M20C comparable experimental

[Skylane81E]

My mission is usually 1 other person plus bags and dog.

How big of a dog? How much baggage?

Mooney would work for anything but the biggest dogs, but I'm not sure I would want to put my dog into some of the things we call "baggage space" on planes though, C, P B and M products where the baggage area is just an extension of the floor sure, but some of the others...

With a dog an Arrow might be a better choice, similar speed to a C, not too much more fuel and the low baggage door might be easier to load a dog into the back of, plus the advantage of the quick removable rear seats.

 

[rbridges]

Depends, even with full 52 gallons my C can carry 677 pounds. Leave 10 or 15 gallons off and I have indeed carried 4 adults at 142kts burning 8.7 GPH cruising between 7-11K. Enough for 550 miles with reserves.

mine has gained weight since '65. with avionics, speed mods, bladders, my useful full fuel load is 570 lbs. Very disappointing when I first considered it, but I was told by many people that 95% of your flying will be by yourself or 1 other person. It held true in my case.

 

[N175PT]

Cozy MK IV
170 KTAS cruise on ~8 gph
~1000 lb useful
~1000 nm range with reserves
4 seats

Tim

 

[Goofy]

Are varieze around still? haven't seen any

That's a big stretch from a Mooney to a Vari! Like he said lots around check Barnstormers.

As far as roomy with baggage capacity, Vans recently introduce a new model that is exactly that. It will be some time before they come around for sale used but it would surely fit that bill:

http://www.vansaircraft.com/public/rv14.htm

"The RV-14 derives its high cruise speed from a light, clean and fairly small airframe, instead of from a big, consumptive engine. This means not only will it cruise at relatively high speeds, but cruise at lower speeds can be very economical. Company pilots often choose to cruise at 50-55% power and take advantage of the economy available there. At 175 mph, the RV-14 is getting better miles-per-gallon than most of the luxury cars and SUVs it is flying over.

We expect that the RV-14 will really come into its own as a sport touring airplane. The power and the wing will take a fully loaded RV-14 to cruising altitudes that easily clear any terrain on the continent. The wide cabin and large instrument panel give the occupants lots of room and lots of information. With a full fuel load of 50 US gallons, there’s 510 lbs left over for people and baggage — in other words, two 200 lb people can take fiftyfive pounds of baggage — each!"

 

[Perezhr]

mine has gained weight since '65. with avionics, speed mods, bladders, my useful full fuel load is 570 lbs. Very disappointing when I first considered it, but I was told by many people that 95% of your flying will be by yourself or 1 other person. It held true in my case.

Mine was a little heavy too when I purchased it, but I removed the entire instrument panel and started from scratch (lots of old heavy gear). It's not a glass panel, but it has what I need with dual AIs (vacum/electric), IFR GPS/COM and autopilot. Makes a nice solid IFR platform.

 

[kyleb]

That's a big stretch from a Mooney to a Vari! Like he said lots around check Barnstormers.

As far as roomy with baggage capacity, Vans recently introduce a new model that is exactly that. It will be some time before they come around for sale used but it would surely fit that bill:

http://www.vansaircraft.com/public/rv14.htm

"The RV-14 derives its high cruise speed from a light, clean and fairly small airframe, instead of from a big, consumptive engine. This means not only will it cruise at relatively high speeds, but cruise at lower speeds can be very economical. Company pilots often choose to cruise at 50-55% power and take advantage of the economy available there. At 175 mph, the RV-14 is getting better miles-per-gallon than most of the luxury cars and SUVs it is flying over.

We expect that the RV-14 will really come into its own as a sport touring airplane. The power and the wing will take a fully loaded RV-14 to cruising altitudes that easily clear any terrain on the continent. The wide cabin and large instrument panel give the occupants lots of room and lots of information. With a full fuel load of 50 US gallons, there’s 510 lbs left over for people and baggage — in other words, two 200 lb people can take fiftyfive pounds of baggage — each!"

