Lood

Here in SA, the 500hr/ 5 year exercise is mandatory and it normally costs around $700 - $800. When I had my engine overhauled, I ran a sort of poll and asked many, many pilots whether I should convert to Slick mags and the end result favored Bendix by far. So, I stuck with them.

My procedure is about the same. For a normal start (cold): Mixture fully rich, throttle wide open, prime with pump only until the fuel flow needle starts to move, pump off, throttle back to about 1200 rpm and I've found that my IO360 actually starts quicker when I pull the mixture back from fully rich, about one third. I suspect that this might have something to do with my home base altitude of 4000'. Engine always start at or before the third blade.

Removed the battery this morning to check the water levels. All cells were where they should be and then I also discovered that the battery had already started to leak onto my brand new battery box. It was with great pleasure that I chucked it onto the scrap heap. Interestingly though, a good friend that hangars his self launching glider on my farm also uses Concorde. Whenever the glider is hangared, he connects the battery, through a regulator, to a solar panel and his battery has been going for 8 years now without any problems. I've ordered my Concorde RG-35RXC and it will be arriving next week Tuesday. Thanks to all for your advice.

It is obvious that the battery is in the process of dying and I am already getting prices on a new one. What bothers me though is that this battery was installed, brand new in November 2010. So, it didn't last 2 years. I will check the fluid levels tomorrow and if it needs to be topped up, I'll do so and then put it on a trickle charger and see what happens. That's what I don't get. When the master is turned on, the supply from the external battery is definitely cut off and with the master turned off, the external power is cutt off as soon as the key is pushed and turned to the start position. So, before any cranking can happen, everything dies. I'd certainly prefer not to jump start using the conventional way, but in some situations, there's no alternative.

Last Saturday, I had to jumpstart my Mooney due to the battery not having enough power. My Mooney does have an external power receptor, but unfortunately, I didn't have a dedicated airplane jumper cable with the relevant plug. So, I just jumped it directly on the battery, vehicle style. During the week, friend visited me and gave me an airplane jumper cable with the proper plug. So, this morning, my battery was too low, once again, to start the engine. No problem, I though and was rather excited to try out the new jumper cable. Somehow, things don't make sense to me or the wiring is wrong, because this is what seems to happen: With the jumper cable connected and the master OFF, the gear down and vacuum low lights come on, the turn co-ordinator starts to spin and my JPI EDM700 turns on, showing 14.3 volts. As soon as I turn the master switch ON, it seems that the external power supply is isolated and the batt voltage on the JPI showed 12.8 and later 13.2 volts. Turning the master OFF again, the JPI shows 14.3 volts. When trying to start with the master ON, there still wasn't enough power due to the fact that the external power is now isolated and I have only the airplane battery as sole power source. When trying to start the airplane with the master OFF, everything shuts down immediately when the key is turned. This happens with a very definite "clunk" sound. I'm not sure though if it is made by the relay back at the receptor plug. In the end, I was once again forced to open the battery box and jumpstart with normal vehicle jumpers directly on the battery. Is this the way it should work or is something wrong here. To me, it doesn't seem right the that external power suplly is cut off when the airplanes' master is turned on, nor when trying to start using external power with the master OFF. I would appreciate any advice or explanation on this and in the mean time, I'll also have a look through the manuals.

Well, it seems that my less than 2 year old Gill G35 is dying a slow death. I've read up a bit on airplane batteries and it seems that the Concorde RG-35RXC is the best option. So, what's your opinion?

The only reason I don't use Camguard is because it is not readily available here in SA. Nor is oil from Phillips. Castrol is rather widely available and Shell of course is to be found at just about every airfield. So, I have used Shell since I started flying. I only found out two weeks ago that my AME uses Avblend, together with W100 at every oil change and they have many good words for it. I won't know. According to the poll, as well as the oil articles sent to me by Byron, the most popular route is indeed XC20W50 with Camguard, W100 with Camguard or Exxon Elite. Seeing that Camguard is hard to come by and at a price here in SA, I'm leaning towards Exxon. Now, I just have to find out whether it is available here and at which price. Before my engine overhaul, I used W100 Plus. FWIW.

IIRC, tha installation on my Lasar cowl closure was also around 5 hrs. Performance wise, it did nothing towards any increase in speed, but both my CHT's and oil temp are cooler.

A friend of mine used to own a Turbo Arrow IV and I flew in it a few times. It did not have Mooney performance, but I liked it.

