jwilkins

Two weeks ago I had the vacuum pump fail on the way from AZ to CA. While the plane was sitting on the ramp at KWVI the right main tank developed a leak; it was drip-drip-drip out a weep hole until the level got lower in the tank. With the aux tank, some of the fuel will flow into the AUX so the main tank fuel level goes down in a short period of time. The tank was not dripping or smelling when I was ready to return to AZ, so I filled the left only. I also did not turn on the wingtip strobes. Between the main and AUX there was probably 12 G left on the right side, no drip or smell. I couldn't tell if the left wing was heavy in flight; I had about 50 gallons and me on that side, and 12 on the right. It seemed normal to me, although I was just S&L cruising to get home. Arizona Air Craftsman at KPRC doesn't really like doing wet wing tank repairs, but they did agree to give it a shot. They talked to Don Maxwell when working on a previous Mooney and got some tips from him for finding and fixing leaks. It took several working days to find (top seam and outboard fuel sending gasket), fix, verify, and let the sealant cure, but we have a leak free tank now. I made a quick trip to CA over the weekend, and filled both the main and aux on the right to check for leaks; everything looks good right now. If AAC had not been able to find or fix the leak I was going to have Paul at Weep No More reseal that tank. With four tanks to potentially reseal, it seemed like a prudent decision to do the leaking one only. If I only had two tanks I might do both to get it over with. If this (or another leak) recurs I will probably go visit Paul for a reseal. Meanwhile, for less than the cost of ferrying the plane up to MN and the commercial tickets for drop off and picking it up later, not counting the tank reseal itself, I have a leak free tank again. For awhile. Arizona Aircraftsman at KPRC sure have done a good job of taking care of my previous F and now the K. Last month was the alternator and expensive drive coupling, this month the vacuum pump and tank leak. Next month is the annual!

When I bought my first Mooney, a 62 C, it had every power wire ever used still in the plane and some old remote radios still in the tail, as well as an inop ADF. We took out almost 15 pounds of unused wiring, plus the ADF and unused remote radio stuff in the tail. It also had a three blade prop, which could have been swapped out to get that weight back. The net 'book' W&B reduction was only around 20 pounds for the radio equipment which was in the logbooks, but we picked up closer to 40 when we weighed it. For an older plane the progressive calculated W&B has a lot of error creep, but most of us are afraid it would add to the empty weight to get a proper weighing. I have been told that our 100LL weighs around 5.8/ gallon, not 6, so you pick up around 10 pounds with 48 gallon tanks. The biggest factor which I have control over, other than my own weight and amount of fuel on board, is baggage. On a long cross country moving from Upstate NY to Arizona, I weighed every bag, box, and gear bag going in the plane. I had about 40 pounds of cabin cover, extra oil, tools, emergency gear, back up radios, spare headsets, flashlights, and first aid kits. I like having my gear, but, if I sat down and though about what I really needed, eliminated the triplicates, limiting myself to duplicates, and substituted lighter weight gear, I think I could cut this in half with no loss of utility. The same goes for personal gear trip packing. If you have ever done any backpacking you know you can do a week in the wilderness with a 45 pound pack, including food. I don't really need 40 pounds of clothes, business,and personal gear for 3 days in CA. It's an endless discussion, but the only way to know for sure is to see what is in the plane that could be removed, and get it weighed. After that, you can make a lot of decisions about what you put through the doors into the plane. A friend of mine tells his wife "They have stores in (destination). If there is anything you need, you can go buy it" It's the trip home for which he has to carefully calculate W&B, and sometimes ship a package home. Having said all that, if your mission is to carry four 190 pound guys and fishing gear, you probably need a different aircraft.

Quote: mooney2201 if you own a airplane,you can afford to fix it right, with a lycoming factory new engine.

1. I'm having a probe replaced on the JPI today for the same reason. It was working fine and then became erratic when the shop repaired the broken clamp. If there had been a probe in stock at the shop (usually is) we would have just replaced it. 2. It has been my understanding that the RPM / Manifold combination restrictions were due to possible harmonic vibrations. Which makes sense that you can replace your prop and get rid of many of the restrictions. Is there another reason for the restrictions?

