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The biggest risk going forward in terms of difficult factory-only parts IMO would be control surface skins to fix hangar rash and hail. They are stamped out using the factory dies and presses. Less often would be wing or fuselage skins. Fiberglass (or carbon) cowls can be fixed in the field with a skilled technician, although I believe the factory missed a tremendous opportunity to sell upgraded composite cowls to J & K owners, and perhaps M/R/S owners as well using their molds. Beyond that are the unobtanium ducts and landing gear bits that they don't make themselves anyway. Eventually I would expect a new vendor to reverse-engineer critical parts and sell them to us without the legacy burden of the Mooney company. It will be sad, but the market will react. (See the recent V-tail skin saga in the Beech world) I have said before that the current value in the Kerrville operation/factory space is the Production Certificate that enables serial production of airworthy parts, which includes the policies & procedures and Quality system. Doubly-so in a low-cost & biz-friendly area of the US! If I were running Mooney, I would have been aggressively pursuing 3rd party fabrication contracts for aerospace production and even adding capability that hasn't been used for Mooney production if it made sense to make money. It is far easier to add capability under an existing PC than it is to start from scratch. UAVs have been in production for long enough that I wish Mooney would've approached those major manufacturers to get on board, and the upcoming eVTOL/UAM/etc markets are going nuts with all kinds of ridiculous investments and Mooney seems to have missed that wave as well. IMO, manufacturing parts & assemblies for either or both of those markets could have kept the factory humming and the lights on, and that would in turn have allowed the occasional run of Mooney parts now and then when needed. If I were really dreaming, perhaps some of those 3rd party lines could justify the expense of automated production machines that could eventually be ported over to Mooney production, but that is a very, very long shot. It will never make sense to automate any of the M20 line just on the demand of that (mostly obsolete) airframe, nor will it make sense to off-shore production either. I don't see how a very under-capitalized LASAR can effectively do anything with the factory in Kerrville when they cannot even get their own STC/PMA parts back in production after moving to Oregon. Collecting a little bit of money from the fleet in advance is unlikely to move the needle much on that front, I'm afraid.

No different than the issues faced by owners of Grumman, Commander, Bellanca, Aerostar, etc. I am sure they get grounded from time to time. The former companies/legal entities that produced aircraft were dissolved and assets were sold to form "parts only" companies without the baggage of the former companies. Home - Bellanca Aircraft, Inc. Aerostar Aircraft I General Aviation – Affordable Aircraft Superiority HOME | commanderaircraft FletchAir - Parts for American, American General, Grumman-American, Gulfstream-American

You’ll have to call ram. It’s in their catalog (link below). Says replaced cont 653332. Here’s a screenshot of that page. https://user-85914626177.cld.bz/RAM-Parts-Catalog-Online/98/#zoom=true

https://www.flysparkchasers.com I believe this is correct link without the typo

Interesting discussion. Which parts on my Ovation would likely become Unobtanium and ground the aircraft? Which parts couldn't be repaired? Obviously, I'm thinking of parts such as cowls etc but wondering where the greatest exposure is on a more modern Mooney? I had to buy salvage wing sight fuel gauges from Germany to replace mine (at a ridiculous cost) but that wouldn't AOG the plane if I couldn't find one right away.

Picking mine up on Monday… -Don

Picking up Monday!

Oh swell. Where have I been? I missed a memo. I didn't realize the majority owner of Cirrus was now Chinese (AVIC). For the record, I don't care how successful they become. I now have zero interest in ever owning a Cirrus. We have to find a way to stop allowing this to happen.

There are a lot of airplanes flying today that have no lifeline to their original manufacturer, but they have insurance and parts and healthy resale value. It’s scary to think of the factory being gone, but that’s a reality of GA aircraft ownership since the turn of the century. Cessna and Piper made zero SEP aircraft for ten years. Cessna is now Textron and Piper is owned by a Bahraini organization. Cirrus was seriously on the ropes for a long time and is now largely owned by a Chinese org. And that’s to say nothing of the many smaller manufacturers that have come and gone but still have lots of flying examples on FlightAware every day. Don’t stress. Mooney will be around in one way or another far longer than any of us will be

