New Mooney Misses

[Bill Greenwood]

I haven't flown the new Mooney, but from what I read it doesn't excite me. It's a sidestep and all I can see good is that it has a Garmin G1000 panel if you like that. It has only 3 seats which seems really strange to me, about like when new Coke came out and became a dud on the market. Sure, it often may be flown in a flight school with a student and a CFI, but what if you want to go somewhere with 2 couples or parents and 2 kids? It has only a diesel engine which is not fast and will have that stink of diesel fuel and exhaust. Its fixed gear, one reason its slow. The inside looks like a Cirrus, and it doesn't have a real yoke or stick. I wouldn't buy one.
But. I'd buy another model Mooney. I owned a '77 M20 J, 201 for years and its a really good plane. It really would go 201, verified by 2 way tests using a vortac and dme. and it cruised about 155 knots. Most of all it held 64 gallons and burned less than 10 in cruise so you really didn't have to worry about fuel endurance on any normal flight. Ive gone nonstop from Colo to Austin at which point I headed right for the men's room. It holds 4 people tho back seat is a little tight. It is easy to fly, and despite what some say easy to land if you slow down to about 70 mph, power off. You can buy a nice one for bout $100k . and if you have more money there are other models, $200k and up that really will go over 200 knots cruise. Very good airplanes and no diesel stink.

[Floatsflyer]

I read about 3 months ago that the newest Mooney ownership incarnation from a year or so ago closed down the factory once again. I may be wrong but I don't think there was a display at Osh last year.

[Mike Switzer]

A few weeks ago one of the business channels reported they were back in production. I don't remember any details (heard it on a TV in the hotel I was at). In my opinion every seat in a Mooney is a bit tight.