RoundTwo

A well placed drain hole would be nice, or maybe a simple cap.

It’s annual time and it was time to do something about the sad looking nose gear. Long story short, we pulled out the nose gear and began disassembly so everything can be blasted, primed and painted. The big shocker was the deteriorated condition of the inside of the “core” of the “donut stack”. The actual part number is 540015-001 (32-20-00). When the donuts were removed, it was noticed that the bore of the tube was almost completely packed with heavy rust that had sloughed off of the interior of the tube over the years. The level of the rust was up to within 3/4” of the top of the tube, just below the cross bolt. It’s my guess that this plane was frequently washed and then rolled back into the hangar where any water that made it down into the tube remained until it finally dried out. As time went on, and the rust accumulation grew, it was a nice moist environment for the rust to continue. From here on out, I’ll make sure that tube will always get hit with the air gun if the plane isn’t flown after getting a wash.

I’ve done Atlanta to Bentonville more times than anyone should ever have to. Been there, done that.

I’m in Georgia and he’s in Arkansas.

It’s time to send my 2-bladed McCauley prop off for some work. Does anyone have any gotcha’s I need to watch out for when building the shipping box? I’ll be sending it to Cody in Arkansas.

Both the $50 and $165 plans are capped at 100 mph. Mooneys need a priority plan.

My “no scratch solution” for my J is paracord support across the top of the engine and duct tape covering all offending edges and corners, front and rear of the cowl. I thread a medium zip tie through the third (I think) camloc hole and attach the paracord to both sides with slip knots and hook it behind the lifting loop to keep it in place. Tape over the aluminum flange and nut plates at the front to protect the spinner and also thoroughly cover the aluminum channel and the first camloc at the rear to protect the fuselage. “Pop” the cowl loose from the fuselage and alternate slacking up the left and right sides to lower it to safety. Reverse the procedure to install. Since I started doing this, I haven’t made any new marks. It takes some practice, but it’s not hard to get the hang of it.

Yeah, it’s hit or miss, getting in. If we’re flying to Florida in the morning, fuhgeddaboudit. No way you’re getting cleared through. I have a much better success rate mid to late afternoon.

I’ve found them at $112.

### <UPDATE> ### When I returned to the hangar to pull off the broken lens, I noticed that the bulb had ruptured and that’s probably what killed the lens. Then I went to look at the other tip, and yep, both bulb and lens are broken there as well. So now, inquiring minds want to know what chain of events can lead to both bulbs rupturing. I’m going to review engine data and hopefully I can find out if it happened in flight. Losing 70 watts of load should be easy to find in the data. Maybe it’s time for a LED swap, but I’ve still got the old two-pin bulbs and I seem to recall the LED conversion isn’t straightforward based on the posts I’ve read. ### </UPDATE> ### Putting the bird away today, I noticed the lens on the rear-facing anticollision light is all busted up. The Mooney part # is 68-4250066-30 from page 57-20-00 in the IPC. Does anyone have one of these you no longer need? Thanks!

Stop it! Just stop it!

I asked Don Maxwell about that trim around the stabilizer and the boarding step. Don said that it is possible to wiggle the new stuff in there. It’s not a simple job, but it is possible.

Closing this out, after speaking with Hartzell several times, this is a known conflict on the IO-360 and they are not concerned about wearing through the boot. I’ve placed some silicone tape between the corner of the fuel fitting and the boot as well as compressing the boot against the starter body to lessen the contact pressure as much as possible. I’ll check it well during annual next April to ensure everything is still OK. I sure wish there wasn’t any contact, but it is what it is.

Great pirep.

It’s only 45 minutes away from me. Maybe I need to go take some pictures and post them here about 1 per week, just to mess with y’all.