Don Maxwell - The Mooney King! Thanks For Sharing Your Knowlege!

[MrRodgers]

As a first time airplane / Mooney buyer it goes without saying that the process can be overwhelming and frought with danger financially as well as physically. 

Thanks to the research I did in this forum I located a true gentleman who with his staff proved to be an invaluable resource for a buyer such as myself. They provided an  abundance of information about our beloved Mooney’s , their history, systems, quirks, personalities and airworthiness. The bird I have chosen to pursue is a beautiful example on a 1967 M20 F.  The seller  (Alan) flew her to Don’s shop and I flew in from Los Angeles for the occasion.

Don and his staff welcomed me and made me feel right at home. I spent a total of nine hours with everyone today asking numerous questions while looking over the shoulder of everyone touching the plane.

The patience they all showed me today was so appreciated as it allowed me to review all of the information provided and make a wise an informed purchase decision regarding the condition of the aircraft.  After a long day, it appears that the purchase will be moving forward and soon I will have this bird in her new nest in Santa Monica.

Thanks everyone for sharing with us newbies on this site.  It’s nice to know we all have a place to go for some much needed answers. 

And as for Don Maxwell, this man is a total pro who deserves every positive accolade the Mooney community can send his way.  I am certain he has many already.

I found him to be a kind, considerate and brilliant man who provides remarkable service to everyone who is fortunate enough to have him and his team work on their behalf. 

Thanks again Don for all you do.

Michael Rodgers - KSMO

 

 

 

 

 

 

[RLCarter]

Awesome and sounds like congrats are in order

[DonMuncy]

Don't say things like that about Don. It will make his head bigger than it already is.  

[DonMuncy]

With that said, all you say is true.

[peevee]

Not at all the experience we had.

[Guest]

It would be nice if Don would share some of his vast Mooney knowledge here with the rest of us, but I've yet to see one post offering advise or guidance to anyone.

Clarence

[Danb]

9 minutes ago, M20Doc said:

It would be nice if Don would share some of his vast Mooney knowledge here with the rest of us, but I've yet to see one post offering advise or guidance to anyone.

Clarence

Although that may be true, I've called Don to consult on a few items, last time this week, he has always provided me with his time and valuable information.

[gsxrpilot]

I also had a wonderful experience with Don helping me get into my first Mooney. His advice and pre-buy inspection made all the difference. I've said before that the only way I'd buy a Mooney without a pre-buy inspection was if it was regularly serviced by Don. You'd get just as much good information about the Mooney just calling and spending 30 minutes on the phone with Don and let him tell you the entire history of the bird in question.

Don has been on here a couple of times, but he doesn't really like the forum format and has said that's the reason he rarely posts here.  He is very active on the MAPA Email list though. I personally don't like the email list format and while I subscribe, I rarely participate on that list. Don seems to prefer that format and regularly answers questions posted to that email list. 

And while he's not easy to get on the phone, when you do, he's happy to talk and answer any questions you might have. He also helped me with some very good advice over a couple of phone calls which rescued my 252 when faced with spar cap corrosion. So needless to say, I'm very thankful and a big fan of Don and his shop at KGGG.

[PTK]

It is definitely crucial for a buyer to have someone who knows these airplanes help navigate through the process and avoid the traps. The op had a good experience with Maxwell and that's great. In his opinion he is “the Mooney King.”

However, imo, we have to be careful and refrain from bestowing an absolute title such as this because there is no one Mooney King. It is based on opinion and is thus entirely subjective. There are other excellent Mooney specialists who would deserve it as well.

For example, in my opinion and based on my experience, that title would go to Ronnie Kramer and David Behrens at Dugosh, Dorn Clare at Weber and Dave Mathiesen at Air Mods. 

 

 

 

[peevee]

48 minutes ago, PTK said:

It is definitely crucial for a buyer to have someone who knows these airplanes help navigate through the process and avoid the traps. The op had a good experience with Maxwell and that's great. In his opinion he is “the Mooney King.”

