Aerospace

I'm in SoCal. The Seattle wx comment was a joke because of the constant cloudy rainy weather lately.

Any CFI references? I need to get IFR certified asap, this seattle wx is killing me. Also need an avionics shop reference. Jesse Saint started on my ship but I don't want to have to fly to FL for a GNS530 to IFD 540 swap

Thanks for the tip! That would work perfectly.

I don't have many pics. It's called Lake Riverside Estates. I fly VFR direct and use flight following on the way in so the various C and D airspaces aren't any problem. I'm always below the LAX B. On the way home, I usually don't use flight following, my climb let's me go direct and avoid all the spaces. I'm not IFR rated yet and need to find a CFI for it; rather than using one of the pilot mills.

So I live in an airpark now. I flew VFR from CRG to CPM, good times. Now I need connections for everything from a good pilot supply store, maintainer, painter, flying buddies, etc. I'm in 54CL on the weekends and CPM during the week. 54CL in the pics. That's me heading into town for the work week.

It went well enough. I picked in up at the end of November just in time to take it straight to Daytona Aircraft Svc for annual; so no real PIREP from that. The next update is that I just picked it up from annual last Monday the 12th because it was delayed waiting on the speed brakes and a vacuum gauge until late January. At that time, I was already in SoCal for my new job and didn't make it back until last weekend. I picked it up from DAB and flew it to CRG during which time the new audio and comms were wonderful. It's just a GNS 530 making a hole for the IFD 5xx, but my old GX55 was dead, and my comms were terrible. I couldn't wait. The harness work was done in a way so as to integrate with the Dynon harnesses once the autopilot is certified. I agree. In my case, I had to do a GPS now and address the suspect audio panel and harness now anyway, and keep it no more than all the money I have plus maxed credit cards. Jesse Saint gave me such a good rate that I couldn't pass on this approach when I looked at the likely cost of diagnostic/repair labor to keep my original architecture until I could do it ALL at once... after some unknown months/years in the future when Dynon finally wraps up the AP. This really did makes sense for my situation. Now, I've pretty much recovered financially, got a great new job, planes out of both the avionics shop and annual sporting hugely increased reliability and features, has working speed brakes, new gear pucks, new battery, and lots of small irritating things fixed. The plane is very usable during this stopping point on the upgrade journey and still has a C2000 AP. Bottom line: The PAR200b + GNS 530 is WAY better than two ebay KX155s on a marginal original audio panel and harness and a dead GX55... and I made $2k selling the KX155s bringing me well under $10k total.

Today was the day for dropping off the ship, but the morning started out with a thick layer of fog up to a few hundred feet agl. It finally cleared up around 0930 and I was in the air at around 1000. The flight there was an absolutely perfect 45 minutes spent enjoying, for the edit:(last) time, the vintage mono experience that one gets from KX 155s through a KMA 24 audio panel. The Marion County Airport was not busy and my arrival and taxi were uneventful. I will say, however, that Saint Aviation is not in the location that is shown on Google Maps. They have moved two doors south. For me, this meant shutting down in front of the wrong hangar, poking around inside until I got some guidance, and then showing off my excellent hot-start skills. Once I arrived, for real this time, I received a greeting and directions to the office from the friendly folks on the shop floor. Once inside, I met Jesse for the first time and we went through the planned work with all the new parts on the table in front of us. Josiah, the assigned technician, was present and engaged in the interaction with note taking, answers for my questions, and questions for me as well. Bottom line is the interaction left me feeling confident in the shop due to their professionalism, shop appearance, and proactive engagement. I'm excited.

Several weeks have gone by, but it's finally time! I'm dropping the ship off at the shop on Monday. Also, I was able to get the money together to do the PAR200b in addition to the GSN530. It will be nice to have a fully new stereo audio system from stack to jacks.

Thanks for the information, very helpful.

It's a '92 J

Boost pump is said to be behind the left cove cover near the left nose gear door. Can someone look at the attached picture and confirm the cover to remove?

bent easily without heat

Likely the old bent bar on seat adjuster mechanism reduces engagement into holes. Clear to see and easy to fix if you have the seat up on a work bench and you are handy at fixing things and working with metal. I've seen it alot, my own J, and tons of other seats that work the same way, boats, cars, etc. If you aren't handy and confident at fixes like this, then maybe this is best left to your go-to person.

Starting with this: The transponder in the pic has already been changed to a Stratus ESG which will work until the Dynon system is in. The current step is to upgrade the navigator, which will ultimately an IFD540 or 550. I don't have that kind of money right now, but I must have a navigator. So, @Jesse Saint is going to install a GNS 530 as an interim solution that will serve my current needs and have negligible installation rework when it's 540 time. It would be nice to get the ADF and DME out as well, maybe the Hobbs too. Lots of negative space could be opened up, maybe enough room for my iPad mini. I am considering whether to install a PAR200b audio panel right now as well to fully eliminate the KX-155 presence, and have fresh stereo audio infrastructure. That may be something I do later, probably have to sell my motorcycle to do it now. Whether I do the AudiCom now or later, the next major upgrade step will be the Dynon HDX system. Most likely will be late 2024. Anyway, I'll post the progress here and share things I learn along the way. In the end, I hope to have a tidy and well-integrated panel.

Is this price from the OP accurate? Edit: Question withdrawn, I saw the current price for the trade-in on the website.