I just came back for flying. After refueling my Cessna, I walked over to the clamshell hanger to crank it up so I could park the plane. As I did, a very pretty Mooney taxied by. The owner shut down the engine and began to park it inside his hangar. I complemented him on his plane and he said it was for sale. I had to ask the price and he replied, "$25,000."

Damn! A Mooney for $25,000?! The immediate thought was "what's wrong with it." Turns out, nothing. It's a late 1950s Mooney M20A, the wooden winged version. The plane had it's annual inspection last May and the wings are fine. The engine only has about 740 hours on it with a 2000 hour TBO. It really isn't set up for IFR but that could be fixed for about $5000, $10,000 if we add an autopilot. It cruises about 160-170 MPH on 8-9 GPH and has a range of about 800 miles plus reserve. Johnson bar manual retractable gear, constant speed prop, and slicker than snot. Even the paint appeared new.

I'm going to talk to my Cessna partners tomorrow. The market price for our Cessna is about $40,000. We could buy the Mooney, equip it for serious IFR cross country flying, and have money left over. Hell, for that price I'm tempted to try to buy it myself. Unfortunately, I doubt the wife would fall for that notion and divorces are even more expensive than planes. I gotta avoid catching a case of A.I.D.S (Aviation Induced Divorce Syndrome) over this one. Stay tuned...

Here's a link to a Mooney M20A for sale with some pictures to give you an idea what it looks like. The link also has some specs for the plane.

http://www.trade-a-plane.com/unprotected/specs/9429.html