I know you are a recent Mooney owner. I know history is not popular with most but there are so many just plain wrong assumptions. Some of us have owned our Mooney long enough to see Mooney go through two (2) bankruptcies and a five (5) year period where the factory was completely shut down - no parts, zero, zilch, nada. You think they are going to “modernize the Kerrville facility with equipment that will hopefully contain parts costs”? AGAIN? AGAIN? The volumes are tiny. Read the Parts Rumor “ topic

Without a debt or equity position, I don't see the value here. I'm not prepared to give money to Lasar to bail out the old Mooney owners who failed, newsletters and parts priority not withstanding. Better to let the thing liquidate in Chapter 7 and Lasar form a new company to buy the liquidation. It could be purchased cheaper than bailing out Jonny Pollack, his minions and the Chinese. The reality is, even if all the long body owners bought in, I don't see even 1 million being raised and to give it to the previous owners? No. They should all lose their equity, be removed entirely and a new owner use this capital to start anew. Give me that scenario and I will invest. I will say this right now. Do this plan and I will stroke a check for 10K tomorrow for shares. I will not pay a cent to buy out the old shareholders. This does not have to be complicated.

The fairing on the bottom of my F step was mangled when I bought the airplane and poorly attached with very small screws (if I remember correctly). It's long since been removed. Without that fairing, I assume you loose some of the benefit of the retracting step. Any tips for fabricating and attaching a new one; seems like it'll get stepped on and mangled again; not the best design to begin with. Do most people just leave them off? My vac step still works but I've considered the electric step.

I would suggest people would part with dollars quicker with an owners owned factory. Most of the value of the factory is in the dies and jigs and engineering drawings. Secondary value is in the MSC network. Probably want to "sell" value in those two items. The value of an owner being able to use the factory to produce parts would be huge. Bend a control surface, just pop over to the factory and stamp one out. Ownership loyalty program could also include Annual Inspection at the factory. During the Annual Inspection Major Components could be exchanged for new. This would build a demand for parts and an inventory. Not a McKinsey Consultant.

The 1 KT difference for Category A was only a minor detail but I guess it's more important that they match the FAA than that the match FF

I have the electric step conversion and like it quite a bit. The retractable step down will cost you 2-3 knots. If you faired it I’m sure the penalty would decrease but there will still be a penalty. Personally I would do the electric conversion. You’re doing work and spending money either way, why not do it “right” and get the best possible results.

... and where the tube exits the fuselage.

Also what kind of USB was installed. A 5 AMP breaker for some of the USB might be a bit low rated. Also is your plane 24volts or 12volts.

BTW - Did you notice that $250/month does not get you any priority for parts. You put your order in at the back of the line just like everyone else. If you look at the plans/tiers, only the Gold $500/month gives you “Prioriy Parts Allocation”

There is no voltage between the transducer to gauge. That is all variable resistance ground. did the breaker just start popping? ie has it ever worked properly? If so then something has changed. The wires to look at are between the CB and the USB charger and the gauge. Also check the CB panel. Wire can be loose there and things can fall into CBs. Your back will thank you for using the phone to do the inspection.

Why isn't the A&P diagnosing this for you? You paid him to install the gauge, it was done improperly. He should be making it right.

A bit of a tangent, but I'd like to understand more about the salvage business. Seems like it would be great to have a coordinated salvage program with a public electronic data base that specializes in Mooney. There's a point where it might make financial sense to take flying aircraft off line to support the salvage pipeline if it were organized somehow. Example. If you take a flying but run out F, what's it worth in salvage parts. Maybe those parts need to be twice as expensive to make it viable?

You are right - context is missing. Where in all its transparency has LASAR announced that it is trying to acquire Mooney International in its entirety? Maybe I have been asleep. Please point me to the discussion/statement. And please elaborate on how LASAR is covering the payroll of Mooney International which is a separate legal entity - cash infusion by prepayment of future parts orders? A loan?

Ahh come on…..you will miss out on those “backstage moments at Oshkosh and Sun’N-Fun”. And “Mooney swag”. After all, that is what keeps your plane in the air!….Right?!

With all the "marketing " and hoopla and lack of explanation and transparency, this seems very similar to a pump and dump.