larryb

How did you get an M tail approved on the J in the first place?

It it were my plane I would have the tear down done. Too many stories of a propeller breaking off 100 hours later.

What I would do, and what I did for both of my Mooney’s, is get rid of all the legacy electronics that I could. Everything except the existing autopilot. Pay me now or pay me later. But if you are selling soon I would just do the minimum. My mistake was doing a lot of upgrades to my J thinking I would keep it a long time. Then I wanted more capability.... So I bought the Encore and then upgraded it even more. Hopefully that was the last time.

There are two versions of the GDL69 data receiver. There is the legacy XM version and the newer SXM version. The SXM version has better/cheaper weather plans available. If one is purchasing a used one, one would be wise to be sure which version they are getting.

Tool kit. A few spare parts. Box with oil, window cleaner, towels. Bruce’s canopy cover. Emergency landing survival kit. Avionics user manuals, I removed those. Ropes and lightweight chocks. I have paired it down a bit but it is still a lot. I fly a lot of long trips and don’t want to leave that stuff behind. On the plus side I removed rear seats and save 26 lb.

Has anybody weighed all the ‘stuff’ carried around in their planes? I did one day and it came to a shocking 92 lb.

The only way to do SXM with a GTN is the GDL69 units. Add the “A” suffix if you want music.

You need either GP or an AeraXXX unit to work with the GDL5x units. They are portable units so you cannot use them with your certified devices such as the GTN or GNS series.

I owned a J for 500 hours and now have near 300 hours in my 1997 K model. The K is much smoother and quieter. The 6 cylinder Continental is smoother than the 4 cylinder Lycoming. It also does not have the annoying yellow rpm range that can be an issue on landing in the J. The factory also added more noise deadening in the later years.

15 or 25 minutes.

I agree with the weak battery theory.

If you want to control the unit via the GTN750 I believe the only option is the GDL69A. The GDL5x series, being portable units, are only able to interface to other portable units such as GP on the iPad or the Aera series. I have the GDL52R mounted in the tail. I chose the "R" version because the connectors are more robust. There is no 3.5mm audio jack for example, all the connections are through the 15 pin DB connector. I have it mounted in the tail because I don't like loose objects on the glare shield. I use external antennas, ADSB on the bottom and SXM on the top to get optimal reception. I used the RS232 link to control it via the Aera 796, so there is a fully hard-wired option. But most of the time I control it though GP/iPad. Signal strength using this system has been rock solid full bars all the time. When I had the GXM40 XM radio antenna puck on the glareshield it was always losing signal depending on the plane orientation. I was always moving it around trying to get it to work well. What is strange is that the GXM40 worked really well in my J but horribly in my Encore. I tried two different GXM40's with the same result. I concluded, with sketchy evidence, that there might be some interference in the dash area in the Encore that was not present in the J. Larry

Turbo is really nice. Gets above a lot of weather and bumpy air.

I have a gdl52r and gma345 audio panel. The SXM music is hard wired. The nice thing about the gma345 is that the pilot and copilot have independent volume control for music.

I have the GTX345 and a GDL52R. So 2 ADSB receivers and one SXM receiver. The iPad sees it all. In the overlay selection you get to pick any of the available products as seen in the screenshot below. GP only shows the choices if it has seen the equipment in the past. So if you have never paired to an SXM receiver you won’t see it as a choice. Out here in the west the SXM actually seems to have more areas of no radar coverage. But the resolution is better. It is nice having redundancy because often a product like a metar may not be available on one of the services. It is worth it to me to have both.