Greg Ellis

I have some experience with the autopilot in my 63 C model but I have not been able to fly it very often. Plane has been in the shop for its annual and a cylinder overhaul. I'm still learning on it. It flew great to and from Oshkosh this summer. It is a great autopilot and handles the plane well even in moderate turbulence. @Skates97 has quite a bit of flight time in his and may be able to chime in a little more than I can.

There was a topic on another forum about resetting the 496. This was an option to try to fix the issue 1. Plug the GPS into a wall outlet with the unit on and allow it to charge for eight hours 2. Perform a satellite reset: Start with the GPS off, a good antenna, and a clear view of the sky. Press and hold the ‘Out’ button then turn the GPS on using the ‘Power’ button. Continue to hold the ‘Out’ button until the “I Agree” message appears on the GPS. Release the ‘Out’ button and allow the GPS to acquire satellites for at least 15 minutes. Someone else mentioned this: 1. Turn on the unit. 2. Accept the conditions. 3. When it starts "Acquiring Satellites", press "MENU". 4. Scroll down to "New Location", press "ENTER". 5. Press "AUTO". I don't own a 496 so I have no idea if this would help your situation or not.

I have one in my plane. I've had it for quite a while now. It replaced the old 121.5 unit that was in there. It does work. I know. I accidentally turned it on. There is an ON/OFF/Armed mode switched on it. I accidentally put it in the on mode for about a second. A few minutes later I got a call on my cell phone I did not recognize. It was from the Air Force asking me if I was okay. It transmitted to them while the plane was in my hangar. I only had it ON for a second and they called me within 5 minutes.

I was curious because that is what I have come to realize with my 63 C model. When I drain a tank dry in flight, and land, if I take a flashlight and look inside the tank I cannot see any fuel at all, none. If I move the wing to try to slosh some fuel around to see if there is anything in there, nothing sloshes around. When my CIES fuel senders tell my EDM900 that my tanks are empty, they are really empty. Doesn't seem to be any unusable fuel. I am sure there is, but like you and the TCDS, it ain't much.

Do you recall how much unusable fuel you had in each tank?

With all that old sealant removed and the new sealant done correctly with the proper thickness....you just might gain a couple of gallons of useful fuel!!!

And how about for the C models like my 63 C that has 48 gal tanks. Not even blessed with the extra 4 gals....

Should have a 4th choice. I do not jack up my own Mooney or anyone else’s. I leave that to the pros.

Just a thought, but maybe too late now, but some guys attach a spare alternator belt while the prop is off in such a way that if they have to replace the one that is on the airplane (if it breaks or what have you) they don't have to remove the propeller to do so. Makes it easy to do a field repair when away from home. Just a thought. I am not sure exactly how it is done and maybe someone else can chime in here. Good work though. I imagine you learned an awful lot about your plane by doing this type of work. Nicely done.

The panel and avionics are beautiful. Really nice.

To second @EricJ, I flew with a single G5 as an HSI for a while. I upgraded to the second G5 attitude indicator when I had the GFC 500 autopilot installed but did just fine with the one G5 HSI. As mentioned, you could also do the single GI-275 as well. It will save you some money now and get you going then you can put in whatever you want when you upgrade in the future. Listed on the Garmin website, the GI-275 is about $900 to $1500 more expensive than the G5 depending on whether you get a G5 with GPS Nav interface or not.

I have always been curious about this statement on the webstore for GeeBee Aeroproducts. Showing my ignorance, is this a big deal for baffling, hoses, door seals etc... (all the stuff he sells)? *Products in the GeeBee Store are not currently FAA/PMA approved, so consult your A&P/IA for guidance regarding installation and use on certified aircraft.

I second what @Ragsf15e says. Make sure you are coming at it from the ROP side. This will show the first cylinder to go leanest. If you come at it from LOP side you won’t see the leanest cylinder until the last cylinder goes LOP. In my airplane that would be close to the engine quitting. My plane gets very rough just getting one cylinder LOP.

I know there are some that say a generator is fine and works good but if I were you, and going through the trouble of diagnosing and tracking this problem down, I would convert the generator to an alternator and a new voltage regulator that comes with the kit as well and don't look back. I did this after my second generator failure at night, much like what happened to you. I didn't learn from the first failure....had to try it twice. I did the Plane power alternator conversion and have been very happy with this ever since (about 10 years now). A check with Aircraft Spruce has the conversion kit running around $1325 for the Lycoming engine (Plane Power SAL 12-70). Not bad price for the peace of mind it has given me.

The first photo are broken flame tubes, bad.... The second photo are repaired flame tubes, good....

Thinking about Halloween, are we...

My EDM 900 came with an 8GB drive.

I think, if polled, you would find alot of airplane owners much like you. Myself included. My airplane gets its annual, its IFR cert, pitot static check, etc, etc, etc. If I find something that is not quite right I get it to the people that know far more about it than I do (my &P/IA) and they sort out what needs to be fixed. I think a lot of the folks on this forum are very mechanically inclined, like to know absolutely everything about every nut, bolt, joint, moving part etc... and in fact it is kind of impressive to me the level of knowledge the folks on this forum have and the ability to recall it on an instant. They are impressive. But, don't worry, I would think you are in the norm when it comes to airplane ownership.

I'm not sure I would even worry about it. I don't get any correspondence from Mooneyspace that would want me to delete my account. Mooneyspace doesn't ask me for any money. I think if I sold my Mooney I either would hang around just to see what is going on or just not visit Mooneyspace anymore but I don't really see the need to have to delete an account since there really is no activity between me and Mooneyspace other than me visiting the site.

Not to hijack this thread but do you have any photos of this "worn out M20C" I would love to see what Mooney brought @carusoam into the Mooney fold.

This one looks interesting. Even though I have Garmin Pilot, I may give this one a look. Thanks for posting it.

They are trying (not a new fuel source but a combination of two available).... this flew at Oshkosh this year. Ampaire Electric Hybrid Flies from California To Oshkosh - Plane & Pilot (planeandpilotmag.com)

Usually the one I am flying.

It is figure 3-23 on page 3-7 Last part of paragraph 11 006-08773-0000-KLN-90B-Pilots-Guide.pdf (bendixking.com)

I'm sure this does not help at all, because you know far more about these units than I do but the manual states that if this message appears it means the unit was installed with a remote GPS CRS switch. I don't suppose it is still hooked up to that remote switch? That may be why it won't do anything for you. It needs to be connected to that remote switch. Just a thought.