How many M22s are still flying?

[Stephan Wilkinson]

I'm doing an article on the M22 for Aviation History Magazine, of which I'm a contributing editor.

Question:  How many Mooney M22s are currently active, either in the U. S. or overseas?  The most recent number I have is three, but that was in 2013.

[Greg Ellis]

That is a really good question.  The FAA website shows 15 in their US Database all with current registrations and all but one have been renewed into 2021 or 2022.  However, a deeper dive on some of these shows them not to have flown in a long time.  One of them had a last reported flight on Flightaware 24 years ago!!!  Did not know they kept a history of flights since before the website existed.

But  I am sure with a little research you could probably track down at least the number in the United States that are flying.

Sorry this does not help much but may be a place to start your research.

[Greg Ellis]

A quick search of the planes that are still registered with the FAA shows that according to Flightaware.com,  2 of them have flown within the last 7 months, One was last flown in 2018 and one last flown in 2017.

[Stephan Wilkinson]

Thanks, Greg.  Didn't mean for you to do my work for me...

Stephan

[takair]

One of those flight may have been to the museum.  The one that was previously most active was donated about a year ago....  The next most active had a nose gear fail perhaps 3 years ago.  They have been really hard to keep airworthy.....

[Greg Ellis]

There are photos of the one with the gear collapse here when it was being salvaged.

http://www.kwsalvage.com/detail.asp?offset=72

[KLRDMD]

I've always wanted an M22. I have access to a P210 that I fly somewhat regularly but it isn't a Mooney. And a Malibu won't fit in my hangar. If it weren't for the engine it has I probably would have owned one by now.

Edited June 12, 2019 by KLRDMD

[afward]

I saw one at Stellar Airpark (P19 in Arizona) last Saturday that appeared to be in flight-worthy shape.  You might call the airpark manager to ask about it.  It's in the covered tiedown area, I think third from the end closest to the gate, facing away from the enclosed hangars.

[EricJ]

5 hours ago, afward said:

I saw one at Stellar Airpark (P19 in Arizona) last Saturday that appeared to be in flight-worthy shape.  You might call the airpark manager to ask about it.  It's in the covered tiedown area, I think third from the end closest to the gate, facing away from the enclosed hangars.

It's been there a long time.   I think I heard that it actually got run within the last six months or so, but I don't know that it's flown in a long time.   A friend knows more about that airplane if anybody really wants details.

[takair]

6 hours ago, afward said:

I saw one at Stellar Airpark (P19 in Arizona) last Saturday that appeared to be in flight-worthy shape.  You might call the airpark manager to ask about it.  It's in the covered tiedown area, I think third from the end closest to the gate, facing away from the enclosed hangars.

I looked at it a few years ago and I think it is still for sale.  The owner has many spares with it.  It would have required a ferry flight at the time and it was just too far away for me.  Would be a good restoration project for someone that is nearby.  Can provide owner info if someone is truly interested...pm me.

[carusoam]

Welcome aboard, Stephan...

There was an MSer that had two... One was the spare parts donor....

Using the search function around here should find some interesting details for that project and pilot...

The plane used an interesting variant of the Lycoming six cylinder engine...

a quick search found many mentions and threads...

https://mooneyspace.com/search/?q=Mooney Mustang M22&updated_after=any&sortby=relevancy&search_and_or=and

Are you familiar with Mooneys?

Good luck, let us know if you need additional assistance.

Best regards,

-a-

 

[Stephan Wilkinson]

Not my first rodeo.  I have many hours in 201 Mike, which Flying Magazine owned when I was an editor there.  It was the very first production 201.  I've flown a lot of different Mooneys at one time or or another, including the Porsche, which I loved.  Didn't know Al Mooney, but I did know Roy LoPresti.

As far as I can tell from the above replies to my original post, there are no M22s currently flying, although there may be a few "I could fly it if I wanted to" or "It's flyable but the nosegear is broken right now," etc.  Interesting.

[carusoam]

Stephan,

MS is a haven for all Mooneys.  But, when there are few of a particular model... there aren’t enough people that want to type, and work on specialty machines all day...

It is possible that a few exist in the hands of people that are not so internet savvy...

There are older forms of Mooney forums that still may be in existence, like the email list... you might try MAPA... they are still printing the MAPAlog... and a Facebook group...

Mooney had some great engineers... Roy was one of the great ones.  

As far as historical Mooneys go... there are a few others... the name M22 seems to have been used twice... there was a twin Mooney that got some flight time... there are a few Mooney Mites around here... single seat personal planes... Some M20As are here too... The M20A was a beautiful, natural composite, winged Mooney... aka wood wing....

There are two seat Mooneys based on the Alon aercoupe... with a straight tail...

After the Mustang, The M301 was built to fit into a similar market Niche... the 301 was a joint venture that went on a different path... at TBM... Tarbe’s Mooney

What makes the Mustang interesting to Aviation History readers?

