Immelman

If your plane is like mine was, the hoses to the rear seat heat vents were quite degraded not only near the heater box but behind the interior paneling as well. I replaced them all, and the ventilation and defrost all operate much better. I had no air out of the foot-vents because of all the holes. Second note: SCAT tube is OK. Just OK. The orange hose in your pic is SCAT. SCEET is a much better product and easier to work with. More money but not excessive. I believe the original black hose is called CEET.

Good question! I wonder if perhaps we'll be able to do away with them and set the transponder to some discrete code depending on flight rules, when operating in airspace requiring ADS-B... Over the ocean you squawk 2000 out of radar contact..... on a transcon (pre-corona-plague) it was usual to get one, sometimes two new transponder codes assigned from ATC as the country was traversed. Presumably because 4096 wasn't enough.

217RN.... I respectfully disagree. Granted I don't go up often but have flown 'the bay tour' and transited SFO class B numerous times in my GA flying for nearly 20 years. Never denied entry to Bravo from Norcal, never. SFO tower has, especially after an incident involving a GA aircraft, occasionally denied low-level transitions when they are busy but that is rare. If that is the case you cross at a higher altitude talking with norcal tracon. Note, I am responding to your verbatim claim about "clearance into the Bravo". I am not talking landing SFO. When it comes to landing at SFO, there is an FBO (Signature), it costs an arm and a leg, but its a public airport open to anyone. Pre-covid though, you're right, its used to the limits of its facilities. Anyone CAN land at SFO, but you may not land exactly when you WANT to. In years of flying regional aircraft we would often get multi-hour ground delays at the departure airport, mostly because we'd get the short end of the stick from the mainline managing the landing 'slots'. In the current job flying a bigger airplane those delays were minimal or rare. The best were the trips down to Mexico, or Hawaii.... no ATC delays departing from those stations. Now back to COVID and GA into the big airports: Its a neat novelty, sure. Perhaps a good place to practice an ILS if they're not busy (After all, you have complete traffic separation in the primary class B airport). But landing at a big field, let me tell you, the novelty wears off quickly once you have to taxi around. Its easy to make a mistake, easy to do something that bites you in the ass. Several fields (SFO included) have poorly marked and/or confusing intersections. The reason taxiway J is closed is because a 121 pilot mistakenly turned onto it during taxi, and nearly onto 28L into landing traffic. LAX has that awful roadway between inner and outer taxiways and I have been cut off by ground vehicles many times. Our Mooneys thankfully stop more quickly than an airliner. Momentum... Each big field has its issues, and the ground ops are the most stressful part. Again, pre-covid, when things were busy... Given the choice between flying into any big field in my Mooney and a sleepy non-towered airport, I'll take the non-towered one every time. Once you do this for a living and the novelty wears off, the 'cool' factor is replaced with the fact that the big fields can be a big headache.

My "home" (work) field! My last landing there... last day I flew the line (for now) March 4th. I've been thinking perhaps take the Mooney up for a bay tour and ask for a low approach down the 28s, but I suspect the view off to the left of RJs parked where I used to work would be too depressing. Looks like the summer off... an unplanned sabbatical. After that, who knows....

Plenty of good airplanes have made gear up landings. If repaired properly there is no reason to exclude them from your search. Good luck!

A third option: Vinyl. ....if you're still reading hear me out: Some of the automotive vinyl products are durable, comfortable, and have patterns or grain that simulate leather. I had my seats redone a couple of years ago, and told the craftsman who rebuilt them I wanted a comfortable and durable seat. I have a young daughter and had (will have another) dog. So far so good.

The part the ring goes through screws on. As an alternative to whats posted above, if you don't want to bother with prying the ring open and closed: Pull up on the ring (fuel will drain). Grasp the bottom with a pair of needle nose pliers. Unscrew ring. It is threaded onto the gascolator / fuel selector assembly. I only found this out when the ring assembly started to unscrew itself...

