1980Mooney

Have you looked at ALL the Airframe Logs? The logs attached to Controller basically show what has happened since it was imported into Canada and made airworthy (reassembled) in Dec. 2019. As a trainer with 10,000 hours I would bet that it has about 50,000 landings (and gear retraction/extensions). It will have endured a lot of "wear and tear". The question is how well has it been maintained and been repaired? I would not worry about the stress of 10,000 hours and untold number of landings on the wings or structure. I would worry about the wear on all the linkages and bearings, any hidden damage, cracked welds or corrosion on control rods, corrosion in general. How many times has it been geared up and repaired? How many times has the prop been bent from porpoised landings? Has anything been bent and repaired? Has the entire landing gear system been overhauled? Especially the actuator assembly (they are expensive and hard to find) Was it hangared and protected from humidity, salt air, corrosion? I assume you saw that the wings and basically all control linkages were disassembled (for shipping from Korea I presume) and then reassembled in Canada. Since reassembly it has flown 38 hours in just over 2 years. Check with @M20Doc to see who did the reassembly, re-rigging, etc. in Canada - they may be very good and it may fly great. I noticed that it was imported August 30, 2019 by Fairways Aviation Ltd in BC. (no relationship to Fairways Aviation Group in Wisconsin) https://www.regosearch.com/aircraft/ca/GLNI It appears that the Mooney was their sole investment https://www.facebook.com/groups/3229352880475318 The logs indicate that they got it put back together in Dec 2, 2019 and then immediately put it up for sale (notice Dec 17, 2019 date) https://uppervalleyaviation.com/bepro_listings/1991-mooney-m20j/ Regarding import to the US it has been discussed here https://www.fnlpilots.org/blog/2021/02/imported-from-canada/ It is possible that between the Korean mechanics and the Canadian re-assembler that they have caught any problem, replaced any out of spec bearings, control rods, prevented/treated/repaired any corrosion, overhauled everything. (lets face it - they had a almost completely apart) It is possible that the plane has been worked on with great care and is in fine shape. You may be able to bargain hard and get a fine plane at a great price. But this will work best if you are planning to keep it for a long time. If you find that you have to sell it anytime soon, you will likely have the same hard time selling it.

That lame bizquest "Mooney for sale" advert has been taken down. - This is not an April Fools joke. The link no longer works. Given up or found a buyer?.... The Kerrville based MSer's would know if people have been coming in and "kicking tires". My money is on given up, however Jonny has been traveling to Kerrville more regularly and is there now.

Agreed. These mechanics are fixing Mooney's in which the majority are 20-60 years old. Materials get brittle and hard over time. Oxidation occurs and things stick. Some materials shrink and some expand. Many things don't come apart as easily as they went together in the factory ages ago. Things are going to break. Of course we want every repair to proceed perfectly. And we don't want the plane abused. If you have ever done any of the work yourself you will know what a bear it can be to work on a Mooney. Mooney's are largely hand built/assembled and every one can have some things that are just the slightest bit different. Sometimes it takes a degree of art to get everything apart and back together perfectly. If you expect a mechanic to never break a part, never strip anything on these generally old, old planes then you probably should not own an old airplane. In most cases it is an easy fix but the problem is the lack of easily available (and timely) parts from Mooney. Yes it is good that the Factory may eventually support and supply but Mooney owners just need to factor in down time or flying with INOP parts like this.

Historically MSC's were able to purchase parts from Mooney at a 20% discount. This gave them incentive to order and stock in inventory these parts. A few years ago Mooney eliminated the discount. MSC's have less incentive to order parts in advance and hold them as they did in the past. As a result nationwide inventories of Mooney parts have plummeted. @M20Doc has previously commented that "Of the 3 brands I operate a service centre for, Mooney is the only one to remove the discount structure from us.... Clarence" Mooney has brought this on upon themselves.

Seriously? I am sure you have followed the “No-back Spring” debacle. This has been suggested before. Mooney will continue to wait until it has some good quantity of orders in hand and then place small orders. As I have said this shows Mooney is struggling with extremely tight working capital.

2 years…..no parts! This sounds like the No Back Spring debacle …2.0, again, “the sequel”. I look at Lasar and so many critical parts seem to say “Sold Out”… Steering horns, landing gear linkage, landing gear actuators, fuel dials, flight controls, switches, etc. “Or contact Mooney directly to get the ball rolling on replacements”. Helpful advice but Sadly this appears to be the new Mooney “standard operating procedure”

And why are you surprised? As the article highlights Signature was recently taken private by 3 private equity companies. "Effective June 1, Blackstone, Global Infrastructure Partners, and Cascade assumed ownership of Signature Aviation, which is now a privately held company no longer publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange,” Signature said in a statement released to AIN. " It is a classic "roll-up" strategy that the financial buyers are executing. Buy, consolidate (lay off management, close/combine is at same airport, single supply chain, etc) and raise prices. The bigger strategy will be to do it regionally (gain size/coverage and critical mass in a region, not just one airport) so that it makes no sense for pilots to shop for lower priced fuel at nearby airports.

How prescient - it is almost as if he knew the deal was going to close. It's moot now... no matter where you park there it is all Signature. at this point.

