TGreen

Greetings from Mammoth Mountain where gusts are over 60mph. What is usually a 1:45 flight was a 7:30 drive! The Mooney has spoiled me.

There are no winners in the single engine high performance aircraft game. Sales of the SR22 (turbo and NA) are about 50% of what they once were. And they are the success story. There are so many better places for money to go than into GA in general and complex high performance singles in particular.

Not if all they are trying to do is shut down as efficiently as possible with minimal exposure. Then they would silently go about their business. But I agree: If they were trying to save what is left of the brand, they would probably be communicating with their most loyal fans and brand ambassadors. I wonder if there is a forum where those types hang out.

Presumably some workers will not return from the furlough. If there is very little work to do, others who have returned will get the picture and find other employment (the unemployment rate in Texas is quite low). Then, when Mooney gives the 60-day WARN notice, there will be fewer employees who are subject to it. Or maybe 300 employees are coming back to crank out new Acclaims while four of the thirteen built in the past two years are available for sale right now on Controller.

Wonder if this is just an effort to comply with WARN statutes. Hard to believe they intend to continue building planes that no one has ordered.

I've never regretted a go-around!

Beechcraft has only sold 5 Bonanzas through the first 9 months of 2019. Premier had an Ovation Ultra listed and unsold for months earlier this year. Also had one or two Acclaims in inventory for awhile. Point is, at least as late as August, Mooney was manufacturing and selling product to its dealers that no end-user had actually ordered. Supply was out-pacing demand. Just seems like if there was a backlog of customers waiting for Mooney to fulfill their orders, we would have heard from at least some of those anxious customers here on MS.

On a flight from Monterey to SoCal, here is sunset over the Pacific and moonrise over the mountains at the same time. Was quite a show.

Need to replace a taxi light on my Ovation2. Maybe it's time to upgrade landing lights as well. Recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

If the market has rejected aluminum, complex, high-performance singles, I don't see what the assets of this company would have to offer to someone who wants to design a trainer from a clean sheet. Is it just that we want to see the name and logo live on?

Given all the changes that everyone seems to think are necessary for this company to survive, what are the essential elements that we care about saving? Is it just the name? The unique vertical stabilizer? A factory in Kerrville? For what, exactly, do we feel an affinity?

If sold out until March means that Mooney's independently-owned dealers have ordered 4 planes, I imagine Mooney can meet that commitment even if they shut down for a week or two. I wonder whether Beechcraft has changed its production methods. Only produced 3 Bonanzas in the first half of this year. The realist in me suspects that Beechcraft and Mooney are having no problem keeping up with the demand for high-performance retractable siingles.

As late as this past summer, one of the dealers was carrying new inventory for months on end. The Mooney website in 2018 said it was going to limit production to 70 units per year. I think they have been demand-constrained. Hard to believe that the same factory that used to make 200+ units per year changed production so drastically that they could only produce one unit per month. And I haven't seen anything anywhere about a waiting list.

What he said.

And with a little tailwind it's amazing how well that works out! https://flightaware.com/live/flight/map/N451US/history/20191029/1930Z/KHWD/KSNA