FloridaMan

Awesome. Thanks y'all. The reception still isn't great on the radio. It's better than it was before, but nowhere near as good as it is in my 530 non-waas on my M20F. SWR is good so maybe there are losses somewhere else, or the 7-shaped antenna on the M20F is a better antenna than the blade on the top of my Rocket.

Ran the power on test and noted the obs is off by 10 degrees

Odd problem. Just got my GNS430W back from Garmin for COM/display/button issues. Now, when I select a waypoint and dial in my HSI, I get a message saying “set course to...” The thing is, the course is set and if I press the OBS button, the magenta line responds as it should and the autopilot tracks. Is it possible there’s a configuration that got missed somewhere?

This is pretty much the worst thing that can be missed on a prepurchase inspection. Most airplanes are fine; I've heard this is fewer than 1 in 100, but you don't want to be the one to win this lottery. It can cost more than an engine, but even having to replace an engine yields an airplane with a new engine. This just yields one with a major repair in its history.

Posting here is exactly how I ended up with one myself. @Parker_Woodruff took me up in his 252. He's also the person to talk to about insurance. See my thread here about financing if you need it. Interest rates are in the low 4s for something the price of an m20j and you finance for 20 years so it is feasible for your outlay on an M20J to be about what it would to finance a car. Make sure to inspect under the rear seat for spar corrosion when you have the prepurchase inspection performed.

3.99 - 4.5 seems to be the going rate for 20 year loans. I financed because I felt that investments would outperform that.

I remember I texted Parker on that trip out to Vegas in my M20F. It was in October and maybe around 11AM; I was bucking a 50-60kt headwind. He says, "I usually try to get out earlier when heading that way this time of year". It wasn't just getting beat up, it was like a 1000ft roller coaster.

I can't speak for what's in the area for food so I'd call them, but I stopped at KAEG when coming home from Vegas after taking delivery of the Rocket (bad line of storms from Mexico to Colorado and I didn't have masks); their O2 service was really reasonable and the FBO was nice. I'd go back. I've stopped at ABQ and stayed enroute to Vegas in my M20F, but the approach to ABQ requires you to clear the mountains at 11,000MSL and drop nearly 5000ft to pattern altitude in less than 10 miles. At 180mph, that's a fairly aggressive descent. The day after I stayed at ABQ, I experienced the worst clear air turbulence I've ever felt crossing New Mexico at 11,000ft. It was smooth before and after, but I experienced 15 seconds of pure terror and being out of control.

I didn't read this thread, but I looked at a Tiger as well while I was looking at airplanes. Don't buy it. The buy-in cost of the airframe is minimal compared to your operating costs. If you do bend metal on them, the honeycomb wing structure is supposedly expensive to repair. Lots of red flags in your OP (tell me it isn't that one that was for sale for years in NC). If things are that tight for you financially, go with the C model Mooney because the straight-valve engine is much cheaper to maintain for big ticket items than the angle-valve IO360. Aftermarket cylinders are available for much less, et cetera.

First and foremost, I don't have a dog in this fight and hope that I'm not violating any site policy by posting it. I forgot to send the credit union that's financing my airplane my proof of insurance and I got the letter in the mail showing the crazy high insurance I'd have to buy through them if I didn't send them my coverage info, so I call up the bank right away and let them know I was covered and sent them my proof of coverage. The guy that sold me my loan is always great to talk to, super nice and mentioned that they're now nationwide on their lending and not just Florida. He also mentioned some sort of promotion where they're beating other banks' rates. I asked if I could post his info on the Mooney forum and he was alright with it, so here goes. I know that they came in nearly 1.5% less for me than USAAF and NAFCO on my Rocket and they've been really good to deal with. We Florida Financial * Alexander Martin * 954-913-7871 * amartin at wefloridafinancial.com

Signature at Key West jammed my fuel cap in my M20F by not installing it straight. It took a lot of force to remove it. So, not only did I have the ordeal of purging the water from the tank from when it rained (took several full cups of water when I sumped it to get a blue line at the top, et cetera), a month or so later one of the lugs broke off of the cap, most certainly related to the cross-threading of the cap. A passenger in the backseat spotted the fuel pouring out over the wing on the takeoff roll. There are ways that you can lose fuel in flight and the next best thing to having a window to see inside the tank is to have those wing mounted dials.

I'm a big fan of the wing mounted gauges combined with a fuel totalizer. When the needles stop bouncing, you've got less than 10 gallons. Funny thing is, when I bought my Rocket, the panel mounted stock gauges were spot on and I can't seem to get the JPI gauges to calibrate worth a damn even though the senders are the same.

Curt?

It ended up costing me more in the long run as they never got back to me on returning the pressurized mag hall effect sensor so I spent an extra couple hundred dollars (Rockets don't have pressurized mags). To add insult to injury, being that I develop this sort of tech, but not for aircraft, I'm pretty sure the part in that $200 sensor costs about 40 cents plus a Molex or Amp connector, three wires and a circular connector.

I bought my 900 from Spruce. In hindsight I should have used @Jeev for it, but I wanted to keep my dealer pricing current.

I remember hearing somewhere that it takes a long time for the rings to properly seat with chrome lined cylinders. I’ve been wrong at least once already today, but perhaps someone else can chime in.

I thought that grey sludge was lead build up from leaded fuel that’s contaminated the oil over the years and centrifuged out inside of the crankshaft. I guess I was wrong.

Funny that it's -40C as that is that the particular temperature is the same value in Fahrenheit. I'm curious how cold prop grease really gets in cruise flight with hot oil being pumped into the hub and there being at least some heat conducted into the roots of the prop blades.

Sent my 430W out for service. The price went up $100 from what I had been quoted. The avionics shop said that it's likely due to part supplies running out. They also mentioned that WAAS upgrades are no longer available for the units.

I keep thinking about this video. You could not have handled this emergency more perfectly, including how you handled the gear warning and power settings.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Alkemade

Read the article by Geoff Lee on Page 20 here. I did my transition training in my rocket with him.

Gross negligence is gross negligence. Keep us posted. In my opinion they should be ridden out on a rail for egregious price gouging and exploitation of people using ramps paid for by public funds, and that money is going to London.

They’re not fully bled. Go pump them about fitty-leven times.

Just for a follow-up on this thread, I'm on the phone with the shop owner right now and he said he emailed you this morning and will have an estimate for you on Monday.