Those traveling Mooneys

[gsxrpilot]

It's been since 2013 that a similar poll was run here on MooneySpace. So with all respect to @201er who authored that poll, I'll ask a similar question in a little different way.

[Yetti]

I am still not seeing it.   Where is the Texas is a big state and I have become tired of driving but the Mooney allows Mrs. Yetti and I to turn a weekend trip into a day trip.

[peevee]

I try to take a week long trip about twice a year. This year it's Cali and Oregon again.

[201er]

What option am I supposed to put down?

[Hank]

I took my wife from WV to Yellowstone as a 200 hrs VFR pilot. Just over 1300 nm each way, but slightly different routings out and back:  west through Iowa and South Dakota, back east through Nebraska and different places in Iowa (just cause neither of us had been to any of those three states).

Had fun sighfseeing, and stopped short once in each direction, but they turned into fun, memorable stops. What's the little town in Illinois with two runways that don't connect, completely buried in a very tall corn field, short final over walmart, airport logo "Home of the Friendly People"? Had a great fried bluegill sandwich at the local joint (don't get those just anywhere!))

[gsxrpilot]

38 minutes ago, Yetti said:

I am still not seeing it.   Where is the Texas is a big state and I have become tired of driving but the Mooney allows Mrs. Yetti and I to turn a weekend trip into a day trip.

Fixed it for you :-)

[gsxrpilot]

24 minutes ago, 201er said:

What option am I supposed to put down?

Fixed :-)

I certainly aspire to your level of Mooney travel.  I've been all over the western US in the Mooney and east as far as Florida and NC. We plan to take a weekend and fly to Churchill in the fall to see some Polar bears. And next summer hope to spend two or three weeks seeing Alaska by Mooney. 

Of course, Cuba and the Caribbean are on the list as well...  Too many places to go and not enough time off to do it.

[MBDiagMan]

I am just getting started in the Mooney world so the poll choices were not very appropriate for me.

I have done some quick trips into Dallas airspace and back, but have been doing those in the taildragger.   I am retired and plan on some serious distance travel after Sandy and I return from our three weeks in Europe.  Along with that flying will hopefully come the IR.

[rainman]

Texas Hill country to Michigan a couple of times per year.  San Antonio to Albuquerque every couple of months. We take our dog in the plane. Honestly, the 3-3.5 hours of flying to KAEG beats the 11 hour car trip and really makes short trips of a couple of days even possible. The Mooney fits my mission perfectly for now. 

[Mooneymite]

For those of us with airline passes, there is a "ring-of-utility" beyond which free airline travel starts to make more sense.  For me it's about 500 miles for most destinations.  However there are certain places where the Mooney is best regardless of distance.

[Yetti]

6 hours ago, gsxrpilot said:

Fixed it for you :-)

And I provided more data for your dataset :-)

 

[cnoe]

Paul, I would argue that "Multiple fuel stops" and "Multi-day travel to destination" are the same answer. I have the stock tanks and my no-wind range with hour reserves is 1,800 nm with one fuel stop. Anybody flying further than that in a single day is a bonafide masochist. But for those of you with thirstier birds I can see where a second stop MIGHT be needed.

I bought a Mooney so I wouldn't HAVE to make multiple stops to reach my destination. If I could afford one I'd own a TBM to extend my range, after all it's STILL a Mooney, right?!!

[DMJones]

I actually decided on a Mooney, because my son needed the flight time, and I wanted to travel.  We've only owned it for just over 6 months, and so far I've only wandered around the SE.  But we have a home in N Idaho, and that's on the docket for the summer.  I fall into the "airline pass" bunch, but the difficulty in finding open seats, and my general irritation with sitting around an airport waiting for that to happen makes the Mooney a viable alternative, even for long distances.  So far I've managed to hit about a dozen different airports in all four compass directions...

On a related note: I had ADS B installed with my purchase.  I've had trouble getting it all to work until yesterday.  My avionics installer, Scotty Collins in Griffin, Ga, spent about an hour with me yesterday.  I made a stop on the way to get my son from Ft Rucker and bring him home for the weekend.  It's all working now!  I have both traffic and weather displayed on the Garmin AND the iPad!  That's life-changing!  ATC offered to vector me around cells, but I was able to pick my own way.  Atlanta Approach even let me fly through the Class B, as he knew exactly where I was going based on our mutual radar displays.  That, and the fact that I was at 11,000', kept me out of the approach path into Hartsfield...   I'm a happy guy.

[gsxrpilot]

I don't have airline passes, but I fly the airlines enough to generate almost more mileage points than we can use. Generally 50,000 to 100,000 mileage points a month. But I'd much rather fly the Mooney, so I'm generally looking for reasons to use it. And often for us, it means that we can take our dog. She's too big to ride in the cabin on United or Southwest, and we'd not put her in a crate. 

