Joe Zuffoletto

I've sat right seat only a couple of times and I guess I was lucky that the guys in the left seat seemed to know what they were doing. However, I remember one exception. I was riding jump in a Citation with a crew that was unfamiliar with the Denver area. As we descended VFR into town en route to Centennial, I noticed that they had the plane pointed to Denver International. I politely directed them to the proper airport and they were embarrassed but grateful! Their boss riding in the back wouldn't have taken kindly to that kind of f**k up. I've also flown with other pilots in the right seat (not CFI's, but friends) and either I'm doing things right or they're biting their tongues. The only one who ever said anything to me was a fellow Mooney pilot who made this comment when it became clear I forgot to close the cowl flap in level cruise: "Do you think we might pick up a few knots if you close that cowl flap?" I thought it was hilarious the way he handled it. I definitely wouldn't take kindly to a pilot passenger touching anything on the panel without my approval.

I've been on MooneySpace for years and this is by far the most animated thread I've seen. When Anthony is speaking in paragraphs and not bullets we know we've crossed some kind of line. Lol. Husky, you're a great sport. When I was 35 back in 1999 I bought my first plane, a 1980 Piper Archer II. I've been fortunate in life and business to move a bit beyond that in the last 17 years. You'll know when you're ready. Have fun and fly safe.

It depends on the day. The "down by noon" saying is a rule of thumb, not the law. Some days it's nice enough to fly all day out here.

Glad you enjoyed your visit to my beautiful home state of Colorado! A mountain flying course is a must for any flatlander newbie who wants to cross the rocks. Most of the flight schools at KAPA and KBJC offer them. The best courses take a day or two. There are few, if any, IFR routings over the peaks with reasonable MEA's for normally-aspirated airplanes. They need ample clearance not just for terrain, but also for radar coverage. People fly through the passes either for fun or because they can't get any higher. Years ago I flew all over the state in a normally-aspirated Socata Trinidad and never had any problems clearing terrain as long as ambient temps were cool enough. One rule of thumb we have in these parts is to be back on the ground before noon to avoid high winds, high density altitudes, thunderstorms and turbulence. In the winter time your biggest headache is high winds aloft, leading to sometimes brutal turbulence. I actually don't cross the Rockies between November and April because my wife and I suffered through a couple harrowing episodes that we don't want to repeat. Check winds aloft carefully before flying the Rockies in the winter. Anything more than 20-30 knots at 15,000' is a no-go for me unless I have a turbo. Some resources for you: Mountain Flying Bible Revised by Sparky Imeson Flying the Mountains by Fletcher Anderson You can also get a free aeronautical chart from the State of Colorado that depicts mountain pass crossings for aircraft. Here are a couple videos to whet your appetite, taken just this morning as I was returning from CA to Denver commercially. As you can see, visibility was unlimited. Good luck!

The Mooney pilot in me thinks it should. The American in me thinks we should leave the owners alone. The last thing I want to see is the government getting in their shorts about something that I don't think any of them know anything about. I like this idea better! JZ

The propeller is actually a cooling fan for the pilot. Once it stops he starts to sweat almost immediately.

Al's father followed the railroad construction out west. He built trestles and blasted tunnels in the Rockies, and Al and his brother Art worked railroad construction in their younger years as well.

I plan to check it out next time I visit. I understand they recently repaved the runway and built a bunch of new hangars. It was a bit of a dump when I was based in the Bay Area 10 years ago so I didn't consider it, but in light of the recent improvements I'll check it out.

I've seen it many times, and I'll be passing under it tomorrow morning! I'll take a picture and post.

I'm reading Al Mooney's biography, The Al Mooney Story, and learned that he was born in a house at 1223 South Lincoln Street in Denver. The house still stands, and here's the Google Street View image of it. I'm going to go check it out myself tomorrow; it's only about 10 minutes from my house.

8-24 months. Where on the field is your hangar?

Jeff: I was testing the strength of the mount, plus having a little fun. As I previously mentioned, I never fly like that normally. Ground clearance with the camera is 10". Not much. Hence the 3-point landing. Normally I land on the mains first, just like everyone else, but I was afraid I'd clobber the camera so I held it off in a level attitude until she settled to the runway, kind of like a wheel landing in a taildragger.

