Mooney instructors in Bend, Oregon area?

[funvee]

Does anyone know of a Mooney instructor in the area of Bend Oregon?

Thanks,

Shawn

[ElkoRandy20J]

How about Salem, OR? Denton Honbeck or Honback. Now has a B and flys helicopters for a biz. Let me know as somewhere around here, I have his info.

Randy

[carusoam]

Fortunate....

The word I use to describe people working and living in the Bend, Oregon area.

I had the opportunity to visit a company out that way last year. It is beautiful.

Best regards,

-a-

[KSMooniac]

I'm facebook friends with a Mooney owner in Bend... want me to ask him for a recommendation?

[markm20b]

I received my Mooney training in the Portland area (not that close to Bend) from Rom Magnus, He as also been working with me on my IFR. Let me know if you want his contact info.

Mark

[Helipilot]

I've got an instructor in Klamath Falls that gave me my complex endorsement in our M20C and has a fair amount of Mooney time if you're interested.....

-Travis

[funvee]

Sorry for the delayed reply, i just got back from my trip to oregon to pickup my mooney.

Here is what happened...

I did all the research I could before leaving to go over all the Mooney-isms that might cause me trouble because I got my complex rating on a Piper Arrow and not any flavour of mooney.

I got some great help from M016576 here on this forum to go over some of the stuff to watch for but he couldn't make it up to bend (due to my terrible timing of doing it in the middle of a week).

So I enlisted the services of an instructor in the Bend area who was to come out and right seat my first few flights to help me incase I needed a hand. Well.... He was a no show. When I found out that he couldn't come and his buddy CFI that he was going to send never even called me, I had to make a tough decision. All the talk about the differences in Mooneys to all other planes had me wanting to be cautious but at the same time, I had made all my plans based on a departure the following day back to Canada with it.

So I made the decision that I was going to fly it around the patch a few times by myself and see just how different or difficult it was compared to the Arrow I knew. I made all the mental notes about how the gear retraction and extension works best (thanks to an article by Don Maxwell) and how the hydraulic flaps work (thanks to the video called M20C Cockpit by AirUtopia) and how to grease the landings thanks to all the people that have posted there approach speed and configurations to this forum. Then I jumped in followed the checklist given to me by the hugely helpful Warren Kerzon and took it out for a ride.

And here is how it went.

Starting up: Easy as pie (Used the same process as I do on the Arrow and it was perfect).

Seating position: LOVE IT!!! Like being in a sports car.

Taxi bumpiness: Actually like it, keeps me slower than I sometimes go in the cushy riding planes.

Trim wheel: in exactly the perfect location... I never have to hunt for it, my hand naturally falls perfectly to it.

Hydraulic flaps: lever down, one pump and perfection. Why did they ever leave the hyd flaps? These are awesome.

Full power and rolling: No problem at all holding center line and this thing gets rolling in a big hurry.... waaaaay faster than the Arrow!

Rotation: tiny bit of back pressure, nose rise. Waited for it... and then the rest came up smooth as silk.

Gear: When up about 50 feet I reached for that scary Johnson bar... Hoped for the best and -button press, turn and push down, rotate hand to top, push bar down to lock and ensure it is engaged. OH my that was soooo easy!! I love it!

Climb out: Holy crap this thing climbed like a beast! I shot through 500ft agl before I thought it possible. It went so fast that I was at pattern height before I made my crosswind turn.

Downwind: Wow it flies nice. Kept my speed down to under 120mph and that allowed me tons of time to talk to traffic and do my dw checks.

Slowing down (Yikes I heard horror stories about trying to slow them down): Absolutely easy as pie, 1" mp down, wait 10 sec and holding vsi even, my speed came down. Repeat as necessary and that worked perfect.

Gear down: I lowered gear when threshold was off my wing and speed was 100mph... It was so logical how it works and how easy it was! I Love that gear! It should be the norm, not the old'n way of doing it!

Final: Flaps and mp as needed to get me 80mph and a vsi reading of -400 fpm....

Float/flare(all the stories about them floating had the fear of god in me): power off as threshold was for sure made, and down I went, got it down level and waited for it to bleed that last little bit and had it start settling down and had a nice light sink rate... Next thing I knew the mains were down and rolling and the nose was staying nicely up and off.

Porpoise: NOPE not here, this nose gear is great to keep off because the mains are so firm that I could easily tell if I was dropping the nose. Then wen the elevator was having less and less effect, the nose came down beautifully.

Perfect greaser on the first try.... MAN I LOVE THIS PLANE.

Flew around the patch and did solo slow speed work for an hour or so and the Love just grew deeper!

Next time you here someone say that a Mooney is not a good plane to fly, send them to me and I'll take them out back!

This is WAY better flying, landing and cruising than any of the Arrows, Warriors, Cherokees, 172's or 152s I have ever flown.

Thanks for all the help everyone!!

Now if I could just figure out how to turn on the panel lights... grrrrr. Can't find a switch for them and the poh doesn't show one that I could see.

Shawn

[fantom]

What's wrong with those Oregon CFI's??? Not that you really needed one.

Now the fun begins, in earnest. Great story about your flight. Now add some home base, registration #, and model ID to your signature.

Clear skies!

[OldGlassMan]

Does anyone know of a Mooney instructor in the area of Bend Oregon?

Thanks,

Shawn

If you find one, let me know by PM. I moved here in August, and got my BFR just before moving, just in case. I will need a CFI for my next one.

Opps, acutally, I AM a CFI, but not current. Maybe I should look into that!