Intro/Looking for a ride in a Mooney in Middle TN

[apnash17]

Hey all, just started my aviation journey and am a newly minted PPL.  I am starting to consider my needs/mission and considering plane ownership in the future.  Someone on a professional networking forum with a large aviation community pointed me to this board in the direction of Mooney’s.  I’m hoping to possibly find an owner who wouldn’t mind taking me for a demo ride in a Mooney around the Middle TN/Nashville area.  Willing to help cover costs obviously! As far as models go, still trying to get familiar with what might fit my mission but here’s some background:

* I’m 6’3” and around 230, so I’m a big guy.

* Have only flown 172s at this point, I find it decently comfortable even at my size.

* planning to get my IFR rating

* Mostly looking to do traveling/cross country with myself and my wife.  Occasional friends to fill other seats would be nice but not a hard requirement.

* given my budget, Id likely be looking more in the vintage area and I’m not averse to an older plane with hours on it.  Id just like a platform I could upgrade as I go too.

 

Thanks much, appreciate it a lot!  Being that I’m new to aviation, I’m not quite sure if the best way to network/meet other pilots so I’m hoping this may be a in to help get that started.

 

[Utah20Gflyer]

1 hour ago, apnash17 said:

Hey all, just started my aviation journey and am a newly minted PPL.  I am starting to consider my needs/mission and considering plane ownership in the future.  Someone on a professional networking forum with a large aviation community pointed me to this board in the direction of Mooney’s.  I’m hoping to possibly find an owner who wouldn’t mind taking me for a demo ride in a Mooney around the Middle TN/Nashville area.  Willing to help cover costs obviously! As far as models go, still trying to get familiar with what might fit my mission but here’s some background:

* I’m 6’3” and around 230, so I’m a big guy.

* Have only flown 172s at this point, I find it decently comfortable even at my size.

* planning to get my IFR rating

* Mostly looking to do traveling/cross country with myself and my wife.  Occasional friends to fill other seats would be nice but not a hard requirement.

* given my budget, Id likely be looking more in the vintage area and I’m not averse to an older plane with hours on it.  Id just like a platform I could upgrade as I go too.

 

Thanks much, appreciate it a lot!  Being that I’m new to aviation, I’m not quite sure if the best way to network/meet other pilots so I’m hoping this may be a in to help get that started.

 

I’m 6’2” and 215 lbs at the moment and I fit just fine in my Mooney, so I suspect you will fit fine, although you sit in a much different position than in a Cessna so you will have to see if you like it or not.  A Cessna is like sitting in a chair, a Mooney more resembles sitting in a sports car.  
 

A Mooney is an excellent cross country aircraft.  
 

When it comes to upgrading it is much cheaper not to.   Much cheaper to just buy what you want, or you could you could ignore this wisdom like I did and bring an older Mooney up to modern standards by the application of large amounts of money and patience.  
 

I’d offer you a ride but I’m about a thousand miles west of you.  Welcome and good luck!

[DCarlton]

Sitting in a Mooney is definitely more like a sports car with your knees fairly straight but there’s plenty of leg room.  I tend to sit close to the panel and yoke. I’m 6 ft 1-1/2 in, 215 lbs and fit ok.  I’ve been up to 230 and felt a bit tight between my gut and the yoke.  No,surprise.  With a thick headset band you might hit your head from time to time but it’s not cramped.  Two guys with broad shoulders are a bit tight if you don’t stagger your seats.  With all that said, I like the seating position once I’m seated.  You feel coupled to the airplane.  

[Fly Boomer]

12 hours ago, apnash17 said:

* I’m 6’3” and around 230, so I’m a big guy.

* Have only flown 172s at this point, I find it decently comfortable even at my size.

* planning to get my IFR rating

* Mostly looking to do traveling/cross country with myself and my wife.  Occasional friends to fill other seats would be nice but not a hard requirement.

