larryb

TSO or not, the DM C63-3/A Antenna is the wrong antenna for the application here, which is air-band communications. It is the correct antenna for land-mobile communications. If you want to install your 2m ham radio in your plane, this would be the correct antenna. If you check the manufacturer datasheet linked in that spruce posting above, you'll see the TSO only applies to the aviation band versions. So the text in the Spruce product description that says the TSO applies to the -3/A and -4/A versions appears incorrect. https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/avpages/c63_2.php

I'm thinking the DM C63-3/A Antenna, 138-174 MHz, is intended for land-mobile application in aircraft. Think of a police helicopter talking to dispatch and ground units. It is not intended for aircraft communications. It will work, but not as good as the proper antenna. Either the airplane had a land-mobile radio in the past or this was simply installed by mistake. If it were me I'd replace it with the proper air-band antenna.

I have had a similar issue. In my case, the gear relay CB tripped when the gear was up. I found I could leave it tripped, move the gear switch to down, and then reset the CB and the gear would extend fine and no problems. But when the gear was all the way up, the CB would eventually trip. The problem is that there is very little clearance between one of the tabs on the gear system and the back of the gear limit switch. When the gear was up this tab was barely touching one of the screws on the back of one of the gear limit switches. I don't remember exactly which one at this point. But with the plane on jacks and the gear retracted, carefully check the terminals of both gear limit switches. The fix in my case was to simply remove the un-used terminal screw of the limit switch that the tab was shorting to. This all started after the MSC replaced on of the gear limit switches because it was intermittent.

The knob is easy to turn. To properly lubricate the cable the steel wire will need to be fully pulled out and then reinstalled while spraying tri flow. And if you do that you may as well just put in a new wire because it is easy. This is actually very easy and takes only a few minutes. Most of the time spent is removing the seat and side wall.

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I heard about this shortage late last year. I bought a new concord to replace my 5 year old battery. The old one was working fine but I didn’t want to chance being out on a trip and needing one in short notice. It took about a month to get it from spruce.

Lubrication is key! I have owned two Mooneys, an '84 J with manual cowl flaps and a '97 Encore with electric cowl flaps. In the J I could really feel in the knob when the system needed lubrication. A shot of tri-flow on all linkage joints made the difference. But with the electric system you can't feel this and I'll bet most pilots motor on without ever lubricating this system. Maybe it gets a bit of lube at annual but it needs it more often. Every time I have the cowl off, say for an oil change, I lube the cowl flap linkage. Several times a year. Larry

There is a lot of luck in aircraft ownership and maintenance. You can have a turbo and have little added maintenance. You can have an NA and have a lot of maintenance. You can have airframe corrosion that will scrap the plane in some cases. Even with an NA plane and 300 hours SMOH you need the financial depth to overhaul that engine any day and not loose too much sleep over it. Counting on being lucky is not a great strategy with aircraft ownership.

Every 25 hours. And I do it myself. I like to take my time and really check over the engine compartment for wire and hose chafing, missing screws, loose screws. I lube exhaust slip joints with Mouse Milk. I lube the cowl flap linkage. I do have an oil filter cutter and cut open and inspect the oil filter every time. Check for exhaust leaks and fuel leaks.

The switch is just for the mic circuit. Otherwise both the standard and Lemo are wired in parallel. You should be able to hear the radio regardless of the switch setting. You will only hear your own mic if the switch is in the proper position. If you never connected both bose and standard you would not need the switch. But if you have a bose headset and a separate mic for an O2 mask you would need the switch.

$1070. Shipped from factory to my msc. I have not seen the spring, just the invoice from the shop that arrived today. I doubt I really need it. I fly trips, not patten work. I probably average 1 landing every two hours. But I’ll let them replace it anyway. I think the lubrication of the gearbox is probably the more valuable service. It was replaced shortly before I bought the plane.

Good idea. I will ask for the spring to be returned to me after replacement. Probably sometime in May.

My spring just came in! Must have been this shipment. 11 months ago, at my last annual, my shop pre-ordered the spring to be installed at this annual. Just in time. The also ordered an intake boot, the silicon fabric piece between the cowl and air filter. That only took 4 months.

