Travel Boards

[Hank]

Me, too, if the pricing is reasonable.

[skyjump]

hey everyone,

I just went through rigging my M20L/R and had a heck of a time finding someone to rent me the boards.  Mooney wants $2000 for the set!!! forget that.  so I finally rented the set from Wilmer which cost about $200 including shipping both ways (after promissing him the world that I would return them - apparantly people rent and never return these) and decided to duplicate them and not have to beg in future... granted I'll prolly not need them again for a long time.

Anyway, it was a huge pita but I did duplicate them and just so you know I drive myself nuts as to how nit picky I am so trust me when I say they are identical to the original. attached are photos of the copies next to the original.  I believe mine are better since I used better wood than the factory (they use 3 layer oak plywood whereas I used 5 layer russian birch) and are stiffer and more dimensionaly stable... and better looking too.

I scanned the scales 1:1 (confirmed) and had them printed on vinyl (similar to what is placed on cars, signs, etc) and laminated too. I cut aluminum as the substructure for the vinyl.  used the existing handles and a quality router and made exact copies of the handles.  got some "L" aluminum support pieces for the back (even though my wood didn't really need it since it is much stiffer that the factory wood.  Their's will snap in half without the "L" support pieces).

I assembled everything together which you have to be very exact about to make sure everything is right on. if something is off 1/32" at one end it will translate to several degrees error at the other end. finally I verified my copies are accurate by comparing them with the originals on my airplane to ascertain the same readings.

And before anyone asks I am sorry but these won't be leaving my hanger anytime soon so don't bother asking.  HOWEVER, I am willing to upload them to this site if possible or email anyone who wishes my scans as a starting point of duplicating these.  you would still need the handles to copy which I can't scan (too big).  I cleaned up these scans with photoshop and they are ready for print.

[MB65E]

Well done!  They look better than the originals.  

Let us know the cost if you decide to turn this into a small side business. 

 

Nice work,

-Matt

[carusoam]

Welcome aboard, Sky Jump.

Interesting first post.  Usually, pilots arrive here, and their first post is in the form of a question.  Yours is in the form of an answer replete with very complete details.

Best regards,

-a-

[M20F-1968]

Nicely done.

I would be interested in your process as well as anyone who may have a set of travel boards which could be used to copy.

Your obviously are for the R model and I believe are different.  I would be interewted in copying the travel boards for the

F and J.

John Breda

[carusoam]

The O is straight and smooth, and comes with all the aerodynamic updates.  Not sure if it is different, but, would need to know to use the same travel boards as the other Mooneys.

Best regards,

-a-

[Andy95W]

The O is straight and smooth, and comes with all the aerodynamic updates.  Not sure if it is different, but, would need to know to use the same travel boards as the other Mooneys.

Best regards,

-a-

Same wing, dang near the same tail, uses the same travel boards.  That Al Mooney sure knew his stuff...  60 years later and they couldn't improve upon it.  Fastest production piston powered airplane and still uses a wing that was originally wood.

[Andy95W]

Yours is in the form of an answer replete with very complete details.

Anthony- Excellent use of "replete".  Between you and Siri, you're going to make the rest of us mouth breathers replete with  intelleckshualism.

[skyjump]

thanks for the kind words.  as far as making more of them for selling I don't believe I would be interested in doing that just because it was so time consuming and tedious. besides I would feel guilty charging anything besides the material cost which was rather cheap. $20 for the wood, about $60 for the metal and I had a friend print the scales for which he didn't charge me anything but I imagine it wouldn't cost too much at Kinko's or alike.  It took me about 20 hours to complete them from scratch but about 25% of that was for the scanning/ photoshop and a few hours running around getting the materials. so if someone has easy access to materials and a shop (cut metal, wood) and I provide the scans then they could knock it out in half the time.

as far as model compatibility is concerened, the ailron/flap and rudder boards are for all models.  the elevator is for L and later long body models.  I do not have the scans for the shorter body elevator. 

[carusoam]

On a side note...

SJ, you are one of the few L pilots here...

What engine are you flying? Original Porsche, Continental IO550, or Liquid Rocket?

The cognoscenti will all want to know. 

I highlighted my guess...

Best regards,

-a-

Edited October 16, 2015 by carusoam

[Cervelorod]

SkyJump,

were you able to scan the outline of the boards themselves or just the scale for travel?  I don't have access to a set of boards to copy.  I can print out the scale's on Oracal vinyl though...

