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Better than New: The Refurbishment of N205J Mooney N205J is a 1987 M20J model “205 Special Edition (SE)”. It differed from other M20J “201’s” at the time in that it incorporated a few changes: 1. Fully enclosed gear doors 2. Rounded window lines 3. 28 volt electrical system 4. Electric cowl flaps with infinite adjustment 5. Upturned wingtips with forward facing recognition lights and aft facing position lights 6. Gear extension speed increased from 132 to 140 knots The 205 SE came right as the general aviation market was in decline, so only seventy-seven 205 SE’s were built spanning two years. N205J was previously owned by a business associate of ours. N205J was hangar kept most of its life. It had original factory avionics, paint, and interior and was a low time aircraft with only 1885.5 hours. It had Precise Flight Speed Brakes installed. So why did we put so much money into a 1987 Mooney? I am one of the owners of SureFlight Aircraft Completions which specializes in paint, interiors, and avionics. We made it a “project plane”. We worked on it when we had any gaps in our schedule. Now that it is complete, we have a demonstration plane to show and fly customers that showcases SureFlight’s capabilities. It’s an awesome Mooney to fly! First stop was Henry Weber Mooney Authorized Service Center at neighboring KLNS to perform the pre-purchase inspection. The important thing for us was to have a good airframe and engine to start with. We took care of some maintenance on the airframe, overhauled the prop, bought a new governor, put new gear shock discs in, etc. We had them complete an annual at the time as well. We had the engine sent out to Columbia Aircraft Services for an Inspect and Replace as Needed (“IRAN”) which included new Camshaft, Lifters, Bearings and Rings. While it was there, we had the engine converted from the Lycoming IO-360-A3B6D to the IO-360-A3B6 specification to eliminate the D3000 dual magnetos in a single housing, driven by a single driveshaft. The engine now has two separate fully independent Bendix magnetos. We had the cylinders removed to be sent out for nickel plating. After the engine came back, Henry Weber reinstalled it with new Lord mounts and made sure that the engine and engine cowlings were properly aligned. We added GAMIjectors calibrated fuel injection nozzles and then went to work on the full refurbishment of N205J. Avionics: The aircraft was equipped with a factory original avionics suite from 1986, except the addition of an Apollo GPS. It all came out. All the wiring was removed and replaced. A plastic panel is created to make sure everything looks correct before fabricating the metal: Yokes are painted black and a metal panel is installed: And then filled with equipment: · Fully Electronic panel; Eliminated Vacuum System · Garmin G500 flight deck with Synthetic Vision · Garmin GAD 43e autopilot interface for G500 · Garmin GTN 750 GPS/Nav/Comm Navigator with Telligence Voice Control · Garmin GMA 35c Bluetooth enabled remote audio panel · Garmin GTX 345R ADS-B In/Out remote transponder · Garmin GNC 255 Nav/Comm · King KFC-150 autopilot (the only thing that remained from the old panel) · L3 Avionics ESI-500 Standby Instrument with: Altitude, Attitude, Slip/skid, Vertical speed, Aircraft track, Synthetic Vision option, Navigation option. Magnetic heading option. · JP Instruments EDM 930 Primary computer for RPM, Manifold Pressure, Oil, Fuel, Battery, Engine data. · AirGizmos iPad Mini 4 panel dock · Nimbus Aviation Electroluminescent Circuit Breaker overlay. · ACK E-04 GPS Emergency Locator Transmitter · Guardian Aero 451-101 Panel Mount CO Detector · MidContinent MD93 Digital Clock/USB Charger. Paint: We painted a new King Air 300 for the Mayo Clinic earlier in 2016. We loved their colors. We knew that these would be the colors we would eventually use on the Mooney. Stripping: Everything that is not stripped is covered in foil. Windows are removed to be replaced with Great Lakes Aero Windows SC (Solar Control) Grey installed with Extra thick .250” windshield. All flight controls and gear doors are removed to be painted separately, airframe is etched and alodined in preparation for epoxy primer. After primer, an Axalta White Pearl base color is applied. N205J is painted in all Pearlescent paint which requires a clearcoat after each color is applied. This is one of the reasons pearlescent paints cost more. Paint Scheme Layout: Axalta Cumulous Grey Pearl is applied to undercarriage, wheel wells, airframe, and then clearcoated. Axalta Sable Pearl accent stripes are applied and then clearcoated. Final Prep for the Axalta Dark Blue Pearl: After all the pearlescent colors are applied and clearcoated, exterior placarding is applied, and the entire aircraft is re-sanded for a final overall layer of clearcoat. This gives the airplane a wet, glossy look and deepens the color, smooths edge lines between accent stripes, seals the placards, and it also provides a more durable and cleanable finish because you do not cut into the color when polishing. Flight controls are hung and painted separately: Cowlings and access panels are installed with new stainless steel hardware. Flight controls are balanced and then reinstalled. Interior: Unfortunately, we forgot to get some good “before pics” of the interior. It had blue velour seats with aged and yellowing plastic panels. Old seat covers off. Repaint the seat frames. New covers sewn for the new foam buildups. Upholstered seats with custom Mooney Logo headrests. We repaired cracks in several of the plastics, and repainted with a textured paint to hide any old imperfections. We decided against covering the panels in ultra-leather to save weight. We fabricated a hatch behind the hole for the windshield bar that holds the compass for easy R&R of the glare shield. Painted a flat textured black. Looks like new. The interior goes back together with repainted plastics, new carpet, new door seals, and new upholstered seats. After it was all complete, we put the aircraft on scales. The new weight and balance was 17 lbs lighter than before. We also performed the gross weight increase to increase the gross weight from 2,740 to 2,900 giving the aircraft a new useful load of 988 lbs. Mooney N205J – Ready for Takeoff! Update 6/21/2018 Since Garmin came out with the G500 TXi we updated the Mooney by removing the Garmin G500 and JPI EDM 930 and replacing it with the G500 TXi with integrated Engine Information System (EIS). Here are photos of the conversion: EDIT for 2021: L-3 ESI 500 removed and replaced with Garmin GI 275 backup instrument and a Garmin GFC 500 Autopilot.

