glbtrottr

Soooo…. We are supporting a company to sometimes manufacture replacement parts for our mooneys so they can focus on making money on defense contracting and not really mooney parts…though maybe one day they make make new airplanes again….maybe. I’ve called for parts on my K model and zip…not making them. Got it. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Soooo…. We are supporting a company to sometimes manufacture replacement parts for our mooneys so they can focus on making money on defense contracting and not really mooney parts…though maybe one day they make make new airplanes again….maybe. I’ve called for parts on my K model and zip…not making them. Got it. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Gawd.... I really want Ellen to WIN! Owners tend to look at dying brands with excitement for keeping a plane alive. It's been done a few times and gone miserably in others. I thought Mooney Aircraft was going to be one of the good ones with Johnny at the helm... I'd be down for an owner acquisition... all day. Rats - I need a new acronym here - I am not a DAR / I am not a DER / I can't even think of how to make a type certificate functional without a production certificate...all the things that I don't know.... But a little Mooney Mite, even possibly re-engined, would be a ton of fun in these times of LSA's, ELSA's, etc...with a full weight of 850lbs, The max speed of 123 can come back down to LSA numbers, no? Someone with an MBA or trying should definitely do this as a case study Owner group purchase - I'm down. (I have never flown a mite but want one ) Anyone in California want to let me fly theirs?

Group buy!!! Mooney mites for everyone! I vote we move manufacturing to California so I can strap the radios in and paint them….

My first avionics install was a kcs55a in my 172. I’ve not slept since… Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

My friend Don knows how I feel about this : every time you buy new Garmin, a kitten dies …. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The service center has always carried the water for the factory as different owners have come to make their millions with brilliant ideas and repeatedly failed. Mike has been there forever and he’s a good guy at a factory that sadly appears to be dying. Many people have passed or left - many are missed - but management is always the challenge. As other manufacturers have hung up their manufacturing and production tickets only to be bought up by owners groups to build parts, Johnny came a f to the best of my knowledge has kind of ghosted this stakeholder board to the best of my knowledge. The MSC at the factory saved my hide once or twice but it seems the corporate support remains hit and Miss.

Sure - but there isn’t much at Hawthorne anymore. Ever since Levi / Main Street aviation / advanced air rented the whole airport for $478k a year, rents skyrocketed and it stopped being a community airport. There’s a Eureka restaurant that caters mostly to the SpaceX crowd next door, the museum was evicted to make room for security aviation, Elon parks his Gulfstream right next to them, Harrison Ford is after that, no Beach Boys and no paint shop. You gotta go next door for the paint shop

One of these days I’ll be putting my E model for sale…2000 ttaf and 645 sfrm…with shiny new paint of choice for the new owner.

Come to California - summer by the beach is nice.

I got an 85 year old at KCPM that’s getting to that point in his C model. Sadly the Johnson bar / landing gear needed servicing which didn’t help is injured rotator cuff. I keep telling him to get a cardinal…

Md200-306, Tom 170c and indicator, and usb - pm me prices pls - Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Robert, Much empathy here. We don’t live in the Soviet Union or China yet - it’s your and your friend’s plane, it’s AOG and it’s stuck - anyone that would have a hard time with you working on a plane to get it up again could suck a bag of hairy sweaty porcine phalluses for not minding their own business. You can test the entire circuit with a charged battery at the voltage regulator without starting the plane. I also have an IA that can come to LAS from Chino for air time plus 182 gas at$65 an hour. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

La isn’t far. Aircraft spruce may have your alternator? Don’t know. Happy to lend a ride from any airport Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Not likely… Most avionics shops promise apprentices all sorts of wonderful benefits upon hiring. No A&P required. I remember reading the thread recently where one of our members seems to have purchased a stolen garmin…shops like that charge minimum wage and bill. $145 an hour to the customer…nice, eh?

KCPM is a pretty busy uncontrolled training field with 2 parallel runways. There is also a lot of helicopter traffic - I used to go there to do autorotations all the time before my Checkride. Lately Robinson Helicopter has had 8LL have their pilots in training loiter on 25L chilling as if it was a helicopter pad with tons of traffic at the airport including other helicopters from other schools, effectively blocking airplane landing traffic… Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Looks like an awesome paint job Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Wait - have I been gone so long that I don’t know of some fix to the dreaded rubber donut design? Do mid bodies have an upgrade ? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Huh. What is overupgrading? I consider paying 8 grand for a gps navcomm offensive which would make me unpopular with most of our mooneyspace brethren, but…whatever. A product is worth what people are willing to pay for it…and many people looooooove to stuff their “forever” mooney full of Chinese Garmin glass…. I remember J’s in the 50’s and 60’s…172’s in the 25’s, and 150’s in the 10-15’s not very long ago. 225k? Pshaw. I have to get over myself and remind myself that economies revolve around supply and demand. J models are commanding a premium, overhauls aren’t getting any cheaper, 6 cylinder versus 4 cylinder costs are not trivial, and most all those waiting for a “correction” may keep waiting. Small fluctuation? Sure. But pricey gas is here to stay, $2 egg cartons are a thing of the past, and so are $12k engine overhauls.

