Flyler

Got to watch Mr. Takacs take off, climb, circle, and fly 651RK off into the distance. Sort of bittersweet watching another guy fly your new Mooney away, but boy am I glad I found Rob! He brought her over to DXR back to the mechanic that the plane knows and loves... It somehow looks even prettier parked there. A really big day for me. I got home and immediately felt exhausted, I think all the excitement drained me! Thank you guys and thank you Rob! Adventures will begin soon.

The plane was weighed to get the 905# useful load. I popped a side panel off the interior and saw that it had foil backed foam insulation, perhaps that is part of the weight. Those extra thick polycarbonate panels must add some too. I'm still waiting for the ferry permit to come in, hopefully this coming weekend. The battery seemed a bit weak- would quite turn the engine over so I charged it with my truck for about 30 minutes. After that, it fired right up! Let it run for about 45 minutes, and the following weekend it took me 3 cranking attempts to get it started. Once I found that magic spot for the throttle position, on the third attempt, she fire right up without hesitation. I think the battery is going to last a few more years. Not a big deal, but it's something I just assumed would be toast! I agree about removing the ADF. I was also considering swapping that JPI engine monitor with a newer, larger screen. However... I will focus on paying off the loan first, so I can put that money towards a hangar rental. It's so much more airplane than I expected to get, so I am THRILLED with the current equipment.

I know a little bit, but far from being anything close to an expert. More like ancillary knowledge. Your interpretation is the same as mine. KSI just means "thousand psi" so you don't have to type out the extra zeros! I would imagine it is tensile strength as well. Steel is an amazing material as you can have such a broad range of performance properties and machineability. Machinists love heat-treatable materials because you can work with them more easily before being hardened. Then you usually need some secondary process to true things up afterwards as it will warp a bit. Typically grinding, but chromoly doesn't get THAT hard, sure does get strong though!

180Ksi, holy smokes that's an impressive material! As an ex-machinist, chromoly is easily my favorite stuff.

Here are some useful snipets from my conversation with Nicole at Specialized Aero.

Here's the unit that just came in today.

Thanks to everyone who reached out to me regarding the truss! I ended up buying a rebuilt truss from Specialized Aero. It's supposed to arrive today. I'll update the post with the price and pictures of the part.

Thank you LANCECASPER and Pinecone. Those rates aren't nearly as much as I was fearing, so that is a relief! I'll give Garmin a call too, glad to hear they are helpful.

I am a new Mooney owner and have these lovely Garmin 530W and Aera 795 devices. Both have out of date databases, and I'm not too familiar with the world of Garmin. Does anyone have any experience or suggestions with getting updates? I would like to avoid buying an update for one device, only to find that there's a great "package deal" that I missed out on I have heard that the updates are very very expensive.

You know, I didn't even think to pop the battery out. Says 795 right there You're good!

We had some time this morning so we stopped by to visit the Mooney. Tried out the Garmin, I think its the "796" version as the weather button lit up. Seems like the GTX is feeding it information, I didn't bring the GDL39 with me in the cockpit, but I didn't spend much time toying with it as I didn't want to kill the battery. Also hit the faded paint with a quick pass of compound- really made a big difference. I'll probably spend 1-2 days just cleaning it up! There are plenty of places in the paint where it's just faded/chalked through, but it can certainly be made to look a lot better. I might ask a paint shop if its something that could be corrected- maybe just reshooting the top wing root area. Not sure what is feasible.

Hey 500kts at 4GPH that's pretty good! (I'm practicing my Mooney speed delusions) Serial number is 68-0125. It does look like the previous owner bought it and then quickly realized he wanted a J instead He did a lot to it, these are the other items that I know about: -Fuel Bladders -Extra thick side windows -Wing tip fairings Honestly it has everything that I was thinking I might want to add over time to the "needs a lot of TLC" Mooney that I thought I would be buying. Some of the folks on here gave very sage advice- buy one that someone else spent all the money on, and stretch a little if you need to. The only trade-off for me is that I probably would've liked having the manual gear and flaps (this is electric). I think I'm one of the weirdos that actually likes the throttle quadrant too. All of the snazzy gear does come at a cost- she's at 905lbs useful load. Woke up as soon as the sun rose this morning and immediately thought "Mooney!" and shot out of bed... not sure if that will ever wear off...

Sir you are a treasure trove of knowledge! Thank you.

If I'm not mistaken, the 530 had the WAAS upgrade at some point. I think it is a GTX 335 and not 330. I'm sort of on cloud9 right now and can't think straight... I do have an iPad already and figured I would compare the two options. It seems like the iPad might be able to connect to the existing gear too. At any rate, I still have a lot to learn!

That's the one! It came with a Garmin Aera tablet. Either a 795 or 796, not sure yet to be honest, it needs a new battery. Lots of other goodies too - Bose A20, older non ANR Bose and David Clarks. Original spinner. GDL 39 3D. Not sure if that's still needed with the GTX 330. I'm coming from pure steam gauges so I'm just blown away. I know the avionics are a bit dated but they are amazing for me Also, WHAT IS THE DEAL with the Mooney layout?? Everything is EXACTLY where you want it. It's true love.

