AdamJD

I thought the servo upgrade was supposed to help with oscillations. That's not the case?

So I'm assuming those of us who have the separate issue of the GSA-28 servo warranty extension to replace impacted servos (https://support.garmin.com/en-US/aviation/faq/yG9YhFImtt8XiNr8uLLUA6/) will now be motivated to go get those taken care of. I was waiting until the next time I needed something from the avionics shop as mine don't oscillate that much outside of IAS mode. I'm hopeful the software update for this new AD can be done at the same time and on Garmin's dime. The servo replacement is a warranty item. I guess it's up to the shop to include the software update, but I know my guy will likely include that in the visit.

He said he did not.

I too have a "friend" who replaced all interior lights, except panel post lights, with LEDs. This was in a '67F. He was tired of the gear lights and torpedo lights being hot as hell. He replaced the torpedo lights with dimmables and they do dim, although not as much as the incandescent lights. He consulted with experts who said you don't need a logbook entry for lightbulb replacements - even to LED. No modification was made to the lighting system. He loves the fact that he can now twist the gear indicator lights at night to slim the shutter without risking 3rd degree burns. Here are the lights he used: Gear indicator lights - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N1UPFF6/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1 Torpedos and Overhead are from https://www.superbrightleds.com/ Items Qty Price 67 LED Bulb - 12 LED Tower - Cool White - 2 Pack SKU: 67-CW12-G-2PK 1 $13.90 67 LED Light Bulb - (12) SMD LED Tower - BA15S Base - Cool White 2 x 67 LED Light Bulb - (12) SMD LED Tower - BA15S Base - Cool White $0.00 67 LED Light Bulb - (12) SMD LED Tower - BA15S Base SKU: 67-NW12-G Color Options Natural 4000K Pack Single

I have two 12v 100ah batteries. So far so good as far as battery life. I keep them cycled as I use these in the summer to power a trolling motor for a kayak. Together, they last 7ish hours depending on temps (I use a thermocube). So by 6 am the batteries may die, but the oil does go right back to ambient temps. My oil temps usually aren’t lower than 60-70 when I get there. Generator is great if you can make it work. For me, I can keep the batteries, inverter etc. in a locked box even when using them. The downside is hauling them back to the house when I need to charge them. It’s a good workout. edit: $70 for the inverter, $130 each for the batteries from O’Reilly. So $330 total.

I have this same problem in Maryland. I put two marine batteries daisy chained in my storage box (if you are allowed to have one), an inverter and a thermocube. I cover the cowl in moving blankets and plug in the night before if I’m flying in the AM. By morning the batteries are usually dead, but the oil is still fairly warm. I have a sump heater. I usually just take the batteries home and charge them after I return. But if you need the plane more frequently, buy 4 batteries and always come to the airport with a freshly charged pair.

Dumb question. I have a Pacific Oil Cooler mounted on the nose on my M20F. It looks reversible. The fins on the inside, facing the engine, are mostly unbent. The fins on the outside, facing the impact air, are fairly bent and beat up. Looks like it has mounting holes on both sides? Is the oil cooler reversible? Can it be turned around? Does the direction of oil flow through the cooler matter?

https://data.ntsb.gov/carol-repgen/api/Aviation/ReportMain/GenerateNewestReport/192738/pdf

Let me weigh them tomorrow. And yes, I camp at osh and often wonder about the damage a hailstorm would do to a field of airplanes! Update: I don't have my scale here. I've asked Bruce how much these weigh individually. I'll post the answer when I get it.

I have an F model. Same issue. My CHTs are btw 350 and 360 in the summer depending on how hard I'm running the engine, but the oil temps are between 210 and 220. My oil cooler is mounted on the front. I had the oil cooler flushed. I even had the thermostatic oil bypass valve tested in boiling water and it opened just fine. I would even touch the oil cooler each time I landed to make sure it was hot, and it has been. Then I noticed many of the fins on my oil cooler are bent. OSH is the only grass or dicey area I taxi or takeoff on, so I'm not sure what did the damage. The location of the oil cooler means anything hitting your plane, including possibly moderate rain, can bend those thin delicate aluminum fins. So I suspect air is not making it through my oil cooler efficiently. I talked to Pacific Oil Cooler at OSH and the guy said to carefully take thin duckbilled pliers and straighten out the fins. I haven't looked for the tool yet, so I haven't done it. I'll report back if it works when I do.

These have been sold. Thanks. ********************************** Set of 2 Bruce's padded wing covers for Mooney Models M20B and up. Part number M20-255. These were purchased new in July 2022 when I was way back on the hangar wait list. I used them for 6 weeks until I miraculously found a hangar. They have not been used since late August 2022 and have remained in their bags at my house. See pics for both wing covers. These were $1,125 new for the set. Shipping for these + my canopy and tail cover was $278. Make me a *very* reasonable offer, and you can have almost new padded wing covers. Great if you keep your plane outdoors, particularly in an area susceptible to hail. I'm located at either KGAI or KSUT. You can pick them up at either airport. I'm willing to deliver these to an airport nearby either KGAI or KSUT for the right price on the covers. Also, we can discuss shipping options if you are not close to either airport. Send me a mooneyspace message if interested. ~ Adam

Selling a PAR46 LED Parmetheus Plus Landing Light Model P46P1L for $200 + shipping. Part number is 01-0790750-10 - 14 volts. Retail price is $295+. See photos of this landing light in the airplane. It works perfectly. Adam

Start here. I haven't had this issue yet, but fly a lot and have hydraulic flaps. So these are a good read for me too.

Patrick - did you find one? I have one off of my F but it has a broken hinge, which is why I bought one from salvage. Wasn't cheap - about $230 - from Dawson Aircraft.

