PTK

No argument there. Ofcourse we all want our airplanes to hold their high values. This is done by taking proper care of our airplanes so they will RETAIN their inherent value. It is NOT done by dreaming and wishing to sell a damaged airplane at an absurd asking price. Value cannot be re-created out of a damaged airframe. IMO a seriously damaged airplane has no value in ANY market at any price. And yes a gear up is major damage my friend! How did the airplane hit the ground? Did a wing strike the down first? Anyone can claim to repair anything. The aluminum may have been repaired but there is no way of knowing the damage or stress the structure has suffered. The only way to be sure is to totally strip aluminum off and inspect the structure, or buy a NDH airplane! I will never put my wife and kids in an airplane that I as pilot in command know it has had major damage. Would anybody?

Considering today's economic climate the asking price for this particular airplane is absurd! It's an awsome deal ... for the seller! This airplane would not even be a candidate on my list if I was a buyer, at any price! Look, the airplane is a J. You can buy a perfectly capable well equipped mid 80's J for 40-50K LESS!! Instead you are considering a damaged, yes I said damaged, J for 160K! I respect Dugosh's opinion. My airplane had 14 consecutive annuals at Dugosh before I bought it. I regret, due to distance, I couldn't continue with Mr. Kramer. I'm taking it to a closer also very well respected MSC. But not Dugosh nor anyone else can change the fact that it is a damaged airplane. I don't care that it has been repaired or what anybody says. Especially I don't care what Garrison says. Would you trust a used car salesperson? They tell you what you want to hear. I don't know what you see in this airplane that you would even consider it. Maybe the sharp paintjob. Personally I would leave emotions out of the equation and I would take my time and look at a lot of airplanes. You don't have to have an overpriced damaged one! When the right airplane comes along you will feel it! This is only my opinion and it's worth way more than what you paid for it!

What are they announcing? Does anybody know?

I'm sorry guys but I must try to understand the sequence of events or the thinking process of the aircraft owner here. I'm trying to follow this to see what I would have done. A guy walks up to me and says he wants to fix some hail damage on my airplane. I don't know the guy and as far as I know my airplane is fine. He talks me into believing I must need the work and further talks me into filing an insurance claim for it. The insurance co OK's it and pays 10K. I then fly my airplane to this guy and hand over 10 grand to him. Am I correct?? Nothing is done on my airplane for months and I proceed to now pay some one else to fix "hail damage" that I never knew I had until this scammer brought it to my attention!! You are KILLING me here!! What am I a stupid moron!! Sorry, I don't mean to offend anyone. As far as I'm concerned (sorry folks) this owner is guilty of pegging the stupidity/ignorance meter right up there with the BS meter!! HE SHOULD BE COUNTING HIS BLESSINGS HE DIDN'T LOSE HIS AIRPLANE ALONG WITH THE 10k.

Wow!! Unreal!! It looks like he handed over 10K to him before anything was done!! That is a NO NO folks!! Why would he pay $10 grand to some unknown individual before anything was done?? What am I missing?

God bless them. Tragic. Very tragic.

All of you guys arguing about ram air, I know in a J RAM air is useless. I plan to remove mine at some point. Mooney has a Service Instruction to do this. It cleans up the front. The one thing holding me back is weather or not it would be wise to install landing light in the wing and cleanup that hole in the front at the same time. Any ideas are always appreciated. http://www.mooney.com/images/pdfs/si-pdf/sim20-93.pdf

Did anyone in this forum ever wonder WHY do our very own American icons, of which Mooney is sadly, only one example, end up reaching a peak or an acme and then they decline. IMO it is COSTS. WHY does a Mooney have to cost so much? Seems to me its because WE are killing it by all the rules and regulations we impose on the industry. HOW MUCH does a tubular structure with some aluminum NEED to cost? HOW MUCH does a four cylinder VW engine need to cost? What fraction of the price of a new J let's say goes directly to liability related costs? i.e to make the insurances and lawyers happy? I don't know the answer but I'd like to know? Maybe an analysis needs to be done. If the cost was down to realistic levels then more people would buy airplanes! The costs would be spread out over more airplanes rather than fewer. I'm not pointing fingers at anyone but I am saying that we have over regulated yet another American industry to the point of imminent collapse. The Chinese will do what we have not been able to do. You want to fly? Fly but accept personal responsibility and the inherent risk. Don't come back crying, ie looking to sue somebody, if you have a mishap. We have ourselves to blame.

Read this article: http://www.mooneyland.com/Why%20I%20Own%20a%20Mooney.htm

I removed my analog clock and replaced it with a Davtron. The analog clock was always on and the circuit includes the overhead lights. The Davtron has a keep alive input which is required in order to keep time. It's either hard wired or a battery. I chose to hard wire it. I utilized the existing clock circuit to keep the Davtron alive. If anyone is interested be very careful if you do this to not short it out. It is not shielded and it is very easy while handling it to touch something behind the panel and short it out. If this happens the fuse back next to the battery and main relay will blow. The overhead lights will not work if this happens. When I put it back together I used some shielding and tie wrapped these wires so they are protected. Just in case sxomeone was interested.

