gamefreak32

Sent him a pm. Thanks for the info.

Tail number is N1072Z. It has been on the market for quite a while, which usually means there is something wrong with it. I can't find any damage history or major repairs in a history search. Definitely needs a new paint job, but other than that it appears there is nothing mechanically wrong. Avionics and interior look decent for an '81 model, but nothing special. I figured I would post here to see if anyone has checked it out and uncovered anything. I don't really want to waste the time to call the seller and figure out it hasn't flown in 5 years. http://www.trade-a-plane.com/detail/aircraft/Single+Engine+Piston/1981/Mooney/M20J+201/1589603.html

Probably using imperial gallons. 10.5 imperial gallons is 12.6 US gallons.

Wings of Carolina?

Correct. AC applied to a metal moves the electrons back and forth and does not allow them to migrate very far before they migrate back. DC only moves them in one direction. Magnetization occurs when the electrons get "stuck" at one end of a material. Exact opposite. Handheld battery powered vacuums would be worse because they are DC powered. Wall operated vacuums are AC and I would not expect them to magnetize the plane. I would not expect to have any magnetization on an airframe with a simple vacuum considering that it is such a large surface and the current carrying wires are not touching it. Does a vacuum create a magnetic field and mess with a compass? Yes, but only as long as the vacuum is running and close. Any electric motor is a large inductor and creates a magnetic field when you apply current to it. Any piece of conductive material with current on it creates a magnetic field to some extent. When you turn the avionics on, you have a large number of wires in close proximity to the compass with current on them which is why the compass is incorrect and has a magnetic deviation card.

Yep, you are definitely still reliant on the fact that the manufacturer will stay in business in some form to provide replacement programmed circuit boards. I was looking for a replacement circuit board for a machine that was built in the early 80s that blew a couple of capacitors and melted the board about 3 weeks ago. Company did not exist anymore, but was bought out by Danaher. They could have shipped me a brand new programmed board in 3 days for $1200. I was proving that Garmin was capable of doing this since they have the parts availibilty to make and program new boards. Just using the 7400 series as example for production life for obsolete parts. I do see what you mean, but I'm almost certain Garmin and other manufacturers have stockpiled plenty of LCDs if they have went out of production. I do know that the reason Garmin stopped making the 430/530 series is because the Intel i386 went out of production in 2007. Shopping for a 201. Been lurking around here for a while due to the wealth of knoweledge. Currently not in a financial position to buy at the moment due to just getting out of school (NCSU '12) and not having two years worth of tax returns to prove my income to a bank.

Huh? Just because they are obselete does not mean they stop producing them. The G1000, 430, etc. are just composed of buttons, an LCD, and various computer chips. The only thing I could see to be in short supply is the buttons. Garmin doesn't have their own chip fabrication facility and do not design their own chips. They buy off the shelf chips that should be easy to find for many years in the future and should be in production for a good while. Intel's 80186 was produced for 25 years and was obsolete for 23 of them. The 7400 series of basic logic gates was used in the 60s to make computers and are still in production today. I used the 7400 series in a basic digital circuits class in college a couple of years ago. If you are talking about just the LCD technology, just because the screen technology changes doesn't mean that they can't make new parts. All that is necessary to make a new one is to get the same connector/interface with the same resolution and voltage requirements. Most embedded systems like the 430 and G1000 use some kind of standard serial interface to communicate with the LCD. I would bet in 20-30 years the embedded world will still use the same interface and chips will still be available. As far as making the actual LCD, I can't imagine it ever getting more expensive to make a run of 100-1000 4.3" 240 x 128 pixel screens or whatever the G1000 or newer screens use. As long as they keep the CAD data in an up to date format, any optoelectronics machine should be able to make them. I can guarantee the LCD in the 4.3" car and marine units is the exact same one that they use in the 430, so used replacement parts shouldn't be hard to find. The only issue I see is that troubleshooting and repairing these obsolete units will take longer and require someone with more technical skill that the typical avionics shop repair person which will end up costing more because it has to be sent back to Garmin. This would make it more advantageous to buy a new GPS and maybe glass cockpit than to repair an old one.