bnicolette

I did Dave. Much to afraid to own it alone. Partner is also a Mooney convert. He just sold his '94 Bravo.

Aaron, He came straight off of the battery master relay with an inline fuse.

Hi all, Well, the switch is complete from Mooney 201 to Baron B55. Three days after Doug took delivery of his new Mooney (my old Mooney) we had a B55 in for an inspection. Today I drove out to Indiana along with my newest mentor/broker to bring the new machine back home. Flew from KGWB to KPIT dropped Nick off so he could catch a plane back to KRDU, then hopped in the B55 by myself and flew the very short leg over to my home airport KLBE. Everything went super well. There seems to be a lot going on right now which in my experience is very normal until you learn the layout of the cockpit. Once the cockpit appears to be about 1 foot wide is when i start to feel really comfortable in the airplane. It is a 1979 Beechcraft B55 that has the Colemill President II conversion. That means it has 300 hp IO550E engines which gives it a skyrocketing two engine climb rate along with a 14K single engine service ceiling. Pretty impressive performance. Pushing the throttles forward on the runway we were looking for 80 knots for rotation which comes about much faster than I thought because when I looked up we were doing 90 knots and I hadn't rotated yet. Oops. By the time I reached for the gear handle we were well past "blue line/100knots" and racing towards 120 in no time. Climbing at 130 indicated yields a great climb rate (initially 2500+fpm) and our cruise altitude of 10,500 was reached in no time. good thing as the initial fuel flows are 29gph/engine. Once at cruise we had full power set with 2300rpm's and running about 30 degrees LOP. That yielded us a true airspeed of 194 knots burning 25gph. I can live with that knowing I've got two engines, boots, alcohol windshield/props, heated fuel vent and stall warning. Bankable performance is 10-12K 187 true burning 24gph, and if you want to push a lot of fuel through it, you can see 205 true burning 30gph. Which I choose the former. Looking forward to playing around with the power setting and LOP settings to try and really see what kind of efficiency I can get out of it. I know it's not an "efficient" airplane but still want to see what it's really capable of. It is pretty well equipped with an Aspen Pro, GNS530W, Color radar, WX10A stormscope, GAMI's, King KFC200 w/flight direct and a JPI 760 GEM. My only problem now is that days of "fun" flying will probably all but come to an end. However, hopefully I will use it for more pointed trips for work and for family outings. Time will tell. I would like to sincerely thank the Mooneyspace members/contributors for the last three years during my Mooney ownership. What a great board with great folks. The board as we all know is a huge benefit for owners trying to operate on a good budget and the sharing of events/idea's leading to the successful operations of our beloved machines. Craig I will continue be a contributor of MS when the need arises.

Happy to be living in PA. No more sales tax on aircraft and never had personal property tax. Woohoo. It sucks when they inevitably catch up to you!!! Been there done that.

Awww. That's too bad. He was really fired up and loved his Mooney. Perhaps you should jump on that 2014 Acclaim Joe. Are they filling orders does anybody know or just pumping them out and hopefully they'll sell?

When are they adding the chute? Wonder if that dentist will be the first one? There was a youtube video of him taking delivery of his last Acclaim at the factory.

That is one problem with the Cirrus but at an entry point at which Stefan is looking at the "bulk" of the depreciation has been absorbed by the previous owners.

Now I'm saddled with sellers and buyers remorse. Ugh!!!

It does Anthony. A pair of IO550E's

Yikes is that fuel burn from a Cessna 402 or something? And four times the maintenance?

Well that's still up in the air.

It's a percentage Patrick but you will not find anybody else competitive. Flat rate for a buyers agent. Use him for both and the story gets even better. You won't be sorry. Call him and you'll understand.

I think it's 400' minimum.

This argument is the same one pilots have been having for ever. No one is going to convince the other that their idea is the right one. Point is, whatever your flying do it as safe as you can. If you're carrying passengers and you don't have a solid plan for whatever might happen to you during the entire route of flight then you are doing them a huge disservice.

Stefan I know exactly where you are coming from and I just went through that decision tree. I really like the Cirrus and believe that the parachute is a valuable addition. To me, it provides the "out" in the very unlikely event that one would ever have an engine issue over unfriendly terrain during night or low IMC conditions. The only problem is that it is a $350K entry fee minimum to have the one with icing capability.

