Oscar Avalle

Well, to give you an update. My plane is still down... I got the overhauled motor back last week as well as the gear actuator switches. I gave everything to my IA yesterday and they are working on it. I took advantage of the downtime to upgrade my 430 to a 650 (considering that I am moving back to the US and that labor costs are going to go up...). Looks nice.... Unfortunately I don't think that the plane is going to be ready for a test flight before I leave to DC on the Monday. Thus, when I am back on November 14 I will need to do a flight test and then on the 16 in the early morning I will be off to the US. Route: MGGT - CZM - KEYW (about 700 miles). Then KEYW - Jacksonville. Weather permitting next day Jacksonville - KGAY or Leesburg Executive (depending if I get my old hangar back at KGAY). So I will keep you informed and make some videos of the trip.

Nice video...161 kts...not bad.

I had a similar problem with my 430 in my PA 28... decades ago...:=). The only solution I found was to send the unit back. It seems to be something common problem.

Incredible... they were lucky.

In the process of upgrading my avionics I also would like to sell my GDL 69 3 D with the external battery. I am asking US$ 500.

I hear you. I have obsessed over my doghouse. I even purchased a new doghouse which I plan to installed as soon as I am back in the US in December. I really don't know what else to do, but to move to a colder climate :=), which I will be doing soon. Now, in the meantime, I looked into my cowlflaps and I decided to open them a bit more. Hopefully that will help. I also heard from Don Maxwell about the carburator. Once I am back I will look into that too. Cooler plugs... may be also an option. But I agree I want by CHTs down from 440 during climb. But at the end of the day I believe that the design of the cowling does not help...so I am looking forward to the new cowling. Oscar

Guys, I upgraded my 430 to a 650, so I have a skybound reader with a WAAS datacard and a Garmin Reader (to update obstacle databases) available for sale. I have no clue what to ask for so if somebody is interested please PM me with an offer.

What do you have to do to have the feature turned on?

looking forward to it...put mw on the list

I agree Mooneyspace is a great tool and helps a lot at least to point you in the right direction.

I agree, there may be many reasons why the gauges may read wrong... but at the end it is true that the design of the cowling is not the best. The issue is, what can we do? I have tried many things, like new baffles, climbing at more than 100 mph, etc. but what else can we do? Open the cowlflaps more? It would be great if we could get a new cowling design that could help us reduce the CHTs... but it may take a while.

tough man...

Well... I was too fast in communicating the good news... it seems that the rubber bushing was not the problem, but the screw that connects the motor to the actuator. Which is a more complicated problem and I have to send it the motor and the actuator to LASAR for overhaul. Luckily they have the parts in stock and I will be in the US next week. So I can take the parts with me and send them next week. I will keep you informed...

You are right, you have to replace some of the probes... actually most of them.

I had a JPI 830 installed. Sometimes I wonder if I should just pull the 830 out and replace it with a 930 or 900 and get rid of the old gages. But then I had a friend of mine who flies a Cessna 340. We went flying the other day and bum... on the ILS approach in IMC the engine monitor went blanc.. (i mean black), because it was a primary screen, he had no back up... so no engine instruments, no RPM, no MP, no nothing. Well, he knows his plane and we finished the approach with no problem. Reason: bad contact in the harness. Very easy fix. So, after that flight and although I love my panel and all the screens I have in it, I do prefer to keep my back ups for the sack of redundancy, just in case, s... happens. Oscar IMG_2840 (1).MOV

Yeah, you kind of hijacked the thread...but nevertheless it was an interesting discussion. So to close the loop: An actuator switch failed, so the gear motor continued to run and, although it lowered the gear, it went through some rubber/plastic bushing (see page 136 of the parts manual). Don Maxwell helped me out with the parts and the advice on what is going on. It is not a big deal... beyond the fact that it scared the heck out of me on final. Oscar

I am pretty confident that that may have been the case. Everything else looked good. But we will see to,or row once they look at the plane Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

Really nice... I would love to hear how much would it go for! Agree with powerflow mod. Many have the new exhaust...

This morning I had a scary moment on the ILS approach. Everything was working out just fine until I put the gear down...After the usual noise the electrical gear motor just did not stop working and I did not get an indication that the gear was down. So I pulled the breaker and started to lower the gear by hand. But not indication (green light) only the visual one... Tower confirmed that gear was down. So I decided to continue the approach and land. I guess the switch that identifies that the gear is down died... any other possibilities. And if that were to be the case does somebody know who carries one that I could buy... Nothing major, just a scary moment. Oscar

In January we can try it out. I have Flightstream, Foreflight and Garmin Pilot (plus GDL 88

Thank you for clarifying this. I was wondering what the difference between the NAV mode and the GPSS mode on my STEC was. Normally I use the GPSS mode on my ASPEN when I was navigating based on the inputs from my GPS 750. When I switched over to LOC or VOR I used NAV mode. But once I used the NAV mode with my GPS and it worked fine. But obviously I should not rely on NAV mode when the autopilot is receiving inputs from a GPS because of what you guys were mentioning.

Be ready for failures and mistakes. Failures, in the sense that something may not work as it should. And mistakes in case something works differently from what you expect it should. Also fly with a safety pilot who should be able to give you the opportunity to play with your gadgets, while he or she actually flies the plane. But be careful with the "why is it doing this" effect, that may lead you into more trouble. Take a handheld radio with you in case you have to go NORDO.

Just watch out with density altitude, power and CHTs. The higher the temperature the higher DA and the more difficulty the plane has to keep the CHTs down... You have to balance out keeping the temps down (rich mix) and leaning for best power, at least on take off. In cruise the situation is more manageable.

Thanks for sharing, really interesting...