Ross... please advise on your how antibody test goes. I hear similar stories and anecdotes around my neck of the woods. Some from folks in their 60s. My opinion, well, my experiences: The past month was one of shock. We are moving past the shock phase. "What's next?". We are still flying mostly blind, not even partial panel. Immunity after illness? Antibodies? Number of infected with no symptoms (making containment impossible, but mortality lower)? Swedish strategy? The Gilead drug? Small bits of data are coming out hinting at things. All while we are at the worst of this 'wave' of illness and economic shock. It may be time to step back and be patient, and let things settle. Wait another month. More will be revealed, one way or another, which will guide appropriate response, and guide what the new normal will be. This morning I learned that the nursing home my grandmother in has 30 cases. I was told she had a fever a couple of weeks ago, was tested, and was negative. Someone's lying. As far as I know, she's okay.... I say this as an airline pilot who hasn't flown anything larger than than my Mooney since March 4. Currently on leave, caring for our daughter while my wife works from home. And I wonder if I will have a job, or if it will be a job worth going back to on Sept 30... perhaps time to refresh the old skills and get other options ready. At least there is time to prepare. And I am allowing myself to fly my plane as an essential activity, but am not really going anywhere. I am an airline pilot. Its an essential job. Flying is a perishable skill. A320 != Mooney but the principles are the same and getting rusty sucks. Note to self: Keep your heart healthy. Keep up the exercise. Keep the lungs strong. Keep BMI in the normal range. Avoid lifestyle decisions that promote adult-onset diabetes. All things we ought to be thinking about anyway, but now with a renewed sense of urgency. Who knows how long this will be with us?

Fuel tank sealant is good stuff.... stronger than RTV. Has some flex. I am not a chemical or mechanical engineer, nor A&P/IA. Don't take my word for it!

I am late to the party, but... 1) I am very appreciative of the time and patience Shadrach gave to me as I battled a similar problem. Ross, once again, thank you from me personally and on behalf of all Mooney pilots. Your "12-step" thread is very useful. 2) nukemizz, thank you for the diagram. It too is a great help for someone who will get into this project. The more information the better. 3) I had a similar problem, after rebuild to correct a leak. In my case the flaps would bleed up very, very slowly. As in minutes, hours, or days, depending on the phase of the moon etc.. and ended up buying another pump from a scrapped Mooney for parts... and got things working. I SUSPECT the issue was the ball (part 24) or its seat (in part 5, as photographed in this post (https://mooneyspace.com/topic/33869-m20-hydraulic-pump-flap-diagram/?do=findComment&comment=576813). I tried staking the ball.... and my calibration for staking, or material used, might have been the culprit. I still have my old pump body, and it could likely be resurrected. 4) The issue with this system is testing it. You make a fix, and without a good testbench setup to check for leak-down, all you can do is put it back in the plane, bleed the system, and hope, and that is a job requiring time, mess, fluid, and assistance. This is what led me to purchase a scrapped pump for parts. On Ross' suggestion I was hunting around for a simple hydraulic pump to create a testbench but could not find an economical solution, and also did not see a way to get something with an appropriate amount of pressure to simulate the system. 5) Ross has made note that the main difficulty is bleeding the system. Maybe I got lucky but I never had a problem bleeding the system. I used a garden sprayer, plastic tubing, pipe clamps, and EXTRA fluid and just bled and bled until I was getting no bubbles out of a piece of small tubing connected to the hydraulic reservoir overflow pipe. That was my method and it worked well. Buy extra fluid if you do this project! Get a gallon or half gallon. 6) My pump had washer/spacer #23. It looked like something machined vs off-the-shelf. I don't remember if the scrapped one did. I could not figure out its purpose. Nukemizz, your last post suggests that is its purpose. To keep the spring from bottoming too early?? Hard for me to visualize the rebuild now 6+ months later. 7) The bleed-off screw (#26) is very, very, very touchy. Don Maxwell (I think?) noted 1/8 turn makes a big difference. That's 45 degrees. I am going to revise that to suggest 5 degrees of turn makes a significant difference. That's how tight of a tolerance you're looking at to get this right. And when you tighten the big jam nut (#28) that tend to also turn the bleed off screw. I had a big screwdriver trying to hold that steady while I would heighten the jam nut and it always took several attempts to get the retract speed dialed. Patience. 8) Rigging the retract cable also looks to be a point of error. I saw evidence of different setups in the pump that came out of my plane vs the scrapped one. Take time to get this right so that the cable is clamped appropriately.

