1st day of living on the moon(ey)

[sdmideas]

Pretty excited to join the Mooney club. I’ve been looking for a while now and found a ‘71 m20c to call my own. Yay Aerostar!

[Hank]

Woo-hooo!! C models are great!

We need a photo, it's required. Right now, we aren't sure if you have the button-hook tail.

[sdmideas]

If you look just past my cheeky grin you may see the pointy bit;)

[NickG]

9 minutes ago, sdmideas said:

If you look just past my cheeky grin you may see the pointy bit;)

Lovely plane!!! Congratulations!!!

[Fritz1]

Congratulations, my first plane was wa 68 G, C is excellent bang for the buck

[EricJ]

I like the buttonhook tails.   I've always thought they look unique and interesting.

[Mooney in Oz]

On 7/27/2024 at 10:08 AM, sdmideas said:

Pretty excited to join the Mooney club. I’ve been looking for a while now and found a ‘71 m20c to call my own. Yay Aerostar!

Congrats and welcome. 

The tail always reminds me of the Aerostars I flew back in the day. Like a Mooney, the Aerostar is a wonderful and fast twin to fly and an apt aircraft for Mooney to have been involved with.

[sdmideas]

Got her home tonight:) Now the real fun begins!

[Flyler]

Awesome!  It's so pointy! 

[47U]

22 hours ago, sdmideas said:

Now the real fun begins!

Does your step not retract?   (SORRY!)  

Enjoy your new ‘STAR!  (You’re in ‘Paradise!’)

[Hank]

I thought the retractable steps went away in the mid-60s. The one on my 1970 C is certainly welded down.

[EricJ]

16 minutes ago, Hank said:

I thought the retractable steps went away in the mid-60s. The one on my 1970 C is certainly welded down.

My J has a fixed step.   At least in the early J's the step was an option.    One of the local early J models had no step from the factory and I thought it made it pretty uncomfortable to get on and off the wing.

[Flyler]

It's so funny how when you get sucked into the Mooney world, things like a fixed step make you think "ugh, its so draggy looking."  Mine is the same.  I really wanted to buy Rob's electric step retract kit but I can't as its fixed.  I suggest those with fixed steps just look over their shoulder at the nearest 172 with fixed gear.  You know, just walk up to it and look around.  Makes you feel a bit better about your "extra draggy" fixed step 

[EricJ]

10 minutes ago, Flyler said:

It's so funny how when you get sucked into the Mooney world, things like a fixed step make you think "ugh, its so draggy looking."  Mine is the same.  I really wanted to buy Rob's electric step retract kit but I can't as its fixed.  I suggest those with fixed steps just look over their shoulder at the nearest 172 with fixed gear.  You know, just walk up to it and look around.  Makes you feel a bit better about your "extra draggy" fixed step 

The other side of that is to recall that the J model was essentially a  big exercise in doing drag reduction on an F model, and they left the fixed step.  They just made it an option to delete it.   I don't think I've ever seen any numbers published on what difference it makes, and I bet if they thought it made a significant difference it would be in the marketing material.

[Sue Bon]

1 hour ago, EricJ said:

My J has a fixed step.   At least in the early J's the step was an option.    One of the local early J models had no step from the factory and I thought it made it pretty uncomfortable to get on and off the wing.

I don't have a step. It is a bit uncomfortable -- especially when you have passengers who don't know what flaps are. I've started putting the flaps all the way down before letting pax get in, and stressing multiple times, only step on the black part.

[201Steve]

Congrats to the OP! Where are you located?

[sdmideas]

1 hour ago, 201Steve said:

Congrats to the OP! Where are you located?

Thanks! I’m in paradise California:)

[Mooney in Oz]

8 hours ago, EricJ said:

I don't think I've ever seen any numbers published on what difference it makes, and I bet if they thought it made a significant difference it would be in the marketing material.

I remember a comment many years ago from former Mooney factory test pilot, Bob Kromer on the old Mooney Mailing List way before MS that he tested this exact thing in I think it was a J with testing equipment attached, with and without a step.

The difference was no more than 0.5 of a knot without the step.

[amillet]

Was that plus or minus?  It is shaped like an airfoil 

[Mooney in Oz]

6 minutes ago, amillet said:

Was that plus or minus?  It is shaped like an airfoil 

Sorry Alan, I just edited the post to clarify.

My 1980 J has a tube like structure from underneath the aircraft to the actual step, which except for the tube, does look like an airfoil.

I assume that yours being a much later J is entirely airfoil shaped, which I would expect to have no drag.

[Slick Nick]

On 8/4/2024 at 8:50 AM, EricJ said:

The other side of that is to recall that the J model was essentially a  big exercise in doing drag reduction on an F model, and they left the fixed step.  They just made it an option to delete it.   I don't think I've ever seen any numbers published on what difference it makes, and I bet if they thought it made a significant difference it would be in the marketing material.

From an old "FLYING" magazine I have, apparently the claimed 201mph top speed was achieved by a prototype with the step removed. 

[BlueSky247]

5 minutes ago, Slick Nick said:

From an old "FLYING" magazine I have, apparently the claimed 201mph top speed was achieved by a prototype with the step removed. 

That's hilarious. Nothing like having the reference plane be an accurate representation of what rolls down the assembly line. I'm guessing it had a "ringer" motor as well as a very fresh wax job. 

[affricate]

On 7/26/2024 at 7:04 PM, sdmideas said:

If you look just past my cheeky grin you may see the pointy bit;)

Congratulations 

[ArtVandelay]

From an old "FLYING" magazine I have, apparently the claimed 201mph top speed was achieved by a prototype with the step removed. 

Probably didn’t have today’s complement of antennas either:
VOR, GPS, ELT, Lightning detection, ADF, ADSB…

[201Mooniac]

13 hours ago, ArtVandelay said:

Probably didn’t have today’s complement of antennas either:
VOR, GPS, ELT, Lightning detection, ADF, ADSB…

As I understand it when they did the 201 mph peed run it had no antennas