takair

Well, speaking of sore subjects, how do we change this corporate mentality where legal tells folks how they travel? I hope your VP sees the benefit and has some leverage in changing the policy!

Yes, sniffle valve at the sump drain. Intended to drain excess fuel from the manifold when the engine is not running. Fuel coming from it could be from flooding during start, excess fuel in the injector lines after shut down, or if your idle cutoff does not quite cut off.

I would suggest calling the shop and at least telling them about it. If this issue was not the there before, then they should offer warranty service. As for the initial issue with the encoder, older encoders had a warm up period that becomes more apparent when tied to modern avionics.

Had bad luck with early Stratus units...reliability and customer support.....so turned to Stratux....FlightBox to be specific. Have had really good success with that and Foreflight for weather and traffic. I don't have the AHRS yet because Foreflight will not support it for synthetic vision. The Stratuxguys have been negotiating with them, but it is not looking good in the near term. There are some folks trying to find a workaround, but there are still issues with making this work reliably...as indicated in a post above. If you don't use the synthetic vision, Stratux has worked extremely well for me. Easy build and easy set-up. From a weather standpoint, XM was hard to beat, except for the monthly bill. XM has the advantage of picking up weather on the ground. I offset that by using cell phone data before launch. That way there is minimal, if any gap in weather.

16 hours may not seem unreasonable for an average shop if this was their first time working on your plane and first time doing this install. As others have indicated, just doing the recertification can add a couple of hours. If you did full IFR cert, that can be as much as 4 hours. I just had a software update to my 430 and there was a two hour charge. 1 hour for the work and one hour for the paperwork. Did it really take that long? No, but you pay for the time they are tied to the aircraft, not touch time. 30 hours total time seems high, but i assume they are including prep time in this number.....think engineering time. This is reading all the install manuals, how to do the software update, ordering parts and updates, etc. The shop still has to pay the tech for this time. When we do our own work, we typically do not include this in our touch time. Picture a simple oil change, an individual may do it in 30 minutes or and hour if well versed, but if you have never done it before it would take much longer...including research here on Mooneyspace. Add paperwork, smoke breaks, interruptions, lost tools, etc and it adds up. Mooneys can be a tough plane to work on and the moment you have to get behind the rack it can really add some time. Would I want to pay that much, no. That is where getting multiple quotes helps.

Clarence Did you ever solve this? I have been noticing that my oil temp has been drifting lower. It used to hold 180f, but now tends toward 160. Today, with about 45f OAT, it would drift between about 155 and 170. Wonder if I have a sticky vernatherm?

Chris, I see you are reducing to 17" and then going up to 19" with prop reduction. What are you starting at for MAP? What speed are you starting at. i can't say this technique is wrong, I've not tried it. It clearly worked for you. Perhaps the question is, have you tried the opposite technique of pushing the prop forward to increase drag or are you saying that you can't stay in the green using that technique? If that is the case, you are probability flying the extended approach slower than what we are describing above. Doesn't make it wrong, just different. I don't recall having this as an issue in a 500fpm descent at those power settings. The red flag might be that you are doing more work at a more critical time. When you level off, you need to be more careful with power and if you needed go around power you may overspeed momentarily if you push in power and then prop. Basically, you have more steps to do at a rather critical time.....where I am pushing my prop in to get to landing configuration, you are pulling it out. Just a consideration.

You might do a variation of FMs screw driver trick. If you can get the tip of a screwdriver blade near the apex of one of the nut flats, you may be able to get some torque on it or at least hold the nut while turning the outer nut. This has worked for me in the past when I could not get to those nuts. Not exactly textbook, but....

It is very possible that the oil fouled plug caused roughness. Did the mechanic who looked at the aircraft suggest this as well? Perhaps this comes down to the compression reading. If within limits and not going out the exhaust valve, then I suspect that the mechanic is saying it is safe for the short flight to his facility. The oil fouling willl likely return eventually, but typically only affects one plug at the beginning. For a short flight, it may be safe by clearing the plug, good mag check, and monitoring CHT. No PAX, have a plan if things get worse. Ultimately, we are not there, so you need to rely to some degree on the mechanic. Ask him straight up if it is safe and legal for the short flight to his facility. I can appreciate why he wants it there. While it is not a terribly difficult job, It can get expensive paying for his travel if simple tools are not on hand or forgotten....you may be down longer as well.

Hmm. It sounds like the cylinder may need work, but I'm not sure that would lead to sudden roughness. Would be helpful if you could get the compression value. Beyond that, do you have an analyzer and can you tell us what it was doing? Sudden roughness tends to be plugs, injectors, magnetos and valves. Did you do mag check? Maybe I missed that above. What else did the mechanic check? Injectors? Plugs? If one of those is causing roughness it may get you to another airport to do more significant work. You could have an oil fouled plug from the low compression. Borescope would help and might be easier at the location than full cylinder removal. Not suggesting flying without understanding what is going on, but understanding what is going on may allow you to move the plane.

5" reduction in MAP gives you about 500fpm constant speed decent. After that, slow reduction in power to pattern speed while holding 500fpm. Slow increase in rpm....prop in, low pitch, increases drag. Pulling the prop tends to go course pitch and should decrease drag. In fact, with engine out and engine rotating, you can extend the glide by pulling the prop. Gotta say, I did not read the article and not sure I understand the technique you described.

https://www.eaa.org/en/airventure/eaa-airventure-news-and-multimedia/eaa-airventure-news/eaa-airventure-oshkosh/07-29-2017-2017-lindy-award-winners-announced?mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiTUdJMFpEQmlPV0ZrTlRFMyIsInQiOiJKQmR5MVZJZ2V5VzluXC9hOVVCbVBqNDlsaERXSUhscDBBdEhpZjdyaDhiY0dFWWdFaVNWcVNBU3JObElMWFl6KzZZcE9NblM4SjN0QTZwTlhNY0hyRUVsSnAyZDlUVTM2eGwyRzQ4dTZLSFRiZXk2dXVxMVNGdWp3YWtOdmE2dFgifQ%3D%3D Is the outstanding Mooney Award winner amongst us? Anybody have pictures? Congratulations Daniel and Tory.

I like the idea, but I'm wondering if they will be able to certify with the wingtip position. I would think they will have great coverage on one side and not so good on the other. Also, the WAAS is supposed to have full view of the sky, seems they would have the same problem. They seem like pretty smart guys, so I wouldn't be surprised if they have it worked out. Will keep an eye out on this one.

I think there are a few reasons for not installing it on a panel. One, there are often steel nut plates installed, which can influence the magnetometer. However, as others alluded, repeatability is difficult when installed to a plate that may be removed. Technically you would need to do a compass swing each time you had it out. Regarding turns, the heading comes from the gyro. The magnetometer has less influence in turns and typically does its work over a longer period of time....mostly in straight and level...unaccelerated flight. Ideally, you want it two to three feet from motors, steel, high current, etc. for optimal performance and ease of alignment.

If I could figure out a reasonable way to get it here I would ask you for the contact. The lack of log books could be an issue, since it may also be difficult to re-build the history. Keep us posted either way. This will be an interesting one to follow. Hope it doesn't end up on the abandoned planes page on Beechtalk. That is a really sad thread. This one still has hope.