Taking my Mooney Cross Country

[Marauder]

And I always thought stinkbugs had antenna and wings that were permanently attached to them...

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[StinkBug]

Ok, time to get caught up. We spent the night in Denver and caught up on some sleep then left for a fairly short hop over to Moab, Utah a town that I'm quite familiar with. I spent many years as crew chief for a professional off road race team, and part of our sponsor commitments was a trip to Easter Jeep Safari every year, plus we would usually go there once or twice just for fun. It's an amazing area, and even with all the years of visiting it never gets old and there's always new things to see and explore. Brandon had never been there before, so I think his head almost popped.

 

I have a close friend from my racing days who retired and lives in Moab now and he picked us up from the airport in his Jeep and took us for a tour of Arches National park. It was too hot to do any real exploring on foot, but even from the Jeep it's some great scenery. 

 

 

We spent the night at his house and in the morning we loaded up and went for an all day tour of the area including lots of spectacular views and Brandons first real off-road trail. 

 

 

 

 

[StinkBug]

Yesterday morning we woke up early and borrowed a Jeep to drive to the airport and headed for home, with some slight detours along the way to take in Arches National Park, Bryce Canyon, and the Grand Canyon. Definitely the most beautiful views of the trip, and a great way to finish off. I definitely started getting anxious as we got close to home and we started getting handed off to familiar frequencies and I was able to navigate without checking a chart or GPS. Especially nice was getting a "Welcome home" from the CRQ tower after we landed.

 

 

 

 

 

[Bob_Belville]

Thanks for sharing!

[StinkBug]

Now for the nerdy part, the numbers. Our original budget was for 14 days, 50 hours of flying, and 500 gallons of fuel. We planned to spend $2000 per person not including food and non-flying related activities (air boat ride, museums, sears tower, etc.)

 

Our total shared expenses came to $3756.97, so we beat our budget by almost $250 even though we spent 17 days, and flew 57.1 hours due to doing fun stuff and headwinds respectively. 8.7 of those hours were IFR and I flew 2 approaches. We flew 6309.1NM, for an average speed of just 110.5kts (headwinds both ways ) On the up side we averaged only 7.97gph, and even with the 7 extra hours we only burned 452.59gallons, almost 50gallons less than we planned. Average fuel cost was $5.04/gallon, bringing the fuel total to $2279.92. Converted to statute miles we got just over 16mpg.

 

We made 18 take-offs and landings, flew over 28 states, and landed in 12. We talked to 112 enroute controllers plus various towers, ground, and clearance delivery.

 

 

[1964-M20E]

Great trip congrats I want to do something like that in the future.

 

Oh don't forget to untie the dog from the tail hook we would have to call you chevy chase.

[MB65E]

Welcome back!! And no Maintenance issues? What a bad ass little Mooney!!

Such a sweet trip. I think you inspired many of us.

-Matt

[StinkBug]

Only mechanical issue was my overhead air scoop. The cable has needed replacing for a long time and it jammed up somewhere around new york. While I was on Cape Cod I took it apart and got it working again with the mechanism hanging out of the ceiling, but once everything was back in place it wouldn't move anymore. We just left it closed for the rest of the trip, figure I'll get a new cable and get it working again eventually. Other than that we only needed to add oil, 3 quarts total.

[ShermAv8tor]

Awesome trip! Glad it all went well....like others have said....very inspiring! so in all, what was the total flight time for the excellent adventure?

[carusoam]

That defines a Mooney X-Country.

Thanks for sharing the details.

Best regards,

-a-

[Bob_Belville]

Awesome trip! Glad it all went well....like others have said....very inspiring! so in all, what was the total flight time for the excellent adventure?

57.1 per post # 157 above.

[pinerunner]

It sounds like a lot of fun. Its good that you've set yourself up to not have much pressure.  From the mechanical point of view I'd consider signing up with Mike Busch since his management service is supposed to help you find a good mechanic in a pinch just about anywhere in the country. Alternatively maybe your home mechanic knows people where you're going.

 

When I first bought mine I basically started off with a long cross country bringing it home from SC to ME and got away with it.  Over the next two years I did have a mechanical issue with the aux fuel pump that happened when I was making a lot of small local flights so no problem; got it fixed at home airport with mechanic I know and trust. I can easily imagine having a small mechanical problem on a long cross country and agonizing over if I should "limp" home or be stranded with unknown mechanic at some little airport. Something like Busch's service or list of mechanics numbers close to where you're going would come in real handy. 

 

I'd also like a list of airports that are convenient for staying overnight when weather doesn't cooperate.  Easy to get hotel on short notice, etc.

[StinkBug]

It sounds like a lot of fun. Its good that you've set yourself up to not have much pressure.  From the mechanical point of view I'd consider signing up with Mike Busch since his management service is supposed to help you find a good mechanic in a pinch just about anywhere in the country. Alternatively maybe your home mechanic knows people where you're going.

 

That wouldn't have been a bad idea, but I'm already home now :-)

[bonal]

Congratulations on what must have been a fantastic adventure hope to get in some longer flights myself some day way to go stink

[rbridges]

thanks for all the pics and updates.  Glad everything went well.

[BigAirHarper]

Amazing trip man and one I will definitely emulate when I finally get my Mooney. 

I have a question about your go pro mounts. Could you give us more detail about all your various mounting locations and methods? I'm curious about the tail tie down and where you positioned your sticky mounts. The new session cameras look perfect for this purpose. Thanks! 

[Joe Zuffoletto]

I've never made an epic trip like that, but it's definitely on my bucket list. Congratulations! 

[Shadrach]

Love the boat behind the hangar in Falmouth. Where else but on the Cape???

Pretty much any little airport near the coast in Maine!

 

This looked like an Epic Trip!!! Well done!

Edited October 7, 2015 by Shadrach

[StinkBug]

Amazing trip man and one I will definitely emulate when I finally get my Mooney. 

I have a question about your go pro mounts. Could you give us more detail about all your various mounting locations and methods? I'm curious about the tail tie down and where you positioned your sticky mounts. The new session cameras look perfect for this purpose. Thanks! 

I used the sticky mounts pretty much everywhere. The one on the tail is a foot or 2 forward of the tie down, I also have one on the top of each horizontal stabilizer out at the tip just in front of the balance weight for the elevator. Here and there I'll use one of the roll cage clamp mounts around the step, and I also have a bolt on mount that I can put in place of one of the wing tie down rings.

 

This reminds me, I still have dozens of hours of footage to go through. I'll get to it someday I swear.

Edited October 8, 2015 by StinkBug