+1 for MooneySpace. Your experience kept me from turning this over to the mechanic who could have possibly convinced me the alternator was bad. They obviously went right to a bad VR without testing it. So thank you for sharing! When I get more time, I'm going to put the tester on both sides of each breaker on the avionics buss and test both sides of the avionics switch. Will report back.

Round 2 of testing. Tested power buss again with engine running, just in case - 13.9 steady. My JPI 830 is powered of the avionics buss. Tested avionics buss with engine running, and it was steady at 13.4, so there's a 1/2 volt drop between those two busses. The JPI fluctuated between 13.3 and 13.5. HOWEVER, throughout this issue, it has read in the low 13s during taxi and runup until after takeoff and then degrades to the mid 12s in flight. Since the battery seems to have a full charge, and the power buss is steady in the high 13s, I'm convinced I don't have an alternator issue and I now have an unnecessarily new voltage regulator. However, to confirm a good alternator, my next step is to test the power buss with the multimeter in cruise flight when the JPI drops to the 12s. If the power buss stays steady in the high 13s, I assume I have either a grounding issue with the avionics buss? Or a bad JPI voltage reading? The whole avionics buss is new as of Nov 22. And the voltage was near 14 steady on my EDM data until about 2.5 months ago, after annual. Thanks for all of the advice!

So if I put the meter on the avionics buss with ALT field on, the meter should match the JPI, right? Seems like an easy check.

Still stumped. On my last flight, JPI reported volts in mid-12s most of the 2.75 hour flight. Event went to 11.8 when I was low power and descending. Took a multimeter out today with a friend. With engine OFF and master / alt field ON, measured ~12.5v at the field connection alternator. Also checked at the VR even though it shouldn't be less than what it was at the field connection at the alternator. My battery was fully charged as well. We then ran the engine and measured at the power buss. It showed ~14v steady on the meter at the power buss, but showed 13.4v. on the JPI. The JPI is powered from the avionics buss. Ran out of daylight to measure voltage with the meter on the avionics buss while the engine was running. I may go out and do that tomorrow. 1) If I have ~12.5 volts on the multimeter at field terminal on alternator with master / alt field ON engine OFF, then field path from battery through everything to the alternator is good, right? 2) If I have ~14 volts steady on the multimeter at power buss with master and engine ON, the alternator and VR are doing their job, right? My JPI was installed in Nov 22 and had shown ~14volts in flight until 2 months ago after my annual. Post annual, it's been fluctuating between 13.5 and 11.8 and trending downward. Last flight was the first time it dipped below 12 on the JPI. Open to any thoughts or ideas.

Great info. I'll report back later this week when I have chance to pull the cowl and start testing. Thanks!

Is there a way to thoroughly troubleshoot without starting the engine? I watched the Mike Busch 'All About Alternators' from 2016. He recommended to measure from field terminal on alternator, to regulator, to switch, and back to circuit breaker with engine off, stating you should see close to battery voltage through that circuit. He stated that if you have 12v at the field terminal on the alternator, then the circuit is not the issue - meaning a bad alternator. I assume that's because in that case ~12v is flowing through that full circuit to the alternator. Did you do that before you tested the alternator with the engine running? Seems like a quick way to determine if it is the alternator, but I'm definitely no expert on electrical systems. I supposed if the alternator is getting ~12v at the field term with engine off, I can do what you suggest (with really long alligator clips) and measure the out terminal from the alternator when the engine is running to confirm its bad. Anything less than 14v (with a new regulator already installed) would mean the alternator is not doing its job, right? Thanks for your advice!

Thank you! That thread is very informative. I'm going to try and dig in and see what I can find. My problem sounds very similar. I haven't yet changed the alternator. But have a new VR, so I'm pretty sure that is good. I'm hopeful this is a connector / wire issue. Will report back.

Bumping up this old thread. I am having the same issue. Voltage has fluctuated between mid 13s and as low as 12.2 yesterday. It has been doing this for a few months now. I had a new regulator put on yesterday and then flew for 2.5 hours. That didn't fix the issue. I've had two separate mechanics look at and clean connectors. See below. Notice that it started in the low 12s for much of the first hour. Then spiked to the low / mid 13s for the second hour (only change was dropping 500' in altitude as I picked up an IFR flight plan). Then dropped suddenly back to low / mid 12s for the rest of the flight. Again, no real event that would have caused that. Note: Before I dropped the plane off for annual in mid-Feb, it was at 14 every flight. The 1st flight after annual in mid-Mar it was between 13.2 and 13.5. It has degraded since to what you see below. There was no direct work to the electrical system during annual. However, they did some extensive work which required dropping the exhaust system. Could moving things around have caused anything? Interested in anyone else's experience or thoughts. Thanks!

Another thread that shows this in action:

Yeah. I watched the IAS swing about 5-10kts - my TAS on the 275 was slowly fluctuating between 135-145kts. I usually see ~143 at that altitude and config. I *think* I can download the flight data from the 275, but haven't tried that yet. But I could see it on both the analog ASI and the 275.

Interesting observation. I had my gfc500 installed in Nov. However, they finished the installation just as the autotrim service alert came out. So I flew it for several months without autotrim. I didn't notice any significant oscillation issues. Autopilot was still enabled, but I had to trim by hand. I recently had the software update completed. I picked up the plane last week and have flown two 2.5+ hour cross country flights since having the autotrim turned on. Now, the plane oscillates slightly in cruise. Both 2.5+ hour flights had +/- 7kt airspeed (and groundspeed) osciallations. BEFORE autotrim was enabled AFTER autotrim was enabled