Bryan --
Hop in. Fasten your seat belt (don't forget the shoulder strap). You
get to fly right seat in this Google Answer!
Mooney Aircraft, of Kerrville, TX, is the twice-bankrupted producer of
high-performance, single-engine metal aircraft. For years it had a
history of innovation, but in the last 10 years new manufacturers of
composite aircraft, such as Cirrus Designs, have emerged and taken the
lead in sales.
All of the current Mooneys are retractable-gear aircraft -- which is
one reason that they're faster than most planes.
You would probably have liked Al Mooney, the aircraft designer who
began his career in the 1920s. Why? Here's what his brother and
business partner, Art, had to say about his design of what became
today's modern Mooney:
"Ah, he never sat down at no table with a clean sheet of paper to do
that. What he sat down with was a fifth of Johnny Walker Red."
A biography of Al Mooney is here:
Mooney Aircraft Owners Events
"The Al Mooney Story: They All Fly Through the Same Air" (Jan. 27, 2004)
http://www.mooneyevents.com/review.htm
The first design of Mooney Aircraft when it was organized after World
War II was the Mooney Mite, a single-seat aircraft. It was an
excellent airplane, but so inexpensive that some dealers actually
promoted it in supermarkets:
Mooney Mite Site
"Mooney Mite History" (Aug. 1, 2001)
http://www.mooneymite.com/history.htm
Now it might not occur to a non-pilot at first, but a single-seat
airplane is a bit of a problem when it comes to training a new pilot.
But the people who own a Mite will tell you that it's about as close
to owning a fighter plane as one's likely to get. A guy up in British
Columbia, Dave Rutherford -- who doesn't even own a Mite -- does an
excellent job of tracking the history of every single one of those
aircraft:
Mooney Mite Site
http://www.mooneymite.com/index.shtml
After the Mite came the M-20, a four-seat retractable gear aircraft.
It's essential design is unchanged from introduction in 1955 -- though
manufacturing was initially done with a wood airframe and switched in
1961 to metal. The FAA type-certificate for the M-20 is still the
same one issued in 1954 -- though the company has gone from A (wood)
to B (metal) and all of the way up to S models:
Mooney Aircraft Owner Events
"Mooney Model Chronology"
http://www.mooneyevents.com/chrono.htm
Because of the design efficiency of a Mooney, several people have made
round-the-world trips in them. They're much more capable of flying
over oceans than most aircraft. Reed Prior's web page does a stunning
job of telling the tale of flying around the world. The hassles are
MUCH more bureaucratic than they are technical, as you'll see if you
read his splendid account linked below. I've heard Reed talk about
the trip -- and he discretely leaves out the DEA's tracking him as he
flew up the East Coast of the U.S. -- then descending on the plane as
he landed. And that was pre-September 11:
"Reed Prior Flies Around the World" (1998)
http://www.priortrip.com/
Another world-class adventurer is Flemming Pedersen who seems to have
taken his Mooney everywhere. Flemming is a Dane who works for CERN in
Geneva:
Flemming Pedersen Home Page
http://honeymooney.com/
Here's another great story about Margrit Waltz, a well-known ferry
pilot. One story she tells about flying with her newborn illustrates
a funny difference between German and American culture:
"Flying the Atlantic" (Oct. 10, 1997)
http://www.aviating.com/mooney/past/progr4.htm
Closer to home, here's a group of English pilots who fly a Mooney of
their own. If you ring them up, they might be willing to take you for
an air tour. Tell the chairman or ex-chairman that you know me:
Zitair Flying Club
http://www.avnet.co.uk/zitair/
We in the northwest don't get to do all that fancy cross-ocean flying
but if you want to take a flight in Washington, try this one around
the Olympic Mountains:
Mooney Aircraft Owner Events
"Olympic Peninsula Tour"
http://www.aviating.com/mooney/landmarks/TOURHOME.HTML
I can't leave you without a comprehensive set of links for more
information on Mooneys. You already have links above to a bunch of
good ones but try these too:
Mooney Caravan
http://www.mooneycaravan.com/
Mooney Aircraft Pilots Association
http://www.mooneypilots.com/
Mooney Junction -- in particular run all of the video links
http://www.aviating.com/mooney/index.html
Now, of course, when you have hats, tee shirts, sweatshirts and
jackets with "Mooney" on them, people inevitable take it that you're a
follower of the Korean reverend, something that we've been known to
have some fun with:
http://www.jsonline.com/lifestyle/image/apr01/moonbig040501.jpg
Best regards,
Omnivorous-GA
Vita nimis brevis est tarde volo |
