Bob_Belville

+1! I had a brief PPI done, cut oil filter, corrosion inspection, logs. But the last seller and the 2 owners before him going back over 15 years were all professional pilots and they plane was well cared for.

If you don't find someone closer, I can recommend my shop, AGL Aviation Services, Lynn Mace, KMRN http://www.aglaviation.com/

Nancy and another 20(?) spouses took Jolie & Jan's course @ Mooney Summit - Panama City Beach last fall. She might want to do it again though she's way too old to get a PPL! <duck>

Mark, welcome and happy hunting! You might want to join MAPA. http://www.mooneypilots.com/ There are always several on planes there listed for sale. I would suppose that anything listed in a small mag going to Mooney folks might be expected to be nicer than the average plane listed elsewhere and the price might be higher. Just my opinion/impression. And LASAR http://www.lasar.com/ a well respected West Coast MSC allows folks to list plane on their site. When looking at Fs (or Cs & Es) in addition to the status of the air frame, engine, panel, paint, and interior, you'll see a lot of differences based on whether the numerously "201" mods have been retrofitted to the legacy models. A pre M20J with with no mods, a high time engine, old radios, poor paint and interior might be airworthy and still not be worth much given the cost all the amenities a new owner is likely to want. Conversely, a 50 year old plane with plenty of time left on the engine, 201 mods, STEC autopilot, GTN, ADS-B, good paint and interior might be a fair value @ 60 or more AMU.

Congrats Chris! Yeah, I have 211 hours in a PA28-300 (T-tail) from the '80s. Great station wagon. But passengers loved the roomy club seating and the back door.

Your unassisted brain will lie to you... in IMC.

Yeah, and my slide rule and typewriter still work.

Here's a box of 15' of both hook and loop. Good stuff. http://www.amazon.com/VELCRO-Industrial-Strength-Wide-Black/dp/B00006RSP1

Guessing... with the door unlatched, in the event of an off the airport landing, I would think the exaggerated deceleration would fling the door forward which odds are would be a good thing.

I just replace all five windows in my '66E that has a 201 style w'shield. I went with GLAP 3/16" solar grey all around. I also went with their optional 2nd vent window in the door window. http://www.glapinc.com/ The oem rear windows were 1/8" so only those 2 windows are heavier. The weight is pretty negligible. I may have removed more excess adhesive than I added in acrylic. Having just done a windshield, I would be of the opinion that going to 1/4" would be more time consuming. While all the side windows fit with minimal trimming, the w'shield involves quite a bit of trial and gradual trimming. The 1/4" would have to be skived down to fit the channel. Certainly doable but I doubt the value of the extra effort. (Perhaps Byron's low altitude racing would make the extra bird protection worth it. And if it your own time and not an A&P's shop rate that would help.)

The door is unlikely to close/latch. It's tough to latch most Mooney doors on purpose. Maybe a headset hanging half in/half out to be extra cautious?

I used 2" wide "industrial" Velcro. Since I had 15' in the box I purchased at Lowes I used three 12"+ long strips on each carpet under the seats, parallel to and between the seat rails. The carpets have stayed put for over three years and are easily removable for shampooing or at annual time. (I had found that the most movement with the old carpet was from rear seat passengers getting in & out.) The center strip doesn't need anything to stay in place. http://www.amazon.com/VELCRO-Industrial-Strength-Wide-Black/dp/B00006RSP1

You may be right about the FAA. I hope not. I guess I'll give them the benefit of the doubt as I will the pilot until much more official comes out. It's hard to imagine even a FBO lineboy, let alone a government official telling a news reporter that any airplane was not designed to put butts in all the seats.

No one here said or implied otherwise. What we're railing about is the obviously inaccurate and irresponsible reporting. I doubt that 1) the FAA has already determined that the plane weighed 3040# on take off; 2) that the FAA told anyone that a M20F was not designed to carry 4 adults; 3) that the FAA had already somehow determined that the weight of the plane was the cause of the accident. All of these assertions, which surely make the pilot out as reckless, are in that news report, attributed by the media to the "sheriff" who might be expected to know what he's talking about. We've seen this kind of premature speculation several times on this public forum. As pilots, assumed to be "experts", we need to be more responsible.

I redid the interior of my '66E 3+ years ago. I had a local auto trim shop make new carpet panels using the old ones as pattern. We used contact adhesive to bond silver 1/4"(?) insulation to the carpet backing. I then used Heavy Duty Velcro strips to hold the carpet in place. Very satisfactory and easy to remove @ annual time. I would not think you'd want to add more insulation if the Airtex comes with insulation. The seats should not care about the carpet thickness though you want to have a little space beside the rails. The JBar is another matter. I hope you have access to jacks. You'll want to try raising the gear on the ground to be sure you can get the bar to lock in the floor receptor. The critical point will probably be right behind the hole in the floor though yours look good in that area. (My JBar leather boot is on top of the floor there reducing bar clearance. There are several pics in my gallery: http://mooneyspace.com/profile/8913-bob_belville/?tab=node_gallery_gallery

There's a thread on Facebook on this accident. It links a news report that the sheriff says the FAA investigator says the plane was 300# overweight, the plane was not designed for 4 adults, at that was the primary cause of the accident. Baloney.

Chances of being audited is pretty slim these days. Unless you're tea party.

Which seems to me gets us back to the point of a lot of my posts on this thread: these planes do not suddenly become unflyable or unsafe at the MGW and CG they were certified to. And we should be very critical of the initial jump to conclusions which the local press (and the local sheriff?) did in the Nogales accident. I seem to recall that in the wild west days in Alaska pilots regularly exceeded mwg by 50%(?) Long range ferry flights get permits @ "interesting" T.O. weight. Just saying.

As always we need to keep things in perspective. California averages about 60 auto fatalities every week, 3000 every year. Some of those were probably on the way home from an uneventful flight.

Ditto. I've had the GDL88 for 3 years and have only the one antenna. As far as I know I've not missed anything.

Careful, these are real people with real feelings...

Yeah, I don't don't want to tempt any "hey, watch this" types but my experience is that we do have a pretty decent margin of error in our well engineeredand well built Mooneys. Particularly those with a MGW of 2575!

Seriously folks, how many, if any, Mooney accidents/incidents can any of you recall that involved a Mooney being over gross and that causing the problem? I recall an infamous character (in TN?) a year or 2 ago who took off with 5 adults on board including a lady(?) in the baggage area. I think they mushed in beyond the runway, didn't they? Others? The M20 (1955-1958) was a 4 place, 150HP Mooney! 45 years ago I flew quite a bit in a Cherokee 140. 4 place. Of course we had to be sure we had enough runway and that the terrain was manageable with anemic climb...

That's the comment that makes me wonder... but it will all come out. There but the grace of God... be careful out there. Sunset is about 4:15 in Montreal now. Don't I recall that there is no night VFR in Canada?

+1 I put cowl plugs and pitot cover on in the hangar.