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Advice on turbo Mooney


bcwiseguy

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27 minutes ago, Yooper Rocketman said:

The wing is substantially shorter, no vertical panel and no prop TKS spray bars (heated prop to avoid fluid ingestion in engine).  The same pump as the Mooneys and Bo's with a lot less places to put the fluid.  I am really impressed with the operation on the Lancair.

Tom

Rumor has it the pump comes from a soft serve machine and they just resell them.

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On 1/22/2018 at 3:56 AM, Danb said:

I've had. Bravo since 2006, awesome plane, nice and heavy to handle bumps, likes fuel when flying fast, not bad similar to Beech if you slow down to beech speeds, yesterday fuel burn 14 per hour 5500 ft, 165 knots true, bump it up for trips  16-18.5 gal per hour per 175-205 knots true depending on altitude, quite a bit of versatility. No major repairs in 13 yrs, just normal Bravo maintenance.

 

Good luck finding your Mooney, there all GREAT

Had mine since 2009..no unusual maintaince issues...mines known ice no encore ever made can match rate of climb or cruise...don't like the fuel burn?...take your right hand and put on black knob...rotate counter clockwise till your wallet is happy or are cruising encore speeds!Also lycoming cylinders do not need to be replaced every 800 hrs

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Alot of really helpful comments on this thread. I do appreciate everyone who has taken the time to lend their experience and wisdom. I can see value in either the 231, 252/Encore , and Bravo. At this point I won't rule any of them out. I have offers from a couple 231 owners and a 252 owner to take me up in their aircraft and I am looking forward to it so I can gauge how each aircraft performs and how it fits my mission. Now I only need to find a Bravo owner near San Antonio or Austin....lol.

 

Right now the 231 seems to offer the best availability/price option. The 252/Encore seem to offer the best speed/efficiency option but less availability on the For Sale market than a 231. The Bravo seems to offer the best performance with maybe a bit more availability on the For Sale market than a 252. I've seen at least 1 or 2 of each for sale that peak my interest. We will have to see what is available later this year when I am ready to buy. In the meantime, I am going to keep researching each model and learning more about each one so that when I am ready to buy, I know exactly what I am looking for and feel comfortable about going after it. Been a long time since I bought my last Mooney and this time I want to be much better prepared.

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On 1/23/2018 at 5:08 PM, Yooper Rocketman said:

Here's my "non-FIKI" doing it's job on my Lancair.  I had an 1/8" on it pretty quick and hit hi mode.  It was flowing in 30 seconds and the ice was off in less than 2 minutes.  WAY FASTER than the FIKI Bonanza I fly.  Just to be clear, that was "un-forecast icing".  If you look where I live, you will see I would give up 60% of my winter flying without TKS.  To add another datum point; prior to my first TKS install I flew in a twin with "certified de-cing" in the way of boots.  While we were slogging along picking up ice, the pilot (I'm not twin rated) noticed his side was not working.  There we were in icing with the boots on the right wing popping ice and the left wing accumulating it.  I hadn't thought of that until now, but that's another "certified system" that failed on me.

Tom

Iphone 7  June 8, 2017 150.JPG

Tom, how is it that the TKS on your Lancair is so fast? The TKS on my Acclaim is painfully slow, but it always passes inspection.

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Same as my Rocket.  It must have taken 5-10 minutes to wet out today on my trip to Florida.  I hadn't used it in a while though either.  

The Lancar has a shorter wing, no spray bar on the prop ( heated prop, my engine guy was dead set against running the fluid through my engine), and the same size pump as the Mooney and Bonanza use.

Tom

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 1/26/2018 at 3:38 PM, Joe Zuffoletto said:

Tom, how is it that the TKS on your Lancair is so fast? The TKS on my Acclaim is painfully slow, but it always passes inspection.

Do you run it at max rate while taxing out to prime it after a period of non use?I have found if I do so  ,panels wet out with in 5 min on max rate than back to min if I clear a cell.

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  • 2 weeks later...
4 hours ago, Utah_Pilot said:

If you are willing to take a gamble...

https://www.fsboauctions.net/product/1986-mooney-m20k-252-tse/

Last registration expired in 2014 and it's been out of annual for years.  I can't find any information on the last registered owner so my bet is it's bank owned.  Looks nice though...

There's no problem with the registration: http://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/NNum_Results.aspx?NNumbertxt=252PB

It's been flying all over the place. https://flightaware.com/live/flight/N252PB/history

The advertisement shows it out of annual, but that may be wrong. Looks like a nice airplane, although it's a single-alternator model of the 252 which seem to eat batteries.

A couple of years ago one of our Mooneyspace members was looking at it before the California buyer bought it.

 

It looks like it landed gear up in OK this past May and since they didn't disclose that in the FSBO ad, maybe you are taking a gamble.

http://www.kathrynsreport.com/2017/05/mooney-m20k-n252pb-dawn-rene-holding.html

 

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1 hour ago, Utah_Pilot said:

If you are willing to take a gamble...

https://www.fsboauctions.net/product/1986-mooney-m20k-252-tse/

Last registration expired in 2014 and it's been out of annual for years.  I can't find any information on the last registered owner so my bet is it's bank owned.  Looks nice though...

What kind of auction is that?

 

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45 minutes ago, LANCECASPER said:

There's no problem with the registration: http://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/NNum_Results.aspx?NNumbertxt=252PB

It's been flying all over the place. https://flightaware.com/live/flight/N252PB/history

The advertisement shows it out of annual, but that may be wrong. Looks like a nice airplane, although it's a single-alternator model of the 252 which seem to eat batteries.