I replaced both the landing and taxi with Whelens and am happy with them on my '80 K, which has the two lamps side-by-side in the cowl. They need to be aimed properly which is a tad time consuming but not technically challenging. I did not need to remove the cowl, and would not want to (if I had a choice) as the aiming needs to be checked with the cowl on. On my K the two lamps are on one circuit, wired in parallel. There is absolutely no electrical reason to be concerned about installing one LED lamp which has a reduced current draw in a parallel circuit. You might want to clean up the terminals very well and use a little 3M dielectric grease to avoid future corrosion on the connections. If there is green corrosion on the terminals where the wire is crimped consider replacing the terminals and perhaps the wire, using the same gauge wire even though your LED lamp draw is lower. The circuit breaker is sized to the wire size, so you don't want to substitute a smaller gauge wire for the original size. Jim

I installed the Whelen LED lamps; one landing and one taxi on my K. (cowl mount). The old lamps were pointed up so high that you could check if any birds were nesting on the hanger roof, but no light at all on the ground. Aiming the new lights was time consuming. The combination of the landing / taxi lights seems OK for light output. I think the light output is probably not quite as bright as halogens, but MUCH brighter than burned out conventionals. I saw a Boom Beam installation once and it was MUCH brighter than either the halogen or LED, but HIDs are not my favorite lamp technology because of the high frequency power supply and ramp up to power characterisitics. My opinion is that the LED lamps have adequate light output, and are fully functional for night operations. The biggest advantage for me is the extended service life, reduced power draw, and reduced IR heat output so that I can leave them on for visibility whenever I am near an airport or being called out as a traffic target to another aircraft. I never wanted to leave the conventional bulbs on that much as I was concerned it would reduce the bulb life and increase the power requirements significantly. The Whelen LEDs do not 'wig wag' and that is, so far, the only improvement I would have liked. If I was flying every night I might make a different choice, but, for my application, the LEDs are great. Jim

It looks like this plane was at Williamson Sodus airport when the photos were taken (KSDC). If that is correct it is a small airport owned by the Williamson Flying Club and everyone knows everyone and every plane. One of the two AP/IA's on the field owned a Mooney a few years ago and is Mooney friendly although not a MSC he's a good mechanic. You might call Ray Chapin or send him an Email and ask him what it woudol cost to do a review, and, if yo udecide ot move ahead, a pre-purchase inspection. Ray's email is rotordocny@verizon.net website is http://www.bac-helicopters.com Don't get put off by the helicopter stuff; he took care of my Mooney when I was back there and found and fixed issues that had been hanging for years, even through a lot of MSC annuals. If you do talk to Ray tell him Jim said hello. If you want to talk to someone else out there, send me a PM and I'll get you the contact information for the president of the flying club. He'll at least know who owns the plane. Jim

