"Dave Butler" wrote in message
...
eddie wrote:
Seems like I never have any good info to offer but always seem to find a
question or 10.
I'm a long time PA28 and C172 / C182 driver and I'm looking for
something
faster with a little longer legs. I've never flown a Mooney but I like
the
style, performance and gph numbers and some of the older ones are in my
price range.
I switched from a PA28-180 (sole owner) to a M20J (partnership) about 3
years ago.
My questions a
1.) Ballpark, what can I expect to spend on maintenance? I know the
gear
and the prop add expense. Overall how does the hourly cost compare with
my
PA28-161? Insurance only changes about 400.00 a year.
Don't have much experience with this as I'm not doing either the
maintenance or
the bookkeeping in the partnership, but my general impression is positive.
2.) Are there certain years/models to stay away from.
No, I think they're all good. There's a big gap between the M20J, and the
"pre-J" models in performance. The J got the benefit of the Roy LoPresti
mods.
I had a Mooney mechanic (that's all he worked on) tell me to avoid the older
wooden tailed birds. I believe he said that parts had to be hand fabricated
as needed, but those are pretty scarce any more.
3.) Do they have any expensive, recurring AD's
4.) I know everything happens a little faster, but, other than that do
they
have any nasty little gotchas. (like the narrow CG range on some
Bonanzas)
The Precise Flight speedbrakes are helpful to get you slowed down to gear
extension speed, at least on the J. http://www.preciseflight.com/sb.html
5.) Are replacement parts more expensive than a Piper or Cessna?
I've looked at Mooney.com and mooneyowners.com but no really useful info
there. Just looking for experienced Mooney drivers to shed a little
honest
light.
http://www.mooneypilots.com (MAPA) might be more helpful. mooneyowners.com
is a
group of disgruntled former members of MAPA.
I offer http://www.employees.org/~dgbutler/201/201.html for some possibly
useful
information. Check the article "how to do a prepurchase inspection on an
M20J,
under "maintenance".
Dave
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