Today's flight in the year 2020

[Ibra]

46 minutes ago, MooneyMitch said:

living dangerously with two wheels.

You mean “wheeler landing” on taildraggers ?

[MooneyMitch]

Just now, Ibra said:

You mean “wheeler landing” on taildraggers ?

Ha!   No, I mean two wheels as on a motorcycle ride dodging 4 wheeled vehicles! 

[MB65E]

The WindJammer!!! My dad has one on his 77 Kawasaki 1000.

-Matt

[MooneyMitch]

1 hour ago, MB65E said:

The WindJammer!!! My dad has one on his 77 Kawasaki 1000.

-Matt

Yep, Matt.

Craig Vetter ( San Luis Obispo) was quite the innovator!

The Windjammer was quite successful in the day.  I used it on this bike for a few cross country trips many years ago.... did the job well.

Your dad?  Making me feel old!  I guess I am getting that way . 

[xcrmckenna]

I’ve been a little behind on my flight posting. This month so far I’ve flown the 201 45.3 hours. Large contrast from my March, April, and May flights were I think I flew once each of those months. I sometimes enjoy just flying local but I prefer xcountry flights. That’s the mission I had when I started looking for my Mooney years back and she fits it to a tee. 30.7 and 3,750 miles of this months flight time was a trip I took to see my uncle. He was recently diagnosed with lung cancer.

Sadly he’s a life long smoker and hate to see my family goin through this. But it gave me an opportunity fly from Oregon to New York. I was hoping for more travel time but I was only able to be in Penn Yan NY for 25 hours. Then it was back home. My first leg from Oregon to Minnesota was 6.9 hours and that wasn’t my longest leg by 1.3 hours. From De Moines Iowa to Twin Falls Idaho I flew for 8.2 hours, I landed with 9 gallons of fuel. My shortest leg was 2 hours and that was my final leg from Twin Falls to home KGCD. The weekend after that trip I was back in the air to fly 940 miles down to Sacramento to help@thinwing on his annual.

This months travel would have been impossible in a car and would have been much harder via commercial due to my home location. But the Mooney made it all possible!!!!

















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[amillet]

Fugawi, what power settings are you using on those long endurance flights?

[xcrmckenna]

Fugawi, what power settings are you using on those long endurance flights?

Firewall on the throttle, any time I’m above 11,000msl I run 2500 RPM’s lower I use 2450. I was at 14,000msl and probably could have leaned down to 6gph before the engine started getting rough. But the LOP power curve drops way off past 25 degrees.


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[gsxrpilot]

I flew to West Yellowstone and back this weekend. There's a great camp ground in the trees just off the ramp and inside the airport fence, that is for fly-in camping only. Two other Mooneys and a Comanche were part of our small group for the weekend. It's an easy flight over some spectacular scenery from Denver. Here are some pictures from the flight.

While I was there, I made a quick trip to Jackson Hole to meet some friends and take them flying. (Fees are surprisingly reasonable, $20 or 10 gal). It's not every day you get a world renowned pilot to fly your Mooney. But on Saturday I had the privilege of my friend Wolfgang Siess at the controls. Wolfi is a professional hang glider pilot and one of the most famous hang glider pilots in the world. He and another hang glider pro, Paul Mazzoni, went up with me in the Mooney for a flight around the Grand Teton, over Yellowstone park, a tight turn around the Grand Prismatic and other cool sights. Wolfi and Paul showed up with multiple GoPro cameras to mount on the airplane. There will be a YouTube video of the flight in the near future and I'll post it when it's available.

Today was the flight home to Denver. An easy 2 hour flight at 17,500 ft. 170 TAS/195 GS, 9.5 gph. 

The hot springs of Yellowstone at 6am in the cold air.

The Diamond on Long's Peak

Just a little cloudy over Denver this morning. Descending out of 17,000 ft.

