gsxrpilot

Hahaha... first your plane will never be posted for sale, period. Second if the rumor ever got out that she might be for sale, there will be a line around the block to bid. Third, wherever you post her for sale, she'll set a record for an F, no question. No doubt she's not perfect, but no airplane is. But she's unquestionably the best F in the country.

For all the guys posting on this forum about trying to get a Mooney cheap by buying a ramp queen, hangar queen, sitting on flats with unrepaired gearup damage, etc. this is the plane to buy. You're taking a flyer on any vintage airplane, but I'd buy this one and roll the dice on the engine running another 500 hours before I'd dig into one of those others with "only 500 SMOH" in a dusty old log book.

There is a lot of nothing between here in Churchill. But beautiful country. The gravel runways are smoother and better condition than many paved runways I'm used to. I must say the pucker factor was there when spending a couple of hours out of radar coverage, out of radio range, and over terrain that is 80% water and 20% soggy tundra. But it was a bucket list item to see Hudson Bay. And do it in my Mooney. The bonus was a lot of old style IFR flying. No ADSB, no Stratus, just look out the window and fly. Position reports, contact approaches, and "about to loose you on the radio, check back with me in 150 miles". I watched my autopilot fly a fully coupled ILS approach to a gravel runway without any lights, PAPI, VASI, anything. Enjoyed every minute of it.

So looking forward to seeing this rocket ship up close on Friday!

Passengers could always be more comfortable. I'm guessing 99% of all airplanes produced are geared to passengers. So if it's about the passengers, get an A36, or a Baron, or why not a cabin class twin with a potty. I'd like an MU2. But I don't have "regular" passengers... like kids that don't have a choice but to go. My passengers are just occasional, random friends, who are pretty happy to get to ride along in the airplane. They have no idea the level of expense, effort, maintenance, time spent on MooneySpace, it takes to provide the ride that they're getting. When all that is factored in, for occasional back seaters, I wouldn't even consider that in choosing between an E or F. They won't even know, much less, appreciate the difference. They'll just be happy to be getting a free ride. Get the best Mooney for the Pilot you can find. That's the guy/girl who will spend the most time in the seat, and also spend the most money on the experience. *Reference @Bob_Belville happy back seat passengers in an E.

In the homebuilt community they talk about people who are builders and people who are pilots. Some people just love to build. So if someone is really a builder and is looking for a project to work on, to keep them busy, this would fall into that category. None of the money I spend on flying my airplane can be considered "cost effective". All of it is effectively wasted just because I love to fly. So if you just love to build, this is a good project. But if you actually prefer the flying to the building and are looking for a way to get a Mooney cheap so you can fly... this is not it. If you just want the cheapest Mooney to fly and enjoy, build hours, etc. It will likely be a G/C/D in the $40K range. Any less than that will probably cost too much to get airworthy. But also consider that every dollar you spend on the purchase above that number, will likely save $4 in work/upgrades/maintenance you'll eventually want to do.

And one more... after I sold my C, it had a gear incident, not landing, but gear collapse. The insurance company wrote a check to the owner for $50K and scrapped the plane rather than repair it. The repair didn't make financial sense.

I've never repaired one myself... a) I've never gear-upped my airplane, b) I prefer to let someone else take the financial hit on the repair. But of the two Mooney's I've owned, they've been gear-upped six times. I've seen log entries, repair orders, receipts, 337's, etc. for all six of the repairs. (I don't buy airplanes without knowing all the facts.) But never mind us... go for it.

Hey @Tx_Aggie go for it. You be the expert and let us all know how it goes. I've got a list... you can be number 11 on it.

Austin to Chattanooga - M20C - 41 gal. Madison, WI to Fort Worth, TX - M20C - 49 gal. Las Vegas to Austin - M20K - 52 gal. Austin to Roxboro, NC - M20K - 49 gal. Austin to Denver - M20K - 44 gal. Denver to Austin - M20K - 38 gal. We love to fly far....

I thought this one was already sold... and it should be. All you "wanna be's" pinging me about trying to find a good Mooney to buy... This one!

Unfortunately for less than it will cost to repair that B, you can buy the C that @Alan Fox just listed on this forum. And it's airworthy and flying today. And we're not talking a full frame up to brand new, restoration of that B. We're talking about getting it airworthy. It will still just be an M20B with a shitty panel, and a host of other issues. Unless your name is Alan Fox, it doesn't pay to bring them back. It's worth more as scrap aluminum.

Hahahaha... same situation bidding on the SWTA annual. I gave my "personal MSC" owner, JD, a ride to the Mooney Summit last year in my Mooney. It pays huge dividends having a relationship with the right MSC. Truth is, JD and I would be good friends even if he had nothing to do with airplanes. Just good people.

