unfortunately work is really busy so progress is slow. Hopefully this week I'll get my plane out of annual which will give me some additional free time. I've been doing owner assist and been spending a lot of time at the hanger wrenching on stuff. I spent the whole weekend refurbishing my headliner. It's going to be nice having a flying plane again rather than a part time job fixing a plane.

Here is what the finished product looks like. Now the only thing left is to test for function in the air.

Combination, pushed it in with a soldering iron. Pretty quick process, I changed the design to provide a correct size hole for the metal insert.

I just replaced all my seat rollers. Sourced them from LASAR, cost was about 80 dollars for the 2 seats. Things roll much smoother now.

If you are trying to economize on panel space the GI 275s replace the 6 pack completely and don't require an additional backup. They also have the advantage of you want to do things incrementally or need to interface with older equipment. I went for the 275 and like them quite a bit. They have a lot of functionality for their size.

There is a bolt, a bushing and the retraction truss. The bolt is a couple dollars, the bushing is about 30 dollars. Lasar should have them. I just replaced all of those bushings and bolts, etc about a month ago.

I'm currently upgrading to CIES fuel senders and opted to go with an aerospace logic digital fuel gauge, it costs about 900 bucks. I have a JPI EDM 800 so didn't feel like a primary engine monitor would give me enough extra functionality to warrant the extra cost although someday I'd like to upgrade to clean up the panel.

Here is the latest version of a vent lever, this model is made from PETG which should have a UL94 rating of V2. I incorporated a brass threaded insert and increased infill to 50 percent. I think this should last longer than the plane.

I generally fly the pattern at 16 inches so it would be really annoying for the gear horn to go off at 18 inches. As other have said check for the proper number for your aircraft. Mine goes off about 12 inches which seems about right. Generally my rule is to not allow the gear horn to go off without remedying the issue immediately. The intention is to thereby avoid a gear up, tolerating the horn means I may ignore it when it’s really giving me a important input. Being able to do that requires it not to go off frivolously so make sure it’s set correctly. The process of slowing down for me is to level off and reduce power to pattern power (16 Inches) and wait for it to slow to pattern speed (100mph). I try to always be at pattern speed when entering the pattern. Then when I’m abeam the numbers I’m good to go to drop the gear.

Interesting, yes mine requires removal of headliner but I had to take mine off to address an issue with a rheostat anyway. I'd like to see how your install goes.

I did previously have that old style vent. The link is to the vent I used. The angle on the vents is right about 30 degrees. I don't know the exact height but it's about 2 inches. The metal insert is a good idea. I was considering it but didn't have any on hand so I went with an undersized hole on the back side of the part so the #4 screw would cut threads into it. Long term after repeated install/removal I expect they will fail. I think I'll order some inserts and integrate them into the design. I appreciate the input.

Here is the vent lever prototype in place. I think it turned out pretty nice.

I believe the material I'm looking at has a UL94 rating of V0, which I think should be adequate. Still learning and researching though, lots to learn! Private pilot only not an engineer....

It's an ender 5 pro but a good guess as they are very similar. I'm looking into an enclosure but following the trend for me in 3d printing everything is complicated. The lower end printers aren't designed to handle operating in a heated area so I need to heat the chamber while also providing cooling to certain components. Also ABS off gasses some stuff I don't want to be breathing so I have to figure out a system to mitigate that. I could buy a printer that does all of this out of the box for 10k to 30k but that seems a little much to Satisfy my desire to tinker at the moment. I'm may get one eventually as it would be cool to be able to do PEEK, PEKK, ULTEM, etc. but That's going to be down the road a ways. For the the me being I think I'll put about 1k into it and see how things go.

Thanks for the heads up. PC-ABS has a glass transition temperature of 257 degrees putting it about 25 percent over the boiling point of water. Hopefully between having a buffer and not being in the direct flow of the air I'm thinking it should hold up. It looks like the current handle I have is made of abs plastic so should be slightly better. That is the hope anyway. The prototype is made of PLA which has a glass transition temp of around 150 degrees which is not going to cut it, but it's cheap and easy to print which is why Im using it for fit/function testing. Quite a lot of my research so far has gone into learning about the available materials and processes. A lot of the more common materials used in 3d printing are unfortunately not adequate for what I'm trying to accomplish but there are a few with good potential. It comes down to finding materials that are relatively easy to print, strong and fire resistant. Thanks again for the input.

This is a side note to the original project but just 3d printed my first Mooney part. The vent adapters are a bit advanced as I am just learning CAD, CAM as well as all the variables in materials and 3d printer settings. I needed two vent handles, one for the center console vent and one of the vents under the console at your knee. They are a pretty simple design so I figured I would start with them. This one is just a prototype made from PLA which is not a material I would make a real handle from but I'm going to take this one and check it for fit and function and if everything checks out I will work on making one out of PC-ABS FR (fire resistant plastic).