larryb

Target EGT is what you want to set your mixture for takeoff at a high airport. The target EGT is your standard day sea level EGT. You can adjust during the roll. But with practice you can get close with mixture position and fuel flow. When I had a J my sea level fuel flow was 18.5 GPH. At 7000 feet it was 14.5 GPH to maintain the target EGT. That was about 1” out on the mixture. My Encore is simpler, all full forward.

Why have these nice upgrades spent a year in a box unused and losing value? I would just install both with a nice new CNC panel. The 430 doesn’t have a lot of screen or resolution so both the aspen and area will display useful info.

In my opinion what is most important is how far you can fly a load of X pounds of people and stuff. 1000 lb useful load in an Encore is not the same thing as 1000 lb useful load in a Bravo due to the difference in fuel economy. With my rough calculation a Bravo is going to take 115 lb more fuel to fly an 800 mile trip.

One of the reasons I started this thread is because I was surprised that my shop did not automatically perform ICA tasks on installed equipment without being specifically asked. I expected something basic such as lubrication would be performed. This is a well-known MSC. Is this a universal practice?

I upgraded from a J to a FIKI Encore 2 years ago. I was looking for capability improvement. I was tired of not being able to go near a freezing cloud. Speed was not as big a concern but Garmin pilot has calculated that I gained 20kt improvement block-block. I fly it easy, 28” 10.5 gph no matter what. The turbo is key for removing any concern about altitude. In my opinion if you don’t buy a turbo or FIKI you may as well keep what you have. Mine spends half its time at KTRK if you want to see it. I have always read buy the plane for 90% of your mission. 300lb of passengers most of the time does not need a plane that hauls 4 people 1000nm on a hot day. My encore is a great 2 place long distance traveling machine.

After noticing that the ICA for the PreciseFlight speedbrakes specifies annual lubrication of the drive gear I asked my MSC if they did that at annual. They do not. I am sure they would do it if I asked, but if you don't ask... He then tells me that if I do it myself, just lube the gear and don't get anything on the clutch. This makes me wonder about the rest of the fleet, and if they got their annual gear lubrication then perhaps they would avoid some costly overhauls. Of course, you'll pay an hour labor each time they are lubed, so there is that cost. So I finally got around to this myself yesterday. It takes about 30 minutes each side. Quite simple, just a lot of screws. It drops out the bottom of the wing through the inspection plate. No disassembly of the speedbrake is required, the sides are open. A little dab of Aeroshell 22, as specified in the manual. The gears did not look worn, but they were dry. I am sure they would have started wearing more rapidly without lube.

That is one unique Mooney. 1 of a kind composite panel. And a J with a continental engine? Not sure what to make of that listing. I have bought two Mooney’s. One from a private party and one from a broker. Both went smoothly. Nothing wrong with a good broker if they have the plane you want.

The factory encores have the beefier landing gear from the long bodies. Does the conversion get that?

My understanding is the factory sends the new plane to cav for the install. They don’t do it themselves. So no difference. My system was installed at 50 hours or so.

M ax

When I got my first Mooney it had to live in a shelter for a couple months while I waited for a hanger to free up. I swear it got dirtier under the shelter than it would have out in the open. Birds in the rafters were a big part of the problem. I would not use any external control locking devices on my plane. More than a few planes have crashed due to locks left in place. Yes, you should catch such an error in your pre-flight and runup, but why add additional risk? I like the top bird-spike section, but I would mount the spike strip on a piece of 2" Vinyl tube slit down one side. Then it would be flexible, and probably blow off, it it were left on in flight. But it would be plenty secure to hold in place on the ground.

I have a GTN650, GTX345, FS210, and a GDL52R. Couldn't be happier. This gives me ADSB weather on the GTN and both ADSB and SXM weather on the iPad and 796. The GDL52R is in the tail and so far I have not had any BT signal strength problems. The iPad maintains 3 BT connections, the FS210 for flight plan transfer, and both the GDL52R and GTX345 for weather.

My view is to keep the Ovation. Buying and selling planes is a guaranteed way to lose money. Is this really worth the risk and hassle?

One more thing I forgot to mention earlier, because I forgot that Aviation radio is AM. AM transmitters can become over modulated if the input audio is adjusted too high. When they become over modulated they become very dirty and will bleed over on other frequencies. In this day and age I would expect the Garmin design to include some sort of limiters making this impossible, but I don't know one way or the other. I do know there is a Mic Gain adjustment in the Com Configuration page.

