triple8s

180-185 ROP 280hp toothpick prop

FYI, I am not a professional aviation tech but have been around them for years and have seen this with my own eyes. With the starter disconnected if the engine crankshaft is in just the right spot and the SOS gets energized the prop will sometimes move! What I mean is the engine will light off for a stroke or two if there is even a tiny bit of fuel in the cylinders. I haven't seen one start this way but I saw a Piper pop off and turn over a couple blades with NO starter being energized was only the shower of sparks. So, all I am saying is BE CAREFUL around the prop.

Relays with same P/N as on a 1996 M20R can be had for aproximately 40$ if the old ones could be desoldered and replaced. "If" ; )

A fellow Mooniac showed me to turn the buckle toward passenger to keep it from unbuckling when johnson bar goes by. The C model i had was equipped with an adjustment that was near the attachme t point and if properly adjusted it puts the buckle up away from the floor enough so the bar didnt have a conflict with te buckle.

Where? Boy i got screwed!

Not sayin this is your problem but this happened to me so i thought id spit it out. When doing maintenance or just watching mechanics or spectators in the shop you will often see folks leaning over the engine and mashing down on the baffle seal with their arms. Not intentionally, just lazing around chatting but leaning over engine and bending the seals down can cause them to become less stiff and not seal against cowling. I have had this happen to mine by my own negligence. Now if i see someone leaning on my baffle seals i kindly tell them to lean on something else. Heck i have to think about not doing it myself, its natural to lean on the things. Anyhow just a little something to be on the look out for.

Anytime a plane is "new" to a mechanic it will take a lil longer and cost a lil more. A mechanic has a plane for the first time he will always look harder for things amiss and of course he finds things. Once he has seen it before he is more familiar with how all the components are working with each other. Next annual time wont take as long or cost as much unless the plane is doing something its not supposed to be doing. An airplane seems to be a critter of systems that may or may not be playing well with each other. So much vibration and the components are not made any more robust than absolutely necessary because weight created from something being over built hurts performance. You may have chaffing of control cables, engine baffling or a myriad of other things going on and these need attention. May not be a huge costly repair but just an adjustment here or a tightening up there until the mechanic meets your airplane, learns it and its wear patterns he may or may not be comfortable signing it off until its perfect. No airplane is perfect and until he goes over it, sees it next year and and goes over it again and learns it and its wear patterns it will take more time and more money to go through an annual inspection process. Change mechanics and it all starts over again, just ask someone who has a plane that gets its annual done by the same mechanic for several years then takes it to a new mechanic and see if it isnt more expense than the previous year. Does this mean that the annuals werent done properly? Not necessarily, lots of times a plane will have something that the mechanic who's done the annual many times may have something that he has been watching and a new mechanic would possibly just replace and not watch to see if it is wearing abnormally. 1st time? more time/more money.

The TCM starter adapter will not fully disengage unless the starter shaft can "backspin" with less force than "xx in/lbs" dont remember the exact number but if you get the chance where there is an iskra or other gear reduction lightweight starter laying on the bench. With your fingers try to turn the shaft where it couples to the starter adapter, it will not turn easily. Then try to turn the shaft on a prestolite or energizer and its very easy to understand why the iskras and other gear reduction starters big difference in force required to turn the shaft back and fully disengage the starter adapter. Good article abiut this on the beech website.

Id say if you taxi up in a 700,000$ airplane there would be a lineman put the wheel chocks out for ya. They usually do for me in my 21 yr old R model.

Someone said if during the break in proceedure "you have to power down, power down." I was with a fellow Mspacer and we were into the breakin proceedure on a brand new engine, about 30-40 min. when the engine started sounding different and temps after having been up and starting down had started back up again. We had been making circuits about the pattern and had just asked the tower to vector us away from the airport so we could fly off the remaining 1.5hr. Due to the change in the engine the tower was told that we wanted to make a couple more circuits during which the engine continued to change, temps were trying to climb, and it started misfiring so the breakin was interupted and my friend made a nice nearly dead stick landing. If we had not have made the additional circuits and left the airport area, we wouldve had a very different day. My point? The most dangerous time to fly an airplane is just after a mechanic has worked on it. Do NOT ever think you cant land when needed or declare an emergency. If you think something isnt right, dont take the chance. When we got on the ground, the main fuel line was so loose i could tighten it 3 full turns with my fingers. The blue fuel stains everywhere. I have to wonder how close we had come to being a statistic. My buddy, fellow MSpacer did a GREAT job in the left seat that day. You know who you are.

Now youre talkin!

