epsalant Posted May 31, 2017 Report Posted May 31, 2017 It took me longer than 2.5 years to buy my Mooney ! I was looking, kind of, for 5 years. I had a 1995 Piper Archer. I bought the Archer 5 years old from a doc in Florida. It was a no-expense spared plane with great avionics. I had my old instructor (not a mechanic, but an old Air Force pilot who had been around planes his whole life) look the plane and logbooks over and bought it on his recommendation with no formal PPI. No regrets. I wanted something faster than an Archer but had so much trouble parting with such a reliable, simple plane. I was looking and looking, and never found a plane that would allow me to part with such a reliable plane as my Archer. I put it up for sale a few times, asked top dollar. Shortly after flying to Baltimore, bucking 45 kt headwinds in the Archer, with my wife complaining the whole time, I found a local M20J with a lot of hours (over 6000) , previously an Emory Riddle trainer then sold to a MSC mechanic/owner who flew his family around in it for a few years, and then sold to a private owner who had the plane repainted,factory reman 0 time engine, new interior and tons of new avionics installed. I knew the history, but due to its age and hours had a PPI done at a MSC-I would never have thought of doing otherwise. No surprises other than fuel leaks (not too bad, sealed several years later in Minnesota), missing decals and melted recognition light covers. The unfortunate owner got sick and lost his medical (he really was terminally ill, not a sob story), and at the same time I was contacted by a club in Germany that was really looking for an Archer III (take a look at this--they had a ferry tank placed and flew it from St John's to Germany non-stop. The radar coverage stops over the Atlantic, but I spoke to him, pilot made it fine... http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N92513 So I was able to basically trade a '95 Archer for an '89 Mooney. It took me about 5 years between the time I decided to buy a faster plane and the time I did. It worked out great !!! I got my commercial, CFI and CFII in the Mooney...all fun. I also got my seaplane rating, but that wouldn't have worked out so well in the Mooney !!! 1 Quote
kpaul Posted June 1, 2017 Report Posted June 1, 2017 On 5/31/2017 at 6:17 PM, gsxrpilot said: You're on! I'm not actually in Texas today either. I'm in Addis Ababa. (How many of you know where that is without looking it up :-) Expand Been there, its a pretty area of that country. 1 Quote
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