Marauder

And for those interested. The Cessna 177 RG had a similar production run as vintage Mooneys (made from 1971 to 1978). Cardinals are certainly "vintage" as well.

Nuke - something isn't right about these refusals. There are a number of other people in your situation who are able to get insurance coverage. I saw your reasons above for the refusal. Do you have anything in your background that could be playing a factor? I ask this because in my line of work, we sometimes discover factors that come into play whether we will engage with a perspective relationship. Parker, who is a broker, probably can help you understand what they may be looking at beyond what you posted above.

That's the twisted nature of this market. Take a look at all of the 1970 vintage Cardinals RGs. They all are in the $90k+ range. https://www.controller.com/listings/aircraft/for-sale/47828867/1975-cessna-177rg I am going to say this a million times more. We are own worst enemy. When I see a nice vintage come up for sale and read "ah, that Mooney ain't worth $40k" and then see a ratty Cessna or Piper listed for $60k, you have to wonder what is driving it. Maybe perspective buyers getting the wrong perspective? If you all worked for me as sales people, I'd fire you all! Value in a product is largely driven by the value people see in it. It doesn't help when the peanut gallery comes out and says the nuts are stale. There have been a few vintage Mooneys sold for over $100k. I know they weren't posted here. Ever wonder why?

What's the old saying? "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery"

That looks like the stuff. Bruce beefs it up with some sort of 3M double sided tape. I’ll still post a picture of what his set up looks like. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

I’ll post a picture the next time I go to the airport. It’s more robust than industrial Velcro. It’s fairly rigid. He uses a special 3M double sided adhesive strip and tie wraps as a second attachment mechanism. It doesn’t grab by simply placing the two pieces together. You actually need to tap it in order for it to stick. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

Unfortunately that’s the catch. We are not flying “their” products. Today’s Mooney Corporation has, what, maybe 20 customers? What we are to the current Mooney Corporation owners is a liability. We are the customers of American Electronic Laboratories, Butler Aviation, Republic Steel, Morrison Group, Advanced Aerodynamics and several others that I forgot about. I agree with you that their customer centricity is non-existent. You would think in all my years as a Mooney owner I’d get a letter from Mooney asking “want to check out our new plane?” I think Stacey from Mooney has been on MooneySpace a few times. Other than that, nada. Their situation is sad. They are in a competitive market and from what I can tell, have a poor approach to business. Just do the math on their total sales under the current ownership. Their margins have to be pretty slim. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

Dan’s J (N205J) is an enigma. He owns SureFlight and has access to an avionics, interior, maintenance and paint shop. If I were to fly over and say, “hey Dan make my Mooney into a copy of your’s”, I’m sure I’d need to put my house up for sale. [emoji6] Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

In my 28 years of owning a Mooney, how many parts do you think I sourced from Mooney? Very, very few. I bought a static drain from Lasar a few years ago that came from Mooney and the yoke retrofit kit back in 1998. The reality is most parts are common parts or those that a Reaper salvaged. Look how active the Reaper’s business is. I doubt the factory has many vintage parts in stock. And if they did, how many of you Cheap Bast&$ds will pay their premium? Speaking of the yoke retrofit kit. Someone posted the price of the kit. It was over $6,000 for two yokes, shafts and paperwork. How many of the 14 guys I sent the blueprints actually bought the kit from Mooney? My guess: 0 I do know at least one got salvaged parts from Alan. Unfortunately, Mooney’s business model has been always a big question mark. I would love to see a refurbishment program and other reasonably price upgrade kits (like the dorsal fin). The likelihood of me spending $800k on a new plane is close to nil. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

When Bruce Jaeger redid my interior side panels with his panels, I was a bit skeptical about the loop and hook fasteners he used. They are actually pretty stout and from what Bruce told me, it is a method air carrier manufacturers use to attach interior panels. No screws! Let me know if you are interested in a picture of the stuff he used. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

I run security cameras through a Verizon hotspot. The cameras have their own storage and can be viewed live. I have motions sensors set up so that when people show up in my supposedly secure hangar, I can see what is going on. When the incident below happened, the airport manager was surprised when I call him and told him to get the idiots out of my hangar. Walking around a plane with a ladder is a criminal offense in my book! And then see them pulling my plane out by the prop had me fuming. These guys were doing maintenance on the hangar and had no knowledge about moving airplanes. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

The condition of your bladder tells me a lot. :-). I’m glad that you’re in a position that the economics should not be a hindrance. There’s been way too many people on the site who got themselves in trouble buying a plane. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

