"Mooney units", easily subdivided into "AMUs" or Aviation Monetary Units Current conversion rate is 1 Mooney unit = 65 AMUs, but you know...inflation Does the M20F still fly?
Haha the first one he didn't have a hangar for and it died in a hail storm. He had it insured, but he didn't have it insured to cover the value of the $20k an avionics in it so the insurance company totally yanked that. So then he got a second one but then the tendon in his right elbow popped out and he waited six weeks for it to pop back in for some reason and the strength never really came back. And as a 5'5 man in a Mooney, which was designed by a 6'2 Texan who could barely see over the dashboard, which has a 55 knot stall speed, which has a variable pitch prop and flaps, and which has to deal with this at the end of every flight: ...the fact that he couldn't get the gear down without excruciating pain put a bit of a damper on his enthusiasm. Never mind being 80.
Riding shotgun for a landing in that plane at that airport with that pilot was not unlike watching a bus driver suddenly pull out four bowling pins and attempt to juggle while also going a silver medal in luge. I'm sure it's much less dramatic experience with a confident, experienced pilot but I am equally sure he started too old to become one.