Best regards,

-a-

[Stephan Wilkinson]

We have a regular series of articles at Aviation History called "Extremes" that examines interesting aircraft that were, well, extreme developments, and that's why I'm writing about the Mustang.

Yes, I'm well aware of the twin Mooney M22 and of the 301.  And as for the Alon, as a brand-new pilot in the late 1960s, the very first airplane I bought was an equally brand-new Alon.

[Urs_Wildermuth]

There are two I believe in Switzerland, one of which was recently up for sale. It lives in Wangen Lachen, a small 500m long runway at the lake of ZRH. I was very tempted as it was also annoucned cheap, but it disappeared from planecheck very fast. I hope someone got himself a one in a lifetime deal. I think it only had some 1400 hours TT and was in like new condition with older avionics.

[takair]

8 minutes ago, Urs_Wildermuth said:

There are two I believe in Switzerland, one of which was recently up for sale. It lives in Wangen Lachen, a small 500m long runway at the lake of ZRH. I was very tempted as it was also annoucned cheap, but it disappeared from planecheck very fast. I hope someone got himself a one in a lifetime deal. I think it only had some 1400 hours TT and was in like new condition with older avionics.

Was it silver and blue?  That may be the one that made it to Georgia USA and then had the unfortunate nose gear failure (2 or three years ago).  Was a nice example.

[takair]

Just looking on FlightAware, it appears that HB-DVY may be rather active.  You can Google to find owner and flight tracking.  Pietsch, a Mooney service center in the US used to have one as well.  Looks like that one may have been active relatively recently.  As I recall, the family is in the air show business and may be a good opportunity to talk M22.  They used to have a huge spares inventory too and were known as M22 experts.  The name escaped me until I just looked it up.  

I look forward to the article.  The M22 program was an example of running out of money before maturing the product.  The basic performance was really impressive.  It is a huge, comfortable aircraft, but lacked some to the fine tuning that a larger production run would have brought.  There are a few still stored away looking for the right person to bring them back to life.  I don’t doubt we will see a few more flying.  

[Mooney in Oz]

21 hours ago, Stephan Wilkinson said:

How many Mooney M22s are currently active, either in the U. S. or overseas?

There is one in Australia:

https://www.casa.gov.au/aircraft-register?search_api_views_fulltext=M22&vh=YVE&field_ar_serial=

[Igor_U]

20 hours ago, takair said:

I looked at it a few years ago and I think it is still for sale.  The owner has many spares with it.  It would have required a ferry flight at the time and it was just too far away for me.  Would be a good restoration project for someone that is nearby.  Can provide owner info if someone is truly interested...pm me.

It would be great if you or others could post some pictures of that plane...

 

Edited June 13, 2019 by Igor_U

[Urs_Wildermuth]

11 hours ago, takair said:

Was it silver and blue?  That may be the one that made it to Georgia USA and then had the unfortunate nose gear failure (2 or three years ago).  Was a nice example.

No, the one I have seen at Wangen Lachen is white/red. It is HB-DVZ. That is the one which appeared on planecheck a few weeks ago.

That is one pic I found of it, by Tino Dietsche.

The other one is HB-DVY, red/orange/beige

Both are active as far as I know.

 

The metallic/blue one was HB-DEW but that one got sold a few years ago.

Some pics can be found here:

https://www.facebook.com/Mooney-M22-Mustang-423324937740112/

[EricJ]

3 hours ago, Igor_U said:

It would be great if you or others could post some pictures of that plane...

 

I took these about two years ago.

 

[takair]

15 minutes ago, Urs_Wildermuth said:

No, the one I have seen at Wangen Lachen is white/red. It is HB-DVZ. That is the one which appeared on planecheck a few weeks ago.

That is one pic I found of it, by Tino Dietsche.

The other one is HB-DVY, red/orange/beige

Both are active as far as I know.

 

The metallic/blue one was HB-DEW but that one got sold a few years ago.

Some pics can be found here:

https://www.facebook.com/Mooney-M22-Mustang-423324937740112/

Wow, these two are really nice examples!  

[Guest]

10 hours ago, Mooney in Oz said:

There is one in Australia:

https://www.casa.gov.au/aircraft-register?search_api_views_fulltext=M22&vh=YVE&field_ar_serial=

That link is great, I used it to find 8 Comanche 400’s in Australia.

Clarence

[afward]

1 hour ago, EricJ said:

I took these about two years ago.

 

FWIW, it was back together when I saw it... For some reason I feel like it's also had a new paint job, but don't hold me to that.  I wasn't paying a lot of attention at the time.

[Mcstealth]

My father flew off the certification hours for the Alon, at least a lot of them. They were the last hours in his log book. 

He also was involved with the M22. Told a story of how much "dope???" they had to use.

Cool thread.