Schllc

You don’t have to know what the sold price is to watch the market. look at the ones that come up and go off, and the ones that languish. If it comes to market and is gone within a few weeks, you can almost bet it was priced appropriately. If it sits for months, well, it’s got issues not advertised, or just too high, either way, price is wrong. not 100% accurate, but pretty darn close.

I live in south florida and wouldn’t want to do without ac. Anyone who says it’s not useful doesn’t live here... if you have short hops, air work, training or getting under weather it’s indispensable.

Others would say blasphemy! but on the serious side, you can certainly “buy” one cheaper, but most modern autopilots aren’t stc’d in them, and the panels aren’t easily configurable to modern avionics. they are also just flat out slower, and burn more fuel. now some of the older ones have outrageous UL’s, and they also have laminar flow wings, so they aren’t all bad.

Yeah, but they aren’t mooney’s!

Interesting to read the perspectives here. everyone’s reasons are different I suppose, but one thing is consistent, this is an expensive hobby. I flew flight school planes, a few rentals and with a lot of people selling planes. I had so many equipment failures in the flight school planes it wasn’t funny. I found myself borderline (maybe full blown, but I’ll never admit) OCD, about condition. In my mind when I see any part of a plane poorly maintained, I get paranoid about what else isn’t maintained. I didn’t want to feel anxiety about what I was flying and condition was key. I didn’t require new, or even nearly new (couldn’t justify on the first one anyway), but I knew I had to buy a plane from someone like myself. Example, my first mooney was a 2005 ovation, I had about 250 hours in it, and took off on a family vacation. Had a magneto failure shortly after takeoff, and returned to my home field. the mechanic there, whom I didn’t really want to use, recommended one rebuilt mag. i did some research and found that a new mag was only about $200 more than rebuilt, furthermore, the plugs and wires were original, and if I bought the whole set together it was almost $1,000 less than buying separately. my mechanic said it was unnecessary, but the plane was 12 years old with 1500 hours, and a 12 year old part failed with my family in the plane. I spent the money and felt good about it, and I do every time, i make a similar decision. I realize, this doesn’t guarantee anything, but personally, I believe it’s prudent. You don’t get to do this in a rental, a club, or most partnerships. To me, the potential consequences of poor maintenance, abuse, misuse, ignorance, you name it, of someone else flying my plane was just too great. I want to get in it every time knowing how it was treated, how it was left and what to expect when I start her up. Lastly, but almost certainly not least, and as can be attested by all those who regularly opine here. You MUST LOVE your plane. Mine made the world a lot smaller to me, and gives me more joy than anything else I’ve ever owned If you do not love her, you will resent owning it, because it is the most financially foolish decision we ever make, if you only look at the money... Life is about experiences and every time you slip the surly bonds, you have another one... like my late father in law told me, “if not now, when”?

if you can find the gia63w boxes you can do the upgrade for less than 15k i have done it. A g1000 is an almost 20yr old piece of technology when you consider concept to approval. Even so, it’s an amazing piece of equipment that is relatively intuitive, comprehensive and gives amazing situational awareness, in the sheer amount of information available and configurable. I know the add on boxes are newer, quicker and have better features, and I’m not really attempting to compare, just saying the g1000 is no slouch or step down.

Pithy and prompt, much appreciated

Looking for a project to acquire now and take time making it special. ive looked at many of the 201,231,252, and j’s and the useful load seems to vary wildly. I like the 96 and newer interior but it wouldn’t be a dealbreaker. im just interested in which models to focus on that have the highest useful, or potential. I would like to end up with 1,000#’s at the end. I just mean specifically which factory produced models yielded highest UL

I tried the same thing when I bought my first mooney. in theory it sounds good, but it just wasn't practical for me for a few reasons. 1. inspecting and vetting planes that a broker doesn’t have in his possession will be expensive, and of little benefit for your education about them 2. you will inevitably by subjected to the brokers preferences, or their interpretation of yours. 3. You will not truly understand the nuance and differences between models and features without seeing them for yourself. In my humble opinion, educate yourself, it takes a while. Took me six months to learn enough to feel comfortable with both what I wanted, and what I should pay for it. everyone's, mission, proclivities, desires me demands are different. Yours will manifest as you learn. I started thinking I wanted a mid body, older Mooney to fix up, and ended up with a g1000 long body. absolutely 100% right choice for me, have had four of them, but just as many guys say they would never buy a glass cockpit. Bad choice for them. yours will become evident as you look, fly and learn. if you want to make a smart first purchase, educate yourself, don’t just expect someone else to know what you want. jimmy garrison is a good guy with a deep network and knowledge richard simile and lee Drumheller are two others who have an enormous amount of experience, and large networks as well. im sure there are other good guys out there too, I just haven’t met them lastly, I’d say buy one that flys often, not just a low hour hangar queen my two cents good luck!

