Leaderboard

For years in manufacturing when a company was well-capitalized they produced parts that had a high-turn rate and sold them to their dealers to stock, taking the burden off of the manufacturer to carry 100% of the inventory and spreading that inventory through the dealer network. To be a dealer, or in this case an MSC, you had to stock parts. Once the machines in Kerrville are set up to produce a certain part number you can get some economy of scale by producing enough of that part to get your cost per unit down. Then if they could load up the supply chain to the dealers that would help take care of cash flow to keep the overhead paid. In my opinion, the MSCs should be the ones investing in Mooney. If they believe in the future of this, as an example, if 10 of the bigger MSCs put in $10,000-$15,000 each to get the ball rolling, to me that would make a lot more sense than individual owners who don't even need a part at the moment putting money on deposit. Smaller MSCs could put in a lesser amount but wouldn't get as favorable of a price structure. It wouldn't kill an MSC to keep some often-sold parts in stock. As @Schllc mentioned, start with the most often requested part and go down the list and build up the supply chain and sell it off to the dealers to stock. The risk for the investment goes down to nothing once the MSC has the parts they've paid for in stock. Mooney isn't alone in the supply chain being broken. Every shop now servicing any make, is used to ordering every part that they need once they know they need it. By not stocking parts dealers pay an atrocious price per part, and pass that and the shipping cost on each part on to the consumer, all contributing to make General Aviation very expensive for the average person, all while the airplane sits there waiting on parts clogging up the maintenance chain.

I don’t think their plan is going to play out well. Lee

On your next flight, perhaps try turning off one of the magnetos to see if that makes any significant difference over a few minutes? This could be a quick way to determine if you have a timing issue with a rogue ignition source.

Companies like Univair and McFarlane are much better setup to look after type certifies, PMA etc. and support owners.

The ideal buyer for the remaining assets is Univair. They’ve cracked the model for maintaining profitability by manufacturing parts for orphaned type certificates. They understand the business side; they understand the regulatory side. Mooney doesn’t need more dreamers to keep the fleet flying. They need an experienced manufacturer that already understands how to be profitable selling parts for certificated aircraft.

What say the forum? yay or nay Currently on the tail is the word Eagle. Could replace it with this image with the talons cut off and being on the gear doors. Eagle gear door talon Image was taken from a AOPA Mooney Eagle article.

I don’t understand how they cannot forecast what would be needed in any given year. Queries and quotes should be tracked as well. Some of those would likely sell if available, and at any cost. they already have this information, does this mean there is no viable way to provide the demand? Referring mostly to internally manufactured but should also apply to anything that fits within the demand such as minimum order size it sounds like for the majority of tracked part numbers just aren’t needed very frequently. I would bet less than 2% of unique part numbers constitute 80% of demand. They should partner with a shop to occupy a big chunk of the factory. Maybe make it a fly in destination with little factory historical your, maybe a restaurant. I think this would lower overhead a big convenience and draw. I enjoyed my experience in the factory the three times I was there.

Just popped up on my feed (not my channel). Check out this Mooney Mustang project. He has also made a website mooneymustang.com. Great to see an iconic plane getting some love.

To check the cowling, do a light test. Place a bright light in the lower backside of the engine compartment, place the airplane in a dark hangar and look through the front for "light leaks". If you can see light, air is leaking. Seal it up. Sometimes seats will push back and leak under pressure. Lycoming says in climb you should have a minimum of 4 inches of water pressure as measured on a water manometer on the high pressure side. If you don't have a manometer use an old airspeed indicator, 4" is about 90 mph. The formula is airspeed (MPH) squared divided by 1980.

I agree, Roger. “Invest” has been used throughout this thread but is a misnomer here. “Donate” is a better choice of words. If those who participate in this program think of it on those terms they will be more likely to have a good experience.

Oh, you woke me up… It was such a good dream.

My voltage regulator died a couple of weeks ago, it has been acting out for months with a fluctuating voltage at start and then it settled. We already did the alternator and coupler a couple of years ago so we knew where to go. I replaced it with a Zeftronics, first test flight seemed to be looking good, with 14v solid and 13.7 at idle. Pretty happy so far. Gabe

In terms of Mooney unique parts, In the 20 years I've owned my airplane, I've needed a flap hinge, an intake boot (twice) and an interior door handle bracket. Got the bracket from salvage. Everything else was purchased directly from other sources or overhauled. At most, $2K in parts in 20 years. Putting money forward for parts would be insurance for something that might happen. Salvage parts seems like the future; that's why I like my F; they made a bunch; enough to support a salvage pipeline. But no one wants to discuss the salvage business and how to pump that up or organize it.