DaV8or

This is actually kind of true. The only problem is, many people really care about what the "Greatest Generation" did during WWII, but they just don't give a damn about what they did after WWII. We are on par with the guy that lovingly works to preserve and maintain the 1963 Plymouth Belvedere in his garage. It is history and we are the custodians of that living, physical history, it's just very few people in the general population care about that history.

That is the one. I just went and pulled the checklist from last year's annual and indeed LASAR just uses the MAC 100 hour checklist. SO never mind anything I said about annual checklists. I was making crap up I guess.

I thought it was on their website, but I just looked and I couldn't find it. I may have to use xerox copies of my old ones from annual. I'll check it against the Mooney one and see how much difference there is.

PM sent.

Because the LASAR checklist is the Mooney list only with more items on it gained from their experience.

Thanks, I do have the manuals in PDF form, including the Mooney service manual, Mooney parts manual and the Lycoming manual. My plane is a 1966 and the serial number says 1966. According to Mooney, I am to use the 1967 manuals. I will likely be buying the gear tools.

I plan to do my own annual in my hangar this year and I think I have all the tools and stuff I need except the tool for checking the gear preload. I have assisted three times before, so I have an idea about all the stuff to do and I'll be using the LASAR check list. Just wondering if there are any special tools I'm forgetting or any sequence, or oh, I don't know, just advice. My IA has done annuals on Mooneys before, but he's hardly a Mooney expert. May ask questions here as goes, but I think it should be pretty straight forward.

Keep in mind that there are things that can go wrong with the manual gear and there have been plenty of manual gear collapses in the past. It is a simpler system for sure. There are pros and cons to both systems, so in the end, I was ambivalent in which I got when I was shopping. I considered a manual gear to be a slight plus, but electric gear was not a show stopper. I ended up with electric gear and in six years of ownership it has caused me no headaches and has functioned perfectly every time.

Don't fear the M20 electric gear. It is neither frail, nor a maintenance nightmare. It does have weak points to keep an eye on depending on which era gear you have, but it's pretty straight forward. It is still the cheapest and most reliable of any electric gear airplane on the market ever. Also remember that the actual gear mechanism is the same as the manual gear, so it is just as stout in a hard landing, strong crosswinds, etc. The only real difference between the Mooney electric gear and the manual gear is the activation device. The former uses an electric motor with a gear reduction and the latter uses your right arm and a lever.

I salute you for your efforts to be sure! When finished, you will have an excellent option for those with original pre 201 cowlings.

In all fairness, the Lo Presti cowl and David's cowl are apples and oranges. It really is too bad Lo Presti can't lower the price to make it reasonably priced for a 50 year old airplane.

It is a '67 or '68. Manual gear was dropped in '68. There are no '69s with manual gear. The serial number will tell you exactly what year it is. Also note that model year and calendar year often are not the same. A '67 F very well may have been built in 1966.

I totally missed it. How much are they asking? Besides your post, I saw just some pictures.

Just curious, what made you trade the RV-9 you actually built for a Mooney? Just the need for a back seat? I'm kicking around the idea of going the other way and possibly changing from my Mooney to an RV-9/A, 7/A, or maybe a 6/A.

Nice job!! Like the vintage style paint job. I notice you are in Placerville, but the plane came from Hayward. Did you get her going enough to ferry her up to Placerville to do the work, or did you do the work in Hayward? How did you manage to get it for $2000? I think you could have parted it out and made money at that price.

It should also be pointed out that you must have the 201 windshield for this mod to work. The top of the cowl is designed to mate with a special fairing that goes on top of the firewall area and it is contoured for the 201 windshield. So if you have a vintage plane and don't have the 201 windshield mod yet, you'll be doing that too.

What's the big deal?? He's got two. (I think...) It's the liver he can't afford to trade!!

All of it. It is a big job with lots of custom fitting. Don't forget you'll have to paint it too which requires some filler and sanding if you want it to look nice. I love this mod, I really do. It looks cool and from all accounts it really works, but you need deep pockets filled with money to burn to put it on. If you do all the labor yourself, you can write it off as a labor of love and keep some of your money.

Yes, way too soon!

I may do exactly that at some point. I'm curious about the insurance possibilities first though. If it turns out that I have to foot the whole bill, I'll likely pursue fixing what's there first, but may also look into a used aileron. The problem with the used one is I'll have to do some paint.

Did you buy ailerons? How much did they charge you?

I don't know. I haven't flown it since. I suspect it will. A common way to get your Mooney to fly straight in level hands off, you can make tiny little tweaks to the aileron trailing edge to fix any roll issues. So a bend like this will likely cause it to be out of trim. I'm sure you can fly it, it just likely isn't hands off anymore.

Nice! I'm assuming you own the hangar and lease the ground? Anyhow, be careful with those Lancairs and I know you will, but their reputation and record scares the crap out of me personally. I know it would kill me. I'm not that sharp all the time.

Really nice hangar. Are you in an airpark? I'm out of the loop a little, so what is your project that you're putting together? A kit plane I assume?

Thanks for all the responses. Honestly I never even considered trying to collect on insurance. Just not the way my brain is wired I guess, but I am going to look into it and see what my deductible is and what the consequences might be. The idea of putting a brand new $3500 + aileron on this old plane makes me kind of ill, but if insurance pays nearly the whole bill, why not I guess? Replacing with a good solid used one seems reasonable if I can find one. It does make me wonder how interchangeable they really are? These planes seem to be hand built with each one kind of unique, so how much futzing and massaging does it take to graft a hand made aileron from some other plane onto my plane? Does the fact that my plane has the famous "twisted wing" make any difference. Of course these are questions for a MSC. I may also call my local IA that has helped me in the past to come over and look at it. Maybe we can wrestle it into a nearly straight rear edge with pliers and re-riveting? Right now I'm kind of burned out on flying in general and disgusted with the whole reality of GA, so this all can wait until next week sometime and then I'll make some phone calls and deal with this crap. Thanks again for all the responses!!