Taking the commecial ASEL in a Mooney?

[FloridaMan]

I'd like to knock out my commercial rating and, in reading through the PTS, should I be concerned with taking the test in a Mooney? Specifically I'm concerned with performing the 45 degree accelerated stalls in a Mooney. The PTS dictates that "stall awareness/buffeting" is the point to recover from and not a fully developed stall. I know that when I stalled my "F" at 9000 ft it stalled cleanly, sharply and I was able to recover without losing more than about 50ft of altitude, but I've also seen this video (start at 3:18):

I've also found myself looking directly at the ground when stalling a Super Decathlon with the same level of effort required to get a clean break in a C172.

Any tricks that'll make staying between the lines a little easier for the test standards?

[Hank]

At the end of my Instrument checkride, the DPE said I should pursue a Commercial ticket, adding "you have the perfect plane for it." While we didn't stall, 45° steep spirals showed 1500-2000 fpm descents at cruise airspeed. Very stable and smooth.

If she stalls cleanly, and you can handle accelerated stalls, you shouldn't have problems with the maneuvers.

[rob]

I did mine in my M20C. The airframe was a non issue.

[N9453V]

I did my Commercial in my M-20G, it likely made the power-off 180's and short field landings more challenging than in a 172RG or PA28R, but otherwise it was a non-issue and I think my familiarity with the plane allowed me to focus more on learning the maneuvers.

That being said, the Accelerated Stall was only introduced in the revision of the PTS that took effect in June, so I never had to do them. My only concern would be to ensure that the airplane is not cross-controlled when entering the stall since that could cause it to enter a spin and do the stalls no lower than 5000ft AGL. Don Kaye has a helpful article on this: http://www.donkaye.c...n_a_Mooney.html

-Andrew

[John Pursell]

I did mine in a M20G also.

John

[M016576]

It's a certificated airframe. Nothing "tricky" to worry about. Sometimes we split hairs here on this board, because, well, mooney's are superior to all the other brands out there in class ( ;-) ). The fact of the matter is, though, that they all perform within the spec / standard. If one doesnt pass their check ride, it's not the plane they are flying that "caused" the failure... They did it all on their own....

[laytonl]

Did mine in a J. No issues. Lee

[jetdriven]

After you do your commercial in a Mooney and you ever have the chance to fly a C172rg or a piper arrow (the usual trainers for the license) you are going to notice three things.

1. They are a lot easier to fly, IE you can dive for the runway, misplan your descent and pull power to fix it, or land on all 3 wheels no problem.

2. They will feel as if they are built more sloppy and that cable and pulley control system has a big delay between wheel movement and result.

3. For ten gallons per hour they sure are slow.

[Parker_Woodruff]

I took my CFI in the M20J and it was by far the easiest to fly thru all phases of flight. That's what the commercial and CFI are all about...precise flying thru all phases of flight.