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Greetings, all. I hold ASEL and Instrument-airplane privileges, with ~750 hrs total, ~200 hrs in high-performance, and ~25 hrs of retract time in an Arrow. Formerly owned a Socata TB-9 Tampico and a Cessna 172R. I have a solid 1.1 hrs in the last 10 years. A new-to-me aircraft could be in my future again. I've taken a fancy to the post-1977 201 series. Obviously, some training is in order. Rather than merely refresh my flight review, I thought a commercial rating was more the path forward. Not only to genuinely refresh my skills, but with the added benefit of presumably lower insurance rates when I go to buy. However, with the geographic constraints that I face commuting to work, the dizzying turnover in instructors lately, and let's just say the challenge of finding an available rental aircraft I'd trust my life to, obtaining that training has been hard to do. Thus, I'm considering solving the aircraft availability conundrum by buying an airplane in which to train. I seek the collective wisdom of the anonymous internet to inform my decision making. For starters, if I decide to buy now, am I even insurable? If I can get insurance, would it be so expensive that my training for the same number of hours in a rental would be cheaper, assuming that rentals are available? Presumably, the added time-in-type I'd get by getting an instructor to train me in my own aircraft would "reduce" my future insurance costs. What are higher-TIT folks paying for full coverage with ~$130k hull values? Is a commercial rating actually going to materially affect my rates? What else can I be doing to make myself a competent pilot attractive to insurers? An inquiring mind wants to know....

Hey friends, You didn't know we were friends yet, but here we are. We're all members of the "Owned by a Mooney" club. (Flaps hanging because I shot this picture from a J-3. It was my second-most-mismatched formation flight ever) My connection with this M20C goes back a while. I was a mechanically-inclined airport kid, well on the way to earning my A&P when I ran off and joined the circus. A flying circus, if you will. I crewed for Chris Smisson on the airshow circuit through high school and much of college, and in addition to his fast-movers, he had an M20C. Johnson Bar, hand pump flaps. All the latest and greatest gizmos that 1992 had to offer: A BF Goodrich strike finder, Apollo LORAN, even a widget that deciphered morse code to identify the VOR and the radial you were on. It was a great go-somewhere bird. He sold a small percentage of the Mooney to a friend, Kelly, so the insurance company would be a little more understanding. When Chris died in 2003, the friend bought the remaining share of the bird. Both of these men were like family. Without their patience and generosity, I'd probably be running a grader for the county road department. There weren't a lot of tickets out of my little hometown for kids without means, but they helped me chase a dream. Fast forward two decades. The friend wants to sell the Mooney and make room for other flying machines. He's spent years making ridiculous offers to me whenever he wanted to sell an airplane. He tried to sell me one airplane for $1 years ago but I was making chump change flying RJs for a day job. I couldn't afford insurance on it, much less any real maintenance. I had to say no. This time, the offer was reasonable, and I'm doing a little better flying A320s for my day job and spinning words into stories for some busywork on the side. I'm becoming the caretaker of a bird that's been in my family of flying friends since 1980. I took my bride for a flight, fully respecting her veto power. "If this just had a headrest, I'd be asleep in no time. Buy this airplane," she said. So, here we go. Hi Guys. My name is Jeremy, and I'm newly owned by a Mooney.

