New CEO at Mooney

[1964-M20E]

10 hours ago, mooneygirl said:

The change of leadership has been in the works for nearly a year.  Jerry was a visionary for the company. But when it comes down to it, the company needs to be able to design, implement designs, get them certified and to market to be viable.  Dr. Saxena has been evaluating Mooney for some time now.  I hope his expertise in manufacturing will serve the company well.

The M10 is behind schedule and over budget.  The certification for the Ultras has been a nightmare, not because of anything Mooney is doing wrong.

I continue to be very pleased that our airplanes are manufactured in the United States and specifically Kerrville.  I was pleasantly surprised that Kerrville is doing the composite manufacturing. 

Hope to see all my Mooney Family at KERV October 20 through 23rd for the MAPA Homecoming.  It will be good to hear from Dr. Saxena there.  As well, Jan Maxwell and I will be teaching our companion seminar Right Seat Ready! at the factory.  Thursday all day seminar. Friday half day in the RedBird sim with Mooney CFII Luis Acosta.  [See PDF attached]

Right Seat Ready Flyer LS.pdf

Mooney may not want to be in the experimental market but they could offer the M10J up as a quick build kit and get some sales moving while you continue the certification process.

 

Just an idea.

 

 

 

 

[Oscar Avalle]

24 minutes ago, DXB said:

WOW with no down payment, this is basically a FREE new Mooney*    

BTW I got zero love at the Oshkosh Mooney booth either.   I'm deeply offended that they managed size me up correctly at first glance 

Yeah, who needs to eat if you can fly a brand new Mooney...

[Bob_Belville]

44 minutes ago, DXB said:

WOW with no down payment, this is basically a FREE new Mooney*    

BTW I got zero love at the Oshkosh Mooney booth either.   I'm deeply offended that they managed size me up correctly at first glance 

Yeah, and if they give Marauder 30 or $40k trade in for his nice F as a down payment he would have a new Acclaim Ultra  for even less than free. 

[thinwing]

3 hours ago, Bob_Belville said:

Yeah, and if they give Marauder 30 or $40k trade in for his nice F as a down payment he would have a new Acclaim Ultra  for even less than free. 

Yeah but he would still have to trade in for lighter women!

[kortopates]

14 hours ago, MooneyMitch said:

Paul, this is just great, having you there as our "man on the street".

Of course, our ears are burning as we go forth starving for up to date and accurate information on the Chinese marketplace, airspace, GA there, and without saying, the current and future goings on of Mooney International there, and the Mooney legacy of which we are all so passionate about.

What better person could we ask for than you for this.......articulate and one of us!

Mooney International infrastructure in China?  Mooney and other GA manufacturing facilities(s), Mooney FBO(s), etc., if you are at liberty to speak of such please?

Possibly a new thread for your updates and further discussions would be appropriate.  MORE PLEASE!!!

Super exciting!   Thanks Paul.

 

Thanks for your vote of confidence Mitch. I wish those topics weren't taboo for me but of course that kind of information has to be left to company officials, the marketing dept and PR folks.

I will add one more sentiment as to why my optimism is so much higher since coming to China these past 6 weeks. And understand 6 weeks is nothing - I am still a neophyte here with Mooney and only a pilot. But since coming here I have seen the bigger picture. Some time ago, perhaps shortly after Jerry took the helm of Mooney, he related that they had very well defined road map or plans for the next 5, 10, 15 years (or thereabouts) for the company's future. That's an understatement! The big disconnect I see in America is that we are all limited to the myopic view of the M20's - or more specifically Kerrville. But the reality is that the M20's are only the tip of the iceberg of a much bigger picture. The M20's are just one piece of a much larger plan with much greater commitment than I could have imagined till coming here; and that's why my enthusiasm and optimism have increased so much since arriving. Of course I am not the person that can get into specific's. But I can illustrate by referencing some public information. 

To begin with the commonly referred too "Chinese investors"  is the Meijing Group. A quick five second read on the whom they are is here: http://www.bloomberg.com/Research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapid=247899467 

The fascinating thing to me is that Meijing group is a huge China success story very much like Amazon or Facebook in the US; excepts its roots are in real estate development. I am using the internet comparison because that's more my background. Meijing is led by Veronica, the CEO (forgive me, but I can't even say, let alone spell her last name!, so I'll refer to her by her English first name.)  Veronica is a China Dream success story come true and is very young and beautiful to boot. Although her company was founded on real estate development she has since diversified into other areas including aviation, health care management, wine industry and more. The best reference I am currently aware of that illustrates her sense of where she's going with Mooney and GA in China is this web page:  http://www.mjgroup.cn/xinwenzhongxin/jituanxinwen/2015-01-15/1282.html (If you bring this up in a browser like Chrome its makes it very easy to use the google translate feature to make it somewhat readable,)

The first picture is the hangar-factory of where I am based now at Soaring. The second picture includes Veronica in middle. (I have seen much better pictures of her and if you peruse the their website you'll see more of her elsewhere). The third picture is a new Acclaim, known as "Zhengzhou No. 1", that was a milestone of sorts to demonstrate how a new Mooney coming off the Kerrville's production line can then be partially disassembled for crating and shipment to China and then reassembled here at Soaring to become a Chinese certified and registered Mooney for sale.

The point of this though, although not well depicted in the one article referenced, is that Veronica and her company's strategic focus is on the bigger picture of building their future GA market share in China rather than a US centric concern of the M20's competitiveness with Cirrus sales in the US.  I suspect our beloved M20's are just one small part, although a vital part, of their future plans for GA in China. No doubt short term goals of getting the M10's and Ultra's certified and into production are critical too. But I really believe they have the long term view and resources to see this through and can survive the typical hiccups along the way. They also appear to be very savvy and the reality that Mitch alluded too about business being business is very real; meaning the only certainty is that they will continue to evolve their plans and goals to meet the needs of the perceived market place; and I am referring to the China marketplace where the potential is so much bigger than the US. I remain hopeful and optimistic that the M20's and Kerrville will continue to play a vital role in all this. 

   

Edited August 19, 2016 by kortopates

[MooneyMitch]

Thank you Paul.  I had to ask some questions of you in hopes that possibly some of the topics I mentioned were now for public dissemination.  

With that said, and with the optimism we both share for the  Kerrville facility and its employees, I truly hope that that entity will continue, at least in some fashion of production as the Mooney future unfolds.

There is so much beloved, and oh so dynamic Mooney history at Kerrville.  It is a great American story!  I'm still hopeful the Mooney Museum will someday become a reality at the Kerrville plant.

Ok, thank you again for sharing your experiences.  I'll bet many of us are hopeful you will share as much as possible as your adventure there continues.

 

[MooneyMitch]

Oh, one other point, Trey (MAPA) is requesting Mooney stories for the LOG. 

Possibly you would consider writing an article of your Chinese Mooney adventures for MAPA members.

Best to you.