60 MAY 2020 ÇPlane&Pilot
WORDS ALOFT
A
sk most any pilots how the rubber is holding up on
their plane, and you’ll most likely get a quick reply
along the lines of, “Oh, the nose tire is good; one of
the mains is a little worn. Overall, the rubber is okay.”
As a new caretaker of an old airplane, I did have to
replace a tire before our big trip west, but I also quickly
realized there was a lot more rubber on the plane than I
expected, and almost every bit of it needed attention...
if not immediate replacement.AN OLD CONCEPT, BUT STILL IN USE
Many warbirds and many postwar aircraft had rubber
shock mounts holding the instrument panel, or at least
some portion of it, in place. Gyro instruments were
often so mounted; delicate electronics also seemed to
last longer when isolated from airframe vibrations. Our
Mooney’s pilot-side instrument panel
rode on a handful of rubber isolation
mounts—or at least it did originally.
The panel had visibly sagged a bit
from where it should have ridden, but
it wasn’t sagging on the mounts; it was
past that point. Instead, almost every
mount had snapped—distorted with
weight and embrittled with time—and
only two out of the eight had any con-
nection remaining from the panel to the supporting
structure. The other mounts had broken completely
and were purely in place to show me where the new
ones should go. Gravity, a tight fit and the umbilical
cords to the instruments had held everything in place
for untold years. Nearly all modern aircraft have instru-
ment panels that are solidly mounted to the airframe,
and many Mooneys have been converted to a rigid setup
as well. But it was easier just to use what came from
the factory than to modify my setup at the time, so I
tracked down some Lord mounts—yes, Lord makes
those kinds of mounts, too—and replaced them all one
afternoon. What surprised me was that the panel was
actually resting on the row of circuit breakers. There’sno telling if we were near electrical disaster or whether
it was a non-event, but the idea of things rubbing the
backside of circuit breakers certainly got my attention.ENGINE ISOLATORS
For as long as I can recall, certainly for several years
before taking ownership of this bird, the spinner sat
low within the nose bowl. And because the cowl is
modified with the LASAR enclosure that cinches up
the lower lip of the vintage Mooney “guppy mouth”
inlet, the spinner doesn’t sit centered top to bottom,
even with new mounts.
Parked on the ramp in Kanab, Utah, I had a dummy’s
blueprint to study—an identical Mooney—and I asked
the owner which cowl modification he had. It looked so
dissimilar that I imagined it had to be something com-
pletely different. When he responded,
“It’s the LASAR mod, same as yours,”
I did a double-take. The positioning of
his spinner was so distinct from mine
that the difference in aesthetic was that
drastic. It was time for new rubber there,
too. On one of the last legs of our trip out
west, I had the bird trimmed perfectly,
and at the top of descent, I just slowly
closed the throttle, expecting the nose to
drop so as to hold the same airspeed. Instead, I was met
by the nose climbing a few degrees—if the thrust angle
was down enough to have that effect, it was probably
shaving a few knots off the cruise speed. I ordered a
set of Barry mounts to replace the aging rubber, and
then I did what I do best—I parked the plane when we
got home and procrastinated.
My former roommate Nick wound up with an Atlanta
overnight, and I snagged him that morning for a work
day at the hangar. I picked him up, and, with a rented
engine hoist in the back of my Subaru, we ran out to
the hangar for a work day. He’s one of my mechanically
inclined friends, and he didn’t complain when I told
him the plan.Where The Rubber
Meets The Load
Sometimes, it’s not the obvious things that need attention.
By Jeremy King❯ ❯ “Let me say this:
A friend who will help
change the engine
mounts on a Mooney
is the sort you should
keep on your holiday
card list.”JE
RE
MYKING