Mooney Wanted to Rent in England in June

[donkaye]

I have a friend who will be in England for several weeks in June and would like to rent a Mooney there.  He is a very experienced Mooney pilot and Flight instructor.  Does anyone know if this could be arranged?

Thanks.

[carusoam]

Don,

 

some ideas if it takes time to get a response....

I think we may have a thread that is common to European Mooney activity.  

You may want to copy your request there as well?

Search for awful Charlie To see where he is posting lately.  He posted something recently.

Time difference...

Hope that helps,

-a-

[Awful_Charlie]

Hi Don

I'm only an occasional visitor to the UK (England) these days, so not really in touch with many Mooney owners over there. Podair is based in London and might know someone, otherwise I know of a nice Ovation in Ireland that is currently for sale, and the owner might be willing to work something out if he hasn't sold by then. The principle problem is that the rental market is much more for beaten up spam cans, and the vast majority of nicer aircraft are owned by individuals of groups who keep a tight rein on them.

Your best chance I think would be to get in contact with Peter Williams who is the UK rep for EMPOA who probably has some more options.

Good luck, and look forward to reading a trip write up in due course!

Ben

[aviatoreb]

 

I have a friend who will be in England for several weeks in June and would like to rent a Mooney there.  He is a very experienced Mooney pilot and Flight instructor.  Does anyone know if this could be arranged?

Thanks.

A remark on flying in England.  When I was on sabbatical in Oxford a few years ago, I had the same thought.  In the end I decided it was especially expensive to fly GA in England for several reasons including the fuel price and rental structure, etc, at least for me.  So I decided to do like a lot of the local aviators do there - I took a bunch of gliding lessons!  Gliding is very popular in England, and very social.  The club I was flying with there was the Oxford gliding club and they had a ground winch, and 2 or 3 planes flying at the same time, with maybe 20-25 people hanging around, helping reset the tow line, reposition the glides for next flight, and taking turns flying for 20 min or so.  I did 3 such flights in a full day of it and had lots of great conversations in between in the middle of a big aerodrome, all the while peering at the planes in the sky.  A sky diving club was taking turns in between rounds of glider flying.  Lots of people enjoying aviation and very little $12/gal aviation fuel burned.

[podair]

Hi Don

happy to help but think it is going to be quite tough for several reasons: there are to my knowledge no schools or flying clubs with a Mooney to hire in England at present. Most schools have PA28s or 172s for hire. There are a few shares for sale in partnerships, but I assume for a short visit this is not quite the idea! Also, in order to hire from a flying club, you need a European pilot licence (EASA) if you are going to fly a UK or European registered aircraft as schools only operate UK registered aircraft (G-reg). There is a way to get a dispensation to fly a G-reg (UK reg) aircraft in UK airspace VFR only on a FAA PPL but I think it will be tough to jump through the hoops. So with an FAA licence (or license!), if your friend does find an N-reg Mooney for hire via direct contact with the owner, and there are a few private N-regs out there (although Mooneys are rare in the UK, they a bit more common in France and Germany), it would work but it would have to be an informal arrangement and they have to work out the insurance etc. 

My aircraft is Danish registered (!) and past 12 years on the engine (another European quirk, commercial ops or hire need to overhaul at 12yrs) so I cannot hire it out, even to a European licence holder.  However I would be more than happy to take your friend or any Mooniac for a flight if he is near London, or even hop across to France for lunch to see the Normandy beaches etc (approx 1h/1h30), always looking for an excuse to fly! I use the aircraft mainly to fly the family to the in laws in France so weekends are busy but June is usually pretty free so always looking for new flights, July/August more difficult. 

 

Edited January 16, 2016 by podair

[NotarPilot]

20 hours ago, podair said:

Hi Don

happy to help but think it is going to be quite tough for several reasons: there are to my knowledge no schools or flying clubs with a Mooney to hire in England at present. Most schools have PA28s or 172s for hire. There are a few shares for sale in partnerships, but I assume for a short visit this is not quite the idea! Also, in order to hire from a flying club, you need a European pilot licence (EASA) if you are going to fly a UK or European registered aircraft as schools only operate UK registered aircraft (G-reg). There is a way to get a dispensation to fly a G-reg (UK reg) aircraft in UK airspace VFR only on a FAA PPL but I think it will be tough to jump through the hoops. So with an FAA licence (or license!), if your friend does find an N-reg Mooney for hire via direct contact with the owner, and there are a few private N-regs out there (although Mooneys are rare in the UK, they a bit more common in France and Germany), it would work but it would have to be an informal arrangement and they have to work out the insurance etc. 

My aircraft is Danish registered (!) and past 12 years on the engine (another European quirk, commercial ops or hire need to overhaul at 12yrs) so I cannot hire it out, even to a European licence holder.  However I would be more than happy to take your friend or any Mooniac for a flight if he is near London, or even hop across to France for lunch to see the Normandy beaches etc (approx 1h/1h30), always looking for an excuse to fly! I use the aircraft mainly to fly the family to the in laws in France so weekends are busy but June is usually pretty free so always looking for new flights, July/August more difficult. 

 

Wow! What an extremely generous offer. If you're ever in LA hit me up and I'd be happy to take you for a flight over la la land.