I have a CI-122 on the belly of my Encore. It is there because when I had my Aspens installed the shop could not meet all the distance requirements on the top for all of the antennas and RSM's that I had. So they removed the rear com antenna from the roof and put the bent whip on the belly.

Below is the text from the GTN install manual on transmit interlock. This affects the airplane receivers, not the transmitter. I cannot see how this would affect the bleed over problem we are discussing. I do have this set in my GMA 345 audio panel, the switch called "MUTE ON COM TX." Before this switch was set when I would transmit on one radio I would hear a bleed over signal on the other radio, if the frequencies were very close. This would happen with departure on 121.3 when monitoring guard on 121.5 for example. GTN install manual excerpt: 2.4.13 Transmit interlock and Split COM Operation In small aircraft, COM and NAV receiver interference is affected by both the distance between antennas and the tuned frequency separation. With transmit interlock activated in the COM transceivers, split COM operation between a flight crew of more than one pilot is affected. In aircraft that have a transmit interlock feature, when either transmitter is keyed, all other receivers are muted so that they won’t pick up interference from the active COM transmitter. This is the preferred option for single pilot operation. For aircraft with two flight crew members, transmit-interlock would likely interfere with communications. When the pilot or the copilot transmit, no audio is heard on any other receiver. This means that if the pilot is communicating with ATC while the copilot transmits on another radio, all pilot reception is cut off during the time of copilot transmission. If the installation does not have transmit-interlock activated, all the receivers are listening all the time whether any radio is transmitting or not. Split COM performance varies significantly across installations. If the transceivers interfere with each other, transmission

The shop theory does not sound correct to me. What kind of radio are we talking about? What are the frequencies involved, tower and ground? Before going to the expense of changing the antenna I would want to know that the radio transmitter is “clean.” That involves taking it out and checking on the bench with a service monitor.

A few points. I would not fly PIC in a plane I am looking to purchase anyway. I would want the seller to take me for a ride. If it is at a broker the broker can be PIC. So it doesn't matter being current or rated. In fact, for both of my Mooney purchases I was not qualified to fly it when I bought it. For the J I was not complex rated and for the Encore I was not high performance rated. Transition training took care of those short comings. Regarding the pre-purchase, there is a ton you can do on your own without employing a mechanic. Take off the cowl and take a look. Are things neat and clean? Or are they oily, dirty, chafed, corroded, and worn? Even a novice can spot the difference. Remove the tail avionics bay panel and take a look in the tail. Look for corrosion and dirt. Remove wing access panels and take a look inside. Look in the wheel wells for corrosion. Take a look at the logbooks. Look for regular oil changes and maintenance. 10 hours and no maintenance between annuals is a red flag. Years with no annual is a red flag. I looked at a number of planes and I have rejected a lot of planes in my pre-pre purchase inspection. Once past that we can pay for a pro pre-purchase inspection.

Glad to hear it worked out. Component level repair is becoming a dying art. But it is very possible even today in the age of surface mount components. Certainly some custom chips are not available, and some designs are hard to troubleshoot without documentation. But many are also very repairable. Today we have people replacing $1000 flap relay boards when the only thing wrong is a simple and available $10 relay.

Here is mine. You can use the same exact file on the GTN and 796. chklist.ace

Does anybody have any info on the pitot heat monitor circuit/module? In the wiring diagrams it is shown as "CM101A" and a part number of 800221-505. Mine may be bad and I am wondering if anybody else has had an issue with this module and has any schematics. The same part is used for prop deice current monitor. Thanks, Larry

I wrapped the section that goes into the truss with duct tape. That solved the slipping problem. It lasted almost 2 years before needing a rewrap.

Lot of really bright led lighting. Lots of power outlets and compressor plumbing. I only have a t hanger leased from the county. But i got them to allow me to change out the dim bulbs for 700 watts worth of leds.

As a seller I would not agree to such an invasive inspection as taking off a cylinder. Way too much risk of a maintenance induced problem that I would own if the buyer did not purchase in the end. As a buyer, I would realize that taking a cylinder off would cost 10 hours labor and probably $1200. Put that towards the engine fund. You can get a good idea of risk based on oil changes, oil filter, and hours flown. All of these engines are a risk no matter how good the inspection. One thing I think would be valuable in a pre-buy is downloading the engine monitor data and reviewing that. When I bought the Encore I asked the mechanic to do this, and it was like they had never done it before. They did not have the cables and/or software for the JPI 700. I would have done it myself except I was buying it long-distance. In the end they did, but it didn't matter because the monitor was old and was not set to record data. So nothing there to review.

The flap position relay system is not that reliable. Lots of people (including me) have had trouble with it. Save your money.