Misiu02

I appreciate everyone's perspective thank you.

I was thinking more along the line of lead handling and precautions cause cost from a containment, handling, and risk perspective not so much a materials cost. Reducing it should reduce the cost at least a little. Although like you said probably not enough to offset the complexity.

I suppose that makes sense. I was kind of hoping that not having to deal with lead would both increase the number of refinery's that were willing to produce it as well as lower the manufacturing and environmental costs.

I really do not know all that much about G1000UL beyond some basic FAQs I have read. Is it supposed to be cheaper or more expensive better worse?

Good Morning All, I have a bit of a random question. I am curious on what everyone feels the state of general Aviation is these days? If you look out 5, 10, 20 years in the future do you see a increase, decrease or sustaining situation? I just have not been involved long enough to get a feel for things. Around me there seems to be an increase in folks getting licenses but very few of them plan to be anything other then commercial pilots and have no intent to get into GA beyond building hours early. The general consensus of the pilots I do talk to seems to be an aging average pilot age, increased costs for many things, and concerns over future government involvement.

No not really. Every little bit helps though.

I don't feel a concern about age as it relates to airframe or mechanics. Its more the little things for me. Wiring, switches, connections. Etc etc. They all can be replaced and improved but the older something is the more often I find I need to do something to keep it trustworthy. That and it seems the older something is there is just a little bit extra time required for each thing. You go in to fix a) and find two other things that should be done.

Actually I love the Debonair. I have actually spent quite a bit of time in them. I am just very uncomfortable purchasing anything manufactured before 1975 ish. Not that there is anything special about 1975 or later aircraft I just have a thing about buying a plane that old for some reason. At the end of the day I might not have a choice but it wont be my first choice.

Its a good point. I likely will be doing most of my flying solo, at least until the kids are older. However, for me its not just the act of flying itself that I enjoy (although I love it) rather its the functionality and freedom that comes along with plane ownership that I am really interested. I do not know if anyone has been following the Starlink internet corp or not but they have just completed beta testing on their Sat internet system and all signs point to enough bandwidth and low enough latency that VOIP will work from anywhere. For me this presents some unique opportunities in the Bahamas around working on unpopulated areas for the summer months at little to no costs beyond generator diesel. Which is a bit of a long term dream for me. There are no commercial flights in the Exuma's (not really anyway) and due to requirements for work I need to be able to get back to Florida on my own time with little notice. It almost requires a plane to make feasible. To be honest what I really NEED to meet all my criteria is something like a Piper Saratoga Retract. However, from a cost perspective this is not terribly feasible on my budget . The Mooney is likely about as close as I can get with the added benefit of being a hell of a lot of fun to fly, perfect when its just me, and the right price.

It is definitely an Idea. I have two very high risk individuals in my house so any training is on hold until my wife is comfortable. At the very least its worth going up a few times behind the yoke of a twin to see if it works for me. With COVID ramping up again im thinking I likely wont be buying until the end of next year at this point. Thank you for the thoughts. Regards

Good morning. Yes it's a critical component. I already have them and an epirb. I was including that in the luggage calculations. I just took the total luggage weight and divided by 3 or 4 in the estimates I provided. They add about 21 lbs to the mix.

That matches with what I have found in my research. As nice as it would be to have a twin it's likely not practical. At least not with my budget.

I do not have any time in twins but I have looked into it. I worry that the maintenance costs are going to kick me in the pants very quick. Having said that I agree over water for 80 miles on a single engine is definitely not a time to push hard.

That is a great point thank you.

I have some friends with some very nice aircraft we will be doing test and learns in with her. It might set the bar a bit to high as they are all fully glassed cockpits and I am one of the weird people that prefer analog gauges vs fully glass cockpits. The only digital systems I like is the GPS and a quality engine management system.

I have to admit that would unnerve me a bit myself and I have been flying in 4 and 6 seaters since I was 4

So what your saying is put her in a 1965 cherokee 140 first :-).

So now im thinking I just cram them all into the smallest thing I can find and then use that to convince my wife to increase the budget :-)

You know I completely forgot about the F33 I will need to look into that thank you. I will see if I can get a good A&P to talk with me about the Vtail. Possibly its just a stigma.

Alot of available women out there... But only so many that will put up with me :-)

Lol I was averaging. I think my personal portion of the luggage weighs about 20 lbs total.. That is including my engineering laptop for work and my deep sea rod. When we take a commercial flights we take 3 big bags. I only get about 1/3 of one of them.

Not that I would ever besmirch the Mooney on this forum but the Bonanza was my first choice when I started my research. The only issue is that the only one I could reasonably afford is a V tail and im... not quite sure how I feel about one of those. Seems to be alot of back and forth on safety. One group says that there are no issues at all and all issues were caused by pilots exceeding the envelope. The other group said there is a damn good reason for Beechcraft to go back to the strait tail. I just do not have enough experience to know one way or another.

So I have one other odd question. With all the trouble Mooney (the company itself) has had over the years. Does anyone fear parts shortages in the long run? Whatever I buy I likely am going to own for at least 20 years. I have a friend and his personal philosophy (which I subscribe to) is never buy a plane older then you unless its a military aircraft. So if I followed that I would be buying a 39 year old plane with plans to own it until its at least 60. Spare parts are going to be a way of life for quite some time. regards, Misiu

Thanks Mike. That was my thought as well. Although if a J ended up being a non starter then I would just have to suck it up and spend more but...it would not be ideal. I also looked at a c182. It will carry what I need but adds somewhere between 1-2 hours to the trip. We are going to call that plan C or D.

Thank you for the welcome and the thoughts. A J model is what I was considering. I do not want to take on the complexity, maintenance, and cost of a Turbo model and I likely will not be flying into high altitude locations very often. My son would not care about the high wing/low wing or challenges getting in. He is just excited about anything with an engine at this point. My wife, on the other hand, has some challenges with general aviation size planes at the best of times. But she does better when someone she knows is flying. One of the reasons I have not purchased anything yet is I have been trying to get her acclimated first to ensure we do not end up in a situation where she wont be comfortable joining us. She might be the sticking point on a low wing aircraft. The better overall 360 visibility out of a high wing can make some people feel more comfortable. Once our county is no longer a COVID hotspot I have some friends lined up to take her up in different aircraft. Regards, Misiu.