Marauder

One other thought came to mind. I am not sure how much power loss you would experience running on 3 cylinders (I suspect a lot) but I guess it would be theoretically possible that complete loss of fuel flow to the cylinder would also drop the EGT off completely. If on a fuel injection system the injector was plugged, it could be why you saw no EGT temp. But since you did not notice a significant speed loss, it's doubtful that is the cause. Probe is still my guess.

Probe is my guess as well. The ONLY time I saw this happen when it wasn't the probe, was I lost a complete exhaust stack off of one cylinder. I had a metal fatigue failure of 1 stud and the other worked its way free after a bit. The stack fell into the cowling conveniently held by the probe wire. What was interesting was that I saw a few minutes of fluctuating EGT temps that gave me a little warning something was amiss.

Sorry to hear about the wife's fear. There is another thread folating around here on a wife's concern about flying. I won't comment on it other than what I said and that I am glad I'm married to someone who loves to fly more than I do. Flying with a pet can be a bit challenging, especially with a dog that big. You will want to make sure she is secured and not bothered by the pressure differential. Taking some short trips locally shouold help assess her ability to fly. I once flew a cat in a crate for my sister-in-law and it howled the whole time. Pretty distracting. As for any of the Mooneys, good landings are not hard -- if you manage the landing speed carefully and do not try to force it on the runway when it is still trying to fly. If you land too fast and try to get the wheels on the ground, the plane will get into an oscillation that will eventually lead to a prop strike. As for overhauls, there are different levels of overhauls (another thread is out that discusses this). The bottom line -- it is expensive. When you are evaluating costs, you need to look at the whole picture. I use a spreadsheet to track all of my fixed operational costs, variable costs and reserves. Fixed costs are things like insurance & hangars, variable are maintenance & annuals and the reserves are monies estimated needed for the future (like an engine rebuild, avionics upgrades, paint, etc.). The good news is that the more more you fly, the cheaper the hourly rate is. The bad news is that the more you fly, the more money it will cost you. When you are assessing the planes you are considering buying, find someone who tracks their costs and see how it fits in your budget. It will influence your decision if you are on a tight budget. Hope this helps.

Wouldn't it have to be the logical guy who ruined all the fun we are having at guessing?! LOL! I'm still waiting to find out what the electrical device on the other thread is (the one buried in the wing).

I bought my Mooney with a little more than 90 hours in my log book. Insurance was a bit steep until you log enough hours for your insurance company. The transition from a 172 to a Mooney isn't that difficult but you do want enough instruction (my insurance required 10 hours) to learn the plane. It is faster, has wheels that go up and down and that blue knob in the middle will be different for you. That said, you should also consider the mission. Going to Florida from NJ (I'm nearby to you) is a nice trip. But if you need to carry a lot with you and cannot afford a Mooney with extra useful load, a different plane may be better suited. I went the rental route for a bit after my private and got checked out in a whole bunch of different planes. I would recommend doing the same and see what you like. Each plane has its merits and the ideal one for you is the one that you like, not what others tell you should get.

Ah, good old H2O, what would we do without it? Just in case those who didn't catch this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dihydrogen_monoxide_hoax

I just did a major upgrade on my old stack. Went from a non GPS environment to a 650 with an Aspen Pro/MFD 1000. When you go that route (the MFD) make sure you ask about the regression functions and your autopilot. I learned that during regression on the MFD the AP will no longer do GPSS unless you modify it. Aspen provided the avionics shop with the wiring diagram required to build a switch to allow full AP functionality during regression. You can't beat the bang for the buck on the Aspen's. I had a concern going to a glass cockpit and flying behind it without some sort of redundancy. You get to keep your AI, but I was pleasantly pleased to see how the Aspen retains the navigator's flight plan and with the built in battery will give you at least some time to find good weather or a place to land.

We're like a pack of piranhas with fresh blood in the water.

The avionics upgrade will eat you out of house and home... An installed Aspen PFD and Garmin 430 (for the street prices I am seeing offered) will cost you close to $20k. Maybe more if you don't have an audio panel to support it. Wen you say the avionics are old, are you talking 360 channel radios or old analog stuff like a KX-170B. There is old and then there is REALLY old...

Ah, Dave beat me to the rebuild option!

Hi Amelia. I saw your other thread. I would call the Mooney Service Centers to see if they can locate one for you. I have dealt with Henry Weber in Lancaster, PA, Lasar in California and Willmar in Minnesota. If they can't locate one, see if anyone is allowed to rebuild the one you have. Some of these parts can be built if they are approved. This may be one of them. I'm surprised that you have as much corrosion on your mount as you do (for the time the engine has been on it). If it was already showing signs of rust back then, I would have expected the shop to have dealt with it then. Do you live near an ocean?

