Buying a vintage airplane: how I bought my Mooney

Buying a vintage airplane: how I bought my Mooney - part 1, plus Cedar Point

Рет қаралды 8,954

Күн бұрын

Buying a vintage airplane can be complicated. I bought two airplanes prior to this one and I learned some hard lessons along the way. As I fly to Port Clinton, I explain the first part of the process I used to buy this airplane. While I'm near Port Clinton I decide to do a fly-by of Cedar Point.
The thumbnail is a friend and I flying N16DR back after I finished the purchase.
I originally wasn't happy with how this turned out and didn't plan to release it - the autopilot wouldn't engage so hand flying on a bumpy day led to (more) stammering (than usual). But here it is - I don't have a lot of time for video making (more on that later), so I decided I might as well just put it up on the interwebs.
An example of the spreadsheet I'm talking about: drive.google.com/file/d/1ajhX...
This video is for entertainment purposes and is not intended to be flight instruction. The views expressed here do not represent those of the FAA.
00:00 Intro and start of flight
03:45 Background - my previous airplanes
06:17 First steps - a few of them :)
07:58 Know your requirements
10:22 Determine how much it will REALLY cost
12:12 Factoring in engine time
14:31 First lesson learned
15:31 Cedar Point and landing
Music:
"Golden Empire" - The 126ers
"Lilac Skies" - Corbyn Kites
"Savannah Sunshine" - Dan Henig

Пікірлер: 31

@michaeltreacysr.983 3 жыл бұрын

Chris, I took a "deep dive" in avionics upgrading older Mooney's with the owner of a rural PA avionics shop. I quickly realized it is much better to find a plane with what I want already installed. A new STEC 3100 autopilot, installed, in a Mooney 20C $25,000.

@rodolfocastro3222 2 жыл бұрын

Love your videos and the format. Great info. Thx!

@gman68137 3 жыл бұрын

Appreciated your engineer's approach to the airplane procurement, particularly the variables you identified. Looking forward to Pt 2.

@FrugalMooney 3 жыл бұрын

Thanks - part 2 is where the big and expensive lessons were addressed. Not to mention a scary one.

@Tommyflies 2 жыл бұрын

Just went under contract for an M20E myself 🤙

@malachidrew8291 2 жыл бұрын

As someone who flies mostly Cessna 150s, I about died when he said 130 indicated and 1000 fpm

@afdchocolatemilk2107 2 жыл бұрын

So that is what a professional landing looks like. Someday I might be able to do that.

@uniuno1985 3 жыл бұрын

3526N reporting in. I have been to Port Clinton a couple times but I wasn't expecting to hear myself in your video. Happy flying!

@michaeltreacysr.983 3 жыл бұрын

Ok, I saw the button push next to turn indicator. Got it thank you!

@tommycoad7410 3 жыл бұрын

Holy crap that passenger window cam quality was like a blast back to the late 90's early 00's!

@FrugalMooney 3 жыл бұрын

Yeah, that camera sucks - I really need to replace it. The worst part is it had image stabilization on yet the raw video was a nearly unsalvageable shaky mess. Thankfully I found a program to post process the video the remove the shake and at least salvage what I could. Despite the poor quality, I figured the aerial view of Cedar Point was still interesting.

@tommycoad7410 3 жыл бұрын

@@FrugalMooney Indeed.

@john3Lee 3 жыл бұрын

Interesting video.... Thanks

@michaeltreacysr.983 3 жыл бұрын

Thank Chris, Your explanation makes perfect sense. I too am planning on long term ownership. Finally regarding pricing for the avionics do you have any online resources I could pull up which might get me closer to what the total cost to say add an autopilot with altitude hold would run. Alternatively, I can call some local aviation shops here in PA and will do so if need be but I was wondering if you had come across anyone with recent experience owning a Mooney installing avionics that mentioned pricing.

@FrugalMooney 3 жыл бұрын

Depending on the piece of equipment, installation labor may be the biggest cost in the upgrade. Labor cost is a big variable and depends a lot on the cost of living in a given area. Often an hour of labor may be $20 cheaper in a rural area than it is in a big metropolitan area. So there's no good substitute for getting some estimates from some real shops. If you're having a lot of work done, it may be worth it to find a reputable shop in the middle of nowhere and deal with the inconvenience of dropping the plane off and coming back later to pick it up. There was a good youtube video from someone (I want to say Skywagon) about him taking the airplane to a shop in the middle of nowhere for his annual since it was going to save him more than $1000 in labor.

