kortopates

Tomato flames or 91.205 is not the end all list of your aircraft required equipment. In the absence of a KOEL in the POH, you’ll have to consult the required equipment portion of TCDS. You should consult your IA. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Glad your enjoying your new 231. I was curious about the Cardinal because I have a friend and colleague at SavvyAviation that also flies a retractable Cardinal. She doesn't have the TAT turbo either but another friend of hers does. You might miss the SUV like room of the Cardinal, but I am sure you'll enjoy the much higher cruise airspeed at altitude and increased range.

You have me convinced - just wanted to make sure

This is usually the problem the majority of times. That description leaves some doubt that its rigged properly. If you were to remove the cable at the valve and then could just lightly push the valve arm to the off position without leakage then that shows its not the valve but rigging. If on the other hand lightly pushing the valve to off isn't enough to repeatedly stop the flow, then that is a valve/regulator issue. But what most people don't realize is that the cable needs to be rigged so that it pushing the valve closed under some tension in the off position, i.e. the cable has to have the ability to go a bit past the closed position to ensure it's being pushed 100% to closed. Just wanted to share that in case you might still have a cable rigging issue because it is so very common after the bottle comes out for a hydro testing that the cable isn't rigged properly enough to ensure valve shut off when it goes back in.

Call these folks, they’re a repair station specializing in O2 system. They’re also very reasonable. https://www.c-l-aero.com/ Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Sounds great, but "So Cal" is too small a region IMO for Mooney's. Any group/club is going to appeal to all those in range of making a lunch run and an appealing list of destinations. Years ago we had a Westcoast MAPA organization that eventually fizzled. Then that was resurrected by the Vintage Mooney Group that became very popular for awhile with monthly destinations. That name was regretfully too short sighted since it was followed by all models of Mooney's and grew to serve the western US. So I'd suggest something more like West Coast Mooniacs club. All it needs is the energy of few and they will come from all over As much as I would like too, I won't be able to join the PRB fly-in since I'll be at HND supporting the MAPA PPP. But Phil is a great host and I am sure it will be a big success.

We might have talked about this before. But a higher max fuel flow does not need to accompany a richer idle. Their are two separate adjustments, entirely independent of the max FF, used to set up the idle and there is nothing at all that would prevent for example an overly lean Idle mixture with an excessively high max FF. But what is critical is that once the max FF is set up (metered fuel pressure) that then the tech needs to go back and test and perhaps re-adjust the low pressure idle unmetered fuel pressure and possible the idle mixture adjustment - which is likely why yours might be overly rich. Can't just set one without re-checking the others. Many comment about setting their max FF significantly above spec. As posted before, a relatively small amount like 0.5 to 1 GPH or even 5% higher as Jack @jackn cites above is good, but recognize you're preventing your engine from making full rated power as you keep increasing the FF. Thus be very careful about going higher and do so only when EGTs/TIT's indicate the mixture is too lean.

Thanks for sharing. These advertise like they could be an improvement over the others - any comments or opinions on their performance? And still economical although sold in packs of 10.

You only have two choices that I know of, OEM Cleveland pads or PMA'd RAPCO pads. Most of us use the cheaper RAPCO pads without complaint. Same for the disks, except you can get corrosion resistant stainless that Jim talked about above. As Jim @bluehighwayflyer said above, if you can lock them up you're probably doing fine, but I would still check them over for glazing and if you're really disappointed with them (sounds like you are) just replace them when you have the opportunity and then properly condition them. You just might be pleasantly surprised.

You can't tell what might be going on with the crankshaft just doing a top unless you also start pulling connecting rods off. Then you can at least see the rod journals, but you still won't be able to see more (main journals) until the case is cracked. But I wouldn't be too concerned. Even if some finer metal particles did get into the bearings creating some minor damage there is good chance the crankshaft may still have enough meat to turn the shaft down, line bore the case and go to the next oversize bearings. Its very common to do so, and for lots of reasons that have nothing to do with metal contamination. If your worried though, you should be able to look at your engine's last overhaul records for the crankshaft dimensions (or receipts) and see if it still has enough meat for another turning or its had it last reconditioning so to speak. In which case if it needs it, you'll need a new crank. But you really won't know till the case is cracked and it all inspected.

All other things being normal, your brake pad longevity is probably proportional to the max gross weight limit of your aircraft; assuming you operate it up to its max on occasion. But all `things are never equal and sometimes we can get great pad longevity by not using the brakes and just coasting to an easy to make turn off on landing. Its interesting as the Mooney's went above 2900 lbs max gross weight Mooney found they really needed to go to double puck brakes which doubles the pads per brake to get better longevity. Many of the earlier Bravo's that initially were fitted with the same J & K brakes where retrofitted with dual puck brakes used now on the longbody's. By the time time the M20K Encore came out with its increased max gross weight it too was fitted with double puck brakes. All of the 252's are eligible for the brake retrofit, but I am not sure about anything earlier. But a couple of things to consider that could be at play preventing your bird from getting full braking action. Make sure whenever you change the pads that you measure the disk thickness to make sure its still within limits. Our aircraft disks aren't like automotive disk with lots of extra thickness since that would make them heavier than necessary. They have very little extra to stay light and need periodic replacement. Secondly, when you do replace brake pads, be sure to "condition" them before returning the plane to normal service. Or after your A&P or shop replaces them for you, be sure to follow the conditioning procedure on how to effectively brake in the brake pads to provide you with optimal braking. They could otherwise get glazed and provide somewhat diminished braking action from the very beginning if they get too heated before braking them in. The Mooney MM discusses how to condition the pads as do the manufacturer of the pads.

