What to watch out for after an annual?

[ncdmtb]

I am a new Mooney pilot/owner. I have owned the aircraft since January and flew approx 40hrs to date (so still fairly novice to the Mooney). This is the first airplane I own, so I am also new to the maintenance "stuff". I am picking up the aircraft next Friday, fresh from the annual. The magnetos had their 500hr check and the rubber gear donuts where replaced.

It is a 1964 M20E; it has an EDM-700 with FF

What should I look out for? What should I be attentive for?

Any advice is much appreciated.

[pirate]

Whenever I have service performed by A N Y mechanic I personally check and verify every service performed. I trust know one when it comes to maintenance on my aircraft.

[N201MKTurbo]

Pull  the sides of the cowl off, run the engine for a few minuets and check for leaks. Especially check the fuel system. Put the mixture and throttle to idle and run the electric fuel pump. With it running look in the cowl and behind the left cowl flap for leaks. Check the brakes an make they work ok. Check the flaps and make sure they are ok. Do A good preflight making sure all the hardware is tight.

 

If you want to take the top cowl off, check all the accessories and make sure they are tight especially the mags. Grab them and try to rotate them in their mounts. Give everything a good shaking to make sure everything was properly secured.

 

Then go have fun flying your plane.

[Bob_Belville]

A couple of thoughts from a long time old Mooney owner, you'll get better technical advice from some of the A&Ps who live here.

 

If you were not present it will be hard for you to be sure all the called for lubrication was done or whether the appropriate gear loads were verified or whether the corrosion inspections were made. You can do the obvious stuff. Very carefully check everything you can get to looking for anything loose or leaking. Expect the obvious because Murphy rules the world. Take your time, it is your neck. If the mechanic was not a MSC, be sure he has the Mooney specific tools and jigs to test the gear and rigging. Your EDM will tell you a lot about the engine. Be sure everything it displays makes sense to you.

 

My A&P appreciated this generic Mooney checklist which you might want to discuss with your shop:

http://www.mooney.com/images/pdfs/100_Hour_Annual2007.pdf

[Shadrach]

In addition to all other things mentioned, check that the baffle is dressed forward and is in a position (non--doghouse style cowl) to seal against the inside of the cowl as air flows into the cowl. On many occasions I have found that the mechanic installing the upper cowl paid no attention to this. It's bad enough when my partners do it for free, but it pisses me off when a paid pro does it. If you take off with the baffling improperly seated, expect to watch your rear cylinder CHTs to run 20 to 50df hotter.

[WardHolbrook]

Nearly every serious aircraft/engine issue I've encountered over the years were directly related to recent maintenance/inspections. I'll echo what others have said and add just be extra vigilant for a few hours - some issues take time to develop. Fortunately, you're not likely to run into any issues. 

[1964-M20E]

Congratulations on your first plane,  My first plane was a 64E

 

Like others have said check everything twice even if you participated in doing the annual inspection.  If you are mechanically inclined get with an A&P and learn how to lubricate your plane.  That way on a crappy weather day when you want to do something you can go to the hangar open things up and lubricate moving parts.  Also my mechanic insists on vacuuming and wiping out the wings and anywhere else you can reach.  make corrosion X applications more effective and allows for easier inspection of the internal structures.  I think it is hard to expect a shop to do this but it is something you can do on your own.  Also I have looked at planes that supposedly had an annual done only a few months before and there were may moving parts and pivot points that were not lubricated and thing not cleaned.  Besides minimizing wear keeping things lubricated also aid in dis-assembly when a part needs to be replaced.

 

Good luck and if your A&P IA will let you get involved in the annual do it and learn your plane it will be a big benefit when troubleshooting and you will have the added confidence when doing pre-flight inspections.

[pinerunner]

Do your absolute best preflight right after maintenance. I've only got 400 hours total and already I've a list building of things found right after maintenance was done. Like the rental plane given to me fresh out of the shop that dumped all its oil on the tarmac because of a probe on the engine that wasn't tightened up. I don't even think it means they were bad mechanics, just not perfect. I think there is a tendency to let down one's focus at the end of a complex process and make needless, stupid, little errors, right at the end.  Your first preflight is part of the process. Then, make the first flight short, bring her back, and inspect again. You won't be able to inspect what they did deep inside but the stuff that needs to be found is likely to be staring you in the face if you look with your eyes wide open. Do a data dump to and compare to old. You can add so much more safety to your flying with that monitor catching things early.

 

Dave

[MARZ]

And once you've checked it out, fly the pattern for a couple full stop, taxi backs before taking off with passengers.

[MARZ]

And once you've checked it out, fly the pattern for a couple full stop, taxi backs before taking off with passengers.

Oops, didn't read Dave's all the way

[pinerunner]

Oops, didn't read Dave's all the way

I get that a lot.

 

Dave

[rob]

In addition to all other things mentioned, check that the baffle is dressed forward and is in a position (non--doghouse style cowl) to seal against the inside of the cowl as air flows into the cowl. On many occasions I have found that the mechanic installing the upper cowl paid no attention to this. It's bad enough when my partners do it for free, but it pisses me off when a paid pro does it. If you take off with the baffling improperly seated, expect to watch your rear cylinder CHTs to run 20 to 50df hotter.

