hacair

Thanks again, guys! Great fellowship and practical advice on the ins and outs of the C, E and F Mooneys. Now I just need to hunt down that perfect plane! I'm favoring the F for add'l leg room, but the right C might get taken home. Tom has an awesome and we'll equipped E, but I like the higher useful load of the other two. I'll keep you posted on the search.

That does sound awesome! I'll PM you guys my #. - Heath Carlton (hacair)

I'm 5'9" on a good day; my wife is 5'6". One of my daughters that will fly with us is the same height as me and the other is about the same height as my wife. With 1035 useful load, we could do fine, I believe. I think an E would be cool, but are there many/any E's with a UL at or above 1000 lb? I still have yet to lay hands on any Mooney; I found a guy that used to instruct in his M20F that wasn't too far away, but he sold it! He did say it may be back (I guess for annual or something) toward the end of this month and to give him a call. Any suggestions / offers in about 100 mile radius of M34 where I might get introduced to one? - Regards.

Hi MBDiagMan, Of course, I'll want to keep up my currency (practice approaches, take-off & landings and such), but I suspect a fair amount of flying will be with 3 - 4, at least for a while. We still have two daughters living at home, and they like to go with us. We've made a couple of trips in the local flying club's 172N (160 HP) - it has an Air Plains STC with 30 deg. flap limit which gives it an extra 100 lbs useful load. With that said, we were at gross when we filled up with fuel and had to pack very lightly for just an overnight getaway. In an F with a 1000 lb. UL, we could do a little more a lot faster. I owned a 172C many years ago, and got my first taste of what the fixed costs and maintenance costs can be. I sold it a year after buying it to make a down payment on my first home... That said, I'm not in a huge hurry, and I want to do my research to know what fits our needs so when I find the right plane at the right price, I can jump on it! Thanks for the feedback! Keep it coming. Regards.

Thanks, Hank. How would you (or anyone else) say the back seats of a short body Mooney compare to a C172? Less space/leg room or about the same?

This looks like a great forum, so i decided to join in! I'm flying regularly again (172 in a local flying club), after taking time off for a few years (not medical, just life with three daughters, youngest is now 19 and with one more semester to finish a PTA degree). I am commercial and instrument rated and looking for a bit more than a 172 can offer. I've been considering ownership and I want something that is enjoyable to fly and will actually do some reasonable cross country speed. Normally will be packing four and a little luggage, me, my wif and two adult daughters. Will push the useful load limit in most singles with full fuel, but not willing to go to a twin and need to stay at $50k or less for a decent IFR equipped plane. M20F seems to be a good candidate, possibly a C, but I have yet to sit in or fly either. Thoughts? And is anyone in or near west Kentucky that would be willing to let me sit in or ride along around the patch to get an idea of the fit and ride? Thanks for the feedback!