Rayjay m20e

[tclimb]

I'm turning base to final on purchasing my first Mooney. Excited and nervous at the same time. I fly out of Idaho to Utah and the pacific NW. Altitudes I typically fly are 10.5 and 11.5 to maintain radar and radio contact due to all the mountains. Recently came across a turbonormalized E for sale that has caught my attention. My question is what are people's opinion of the benefit of turbonormalized if I routinely fly these altitudes?  Thank you for your thoughts.

[Schllc]

You will never regret it if you do it, a turbo provides options which is always better. 
but… for those altitudes it is not necessary. 

[Shadrach]

Paging @M20F and @M20F-1968

[Jsno]

Flying in the mountains I would definitely recommend turbo.  If you are a flatlander then not.

[Slick Nick]

I've got a J model MSE, so not apples to apples comparison. But I routinely fly the Canadian Rockies at 14,000-18,000' without a turbo. In the summer, there are days when I wish I had one, the climb rate above 12 can be a little anemic on a hot day, but I wouldn't say it's required. Nice to have, but not essential. It's usually just two of us and about 50 gallons of gas. Once you're up there, it's smooth sailing. The Mooney wing is very efficient. 

[Falcon Man]

There are a number of limitations on the RayJay turbo installation on the M20E.

There is an article on the installation of that system on M20E written by Kerry McIntyre @ KNR Inc., Evanston, WY. Search his website for the list of his articles and it is in the May 2000 MAPA Log publication.

Practically speaking any turbo aircraft has numerous advantages over their normally aspirated versions. I have flown routes similar to yours for 20 years as I am based at KGEG. I have utilized several Mooney models (E, G, J, and K) and found that the turbocharged K model is best suited in all aspects for the routes I fly.

Feel free to PM me if you want any more additional information on your consideration.

Jeff

 

[FlyingDude]

It'll reduce your payload for sure. But it may be worth it, if you're going to fly 10k+ feet all the time. 

[bencpeters]

I've got a rayjay C and as long as you're aware of the limits of the system, it's great. I actually really love the ability to fly "low and slow" and have the exact same performance & fuel burn #s as the NA version, but then just push the magic lever to close the waste gate to go high. In the mid-upper teens I can get into the 160 knots range on my C with 9-10 GPH. I've seen over 250 kts GS at FL190 with a great tailwind (2.5 hours from Washington state to SLC), and I've flown in the sun at 17,000 feet over clouds full of ice in the winter. It really extends the usefulness of the plane in my opinion when you're dealing with western mountains (I fly in the Rockies and up and down the Pacific Crest very frequently).

 

However, there are some important caveats:

- Per the STC SOP you engage the turbo during the climb, after being airborne (and never below 3500'). So it doesn't help with high DA takeoff performance (in theory, you could, but you need to be careful of overboosting and CHTs, so it'd likely involve fiddling with the wastegate on the runway... not great), just climb.

- My M20C runs pretty hot under boost. It's rare for me to be under 400F CHTs under cruise with the turbo engaged, and even keeping it under 410 requires a richer mixture than I'd otherwise like to run. I've heard the IO-360 Mooneys generally run cooler across the board, but it's definitely something that needs watching.

- The Rayjay kit stuffs a lot of extra hardware into an already-tight engine compartment. Any maintenance you need on those components is going to be more difficult, and most mechanics I've talked to don't really like working on it. Even Mooney specialists I've talked to about it (Maxwell, Advanced Aircraft Services in Portland) don't seem to know the STC very well.

There's an AD (81-19-04) to replace all engine hoses every 5 years. Ray Jay sells a replacement hose kit that avoids this going forward, but it's very unlikely that your place has this installed: https://rajay.aero/collections/ad-81-19-04-hose-replacements/products/m20e-m20f-hose-kit. So depending on where you are in the AD cycle, that's another large ticket maintenance expense coming up soon.

Basically, the turbonormalizer is absolutely awesome until you have the plane in for maintenance. I think I'd have a hard time going back to a N/A Mooney (except maybe the IO-540 ones that still can climb into the mid teens and have decent performance) after having the turbo, but if I had to do it over again, I might more strongly consider stretching the finances to get into a K...

[M20F]

On 11/20/2025 at 11:13 PM, tclimb said:

I'm turning base to final on purchasing my first Mooney. Excited and nervous at the same time. I fly out of Idaho to Utah and the pacific NW. Altitudes I typically fly are 10.5 and 11.5 to maintain radar and radio contact due to all the mountains. Recently came across a turbonormalized E for sale that has caught my attention. My question is what are people's opinion of the benefit of turbonormalized if I routinely fly these altitudes?  Thank you for your thoughts.

I bought my F with a RayJay mostly just because I wanted to.  It is about 10-20% practical.  I fly KTOR->KLZU or KJMS->KLZU couple times a year.  I can make that non-stop some times due to tail wind (80+ knots kind of thing) coupled with TAS (160-170kts at FL190).  I have also beat headwinds by going up.  I came out of NW Indiana once and went to FL250 and took 30 mins off my trip because 30KT direct headwind flipped to a 30KT direct tailwind (or something like that).

It has helped me on occasion top some weather.  You can climb over a FL430 cell but they don't get that wide, if you get up around FL190 or so you can see them and navigate around them in VMC.

It will keep about a 500FPM climb all the way up to FL210 it gets slower in the climb because you have to keep reducing pitch to keep up cooling.  CHT becomes a challenge.  You will need to run full cowl flaps open and 1-2GPH richer than normal.  I have once or twice over the years seen the mags get funky (non-pressurized) but nothing crazy.  The controls get mushy at FL210, I have had mine to FL250.  FL190-210 is where it generally likes to be.

Honestly from a logical perspective it probably isn't that useful if you are flat lander.  You need to really be going far (to make up for the time to climb) and have a good tail wind to make it worthwhile.  When it works out though you can hit 260KTS ground speed.  If you live with mountains it probably is more useful (KTOR is 5000' so I use it on take off as example and no issue being at MTOW).