Everyone knows jugs are nicest in pairs/sets. Hence the saying, "nice jugs"

I currently have ADSB out with the GTX330ES and later got a "Dual" gps/adsb in box which worked fine till the antenna got broken or something, anyhow it doesnt work anymore so instead of throwing another 800$+ at the problem I bought a "Stratux" Raspberry Pi kit. This has both TIS-B & FIS-B cost me 130$ can be temp mounted somewhere out of the way with velcro or other easily removable method. Works from a 12 cig lighter plug and gives me subscription free ADS-B Traffic and Weather, get inflight metars all along your route plus the nexrad. I use FltplnGo and file from my cell phone. lots of good tools with FltPlnGo however stratux is compatible with most software and the Rpi3 transmits the data via WIFI and I can simultaneously display the data on my Ipad and Cellphone. I got the remote GPS antenna and have the "box" vecroed in an out of the way place. Works like a champ

Didnt need a tug till i got a long body. Spent 90$ on this one.

Sure would like an LED replacement for the recognition lights on the R model. Cant even use the factory ones unless you like replacing melted wingtips.

I built my own ice chest a/c unit and knew dewatering would be an issue so, i made the water hose that comes from the heater core and discharges water back to the bottom of cooler extra length. I also put an aluminum 180 deg tube on the end. When in operation the aluminum 180 tube lays in the bottom under the ice, when the ice is gone and im back in front of the hangar i open the baggage door, hang the hook on the baggage opening and turn on the unit for a couple minutes. Water is pumped overboard while i get the tug. All thats left is a bit of water that the pump cant get to. One thing i have yet to do is put a switch on the fan so i can pump water overboard without running the fan so it saves a little drain on the battery. Anyone building one can get an old heater core from a auto repair shop for next to nothing, mine was free as it was replaced because it had a leak. For our use a tiny leak doesnt really matter. For the pump i used one off of amazon that is for a fountain. We dont need a huge flow of water for our application and the pump i selected will operate on 12 - 36 vdc so it is happy and i have even used the thing in an old dodge powerwagon to stay cool whike driving in a parade in the summertime. My biggest expense was the bilge blower. If the Ovation were a 12vdc system i couldve used a fan from a computer powersupply and built the whole thing for next to nothing really.

I have about 500 hrs in my O with 280 hp/2500 rpm and the 2 blade Mac prop, hot weather and heavy are not the best on ground roll but once I get off the ground and up to about 100 Kt or so it does well. Cruise? 180 kt is average at 8500 ft or so I have talked with other ovation owners and they say the 310 top prop makes it a totally different bird, great climb and no cruise speed penalty. For me, since I live in the east it's not too bad of an inconvenience, if I lived out west I may be more inclined to spring for the top prop n 310 hp. This I can say, my IO 550 will run LOP and it loves it. 12 gph and very little speed penalty. If I lived out west the bravo might be better but the ovation engine is VERY simple to operate. A turboed engine requires a little more attention. I would say either choice would be a good bird, the O might be a bit less in maintenance dollars, but I have very little experience with turbos, I just know I will never have to worry about managing a turbo in the ovation. Go Mooney!

I have a KFC150 and my AI is making a new litle sound as its gyro winds down which has me thinking i may be in the market for an OH for the AI. So in preparing for that i hear that King is going to require all repairs on their products to be made at the factory and thats just a temporary thing and the support on their products may go away entirely. In light of this, what options do we have? Say I get the AI overhauled and then a servo or some other issue presents itself? Would a person be better off to get an STEC installed and then get an Aspen or other attitude indicator and ditch the King stuff now? Or.wait n see?

Whats the advantage of the G5 over the Dynon if neither will drive the A/P?

I was surprised at what a plane load of 100LL looks like http://abcnews.go.com/US/video/incredible-video-captures-moment-small-plane-crashes-washington-47175187

I dont understand why the cases have to be split to change a cam gear or machine the 60ths off the back of the case. A jig could easily be made to do the milling if acc. case was removed, of course I'm only an old truck mechanic.

Not quick and not cheap but very few are better.....I've flown behind several of his. http://www.gannaviation.com/engine-overhauls

Anyone running the TCM engines, had better take heed to preheating the engine in cold temps and by saying engine i mean engine and oil cooler. If the oil cooler isnt warm and the oilmis congealed when the vernatherm start diverting oil to the cooler it can be damged or busted. So when the engine is preheated the oil cooler must also be considered. http://www.oilcoolers.com/article_oil_cooler_woes.asp

My CFI told me of a mooney driver who ran out of fuel and crashed. He took off with plenty of fuel, slumped the tanks, pulled the gascolator and evidently one thing or the other didn't stop leaking and he lost his fuel. Since I heard this the first thing I do is to sump both, pull the gascolator then push the plane back a few feet. Next I do the exterior preflight and before I get in the plane I look at the ground under the plane if something is leakin it is easy to see.

Rpm would stay constant unless it dropped below a set threshold because you have a prop gov. controlling a "constant" speed prop. Power is reduced rpm stays constant, power is increased rpm stays constant hence constant speed prop. The prop gov doesnt know why the power is reduced, pilot changes power setting or engine fault resulting in less power produced, the gov will still attempt to maintain the rpm set by the prop gov control.