Dieselman1220

Yeah that would be great, would love to check it out.

Wow great looking panel, exactly what I would love to have. At $100k though I may not bother and just put that $$$ into another airplane instead.

Thank you for the advice, yes I plan to do the annual at pre buy. In talking with JD he did state that he goes by the Mooney annual checklist requirements when conducting the PPI. Regardless, I will remind them of that. As far as costs go, after purchase I have about $40K set aside for any surprises that may arise. I am not accounting for it in the upgrade funds. If I blow through that war chest in the first 12 months of ownership I may reevaluate my purchase.

Hello Monneyspace, long time lurker first time poster. Pending a smooth pre buy with JD and Laura at SWTA I will be the new owner of a 1967 F model N9504M. After doing lots of homework it appears one of the previous owners was a regular here on MS. It has always been a dream of mine to own my own airplane and I can't believe its (hopefully) on the verge of happening. I have spent hours reading on MS but still have lots of questions. But first a few details on the bird. Roughly 5200TT, with 390 SMOH done by John Jewell in early 2018. It's flown about 120 hours in the last two years with compressions in the 70s on all cylinders. It has quite a few J mods as well including, windshield, cowl, one piece belly, aileron and flap gap seals, spinner, single side windows, and newer style yokes. Also O+N 64 gallon bladders, and new B prop hub. I think it has a bit more but cant think of them at the moment. Useful load is 969. Paint was done in 2018, however it needs some attention as it is showing several chips and flaking in some areas. (my uncle w is an auto body guy, so im pretty discriminative when it comes to paint) As far as the negatives go the interior will need some love. It has decent seats but they don't match the airplane at all. The carpet will need to be replaced and likely some interior plastics. The panel is pretty much all shotgun legacy with only a JPI 700 and Garmin Aera. It does have a Britain autopilot with altitude hold that "appeared" to work when I flew it. According to my research and the advice of a very respected and well known mooney broker he said proceed with caution as the agreed price is considerably below market. So on to some of my questions, I have heard great things about SWTA. Should I advise them to focus on certain areas during the PPI/Annual? Or will they know exactly what to look out for and address? In one of our conversations JD mentioned the intake boot and the long delays with them. If everything goes well and I close on it I plan to start refreshing the paint by doing some touch up paint work then a good wash, wax, buff, and possibly ceramic coat. ( The current owner has unfortunately not kept up with keeping the exterior as clean as I would) Then interior, starting with new carpet, recovering the seats, and cleaning up and or replacing some plastics. As many have advised on here I will fly the airplane as is for 8-12 months before doing any avionics upgrades, and Im at a loss with where to go on that for now. I fly for a living, unfortunately my nearly 10k hours of flying jets translates to almost 0 when it comes to Mooneys and avionics trends, so Im doing lots of homework. That being said my flying will consist to mainly within 600NM of HOU. With very little desire to fly in IFR conditions or shooting approaches to less than 700', Especially if the family is onboard. I think the goal however is a newly cut standard panel, a pair of G5s, or 275s, IDF440, JPI 900, an AP, and some improvements to the radios and audio panel. I don't know if this will be a "forever" airplane but it seems to complete about 90% of my desires. Although the price seems right its still tough to contemplate throwing $50k worth of avionics into a nearly 60 year old airframe. Well this first post went way longer than I thought it would. I look forward to hearing thoughts and opinions on my potential purchase with people that have much experience than I do. IMG_2952.pdf IMG_2953.pdf