Has anyone looked forward to flying the airlines in the last 15 years. I get mad every time I am forced to fly commercial.

Ditto here. I wouldn't keep a vacuum system if you're planning a G500 install. Spend a little bit more and consider an ESI-500 Genesis from L-3 Avionics...you won't regret it. This installation removed both my vacuum systems; so with two alternators, two batteries, and a battery backup in the ESI-500, its far more reliable than any vacuum system, so take the opportunity and get rid of your vacuum system while you can. Steve

If you want you can even fly your mooney naked and carry guns and large bottles of shampoo and shaving cream in your luggage. And maybe a nice iguana in a cage. Ah the freedoms of ga.

Finally got to fly "Lulu" to MDW for work. I have a story to tell- thanks again, Matt for the help! Thought y'all would like my GS.. 40kt tailwind at 6k helped

After owning a Cherokee Challenger-180 for around 18 months my wife and I was on a typical Sunday breakfast run to LDM from MKG plugging away at a blistering 115 knots. About half way there flight following called out that I was being overtaken by Cirrus traffic 1 mile off my 8 o'clock same altitude. My wife said to me why is that plane passing us, we were first!! I explained it's a Cirrus and it's much faster than us, so much like driving on a highway airplanes can pass too. She quickly replied “well that's just not right” so after about 30 seconds of a stewing silence from her I hear “can't you do something about that!” Four months later after my second flight ever in a Mooney I had my M20J. I've owned shares of a C310 a 250-Comanche and did IFR/Commercial training in Turbo Arrows C172 XP and Piper Seminoles. The Mooney M20J purchase was based on performance, range, fuel burn, cost to own, and not getting overtaken anymore. Plus just a damn good looking piece of engineering.

