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Mooney makes a comeback

It’s a very analogous situation to that of Bellanca, actually almost identical except for the minority Chinese ownership of Mooney, only a few decades further along.

@Mooney_Driver, what I meant by “passionate owners” was the new owners and managers of the Mooney Company. Aging out of the company owners is what is now happening at Bellanca after a considerable period, and the company and facility in Minnesota has been for sale by them for a long time without finding a buyer.

Obviously Mooney aircraft themselves are a very popular plane that will be flying indefinitely with or without a manufacturer in business.

Last Edited by Silvaire at 07 Sep 02:32

Time to revive this one (for those who have not been around here in 2013, this is still the most epic „airplane talk“ thread we have ever had here, go check it out from the beginning).

Here is an interesting little video from Mark Pilkington, showing the rollcage structure of the M20 and what can happen to it over time:



Mainz (EDFZ) & Egelsbach (EDFE), Germany

A pity people can’t see the large number of “toys flying out of the pram” posts by certain individual(s)

Watched the video. Very interesting. M20, only pre-1976. But that is a very large number of aircraft. What happened on/after 1976? Did they put wax into the steel frame? 10k cost of the inspection!

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Mooney has one storm window, the seal on that storm window is bloody cheap and will leak, hence, needs regular changes, some aircraft still have original seal from 1977 (maybe they never fly in rain?), when the storm window leaks, it’s water end up over the cage steel or stagnate over the (wet) fuel tanks and may lead to corrosion on cage and leaks on (left) fuel tanks, the latter issue is very common on Mooneys and tend to require tanks reseal or baladers every 10-20 years…this can happen even if the aircraft is sitting in dry weather and hangar, a cheap fix of that storm window would have saved the show !

Everyone who flies Mooneys tend to be well versed on these two items: the smell of the fuel and cage corrosion, how to inspect & treat are well documented, I think way before YT videos were around

Last Edited by Ibra at 15 Apr 07:17
Paris/Essex, France/UK, United Kingdom

Apparently not. He doesn‘t even mention the storm window, and he is a Mooney expert…

Anyway, it puts things like this (watch first minute or so) into perspective:



Kept the aircraft parked outside in always sunny Surrey for many months before addressing this. I know it‘s a different type, but still.

Mainz (EDFZ) & Egelsbach (EDFE), Germany

That video briefly talks about some massive water ingress during flight in rain but I can’t see details of a resolution. Didn’t waste my life on every second of the video; they are done to make the guy money and are sponsored by the maintenance company he talks about. I had water ingress which turned out to be a crack in the front window seal (PR1422 or similar, ex-Socata) which I sealed off with Sikaflex 295. That stuff should work on a Mooney also.

A few years ago I saw some photos of a badly rusted (control linkages and everything else) 1970s M20 (they were emailed to me but were also publicly posted on a US site) and spoke to my A&P about it. He said this is the same on every 1970s Mooney he’s ever seen (in the UK). 50 years is a long time!

A lot of these issues are water collection due to blocked (or nonexistent!) drain holes.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

This issue is well known and has, in some cases, led to expensive repairs or even parting out of otherwise well kept airframes.

The “secret” obviously is to keep an eye on it. We check the steel frames in regular intervals and so far, in a close to 60 year old airframe, we have not found any damage or even start of corrosion. Hopefully things will stay this way. Corrosion is like cancer in a way, the earlier you catch it, the better the chance of stopping it in time.

LSZH(work) LSZF (GA base), Switzerland

No different than any other steel tube fuselage, all of which also have the advantage of being easier to repair than any other kind of structure.

Last Edited by Silvaire at 15 Apr 18:18

The problem, apparently, is the cost of stripping off the skin to inspect the tubing. At the 10k mentioned, most people will avoid it for as long as possible. Can it not be inspected from inside, by removing the trim?

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

An A&P friend here is currently redoing the interior of his M20C and the steel tube structure looks to be visible with all the interior removed. Whether it’s enough to inspect or repair key areas, I don’t know. I’ll take a closer look next time.

Interesting to me is that prior to his disassembling the M20C interior, and despite rumors to the contrary, I found it more comfortable in the front seats than e.g. a Bonanza. Head room and control ergonomics are good for someone of my build. The back seats would be another story unless you are small.

Last Edited by Silvaire at 18 Apr 13:47
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