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My Dad's first plane, Mooney M20E N5785Q


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I sent my Dad the December 2016 Aviation Consumer article on the Mooney 201 M20J.  I bought a M20J last year and it reminds my Dad of his first airplane.  He wrote me this email today:

GREAT ARTICLE ABOUT A GREAT AIRPLANE - NOTHING SO FAST ON SO LITTLE FUEL ON 200HP!  N5785Q was owned privately and billed 15 cents per mile when on business.  (It was his personal plane but he used it for business and billed the business 15 cents per mile.)

Answering your question: - It was a 1965 M20E bought for $10,205.70 on January 31st 1969, with 600 hours, Electric gear, 200HP, power boost, 52 gallons, Gross WT. 2575lbs, FLOWN LONG RANGE MOSTLY AT 10,000ft., 2,300RPM, 21"MP, 10.3GPH, 63%PWR, RANGE: 5.00 hours over 766nm no reserve, at 152kts airspeed.   

HIGH SPEED CRUISE –  Gross WT. 2575lbs  5,000ft, 2,400RPM, 25"MP, 12.2GPH, 77%PWR, RANGE: 4.27 hours over 676nm no reserve, at 158kts airspeed.

_______________

He eventually sold it and moved onto a Cessna 310 twin in the early to mid 70's which is the first airplane I can remember as a child.  I can't remember the Mooney.  When I got this email I looked it up and I see that greg51 is the current owner of my Dad's first plane.  Cool to see that the plane is still around and being flown to this day.  My Dad is 73 and still flying.  Here is a photo of N5785Q when he owned it:

IMG_2541.JPG

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  • 8 months later...

There are many odd reasons why the SN and tail number get out of order...

SNs are assigned early on in the process.... Tail numbers are set at registration time and get painted at the end....

The Mooney history covers the details.  A couple of SNs are really interesting on how they fell out of line and showed up later...

The 60s and machine SNs were not a well defined or greatly appreciated part of the manufacturing process as they are today...

PP thoughts only, not a Mooney historian...

Best regards,

-a-

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