20 Year Anniversary in Mooney's

[Yooper Rocketman]

Today marks the 20 year anniversary of my first "logged" time in a Mooney.  I had been looking at a nice F model down in Mesa AZ and with 250 hours in my logbook my instructor and I agreed I was ready to move up from my C150.  I had done some cross country's in it, one of which had 3 fuel stops on the way out (and an overnight in Chadrin NE for thunderstorms), and found a faster plane would allow me to travel for my dealership.  We had departed the U.P. with my flight instructor and Steve, my hangar partner, A&P and Mooney owner, in his E on Friday, March 29th, 1996.  We did an over night in Wichita but, with low ceilings and an unreliable primary nav, my instructor would not fly IFR out of Wichita.  Ceilings raised to 1300' and we departed to Dalhart TX, and were in clear conditions within 30 minutes, getting us to Albuquerque, NM just before dark.  

I was finding travel across the country in the Mooney pretty exciting.  Flight time and fuel burn was impressive.  We hit the night club that night for steaks and I will never forget the call I made home that evening.  My wife tells me she lost my two boys until almost dark that Saturday.  We had well over two feet of snow at home yet, but warmer days and cool nights had formed a crust on the top of the snow.  The boys, 4 and 5 years old at the time, were playing outside near a big pile of cedar boards stickered to dry for later use siding my home.   In what she thought was a few minutes, while doing laundry, she checked again and they were gone.  She called for them and, when there was no answer, ran out with my 17 year old daughter trying to find them.  Within 20 minutes she had half the neighborhood called and looking for them.  It was clear they were not on any plowed roads.  Finally someone barely noticed some small foot prints about 300 yards from the home, departing the plowed road to a secondary horse pasture separated by woods from our home, where the boys had gone up and played in the watering trough.  Long story short, they followed the tracks through the woods (on a snowmobile trail I always took the kids on) until it returned to our house and caught up with them just as they were arriving back home.  Of course, the oldest one wanted to know what the problem was, he wasn't lost; he knew where he was at the whole time.

The next morning Steve and Jerry (my CFII) decided I should fly the last leg into Mesa.  We departed Albuquerque on 3/31/96 at about 9 AM and as I climbed out, I had to dodge hot air balloons.  Man is this cool!  Well, going into Mesa from the east is interesting for a first time Mooney pilot.  We are going down quickly after clearing mountains and everything is happening too fast.  My flight instructor, who has been charging me $100 a day, must have felt he needed to earn his pay that flight, as he is working the crap out of me.  We're getting close to Mesa and he says "call the tower and report we are inbound and tell him our distance out".  I try several times to call him, but the breaks in communication are pretty short.  Jerry starts getting antsy, but there is only one PTT switch, and I have it on my yoke.  I finally get a chance to announce and I do exactly like he tells me.  "Mesa Tower, Mooney 1258X is 4 miles East, inbound".  Jerry screams at me "NO, NO, you are 5 miles out.  He owns a five mile ring and you just told him you broke into his house!"  Me; "Ah, Tower, we are 5 miles out".

So we crawl out of the Mooney, on the ramp in Mesa, and it's 74 degrees outside.  Man, I just left 2 1/2 feet of snow in our own private traveling machine and look where we are at now.  And I have my first Mooney time to add to my logbook.

The anniversaries and milestones continue tomorrow..............

Tom

 

[Hank]

Woohoo! That's what flying a Mooney is all about!

[Joe Zuffoletto]

Yooper, congrats on your anniversary! You'll never get tired of Mooneys. 

[Yooper Rocketman]

Well, today is April Fools Day.  20 years ago today we wrapped up the pre-purchase of N929PG on Falcon Field.  When I asked Jerry (my CFII) and Steve (hangar partner, A&P, and E Model Mooney owner) what they thought of the plane, they both said if I didn't buy it they would.  It was a 1968 F model with nice paint and interior, but 1900 hours on the IO360A1A.  It was listed through Sherri (broker) at Laser for $39,000.  I offered $37,000 on April Fools Day, 1996, the owner accepted, and a wire was sent out that afternoon for my first Mooney purchase.  I asked Sherri if she wanted me to withhold the commission and she replied "no, I've never been stung by anyone yet".  Class act.

My instructor wanted to fly over to Chandler where there was an internet aviation supplier that was based there and had a retail store.  He wanted a second push to talk (guess my radio work on our flight in impressed him) so he didn't have to rely on me if we needed to do any IFR on the way back to the U.P.  He asked for a VFR chart from the seller, and he only had one that was expired (one cycle out).  Jerry was OK with that and we flew over.  We walked from the ramp to the store and while in the store someone says "is there anyone in here that just flew  Mooney, 929PG into Chandler?"  I respond all glowing and proud "yep, that would be us".  The guy says "good, the tower wants to talk with you".  Holy crap, we didn't talk with anyone and the chart said it was a non-towered airport.  I look at Jerry and said "I'm not the PIC, I don't even have my high performance rating yet.  YOU have to talk to them." (Nice turf job, hey).  I hear Jerry saying, yes, we knew there was a newly commissioned tower on the field and yes we saw the light signals.  We are getting a new PTT to fix the radio right now.  I realize then how nice it is to be flying with a 10,000 hour CFI.

I flew that bird all over the country the next five years, getting 500 hours out of the original engine (did have to comply with the oil pump AD at 2,000 hours) and sold it for $65,000 in 2001, with 800 hours on the new engine.  Loved that F but wanted something with a turbo and de-ice for flying around the Great Lakes.  Unbelievably, the biggest push was coming from my wife after we lost a pretty experienced pilot at our home field.  He loaded a Travelaire up with more ice than it could carry 9 miles out on the ILS at 3 in the morning.  He was used to flying a Conquest, but for that freight flight the operator insisted on using the Travelaire (and he should have sat it out until the weather improved).  Anyway, it's pretty nice when the wife is insisting you need to buy a faster, better equipped, airplane.

Tom

[MyNameIsNobody]

Congrats.  Sounds like a great ride that hopefully continues for many, many more years to come.

[Mooneymite]

Great story.  Thanks for sharing.