Introducing Myself

[GeeBee]

I have been a "lurker" here for about the last 6 months as I considered a Mooney purchase. I want to thank Mooneyspace.com for their generous and open door policy of allowing people to look in on subjects posted. It has been of great benefit in my airplane search.

I am proud to say I am the new owner of N192JK, a 2005 Ovation as of 2023 UTC yesterday. She is currently located at Don Maxwell's shop undergoing a pre-sale, now an annual and a WAAS upgrade. Thanks to this forum I was able to select Don Maxwell as my preferred place to perform the pre-buy and I have had the honor to meet both Don and Paul who are real gentlemen and have been most helpful. I will be basing out of KGVL as I live on Lake Lanier

My previous airplane was a PA18-160 Super Cub rebuilt by Cub Crafters. It was probably one of the few IFR certified Cubs around and had an Aspen 1000, Garmin 420W and a Lynx ADS-B unit. I loved the airplane but my mission has changed to a need for reliable and fast transport up and down the Eastern seaboard. In my search I needed good avionics and TKS. I wanted to avoid turbo charging, preferring horsepower and displacement. I don't really want to be sucking on a tube all that much in search of performance. It came down to an early to mid 90's Bonanza or a 2000 something Mooney. Since my wife and I are not tall people and it is usually just the two of us I concluded the Mooney was the best airplane for the buck and (shhhh), it will blow the doors off a Bonanza. I have flown a lot of Beech products, even worked for a Beech dealer and I love their airplanes but if you have to write the checks........

A little about my aviation self. I am coming up on my 50th year since solo at KRHV. I have about 29,000 hours. About 8000 in GA aircraft of all kinds from C-150's too biz jets. I have been a CFI-I, a Chief Instructor with examining authority, a Line Check Airman and a Part 135 Chief Pilot. I recently retired off the Airbus A330 after a near 40 year career. Aviation has been my life and passion all my life and being a pilot is the only thing I have ever wanted to be since early childhood. This Mooney will most likely be my last airplane and I hope it will be the best! 

I look forward to learning from you fine folks here. You all have been very helpful in getting me to this point in my "Mooney experience"!

[alextstone]

Wow, Great introduction!  Welcome to the Mooney family!

 

Alex 

[ohdub]

Congratulations on your new airplane! Exciting times ahead!

[OHAEDO]

Welcome and congrats!


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[bonal]

Welcome GeeB congrats on your new Mooney and please post some photos when you can. Also congrats on what sounds like a great career. Hope this will be the first of many posts as you will likely be another member with a vast amount of knowledge and experience that folks like me can learn a great deal from.

[PT20J]

Welcome aboard. Did you fly with Amelia? Did she fall asleep?

Skip

[Danb]

Welcome GB, you picked a great machine 

[Yetti]

This thread is worthless without pictures

 

and welcome

Edited August 10, 2019 by Yetti

[rbridges]

2 hours ago, Yetti said:

This thread is worthless without pictures

 

and welcome

Just to clarify, pics of your Mooney, not you.  

[GeeBee]

Thank you all for the warm welcome. Since you asked for pictures, here you go

 

[StevenL757]

Congrats and welcome...officially!

Steve

[MATTS875]

Congratulations   Great looking Mooney

[DustinNwind]

Congrats, welcome and beautiful plane! You have a very impressive aviation background and look forward to your thoughts and post. A lot of us could probably learn a lot from 29,000 hours of flying. I'm looking at a cub as a second plane - how was that in IMC? 

 

That was a pretty thorough introduction, but please provide the following to appease the masses :

 

• Middle name

• Pre-breakfast weight and post breakfast weight.

• 3 references + Uber rating.

• Elementary school mascot.

• Favorite color besides Mooney red. 

[carusoam]

Welcome aboard, GB!

1) Selecting a great and complete Mooney, check!

2) PPI at DMax and Family, check!

3) Must Get extremely thorough Transition Training... it will take several hours to find something, at least one thing, new..?  

4) Delivery flight will be a blast!

5) Making an Ovation a forever-plane... i’m Looking forward to your future!

Go O!

Best regards,

-a-

[elimansour]

That’s a beautiful Mooney!!  Welcoming to the community and looking forward to hearing about your adventures in Mooneyland!!

