KSMooniac

Not to belittle any poster here, but I presume pretty much all of us here are owners and have familiarity with our birds. If you see elevators out of whack to this extent right out of maintenance, that should be a glaring alarm bell that things are not right, and no flight should be attempted!

Errors like this kill people! Read the manuals, follow the procedures, use the travel/rigging boards, and double-check everything!

I'm worried about all of the PMA & STC parts and repair/refurbish options that used to be available with the original LASAR that are now NLA. If they could not maintain that low-hanging fruit, I'm really concerned how they're going to maintain the PC in Kerrville.

I'm a bit confused of the request, but if I'm inferring correctly the service project should provide something tangible to the community, not just a donation or some arbitrary number of labor hours applied towards something nebulous. I'm aware of past service projects like painting/installing compass roses at airports that have been done by 99's in the past. There would be some level of surveying and marking followed by the painting of course. That might not rise to an appropriate level of how many people it might benefit, though. I would consider having the student create some sort of really nice display for the local terminal or FBO building that could be centered on local aviation history, or perhaps something along the lines of a "fundamentals of flight" educational display for kids or any interested folks at the airport. This would involve some research activity, understanding of the science, creation of an attractive (and accurate) display of some sort, and finally production and installation. The student could solicit some donations from a print shop or similar to help produce the display too. If done well, it could evolve into a field trip destination for local school classes to expose more kids to aviation with the display, followed by some airplane tours, Q&A with volunteer owners, etc. and perhaps Young Eagles flights.

Likely in the left wing outboard from the landing gear bay. Should be in your parts catalog.

Del at Mountain Airframe in Mena is highly regarded and participates frequently at Beechtalk. I talked with him in detail before addressing my hail damage repairs (re-skinning) but ultimately went to Maxwell. I knew Maxwell had lots of control surface experience and jigs to help. A spar repair likely wouldn't need any special jigs and Del might be perfectly comfortable and capable tackling that job. I'd still recommend getting a DER assessment for use-as-is, once you can confirm all of the corrosion has been removed and you know how much metal is left. Especially under the steel strap.

You should still get the corrosion damage fully examined/measured/documented and get it evaluated for a Use-As-Is disposition before deciding to replace parts, change the wing, etc. It is impossible to tell from pics, but if you've only lost 10% of the thickness then you'll likely be able to get by with removing the corrosion and cleaning everything up. Looking under the steel plate is a good idea too.

It depends on what type, where it is, and how much... please share details and quality pics when you get them. And yes, definitely consult with Maxwell before choosing a path.

I remember seeing at least one Acclaim fully-loaded on Controller back when they were fairly new. AC, TKS, Monroy tanks...there likely was nothing else that could be added, except for higher gross weight. I distinctly remember calculating the entire payload with full tanks was 77 lbs! It should be criminal to deliver a certified airplane like that IMO.

For that price you can buy a used garage-sized lathe and make your own, and still have a lathe leftover!

I believe Maxwell has picked up the orphaned carbon fiber STC that Bill Wheat developed many years ago. I don't know if it is in production or buyable right now, but it is certainly worth a phone call. I suspect they could sell some metal skin panels too.

If belly skins are the only thing holding you up from returning your E to the air, then you should just fabricate new ones. They are quite possibly the easiest owner-produced parts on the airframe! OPP are completely legal, and the regulation/provision was created for situations just like this. Those skins are non-structural and cut from simple sheet aluminum. The spec and thicknesses are given in the maintenance manual. Use your old ones as patterns for the boundary and fastener holes. The holes are oversized compared to the screws, so getting them located within a few thousands is not required.

If you bought a turn-key airplane that needs nothing aside from inspections, oil, and tires for 10 years and gives you LOTS of enjoyment, then perhaps you did not overpay. Only time will tell! Alternatively, if you bought an 80k C and tried to add all of those improvements you would likely spend a lot more, and deal with the downtime and squawks. I doubt you are a sucker.

The biggest risk going forward in terms of difficult factory-only parts IMO would be control surface skins to fix hangar rash and hail. They are stamped out using the factory dies and presses. Less often would be wing or fuselage skins. Fiberglass (or carbon) cowls can be fixed in the field with a skilled technician, although I believe the factory missed a tremendous opportunity to sell upgraded composite cowls to J & K owners, and perhaps M/R/S owners as well using their molds. Beyond that are the unobtanium ducts and landing gear bits that they don't make themselves anyway. Eventually I would expect a new vendor to reverse-engineer critical parts and sell them to us without the legacy burden of the Mooney company. It will be sad, but the market will react. (See the recent V-tail skin saga in the Beech world) I have said before that the current value in the Kerrville operation/factory space is the Production Certificate that enables serial production of airworthy parts, which includes the policies & procedures and Quality system. Doubly-so in a low-cost & biz-friendly area of the US! If I were running Mooney, I would have been aggressively pursuing 3rd party fabrication contracts for aerospace production and even adding capability that hasn't been used for Mooney production if it made sense to make money. It is far easier to add capability under an existing PC than it is to start from scratch. UAVs have been in production for long enough that I wish Mooney would've approached those major manufacturers to get on board, and the upcoming eVTOL/UAM/etc markets are going nuts with all kinds of ridiculous investments and Mooney seems to have missed that wave as well. IMO, manufacturing parts & assemblies for either or both of those markets could have kept the factory humming and the lights on, and that would in turn have allowed the occasional run of Mooney parts now and then when needed. If I were really dreaming, perhaps some of those 3rd party lines could justify the expense of automated production machines that could eventually be ported over to Mooney production, but that is a very, very long shot. It will never make sense to automate any of the M20 line just on the demand of that (mostly obsolete) airframe, nor will it make sense to off-shore production either. I don't see how a very under-capitalized LASAR can effectively do anything with the factory in Kerrville when they cannot even get their own STC/PMA parts back in production after moving to Oregon. Collecting a little bit of money from the fleet in advance is unlikely to move the needle much on that front, I'm afraid.

