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231LV

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231LV last won the day on April 26 2023

231LV had the most liked content!

About 231LV

  • Birthday 03/04/1957

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  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    Sedona, AZ
  • Interests
    Building and flying large model airplanes, tinkering on my cars, flying anywhere, living and loving retirement, my beautiful wife and daughter and praising my Lord, Jesus!
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    231LV
  • Model
    M20K

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    sharscott2@sbcglobal.net

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  1. If you pick a top paint shop, none of your concerns are necessary. The best shops do superb prep including straightening, filling, cleaning, ect. Pay a bit more for all new stainless steel screws which go on after the paint and prevent the paint seam from being broken when a screw has to be removed. The quality of paint, at a top shop, will easily last in all but the harshest environments. I had my plane painted three years ago and the shop did a superb job.
  2. As a 20 plus year 231 owner/operator, I can say everything previous posters have said is correct. A 252 lets you set it and forget it as they say but the 231 requires a bit of "finesse" on the throttle. The Merlyn is a great wastegate but it will allow you to easily over boost the engine if you are too aggressive on the throttle. I like to use a whip analogy to describe the way a Merlyn works. Think of the difference in distance traveled between the handle(throttle) of the whip and the tip(engine boost). That is how the Merlyn reacts to throttle input. Hence, I added a vernier throttle which makes fine tuning the engine much, much easier. An intercooled turbocharged engine requires different MP settings...so you will not be able to get 40 inches without risking a head separation. Most 231 drivers will admit(under duress) a 252 is a better engine/airframe combo but you pay for that and the 231 gets you pretty close to the 252 on a significantly reduced budget.
  3. turn on the Master and throw the speed brake switch....if they work, they are electric, if not, vacuum-driven
  4. It is absolutely your coupler...my voltage would start fine then slowly slide lower and lower as the coupler heats up and starts slipping. Finally, there was no voltage at all except what was coming off the battery. Get it replaced and have some happy, worry-free flights. If you haven't had the alternator rebuilt in a while, this would be a good time to get it done (or purchase a yellow-tagged unit).
  5. Good points...yes, the voltage is steady at 13.7v during flights and I'm glad to understand how the minders work so I am not terribly worried...didn't mean to hijack the thread...apologies
  6. My 231 runs on the 14v system with all the standard electronics including an Aspen 1000 glass panel...I find that after I fly (no low volt annunciator light at anytime unless I drop below 980 rpm) my battery minder says the battery is discharged by more than half...it's a new battery so I can only surmise that the alternator can't put a charge into the battery as fast as the electronics are pulling the volts out...too bad Mooney never got an STC for a higher load alternator for the K models (and any others)
  7. Yes it was the wombat I was thinking of and yes, it has been discontinued. Sadly, it seems, no other company sees a market for this type of a device. Using my phone as a hotspot is an alternative but the bandwidth is pretty small compared to the download so I suspect I would be sitting up there quite awhile waiting for it to download the updates....thanks all for the suggestions...
  8. Most of us remember the days when paper plates were updated by hand every month...searching through thick binders to find the obsolete plate and replace it with a "new" plate that looks identical to the old. Then magic came along and we went digital. Gone were the paper plates (some here probably still carry them as a backup, I bet) and our e-devices became our plate holders and we could update them digitally. However, to do so, at least in my situation, requires me to go up to the airport and pull the navdata chip or card, if some prefer, and bring it back home and plug in the Garmin adapter into my laptop and download the files for the update and then return the chip to the plane. I know a second chip can make this task a bit easier but a second WAAS orange card is insanely expensive when bought from Jeppesen and buying them online may or may not work depending on the chip. A while back, I recall reading about a portable device (can't recall the company name) that allowed me to go to the airport and simply using my phone, could update the chip as I sat in the airplane (of course the chip must be removed and slid into this device.) Does anyone know of anything like this?
  9. Its almost impossible to trundle a Mooney with a flat main gear unless the two gear doors are first removed. It's cheap insurance to avoid damaging one or both.
  10. This is a first in over 20 years of flying my 231. I have had my share of really bad landings but today took the cake. Coming in a bit high and fast, I got sloppy and overconfident and instead of popping the speed brakes (which I actually thought about for a moment) I let the plane float...one bounce, two bounce then down but too far down the runway and too fast so instead of executing a go-around, I stomped on the brakes and was told I was smoking the tire for several hundred feet before it blew pulling the plane to the right. I was fortunate that all I appear to have damaged (beside my ego) was the tire. Warning to all out there, don't get overconfident...no matter how long you have been flying and if you believe you need to go around....GO AROUND!
  11. As others have said, there are many variables to consider when setting these engines up. I had my GB overhauled to an LB and had a Merlyn installed at the same time. The original engine came with an intercooler.....so...setting up FF with the intercooler was a bit more complicated than simply referring to a chart since the book had the FF set too low causing CHT's to go over 400 before rotating. Bottom line, my FF ended up at 23 gph at 37 MP. The intercooler requires a reduction in MP to avoid overboosting the engine. Prop RPM is limited to 2700 but I usually see 2650 at 37 MP which is my "max power" setting.
  12. One of the great reasons this forum works so well is follow-ups on previously reported problems. I reported a frustration I was having with my volts on start-up well over a year ago. To recap, I would start up and the volts would hover around 12.3 volts before it would climb to 13.7v. Many opinions were offered from a voltage regulator issue to an alternator. One respondent offered that this was normal and the charging system was designed this way to prevent a voltage spike on start-up. The problem turned out to be a slipping coupler on the alternator. I suspect it had been slipping this whole time and progressively got worse which was verified when my last flight saw voltage sit at 12.0 volts. I now know that after replacing the alternator and using a solid state voltage regulator (either works or it doesn't), the most likely culprit is a slipping coupler. Hope this helps save some time troubleshooting a similar issue.
  13. Thanks to all the responses to this thread. I now have a pretty clear understanding of where things stand. To summarize: 1) Electric speed brakes can be fitted to replace the original vacuum brakes. 2) They are expensive. Vacuum pumps are not. 3) If I elected to spend a lot of money to replace the vacuum with electric speed brakes, I would still have to spend more money to upgrade. my Aspen 1000 to an Aspen 1000 Max before I could completely scrap the vacuum system. 4) Replacing the vacuum speed brakes with electric speed brakes would probably cost at least $20k ( including the upgrade to an Aspen 1000 MAX) but would get me a vacuum-less plane and an upgraded, stand-alone electric AHRS capable Aspen. 5) I will stick with the vacuum system and replace the pump as needed.
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