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#11
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A36 baggage?
Interesting. The few times I've loaded a Mooney, I found the location of the baggage compartment door to be awkward. Having to lift the bags up so much higher in order to clear the lip made me long for the nice, low baggage doors in most other planes. I'm with you on that, Jay. Also the opening is not large enough. I"m also 6'4", I've always thought that Beech designed for shorter pilots, while Mooney designed for taller pilots, perhaps that is a factor too. First time I've ever heard that. Usually I've heard pilots describe both planes the other way 'round... Don't know about Beech, but I'm 6'1" and I have the adjustable pilot's seat pulled forward to the second (or third?) notch in the Mooney. The Mooney's leg space in the front row is like a tunnel. I'd guess 5'9" or so as the minimum height for a Mooney. |
#12
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A36 baggage?
You're 6'4" and you fly a Mooney? Wow
It would be hard to fly a Mooney if you aren't 6 foot. At 6'4" I still have to move the seat up several notches. The Mooney is like a sports car, you sit with your feet almost straight out in front of you. The firewall actually has feet areas cut out for all that leg room. My wife could never fly the Mooney. She's 5"5" and not only can she not reach the rudders but she also can't see over the glareshield. In the Bonanza you sit up like in a truck. My knees always seemed to be hitting the bottom of the panel, Getting in and out is easier in the Bonanza but sitting up front, the Mooney is clearly more roomy. I have the F Mooney (about 10" longer than the older models). My boys are pre-teen and fit just fine. I've ridden in the back seat by myself and was ok. However, two full size guys in the back seat is very tight. In the Bonanza you have a bit larger cabin but it costs 2-3 gal/hr more to push that larger cabin through the air at the same 150 knots. -Robert |
#13
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A36 baggage?
Robert M. Gary wrote: In the Bonanza you sit up like in a truck. My knees always seemed to be hitting the bottom of the panel, Getting in and out is easier in the Bonanza but sitting up front, the Mooney is clearly more roomy. My experience has been the opposite. I have an S35 and a friend has an M20C, about a 62 or 63 model. In the Mooney your feet are straight out in front and there's hardly any wiggle room. The Bonanza you sit in like in your kitchen chair. Legs getting tired during the flight? In the Mooney too bad, there's no place to move them to. In the Bo I can put my legs on the copilot side if I want. Time to get out? In the Mooney you have to slide the seat back to extract yourself. In my Bo the seat never moves unless I let somebody else fly from the left seat. When you slide the seat back in a Mooney it rests right up against the front of the back seat, leaving exactly zero leg room for a passenger in the back seat. I'm 6'2" and have the seat in my Bo 2 or 3 notches from full back. If I put the seat full back the rear seat passengers still have more legroom than your average compact car, probably about 18" and that's with the rear seats slid all the way forward. Need more? Then slide the back seats farther back, there's probably about 12" of travel there, just like the front seats. The Mooney? Oh yeah that's right, the back seat is fixed and it's a one piece seat. The Bo has individual rear seats, each with it's own armrest on both sides of the seat. At least the Mooney windows are like pillbox slits compared to the Bo...The Mooney is good at what it was designed for, to go fast on little power. It is not designed for off pavement operations. Not nearly enough prop clearance and gear doors that are way too close to the ground. To get 150 knots TAS I need to run 11.5 GPH thru my BO, that's 21.5" and 2100 at the best altitude of 6000, that's 55% power so it's pretty quiet in there at that low a setting. I'm not sure what my friends Mooney needs for that. I think I remember her saying that 145-150 knots was about all you'd get out of 180 HP. |
#14
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A36 baggage?
Newps wrote:
the back seat is fixed and it's a one piece seat. The Bo has individual rear seats, each with it's own armrest on both sides of the seat. At least the Mooney windows are like pillbox slits compared to the Bo...The Mooney is good at what it was designed for, to go fast on little power. Tut, tut, Newps. You've got to be a touch careful about the generalizations. In my early Bonanza ('49 A35) I have bench seats in the front and the back. NONE of which have any adjustemnt. However, I can adjust the height of the pedals (and even fold the co-pilots pedals completely down). I'm not a big guy, however. I've only sat in a Mooney a couple of times (a 201, IIRC). It certainly gave the perception of being much more claustrophic than the Bonanza. Wether the dimentions though bear that out, I dunno. -- Frank Stutzman Bonanza N494B "Hula Girl" Hood River, OR |
#15
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A36 baggage?
When you slide the seat back in a Mooney it rests right up against the
front of the back seat I don't know because I've never flown the old short body Mooneys. I fly an F model that has 10 extra inches behind the front seat. I think I remember her saying that 145-150 knots was about all you'd get out of 180 HP. I've never flow a 180hp old Mooney, mine is 200hp. I've also never flown a 180hp Bo. I think the last time Mooney produced a 180hp Mooney or one of the short body models was in the middle of the 70's. -Robert |
#16
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A36 baggage?
Robert M. Gary wrote:
I've never flow a 180hp old Mooney, mine is 200hp. I've also never flown a 180hp Bo. (nitpick mode) And you never will fly a 180HP Bonanza as there never was such an animal. Lots of engines have been put on the Bonanza. The various HPs from the factory were 165, 185, 205, 225, 240, 250, 260, 285. -- Frank Stutzman Bonanza N494B "Hula Girl" (185 hp, converted to 225) Hood River, OR |
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