I believe they sell them only to Cirrus (wholesale), no PMA etc, but next time I'm over there I'll see if any might go out the back door.
PS This reminds me (in reverse) of going to Weiss Plastics in Hofolding to get a canopy panel. I brought it back to the US on the commercial flight, and sweet talked my way past the customs guy carrying a gigantic box :-))))
That would de great, it's a 2006 SR22 - and i am willing to buy one complete set
Must shoehorn myself into one someday and see what they're like.
They aren't that tight - this is a bit of a myth. There's the same shoulder room in a Mooney that there is in a Bonanza.
The thing I don't like about the Mooney is the tank slit visibility. Forward visibility is very poor and I think this contributes to the feeling of the cabin being tight when in reality it's not that bad.
I would have to agree. I'm about two metres tall and have no problems whatsoever fitting in a Mooney. Your legs can slide way under the panel. This goes for the M20K variant anyway. The current models are even a bit wider and longer.
We've been pondering to sell the M20K 252 and 'upgrade' to an Ovation, Bravo or Acclaim. Infact, she's up for auction right now. When we started to make a spreadsheet to compare her with newer planes she still holds up pretty well! 30 years old, but very competitive when it comes to the €/kts factor, and the turbocharged engine (with an O2 system) gives you great flexibility when it comes to weather (FL280 if you'd want to go up that high).
I love the fact that they started up again, but I share the concerns with some of the previous posters if Mooney will make it against e.g. Cirrus. Then there is a public out there that isn't all that interested in Cirrus products - me -, but I don't know if Mooney will survive on those 'Mooniacs' alone.
Where the "tiny cabin" myth is concerned, I fly a short body "C" model and I am 1.88m high and way too heavy. Yet, it is very comfortable to sit in and a lot spacier for my legs than quite some other planes I tried to get in and out from. The short body planes are only tight on the back seats. This changed with the "F" model and again with the PFM Mooney, which was the prototype for the current line up.
Mooney has a chance if they clean up their act and return to their roots. Ovation and Acclaim are great top of the line airplanes but Mooney has nothing to offer on the entry level. That is a problem, even if entry level planes sell less than the top end ones. I wonder how many people walk into a Cirrus dealership with their mind, budget and intentions set on an SR20 and walk out with an SR22 purchase. Yet, that SR22 got sold BECAUSE there was a SR20 to lure them.
Mooney has to return to their roots of efficiency and affordability if they wish to succeed. Primarily, they have to offer a economically priced entry level traveller, e.g. a real Mooney 201 successor with e.g. the IO390 engine which delivers 210 hp and is Mogas capable. Fitted to an Ovation cell, it could well be the 160-180 kt @10gph traveller for which the M201 was famous but with the larger cabin and true economy. If it were to be priced below the SR20, it would appeal to a lot of folks simply for the fact that you get more bang for your buck.
A 2nd possibility would be a continental turbo diesel driven airplane. The engine delivers 300 hp on avtur (Jet A1) fuel, which means it could probably get close to the Acclaim Performance but on lower fuel flow and without the Avgas trap. This could mean a very serious traveller with 1500 to 2000 NM range and good 200 kts.
In all cases, Mooney has to work over the payload situation. Both the Ovation and Acclaim are heftily short on payload, especcially with full fuel. Add LR tanks, and things get to points where even a single pilot may reach MTOW. This is a significant step back form e.g. the C model or the M20J (201) which had very decent payloads.
Clearly, Cirrus has won over the market by introducing the CAPS system. It is unlikely that Mooney can duplicate this, even if they wanted to. That is a massive problem these days.
It is quite mute to ramble about what happens in 10-15 years. IMHO there won't be any GA in Europe by then and massivley reduced figures in the US. If politicians get their way and either ban or make Avgas hugely expensive as they wish, this may well happen earlier. Once the USG hits 10$ in the US or the Liter 10€ in Europe, GA is dead as a doornail anyhow.
Mooney is the most efficient and fastest single producer around. As such, it has still a huge following and can, if they do it right, make a good impact. But it will mean to throw over board some of the old illusions and get a massive brush up on their model line.
...all of which will not happen.
Just my bet.
Shall we talk again in, say, 5 years?
I think it would be very very hard to sell a single door plane these days - at this price / spec range - given the competition has two doors.
Very few pilots will just buy such a plane totally on their own, to always fly alone, and the whole "passenger experience" is transformed totally by having two doors.
Even in the cabin class TBM850, $3.x million, a lot of customers pay $80k for the pilot door. And I can completely see why, having flown in the TBM850, the Jetprop, the C421, and some others.
If people think the Cirrus chute is an important selling point, they will realise that, with a PA28/Mooney/etc airframe, if the front RHS person is for some reason not getting out during an emergency, nobody else will be getting out either, before the thing either sinks or catches fire.
Cirrus has worked because it has appealed to new pilots. A business built on existing a mooney owners is doomed to fail in my view. I give it two years max.
Nothing wrong with a single door BTW...
Like Peter mentioned earlier, there's probably a pent-up demand from loyalists, so they'll sell a decent batch the first couple of years. (just witness how Beech is able to move a small handful of factory new Bonanzas & Barons every year)
However, "new" money is unlikely to go Mooney's way. New money kind of people will pick a SR22TG5 over a Mooney any day of the week.
Mooney went into hibernation 5 years ago for a number of reasons, all of which are still there.
Now, if Mooney were actually planning on selling updated modern designs rather than just restarting their old glory, it'd be really interesting...
Real aircraft don't have doors :-)
I like the idea of an an O-390 powered Mooney. Only one problem: an RV7 goes way faster with fixed gear and is so roomy I get lost in the things and have to ask for directions to the panel. Four cylinder Mooneys exist in the here and now because they provide great bang for the buck - including $40K buy in.
I'm currently flying aircraft number 2 with no bottom seat cushion... Better head room and comfy for me. Aircraft with no doors sometimes need to be custom fitted because you wear them!
If its too loud you're too old. Etc ;-)
