First plane advice

[Spensei]

I’m a new pilot and I’m currently looking to buy my first Mooney.  I plan on working towards my instrument rating and commercial pilot.  I’m looking at the m20c and a m20e.  My question is what do I really need in a panel? Especially once I get into my instrument rating.  I have seen some planes with updated com/gps, but rest is steam gauges.  I have seen updated com/gps with 2 g5s and I have seen some with full glass panels.  Obviously there is a huge price increase to get the full glass panel. I’m trying to figure out what is actually important for a new pilot.  What will serve me better and what is overkill.  My plan is to fly cross country with trips consistently being 700 nm.  Thanks for any and all advice. 

[glbtrottr]

You’ll hear the gamut.

- “hey the best plane you can afford”.
- “two round dials and an IFR gps”…

And everything in between.

Mooneys are great, fabulous airplanes - be they vintage, modern and in between.

All are long range, efficient, long distance capable.

In my opinion? Nothing helps with workload like a finely tuned autopilot. Sure, you can get synthetic vision, and and and and whatever….

When I got my first mooney 20 plus years ago as a freshly minted pilot, I dumped a bunch of money into the panel. Whatever was the latest and greatest, I bought. I flew from California to Boston, all over the Midwest, Chicago to Green Bay, rainy weather, landing on snowy runways, learning about freezing rain the hard way, thunderstorms and hurricanes, you name it. yikes!

Today, I own a shop that services airplanes. I see people comfortably spend ooodles on a paint job, and even bigger oodles on avionics. An 80k-100k suite is not uncommon. While I’m happy to help, the advent of ADS-B in a panel has generated some awesome decision making…I remember using XM weather when it first came out, saving my Pennies for a stormscope, and looking enviously at those with FIKI setups and on-board weather radar…

And honestly?

A Garmin 760 with battery operated ADS-b in, and a competent autopilot does all you need. Foreflight works just as well, except I don’t like iPads overheating. The more firm the mount of things get shaky, the better.

C and E models are great machines. You’ll be in an awesome spot with either.

Of course, if you do want to install a dual or three screen Garmin or Dynon setup with shiny new screens, most avionics shop will gladly help you - us included.

Now…a shiny new paint job? That’s another story

[Fly Boomer]

2 hours ago, Spensei said:

I’m a new pilot and I’m currently looking to buy my first Mooney.  I plan on working towards my instrument rating and commercial pilot.  I’m looking at the m20c and a m20e.  My question is what do I really need in a panel? Especially once I get into my instrument rating.  I have seen some planes with updated com/gps, but rest is steam gauges.  I have seen updated com/gps with 2 g5s and I have seen some with full glass panels.  Obviously there is a huge price increase to get the full glass panel. I’m trying to figure out what is actually important for a new pilot.  What will serve me better and what is overkill.  My plan is to fly cross country with trips consistently being 700 nm.  Thanks for any and all advice. 

Welcome to MooneySpace!  If I were buying my first Mooney, I would plan to fly it for a year, and then think about upgrades.  Regardless of who does your pre-buy inspection, and regardless of how thorough they are, you are bound to get some surprises.  Keeping your powder dry for the first year will make the resolution of those surprises easier from a financial perspective.  Also, if you are accustomed to steam gauges, I would get through the Instrument Rating before making big changes.  Perhaps the best predictor of a relatively trouble-free airplane is one that has been hangared and flown often and consistently for the last month, year, 10 years -- sitting outside and/or un-flown for long periods is detrimental to these airplanes.  If you live in an area where hangars are hard to find (and you don't already have one), get your hangar first -- better to have a hangar without an airplane than to have an airplane without a hangar.  Finally, I would say that longish trips such as 700 nm are much easier with an autopilot helping you.

[Pinecone]

Personally, I think learning Instrument Flying on steam gauges is a good thing.  It makes you learn to draw a picture of things in your head.

But for real life flying, a full glass panel sure makes things easier.

But with an IFR WAAS GPS and a tablet with ForeFlight or Garmin Pilot, you have most of what a full glass panel would give you, for a LOT less money.

 

[Hank]

4 hours ago, Pinecone said:

Personally, I think learning Instrument Flying on steam gauges is a good thing.  It makes you learn to draw a picture of things in your head.

But for real life flying, a full glass panel sure makes things easier.

But with an IFR WAAS GPS and a tablet with ForeFlight or Garmin Pilot, you have most of what a full glass panel would give you, for a LOT less money.

 

I dunno about that. I can tell if my altimeter needle is straight up or the VSI needle is not perfectly horizontal much, much quicker than I can look at an altitude tape, read the number and decide if it's the right number or not, to say nothing of the magical disappearing VSI!

[PT20J]

I think the bare minimum is the equipment required by Part 91, a WAAS GPS, and ADS-B out.

But, you'll find it very challenging to fly IFR with GPS in busy airspace without an autopilot capable of GPSS and altitude hold. Steam gauges require more disciplined scanning than glass displays and the IFR GPS requires a lot of data entry.

Skip

 

[Pinecone]

2 hours ago, Hank said:

I dunno about that. I can tell if my altimeter needle is straight up or the VSI needle is not perfectly horizontal much, much quicker than I can look at an altitude tape, read the number and decide if it's the right number or not, to say nothing of the magical disappearing VSI!

I agree with the altimeter.  But the VSI is easy in that if you see it, you are not level.  And some glass can show round gauges. 

But I have a lot of hours with tape displays in a HUD, so I am used to it.

The big thing is that you can see your location and direction on the map and the approach plate.  That is HUGE.

 

[carusoam]

16 hours ago, Spensei said:

I’m a new pilot and I’m currently looking to buy my first Mooney.  I plan on working towards my instrument rating and commercial pilot.  I’m looking at the m20c and a m20e.  My question is what do I really need in a panel? Especially once I get into my instrument rating.  I have seen some planes with updated com/gps, but rest is steam gauges.  I have seen updated com/gps with 2 g5s and I have seen some with full glass panels.  Obviously there is a huge price increase to get the full glass panel. I’m trying to figure out what is actually important for a new pilot.  What will serve me better and what is overkill.  My plan is to fly cross country with trips consistently being 700 nm.  Thanks for any and all advice. 

Welcome aboard Spense!

I wrote this for you yesterday…

 

Minimum panel today…

G430W…   WAAS, and ILS…  two ways to get to the ground in IMC…

Get a plan B to go with that… spare AI and ILS…

Learn to use the search function… the easy questions are already answered in deep detail…

PP thoughts only not a CFII….

-a-

 

[Utah20Gflyer]

I’d say the minimum is a WAAS GPS and a nav/com preferably with glideslope capability.   An engine monitor would be high on my list as well as accurate fuel gauges.  Autopilot is highly desirable although good ones aren’t particularly common in the vintage Mooneys.  Unless you are very patient or lucky it will likely take a while to find one with all these things OR you can find one that has most of what you want and add the rest yourself, this is probably a more realistic albeit also more expensive plan.    

[carusoam]

Next step up from bare minimum…

+1 engine monitor…

+1 for FF with totalizer… more accurate than good fuel level indicators…

Portable stuff…

- ADSB in… weather and traffic updates

- Ipad and your favorite nav app complete with IFR procedures and a blue dot. 

You have a long term plan…

Don’t get bogged down with a bare minimum plane…

BTDT…

Best regards,

-a-