I’ve gone back-and-forth on how to make a post like this. I want to tell a story of my experience, but it’s also so important to highlight a specific group of people on this forum that helped me accomplish a goal I’ve had for more than a decade. When I was into my 30s I never thought I would be a person who would be a pilot. I loved airplanes but I always assumed it was for other people, not me. I was well-established in a career, and just just really didn’t give it much thought. But that all changed, when my wife gave me the gift of a discovery flight for my birthday in 2009. Without trying to get too deep into that story, the point is I did become a pilot. I am now a pure addict, and will be for my entire life. And when you become a pilot, I think the first thing we all think of is how to get our own airplane. Or we at least dream about having our own airplane while we accomplish flying for a living. But I bet it still comes up as a possibility sometimes. But I also know that for many of us that possibility seems unrealistic. Even impossible. But it’s not. Well... I bought an airplane! A real one! I can’t even type it without welling up. Now there’s a reason that that statement carries such weight for me. I was never a person of great means and was someone who was never really in a position to buy such things. I mean, I’m just a mail carrier... I’m not even a cool one that got to fly an airplane to deliver it! But on the other side of that token, I had also never been motivated as much as I have in aviation - and by the people I’ve met in it. Because of those people, my amazing wife and my motivation, I was able to accomplish and check off one of my great goals in life. I bought an airplane!! I OWN a damn airplane!! How cool is that? This is the part where I have to give people some kudos that have become some of my best friends and just some truly awesome people here on MooneySpace. In addition to that, my first airplane buying experience was truly exceptional. It was about as detached from my expectations as I think it could have been. It was a completely unexpected experience. I’ve been lucky enough to fly so many wonderful Mooney’s, because of these gracious pilots. But I had finally decided that it was time for me to look for an airplane that would be special to me. It wasn’t just a thing for me to own, it really was something I wanted to be proud of and take care of. It was a big deal for me. These wonderful people and good friends gave me advice, tips, spreadsheets, and all of the things to do to find the airplane that was right for me. In addition to that I think they were just as excited for me as I was for myself. And that made it even better. So then one day one of the people I had admired on this forum was selling his best friends airplane, after he unfortunately passed. It was something he was doing for that family and just wanted it to go to a good home. He wanted someone to take care of it, for it to be special. This next part is how I know that people around me were vested in my success. I never had a chance to even see the post, before my friends were text messaging me about this airplane. Within minutes. As I write this though, I realized they may not of actually been vested in my success, they may just have been trying to find a way to get me to stop bothering them to fly their airplanes. Seriously that might actually be the real reason. Nevertheless, they helped me through every part of the process and I can’t thank them enough. But thank you @gsxrpilot, @N9405V, @Bryan, @acdc, @JNDZ, Kiwi. There are others too but, they either don’t use this platform or I can’t remember their usernames. Hehe. But please know that you are included in this, and I am talking to you too. For those of you who know who these people are please feel free to tag them. Now back to my process of buying an airplane. We all know there are tons and tons of stories about terrible buying experiences. Unfortunately there’s a lot of sleaze in this business. But moreover, a lot of un-empathetic people. So my expectations for purchasing an airplane were made very clear to me early on. I was going to probably be dealing with someone with much more wealth than I and would not be very amenable to a process that was financially epic for me. This was not what happened. Not at all. Every person I talked to, told me if I was going to buy an airplane from anyone, it would be this person. They were right. In epic fashion. From the moment I talked to @Yooper Rocketmanfor the first time on the phone until we shook hands on that cold day in Iron Mountain when I bought his best friends airplane - it was the most wonderful experience I think a person could have. He was helpful, patient, honest, friendly and truly one of the nicest human beings I’ve ever met. He told me these wonderful stories about his friend and that airplane. And then we flew it together like he and his best friend used to. He was visibly melancholy. I was welcome in his home, with his wonderful wife. I was welcome with his friends. But the most important is that I was welcome into his Lancair IV-P Turbine... My God that thing... I’m not kidding, that was one of the coolest rides I’ver ever had in an airplane! I don’t say that lightly either. I’ve flown in a Nakajima Kate, a Nanchang CJ6 and even a Curtis Helldiver to name a few. But back to the story. Because of my friends, I was able to find an airplane that wasn’t just an airplane. It was its own story. It was this special thing that had memories and history. It was something for me to take care of. That’s when I realized I wasn’t buying a thing, I was being given stewardship. And because of Tom I was able to receive it. I will honor that. I will add new memories and more history to pass on to someone else one day. Probably after I spend too much on the panel and run out of money. Until then though, I will never be able to repay my friends for what they gave me without even knowing it, and wanting nothing in return other than my success. I thank you. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have people to go tell all of the details about my airplane to, even if they don’t wanna hear it. And update my MooneySpace profile with MY tail number! 5AA3AE01-7C81-4507-BBBD-FB1F8C11025B.MOV

Hello everyone. My name is Darby and I have a problem. Oh wait that isn't how intros work in this group? I'm a long time lurker of the mooneyspace.com forum and have recently been going through some major life changes that makes me want to give a little back to the community and push down the path of my own General Aviation adventure. My user name is "40-0 Flight" because that best sums it all up. I just turned 40 this month, have zero flight time, zero money, zero youth left, and only months from zero kids in the house... (Okay not really completely out of youth but man as I crest this hill the back side is looking steep! ) So now the real fun begins! While my current aspirations, and intentions are grand, my first little project is simple. I have built a mildly complex spread sheet with one purpose in mind. To give a real, true, and honest answer to the age old question. How much $$$ will this lovely addiction cost? The technical side of it is completely in my grasp..... The math I can even manage pretty good. What I'm missing is experience. I have casually researched and written things down for years, but want some real world experience to help flush out this little project with a strong dose of reality. Below I have included a live link and a screen shot of the spread sheet. I have 3 questions. 1. What are some other types of expenses you can think of that would fall into one of the 5 defined categories? ( 1 Time Cost, Maintenance Reserve, Annual Costs, Monthly costs, Hrly Costs) 2. What number does YOUR experience suggest you put to any of these items? (To protect the innocent or married, this question is OPTIONAL) 3. Did filling out the sheet with Your numbers give results You expected? I understand many of these numbers vary and there is no perfect answer to most these costs... BUT my goal for this tool is to make it easier for current or potential owner to play with those numbers based on THEIR belief, and see what that calculates out to in the end. I appreciate anyone and everyone's feedback, and look forward to sharing my future plans as well as making this tool open to the public. P.S. I picked MooneySpace.com for this, because this has always seemed to be my favorite location for info.. and my plane of choice would be a M20K 252. Link to Google Docs Spreadsheet

Hello everyone! I'm very new to this page and I've enjoyed reading the comments on here. very insightful. I am wondering if anyone know or could recommend a great mechanic or a shop that does prebuy/prepurchase inspection on Mooneys? My offer for a 20j 201 was just accepted and I am very excited but the purchase is pending a prebuy. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I already tried to search button but maybe I just didn't see it. If there is a list out there or a previous post, please let me know and I'll erase this thread to not clog up to forum. thank you again! -Vince

After lurking these forums and bugging many members for two years I finally got my first plane back home. My wife and I were super happy after the trip, it's a lot of fun to really be crusing across the ground and having the capability of a real cross country Thanks for all the help, especially from MB65E!