Agreed. The additional capability you get to climb above terrain and weather for long trips is very comforting.

Robert, I bought an Acclaim precisely because I routinely cross the Rockies and Sierras, and I wanted to do so with the best combination of performance and range possible. I installed the 310hp STC, which makes takeoff and climb performance astonishing. Last summer I climbed out of Leadville at almost 1,800fpm all the way up to 17,500'. I rarely fly below 15,500'. More typically I'm between FL180 and FL200. Will go higher if I need to top weather, but otherwise FL200 is high enough for me. At those altitudes, real-world performance is this: at 29"MP and 2500rpm I see 215KTAS at 18gph ROP, and 205KTAS at 14.5gph LOP. I use ROP for trips of 300nm or less because I like to go fast, but for longer trips I go LOP. Two years ago I flew nonstop from KAPA to KCCR in 4.5 hours and burned 70 gallons of fuel. Was bucking a 15-20 knot headwind the entire way. That's pretty amazing performance and efficiency. I fly the Acclaim to Northern CA once or twice a year so next time I do maybe you can come check it out. Here's a taste of it. This is crossing the Rockies eastbound at FL180.

Hey, someone traded me his TN for my K. It happens!

I'm just very glad they made it and walked away from it. Lots of woods, streets and buildings in that densely populated area, and not a lot of choices. I think he made the right choice with his 17-year-old daughter on board to pull the chute. That certainly would have colored my decision at 2000'agl in that area. They were returning from looking at colleges in CT. I hope she has a stellar college experience, which she will now live to enjoy.

Just east of Islandia in the above screen grabs is the Long Island MacArthur Airport, 3 miles closer to the landing spot than Farmington Republic. Don't know what the winds were doing, but that's probably where I would have headed in my Acclaim. But, as stated before, not a lot of good choices if you have to land without a chute.

It will probably attach to your towel bar. My VOR antennas are flat pieces of plastic that extend horizontally from each side of the vertical stab. I tried to attach to those, but it didn't work.

Yes, the mount is designed to attach to any tie-down point. It's definitely sturdy and strong; very well made. I was hoping I could attach it to the VOR antenna atop the tail, but the way it's designed that won't work.

Might have been because of the winds. There was about a 30-degree crosswind from the right. Winds were reported 11kts gusting to 21kts. I definitely felt a couple gusts during my takeoff roll. Ever flown a long body? Not much, unless you're into tail strikes. Plus I had a GoPro hanging about 4" below to boot. My tail clearance was less than a foot.

Erik: Yes, I did, because I wanted to see if the camera would fall off. It didn't. And I would never fly my plane like that again. It was fun, but also a bit hairy. The Acclaim is wicked fast and a handful down low. I was burning 28gph. Obscene. Here's a link to the mount: http://www.mypilotpro.com/ Anthony, I was surprised at how much gravel was getting kicked into the camera during taxi to takeoff. You can hear it. I never would have thought the ramp at KAPA was so dirty. My iPhone was connected to the camera via WiFi during runup and takeoff and was able to see the camera's video until I leveled off, and then I lost it. The GoPro app said that it lost touch with the camera. I spent the rest of the flight thinking I lost the camera. But all was sound when I landed. I was able to turn the camera off at shutdown, but I couldn't see anything on my iPhone. I wasn't able to confirm that the camera was still there until I stepped out of the airplane and saw it with my own two eyes.

Before trying this I talked to a couple other Acclaim drivers who lost their cameras with sticky mounts. So I found this instead. It's a cammed mount that grabs your tie-down point very tightly. I used the tail tie-down point because I wanted to see how the gear operated. For today's test I did a max performance takeoff and climb. I have the 310hp STC. I was trying to shake the camera loose, but it held. I climbed out at 1,800 fpm and flew full throttle during the entire flight, until I entered the pattern to land. My maximum GS was 210kts; my maximum TAS was 205kts down low. I never climbed above 1,600'agl. Thankfully we had relatively smooth air in Denver today. You would never normally operate an Acclaim this way. The belly is clean because I just had the plane washed and waxed for an upcoming air-to-air shoot. Flying Mooneys is fun.

Oscar inspired me to try this. Here's my first test flight today.

Yeah, it's blowing like hell along the Front Range today too.

I like KMKC because it's right next to downtown and the views on approach are really neat if the weather is good.