Thinking about buying a Mooney

Jon Kraus wrote:
They have a 1975 Mooney M20 N6832V, I think model "C" at my home
airport. The owners have had it for years and have traded up to a twin
Comanche (sp?). It has a new engine (250 hours) and a new 3 blade
McCaulley prop. The avionics are decent (Bendix KMA 24 audio, 2 - KX155
nav/com KT76a transponder, KR87 ADF and Garmin 150xl GPS). It has
7150 hours on the tach which seems quite high to me but I am really
quite the novice when it comes to airplanes. The interior and paint are
decent (6 for the interior, 8 for the paint). They are asking $45,000
for it. I have done some research and this seems like an OK price but I
haven't seen too many of these with this many hours. Please give me
some feeback without flaming me too bad. :-)

Like all airplanes, Mooney's design is a compromise. In the Mooney, they have
biased the compromise in favor of going fast and economically, at the expense of
ease of entry and exit, and (some say) comfort and space. Personally I think you
have to admire the engineering tailored for a particular mission, high-speed,
economical cross-country personal travelling.

If you "get it" you can overlook the comfort and space issues. It's more like
sitting in a sports car with your fanny close to the belly pan and your legs
straight out in front of you. I find it a comfortable seating position, others
may not. By contrast, brands C and P (particularly C) are more like a kitchen
chair seating position.

The windscreen is close to your face, which gives a wide angle of view, but
makes some feel claustrophbic.

The landing gear is so simple and reliable that you can almost ignore the extra
expense. You do have to swing the gear at annual, but compared to brands C and
P, the landing gear is trouble-free. It's an all mechanical system with no
hydraulics. It just works.

The "suspension" is hard with no hydraulic struts to absorb the bumps. You will
not be taxiing as fast as brands C or P. It's also unforgiving of misjudged
landings. You -will- bounce. If you're buying used, find out when the "hockey
pucks" hard rubber suspension was last replaced. Mooney recommends every 10
years. It's about a $2K repair. If you take the weight off the wheels and the
pucks don't expand to fill the extra space, it's time to replace them.

As someone else mentioned, fuel leaks are another potential problem and
expensive repair.

The ground clearance of the main landing gear fairings is a consideration if you
plan on operating from rough fields.

Get a good instructor with lots of Mooney experience to check you out. Type
knowledge will save you lots of time in learning to land it. It's not hard, but
it's definitely different.

I'm biased because I have a J model, but you might consider whether you want to
hold out for a J. It has a lot of aerodynamic cleanup and goes a little faster
and farther then the earlier models on the same amount of fuel. Prices are, of
course, correspondingly higher.

I love mine, wouldn't go back to Cessna for anything, but it's not for everybody.