No.

Love the F, it might be king of Mooney useful load. But it’s just a smidgen less efficient than either the E or J.

Either the E or the F will be a much more stable IFR platform than your Tiger. But comparing the two, the F is much more stable than the E (when adults [weight] are in the back seat). With the back seat empty, the E and F will be equally stable in IMC. @Bob_Belville is correct that you're best to just find the best E OR F you can afford/find and buy it. They aren't making any more of them. For my money, and only filling the back seats 5% of the time, I'd prefer the E. Specifically @Bob_Belville's E, but there's already quite a waiting list on that one.

For us Mooney drivers, the IR is just so useful. And I think makes flying our little airplanes so much more fun.

Yep, and the main reason I fly a Mooney is for the four seats. I don't put people in them but rarely, but the dog needs some place to ride. I know there are experimental's that are four seats but they are either fixed gear or way out of my tax bracket or both.

M20C's, E's, J's and K's might the be most efficient single engine piston airplanes ever made. I flew from Austin, TX to Churchill Manitoba and even with headwinds was getting 17 or 18 mpg.

I used to fly an M20C and for me, reducing RPM just a little bit would help with high CHT's. I would still run full throttle full rich, but reducing the RPM to 2550 or so, would knock 20 degrees off my CHT's.

So we're the only airplane in Churchill today. The airport is closed as it's Canada Day. Transient parking, according to Churchill radio, is on the far end of the ramp or Apron as it's called up here. There are no anchors in the ramp itself but there were a number of these "portable" anchors on the edge of the pavement. They are obviously not in proper position for tying down an airplane. But over in the dirt, not too far away, I found the implement for moving them. Sure enough, it works. All tied down for two nights on the ramp. And no more flying today.

Today's flight was Winnipeg to Churchill via Thompson. 100LL isn't available in Churchill so I needed to stop in Thompson to fill up so we could get to Churchill and back out to the nearest fuel. Step 1 was to file IFR to Thompson and Churchill. The weather was clear in Winnipeg but forecast to be low IFR in both other locations. Evidently all flights of more than 50 miles in Canada require a flight plan. So if I have to file, it might as well be IFR. Filing in Canada was done the old fashioned way by calling Flight Services for a weather brief and to file. We departed Winnipeg IFR and headed north. During the flight to Thompson there were a few places where Winnipeg Center told me to call them back on a different freq 50 miles later. There are some huge areas of Canada not served by Radar or Center Radio. We ended up shooting the ILS into Thompson and a quick stop for fuel. The back in the air for the 1 hour to Churchill. Crossing Lake Winnipeg. We flew north over this lake for about an hour. But were never out of range of the shore. Here comes the forecast low clouds. On the apron in Thompson. Between Thompson and Churchill I was at 10K and got into some actual IMC. We also got into a bit of ice. I was ready for it this time and had the pitot and prop heat on just incase. I spotted just a bit on the wing and immediately started down. I checked in with Center and told them we were descending 1000 ft for ice. OAT was showing 2, but we got a little ice none the less. We eventually broke out and landed Churchill under clear skies. We're the only airplane on the entire ramp at Churchill. We are 1728 miles from home and about 60 degrees cooler. Mooneys - made to travel.

You own multiple airplanes and obviously know what you're getting into. The people we are warning, and I'll continue to warn, are those who are buying a plane for the first time. They are typically thinking of a barn find car that they can pull in the garage and fix it up while having fun with it. Airplanes don't work that way. I've got a list of ten different members on this forum who have very sad stories to tell of trying to get into a Mooney cheap, thinking they'd scored a "deal" or that sweat equity would get them the airplane they couldn't afford. It almost never works out and just causes a lot of heartache and trouble. Post on a public forum, and get public responses.

I try to get it done between 40 and 50 hours. But it winds up being more often than that. I like to have a fresh oil change before a big trip. And I like to do long trips. I think there was less than 20 hours on the oil that I just got changed. But we were leaving for two weeks of flying. I'd I like to start with fresh oil.

Look, I feel for you. Even with the FBO covering the cost of repair, it's very inconvenient and troubling. But one should be very careful about assigning blame too quickly on a public forum like this. Now you say it was a malfunctioning fuel nozzle. OK, that is the fault of the FBO using the fuel nozzle but not the fault of the Line Boy. In fact, if you'd been handling the nozzle it would have been you causing the damage. It's a very unlucky series of events. But not one that anyone of us can "WATCH OUT" for. Shit happens. I'm glad the FBO is taking responsibility. And hope you're back in the air quickly. Meanwhile there's no reason for me to worry about the line boy fueling my Mooney right now for a flight to the Great White North today.