The RV-14 is gonna be spendy. If the OP is coming from a Mooney and doesn't need a huge amount of luggage, an RV-6, 7, or 9 might fit. I carried myself (160 lbs) and a 180 lb buddy to Osh last month and we carried about 105 lbs of gear, which was a bit much, but 80 lbs is pretty doable.

 

[LDJones]

That's a big stretch from a Mooney to a Vari! Like he said lots around check Barnstormers.

As far as roomy with baggage capacity, Vans recently introduce a new model that is exactly that. It will be some time before they come around for sale used but it would surely fit that bill:

http://www.vansaircraft.com/public/rv14.htm

"The RV-14 derives its high cruise speed from a light, clean and fairly small airframe, instead of from a big, consumptive engine. This means not only will it cruise at relatively high speeds, but cruise at lower speeds can be very economical. Company pilots often choose to cruise at 50-55% power and take advantage of the economy available there. At 175 mph, the RV-14 is getting better miles-per-gallon than most of the luxury cars and SUVs it is flying over.

We expect that the RV-14 will really come into its own as a sport touring airplane. The power and the wing will take a fully loaded RV-14 to cruising altitudes that easily clear any terrain on the continent. The wide cabin and large instrument panel give the occupants lots of room and lots of information. With a full fuel load of 50 US gallons, there’s 510 lbs left over for people and baggage — in other words, two 200 lb people can take fiftyfive pounds of baggage — each!"

That's high on my wish list as my "Retirement Airplane" for my wife and I to travel in.

 

[TWinter]

Which explains why their order backlog is so long and they're so successful and thriving these days.

Yeah, but Mooney only made a total of 11,000 hand built airplanes and 7,000 still flying today That's a pretty good batting average in my book.

 

[wabower]

What's your cost estimate when it happens?

That's high on my wish list as my "Retirement Airplane" for my wife and I to travel in.

 

[rbridges]

Which explains why their order backlog is so long and they're so successful and thriving these days.

very few aviation companies are thriving these days. IMO, cost killed mooney's airplane production (duh). my plane cost ~20K in 1965. Adjusted for inflation, that comes out to ~160k in 2012. The last mooney I saw at sun n fun was 600K. I know the plane got bigger, faster and more advanced, but that shoved a lot of potential buyers out of the market. Especially when you consider that it's a sporty plane that a bunch of old fat rich guys don't want to squeeze themselves into.

 

[poadeleted21]

very few aviation companies are thriving these days. IMO, cost killed mooney's airplane production (duh). my plane cost ~20K in 1965. Adjusted for inflation, that comes out to ~160k in 2012. The last mooney I saw at sun n fun was 600K. I know the plane got bigger, faster and more advanced, but that shoved a lot of potential buyers out of the market. Especially when you consider that it's a sporty plane that a bunch of old fat rich guys don't want to squeeze themselves into.

Is that this time or the past 5 or 6 times they've gone bankrupt?

 

[rbridges]

Is that this time or the past 5 or 6 times they've gone bankrupt?

haha. they have changed hands a few times, haven't they?

 

[az350x]

Have you considered a Cozy? 4-place, quick, fun to fly. Lacking on baggage storage though. I was really impressed with the one I rode in years ago...

I think there's one on Barnstormers now for about $64k.

 

[Perezhr]

Have you considered a Cozy? 4-place, quick, fun to fly. Lacking on baggage storage though. I was really impressed with the one I rode in years ago...

I think there's one on Barnstormers now for about $64k.

For 64K you could buy a "really" nice M20C with very low time engine and decent panel. Or jump to an F model with more room. Unless you have your heart set on an experimental, you are going to have a hard time matching same capability AND price range.

 

[az350x]

For 64K you could buy a "really" nice M20C with very low time engine and decent panel. Or jump to an F model with more room. Unless you have your heart set on an experimental, you are going to have a hard time matching same capability AND price range.

My bad. I read the original post days ago- for some reason the way I remembered it was that he wanted to go faster than the Mooney, and have four seats. Forgot that the objective apparently was to stay in the same price range of the M20C.

 

[cocolos]

For now I will keep be renting a 172sp and meanwhile I'll refine my missions.