Mooney 201 - Sept 16/2021 - North Bay Ontario

[Colonel]

Susan Begg, 73, of Ottawa, and Asti Livingston, 43, of Niagara on the Lake, Ontario, were killed in the crash of Begg’s Mooney 201.

the Mooney was reported missing around 3 p.m. local time Thursday (Sept. 16) and was found crashed about one-third of a mile from the airport.

A Mooney is not a "fire-breathing dragon". I know this to be so.

Why are they crashing so often? Is it merely a matter of prevalence in the fleet?

This Mooney crashed at my airport recently:

the takeoff from runway 7 was normal; about 200 ft above ground level (agl), the engine lost total power. The pilot attempted to make an off airport landing about 1 mile northeast of the airport on the Interstate 580 overpass. During the landing rollout, the propeller struck the trunk of a car

Why did that Lycoming "fail"?

What happened to the 201 at South River / Sundridge? I have flown in and out
of that airport many times, and I'm a below average pilot (50% chance of that)
and I had no problem at all, ever.

[Scudrunner]

Well they apparently crash in pairs, the one in Ontario and the non fatal one in Michigan I heard on 121.5

Maybe that’s why old 172 are $200k USD they never crash .

[anofly]

cant seem to find much on this one. weather was pretty darn nice last half of last week

[Colonel]

Wonder what the density altitude was?

Mooneys that I have own and instructed on, were not good short
field performers. Ideally they were used from one 3,000+ foot
certified runway to another 3,000+ foot certified runway.

[Nark]

How the fook does a 8,000lbs BE18 need 2000’, but a 2,000lbs Mooney need 3,000’?

I get it, wing and power/thrust…


Amazes me still.

[Colonel]

It's not just the airplane.

[Nark]

I think it has very little to do with the airplane….

[Colonel]

Well, a Mooney is a pretty terrible non-paved-runway airplane.

It has 3 hockey pucks for suspension. It is heavy. In stock form,
it is underpowered (see Rocket conversions) which does not help
the takeoff distance on a hot day, or obstacle clearance. Pilots
love to approach and land them much too fast - because they are
slippery - which doesn't help the rollout distance, as they zip along
on a cushion of air from that low wing.

Don't get me wrong, I like Mooneys. They are certified, built like
tanks (they weigh as much as one) and are very slippery, which
is how you make an airplane go fast.

People don't understand - power makes you climb. It does not
really have a good effect on your cruise, because the additional
power is pushing an exponential drag curve, and must be produced
by significant extra weight of fuel. That extra weight requires extra
lift which requires extra thrust which requires even more fuel which
is even more weight. You can see where that loop goes.

As a rule of thumb, doubling your power (and fuel burn) increases
your cruise speed by 30%, which is pretty crappy.

Roy LoPresti understood this, even if I, as a below-average pilot
do not.

[Squaretail]

Well, a Mooney is a pretty terrible non-paved-runway airplane.

They're not that bad though. I knew one guy who flew his (still flies?) almost exclusively off of grass. He had his own 3000' beautiful patch of greenery. He also had a cub I think he flew off of that strip in winter he kept on skis. So pilot skill has more to do with it than the airplane. Good carpenters and tools and all that.

But the sentiment above isn't unusual. I know lots of guys who would boast that their Mooney has never touched grass. Not sure why that would be a point of pride, though they would also claim that 3000' wasn't sufficient for a fire breathing monster like the Mooney. So there is that.

There are few small airplanes that don't like grass. There's a couple with extra small wheels I can think of that seems to be the worst thing since they have pretty high ground pressure, but the Mooney's are reasonably sized for its weight.

Why Mooney's get crashed... well I know lots of people who think that if you stall a Mooney its instant death, like it has a self destruct feature of some kind. Its stall and slow flight characteristics are reasonably benign. Though you should see folks squirm if you demonstrate that.

Favorite part about Mooneys? The person powered gear retraction of the earlier ones. Least favorite part? The tube your feet are supposed to go in doesn't give a lot of movement room on longer flights.

[Colonel]

East Bloc stuff is amazing on grass. You wouldn't believe it.

I remember one day, we were on the taxiway with two L39, I'm #2. We
are waiting for some dumbfuck to read some book in a Cessna or Piper
or something, because they're really fucking complicated to operate.

We are burning 70 gph per (140 gph total) waiting for this dumbfuck
with his head down, and Bob in the lead L39 shoves his left arm forward
and taxis across the infield, around the dumbfuck in the Cessna/Piper.

Now this infield is ROUGH and soft from rain. You couldn't taxi across
it in a Cessna/Piper - you would get stuck and strike the prop for sure.

But the L39 has big tires, trailing link suspension and air intakes above
the wing, so FOD really isn't a problem.

I sit there, amazed. No fucking way I am going to taxi across the rough
and soft infield. I would rather use up all my gas, taxi back and put an other
$1000 of Jet-A into the L39, and let the dumbfuck read his book. Just another
tax. If you don't like high taxes, move to a non-socialist country.

But an unexpected benefit of having the lead L39 drive around the dumbfuck
at max power was to WAKE THE DUMBFUCK UP. He looked up, and after
a few more minutes, was able to finish reading his thick "HOW TO FLY" book
and begine taxiing in his extremely complicated stupid fucking Cessna. Or
Piper. You know, with the three controls (carb heat, throttle, mixture).

Anyways. I will never forget that sight. East Bloc stuff is really good on grass.

I remember at Geneseo, an ex-military pilot landed and taxiied in, with his
L39. On grass. The horror. The humanity. Main problem is that we needed
to put something under his tires, so he didn't sink hub-deep overnight.