Mooney Load Capacity

[Jaybird180]

What's the load carrying capability of the M20J? The data I have puts figures all over the map. Any M20J fliers care to share their POH numbers?

[Phil Corman]

Square window M20J have GW of about 2740.
Round window M20Js have a GW of about 160lbs more (circa 1989 or 1990).

Empty weights of about 1670lbs.

[Lance F]

Mine (a 1984 J) has a useful load of 900#. Full fuel is 64 gallons or 384#.

[Tim]

Originally Posted by Lance F

Mine (a 1984 J) has a useful load of 900#. Full fuel is 64 gallons or 384#.

My 98J had a useful load of...900ish, with full fuel it was down to 520ish.

Keep in mind that full fuel is 6+ hours, so it was never a problem to trade fuel for payload.

[iGismo]

Originally Posted by TMetzinger

My 98J had a useful load of...900ish, with full fuel it was down to 520ish.

Keep in mind that full fuel is 6+ hours, so it was never a problem to trade fuel for payload.

Except that the Mooney's are so efficient that you have to trade a lot of miles for every 100 lbs of fuel. One of the "advantages" of a twin is that you can leave behind a couple hundred pounds of fuel with only a small dent in the range.

[iGismo]

Originally Posted by Lance F

Mine (a 1984 J) has a useful load of 900#. Full fuel is 64 gallons or 384#.

So carrying 850lb in the cabin on a 500 nm leg with IFR reserves might be a problem eh? (that was the OP's mission requirement stated in a different thread). Even with the GW increase after 1989 you'd come up shy.

[Tim]

850 for 500 nm plus ifr reserves would be tough for most singles.

sent from my android

[Lance F]

Lance's logic immediately convinced me that I need a twin. I'm going into the other room and tell Sue immediately. Controller.com here I come.

[dennyleeb]

Originally Posted by Jaybird180

What's the load carrying capability of the M20J? The data I have puts figures all over the map. Any M20J fliers care to share their POH numbers?

The Mooney is a 2 place plane....

[Bruce C]

How big are you, Denny?
I put my whole family in a M20J (960 useful), ski gear, clothes for a week and admittedly had to offload ~20 gallons from my Monroy tanks....

You don't carry much fuel as the aircraft is so parsimonious with Avgas.....

[Greg Bockelman]

Originally Posted by bbchien

I put my whole family in a M20J (960 useful), ski gear, clothes for a week and admittedly had to offload ~20 gallons from my Monroy tanks....

I have not met your daughters, but you can't say that you and Sue are the FAA average weight persons.

You don't carry much fuel as the aircraft is so parsimonious with Avgas.....

You do like big words, don't you?

[dennyleeb]

Originally Posted by dennyleeb

The Mooney is a 2 place plane....

Ok
I am 210
wife 140
80gal (The ovation I looked at held 100) 480

so that is 830
the gear you described at least 70
960
at 960lb usefull load you have room for 2 two year olds i guess (dropping fuel to get there)

[Jaybird180]

Originally Posted by gismo

So carrying 850lb in the cabin on a 500 nm leg with IFR reserves might be a problem eh? (that was the OP's mission requirement stated in a different thread). Even with the GW increase after 1989 you'd come up shy.

Wow! Amazing that you put that together

Originally Posted by TMetzinger

850 for 500 nm plus ifr reserves would be tough for most singles.

Seems that many things need updating in this industry

Originally Posted by dennyleeb

The Mooney is a 2 place plane....

One of the reasons why I like the medium body Mooney. The C is a bit shorter

Originally Posted by pcorman

Square window M20J have GW of about 2740.
Round window M20Js have a GW of about 160lbs more (circa 1989 or 1990).Empty weights of about 1670lbs.

I think I can live with being 4 lbs short. WOOOHOOO!!!! Round Window M20J, here I come!!!

[iGismo]

Originally Posted by Jaybird180

Wow! Amazing that you put that together


Seems that many things need updating in this industry


One of the reasons why I like the medium body Mooney. The C is a bit shorter


I think I can live with being 4 lbs short. WOOOHOOO!!!! Round Window M20J, here I come!!!

