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I've never been in a Mooney. Got to fly a Bonanza once as a kid with just a few solo hours in a 152. It felt disconcerting to me, like a light car on ice that had a barely perceptible fishtail. The owner said you got used to it. Other than that it didn't seem tricky. Of course I wasn't doing mucb beyond straight and level. Incidentally, my FBO was Monmouth Illinois. It's the oldest airport in the state. John Livingston ran it for years and my grandfather flew with him a few times. I have a picture of him by a plane that I think was owned by Livingston. It appears to be a Waco with a Hispano Suisa V8. Galesburg, 12 miles away, has the biggest Stearman fly in in the world.

The next door neighbor on the opposite side of the guy with the Mooney is an aircraft mechanic who owns an N3N which is a very similar aircraft to the Stearman built to Navy specs. They are more rare and he takes great pride in it, although other than the paint scheme I would have a hard time telling them apart.

We have a couple Stearman’s on the field and my wife points them out and we have this conversation repeatedly, “Mike is out flying again today.” I reply “I don't think that was Mike.” “Yes it was!” Later I ask Mike, “Was that you flying your biplane this morning?” He replies, “No that was the Littlefields’s Stearman.” I reply, “I thought so.” “My N3N is up at our hangar in Concrete.” “Can't you tell the difference between a Stearman and an N3N?” Then he lists them for me, usually starting with the spar and airframe that were built out of aluminum, not wood and steel tubing.

https://notastearman.wordpress.com/specifications/n3n-versus-stearman/

I started out hang gliding, then got a homebuilt ultralight aircraft. My wife insisted that we get an airplane “she could go flying in too.” I have to admit that the ultralight and hang gliders and ultralight are still more fun in most ways, but if I killed myself in either type my life insurance won't cover me and my wife would try to kill me a second time.