AndreiC

From what you describe it seems that a best choice for you is to look for an F. The delta between it and an early model J will be best to either keep in a fund for emergency expenses (something unexpected breaks) or to do upgrades after a while when all is settled. Don't underestimate in your planning the first few years' costs associated with little things you find that you need/want to be upgraded. As a basic example, shortly after buying my E I decided that for peace of mind I really wanted to have the LHS system with gear warning, mainly as a tool to not forget the gear down. (I don't think of myself as invincible.) With installation that was a quick 2 AMU. New landing gear donuts, 5 AMU (iirc). Things add up quickly.

By minimal IFR rating I mean that from a legal standpoint (I think) you only need to prove that you are able to shoot two types of approaches, one of which should be a precision one. So if you can demonstrate that capability you'll get your ticket. But most people nowadays fly with GPS guidance, so if you got your ticket and you and your plane can only fly ILS and VOR, you will be seriously underusing your rating, as most airports of interest to GA pilots may not have one of these. In my area there is one big airport (MSN) with pretty much every kind of approach you'd ever want (including ASR), but the smaller airport (91C) I am based at only has GPS-based approaches. The other destination I most frequently fly to (3D2) also only has GPS-based approaches. If I ever got trapped in really bad weather I would go to MSN. But most of the time if the forecast calls for LIFR I will stay at home, and if the ceiling is OVC 007 I will easily fly LPV/LNAV+V approaches between my two smaller airports and not bother with a big airport and all the hassle associated with that (rent a car, drive home, go back the next day, ferry the plane, etc.) So for me having only ILS/VOR capabilities would be severely limiting. Of course, for others it may be different.

I don't remember, are the flaps on the B operated like on the later C model (i.e., hydraulic)? Or is there another Johnson bar? Most so-called VFR platforms can be used to learn and get a minimal IFR rating -- two VOR heads, one of them with glideslope, is enough to learn to do ILS and VOR approaches (this is how I learned). But an IFR rating these days is almost useless without an LPV capable IFR navigator, so a 430W minimum is needed. But the 430 line is no longer supported by Garmin, so installing a 430W is a money-losing proposition unless you plan to keep the plane for a long time (as said above, most people who buy a B will be doing so as a basic VFR machine to putter around, so would not place much value on having an IFR navigator). Moreover, you mention "family" -- even with two adults plus one kid on board, the extra useful load of a C will be much appreciated, especially as kids grow quicker than you realize. So I see two ways ahead for you. 1) Buy the B as a low-cost, VFR machine, to time-build, putter around short distances with the family, and do most of an IFR training with very basic tools (learning ILS and VOR approaches in real life, and maybe doing LPV approaches in a simulator). Then, once your mission is more clear, upgrade to a C or higher (if your family will fly with you, most likely an F). 2) Define your mission better now, and buy what you plan to keep for a while. I personally would recommend option 2, because especially with an older Mooney you will spend a lot of money in the first few years to catch up on maintenance to get the bird to where you want it to be (donuts? fuel tank leaks? magnetos? small panel improvements?), and these costs will be lost when you sell. But I fully understand the itch to buy something now (my first plane was a $15k Cherokee which I then spent another $10k to fix and sold for $15k back again, but I don't regret it a minute). Good luck with your decision.

I tried that on my panel, and it did not help. The issue seems to be that the switches are supposed to be sealed, so not much of the cleaner, if any, gets in.

I for one would be very happy if this audio panel can be cleaned up and restored to full functionality, I am happy with it otherwise. @Phil123 please keep me posted if you find someone who can work on it.

I strongly doubt it. My avionics shop said the switches in these units are not serviceable, so probably they would need to find new ones and solder them back out/in. Doubt that is worth the effort, even if the switches can be found (which is highly doubtful).

The panel has one interesting feature, not sure I know how it's done. The old analog oil pressure, temp, volts, etc have been replaced by some digital instruments, but I did not think those are usually approved as primary. I wonder how that was approved?

None that I could find. I bought a used KA134 from ebay that was marginally better than the one I used to have. But this equipment is 55 years old, so my next upgrade will likely be a modern audio panel.

