Mooney Faster Than Airliner!

[201er]

My Mooney is faster than the airlines. With the endless delays and flight cancellations the airlines are having in 2022, my on-time arrival and door to door travel time is undoubtedly faster than the airlines! In a 201!

So far, I've made every Mooney flight on time +/-15 minutes, no mechanical delays, and only 1 flight deferred due to weather (ended up driving and then return to Mooney to continue).

Meanwhile, every airline flight but one I've taken in the last year has been delayed. I've been lucky enough not to get cancelled, but I know a lot of people who have been. Many times the delays were longer than the flights themselves. By the time you factor in the delay, it's actually faster to go by Mooney.

In the last year I've been to Houston, Chicago, Florida twice, Michigan, Texas again, plus a lot of local stuff in my Mooney.

I'm not going to kid myself. Normally, it's convenience/fun that make me choose the Mooney over taking airline. But, at this point it's actually faster. And more reliable. Less likely to get cancelled. Wow.

[cbarry]

I agree 100%.   In my opinion, I reserve the option of flying commercially only if the limitations/risks of flying GA exceed the frustration of being herded like cattle down a squeeze chute for “processing!”  Then again, I’ve never HAD to make any trip and can plan accordingly.

[David Lloyd]

Years ago, my wife was told she could no longer travel by private aircraft for work, ride the airlines.  For the next business trip, for a morning departure from Charlotte to Washington, I dropped her and bags in front of the terminal.  30 Minutes across town to the house, I packed my normal week of stuff, filed a flight plan and headed to the little airport near home.  Once there, I chatted with the regular Sunday crowd, pre-flighted the Bo, taxied to the self serve pump and filled up.  Flew to Gaithersburg, MD, it to about 30 minutes to get a ride to the Metro station.  Coming out of the station in Washington, right in front of the hotel, my cell phone rang, it was my wife.  She had checked in and just got in the room.  Be right there.

[aviatoreb]

1 hour ago, 201er said:

My Mooney is faster than the airlines. With the endless delays and flight cancellations the airlines are having in 2022, my on-time arrival and door to door travel time is undoubtedly faster than the airlines! In a 201!

So far, I've made every Mooney flight on time +/-15 minutes, no mechanical delays, and only 1 flight deferred due to weather (ended up driving and then return to Mooney to continue).

Meanwhile, every airline flight but one I've taken in the last year has been delayed. I've been lucky enough not to get cancelled, but I know a lot of people who have been. Many times the delays were longer than the flights themselves. By the time you factor in the delay, it's actually faster to go by Mooney.

In the last year I've been to Houston, Chicago, Florida twice, Michigan, Texas again, plus a lot of local stuff in my Mooney.

I'm not going to kid myself. Normally, it's convenience/fun that make me choose the Mooney over taking airline. But, at this point it's actually faster. And more reliable. Less likely to get cancelled. Wow.

Definitely - even before recent delays....

Three years ago I made my third trip in four years to Bozeman Montana, from Potsdam NY.  1 of those trips was by the airlines.  The Mooney was faster significantly faster by many hours, each direction.  Door to door.  But even tarmac to tarmac, due to the airlines need to make lots of connections and wait in between.  That was the booked times.  In fact on the return trip in the airlines, that trip was delayed 18 hours so it took well over a day....  

WAY faster but besides that, so peaceful to drive 1.5 mi to my hangar and my little airplane and off I go in a quiet environment with the world gliding by.

[Mooney Dog]

1 hour ago, 201er said:

My Mooney is faster than the airlines.

Somehow i dont think thats true.

 

1 hour ago, 201er said:

my on-time arrival and door to door travel time is undoubtedly faster than the airlines!

somehow i absolutely think this is true

 

Now if we can get a mooney to mach .75 ill be one happy pilot 

[201er]

I did have ATC calling out traffic (me) to an airliner "above" and they replied they weren't used to looking up for traffic.

