Mooney Fan
Line Up and Wait
A long winded version. Sorry, but I learned about flying from that;
I used to rent a 1970 Mooney M20C (180/hp) and one of my favorite trips was from my home field SZP (Santa Paula CA) to Laughlin NV. This flight was during the dog days of summer and my brother was visiting us so I suggested we go over to IFP for the night. I took the plane over to Oxnard the night before as I lived under the downwind for RWY 25 so it was an easy place to muster. Also decided to take my son with us. Worthy of note, we were all 200 plus pounds in those days and it came to haunt us later in the trip
The next morning the typical low ceilings of Ventura county beach areas were in full force. The June gloom refused to abate well into late summer. Anyway, I finally got us out of OXR later in the morning punching up through breaks in the inversion layer. But as is typical, we were in CAVU within 5 miles on an easterly heading. I had yet to obtain my IFR rating so that delayed our departure.
After an afternoon of fun in Laughlin my son and I retired to our room at the Edgewater which was my favorite place to stay. How cool it was to see the Mooney on the ramp across the river knowing she was waiting for us the following morning for the flight home
And this is where things got 'puckery'
I told my brother to be at the plane NLT 0800 as I wanted us to depart before the furnace of the day fired off. I had the Mooney pre-flighted and topped off with fuel and was ready to go at 0800. 0900 passed and no brother. Then 1000 and 1100 came and went. Me and my son were sweating our you know what off hanging out under the wing, walking around, and chatting with other smarter pilots making earlier departures. The local FBO did provide us a cool down when we took the long walk to the lobby but we spent most of the time by the plane as I did not want to miss him. Finally at high noon, I see a taxi heading down the ramp towards us and you guessed it, out rolls my brother looking like something the cat drug in. Shirt all buttoned wrong and reeking of alcohol. What a sight. Said he got hooked up with some 'Cuban Immigrants'. I commence to ream him a new one as I shoe horn my offensive tackle son into the back seat then me and my bro.
We fire up and taxi out to Rwy 16. We were behind a Centurian who called tower and asked for an intersection take-off. That thing blasted out of there like a Saturn V. Then tower called, 'Mooney 42V would you like the intersection departure?' I gave a resounding NEGATIVE, full length. Rwy 16 is 8500' long and the taxi seemed like a drive on the 405 FWY.
We were cleared for departure. By now the local temperature was somewhere north of 100 degrees and the density altitude had to be off the charts but I didn't check. But if I recall right, the ATIS did note it but I just can't remember. I did take that into consideration though, so I figured 8500' was ample length for us to safely depart. I also decided to add 10 mph of airspeed and rotate at 80 mph vs 70 mph. Coming fwd now to 26/26 the plane felt like it was going nowhere. It seemed like forever for the airspeed indicator to come to life and when it did, it seemed to settle at ~65 mph. Airspeed was lagging while the runway billboards were passing by. I knew I was approaching the point of no return. I either needed to abort or fly..... I elected to fly....
I nursed her off the ground and held her in ground effect all the while the stall horn was beeping. Issue of note, there is rising terrain at the departure end of Rwy 16 and it was filling my windscreen. Holding her in ground effect was not producing speed or lift. I was starting to fear the worse when I told myself gear... GEAR! Fortunately, she had electric gear and I would of hated to have messed with a Johnson Bar system at this point. Raising the gear did put the stall horn to bed and she started increasing airspeed, but now I needed to clear the terrain...... and she wasn't going to do so... I didn't dare apply aileron in fear of a stall so I applied right rudder. She skidded to the right that promptly put us over the river. Even in August, the Colorado river is cold and the lift she provided allowed me to retract flaps, and climb out of the area all the while berating my drunk ass brother
Lessons learned? Recognize the chain of events that can lead to a crash. My poor decision making by flying at gross, in mid August desert heat, departing at high noon, and not canceling were/are to never be repeated. My other poor decision not to abort the take-off could have caused a bad ending as well.
Density altitude kills
The good? My constant training when flying paid off. I was confident in my slow flight skills that proved to, I believe, save the day. My only other good decision was to not accept the intersection departure.