However, imo, we have to be careful and refrain from bestowing an absolute title such as this because there is no one Mooney King. It is based on opinion and is thus entirely subjective. There are other excellent Mooney specialists who would deserve it as well.

For example, in my opinion and based on my experience, that title would go to Ronnie Kramer and David Behrens at Dugosh, Dorn Clare at Weber and Dave Mathiesen at Air Mods. 

 

 

 

My experience has been if you want your plane "good enough" Maxwell is the place to go.

He did a ppi on one of our planes, a plane he had worked on often. He found a bunch of little things and missed some big ones, like when his shop did gear pucks the year before the nose assembly top cap was backwards causing some screwy handling. The fuel setup wasn't right, something he said "was normal", it wasn't.

Best of all, someone, and I can't say it was him, decided to go back and cross out the tsmoh entry in ink on every logbook entry he had made since the engine was worked on. This happened between when the books were scanned and when we picked the plane and physical logs up from maxwells shop, our first chance to see the physical books, after we had closed on the plane.

 

He's certainly knowledgeable, but I wonder if he isn't maybe getting closer to thinking about retiring or if QA is slipping a bit. Maybe the planes owner had spent enough money there he wanted to help with the sale? No idea, will never know.

[Hank]

3 hours ago, gsxrpilot said:

Don has been on here a couple of times, but he doesn't really like the forum format and has said that's the reason he rarely posts here.  He is very active on the MAPA Email list though. I personally don't like the email list format and while I subscribe, I rarely participate on that list. Don seems to prefer that format and regularly answers questions posted to that email list. 

I also subscribe to both MAPA lists, and take my required emails in "digest" format. Then when I feel like it, I go to their archives and read them in thread format. Yes  there is as much bickering as here, and wven more thread drift (can you believe it? It's true!) than here. But its good information.

[rbridges]

3 hours ago, M20Doc said:

It would be nice if Don would share some of his vast Mooney knowledge here with the rest of us, but I've yet to see one post offering advise or guidance to anyone.

Clarence

I asked Joey Cole the same thing, but I think they shy away from these type forums because of how things can sometimes evolve.  Look at POA.  You can't ask what color the sky is without pissing contests developing.

[MrRodgers]

PTK

I agree that bestowing a moniker like King on the thread topic might be off putting to some and not take into account the many other qualified Mooney specialists providing valuable services throughout the country. I meant no disrespect to anyone. I am very happy with my decision to work with Don and his team and have found them to be extremely knowledgeable, helpful and most importantly ethical through all of the inspection process. 

 

[Danb]

9 hours ago, PTK said:

It is definitely crucial for a buyer to have someone who knows these airplanes help navigate through the process and avoid the traps. The op had a good experience with Maxwell and that's great. In his opinion he is “the Mooney King.”

However, imo, we have to be careful and refrain from bestowing an absolute title such as this because there is no one Mooney King. It is based on opinion and is thus entirely subjective. There are other excellent Mooney specialists who would deserve it as well.

For example, in my opinion and based on my experience, that title would go to Ronnie Kramer and David Behrens at Dugosh, Dorn Clare at Weber and Dave Mathiesen at Air Mods. 

 

 

 

Dorne  retired from Weber last summer, gone fishing

[HRM]

On 10/26/2017 at 9:32 PM, MrRodgers said:

And as for Don Maxwell, this man is a total pro who deserves every positive accolade the Mooney community can send his way.

I purchased The Mistress without a PPI, just a phone call to Don who had done the annuals on her for a decade. Eight years later, she is still Super.

Don is super too  

[ziggysanchez]

 

22 hours ago, HRM said:

I purchased The Mistress without a PPI, just a phone call to Don who had done the annuals on her for a decade. Eight years later, she is still Super.

