Is Mooney M20c a good first plane

[docjeffry]

On 7/8/2019 at 11:22 PM, gsxrpilot said:

I fired the first four CFI's I flew with. All of them were just full of how dangerous and difficult flying is and how if I didn't take is seriously I'd kill myself. I was 40 years old, not 8 years old. And didn't appreciate being treated like a kid who didn't know better.

Flying is no big deal, anyone can do it. The OP's got 15 hours. He's got a long way to go and I'm sure when he gets there he'll be as competent a pilot as any of us were on the day we passed our check ride. 

Let's not start by throwing cold water on the whole thing.

I fired my first CFI as well for the very same reasons. And, it just so happens I was also 40 at the time. Best decision I ever made. The next school I went to was run by a guy (Glenn Crabtree at KGOK) that had been instructing since before I was born. Never said a word unless he needed to while I was flying and followed a general syllabus pretty much from memory. 

[zaitcev]

On 7/8/2019 at 9:00 PM, Kb Brar said:

Hi fellows , I am new to aviation and so far I have only 15 hours on the book. I looked at a M20c today and liked it. 

Would this be a good first plane.

My mission: I am a wedding photographer, I would be flying to my jobs cross country with my cameras (200-400 Lbs) and may be one person. 

I think it may work, but it will take you a long time and expense before you get there. In particular, you need Instrument Rating to get a decent dispatch reliability. I think I spent close to $20k on training (well, it was $14k to Private).

Also, remember that M20C is fast for a cheap single-engine airplane, but it's not as fast as an airliner. You day trip range is best kept under 1000 nm. So, for example, if you're based east of San Francisco, it includes LA, Palm Springs, Phoenix, Tucson, Vegas, Portland, and Salt Lake. Albuquerque is a stretch. Denver is barely within reach: it's a grueling day-long trip that can only be done in the summer. And remember that you have to be in shape to shoot the wedding, you cannot arrive tired like a dog.

I know a couple of people who use piston singles for business transportation, and they are armed to the teeth: XM datalink, protection from known icing, synthetic vision, oxygen and turbo performance to reach into low tweens if necessary. We are talking $300,000 class airplanes. That's 7 to 10 times more expensive than your M20C. Well, one of them has a $130k Bonanza, but he lives in Dallas and only flies across Texas, NM, OK.

My M20E is my second plane, but my first was a single-seat experimental. I fly it on business, but very rarely - 2 to 5 times a year. This May, I had to stop just 70 miles short of the destination for weather. Fortunately, my meeting was on the next day, so there wasn't any adventure with last-minute rental or $200 chain of Uber rides. But it could be. A couple of years ago, I was away from home when my Dukes electric fuel pump died. I managed to start the plane with just the main pump and flew it home like that. In retrospect, it was not the best risk management. You get this kind of skewed perception of risk once you start flying for business.

Edited July 23, 2019 by zaitcev

[DustinNwind]

I'm going to reiterate what three pages has said before me and many people that have owned a Mooney much longer than I have, but I'm going to give my opinion based only on my experiences.

Yes a Mooney can be a good first plane for these reasons:

 • To land you have to be within 5kts or you're floating forever. Learn to be on your speeds ALL THE TIME.

• To slow down the plane or lose altitude you have to think far ahead. This will become much more important when you get your instrument rating as you'll have to follow specific altitudes by command from ATC rather at your own accord. It's a slippery airplane. It was the most intimidating obstacle to overcome for me.

• It will teach you to fear weather. No vintage Mooney should be flown in hard IMC - people do it and survive, but YOU should not do it. A layer sure. 

• It will teach you how to be complex. I used to retract the flaps on my roll out in a 172 after landing till a friend that has thousands of hours started smacking my hand. What he was teaching me was that there are many of men and women who are smarter than me that have retracted their landing  instead of flaps on accident. A Mooney will teach you right away how to fly a bigger plane on a smaller frame.

• Everyone will tell you how much they love their Mooneys, thus it will keep you flying more with words of affirmation. 

Reason Mooney is a bad first airplane:

• You get too accustomed too high performance, and it's hard to go back. 

• Flying slow planes for the first 100 hours teaches you better stick and rudder skills, especially rudder.

• It will take longer to get proficient. 

• You won't be flying long cross countries as often as you think you will. I live in Los Angeles but have a ranch in N. Utah thus bought the most cost effective hotrod to get there in, a VERY FAST M20E. Weather will be a factor. If there is any chance of icing I won't go, if there's major storms I won't go, and if there are high winds I won't go. Thus, I buy a Southwest ticket almost every time I plan on taking my M20E cross country and I have to be somewhere. My budget doesn't call for a true all weather (FIKI - flight into known icing)  plane thus some trips are canceled or postponed. I can't reiterate how dangerous ice is. 

• More complex means more things to go wrong. You will forget things and you will mess up. A plane with more positive dynamic stability is nice at the beginning. Gear up/gear down can be an issue for some while managing so many new things, along with prop etc..

I'm selling a beautiful M20E that I'd love to sell you, but honestly what it sounds like you need is a turbo charged 210, but that also is a whole other conversation on complexity. Even a turbo 182 could probably do you great. 

This are just personal thoughts and feelings and I'm sure I'm missing a lot of thoughts. There are higher time pilots, and smarter folks here that have chimed in. Best of luck!

 

[MBDiagMan]

My answer to original post:   Yes.

I wonder where the heck Skates is?