Mooney20

Pretty, but still has the old style landing gear donuts. Those dudes must be hard as granite. Also has only one comm and no glide slope.

I owned an M20B for many years. Very much the same as a "C", but with important differences. 1) 2450 pound gross weight vs. 2575 pounds for '62 C and later 2) Five degrees less rudder travel which translates into less crosswind capability 3) Ten degrees less flap travel and completely manual flaps- no hydraulics 3) Different master switch 4) No hat rack in baggage compartment. Nice to have to store light weight bulky items such as pillows. I modified my airplane to the updated master switch. I would recommend a later model airplane.

It has happened to me three times in two different Mooneys spread over many years. TOTALLY my fault each time because it is the PIC's responsibility to assure all doors and windows are closed prior to takeoff and I failed to do so. I tried using the POH procedure to get the door closed each time without success. It took landing to get the door closed. When a door opens it is noisy and distracting for sure. The original poster did the right thing- fly the airplane. Just fly a normal approach and stick to your procedures. More than one door opening incident has ended up in a gear-up landing. And I was almost one of them. I flew a normal approach, but with two unflappable, know-it-all pilots in the airplane, I didn't stick to my procedures. Lesson learned. What you don't want to do is make an emergency return to the airport like the airplane is on fire. One accident I'm familiar with was caused by such actions. He departed Rwy 19 and tried cranking it around to land on Rwy 24 at low altitude. It did not end well. http://www.ntsb.gov/_layouts/ntsb.aviation/brief.aspx?ev_id=20001213X32244&key=1

I'm going to guess the airplane was probably 200-300 pounds over gross. Doable, but pretty doggy performance. The real problem I see is the hoss in the baggage compartment. That likely put the airplane at least a couple inches or more out of aft c.g. limit. It would have made pitch control exceptionally twitchy. It's a miracle the airplane didn't crash out of control when the engine lost power. I can't wait the read the factual report when it's out in six months or so. I'll bet it eventually makes at least one magazine.

NTSB preliminary is up: http://www.ntsb.gov/_layouts/ntsb.aviation/brief.aspx?ev_id=20150420X64153&key=1

How can you tell a pilot at a cocktail party? Wait ten minutes. He'll tell you.

"Only" 1600 per year, 135 per month, and 30 per week? As I've said, I fly for a living. I know what it takes to achieve that kind of flying time. Those totals year-in and year-out would kill a horse! Anyway, check your math. Over 50 years, those total to 80,000, 81,000, and 78,000 hours respectively. All of that one in one week? No thanks! Maybe with perfect airplanes, perfect airline schedules and perfect weather it would be possible. I don't deny that you may be the highest time Mooney pilot on the planet, but I don't buy your claims of 30,000 Mooney hours. Sorry.

30,000 TOTAL hours is not impossible for a pilot whose primary occupation is piloting. 30,000 hours in a specific make is HIGHLY improbable. To then claim that 15,000 of those hours are ferrying damaged aircraft further expands the incredibility envelope. Let's do the math: That's ferrying 2,500 airplanes (approximately 1/4 of the entire Mooney fleet!) 6 hours a piece. When did he have any time to work on these airplanes? Listen partner, I fly airplanes for a living. I am 58 years old. I have been there and done that. I know what it takes to accumulate 30,000 hours. That's why I called BS on the 30,000 hours claim.

I gotta call BS on the 30,000 hours claim. A professional pilot who flies A LOT may accumulate that number of hours over a career. To claim that many hours in a specific make is simply not believeable, especially when their primary occupation is not piloting.

Both my daughters, now 27 and 23, took their first airplane ride to grandparent's house when they were 3 1/2 weeks old. They grew up in a Mooney. In a J model Mooney with kids, one has to learn to pack light and tight. When loading the baggage compartment, my mantra was if there was a space, find a piece of baggage that fit it. The dogs will have to stay home.

For the same reason that has claimed a lot of pilots: Get Homeitis. The good doctor most likely had commitments that day and Norfolk was most likely where he needed to be. Also, he was probably very familiar with that airport and approach. His divert decision seems reasonable to me. However, his decision to undertake this flight at all does not seem reasonable- late night, near max range with poor weather at destination. The time period in which the accident occurred coincided with a period of circadian low for most people. He almost certainly was not at the top of his game at the very time he needed to be. But time pressures often paint pilots into a corner and that often results in poor decisions. I've let myself fall into that trap, but fortunately I lived and learned. Let it be a lesson for us all. Something I'd like to point out to the new or low-time instrument pilots here is that I was not shocked by the controller telling the pilot of a 30-knot groundspeed. The winds aloft in weather conditions as were present that night can be vastly, breathtakingly different than the reported surface winds. For the last 24 years, I've flown an airplane that has a continuous display of the actual winds aloft on a moving map. I have many times seen winds of 40-60 knots a couple thousand feet off the ground. And those strong winds were often 60-90 degrees different than the reported surface wind direction. It can make flying a precise ILS a real challenge. My advice to the new and low-time instrument pilot is to NEVER give up. Keep your instrument scan going, keep flying the airplane and don't give up! Use whatever autoflight capability your airplane has to the maximum extent possible when faced with a challenge like this one. Despite what you may hear, autoflight is not a crutch. It is a tool. Learn to use it and then do so when you need to.