New commitment, New Name

[RocketAviator]

I have flown now for more than 30 years.  While on a couple commercial flights yesterday and the day before I read an article in Plane&Pilot with the title of "Are you A Pilot Or An Aviator?".  For some time now since my incident in June I have made it a personal goal to work purposefully and with a commitment on improving my knowledge and piloting skills, in particular those areas relating to my Mooney Rocket. Mooneyspace has very much been a part of that commitment, while I dont always comment on much of what I read the information and exchanges have not always provided me with specific answers but more often with questions for myself to investigate and learn more on as well.

The privilege and responsibility of flying is both as great as it is satisfying especially when we carry precious cargo like family and other humans!  

Since I file and fly almost every flight IFR for the last several years I also read another article yesterday by John King (of John & Martha King School) in Flying in the area of IFR INSIGHT "Crewed Approach to Single-Pilot IFR" and was reminded again how much responsibility and how demanding the workload of single pilot IFR is.

 

While there is much more than I can afford to chase in either terms of time or $ I would like any input on what your top suggestions and or activities you would recommend for such a goal?

 

Also I DO NOT LIKE TO READ>>> and I am the worst test taker in the world...

 

Some of the items I am either working on or researching now and have high interest in:

• LOP / ROP operations
• Detailed knowledge of my aircraft and everything in it (how it works, what is it made of etc)
• Mountain Flying (another great article in Flying titled "Deadly Downdrafts", I fly frequently into CO)
• Emergency flight procedures
• Spin training
• Unusual attitude recovery training
• Formation flight training
• Rules & Regulations knowledge
• Equipment enhancement & backup (avionics mainly, panel and portable)

 

Hence the New Name RocketAviator.... because that is what I want to and am committed to work to become!

 

Appreciate your suggestions and feedback and (have to be very careful with this last one with this group-lol  )  feel free to Hold ME Accountable! 

[RocketAviator]

A couple more line items on the list:

A first priority I neglected to mention is "Getting Wife able to land the plane in an emergency" .  I know there are resources out there for this and I intend to use them.  I told her I would get a CFI of her choice to work with her and she said NO I want You to teach me..... & Make me a list to follow!!

By the way a wife who has ZERO interest in aviation with the exception of a tool of getting there fast and getting her kids & grandkids back to her quickly!

I think I will also work on getting my wife to be a helper in high demand times such as Single Pilot IFR (which I fly in frequently).

[yvesg]

Rocket Aviator, my wife is the same. Perhaps we could start a small project for which the deliverable would be a checklist that would allow a non pilot to safely put the thing down. Maybe it exists already? I have not seen one.

We could publish this for the safety of all and they could print it and use it as a base for any instruction and keep it where the wife or co-pilot could quickly access it.

Does anyone think there are liability issues here?

There are of course differences in handling the different models of Mooneys, type of gear, carb heat etc...

Yves

[BorealOne]

I'd add 'Weather' to the top of that list - there's nothing more important to understand in terms of how most of us use our planes (long x-countries).

 

I'd also highly recommend getting some float time if you want to improve your landings - mastering water landings will give you much better control when it comes time to put wheels down on pavement.

[aviatoreb]

Rocket aviator, I commend your renewed commitment.  And I like your avatar.   I am and have been "aviatoreb" for Erik Bollt the aviator....and I fly a rocket too, so I have a special affinity for your new name.

 

But I already forgot your old avatar - which maybe for sake of continuity you should remind us on this thread.

 

My wife is essentially like yours.  She took a pinch hitting flight with a CFI which made her feel more comfortable and she did land the Cessna.  She is hardly proficient to land the rocket without bending some metal.  I need to work on her more....  I was excited by that avidyne digitial autopilot that they were initially promising to certify for us, because I was dreaming that eventually it would have an autoland feature for just such a purpose.

[RocketAviator]

Rocket Aviator, my wife is the same. Perhaps we could start a small project for which the deliverable would be a checklist that would allow a non pilot to safely put the thing down. Maybe it exists already? I have not seen one.

We could publish this for the safety of all and they could print it and use it as a base for any instruction and keep it where the wife or co-pilot could quickly access it.

Does anyone think there are liability issues here?

There are of course differences in handling the different models of Mooneys, type of gear, carb heat etc...

Yves

Yves, I would be all in for a project such as you suggest.  I think there are some general aviation resources on a "Pinch hitting course & or Online information"  Let me see what I can find or if someone else knows and could point us in the right direction that would be great.

I dont know about the liabilities but truly don't think I care much about the liability as odd as that sounds ( I also suspect you are specifically talking about the liability of someone else using the information that we could assemble and not that if one of our families, kind of like error & omissions kind of thing), I think Mooneyspace would be a good place to get our heads handed to us if we got to far out of bounds.  I know there are some Mooniac's that are both CFI & Attorneys so maybe they would help keep us on the straight an narrow.  Bottom line if an emergency occurs and my wife has any better chance to get the plane on the ground and walks away with her and or whoever's life may be in the plane at the time I will gladly take that risk!   Lets get it going and see where it leads us!

Maybe this subject deserves a thread of its own!

Lacee

[RocketAviator]

Rocket aviator, I commend your renewed commitment.  And I like your avatar.   I am and have been "aviatoreb" for Erik Bollt the aviator....and I fly a rocket too, so I have a special affinity for your new name.

