| History N4073N - Highly Modified Mooney M20C Ranger |
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 N4073N in Flight I purchased my first airplane in the spring of 1981, a 1970 Cessna 150. It suited me well for a while until I started to fly more IFR than it was capable of. I then decided to look for a Mooney. In June of 1983 I found one in Trade-a-Plane while home with a 104 degree fever. When I talked to Carmon Scoppa the second owner I found that this plane had been always hangered and treated with a great deal of care. Carmon had two interested parties that were to view the plane in a few days. I left for North Myrtle Beach that afternoon and the next day there was a deposit in Carmons' hand for N4073N, a 1968 M20C Ranger. While based in Southbridge Mass. I contracted the local AI Joe Brackett to do my first owner assisted annual. We eventually became friends and I started to work for him part time. I gained enough hours to obtain my A&P rating and started to modify N4073N. First I started to upgrade the panel with avionics, then I began to put on speed and performance mods. Over the years I kept adding more mods; flap & aileron gap seals, rudder & elevator hinge covers, wing tips, one-piece belly, brake relocation, 201 windshield, 201 instrument panel, dorsal fin, 231 horizontal root fairings, 201 cowling and spinner, fuel injection engine conversion, flush door handle, 231 fold down rear seats, 201 control yokes, and 205 inner gear doors. All of the mods were done by myself aside from one that I spent three months correcting. I gained a total of about twenty knots with the conversions. I also installed and wired all of the electronics and King avionics. In 1995 I had Don Reese of Reese Aircraft paint the ship with Pratt & Lambert Acryglo in a classic Mooney scheme after rejecting hundreds of custom designs. Jeff Dunbar helped with this one (thanks Jeff). In the summer the interior was done in a light gray leather by The Mod Works.
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