I've been told to slow down for traffic more times than to keep the speed up!

[David Lloyd]

Wife's family moved to Carlsbad, NM just before we got married in 1972.  First time on an airplane was Greensboro, NC to Carlsbad.  It was Greensboro to Dallas, then a number of stops on the way to Carlsbad.  I remember the cabin door opening in Brownwood, TX as the pilot announce it was 105 degrees.  It was a long day, the Dallas plane change, and all the stops, about 15 hours.  When I got my license, the first trip from Charlotte to Carlsbad was about 14 hours in a Cherokee.  I've joked about getting home, slamming the door on that Cherokee, selling it and buying a Mooney. Actually, it wasn't so much a joke.  The C model cut the time down to 11 hours including a fuel stop.  Later the Bonanza was generally 8.5 hours plus a fuel stop.  Best time was 7.5 until the RV7.  First trip in the RV7 was 7 out and 7 back, plus a fuel stop.  That worked out to several dozen trips beating the airlines. This was a unique situation, Carlsbad is somewhere you can't get to on the airlines without at least two stops.  Charlotte to Chicago,, Chicago to Albuquerque, Albuquerque to Cbad, or Charlotte, Dallas, Midland, Cbad.  Some years in the 80's, there was nothing to Cbad.

[Urs_Wildermuth]

It depends what exactly you are doing but I'd say for rather short range (in airliner terms) commutes you stand a real good chance.

My base route e.g. is Zurich to Salzburg. In the old days, there was a Fokker 70 route (later a Saab 2000) which took about 50 mins flying time. So with check in, check out (not counting getting to the airport as the Mooney also resides there) the airliner took the better part of 2.5 hours per way. The Mooney flies this distance in 1-20 and I usually managed to get out and started in about 20 minutes after reaching the airport, sometimes 30. So yea, it will beat the airlines but primarily also the schedule is mine, not theirs.

In recent years, I had to fly to Bulgaria with dogleg flights as there were no convenient direct flights. The result was mostly trip times airport to airport of above 6 hours, which is what the Mooney takes to fly the same distance with a 45 min fuel stop. But with the Mooney, I can go to where I actually want to go, not just to the Capital city.

 

So yea, in many regards Mooneys will be faster or at least not slower. This does change obviously when distances grow further.

[Mooneymite]

6 hours ago, 201er said:

My Mooney is faster than the airlines. 

Living with my plane, I certainly agree since I can start and end my trips from my house.  If I had to drive an appreciable distance to and from the airport, it would narrow the gap between airline and Mooney.

For trips beyond about 400 miles, the airlines (non-stops) begin to have shorter door to door travel times.  My Mooney has had almost a 100% dispatch reliability.

However, with fuel prices going up, travelling non-rev makes sen$e on long trips.

Cutting the airport parking, TSA and boarding process out of the travel experience is priceless.

Edited July 14, 2022 by Mooneymite

[geoffb]

On Tuesday I would have beaten United home from OKC, assuming I could have made it non-stop.  But, if I'd flown I would have used an airport at least and hour closer to my job site and departed from my home airport 35 minutes closer to the house.  My door-to-door would have been faster.

Now, without the weather divert on Tuesday or any cancellations, United will get me there faster.

Under 1,000 miles where the airline doesn't have a non-stop, the Mooney generally wins.  Under 500 miles, no contest.

[Hank]

It's easy to beat the door-to-door time. It's 2 hours to ATL, arrive 2 hours early, so 4 hours. 

For the Mooney, it's 20 minutes to the airport, 10 to preflight, load and pull out of the hangar. That's 3-1/2 hours saved, which is easily 500 miles flying distance +/- winds aloft, before I could even step into the giant aluminum tube.

[201er]

Mind you I’m talking about 1000 mile flights and having access to 3 major airports with direct flights almost everywhere! It’s really that bad over at the airlines!