The plane is in annual but the first flight is straight to the A&P's shop at DXF in Danbury CT. I'm not sure if I'll base it there or at OXC in Oxford. Both airports are 25 minutes from home. My checkride is pushed back to August 1st so it will be a while, unfortunately.

I want to thank everyone for the advice given to me that helped to make this happen! I bought a Mooney! My instructor and I were flying the flight school's Warrior and flew to a nearby airport. As we were taxiing back to head back to the runway I hit the brakes and pointed out the window "wow, look at the paint on that Mooney!" My instructor was pretty tired of hearing about Mooney this, Mooney that, so she said "you're such a dingus" and we kept rolling. Later that day I pulled up Controller to drool over Mooneys, and that exact one showed up for sale. I couldn't believe it. It was way over my budget too! A few Google searches later and I happened upon Mooneyspace and a guy had a sort of "near miss" with buying it. I reached out to him and he sent me the Prebuy information that he did, as well as the local Mooney Expert's information. Really nice of him to do that for me. I met with the owners and they were just the kindest people ever. Couldn't ask for a more lovely couple. The plane is a 1968 M20F, it isn't perfect but it is WAY nicer than what I thought I would end up getting. Some faded paint and minor issues, but nothing major. It's under an hour drive from me, and the A&P that did all of the speed mods, and maintained it for a good 20 years has a shop just 25 minutes from my house. Everything has lined up so well. I'm still in shock, and so excited. Today I have the keys! The owners kept every receipt and picture, so I have some nice pictures of it as they put some speed mods on it. I don't think I'm going to get any sleep tonight...

Removed this post as it seemed a bit like a "thread hijack" and didn't want to offend!

I was pretty much gung-ho on a V-tail Bonanza as I had just awlays loved them as a kid. The Mooney fit my mission really well too, but I assumed it was just going to be "cramped, tiny, and meant for legless passengers." Sort of figured it would be too much of a hotrod but then I sat in a M20F and it was a real eye opener. I'm addicted now...

Guys I have Mooney fever really bad, self-diagnosed but I can't afford a professional opinion as I would rather spend the money on avgas. Is there any hope for a cure? Does it get more manageable with time or just gets worse?

I'll hopefully be closing on my first Mooney, and it needs a new nosegear truss/leg. It is referred to as the "leg" in the parts catelog but it seems everyone else calls it the truss. At any rate, it is commonly dented when oversteered. It looks like LASAR can supply them, but was just curious to see if any forum member had one they would like to sell first. This is for a 1968, and believe it or not I would prefer if it had the bracket for the damper, as the current one has it.

Thank you sir! Checkride was about 2 months out. It is with Mr. Bob Nardiello, he's the chief instructor at my flight school and a DPE. I believe he only books his schedule on Tuesdays/Thursdays to help with the weather delays and such. I'm hoping I don't run into any insurance issues with Rob as he really is a great guy and would love to put some money in his pocket! Thanks for the headsup, I will try to steer my insurance decision around that issue, hopefully I am successful. Oxford is a great airport and they are doing lots of renovations. The only problem is the hangar price, it's hefty. I live about halfway between OXC and DXR and of course they are both very very pricy for hangar space. So I'm not quite sure where she will end up. I was seriously eyeballing sky acres but I'm not sure how challenging the runway is over there. DXR is very tempting as they have two runways and it seems we have winds from the West for 6 months of the year.

So, the sellers have accepted my offer for this bird and we are moving forward. I did try to take everyone's great advice from this forum- looked around at a handful of other Mooney's, didn't immediately fall in love with the first one I saw (but that did happen later.) I also had some very sage advice- if you need to stretch the budget a bit, within reason, it is well worth it. This does feel like it will suit my current mission and likely be the only plane I'll ever want or need! I was not expecting to end up with anything that had a GPS or autopilot, and was expecting a very ratty interior that would need to be redone. The sellers were willing to come down on the price, quite considerably actually. I think that since I am local and would be keeping the plane in the vicinity, and visiting the same A&P, it was a bit of a comfort to the seller. There is a lot of sentiment tied up with the planeand my wife and I are both sensitive to that fact. It also has a few items that need to be addressed and will cost a bit up front. That's OK with me as my PPL checkride isn't until June 10th. Currently at 80 hours, will probably cross the finish line around 90. Then I have Mr. Takacs lined up to give me some transition training in the Mooney, and perhaps IR as well. We don't have the keys yet but I'm still in a bit of shock/excitement as I can't believe this is happening! Woohoo! Thank you everyone for your help along the way!

Really cool plane. There was one for sale a few months back and I started reading about them. I never noticed before but your picture makes it look like a mix between an M20 and Beechcraft Bonanza.

Wow! That's a real beauty.