N4157 and N4159 Side by Side

Keith Mackey writes: "One of my other hobbies is fooling around in Photoshop. I always liked the picture of N4157 with Bill Taylor flying that was used in the Mooney Ads for the M-18C-55.... If you look carefully at the photo [on the left], it was taken on the ground and photo edited. I can tell because if you look closely, you can see the right flap is partially extended and the left flap is up. This happens after landing because the retract spring does not bring the flaps up evenly. In the air, the air load will aid the springs and retract the flaps. The normal rigging adjustment would not have allowed the flap to be that far down. In addition, the photo has been set on a gray background and the fuel vent "coat hanger" has been cropped. The airplane had probably just landed.

"When the M-18C-55 was introduced, per the price list, two color options were available. Arctic white base and Flare red trim or the reverse. N4157 and mine have the opposite combinations. I have tried to replicate the factory photo in N4159 in the two that are attached. One is gray scale with a gray background as in the factory photo and the other [was] full color."

17 January, 2006