Indeed an old topic and much has happened since. I have a new engine that ran in well and has no snags, nor showed any funny signs after 60 hrs. I don't fly at 50 deg ROP anymore and I have tried LOP once. It worked very well, but for some unknown reason I still feel intimidated by it. Regarding the backfiring problem, I can't really recall what solved the problem in the end. I think it had something to do with exhaust damage.

Me too, please Byron. Interesting, I discussed the whole oil thing with my AME just last week during my Mooney's first 50 hr oil change after being overhauled. The engine shop advised me to run the engine on straight oil up to 100 hrs before switching oils. However, I forgot to tell the AME this and only discovered that they had put in W100 when it was too late. They did assure me though that they change over from straight oil after 50 hrs on all engines and have never encountered any problems. On my question why they used W100 instead of W100 plus, they claimed that they followed the advise of a big organization, on the same airfield. This outfit runs probably the biggest flight school in Africa. They have their own engine shop, among others and they have many, many airplanes and helicopters, used for training. Apparently, they have better results using W100 compared to W100 plus. I didn't go to the trouble to go find out exactly why, but general feeling was that when opened up, the engines had less wear when used with W100. Anyhow, my AME also uses Avblend, together with the W100. He claims that since they've started using it, they've never had stuck valves, etc., etc. since. He also mentioned that they are probably converting to using Phillips oils before the end of this year. Unfortunately, Camguard is not readily available in South Africa, but how does Avblend compare with Camguard?

Agree, on my F, which has the same engine, is lighter than the normal J model but not aerodynamically as effecient, take off at high altitudes has never scared me as did the very poor climb performance. A climb of 100 - 200 ft/min max, really gets your attention.

I don't know this gent at all, but he's been a member on Beechtalk since 08/11 and according to his post count has been rather active there. He wants $500 for three headsets that were all modified to ANR with the modules from Headsets Inc. I am currently using a DC headset that I modified to ANR like he did and it works amazingly well. However, one set from Headsets Inc. costs around $280 here in South Africa. So I though if I could get three already modified headsets landed here for $600 and sell my 4 normal PNR headsets locally for around $400, it makes sense. Maybe I should just buy dedicated ANR sets from a dealer, but the current exchange rate really makes this very, very expensive.

A member on Beechtalk has three headsets up for sale and I would really like to buy these. However, he can't receive payment through Paypal, nor does he know how to ship a parcel to South Africa. So, he's not really interested, but promised to hold the headsets for one day in case I manage to organize something. The seller is situated in Ocala, Florida. If there's anyone willing to go through the trouble and do the deal on my behalf, I would really appreciate it. I am registered with and can pay using Paypal.

Also use a universal fuel hawk dipstick calibrated on my Mooney. However, I drained the tanks at the fuel strainer on the wing and not the one at the selector. It is incredibly accurate and the only mistake that I made during calibration was to fill the tank 5 gallons at a time. I plan to repeat the exercise, but this time in 2 gallon or 10 liter increments.

PM me your e-mail address and I can send you the wiring diagram. Maybe it could be of help. I can't manage to upload the .PDF here, unfortunately.

According to what I have the part numbers are: "Transmitter, Fuel QTY, Inboard:" 610168-001 or 610242-001 "Transmitter, Fuel QTY, Outboard:" 610177-001 "Transmitter, Outboard, LH:" 610243-001 "Transmitter, Outboard, RH:" 610243-003

Could anyone maybe post a picture of this?

I open up just about everytime I intend on doing a 2 - 3 hour cross country flight.

While going through all the trouble, why not go the distance and install a 201 style windshield? I'm not sure what the difference in costs are going to be, but the 201 style windshield is very much worthwhile in both performance and cosmetically.

Apart from the fact that it does nothing in terms of lubrication, it is never a good idea to pull the prop by hand. Even if you did do a mag dead cut check. Just last year the pilot of a C210 was killed in Windhoek when he moved the prop and apparently it just kicked over. Unfortunately, it struck him right on top of his head and he died as a result. I'm very wary when it comes to props and I only move it when absolutely necesary.

I'd also appreciate a copy or a link to a download.

Quote: jetdriven A Bonanza burns $44,000$ more fuel over 2000 hours than an M20J. based on 2000 hours of 9 GPH vs 13 GPH @ 5.50 per gallon. Tell him that.

What's your price on the radio's?

At what altitude were you flying and what was the mixture setting?