Mooney Executive M20f M20 Operators Manual #1219 Airplane Flying Flight Lessons on 2040-parts.com

MOONEY Executive M20F M20 Operators Manual #1219 issue Oct 1975 serial # 22-1306 and up EC5900 Test Pilot - Flying the M20F Ed. Note: This article is the third in a series of evaluation reports on the various Mooney models owned by MAPA’s membership. Our first report was for the M20C, the second for the M20E. Both of these “original Mooneys” proved to be great airplanes, but with one major shortcoming - the lack of room for the rear seat passengers. The C and E are very nice two-place airplanes with lots of baggage space. But with rear seat passengers on board, the C and E models leave a lot to be desired in the area of cabin comfort. Mooney realized this and in 1967 released the first airplane with really enough room inside for four - the M20F. Combining the 200 horsepower Lycoming IO-360-A1A from the M20E with a fuselage stretched 10 inches (5 of which are in the rear seat legroom area) gave the Mooney factory an airplane they could truly market as a useable four-place airplane. So for this third in a series of pilot reports, let’s take a look at a representative M20F loaned to MAPA by All American Aircraft. We’ll apply some basic flight test procedures to determine the real world performance of the airplane and take a look at the design and its compromises with a “hard nosed” attitude. Our goal here is not to make the airplane and the design appear perfect - there is no “perfect” airplane. So, pros and cons both considered, let’s go out and fly our representative M20F to see what it will do. For these series of reports, we have tried to bring you honest, real world performance and opinions on the various Mooney models our association represents. We pulled no punches with the C and E models flown earlier. Now let’s apply those same hard nosed, real world evaluation techniques to the M20F. Using some basic flight test principles and procedures, we will take a look at honest climb and cruise performance on our test M20F. Right up front, let’s discuss the number one reason to chose an F model over an E model - cabin space. An E model will do everything an F model will - same engine, same aerodynamics, same wing. The only difference between the two is that the F model has a ten inch stretch in the fuselage compared the E model. That doesn’t sound like much, but when it comes to the F model, size does matter. Those ten inches of fuselage stretch make a huge difference in comfort for the rear seat passengers. Five inches of the stretch are directly applied to the rear seat legroom area. If you don’t think this sounds like much, go sit in an E model and then go sit in an F model. We did and the accompanying photos show the difference. Impressive.