My '80 K has a different sound than my '67 F, but it is still too loud to NOT use a good headset. Originally I thought it was quieter, now I just think it is different. Maybe like more bass, less treble. Maybe it's the 6 cylinder vs four? Here's a list of some of the better headsets I've had: Lightspeed 20XL fantastic price / performance ratio at the time of introduction, still good. Outstanding customer service. I had one quality issue long after the warrantee had expired; they sent new parts free of charge as "This should not have happened". Bose X - also good performance. OK comfort for 3 - 4 hours. Panel mount so I don't need batteries. Had two; sold one on Ebay. Telex Stratus 50D - state of the art at the time of introduction. I bought them just because they had digital signal processing. I couldn't hear a difference bewteen them and the other non-digital ANR headsets, but I don't have perfect hearing, either. Still competitive performance but customer service is absolutely astoundingly poor. Comfort OK but not as good (for me) as Bose or Zulu 2. Also had panel mount, no batteries. Traded these in on the Zulu 2 just because I did not want to own a Telex product after my last interaction with the customer service department. I got rid of them before they needed serice again. Lightspeed Zulu 2. Fantastic performance. Excellent customer service; they actually get back to you quickly and make every effort to resolve your concerns. Comfortable. My favorite over the ear headset so far. OK so these are all over-the-ear ANR headsets. With ALL of them you should periodically replace the ear pads. They seem to get stiffer after a year or so which degrades comfort and performance. The two biggest issues are the weight and clamping pressure give some people (like my wife) a headache after a couple hours, AND, frequently IGNORED, if you wear glasses or sun glasses the temples break the seal between the ear pads and your head, which seriously degrades the performance. I bought special 'flying glasses' with very thin titanium spring wire temples that sit close to my head and won't create an opening for the seal. I think this gets frequently overlooked when comparing headset performance. They can't work right if they don't seal. Too much hair can also produce a poor seal. However, I certainly don't need to worry about that. Now, for the winner: Ta Da: Quiet Technologies Halo in the ear headset. Not an ANR but perfomance rivals the best over the ear ANRs I have used, and more comfortable for me. Quieter than even my Zulu 2 (remember, I do wear glasses). So light I sometimes forget I am wearing a headset. Makes the Oxygen on/off easy. I can change glasses without ditching the headset. My only 'con' is that it takes 15 or 20 seconds to put these on after a little practice. On real short hops I'll use the Bose, on any real trips this is my headset of choice. Bonus: cost less than a good ANR over the ear headset. My Zulu 2 are the best over the ear headsets I have ever used. I give them to my right seat passenger because I want them to enjoy flying with me (as much as possible). The old Light Speed 20XL still work fine and I keep them as both a backup and backseat PX set. The Halo set is mine. No one else gets to use them. The Bose I keep for short hops, and, as only the pilot intercom has the panel wired Lemo jack I'm the only one using these, too. I wouldn't care if anyone else wanted them, but I've got the only place they plug into in the plane. I sold the second Bose set after getting it repaired because I don't need two panel mount sets. I traded in the Telex on the Zulu 2 just to get rid then before I had to deal with Telex again. OK, now the disclaimers so the other manufacturer supporters don't get upset: This is MY experience only. I'm not conducting a survey, sample size is ONE person. You will find people who disagree and have different opinions based on different experiences. Everyone is welcome to their own opinions, these are just mine only. If you don't like my opinions please exercise your right to ignore them. When I was younger I spent my weekends shooting silhouettes with a .44 mag and ocassionally running a bull dozer and skidsteer loader for fun at home. My hearing suffered. I know many old pilots who never wore headsets and are very hearing impaired, more than I am... I think airplanes are worse for hearing impairment than shooting and diesel dozers. Get a good noise reduction headset, not just for the comfort but because it may mitigate hearing damage. I never thought it mattered but now I wish I had worn hearing protection. I also wish I had bought Apple stock at the IPO. Jim

