Jeev

Here is the link for the PAR 46 : http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/elpages/whelen461l.php No mention of an STC?? Anyone order this yet? Only thing stopping me is an STC...

Quote: OR75 I am a bit confused. What settings do folks use on their J model in cruise at say 8 to 12 thousand ?.

This aircraft is absolutely beautiful in every way! Its parked a couple shades down from me and I have flown it with Jason. If I didn't already have a J I would jump on this! Sorry to see her go Jason.

Quote: KSMooniac Could you tell us which shop did the O/H on the governor?

Yep got the the governor back today. The O/H shop pressure tested it and it was shooting oil all over the place! Makes me wonder if all they did was paint it, charge me $1000 and send it back! Cost me a week of flying Southwest back and forth to Cali! Painfull! Looks like Ill have it back on Monday!

Well I will first say that 1st year MX costs are highly dependent on the plane you buy and how well the prebuy annual is done. With that being said I will give you some real world numbers: Bought My 1979 J which is practicly the same as an F with electric gear from a maintenence point of view about 15 months ago. I elected to go with an aircraft with higher TBO of 1400 (but flown at least 100 hrs in the previous year) with awesome avionics, good paint and interior. I knew I would possibly need an OH in anywhere from 0 to 4 years and was prepaired for that. In the last 15 months I have put over 300 hours on her and about $10,000 in both scheduled and unscheduled maintence but none of that was related to the gear, knock on aluminum . Some big ones were a prop overhaul ($2000), rebuilding the autopilot computer and a couple of servos ($3200), overhauling the prop gov ($1200), and tracking down a pesky electrical problem ($600). The rest is replacing the alternator, starter and other maintence such as tires, oil changes and leaks. All that was after an extensive prebuy / annual at the sellers expense to the tune of around $6,000 (at a MSC though). No matter what you buy just have a steady flow of green to feed her or ownership will not be fun. I went into this knowing planes break down and need to be fixed all the time. Though my costs may be high due to flying 300 hours I would still expect to pay around 12% 15% of the purchase price in MX cost over the 1st year of ownership. All of the things I did over the last year didnt "NEED" to be done but you will realize that you will do a little extra because it is yours and you want it the way you want it My first year insurance was around $2071 (AOPA). I had 0 Mooney time, 12 hrs of complex and total time of around 150. My second year with over 200hrs in type was around $1400. This is for a $90,000 hull value. The Mooney is an excellent IFR platform!! I was about half way through flying 172's and finished in my mooney, there is no comparison! Plus having the availability of MY OWN plane 24/7 probably helped me finish much faster. The inspection part of the annual not including any fixes has run me between $1200 and $1400. Cheers and have fun it has been a great experiance for me and I would do it again in a heartbeat!

Quote: mikefox If it is coming from the governor mounting pad, make certain that the governor was installed with a spacer plate and gaskets on both sides of the plate. If it is not installed properly, it will not seat, and the loss of oil can be catastrophic. Many mechanics do not know this, as only two engine installations use this spacer plate - the IO360 in the M20J and in the Cessna 177. Take this seriously - we experienced just this on our governor, and there was a special service bulletin issued after a fatal crash following loss of engine oil on takeoff!

Quote: KSMooniac I bet his oil coming from the governor is simply getting blown onto the exhaust and smoking. Hopefully the mounting pad issue is indeed all there is to the problem and you get many hundreds of hours more out of the engine! General troubleshooting tip...always look at what was just touched when a problem arises. It is highly unlikely, statistically speaking, for a new problem to manifest itself right after you work on the plane for some other reason.

Update: We ended up putting a ziplock bag over the governor and running it up and cycling the prop. Oil on the inside of the bag! The O/H'd governor was just installed and the leak looks to be coming from between the gov and the gov pad. I will update with the end solution as my fingers are crossed and I am a little relieved concidering I was prepairing for a crack.

Thanks Lee - I will look into the breather tomorrow as you are the 3rd person to bring it up.

