Lance, Ive has the pleasure of flying with Bob before and am looking forward to learning the ropes of the Bravo under his tutelage. I see you have an M20M. Any thoughts on someone transitioning from A36 to Bravo would be appreciated. I’ve got 400 hours in the J model, but no experience in the Bravo. Jimmy Garrison is leasing me his personal plane so I’m going to make sure I give it my A game treatment. The guys at All American are first class.

Good for you Daniel. I don’t know your location but it sounds like you have it covered. If I can help, give me a shout. I have had my Bravo for 13 years or so and about 1,000 hours. I had a J for six years before that. I would imagine Jimmy has given you a guide on the numbers that he likes his bird flown. They are expensive engines but mostly trouble free if treated right. I’m excited for you

Thanks Tony, I’m excited too.

Why are these Bravos so cheap, seem like a big bang for the buck.

I wondered the same thing. If you look at All American’s inventory on their website, you’ll see immaculately equipped Bravos for around 200k. Obviously they don’t have the utility that the UL of many Bonanzas offer, but for transport of 2-3 people it’s hard to beat. My first plane was a J model Mooney and it was a great time building and training aircraft that still perform a x country mission. I did Instrument rating through CFII in my Mooney and then converted it to law school tuition. I don’t think there’s any doubt that We pay a premium for our Bonanzas. I’ll share my experiences as I get into the Bravo.

The Bravo is a tremendously capable traveling machine, especially with the FIKI option. Lots of redundancy in systems (for a single, anyway). The longer fuselage offers a lot of room for people and cargo compared to earlier Mooneys, but the weak point is typically useful load. For a traveling couple, though, it would be hard to beat since you can load up a lot of volume for adventure trips with bicycles, camping gear, dogs, etc.

I haven't been tracking ads closely the last year or two, but they got beaten down on price so far that even I started to get a wandering eye. I currently own a J/201 and like my typical 9 GPH at cruise. The Bravo suffers IMO in that most will not run LOP for some reason. Don Kaye got his first engine to run LOP, but after overhaul it would not. The guys in Ada haven't been able to crack the code either, to my knowledge. Thus you'll be looking at 18-20 GPH or more, typically, versus 13-15 if it would run LOP well.

Looking at Vref history for a 2004 A36 and 2004 Bravo, there's not a whole lot of difference.

In thousands...
Plane New Now %chg
Bravo $439 $218 -50%
A36 $650 $365 -44%

A36's have recovered 5-10% from the bottom while the Bravo's have not. I suspect this is because A36 is current production, and the Bravo is competing against an improved product (Acclaim).

I suspect also, but do not know, that A36's tend to be retained longer as they are more accommodating of a growing family, waistline, and cargo. Mooney's are great if they fit your mission, but that set of mission is not as expansive as the A36's.

-de

If you don't need the extra space of the A36, these Bravos look pretty awesome; can't wait for a Pirep.

High operating cost and limited useful load. It's an amazing traveling airplane for one, maybe two people- gast and a ton of power. Useful load on a FIKI plane likely in the 800-850 lbs. Burns 18+ GPH ROP, can't run LOP. Add the fuel needs for a longer flight and there isn't much useful load left. I looked seriously a year ago- Don K says $75K all in for a Factory Reman including accessories and install for the Bravo engine.

I always figured it was the cost of the engine replacement that has the value low. I am closing in on 2,200 snew with a top at my purchase. I’m thankful it’s a Lycoming. I need to start the engine reserve fund sometime soon

Mine has a useful of 1,000 so with full fuel that leaves 466 lbs. I’ve had full fuel and 3 souls on board a thousand times
Two couples and full fuel several times. Of course they all must have been light weight because personally I would never violate any gross weights but there are folks that say if you have enough runway that they will take off with everything you can load up. 5,000’ is a lot of runway.

Operating cost, yep it burns fuel if you want fast (or slow) I figure 20 gallons an hour and come in just under that. Even tooling around it takes 14 gallons per hour. Other than the fuel burn cost, mine has been fairly inexpensive and what I consider trouble free just needing normal replacements for any high performance single.

It’s not fast fast down low but still at 5,000’ will pull on a 310hp Cirrus and if you go to the low to mid teens it starts getting impressive. My 201 was a 155 knot airplane, at 10k and a 30kt headwind I’m still faster. Figure the air time vs my 201 and the fuel costs don’t seem as bad.
Now days on my long trips (typically Ga to DC) I will fly 15-16k and that’s bumping 200kts.

I thought I’d give a pirep after a month of flying the Mooney Bravo.
Preflight is straight forward and start up is unremarkable. Turning during taxi can be a little challenging, especially tight turns at low. TO requires half flaps and boost pump on, but otherwise very familiar. Takeoff performance is excellent and once cleaned up it really goes. At 1000ft, a power reduction is made to 34” and 2450 and it climbs at Vy around 1300fpm at 34” and 2575.. I’ve enjoyed being able to maintain that roc all the way to cruise. Other than flaps and boost pump on for TO there’s nothing special about departure. It’s nimble and tight on the controls and handles quite nicely.
At a cruise, a power setting of 30” and 2400 burns around 20gph with a TIT of 1550ish. That puts it 50-100 ROP, which is where the owner likes it run. The TSIO 540 runs strong and cool so far. I plan on flying some longer trips in the upcoming months and will share performance results.
With a gear speed of 140, it doesn’t take great energy management to get to Vle. However with a flap speed of 105 it does take some care to get into the flap arc. The speed brakes are a nice tool, but I try to only use it at the bottom of the descent to get it to gear speed. I have used after the gear was down to get into the flap arc but I don’t know if that’s necessarily good technique. The Bravo is as easy to land as anything I’ve flown. It is pitch trim intensive during the round out and flare, but once the in the landing attitude, it is well mannered and has no tendency to float.
The TSIO 540 is a great match for this airframe IMO and provides the Bravo with performance not easily matched. The performance does come at a cost of cabin space and UL, but 2 large folks can Comfortably ride up front, but the back two seats are not as accommodating. It does require some manageable contortions to load up that could be a challenge to the mobility limited.
While I have enjoyed the Bravo, I do miss the utility of the A36 and its UL. I will miss the GTN 750 that’s in the Bravo however. I’ve found it significantly more user friendly than the 530 in my Bo. But I think the biggest takeaway is the benefit of a TC engine, even in flat land. Now I’ve got to figure a way to afford TN and a 750.
The most impressive aspect of this adventure has been the quality of the great folks at All American Aircraft, and Jimmy Garrison in particular. They came to my rescue when my Bonanza got dinged and have kept me flying. They even had their delivery pilot/instructor deliver the plane and check me out in it. Unfortunately I had to return him to 1T7 (kestrel Airpark). One of the more exciting air parks with an “Interesting” runway. It’s called the “Hill Country” for a reason.

Flaps are recommended but not required in the Bravo. The takeoff roll will be increased a bit and the initial pitch is a bit different without flaps, but then there's one less thing to do after takeoff.

Glad things are going well Daniel. My normal landing is speed brakes to gear speed, gear down, first notch of flaps right after gear down, last/final flaps at the white arc. I never put the speed brakes back in until off the runway. That first notch of flaps is not much at all and as you have seen when going the rest of the way you start the trim as soon as the flap switch.
I always put the trim back in T/O position while taxiing in. It's a little alarming at T/O rotating with the full flap landing trim Lots of muscle needed.
Landing with the first notch of flaps usually makes for a smooth landing too but longer ground roll. I practice that sometime when I forget full flaps. LOL

Glad you're enjoying the Bravo, Daniel.
In level flight, speed brakes are good for -20 KIAS, and are very handy for quickly getting to gear speed.
-de

Daniel
I am 99% certain that you can do approach flaps at any speed the limitation is for landing flaps.

My process was approach flaps gear than landing flaps.

I am glad you are enjoying it.

Check your O2 levels I found out that at 10k my level was less than 90% so I would go on Ox and fly in the upper teens and enjoy more speed and less Wx.