redbaron1982

I think there is a possibility that the engine is still untouched. If at all possible I would try to get there or get someone you trust there to assess the situation in person.

Hey, sorry if I missed this part, but are you 100% sure that the engine is disassembled at this point? I wouldn't be surprised if this shady shop has not even touched your engine and is just looking for you to bite on that 45k invoice. Did you personally verify that the engine is all disassembled? Did you already pay them the prop-strike inspection part? That is something that should be 100% covered by the insurance.

Cool, thanks. I don't know how I missed that post!

This is awesome! Thanks for sharing. What motor are you using?

https://www.reddit.com/r/aviation/comments/1ce07d3/damage_from_the_tornado_at_eppley_airfield_in/

Actually, you're correct, it could be the crankshaft. I have a MT 3 blades prop. Part of my preflight is to look for play on each blade and we apply (light) pressure on the tip of the blades, I cannot feel anything. Only when pushing/pulling from the root of the blades.

Usually when pushing/pulling my M20J I apply some force to the root of one blade of the prop. I push as close as I can to the hub. A couple of weeks ago I started hearing a "clack" noise, as if there was a minor play between the blades and the hub. You cannot feel the play, just hear the noise. I guess this is ok, the aircraft just went through annual inspection and nothing came up. But I rather have some other opinion on this. Is it normal to hear this noise? Also, what's your opinion on pushing/pulling the aicraft from the root of the blades? Not using a powered tow bar is really hard to pull, and specially push, just from the tow bar.

What about running mmo a couple of hours prior to the oil change? That's supposed to free up oil rings as well.

Thanks, guys, for all the feedback. I think maybe SavyQA is the best combination of price/benefit. I might end up downgrading instead of cancelling. I do like a lot the analysis service they offer both of engine data and borescope images.

I'm five days away from renewing my subscription after my first year with them, and I'm doubting about renewing. I like the idea behind the service, but my experience was not in line with my expectations so far. There are some exceptions, like Dave Pasquale and Kortopates, they are great and always provide good insights. But this seems to be more the exception than the rule. So far I had to use the "I'm not happy" button twice: I have an issue with oil consumption, I burn (or lose) 1 qt every 3hs. They haven't come up with any solution. The conclusion was "It's inside what is considered airworthy". I'm going through annual inspection and one day before starting the annual inspection, my account manager went on vacation without let me know and a new guy came in, so I had to get up to speed on the list of squawks I have discussed already with my main account manager. Then, when the shop sent back the result of the inspection, they didn't reply for 3 days until I used the "I'm not happy" button and then I was informed that both my main and secondary account managers were on vacation. Now I had to get up to speed to a 3rd person. Two days after, my main account manager came back, and again, he asked me to get him up to speed on how the annual was going. So, I don't like the service, my question is have any of you had one of those cases where you were "saved" by having Savvy?

With 0 complex time you don't have the endorsement that is required. I started flying my J model with 0 complex time. The insurance asked for 10 hours transition training which included the complex endorsement. In addition, 10 extra hours (which could be solo flying) to get the minimum of 20 to fly with passengers. Have in mind that many insurance companies ask for time in make and model, so it your complex time is on a 182RG most likely is not going to help you much with a Mooney insurance.

I think the insurance doesn't go down until at least 50 hours in make and model, so yes, just get the airplane you want and build the time with it. In your place, my main concerns would be: getting the right airplane (and I don't mean the right make and model only, but also one that is in good shape) and get enough trying to fill confident of flying solo.

I replaced mine one year ago with the "approved" one (https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/eppages/safOilDrainValves_07-00879.php?clickkey=6418) and so far 0 issues. I do put a vacuum cap on it, not to stop a leak, but to prevent the remaining oil inside the drain from flying around.

My two cents: I was troubleshooting a hight cht on #3 when someone here at MS pointed out that I was missing a baffle in front of my #1 cyl. It's a small L shaped aluminum plate, that you have in you engine, right in front of #1. I installed this baffle and #3 temp went down but #1 went way higher. I finally decided to remove it and leave it as it was before. I don't know if it is better to leave it on or not,.from my experience it seems better to leave it off.

I ran the system today while on the ground and I didn't see any dripping from the inspection panel. I have a theory, is it possible that the TKS fluid is getting into the wing through the speed brakes? And then from there run towards the lowest part of the wing (which is close to the inspection panel that was dripping)? Any thoughts or has someone seen this?

Hey, is looking great! Do you mind sharing rough numbers on how much it cost? Thanks!

100% For me, the most impressive number is not the 8.3 gph at 75% but the 11.4 gph at full-rated power. I have no idea if it is even feasible to retrofit this into an M20J, let alone if someone is willing to go through the STC process. I wonder how much would be the TCO, considering there is no ignition system at all (no magnetos, spark plugs, etc.). Reliability could be also a relevant improvement.

If these panels are hardly removed, how do they inspect for corrosion during annual inspections? These panels are between the main wing spar and the aft stub spar.

Kind of a side question, I looked at removing the panel that drips, and I found that some screw heads are stripped. Also the screws are painted over and it looks as if it was not removed in a long time. Are these panels supposed to be removed during annual? The dripping (very small) is coming from here:

It does seem to have good flow out of all surfaces, at least in flight both wings were wet. I did remove the inspection panel that gives me access to the proportioning valve in that wing and it was all dried, no leaks there.

I'm exercising my TKS to get it back in normal operation conditions. Today after a two hours flight, in which I ran the system for 45 minutes right after take off, when I put the airplane back in the hangar I notice that there was tks fluid dripping from an inspection panel on the left wing. I removed the inspection panel fwd of the one dripping and checked the TKS manifold and it was all dried and doesn't seem to be any leak. Is it possible that while in flight the fluid can get inside inspection panels and after landing some of them drip? Or should I start looking for a leak in the system?

I want to share my experience with Bevan Aviation, specifically with Jake. Long story short: I was having issues with my AP (KFC 150) altitulde hold and alt preselect. It was randomly failing. This has been a long standing issue, dating back to the previous owner who try to fix this several times, with no success. I did some diagnostic myself, trying to narrow down when the issue was happening. All this troubleshooting was done with the selfless help of Jake. Who at some poitn suggested me to send the flight computer to a shop near my location. So, up to this point, already amazing service. A ton of help, without any commercial interest. As I could never get a hold of the the shop he recommended, I asked Jake if I could ship my flight computer to him to take a look. He was not only able to reproduce the issue, but also fix it. I flew a couple of times after getting back the KC 192 and the AP is working to perfection. I cannot say enough good things about Jake and Bevan: He helped me troubleshoot the issue without any intention on selling me any service. He was able to fix an issue that many other shop tried and couldn´t. Communicaiton was super easy, he kept me updated through the repair process. I would 100% recommend them!

This looks great! Is it possible to get the BOM? I´d love to build one myself.

Is $85 for a hangar monthly fee realistic?! I'm paying $600 per month for my hangar!! I cannot give you my experience regarding costs because I had bad luck... but what I can tell you is that when I did the math myself, the breakeven point for renting vs owning was around 150 to 170 hours per year.

Yesterday I was debriefing my last flight with Cloudahoy and I saw that is calculating both IAS and TAS. I don't have any advanced avionics, so the information I'm uploading to Cloudahoy is just my stratus data. But I see that I get the three speeds GS (which is the only one that makes sense) and then TAS and IAS. Is Cloudahoy using information from Windaloft to calculate those speeds? To my surprise, they IAS/TAS were quite close to the values that I manually recorded during the flight.