FlyingAggie Posted April 9, 2011 Report Posted April 9, 2011 This week my bird had her second annual and I am very pleased with the results. I put pretty close to 100 hrs on my plane since the last annual. The cylinders showed essentially the same compression as last year and the oil filter was clean when cut open and inspected. Only one discepency was found and that was an unreadable placard. Both IA's, who tag teamed the inspection, commented about what good shape and how clean she is. Nice compliments for a nearly 30 year old airplane and a testiment to the thoroughness of the LASAR prebuy/annual I had done last year. This year I did a owner assisted annual at a local maintenance shop at my home drome. Although not an MSC, they maintain several Mooney's and were really convenient. I took the entire week off and devoted my springbreak to the annual. Only a Mooniac would see this as a" vacation." They gave me the run of the shop and let me use their tools and were alway readily available when I had a question or needed guidance. A friend and fellow Mooney owner showed up a couple of days and helped me remove panels. We both participated in the landing gear emergency extesion test. It is always good for the pilot to annually practice the procedure. I hope this is the only time I have to use the procedure. I used the annual as an opportunity to clean up some items found during the first annual, but didn't have time to do out at LASAR last year. One item was removing the regulator/air filter off the back of the vaccuum pump that provided air to the weather radar, which had been removed years ago. I also spent a lot of time putting the panels back on by replacing stripped out screws and timmerman nuts. My what a wide assortment of mis-matched hardware that had accumulated over the last 39 or so annuals. I hope I have found the reason for my marker beacon receiver not working. Someone had routed the antenna coax cable so it was crushed between the panel and the landing gear drive unit resultiing in a direct short. The $20 for a new cable will certainly be cheaper than buying a new audio panel. Putting the airplane back together, I used an electric screw driver, set to the lightest torque, to put in the screw and then hand tightend all them with a screw driver. Needless to say, my wrists and forearms are really sore this morning as are my neck and shoulders. Spending the week in the maintenance shop, provided the opportunity to get to know my plane much better than the first annual and a side benefit was meeting several other area pilots, who were also in the shop working on their planes. My mind is feeling good about the annual and a real sense of accomplishment, but my 58 year old body is glad the work is over and ready to return to my normal desk jockey job. I will probably rotate between MSC performed annuals at LASAR or DMax and doing a owner assisted ones at the local shop. Quote
Kwixdraw Posted April 9, 2011 Report Posted April 9, 2011 Sounds great Alan. Next time you get ready to do all those panels, get yourself a 1/4 in drive speed handle, it will be much less strenuous on your wrists. They work pretty well at getting the stubborn screws out as well without having the driver jump out of the screw head and dance all over your painted surfaces with the power tool. Get a pack of drywall screw bits too. Get the kind with the ribs on the driving flats and that will also give them some extra grip in the screw head. Quote
aerobat95 Posted April 10, 2011 Report Posted April 10, 2011 Sounds good. I plan on taking some time off in Nov to help with the annual. I am excited about learning my plane better as well. Quote
RJBrown Posted April 11, 2011 Report Posted April 11, 2011 Alan I like your idea for switching between owner assisted and MSC. Who did you use and what cost were there? Randy Quote
FlyingAggie Posted April 11, 2011 Author Report Posted April 11, 2011 Is this what you mean? http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/topages/speedHandle.php Quote: Kwixdraw Sounds great Alan. Next time you get ready to do all those panels, get yourself a 1/4 in drive speed handle, it will be much less strenuous on your wrists. They work pretty well at getting the stubborn screws out as well without having the driver jump out of the screw head and dance all over your painted surfaces with the power tool. Get a pack of drywall screw bits too. Get the kind with the ribs on the driving flats and that will also give them some extra grip in the screw head. Quote
FlyingAggie Posted April 11, 2011 Author Report Posted April 11, 2011 Randy, I used Gregg at Mountain Air Aviation. For a Mooney he charges a flat fee of about $1,600. If the owner assists, he deducts the hours it would take him to do the tasks done by the owner. I haven't received the bill yet. Alan Quote: RJBrown Alan I like your idea for switching between owner assisted and MSC. Who did you use and what cost were there? Randy Quote
FlyingAggie Posted April 12, 2011 Author Report Posted April 12, 2011 It felt really good to pick up my logbooks today and see I am good for another year. Howver, folks at work had a hard time understanding why anyone would spend a vacation doing what I did. Quote: aerobat95 Sounds good. I plan on taking some time off in Nov to help with the annual. I am excited about learning my plane better as well. Quote
jetdriven Posted April 12, 2011 Report Posted April 12, 2011 funy but i scanned the logs and gave a copy to the shop. the real logs never leave the safe, i put stickers in them. Quote
Kwixdraw Posted April 12, 2011 Report Posted April 12, 2011 Quote: FlyingAggie Yep, that will do the job. I like the bigger knob on that one, it allows you to get some weight behind it when you need to. Some have little cylinder shaped knobs and depend on your grip for all the push on them. Quote
FlyingAggie Posted April 13, 2011 Author Report Posted April 13, 2011 Flew my Mooney 1.5 hours tonight for a post annual shake down flight and all was good. It is also good to have the annual behind me, but feel the week that I invested in assisting was well worth it. I did ask a CFI buddy to fly along with me on this first flight, so one of us could fly while the other check that everything was working. Boy I love my Mooney. Quote
CoachTom Posted April 13, 2011 Report Posted April 13, 2011 Alan, so glad to hear you are settling into that aircraft!!! wear it well! TMcD Quote
FlyingAggie Posted April 13, 2011 Author Report Posted April 13, 2011 Quote: CoachTom Alan, so glad to hear you are settling into that aircraft!!! wear it well! TMcD Quote
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