Grant_Waite

Here’s a picture of mine today. It’s not that bright or at least not to me whenever I’ve flown at night. In the day time though it makes a huge improvement.

This was one of the first things I upgraded on my 77J I replaced the old incandescent bulb with a bright white, 12v led. A 12v led will be brighter than the 24v one since our planes are 12v. This is the one I used https://www.aero-lites.com/product-page/330. I also took off the plexiglass that covers the indicator and cut a new one out of some plexiglass I got off Amazon. Used a little green nail polish to make the line and looks really good now. I was able to get to mine just fine from on top. Not sure why everyone thinks you can’t. You just have to remove the correct screws. Be careful though because there’s 2 plexiglass shims that hold indicator on place. See the attached picture. If you remove all 4 of the screws in red then the whole plate will come off with the indicator and everything attached. If you remove all 4 of the green ones then you’ll lose the shims into the belly and have to end up taking off the panel. You can remove 2 of the green ones top or bottom and be fine. Just don’t do all 4. This is all of course assuming your plane is like mine… should be. I think it’s a 3/16 wrench to remove the nut for the light housing.

Mine changed from Beacon to Old republic this year. We paid 5k last year on a 158,500 hull value, 1mil liability but only had 30 something retract. After the first year of ownership it’s $2955. I had 524tt and 212 retract at the time of renewal. I’m probably one of the youngest members here but have low times. I have my IR, CSEL CMEL. Amy Benedict at Falcon has been great from the beginning.

These 6 nut plates that you see. You can see the holes in the emergency latch. The image you’re looking at is a template for all the holes in the small chance someone does this again.

Kinda crazy they still sell them for 2500 bucks.

Yeah it’s not the most confident inspiring design by any means. But when it worked it worked.

Yeah there’s a lot this document doesn’t tell you at all. 940007_F EatonPlessey upgrade.PDFLike cutting away some of the price that’s to left of the gear motor to make clearance.

Actually the previous owner had bought a servo a couple months before I bought it so he gave it to me. I’ve just had it sitting at home. I had a highly qualified avionics guy from Sarasota avionics come to me and he diagnosed what made it stopped working in the first place. The in line fuse had blown, from what I’m not sure but most likely because one of the wires was frayed almost in half. Not long before he came I was just using a 12v battery to move the old servo to test it and it shit the bed after a time or 2. The gears inside had all been stripped. See picture attached of the new servo. Old one is identical inside.

Yeah I basically did the same thing but I got my Eaton from Lasar but the brackets from bas and all new hardware from aircraft spruce. I also have the 3 brackets that’d you need in cad since you’re not always going to be as blessed as I was to find all 3. You would just need to get the bushings off McMaster Carr or if you find all 3, that’s your best option. I sandblasted all the brackets and spray painted them with some zinc chromate. New hardware and they were basically brand new. Once they get installed, they ain’t ever coming out so take the time and make them like new. I did not however get Mooney or any DER involved because to me and my installer, it’s completely unnecessary. But as I’ve learned every mechanic and person is different it can be as easy or difficult as you make it. I’ve had zero issues with the new system. It’s a more powerful actuator so it doesn’t strain at all. You can really feel the floor torque underneath you when you swing the gear on the ground.

I’ve decided I’m just going to put the rudder trim back on. Albeit it’s quite flimsy and system it’s the cheapest option I have. I’m definitely not going to shell out money for a replacement rudder. My mechanic did contact Mooney and they were as useless as can be about it. Basically said a whole bunch of nothing. The plane was painted in 2010 and that rudder system was installed well before then so I’d imagine they were supposed to balance the rudder whether they did or not I don’t know. I think checking the balance on it wouldn’t be a bad idea once I have the new servo installed.

Yeah that’s the plan as well. It could be what’s causing my plane to not fly straight but it did that before the rim was removed so I’m not sure.

I recently removed the inoperative AeroTrim rudder trim, from my 77J and I’m now left with a square hole in the skin of the rudder. My plane is currently at the shop for other work and the mechanic is unsure what’s the best or legal way to repair the hole. Looking at the service manual the material on the rudder skin is 2024 T3 Clad 0.20thickness. Could a simple rectangular patch with blind rivets not be an acceptable method? The rudder trim servo was exactly that and probably lesser quality of material. I don’t see a need to have the whole rudder reskinned or even worse replaced. I did fly with the patch covered with hvac tape and it did just fine.

I just put it inside a box, inside a box with the brown packing paper I’d saved from my Aircraft spruce orders. My mechanic packed it I just provided the box’s and paper. It made it to Commie fornia from Florida and back just fine. UPS 2nd day air. I wouldn’t see why an owner couldn’t remove the mag it’s not the worst thing to get off. 2 nuts on the top and bottom and remove the screws holding the caps on with the ignition leads and that’s it. Difficult part is finding how to slide it out depending on how cramped your engine is. Here’s the SL when going to install again also has the important hardware listed such as lock washers. Dual%20Magneto%20Attachment.pdf

+1 for Aero Accessories of Van Nuys on doing my D3000 500hr inspection within the same day of getting my mag. Upon inspection after tearing it down, they realized both of the plastic gears should be replaced… I think they’re called the distributed gears but I’m not sure. Each one cost around 300 bucks a piece and it was only going to be a $300 difference between an IRAN and an overhaul so I had them overhaul it. Cost was probably 2k with shipping. They got it Wednesday and it was shipped back to me by Monday. It would have shipped sooner if it hadn’t been for me wanting new capacitors. They had to wait over the weekend for aircraft spruce. I can’t recommend them enough after my first experience with them. If I need anything else I’ll be sending it them and not QAA. Just haven’t heard great things from QAA. http://aeroacc-vny.com

I have not, this is the first set of tires I’ve had to do. It started with the left main because the tube got a hole in it, so I replaced the tire and tube then decided to do the other shortly after.

I currently have these on both mains and they’ve been working just fine https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/lgpages/retreadtireselite.php The nose wheel has an air hawk from when I bought the plane. When it needs to be replaced I’ll use a new Goodyear flight custom 3 The Retreads are a Goodyear Flight Special II core with Michelin air stop tubes.

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