Again, sorry for the long winded post. Even though this happened 20 years or so ago it seems like yesterday and hopefully, others can learn from my poor decisions made that hot August day
Regards,
MF
I used to rent a 1970 Mooney M20C (180/hp) and one of my favorite trips was from my home field SZP (Santa Paula CA) to Laughlin NV. This flight was during the dog days of summer and my brother was visiting us so I suggested we go over to IFP for the night. I took the plane over to Oxnard the night before as I lived under the downwind for RWY 25 so it was an easy place to muster. Also decided to take my son with us. Worthy of note, we were all 200 plus pounds in those days and it came to haunt us later in the trip
The next morning the typical low ceilings of Ventura county beach areas were in full force. The June gloom refused to abate well into late summer. Anyway, I finally got us out of OXR later in the morning punching up through breaks in the inversion layer. But as is typical, we were in CAVU within 5 miles on an easterly heading. I had yet to obtain my IFR rating so that delayed our departure.
After an afternoon of fun in Laughlin my son and I retired to our room at the Edgewater which was my favorite place to stay. How cool it was to see the Mooney on the ramp across the river knowing she was waiting for us the following morning for the flight home
And this is where things got 'puckery'
I told my brother to be at the plane NLT 0800 as I wanted us to depart before the furnace of the day fired off. I had the Mooney pre-flighted and topped off with fuel and was ready to go at 0800. 0900 passed and no brother. Then 1000 and 1100 came and went. Me and my son were sweating our you know what off hanging out under the wing, walking around, and chatting with other smarter pilots making earlier departures. The local FBO did provide us a cool down when we took the long walk to the lobby but we spent most of the time by the plane as I did not want to miss him. Finally at high noon, I see a taxi heading down the ramp towards us and you guessed it, out rolls my brother looking like something the cat drug in. Shirt all buttoned wrong and reeking of alcohol. What a sight. Said he got hooked up with some 'Cuban Immigrants'. I commence to ream him a new one as I shoe horn my offensive tackle son into the back seat then me and my bro.
We fire up and taxi out to Rwy 16. We were behind a Centurian who called tower and asked for an intersection take-off. That thing blasted out of there like a Saturn V. Then tower called, 'Mooney 42V would you like the intersection departure?' I gave a resounding NEGATIVE, full length. Rwy 16 is 8500' long and the taxi seemed like a drive on the 405 FWY.
We were cleared for departure. By now the local temperature was somewhere north of 100 degrees and the density altitude had to be off the charts but I didn't check. But if I recall right, the ATIS did note it but I just can't remember. I did take that into consideration though, so I figured 8500' was ample length for us to safely depart. I also decided to add 10 mph of airspeed and rotate at 80 mph vs 70 mph. Coming fwd now to 26/26 the plane felt like it was going nowhere. It seemed like forever for the airspeed indicator to come to life and when it did, it seemed to settle at ~65 mph. Airspeed was lagging while the runway billboards were passing by. I knew I was approaching the point of no return. I either needed to abort or fly..... I elected to fly....
I nursed her off the ground and held her in ground effect all the while the stall horn was beeping. Issue of note, there is rising terrain at the departure end of Rwy 16 and it was filling my windscreen. Holding her in ground effect was not producing speed or lift. I was starting to fear the worse when I told myself gear... GEAR! Fortunately, she had electric gear and I would of hated to have messed with a Johnson Bar system at this point. Raising the gear did put the stall horn to bed and she started increasing airspeed, but now I needed to clear the terrain...... and she wasn't going to do so... I didn't dare apply aileron in fear of a stall so I applied right rudder. She skidded to the right that promptly put us over the river. Even in August, the Colorado river is cold and the lift she provided allowed me to retract flaps, and climb out of the area all the while berating my drunk ass brother
Lessons learned? Recognize the chain of events that can lead to a crash. My poor decision making by flying at gross, in mid August desert heat, departing at high noon, and not canceling were/are to never be repeated. My other poor decision not to abort the take-off could have caused a bad ending as well.
Density altitude kills
The good? My constant training when flying paid off. I was confident in my slow flight skills that proved to, I believe, save the day. My only other good decision was to not accept the intersection departure.
Again, sorry for the long winded post. Even though this happened 20 years or so ago it seems like yesterday and hopefully, others can learn from my poor decisions made that hot August day
Regards,
MF