[cwaters]

7 minutes ago, 201er said:

Mind you I’m talking about 1000 mile flights and having access to 3 major airports with direct flights almost everywhere! It’s really that bad over at the airlines!

I hear that, I recently went COS to DAY for work. unfortunately they make flying my mooney a pain with the extra paperwork and only reimburse me for the gov contracted rate of the airline not even the actual rate they will pay the airline. 

1000nm and the J would do it in ~7 hr while the door to door was ~10hr as I had to fly out of DEN not COS and still had a layover in Chicago. the trip back was worse as the flight was canx the night before causing me to extend the rental car and hotel reservations. next trip I might just eat the extra cost of taking the J and not deal with the airlines at all. 

[Mooney Dog]

5 hours ago, 201er said:

I've been told to slow down for traffic more times than to keep the speed up!

I guess thats true. El Paso approach did have me slow down for the UPS planes coming in that one time. 

[0TreeLemur]

This week I flew our C to a meeting in the D.C. area.  The meeting started at noon Monday, and ended at noon on Wednesday.  A co-worker went with me.  Because we don't live near a major airport, had we flown commercial we would have had to leave Sunday, stay at a hotel Sunday night, and stay at a hotel Wednesday night to return Thursday a.m.

Instead we left Monday morning, and returned Wednesday evening.  Yes, and I only get reimbursed for the cost of the government contracted air-fare, but that more than pays for the fuel.

[whiskytango]

I recently made the mistake of taking the aluminum Tylenol from SAV (Savannah) to LaGuardia for a short meeting in NYC. Since there is only 1 nonstop flight, I had to leave the house in the middle of the night to get to the airport, and I didn’t get home until around midnight.

LGA is so torn up that it takes a 1/2 mile walk, plus 2 shuttle buses to get from your arrival gate to the rental car facility.  Of course the return flight was delayed, for no apparent reason (weather in NYC and south was CAVU). It was a miserable experience.

I could have flown my M20K from SAV to FRG in about 4 1/2 hours, picked up a rental car at the FBO, attended the meeting and arrived at home in about 3/4 the total time of the airline trip, and with much less hassle.  I have learned my lesson.

[Amelia]

I fly the route from the inner banks of NC to the outskirts of STL several times a year. Going west EDE to ALN is a four-hour trip. I may add a half hour to the trip for passenger comfort and cheaper gas.Then  I’m having lunch with my son and his sons. A couple of years ago, I had to attend a meeting in STL, lwhich required an airline trip. From my door to ORF to ORD to STL and hotel took a grueling 20 hours. The return trip was less, only 9 door-to-door no-delay flight, which is typical. The drive from my house to ORF accounts for three of those hours. Airline is a little cheaper, generally, especially going from a hub to a hub, or clear across the country, but my M20S, hangared ten minutes from home, can easily beat the airlines to any destination east of the Mississippi, and it’s a lot more comfortable!  And fun. Compared to airline cattle class, Mooney seats are downright luxurious! Luggage is never lost, and TSA doesn’t know we exist. I hope I can keep this lovely hobby for a few more years. 

[dominikos]

16 hours ago, Hank said:

It's easy to beat the door-to-door time. It's 2 hours to ATL, arrive 2 hours early, so 4 hours. 

For the Mooney, it's 20 minutes to the airport, 10 to preflight, load and pull out of the hangar. That's 3-1/2 hours saved, which is easily 500 miles flying distance +/- winds aloft, before I could even step into the giant aluminum tube.

I might be too new to this but I spent almost an hour weighting the luggage and figuring out the optimal way to organize cargo + 2 passengers on a fully loaded plane. Any hints on how to make that go faster? since I have a regular bathroom scale and excel spreadsheet, it takes a while. 

[cbarry]

15 minutes ago, dominikos said:

I might be too new to this but I spent almost an hour weighting the luggage and figuring out the optimal way to organize cargo + 2 passengers on a fully loaded plane. Any hints on how to make that go faster? since I have a regular bathroom scale and excel spreadsheet, it takes a while. 

