Mooney Rocket..... Houston, we have a problem.

[Richman67]

A TAT TNed IO550 V35B or F33A is "4 seats" and will get you near 195 TAS at 16.5-17.0 GPH, at around 13k, nudging to 200 at 17k. The TN system is set and forget. Not sure if the kids/wife would be groovy with the O2. Many aren't.
Tip tanks, depending on the vintage, gets you anywhere from 104 to 114 usable and gives you 5:25 to 6 hours endurance, depending on the altitude, to "dry tanks" (insert your own reserve requirements).

Useful load for the V35B will be in the 1170 range, plus or minus. A F33A will be in the 1350 range due to the GWI that the TAT mod provides (MGW of around 3800 and change).

A clean example of a V35B, tipped and TNed will probably be in the high $160s, with a clean F33A about 10k more.

Agree with Henning. Cost of Beech parts is rarely an issue (knock on wood). Sometimes they are downright reasonable. Pays to be opportunistic.

Richman

 

[ATaySA]

Just bought a Mooney Rocket in California. Will be based in Boerne, TX. Looking to sell a 1/2 interest.

 

[SCCutler]

Just bought a Mooney Rocket in California. Will be based in Boerne, TX. Looking to sell a 1/2 interest.

What a sweet gig THAT would be...

 

[bnt83]

Of course it can be done. It doesn't mean it can be done as comfortable as it's done in a Bo. We can agree to disagree. I've flown the M20J plenty. Their speed for fuel burn is indeed impressive. That's the end of where I am impressed with them. I don't like how they handle, I don't find them comfortable in any seat, and if I were needing to take 4 people somewhere and had a Bo and a Mooney on the ramp I would take the Bo every time. And yes, I've been in that situation, with both available.

And..as I said above..I sure the hell wouldn't want to have to maintain one. I'd prefer to wrench on a Bo ANY DAY.

+1 First thought when I first grabbed the yoke in the M20J was the controls were binding.

 

[Dav8or]

+1 First thought when I first grabbed the yoke in the M20J was the controls were binding.

Not sure about binding, or what you were flying before, but it is true that the Mooney is heavy on the controls. I'm a big Mooney fan, but when I hear people try to over sell the Mooney by saying stuff like "Mooneys handle like sportscars in the sky." I call shenanigans on that. When people say that, I have to assume they have driven some pretty terrible sportscars!

Al Mooney designed the M-20 with one purpose back in the early 50s and that was to be a traveling machine. In those days, autopilots of any type were rare indeed, so heavy handling is how you stay the course and reduce pilot work load over the distance. Today, designers can opt for light controls and install an autopilot to take up the workload on crosscountries.

It just is what it is. Don't buy a Mooney if you want to play pretend fighter pilot. Having said that, in the Mooney community there is a high percentage of actual fighter pilots, both past and present service that own Mooneys. Go figure.

 

[ahkahn]

A wise man once said any airplane that is heavy on the controls is not trimmed properly. IIRC, Henning... I think you said that a while back???

Anyway, I was hot and heavy on Mooneys before I bought my Lance. The Rockets were on my shortlist because they are the fastest plane for the money. That said, someone also once made the comment that they better go fast because as soon as you get into them you want to get out. I didn't find it all that bad, but the size will bother as many passengers as it doesn't. Mooneys are more of a pilot's plane than a passenger's plane.

Make sure it passes the wife test.

 

[Henning]

A wise man once said any airplane that is heavy on the controls is not trimmed properly. IIRC, Henning... I think you said that a while back???

Anyway, I was hot and heavy on Mooneys before I bought my Lance. The Rockets were on my shortlist because they are the fastest plane for the money. That said, someone also once made the comment that they better go fast because as soon as you get into them you want to get out. I didn't find it all that bad, but the size will bother as many passengers as it doesn't. Mooneys are more of a pilot's plane than a passenger's plane.

Make sure it passes the wife test.

There's a difference between being heavy holding pitch, and being heavy in control resistance. The above comment on Mooney's is dead on. Al Built it as a travelling machine that is stable to hand fly in IMC, and it is that. It's a mixed bag in turbulence when you compare it to a Bonanza which has s much less stable, however much lighter on control effort to recover. In smooth air the Mooney requires much less effort to fly like it's on rails. However when the turbulence is stronger than the stability of the Mooney, the effort required to hand fly IMC makes it considerably more tiring to me than in a Bonanza, at least to me since I have kinda skinny arms and legs.

All of this is given the plane is properly trimmed.