Utah20Gflyer

I don’t really get why people get so offended by a product someone is offering but they don’t want. You don’t have to buy it, and the fact that they have different objectives for that product than you do doesn’t mean they are spitting in your face. I fly a G model in the western mountains. Because I don’t have a turbo and FIKI my ability to fly IFR in my area is extremely limited. The G model has one of the lowest gross weights of all the Mooneys. So guess what? Weight is very important to me and Amp hour capacity is not very important. Especially since my starting battery is not my only backup for my avionics. My ADM is different and my own. Each of you have your own missions and each manufacturer has their own products. No one is trying to force anyone to buy an EarthX battery. If you love the concord battery then great, keep buying those. If you truly feel EarthX made a mistake in the way they designed their product then make your own improved version and see how it does in the market.

I’m interested in learning more about bleeding the flap system. I’ve done the brakes before and have a good feel for that but at my last annual the IA noted there was a hydraulic hose for the flaps in the belly area of my plane that looked worn and the plan is to fix it at the next annual. We will obviously introduce a lot of air into the system when that hose is removed and replaced. Without actually hearing from someone with experience I am thinking the way to do it would be to apply vacuum to the system to suck the air back up into the reservoir? What have you all done to bleed the flaps??

Sorry, I remembered taking a picture doing 145kts TAS at 10.5k msl and couldn’t help myself. I concede those numbers in a Cirrus are quite good.

Thanks, the fuel quantity display is an aerospace logic gauge. I switched to that when I did the CIES fuel senders. There were a few hiccups after the initial install but since I got those resolved it’s been great.

Mooney M20G for the win! 145kts at 10.5 MSL and 8.3 gph, 17.8 mpg.

For those concerned about battery backup capacity for running electronics what about a battery pack you could plug into your cigarette lighter to back feed power into the system? I don’t think this would require any approval or certification and would offer cheap capacity. I built a power box for ice fishing that would work. It’s a small plastic ammo can that I can put two 6.5 AH 40v lawn mower batteries into and is converted to 40ah @12v. If anyone is interested in seeing it let me know and I’ll post a picture. It’s a nice set up. I actually used to power my icy breeze cooler with it but then I made a set up where I just slide the battery directly into a battery dock on the cooler and it powers it directly - less wiring that way. I don’t think I’d need something like that unless I was doing something crazy like crossing the Atlantic. But a good thought exercise.

This is a very important factor. If it’s in a dry climate it might be ok. If it is in a humid climate I can’t imagine it not having internal corrosion with that little usage. If you can get permission to pull lifters to inspect the cam that would be good— if you can do that on an io360? The big block continentals you can. Also, expect a higher than normal number of things that may currently work to go bad in the first year because things don’t like to sit idle for long periods. So in summary it’s a high risk plane. That doesn’t mean don’t buy it but it should be at a discount and with the understanding of what you are getting into. If it ends up having lots of issues you won’t be flying 200 hours a year any more.

I had some extra avgas a long time ago and ended up using it in a lawn mower. I enjoyed the smell of the burning avgas much more than I expected. Just something about that smell!

I just converted an electric golf car from 36 volt lead acid to 48v Lifepo4. I dropped more than 200 pounds of weight and now have probably 4 times the range - although I haven’t tested just how much range it has because frankly I don’t want drive 50 miles to find out when it’s going to finally give up. Sunday I drove it 12 miles in three different trips and based on the recharge time it didn’t use up much capacity. The charger is 15 amps and it ran for maybe 60 - 90 minutes. So basically I used 15-20% of capacity? I purchased a 100 AH battery which I am happy with because I also made the golf cart into a mobile 5.1kwh “power wall” that I can plug stuff into if the power goes off. The point of this long winded story if I were just using it for driving around I easily could have gone half the capacity and still had plenty of range. Personally I really like how Lifepo4 batteries perform and based on the fact I have multiple backups besides my starting battery I don’t see much downside.

This is my standard procedure. Take off trim is slightly higher than the mark. It only requires a modest pull on the yoke to rotate and lift off the runway. With you and an instructor in the plane you are going to be fairly forward CG (although still well within limits) So a little extra nose up trim will help counteract that. Not a big deal and not worth taking things apart. With a different CG the standard mark may be correct. Ie more aft CG and no flaps.

I’ve been watching things develop with the Aerocuze autopilot closely. They seem to be available now but there have been some issues with installations. Apparently their approval included models that had different set ups and the parts weren’t working. I think the issue is with short body airframes but no one who really knows has come out and said explicitly what models are affected. Which is frustrating. Im probably not going to be able to afford to do an auto pilot until next year anyway so I just keep watching things progress and hoping all the kinks are worked out by the time I order.

If you want an inexpensive replacement I have a used rapco pump I pulled off my plane when I did the vacuum system delete. It probably has 350-400 hours on it but was working well when removed. I’d sell it for 100 bucks with shipping included. Message me if you are interested. Looks to be a counter clockwise unit.