I am frustrated after working on this for a week with my A&P: Aircraft: 1978 M20J IO-360 1750TSOH in 1992. I have flown her about 250 hours in the last 12 months with not a single engine problem. All comps are 74/80 or above and it is burning about a quart every 6.5 hours. Problem: Immediately after take off it starts to drop oil down the back of the engine (accy case) at an alarming rate of about 1quart per 2minutes. During flight all oil temp, pressure and cylinder head temps are normal. We cannot get it to do this on the ground after full power runups at operating temps. What we have fixed: Mag gasket was leaking it was replaced, prop governor was leaking and in need of overhaul it was overhauled, oil quick drain had a bad O ring so it was replaced. After all this and test flights around the pattern each time it still pukes oil enough to trail white smoke and totally soak the belly. Inspection shows the MAG and governor dry but oil dripping down the middle of the firewall out the gear door. Again we cannot duplicate the problem on the ground. Any ideas? My mechanic is going to check the oil pan tomorrow and look closer for a crack in the case.. Worst case I am expecting an overhaul but due to the engine humming along perfectly except for this leak I am hesitant to spend $25k with out knowing exactly what is causing this. Thanks in advance for your ideas. Sanjeev

Quote: GeorgePerry Personlly if I were going to spend that kind of money on an F, I'd pass and look for a decent J. Avionics are nice, but they don't make you go any faster.

Thal F is REAL nice but if you are interested in the E it is parked 2 rows down from my J at North Las Vegas (VGT). I have met the owner and he is a nice stand up guy. I also have my mechanic on the field (works on my J) who has a lot of Mooney experiance and is VERY fair and trustworthy. Let me know if you want me to take actual pics or help you out in anyway. Congrats and happy hunting! I PM'd you with my cell.

Yeah sorry I forgot to update. It turned out to be some sort of combo between the master switch and thte ALT C/B. The master was replaced and thr issue was a lot less frequent but still there then the C/B was replaced and problem solved. Even pulled the new Voltage regulator out and replaced it with my old one.... Saved a little money

Thanks George - The aircraft doesent dart but I will have a close look at the steering horn. Parker - Yeah I looked into just having it repaired but the prop has 1750TT on it and an overhaul was only $800 more... I figured I would just bite the bullet now instead of later thanks.

Hello All - I have a 78 J in for annual now and when up on jacks you can wiggle the nose gear side to side (in the steering plane) when you grab the tire on both sides with out engaging the steering, just feels a little loose. As this is my 1st Mooney i was wondering if this is normal? The gear is tight in regards to retraction or lowering with no play and the looseness seems to be isolated to steering only. I do not notice any problems during ground ops. My mechanic is looking in to this but I wanted to get some opinions before I spend more money... Gonna be an expensive annual due to a prop overhaul (slinging grease) :-( Thanks, SP

Email sent -

Thank you all I will have those checked out... wish me luck

Hello all I am wondering if anyone has some fresh ideas so here it goes: Aircraft - 1978 M20J Problem: After about one hour of flight I loose charge and get a solid low/high volt on the annc panel. No breakers or switches pop, voltage drops of from 14.1v to 12.5 and drains the batt. If I pull the alt breaker and reset it or toggle the master switch i will instantly get charge back (14.1v) then anywhere from 5 to 60min later it will happen again. What we have tried: Repaced the alternator (was found to have worn brushes), replaced the Voltage regulator, replaced the Alt breaker fuse, repaced the master switch, tested the battery and connections. At this point it is getting really frustrating and expensive and I am hoping you guys have some fresh ideas.... Thanks, Jeev

Looks very nice and congrats on the good deal, someone spent a lot on $$$ on all those mods! Almost the same paint as my J but I have White instead of cream. At first I didnt like it but the green/gold/white really grew on me.... enjoy the nice flying weather in the SW this weekend!

Matt - Glad you still have the J!!! I was getting sad when you were talking about selling it

Maybe its just me but why would you want to have smoke on a Mooney How is he going to advertise his biz, sky writing in a Mooney.... hmmmmmm... I think most people (esp non pilots) would think the something was wrong if they saw a Mooney laying a trail of smoke.... To each their own i guess.. Sorry im not trying to be a Di*k but I dont get it

Quote: Cruiser I don't like to see CHT over 360°F at any time, but I will tolerate 370°F. If it wants to get hotter than that I started changing the setup to keep the CHT down. Some say it is OK to run hotter but I think that is because their engine does. Many seem to be below 350°F CHT. Turbos and six cylinder engines will run hotter. I believe you will start to get metal fatigue at around 440°F

Lone Star Aero at SAT did my Prebuy / Annual - They were very thorough and workmanship was top notch but a little spendy since they are a MSC. Get a hold of Parker on this board, he has a J himself, a ton of Mooney time and a real nice guy. I think he lives an hour or so out of SAT.... Good luck and where are the pics of your soon to be new money pit... i mean plane

I have one, it was installed by a previous owner or the factory.. It works off MP and will give off a loud BEEP when MP is below 15 and gear is up.... It has been more of an annoyance during slow flight and slowing down in the traffic pattern but i figure one day it may save me