Mooney upgrade

[Danb]

Martin to me it’s an easy decision except for the Bravo having 1700 on the engine so I’d add $120,000 to the $300,000 cost the Bravo then being a $400,000+ aircraft. I like the Lycoming power plant much more than the continental. I sold my 2005 Bravo GX last year for $335,000 through Jimmy. Which is another plus since Jimmy is an honest straight shooter. This Bravo is unique in that is almost an Acclaim having the GFC 700 flight management system. During my 15+ years of owning the Bravo I had no mechanical issues. Down side it’s inefficient as Ken mentioned I flew mine at about 18 GPH TITs under 1600 with great speeds not much slower than my Acclaim. Also my Bravo did ok LOP  but not nearly as good as the Acclaim. If you could get it for $275 then prepare for the new engine jump on it. Useful load isn’t great I consider it a two person plane. The biggest thing there all Mooneys so no wrong answers. Good luck

 

D

 

[slowflyin]

21 hours ago, 1980Mooney said:

A New Encore Continental TSIO-360-SB at only $100k seems like a bargain compared to a new Bravo Lycoming TIO-540-AF1B at $175K (75% more).

It seems odd that the Rebuilt Encore Continental is so high at $88K.

All these prices are after providing a usable Core.  Without a Core, the New Lycoming for the Bravo costs $216K !

More and more, when you buy a used GA plane you are paying for Avionics and the Engine/Prop and the rest of the plane is thrown in for free....

 

Fist let me say, all these prices our insane!  That being said, comparing rebuilt to rebuilt, or OH to OH, the delta isn't as significant in airplane dollars.  

[Fritz1]

Before I bought the Bravo 7 years ago I spoke to owners, lots of shops and to Jimmy Garrison, there are no perfect airplanes and I was seriously considering an Encore. All the shops that I spoke to stated that the Lycoming was more reliable and easier to work on, more adapted to take the heat from turbocharging. Jimmy Garrison owned a Bravo himself at the time. I bought the Bravo with a 200h factory reman, put 650h on it and never had to cancel a flight due to mechanical issues but once when the boost pump gracefully died in front of my own hangar this summer with about 2000h on the unit. At about 80% power the FIKI Bravo will do 185KT TAS in the high teens at about 18.5 gph 100 dF ROP, 2400/29", 1580 TIT and 380 max CHT with all baffles sealed and fine wire plugs. I think this is about as good as it gets for a piston single. You can put an Acclaim propeller on the Bravo, speed goes up by maybe a knot, climb increases significantly by about 100 ft/min. The only thing that is missing is the Acclaim cowl, nothing is perfect. The Bravo is nose heavy, mine has 6lbs of lead in the tail, luggage always goes as far back as possible, you will never reach the max rear cg even for icing conditions, without luggage and by myself the Bravo lands with max up trim with full flaps. The Bravo engine has thermal reserves. My airplane was bought new by Scott Heck from Bozeman MT and he traveled to Seattle across the cascades frequently. He said more than once he had to firewall the Lycoming and pray to the Lord to climb out of the icing in the high teens, engine took the beating and Scott still lives in Bozeman MT.

[slowflyin]

13 minutes ago, Fritz1 said:

Before I bought the Bravo 7 years ago I spoke to owners, lots of shops and to Jimmy Garrison, there are no perfect airplanes and I was seriously considering an Encore. All the shops that I spoke to stated that the Lycoming was more reliable and easier to work on, more adapted to take the heat from turbocharging. Jimmy Garrison owned a Bravo himself at the time. I bought the Bravo with a 200h factory reman, put 650h on it and never had to cancel a flight due to mechanical issues but once when the boost pump gracefully died in front of my own hangar this summer with about 2000h on the unit. At about 80% power the FIKI Bravo will do 185KT TAS in the high teens at about 18.5 gph 100 dF ROP, 2400/29", 1580 TIT and 380 max CHT with all baffles sealed and fine wire plugs. I think this is about as good as it gets for a piston single. You can put an Acclaim propeller on the Bravo, speed goes up by maybe a knot, climb increases significantly by about 100 ft/min. The only thing that is missing is the Acclaim cowl, nothing is perfect. The Bravo is nose heavy, mine has 6lbs of lead in the tail, luggage always goes as far back as possible, you will never reach the max rear cg even for icing conditions, without luggage and by myself the Bravo lands with max up trim with full flaps. The Bravo engine has thermal reserves. My airplane was bought new by Scott Heck from Bozeman MT and he traveled to Seattle across the cascades frequently. He said more than once he had to firewall the Lycoming and pray to the Lord to climb out of the icing in the high teens, engine took the beating and Scott still lives in Bozeman MT.

Same  Went to Jimmy to look at a 252 and left with a Bravo!