When I re-did my seats a few years ago (with a local upholstery shop) I sourced and ordered 3 densities of confor/memory foam as I felt that was the best available for comfort and crashworthiness. IIRC it was ~$1500 just for enough foam for 4 seats without any labor cutting and assembling. Buy the best you can for comfort and safety and cry once. Enjoy the renewed seats for many more years.

Not correct... there is the Lycoming anti-scuff additive and that is different than the anti-corrosion package of Camguard. I run Phillips 20W-50 year-round with Camguard. I added Camguard after ~25 hours post-overhaul with my second oil change.

Me too! Even this century for a short spell. And <$2 100LL

The inflation is astounding... I think I paid Hector ~$500 to do my pair of yokes in 2009 or 2010 time frame. And I sold J yokes previously for <$1000 a pair. My yokes still look and feel fantastic, BTW.

SOLD

BAS put an 880050-501 from an M20M on ebay this morning.

What seats do you have now? There might be headrest provisions hidden under the covering. They're just simple aluminum vertical tubes welded to the top of the frame that are a couple of inches long. You might have to remove the back panel and take a look.

I wouldn't even replace the cylinders unless inspection shows something terrible. Clean, measure, hone. Address any valves if needed and use new rings.

That is a tough spot. I'm now an experienced owner and have overhauled my engine once so far. If I were to buy another plane, I would rather have one with hundreds of hours of service (in just a few years) after an overhaul, or one closer to TBO (and priced accordingly) so that I could overhaul it to my specs. I would be VERY leery of one that was just overhauled and put on the market as I would be fearful of infant mortality AND corners that were cut in order to save money in anticipation of selling it soon and letting it be someone else's problem going forward. This could be mitigated by getting an overhaul from a well-known shop with a great reputation, and hopefully a transferrable warranty. The downside to this is that you most likely will not recover 100% of your expense on the overhaul when selling the plane, and in fact, it might be closer to 50-75%. The immediate question to me: is your engine/airplane airworthy? You found wear/damage, but did your shop ask if you wanted to keep flying it? Selling an un-airworthy airplane is a LOT harder unless it is going to be cut-up and hauled away, and that should not be an option for you with a nicely equipped plane and presumably no airframe damage/corrosion. So could a buyer fly your plane away and then deal with the engine? Your oil usage is likely due to a ring failure and not cam wear, but now you know you are "on the clock" with the cam, if it is still airworthy. You could replace the rings, document the cam wear, and disclose everything to the right buyer. I would also measure the valve opening/lift at each cylinder to see if the damaged lobe is losing profile right now vs. just pitting/chipping. Many buyers will be scared away, though, but it would minimize your costs. With 800 hours on it, though, it might be worthy of an IRAN (from a great shop like Zephyr) presuming you don't have any other issues like a cracked case, metal that has circulated and scored the crankshaft, etc. You could get a new cam and DLC lifters, IRAN the jugs, new rings and bearings, and get back together quickly. You could also get the Centrilube STC mod for the cam shaft to help prevent what you have now. You'll still have to price it as an 800 SMOH engine, but your expense will be far less than a full overhaul and you'll have a much larger selection of potential buyers compared to where you're at currently as-is.

The biggest improvements will be the J windscreen and cowling, or as close to that as you can get. Neither are trivial efforts. The LASAR cowl closure helps a bit, the ARI cowl mod (no longer available, I believe) helps a bit more, and a true J cowl or better yet, the LoPresti cowl (also no longer available) would be the biggest help. @Sabremech's cowl mod might be available at some point and would be the best choice IMO. The 3 blade McCaulley prop is likely costing you a few knots as well. It's also pretty heavy, but I'm not sure if your E would benefit from getting weight off the nose or not. On my J, my CG is biased forward so removing 12 lbs off the nose when I upgraded to the MT composite prop vs. the original 2-blade McCaulley helped me. But if you are biased aft, then going to a lighter 2-blade prop might not help you. The rest of the speed mods are fractional and should only be added if you have nothing left to do and have a lot of pride in your bird, and after you've thoroughly checked the rigging with the travel boards, checked all of the gear door fits when retracted, step retraction (for your plane, if applicable), etc. If you're really obsessive about it, then look at further drag reduction with antennas and scoops. I've been going down this trail for pretty much my entire ownership period because it fascinates me as an aerospace engineer, but at the end of the day, if my plane were 5 knots faster in cruise it really would not change how I fly at all, but I would be happier just because I've optimized my plane. Having said all that, these planes were all hand-built, and there are variations from tail to tail that are hard to explicitly measure. Some are just faster than others, and I suspect that variation might be in the fuselage/wing alignment, or other similar variations. I've been saying for years now that one of these days I'm going to jack and level my plane, and take careful measurements of wing skew/tilt/alignment, etc. and see how "square" my particular J is. Maybe this winter since I finally have a dream hangar with a nice floor and lights, and insulation.

No, but interested in learning about other experiences.