Just discovered your site and am truly impressed! I own N99376 a 1981 Mooney M20K 231. FYI, with the new FAA aircraft codes, all turbo-charged Mooneys file as M20T since we all have basically the same flight characteristics. Your site shows me as a Mooney Bravo – the current turbocharged Mooney but that is a different model than the M20K. I would suggest you change the identification for M20T to read “Mooney (turbocharged)” or something like “Mooney M20K or TLS Bravo”
We’ve updated the system to call “M20T” a “Mooney TLS” to be generic. We’ll accept “M20M” if folks want to show off the “M-20M Bravo” type name. The majority of M20* folks file as a “M20P” which I suppose is the generic non-turbo Mooney code, which we display as a “M-20P.”
The aircraft type data from the FAA includes those dashes in the type names; should those be removed?
Also, thanks for the kind words, Dave, and please be sure to spread the FlightAware URL in the Mooney communities.
My apologies, have been away on travel. You are correct, the FAA used to designate Mooneys based on the model type (i.e., M20A,B,C…).
With the new system they annouced about 18 months ago, that all changed (although many pilots still get it wrong when submitting flight plans). The new system is based on the performance characteristics of the Mooney and they break the planes down into two types:
M20P - The normally aspirated Mooneys (M20A-J, L, P, R, S)
M20T - The turbocharged Mooneys (M20K, M)
The “TLS” or “Bravo” is the name (much like Mooney Executive or Ranger) for the M20M. It is one specific model of turbocharged Mooneys. My recommendation would be to change your coding to reflect that an M20T (or M-20T) is a turbocharged Mooney (perhaps something like “Mooney(turbo)” and an M-20P is listed as “Mooney”.
Hopefully this makes sense to you, if not, please feel free to email me.
Again, keep up the great work on the site…I am proud to be a charter member and have reviewed your site in one of my trip reports on my website!
Thanks for the detailed information. We’ve kept our detailed info if a pilot files with the older codes. However, per your suggestions and our general display style, we’ve updated M20T to read “Mooney M-20 Turbo” and M20P to read simply, “Mooney M-20”
The majority of M20* folks file as a “M20P” which I suppose is the generic non-turbo Mooney code, which we display as a “M-20P.”