Take your time planning, after all you’ll make it up in flight—you’re flying a Mooney!  One thing that comes to mind that save me time is doing a part of the planning/preflight the night before the day of the trip.  This doesn’t save total time, just some time the day of the trip.  Also, using the weight and balance calculator in an app such as ForeFlight, IMO, is very helpful and saves some time as well.  

[dominikos]

3 minutes ago, cbarry said:

Take your time planning, after all you’ll make it up in flight—you’re flying a Mooney!  One thing that comes to mind that save me time is doing a part of the planning/preflight the night before the day of the trip.  This doesn’t save total time, just some time the day of the trip.  Also, using the weight and balance calculator in an app such as ForeFlight, IMO, is very helpful and saves some time as well.  

I did use FF, I wish their app allowed to have multiple items per location. It’s just the weighting of luggage and optimizing weight distribution takes longer time.

[201er]

34 minutes ago, dominikos said:

Any hints on how to make that go faster? since I have a regular bathroom scale and excel spreadsheet, it takes a while. 

Don’t take so much $hit and then you don’t have to worry about calculating it so thoroughly.

I made some calculations for ranges of passenger and baggage weights that cover most configurations. Unless I’m in an unusual weight situation, I know I’ll be good. I only get particular if I’m close to the edge or there’s a chance it will be over the edge and things need to be factored closely. But, if you don’t take too much stuff and easily know you’ll be within gross and within balance, ballparking everything can quickly show you that you are within range and have margin to spare.

[dominikos]

9 minutes ago, 201er said:

Don’t take so much $hit and then you don’t have to worry about calculating it so thoroughly.

I made some calculations for ranges of passenger and baggage weights that cover most configurations. Unless I’m in an unusual weight situation, I know I’ll be good. I only get particular if I’m close to the edge or there’s a chance it will be over the edge and things need to be factored closely. But, if you don’t take too much stuff and easily know you’ll be within gross and within balance, ballparking everything can quickly show you that you are within range and have margin to spare.

This was one of those edge cases. Two weeks in Bahamas, scuba diving gear, 3 people and dilemma whether I should take 40g or 42g at the next stop

Most of my flights, I’m a few hundred lbs under with full tanks…

[David Lloyd]

1 hour ago, Amelia said:

I fly the route from the inner banks of NC to the outskirts of STL several times a year. Going west EDE to ALN is a four-hour trip. I may add a half hour to the trip for passenger comfort and cheaper gas.Then  I’m having lunch with my son and his sons. A couple of years ago, I had to attend a meeting in STL, lwhich required an airline trip. From my door to ORF to ORD to STL and hotel took a grueling 20 hours. The return trip was less, only 9 door-to-door no-delay flight, which is typical. The drive from my house to ORF accounts for three of those hours. Airline is a little cheaper, generally, especially going from a hub to a hub, or clear across the country, but my M20S, hangared ten minutes from home, can easily beat the airlines to any destination east of the Mississippi, and it’s a lot more comfortable!  And fun. Compared to airline cattle class, Mooney seats are downright luxurious! Luggage is never lost, and TSA doesn’t know we exist. I hope I can keep this lovely hobby for a few more years. 

I actually lost my own luggage a couple times.  Made a pit stop, a charter loaded all the luggage sitting on the floor of the FBO, including my stuff sitting on a chair and took it to Baltimore.  Another time a customer’s mechanic took their company pickup to Ft. Wayne with my bags while I was waiting for someone to drive me to the airport. Try hard enough, anything can happen.

[steingar]

I can get anywhere east of the Mississippi faster than an airliner except perhaps Orlando in my lowly C.  If I can fill couple seats cheaper too.  I am going to SO miss my Mooney.

[Brandt]

I can regularly beat the airlines headed from IN to DC. And the tower had to ask me to slow down for a Pilatus ahead of me recently. I asked tower to repeat it.  Yes, I heard them the first time….