 

Can you email me what you have?  cervelorod at gmail dot com

 

Thanks,

Rod 

[skyjump]

I acquired this plane about 11 years ago when it was still a porsche mooney and enjoyed flying it for about a year or so before I was "forced" to convert it to an "ovation" with the conti IO-550 engine plus many other changes / elective mods.  I truly miss that engine and it's FADEC.  It was smooth like a turbine and easy to operate like your automobile.  cold/warm/hot it started like a car, just turn the key and she fired up.,, no 3 handed scamble playing with mixture, throtle, starter switch.  It wasn't as fast as what I have now but I would go back if I could.  another nice feature was that it had no cowl openings in the front so I could cut the throttle at altitude to idle and push the nose over without shock cooling the cylinders.  the fan behind the engine pulled in just enough air to cool that it needed from side openings.

 

As far as the scans go... I dissambled the boards into it's components so scanning the aluminum scales became easier.  the wooden handles which already had screw holes in them made them easy to just screw them down onto the plywood and use them as templates for the router to follow along.  I have access to an outfit that can actually copy the handles and CNC machine cut them into aluminum or teflon, etc.   But that would be very cost ineffective for just one or a few of these.  You would need to produce a large quantity in order for it to make financial sense.

[skyjump]

Here is the link to my dropbox zip file of the travel board scans if anybody is interested.  I'll also attach it to this msg.

 

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/20729346/travel boards.zip

travel_boards.zip

[Tres]

Does anybody have a copy of these they can post?

The dropbox link gives a 404 error and the file attached to the message is corrupt.

Thank you 

[Shiny moose]

I also would be interested in a copied file  or someone making a set of these for us. I am sure that more than a few would want to have them

[carusoam]

More than a few... (including the Moose)

https://mooneyspace.com/search/?q=Travel boards&sortby=relevancy&search_and_or=and

Welcome aboard, Tres.

Best regards,

-a-

[M20F-1968]

I have copied a set for myself and also have an original set for reference which I acquired after I had made the copies. 

I am not working full-time currently and could make a run of travel boards.

They are very time consuming to make by hand.  I would need to get a sense of how many people might want them.

What is the current factory price for these?

John Breda

[slowflyin]

I'd be interested in a set.

[RLCarter]

@M20F-1968 I would be interested in a set as well, I would also be interested in purchasing the original set you have should you want to sell them

[Prior owner]

I’d be interested in a set, if they are priced within reason... what the factory is charging right now is kinda irrelevant to me.... I ask myself: how much effort+time will it take me to  produce my own copies, and how much can I rent them for? It’s unlikely that most of us would use them more than once... you might be better off creating a few sets to rent out to others.....?

 I’ll gladly pay someone else for their time for an accurate set. If you are going to computer cut aluminum for them, I think somewhere Below $300 would work for me. Otherwise I’ll probably rent a set. 

 

Please count me in as interested!

[Shiny moose]

Would also be interested in a set, for my F model

[asaxet]

Looks like it will work on my E (based on comments above) ..   I’m interested...  at price point listed previous 

[M20F-1968]

I certainly have the materials to make sets for the F model.  I would need to reassess how I might do it, as making them one at a time is very labor intensive.  

The price of the factory scales alone is more than most would pay.  The scales can be duplicated and put onto an adhesive graphic.  I can look into making them 

from aluminum.  That will take some homework in creating the software to generate the outline shape for each board.  It all can be done.  As usual it takes time and money.

I likely would hold on to the original set I have for reference.

I could make a set to be used as a rental set.

John Breda

[RLCarter]

26 minutes ago, M20F-1968 said:

I certainly have the materials to make sets for the F model.  I would need to reassess how I might do it, as making them one at a time is very labor intensive.  

The price of the factory scales alone is more than most would pay.  The scales can be duplicated and put onto an adhesive graphic.  I can look into making them 

from aluminum.  That will take some homework in creating the software to generate the outline shape for each board.  It all can be done.  As usual it takes time and money.

I likely would hold on to the original set I have for reference.

I could make a set to be used as a rental set.

John Breda

If the three Travel Boards you have will work on an "E" I can have them digitized. Not sure if Aluminum would be the best material, wood or a plastic is less likely to scratch the paint and can still be cut with either CNC router, water-jet or laser, the scales could be either a decal or laser etched. 

[MARZ]

20 minutes ago, RLCarter said:

If the three Travel Boards you have will work on an "E" I can have them digitized. Not sure if Aluminum would be the best material, wood or a plastic is less likely to scratch the paint and can still be cut with either CNC router, water-jet or laser, the scales could be either a decal or laser etched. 

I'd vote aluminum - plasti dip coat the edge for scratch protection - it can be sprayed for an even coating.