Removing Factory Radar

[lsearcy]

I have an M20J that had the factory radar installed.  We removed the unit from inside the plane and now we want to remove the unit from the wing.  It weighs about 30 lbs total.   The cover to the wing is fiberglass and has black caulking around the edges.  The black non-slip surface is beginning to deteriorate and I am going to paint the fiberglass to match the white wing.  Now the question:  (1) has anyone ever removed the radar from the wing and is there anything I need to be concerned about? (I am leaving the wires in and simply bundling them up) (2) what type of caulk do I use to reinstall the cover on the wing? (3) Has anyone every simply replaced the fiberglass cover with a customer sheetmetal cover to match the wing?
 
You can see the area in the attached picture (although not a great angle).
 
Thanks.

[carusoam]

Worst case...

Call your local MSC with that query. But, be sitting down before they get to the installation part...

Lowest cost...

Since you have removed all the hardware, paint the fiberglass to match the rest of the wing.

How does that sound?

Getting 30lbs of UL back would be nice.

Best regards,

-a-

[201er]

Why don't you want it? Or is it broken and too expensive to fix?

[lsearcy]

 Many inquiries as to its usefulness suggested that it was even too big to use as a paperweight.  I have a 396 with XM weather that works well and if I need on-board radar to tell me a severe weather situation I am not going to be in the air anyway. If you want it or parts from it let me know.  I'm sure my partner and I would be willing to ship for costs. 

[201er]

You really trust XM over realtime weather radar? Now the question is how good is it being such a simple/compact unit that it can fit a Mooney? The other question to see is how much speed you gain by getting rid of it.

[MB65E]

Well... I know the new Garmin radar won't fit in the wing on the mooney, but it is really neat to use!!

Radar is cool, but it takes a good operator to really use it well, and I'm not one of them.

[Marauder]

Well... I know the new Garmin radar won't fit in the wing on the mooney, but it is really neat to use!!

Radar is cool, but it takes a good operator to really use it well, and I'm not one of them.

There is an art to using radar and unless you know how to paint (sorry, pun intended), you can get into more trouble than if you didn't have it.

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[Amelia]

Hello! I did remove my factory-installed radar, because I didn't trust it. It really didn't have the power to penetrate anything but the leading edge of precipitation. I could see a narrow band of green straight ahead, and then nothing behind, due to attenuation. Thus, I couldn't tell if I might've headed into a bit of light rain, or real imbedded ugliness. Besides, I wanted that panel space for a Garmin 530. It was quite a while ago, and I don't remember the cost, but seems to me the avionics guy who did the work did manage to sell the thing for $300, before he skipped town.

[WardHolbrook]

The problem with the leading edge mounted radars is the antenna. When it comes to radar dishes, bigger is better. I'm a believer in onboard wx radar, but if I had a Mooney with one of those installed it would come out at the next available opportunity. 

[Oscar Avalle]

Yes, I read that the radar on the Mooneys were not very effective...

[M20Kid]

Lsearcy - I just sent you a PM.  If you still have the parts I would be very interested in taking them off your hands.  I have flown really good Wx radar units and I know this isn't one of them, but I have one installed in my 231 that has never worked at all.  I'm very interested in getting some functionality back for the space and weight it takes up.

[dac]

For those of you who have removed the factory RADAR from your 201/231/252 how did you determine the weight gain of removing the unit ?

 

When you removed it did you get all the various parts and pieces including the extra vacuum filter and all the piping leading out the wing unit ?

 

I have M20K with factory wing mounted radar unit and a monochrome display and I'm considering removing it.

[N201MKTurbo]

It would be like any other equipment change. With every item removed you write down the weight and the arm of the item. A lot of items will have the weight on them, if not, then weigh them. When you are done update the W/B accordingly.

[dac]

Ok, please let me rephrase my question about determining the weight of a factory removed radar unit.

 

For those of you removed the units did you 

  a ) follow the procedure detailed by M201MKTurbo in the above post ?

  b ) use the weight and arm information that you might have found in the POH ?

  c ) reweigh the aircraft ?

 

What I'm really after here is a hard number, and not just an estimate, as to the useful load increase afford by removing the factory RADAR

 

Thank you