Nicely done!!

If it makes you feel any better... Many airlines are still operating, for the moment, at levels far beyond what the market is demanding. Airplanes are flying around 80% empty. Airlines have stepped up their cleaning protocols. Cabin air is refreshed completely every 3 minutes, and that which is recirculated goes through HEPA filtration. Should be possible to get some space, at least more space than next to someone in a Mooney. That said, I am not trying to sell you on commercial air travel. Thoughts from the sidelines, haven't been in a big airport since the very beginning of things starting to teeter, a few weeks ago...and wondering what the future holds for the career until this is all over.

This is a strange and historic time. Enjoy your airplane while you can. And it is completely illogical to restrict activities that are anti-social, but that is the government. Best to read the orders as they come carefully and draft an appropriate excuse.

I have childhood memories of my father's cousin, who went around on crutches, because he was vaccinated against polio... which failed.

Nice work. Can you share what you used for the new cabin LED lighting?? Looks like a cool upgrade, pardon the pun if you had the old lights that got super hot...

Perhaps its the photos, but the wire harness coming out of the fire sleeve looks precariously close to the exhaust, and does not appear to be secured away from it. I have an E, so different fuel setup, but when we did my JPI fuel transducer, we removed a single long hose (From engine fuel pump to servo.... I think... memory fuzzy), measured that, and ordered two new hoses, with the fuel flow transducer going between them in a straight-line area, so that the length of the entire new contraption was the same as the old hose we removed. The hoses were all fire-proof. Then the assembly between the two hoses and transducer covered in fire sleeve similar to what you have. Well way from exhaust.

Do you have all the pieces? Or most of them? Can you roughly figure out where they were? Mine was cracked pretty bad, some small chunks missing, and getting worse. When I had an interior shop do my seats and carpets, I said 'enough' and got out my surfboard supplies and started messing with it. It took a couple applications of fiberglass and resin, and masking tape trying to hold it in position... and of course sanding, but it was repairable and you can't really tell with a nice coat of paint on the outside. Re-installing it with the trim and flap indicators wasn't as easy as the other interior parts, PITA, 3/10 on the Mooney PITA scale.

Beautiful man, nice work!!

If the gear went up and down and did not jam....you made out okay. And probably learned something about how to inspect the airplane after maintenance. I will bet you a beer the only damage is a scratch in the paint here or there.

You nailed it. Repetition. You are making a mental model in your brain of when your Mooney is ready to land. The beauty of doing this rating in your plane (I am assuming its yours) vs a rental is that you can go bang out patterns cheaply at a sleepy airport. Go out and do 10 tomorrow, if you can swing it, 10 more the next day. But I say again.. practice in varying wind conditions. Wind has a tremendous effect when you remove the luxury of power in an approach.

Power off abeam. Be already at gear speed or below. Gear down half flaps, trim for 90. That is your starting point. Now you have TWO tools to use to get down, and TWO to extend: TO get down: 1. The rest of the flaps 2. Slip, to include a turning slip To extend the glide: 1. 10mph+ of extra airspeed in case you misjudge the wind or are coming up short. 2. The rest of the flaps..... If you're coming up short no need to use full flap now is there? Now go forth and use your tools, and practice. That is what mastering the maneuver is all about, practice. And the more practice you do in varying wind conditions, the better.

I don't now if you've already sourced your new ducting but I was very happy with upgrading to SCEET ducts (vs SCAT). Mine were in similar shape as yours. I wound up doing everything aft of the firewall as I had things apart for interior and fuel leak clean up work.... now I have defrost! Now I have rear foot airflow! The big duct from air scoop to mixer box also had holes. Do them all, its relatively cheap. Also thank you for sharing your files for the CNC. I am also looking down the road at a new right hand panel if I remove the original engine instruments and its great to potentially have a head start.

Fall quote & renewal: 2017... $695 2018... $730 2019... $901 $50K hull. $1M/100K. M20E. ATP, CFI, etc. Not a lot of time in the Mooney the last year, plenty of hours airline. Never made a claim. No skeletons.

205 knots on the nose last winter. Boston to the west coast.

What to take away from this thread: Just because an instructor says something does not mean it is correct. (says the CFII)