Grant_Waite

I just had both of mine replaced at my last annual. The Lasar ones are half the price and just as good. Not to self though they are way oversized and will need a lot of trimming and cutting to fit perfectly. Your lens look exactly how my planes lenses looked and mine is a 77J so someone added them and I greatly thank them for it. Mooneys without wingtips look goofy. Think about getting some Whelen leds if you really want to update the look. Nothing drags down a nice new lens like old lights.

This, I think she was a DEI hire in all likelihood hence why Trump has called out DEI could have been a factor. They knew the instant this happened who was flying that helicopter and everything there was to know about them. All makes more sense with the family not wanting to release the info, they knew there was going to be backlash.

I don’t see why they couldn’t have gone to any of the 1000s of MOAs to accomplish some silly checkride. The fact that we as GA pilots can’t hear them because they use UHF to transmit and we use VHF to transmit needs to end. I get way more information hearing from the aircraft itself than the controller. Isn’t that how we fundamentally fly and avoid traffic in all uncontrolled environments? You listen to other aircraft report positions and follow that up with adsb info to look for visual contact if able. You take not hearing and most times not seeing military aircraft on adsb out of the equation and our ability to see and avoid goes back to pre efb and adsb… NO THANKS! Safety has greatly increased because of both of those but most military traffic might as well be antiquated as a piper cub. NTSB said there were 5 controllers in the tower at the time. 2 of which were a supervisor and supervisor in training. Also why is that those American Airlines pilots had at least a minimum of 1500hrs but we have 500hr pilots flying a helicopter weighing 13000lbs into the busiest airspace in the country at NIGHT. It’s just absolute absurdity they even had these helicopter routes in the first place. It was a disaster waiting to happen. We’re fortunate it was only a 3 man helicopter and not 2 fully loaded wide bodies. This is bound to happen again if the FAA can’t get their shit together with controllers.

I don’t mean converting to manual gear, I mean doing the Eaton swap. Converting to manual gear would most definitely be more difficult for parts and getting someone to do it

If you’re fine with your plane being down for months or who knows how long then yeah go ahead and do the der but if you have the money and it’s your forever plane the quickest solution is to convert probably. It’s still not easy but if you want your plane airworthy again you’ll make it happen like I did.

I’ll put this out there to anyone since Byron is a busy man. Byron and I are the only 2 people that I know in this century to convert a J model with the dukes, to the Eaton actuator and newer emergency extension. Byron did his plane about 2 years ago and I just did mine in October. He’s the only one I’d trust to do this job. It’s no easy feat and if you haven’t done it before, you’re not going to get it done as efficiently and cost effectively. The reason I did this in mine is because I was having gear issue but it related to emergency extension cable being jammed in the back of my gear motor. I thus decided not to pay McFarlane 3k for a new cable since the gear motor could become a massive paper weight and leave me aog at anytime. I bought my Eaton form lasar for 11k, the brakets and idler pulleys from bas and another salvage company and all the hardware from Spruce. Call it 12k in parts and it was 2000-2500 to have it installed by Bryon. That was with me helping out since I flew up from Florida and wasn’t going home until it was finished. Everything has been flawless and I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out. Lasar raised the prices for the actuators from 10k to 16k now. Not 2 months after I bought mine, did they do this. You can get a Eaton every once in a while for 6-7k but you’ll want to have it IRAN by Lasar or someone who knows wtf they’re doing. I know this is hard to swallow for a lot of us older Mooney owners, but I don’t see what other option you have if you become aog from the dukes or emergency cable needing parts. This is why though you can find a G1000 ovation for cheaper than other plane with a g1000 on the market. The value of a Mooney is enticing to so many people but it’s that way for a reason. Total lack of support by Mooney and extreme price gouging on remaining parts supplies has driven down the value of all airframes. I’m with everyone on all these frustrations and personally wouldn’t tell anyone who’s interested in a Mooney to buy one. Go look at any airplane that still supported there’s quite a few but cirrus mainly come to mind for me. If you are dead set and won’t get anything but a Mooney buy the newest model you can afford. Even still I’d say a good 80% of the plane is made up of parts that you’ll never be able to get eventually if Mooney keeps down this path. We’re probably talking a good 20 or more years before that happens. Mooneys are so unique and unlike most other airframes, use Mooney specific parts you won’t find on a textron, cirrus, or diamond. The uniqueness in ways is what makes them a great plane. I will not argue that a Mooney is and probably always will be the safest, strongest GA plane ever built. The fact that a J model can fly into a high voltage tower and the owner can walk away speaks volumes to the strength of the air frame. Feel free to pm me if you have any questions