@collinreesejones5525 2 жыл бұрын

Your wife is AWESOME!!! 😁

@tnpotomacrr4792 2 жыл бұрын

Trouble with engine calculations is time has no bearing on engine longevity, power output, reliability, etc. Condition does. A 200 hour engine could require immediate extensive repair or overhaul, whereas a 2000 hour engine could be reliable for hundreds more hours. A major mistake is to assume a low time since overhaul is worth the premium in purchase especially when it’s been sitting for years and the last overhaul was in the 90’s. The high time frequently used engine could be the much better deal.

@FrugalMooney 2 жыл бұрын

You are correct - I talk a little bit about that in the next video.

@michaeltreacysr.983 3 жыл бұрын

Chris, I think I located your autopilot as being just above your IFR VOR dials. So is that a Brittain unit and therefore the original Mooney installed autopilot from the factory?

@FrugalMooney 3 жыл бұрын

It's an STEC-30 which is integrated into the turn coordinator and the altitude hold is on a button on the yoke. If you watch here kzfaq.info/get/bejne/gbZ6aLeA1qyvYX0.html you can see me turn it on: two pushes of the knob on the turn coordinator gets me into heading mode, then I click the altitude hold button on the yoke. The thing above the VOR dials is the GPS annunciator panel.

@michaeltreacysr.983 3 жыл бұрын

Chris, I was using your spreadsheet. I am trying to understand "engine hours to normalize" calculation. I get $30,000/TBO = $15. What does line 18 depict as the engine hours are negative and positive depending on engine time? For example: 405 hrs. = -$8,925, 916 hrs. -$1260

@FrugalMooney 3 жыл бұрын

What that is trying to show is how much money you would save in the long run if you bought that plane (i.e. if you owned the plane long enough to get to one or more engine overhauls) compared to a theoretical plane that had 1000 hours on the engine. In other words, for the 405 hour engine, you'll get an additional $8,925 hours of flying time that the previous owner paid for. Another way of looking at it is the engine is worth $8,925 more than an engine that has 1000 hours on it. The spreadsheet for me was more about long term ownership cost than aircraft value, so I made the number negative since it will cost me $8,925 less in the long run if I were to own it forever. The problem is that engine overhauls are few and far between, so in reality you're going to be hit with one big chunk of money ($30,000) or not. However, when you decide to sell your plane, the next buyer will factor dollars per hour of engine time into their calculation of aircraft value so you should definitely pay attention to it. In summary, the negative sign is a weird choice. It would make more sense to make it positive and add it to the aircraft value, but then it gets even more weird with adding costs of upgrading the airplane. Sorry it was confusing, it makes sense to me - I swear :).

@scottramsey9403 2 жыл бұрын

Got my multi cert in an Apache...

@michaeltreacysr.983 3 жыл бұрын

Chris, I am looking at your panel in this video where is it located?

@FrugalMooney 3 жыл бұрын

Where is what located? If you're referring to the autopilot, it's an STEC-30 which is integrated into the turn coordinator and the altitude hold is on a button on the yoke. If you watch here kzfaq.info/get/bejne/gbZ6aLeA1qyvYX0.html you can see me turn it on: two pushes of the knob on the turn coordinator gets me into heading mode, then I click the altitude hold button on the yoke.

@arpwatch 3 жыл бұрын

What speeds do you use for take off and landing?

@FrugalMooney 3 жыл бұрын

For a standard takeoff: start to bring the nose up at 64, try to hold a 500 FPM climb while accelerating to 120, climb at 120. For a standard landing, 90 after flaps down until final, on final 85 until 200 ft, then 80 the last 200 ft to start of the flare. All speeds in MPH indicated.

@lake3fork 23 күн бұрын

I’m looking for a Mooney to purchase and I know in this video you had mentioned you had an agreement that both you and the seller signed to ensure a safe transaction. Can you share that with me. Thanks

@FrugalMooney 10 күн бұрын

Sorry - it's been so long that I don't have it anymore.