Hi - quick update to the group: Yesterday I closed on a M20R 3GX - N10469, belonging to one of us on this forum. There are too many of you here to thank with an individual call-out - it will be just a listing of everyone who helped me on this forum or through a personal message. It all stated with one of you flying all the way to KHFD to take me up on an introductory flight in an Ovation and he allowed me to handle the controls - that kind of nailed it for me, that I was going in for an Ovation. Then all the counsel and phenomenal guidance. One of you offered to transport me, one of you has spent countless upon countless hours upon count days, upon countless weeks.... (did I say countless) working with me on the first, then the second and now the "third time's a charm" deal that I closed yesterday. For the sake of anonymity I wont go into specifics, but needless to say, without this hand-holding, I would have never closed. - thank you and I value you (two) as a friend! And then the seller - what a gentleman! Struck a deal verbally, flew the plane down to my location the next day, gave me the keys, trudged to a FedEx location from "small town USA" shipped the documents and walked away. What a joy to do business with people like this! Oh yes - Lynn Mace at AGL Aviation at KMRN is absolutely phenomenal. Worked with me patiently every step of the way, tolerated and actually supported my inquisitiveness, honest, above-board and thoroughly and supremely competent. Meticulous and knows his stuff inside and out. Probably most importantly, he, his wife Tamara, and his team know Mooneys and the team are just wonderful southern folk. Guys, if you need a MSC among the best, doesn't get better than Lynn. Tell him I sent you and you just might get some extra "lovin"... There is also a great Avionics shop at Foothills airport (Robbie) who is also very competent and Ken at Triad is a great prop shop. I begin my transition training with one on the forum on Tuesday. I have developed deep friendships with some on the forum and fully expect to expand that group of friends to many more. Guys and gals - I will forever be indebted to you. - All my best, Coolshot.

Old panel and the new panel with my aspen and jpi 830! Can't wait!

Lopresti STC comes with some fancy new ones, going super sonic baby!

Now for the Plug 'N Play PMA450A

For even more fun I spun around and around in my office chair holding my ipad while watching the video. I'm pretty sure he (I) was experiencing a "flat spin" there for a while! I was about ready to pull the chute until I remembered I was in a Mooney. Isn't new technology fun. Cool stuff indeed!

Post oil change flight seeing. Flew west to most northwestern point in continental US (Tatoosh Island) then returned thru Sol Duc Valley, over Lake Crescent in Olympic National Park. Port Angeles Harbor going & returning. KCLM is in foreground of last photo. One hour flight time.

I just want to point out that the reason behind some of the discouragement you might hear. We all love aviation, flying, and even using our airplanes to go places. However, we also have the experience to realize when things don't quite work out. I don't think anyone wants to discourage someone from getting into general aviation or getting a Mooney for that matter. But I think they want to offer you an honest view rather than the grand view you might have thought or would come to from an advertisement. I think people are genuinely concerned for your safety (and the safety reputation of the GA community) and wish you success within those constraints. External pressures (get-there-itis) have been one of the leading causes of aviation fatalities. Inexperience, exceedingly quick progression through ratings, and getting too much airplane relative to experience are also a big part. Nobody here wants to see a pilot get hurt or even just a plane get bent up. Another delusion that prospective business pilots have about the utility of the airplane (besides ones mentioned) is that the plane will be used strictly for travel. Inevitably, a lot of flying ends up being done for the purpose of maintaining the airplane and maintaining the pilot's skills. I find myself flying for oil changes, maintenance, upgrades, repairs on a fairly regular basis. Some are lucky to have all of this available on their field while others have to or choose to go elsewhere for the services. The plane ends up spending a fair bit of time down for annuals, upgrades, and repairs. Then there's the time spent practicing. Even if you fly regularly, maintaining currency in different conditions and for instruments takes a lot of practice as well. You've gotta love flying the plane for the sake of flying the plane. Then all this supporting activity is fun and justified. If doing it strictly for work, that's a lot of additional time and expense in order to safely accomplish the utility.