I have a set if landing gear pucks that I bought from aircraft spruce and the plane I bought them for never closed. They won’t take them back and I need to selll them. I have enough for the two main gear, which is eight pucks. They are useable on all the gear but three more would be needed for the nose gear. they sell at aircraft spruce for $122.75 plush shipping and tax which would be around $1,060. Im willing to sell them for $800. if interested please email me at schllc@aol.com

Knowing the actual crosswind component in knots is next to impossible while inside the airplane. winds are seldom constant, and seldom directly 90deg. once you are confident and proficient in the airplane you fly, “too much” crosswind is simply a function of being able to be aligned with the runway and stabilized in the approach. my water shed moment was the time I found myself looking at the runway through rear part of the copilot window. That was too much crosswind.

I feel very fortunate that I devoured the knowledge and experience on forums like this while I was looking for my first plane. I would give the same advice to anyone looking. buy an active flyer, interview the owner, people that let little things go, more often than not let the big ones go too... buy the best plane you can afford and it will be the cheapest purchase you ever make... look for value, not price..

My first mooney instructor, when I was a 40hr ppl and preparing to buy my plane taught me the three mile 900’ rule on final. 300’ per mile descent keeps you perfectly set, and you control altitude with throttle this won’t work in a long body with the gear up unless you slow down to 80 knots before you enter the pattern. It’s impossible to bleed speed Fast enough on final this way if the gear is up. With (so far) 600 mooney hours ive, thankfully never come close to a gear up because the speeds don’t jive with my procedure. I only have a few hours in a mid body k, but found it to be as slippery as an ovation or acclaim in that phase of flight. I honestly don’t understand how one could forget because the darn thing just won’t get to landing speed with the gear up. I hope that doesn’t sound cocky, I mean I’ve made my share of mistakes too, just not that one, and I believe it’s because the plane acts really weird to me with the gear up. if something “feels” wrong about an approach, there usually is something wrong. I try to listen to that, and hope I always do.

We have all done the training(hopefully). Simulated engine out, short approach. I find myself, especially when I am alone, doing the calculations on trips, by saying, “if my engine failed, right now, where would I divert, how should I manage the energy? I look at ForeFlight glide ring, I consult the manual, but I have never actually flown my Mooney without an engine ..... i had one engine out in a Cessna during my ppl with an instructor. It was in the pattern, so it was almost a non event, but I can tell you it was radically different from simulated, when the engine is close to idle. I’ve often wondered how that would differ in my Mooney for real. The one thing that concerns me is estimating the approach, I mean you only get one. How do you guys train for this? Has anyone experienced this?

I had read that article some time ago, very good explanation. I understand comparing automobiles is not completely apples to apples, which is why I said it was anecdotal. I have also followed the guidelines for oil changes with and without a turbo on the three I have owned. It’s just not worth saving $200 to see. My point was merely for reflection because while I know a car engine burns much cleaner, for a 15k oil change at an average of 30mph is 455 hours. So does the airplane engine run 18x dirtier than an automobile? Perhaps.. the conclusion of the article was also interesting, stating that the vast majority of damage from the corrosive elements was due to inactivity, not simply their presence in the oil. I took this to heart, and always purchased planes that had been regularly flown. In fact it’s been the biggest reason I haven’t been able to find my Aerostar, almost all of the ones I’ve seen fly 3-10 hours a year. That scares me a lot more than oil change intervals.

When I was about 12 I recall talking to my uncle, who was an eclectic fella in the 1970’s, I remember him telling me about sending in oil samples because he was participating in a study for synthetic oil testing for cars, and had been for years. He explained to me that the 2500 mile auto change was unnecessary, and he was going 10-15k between oil changes. not sure why this stuck with me, but it did, and when I bought my first new Toyota truck in 1987, i went 15k between changes. I put over 200k on that truck. Since then I have owned around 50+ vehicles of my own, and for my company over 35 years, and I would guess logged over 10 million miles in all those (not just me driving obviously), all with the same oil change regiment. Mostly Toyota and GM, with a few fords and Isuzu’s, and one Mercedes sprinter, gas and diesel. I have never once had an engine failure, or required a rebuild, and almost all of those vehicles saw 200k mikes before I sold or traded them, a few over 300k and one with 500k that I still own. Somewhat anecdotal, but I have noticed most maintenance items with planes are already excessively conservative, given the consequences of failures it’s difficult to argue that bent... My point is I believe oil change guidelines are predicated on the worst possible conditions, at all times, which is seldom the case. That being said, more frequently can’t possibly hurt.

Hi all, my g1000 mooney ovation needs to go to KGGG in the next 10 days for annual and a waas upgrade. looking for either a plane to fly back from there to south florida, or perhaps a qualified Mooney pilot to take my plane there for me. i would prefer to avoid commercial airlines at the moment. I am a 600hr ifr Mooney pilot with experience in mid and long body, NA and turbo. if someone out there is in need let’s see if we can help each other. thanks

All this which list and no one says turbine? Pressurize it, fix the landing gear to get the fuel, and then put on a turbine. I mean if we are wishing, right.....?

