On May 9, 10:18 am, wrote:
Robert M. Gary wrote:

[Mooneys] There is an AD that requires all flight control connections
and gear sections to be lubed every 100 hours. There is really no way
to do this without totally taking the plane apart (figure 10 hours of
your time to remove all the panels unless you have a one-piece belly).

I've worked with (stationary) machines that had several places that
needed lubrication. Many of them had a couple of panels with several
grease fittings on them, and metal tubing to connect the fittings to
the bearings. That way you didn't have to crawl all over the machine
to lube it - you just worked your way down the fittings, giving N
squirts per fitting.

Would it even be possible to install something like that on a plane?
Or are the places that need lubrication such that it would be difficult
to connect the lines to them? For instance, most bushings and bearings
would be fairly easy to connect a line to. But it would be pretty hard
to connect a line to something like a clevis on the end of a cable.
Even if you couldn't connect to everything, connecting to enough stuff
that you wouldn't have to remove as many panels might be a win.

Matt Roberds

Many Mooney owners elect to remove all the individual panels on the
belly and replace it with a single piece of metal or plastic. There
are several STC providers of such "one piece belly"s. I believe some
of them even have 1/4 turn screws. However, from the Mooney's I've
owned and taught in, most have not made that change.

-Robert