I have had Wing X Pro 7 and the Radenna Sky Radar for several months now. I have the box tie wrapped under the panel and use the remote antenna. Works great, as I am not a fan of 'stuff' on the glare shield, I am very happy with the remote antenna. I really like Wing X 7. I used free trial versions of different software and Wing X just 'fit' me better. A lot of using software is getting used to it, but sometimes you just feel at home with the logic, page layouts, and features. Wing X just worked for me. It has geo referencing for sectionals, low and high enroute charts, and taxi diagrams. I did not pay the extra subscription for the geo referenced approach plates. On approach I use the G430 and a plate. My weather coverage has been outstanding throughout the SW and Northern CA. I do receive long distance weather, too. The Sky Radar uses Wi Fi for a connection, not blue tooth. I have read that you can use multiple displays but haven't tried it. I have the single frequency (978 MHz) ADS-B version of the Sky Radar. It works great for weather. I had absolutley no hesitation in cancelling my XM WX subscription after trying both side-by-side for a month or so. I do not have traffic available on my Wing X / Sky Radar version because I have the single frequency receiver. Wing X has said the low altitude traffic will be added later this year; right now I would need to have the dual band receiver to get traffic. I'm looking forward to the update later this year, but it will not be a complete traffic system with the anner the FAA broadcasts traffic. The ADS-B traffic only transmits when an aircraft in the area has an ADS-B OUT signal to let the ground stations know there is an ADS-B equipped aircraft in the area. When it knows one is around, traffic information is broadcast. Since these portable systems are 'in-only' they don't alert the ground stations and no traffic information is broadcast unless there is another aircraft in the area broadcasting an 'out' signal. Weather is continuously broadcast and does not need an 'out' equipped aircraft in the area. So you will get traffic only when an ADS-B aircraft is in the area. That will probably be in the really busy areas when you need the traffic help the most. It'll be nice to have but not a comprehensive traffic alert system. I have no complaints about Wing X Pro or the Sky Radar system. The only issues I have are iPad related: 1. Even with a matte finish screen protector the screen can still glare in sun. 2. The screen is not really good for sunlight readable. 3. The iPad is a tad too large to find a comfortable mounting place where it does not obstruct controls or the panel. I'm still working on this, but if they really do come out with a smaller iPAd I will happily buy one and mount it on my yoke. Rumour: Some people have commented that the iPad will shut down when it gets too hot. since I keep mine out of direct sun I have not had this happen yet, but it's agood thing to keep in mind so your paper backup charts are within reach and organized. Jim

Does Plane Power make a direct repacement for the direct drive single alternator installation on the K? Jim

Quote: jetdriven There is s factory drawing to drill another hole giving you another 1.5" of legroom at the last setting before going all the way back.

The Kelly rebuilds are SUPPOSED to be better now, the problem is that there are apparently a lot of units in stock which you can't tell when they were rebuilt to make a guess on quality. Not everything can be inspected without a tear down, either. Bad solder joints are not obvious from the outside. Meanwhile, there are a lot of good rebuild shops around (like the one LASAR uses) where they can rebuild your core. Takes a little longer than getting an off-the-shelf Kelly but today you have a higher probability of getting a good unit. Dan at Lasar had these replaced on my rebuild: front case, stator, brushes, diodes, bearing and seal. Arizona Air Craftsman has a shop that rebuilds alternators for them, too, with excellent service history. They did not have all the parts my core needed. Eventually the old stock of Kelly rebuilds will get flushed out and we'll be able to get a good rebuild off the shelf if you need one in a hurry. What I find amusing is that the direct drive coupling has a higher failure rate than the alternators, is recommended to be inspected every 500 hours, and cost more to rebuild than the alternator. I suppose the shear pin used on similr applications is bad because the shear pin coudl create debris, but it sure seems like there should be better solution than a part that has a poor service life, and costs about $2000 new and $700+ to rebuild. Dan said when people call him to tell him they need a new direct drive alternator before it has been removed a majority of the time the alternator is OK but the drive coupling has failed.

The plane is back together and working. I didn't want to put a Kelly alternator on unless I really had no choice, so Dan at Lasar had one of his cores rebuilt at a shop he trusts. The rebuilt alternator arrived at Arizona Air Craftsman Wed afternoon; the guys got it installed, tested, and all back together on Thursday with the rebuilt coupling and alternator. It seems almost funny that the coupling rebuild cost more than the alternator. While the cowling was off AAC tracked down a fluctuating JPI tach to a bad tach pickup, and a low #1 EGT to a broken probe clamp. Total down time less than two weeks, and would have been quicker if I had wanted to use a Kelly rebuilt alternator. It's nice to have a good shop on my home field and people like Dan at Lasar to help with parts. Apparently I have been really lucky; I've never needed a part for the C, F , or K that Dan and Lasar could not help with. Jim

Quote: N4352H I suspect in almost all cases of 2 and 4 seat crash/fires it is to late for the occupants if the fire ever reaches the seats or carpet. At that point fire retardant material isn't going to help very many if any of the occupants. The car mats and seat covers are perfectly legal as long as you send one of them off for a flame test and they pass. It cost $40 for the test.

