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OK, $55k + $7k = $62k. Is this plane worth $62K to you? I may be totally out of touch with the current market, but I think the shock discs have already been factored into the price. Now it may be that all the awesome goodies this plane has are not important to you and all you really want is a good, clean stock M20C, in which case pass on this one and keep looking. As someone who has actually paid for upgrades, I think this plane is one heck of a deal and the turbo makes it pretty unique! Don't be surprised if the seller doesn't budge on the price. I wouldn't. As to the airworthiness of the discs, I'm sure they're just fine to fly on. My plane has the original discs on the nose from 1966 and they pass inspection every year. They're rubber doughnuts and they're dirt simple. If one of them were to suddenly rupture into tiny pieces (very unlikely as they will fail more gradual with visible cracking first), what's the worst that could happen? One wing, or the nose is lower to the ground. Kind of like a Cherokee with a flat Oleo strut. Not the end of the world. If it were me and the only thing the pre buy turns up is these old discs, I'd pay the man and keep flying the plane as is. I would then plan on doing the disc upgrade at the next annual. Maybe start with the nose gear first as it is probably the most critical due to prop clearence issues. Then maybe next annual, plan for the mains.

I shot this video from my Acclaim Type S on a recent flight from Denver Centennial (KAPA) to Albuquerque Sunport (KABQ). I used an NFlightcam+ with a USB power adapter plugged into the plane's accessory socket. I have a love-hate relationship with the NFlightcam. The video quality is great, the camera mounting options are vast... but it's just not reliable on long flights. I've never been able to get more than about 2 hours of video before something goes wrong. In this case, the final third of the video was lost to file corruption in the camera. I tried several recovery programs, to no avail. This video would have been great if I could have captured the flight start to finish, but like a few flights before this one, it just didn't happen. I have a Canon Powershot S95 that takes terrific video, so I'm going to find a way to rig it up in my plane to capture long flights.

Really?? Look at all this plane has. Shock discs, really? I don't get it. What else is wrong with the plane? This is the most fully loaded C I think I've seen here in a long time, and you're going to let it go over just shock discs?? Somebody help me here, has the market for used planes gone this far to hell that people can be this picky about shock discs when there is at least $60-80k worth of upgrades on this plane? Look at it this way, for $55k, you're getting a collection of great Mooney mods with a free airplane thrown in.

We have three sons in a row and then the princess. Started with a Tomahawk for $8,300. Bought an '83 Beech Sierra with six seat option that worked well for us for many years, then got the J. We live on the island of Martha's Vineyard so the shortest trip to our off-island car saved the boat ride and all kinds of time. Years ago I flew with my three sons from the Vineyard to San Diego and back and they still talk about it. College kids made it to the island in the airplane and two different girls flew here first to meet us and married our two oldest sons. We don't own any of the big boats in the harbor and I don't drive a Porsche, but life has been very good. Been married 35 years and I think if I wanted a different wife the plane would be the first thing to go!