 

[Skates97]

Yesterday I made two $100 Burger Runs, the first was breakfast and the second was the long awaited flight to Catalina. I think I am in love with Catalina. The options were to pay the landing fee each time or an annual membership in the Conservancy with unlimited landings, I opted for the second. A great day of flying! Here are a couple of pictures. The complete write up is on my blog, and yes, the cameras were running for the flight there as well as the flight back which included a trip around the island. Hoping to have that footage edited and up in the next week.

https://intothesky.us/2020/07/19/two-100-burger-runs-in-a-day/

[MooneyMitch]

20 minutes ago, Skates97 said:

Yesterday I made two $100 Burger Runs, the first was breakfast and the second was the long awaited flight to Catalina. I think I am in love with Catalina. The options were to pay the landing fee each time or an annual membership in the Conservancy with unlimited landings, I opted for the second. A great day of flying! Here are a couple of pictures. The complete write up is on my blog, and yes, the cameras were running for the flight there as well as the flight back which included a trip around the island. Hoping to have that footage edited and up in the next week.

https://intothesky.us/2020/07/19/two-100-burger-runs-in-a-day/

Excellent!  Did you enjoy the new runway?  

[Skates97]

10 hours ago, MooneyMitch said:

Excellent!  Did you enjoy the new runway?  

I'm not sure how rough it was before but it is quite bumpy. No pot holes but it felt like the concrete just wasn't smooth, like they need to grind it level between sections similar to what they do every five years or so on the freeways to smooth them out. Kept the yoke back to keep pressure off the nose, like if you were on grass. On takeoff did it like a soft field takeoff again to keep the pressure off the nose, a couple small bounces before staying airborne and picking up some speed in ground effect. 

[MooneyMitch]

1 hour ago, Skates97 said:

I'm not sure how rough it was before but it is quite bumpy. No pot holes but it felt like the concrete just wasn't smooth, like they need to grind it level between sections similar to what they do every five years or so on the freeways to smooth them out. Kept the yoke back to keep pressure off the nose, like if you were on grass. On takeoff did it like a soft field takeoff again to keep the pressure off the nose, a couple small bounces before staying airborne and picking up some speed in ground effect. 

That is really sad news.  Thank you for that information.

[Skates97]

2 hours ago, MooneyMitch said:

That is really sad news.  Thank you for that information.

I will put up a full video of the flight, but here's just a short clip from under the wing of the departure. You can't see the entire nose wheel but you can see it moving as it transitions from one section of concrete to the next. You can also see the rectangles that the concrete was laid in, they did a nice job, but should have finished up grinding it smooth from one section to the next.

 

[MooneyMitch]

So unfortunate the slab transitions aren’t smooth.

So many individual slabs.  I wonder if this a normal concrete runway construction method.

Our relatively new concrete runway extension does not have this type of construction.

All looks super otherwise.

[kortopates]

1 minute ago, MooneyMitch said:

So unfortunate the slab transitions aren’t smooth.

So many individual slabs.  I wonder if this a normal concrete runway construction method.

Our relatively new concrete runway extension does not have this type of construction.

All looks super otherwise.

Definitely not normal and in some respects rougher, just without the pot holes that frightened pilots, yet with the original very real primary hazard still  present. We had another plane, a Bonanza go off the end a couple months ago too demonstrating how real it is. But considering the Marines did the job as a training task, its super win for the Conservatory. But if the Marines really did it for free, did they have to raise the landing fee to $35? 

I think Richard is on to something if they can grind it smooth - that would be great if its affordable!

[MooneyMitch]

14 minutes ago, kortopates said:

Definitely not normal and in some respects rougher, just without the pot holes that frightened pilots, yet with the original very real primary hazard still  present. We had another plane, a Bonanza go off the end a couple months ago too demonstrating how real it is. But considering the Marines did the job as a training task, its super win for the Conservatory. But if the Marines really did it for free, did they have to raise the landing fee to $35? 

I think Richard is on to something if they can grind it smooth - that would be great if its affordable!

Yes, it’s great the airport was saved via the new runway project.  Such an incredibly unique airport Catalina is.

