N201MKTurbo Posted August 23, 2013 Report Posted August 23, 2013 what kind of commute are you thinking about ? I am a bit wary of relying on an aircraft for regular commute ( no matter what the brand is) I used mine for commute for twenty years. Not so bad here in AZ.
carusoam Posted August 23, 2013 Report Posted August 23, 2013 For either Mooney or Bo... Ordinary wear items up to and including factory reman engines are readily available. That's been my experience, anyway. Parts and service manuals are available from the factory. If you intend to bend a wing and have it be replaced in a week, then go with the Bo...? Best regards, -a-
Hank Posted August 23, 2013 Report Posted August 23, 2013 Now my old Beech Skipper, on the other hand, was a different thing entirely. That was a rare (but great!) little bird indeed. My first lessons were in a Skipper. Then my instructor headed off to Lear school, and I moved to a town with a beautiful, large WWII airfield, 3 runways and no instructors . . . and finished up 12 years later. Never did appreciate how the Skipper landed. What an introduction to GA. At least it didn't scare me away. My Mooney is much, much nicer!!
aaronk25 Posted August 23, 2013 Report Posted August 23, 2013 no part problem on my end and I replaced a ton of parts on the plane (no fault of the plane) without any availability issues Aaron
KSMooniac Posted August 23, 2013 Report Posted August 23, 2013 IMO, the only likely thing that could ground a Mooney for weeks on end is hangar rash that requires replacing a control surface or cowl, or repair structure elsewhere in the airframe. All of the normal wear items are available new or rebuilt for the most part. There are some odd things here and there such as a cowl flap motor on a 252 or Encore that seems to be difficult nowadays according to posts here over the last year. I can't really think of anything that would be a show-stopper.
stevenvon Posted August 23, 2013 Report Posted August 23, 2013 I was reading the availability of elevators as an example... "there are none"??? not that I would ever need any, but if some idiot in a gas truck ran into me (it happens), then what - I'm w/out a plane for months, until the factory custom makes one? Now that's scary....
carusoam Posted August 23, 2013 Report Posted August 23, 2013 I would park indoors now..... Personal experience. Best regads, -a-
fantom Posted August 23, 2013 Report Posted August 23, 2013 What Jim says is correct. There's always a way, but if you want to look for microscopic justification not to join the Mooney community, so be it, and good luck to you.
KSMooniac Posted August 23, 2013 Report Posted August 23, 2013 And to be fair, if you crunch a control surface on a Beech or a Cessna, you might get a quote from those factories for price and lead times before deciding the situation with Mooney is worse than either of those. Recent reports I read had the cost of a ruddervator skin at ~$4000 IIRC, and it would still need to be assembled into a usable part... We probably have less good salvage parts sitting in inventory around the country compared to the other manufacturers, but shops like LASAR can usually rebuild/reskin damaged parts in a timely fashion. Hopefully the factory continues to spin-up their spare parts capability and improve the lead times (and costs) with some of these parts.
jetdriven Posted August 23, 2013 Report Posted August 23, 2013 I agree, used parts are available. The only sticking point is elevators, but used ones are out there, perfect ones are rare, but you can get serviceable ones to fly with. Beech parts are perhaps more plentiful, but the prices are outta sight.
KSMooniac Posted August 23, 2013 Report Posted August 23, 2013 Mooney told me at Oshkosh that they're almost ready to start stamping elevator skins again, so that is great news. Whether they're affordable or not remains to be seen... 1
stevenvon Posted August 24, 2013 Report Posted August 24, 2013 Great points! I'm fighting to go Mooney... and this was the only reason that was holding me back. Being in Beech-Country (Kansas), I get all the FUD from my Bo friends... but all who secretly want a Mooney Thanks all - Ok... now to go find me a nice M20K - '84 preferably. On the hunt...
Parker_Woodruff Posted August 24, 2013 Report Posted August 24, 2013 I just flew an M20J that was recently repaired with an elevator from a salvage yard. Didn't take long to find an elevator for it at all.
stevenvon Posted August 24, 2013 Report Posted August 24, 2013 thanks! - Is there a catalog of parts from Mooney or somewhere else. I used to have one from a company in Houston when i had a Grumman Tiger.
Hank Posted August 24, 2013 Report Posted August 24, 2013 Parts Manuals are available, but necessarily vary by model and year.
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