I suspect that you'll find that most if not all late model M20s still come up quite a bit shorter than that. Two owners posted useful loads 140-150 lbs lower than Phil's numbers for the square window birds. And IME when the GW of a model is increased the useful load goes up by a significantly smaller amount or even decreases due to an accompanying empty weight increase. You might want to email the owners of some M20Js who have their planes listed for sale and query them WRT their actual GW and basic empty weight (make sure that includes the weight of oil and unusable fuel, the certification rules didn't always require that).

[Wayne]

And a piece of cake for the good ones.

Originally Posted by TMetzinger

850 for 500 nm plus ifr reserves would be tough for most singles.

sent from my android

[Wayne]

No, he just possesses an unequivocal predilection for their utilization in his postifications. What's it to you?

Originally Posted by Greg Bockelman

I have not met your daughters, but you can't say that you and Sue are the FAA average weight persons.



You do like big words, don't you?

[BJ Titsengolf]

Originally Posted by TMetzinger

850 for 500 nm plus ifr reserves would be tough for most singles.

sent from my android

1253lbs useful in the Comanche.
-850lbs
-----
403lb/6ppg =67gal /12.5gph = 5.4h x 150ktas = 810nm



ok, so call it 4.4h plus 1hr reserve. That's still 660nm And if runwayfinder was still up I could draw a circle on it showing my range.

[Jaybird180]

Originally Posted by pcorman

Square window M20J have GW of about 2740.
Round window M20Js have a GW of about 160lbs more (circa 1989 or 1990).

Empty weights of about 1670lbs.

What did they do to add another 160lbs capacity? A decently equipped 81-201 just popped up on Barnstormers for 79k. Hmmmmmm...I'm beginning to think this may be doable....

[Lance F]

Originally Posted by dennyleeb

The Mooney is a 2 place plane....

I beg to differ. Four full size adults; bags for a long weekend; Atlanta to Cedar Key, FL (and then back to Cross City 'cause there's no gas at Cedar Key)

[BJ Titsengolf]

All depends on your definition of "full size."

[NC Pilot]

Originally Posted by TMetzinger

850 for 500 nm plus ifr reserves would be tough for most singles.

Piper Lance
Piper Cherokee 6
Piper Dakota (I think)
Cessna 182
Cessna 182 RG
Cessna 172 w/180 hp (it would be a stretch and a long ride though)

There may be more, but it is a short list.

[Tim]

Originally Posted by NC Pilot

Piper Lance
Piper Cherokee 6
Piper Dakota (I think)
Cessna 182
Cessna 182 RG
Cessna 172 w/180 hp (it would be a stretch and a long ride though)

There may be more, but it is a short list.

I don't think Recent 182s or the 172 SPs would do this... I'll run the numbers. 850 Lbs without fuel is tough.

[Ghery Pettit]

Originally Posted by TMetzinger

I don't think Recent 182s or the 172 SPs would do this... I'll run the numbers. 850 Lbs without fuel is tough.

172N w/ 180 hp Penn Yan conversion carries about 750 pounds with full long range (50 gal) tanks. At least, the one in our club does. 50 gal works out to about 6 hours to tanks dry at 65% power. About 3 hours longer than I'm going to sit in it without a rest stop. 114 KIAS at that power setting at typical cruise altitudes.

[iGismo]

Originally Posted by TMetzinger

I don't think Recent 182s or the 172 SPs would do this... I'll run the numbers. 850 Lbs without fuel is tough.

Penn Yan's 180HP STC includes a 250lb GW increase. I don't know how much the STC increases the empty weight though.

[Tim]

OK - some numbers:

My 1998 J model Mooney... 2900 MGW - 1967 BEW - 933 for fuel and stuff. Won't carry 850 lbs and 500 NM of fuel and reserves.

N935FA - Recent 182 - 3100 MGW - 2026 - 1074 for fuel and stuff - 224 lbs of fuel is 37 gallons - not anywhere near 500 NM and reserves.

N7264D - Recent 206 - 3600 MGW - 2236 BEW - 1364 for fuel and stuff. 514 lbs of fuel is almost full, and is enough for 500 NM plus reserves at normal cruise.

Older airplanes were lighter, but didn't have nearly the same load of avionics and other stuff. I don't know of any 4 seat airplanes that will meet the requirements except the ones made back in the 60s and 70s. Even those may not do the job if they've been upgraded with stuff like autopilots, engine monitors, GPS, and newer interiors.

The 6 seaters can do the job, but then you pay a large fuel bill for the trips when it's only 500 lbs of stuff.