atn_pilot

So I've already been posting for the past couple of weeks since buying my Mooney, but I figured it was time for a real introduction. And some pics of the plane, of course. So, a quick "about me." I've been flying for 20 years and spent 14 years flying for the airlines. I first flew Beech 1900s, then CRJs, and finally 717s for AirTran. After AirTran merged with Southwest, resulting in me being displaced out of Atlanta, I decided it was time to leave professional aviation and take over management of our family business, where my father was planning to retire soon. No regrets on leaving Southwest, but I definitely started missing the flying pretty quickly. I first started looking around at renting, but quickly discovered that rental prices are absolutely insane nowadays. The local flight school (at FFC) wants $175/hr to rent a DA-40. Not only is that price ridiculous, but I don't even like the plane. Not a fan of these overly curvy airplanes with sticks instead of yokes that seem to be all the rage with modern GA airplanes. Doing the math, it became clear real quick that renting made no sense since I wanted to fly at least 100 hours a year. So I started looking around and doing lots of research on what GA planes might be good for what I wanted, which was primarily a cross country airplane. I soon figured out that Mooneys had an incredible combination of speed and efficiency, so I started looking for older M20s. I found an M20C just a few hours from me and went to take a look and a test flight. I was in love immediately. A quick pre-purchase inspection and title check later, and I was the proud owner of a 1968 M20C. I've only put about 10 hours on it so far, but I've enjoyed every minute. The plane has a completely refurbished landing gear that was just done last year, a new prop, an interior and panel that were just redone about 4 years ago, and a few extras like fuel bladders and a Shadin fuel totalizer. I think I'm really going to enjoy this plane for a long time to come. And I have lots of plans for speed mods and avionics upgrades, of course. So, here are some pics:

Massochists.

I certainly wouldn't let him get away with it and pay more for someone else to do it. Have an attorney send him a demand letter. Costs about $200 and almost always results in scumbags correcting their behavior to avoid the problems of litigation.

While asking for clarification is "free," it can also add to radio congestion, and it's entirely unneccessary. Dave Marten is right. Once you're cleared for that visual, go for it. ATC doesn't want you to tell them how you're going to do it, and they're not looking to give you advice on how to do it, either. They expect you to just get to the runway that they've cleared you to land on in the most efficient way possible. Keep the radio uncluttered and the traffic moving efficiently.

AirTran. Technically Southwest towards the end, but I prefer to block out that ugly chapter. Left a few months ago to focus on running my property management business full time. I loved working at AirTran, and especially loved the 717, but commuting just wasn't going to work for me while running a growing business, and I would have been lucky to get back to Atlanta after 8-10 years after the seniority integration. It just wasn't in the cards. Had to give up one or the other, and I definitely wasn't giving up my family business. So now I fly for fun instead of dollars.

I was a major airline pilot, too. I gave up that sacred seniority number and now work for myself. Now that's the best job in the world. I've got nothing against Riddle, other than their absurd prices. I'm sure they're a great school and provide great flight training. But they certainly aren't essential to becoming a major airline pilot. I flew with a lot more non-Riddle pilots than I did with Riddle pilots during the course of my career. They were all equally competent.

Okay, just curious. As long as you're not piling up debt, nothing wrong with Riddle. Just don't buy into the "Harvard of the skies" hype that they sell.

The most important thing is having your basic attitude instrument flying down. If you can do that before showing up at Riddle (why Riddle, BTW?), then you'll be able to focus on learning approaches and holds without having to struggle with the basics simultaneously. Constant airspeed and constant rate descents and climbs, standard rate turns, timed turns, etc.

Even with strong gusty winds, much more than 80 mph probably isn't a good idea. My M20C POH shows stall speed at max gross fully configured to be 57 mph. Doing some stalls in the airplane, that number seems accurate. So 1.3vso (Vref) would be 74 mph. There's really never a need, even in extremely gusty conditions, to have more than a 10 knot (11.5 mph) additive to calculated Vref. So even at absolute max gross, which you're very rarely landing at, with extremely gusty winds, you wouldn't want to be crossing the threshold at faster than 85 mph. You've got tons of stall margin at thtat speed, and you're going to float considerably.

The ironic thing is that flying too fast because you're scared of flying "slow" is going to make it more likely that you're going to have an accident or incident. Airplanes are made to be flown by the numbers. All of this weird "technique" is why so many GA pilots get themselves into trouble.

Anyone know if this will slide right into a KT76A tray, or whether it will require more work? I was looking at the AXP340 because it's a plug-and-play replacement for the KT76A, but the problem there is that it needs a WAAS GPS, and my Garmin 430 is not WAAS.

Thanks! Guess I should have done an intro post first. Just bought my M20C and haven't had a chance to upload the photos yet.

Is there already someone taking him one leg out of Hattiesburg to somewhere in between? I'm way up in Atlanta, so doing the whole thing isn't really an option, but if someone is taking him halfway, I may be able to do the rest if no one else is available.