Quote: jetdriven When I had my interior plastic out I removed quite a few screws that went into the tubes and shot plenty of LPS-3 in those holes.

Quote: jwilkins I think the last Mooneys that had the inside of the tubes treated with ANYTHING were either the Mooney Mites or maybe the M20A. In any case it has been a long time since any treatment was done in the tubes.

Quote: mooney2201 the tubes are filled with linseed oil,most people dont know that.,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

With a private seller or a BROKER I would use an escrow service who will check for clear title immediately prior to transfer. Remember a broker is acting as an agent and may not know everything that is going on with the selling owner. When a dealer like All American actually takes title and re-sells the plane there is a different level of due diligence in the deal. The last deal I did with All American I ended up over paying them because of the way I handled the financing and paying off the old plane, and I wanted to make sure there was enough money around to pay Jimmy for some work he had done on the plane for me. Jimmy sent me a check for the overage. There are not many dealers I would trust that way. Unless you really know the seller (private, dealer or broker) it's always a good idea to use an escrow agent. Your bank may require it, too. $400 would get eaten up pretty quickly with attorney fees if something went south. It's a pretty reasonable 'insurance' premium. (IMHO).

My K (also a 1980) came with two G430s. I upgraded one to WAAS for the GPS approaches. I keep the nav database up to date on the WAAS unit. If you can spare the cash I'd recommend upgrading to the WAAS. You might also consider updating the other databases once every year or so. Nav Aids and airport ID's do change ocassionally. When my former home airport got an AWOS the airport designator changed from 3G7 to KSDC. When the list of 'for this airport, use this old designator' got too long I'd update the Loran Nav Data card. Since it was not IFR it didn't really matter. When I put a G430 in that plane I got a nav data subscription. I know a fellow who keeps his MX20 up to date and passes along the old card to a friend. Probably not Kosher, but the data is only a couple months old. Best of luck with the new plane; I hope you are happy with yours as I am with mine. Jim

Quote: KSMooniac You've got the best attitude about it, Jim. You might consider filing a Service Difficulty Report on that previous mechanic. If he truly did some non-conforming work like that, then it should be elevated IMO. He was working without a service manual or neglected the instructions...either way that is not acceptable behavior for a licensed mechanic. The best result is that it just cost you money and not worse...

I have posted this link before, but it is worth re-posting for anyone who would like a plain language story about owner produced parts. It is very difficult to reverse engineer some parts wthout the engineering drawing that specifies material, treatment (such as heat treatment) surface finish, tolerances and special notes. Some parts may be easy, but many are not. It is really important to note that if you are planning to fabricate an owner produced part it should conform to the original. You can't decide to use 'stronger' materials or 'improve' on the design and have it pass as an owner fabricated part. "I've got a great idea for a better way to do this" is NOT an owner fabricated part. It is an experimental modification. Personally I do not have a problem with non-structural and not flight safety parts such as the instrument panel mentioned. I have fabricated torsion springs for access doors to replace broken springs. Bushings may be OK depending on the application. I would not make any parts for the gear actuator if I did not have access to the original drawings and specifications. In all cases I would discuss it with the AP first and make sure we are not able to source the part through an approved channel. In most cases 'because I can do it for less money' is not a good reason. We need to support these sources so they are around when we are AOG and in a bind. My opinion only. http://150cessna.tripod.com/parts.html Jim Anyway, here is a link to an article about owner fabricated parts

Quote: KSMooniac FYI, I've had some discussions with a couple different Hartzell Engine Technology folks over the last few weeks (they purchased Kelly in late 2010) and they are fully aware of the Kelly reputation and quality issues. They are actively working to correct things and expand their business, so I hope they are very successful in doing so. Hopefully it won't be too long before we can buy their products without worry.