Don is super too  

I have nothing but great things to say about Don and his family. They have always gone out of their way to help me resolve any issues I've had with my aircraft. I did purchase this aircraft directly from Maxwell. So far it's been a pretty awesome airplane.

[ilovecornfields]

This was not my experience either. My plane spent 4 weeks in his shop for a PPi and annual. I asked him to do the 310 HP STC which he said would take less than a week. 4 weeks later the plane was still in the shop. STC was done incorrectly. Fuel flow was set too low which results in really high CHTs (he said he didn’t even check it), RPM maxed out at 2650 instead of 2700. He assured me the speedbrakes were ok and I ended up spending $5000 to overhaul them within a week of buying the plane. Brake disc was worn below limits and there were several other airworthiness issues that were missed. There was also a big fuel leak he missed. Spent over $12k at his shop and when I asked him to “make it right” he hung up on me.  

I’m glad you had a good experience there, but I did not. If it hadn’t been for all the praise and superlatives used when referring to Don Maxwell on this site I would have had the inspection done at the MSC I had used previously, but I had the plane flown to Texas because I wanted the “best.” In the end, I ended up flying the plane to the other MSC to have Don’s shoddy work repaired at my expense and kicked myself for not having used them in the first place and wasting my time and money with Don Maxwell.

He may have the knowledge, but quality control and customer service are horrendous. 

[ArtVandelay]

1 hour ago, ilovecornfields said:

This was not my experience either. My plane spent 4 weeks in his shop for a PPi and annual. I asked him to do the 310 HP STC which he said would take less than a week. 4 weeks later the plane was still in the shop. STC was done incorrectly. Fuel flow was set too low which results in really high CHTs (he said he didn’t even check it), RPM maxed out at 2650 instead of 2700. He assured me the speedbrakes were ok and I ended up spending $5000 to overhaul them within a week of buying the plane. Brake disc was worn below limits and there were several other airworthiness issues that were missed. There was also a big fuel leak he missed. Spent over $12k at his shop and when I asked him to “make it right” he hung up on me.  

I’m glad you had a good experience there, but I did not. If it hadn’t been for all the praise and superlatives used when referring to Don Maxwell on this site I would have had the inspection done at the MSC I had used previously, but I had the plane flown to Texas because I wanted the “best.” In the end, I ended up flying the plane to the other MSC to have Don’s shoddy work repaired at my expense and kicked myself for not having used them in the first place and wasting my time and money with Don Maxwell.

He may have the knowledge, but quality control and customer service are horrendous. 

It may be that he’s more knowledgeable about the vintage Mooneys, and lets someone else in the shop handle the modern Mooney.

[FloridaMan]

I didn't have the best experience with him and his shop either. He is certainly very knowledgeable, but there were some things that were done competently, and some things that I considered to be reckless and irresponsible. 

Edited October 29, 2017 by Antares

[KLRDMD]

I've had nothing but excellent interactions with Don and his shop.

[82Mike]

I will tell you who is great for help is J. D. And Laura at SW Texas.  They both have done nothing but be of great help to me.

[Andy95W]

They're nice folks at SW Texas.  I think somewhere Russell is glad.

Do you know if they are here on MooneySpace?  They might want to lurk here if nothing else.

[gsxrpilot]

+1 for SWTA

I will confirm that they are lurking here.

I'm proud to have been their first customer after they reopened SWTA after Russell passed. And they've been nothing but excellent for me ever since. In fact they've done all the maintenance on my Mooney since they opened their shop.

 

[MyNameIsNobody]

There are always “losers” when rolling the dice on vintage machines...

I have had so many positive experiences with my A&P and his team that I simply trust them with my and my families life.

Mooney Service Centers and “Guru’s of the brand” are great, but I will take my 14 year relationship with a little shop in Monticello, IA any day...AND every day.  Thank you very much.

[82Mike]

JD and Laura are really great and I know they look at our boards.  Good thing is they are young and will be here for the long run.