DaV8or

Quote: Qwalton Congratulations Dave! It truly looks like a beautiful plane!

Quote: jetmech1972 Congratulations on your new mistress. How were you able to find a hanger in the bay area on short notice, or are you sub-leasing? Are you basing it out of oakland or hayward?

Quote: LFOD How good does it feel to have those keys in your pocket? Congratulations!

Quote: Comatose But, man, I gotta ask... what additional "mods and tweaks" could you possibly ADD?

Quote: SagemGuy Congratulations - and welcome to the ranks of "vintage" Mooney owners. you will love it. If you don't already know about it, check out the Vintage Mooney (Owners) Group at http://www.vintagemooneygroup.com/. Many of these Mooney owners are in your area, and the flyins are always fun and interesting. While checking out the website, be sure to look at the Lakeport fly-in on July 17th, which is practically a "must do" for any vintage Mooney owner in Northern California. Lakeport is the home of Lake Aero Styling, and Paul Loewen has forgotten more about M20s than any of us will ever learn. Everyone at LASAR eats and sleeps with Mooneys on their mind. You will learn more there in a day than during a week on the internet. You are gonna' love it. RFB

Sorry about the pictures. I didn't have any pictures on my work computer, so I tried to copy them from the gallery here and well, I guess that's what happens. Here are the pictures at a better size.

as of today, I now own a Mooney. N9289M a '66-67 M20F (More details on the year later as I will start a whole new thread on it. The mystery of the '66 F model is unraveling with me getting all kinds of interesting paperwork about this plane's past from Oklahoma City. Interesting bit of Mooney history.) I won't actually pick up the plane until Wednesday next week as that is the soonest I can get down to Santa Barbara, so I can only post the same pictures I took during the pre-buy. I can't wait to fly it. I can't wait to get it home to the hanger I've been paying rent on with nothing in it. I can't wait to show it off and I can't wait to start tweeking and modifiying it to be mine. I will no doubt pester all you all with more mod questions. She's got the 201 windshield, SWTA 201 style cowl and spinner, wing root fairings, dorsil fin extension, tail root fairing, gap seals all around, 201 rear windows, brake reversal, split folding 201 rear seat and strobes. In the panel there's a Garmin 430 WAAS, King KX125, Garmin GTX330, Garmin GMA340, JPI 700 with fuel flow, S-TEC 30 with GPSS, Airgizmo Panel Dock with wiring for a Garmin 496 and a Davtron Digital Timer. More to follow... I'm super excited just typing about it! Thanks to all you guys for all your help so far and for all the help I know I'm likely to get!

Quote: RJBrown Avgas is a really small market. Forcing a questionable fuel for "environmental" reasons is purely for political show. There is so little lead introduced into the environment that it is silly to worry about it.

Quote: carusoam Or just leave it alone and call it a classic mooney.....somebody before you did it for 40+ years......

I don't see how there would be any difference between the O-360 and the IO-360. The compression ratios are the same IIRC. The difference is the injectors provide a more effiecient fuel delivery and therefor more HP on the same fuel burn. High octane rating is needed to retard detonation and detonation is purely a function of compression of the fuel/air mixture. Engines with a compression ratio above 9:1 and forced induction are the ones that really need high octane fuels. So our brothers here with turbos are the ones that should really be worried. If the turbo is nomalized to sea level and there is no boosting above normal barometric pressure on take off or low level flight, then they could be OK. I had read before that most airframes that don't have STCs for Mogas is because of the fuel delivery systems than it is the engines. I believe our Mooneys fall in this catagory. The problem is Mogas has additives like ethanol and MTBEs that are not compatible with our boost pumps, fuel pumps, fuel lines tank sealant, etc. That's not to say that it couldn't be, it's just that nobody has wanted to spend the money and time getting an STC for what would be a very expensive conversion. I believe that the aviation 94UL will work fine in O-360s and IO-360s. Turbos I'm not so sure. BTW, what ever happened to the aviation ethanol fuel they were working on? It sounded very promising. They were saying last year at Air Venture that it could be made cheaper than 100LL, burn cleaner, take care of detonation problems better than Avgas and best of all, give OPEC the finger! Maybe they will give us an update this year.

