Piper Comanche 250 vs Mooney M20F which one is better?

[Dav8or]

Mooney must be special because that sure doesn't apply to most manufacturers support of obsolete models. Textron = "Oh we don't have those in stock but we can make you one and deliver it in three month for an ungodly expense." The months later = "the tooling must have been destroyed because we couldn't locate it, we need more money and another 3 months."

I don't know if their special or not, but the factory supports all the past M20s except the the first M20 and the M20A. Basically the wood ones. Some parts are stocked and some are special ordered. The year before last I got a brand new aileron from the factory for my 1966 M20F. It was made to order and fit perfectly.

 

[Dav8or]

and Beech is still selling Bonanzas....think that makes a hill of beans for my V35A? It doesn't. They don't make parts for a 40 year old plane....but, parts are available.

That might be Beech, but Mooney does manufacture new parts for their 50 + year old planes still today.

 

[Dav8or]

I would also second the comments about current production not really being relevant to mid body 20s. They are orphaned. Long-body parts catalog are nowhere near identical to the the mid or short bodies just because mooney puts them under the same TCDS.

You might second it, but you would be wrong. A tremendous amount of parts on the short bodies as well as mid bodied M20s are interchangeable with the planes coming off the line today. That's how they can still offer parts. The airframe has been tweaked over the years, but it's mostly still exactly the same. A wing from an Ultra will bolt right onto an M20C Ranger. The horizontal and vertical stabilizers too. A whole lot of stuff. In addition, they still have all the tooling for the old planes, so they can one off make whatever sheetmetal you need.

 

[Dav8or]

It actually does,

I thankfully learn a lot about airplanes on the maintenance side from you guys based on your experiences.

Is it true that not a single Mooney has gone down because of a breakup in flight? Does all Mooneys have a single wing and a roll cage? That has to be an advantage for safety!

This is kind of true. The first M20s, the M20 and M20A had wood wings and wood vertical and horizontal stabilizers. Back in the '50s, some of these aircraft had the wood tail section depart the plane, so yeah, break up in flight. Mooney quickly gained a bad reputation and so they very quickly "metalized" the entire airplane and the M20B was born. Since then, there have been no inflight break ups of the all metal planes and nearly all of the original wood planes still flying, have been retro fitted with metal tails. There never has been a failure of the wood wing either.

The "roll cage" in the Mooney was never intended to be that, but it sort of does work that way and has been since marketed that way. Again, the construction of the original M20s was partly wood and very much a very 1930s-'40s type of technology that Al Mooney was very good at. The M20 had wood wings and spar, a wood tail section and a steel tube frame with aluminum skinned over it. The steel tube frame held the pieces together and attached the motor. It looks like this-

Some saw this to look like a roll cage and started calling it that, but really it's a structural member that hold the plane together. Today's Ultra has the same type of frame, only now it's skinned in carbon fiber. In practice though, many have been saved by it's strength. On a nose over where many other airplanes would have seen their cabins cave in, the Mooney does not. There has been so many success stories, that Mooney will now tell you it's a roll cage although I seriously doubt Al Mooney intended it for this function. It's just how they built planes back in the day.

 

[Dav8or]

I call total BS here until you show me some proof that you can go buy a new Ovation wing that is designed for a fiberglass covered steel tube fuselage that will bolt up to an aluminum monocoupe M20F. I'm no Mooney expert by any means but those two airplanes are hardly anything alike.

It's not BS. If you ever get to a Mooney fly-in, you can see all the years side by side. Same wing and same landing gear. With the exception of only the '66 and '67 F where they tried out the "twisted wing" design where about one third of the outboard wing is slightly different for about one year, they are all the same. They did put different wing tips on over the years though. They just attach to the very end of the original wing and add about 6" to the span on either side.

 

[Ted]

Remember, the cost of the plane will be dwarfed by the costs of hangar, fuel, maintenance and insurance over time you own it.

That depends on how long you have it. Also, those are costs that accrue over time when you're (hopefully) bringing in more money.

 

[MooneyDriver78]

That depends on how long you have it. Also, those are costs that accrue over time when you're (hopefully) bringing in more money.

Remember you will recover the cost of the plane when you sell it, so it doesn’t take long for ongoing expenses to dwarf what you spend on the plane itself.


Tom

 

[Ted]

Remember you will recover the cost of the plane when you sell it, so it doesn’t take long for ongoing expenses to dwarf what you spend on the plane itself.

There's still the opportunity cost of money that exists as well as interest rates if you take a loan, or lost ROI if you have it invested. Your assumption that you'll recover the cost when you sell it is not always true, as the plane market varies significantly over the years. If you have the money sitting around burning a hole in your pocket or the extra cost isn't that significant, no problem. That's not always the case though.

As an example, take the 414 that Cloud Nine bought in 2016. The previous owner had bought it around the year 2000 for $250k, at the top of the twin market. He flew it 100 hours in 15 years, and sold it to Cloud Nine for $100k.

The real consideration is making sure you buy an airplane that's structurally sound. Where you'll really dwarf a price difference is if you buy a POS.

 

[flyingcheesehead]

I call total BS here until you show me some proof that you can go buy a new Ovation wing that is designed for a fiberglass covered steel tube fuselage that will bolt up to an aluminum monocoupe M20F. I'm no Mooney expert by any means but those two airplanes are hardly anything alike.

I bet I can get a new Ovation wing on an M20F a lot faster than you can find an aluminum monocoque M20F.

 

[gsengle]

I bet I can get a new Ovation wing on an M20F a lot faster than you can find an aluminum monocoque M20F.

It is amazing how quickly people call bs here when they don’t actually know what they’re talking about lol


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