The Al Mooney Story

[MBDiagMan]

I don't know how much discussion there has been about this book.  I saw it mentioned on this forum and found a copy on Amazon.  It cost fifty bucks and was worth every dime.  The ending was quite a surprise.  Al was a great designer/engineer and a fine man that was an asset to the human race.

If you like Mooneys and like reading biographies, I would highly recommend it.

[toto]

I saw it mentioned on this forum and found a copy on Amazon.  It cost fifty bucks and was worth every dime.

I believe that MAPA still sells new copies for $20 or so. They're kind of hard to find, on the second page of the "merchandise" section of the MAPA website.

http://www.mooneypilots.com/merchandise.htm#!/The-Al-Mooney-Story-by-Gordon-Baxter/p/11936820/category=0

[MooneyMitch]

A great read on the history of Al and Art Mooney and how it all began.

I highly recommend the book by the beloved author and historian, Gordon Baxter.  I still refer to the book for accurate Mooney history.

Gordon was a Mooney owner and regular and humorous contributor to the MAPA LOG for many years.

I'm fortunate to have a library of vintage MAPA LOGS, dating back to nearly the beginning of the publication, which carried Gordon's always interesting articles.

And as mentioned by "toto", MAPA does stock the book.

[Joe Zuffoletto]

I posted this once before, but I think it's pretty cool so I'll post it again.

I've read the book and highly recommend it to anyone in the Mooney community. In the early pages of this book Al mentions that he was born at 1223 S. Lincoln Street in Denver. That's about 15 minutes from my house, so I drove over to take a look. Sure enough, the old house is still there. The weather was lousy that day so I didn't take a picture, but here's a picture from Google Street View:

BTW, I'm proud to be a third-generation Denver native, which is pretty unusual. Al was born here in 1906 and my grandmother was born here in 1908. The house she was born in also still stands.

[MBDiagMan]

Thanks for posting the pic Joe!

[MooneyMitch]

Wow! Thank you for the photo and the history!

[EricJ]

2 hours ago, MooneyMitch said:

Gordon was a Mooney owner and regular and humorous contributor to the MAPA LOG for many years.

Gordon Baxter had a regular article in Flying magazing for many years called "Bax Seat".   It was always interesting and funny, and he sometimes talked about the Mooney he flew.

 

[MooneyMitch]

Don Maxwell has a great Gordon Baxter personal experience story!  

Given the opportunity, ask him to share it with you sometime. 

[Bennett]

Gordon Baxter had a regular article in Flying magazing for many years called "Bax Seat".   It was always interesting and funny, and he sometimes talked about the Mooney he flew.
 

Gordon Baxter was a speaker at many of the old Mooney Homecomings. Great story teller, and he almost always talked about his Mooney. He kindly sent me a few unpublished stories after I sent him a letter praising him for his warmth and "real ness" about the joy of flight in Stearmans and Mooneys in his columns in Flying magazine. His story of his final flight after he lost his medical was highly controversial, but I, and I expect many of us, would have done the same. The commentary on MS about that final solo flight would probably have run 20 pages, with much rancor between posters. He was a print and radio personality long before the internet and social media. If you have never read one of his columns I suggest you look up a few on the web - especially the one about his last flight.


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[MooneyMitch]

16 minutes ago, Bennett said:

Gordon Baxter was a speaker at many of the old Mooney Homecomings. Great story teller, and he almost always talked about his Mooney. He kindly sent me a few unpublished stories after I sent him a letter praising him for his warmth and "real ness" about the joy of flight in Stearmans and Mooneys in his columns in Flying magazine. His story of his final flight after he lost his medical was highly controversial, but I, and I expect many of us, would have done the same. The commentary on MS about that final solo flight would probably have run 20 pages, with much rancor between posters. He was a print and radio personality long before the internet and social media. If you have never read one of his columns I suggest you look up a few on the web - especially the one about his last flight.


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Such great information!  Thank you for sharing Mr. B.