Mckipper

Rebuilt all the master cylinders 12 months ago - recently started with the left peddle soft again - eventually traced the fault to the Park Brake Value - new o rings and problem solved - amazing how quick the fluid drained through the park brake value. More relevant - when we rebuilt the masters, we used compressed air to completely drain the old fluid - and it was ugly - almost jelly like, and bleeding was difficult before, and a breeze after - we have made a decision to do a 24 month fluid drain and replace schedule from now on.

I have a habit of gently lifting the stall warning tab as I walk away from the plane - stall horn is loud enough that if the Master is on, I will hear it. i have a clip on my airplane keys, when I preflight and remove the pitot cover, I clip it to the keys. That way, I can easily see the keys on the glare screen when moving the plane or prop, and when I do my run ups and vital actions, I can verify pitot cover off with a glance at the keys, Also always to a check of the cabin lights - have that shirt ....

+2 for the Skytech, Installed to take care of the hot start problems I had - no more problem ...

My 81 J is in to have both sides stripped and resealed - left wing was weeping along the inboard inspection hatch, and under the wing. Right wing had no signs of leakage, but while she was standing at the AMO we found fuel seeping from the belly pan. As the left wing was empty, we looked at the right wing. She has a nice leak that is driaining directly into the cabin just in front of the back seats, and seeping down into to the belly. When I think about all the ignition sources under there - UC motor, UC light, Strobe power unit, Aux Fuel pump, I gained a few new grey hairs. Some learings, She is washed once a week, which hid the fuel leak, We had noticed a slow level drop on that tank, but assumed the drain value was leaking due to the lack of blue stains on the wings. No smell of fuel in the cabin !!! (until we lifted the carpet.)

Since I spent a fair amount of time today with the seats, I can confidently say that at the floor level there is about 5 inches between the frame and the back seat, and at seat level about 2 inches between the back seat squab and the back of the front seat. Both seats go back the same distance. 1981 "J"

Job done, quick and relatively painless. (some scraped knuckles, but she always makes me bleed on these small repair jobs)

What DO they say about us?! That we like to fly, fast .....

fantastic responce, and so fast !!! Guess what they say about us Mooney drivers is true !!

A timely thread, I just discovered a leak when she stands with more than 15gal. I was quoted 25 hours labour per side, so I'm looking for alternate AMO's now.

I also had a noisy aux fuel pump, (but not the squealing you discribe ). Ask a couple of pilots to listen, they all told me it sounded ok, less than 10 hours later the fuel pump switch tripped out, and the pump never ran again. I was away from my home airport, so started her by cranking. I have the high speed Skytech starter and a 3 week old battery, and it was touch and go if she would start up. Got a reconditioned Dukes unit, unit and fitting during the christmas week was ZAR 15999 ( $2000) in South Africa. Mine is a 1981 M20J.

I just did the Skytech upgrade - my AMO charged me 2 hours labour, and installed a new EGT probe at the same time. what a difference !!

I had a seal go on the back of the oil filter mounting plate. Also had the soaked belly and inside of nosewheel doors, could not find the leak only later did we find the fault when I saw a drop falling while adding air to the nose wheel. My AMO told me there was an AD out on that seal.

If you are talking about the clear formed lens that conforms to the wingtip shape - I also had hangar rash and found this company Acrylform -in Cape Town South Africa. No Website, but telephonic support is great and the ship worldwide - lenses are about $75.00, come slightly larger that needed and you sand the edges down to get a perfect fit ( done to accomodate the "add on" wingtips that some J's have) acrylform@iafrica.com Phone +2721-9489183 fax +2721-9489183 I got excellent service from them.

I use the SoftComm C-45-10 "Child Prince" Headset my boys really like the idea of having their own headsets, and the smaller ear cups, strap,boom and light weight are just right for them, - no problems on flights up to 3 hours so far. They also have a jack for their PSP / IPOD / DVD player, which helps on the longer flights.

Recently I tried a takeoff with 0 flaps and found that the angle of attack became too great after departing ground effect (so _that's_ why there's a stall horn ...). My problem was the opposite - with 15" flaps and Trimmed to the T/O mark I found myself in a nose down attitude at 3 foot AGL, and it took a serious effort not to leave a groove in the runway.

I had a moment in the Mooney M20J, 2 up, 50Gl fuel evenly split between the 2 tanks, out of FALA with a 7000f DA. I had TO flaps set, and the trim set to the TO marker. Just before rotation she seemed to get up on the nose wheel, despite me holding back pressure on the yoke, and after rotation the stick forces were very heavy. needless to say, I trimmed vigorously nose up. I then did a number of landings and take offs (not touch and go's) and found the best feeling trim was about half way between the TO marker and full nose up. I ran the trim back and forward and it seems to indicate correctly for full nose down and full nose up, and moves proportional in between. The plane has just returned from the AMO after an undercarriage collapse and resulting prop strike, and I'm wondering if there is anything that could have happened during the maintenance work that would have either changed the CoG, or flap rigging as she always used to be fine in the indicated TO trim band. The flaps look normal when retracted and fully extended, and seem to be extending evenly on both sides. My question, do you normally use flap on TO (I notice a big nose down pitch change when deploying flaps) and do you use the TO mark on the trim tab, or do you have your own mark. I have noticed that that all moving tail needs constant trimming, and that she seems to be very sensitive to loading (ie, front only or front and back seats occupied makes a huge difference to the trim setting)