serottak

Quote: DaV8or No, no, no. You can go to Tahoe. Just be careful. Here's what you're up against- Winter time you have icing. Fly into a cloud or rain and you get airframe icing. Causes airplanes fall from the sky. Summer time you have density altitude. Suddenly 7,000 ft becomes 10,000 ft and airplanes don't want to climb. A turbo really helps here. Anytime- Mountain waves. Strong winds blow over the Sierras and create strong up and down drafts, stronger than your Mooney can climb, even a turbo. Tahoe being in a valley, this is an issue. You can go to Tahoe, you just need to be prepared to wait it out if necessary. Just the way it goes in GA.

Quote: Kwixdraw Perfect answer. Go somewhere else or pick something else to do. Much of why I said to get some of your ground school going and a few demo flights in is because you will get a lot of these questions answered for you. Example. Flying to Tahoe you have high altitudes and some times it can get hot there, even though we think of it mostly as a winter destination. In ground school you will learn about "density altitude". Performance of aircraft goes down when they are in high, hot, heavy and humid conditions. This is where that turbo helps, by the way. You won't have much performance if you are loaded to max gross weight at 7-8000 feet and it's 80 degrees out. Your aircraft will be performing based on something like an 11000 ft density altitude and you Will notice it. We have people crash all the time in the local mountains because they don't plan for the density altitude they are dealing with at 7700 msl. Thinking about your original post. Maybe you could find someone to take you up in a C-182. That might be a very good aircraft to own and learn in and it would be useful to you for a long time until you get your instrument rating and some flight time built up.

i understand that there is a learning curve and going beyond my abilities equals death to me and and anyone with me. my plan is to go straight into ifr training and eventualy mountain training. flying over the sierra's was not in my near plans but where i hoped to get to. from what i have read having a turbo makes flying in the mountains safer because of the power and the increased ability to reach alt. i can and am willing to train in a lesser plane. but the argument for the v tailed doctor killer was too much power for knowledge and experience, wouldn't training hours with the cfi help me gain the knowledge and experience? i expect it would take longer and cost more to learn in a mooney but the end result would be me being a more knowledgeable and experinced mooney pilot. if there is a flaw in my way of thinking let me know, but it seems backwards to me to be a trained comanche pilot and try and convert the knowledge and skills then to just learn them in the plane i want to fly. Again i'm not trying to be an ass i am just trying to understand.

sorry for my ignorance but i have a question regarding flying around vs over. does that mean flying into tahoe is out also? living in the bay area the mountains and ocean seem to be very limiting in where i could fly. i'm not trying to be argumentitive but i just want to be find out if flying is right for my family. As for the weather and such ending a weekend trip that is something i am prepared for and fully expect. one of the reasons im interested in private flying is that when the weather says dont go there, we might be able to go somewhere else instead.

so i have been lurking reading threw the old posts for a few weeks and have a few questions. first alittle about me. i am not a pilot yet. my truck will be payed off in a few month and then im starting lessons. my plans for flying are to fly for fun, family vacations, and long weekends. my wife and i regularly have 4 day weekends so long weekends will be the most common. we have two kids, a three year old and a two year old. my wife is a nurse and i am a surgical assistant. now for the questions. first is can a mooney be piloted by a low time flyer safely? i have read opinions that say yes and no but, you guys seem to be the most knowledgeable on the subject. i have read that a new pilot can get behind the plane do to the speed and complexity. i have a background in sportbike riding and many people say the same thing with regards to bike selection buy a slow and simple bike and then move up. i have seen were many riders have learned so many bad habits on the slow bike the transition to fast/powerful bike is almost impossable. they have gotten so used to being sloppy with the controls and getting away with it that they try and do it on the new bike and crash. i dont know if that transfers to planes but im wondering would it be a good idea or a posability to buy my mooney and and get my training in it? it seems to me that the more training i have i a specific plane the safer i would be in that plane. i also hate the idea of paying to rent a plane when i plan to buy one in the near future. next is trip planning; i was thinking about a c172 and posted on one of their forums about flying over the sierras and was told that flying over was not a good idea and that most fly around. for me that would be terrible i live near san francisco and my folks live in fallon nv. so a staight line over the sierras is about 110 miles. flying around is a long ass ways. is over the sierra's an real option in a mooney? so now that we are on mountains lets talk about turbo normalizers. i understand what they do and the need for o2. working in surgery the use of o2 is not a big deal to me. but how much does the turbo effect operation costs? what do they do to the life of the engine. how much maintance is needed on the turbo system itself? sorry for the long winded post and thanks in advance for all of the replies.