I've been dealing with an alternator issue for the last month. The alternator would not come on line until the engine warmed up for a few minutes, then worked fine the rest of the day. The alternator and coupling are only a couple hundred hours since overhaul. The shop here in Prescott (Arizona Air Craftsman) made a visual inspection of the connections and checked output a couple weeks ago and the only thing we found was oil dripping on the alternator from a loose oil separator return line. Since it was working by the time I taxied in there wasn't too much else we could do. It was not the typical coupling failure as it would work fine under full load after it warmed up. The symptoms did not really fit the typical failure modes of the coupling or alternator. It was not getting any worse and was very consistent that it would work fine after warming up. When I got back from the MAPA PPP last week I asked them to figure out what was causing this. Starting out with a cold engine they verified the field voltage was OK but no output for a few minutes, so they pulled the alternator. Here's the diagnosis: Two years ago the previous owner had an A&P replace the alternator drive coupling. The coupling was installed WITHOUT the shaft bushing. Since there was no bushing he decided to crank the castle nut on hard enough to stop the drive coupling from slopping around on the alternator shaft. He also left off the cotter pin since installing it would have required backing off the nut slightly to align the holes. Bottom line; the alternator shaft and drive coupling are destroyed. The woodruff key was destroyed and the keyway in the alternator shaft was damaged from what was left of the woodruff key. When the alternator warmed up the coupling would seize on the shaft and drive the alternator even under full load. Good news: No parts fell into the engine and the drive gear in the engine is not damaged at all. I feel really lucky that we caught this without any engine damage. I'm not thrilled about replacing both the alternator and drive coupling, but I am really happy there was no engine damage and no parts fell off into the engine. The last oil analysis showed slightly high ferrous content; just enough so they recommended another analysis to check for trending. We thought this might be from the previous owner living in a humid area and not flying much. It is probably an indication of the drive coupling, woodruff key, and alternator shaft wear. The guys at Arizona Air Craftsman were great about continuing to diagnosis this in a logical and cost effective manner. I'm very relieved that we continued to look into this without dismissing it or waiting for it to get worse. It wasn't a big deal from an operational standpoint; it just took a couple minutes for the alternator to come on line while the engine was warming up. I could have rationalized letting it go until the annual in a couple months. Since we didn't want to put a Kelly rebuilt alternator on, I called Dan at Lasar. He is having one rebuilt for us and it should be at the shop on Wednesday. The point of this long rambling post is that, at least in this case, following up on a situation that is not right, but not a full failure mode yet, prevented what could have turned into major engine damage. If that castle nut had backed off, or fallen off, the drive gear in the engine could have been damaged. This could have been a very expensive problem. It's not inexpensive to replace the drive coupling and alternator, but it sure is less than it could have been. Thanks to the people who encouraged me to follow through and get this fixed. Jim

We've made several XC round trips from Upstate NY to CA and AZ. We took our '62 C From KSDC (Upstate NY) to Alabama to vist the previous owner, stopped in San Diego to see the second and longest term owner, then to Santa Barbara for a family wedding. The Resners in San Diego gave Marge and me their Mooney flight jackets. Mooney people are nice folks. I made two or three NY - CA trips in the C, then several NY-AZ in the '67F. Most of these flights were southern routes; the weather never worked out to do a direct across the country when we could have. Plus the Southern mountain crossing route worked out better for the non-turbo planes. If I can swing the T&M (time & money) now that I'm living in AZ I would like to make an AZ - NY trip this year with the K. After I win the lottery (I guess I should buy a ticket) I'd like to make a trip to Alaska. Jim

I've used flat black paint (Krylon exterior) when the only issue was the wing walk fading out to grey; worked good after a very thorough Aircraft Simple Green scrubbing. If your fuel seeps are around screws you might try to find Don Maxwell's article about sealing the weeping screws. He suggested Permatex aviation form-a-gasket. I didn't even need to drain the tank; just take the screw out, coat with the form-a-gasket and reinstall. Worked like a champ and was still dry after two years. This won't help if the seam is weeping, but it sure fixed the screws in the wingwalk area. I used a dental pick to clean out the head of the screw to get a good grip on it to back it out. Jim