Check under the yoke for a bulb. Mine has a map light and is wired to the right half of the yoke.

IMHO, none of the app versions are complete. I have the ForeFlight and Garmin Pilot loaded up on my iPad. ForeFlight: The ForeFlight does a nice job with planning a route with their new auto routing search, but without airplane profiles, the flight planning is off a bit. The map is nice but you need to go to the airport page to get the METAR information while in flight. I like the way the FF allows to put multiple items on the map (the Garmin only allows one). I don't like that the charts need to be searched and stored for your intended flight. You can however print them, which you can't do on the Garmin app. Garmin Pilot: I like that the Garmin Pilot acts like my Garmin 650. Makes it easier to find stuff. The Garmin has no routing. You need to either put your departure and destination in and then use the graphically interface to pull your route waypoints. Even after you do that, if you intend to be on an airway, it will not automatically select it even if you pick the two VORs that make up the airway. If you select the airway from the flight plan page, you need to know where you are getting on and off. And you cannot load approaches (im sure it is a legal thing). Just a pain. I do like the map feature on the Garmin. You can pick widgets that show things in a split window (map on one side, the widget on the other). This can include weather on the route (there is a timeline that you can advance along your route of flight), NOTAMs, Airspace, charts or their panel view. I also like the fact that when you pick your departure and destination, it stores the plates in their own binders. Makes it easier to pull them up in flight. With the trial versions of each, you can load them up and play with them to see which ones you like. I just started playing with WingX. We'll see how that goes.

And even more fun on older Mooneys' where the reservoir is on the firewall ON THE PILOT SIDE!

Ah Teterboro! Brings back memories. Hauling checks to Hartford as a Freight Dog...

Dave - thanks for posting these pictures and in a Mooney no less! I have a 296 mounted on my yoke in my Mooney and it blocks out visibility for some of the switches. How much of the panel can you see over it? I bought a RAM yoke mount for my iPad 2, but it eats up even more space than the Garmin. It looks like you have enough leg room underneath it, but it doesn't look like there is enough room to put it into landscape position.

Got me wondering. On another thread someone is asking about the retractable step. Could this be an airspeed switch to tell the step to retract. My understanding is that it will retract before takeoff and once the plane is moving at a certain speed. Could this be it?

And your first born if you have one...

There is a tolerance on how much material can be lost before the structure is declared unairworthy. It can be cleaned up and repainted if the corrosion is surface only.

And until we officially find out, some Buschism on the topic: http://www.eaavideo.org/video.aspx?v=1549006054001 I love the guy but if I am at all the least bit tired when when I begin watching one of these, Zzzzzzzzz

I heard the same. Garmin got a lot of pressure from fleet operators about maintaining the supportability of the 430/530. Their official stance is that they will maintain it while parts remain available. As most of us know, Garmin has a history of "discontinuing" products, especially in the consumer electronics area. The cost of entry for these products was much higher and if they take the same approach about discontinuing support, I think they will have a riot on their hands.

Another possibility is that you have a cracked plug or a short in that plug. As was mentioned, should be a pretty easy process to pull the plug and check.

Sorry for the delay in responding. On both mags, I would expect on my GEM to see higher EGTs on the cylinder with the problem. The rationale being that the fouled plug is causing the combustion to occur later in the cycle resulting in the flame front being down further in the exhaust (closer to the probe). When you switch to the smooth mag, the engine is running on 1 plug and all EGTs should be uniform but higher. When you switch to the bad side, the cylinder with the problem plug would not be firing or firing intermittently causing the lower EGT. It has been a while since I had plug issues (I lean a lot on the ground), but I'm sure some of my esteemed colleagues will correct me if I have this wrong.

Sorry I responded too quickly. I see you leaned it. Can you tell on the JPI if it is just one cylinder that is causing the issue? I would expect all of your EGTs to be elevated a bit when running on one mag since the combustion is being done on one plug. On my GEM, if I have a fouled plug, I see that cylinder's EGT actually go down due to the misfiring or non firing plug.

I couldn't tell if you were leaning aggressively when you were running up attempting to clean the fouled plg. Usually when I get a fouled plug, I will lean out aggressively on the ground and run it around 2k rpm. I have a GEM and I typically will see the offending cylinder. Rarely, would I need to pull the plug. But if I did the GEM narrowed it down.