[Mufflerbearing]

I believe this was one plane that I had on my favorites.  Excellent plane!  Congratulations on your purchase. 

Your vast experience will be a great addition to MS.  Especially those of us with much less experience.  I too lurked for quite some time and learned so much from this incredible community.  My wife and I just got back from doing a ride in our first airplane and hopefully forever plane, a screaming eagle.  Many of the things you found important in your plane are the same things that were important to us. 

Enjoy and welcome aboard!

[GeeBee]

15 hours ago, DustinNwind said:

Congrats, welcome and beautiful plane! You have a very impressive aviation background and look forward to your thoughts and post. A lot of us could probably learn a lot from 29,000 hours of flying. I'm looking at a cub as a second plane - how was that in IMC? 

 

That was a pretty thorough introduction, but please provide the following to appease the masses :

 

• Middle name

• Pre-breakfast weight and post breakfast weight.

• 3 references + Uber rating.

• Elementary school mascot.

• Favorite color besides Mooney red. 

Thank you and to answer your question directly about IFR in a Super Cub. The only IFR capable SC is the original PA-18. This is because it is certified under CAR 3 so all you have to do is add the equipment required my 91.205 (d) and you are good to go. Newer interpretations such as the CubCrafters Top Cub, X-Cub etc are all FAR 23 certs and their TCDS prohibits IFR operations no matter the equipment. Second it is only good for busting overcasts and warm weather IFR etc because you have no pitot heat and no STC available to remedy that fact. Finally you need an airplane that flies good and straight because you have to use the "Adidas Autopilot" a lot and because there is no autopilot so you get pretty busy on approach. Have your iPad mounted right in front!

[Mooney in Oz]

On 8/11/2019 at 10:37 AM, GeeBee said:

Since you asked for pictures, here you go

From the other side of the Pacific, welcome aboard GeeBee and congrats on acquiring your beautiful new bird!

Although perhaps a different red, it looks like I chose your paint scheme about 11 years ago when my J was soon to be repainted.

 

[thinwing]

On 8/10/2019 at 1:08 PM, PT20J said:

Welcome aboard. Did you fly with Amelia? Did she fall asleep?

Skip

Ha ha..I did once and she snors

[Dreamlifter]

Way above my pay grade.

Welcome aboard and congratulations on a great career.

Fly safe!

[GeeBee]

9 hours ago, Mooney in Oz said:

From the other side of the Pacific, welcome aboard GeeBee and congrats on acquiring your beautiful new bird!

Although perhaps a different red, it looks like I chose your paint scheme about 11 years ago when my J was soon to be repainted.

 

Thank you Victor. I was just in Oz and I even stopped and looked at an Ovation 3 outside of Brisbane (although that was not the purpose of my trip). Had a great time and finally got to hold a Koala which was a lot of fun! As a matter of fact I told my wife when I repaint this airplane in a few years I want "Mooney Red" instead of the maroon.

[Mooney217RN]

A fine bird!  I bought one (Ovation 2GX, converted to Ovation 3GX) last year.

[Amelia]

Just fwiw, I want you all to know, Amelia doesn't sleep while flying, even when somebody else has the controls. She also doesn’t snore...

What a beautiful airplane! 

[Mooney in Oz]

1 hour ago, GeeBee said:

As a matter of fact I told my wife when I repaint this airplane in a few years I want "Mooney Red" instead of the maroon.

Although I said red, mine is more of a burgundy colour but the red seems to come out more in the sunlight.

Regardless, yours looks magic.

1 hour ago, GeeBee said:

I was just in Oz and I even stopped and looked at an Ovation 3 outside of Brisbane (although that was not the purpose of my trip). Had a great time and finally got to hold a Koala which was a lot of fun!

How good is that?  I think I know the O3 you saw and if it is the same one, I had a ride in it some years ago.  

You now have bragging rights as many Australians have never held a Koala.

If you need a Mooney instructor or just advice there are some very experienced and highly regarded instructors that participate on MS, two whom I have met (@donkaye& @mike_elliott) - the former I had the privilege to fly with and the latter almost but unable due to a medical issue I had at the time.  Both I count as my friends.

Again, welcome aboard, you've come to the right place!

[DXB]

Once you’ve mastered your new ride, consider becoming a MAPA safety foundation instructor. We amateurs need more pros like you to keep us amateurs in line.