Columbia vs Mooney

[201er]

ATC gets excited about a Columbia going 800nm.

 

Meanwhile 1000+ nm cross countries are no issue in the Mooney (with long range tanks). ATC doesn’t offer the same kind of surprise to a Mooney doing NJ to Wichita, Key West, San Marcos, Winnipeg, or Goose Bay nonstop. Nor 1400nm Denver to Linden.

 

 

And after all that, the Columbia couldn’t make it past St. Louis without taking a piss. I guess Jose, @Gagarin, they don’t make a piss hose for those things?

[201er]

Maybe that’s just pretty rare for a Cessna to be flying for more than a couple hours at a time...

[HIghpockets]

One of the guys in the tower was  from "Opposing Bases". Great podcast by two guys who are both pilots and controllers.

[midlifeflyer]

2 hours ago, HIghpockets said:

One of the guys in the tower was  from "Opposing Bases". Great podcast by two guys who are both pilots and controllers.

Hmmm. Definitely not RH and it doesn't really sound much like AG to me but maybe you are right.

[orionflt]

9 hours ago, 201er said:

Maybe that’s just pretty rare for a Cessna to be flying for more than a couple hours at a time...

Columbia was a Lancair design not Cessna

[steingar]

One of my pals bought one of those when it was still Lanceair.  Really, really nice aircraft.  People must really want the parachute, that's the only reason I could see Cirrus beating Lanceair.  The airplane was was fast and spanky.

Edited April 8, 2021 by steingar

[Davidv]

I’ve actually gotten a pretty good controller response when flying from FXE to BED once (about 1100 nm) at FL230.  

When I got to Washington center the controller said “46BL! We were just talking about you! Ft lauderdale to Bedford in a Mooney?! You must be pretty daring!”

”daring” was not the adjective I was looking for :). 

[201er]

3 hours ago, orionflt said:

Columbia was a Lancair design not Cessna

It’s registered as a Cessna 400 but he identifies as Columbia on the radio. I guess is he said Cessna 554Z, ATC would be really shocked.

[Bolter]

12 minutes ago, 201er said:

It’s registered as a Cessna 400 but he identifies as Columbia on the radio. I guess is he said Cessna 554Z, ATC would be really shocked.

I have a friend with one of the air frames in process when Cessna took over.  It is a mix of Columbia and Cessna labels.  I think he prefers saying Columbia because that says a lot more about what to expect than saying Cessna.  

It was a really nice flying plane, too.  I could live with the side stick, no problem.  

Edited April 8, 2021 by Bolter
hit send too soon

[HIghpockets]

4 hours ago, midlifeflyer said:

Hmmm. Definitely not RH and it doesn't really sound much like AG to me but maybe you are right.

Got an email from "Opposing Bases" after I sent them feedback. To be discussed at next podcast.

[jaylw314]

That was previously the Corvalis TT, named after where I live, where it was made until they moved production out to Kansas.   Weirdly, they misspelled the name (it's Corvallis with two L's), I've never found a good explanation for that

Edited April 8, 2021 by jaylw314

[Hank]

Just now, jaylw314 said:

That was previously the Corvalis TT, named after where I live, where it was made until they moved production out to Kansas.   Weirdly, they misspelled the name (it's Corvallis with two L's), I've never found a good explanation for that

It's simple. My boss says that he "feels sorry for everyone who only knows one way to spell a word."

[MIm20c]

My google abilities are not up to par. I was going to link the flight of a 300 or 350 that went non stop from Vancouver? to Toronto? a decade or so ago.

@201er I really enjoyed the videos north of the border filling the plane from a 55 gallon drum.  Another J with long range tanks did exciting trips to st George/Paul Alaska some years back as well...a lot of (cold) open water on that trip.

[midlifeflyer]

4 hours ago, HIghpockets said:

Got an email from "Opposing Bases" after I sent them feedback. To be discussed at next podcast.

I asked them. No, it wasn't one of them.

[Oldguy]

The guy in the hangar next to mine recently sold his Columbia. Said he enjoyed it, but missed his Mooney (previously had an Acclaim) so he bought a 2019 Acclaim Ultra.

[Guest]

3 hours ago, MIm20c said:

My google abilities are not up to par. I was going to link the flight of a 300 or 350 that went non stop from Vancouver? to Toronto? a decade or so ago.

@201er I really enjoyed the videos north of the border filling the plane from a 55 gallon drum.  Another J with long range tanks did exciting trips to st George/Paul Alaska some years back as well...a lot of (cold) open water on that trip.

That flight was fairly common for that Columbia, he excelled at really long distance flights.  Vancouver- Toronto, Hay River NWT- Toronto, Toronto-Bahamas etc.

I don’t know if he still owns it or not.

Clarence

[Niko182]

The columbia 350 / 400 and mooney Ovation/Acclaim are practically the same airplane looking at it from a mission standpoint. 100 gallons. 550 engines. Cruise and fuel flows are similar. Maybe the mooney has the edge by a very very small amount on cruise, and the columbia on the useful load. 

[GeeBee]

This thread reminds me of this thread searching for my N number on Mooney space. The previous owner flew my Ovation LVS to PIT non stop at FL230. Now that is performance!

 

[HIghpockets]

4 hours ago, midlifeflyer said:

I asked them. No, it wasn't one of them.

I guess that ATC facility has more than two controllers with a sense of humor.

[milotron]

3 hours ago, M20Doc said:

That flight was fairly common for that Columbia, he excelled at really long distance flights.  Vancouver- Toronto, Hay River NWT- Toronto, Toronto-Bahamas etc.

I don’t know if he still owns it or not.

Clarence

Steve still owns it, but hasn't flown in awhile. A 350 I believe ( non turbo )

 

[midlifeflyer]

5 hours ago, HIghpockets said:

I guess that ATC facility has more than two controllers with a sense of humor.

Yes. I don't recall if I posted this short (less than a minute) video here (after all, it wasn't a Mooney) but I thought this controller was AG. It wasn't. Probably just similarities when using their "ATC voice" 

 

[HIghpockets]

4 hours ago, midlifeflyer said:

Yes. I don't recall if I posted this short (less than a minute) video here (after all, it wasn't a Mooney) but I thought this controller was AG. It wasn't. Probably just similarities when using their "ATC voice" 

 

Sure sounds alike AG doesn't it. They talk frequently about VFR check-ins on the podcast all the time. BTW a couple of summers ago I lived in Chapel Hill for a month. Great town. My former college roommate lives there.

[midlifeflyer]

23 minutes ago, HIghpockets said:

Sure sounds alike AG doesn't it. They talk frequently about VFR check-ins on the podcast all the time. BTW a couple of summers ago I lived in Chapel Hill for a month. Great town. My former college roommate lives there.

It's a really nice place to live. It looks amazingly like mid-New England (where I lived for 17 years) topographically. 

Yeah, I asked the controller if he was AG. Said no. When I sent the video to OB, they recognized who it was and he's handed out compliments before. I really should have included part of the intervening 4 minutes. It actually answers the "how bad" question (the controller played dentist) and probably accounts for the compliment.