Thank you for the info. I replaced mine with a 5 amp fuse from home depot. I wasn't awatre there was slow blow and fast blow. I went nuts trying to find out what was wrong when the clock wasn't working. I pulled out the schematic diagram and found it. Hope fast blow is ok. How do you know it requires slow blow? Fast or slow I don't care as long as she does blow!

Is anyone interested in starting a coop for avgas in the Northeast, southern NJ area?? Has anyone investigated what the feasibility would be?

Is anyone interested in starting a coop for avgas in the Northeast, southern NJ area?? Has anyone investigated what the feasibility would be?

Is anyone interested in starting a coop for avgas in the Northeast, southern NJ area?? Has anyone investigated what the feasibility would be?

Is anyone interested in starting a coop for avgas in the Northeast, southern NJ area?? Has anyone investigated what the feasibility would be?

Ouch!! Made my hair stand up! Very happy you found it on the ground. Very interested in some pics.

CHT is the one to watch. Lycoming says 500 but my own personal red line "do something now" is 400 and I have the JPI alarm there. EGT is meaningless. It is a measure of how hot the ambient air gets as we fly throughht he sky! It is a measure of wasted energy from the expensive fuel.

Quote: rdv Does anyone have an IO360 that doesnt want to stop?

Quote: thinwing yeah I know it didnot make economic sense,

Quote: All in all-> I think we all agree that it's not the panel/gauges in your aircraft: it's how well you know them, how well you can fly them, and the decisions that you make in your aircraft that will ultimately determine how safe of a pilot you are (not necessarily some statistic in an NTSB report). However... the numbers are out there as a warning: installing glass displays won't make you a safer pilot... only you can do that.

We must not lose sight of the issue at hand which is safety of IFR flight. The issue is that we must fly the airplane in the clouds and terminate the IFR flight safely. The notion that somehow getting a glass panel will magically increase our safety margin in performing this task is laughable! To the extent that some actually fall for this is attributable to great marketing by the avionics manufacturers. I submit to you that glass cockpits are very dangerous in GA aircraft. A lot of pilots think that this shiny glass will keep them safe. The fact of the matter is that there is too much button pushing and too much information that can potentially easily distract the pilot to starring at the pretty glass while the airplane gets out of control. I agree that glass does offer a certain level of "progress" and with it the potential for increased safety. An air force pilot explains it like this: "...with an analog gauge you'd learn where the needle is supposed to be pointed. Then while flying you scan down and see about where the indicator was. With a digital instrument you had to focus to read it which took your eyesight off what was going on outside.".

You will definitely not get your investment back! I'm not sure I agree with the home analogy. A home is real estate and appreciates in value. You can expect to recoup more than your initial investment. Airplanes and avionics do not depreciate and lose value. We are in better shape than most because Mooney is not making airplanes so ours should appreciate in theory. This is not true with avionics. A buyer will not pay new cost for used equipment. You are right it may make a potential buyer look twice. But in all honesty if I was a buyer today and all else being equal I was choosing between a glass vs a KFC (KAP) 150 system with HSI I would pick the latter. I'm not fond of glass. Garmin is essentially a monopoly because the G500 will not play with non Garmin boxes. And Aspen works some of the time and is in the shop the rest of the time. This according to avionics shops. PK

The decision to install glass or not is a classic case of needs vs wants. Do we need glass? No of course not!! The answer is an unequivocal NO. It does not add to safety more than doing what I already mentioned above. Absolutely NOT. If money is not an issue then I guess the sky is the limit. (no pun intended!) Anyone can do whatever they want. But we all know that an owner adding expensive avionics to his airplane today makes no fiscal sense because that money will not be recaptured at sale time, if decides to sell. No sensible buyer is going to pay new cost for used glass or anything else for that matter. The only thing left, then, driving the decisuion is WANT. Some people WANT glass because they think it looks cool. Is this WANT worth thousands and thousands of $. My opinion is no. I personally disagree with that thinking for the reasons I mentioned. It's only my opinion and my way of thinking. Analyze the decision very carefully before jumping onto the bandwagon. Garmin or Aspen or anyone else.

If you presently have a KFC 150 (or KAP 150) with the HSI it makes no sense whatsoever to give this up for some glass. Some try to make the ridiculous argument that you can have a vacuum failure. Yes you can have a vacuum failure. But remember you can be proactive and spend ~ $300 every 500 hours and replace your vacuum pump, and ~$2000 every 1000 hours to overhaul the AI AND HSI. I'm assuming that you do have the CV1J4 Clear view inline filter installed to protect the instruments from carbon dust. This is standard equipment on all Mooneys since 1994. Doing the math you will budget $2500 every 10 years which is ~$250 a year!!! I personally like the appearance of the AI and HSI in my KFC 150. They are serious precision instruments which look like they belong in my Mooney if you know what I mean. They complement the machine. Incidentally a vacuum failure is only an issue in hardcore IFR. In anything less than that it's a non issue. The HSI is electric. Also if you really want to be proactive and you fly hard IFR all the time, in addition to what I mentioned, you can install an electric BU AI for a few hundred bucks. Just my opinion.

On the master relay in the tailcone, on the battery side there is a wire which powers the clock and overhead lights. It has a fuse on it. Does any one know the specs of this fuse? I need to replace it. Thanks.