Shadrach

Color me appropriately impressed… Isn’t he a dreamboat guys! Perhaps you should RTFP. I’m not talking about upside down ops, nor am I talking about pattern ops. I’m talking about low and slow with your elbow hanging out the window taking in the sights and smells of the countryside. Forget it’s a Decathlon and imagine that it’s a Champ, but with a much stronger(relatively speaking) injected engine. This engine does not get rough, RPMs just smoothly drop until the fire goes out around 1900 RPM. The point of the post was that since I don’t fly around with everything firewalled, wouldn’t it be cleaner and cooler to just lean to 2300 RPM rather than pull the throttle back to 2300 RPM at full rich.

There wouldn’t be unless you were running a CS prop.

With a carbed engine, probably so at least on some of the cylinders. My point was that this particular set up allows me to smoothly lean to any RPM between 2000 and 2600 with the throttle wide open.

Right. But that is for a given throttle setting. We usually set throttle at 2300, full rich at 1800msl. My point was I can just lean to 2300rpm at full throttle with very smooth operation.

why wouldn’t you? I’ve done several 1hr + XCs. There is no means by which to accurately lean it ROP and it’s an injected Lycoming so LOP is the only mixture setting for which the pilot receives feedback. There is no “lean to rough and enrichen” with this engine. There is only lean to rpm reduction.

I have had unlimited access to a Decathlon for the last week and have enjoyed taking in the countryside low and slow. It is powered by an AEIO320 with a fixed pitch prop. The owner normally operates the plane full rich because he is either in the pattern or below 2000'. I have no recollection of previously flying an injected engine with a fixed pitch prop. It has minimal engine instrumentation with no EGT nor CHT gauge. It's his engine so I pretty much fly it as he does. However, last week I found myself bumping along at a DA well over 5K and I decided to lean to rough and enrichen to smooth. I was surprised to how smooth this engine remained. Despite not having the tuned induction, when leaning, power and RPM just steadily drop off until the fire goes out completely. There is no point of roughness. There is little to no hint of cycle to cycle variations in power pulses. It is noticeably smoother than my IO360. Max RPM with the current prop is about 2600RPM and it will easily operate smoothly between 2000 and 2600 at WOT just by manipulating the mixture. I theorize that this situation is mainly due to the fixed pitch prop allowing piston speed (RPM) and combustion event speed to sort of harmonize through out the RPM range as power (fuel) is reduced. If the mixture control were not so crude, it would be hard to tell the difference between mixture and throttle inputs between 2000 and 2600rpm. Has anyone else encountered this?

I am pretty sure that all M20s are the same for the left seater. Leg length is more the issue than height. With peddle extensions, the cockpit an work for a wide spectrum of leg lengths. The airframe is not ideally suited for tall folks whose height is in their torso, but that to can be mitigated to a degree with the articulating seats.

I'm not particularly tall at 5'10", I have an inseam of 32" and I am perfectly comfortable with the seat on the first notch back from full forward. The airframe suits long legged people just fine. My dad is 5'4" and has a 29" inseam and he can fly comfortably from the most forward seat notch without extensions, but I think he would do better with them.

Agree that it is most often human failure. However, it does seem that there have been a number of threads centering on electric gear issues lately.

How many were mechanical failures?

I’ve toured the facility at ECP and have seen the process first hand. Even in today’s economy, 4K is ridiculous.

Who’s quoting you 4K? That is ridiculous. I think I paid <$2,000 in 2019.

Yes, East Cosst Propellor has some inconsistent policies. They refused to do a reseal on a prop for me because it was nearing calendar TBO, insisting on an overhaul. I have used a mobile NDT service out of Martinsburg, WV in the past. I will look up their info when I am at the drome later today. Are you located in PA?

I opened the clamp pretty wide to fish it through. It was not easy by any means but was easier after aggressively opening the clamp.

I’m not suggesting that I’m a better mechanic than you. I am suggesting that having recently refreshed the interior, likely made it easier. Pilot side was a pain in the ass but it was not an all day affair. I will also add that I did the job in freezing weather, which was a bad idea and is the reason there is a 2” stop drilled crack at the front of the left passenger side window.

I think it’s gone a bit beyond pointing out the irony. I’m not judging anyone for their comments; I’m just suggesting that they come off as extreme to the casual observer.

Almost all of the Gryder content that I’ve seen has been through collaboration with other YouTubers. The first was with Flight Chops and the second was actually with Juan Brown. I now understand why he’s so disliked in the community but as someone who’s not personally invested, it’s jarring to see people wishing bodily harm and/or death on someone over their words, no matter how reprehensible they might be.

I did pilot and passenger side in an afternoon. As I recall, it was not that big of a deal. Probably helped that I had recent experience R&Ring the interior trim. If I recall correctly I fitted everything up with the bolt backwards. I then removed the belt bracket and used the bolt end to make a witness mark on the trim for drilling.

Both brake cylinders were rebuilt prior to this refill. I don’t think it’s the Paramount cylinders so much as how they are oriented as well as the plumbing. There are nearly flat, lateral bends in the plumbing which make bleeding a challenge. if there’s air in the flap system, I think it is harder to evacuate with the return adjusted for an 8-12 second retraction. The fluid needs to move with some velocity to take air up stream.

I must have misread your first post. I thought it was reproducible on the ground and in the air, but dependent on advancing throttle from a very low power.

Are there visible date codes on those Firestone discs? I'm guessing they’re original? There’s a reasonable chance that those are the last set of Firestones installed on any Mooney, anywhere.

I wonder is he tried to reject a gear up landing after the prop made contact with the runway and lost control. welcome back @1980Mooney

I would have a maintenance professional carefully inspect the motor mount.

Completely plugged up? If that was the case, that cylinder would miss. Was it the inlet screen that was clogged? Blue dye takes a while to accumulate. If the injector intake screen was completely blocked, then that injector will mot atomize furl optimally. Yetti was just trying to help. Firewalling the mixture on a hot, high DA day isn’t very considerate of conditions.

Thanks for painting the picture. I’ve watched very few of his videos and was not aware of all of the sordid details.