Niko182

from my experience, i took a quick seat in the back of the acclaim, and in my honest opinion, theres more space in the back than there is in the front, and that was with the seat infront of me adjusted for my flying position.

I have flown in the back of a 231 for 8 years. granted this was from the day I was born, to about 8 years old. I got checked out to fly DA40 so i can rent those at the moment and get hours. I do like mooneys though, a lot. they are really really good looking planes, especially the modern ones. Both my parents have about 500 hours in mooneys so that might help too. my dad has the mooney mentality which is once a mooney owner, always a mooney owner. The gear does scare me a bit, but i feel i can get used to that. I took a seat in the back of an acclaim, and to be completely honest, that thing is really spacious. Way more than enough space with 4 people. some mooney O3's I have seen have a UL of about 1050, and i'm not really looking for AC or Fiki as I live in SoCal. 1050 is an optimistic number, but I have found a couple, and i'm not in a rush to get it. I don't see the point of the 6 seat saratogas or pipers as the have the same UL as the mooney at a higher fuel burn, slower speed, and most of them are turbos, which for then time being I would like to stay away from. I also heard its a good idea to stay away from retractable gear cessna's. when ever I travel, i will be flying with 4 people, or there will be 3 or 4 instances where i will do my yearly trip up to whistler and it will be 2 people and 3 bikes.

So to begin, I do realize I am comparing 2 very different aircraft. one being plastic, the other being metal. one of these 2 planes is an absolute speed demon. The other is slower, but less of a handful. I am rather a new pilot. I have been flying for about 4 years, and currently have about 115 hours total time. I am currently 18 years old and pretty tall 6 3ish, and 155 pounds. learned and solod in j-3, and finished my license in 172. my main mission would be to travel, but i would also like to finish both my commercial and IFR in this plane. I will be carrying 4 people and all of them are 6 feet or taller, so older Mooney are mostly out of the running. I grew up in sitting in the back of a 231 as that's what my parents owned and both my parents plan on getting re-certified so they can fly again and they are both IFR certified. Additionally, My dad wants a glass cockpit so its going to be the 2GX or 3. This plane will be used for training and traveling. Id say budget is 200k to 250k. Which would you pick and why. I also do realize that i am on Mooney space, but I'm trying to get as many opinions as possible.