Jrags

I just got my 1968 M20G back from my first annual at Performance Aircraft Services at X04. And I had the Cowl STC painted and put on. Sure is pretty! The annual was $1925 itself and with the rest came to $3111. I had new mains mounted, oil change, air filter brake pads, and a left tank fuel drain replaced. The big surprise was my carb heat cable was disconnected and the flap was just flopping around. That would explain a couple of unusual power situations we had. Also one of the props had no grease in it. I had expected $7k for my first annual so I am pleased with how it went.. The cowl STC may not make any difference in the end, but I'm optimistic.

I flew with him about 25 years ago once. He was a much better pilot than I was then. We worked together back then. He had a Bonanza back then too. We were playing around north of PDK and the tower radioed us that we should land immediately and call the office where we worked. They didn't tell which of us needed to though. Once on the ground, I found out my youngest son ran into a wall playing dodgeball at school and knocked himself out and I was to rush to the hospital. Turned out just fine. Howard was so concerned about me and I have remembered his since for that. We lost track after I left the company. Really nice guy.

I just sent my DG to Berkshire Instrument. I shipped it overnight on Thursday and received it back on Tuesday. He will do the airspeed overhaul for $230. Just take it out ship it and then put it back in. Its the least expensive route to take.

I shipped my DG to Berkshire Instruments in Cape Coral Florida. It was $465 and I shipped on a Thursday and had it back on the following Tuesday. He will do a dual tach for $620

Being new at this myself, I wish I had paid more attention to useful load. My 1968 M20G is about 100 lbs overweight to start with and getting 3 adults in it requires me to leave fuel behind. It would have been better for me to have smaller fuel tanks (52 gal) than stock but now I get to measure fuel at each fill up. Being older (67), two hours per leg is all I can do anyway. I'm also probably the slowest Mooney out there doing about 135-137kts. My plane has no Nav capabilities. I'm VFR and Foreflight solves that problem for me but getting radio and GPS quotes to upgrade was shocking. An engine monitor quote is almost half the value of the plane. An autopilot is completely out of my budget. Installation was more than the equipment. So if you want to train for a instrument rating, buy a plane already set up for it. Instead of panel upgrades, I'm going to spend my money on speed mods. Also being older, I'm having issues locking the gear up. Gear down is no problem but I wish I had electric gear even with the added maintenance issues. I do love the hydraulic flaps though.

I am going to try and use a ram mount yoke clamp with my ipad mini as rudder trim. My M20G "pulls" to the left so I'm going to mount the ipad at about 2:00 O'Clock to see if that helps. If its not enough, I am going to try a little weight . I saw a bolt on wing leveler that mounts to the yoke with an automated left/right sliding weight. I thought that was ingenious so I'm going to start with just rudder trim.

The shop rate is $135/hr Quantity Item Rate Amount 1 UAX-90052-01 uAvionix - AV-30C EFIS, Certified $2,149.00 1 UAX-90093-01 AV-Mag PMA Certified Magnetometer for AV-30 $299.00 INSTALL LABOR Remove existing DG. Install AV-30 and magnetometer. Nav interface install $4,320.00 1 EDM-900-4CP-2 Cyl. Primary Kit L/R 2 Fuel Tanks , With FloScan Transducer Primary Kit $5,385.00 4 Quote Cies Fuel Level Sender $625.00 $2,500.00 72 INSTALL LABOR Remove all engine gauges, senders, and wiring. Install EDM system with new Cies fuel level senders. $9,720.00 4 INSTALL LABOR Relocate Com or ELT antenna. They are located within 1-inch of each other. $135.00 $540.00 1 Misc Parts Misc parts quoted are for additional items required for the installation. Parts would include wire, circuit breakers and other shop supplies needed. This is an estimate and could change based upon the needs of the installation. $1,200.00 Note (Past installations have shown an issue with magnetometers having issues with older lighting systems creating interference and kicking the system offline. The fix for this is to replace the wingtip, flashing red, strobe and tail position lights. Cost to replace these would ballpark $3500 installed. We cannot know if this will be an issue until we run the site survey for the magnetometer.) Total $26,113.00

My steam gauge DG died. I thought maybe I should upgrade to a new electronic DG. The Garmin G5 cost for just the instrument is $2625 for just the screen and then there's the magnetometer on top and a GAD. Oh and the Avionics shop said my old beacon and nav lights might cause interference with the magnetometer so changing all of them out would be about $3500. Then there is the cost of installation, another $2500. I just got a quote to install a AV-30-C and a JPM EDM 900. The quote was $26k. I sent off my DG to be serviced Thursday and Fed ex is delivering it back to me tomorrow. Total cost $465 No thanks. It will be cheaper by many orders of magnitude to not do the upgrades. I'll just keep a repaired yellow tagged spare for each steam gauge for tens and tens of thousands less. I wonder how far I can fly on $26k in gas.

