nishantc04

I hangar my plane out of KDVT (about 10 minutes by air and 15 minutes by car) from KSDL. I have an independant A&P that has been working on my plane for about a year now. He does a great job and has years of experience. If you're interested, I can pass his contact info along to you. If you choose to do the inspection at KDVT, there are maintenance bays available for people to use (usually for tenants, but I don't expect for you to encounter any problems if you're there for a day). I'm not on the forum often enough, so feel free to email me at nishant@cox.net if you want his info. Nishant

I forgot to mention - the ambient temperature definitely affects how much the kevlar adapts when it's been sitting and how quickly it rounds out on taxi. The colder it is, the longer it takes. During the summer when it's 100+ Farenheit, pulling the airplane out of the hangar is usually enough to round out the tire.

I have the Goodyear Flight Custom III's also and have found that the tire tends to be less than perfectly round. When the tire sits on the airplane, I get a slightly out of round shape on the nose and mains. I read about it and discovered that the kevlar reinforcement tends to adapt based on the way it sits. I'm not sure how the tires were shipped or how they were sitting before you installed them, but that might explain it. When I taxi the airplane a short distance, the tire rounds out perfectly. I do feel some bumps when I first start taxiing, but it always goes away within 1-2 minutes tops. It happens when the air pressure is set correctly, but it does get worse when the air pressure is low. Nishant

Hello, As I understand it, a CPL only requires a class II medical certificate. Furthermore, a pilot may hold a CPL with a class III medical certificate but may not exercise the priviliges of a CPL (for hire, etc.) without the class II medical certificate. (see the first link below) With regards to the CFI, a medical certificate is not required during certain types of flight training as long as the student pilot has a medical certificate and can act as pilot in command. A CFI must have at least a third class medical certificate when the student pilot cannot act as pilot in command (private pilot training, hood training, etc.) (see the second link below) So, as long as you're not planning on acting as a commercial pilot or an ATP, your class III medical certificate should be just fine. Nishant http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_certifications_for_pilots http://www.askacfi.com/235/can-a-cfi-instruct-without-a-medical.htm

If you're going to buy an aircraft cover, I would suggest getting one with silver laminate. Normally aircraft covers have the fluffy plush stuff to protect the paint/windows, however that fuzzy plush stuff collects dust, grit, etc., and will eventually scratch the hell out of your windows. Silver laminate does not do that. In fact, during Operation Desert Storm, the military had to switch from the regular plushy fluffy fuzzy crap to the silver laminate because of the constant sand bombardment. You can find covers to cover the entire surface of your mooney from http://www.aircraftcovers.com/. They are also known as Bruce's Aircraft Covers. If you tell them you're interested, they will send out a full binded information packet. It has samples of the materials that are used (I think it does, I can't remember for sure) and detailed instructions on what measurements to take and how to take them. Return the forms to them and they'll start sewing your aircraft cover. They have canopy covers, extended canopy covers, wing covers, tail root covers, etc. You can really cover your entire aircraft if that's what you want to do. The fuel cap covers I was looking at were for the Cessna/Piper group. Looks like you're out of luck on that one. My fuel cap was leaking and just yesterday I switched out the o-rings. Solved the problem right up. Instead of using a -338 I used a -339 for a tighter fit --- worked like a charm. Good luck, Nishant

i saw these a couple months ago. http://www.lonestaraero.com/pc-1039-551-leather-covered-control-wheel-wemblem-black.aspx i didn't buy them so i can't give you any input, but I was planning on taking the dive when I can afford it. Nishant

I was very paranoid about that at my last annual and I had my A&P take a look at it. Turns out it was just the Corrosion X seeping through every nook and cranny on the airframe. Phew! Nishant

Sounds like a mooney to me! Takes more work to get to the problem than it does to fix it. )

Ya know, I've been wanting to put in a ski tube but I haven't found any STC's or anybody who has done that yet. Let me know if you come up with anything. To be honest, I would be worried about putting golf clubs in the tail. You have a lot of control rods back there -- last thing you would want is to jam something up because of light turbulence. Nishant

Quote: mooniac58 Did you have to remove the panel around that? I noticed everything appeared to be riveted in place, which is why I did not just fix it myself.

Problem solved! One of the springs that pushes the ball bearing in place was broken. Yay for a simple fix!! Thank you for the help - much appreciated. Nishant

I have a 1965 Mooney M20C (serial number 2812) going through an owner assisted annual inspection right now. Unfortunately we’ve hit a kink in the process and I need help. HISTORY – Before the annual inspection, I would use partial flaps on take off and full flaps on landing regularly. The plane was flying about 4 hours per week for the past 3 months (when I bought the plane). There were no discernable issues with the flap system. The sole discrepancy is that the flaps took about 2 dead pumps before the flaps began moving. In addition, there was an unknown hydraulic fluid leak on the belly of the aircraft (only noticeable if the belly pans were removed). THE ANNUAL - The A&P I am working with knows Mooneys well and works on them regularly. 1. The unknown hydraulic fluid leak was traced to the manual flap cylinder pump. The manual flap pump was leaking hydraulic fluid and was overhauled. The o-rings in the flap cylinder pump were simply replaced and the leak stopped. 2. The flap system was bled at both the flap pump and the actuator. The system was still taking about 2-3 dead pumps before the flaps would begin moving. My A&P pressure bled the system and now the flaps begin moving at the first pump. THE PROBLEM: It takes about 5 pumps to get the flaps all the way down (as expected). The system holds full flaps with no problem. However, at partial flaps (such as the take off setting) the flaps begin retracting automatically. AHH! POTENTIAL CAUSES: I have no idea what happened! My thoughts are that the pressure bleeding has roots in the problem. After the o-rings were replaced and the flap pump was reinstalled, when we were bleeding the system I recall stopping at partial flaps – the system would hold it. After the pressure bleeding, though, the system would not hold partial flaps. Unfortunately I wasn’t there for the pressure bleeding process. My A&P says that he’s done everything he can do to the flap control and it still doesn’t work. He specifically mentioned, “I disconnected the wire that activates or retracts the flap at the control valve and spun the control valve 360 degrees and did not get any results.” If anybody has any knowledge or ideas here, please help me!! Thank You, Nishant

If it were me, I would just fix the flap indicator. It's a very simple design and it's reliable. I actually just fixed my trim indicator yesterday -- very basic. Nishant