Agree in grinding...... based on seeing this effort previously, it’s quite a project for equipment logistics required for the efforts.  Not to mention the amount of grinding needed based on so many slab transitions. Wow!!

More thumpity thump in the Mooney undoubtedly. 

[ZuluZulu]

Does southeast Florida to Southern California in 33 hours count for this thread? 

[The Other Red Baron]

20 minutes ago, ZuluZulu said:

Does southeast Florida to Southern California in 33 hours count for this thread? 

You got pics and/or videos?

[ArtVandelay]

Does southeast Florida to Southern California in 33 hours count for this thread? 

33 hours? I hope that’s not a Mooney, otherwise you are in need of lots of speed mods.

I assume you meant round trip?

[ZuluZulu]

22 hours ago, The Other Red Baron said:

You got pics and/or videos?

Here's Sanibel Island, Captiva, and a civilian Hercules taking off from Baton Rouge.  Plus a photo of Salty Approach.

[Yooper Rocketman]

A couple recent flights. 
 

I know, not in a Mooney, but I’m a FOREVER MOONEY LOVER!!!   I’m performing an Annual Inspection on an E as I submit this.  
 

Heading back to the U.P. from Minneapolis at sunset.  Two photos looking north towards Lake Superior and one of MSP at sunset. 
 

Tom

[xcrmckenna]

A couple recent flights. 
 
I know, not in a Mooney, but I’m a FOREVER MOONEY LOVER!!!   I’m performing an Annual Inspection on an E as I submit this.  
 
Heading back to the U.P. from Minneapolis at sunset.  Two photos looking north towards Lake Superior and one of MSP at sunset. 
 
Tom

Always love seeing pictures where 4PT takes you! When I landed in Penn Yan a few weeks ago this turbine was taking off. I almost thought it was you when I first saw it.


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[aviatoreb]

12 hours ago, Yooper Rocketman said:

A couple recent flights. 
 

I know, not in a Mooney, but I’m a FOREVER MOONEY LOVER!!!   I’m performing an Annual Inspection on an E as I submit this.  
 

Heading back to the U.P. from Minneapolis at sunset.  Two photos looking north towards Lake Superior and one of MSP at sunset. 
 

Tom

Mooney - guy - you earned a lifetime membership - always welcome!

That sunset pic - hey - has everyone gone out and seen Neowise the comet?  Its at its brightest this week * yesterday and today * but still viewable for a few more days.  Just look North West and its under the big dipper when it first gets fully dark.  64,000,000 miles away and a lovely tail.  Returns again in 6,800 years.

SO someone needs to get up there and take a picture in flight!  If you are at 10,000 ft you are almost 2 miles closer!

[Hank]

1 hour ago, aviatoreb said:

Mooney - guy - you earned a lifetime membership - always welcome!

That sunset pic - hey - has everyone gone out and seen Neowise the comet?  Its at its brightest this week * yesterday and today * but still viewable for a few more days.  Just look North West and its under the big dipper when it first gets fully dark.  64,000,000 miles away and a lovely tail.  Returns again in 6,800 years.

SO someone needs to get up there and take a picture in flight!  If you are at 10,000 ft you are almost 2 miles closer!

Thanks for the comet reminder. But I just my plane off for some work. Your Rocket will go twice as high as my C anyway--how 'bout a nice photo from the flight levels???  

[aviatoreb]

5 minutes ago, Hank said:

Thanks for the comet reminder. But I just my plane off for some work. Your Rocket will go twice as high as my C anyway--how 'bout a nice photo from the flight levels???  

I know! I could potentially knock 4 or 5 miles off that 64,000,000 miles getting a bit closer.

Alas - she's in the shop this week. So I had to contend with seeing it from the ground.  But - rural air, low humid northerly, and pandemic clearer than usual - the milky way really stands out, more stars than I can count, and a clear sharp comet.

Here's what neowise looks like from the space station - a bit closer but still mostly 64,000,000 miles away. 

https://scitechdaily.com/comet-neowise-brightens-the-night-in-stunning-space-station-video/

 

Edited July 22, 2020 by aviatoreb