Bob_Belville

Chris, when I did my panel, I bought a Garmin GTX 327 for $1795 and sold the working KT76A for $500. Basically solving the same problem you have. (I think I threw in the old blind encoder to the Mooney guy who bought the xponder.) My Aspen provides altitude to the digital xponder. I got by with a cheaper xponder since I also got a GDX 88 for ADS-B i/o.

Hard to pick just one... You love a lot of things if you live around them, but there isn’t any woman and there isn’t any horse, nor any before nor any after, that is as lovely as a great airplane. ~Earnest Hemingway, Colliers, 1944 A mile of highway will take you a mile, a mile of runway will take you anywhere. ~Steve, Blogger from Ohio God forgives man the time spent looking at airplane photos. ~Barrett Tillman, aircraft historian and author Pilots vs. Drones Drones will not be late to briefings, start fights at happy hour, destroy clubs, attempt to seduce others' dates, spill flaming hookers, purchase huge watches, insult other services, sing O'Leary's Balls, dance on tables, yell "Show us your tits!" or do all of the other things that we know win wars! ~Attributed to a USAF fighter pilot

Don, I was looking for this one. A gem: Aviation in itself is not inherently dangerous. But to an even greater degree than the sea, it is terribly unforgiving of any carelessness, incapacity or neglect. ~Captain A. G. Lamplugh, London, 1930's This site has a lot of great quotes and they are attributed, a good thing. www.limalima.com/aviation_quote_of_the_month.htm example: A superior pilot uses his superior judgment to avoid situations which require the use of his superior skills. ~Frank Borman - Apollo 8

Update: I have had considerable contact with JPI. Started with email exchange, sending data files and swapping info. They called me several times and have been quite helpful. In all I've talked to four people. Their diagnosis was a bad electrical connnection. I shipped the EDM and the transducer to JPI (CA). They checked both out finding no problem. They updated the firmware. While the plane was down I checked the cable with an ohm meter. Continuity is fine. I rerouted a few wires that might have been close to the wire from the transducer to the EDM. The EDM arrived here today. I cleaned all the plugs with contact cleaner and reassembled. I did not have time to fly but I ran the engine with everything turned on for 10 minutes. FP graph is steady @ 24 psi! Hopefully something I did, probably reconnecting a plug, fixed the problem. (Or as my mechanic reports, devices that go back to the factory work properly upon return even though the factory finds nothing wrong.)

An airplane will probably fly a little bit overgross but it sure won't fly without fuel. Aviate, Navigate, Communicate. Rule one: No matter what else happens, fly the airplane. Fly it until the last piece stops moving. Believe your instruments.

In addition to operating cost you will want to factor in the "fixed" cost of owning any airplane. Hanger rent will vary greatly depending upon location, insurance, annual inspection. Together these 3 might be $6-10k before you fly the first hour. Maintenance of a plane might vary greatly year to year, folks here would advise expecting to spend at least 10% of the purchase price in the first year fixing things that break or wear out. Components on an airplane generally cost several times what they would for an automobile. (Alternators, starters, batteries, pumps, tires brakes, spark plugs..) it will add up. Reading: www.lasar.com/sales/buyers-guide.asp www.ravenware.com/factand/nofic/mooneytrans.html 163 Mooneys for sale: includes 34 Js and 39 Ks (Turbos) www.controller.com/drilldown/modelList.aspx?manu=Mooney

Here's what it looks like on my IO360A1A (M20E). The near side (port) line is the fuel line coming from the fuel pump to the servo. The line going to the starboard side of the engine goes to the fuel pressure sensor, in my case a transducer on the firewall. Pressure in that line should be the same as the input pressure at the servo.

We'll be interested in a why on that LED.

Unlike B26 and yours truly, Tom's flying is mostly for business and the tax man subsidizes a piece of the added operating costs. I'm thinking he might be back when he joins AARP.

Where are you Cliffy? Avionics shops may have something laying around. When I redid my panel I sold one on EBAY for $1050. You might try there. Bennett gets $1900 but are showing out of stock.

My '66E cruises @ 158k. Has desirable manual gear, flaps. The panel is not too shabby and the 54.4 gallons are greater endurance than the pilot.

John, that's a '69 M20E. Great looking! My '66 has about all the same mods, cowl, prop, PFS, o. cooler move, brakes, etc., but with a IO360A1A. I'll be interested in your performance numbers. My 70% ROP cruise is about 158k. In '69 I suppose you have an electric gear?

But that old bird was a bucket of bolts! (I probably remove all 3 pieces every other flight. It takes about 5 minutes. Almost always see something to mess with.)

I just remembered we'd had this thread before and the cheap ba***rds had the most elegant solution.

I have the 54 gal bladders in my E. I also have a fuel totalizer that is very accurate. (JPI EDM 930.) But I also have a pipette style fuel gauge like this: www.sportys.com/PilotShop/product/9334 Mine is marked for a Cessna 152 but a previous owner had created a chart to cross reference it to the Mooney.

Never go first in a bragging contest. But in the '67 blizzard I was stranded with my boss at a Holiday Inn in Lansing. Ken Folger and I had driven my Austin Healey Sprite (= MG Midget) from Muskegon 200 miles east to Ann Arbor for a 1 day seminar. No change of clothes. We left for home early as the snow was getting heavier. But we got only as far as Lansing where I parked under the front awning of the motel. The next morning we could see only the tip of the Sprite's radio antenna. The only vehicles that moved in Lansing for 3 days were National Guard tanks pressed into service for medical emergencies.

You didn't forget that it was uphill, both ways. We were only in Muskegon one winter ('66-67) but it was a good one http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Blizzard_of_1967 It snowed every day for a Biblical 40 days and 40 nights.

Actually, Buffalo, like Muskegon MI, where we once lived, get more snow that Toronto or Montreal, I'm pretty sure.

Buffalo... that's in Canada... right?

There's a reality show about "mountain men". The guy in Alaska who flies into the wilderness to work trap lines has wing covers and more for his Cub(?) I suspect Canada and Alaska planes get more ice and snow protection. It's no fun to clean snow, ice, and frost off a plane in order to depart in freezing temps. Been there, done that.

+4 or 5, I didn't count for Jim Concil, Plane Cover, in Salisbury MD. Jim was really easy to work with and treats customers as friends, trusting payment will be sent. He sent me a matching canvas "pocket" to accommodate an OAT probe which I had not thought would be under the cover and had not identified on Jim's order form.

And it's heavy and takes up a lot of space. Much larger than a KX155 and does not even have a com.

I sold one on Ebay a while ago for $460 which was much less than I had spent keeping it running in the few months I owned it. State of the art... in another century. Bennett gets 1 AMU for them, that would represent full on retail.

My STEC50 does not move the empennage. But I have a separate STEC electric trim, a double switch on the yoke, that does move the empennage to trim pitch. As it moves you can see or feel the manual wheel between the seats moving. But the ALTHLD feature of the A/P does not have access to that system. I do not have altitude pre select or vertical speed select or glide slope lock on. Only altitude hold, which works quite well.