Always possible something got loosened or removed to give access to something else. But your describing a massive induction leak which could come from many things including a loose induction coupling hose, pop off valve etc but hopefully not the turbo going out. They usually give signs first from excessive oil loss. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Sorry to hear that, but there is nothing to pop off from setting the screw on the metered fuel pressure adjustment, nor the idle or idle mixture. Your engine analyzer downloaded data may shed some light on the issue. I highly encourage folks getting their redline limits set properly to do a trip in the pattern before departing home. You really can’t get it perfect on the ground and it’ll change a bit in the air. Yours is simpler since it only has a fixed or at most manual waste gate, but still it often takes some tuning to get right. Also it’s usually best to set your max FF to from 0.5 to 1.0 GPH above CMIs high number (which where turbo Plus got it); while of course at your 100% MAP (~37”). You want TIT below 1400F and preferably near 1300F at full power. I often see them way to high. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Actually it doesn’t fall under PM, only adding fluid: 43.A (8) Replenishing hydraulic fluid in the hydraulic reservoir Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That's definitely the easiest way to do it - as an exchange with a factory new, reman or overhaul. But the turbo didn't change (Hartzell has taken them over) and the increased TBO only comes with factory engines - which is nice for resale value. Most of these TSIO-360's do benefit from Gami's. Did you go from a Cardinal to your 231? That's quite an upgrade if the Cardinal didn't have the TAT Turbo too

But you're actually right to assume that WAAS support alone is not sufficient since it's not. All the manufacturers had to add a specific protocol to provide all the data required for ADS-B out. Even though the unit is end of life, since it's owned by Garmin I would expect they have and assume you looked it up. So the unit will likely require a firmware update and then be good. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Pretty common actually with these older brakes. It could be moisture at the bearings but more likely the conduit cables may be in very poor shape and need replacing. They're stiffer in the cold so I'd look there first. Look up in the wheel wells for any cracking. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

No, it take me about 20 min with my two cascading tanks.

Before you complete your IFR training you'll be able to handle this emergency very well, you have to be to be recommended for the check ride. The problem IMO is two fold, first its not uncommon for IFR pilots to stop practicing partial panel approaches - in fact its the norm. The proficient IFR pilots, those that train for and get regular IPC's do tend to maintain their partial panel skills. But these days, as its been said many times before, adequate backups come in many affordable forms these days. if you're going to fly IMC you really need one! The second problem though IMO is complacency exhibited by many pilots that feel they don't need to train rigorously enough to survive these kind of emergencies because they'll say they'll never launch with hard IFR conditions. Well this accident is the classic example of how hard IFR conditions find you when you least expect it. This Bonanza broke up from being over stressed after descending only about a thousand feet into the layer - on his second attempt. Neither he nor the controller seemed to take the situation very seriously. The pilot could have at least done many things to reduce his workload having lost his gyro's (except for the Turn coordinator), but it doesn't appear he even slowed down.

It was more of a comment on the challenge of getting the two tanks to actually equalize. Its a very minor point I was trying to make, that because the plane's tank is warming up, (it gets noticeably warmer to touch while filling), while the source tank is cooling, after you disconnect the filling tank, the planes tank is then going to cool to ambient and stabilize at a bit lower pressure as it cools. But agreed, its not significant.

I keep a Hobbs log spreadsheet where I pretty much track everything in the plane. One page of the spreadsheet is for Transfilling where I track refills for the aircraft. technically, servicing the O2 bottle on the plane is preventative maintenance and I track it my spreadsheet. I use a cascading system of 2 bottles, each 225 cuft Since the transfilling process equalizes the pressure between the ships bottle and the filling bottle, the basic formula (from Boyles Law: P1V1=P2V2) for calculating the pressure of both afterwards is simply to add up the total O2 as P*V from both plane and bottle and then divide by total volume: ((Plane starting psi* Plane volume) + (Bottle psi*Bottle Vol)) / (Plane Volume + Bottle volume) One would have to take into account Darcy's Law for the drop in temperature in the source bottle and the increase in temperature of the plane bottle to get real accurate but I find empirical values will be within 75 psi keeping it simple. With my 115 cuft kevlar tank I have never needed to get O2 away from home either except when travelling really long distances out of the country.

Thanks, and still with the extra bay in front of the speed brakes? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Math Quiz - run the numbers in a spreadsheet Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Good to hear that. For an idea in street pricing discounts check this example out: http://sarasotaavionics.com/garmin-txi-upgrade

Only the GDU display comes out for the upgrade and goes back to Garmin. The rest I understand is software. Their offering a discounted 10.6" single new screen GDU that will support PFD, MFD and EIS all on one screen at an upgrade cost of $8K. But I assume its not the dimensional equivalent to the original G500 and will need a new panel cut which could weigh heavily in the total upgrade cost. But I also wonder if the upgrade will preserve existing pre-paid enablement extra's like Syn Vision and Jepp Charts; hopefully they don't expect you to buy those again. Although interestingly they charge less for them on the Txi version than the G500.