joemoriss

Thanks for the correction, what I meant to say in the reply was next time I will adjust the prop *without* the vernier. I use the ball and pull in/push out on the ground for runup, then while flying I use the vernier only to change the prop speed including my reduction on initial climbout, up until prop full forward in GUMPS. I also thought it may be cable slippage from the governor spring force, the cable slipping internally one detent makes sense. The cable appears original.

That's a great idea, thanks! I'm nervous about having the engine so high on the ground but I think it's worth it for a test. Agree, that makes a lot of sense, next time I'll try just using the vernier

I do not have an engine monitor, oil pressure remains constant (as constant as I can tell with my original oil pressure instrument). No abnormal temps ever. The cable as well as the housing are as far as I can tell firmly fastened to the mount and not slipping

Hello Mooney Brain Trust, I encountered an interesting propeller control issue last week and wanted to gather input and hopefully get a better understanding of what might be going on and what to do about it. I have a 1964 Mooney M20E, I’ve reviewed many other governor related posts and the issues there don’t seem to be quite the same. Initial problem: on climbout, I reduced power to 25”/2500rpm, pitched for Vy as normal. I noticed that my RPM started to increase back to 2700rpm, at which point I screwed out the prop control farther than I normally do to hold the RPM at 2500. After that, the rpm did not increase again. My observations based on phases of flight: Engine start and taxi – no change from normal Run-up – no change from normal including the prop check x3 Takeoff roll – no change from normal. I check full power ~2700 rpm every time. Climbout – rpm increases over 2-3 seconds back up to 2700, I pull the prop control out farther and the rpm remains at 2500. Cruise, approach, landing – no change from normal. Propellor behaves normally when power reduced to bring rpm below governor control. Propellor maintains 2500 with no hunting in cruise. Hypotheses: Tachometer incorrect reading: Likely false, my engine power indication was normal during initial power application. I also performed a test in cruise: slowly increase prop to full, reading was still ~2700 rpm. Propeller control cable slipped: Possible. After that flight, I inspected the cable mount and governor attachment point for defects and had someone work the control in and out. No slipping, looseness, or other issues observed. I did however notice the following behavior on my in-flight test: When I slowly increased the prop to full forward, it would momentarily behave as it did before, before slowly slipping up to 2700 rpm again, requiring me to pull the control out farther as described before. I did also observe that I was no longer able to push the control in quite as far as normal, about ¼ inch. Oil shortage or contamination: Possible, but I did change the oil then fly 1 lap in the pattern, behavior remained. Now I suspect the governor, but I do not know enough about potential governor failure modes to know how they could present in flight. I always thought of governor failures as sudden loss of governor function. I’m also wondering what the community thinks about safety of flight given this issue. I am due for annual in July-August timing and would love to not have to keep it down until then, but if this could be a serious issue then of course, not worth the risk. Checking through the logs, the governor was last overhauled in February 1998 (I always thought it was later than that) but only about 400 hours of flight time (plane didn’t fly much before I bought it. I’ve put about 80 hours/year on it for the past 2.5 years I’ve owned it). Thank you in advance for any advice!

I just went through something similar this past summer prior to annual. I had two oil analyses come back with elevated iron and aluminum, with some flecks of metal picked up in the screen (I had the original screen at the time not a filter). With aluminum in the mix, I was pretty sure it was a piston pin plug which is apparently a fairly common issue. I got great advice from the very helpful Lycoming tech support line, and as others have said they did not recommend jumping to replacing parts or pulling a cylinder. I did send the metal for analysis and then discussed the results with Lycoming again, confirming my hypothesis that the aluminum could have come from the piston pin plug. Once in the ship, my mechanic scoped all the cylinders and we found the telltale "skid mark" pattern from a bad He was 50/50 on whether or not we needed to pull the cylinder right away, we agreed in the end to pull it while in annual and send for repair. The pin was visibly worn and the hole was slightly wallowed. The cylinder shop was fortunately able to repair the cylinder and piston for a very reasonable price, which made me happy we did the work now before it got worse. My next oil analysis was much better, with out the dreaded phone call from Blackstone that they do when your results spike. With 2.5 years of Mooney ownership under my belt I'm finally getting into the groove of being a maintenance manager. We also put in a proper oil filter while the plane was down.

I'd take one. The mechanic who did my last 200hr inspection warned me that though I passed this time, it was getting closer to wearing past tolerance.

Any chance you have the adapter that attached from the engine to the oil filter? I'm looking to upgrade my screen to a filter.

Yes, Aeromotos is a little old school but I had my Weldon pump there earlier this year. Cheap and very fast overhaul, pump works great (stopped making strange noises and leaking here and there)

While we are on the subject of oil leaks, does anyone have any tips for getting the rubber oil drain hoses on right? I like to do my own oil changes and my mechanic was nice enough to teach me. Recently I've noticed a small amount of oil dripping out (about a teaspoon or less) but pretty much only after the plane has cooled down. I also found oil seeping out of the rubber drain hoses. My mechanic and I agreed to defer to annual based on the quantity, I never lost an excessive amount in flight. Well, annual came and went, he replaced the hoses, and they still leak! Any tips on how to get this done right? I am going to ask him if he can have another look. And yes I am pretty certain this is where the leak is, I reached in the oil door today, ran my hand along the drain tube and came up with some clean oil. I saw a post where our experimental friends use a different style of clamp, unfortunately I don't think we can do that.

I'm about to relocate to the Cincinnati area as well. Does anyone have any connections with someone with hanger availability? I think I've gotten on lists at all the nearby airports but maybe someone on this forum knows the area better than I do who doesn't live there yet. I have a Mooney M20E and am looking forward to arriving in June!

Thank you for the guidance, I agree but a waas gps is not yet in the budget.

Oh I didn't know that, thanks! That will save me the trouble of a failed steam gauge in the future.

Hello fellow Mooniacs, I'm relatively new to the community having got my beautiful 1965 M20E this summer to do my instrument rating in and to fly fast. It came with an old but certified IFR panel and I was hoping to not spend a huge amount of money right now to upgrade anything as I haven't even gotten to first annual with it yet, which may reveal some expensive surprises. Anyway, I have an old Narco DGO-10 that has a weird issue where sometimes while turning the course needle, the mechanism will "grab" the compass card as well and rotate both together, which is very annoying. I doubt there is any avionics shop these days willing to fix it for cheap, so I figure I have a few options. 1. Buy a used and hopefully good DGO-10 on eBay for $300 and do a direct swap. 2. Dual G5s, quoted $11k all in. Eventually I'll buy an IFR certified GPS but that's not right now. Has anyone found an easy way to "unstick" a sticky HSI?