Steve65E-NC

Weight and space allowing I usually load on my general purpose mechanical tool box and electrical tool box. I leave my gear load tools, torque wrenches, compression tester, grease guns, etc, home except at owner assisted annual. However, I always leave in the aircraft a soft Craftsman tool bag (8x12x8) with items that I might need in a casualty situation and that might not be easily available in the field. These items include the following: LUBRICANTS: spray cans: Wet with Teflon (control hinges), Silicon (step, door-hinges, control wheel shaft), Triflo (rod ends), and a spare spray extension tube. PLUGGED INJECTOR: ½”deep socket, bottle hoppe’s #9. LASAR HUB CAP: 10 extra pan head screws with lock washers (you have installed heli-coils??) ELECTRICAL GENERAL: Bundle of 8”cable ties, spray can contact cleaner, selection of fuses and lamps, allen wrenches for instrument/knob removal, 6” x 1/16”dia. wire flattened one end (VOR adjust) ENGINE GENERAL: Champion Sparkplug 3/8 socket, two Champion REM40E plugs, spare alternator belt. SKY TECH STARTER: ½” Crow Foot wrench head. Spare shear pin. Spare lock washers. FASTENERS GENERAL: Bag #8,#10, flat head, pan head screws, bag slide on sheet metal nut plates, bag nylon washers (for pan head screws), SS Safety Wire, simple wire twister (two hole on screwdriver handle). OTHER GENERAL: Baggy of 3M strip caulk (access ports in front of wind shield), home made hydraulic fluid funnel (metal flashing rolled up), spare fuel drain o-ring, short handle (3”) 3/8 open wrench for removing induction boot. Additionally I have on board: Cockpit Cover, Down Sleeping Bag (kept on hat shelf, it has to store somewhere and it sure will not help me from a closet at home), aircraft to auto jumper cables, tie down kit, vermin guard kit (see my photo album), light weight chocks (stuffed fabric), tow bar, flight bag with flashlight/spare batteries/spare mic/ multitool, comprehensive first aid/survival kit, IFR hood, 1 liter water bottle, 2 quarts of oil with filling nozzle, bottle of hydraulic fluid, hatchet, fire extinguisher, fuel tester, fuel measure stick. If space or weight is a problem I leave off or remove everything from the aircraft except dedicated tool kit above, 4way screwdriver, small adjustable wrench, fuel test items, hatchet and fire extinguisher.

Sounds like a partially plugged injector to me. I had a series of these over several months about a decade ago (starting after some tank repair work). I started carrying the right wrenches and a bottle of hoppes 9 gun cleaner in my little on-board aircraft only tool box. This is just in case the local A&P does not have the tools handy. Pick a bottle that the injector will fit through. Remove injector and put in bottle for an hour or two of walk around light agitiation. Use the electric fuel pump to run a little fuel through the line before replacing the injector in case the trash is moving back on shut down. Of course the problem stopped as soon as I started carrying the tools. Be careful, you can wind up running that cylinder in the red box for too long. Today, if I could not land and correct it, I might try LOP to get everything below the red box. Keep a close eye on this temp on takeoff, that is when it will really shoot up and maybe even cause engine roughness.

Private License 1965. Cherokee 140, 1981-1992. Mooney 65E, 1992-Present.

Byron, so please tell us more about this Donaldson filter. Do they make it for other Mooney Models (E??). What is involved in changing from a Brackett. How much does it cost and where do you find it?? I have real a lot about the K&N but this one is new to me.

Byron, so please tell us more about this Donaldson filter. Do they make it for other Mooney Models (E??). What is involved in changing from a Brackett. How much does it cost and where do you find it?? I have real a lot about the K&N but this one is new to me.

I usually land full flaps. As soon as I touch down I flip the hydraulic latch up. Just before I apply power I flip the hydraulic latch and put in one stroke of flaps for take-off. Watching and trying to stop flap travel at the right point is too distracting. With my mechanical gear, no worry about confusing gear and flaps (with electric gear I might modify this). With my short body aircraft trim does not seem to be a big issue (I understand that this will not do on some mooney models), I set it on approach and readjust it when back in the air.

I ease the prop forward to the panel on the third and final FUMPS. On final committed to the landing. We are only doing this in case we have to do a full power go-around, Right??

I have had my 65E since 1992. Until last year, hot starts were a persistent problem. I tried everything and every technique. Tremendous distortions in planning to avoid hot starts. Last year I needed a new starter and installed a Sky-Tec 149-NL. So far, that appears to end the problem. It swings the prop fast enough to overcome even flooded conditions. Wish I could have made the change a decade ago. No change required in baffeling etc. You can keep playing, or you can just fix it. Give Sky-Tec a call.

I do an owner assisted annual every year. The only special tools that I have are the main and nose pre-load fixtures with an appropriate, dial type, torue wrench. I think I purchased mine through a classified ad at MAPA. If I wanted to replace donuts, Lasar has the tools for rent. Based on what I read here, rigging is best left to a top MSC or Mooney experienced mechanic. I assume your friend is, or has available, an IA since that is what is needed to sign off an annual.

In addition to the through bolt, there is an allen set screw in one side of the hub which may have worked loose. Sounds like this to me. Do not let your A&P get overly aggressive in tightening it given the yoke shaft crack problem. Last annual we screwed the set screw all the way out and re-installed it with a little regular strength thread locker. Seemed to fix the problem. If the yoke shaft crack inspection AD is due you might want to have it done at the same time.

