larryb

You do not need the marker beacon. They are being removed from service. I have not come across one in years. I actually removed my beacon antenna because I wanted the location for an ADSB antenna.

Is this a move from Oceano or a vacation house?

My airplane has the Lemo jack and standard mic/phone jacks and a switch to select which mic is active. This is for both the pilot and copilot positions.

The sonalert circuit is activated when the AP grounds the negative leg of the sonalert device. The positive leg is fed by one of the breakers. So if the the sonalert is making noise when it shouldn't then it means either the AP computer has a fault (current leakage through the driving transistor) or there is a high-resistance short to ground somewhere between the Sonalert negative terminal and the AP controller. But, since you say it goes away when you hold down the AP disconnect button I would doubt a short in the wiring. So it is most likely an issue with the AP controller. That would be my guess as an EE but not an avionics tech. I would still check it out by putting a voltmeter on both the positive and negative legs of the sonalert.

Like this? I found a shop that did the custom net, organizer, and attach hardware. The only thing missing were the seat rail clamps, they didn’t have a version which fits the mooney rails. I designed those and 3D printed them. I was unsure how strong printed plastic parts could be so I built a test fixture and tested them to failure at 700 lb. I figured 4 X 700 = 2800 lb should be sufficient for the lower attach points.

Actually I have only used the TKS twice into Truckee. Both cases were descending through a layer of residual clouds after a storm has passed through. Generally I find that when the weather is bad there the mountain top winds are really screaming. It is not uncommon to have 80G100 at the mountain top observation locations. I don't fly in snow storms, don't land on snowy runways. My schedule is flexible, so we just fly before or after the storms. What the TKS does is shrink the window I can't fly.

I fly in the same area you do. My typical trip is KRHV to KTRK. Every couple weeks, year round. I flew the trip today. And other trips in the West and coast to coast. I owned a J for 5 years. While owning it, I got tired of cancelling trips because I could not guarantee not touching a cloud below freezing. When I upgraded FIKI was on the top of my list. Now that I have a FIKI Encore, I am very happy with my choice. It allows me to depart when I don't think there is icing but I cannot be 100% sure. It allows me to continue a flight where in my J I would have had to divert. I probably use it 2 to 3 times a year in actual. I probably launch 4 trips a year now that I would not if I did not have FIKI. That does not sound like a lot of trips affected, but it makes a big difference in confidence level in launching a trip. So now days it is more the 100 kt mountain top wind observation and not the icing that makes me cancel. Weather forecasts are not perfect. Freezing level forecasts are not perfect. It is not uncommon to see freezing level a couple thousand feet below forecast. And when that happens, you can be squeezed between MEA and the freezing level. FIKI takes the anxiety out of those scenarios.

One more thing, if it is the microswitches, an alternate to V3L-3 is V3-1 with a JV-5 actuator. Both of these options are listed in my IPC. You can buy the V3-1 and a JV-5 actuator for less than $30 total. https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Honeywell/V3-1/?qs=0x4sLrpp94JcOlsy%2BnfV2g%3D%3D https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Honeywell/JV-5/?qs=0x4sLrpp94L5KVBAkxWreg%3D%3D and if you really really want the V3L-3 you can find it here for about $100 https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Honeywell/V3L-3/?qs=JT4vHv%2B%2Bx3RbPn2gKwjHYg%3D%3D

Actually I believe the relays may be more problematic than the switches. There are numerous threads here on flap relays. I have had two failures of relays. In my opinion as an electrical engineer there are a couple of shortcomings in the relay implementation.

0.57 landings per hour.

First one in the tail. Worked well but one time with full luggage in the back it didn’t work. Next airplane it was installed behind the center pedestal by the pilot right knee. No issue in that location.

I’ve been meaning to build myself a tester. Just haven’t gotten to it yet. A constant current regulator into a fixed load, heat sink and fan and monitored by a microcontroller. I agree that many old Concorde batteries would start a plane fine while simultaneously failing the cap test.

