Greg Ellis

I made one out of some PVC laying around as well. It works great even if you are big or tiny, just makes it easy.

The avionics shop that I use in Fort Worth sent one off for me. I will contact them when they open this morning and find out who they use. However, just FYI, the backlog has been something else. Going on 3 months and still waiting to get my airspeed indicator back. Fortunately, it is a back up and not the one installed in my airplane so I am still flying....

This guy does a lot of aircraft detailing and he uses ceramic coating. He does not really get into the chemistry of it but he does show some great results. Search Youtube for Aviana Aircraft Detailing.

Garmin has stopped with the 1962 C model as the earliest supported model.

It was Dave Morris who owned this airplane, not Dan Morris, just FYI. I do not think he installed it. I believe he purchased the airplane already outfitted with the Accu-Flite but he does lurk on Mooneyspace so he may be able to chime in. The issue with any Brittain product is availability. They are scarce. You would probably have to spend many months to years cobbling together a system. The company is of course not making them any more either.

@pagirard I feel your pain. When I overhauled my panel, removed the vacuum system, including a mountain of wiring that had collected behind my panel over the years that lead to nowhere, etc...etc...etc... I also had a decrease in my useful load. The scales were calibrated and certified, etc... I have not poured through the books to see if there were any errors on previous W&B sheets that would make this any less drastic. However, a glance at the AFM for my airplane shows a W&B sheet done by the factory that was full of errors. I guess the slide ruler or the ENIAC that they used back then were not calibrated.

Mine has velcro. I do not know what actual Brand velcro it is but I wish I did (put in before I owned the airplane). It is about 20 years old or so and is still sticking just fine even in the Texas heat but the velcro grips better than any velcro product I have ever used. It takes quite a bit of strength to get the carpet out.

@Evan https://apps.savvyaviation.com/beta/shared/flight/6853097/57d410e2-cfb6-4ab2-af3e-73fbea98b5bb

I thought the Rockwell Commander 112/114/115 had wing life limits as well so a quick search showed that they do. Page 11 of the following FAQ page. Commander Aircraft FAQ

Looking in the User manual, the G5 will apparently automatically show ground track if it is not receiving info from the Magnetometer. Any chance of disconnecting the Magnetometer from the AI but leaving it attached to the HSI? Otherwise there may be a way to change the config in the configuration menu. Hold the knob in when you power it up and you will get to a config menu. There maybe something in there but I’m not sure. @PT20J may be able to help. He is quite knowledgeable with this stuff. Probably more than most Garmin reps…

Thanks for all of the replies. I very much appreciate it. The inspection panel with the leaking screw is underneath the wing.

Question: When replacing the drain valve, is it absolutely necessary to drain the tank first or do you just have to be quick with your thumb to plug the hole after removing the one drain and quick again putting the new one in? Also, if there is a small amount of stain around one of the screws in a inspection panel of the fuel tank, I have read that it is possible to remove the screw, add some sealant to it and put it back in place. If so, is it necessary to drain the fuel with this procedure and do you use the same sealant as is usually used inside the tanks? Sounds like a stupid question but I need to get the right sealant to do the job. I have developed two small leaks, one from the drain and one from around one screw and I want to be armed with enough information to communicate with the mechanic that will be doing the work. Thanks.

Thank you.

Thanks.

Thanks for the advice. I am leaving this one up to my mechanic.