Dan, You say it is all specified. Then please explain why a reputable company, its financiers, its marketing managers, its legal staff, and its engineers decided, in the last eighteen months, to introduce a new 406 ELT without a 121.5 homing signal. I think the 406 specification is a lot like ADS-B, it is just hanging out there without sufficient government thought to allow the market to develop. There may be other examples where insufficient governmental planning has degraded or threatened flight safety.

I wish that I believed that the FAA has finished defining the requirements for this equipment. If they had, volumn would make them a lot cheaper and more plentiful. Surely the FAA would not leave all the early subscribers holding the bag. Until then a PLB looks like a better investment since it has multiple vehicle application (boat, wilderness, airplane).

SWTA sells and installs the Lasar closure, or did some years ago. Check the Birdguard album in my photo gallery to see an alternate install of the Lasar closure done by SWTA around 1993. It interleaves the closure rather than just pasting it on top.

I bet. Some piss ant was using a hanger exclusively for his antique car collection. The air port manager called him on it. Since the best defense is a good offense, above referenced PA responded 'well bd keeps his motorcycles in his' - and off we go. I don't think the significant subsidies of public money for airports are planned around cheap non-aviation storage. I think some hangers at my local are used for exclusively for non-aviation storage, and I do not think it is right. On the other hand I think it is in the public interest to encourage pilots to spend time at the airport and be personally interested in the airport's welfare, if they do personal wood work in one corner, so what.

All this theory is fine. But, I am still waiting for some news or information on how the poor shmuck screwed up and how this shmuck (me) can avoid a similar fate. The photo gives few clues.

Ron, The E and F boot you need is a completely different part than the one Kerry is having trouble sourcing. I understand that it was a little redesigned in the past few years to make it wear better. Stocks were put in place at that time. I think Lasar or other MSCs can supply you. I think I last paid over $350. I can't see how you would put scat tubing over this short rectangular cross section part. However, I am thinking of wraping my next new one with the heavy electrical, self bonding that I mentioned above, right from the start. And maybe at my next annual in any case. I usually see just a few small wear holes when failure starts.

I suggest a call to the FBO at Spruce Pine, Avery County, 7A8, for snow clearing of runway and Blue Ridge Parkway and maybe possible nearby cabin rentals and car rental. Five thousand foot run way. Needs a little care on departure because of rising terrain but easy to turn away from. Reasonably near Grandfather Mountain and Linville. Also check out the Penland School for the arts. Airport is very near the Blue Ridge Parkway (sometimes closed in winter). Visit Mt. Mitchell, maybe Ashville, the Highland Art Guild store on the Parkway. Another possibilty is the private airstrip at Elk River, but I don't know much about it.

This news article seems to have been lost in an earlier discussion of a Mooney boarderline incident at a nearby field. The photo is frightning and I would like to know more about this one and what went wrong. http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Plane-Crash-Brackett-Field-Airport-134146438.html

After twenty years of ownership of my E-Model, I have about four similar sitting with tears and holes. I think it is dangerous to use a caulk like RTV or small patches where a wad might break off and go into the engine. If I were going to repair small holes in one I might lean toward something like 2" High-voltage, self-bonding, extra thick tape, with removable paper liner. With an emphasis on full wraps. It is available at Granger or your local professional electric supplier. It is impressive stuff. If you need a new one, you might want to give All American a try.

Kerry, If you included your model and year you might get some useful advice.

You can see plugs and other vermin covers that I designed and created on my Gallery under bird guards. I used closed cell polyetheylene foam. Note retainer pairs on top and bottom. I use natural spring of material to retain. Finger hole allows depress of foam downward with rotate out at top. Dayglo orange tinted paint stirrers serve both as part of top retainer and as cockpit visible warning. I used wax coated string to bind/sew components together. Made them over four years ago and they still work fine.

A small hand vac pump with gage is invaluable in checking for boot or tube leaks. I think a good one goes for about $90 at an auto parts store. They are used to check vac systems under the automobile hood. You have to fiddle around to find the right barb connection for the tubing, I think I found the right attachment at Ace. I can check all four boots through the rear battery access, though some may be easier with the bottom off. You just id the tube running to each of the four boots. Pull them one at a time and suck down the boot, don't get to aggressive, you are just looking for boot leaks. Once you have the boot sucked down moniter the meter for a leak. A slow leak that takes a minute or so to lose vacumn may not be a show stopper. I found the people at New Brittian to very helpful. If you should need a new boot, they can exchange the entire bellows canister assembly, they no longer sell just the boot. I have had tubes inadvertently pulled off in the cockpit. I have had tubes running down the cockpit pierced by panel attachment screws. I have had to replace tape on boots. Once since 1992, I had to replace a leaking bellows. I try to work on one connection at a time. A few digital color photos can help get things back right.

Please tell us about the LoPresti Cowl, not that many have been done on Mooneys. What did it do for your performance? Are problems with it part of your decision? Why did you never even finish the paint job? I know it was not cheap.

My inside latch for the baggage door consists of a twisted lenght of safety wire and an aluminum dowel about 1/4"x4" that hangs out of a hole punched in the door liner. But, my real emergency exit is a roofer's hatchet located on the floor behind the pilots seat. I figure it will work even if the doors are bound or blocked. Also, I think I am as likely as anyone to be first on the scence if someone crashes on landing as I wait for take off. You hear of responders helplessly standing around as survivors burn to death because of lack of access. I figure I can go through either plexi or aluminum on either my airplane or yours.

Any ideas on why "NO FIRE" at the Reno crash?? You read reports of people being covered with Av Gas. Look at the photos of the crash today in WVA and imagine that imposed on the Reno scene. It could have been so much worse. Do Reno racers have special fire slowing features? Did the pilot have an option that affected this outcome?