Skybrd

I used to have a homebuild airplane that had a Lycoming engine and Lightspeed ignition making the timing variable. It made a positive difference in starting, power levels and economy. I believe that the later cars improved their gas milage and power by varing timing and mixture. The cars used sensors to check for knocks, manifold absolute pressure and oxygen sensors to keep the system optimized. Our airplanes are designed for "reliability" at the expense of not using newer technology. Also our airplane engines can't take the stresses that the water cooled engines have since the cylinders develope cracks. If we could get our engines to fire near top dead center for starting and then modulate the timing at cruise, and climb I think we could get better efficiency. One problem with electronic ignition is reliability. My lightspeed ignition became unreliable and intermitten after a few years. Fortunately I had an extra magneto for backup.

Years ago while flying my former M20A Mooney, I had an inflight engine stoppage. It was caused by a leaky fuel gascolator (the glass type). I was fortunate to be able to restart the plane by using the electric fuel boost pump. It happened at night while doing an instrument approach and I was near the outer marker. ATC immediately vectored me to a closer airport. The Mooney glided well and again I'm glad the engine restarted after the fuel boost pump was turned on. I don't think much of glass gascolators and especially any of them that leak.

I agree 100%, who is making up the TFR list. He must not be a pilot. I just bought an I-pad and foreflight so I can check out where the TFR's are. TFR's and TSA's are putting the crunch on us.

I've noticed a possible quirk while running LOP. When I run LOP and fly straight and level things seem to be stable and engine runs fine. When I do turns the engine sometimes does a hiccup. Is there something about changing engine directional attitude that will cause this. Have any of you noticed this. I usually enrich the mixture quickly when the hiccup occurs.

I had problems with mine and it turned out to be a dirty electrical connector on the rear of the DG. I have the Century III AP. You might want to clean all your AP connectors. I also noticed my trim switch sometimes fouls up activating the AP.

Quote: JimR This is very welcomed news! I'm interested in a copy, Byron. Hopefully it will be a while but I'm almost certain that a A3B6 conversion is in my future and I'd sure rather continuing on with 25 degree timing. As you know I am already accumulating parts. I will PM my email address to you. Thanks! Jim

I just thought of another concern with changing from the single coupling dual mag (for the A3B6D) to the two independant magnetos (for the A3B6). If the new slick mags are like most setups one will be with a impulse coupling and the other non impulse. If that's the case, the starter switch will need to ground the right mag "P" lead during start or a kickback could occur. My former "E" model ignition switch had that setup so the right mag would be disabled during crank. The single coupling magnetos that we started with had only one impulse coupling for both mags and didn't need to disable the right mag. Maybe the new slicks will have impulse on both mags and won't need the ignition switch cutoff. any comments about this?

Quote: 201er Byron, how soon are you putting the electroair in? What is holding you back?

Quote: Mitch Ladies and gentleman....................it has become an extremely sad day, now that we cannot reach our own private aircraft, because a very useless directive from TSA. Example: We landed at an alternate airport late last evening due to weather issues. Exited the airport, which now has NO access gate code for entry back to our aircraft. We are now unable to get to our airplane!! Unless you have registered with some desginated FBO [or otherwise], which I might add must be during their business hours, or you have a friend at that particular airport with a new TSA badge, there is no way to get back to your plane. I will, if need be, jump the fence or whatever is needed to get to my plane, which more than likely turns me into a criminal!! This is truly a sad state of affairs. You must, if you haven't already, write your state representives now, and express your feelings on this most unfortunate and ridiculous situation. It is truly pathetic, that we are kept from our possession by this worthless directive. It serves no one....................a true terrorist is not going to be stopped by a simple 6 foot fence or mechanical gate. This simply punishes us aircraft owners and no one else. Another tremendous loss of our freedom!! Am I angry, you bet!!!!!!!!!!!...........as we all should be.

I have a 201 mooney with lopresti cowl and don't see any accessories vents. Is there suppose to be vents for the mags, vacuum pump, fuel pump and others? The oil cooler discharges hot air on the backside of the engine.

Nice looking Mooney. I hope it will work out for someone. I used to have a Mooney that looked like this one. It was a 1959 "A" model. I enjoyed it and flew it often.

Update on my right magneto failure, on further inspection of points and cam follower, found. The cam follower assembled that has the nylon t part was installed backward. The metal spring steel part of the cam follower should be on the side of the movable points and not on the other side. By having the cam follower part backward, it makes the nylon part ride very close to the points and can burn them. This problem was not due to low lubricant on the felt part. This type of parts assembly problem can easily happen since the cam follower can be put together either way and it's not very noticeable. Again, the problem occurred due to the cam follower being installed backward making the nylon part almost touch the points. The correct way is to have the spring steel part of the cam follower be on the inside next to the movable points. I hope this information helps.

I've heard warning about this mag being dangerous due to the mounting hardware coming loose and having a failure but I have found another issue that is as dangerous as the other one. It's failures of the cam followers due to heat and melting. I just had a partial failure of my dual mag with one side mag failure. It was overheated nylon cam follower partially melted and shorting it's length. This causes the points to not open when it finally got to that point. Here is a NTSB report of a Mooney that had a crash landing due to this issue. http://www.ntsb.gov/aviationquery/brief2.aspx?ev_id=20050805X01172&ntsbno=SEA05LA153&akey=1 I talked to a magneto shop in Texas and the tech told me that the dual bendix single drive has an issue with this problem and this doesn't show up as much with the single Bendix mags. My take on this, is somewhere is an engineering problem especially due to the material of the cam follower and the heat inside of the magneto. Our Mooneys are packed tight and maybe we need some extra cooling to the magneto area.

