Grant_Waite

I had a very similar issue earlier this year. The gear wouldn’t come all the way up and the gear unsafe light would stay illuminated. The circuit breaker wouldn’t pop either. Turns out the emergency extension spine drive cable got jammed and was causing the issue. It wouldn’t happen every time just every few cycles. You can rule out if it’s the cable, by just trying the emergency extension on jacks. Mine wouldn’t come all the way down with the emergency extension. I just got back from Byron’s shop in Maryland, after having his guys put my new Eaton motor and newer style extension in.

The previous owner asked if he could have it back and I told him yeah. I believe it didn’t work either. He had it attached with Velcro and it wasn’t going anywhere. I use the built in Davtron that’s on the far left side, right above the rpm gauge. I start the timer on it as soon as the engine is started, I just built it into my after start flow. I use it to determine when to change tanks, and my old fuel gauges which seem to be quite accurate… so long as there’s more than 10gals a side left. I also got rid of the Garmin mounted gps thing on the yoke. Being only 5’5 5’6, I sit so close to the yoke so I can press the brakes fully. Rudder pedal extensions would be nice just a bit pricey for the 3in ones.

I had bought one of every single color light from https://www.aero-lites.com/product-page/1816 I believe those were the type of bulbs. I decided that I liked the green the best one, after flying at night and having the cockpit look like a Christmas tree. I chose it for esthetics mainly, I did I little reading into it. If I remember correctly green does keep your night version over just bright white per say. I had them cranked all the way to full bright for that picture. They definitely don’t need to be bright to see at all. I noticed with the leds and the rheostat that at low brightness, the leds will flicker some. I don’t do much if any night flying due to just the added risk. My biggest fear is not seeing where I can put it down if I have an emergency. I’m the type to have all my glass backlighting cranked all the way to max 24/7 so I rarely use the glare shield lights. I could see them being useless for old steam gauges, without lights or looking for something in the cockpit.

I bought the plane form the previous owner like it was, just making it my own. Him and I are still good friends and keep in touch, it’s not your typical relationship of a seller and buyer which is nice. Yes, it has a remote transponder you can see the screws on right hand side above the autopilot decals, that’s where the remote transponder is. He at one point did change all the switch caps, not the switches themselves I believe. Back when Lasar or Mooney had caps. If I had to do it over, I’d change the switches completely, go all glass and dump all my old analog instruments. I surely wouldn’t get a 55x albeit they are much better than what came from the factory, just seem have some issues that Garmin and hopefully the new dynon won’t. For whatever reasons all the labels on the panel are stickers not engraved, which I think makes it look less clean. I also would have just gone to a jpi930 to get rid of the old factory gauges, I don’t even look any them except the fuel indicators. It didn’t come with the Jpi oil pressure transducer installed, so I had to install that. You can PM with any more questions, I’d be glad to answer any of them.

Yeah, I wouldn’t be willing to or have the means to take it on myself so the labor rate would be somewhere in the 20k range near me. Not to mention acquiring all the parts and the unknowns about it. I can’t imagine the struggle and headaches. But I completely understand since it’s your forever plane. This is my now and probably for a long while plane, but I don’t believe my forever plane… but who knows. It’s a nicely equipped panel. My Stec will hold altitude but I have to trim it myself or set the vs to 0 before I engage altitude hold, or else it’ll porpoise. I have rudder trim but it still doesn’t work after they reinstalled it at annual. I know both can be fixed but haven’t had the time or money to dedicate to it yet. And yes, I installed the green led lights, I think it looks cooler than red.

After talking with Hector I went with the velcro ones, as we both agreed it’d be near impossible to install the stitched ones without removing linkages to the rudder pedals themselves. It cost me $125 for 4 boots with shipping and credit card fee it came to like $150. Still way less than if Lasar had their’s in stock. Ah, okay I believe I remember reading about your post or another Ms member that did the wheel well ectomy. I hate the throttle quadrant but I know it makes 0 financial sense to change it, knowing how much is involved. I’m sure parts are only available from a salvaged plane. I did however get custom knobs made and powder coated them for all 3 levers. Freshened up the quadrant nicely. I also cerakoted the levers in places with an air brush, and that stuff is never coming off.

Hector said, he has 2 types Velcro and the sewn ones. Did you find the sewn ones to do a good job at sealing the pedals up?

Yeah, I’m chasing a co leak right now. Do the boots just slide around the pedals and then get a little needle or something to hold them together? It seems that sliding them overtop of the pedals would be impossible. Mine seem to have a little piece of leather tied around the pedals, to close the opening off. Also what kind of glue did you use to seal the boots to the bottom of the metal plate?

All 4 of my rudder pedal boots have holes around the bottom sides and are falling apart. Has anyone replaced their’s before? How did you go about doing it? I sent Hector at Aerocomfort an email, since it says he can make new ones? Lasar has boots or use to for 51 a piece but they’re out of stock.

The price of leather hides is quite expensive these days. Like I said the price will come down depending on material, pattern, stitching etc. to me the only option is real leather, for that great smell and feel. I know vinyl will last way long than leather but then you get no great smell, plus the feel just isn’t identical. But that’s Things are only going to get more expensive and unobtainable in this world. I don’t see anything in aviation getting cheaper. I’ve also gotten quotes of 1000 and 1500 bucks from auto upholstery shops.

Man, that’s on the lower end too for a lot of places. The more basic of design, the less it’ll be. Depending on material, embroidery the price will go up and down.

Any idea of what the cost breakdown was? My seats are in desperate need of new foam and leather. I’m trying to decide if I want to do all the carpets first or one seat for the price of all the carpets. I’ve gotten quotes from a few auto upholstery shops and an interior shop down in KPGD. One seat basically comes out to 2215, that’s all new foam and diamond stitched inserts, new shaped head rest. I am planning to do nylon carpet, hence the cheaper cost.

We were planning to use natural gas, as we had a line for it down the street. But since governments suck we couldn’t use it because it was put there for commercial use. None of the people I know that have one in Florida, use natural gas. For whatever reason it’s all propane making it the one downside. That’s not to mention all our power lines should be underground by this point… but that’s circles back to shitty government

Some destruction at KVDF

It’s astounding the level of effort some put into being a CB. We lost power 4 hours into it Thursday and ran on the whole house generator almost nonstop until Monday. We started at 67%, on a 500gal tank. We ran it down into the high 30s before the propane guy came Sunday to refill the tank. Thank God, because we weren’t expecting anyone to show up. Cost 900 something to fill it back up and we got power back early Monday. We could have gone without power for a whole month after he filled it. Our entire house ran 3 ac’s, two 5 tons another smaller one and mini split, 2 full size refrigerators, 3 wine fridge’s, well, hot water heater, and everything else. Our house turned into a refuge camp for those CB that didn’t have one. We had an extension cord and hose running to the next door neighbor basically the whole time. Needless to say a whole house generator is 1000% worth the investment in hurricane prone states… no question about it. Our house was built in 2019 and has spray foam insulation in the whole roof, so it doesn’t leak air at all. All the leds and everything else helps a lot too. Idk about some but sleeping without AC is truly miserable and a major first world problem.