This may be blasphemous but last month I paid $65k for my M20G. I'm 67 now and the insurance cost for $65k hull and liability was $4900. I paid it thinking if I was going to have an accident it would be in the first year. However, I can afford a total loss of my plane and it is fully paid for. Would it be so outrageous for me to drop my insurance after owning the plane for a year? Then the "requirements" dictated by the insurance companies would be moot.

1968 M20G 2100 total time I have owned my 1968 M20G for about a month. Two things I have learned so far. Every time I go to the parts catalog to look for a part, the part numbers from 1968 are no longer valid and have been superseded multiple times. The most effective way for me to find part numbers is to ask Google Bard. Bard doesn't get it right every time but it has been right about 75% of the time. The second thing I have learned that after I get the part numbers, finding the actual part is quite the endeavor. I have decided to begin accumulating parts that I suspect aren't readily available. Engine parts are pretty easy. Try finding the vacuum line from the firewall to the manifold pressure gauge. Or maybe the access panel on the left side of the fuselage and the dzus fitting sizes for that panel. First, the panel doesn't seem to be in my parts catalog. Maybe my plane is the only one with it. Forget trying to get part numbers for the dzus fittings. (Mine are rusting and making my new paint job look bad.) For my Mooney parts warehouse, I am buying up steam gauges, sending them for overhaul, and keeping them for when my next one craps out. I've already lost the DG, Tach cable, and the Manifold pressure in just the first month (that's what I get for buying a plane with 0 hours over the last 45 years.) With all these new electronic (and incredibly expensive) gauges coming out, pretty soon I won't be able to find steam gauges. I'm already thinking I need to grab a heated pitot tube off eBay. Finally on to my question. What should I be looking for after I get my steam gauge inventory? What are the hardest parts to find than I can begin looking for now in anticipation of needing them at some point down the road? Unless I get into an accident, I'm not expecting to need sheet metal. I'm still so new at this, I realize I don't know what I don't know. What parts seem to take the longest to find? What's that oddball part no one can find? I heard this the other day: "My plane gets newer the longer I own it."

UPDATE:***** I hear what you are saying about it really being my responsibility. I agree. I was more incensed about the No-Help response. He made no suggestions about how I proceed other than getting a part number. I going to search the forum for the Illustrated Catalog However, with that said, I emailed Don Maxwell Aviation and the very next day I received a phone call, not an email, from Tamara Mace telling me that the part number was superseded by part number SL043-1010 and that McFarland Aviation at 866-920-2741 probably had one. She had no expectation I was buying it through her company. Now contrast that with No Help Daytona. I had also emailed Lasar and they had the part so I ordered it from them ($480 shipped). I live about 30 miles from Daytona MSC. Don Maxwell is in Texas. Now who do you think is going to do my annual in April? I hear its nice in Texas that time of year. It sure won't be done in Daytona!!!!

I'm still new here so sorry if I put it in the wrong spot. It turns out the tach cable was vibrating and was next to the MP hose. The tach vibrations also vibrated that hose so both gauges were going nuts. Going to order a new cable and that should fix everything.

I'm a new Mooney M20G owner and I need a new tach cable. I called these folks at the Daytona Mooney Service Center to see if they can help me. I told them what I needed and he said, "Do you have a part number?" I said no and he said, "I'm useless without a part number. Call me back when you get a part number." And the call ended. I agree he is pretty useless. I really can't see EVER involving them in my airplane.

Google Bard says I need a 38" cable with "right lay" I can understand the 38" but I can't understand how a tach cable has preferred twist direction. Doesn't the spline inside just float freely and will turn which ever way the engine connection turns? So they how is there even such a thing as "lay?"