Kmac Posted March 27, 2018 Report Posted March 27, 2018 First, my name is Kevin and I am a 200hr private pilot that has basically only flown a Cessna 150 converted to tail dragger. Recently I made an offer on an M20E and lost out to a higher bid (A big thank you to Brian Nelson (orionflt) for his assistance and knowledge for that offer). Afterwards, I continued my search until I found a C model that met my needs. The only thing was that this aircraft was over 1,300nm away. I decided I would hire a local instructor (Bob Cabe) and fly it home the next day. Long story short, after 3 hrs and 14 take offs and landings on Saturday 3/24 I was checked out and ready to fly it home. I flew my father, who is a pilot also, down with me to San Antonio on Friday night so I could have a copilot for the trip home. Sunday 3/25 we were finally able to take off at 1pm. We made it 415nm and decided to stop for the night at Vicksburg MS (very nice place too). Yesterday, 3/26 we flew the last 918nm home. The trip home was great (averaged just over 135 knots and 9.8gph) minus a vacuum pump failure (took out the autopilot and I hand flew it the rest of the way) which I will address this weekend. Anyway, pictures are worth a thousand more words so here you go... 7 Quote
steingar Posted March 27, 2018 Report Posted March 27, 2018 Congrats, what a great trip to start with. Quote
DualRatedFlyer Posted March 27, 2018 Report Posted March 27, 2018 @Kmac Congrats on your purchase! Looking at your pictures, I believe my airplane was sitting in the same exact spot when I went to pick her up ~6 months ago. Our trips also looks similar., except I went west of the mountain range. My father in law was supposed to fly with me, but with the hurricane bearing down on Texas I had to leave that night instead of waiting the next morning. I would have preferred to stop halfway through, but they were closing down the airspace at my home airport for the next 2 days for an airshow. Flying through the night on my first flight after doing an all day prebuy in the Texas heat was not enjoyable. Where are you based at in PA? Im out at LNS Quote
Kmac Posted March 27, 2018 Author Report Posted March 27, 2018 I am based out of PTW. I would not have wanted to fly through the night in an unfamiliar bird. If I could have left early on Sunday the plan was to stay west of the mountains but since we had to spend the night somewhere the weather was more favorable on the east side of the mountains on Monday. Congrats on your new airplane also. Quote
AZM20C Posted March 27, 2018 Report Posted March 27, 2018 What a great experience. Congratulations. I had a similar experience last year in my M20C, 250 total hrs., Alabama to Arizona, my flight instructor made the trip with me. I got a lot of hood time. Enjoy. Be safe. Quote
N6758N Posted March 27, 2018 Report Posted March 27, 2018 Congrats! I am just down the road at KOQN and there a bunch of us around MS in the Philly suburbs. Quote
xcrmckenna Posted March 27, 2018 Report Posted March 27, 2018 I’ll beat Anthony to it, I think we want panel pictures too:)! Wonderful trip home. I made the flight from there to Oregon last March. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 1 Quote
carusoam Posted March 27, 2018 Report Posted March 27, 2018 Bob Cabe knows that flight well. Bob Cabe knows Transition Training well. Bob Cabe knows Transitioning pilots well. Bob helped me bring my O home. Best regards, -a- 1 1 Quote
Htwjr Posted March 27, 2018 Report Posted March 27, 2018 Congrats on your purchase of the C which is the best value in all of general aviation. 4 Quote
MBDiagMan Posted March 27, 2018 Report Posted March 27, 2018 You had a great transition instructor, He is not only a good instructor but also a great guy. Congrats on the new plane! Quote
drapo Posted March 27, 2018 Report Posted March 27, 2018 1 hour ago, Htwjr said: Congrats on your purchase of the C which is the best value in all of general aviation. He almost bought the best value in all of GA but someone else bought the E, so he settled for the C 1 2 Quote
Yooper Rocketman Posted March 28, 2018 Report Posted March 28, 2018 Great post and congratulations! Always great to have your first trip in a "new to you" Mooney be a REAL cross country flight. You've got a beautiful looking bird and you already know how you can shorten your world with it. Enjoy!! I couldn't help but look up my first cross country trip bringing my first Mooney (an F Model) home to the U.P. of Michigan from Mesa Arizona (Falcon Field). I bought in on April Fools Day, 1996 with 250 hours of C150 time in my log book. I just pulled out my old logbook to refresh the memory. I don't have the fancy VFR map to post like you did, but here's my best attempt to re-create it with Airnav's map. 1325 NM in one day (all daylight) with my CFII I brought down from Michigan, charging me (yes, this is not a typo) $100 a day for the 4 days flying down, conducting a thorough PPI with him and my A&P/ hangar partner/15 year Mooney owner (at that time) and the trip back. My hangar partner (and now best friend) flew us down in his E model. Hard to believe it's just days short of 22 years ago!! Tom Airport Distance Initial Heading FFZ$5.15 MESA, AZFALCON FLD AIRPORT 307.2 nm 063 true 051 magnetic SAF$4.4 SANTA FE, NMSANTA FE MUNI AIRPORT 486.7 nm 046 true 038 magnetic GRI$4.94 GRAND ISLAND, NECENTRAL NEBRASKA RGNL AIRPORT 530.7 nm 053 true 046 magnetic IMT$5.19 IRON MOUNTAIN KINGSFORD, MIFORD AIRPORT Direct FFZ-IMT great circle distance: 1311.1 nm Total distance along route: 1324.6 nm (1% more) Map provided by Karl Swartz's Great Circle Mapper 3 Quote