Sorry...I read my responses and they were vague and probably could have been worded better. I did not want to high jack the original poster's thread. But this is the story.... I had an engine failure in New Mexico a few years ago. I was able to land at Clovis fortunately. They pulled the oil filter and it was chock full of metal. I will never forget the image of how much metal there was in the oil visible to the naked eye. Prior to this flight I had changed my oil and it looked fine visibly, and I did an oil sample and sent it to Blackstone. It did not come back prior to the flight but if it had I never would have taken the flight. Where copper is normally 4, 5, 6 or so, mine showed 400!!!! The engine ran fine up until the point in the flight where the oil temp began to rise and the oil pressure began to fall dramatically. The plane had a cylinder overhauled and I speculate although I cannot prove it, that the cylinder was not torqued on properly and the engine ate one or more bearings. Blackstone Labs told me that is where the copper comes from in an engine. But if I had waited for the analysis to come back, the outcome to the engine would not have been different but I would not have risked my life and my wife's life unknowingly. Story number 2. I flew up to Kansas City from Texas. I had done an oil analysis prior to the flight. One drawback to Blackstone is that they seem to take a long time to get you your results. I was sitting in a restaurant in Kansas City and got a call from Blackstone which is never good when they call you. They advised me not to fly the airplane. I had a shop on the field take off the oil filter and it was a mess. This was on the engine that replaced the one in the previous story. It had about 450 hours on it and was flying great. No issues with temps or pressures or anything else. This took me totally by surprise. So we contacted the shop (a very well-known engine builder) that sold me this engine and they asked to have it back to be torn down and inspected. So, while my wife and I drove home, the shop in Kansas removed my engine and sent it back to the engine shop. I got a call from the engine shop with a laundry list of problems with the engine. They were laying the blame at my feet for a 450 hour engine going south. I contacted multiple A&P's for advice. They told me that this was not my problem and were almost unanimous in what the issue was that could cause the lengthy list of problems. So, back and forth with the engine shop I go until I get to the owner of the shop. He and I had a pleasant conversation over the phone and he basically told me I was on the hook for $14,000 and the cost was rising as they got further into it. I explained to him in detail how I fly the airplane and that this should not have happened. Well, I would say long story short but it has already dragged on long enough. I get a call a few weeks later saying they will cover all of the bill and I just have to pay for shipping. The point of this lengthy story is that if it wasn't for that analysis from Blackstone Labs, I would have flown a sick airplane from Kansas back to Fort Worth and who knows what might have happened during that flight home. Like I said, the engine was running great with absolutely no issues that I could discern if it wasn't for the analysis. So, the oil analysis on both of these episodes either could have saved me a lot of trouble or did save me a lot of potential trouble. I will reiterate that the airplane was flying great on both episodes with no indication of a problem or concern leading up to the moment I had the issues. All temperatures and pressures were fine up until the moment of failure in the first episode and there was no indication of an issue at all leading up to the issues in the second episode.

I sample every 25 hours or so when I change the oil.

I was talking about two totally different flights based over 400 hours flight time apart. They were not back to back samples and they were samples from two different engines on my plane. Sorry I was not clear on that.

I have had two flights where I did an oil analysis before the flight and if I had the results of the oil analysis prior to making the flights, I never would have flown them. The engine was doing great on both flights with no evident issues (ran smooth, oil temps and pressures fine) but the oil analysis told a different story. So, I still do oil analysis but this time I try to wait to make a long cross-country flight until I get the analysis back. Blackstone labs does take a long time to get your results back.

Thank you.

I need to replace the right wing fuel tank drain valve on my 63 C model. I read on an older thread that the valve for a 75 F model is F-391-53S. Is it the same for a 63 C model or is there a different part number? Thanks in advance.

Thank you for this response. I will take to my A&P about this as well.

It may have something to do with this. CAFE Foundation - Wikipedia

So, I went to the plane this weekend. I opened up the tail area and exposed the jackscrew in the trim system. It definitely was not gummed up at all. The threads were clean. They did seem to have some grease on them because it got on my fingers when I touched the screw. However, how little grease is too little? There certainly was not enough to be what I would call greasy or gummy. I could see the peaks and valleys of all the threads, etc.... I can run the trim manually from stop to stop with really no issue. It occasionally feels tighter in spots but nothing that I would have even thought twice about before getting the electric trim. I tried the electric trim again and it ran it nose down and it ran smoothly all the way. It will not go nose up on its own. It will for a moment but then stops and needs manual assist. I spoke to the installer and he thought there may be an issue with the actual installation so he is going to take a look at it when he is able. But I guess my question is....should the jackscrew be coated in grease or just an extremely thin layer? I have an extremely thin layer for sure. It is not dry but certainly not a lot of grease.

Thank you for this information. I will talk to my shop about this.