First, welcome to MooneySpace!  Regarding your bullet points:

- I'm also 6'3" and 230.  Ingress and egress take getting used to but, once in, plenty of room.
- Anything with two doors is easier to get in and out of but, again, once in, I find the Mooney comfortable.
- IFR is good.  Mooney is a "go places" airplane, and the instrument rating gives you more options.
- Traveling/cross country with wife is what these airplanes do best.  As with most 4-place airplanes, you can't fill the seats with 21st century people, fill the tanks, and fill the baggage compartment at the same time.  With big tanks (later models or Monroy STC) you have the option to fill up and go far if otherwise light, or just partially fill if you are carrying more people and baggage.  Many of these airplanes carry more than 100 gallons.

[apnash17]

This is really great advice, appreciate it!  I’m curious why though.  Obviously it’s going to cost money, labor and time to upgrade things like avionics and other parts.  But with some of the prices I see out there for some of these planes with more modern avionics I guess I’m curious if it always will be more money?  Also I guess there’s something to be said for getting it the way you want it, but I’m not too attached.
 

10 hours ago, Utah20Gflyer said:

When it comes to upgrading it is much cheaper not to.   Much cheaper to just buy what you want, or you could you could ignore this wisdom like I did and bring an older Mooney up to modern standards by the application of large amounts of money and patience.  

[Fly Boomer]

2 minutes ago, apnash17 said:

This is really great advice, appreciate it!  I’m curious why though.  Obviously it’s going to cost money, labor and time to upgrade things like avionics and other parts.  But with some of the prices I see out there for some of these planes with more modern avionics I guess I’m curious if it always will be more money?  Also I guess there’s something to be said for getting it the way you want it, but I’m not too attached.
 

Generally, a seller cannot recoup what was spent on upgrades so, from a financial perspective, an already-upgraded airplane is sold at a discount.  If you do the upgrade, you will pay full price, and then take a hit when you sell.

[apnash17]

Yeah that makes a lot of sense!

2 minutes ago, Fly Boomer said:

Generally, a seller cannot recoup what was spent on upgrades so, from a financial perspective, an already-upgraded airplane is sold at a discount.  If you do the upgrade, you will pay full price, and then take a hit when you sell.

 

[wombat]

I tend to think that the value of an airplane with upgrades is the cost of the 'base' airplane, plus the depreciated value (5% of the remaining value each year) of the upgraded hardware, but not including the cost to install the hardware.

So if the plane is worth $100,000 and you put a $10,000 radio in it 5 years ago, spending $3,000 to install it, the plane is worth $100,000 + $10,000*(.95^5)) == $107,737.   But of course anything less than $1,000 in this scale is a rounding error, outweighed by someone's particular preference for paint colors or avionics brand or if you sell the aircraft with a full tank of fuel. 

But the important part is that at most the plane is worth the base value plus the value of the installed upgrades, and if you are having the upgrades done, you will never recoup the cost of the labor to install it.

[Pinecone]

I found that lenders consider the value of installing avionics to be half the actual cost of doing so.

While there is some annual depreciation, my feeling is that it is more on a generation of avionics thing.

So a Garmin Xi is worth closer to the cost of the until than a 650 non-Xi, which is worth more than a 430W

Also realize that a rough guide is that installation will cost about the same as the cost of the hardware.  So a $13000 GPS will cost about $13000 to install.

[DCarlton]

2 hours ago, Pinecone said:

I found that lenders consider the value of installing avionics to be half the actual cost of doing so.

While there is some annual depreciation, my feeling is that it is more on a generation of avionics thing.

So a Garmin Xi is worth closer to the cost of the until than a 650 non-Xi, which is worth more than a 430W

Also realize that a rough guide is that installation will cost about the same as the cost of the hardware.  So a $13000 GPS will cost about $13000 to install.

Sounds about like the value of a classic car.  You can get your ROI for the parts but rarely recover the labor.  Fortunate if you can do the work yourself.  

[Boilermonkey]

Happy to give you a ride next time I'm in town.  I sometime cross over Nashville on flights from my home base at KBAK.  It's also a common destination for Angel Flights.

Unfortunately we'll be in annual until June....PM me around then if you are still looking.