You State that your battery is approved for E-K but my understanding is it isn’t approved for a G model which falls in that range. So it would be more accurate to say E-F,J-K. The G model has the battery forward of the firewall like the rest of the carbureted Mooneys. (A-D and G) Could you comment on when the approval may happen for the carbureted Mooneys and whether heat from the engine is the complicating issue? Thanks, I’m interested in increasing my UL next time I need a battery.

Here is what a previous owner did with the pilots yoke in my airplane. It’s just a piece made from aluminum plate.

I’d suggest starting at the reservoir and working your way down the system. My reservoir is above the rudder pedals and under the pilot side avionics access panel. Master cylinders are under the floor right next to the electric fuel pump, that’s always a good bet. Although it could be anywhere if you remove two belly panels that will expose the majority of the likely possibilities.

Are our aircraft batteries deep cycle or starting batteries? I was under the impression they were starting batteries. Seems to me the battery test people are talking about is abusive to a starting battery. I don’t know this for sure but I’ve heard that a starting battery will be damaged by complete discharges and repeated complete discharges will likely be fatal (5-6). When I was a tire and Battery tech at sears at 18 years old we tested starting batteries by putting a high amp load on them and watching the battery voltage. A good battery would drop in voltage slightly and then slowly drop. A bad battery would drop a lot in voltage immediately down to 9 or 10 volts. This test took 30 seconds to do. If I were to test my battery this is the type of test I would do. It approximates the use case for the battery and doesn’t abuse it. If you want any to regularly test amp hour capacity then I would recommend getting a Lithium Ion battery. They can be fully discharged 1000+ times without any appreciable effect.

CHTs would be super high at that fuel flow. One of the challenges of high DA takeoffs in an older Mooney like mine is a fuel flow that keeps engine temps reasonable also leaves a lot of potential power unused. Now, having said that even my plane with 20 less hp can take off with plenty of safety margin at that DA - if things are done correctly. The key is to keep the plane as light as possible (1 person, half tanks) You have to lean as much as possible (heat limited) and accept that CHTs are going to exceed 420+ degrees. We don’t have any details about what happened but Full fuel in an F would be a lot of extra weight. The one person, full fuel and a bunch of baggage could be excessive for those conditions. Full rich or excessively rich on takeoff would rob the engine of a lot of power could have been an issue. But we don’t know. Could the crash be solely caused by a down draft? Possibly, but I suspect it was only the last straw. I’m really glad the pilot was Ok!

I think this is the key. As long as everything chosen compliments the rest it will look great. The key is staying away from close matches that don’t actually quite match. For example two light greys might not look good because they are close but not exact. But if you do a light grey and a medium grey from different suppliers it won’t look pieced together.

I have a complete set of servos I’d like to sell . Everything but the step servo looks to be in good condition. I’d sell the set for 200.00. I don’t want to split the set. Message me if you are interested. Thanks

I’ve been having issues with my GI 275 updates as well. I might try to take my plane into the avionics shop next week to address a separate issue and will see if they have any resolution to the issue.

In my opinion this would fall under owner preventative maintenance because you are replacing a standardized part that requires no complex disassembly or reassembly. I’m going off my interpretation of the Coleal legal interpretation on the issue. Generally you are only removing 2 screws and one nut and then replacing them to reinstall the breaker. The operation is approximately as complex as installing a new battery which is explicitly allowed. If this seems like a stressful operation I would recommend having an A&P assist you with it, or maybe supervise you doing it yourself. You might ask the IA who does your annual what they would think of you replacing the breaker and logging it. This opinion is also just my own and also carries no weight.

I have a complete set of vacuum servos with serviceable boots with the exception of the retractable step servo, that one works but leaks a little. If you want them send me a message and I’ll make you a deal on them.

An STC is specific to a single airplane. So you can’t reuse the STC you have to get a new one from the company. My understanding is STEC wants 3k? to reissue an STC. Once you pay for the STC, the parts and the labor you are going to be approximately at the cost of the Aerocruze. The only auto pilot I think you could do cheaper would be the original Mooney PC system. Personally I wouldn’t want to put in the effort to do a new install on a system that old but it is an option.

I’m going to admit I’ve been looking at Cessna turbo 206s lately. I’m sure I won’t enjoy flying one as much as my Mooney but I have a lot of kids and for family adventures it has a lot of utility. In particular the 6 seats, incredible useful load and short/rougher field capability.

So coincidentally my yoke started having a little bit of play in it again so I decided to try removing my lightly loctited set screw and then re torque it. It was fairly stiff coming out which made we worry just a little but I got it out fine, cleaned it up and replaced it, but this time didn’t use loctite. I’m going to see how long it takes before it comes loose again. If it reoccurs quickly I’ll probably reinstall with loctite again. Once again using the minimum amount possible.