If I were Mooney

[Mcstealth]

I am sure this is already been thought of, but I would approach every large and small flight school, and give them an incentive to replace their aging fleet with Mooney's new design. Same for any college level flight program. I don't know what kind of incentive that could be, but it seems reasonable to me that selling five planes to a large school instead of just one would make sense.  Possibly make the incentive a low priced 'O' or TN to add to their fleet? 

Just thinking out loud. 

DF

[jonhop]

To add to McStealth's idea... how about factory direct leasebacks to a select few of the larger flying clubs in the country that are close to MSCs? Club members would get to fly the newest and fastest production aircraft on the market at a reasonable rate... Mooney can specify the pilot qualifications and instructor requirements of who gets to fly the airplane and at the same time benefit from learning from the sqawks of pilots who don't baby their airplanes, by having maintenance done at one of their MSC affiliates. I don't think a 141 school would like a Mooney as part of the training fleet, as they are looking for the lowest cost aircraft to put a student through to a major airline pipeline. But, most large flying clubs directly support part 61 flight instruction and that is where students earn their PPL and graduate from the dream of flight to the dream of airplane ownership... 

[Hank]

It would be simpler and cheaper if Mooney accepted trade-ins, cleaned them up and used those for the schools / clubs. This will make a good but expensive idea into a workable concept, and will expose many more pilots to the brand.

[Mcstealth]

I am a little ignorant to this, but what is considered a "big" flight school? How many planes? How many students?

[kortopates]

The concept of selling Mooney's to flight schools is exactly what Mooney is designing and building their new composite diesel powered M10J and M10T for. But at least initially, their immediate goal is for the Chinese training market where the perceived market demand is much higher than here. Their role there is not limited to manufacturing trainers either as they are investing in being able to provide pilot training and fleet maintenance management much like a FBO as well. As the GA pilot community grows, the hope is our Kerrville M20's will then be marketable to a growing number of Chinese pilots with excess disposable income. The M20 is already slated for a large flying club based in Beijing, (which currently is only large in members but small in planes inventory). The long term plans goes much further beyond that too.

I know all of us here in America only think about Kerrville's M20 production, but the priority right now is in positioning Mooney to become a market leader in the GA explosion which is about to take off in China. I have to caveat this,  as it is my opinion only since I am not and can not speak for Mooney. I am only a pilot that spent 3 months flying for and working with their Chinese team in China and is hoping to see them entirely successful as you all are. But with that success and seeing this business line become profitable I believe we can then look forward to seeing new innovations in the high performance M20 aircraft and even new designs come from Mooney as it builds on its success. 

[Mcstealth]

4 hours ago, kortopates said:

The concept of selling Mooney's to flight schools is exactly what Mooney is designing and building their new composite diesel powered M10J and M10T for. 

Yes exactly what I said. "Mooney's new design." Sell them to American flight schools.

df

 

[helitim]

On 11/7/2016 at 4:22 PM, kortopates said:

I know all of us here in America only think about Kerrville's M20 production, but the priority right now is in positioning Mooney to become a market leader in the GA explosion which is about to take off in China. I have to caveat this,  as it is my opinion only since I am not and can not speak for Mooney. I am only a pilot that spent 3 months flying for and working with their Chinese team in China and is hoping to see them entirely successful as you all are. But with that success and seeing this business line become profitable I believe we can then look forward to seeing new innovations in the high performance M20 aircraft and even new designs come from Mooney as it builds on its success. 

How long do you think it will be before they either build a plant in China or close the Kerrville plant and move it? Once GA starts to become financially profitable in China, what is the incentive to continue producing more expensive US versions when they can copy them in China for pennies on the dollar?  The flip side of that same question is, would a Chinese produced Mooney for half price or less be a good product for US markets? 

[KSMooniac]

There already is a gigantic plant in China...it is just empty right now until there is something to build. I believe the plan has always been too have a parallel M10 line in China to service that market, and not to import them to the US. I doubt M20s will ever be manufactured over there...maybe disassembled and shipped from Kerrville to be reassembled like they've already done a few times, but never a full line for an airframe with a limited future.

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[Mcstealth]

On 11/7/2016 at 4:03 PM, Mcstealth said:

I am a little ignorant to this, but what is considered a "big" flight school? How many planes? How many students?

Asking this again.

[kortopates]

On 11/9/2016 at 9:29 AM, KSMooniac said:

There already is a gigantic plant in China...it is just empty right now until there is something to build. I believe the plan has always been too have a parallel M10 line in China to service that market, and not to import them to the US. I doubt M20s will ever be manufactured over there...maybe disassembled and shipped from Kerrville to be reassembled like they've already done a few times, but never a full line for an airframe with a limited future.

Sent from my VS985 4G using Tapatalk
 

 

+1 

Furthermore, have you considered how expensive it would be to even move the heavy equipment from Kerrville to China? Then you still need the technical capability of Kerrville's staff to build them. Then you'll need Chinese production authority for the Mooney TCDS - which is no easy task and probably more expensive their than here at this time. At even much improved production levels than current it just doesn't make any sense; especially at less than a couple planes per month. I am not at all privy to such information, but I doubt the factory is profitable yet; especially with all the capital improvements Dr Jerry Chen made to get the production line moving again with greater efficiency.  

Certainly, plane sales are not funding the design/engineering team working to get the M10 production certificate in Chino, nor is it supporting the similarly sized team in China preparing to introduce the M10 and M20 to the Chinese market. That's all funding provided by Veronica's Meijing Group. So personally I think we have much to be thankful for regardless if we see much M10 production in the US after China gets approval. But foremost we need to see Mooney become profitable again soon just to ensure continued support and production of our M20's. A lot is resting on getting the M10 approved and too market.

[helitim]

Considering the number of empty ships going to China on a regular basis to import their copied goods, I think it would be fairly simple and cheap to transport any amount of heavy equipment to their plants.  The reality is, the physical size of the machines used to produce the parts are not really that large comparatively.  The other option is something they are masters of, copying.  If they can't transport it, they will copy it.  They simply need the engineering drawings and they would be up and running in weeks.  The certification process could be completed rather swiftly if the proper authorities are involved. I think it's rather naive of any American to believe our products and processes are safe regardless of the end product or complexity where China is concerned.

 Strong sales in China will help solidify the overall Mooney market and support.  Until sales increase, regardless of country or origin of product, the bottom line will dictate the future of our beloved Mooney's.  The simple fact that Dr Chen was expendable in such a short time tells us what the Chinese think of our productivity.