Tim Jodice

I think that sounds right for a 6 cylinder at a MSC. What do you think?

I agree $330 in labor alone is on the high side for a 4 cylinder single.

Your suggesting that an oil change should be $100-150? 8 qts of Philips 20W-50 Victory and a Tempest with shipping to Massachusetts From Aircraft Spruce is $93.62 A free lance mechanic won't survive on about $7 maybe $50. A repair station with more than one employee large overhead $50 is not going to work. $250+/- is the going rate in Massachusetts/New Hampshire for 4 cylinder singles. If you do it yourself and enjoy it, great!

The best value Mooney is a C. Take the most expensive part, the engine. An overhauled O-360-A1A for a C is 23,901. An IO-360A1A for an E,F is $29,521. Those numbers are from Airpowerinc.com. Less powerful engine your will burn less gas. lower value airplane lower insurance premiums.

I use a large size utility 1500 watt space heater on (750watt) low. I use a large one because it heats a lot of air (loud) without a large temperature rise. In my experience a small ceramic type heater move a small amount of air(quiet) but has a large temperature rise so it can be a lot hotter in a small area. Don't ask me the physics of it but a friend told me to do it and in my experience it works alot better. The airplane i had at the time was not very tight and kept a cover on it to keep the rain out.

Are you sure it is burning it and not throwing it out the breather tube?

I remembered that my airplane had aileron damage in the past. Here is what it cost to repair three years ago.

Maybe I am soft in the head from having airplanes but that seems reasonable to me. If your shopping for an airplane and 2 that you like had a damage history of a flight control and one had a patch/repair on it and the other had a factory new complete assembly, would you care?

How many hours does it take to reskin a flight control on a Mooney? The only first hand experience I have in flight control reskining was a rudder on a Piper Arrow. It was 9 hours worth of labor. Removing, reskining, painting (one color) balancing, and installing. I don't know how much the skin cost.

Maybe @Jonny could educate us on current availability and price on flight control skins.

Are we talking Ruddervator prices? Last time I read they still aren't available but when they are they are they are speculated to cost $10,000+ each.

What would it cost?

Is it not practical/possible to buy new skin from Mooney?

If they do why are charlie weights used?

Why doesn't the factory do this for the long body? Charlie weights are useless except for there weight. Why not a battery that is also heavy but offers more cranking/reserve power?

That great to hear. Was it on budget?

How is it? I have heard awesome things about Ly-Con.

What about stock?

I have never owned or operated a turbo airplane. I thought the biggest benefit of having one is to fly high. I have never looked it up on flightaware but 1 friend that has a turbo Bonanza says the same as you and rarely goes high enough to need oxygen. No doubt the Ovation and J model were successful but many people on here really like the small bore turbo K models and some say they are the ultimate Mooney. Being the fastest is their trademark. They need to find a way to do that and fix where they lack like useful load and a chute. How long is long range? Few people like sitting in the airplane longer than 3-4 hours. Assuming ROP 17GPH the smallest tanks on an Ovation will bring you about 700 miles in 4 hours with a healthy reserve. What is a high useful load? G6 SR22s are around 1200UL typically equipped. Would you consider 1200UL sufficient? Comfort, Americans are only getting fatter so unless they make the cabin wider that will be hard to fix. Other than that I think the cabins on new Mooneys are awesome. Have you sat in an Ultra? I think adding and enlarging the door was a great improvement. For $1M it needs to check 9 out of the 10 boxes. No one ever flies their airplane over gross.

Ovation successor like clean sheet design? Whats wrong with flying +12,500? If you don't want to don't. Who made flying +12,500 the focus? Agreed. I think useful load is unacceptable and needs to be raised by about 200 pounds

Agreed. A chute was one the things I didn't write in but factored it in to the weight gain. When Mooney builds new airplanes it HAS to have a chute or it won't sell to the (wife) masses.

A Rocket vs an Ovation? Missle sure but if you going to race your rocket some one needs to bring an Acclaim.

Assuming a factory rebuilt engine what does it cost all in, hoses, accessories, mounts etc and labor to put a engine on a K? Assume you hand over the keys to a MSC and tell them to call you when it is done?

I say 3600. I have no educated reason to say that but I pick it because other new 300HP category piston singles (G36 and SR22) are 3600 GW. Would that be enough? How much would the airplanes empty weight go up to up the gross weight? Most here say their useful load is around 950. If the gross weight went up about 230 pounds and had about an 1100 useful load WITH, TKS, A/C, oxygen and all the other awesome (heavy) things that make a new airplane nice. I know there are some Eagles that have a useful load like that but as Cirrus proves few people buy new bare bone airplanes. Would a well equipped Mooney with about 1100 useful be a game changer?

An MT prop gets rid of all restrictions.