Never USPS. I always ship UPS or FedEx. Sign up for an account online, print labels at home and drop off at UPS store. I always save my smaller Amazon boxes to use for my oil samples. UPS charges by both weight and volume. So a small box is good. Usually $12 to ship the oil sample.

I removed the dome light bulbs after I destroyed a battery by leaving them on accidentally. It is easy to do. Some people have built timers and I printed a switch guard for protection.

In my J I had the master switch fail in this way. It was a loose rivet on one of the field circuit terminals. Your symptom is indicative of a bad connection somewhere in the field circuit. It could be anywhere, including internal to the master switch.

Is there any technical reason to have covers? Or is this looks only? I don’t have them on my airplane.

One can always download the engine monitor data to see how the previous owner flew at least the most recent hours.

If you want the dimmer to work in the Mooney with LEDs the easiest method would be to increase the dropping resistor value. This would require experimentation to get the right value. In my encore these resistors are behind the pilot side wall. If you want a continuously variable dimming then it would be PWM. but PWM could cause electrical noise so the solution would need a lot of testing.

They got it cleaned up pretty good.

The answer is, it depends. There are different technologies in bulbs and in dimmers. In the case of the Mooney, they use a very simple dropping resistor. The amount of voltage dropped by the resistor depends on the current through it. Since the LED's draw much less current than incandescent, the voltage drop is proportionally less as well. So your dropping resistor that may have dropped 50% with an incandescent bulb will drop only around 5% with an LED bulb. Ohms law: V(voltage) = I(current) * R(resistance) If they used a PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) dimmer design then the led and incandescent would behave similarly. Different technology, different result. Larry

+1 for flying high. I would only consider flying low to escape high headwinds, like 50 kt on the nose on the way home from Vegas a year ago. Otherwise, 16 - 17 thousand for any trip of any distance. There are many reasons: Better efficiency, improved terrain clearance, more airports in gliding range, smooth air above the turbulence, cool air in the summer, above mid-level clouds, etc. Generally the worst 20 minutes of the flight are dropping below 10,000 into the hot bumpy air in the summer for landing. The key is a good O2 setup that is comfortable, easy to use, and doesn't need to be filled often.

When I bought my Encore it was 1000 miles away. The logbooks were posted in Controller by the dealer. I downloaded and reviewed every page. Then I called the dealer. We negotiated a bit on price/terms. He e-mailed me a sales contract which I signed and then wired the deposit. The sales contract had a key provision, if I was not satisfied after inspecting in person and the inspection flight I could back out and get my deposit back. All of this happened in a single morning. Sometime later they received a backup offer. I actually did not see it until after the PPI/Annual. And of course, there were a few issues like inop O2 shutoff valve, O2 leaks, intermittent oil temp gauge, fuel gauge on one side that didn't go above 1/2, etc. that were all missed by the local MSC PPI/Annual. I discovered these details in my transition training, but by then the airplane was mine. The shop did spend time to try to resolve these before I left town, but ultimately I had to deal with them when I got home. I knew things wouldn't be perfect, but by then I just wanted to get out of there and on my way home. Despite the glitches, it was a good experience. But yes, I had to move fast and I had to risk money without seeing it first in person.

I just read through my full automotive policy, Harford. I could not find any exclusions related to airports.

Rows P and Q. The car started out on the north side (P) and pushed through to Q. Destroyed plane in Q4.

All caused by a drunk driver. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8930979/Drunk-driver-54-barrels-SUV-San-Jose-airport-smashes-parked-planes.html I'm feeling pretty fortunate at the moment. My plane is un-damaged. The hangar row didn't burn down, but the car is toast. And the airport had a vacant hangar for me to re-locate to until repairs are completed. The plane in the middle, 84P, was tied down outside. The car hit this one first and pushed it into the hangar row where the two planes inside were also totaled. 3 planes destroyed. The driver drove through a fence on the other side of the airport at a high rate of speed. He drove across 2 active runways and 2 active taxiways before hitting plane outside and then the hangars. It was at 4:45 pm, a typically very busy time except we did have some weather yesterday afternoon that probably reduced traffic.