MOONEY M20 D MASTER QUESTIONS

[airbusflyboy]

New to the forum here ............ What can anyone tell me about the MOONEY M20 D MASTER ?

What kind of performance numbers ? Where can I find that information ? What are the PLUS and MINUS of owning such aircraft ? Would I be better off with a RETRACTABLE "C" model ? How is the maintenance issues with this type of aircraft and what to watch out for ?

Many Thanks, Mark in Memphis,TN

[DaV8or]

Svennnn! Oh, Svennn! Where are you Sven?

Sven, a member here on the forum has one of the other original M20Ds in the world that has not been converted to retrac. He would be the ultimate authority on these questions. Hopefully he will check in soon.

Oh, and welcome to the forum! If you are thinking about the D on eBay, I hope you buy it and bring it back to original as possible. The D is super rare these days and I hope that nobody ever converts another to retrac.

[231Pilot]

It would have to out perform a Cherokee (it is a Mooney, after all).  Maintenence should be less than a retractable Mooey.  Whoever buys it shouldn't convert it.  I would love to have it, but don't have/can't afford the extra hangar space.  It would be a terrible thing to keep an airplane that rare out in the open. 

[Sven]

Sorry I've not checked in for a while. We can answer all of your Fixed Gear questions. Send me a PM and we'll connect by email or by phone. We love our D.

-Sven (Scott)

[Sven]

I'll be out celebrating today but if you want to get started looking at materials, I have several Mooney manuals for this plane posted online in PDF format. I have the POH, the parts and the maintenance manuals all available here: 

http://www.scribd.com/callmesven

[N33GG]

A neat aircraft, but WOW, check out the performance numbers and the side by side penalty for retract vs. fixed gear.  No wonder so many have been converted.  I knew there would be a difference, but didn't expect it to be that much.  Still, it would be a heck of a buy compared to a Cherokee 180, no doubt.  (No offense to the Cherokee 180's out there...they are great airplanes too.)

[airbusflyboy]

Still thinking hard about this plane ................................... would really like to have it ............................ other than being a "rare bird" does anyone else out there have some more information on this type of Mooney ??? I understand that it is basically a "C" model with the gear welded down ???

[Sven]

My partner tried calling you today, airbusboy. We're you able to connect with him? He's got a lot more info about it than I do. However, since I was the one who overhauled the gear, I can tell you it's not welded in. It's built to convert to retractible gear. Basically the bottom needs to be cut out and trimmed, gear doors placed on and some extra hardware installed. I have no idea where you would find a kit to do this. I'm certain Mooney no longer has them. This bird is slower, no doubt. It's a 20 kt+ penalty. But we pay half the insurance of a retractable and never have to worry about a gear-up landing. For the type of recreational and semi-local flying we do it's perfect for us and it's very affordable. We do get told by ATC to pull up our gear several times a year. Someday we might get a "real" Mooney but we would never convert this one. In fact, we've talked about donating it to a museum before we ever sold it because it's that rare. We'd hate to see it converted. We feel like stewards of something very unique. And if we get to a fly-in a little later than all the rest of the Mooneys, so be it. It certainly isn't for everyone but we love it.

[DaV8or]

Quote: airbusflyboy

 I understand that it is basically a "C" model with the gear welded down ???

[airbusflyboy]

Yea, we are trying to get hold of the mechanic that does his annual inspections, he has been working on the plane for around 8 years according to the owner ...................... I want to go see this plane and from the excellent feedback that I have read here from you guys, we believe this would make a great little plane for our use. I fly professionally, understand the issues of gear up landings (human beings in charge) but even those retractable gear models have setbacks and I don't feel that if we bought the plane, we would do a conversion ............ WHY ??? You can buy a lot of gas for the price of doing a conversion, that is the way I see it. I believe this plane is better value than the other makes out there that are still lofty in prices and I am not sure many of them are selling due to their proud prices. I use AOPA and TRADE-A-PLANE price evaluators to get a ballpark number on anything I am looking at ............................... they are not official appraisals but a quick reference to the price ranges out there and what a certain make and model is roughly worth at any given moment. Getting back to this MOONEY 20 D Master ........ If anyone else out there has anything else they might want to share with us, I would really appreciate it ......................... I need to especially get the cost of ownership, how these types of aircraft handle in flight and anything worth mentioning !!! Happy Holidays to all you guys !!! We hope to be a Mooney Owner soon ......................................