So total with part purchase was $3045.00 (Garmin)+$1499.00=$4544.00 less $500 rebate total for ADSB compliance=$4044.00 we now have a new solid state transponder and new encoder replacing units that are decades old. That is a good thing. Glad I am now able to get full traffic picture. The Narco and encoder w/ harness going up on EBay this weekend. Should have a little value.

Flying lower these past two winters in the Ovation I've gotten a lot of actual IMC and a lot of bumpy rides. Safe enough if uncomfortable and the TKS knocks the ice off just fine, but it sure is smoother a couple of miles higher up. I've left a number of Bose-shaped dents in the headliner. The wife says "get another turboprop," bless her soul. Likewise at FL270 she hates it when I hand fly and tells me to turn the autopilot back on. I, married for decades, know exactly how to handle women: I say, "Yes, dear."

Found the issue and learned a few things on the way. The cut-to-the-chase answer is that a piece of the airplane got sucked into and blocked the air intake. Blocking this intake caused the mixture to become relatively rich (fuel flow stayed the same but airflow decreased causing the relative change in the mixture). How it was found... All spark plugs were removed, inspected, cleaned, and gapped - they looked ok and this crossed them off of the issue list and permitted us to... Check the fuel flow for each cylinder by doing a run up at 2000 and 2600 to see if one of the cylinders was running hot or colder than the others (different from before), but the temps all looked relatively good, so we did... A mag check at 2000 and 2600 which caused the engine to stumble and stutter almost to the point of stopping - seemed like both mags were bad, but then just for the heck of it,... Leaning the mixture and doing the same runup at 2000 and 2600 made for a pretty standard drop on both the left and right mag (and took them off of the issues list) which lead us to think more about relative mixture and "not too much gas", but "not enough air". After shutting down, we talked about the filter, other things that would reduce the airflow, and then also looked into the bypass gate. There we found a piece of material long enough to span the intake baffle/hose and to slow down the air intake. If you look closely, you can see where it came from (lower left-hand corner of the photo). Gratitude to MS for a place to think it through and to the tower that notified me yesterday that I was trailing smoke.

An Irish World War II Spitfire pilot and Flying Ace, was speaking in a church and reminiscing about his war experiences. "In 1942," he says, "the situation was really tough. The Germans had a very strong air force. I remember," he continues, "one day I was protecting the bombers and suddenly, out of the clouds, these Fokker's appeared." There are a few gasps from the parishioners, and several of the children began to giggle. "I looked up, and realized that two of the Fokkers were directly above me. I aimed at the first one and shot him down. By then, though, the other Fokker was right on my tail." At this point, several of the elderly ladies of the church were blushing with embarrassment, the girls were all giggling and the boys laughing loudly. The pastor finally stands up and says, "I think I should point out that 'Fokker' was the name of a German-Dutch aircraft company, who made many of the planes used by the Germans during the war." "Yes, that's true," says the old pilot, "but these Fokkers were flying Messerschmitt's."