I don't believe we have a thread on aircraft brokers so I thought I'd start one. I hope that Nick won’t mind but I just had such a wonderful experience that I really felt the need to make a post. I wanted to sell my Mooney 201 and had pondered it for probably over a year before I finally decided to take the leap. I was, for a short time thinking of just buying a single that had TKS when I came across a Mooney Missile that was listed for sale. The listing was one of the nicer ones I have seen and was put together by New Heights Aviation (Nick Eberling). It wasn’t long after it was listed that I heard from Nick and he was moving it across the country to its new owner. A few months later when I decided to finally put mine up for sale I got in touch with Nick and we talked about his process and fees. I was immediately taken back when I heard what small fee he charges and then when I learned what I got for that fee it was a no brainer. I was ready to get started instantly and I was made to feel like I was his number one priority. Well that was not just a feeling or fluff. Nick only carries a few clients so each and every one of them gets his complete attention. Within one week of his very noble “handshake” agreement Nick was at my airport to meet the airplane first hand and begin the photo process. When I say process, I mean PROCESS! I am sure that Nick’s professionalism, work ethic, demeanor and fastidious behavior come as much from his upbringing as it does from his training and current profession of serving our country as an F15 fighter pilot. He had to make sure that we picked the right day, as he wanted as much as possible to have perfect atmospheric conditions as he photographed my Mooney. He showed up at sunrise, literally, and began to surmise the area like a Hollywood producer. I thought that I had cleaned the airplane up well, but evidentially I didn’t as I came around the corner and just saw feet hanging out of my baggage area as he was face first inside the airplane vacuuming. It was during my first phone conversation with Nick that I knew I had picked the right guy for the upcoming job but when I saw this I almost broke down in tears because it’s so hard this day and age to actually find somebody that is so committed to doing a great job. I also knew with his commitment that I was going to have to wave goodbye to my beloved Mooney before long. Oh did I mention that it was less than 20 degrees while this was going on and those feet that were pointed skyward out of my baggage area had no shoes on them. He was up and down the wing and didn’t want to dirty the wing walk. This dude is nuts. After a minimum of 3 hours Nick had finished up the pictures of which he had taken over 180 of them. Folks you need to know that his attention to detail with these photos is not to try to make the airplane something it’s not but to give prospective buyers the very best representation of the airplane possible while they’re sitting in front of their computers instead of just guessing what the airplane is like from the 5 pictures we see when inevitably shopping on Controller or Trade-a-Plane. I am sure that I’m biased but I believe if you ask the new owner of my Mooney if it was what he was expecting he would overwhelmingly say that it was. I hope so because he bought it sight unseen, which with anybody else listing the airplane would be a huge mistake, most of the time. But with Nick at the helm it’s a non-issue. I believe that it was within a day of Nick being here to do the photos that there was a website dedicated to my aircraft with bundles of high-resolution photos and links to a complete copy of the logbooks. For the life of me I can’t understand why every single broker out there doesn’t put this information on the listing as just about anybody looking for an airplane is going to want to see the logbooks? Nick puts every bit of information out there for prospective buyers to peruse at their leisure and if they’re interested then they will get in touch with him. I for one love this process instead of having to beg for information and then be pressured by the “salesman”. Within a week of taking the photos Nick had perused the logbooks personally so he knew the airplane inside and out. He also had the most professional looking listings you will ever see on Trade-a-plane, Controller, Barnstormers and the popular Mooney forum. If any of you are familiar with Zig Ziglar you will understand this. “You will get all you want out of life if you help enough other people get what they want”. Nick has what I believe to be a real passion for general aviation and he loves to share that passion and help others achieve the dream of owning a great airplane. So when he is playing the part of “salesman” it certainly doesn’t come across that way because while he is trying to sell the airplane he’s listing, his real passion is in finding the objectives of the buyer and I’m willing to bet that if he thinks this is not the right plane for them then he’s going to speak up. He is that genuine which is why I think he is so good at this. I almost hate to use the word “broker” as it carries with it, at least for me, a “used car salesman” connotation and nothing could be further from the truth. I was kept in the loop on what was happening through the time my airplane was listed but not drowned with information. If there was somebody really interested then Nick would let me know. It was the perfect balance of feeling like nothing was happening to getting every piece of correspondence. From the time we had a solid offer to the time it left my hangar was about a week and a half. It probably would’ve been just a matter of days but we fixed a couple things on the airplane and had to wait for parts. Because of the constraints of my work Nick took the broker hat off and put on the ferry pilot hat and flew the Mooney to Utah. I’m here to tell you that he is quite the contortionist. He has bent over backwards so many times to make sure that everything was perfect for not only me but the buyer as well. The buyer really wanted the airplane to be delivered before he went on an extended business trip but certainly wasn’t requiring it to be. Nick never lost site of that request and got the airplane to him with a week to spare. Folks, I just can’t possibly explain how easy the process was from start to finish. Not only was it easy but enjoyable and I made a great friend along the way. If you are looking to sell your airplane or buy an airplane, you would do extremely well by getting in touch with New Heights Aviation! First class all the way and easily the best value I have seen yet in aviation. Take the time to peruse his website as it’s very telling of his professionalism. http://newheightsaviation.com

It was a beautiful day to fly. Super happy I didn't have to drive 8 hours!

Enough and not enough.

You know Doug I really wrestled with the idea of sticking that mount to the ceiling but in my opinion it is a perfect location. I flew a friends 201 to work today and while it is equipped very nice I was LOST without the JPI. I don't think I really understood just how much I used it till I didn't have it today. For instance it was 2 degrees here this morning. Although he had the preheater plugged in for me I had no idea what the temp of the oil was. I would never consider takeoff power until my oil reached 120/130 degrees on the JPI but this morning just had to settle for it being off the stop on the factory gauges. I HATED not having the CHT's for each cylinder as I was climbing out. Not that I was worried about over temping today but I would climb a lot of times with the cowl flaps in trail on 62G and monitor the CHT's. I just really really like that unit. You will find that the fuel flow/counter is incredibly accurate. It was always within a gallon when I would fill the plane back up.

I'm so glad you're happy with her Doug. You will find that it fly's even better than it looks!! Make sure to go through the Mooney bin I sent with it. Lots of goodies in there. I think you will also like the logbook and paperwork setup. My wife has appropriately named me "binder boy" LOL

Don't forget the prop ..........maybe a tank reseal/bladders.........maybe some corrosion (appears it's been outside).........and possibly new windows. 92K + maybe another 12K? Just some other variables to consider. What could you realistically get out of a 77J?