 

[1964-M20E]

I make regular trips in my Mooney generally ones that I do not have to stop for fuel.  That puts me at 5 hours of flying max.  I maybe be doing a multi day 3 hop flight to the NW soon.  It will be an interesting trip for a flat lander.  Maybe the limited Syn vision on my IFD540 will be a little more useful up there.  In flat land from 40 to 110  it does not tell you much.

 

One option you did not have is multi day trip non-stop.  i.e. flying as far as you can go as you destination in one hop.

[gsxrpilot]

1 minute ago, 1964-M20E said:

One option you did not have is multi day trip non-stop.  i.e. flying as far as you can go as you destination in one hop.

One of the things I'm hoping to do when I get my plane back, is see how far I can get in a weekend. Get in a solid 12 to 14 hours of flying on Saturday then turn around and go home. Or make a loop of some sort. Someone on FB posted a FF route that included one landing in each of all 48 states. At 190 kts. TAS it was 33 hours of flying. A three day weekend could just about get that done. I think I'd at least like to try.

[Danb]

8 hours ago, 201er said:

What option am I supposed to put down?

Haven't been to Russia yet

[clh]

2 minutes ago, gsxrpilot said:

One of the things I'm hoping to do when I get my plane back, is see how far I can get in a weekend. Get in a solid 12 to 14 hours of flying on Saturday then turn around and go home. Or make a loop of some sort. Someone on FB posted a FF route that included one landing in each of all 48 states. At 190 kts. TAS it was 33 hours of flying. A three day weekend could just about get that done. I think I'd at least like to try.

12-14 hrs in a day!  wow.  The longest I have done is 8 hrs flight time.  But that was TX to North Dakota, and Houston to Key West,   You will likely run out of the US before you get to 10 hrs.

[Danb]

2 hours ago, Mooneymite said:

For those of us with airline passes, there is a "ring-of-utility" beyond which free airline travel starts to make more sense.  For me it's about 500 miles for most destinations.  However there are certain places where the Mooney is best regardless of distance.

I have similar thoughts but the range if there is a time frame, anything east of the Mississippi I fly, longer depends on how many days I have. Philly to Miami 4-5 hours via Mooney, the airline can not beat me door to door, And I usually don't get beat up

[MooneyMitch]

Based at Santa Maria, CA, I've had the great joy and fun of multiple flights to/from AirVenture, the Great Lakes area, the Pacific Northwest areas, Texas, Disneyland (), and many points in between all.

Sometimes I enjoy sitting down to reflect so many wonderful memories noted in my old log books.

More to come I'm planning. 

[201er]

I rarely make fuel stops. I usually just fly once a day (for up to 8-11 hours) in one shot. Then I get fuel at the destination or overnight stop. 

I don't see much sense in flying the airlines domestically for pleasure travel. First off there is no pleasure left in the process whatsoever. On the other hand I get lots of enjoyment flying my Mooney. I can bring whatever and whomever I want. I can take my birds. I can change up dates if I want to spend more or less time somewhere.

Even though it may be possible to go to some of the places I have gone in my plane by airline, it certainly would suck all the fun out of it!

[Oscar Avalle]

My ring of utility is 8 hours of flying a day. Depending if I am going west or east it reduces or increases my range accordingly. The longest non stop flight I have take was Key west Florida to Guatemala City 6.8 hours. Tons of deviation around weather.


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[LevelWing]

Living in west Texas it's hard to go anywhere in a car without it being a several hour drive. The Mooney is great for weekend hops to wherever we want to go because we can get there fast and be back at work on Monday. Friends who don't fly routinely discuss trips that they want to take but need to wait for 3 day weekends or vacation time. We are spoiled by the perk of flying ourselves to begin with, but more especially with owning a Mooney for the speed and efficiency.

We travel to the east coast a few times a year and it's about 10-11 hours of flight time plus two fuel stops. A little longer heading back to Texas. We can pack whatever we want, leave when we want and with the ability to hook up the iPad, we have free in-flight music and movie service and complimentary food (or at least significantly cheaper than a commercial flight). 

[DonMuncy]

I have flown from Dallas to the Los Angeles area in one day, a few times, but finally figured out that 9 hours of flight just takes too much out of me. In addition, I don't think it is too smart on my part to wind up flying an approach when I am that tired.

[bonal]

Really needed a fourth option for the IFR question I chose the third but that's not really what I think I am VFR but can think of many reasons to be IFR but am just not planning to at least at this time. We have flown a few times that required a fuel stop but beyond that we go commercial. I know when I retire we might travel farther by Mooney.