Mooney Ownership - Cost, Options, Insurance and Corporate America for a 37y/o new pilot

[Pinecone]

5 hours ago, Shadrach said:

Yes, both of those are excellent trainers and both are well suited to all the maneuvers I mentioned.

As you well know, Flight training in the USAF, is a full time job. The quality, intensity and frequency of the instruction is not typical of the civilian world. I don’t remember the actual numbers but I remember being surprised reading the total time of some military pilots and seeing that the bulk of there time was in their assigned combat aircraft and comparatively little in anything else. Also surprised by the low TT numbers for some of the combat pilots. It’s a testament to the training. 

Yes.  For me, UPT was 11 months (Nov 1980 - Oct 1981).  For that time, all you did was fly, go to class about flying or talking about flying.  The first month was all ground training.  I ended up with 170.3 hours of jet time in that 10 months of flying.  Plus another 40 hours or so in full motion sim.  Most people were more around 200 hours, with some more than that.

In the early 80s, the average number of hours per year for a fighter/attack pilot was around 120 hours.  But most flights were very structured and aimed at building experience with the weapons system.

[Pinecone]

2 hours ago, Igor_U said:

Don,

Are you saying parts that Factory can make will not be made anymore by outside Vendor?

Or does that includes ALL parts including one that Mooney never built, like landing Gear pucks, Engine intake ducts and such? This really doesn't make sense.

I have my concerns regarding Mooney factory support and parts availability for 4-5 years now and LASAR sale and move to OR didn't help as they stopped making most of their PMA parts.

Regards,

 

I think he is talking about parts that are not off the shelf, but made by others.  Things like no back springs, wing sight gauges.

Some things, like throttle/mixture/prop cables, there is a work around. 

[donkaye]

13 hours ago, Pinecone said:

I think he is talking about parts that are not off the shelf, but made by others.  Things like no back springs, wing sight gauges.

Some things, like throttle/mixture/prop cables, there is a work around. 

Exactly.  For example, Mark said they had about a dozen no back springs on order and just can't get them.  They finally refunded to the customers the money that they had advanced for them.

[Texas Mooney]

57 minutes ago, donkaye said:

Exactly.  For example, Mark said they had about a dozen no back springs on order and just can't get them.  They finally refunded to the customers the money that had advanced for them.

If Mooney Corp is in such a bad way that they can't/won't order critical parts for a Mooney Service Center like Top Gun, then they won't order for anyone.  It sounds like the end of the line for Mooney. 

I wonder why Mooney doesn't just release all their OEM supplier agreements on things like no back springs, wing fuel sight gauges, F model 600115-005 intake duct etc. and just let Eaton or Rochester or anyone else sell to anyone that wants to stock them.  Is it a loss of intellectual property? something tied up in the FAA certification?