"Paul kgyy" wrote in message
ups.com...
I'm fortunate in not having to own a car.

What's kinda weird to me is the tendency to put ever larger engines in
4-place aircraft.

Mooney defined efficiency (and pretty much continues to do so) but
there seems to be a big market for 300+ horsepower engines.

I suppose if you're laying out $400K for an airplane and 4000 a year
on insurance, an additional 5-8 gph isn't a big deal.

I think the small engined Cirruses (Cirri?) have taken the fast, 200 hp, 4
seater market away from Mooney. If you compare spec's of a pre-201 Mooney
and a Cirrus SR-20, they are reasonably close and the Cirrus is a much
simpler airplane, both to operate and to maintain.

KB