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What model am I?

Jon Reese

By Jon Reese
in Vintage Mooneys (pre-J models)

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Jon Reese Rookie

Jon Reese

Posted
Posted

OK here is a crazy question..... I am a new owner of a vintage 1966 M20F, but the more I look for interior parts, etc. I am having a hard time with what the FAA registration says and my serial number. Any help, mainly with serial number is appreciated!

FAA Data:

N3538X

1966 Mooney M20F

Serial Number 670075

 

As I look at Vantage Pane Plastics, the dash panel shows M20C,D but mine is the stretch model. Any thoughts???

Sheriff23 Collaborator

Sheriff23

Posted
Posted

I own a 67 M20F.....670093!  Must have rolled off the line just a bit after yours did.

 

The FAA considers mine a '67 and it matches the data plate as well.

 

Great airplanes!  Enjoy yours!

RLCarter Grand Master

RLCarter

Posted
Posted
15 minutes ago, PeteMc said:

Wow a new factoid.  I never knew the older models started with the year they were manufactured.

Any idea when they stopped that?

Not all serial numbers start with the production year.... I believe the year the FAA uses is the year the Airworthiness Certificate was issued, so if a manufacturer is building a 1968 and it’s late 67’ it becomes a 67 sane is true on the other end of year... when needing parts I always use what the manufacturer says it is... no issues so far

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mike20papa Rising Star

mike20papa

Posted
Posted (edited)

Find the serial number.  on my A model it is an embossed metal tag of the aft face of the spar.  Don't know about the metal wing AC. 

Edited by mike20papa
dd
0TreeLemur Grand Master

0TreeLemur

Posted
Posted

Another weird thing about Mooney S/N's.   Different models can have the same S/N.   There is an E out there with the same serial number as our C.   I find that weird.

skydvrboy Mentor

skydvrboy

Posted
Posted

Mine is 670049.  FAA calls it a '66 because the airworthiness date is 9/22/66, but it is definitely a '67 model.

Your airworthiness date is 10/11/66, so just a few days younger than mine, but also, most definitely, a '67 model.

@Sheriff23 Your airworthiness date is 11/17/66, so the FAA registration says it is a '66.  Here's a link to it https://flightaware.com/resources/registration/N9516M

HRM Grand Master

HRM

Posted
Posted
16 hours ago, skydvrboy said:

FAA calls it a '66 because the airworthiness date is 9/22/66, but it is definitely a '67 model.

Same with my E. The S/N and the options said it was a '66, but the FAA insisted on it being a '65 because airworthiness was granted October '65.

Jerry Pressley Mentor

Jerry Pressley

Posted
Posted

Just nt through exactly what you are experiencing now.  You have to Call vantage and give them an n number and Tonya will match it up for you.  Their parts pages are all xvdtykdy

Pilot boy Community Regular

Pilot boy

Posted
Posted
On 9/24/2021 at 2:47 PM, PeteMc said:

Wow a new factoid.  I never knew the older models started with the year they were manufactured.

Any idea when they stopped that?

My E from 1964 doesn’t start that way FYI.  It’s just the serial number in the hundreds.

Pilot boy Community Regular

Pilot boy

Posted
Posted
On 9/24/2021 at 7:34 PM, mike20papa said:

Find the serial number.  on my A model it is an embossed metal tag of the aft face of the spar.  Don't know about the metal wing AC. 

My E is back near the tail kinda under the empennage on pilot side on the main fuselage.  Where every plane pretty much has it...

Mooney Dog Rising Star

Mooney Dog

Posted
Posted
12 minutes ago, Pilot boy said:

My E from 1964 doesn’t start that way FYI.  It’s just the serial number in the hundreds.

It changed some time in 1967 by the looks of it

10 minutes ago, Pilot boy said:

My E is back near the tail kinda under the empennage on pilot side on the main fuselage.  Where every plane pretty much has it...

These days yes, but there's quite a few who have it in fun locations as well. 

carusoam Grand Master

carusoam

Posted
Posted

Serialized manufacturing wasn’t a very common practice back in the day... leading to funky numbers, and odd locations to place the tag…

How to do it…. What you can get out of it.. changed a lot after the computer became widely used…

Early on… all Mooneys got a serial number that basically told you nothing about the plane… and more about  how many Mooneys were built overall…

Somewhere around when the M20F was first being manufactured… things started to get serious… the SN began with a number to represent the model…

Each model had a few development mules… so they got early serial numbers… but their date of air worthiness technically occurred much later…

 

Soooo… every year for a while… there were planes built in one year… that became AW the following year… and what standard they were built to was still different from the build date and AW date…

If you are fortunate to have the first airframe log for your Mooney…  in the early pages you will find things like paint codes used… what days the AW flights occurred… and who signed the AW stamp…

My first Mooney was a 65 M20C, it’s AW flights occurred around August, and was signed off by the engineer, Bill Wheat…

30 years had past… I called the factory with a question… I had just bought the plane…. I needed a POH…. I spoke with a guy in the parts department…. I spoke with the same Bill Wheat that had signed off my AW in my airframe log….  :)

 

Today…. From the serial number… you will know exactly what plane it is referencing… and computerized records will be able to tell you the serial number of the exhaust valves in the engine… (for the more modern birds)

We have come a long way…

PP thoughts only… not a manufacturing engineer…

Best regards,

-a-

A64Pilot Grand Master

A64Pilot

Posted
Posted (edited)
On 9/24/2021 at 3:09 PM, RLCarter said:

Not all serial numbers start with the production year.... I believe the year the FAA uses is the year the Airworthiness Certificate was issued, so if a manufacturer is building a 1968 and it’s late 67’ it becomes a 67 sane is true on the other end of year... when needing parts I always use what the manufacturer says it is... no issues so far

When sales were slow, we wouldn’t DMIR an aircraft, which is what trips the Airworthiness Certificate until the aircraft sold, among other things, it gave the new owner a full year before the annual was due, and sometimes the delay made it be Certified in the next year than what it was manufactured.

It wasn’t uncommon for an airplane with a larger serial number to be last years airplane, when one actually manufactured before it to be this years airplane, because one was built to order and the other one wasn’t.

 

Edited by A64Pilot
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