The bigger issue is that you Cheap Bast$&ds keep saying vintage Mooneys are overpriced. Against what? Here are two examples of what I mean. A 1974 and 1975 Cessna 172. Pretty paint, pretty bare bones avionics. The 74 is listed at $110k and the 75 at $88k. Even the ratty looking 172s are listed for more than a better equipped Mooney. Why is that? So when I hear someone say, “I don’t know Marauder, I don’t think you can get $80k for your 1975 F”, I want to cringe. I have a solid avionics package, a mid-time engine, new interior and soon new paint. So, my competition is a 172? Really? I really wish you guys would appreciate that you are flying a speedster that is not only economical to fly, but fun to fly. Posting that a Mooney is over priced is like telling your wife she is ugly. Could it be all Mooney owners are divorced? [emoji16] Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

There are a number of decent pre-J planes out there. The problem is that you can’t pry the yokes out of our hands. And as was mentioned previously, when they do come up, they don’t last long. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

I have never had an issue getting stuff signed off by an IA after I did the work. As long as what you did can be inspected and is properly documented, it should not be an issue. Where issues arise is when hangar fairies start doing work and there is inspection and no documentation. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

Holy crap! I’ve only had one experience with a fireball start and I never knew it happened until another plane near me said they saw a fireball coming out of my exhaust. I couldn’t imagine dealing with an active fire like you had. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

tmo and others mentioned it above but it deserves repeating. Make sure you are comfortable with the costs associated with ownership. I think this area gets overlooked too often and it creates issues both financially and with relationships (that whole “happy wife equals happy life” thing). I’m a 28 year owner of the same F model. I can tell you between all of the costs, both planned and unplanned, you need to be mentally (and financially) prepared for it. I’ve helped a lot of new owners out who got surprised by the costs associated with ownership. If you are in a good financial position to spend between $15k and $28k a year on your flying, you’re set. If not, I would make sure you understand what it will cost you to fly before making the jump to ownership. And be realistic about the costs. There are a lot of owners who don’t count costs into their flying expenses. Garmin doesn’t give away $500 database subscriptions, insurance premiums need to be paid whether the plane flies or not. If you didn’t own an airplane, would you incur the expense? I think you get the idea. I’m a progressive maintenance type of owner. I’ll spend the money upfront if I know for certain it could address a potential unplanned expense later. But even with that approach, I still ended up replacing a cylinder, alternator and voltage regulator this year. That was thousands of unexpected costs. Now for the other side of ownership. I have a lot of hours in my Mooney. There is NOTHING like working all day and looking forward to an evening flight knowing I have the keys in my pocket. Or getting up on a summer morning and deciding it’s “beach day” - and doing a 40 minute flight versus 2.5 hours in the car. Good luck! And welcome back to aviation. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

All 16 of their customers? At Oshkosh and Sun N Fun, I was not impressed with the sales team Mooney had at both venues. If you’re struggling to sell products, having your sales people make no effort to speak to people showing up in your display area is inexcusable. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Actually some complained that they were insulted looking at fat people. So, they have been working to fix that. I did see Tony Starke, that you needed to let a little out of your Ironman suit. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Which piece are you talking about? When you said "below" are you speaking about the piece forward of the glareshield? Or the piece at the top of the windshield?

I just saw you have a 77 J. Your interior will be very similar to my F. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

This is where I think most of the avionics wiring is run. This is the area above the plenum. On my F, the antenna for the front antenna is mounted here. The cable went down the left side. I moved it to the right side (second picture, cable not run yet) Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

My plane is a 75 F model. All of the VOR and Com cables run down the left side of the plane to the panel. You won’t be able to access the Com or VOR cables from the belly, you will need to remove the left side panels and if you are doing the top forward mounted com antenna, the overhead panel. I will see if I have any other photos. For the front mounted com antenna, I did run that cable to the right side and under the door to the panel. With all of my Aspen cables, it was getting pretty congested on the left side. And since I had the interior out already for a new interior, it made sense to run it that way. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

Funny you should mention this. I had a new cylinder installed in September and have been monitoring the oil level like an overweight fat guy watching a Wawa sub being made. It started getting colder in early November and I pre-heated a few times. What I noticed is that when I shut down the engine and look at the oil level the next day or two, it will remain at the same level. However, if I pre-heat for 6 or more hours, I will see as much as 0.25 quarts more on the stick. Wonder where this oil is heating up and moving down the engine from?

I had two separate shops install new Com radios and both didn't even mention the old cables. When I started having com issues, that is when I discovered that most shops will re-use existing cables. I understand why they do it. Because it is a royal pain and a lot of hours are involved in removing the panels to get to the cables. I ran all new cables myself and then flew the plane over to the avionics shop to have them remove the old RG-58 and make the new connectors for the RG-400. I found a fair amount of damage to the existing RG-58. Everything from compressed cables to portions of the cable's sheathing that was cut or otherwise compromised. New RG-400 in place: