MOONEY M20E

The Mooney Super 21, the fuel-injected 200 hp version of the short-body Mooney, built from 1964. It cruises at 160 knots on about ten gallons an hour, which is still, sixty years on, an extraordinary number — most modern four-seat aircraft cannot match it. It is bought by people who want to go a long way fast on a small budget and are prepared to accept a small cabin to get it. The Super 21 of 1964 to 1967 has the manual Johnson-bar gear and hydraulic flaps. The aeroplane came back in 1969 as the Chaparral with electric gear and flaps and the one-piece windscreen that all Mooneys got that year, so the name tells you the systems. None were built in 1972 and 1973 during Mooney's receivership; the last Chaparrals were built in 1974 and 1975.

The qualifications are the same as for the M20C, only more so. The short fuselage means the rear seat is cramped and the aeroplane is sensitive in pitch; combined with the clean airframe, precise airspeed on final is not optional and long floats and overruns are the classic Mooney accident. Useful load is modest — around 700 lb with full tanks, which is three adults and no luggage. Maintenance is generally reasonable but Mooney-specific items (gear shock discs, the steel tube cabin cage's corrosion state, fuel tank sealant leaks in the wet wing) need a mechanic who knows the type. Fuel tank resealing is a known and expensive recurring job on older Mooneys. No high-performance endorsement is needed at exactly 200 hp, but a complex endorsement is, and insurers want retractable time.