What mooniac and M20F said. Lots of folks have gotten themselves in big trouble using GA for time sensitive travel. Usually +/- 1-3 days is sufficient for winter where I live. Plus or minus 12 hours is sufficient for summer. The most capable of Mooney's will barely tackle the weather extremes (FIKI with a lot of horsepower and /or a turbo). Honestly the only planes I'd think truly as commuters are maybe an M20M, M20T, Aerostar / Malibu / Be58P/TC, or SETP. Traveling north south does have benefits in they you can plan to travel ahead of or behind frontal systems instead of flying across them. I lived long distance from my fiancée now wife for many years and bought the mooney to get me to rural airports. The flying taught me a lot but was more stressful. You approach the level of needing to act like a commercial pilot but without the buffer of separation from the get there itis siren song. Doing that from fresh PPL/IFR is a very difficult endeavor because you won't have the experience necessary to be able to properly evaluate the risks of the flight. Since my family lives all in one spot again we use the plane to see family. I feel much less stressed flying these days and get more enjoyment without that additional stress. In two months I'll start using the plane for occasional work commuting - but the flight time is about 45 min instead of my old 4:30 hr milk run. Given my new airport will likely be about 45 min from my new residence, the drive commute won't be that far off the flying, so the benefit of using the plane becomes less apparent and therefore the risk tolerance and get there itis pressure goes down kind of automatically. Start with small bites and gradually work your way up. Be very very careful.

I got into Mooneys through the cabin door....... OK that was bad, find someone around you with one, buy some fuel and lunch and get hooked. Where are you located? The South is a large aera even in a Mooney

I'd never fly the plane. I'd be worried about a rock chip or scratch in the paint.

I've put togehter the attached ForeFlight checklist for a M20C. Feedback is welcome, I did not bother with emergency checklists...if I need them I;lol grab a card, not the iPad. N6529U.fmd

Today I flew for the first time with the following avionics: IFD550 IFD440 IFD100 on each of two iPads. KFC150 with KAS297B altitude pre-select/altitude hold. The amount of information presented and the situational awareness is absolutely ridiculous !! I had the normal map on the 550 with synthetic vision on one iPad and the approach plate on the second iPad. The 440 is kinda redundant. And to think, back in the day I did my instrument training in a piece of crap rental Piper Arrow with 180 HP that would do 125 kts in a descent on a good day and we had to circle to get up to 9,000 ft to proceed along the Victor airway. It had no autopilot but two VORs, one with an ILS. Such an amazing transformation in our cockpits in just over a dozen years.

After a 15 year hiatus from flying I jumped back into it with both feet. 2 months ago I purchased my M20F and since my timing is always impeccable I have been trying to get through my BFR and transition time while dealing with the spring weather patterns and my work schedule. I finished up on Sunday April 30 flying around in unsettled skies with rain and even a few ice crystals thrown in. The only upside was that afterwards I had a new scratch in my log book letting me know that I was now on my own. Yesterday the weather and work patterns intersected again and I headed out to the airport. After a careful preflight I was sitting out on the run up area talking myself through all of the checklists and getting ready to go when a thought occurred to me. I said to myself "Holy crap you are alone in this thing. Don't do anything on this flight that will make the news." I flew around in my Mooney for 2 wonderful hours with no particular direction other than whimsy with just me to keep myself company. The flight was uneventful and memorable at the same time. I hope I never get to the point in my flying where I lose the feeling of awe while cruising around alone in the sky.

Niiice ! Heck, the only thing my 231 has in common with yours is they both have wings ! Lurking for serious panel upgrade now from all virgin original '80 in pristine condition.

Made the mistake a few years ago of asking a line service person to add air to the nosewheel right before departure (I no longer air up tires right before departure). On landing a couple of hours later, the nosewheel was flat. Landing was uneventful, I didn't even notice until I was down to 40 knots or so on the ground roll, at which point it began to shimmy. The shimmy became more and more pronounced as I slowed down. By the time I couldn't steer any more, I was fully stopped, and the local FBO sent a tow rig out. They replaced the tire (which was about due anyway) and tube, and I was on my way in less than an hour. My guess is the Schrader valve simply didn't close properly when the line service guy person removed the air hose. I don't think there was any malice or incompetence, just one of those things. Again, I no longer air up tires right before departure any more. I either do it when putting away the airplane in the hangar, or I wait around a while before departure.

They're actually the ones I was sent to by the local airport guys. I've been speaking with Othman and they're the ones with the initial quote I have. Good to see the thumbs up for them on here.

How do you figure we have been "questioning" your taste in women???

