201er

How much tailwind are you willing to accept in a Mooney for takeoff and for landing? Let's say you are parked at one end where a tailwind takeoff or landing is super close but would require a long taxi to the other end for a headwind. I understand runway length, airport elevation, crosswind component, gusts, and other factors can come into play. But strictly speaking for a direct steady tailwind at a moderate length runway with moderate departure obstacles, how much tailwind would you accept to avoid a long taxi to the other end?

By that logic, just announce that your downwind, base, and final to the big black runway with white lines that you're not presently on lest you confuse someone

I still don’t understand on the persistence of calling it anything but the runway number you’d been calling it all throughout the pattern. To make a point, suppose I landed at KCHD when the tower is closed, I would announce as follows: “Chandler traffic, Mooney N123 clear of 22 left at Lima, taxiing across 22 right Chandler.” ”Chandler traffic, Mooney N123 clear of 22 right at Lima, taxiing Alpha Mike to the pump, Chandler”

In the newest revision of AC90-66C, they still haven't changed their stance on "active runway" or "any traffic please advise"

While we're at it looking at AC 90-66B, it actually specifies the word "active" as unapproved. Also "any traffic please advise" is strictly forbidden:

So, no GTN 750, G5s, sloped windshield, or sabremech cowl mod?

so which is it?

Do you commonly fly straight in finals at untowered airports? Do you do this all the time, traffic permitting, or never? What kind of pattern entry do you fly if you are oriented for a straight in final? What do you do if you are toward the end of downwind or already on base when conflicting traffic suddenly appears on final? Do you try to get ahead, behind, or get out of pattern all together? Do you get into arguments about this or say something about it on the radio?

Per the FAA, “Most midair collisions occur in VFR weather conditions during weekend daylight hours. The vast majority of accidents occurred at or near uncontrolled airports and at altitudes below 1000 feet."

At my home field my clearing call is usually "clear of niner at delta, taxiing alpha echo to the ramp". We have a lot of helicopters doing midfield departures or landing on the taxiway. Communication is great but it has to be concise and specific. "clear of the active" or "clear of the runway" is 4 words to say 1 thing "clear." At least saying "clear of three six" is 4 words to say 2 useful things!

Pilot announces: taking off 36 left crosswind 36 left downwind 36 left base 36 final 36 but now suddenly it’s “clear of the active” or “clear of the runway”!? Next thing you know, dingus #2 gets on asking “ten miles out, what’s your active?”

I don’t care what direction everyone else is landing, I’m not landing a Mooney with a tailwind.

What unapproved radio calls do you find yourself making at unpowered airports on the CTAF frequency?

Yeah, but they weren’t making so many by then. They built as many Cs in 1962 as that entire 1969-1977 period combined. Not to mention 300+ per year for most years up to 1965.

And here’s a video I did in my J of the real world measurements. Of course the J is a mid body and 10” longer than a short body C. However, to my understanding, the front seat room and amount the front seats slide back is the same. The only difference is that the rear seat occupant has to be a child or they could end up an amputee if you side back suddenly.

That’s a good plan. Mooney isn’t a good trainer to learn how to land a plane on. It has about the worst (in terms of hard landings when you don’t know what you’re doing) landing gear shock absorbers of any plane. You must land it aerodynamically and properly every time. It’s also fast which means things happen in a shorter time which makes it harder to learn and grasp everything. After earning your private and being truly comfortable in what you learned in, Mooney is a promising choice. It’s ok for complex and IFR training. You’re not pounding it with constant landings afterall! An M20C may not be the best IFR trainer (I’m gonna get a lot of hate for saying this) because most of them have the old cluster panels and limited avionics. If you can get an M20C with a 6 pack and GPS, then it’s great. Or, if you plan to make it your lifelong plane, then might as well learn to fly instruments with what you’ve got. An underrated benefit of doing instrument training in a Mooney is the ability to save a lot of gas by going slow. Afterall you gotta log a bunch of hours so you may as well go as slow possible to make it take longer. You still end up flying faster than a skyhawk while burning a lot less gas. In my J I was doing 120ktas on like 6gph while instrument training. I did my instrument and commercial in my J and it was worth it. But I would never recommend primary training in one.

A bigger question is how you manage getting in and out. If you have a hard time getting in and out of the skyhawk, the Mooney will be a disaster. If you’re comfy in a skyhawk and getting in and out is a non-issue, the Mooney is reasonably in play as a post Private Pilot plane to own. For the purpose of training, it would be a big disadvantage. Mooney isn’t a trainer. Unlikely to save money either.

^That’s a much nicer way of putting it than first instructor said when I passed my first ride. @Flyler keep that in mind! There’s more than can go wrong than can go right. It’s up to you to put in a continuous proactive effort to maintain a safe outcome. Congratulations and enjoy.

Isn’t that 16.1nmpg?

Someone suggested that VOR is a lot easier. Maybe I’m a 430W neophyte but doing a GPS direct to destination and seeing the same output as a VOR on my HSI is a really the same thing. Except it doesn’t require a long sequence of them. On my Garmin 430W I know how to skillfully: -Navigate direct to a destination -Add or remove waypoints enroute -Activate and fly a GPS approach -Activate a leg -Scroll the moving map, click on an airport, navigate direct -Dim the screen brightness That’s really all I need to be able to reliably go places under VFR or IFR. Everything else I find simpler to accomplish on my iPad (such as finding airport information, frequencies, traffic, weather, obstacles, etc) I may know a few more functions and remember how to do them while looking at the navigator but couldn’t really tell you off the top of my head. Let’s see what functions others make use of. Maybe we can learn something.

There was a discussion about modern tech being so advanced that we don’t know how it all works, particularly GPS units. How many functions do you know how to confidently operate on your panel mount GPS in your sleep? Like without reading the menus or looking for it, where you know what to do without seeing it?

I don’t see a need in opening the cowl flaps on downwind just in case of a go-around. It’s not an instantaneous demand like mixture or boost pump. Cowl flaps can be extended after the gear and flaps have been retracted. It takes some time for heat to build up. And if you have an engine monitor and forget to open them, as a backup you can have an alarm remind you before temps get too hot.

You don't have to look so far, unfortunately even Mooneys. I linked 3 cases in the original post.

I'm surprised it stopped in about a wingspan ~50ft. It's corn stalks, not trees after all.

You know how insurance companies wanna know how much retract time you have before insuring you in a Mooney? How much sky diving time do you gotta have to insure a Cirrus?