Quote: Bill_Pyles I have an IO360A3B6D like a lot of us. So what is the "best" upgrade path if I want to get away from the dual mag? Where would I get the new hardware and can any competant A&P install it or should I find a MSC to do it? I live in Phoenix.

Quote: jetdriven I would want more proof before spending 10-12K on a set of cylinders. If the compressions are in the 70s and the oil does not get tar black in ten hours there is not excessive blowby. Regarding the rolller cam, I am still trying to find evidence of ONE SINGLE failure of a roller cam or lifters. I called tech support at Lycoming and they have had two, back in 2005, and the lifter was redesigned. However, there are 4 M20Js on this board right now with spalled cams. Lycoming is the source for the information, and some engines such as the Duke engine or the O-235 were never converted to the roller. But none are going back. Who told you that? What about the oil filter assembly? I will say that Quality Aircraft Accessories will send your dual mag back unserviceable if the housing is cracked or the breaker point cam is work. The last one they managed to find after a six week search in Thailand. The cost of a dual mag 500-hr inspection was 500$ a year ago. Now, 1200$.

Quote: jetdriven Yes, Cirrus have crashed up to 200 hours after doing a "top" becasue of bearing shift. Mike Busch talked about this in one of his columns. He considers one cylinder replacement a job, but a whole top an invasive procedure. I would replace the offending cylinders only. Busch said replace one at a time to prevent main bearing torque loosening. IDK if it applies the same to Lycoming engines. Also, there is no core difference charge from Lycoming for a two-mag A3B6 engine and the cost for it is 27,500$ (1700$ cheaper). Also, a free roller cam. We went with factory for that reason, rather than a field overhaul.

I've been thinking about replacing all 4 cylinders on my aging Lycoming engine with a top overhaul. I found out today that there is a possibility that the center main bearing can get turned when the center crankcase bolts are relieved of stress by taking out the bolts. Is this something that you know of a procedure that can keep this from happening. I was told if the bearing gets turned then the oil pressure journal to the crank won't work and the engine will fail quickly. That would sure ruin your day with a catastropic stoppage of the engine in flight. Another option to a top overhaul is a complete engine exchange. I got a quote today: 29,000 for an overhauled and about 32,000 for a rebuilt, plus about 15,000 for core.

Quote: jetdriven Nope. The engine runs hotter when ROP because it runs a higher fuel flow for a given % of power. That heat has to go somewhere. The IO-360s have piston squirters so they remove more heat in the oil than other engines. I think blowby is proportional to cylinder pressure but LOP engines given enough time can clean the rings out (we used MMO), and the LOP cylinder pressure bulids slightly slower. So, you may be onto someting, less blowby due to less pressure spike.

I've noticed that my oil temperature in hot weather gets in the upper range of the green during climbs. After leveling off it doesn't change much for a while and found if I go to LOP the oil temp lowers. I checked and made some repairs to the baffling but the oil temp still gets higher than what I like. Do you think when the engine is running richer at high power the blow-by from leaking rings is heating up the oil versus a lean of peak with a cleaner burn is reducing blow-by and allowing the oil to stay cooler. The cylinder head temp (#1 cylinder) is always in the low part of the green. My former E model had oil temp problems and that problem went away after an overhaul.

Quote: stevesm20b I don't understand how heavier gauge aluminum would make a plane have a lower gross weight. If the B and C model were the same gross weight, I could see the B model having a lower useful load because of the heavier airframe. But still don't understand why an airplane with thiner gauge aluminum skin would would be certified with a higher gross weight. I would think the thicker aluminum would make it stronger and be able to carry more weight. I mean if you build two identical airplanes and use the same engine with the same horse power, I would think the one built with heavier gauge aluminum would be stronger and have a higher gross weight.

My former E model Mooney had the roof vent sealed when I bought it. I found it sealed with RTV and the top vent control cable missing to the door opening. I flew this newly purchased Mooney back from Oskhosh to Bakersfield and at times almost fried. When I arrived at my home airport, unsealed the vent and jury rigged a hold on the door to open or close it. I ended up buying used parts to repair the missing cable and now it's back to the correct operational condition. I found out the vent system has a drain system using a drain hose if water or rain enters it. My two cents on this issue: is to keep your roof vent operational since on hot days it will be needed.

Quote: 721lp Just finished installing Tempest finr wires in 721LP. My, what a difference. Idle is smoother, runup smoother, and it runs nicely. Hope what I've heard and read about no fouling is true. They sure look nice. I talked to Tim Henderson (Tempest owner) and he sais if I didn't like 'em....send them back. Can't beat that kind of confidence.

It appears that the noose is drawing tighter every year toward General Aviation freedom. I'm real glad that AOPA is pulling for us. I've been a licensed pilot for almost 40 years and seen lots of changes. Some are good and increase airspace safety but some are not in our favor. Our local airport BFL has drastically changed from a friendly general aviation airport to more commericalized and favors the rich jet types. The airport is all locked down thanks to 911 or TSA. -- About 2 years ago we visited Japan and I wanted to rent a plane. Found out that I couldn't do that without lots of red tape. Hope in the future we can continue to fly and be affordable.

Quote: 201er You know what I think it is... on fields with multiple FBOs, some of them are focused on executive jets while others on pistons and singles. The FBOs dealing with jets make so much on a fill up of Jet A that they just don't want to deal with us and make the fees absurd. Meanwhile one FBO picks up the slack and has reasonable fees and avgas for us. I've noticed this (not to the insane extent you mentioned though) by calling the competing FBOs on a field finding that one is significantly cheaper for small planes than the others.

My son and I flew our two Mooneys to Kern Valley airport this morning. It's a bit tricky to do right traffic for rwy 17 with the hills close by. Here is a video of someone flying to Kern Valley and doing right traffic to rwy 17.