nels Posted March 28, 2018 Report Posted March 28, 2018 Great flights home by all especially Kevin on this day. You mentioned your vacuum pump failing on the maiden voyage, same happened to me when I picked my Mooney up a year and a half ago. By the way, nice looking plane! 1 Quote
nels Posted March 28, 2018 Report Posted March 28, 2018 52 minutes ago, Yooper Rocketman said: Great post and congratulations! Always great to have your first trip in a "new to you" Mooney be a REAL cross country flight. You've got a beautiful looking bird and you already know how you can shorten your world with it. Enjoy!! I couldn't help but look up my first cross country trip bringing my first Mooney (an F Model) home to the U.P. of Michigan from Mesa Arizona (Falcon Field). I bought in on April Fools Day, 1996 with 250 hours of C150 time in my log book. I just pulled out my old logbook to refresh the memory. I don't have the fancy VFR map to post like you did, but here's my best attempt to re-create it with Airnav's map. 1325 NM in one day (all daylight) with my CFII I brought down from Michigan, charging me (yes, this is not a typo) $100 a day for the 4 days flying down, conducting a thorough PPI with him and my A&P/ hangar partner/15 year Mooney owner (at that time) and the trip back. My hangar partner (and now best friend) flew us down in his E model. Hard to believe it's just days short of 22 years ago!! Tom Airport Distance Initial Heading FFZ$5.15 MESA, AZFALCON FLD AIRPORT 307.2 nm 063 true 051 magnetic SAF$4.4 SANTA FE, NMSANTA FE MUNI AIRPORT 486.7 nm 046 true 038 magnetic GRI$4.94 GRAND ISLAND, NECENTRAL NEBRASKA RGNL AIRPORT 530.7 nm 053 true 046 magnetic IMT$5.19 IRON MOUNTAIN KINGSFORD, MIFORD AIRPORT Direct FFZ-IMT great circle distance: 1311.1 nm Total distance along route: 1324.6 nm (1% more) Map provided by Karl Swartz's Great Circle Mapper I’ve been considering flying from Cincinnati to Falcon Field in Mesa to visit some friends. Everyone tells me to take the long route down around El Paso and up. Your route sure looks tempting. 2 Quote
Yooper Rocketman Posted March 28, 2018 Report Posted March 28, 2018 20 minutes ago, nels said: I’ve been considering flying from Cincinnati to Falcon Field in Mesa to visit some friends. Everyone tells me to take the long route down around El Paso and up. Your route sure looks tempting. Hey Nels, One of my most vivid memories of KFFZ was sitting in front of the hangar on a Sunday afternoon and seeing the second fuel truck drive by the many rows of T-hangars looking for fuel customers........Holy Crap!!!! The hangar rows were identified by alpha numeric and went completely through the alphabet and started over as “double letters “ such as AA BB CC etc about halfway through the alphabet again. This Yooper had never seen a GA airport like this before! Guess we know why I own a home on Spruce Creek now!! Tom Quote
MBDiagMan Posted March 28, 2018 Report Posted March 28, 2018 11 hours ago, drapo said: He almost bought the best value in all of GA but someone else bought the E, so he settled for the C If everything is equal, then the obvious choice would be an E. If, however, the choice is being made between an E and a C, condition, engine and prop time, panel, tanks, and damage history are factors that would be more important considerations IMHO. IOW don’t settle for a considerably poorer condition airplane to get an E. My $0.02, 2 Quote
Kmac Posted March 28, 2018 Author Report Posted March 28, 2018 Panel shot as requested...and the interior... 4 Quote
steingar Posted March 28, 2018 Report Posted March 28, 2018 I retrieved mine from Georgia to fly it to Ohio. Sad thing is I really a haven't done a trip like that since. 1 Quote
Rmag Posted March 28, 2018 Report Posted March 28, 2018 Congrats on the new purchase. I am also just down the road at KMQS. Quote
Kmac Posted March 28, 2018 Author Report Posted March 28, 2018 29 minutes ago, steingar said: I retrieved mine from Georgia to fly it to Ohio. Sad thing is I really a haven't done a trip like that since. I think I am good for a little while now for trips over 1,000NM. Right around 500 I'd be glad to do again right away. Quote
rainman Posted March 28, 2018 Report Posted March 28, 2018 Bob Cabe and his twin brother Joe (also a CFI) are local here in San Antonio and are a great resource for pilots transitioning to Mooneys. Bob was my instructor. Congrats on your purchase. Ray 1 Quote
nels Posted March 28, 2018 Report Posted March 28, 2018 Inside sure looks nice! 3 hours ago, steingar said: I retrieved mine from Georgia to fly it to Ohio. Sad thing is I really a haven't done a trip like that since. How long ago has that been? I seem to have the same sorta problem. It isn’t the available time, as I’m retired. Quote
steingar Posted March 28, 2018 Report Posted March 28, 2018 3 hours ago, nels said: Inside sure looks nice! How long ago has that been? I seem to have the same sorta problem. It isn’t the available time, as I’m retired. I think I got the aircraft two years ago. Admittedly, I was down fro 9 months with a self-induced prop strike. And I've been down for another 4 1/2 for avionics work; with luck I pick the airplane up this weekend. Of course, I've said that before. Once I get it back it will e time for the IR, so I can really take trips. Quote
Raptor05121 Posted March 29, 2018 Report Posted March 29, 2018 Congrats! Learn those power charts! You should easily be able to squeeze out 145KTAS at <9gph at 8k+ feet 3 Quote
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