 

But I already forgot your old avatar - which maybe for sake of continuity you should remind us on this thread.

 

My wife is essentially like yours.  She took a pinch hitting flight with a CFI which made her feel more comfortable and she did land the Cessna.  She is hardly proficient to land the rocket without bending some metal.  I need to work on her more....  I was excited by that avidyne digitial autopilot that they were initially promising to certify for us, because I was dreaming that eventually it would have an autoland feature for just such a purpose.

Aviatoreb, I assume the avatar name you are referring to is the posting identification here on Mooneyspace.  Mine has been LLL (my initials), Lacee Lamphere (my real name) and now RocketAviator!

I too am concerned about my wife landing the Mooney without damaging the aircraft.  I would sure take some suggestions on this but my gut tells me to train or get her trained to a level that she actually lands our Mooney Rocket.... I would rather take the chance of some aircraft damage and give her the self confidence that she can do it than the alternative.  I also believe that just doing it once is not enough she needs to like us Pilots practice for proficiency.  Now that is another question I have how often should she at least attempt a landing or low approach etc?

Fly Safe

Rocket On....

[carusoam]

My wife took a "Pinch Hiiter's" course with the same CFI i did my Mooney Transition with. It built her confidence level to be comfortable in our old C.

Probably going to need to do that again. It's been a long 13 or so years...

Looking forward to what you guys do.

Best regards,

-a-

[yvesg]

When I told my wife today about the idea of providing her with a check list in case of pilot incapacitation she was all for it.

The more I think about it, the more complex it could become. So we need to limit its scope.

I agree this shall have its on thread

Yves

[KSMooniac]

I'll heartily endorse three items on your list from my own personal experience:

 

#1 Advanced Pilot Seminars Live Course in Ada, OK.  Next one is in March, and you're close enough to get there easily in the Rocket.  I learned more there in 2.5 days than in many semester-long engineering courses.  It is that good.  You have a very capable and expensive engine...go there and you'll learn all about what is going on inside the cylinders and how to operate correctly.

 

#2 Colorado Pilots Association Mountain Flying clinic.  Weekend course with Saturday ground school, followed by optional Sunday flying in your plane with a CPA instructor...several of which are Mooney-savvy and/or owners.  it is a great method to learn how to operate safely in the mountains.

 

#3 "how it works"...get into owner-assist maintenance!  Start with oil changes, and progress from there.  Our machines are pretty simple, actually, you can get over the mystique pretty easily once you start turning wrenches.

[Dave Marten]

Lacee,

 

KSMooniac has some great tips. Also, too few pilots take advantage of Wings, ASI online courses, AOPA and/or EAA webinars, etc. There is a world of info out there. Much of which you can access anytime on-line.

 

Attending (and even participating in) local FAAST safety seminars is a great way to improve your game. Not one near you in the future? Call your FSDO and offer to host. They will probably take you up on it!

 

Another good way to focus your learning is go for an additional rating. IE, do you have your commercial ticket? If not you can train in your plane and increase your skill set. Maybe a multi engine rating. Or for a bigger goal work toward your CFI- you may never want to use it in anger teaching new students, but it will greatly up your game.

 

Upset recovery/spin training is a lot of fun and will payoff big in terms of pilot confidence.

 

Being an Aviator has nothing at all to do with the equipment you fly and everything to do with the skillset you possess and your professional approach toward flying. 

[RobertoTohme]

Hint for the next MAPA convention: TBMOPA holds a pinch hitter course during their convention for attending spouses, given by a roster of TBM approved CFI's, and have a high success rate in signups for the course...  No TBM has been bent in any of those courses, so I assume it can be safely done.   Trey has the connections to that group as he's a TBM instructor and he wrote the original syllabus for the training course when the plane came to life in the US many years ago, so he can easily put together something like that for Mooney wives or significant others that you may want to get trained for such an emergency.  

 

Trey, if you're reading this you're going to hate me for the added work to your schedule, but "You 'da Man!" to get it done.

[RocketAviator]

Hint for the next MAPA convention: TBMOPA holds a pinch hitter course during their convention for attending spouses, given by a roster of TBM approved CFI's, and have a high success rate in signups for the course...  No TBM has been bent in any of those courses, so I assume it can be safely done.   Trey has the connections to that group as he's a TBM instructor and he wrote the original syllabus for the training course when the plane came to life in the US many years ago, so he can easily put together something like that for Mooney wives or significant others that you may want to get trained for such an emergency.  

 

Trey, if you're reading this you're going to hate me for the added work to your schedule, but "You 'da Man!" to get it done.

RobertoTohme, Mooneygirl also suggest we get Trey to include or put on a Pinch Hitters Course during the upcoming spring Mooney gathering! Trey if you are reading this I would be willing to help in both time, effort and $.  I asked Mooneygirl if she would reach out to Trey as she appears to be heavily involved in Mooney & General Aviation service work.   I have only talked to Trey on the phone a time or two but I would be willing to call him and see what he says if we don't hear anything back from Mooneygirl soon.  All this on another post "Pinch Hitter Checklist" forum.

Thanks for the input great idea, if enough of us will pull the wagon so to speak we might just be able to get it done and wont be too much work on any one person!!

Thanks

Fly safe,

Lacee