I rechecked the timing today using a piston stop and my inclinometer. I’m amazed this isn’t the standard for all engines Lycoming and Continental. I do believe the timing marks on the flywheel are off and to the naked eye, you can’t and will not get the accuracy of the inclinometer aka digital angle finder. I just ground ran the plane and once it got hot the stumbling stopped. I did a static run up and the mag drop was 50rpm on each. Before I would only see maybe 10-20rpm drop. Correct me if I’m wrong but I think less rpm drop can be a result of too advanced timing right? This is how I did it and what the back of the flywheel looked like when the inclinometer red 25° btdc.

I did find a 337 for it. I do plan to put the new servo and hopefully the same head unit but working. You couldn’t leave the servo in place and disconnect the tab because the wind would have had its way with the connecting rod. Like I said it flew worse with it installed and it’s better without it. I think the trim was making up for the rudder being out of rig the whole time I’ve owned it.

I honestly have no idea about the rudder trim thing. It says FAA PMA but my god I have no idea how they ever got it certified. The servos guts are the same as an rc helicopter. The motor is the one used on kids toys. This is pictures of a new servo the previous owner had bought. I inherited it with the plane. I haven’t had the damn thing working in over 9 months probably

Recently I had to remove my AeroTrim servo and rudder trim tab on my 77J. The head unit had gone bad, then the servo went bad. I was trying to fly a plane that wasn’t trimmed correctly and the trim tab made it especially dangerous on landings and takeoffs. It would get squirly a bit and didn’t fly straight in cruise worth a flip. After taking the tab off, it flys a lot straighter in cruise but I still need about 5 pounds of right rudder to keep the ball centered. My Stec55x will fight it in cruise with the yokes moving left and right unless I get the ball centered. The plane doesn’t roll at all so I think the aileron rigging is fine. My question is how have some of y’all done the rigging on the rudder? I’ve read the service manual on the steps. Looks like it’s C clamps on the pedals and turning 2 rod ends, one under the pedals themselves and another back under the elevator inspection panel. Then there’s another one on the right side of the rudder. What tips or advice does anyone have for doing this? A travel board isn’t needed to rig the rudder right?

I bought a Klein Inclinometer thinking I’d need it, but the guys that timed it said that’s only for Continentals. So that 50 dollar inclinometer wasn’t a waste then. Might have it rechecked before I send the mags off using the inclinometer. This is the one I got. It comes with a nice base that’s magnetic and straps to hold it to the prop. https://www.amazon.com/Klein-Tools-935DAA-Digital-Electronic/dp/B0CSH23J3V/ref=mp_s_a_1_8_sspa?crid=15KLWBKS07ORW&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.i6aACVH5TXpMP850RfAtruoHeT4cfxmVur7Ap2EZVf6XmyXdgyydoAQWAonkmb9bRJVFHKQl3hLUAaq9_Nw6CEE-c275Ye13Aw5ItzaExhCFo38_qfKAkcNBdP5dp4VWJCW_euDpOlNjAy4BzxX3BXiWATiDbO8WtDCiBakcolxHYypJMb1yo8mBqZn0MpfKCYEydrD-3DoMGjrZ26sxxg.CCh1BqlcrVWcT9IWs201iJCMoKcOR8eTf0BlkGaB12g&dib_tag=se&keywords=klein%2Binclinometer&qid=1736225837&sprefix=klein%2Binc%2Caps%2C118&sr=8-8-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9waG9uZV9zZWFyY2hfbXRm&psc=1&th=1

That’s what I thought too, is that fine wires weren’t supposed to be gapped because you can mess them up. I have taken them out and they did make spark when we put them in the tester but I didn’t check to measure the gap. I read the log entry after this so I didn’t know they were taken and gapped at annual

I already got new seals from Airforms, since I had to buy a new baffle. My one on the left side had a nice crack in it so it wasn’t working too well. But that didn’t fix the temps either. I think it’s most likely a mag thing since they have just about 500 or a littler over.

Yeah, you’re telling me. It could definitely use all new scat tubing from you. Didn’t realize all the stuff you made for aircraft. Lots and lots of hacksmith stuff going on in the engine

My mechanics used a wrench to line up the marks to the case halves which not sure how accurate that was or wasn’t. The one who will remove the mag is a different mechanic that worked on the plane for the previous owner