Dev, With the scat tubing removed from the muffler shroud, you completely removed the exhaust system from the equation. So no matter what the condition of the muffler is, without the scat tubing connecting it to the air box, you won't see any symptoms.

Thanks for the invite. I might have to take you up on your offer. LASAR has finished my annual (no significant squawks), with the exception of the PowerFlow exhaust system. Frankly, I wonder if that system is worth all the hassle and expense. It costs me somewhere in the vicinity of $500 every annual to take it apart, use their special grease, and reassemble it. I have no real way of knowing if it is as effective as they advertise. It was in the airplane when I bought it, so I have no before and after metrics. I do know that I am now held hostage by that company while they build new parts (none in stock they say), and their preliminary quotes are ridiculously excessive. I could probably buy a stock system for less. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It's a good point that there is a sweet spot distance where the drive would really suck, the airlines don't cut off much time and the flight is maybe 3 hours or less... Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I commuted F45 to SAV ( 300+NM) every week from June through the end of Oct last year. Thunderstorms got in the way a couple of times, mostly causing 4-8 hour delays. Even so, the drive is 7 hours, and the airlines 6. My flight time was 2.2. What it allowed was arrival Monday morning without fail, and Friday night on time returns with 80% reliability. And complete weekends to work hard, change helicopter engines/avionics and so on. If I had driven, I'd have only Sat afternoon, night and Sun morning at home. The rest of the time would have been on the highway. Same goes for the airlines. While I saw no benefit personally, my boss really got the benefit of my airplane and the 2 days per week extra "work" time it provided him.

Ken is based at AVQ and has been very helpful to people looking at and buying Mooney aircraft.

Will they let me on with my pocket knife? Will they let me on the plane without making me take off half my clothes during the process?

Nice setup and organization!

Found the one that are USB powered with dimmer built in-line. I think I had it rolled pretty bright here, but roll the dimmer down and they work perfect. This was the only pic I had, but the roll goes all the way across the dash and just sticks to the bottom of glare shield. -Tom

You really need the down load capability to properly analyze. But what you would do, after an hour of flying when you start to experience the roughness, Lean the engine to LOP, if you were cruising ROP, aiming for about 50 LOP if you can, then do an inflight mag test. You really need an autopilot or another pilot on board to do this. Put the unit in to Normalize mode (I don't recall if the 602 supports this, if not proceed without it) so that all the EGTs are even at 50% height. Then switch from both to a single Mag and look for a steady rise on each EGT for about 30 sec at least. If you see one that does not go up, expect to see that one go down on the other mag indicating only 1 plug is firing in that cyl. If you see one EGT go up and down erratically that is a problem too indicative of the plug missing. Denote the mag position and cyl # of any anomaly. Switch back to both for 30 sec to allow EGT to stabilize before switching to the other mag. If you see a couple spark plugs missing pull them to inspect both the plug and the wire and check the plugs internal resistance; discarding any with 5K ohms or more resistance. Or if you happen to see all the EGTs on a mag become erratic then its a Mag issue and the mag should be pulled and IRAN's. We can also tell if you have split timing between the mags, but that can only be seen if you are able to download the data and look at then. I only focused on ignition, only because this is more common based on the symptoms to date and therefore I would start there. For example coils sometime fail only when they get hot after a while in cruise. But we really don't yet know if its an ignition issue.

The safest ga pilots learn to be a little bit flaky. I'll see you Saturday! Or Sunday! Or maybe Friday. I'm not sure.

Ok, Cliffy you are over dramatizing a bit. I've bern flying these skies for almost 40 years. There are areas of rough terrain, but I never shied away from flying them at night. Some areas wouldn't be any better during the day, you would just be able to see the crash site better. As far as flight planning around the SUAs, that is just private pilot stuff, no big deal. Oh, I get it. You are just trying to keep the snow birds away so they don't figure out how awesome this place is and move here....