Ygpm Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Anyone have the jimmy garrison J model guide? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Not everyone is a baller and a high roller. Much as I dislike brand G, I can’t arm wrestle with my favorite flight instructor. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You’ll hear the gamut. - “hey the best plane you can afford”. - “two round dials and an IFR gps”… And everything in between. Mooneys are great, fabulous airplanes - be they vintage, modern and in between. All are long range, efficient, long distance capable. In my opinion? Nothing helps with workload like a finely tuned autopilot. Sure, you can get synthetic vision, and and and and whatever…. When I got my first mooney 20 plus years ago as a freshly minted pilot, I dumped a bunch of money into the panel. Whatever was the latest and greatest, I bought. I flew from California to Boston, all over the Midwest, Chicago to Green Bay, rainy weather, landing on snowy runways, learning about freezing rain the hard way, thunderstorms and hurricanes, you name it. yikes! Today, I own a shop that services airplanes. I see people comfortably spend ooodles on a paint job, and even bigger oodles on avionics. An 80k-100k suite is not uncommon. While I’m happy to help, the advent of ADS-B in a panel has generated some awesome decision making…I remember using XM weather when it first came out, saving my Pennies for a stormscope, and looking enviously at those with FIKI setups and on-board weather radar… And honestly? A Garmin 760 with battery operated ADS-b in, and a competent autopilot does all you need. Foreflight works just as well, except I don’t like iPads overheating. The more firm the mount of things get shaky, the better. C and E models are great machines. You’ll be in an awesome spot with either. Of course, if you do want to install a dual or three screen Garmin or Dynon setup with shiny new screens, most avionics shop will gladly help you - us included. Now…a shiny new paint job? That’s another story

And pinecone strikes again, drat. If we must talk about K models… There were TWO companies that took 231’s and converted them to 252’s- one calling them 261’s and another 262’s. They were related and split up. They took all the pieces required to make a 252 and basically made the conversion - an STC using factory engineering data. Why not? 231’s used to go through a lot of cylinders originally. Today it would be cost prohibitive to do so. The only difference is the conversions were 14v 60amp alternators (mine with a standby alternator) instead of 28v. Flap gap seals, curved wing tips, speed brakes, even thicker glass , Monroy long range tanks- all were added as options. I own what I was told was one of the factory demonstrators for it. The Mooney factory took my airplane once through the assembly line in the last 10 years and make some changes - installed a kfc 150 flight director, sealed the tanks, painted the airplane, installed windows, etc. As pinecone said, not all K models are created equal. The engine in a 231 is a TSIO360GB and later LB1B. A 252 has a TSIO360MB as do the 261 and 262 conversions. The encore has a TSIO360SB. An MB Can be converted to an SB. A 252 Can be converted to an encore with the added horsepower and increased gross weight. A 231 cannot. Why? Somewhere along the line the landing gear was reportedly redesigned adding an additional gusset from what I was told - that’s the difference in airframe between the 231 and 252. As the drop test data on the gear was lost, the factory can’t document / provide data for a 231–>252–>encore conversion. It would be nice to have the added GE increase but alas we live without. A long time ago Todd at the factory and others listed this as one of the improvements their mooney skunk works would produce; I doubt Johnny would even care about making any improvements to any of these as there has been no demonstrable progress from the factory beyond making $$$$ for old parts. Rocket engineering also swapped out the original 231 / 252 power plant for a toasty 520 engine pushing 305 knots instead of 210/220…making for a speedy airplane, but those were few and far between. Rocket won’t release their engineering data or sell the landing gear STC separate. They did agree Long ago to restart the rocket 305 conversion if enough Mooney’s paid up at one time - never gonna happen. Much easier to buy a used Bravo or Acclaim. https://www.aviationconsumer.com/aircraftreviews/mooney-231-252-2/ Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Dang. Congrats on a masterful post. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk