Upgrade from Cherokee 180 to Mooney E?

steingar said:
I only wish this were true. I sometimes wonder how any of us can even get insurance. The number of gear up accidents and collapses has to cost more than they can collect in premiums. Lots and lots of them are in manual gear airplanes. A lot more Mooneys gear up and collapse than Cherokees have any sort of gear problem.
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I didn't say gear ups, but gear failures. I'm well aware of the history of operator error gear ups
 
iamtheari said:
What’s your source for that? I know of Johnson bar Mooneys with prop strikes due to collapsed nose gear. I don’t know of Cherokees with that history. That’s just me, a ridiculously small sample size. But a general assessment like yours would be nice to check against the entire fleet statistics if possible.
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N1120A said:
How many fixed gear Cherokees have had the gear go into the wing on a hard landing?

Johnson bar Mooneys collapse because people don't want to go around on bounces.
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Any airplane pounded into the runway hard and often enough will suffer a gear collapse:

 
N1120A said:
I didn't say gear ups, but gear failures. I'm well aware of the history of operator error gear ups
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Lots and lots of failures. I have a friend who's D/C had a gear failure because a mechanic installed the wrong parts. Lots of collapses too, like this one:
 
steingar said:
Lots and lots of failures. I have a friend who's D/C had a gear failure because a mechanic installed the wrong parts. Lots of collapses too, like this one:
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What we don't know is if that guy thought he was flying and pulled the handle or if it really was a mechanical failure. But yes, the gear should have preload checked and properly set every year at annual.
 
iamtheari said:
What’s your source for that? I know of Johnson bar Mooneys with prop strikes due to collapsed nose gear. I don’t know of Cherokees with that history. That’s just me, a ridiculously small sample size. But a general assessment like yours would be nice to check against the entire fleet statistics if possible.
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:yeahthat:
 
If you can get by with the cramped back seat, the E is a great Mooney choice. The 200 horse in Al’s short body masterpiece is the ideal Mooney. If it’s a solid plane, the price sounds good. My short body was much more pleasant to fly than my F Evernote with all its J mods.
 
N1120A said:
How many fixed gear Cherokees have had the gear go into the wing on a hard landing?

Johnson bar Mooneys collapse because people don't want to go around on bounces.
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I find this statement surprising. My Mooney’s, both my previous Johnson bar and my current electric, have amazingly rugged landing gear.
 
take simple statement/joke, blow out of proportion... lol
 
MBDiagMan said:
I find this statement surprising. My Mooney’s, both my previous Johnson bar and my current electric, have amazingly rugged landing gear.
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Mooneys usually don't suffer gear collapses because of bounced landings. They suffer prop strikes.
 
Sorry to bump an old thread, but one comparison between the Cherokee and Mooney I’m wondering about is the maintenance costs, due to the one being fixed gear and the other being retractable. I believe I’ve read that the landing gear on Mooneys are far less expensive than most other RG aircraft. Is this true?

The annuals can be worse some years than others, but I remember someone saying that the landing gear cost over $10k one year, and that was for the lg alone, not inspecting the rest of the aircraft. I can’t remember if it was on an Arrow or Bonanza. Knowing this, folding gears simply aren’t worth the extra speed for pilots on a budget.
 
DMD3. said:
Sorry to bump an old thread, but one comparison between the Cherokee and Mooney I’m wondering about is the maintenance costs, due to the one being fixed gear and the other being retractable. I believe I’ve read that the landing gear on Mooneys are far less expensive than most other RG aircraft. Is this true?

The annuals can be worse some years than others, but I remember someone saying that the landing gear cost over $10k one year, and that was for the lg alone, not inspecting the rest of the aircraft. I can’t remember if it was on an Arrow or Bonanza. Knowing this, folding gears simply aren’t worth the extra speed for pilots on a budget.
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I'm not sure that is true at all. If you go faster for the same fuel consumption, especially in today's fuel price environment, you'll easily eat up any difference in MX costs. I own a retract and a fixed and the MX costs are not appreciably different, and the retract has 2 more cylinders.
 
N1120A said:
I'm not sure that is true at all. If you go faster for the same fuel consumption, especially in today's fuel price environment, you'll easily eat up any difference in MX costs. I own a retract and a fixed and the MX costs are not appreciably different, and the retract has 2 more cylinders.
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I failed to mention that in my case, it would be purely for fun and recreation, not work. But I’d still like to have an airplane that can travel for those $100 hamburgers.
 
DMD3. said:
I failed to mention that in my case, it would be purely for fun and recreation, not work. But I’d still like to have an airplane that can travel for those $100 hamburgers.
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Even in the $100 hamburger world, speed means something. I fly for transportation, but I was talking to a CFI friend of mine before launching and he was going on about how it took him and his instrument student like a 2.5 to get to an airport that normally takes me a .9, and the worst is a 1.4 with the worst winds, because they were in a 172 instead of a Tiger. Even if he only burned 8 gph and I burned 11 (I don't throttle back), I'd have burned 6-7 fewer gallons (remember, I also climb at 100-110 and he climbs at 70 something) and saved $$$$
 
True. And even one of the previous posters stated that Mooney pilots don’t ever wish they were flying Cherokees, even for recreational flying. (Here again, I myself may wish I had a fixed-gear Cherokee come time for the annual inspection).
 
TL;DR. Did the OP ever upgrade? If he did the Mooney is probably worth $20k more today.
 
I had something similar in hours logged when I made the jump from my Cessna 140 to an M20C. The biggest problem was just getting used to slowing it down to gear speed before passing the destination airport. The short bodies are Al’s masterpiece IMHO. It will be an easy step for you.

The E probably carry’s 48 gallons. That is significantly more than 4 hours fuel. My F with all J modifications is a 150 Knot airplane with the same engine as the E, but with 64 Gallons. I’m sure that the E or mine will outdistance my bladder.

It sounds like a good E would accomplish your mission well.

There are plenty of Mooney differences that are not apparent on the surface; a steel safety cage around the passenger compartment, incredible airframe strength with no inflight breakup history, push rods instead of cables for control precision, control simplicity like manual gear and simple flap mechanism,……. Mooney’s are different.

Try one on for size rather than listening to the people who have never been inside one telling you that they’re too cramped. I am 6’1”, 190 pounds. Al Mooney was 6’5” or so. If you are real wide, you may have trouble, but if not you will fit fine.

Mooney’s are very precise flying aircraft. The precision is akin to getting out of an SUV with worn out shocks, steering linkage and front end into a Ferrari.
 
In my recent looks at the market, my Mooney has not increased in value, as a percentage, as has my /G Cessna. It seems that planes used for training are the ones with meteoric price increases.
 
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