Tx_Aggie

if you made it a bit more west, I’d join. Fredricksburg, Stephenville, anmarillo tradewind has a relatively new restaurant on the field that’s always busy when I drop in too. That might be too far west for you.

This is the kind of plane that will sell. Spruce it up and it’ll compete with the Malibu/mirage.

I went through this same consideration 5 years ago. I ended up choosing a J as I wanted to make sure I could afford flying altogether. While I don’t live in the mountains I am at 3000’ msl and regularly cruise at 9-11k. The J has been perfect, routinely see 155-160 ktas. sometimes I do wish to have a turbo to get higher but the speed and range of these birds makes it east to circumvent building or established storm systems. also as onboard equipment wears out I’ve replaced with superior garmin equipment, at this point I would only sell/trade for something with equal modern equipment and a much larger power plant. I don’t think I’d make a move to the 231/252 as the incremental increase in spend only equates to getting there maybe 5-10 minutes faster and that’s not worth it to me.

Thread resurrection. I’ve started changing my own oil after local shops are now charging about $500. Like many other things, once you DIY, you pay more attention. I find that when I fill my J up with 7 qts (any more gets blown out first flight), it will stay golden until about 15-20 hours. Once it starts to turn black with contaminants, it starts loosing volume. I suspected it’s at this point that the 15-20 hour old oil is breaking down. I’ll add one quart about every 5-8 hours there after until I get to 25-35 hours then change (and replace filter). 500 hours since overhaul at purchase and no issues.

+1 for no yaw damper and flies like it’s on rails. 1980 M20J

My bird could use a good polishing. This is a great thread. Any recommendations for Texas for a ceramic job?

Do you have an equation? Engineer here, but not aerospace!

Does the 201 make 75% power at 8500? My engine monitor is from last century so it doesn’t calculate % power. I have some notes from a jpi 900 showing an ovation2 at 11,000’ making 59% power, I realize OAT would be helpful to know but didn’t get that info. By the same logic though, if a J makes 59% power at 11k, if you held the k to 75% power, your cruise tas should be far ahead of the J right? 200 x .59 = 112 hp 210 x .75 = 157.5 hp 157/112 = 40%, so should cruise be 40% faster?! Maybe I’m improperly ratio’ing?

4 year J owner here. Spend the next 12 months learning what you have. There will be things that come up along the way but you bought a J presumably for its speed and efficiency. Learn how it cruises, practice your takeoffs and landings, practice greasing the landings etc. enjoy the great plane it is before spending additional $$ on new stuff. The time for that will come later.

Don’t hit the apr button until the faf is the next waypoint. (In between iaf and faf.) you’ll lock on the gs every time thereafter.

NLA?

It should be noted while we’re all talking about how fast our birds are. If you want to get a sense of reality in speeds, look up c/e/f/J etc tail numbers on flightaware. Everyone will tell you their c model goes as fast as a J but flightaware will tell you truthfully what people plan for and what they actually get!

What turbo normalized system do you have laying around?

I bought a 1980 M20J in August of 2020. I considered an F model for 10k cheaper in acquisition cost. My J trues at 155-160 ktas on about 10-11 gph and grabs every ounce of tailwind available. No offense to the vintage guys but if a J is among your options, you won’t wish you’d have gotten anything less. It’s wonderful knowing I’m within arms distance of an SR22, my fuel bill is cheaper and my acquisition cost is a tiny fraction for very close performance. There’s some good deals on M20Js on the market. If I had to do it again with the same or less budget, I’d pick up the best J model I could afford then add better avionics as my budget allowed. It’s a shame Mooney can’t restart the J line again - I’d think they’d find a real niche need in the current market.

I have the two blade original Macauley. My cruise is 155-160 TAS, ambient air dependent. 1980 M20J. I am pleased with the performance / sound.

Having owned my J for 4 years now, I’ve never taken it up beyond 11,000’ yet. I’ve read on here that several of you have some kind of oxygen set up and take advantage of the winds when they’re favorable. my question this time is, what is your typical power setting, outside of WOT? Full rpm? What mixture settings (ballpark) for say 13-18k? thanks!

Resurrecting my old thread having “move up” thoughts again. I’ve seen a few posts from bravo owners on trouble sourcing v-band clamps and even being grounded until one is found. will this be an ongoing issue or has the factory helped resolve it?

Mine are fairly warped/ rough, can you post a photo of what yours looks like now?

How did you replace your plastics?

One does sleep a little better when they don’t owe a dime to anyone!

What are you moving up to?

Agreed 1000%, get the right plane first. The hanger will fall into place afterwards. You might check too, the local airports in my neck of the woods won’t lease/rent out unless you have a plane to stick in there. “I’m planning on buying one” isn’t good enough and they’ve booted folks who just use hanger space as glorified junk storage.

Funny how these things happen. My century 41 started to poop out this past year. With century going out of business and the outlook for parts for the next 10+ years only getting worse I decided also to take the hit and replace with Garmin gfc500. I considered the G3x path but just couldn’t get there with the budget. There’s a lot of “while you’re in there” paths you can take! Mines currently at Don Maxwell’s getting the hook up now. Looking forward to the new functionality.

What you’re describing sounds normal to me if I don’t adjust the trim appropriately. It takes a few familiarity takeoffs but I set the trim indicator about one or two lines above “take off” for the takeoff and am usually adjusting it back down once airborne a few hundred feet. I think it’s just an airframe nuance. It also takes a lot of down trim to help with appropriate pressure for attitude control on approaches. Yes it’s different from the Cessna/pipers most of us came from but I’ll take those trade offs for the 25-40 knots faster in cruise speed on the same fuel flow any day! 1980 M20J

Speed brakes help me to be a non-issue with controllers when I’m “in line” with the jet traffic on an approach. I obviously use them when slam dunked also. I don’t see them as a crutch but ‘part of the tool bag’ as others have stated. However if I deploy them on final approach I don’t retract them until after touchdown. I think they smooth out the landing really. folks in other planes are not flying airframes as smooth as ours so there’s really no equal/fair comparison in my opinion. Don’t be ashamed to use them.