Tony__L

Hi I will be at Airventure this year. I am camping in Camp Scholler with a bunch of my South African friends. I am keen to attend but also do not want to miss the concert (I missed it the last time I was at Airventure). So, I will be there, but maybe a bit later, or earlier . . . I look forward to putting more faces to names and to seeing some familiar faces again (from 2015). Tony (Striptease)

Thanks for the quick reply!

Can someone please explain what IRAN is? I have Googled it but cannot figure it out

Geewiz, haven't been on the forum in a long time. Sorry to only reply now. Ultimately Paul and I did communicate via email but could not make a plan to meet up. Hope you had a good trip.

Nice scoop Scoop. An observation, there was 39 planes in the caravan, not 29.

Where do I start? It is not easy to write a message like this without sounding disingenuous. So please bear with me. Oshkosh is something that I had heard about many times from friends that had been and experienced the event. They all had grand and marvelous things to say about Airventure. From the scale of the event to the variety of the planes attending, the airshows, the sheer number of the vendors and the people. They were always impressed with the pure efficiency of the organisation of the event too. When you listen to people go on like this you eventually form a mental picture of what to expect and so expectations are formed, should you ever go. Well, those expectations were exceeded. It really is mind blowing event that even by American standards must be BIG. I had no real plans to attend Airventure, this year or any year in the near future either. It was something I would do ‘one day’. I had some friends from South Africa that were attending this year but that too was not enough to get me to go. I had other priorities that needed my attention. Now I must mention that I am quite passionate about Mooney aircraft. I own one and therefore think it is the best plane ever designed or built, for my mission that is. I am not an aviation nut in as much as I cannot tell the name, make, model and horse power of every aircraft I see. However, I had recently read about the Mooney Caravan and how the crescendo of this organisation leads to a mass formation arrival at Oshkosh each year. I thought this was cool, even though I had little interest in flying in formation. I did however like the idea of arriving at Oshkosh by light aircraft one day as opposed to arriving on a bus. And so my trip to Oshkosh this year began. It started with an enquiry on MooneySpace about the possibility of a right hand seat for the arrival at Osh in the Caravan. This is the point where a very special friendship started. Rocketman jumped in very quickly and assured me that he could organize a ride, one way or the other he would make a plan. I still was not convinced to go but started looking into flights from South Africa and forming a plan as to how the logistics would work out. Clearly I was taking too long to commit and so Rocketman offered a sweetener to seal the deal and offered a ride from Granbury, Texas. Clearly he is a good businessman as the deal was sealed and my flights booked! Much happened between then and departing Granbury for the flight to Madison. To say the least I was touched by offers from Flash, Bumble and Sandman to get me to Airventure when Rocketman had technical challenges with his rocket ship. It is heartening to see the family of aviation at work, something that I continually experience here in South Africa too. This is something that we as aviators need to hold on to as this is the fabric that will get us through many hurdles in the future and the bond of comradery that we will share with and impart to our children and families as we grow old. This is something that people who do not participate in common interest activities, such as aviation and many sports, cannot adequately comprehend and understand. Much that followed Rocketman and my departure from Granbury passed as a blur. Some vivid memories are the shear flatness of the interior of the States, the extent of agriculture along the Mississippi, taking off and landing in formation for the first time, flying in formation and having a chance to pole the plane and get an introduction to formation flying, The mass departure from Madison and naturally the mass arrival at Airventure, camping with your plane (something I now plan to do myself) and spending time (not enough) with the Caravan bunch. I cannot adequately express my gratitude and thanks to everyone that contributed to this experience and I could not remember all that deserve a mention. However a few in particular bear mention; Rocketman for accommodating me and providing transport in Granbury and for the ride all the way to Oshkosh in his amazing plane and Pinto for the camping gear (that mattress is something special, go figure!). To the rest of the Texas Wing bunch, thank you for making me feel like part of your group, you feel like an extended aviation family to me now! To the Caravan family, thank you too for making me feel so welcome and at home. You truly have something special. To the non-leaders of the Caravan; you have a special and top notch team heading up the Caravan. They put in a substantial effort to make this happen, all because they love Mooneys and formation flying and do not want either to fade away. Take a moment to say thank you in person the next time you see one of them. As for me, I now have two new challenges in aviation that I would like to pursue. Firstly would be formation flying, it will be a challenge because of the number of Mooneys in our area, but I will do my best to get them together. Secondly is an IF rating (I was amazed at how many of you have IF ratings!). I will also be hanging a Texas Wing banner in my hangar and will wear both the Texas Wing and Mooney Caravan T-shirts and caps with pride!!!! Cheers for now and hope to see you again sooner rather than later and hopefully out of the window of a Mooney with one of us tucked in tight!!! Yours in aviation! Striptease PS: We will have to work on that call sign as no one has believed the rationale behind that name yet ;-) – thanks Cowboy

Hi I am looking for a new ride with the caravan to Oshkosh. I had a ride lined up from the Dallas area but now that is off as his plane is experiencing technical problems. This is very last minute but these things happen some times. I have been offered a ride from DC but before I commit to that I would like to see what all my options are. At the moment I fly into Dallas from South Africa on Wednesday. This will give me a day or so to work my way over to join whoever would be kind enough to offer a ride. Thanks in advance. Tony

I use the tie-down attachment thread. I had a special attatchment fitting made. One end fits the thread on the tie-down attachment on the wing and the other fits a gopro tripod mount attachment. Solid reliable attachment for the gopro (no sticky mounts, I'm too nervous to use them) and steady pictures too.

Reason for selling?

There are different ways of handling this and it depends on the particular surface you are dealing with and the runway itself. One way is to pull the plane to a spot with as few stones as possible and then brush as many loose and small stones away from under the prop as you can. Start up and wait for the engine to warm and do your checks and run-ups in the same spot and then taxi for takeoff. The other way requires a lot of concentration and is risky. Start up and taxi continuously, up and down the runway, until your engine is warm and do your checks and run-ups while taxiing. You need to have the runway to yourself to do this and you need to keep your wits about you with respect to staying on the runway. It helps if you have a passenger as a second set of eyes to avoid disaster. Another question you can ask is what does a gravel runway do to your flaps . . . . and which causes more damage, landing or taking off?

I want them. Consider them sold. Moosebreath (scary name by the way), are you coming to Oshkosh? I will PM you to arrange payment, etc.

A koppie is a small hill/mountain thing-a-ma-bob!

Two videos of our flyaway with some friends in April this year. The first one is from inside of the cockpit and doesn't show much of the outside. It has radio work, etc. https://youtu.be/VacC9aNIFW4 The second one is a low level flight to a fuel stop en-route on the second day: https://youtu.be/vGYeEpag2Mo Please hit LIKE if you like them Sorry about the quality. I thought I had figured out this gopro to youtube stuff, etc but I guess not Tony

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Looking like I will be there. Tony