I felt bad I did it to an Alaskan crew cruising thru Palm Springs. They were pissed at approach too. I'll give them some more space next time so that we don't converge. That's about all one can do. The controllers are not obligated to give vectors to VFR traffic was the official response from a few controller friends. It was kinda neat to see configured 737-800 spool up and start climbing!! Don't beat yourself up, -Matt

Generally we do have to respond to the RA even if we have a visual since the RA may be directing us for multiple threats...some of which we may not see, or might have identified as the wrong conflict. Visibility from a jet can be very limited in some quadrants.

Hard to do that reliably year-round with winter weather up there, and spring storms in the plains. I know of a former Ovation owner that commuted from OH to CT regularly but he had lots of experience and FIKI TKS on his plane, and needed it. And still didn't make every trip on schedule. To go from zero to owning a capable plane and flying that trip on a schedule is a tall order, but not impossible. There will be times when you cannot fly due to weather, or plane maintenance so you'd still have to fly in the tube now and then. I'd recommend you just start learning to fly in a rental and see how you like it before deciding to jump straight to planning to commute. If your sole motivation is to be able to commute, then you might not enjoy it and spend a lot to figure that out. If you've always dreamed of flying yourself, taking fun trips with family and friends, etc, then just start learning now! Sent from my LG-LS997 using Tapatalk

My 10 y/o son is signed up to go to the Dayton Air Camp https://aircampusa.com/ in June. I don't have any personal experience but it has an excellent reputation. The itinerary looks awesome! I wish they had a camp for 45-49 year olds. I guess OSH will have to do. I will post a PIREP after he attends.

I launched VFR into uncertain weather with a nagging feeling that I was making the wrong choice only to be proven right. I was forced into landing at some very small airport in GA in the middle of nowhere. Upon landing I tried to walk out of the airport in the driving rain to find a place to eat and a hotel only to again be proven wrong and ended up sleeping in the airplane, very wet and very cold with plenty of time to reflect on how stupid I was.

I told my wife if I have to fly in primer a while before final paint I really need "Nose Art". I've had several people comment it looks "Military" in primer, so would look natural with Nose Art. I DID tell her it was going to be of this nature and she said "it's your plane, only going to temporary, do what ever you want. I think it's appropriate for the plane. Tom

O.K., I canceled order at Spruce and went with Pacific as they had unit in stock. The. Guy "upsold"? Me on a blade transponder antenna. He told me my short ball tipped transponder antenna may or may not pass the test, but the blade definitely would? Anybody else hear/concur with that?

I have not priced it out but it's probably going to be somewhere around 150 AMUs on just the SureFlight stuff. This is more than I paid for the plane itself I have what amounts to a brand new 2017 M20J if such a thing existed. If I add in the aircraft acquisition cost and engine work I'm well into the upper 200's which is still less than half the price of a new Mooney or Cirrus, etc. so only in that respects am I ahead But I am not sure if a market really exists for what I just did For similar money you can get a nice used Cirrus with the fancy avionics, nice interior and parachute, or a good used Baron, etc. I would assume most people that have that budget to spend is not looking for an 80's Mooney to do what I did. I did not go into this thinking I could make a profit. I wanted to use the all talents of a company I helped build and create something special. But certainly if someone wants us to replicate, We would be obliged

Why are you showing this to a bunch of cheap bastards like us?

Outstanding refurb. This might displace N9163Q as the nicest J in the fleet..Ill have to fly it to compare

Shaune, you're absolutely correct in posting the experience you had with another professional. Sharing your experience is very valuable. Don't feel bad that some criticize you for doing so. They only want to hear praises. You are as much a professional as Mr. Maxwell and there are others. The problem arises when some start to think so highly of themselves that they become legends in their own minds. To the point where they don't want to be questioned. Not even by one of their peers! It is a flaw of human nature. This is indeed a small community which is reason enough to be careful and behave professionaly.