Ovation—First Flight After Refurbish Project

[William Munney]

The Story:

I bought an Ovation last October that needed some attention.   My son and I are going to travel in it and he is building time for a flying career.   It had a new and very nice glass panel in it but everything else was well used.  The airplane flew about 35 hours in the last 5 years.  The paint was very oxidized, carpet old and dirty worn through and the seats looked like a frat house couch.  Both wings had fuel leaks.  It had been well maintained but it was tired when i bought it.  I used the Winter months from then until now to refurbish the airplane.  I tackled a bit more than i wanted to but my thinking was to fix everything now and fly it versus fly-it-and-fix-it etc…..

So, this is what we did:

Firewall forward is all new.  Every line, hose and connector.  Factory new IO-550.  New engine isolators. Stripped and painted the engine baffles.  

Prop Governor Overhaul

Prop Overhaul to include new internals.

Compete external light conversion to Whelen (WATT) LED’s.  New wingtip and taxi/ landing light lenses.

New tires and tubes.

New batteries (2)

New O2 bottle and fill.

Polished the spinner and took the dents out.

18 hours with a buffer and ceramic wax to bring the paint back to life.

Complete fuel tank seal scheduled for this year.

New Interior.  (I started with the just carpet but I had to take the seat out to take out the carpet………and one thing led to another and i just took everything out).  I also removed most of the old adhesive, cleaned every inch of the inside and added insulation and sound proofing to the interior.

 

FIRST FLIGHT:

Accomplished the first flight and first two hours of engine break-in yesterday.  The new engine and prop are powerful and smooth.  Everything else mostly worked as advertised.  After the first hour I landed.  We took the cowlings off to inspect.  No leaks.  We adjusted the prop governor for full take-off thrust and the gear warning horn on the throttle cable.  We flew another hour and I got two more landings in since it had been awhile in GA for me.  I would have added 4 more hours to the break-in except i was limited to lower altitudes and high power settings for the break-in and it was VERY windy.  TAS was 176-178 on 24/24 at 3500” so I am guessing 180-185 higher.  It was a rough ride.

I have a fuel pump that needs overhauled so that is going out.  I also have a small box in the avionics bay that controls glareshield and panel lighting that needs overhauled.  Maybe one EGT probe as well.  Otherwise, for the amount of work we did on the airplane……everything went well.

 

 

 

 

Edited April 13, 2024 by William Munney

[katzhome]

Beautiful!  I'm jealous!

[LANCECASPER]

  On 4/13/2024 at 9:19 PM, William Munney said:

The Story:

I bought an Ovation last October that needed some attention.   My son and I are going to travel in it and he is building time for a flying career.   It had a new and very nice glass panel in it but everything else was well used.  The airplane flew about 35 hours in the last 5 years.  The paint was very oxidized, carpet old and dirty worn through and the seats looked like a frat house couch.  Both wings had fuel leaks.  It had been well maintained but it was tired when i bought it.  I used the Winter months from then until now to refurbish the airplane.  I tackled a bit more than i wanted to but my thinking was to fix everything now and fly it versus fly-it-and-fix-it etc…..

So, this is what we did:

Firewall forward is all new.  Every line, hose and connector.  Factory new IO-550.  New engine isolators. Stripped and painted the engine baffles.  

Prop Governor Overhaul

Prop Overhaul to include new internals.

Compete external light conversion to Whelen (WATT) LED’s.  New wingtip and taxi/ landing light lenses.

New tires and tubes.

New batteries (2)

New O2 bottle and fill.

Polished the spinner and took the dents out.

18 hours with a buffer and ceramic wax to bring the paint back to life.

Complete fuel tank seal scheduled for this year.

New Interior.  (I started with the just carpet but I had to take the seat out to take out the carpet………and one thing led to another and i just took everything out).  I also removed most of the old adhesive, cleaned every inch of the inside and added insulation and sound proofing to the interior.

 

FIRST FLIGHT:

Accomplished the first flight and first two hours of engine break-in yesterday.  The new engine and prop are powerful and smooth.  Everything else mostly worked as advertised.  After the first hour I landed.  We took the cowlings off to inspect.  No leaks.  We adjusted the prop governor for full take-off thrust and the gear warning horn on the throttle cable.  We flew another hour and I got two more landings in since it had been awhile in GA for me.  I would have added 4 more hours to the break-in except i was limited to lower altitudes and high power settings for the break-in and it was VERY windy.  TAS was 176-178 on 24/24 at 3500” so I am guessing 180-185 higher.  It was a rough ride.

I have a fuel pump that needs overhauled so that is going out.  I also have a small box in the avionics bay that controls glareshield and panel lighting that needs overhauled.  Maybe one EGT probe as well.  Otherwise, for the amount of work we did on the airplane……everything went well.

 

 

 

 

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Looks great!

One more easy thing to make the appearance pop is to mask off the wing walk area (and windows on that side) and take some flat back spray paint and hit the wing walk. It turns out looking brand new when you’re done.

[Hank]

  On 4/13/2024 at 11:32 PM, LANCECASPER said:

Looks great!

