Today's flight in 2019

[jaylw314]

Looks like my wife got one in focus 

 

[gsxrpilot]

20 hours ago, Yooper Rocketman said:

I've said for 20+ years; IMHO, it's not a cross country flight unless after you're first fuel stop, you are still flying away from your original departure point.  My first Cross Country trip, in a C150, I had 3 fuel stops BEFORE arriving at my destination.  You, my friend, have qualified in the "Tom's book of true Cross Country flights"!!  

Way to use a Mooney like it was intended!

It's can't be said any better.

[skydvrboy]

Completed the flight portion of the Colorado Pilot's Association mountain flying course.  AWESOME. 

Other than the scenery, perhaps the best part was climbing over a ridge at 13,000' and seeing 1,500' fpm on the VSI.  Gotta love the performance of that IO-360! 

[jaylw314]

6 minutes ago, skydvrboy said:

Completed the flight portion of the Colorado Pilot's Association mountain flying course.  AWESOME. 

Other than the scenery, perhaps the best part was climbing over a ridge at 13,000' and seeing 1,500' fpm on the VSI.  Gotta love the performance of that IO-360! 

 

I imagine the feeling when you're caught in a downdraft is less awesome, though 

[skydvrboy]

4 hours ago, jaylw314 said:

I imagine the feeling when you're caught in a downdraft is less awesome, though 

Actually, the updrafts were slightly more nerve wracking than the downdrafts.  When you're flying in the updrafts, you may only be 30' away from the mountainside.  The only time we flew through the downdrafts were after we'd already crossed a ridge and by then we needed to lose altitude anyway.  Part of the course is teaching you where the updrafts and downdrafts are going to be.  As a result, we spent about 70% of the flight in the updrafts, about 25% neutral, and only about 5% in the downdrafts.

[jaylw314]

3 minutes ago, skydvrboy said:

Actually, the updrafts were slightly more nerve wracking than the downdrafts.  When you're flying in the updrafts, you may only be 30' away from the mountainside.  The only time we flew through the downdrafts were after we'd already crossed a ridge and by then we needed to lose altitude anyway.  Part of the course is teaching you where the updrafts and downdrafts are going to be.  As a result, we spent about 70% of the flight in the updrafts, about 25% neutral, and only about 5% in the downdrafts.

?

 

[skydvrboy]

6 minutes ago, jaylw314 said:

?

 

That is obviously the inner extreme, but we were trying to stay 2-3 wingspans away from the mountains, that jut in and out.  If you got too far away, the lift completely disappeared.  It reminded me a lot of formation flying, just with slightly more separation.

[The Other Red Baron]

5 minutes ago, skydvrboy said:

That is obviously the inner extreme, but we were trying to stay 2-3 wingspans away from the mountains, that jut in and out.  If you got too far away, the lift completely disappeared.  It reminded me a lot of formation flying, just with slightly more separation.

Is staying that close part of mountain flying training or were you guys just getting some cool views?  Me having zero mountain flying experience and all the mountain flying stuff I know is from King School videos that's the exact opposite of what I would do.

Edited June 25, 2019 by revwatch
grammar

[skydvrboy]

That was part of the training.  The worst thing you can do is fly right over the center of the valleys.  It leaves you with only half the space to turn around if you need to get out.  If you fly close to the windward side, not only do you get the lift, but you turn into the wind if/when you need to escape, further reducing your turning radius.

[The Other Red Baron]

Do they publish their rates for the flying portion?  I don't see it on the website.

[kortopates]

Do they publish their rates for the flying portion?  I don't see it on the website.

If you decide to do it, I highly recommend doing it at the MAPA Denver PPP. The Denver PPP always gives you the choice between the Mountain flying course or the traditional venue. That way it's a bit more Mooney specfic with same mountain flying instructors.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[skydvrboy]

Check the very last line on the page.  https://coloradopilots.org/content.aspx?page_id=22&club_id=612720&module_id=319185  The flying portion is a flat $250 paid directly to the instructor.

My instructor was a Mooney specific instructor who previously owned and flew a J model, but currently flew a 182.  You will be assigned an instructor based on your aircraft, so your instructor will be familiar with flying a Mooney.  The ground school portion of the course was generic to all aircraft types, so some of what you hear won't apply to your plane.

[Hank]

Woo-hooo!! I finally have an airplane again! Left home at 0500  drove 180+ miles on backroads without even a sign at the state line. Joey Cole and his guys did a great job, things are better than ever. But I'm too rusty to take many pictures . . . . It was my fourth flight this year, 1.3 hours including one lap around the pattern, full stop, to make sure everything was good before heading home over miles and miles of forested nothing. Put in the hangar around 1130.

I know there's a thread somewhere about pattern work, speed and distance, but don't recall where. So here's a picture showing the runway at KDNN as I'm on downwind. Should be just over 1/2 mile out; I used to fly 3-4 blocks wider than in a 172, but haven't flown a pattern over developed areas since moving back South.

Edited June 29, 2019 by Hank

[aviatoreb]

[MinneMooney]

Just delivered my Cessna 140a to its new owner this weekend. Minneapolis to Paris, TX. 10 hours with 3 stops for fuel over 2 days.

Turned out to be a great trip!

 

Edited July 1, 2019 by MinneMooney
Reorder pictures

[McMooney]

Here's my flight for today, sorry no pics but I did get a new IR 

[aviatoreb]

2 minutes ago, McMooney said:

Here's my flight for today, sorry no pics but I did get a new IR 

Bravo!

[carusoam]

Great flight, McM!

Congrats,

-a-

[RogueOne]

150 knots at 7500 burning 9.5 at 2500 and 150 knots at 8000 burning 10.0 at 2550 today.  I will take that.  Nice and cool up there.  First flight for puppy in soft kennel in back seat.  Three year old was wandering into hat shelf.  Yelled at my wife saying it is NOT rated for 50 pounds up there...(#nosuchthingasaperfectflight). Face palm. .260ish nautical miles in two hours.  I will take it.

Edited July 4, 2019 by RogueOne

[xcrmckenna]

Formation practice in Seattle area. Madison can’t get here soon enough.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Oldguy]

Went flying with another Mooney pilot today to get in some practice approaches. We each had two and he had two landings. The wingtip pic is the Talladega race track. The ForeFlight flight tracks show how close my house (the blue dot) is to the airport.

 

[Hank]

That's quite a missed at Talladega and Gadsden! How do you turn around so sharp that there's only a single line shown?

For comparison, this was my return from Cole's to my new base, admittedly rusty due to excessive downtime . . . .

[jaylw314]

56 minutes ago, Hank said:

That's quite a missed at Talladega and Gadsden! How do you turn around so sharp that there's only a single line shown?

For comparison, this was my return from Cole's to my new base, admittedly rusty due to excessive downtime . . . .

 

He said his friend had two landings, so presumably they were full stops there   Either that or @Oldguy rented a helicopter!

Edited July 4, 2019 by jaylw314

[Skates97]

Went to the airport before work Tuesday and finished cleaning the bugs off from our coast to coast trip, then went by the airport after work to fly. My hangar neighbor had just got back from spending the day at Catalina so I visited with him and his wife for about an hour and then went up for a short little flight. Just a quick little flight, made a steep turn over the house and waved at the family and grand kids (not that they could see me waving) and then down to Irvine lake and back to KFUL. Landed a little after sunset, but not long enough after to count for any night currency.

[Skates97]

Going through pictures as I'm writing up our trip and noticed that one of these is a MS member at the Mid-Atlantic clinic, @kpaul, look familiar?

I believe the ones here on the tablet are the two of you, as I departed right after.