Maybe it’s part of how one was trained from the beginning, I always knew I was going to have a plane with retractable gear so gumps started in some of my first lessons leading to ppl. once I got a mooney (long body experience only), I quickly found that the only way I could get to approach speeds without starting to slow down 50 miles away was to put the gear down. One of my early instructors taught me a method used by airline pilots to arrange your approach at a 3 mild 300’ per mile descent to stay on the gp. speed down to gear extension, by 3 miles, first notch of flaps,second notch of flaps and check progress by distance and altitude. This is nearly impossible to do correctly with gear up, unless you work hard. Hence it doesn’t feel “normal”. Pay attention to the gut.. I can’t for the life of me, understand how one slows down enough to these speeds without the Gear down. Maybe the older, four cylinder models behave differently but in a long body I find it very difficult.

I have owned both an ovation and an acclaim. the performance difference is notable. my mission is nearly the same as yours in distance, not terrain. the acclaim consistently reduced my trip by 30-45 minutes. speed and ability to minimize effects of headwinds at altitude. ownership was a little more expensive on the acclaim but, to me, worth it for the speed. After several hundred hours in an acclaim, it’s easy to see how people fly them incorrectly. descent profiling, and managing temps in climb and cruise requires a lot more attention than my ovation. Learn how to fly the TN properly and accept that a more complex engine requires more maintenance(more to break as well) and it’s not a problem. I miss my acclaim very much and wish I had never sold it, once youve had a turbo, it’s hard to go back. Fuel burn in terms of range is slightly lower in an acclaim, but with your mission, won’t matter much.

It’s pretty hard to argue the safety of a parachute.That is indisputable. Not that anyone asked, but here is my two cents.... My dad is an attorney and dove a mercury marquis for 30 years. Most of his clients were farmers and he drove in the fields for years, and never got his car stuck. One day he told me he was going to buy a pickup truck, and I suggested four wheel drive. He told me he didn’t need four wheel drive, because he had been driving a two wheel drive for all those years without a problem. I said, but in a truck, you will make different decisions. He didn’t agree and bought a two wheel drive. He has been stuck six times in three years. A parachute cannot possibly be a bad thing to have as an option... Unless, it causes you to make decisions you would otherwise not make.

Filing IFR can be a burden at times at Mooney altitudes, especially in south Florida where you talk to act almost non stop. makes it impossible to have a conversation with someone flying with you. however, the benefits come when you least expect it, and can be overwhelmingly good. I filed ifr and flew to west palm one day to pick up a friend, bluebird day without a cloud in the sky, no ceilings in the forecast and clear metars at destination and departure. didn’t even shut the engine down to stop, they hopped in and off we went. 15 min later, in full imc, I lost ahrs, autopilot, traffic, horizon, and hsi. Not fun flying compass only during turbulence, backup horizon in about the worst possible location on the entire panel, and no slip... there was a LOT of traffic all around prior to this and I had not filed ifr, expecting great conditions, which by the way, they were departing airport and at my destination. picking up an ifr, in the air, under partial panel imc is something I hope to never do again. I file 99% of the time. just personal preference, because you just never really know.

I’ve got 400+ hours in mooney’s and about 50 in a cirrus. the fuel burn and speed is not even close. This isn’t anecdotal, it’s real world in an ovation, acclaim, sr22 and sr22 turbo. Short and long trips, all at or close to gross weights. The position that people buying an airplane for fuel economy is only true to a degree that it feels wasteful, not unaffordable. They are two very different machines, and attract two different types of people. you may as well compare a pineapple and a screwdriver. Mooney people are generally romantic flyers and cirrus are people who love tech, or bought solely for the parachute. This isn’t universal nor the only attributes but is probably the majority. Read the posts, it easy to see. Mooney people love their planes. Cirrus people love to talk about their tech. Neither is better or worse, just is.

It’s pretty clear who is dominating in sales and marketing. mooney is, and always has been a niche market. i would also say that all aviation is a niche market. I have completed the type training to required to fly the cirrus and was underwhelmed. It’s louder inside than my Mooney, slower and i personally feel the training focuses way too much on avionics and less on pilotage. My preference is the Mooney, but I understand why people like the cirrus. By cirrus’s own admission they converted a whole sect of people who would otherwise not have been pilots much less owners. Take what you will from that statement. my only knock/concern about the plan is the composite. with a metal airplane, damage is obvious and easy to repair, not so much in the composite, and the modulus of elasticity of metals is well defined and understood. once composite is compromised something that looks fine may or may not be, and it has zero structural value where compromised, unlike metal. They will just not last the way metal will. maybe this is a moot point. Time will tell.