One more easy thing to make the appearance pop is to mask off the wing walk area (and windows on that side) and take some flat back spray paint and hit the wing walk. It turns out looking brand new when you’re done.

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If you use wingwalk compound from Spruce, the good looks last, and no overspray.

[N201MKTurbo]

  On 4/14/2024 at 12:05 AM, Hank said:

If you use wingwalk compound from Spruce, the good looks last, and no overstay.

Expand  

A friend of mine redid his wing walk with bed liner from the AutoZone. It looks exactly like that stuff. It is about $15 a can.

[William Munney]

  On 4/13/2024 at 11:32 PM, LANCECASPER said:

Looks great!

One more easy thing to make the appearance pop is to mask off the wing walk area (and windows on that side) and take some flat back spray paint and hit the wing walk. It turns out looking brand new when you’re done.

Expand  

Lance.  thanks for posting.  That’s on the list!  It was actually much better looking before the buffer threw paint and wax all over it.  Live and learn.

[William Munney]

  On 4/13/2024 at 11:30 PM, katzhome said:

Beautiful!  I'm jealous!

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thank you.  It will eventually need paint but it’s much better now than it was.  That was easily 18 hours with a buffer and a ceramic coating.

Edited April 14, 2024 by William Munney

[William Munney]

  On 4/14/2024 at 12:39 AM, N201MKTurbo said:

A friend of mine redid his wing walk with bed liner from the AutoZone. It looks exactly like that stuff. It is about $15 a can.

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Great suggestion.

[William Munney]

  On 4/14/2024 at 12:05 AM, Hank said:

If you use wingwalk compound from Spruce, the good looks last, and no overstay.

Expand  

Great suggestion.  that looks great!  I have not been able to tackle that so far because I have been in and out of the airplane at least 100 times.  And then i jumped in and flew it.

Edited April 14, 2024 by William Munney

[N201MKTurbo]

https://www.amazon.com/Herculiner-Truck-Liner-Black-Quart/dp/B0002TDUXS/ref=asc_df_B0002TDUXS/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312158556709&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=703424226598373913&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9030088&hvtargid=pla-436193026953&mcid=0f889c48da1e3e5e9194625b263f8e9a&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIgZ-pmr7AhQMVmiCtBh0LVgoiEAQYASABEgI_s_D_BwE&th=1
 

I was a little off on the price, but still less than half of the price.

[LANCECASPER]

I've done it both ways. On the Mooneys made in the 90's and on, the stick-on 3M material doesn't look good with the brush-on applied over it. It may look better than it did before, but you can definitely tell someone has re-done it. If it's a Mooney made before that, where the wingwalk brush-on stuff was used originally, then maybe. When I tried it on my first Mooney and I was finished it looked a little bit like a pretty decent roof repair. I'm not looking for that look or a truck bed look, although that stuff did work great on my Toyota Tundra. The look I'm going for with the flat black spray paint is un-touched OEM new, and it looks that way when I'm done. The first one I did was very faded and I didn't have a lot of faith that this would work. I did it over the weekend and when my IA saw it on Monday he said that was the best job of replacing the wingwalk that he had ever seen. When I told him I didn't replace it, I had a hard time convincing him.  I wish I would have thought of doing it this way but I picked up the idea on Mooneyspace over 10 years ago after doing it the other way before. 

Most of the time it's not necessary, but If part of the stick-on material is actually damaged and you ever have to just replace the 3M anti-slip stick-on material Mooney used in the 90's and on, use a hair dryer or carefully use a heat gun, and then peel off about an inch or two at a time with some encouragement. Then some 3M Adhesive Remover to get the residue off - they make two versions, I like the citrus version for this use.

Koffler sells both the 3M product originally used and a product sold under their name, which I like better, it stays looking new longer. (https://kofflersales.com/product/anti-slip-abrasive-tape). I've done it on different long body Mooneys that I've owned and made a template out of poster board the first time so I could do it easily if I ever had to do it again. When you re-apply the new material make sure you have another set of hands since the material is basically ruined if you let the adhesive side stick to another area of adhesive side. 

[Stubby]

Very nicely done. I saw this Mooney in person a couple times and I was really hoping someone would give it the love it needed. I'm glad to see someone did.

[hubcap]

 Very nice William! 
 

Its great to see that plane getting some love!

[William Munney]

  On 4/23/2024 at 7:30 PM, Stubby said:

Very nicely done. I saw this Mooney in person a couple times and I was really hoping someone would give it the love it needed. I'm glad to see someone did.

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Thank you.  The basic foundational things and panel were good.  We looked hard at everything else.  It’s going to Weep-no-more in December.

[William Munney]

  On 4/23/2024 at 8:21 PM, hubcap said:

 Very nice William! 
 

Its great to see that plane getting some love!

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thank you.  It’s honestly more than i wanted to do but it ends up being like a kitchen project at home.  Once you do that, the rest of the house needs done too.

[MooneyMitch]

The Ovation…a great airplane!  Enjoy yours, it’s looking terrific !!