Can you elaborate on this? I've noticed higher CHTs in climb on my 65C since the annual this spring. In cruise they seem closer to normal, but climb I've had to keep a very close watch on them. I chalked this up to higher than normal OAT, but maybe I should check something else???

[Marauder]

In addition to all other things mentioned, check that the baffle is dressed forward and is in a position (non--doghouse style cowl) to seal against the inside of the cowl as air flows into the cowl. On many occasions I have found that the mechanic installing the upper cowl paid no attention to this. It's bad enough when my partners do it for free, but it pisses me off when a paid pro does it. If you take off with the baffling improperly seated, expect to watch your rear cylinder CHTs to run 20 to 50df hotter. Can you elaborate on this? I've noticed higher CHTs in climb on my 65C since the annual this spring. In cruise they seem closer to normal, but climb I've had to keep a very close watch on them. I chalked this up to higher than normal OAT, but maybe I should check something else???

Rob -- what he is referring to is the baffle orientation. The baffles need to seal the top of the cylinders to allow cooling to work correctly. You will want the baffles (the rubbery looking things that are usually black or blue) to be seated correctly. The back one should be wrapped so the leading edge is towards the front of the plane. The same for the side ones. If they are oriented the other way, they will move backwards in flight and you will lose cooling.

[Marauder]

And to answer your original question, I watch out for the bill!

[Shadrach]

Can you elaborate on this? I've noticed higher CHTs in climb on my 65C since the annual this spring. In cruise they seem closer to normal, but climb I've had to keep a very close watch on them. I chalked this up to higher than normal OAT, but maybe I should check something else???

Do you have the "dog house" style (plenum) or does your baffling seal against the upper cowl piece? If you have the latter, the baffle rubber should be folded over towards the inside of the chamber (made up of the to cowl and baffle pieces). You want to ensure that baffle rubber is oriented in such a way tha air flow into the cowling forces it to seal, and open up. Baffle leaks have a huge effect on CHTs.

[rob]

Ah. Thanks. I've got the "doghouse" maybe the increases I'm noticing have been due to higher OAT.

[Sabremech]

Hi Rob, is the upper baffle seal in the channel on your upper cowl? Mine is kind of a pain to get in the channel, but if you don't temps can be higher.

David

[rob]

I will take a closer look next time

I'm at the hangar... I didnt notice anything out of the ordinary when i inspected post-annual, but then again, i didnt look too close at the baffles. Not sure what you mean by "in the channel" though?

[DaV8or]

I do owner assist when able, but there have been times when I couldn't be there for the work. In these cases I insist that they leave the cowling/panels off that are applicable to the work. That way I can get my eyes and hands on the parts that were worked on. You need to fully understand what is being done, to what and why. This way you can look for mistakes, or things that were overlooked.

 

I was saved IMO by this level of obsessiveness. My plane broke down at a field a long ways from my home, the problem could not be solved in the entire next day and I had to go home for work. Diagnostics continued, weeks passed and eventually, it was fixed. I told them to keep the cowls off. I was in constant communication about what was going on.

 

When I arrived I did my inspection. I found the fuel line between the fuel pump and the flow divider to be finger tight. I loosened it with my finger tips. Had I flown the hundreds of miles home without inspection, I feel it would have come loose and sprayed fuel all over the place. I don't know, but I didn't have to find out. I made them tighten it and then go over every thing they touched.

 

Sadly, mechanics tend to believe that pilots are complete idiots and pilots believe that A&P, or IA, or factory certified, means NASA white lab coat precision. Neither is true. Remember, it's you that has to dead stick it into the corn field, not the mechanic. He's at home drinking a beer and watching the game.

[garytex]

It is called maintenance induced failure, and both myself and my mechanics have been responsible for a couple of close calls.  LIKE THE GUYS SAY, LOOK CLOSE.  When you start doing your own maintenance, after you have looked, try to get someone else to look close.  I have found wrenches, rags, loose oil return lines etc.  An old codger (airplane mechanic from 1918 to 1996) told me this: walk up to the plane and mentally say to yourself, this conniving bxxxx is going to hide things from me and try to kill me given half a chance, and proceed accordingly.  That is a great mental exercise for any preflight.

The other side of the coin is that airplanes are astoundingly forgiving of stupid pilot and mechanic tricks, given what fire we're playing with, so after the good look, go flying with a clear and unworried head.

Gary 

[flyboy]

I bought my M20B with a fresh annual. After flying around a couple of months I pulled the side cowlings. I found the mixture control cable poorly attached to the carb. Now as most of us know, the mixture control is sort of important.    There is no spring to force the mixture to full rich should something fail in the control linkage. Of course I grounded the airplane until the mixture was rigged to my satisfaction. I don't know how long the mixture was so poorly attached ( likely years ) I mean I have been flying around with my family, with my friends, in the clouds, at night, in bad weather,.... OK, I'll get off my soapbox now.

[bnicolette]

And to answer your original question, I watch out for the bill!

 

And then hide it!!