Ahh yes...it would help if I were looking up the correct registration number.  I was looking up N252PR.

 

good catch,

 

Trey

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I’ve had my 231 for about two years now. No complaints. Very pleased with the performance and efficiency. I have the Turboplus Intercooler going on this week but here was a peek at my eastbound flight with cowl flaps in trail at 75% Power. Oil around 180F and CHT around 380F.
Was around 2650 lbs when I took those pics.
b41f2d3a869dfd1a50c2efc75ca39e88.jpg6886a44624f71e22fcd660040d0e037c.jpg


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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1 hour ago, mooneyspeed said:

I’ve had my 231 for about two years now. No complaints. Very pleased with the performance and efficiency. I have the Turboplus Intercooler going on this week but here was a peek at my eastbound flight with cowl flaps in trail at 75% Power. Oil around 180F and CHT around 380F.
Was around 2650 lbs when I took those pics.
b41f2d3a869dfd1a50c2efc75ca39e88.jpg6886a44624f71e22fcd660040d0e037c.jpg


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Nice.  I once saw a GS of 130 Kts in my Citabria and I thought that was pretty impressive. 

**Looking forward to going turbo Mooney**

- Trey

 

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2 hours ago, mooneyspeed said:

I’ve had my 231 for about two years now. No complaints. Very pleased with the performance and efficiency. I have the Turboplus Intercooler going on this week but here was a peek at my eastbound flight with cowl flaps in trail at 75% Power. Oil around 180F and CHT around 380F.
Was around 2650 lbs when I took those pics.
b41f2d3a869dfd1a50c2efc75ca39e88.jpg6886a44624f71e22fcd660040d0e037c.jpg


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Awesome KTAS and KTGS. That's  why i love Mooneys. Nothing else comes close on the same fuel burn.

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Yeah, just don’t forget, you have to go back the other way to get home again. Probably the best time I have ever made, I saw those kinds of speeds from Peoria to Fredrick MD and made it in about an hour 45.  That’s right around 600 nm when they get done vectoring you out east.  The trip back that time was not bad, but I have done flights back from trips from Minneapolis to the Bahamas, where the best altitude is as low as you can get, and you are lucky to crank out 120kts GS  or even less, with a headwind.  What goes there must come back.

Edited by jlunseth
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  • 6 months later...

Hello All! I’m dreaming about the 252 and mostly the Bravo with FIKI. 

What did you decide to buy wise guy? I really appreciated all the info. I’m a Cherokee180 owner and am scheduled to take my instrument in November.  What’s the deal with the 252 on the auction site? It’s still listed today with five hours to go. Buy it now for $143,000. 

 

PS I think this is my first post on this site and look forward to learning from all of you

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Welcome aboard, Huge.

And congrats on your first post!

This thread is a little aged and may not be read by many of the posters, without going directly back to whoever wrote what, that you may be interested in...

So If you want to know about @bcwiseguy‘s thoughts, you need to send him a signal (like this blue block thingy)

Around here, we are all Mooney fans. But the decision of what works for one MSer today is going to be unique like a fingerprint...

252s are probably the most developed Mooneys ever.  The Bravo took it to the next level, but the economics reach a new level to go with it...

Keep training, knowledge is power... :)

Best regards,

-a-

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40 minutes ago, Hugemiester said:

Hello All! I’m dreaming about the 252 and mostly the Bravo with FIKI. 

Welcome aboard. I was once dreaming of either a 252 or Bravo. I decided the ongoing care and feeding of the Bravo was a bit beyond my comfort zone. So I now own, fly, and enjoy very much, an M20K 252 TSE.

Happy to answer any questions about it...

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On 1/22/2018 at 10:08 AM, marooneypilot said:

Ok, to be fair, my 231 has an aftermarket automatic wastegate, so fiddling is substantially reduced. You do still have to watch you don't overboost but that's only really a takeoff thing. During a long climb I have to give it a touch more throttle every few thousand feet to keep it at my desired MP

This is my experience with my 231 as well. 

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6 hours ago, Hugemiester said:

Hello All! I’m dreaming about the 252 and mostly the Bravo with FIKI. 

What did you decide to buy wise guy? I really appreciated all the info. I’m a Cherokee180 owner and am scheduled to take my instrument in November.  What’s the deal with the 252 on the auction site? It’s still listed today with five hours to go. Buy it now for $143,000. 

 

PS I think this is my first post on this site and look forward to learning from all of you

Welcome!  I went from a Cherokee 180 to a K 231 back in November.  It’s a really capable airplane that I’m super happy with.  Great performance, worth investing avionics into, and way cooler than the 180 in all aspects.

Adding any ice protection would really be the only other major thing I would want on my K. 

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Thanks guys! I read the entire post this morning and loved it! I will get my IFR next month and fly the Cherokee in IMC this winter. I’m in N Cal about 40 nm east of SFO so I’ll have lots of time to see how I do with IFR. Then I’ll start shopping. MRS. H is on board so I’m pretty motivated. 

1 hour ago, 81X said:

Welcome!  I went from a Cherokee 180 to a K 231 back in November.  It’s a really capable airplane that I’m super happy with.  Great performance, worth investing avionics into, and way cooler than the 180 in all aspects.

Adding any ice protection would really be the only other major thing I would want on my K. 

How was the transition training? I assume you were IFR rated as well? 

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The transition from NA to TC’d bird is one thing...

Raising the HP/WGT ratio is another...

The TC carries that ratio up to the FLs...

Having Mrs. H on board with this plan is the best!

Is Mrs H. A pilot?

 

If no... has she considered the Right Seat Ready class for people that sit right seat in Mooneys...

Best regards,

-a-

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