Jump to content

New (to me) M20C, intro and trip home


Kmac

Recommended Posts

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...

20180324_190248.jpg

20180326_162246.jpg

trip.JPG

  • Like 7
Link to comment
Share on other sites

@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

Mooney Purchase Route.JPG

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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 :P :D

  • Like 1
  • Haha 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

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, AZ
FALCON FLD AIRPORT
307.2 nm 063 true
051 magnetic
SAF
$4.4
SANTA FE, NM
SANTA FE MUNI AIRPORT
486.7 nm 046 true
038 magnetic
GRI
$4.94
GRAND ISLAND, NE
CENTRAL NEBRASKA RGNL AIRPORT
530.7 nm 053 true
046 magnetic
IMT
$5.19
IRON MOUNTAIN KINGSFORD, MI
FORD AIRPORT
 

 

Direct FFZ-IMT great circle distance: 1311.1 nm
Total distance along route: 1324.6 nm (1% more)

 

Sorry, route map not available
Map provided by Karl Swartz's Great Circle Mapper
  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

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, AZ
FALCON FLD AIRPORT
307.2 nm 063 true
051 magnetic
SAF
$4.4
SANTA FE, NM
SANTA FE MUNI AIRPORT
486.7 nm 046 true
038 magnetic
GRI
$4.94
GRAND ISLAND, NE
CENTRAL NEBRASKA RGNL AIRPORT
530.7 nm 053 true
046 magnetic
IMT
$5.19
IRON MOUNTAIN KINGSFORD, MI
FORD AIRPORT
 

 

Direct FFZ-IMT great circle distance: 1311.1 nm
Total distance along route: 1324.6 nm (1% more)

 

Sorry, route map not available
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.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

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

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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 :P :D

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,

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.