In my J I burned 8.5GPH in cruise. In my Encore I burn 9.5GPH in cruise. Takeoff fuel flow is quite a bit different, 18 GPH in the J, and gradually lowering in the climb. 25 GPH in the K all the way to top of climb. But I get to top of climb a lot quicker and cover more distance in the climb. In my typical 150nm flight I do burn a couple gallons more in the K than I used to in the J. Garmin Pilot logbook feature shows average cross country speed, block-block, of 133 for the J and 145 for the K. That is an average speed over several years and hundreds of flights. The K could fly 20kt faster, but takes a lot more fuel and causes a lot more engine wear, so I typically don't do it.

Back when I was a kid growing up in San Francisco my parents bought cars with no air conditioning. "We don't need air conditioning, we live in San Francisco." But what happens when you take that car without air conditioning on a road trip to Arizona? It's mighty hot in Arizona. I think it's the same thing with turbocharged airplanes. "I live in the East, I don't need a turbo" is something we often hear on these pages. But the best part of Mooney ownership is that it's a great traveling airplane. I've taken mine across the country a couple of times, and plan more of that. I've owned a Turbo Mooney for 5 years and an NA Mooney 5 years before that. Both engines have cost me a new cylinder in that time, so no difference there. The only turbo-specific repair I have needed was a scavenge pump rebuild. NA engines don't have a scavenger pump. In the long term, a turbo should cost more since there are more systems to break. But it's not a huge difference in the total ownership cost. Larry

Cav: Thanks for the reply. 1997 Mooney Encore FIKI. It was not scraped closed by the prop hub, there is plenty of clearance and no evidence of scraping. It's hard to take a sharp close-up picture of the business end. Under magnification it almost looks like solder. Thanks, Larry

I am willing to share my stl files for the design, as I have done with two other members who have contacted me privately. Just send me a PM. I don't want to be in the airplane parts business, so I can't print them for others and sell them. The project wound up being a fair bit more complex than I thought when I started. The modules produce quite a bit of heat that needs to be managed. If you have a 24V airplane then you'll need a voltage regulator. If you want it to plug into the existing Mooney plugs nicely you'll need matching TE Mate-N-Lok connectors and pins sourced from an electronic supply house. You should use aircraft grade Tefzel wire. You need to print the parts in ABS or some other high temp plastic to handle the heat. This was my first ABS part and I had to build an enclosure for the printer in order to get parts that were not warped and split.

While testing my TKS in flight today I noticed I did not see the typical mist on the windscreen coming off the prop. Everything else worked as expected. A bit of troubleshooting at the destination shows the spray nozzle clogged. No fluid comes out of the nozzle, plenty of fluid comes out of the hose connected to the nozzle. Inspecting the nozzle with magnification shows it blocked. I thought I'd check here for a proper procedure before proceeding. thanks, Larry

Since you are working on your IR, then yes. If you planned to stay VFR forever, then no. I was a VFR pilot when I bought my J. FIKI wasn't even on my radar. I got my IR in the J and quickly found out that lack of FIKI was pretty limiting. Basically it meant that I could not touch a cloud below freezing. Ice may not be in that cloud. but there is no way to be sure. The only way to be sure you won't pick up ice is to stay out of freezing clouds. So that's what I did, and I cancelled a lot of do-able trips because of that. After a few years I sold the J and bought a FIKI Encore. And now that I have FIKI, I hardly ever use it. But having it gives me confidence to touch a freezing cloud, and I cancel fewer trips because of it. Of course, I still stay away from situations where moderate or severe ice is forecast.

Wheelen LR11 removed from police light bars and sold on ebay. I think it would be a bit difficult to fabricate this out of metal. There is a big thread about it here:

I listened to the audio in the video. It almost sounds like the pilot ceiling air vent blowing on the mic and opening the squelch.

I experienced 50 miles of GPS jamming a few years ago. Others were discussing it with ATC so I knew it wasn’t just me. My expensive GTNs lost reception but my cheap iPad had no trouble.

I got pretty close.

I purchased my Encore through a broker and this is what the contract stated: Purchase inspection. Buyer and seller agree that Buyer may have a pre-purchase inspection completed at Buyers cost prior to delivery. In addition, Buyer shall also be entitled to an acceptance flight confirming that the Aircraft and its equipment is functioning properly. If items are discovered in these inspections that cannot be agreed upon by Buyer and Seller, the Buyers deposit shall be returned.

This is what caused my fluctuating fuel flow. That is the connector for the flowscan sensor feeding the JPI.