This is the problem with owning a Long Body Mooney - when the time comes that you are needing a unique part. Although newer, fewer Long Bodies were built compared to Mid and Short bodies. There are fewer salvageable parts. Fewer of the manuals, specs and designs are in the public (like J's etc) and there are fewer third party parts. The Factory only wants to do production runs when it gets enough orders - and the fewer demands of unique parts makes for long waits like yours. If you have to wait another 8 months (plane down for nearly a year and a half), how are you staying current? Does insurance pay for a replacement plane rental? I assume you are still eating hangar and insurance costs. Sorry to hear.

I don't think so. If the main spar is damaged, other than a cap, I think it is toast. There have been some repairs of the rear stub spar. Looks very time intensive. Here is corrosion. Rear Stub Spar

Here is a Bravo with similar damage. http://www.kathrynsreport.com/2015/09/incident-occurred-september-19-2015-at_20.html And the repair

Alternatively this may be more cost effective

Like this?

A thread by Diamond owners says that Garmin will not service used/salvage GIA 63W that owners scrounge as a way to backdoor an upgrade to WAAS. They will only service it if it was installed new in your plane. The last post highlights that Garmin is able to establish the chain of custody from their records so there is no way to fool them. Garmin refuses to service GIA63W LRUs - diamondaviators.net

If you "fly" your route on ADSB-Exchange, which uses available ADSB as well as its own receiver network, it shows that you are UAT the entire route - both legs - there and return https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?icao=a98695&lat=40.882&lon=-74.062&zoom=10.2&showTrace=2022-03-18&trackLabels&timestamp=1647635546 Your squawk going down was 4372 Your squawk on the return was 4261 ADSB-Exchange had trouble with your track briefly at 3:18 11 seconds but it did not drop you to "0". FLightAware picked you up fine at that point. It seems like there may be some delay in the presentation of your location and speed data but it is all seems to be there let me know if I am looking at the same track that you were

OK just to make sure we are talking about N7125U on Friday and today. When I look at FlightAware on the Friday return leg I don't see where you said it shows you at "0" altitude. The data is complete with no gaps in time stamp. It is all listed as UAT data except for 1 minute 46 seconds minutes at 3:12 PM however the data is still there.

Unless the plastic has discolored and turned black why not just use plastic polish or tooth paste to polish it?

The Inogen G5 is the same as the OxyGo Next. The only difference between the Aviator and home models is the visual flow indicator (2) (see below) and Y splitter for 2 users (you can rig for one or two users) . I bought a slightly used OxyGo Next locally for a few hundred dollars. It comes with a car charger (12 v lighter plug) which works great since my plane is 12 v. The hoses and connectors are standard home oxygen supply - you just need to figure out what you need. I recently bought it and have only used it once below 10,000. So far it works great and O2 levels 99%

Side issue - Many have asked how many no back springs have failed. I have never found any statistics however here is the FAA Incident Report of the first Eagle M20S Serial number 30-0001 N2234X that suffered a spring failure at 178 hours since compliance with the SB in Dec. 2003. It describes the failure mode. IN FLIGHT, 178.3 HOURS SINCE COMPLIANCE WITH MFG SB AND MANDATORY REPLACEMENT OF NO BACK CLUTCH SPRING WITH NEW. BOTH TANG ENDS BROKE OFF OF SPRING INSIDE OF LANDING GEAR ACTUATOR WHEN GEAR WAS SELECTED DOWN FOR LANDING. ONE BROKEN TANG APPARENTLY JAMMED BETWEEN THE NO BACK CLUTCH SPRING AND THE NO BACK CLUTCH SPRING HOUSING MAKING EITHER ELECTRICAL OR EMERGENCY MANUAL EXTENSION OF THE LANDING GEAR IMPOSSIBLE. AC WAS LANDED, GEAR UP, UNEVENTFULLY BUT SUBSTANTIAL DAMAGE TOPROPELLER AND BOTTOM OF FUSELAGE WAS CAUSED BY CONTACT WITH RUNWAY. INVESTIGATION UNDER WAY, OTHER REPORTS OF IDENTICALFAILURES.

This is interesting - didn't have TKS then.

So what you are saying is that this plane needs about $50K soon. Prop last OH 27 years ago. Hopefully the tanks are ok or that is another $10K or more It is a capable 2 person plane. The UL is 816 lbs. The serial number is too low to qualify for the GW Increase STC. On the plus side it has dual brakes and dual articulating seats with lumbar support Here are the logs on this site (oh now I see them on the other site too) https://www.hangar67.com/aircraft/1986-mooney-m20j-201/21251?psrc=15209 Flown 210 hours in last 10 years. 4 hours in 2020 and 7 hours last year. Looks like the same A&P for the last 19 years. A new set of eyes on the prebuy may find many things.

That confirms that Mooney's finances are so dire that they are living from "hand to mouth". They can't spare any cash to pay Eaton for springs that will be tied up in inventory (working capital) for even a short period of time. They are ordering and then immediately reselling as soon as they arrive in Kerrville. They probably don't (can't?) pay Eaton until they receive the cash from the MSC's. The crazy thing is that these are in such high demand that they will fly off the shelves. It sounds like the current business model is to only build parts when they have firm orders in hand. That means one at a time with lots of startup costs and expense or waiting for a batch of orders. That means high cost and/or slow delivery and lots of downtime for Mooney owners unfortunate enough to need a factory part. Sad

Interesting…so Garmin still makes you buy additional (and their brand) equipment to “unlock” this feature. Garmin just gives you (forces) multiple ways to buy all Garmin .