I have a general question for those of you who use the sidewinder or similar nose-gear apparatuses. If the taxiway is snowy/icy, will this work? The only reason I would be interested in a sidewinder is because the apron from the taxiway to my hangar is ever so slightly uphill. When everything is dry, there is no issue pushing the plane in the hangar by myself with just a towbar. But put on just a bit of snow (of which this winter we've had a-plenty) and it becomes a difficult problem even for two people, because shoes slip. (Ask me how I know.... last week I thought I would have to leave my plane outside of the hangar). But my guess is that the sidewinder will also slip on the tire, or the tire will slip on the snow. Anybody else run into this problem? I have been thinking of installing a winch with a long cable/towrope at the back of the hangar and slowly pull the plane from its tail. But I know that the design of the Mooney tail says not to do that either, so I am a bit stuck. At the moment my best thought is to just keep a big bucket of sand in the hangar and put copious amounts of it on the apron over the snow/ice. Can you somehow use your car to push the plane? I have a hitch on my car, but I don't think pushing the plane with the car in reverse is a good idea.

I have the same KA134 panel and the old switches do not always work as they should. Try to push them in/out a number of times. The weird thing is that a button unrelated to the one you care about may be causing the problems. (ADF or DME or one of the NAVs…) On mine, once I got the radios to work well, I never touch the other buttons.

I understand the issue of traceability, but maybe someone with an IA can then answer the following question. Say this prop was not a scimitar model, which is not covered by the original TC, but one of the Hartzell props that were approved in the TC, so I would not need an STC. Could I then install it on my plane? Or is it the case that every part of the plane, down to the smallest bolt, must always have had its life spent on certified planes? I thought that the only requirement was that all parts of the plane must conform to the TC or to STCs. Can’t my AP (or Hartzell themselves, for that matter) look at my prop and say “yes, this prop is still in working condition as it was designed, so you can install it via the STC or the original TC”?

But the point I think is that when this prop was sold it was not cheaper, for experimental use only. I think when Hartzell sells this prop they say "Give me the money. Here is the prop. BTW, what airplane are you hanging this on so we can give you the correct STC for it? Oh, it's experimental, so you don't need an STC? Good luck then." My understanding is that the issue is that it was used on an experimental plane, so it might have been touched by the unholy hands of a non-A&P. Thus it has been forever desecrated.

I asked Cody Stallings, and he said a field approval would be a complicated problem, requiring probably several months of back and forth with a DER from the FAA, then having to put the airplane for a while in the Experimental category while I do test runs, etc. A big mess which I do not want to get into. (Part of the STC paperwork is data on how to adjust the weight and balance, new markings for the tach, etc., all of which I would not have without the official STC from Hartzell. Of course, this information is the same for all installations of this prop, but formally since the STC is specific to each plane, I cannot take that information from my neighbor and use it on my plane. Why? No idea, it's the same prop.) Oh well.

I was very excited yesterday because I found an almost new Hartzell scimitar prop for sale. I negotiated a good price with the seller, and was about to start worrying about payment and shipping. But, I called Hartzell to see what it would take to get the STC paperwork. At first it seemed like a pure formality -- pay $500, get the papers that you put in your binder, done. But then they asked for the serial number, and stopped dead in the tracks. Their statement was the following: -- yes this is the same exact propeller as we would have sold to you for your Mooney; -- but, because it was sold for an experimental airplane (it was used on a Glasair), we never issued an STC for it, so now we cannot issue an exchange STC to go from the Glasair to your Mooney. So basically this prop, despite being exactly the same prop that can be installed on my plane, will never be able to be installed on a certified plane. Ugh! All this trouble for nothing.

In about 1500 hours I’ve had the following: 1) Two vacuum pump failures, about 4-500 hours on each of them. Non-issues, I was in clear VMC each time. One of them I thought may have been caused by a mechanic washing the engine with solvent without sealing the pump intake port (pump failed one hour after the wash). 2) One mag failure in flight, about 20 miles from home base. Mag had about 500 hours from overhaul. Knew right away as my electronic tach gave me a red light warning. Mechanic had to drive to my field, take out the mag and send it out for refresh. 3) Alternator failure that happened a few times (and took several trips to the shop to diagnose properly). Turned out to be a bad field wire that kept shorting and tripping the CB. Not in IMC (and until was resolved did not fly IFR). No big issue. 4) I repeatedly had problems on a Cherokee I owned with the starter, once leaving me stranded at a remote field and requiring starting by hand propping, which was a bit scary. Was fixed by replacing the old aluminum wires with copper.