Thanks for the replies. I will be having my whole panel apart, so I guess I will look into it then. Just curious what would be involved. I'm hoping it's just a matter of moving from one hole to the next.

Welcome Abe and congratulations on your wise choice in aircraft. Lots of info here and if you haven't already, join MAPA too. They have lots of gurus and seem to be a pretty good organization. MAPA also has an email list that will clog the hell out of your email account, but it's all really useful and interesting info. I suggest a separate account just for it! Good looking plane (I'm jealous of the 201 style panel) and best of luck on the remainder of your training.

Quote: Parker_Woodruff Box your interior up and send it to San Antonio, TX to Aero Comfort. Seriously. I'm in process right now and am very impressed with their work at a reasonable price.

My understanding is that many of the planes that don't have Mogas STCs are more due to the airframe than it is the engine. I believe NA Mooneys fall in this catagory.

LASAR is great. I've never bought anything from them or used their services, but Paul spent a bunch of time on the phone with me telling me what to look for in a prospective Mooney purchase and I mean a bunch of time. I would ask a question and then he would answer in great detail. This would then prompt me to ask another question followed by more detailed knowledge. This went on until I felt like I was seriously taking advantage. I don't have my plane yet, but when I do, they will see it at some point and get some payback for sure! I'm hoping to make their fly in.

Is it possible to trade possitions on an early M20 on the mixture and prop to put them in the now more standard ordering without needing new cables? Anybody done this? All of my flight time is with the standard throttle-prop-mixture arrangement and I would like my Mooney to be as well.

I think it varies from engine to engine a bit, but I would love to know average numbers as well. I'm a engine monitoring noobie too.

So as to not create a lot of thread creep, IMO, I would consider the engine in question to be worn out if I were buying this plane. The owner may have all kinds of receipts and log book entries, but I would error on the side of caution here. There is too much money and personal risk at stake. I would not be swayed by brand new cylinders and pistons. Thankfully, the FAA allows us to be Americans and make choices as we traditionally always have. Individually. Lycoming has decided that 2000 hours is an average time at which an engine is close to failure. Some will blow up sooner and others will go on and on. Where your engine falls on the bell curve, nobody knows for sure until it comes apart. The awsome thing is, we get to choose. This is what makes our country great. If you believe you have a system and are smarter than the average bear, go for it! For the prospective buyer, I feel you have nowhere near enough certified data to make an educated guess on how much further an engine will go. I would side with Lycoming in this one.

If it were me buying this plane (and I have been shopping, trust me) I would consider this plane to have dead motor and negotiate/budget for a new engine on day one. I would also have this plane looked over thouroughly by a MSC like Top Gun in Stockton. Somebody with solid knowledge really needs to check on the questionable maintenance. The engine in the plane now I would personally use just to ferry it to the engine shop, but that's me. Lots of other folks like to take chances with engines just to save a buck.

Quote: dmevans I will keep everyone posted on the flight from the Georgia to Northern California...

Quote: carusoam Clear can be incredibly hot. It gives great visibility, but you will want to block the sun on the summer days...

According to that model evolution chart, the airplane I am buying never existed! The chart shows the '66F ending with serial number 660003 and the '67F starting with 670001. My plane is serial number 660004.

Quote: drpep I just installed Lasar shoulder harness non retractable belts, not only for the cost but to some degree from my past experience with inertia reels on my previously owned 76F.

Quote: philipneeper so the lasar cowling closes the gap so it equals the air flow thru the cowling instead of out and around?

I wonder what's so different about the E and F but doesn't effect the J? Is it the engine or the cowling?