Excellent Cover Story on the Mooney 201....

[fantom]

In the July, 2010 issue of Flying Magazine. I haven't found a site to get it...yet. For those of you considering the purchase of a 201, it's a good $5 investment. Some quibbles of course, but a very fair overall story about the "best" Mooney.

[OR75]

an excellent article indeed

 

[MooneyMitch]

I love all Mooneys.  Especially the magnificent 201!  I was delighted to see the story appear in Flying Magazine.  What I did not particularly enjoy was the authors comments that "its flying qualities are somewhat unusual and not the best".   He goes on to talk about the heavy feel of the push/pull rod control system.  He also says the pitch control system of moving the entire tail system is a real oddity.  Why, of course it is!  Can you say unique?  And, oh yes, he does happen to mention the floating aspect of the Mooney and that a real greaser of a landing is very uncommon in a Mooney!  Hmmmm.......maybe we should have Don Kaye take this fellow around the patch for some landing instruction.  What say you all?

[HopePilot]

I was a little disappointed with the story.  I also own the original 1982 Flying article, so naturally I had to have the pair.  I felt the reporter didn't do his research.  Come on, he didn't know why the entire tail section moves...to reduce drag.  He thinks greasers are uncommon?  I'm a new 201 pilot and I've rolled a few on already (the type where there you can barely tell the plane has touched the runway).  Not the best handling?  Maybe he doesn't fly IFR? 

[Kwixdraw]

For the most part magazine writers are not much more than bovine scatologists. They just repeat what "everybody knows". I worked for Harley-Davidson a number of years ago (that translates to about 30) and had contact with a bunch of magazine types. I recall that one of these turkeys crashed a Sportster at the dragstrip when he rolled off the throttle and let the spinning rear tire catch traction. All of a sudden that poor old Sporty that had been portrayed as woefully feeble in the past three or four superbike shootouts was uncontrolable and prone to flip over and stomp on the unwary rider. No writer I ever ran across could admit to less than walking on water.

 You can bet your butt it wasn't Richard Collins doing the writing on the 201. The only time I got my dad to go up with me in 21h I rolled her on so smooth he claimed it was the best landing he had ever felt. He still wouldn't go up again though.

[Parker_Woodruff]

agreed...I've gotta say out of all the airplanes I've flown, other than the *maybe* the PC-12, which is in a totally different class, the M20 airframes have by far the nicest handling characteristics of any Piston Single.

[Mooney_Allegro]

I enjoyed seeing the Mooney 201 on the front cover and the pictures inside.  It is a fantastic airplane!

[FlyDave]

It's funny that they a hawking the 201 when the plane on the cover is a C or E. The plane on the inside is a  201.

[FlyDave]

Quote: JimR

Look again, Dave.  The cover bird is a 201 as well.

Jim