Short bodied Mooneys are by far the most under-rated aircraft out there...

Great video my friend! Excellent commentary while making your landings! As someone who only knows some of the basics about planes and flying, it was super interesting to hear exactly what you were doing to achieve your short landings.

You've got me beat. I fly an F model, so I'm a bit heavier, but about 800 is the shortest I get. I can hit my 1400' turnoff with very light braking though. Looks like I need to go out and practice more!

Nice landings !!! I agree that Mooney´s also go on grass and short fields. I've landed mine on a newly harvested wheat field ;)

Good video and good flying by a good Mooney pilot! Airspeed, airspeed, airspeed!

Good stuff. I can hardly wait to get my 68 M20C back in the air. Thanks for the good Camera work.

Great video - I think the biggest thing is hitting your mark as you did. No sense worrying about how quick it stops until you can stop floating half a mile down the runway.

Very nice vid! Thanks for sharing.

Nice video. I have a 1961 Mooney and I can easily make the first turnoff at our 2,465ft runway. The short body Mooney is a pretty great plane. Especially when light.

I wouldn't take my Mooney to most unimproved strips. It depends on the depth of the gopher holes. Most of the fields I've taken the Aeronca I'd never consider taking a Mooney into just because of the depth of the gopher holes. But I have landed on the beach in Mexico.

Nice Work! I like your Mooney!

I used to fly a 1964 M20C, similar to yours. I put 2700 hours on it. Sold it 20 years ago and have not flown since. I often landed on grass, including a golf course and a buffalo pasture in South Dakota. (Emergency landing to avoid a storm). I found I could control the touchdown best by approaching with about 10" of power. This meant a nose high approach (lots of drag). When I cut the throttle, the plane touched down immediately. No floating. The manual gear is very fast, so in an engine out dead stick, you can delay the gear until the field is made. Plane comes down very quickly once the gear goes down. The wing is very close to the ground, so lots of ground effect to get the plane off and to cushion a landing.

Hi Travis - greetings from 🇿🇦, as a Mooney 1969 M20G owner = long fuse version of your M20C with electric LG - I love your real, practical and proven insights into Mooney flight performance - especially on the slow speed ops side 👍. Lots of comments by the “What I’ve heard crowd”, as opposed to our “What I’ve personally experienced” commentators. Fly the POH numbers to the real weight - and gain proficiency until you and your bird are “one” and build your mastery of control, just like you have done ✅. You must have had a really switched on instructor somewhere in your training or conversion to type = Good Man I fly out if a 850m x 11m asphalt strip with some slope - always has a x-wind - look up FAKR, South Africa Keep up the great content 👍

A Pittsburgh area Amateur radio club held their annual Hamfest at the Farm Show fairgrounds for 25 years. I never flew in but I did go to an Airshow there once too.

Great video! The plane is looking good too. It’s probably tedious getting the paint off but I think it’s definitely worth it. In the video I think it looks pretty badass where it sits!

Love the back country clips, I’d like to do that in my Mooney someday.

YOU MY HERO!!!

I had a lot of time in my M20E. If the strip is smooth, it would do 800’ at sealevel kept light. All about airspeed.

Warning grass strips & rough fields will eventually loosen the sealant in the fuel tanks causing expensive fuel tank resealing bills. Especially when the tank sealer is old. Those hockey pucks in the Mooney landing gear are poor shock absorbers causing the wing to flex especially with hard landings.

Good stuff

You can use the Google Earth program to measure specific lines. They also have different imagery dates. Awesome video!

If you make it back to Idaho let me know. My J and I live in Oregon. It would be a blast to meet up. Thanks for the video and the work you out I.

I hear ya about grass strips but I fly out of 1C8 in Rockford, IL

36 at Butler Farm Show is a tad uphill as well.

My dad used to do the same in his 180 Comanche (uprated to 200) usually on/off grass. He would drag it in using power just off stall (same wing I guess)

Awesome man! Welcome back! I was gonna say, the plane is looking better. You should start Patreon or something - I wouldn't mind chipping in a few bucks for your plane and gas.

Cool. Good video. The plane is looking much better with your paint stripping progress. Have you done any before and after weights -- wonder how much all that paint weighed. We just weighed my '62 (for the first time in at least 38 years) and it was about 70lbs heavier than the POH weight and balance.

Yes, love my m20a. Imagine lighter than an e or b,c. 100ft a min better climb. Take the seats out And you wouldn'believe. And that b's about a Mooney floating down the runway into the next county.. Well morron try closing the throttle. I never use flaps but yes to fwd slips. Grass strips got a love 'em. I'm in Texas would love to go flying n8335e. Trick to landing is to roll the trim All the way aft on base to final . forces speed control and eases the flair to like flying a stearman. Few will if/ever get it. Glad to see you do, brother. Best of all is that manual gear. Nothing better to get the adrenal flowing with the 100LL whipping that prop. I see you fly a McCauley. If it had been 3 blade I wdnt a watched. Mooney on. Sorry, but I don't do NY. Do a video , maybe it needs to done in Texas how getting down in Mooney from 8k takes time. How recovering all of the climb energy is possible. That wing is "..a Mooney pilot's key to the aerial Kingdom ..." Per my POH.

Last video I watched said 100 knots on downwind, 80 on the turns to final, and 71 knots on a stabilized approach. Don't force it on or it will porpoise and strike prop on second bounce. Sound right?

Great video! I’ll see if I can match your numbers in NM. 😂

Hi I have a 66C you can shorten the landing if you put Micro Aerodynamics VG’s on your aircraft the best thing is the aerloens are effective all the way to the stall.

I'm lucky to get off the ground in 800' in my 62' C at negative density altitudes, although I'm never light. Toying with the idea of adding vg's but I need to stop the upgrades! The slippery comments do get old.... it's not hard to slow down when you pull up!

What speeds are you using short final? I can’t hear much over the music overlay. Interesting flap technique on the short field takeoff. Was that deliberate to get speed up faster? Dropping them right before liftoff?

The older, shorter mooneys are lighter... and IIRC the prop clearance is less on the J-Models and onward. You can land a mooney short (we operate it out of a 1400ft field). One thing to consider is: Heavy breaking on uneven surfaces will kill your tires on a mooney quite fast.

heard you mention you transitioned from a 172 to a Mooney. Just curious how it went and what the pros and cons of the two planes. I fly a 172M and am thinking about upgrading to possibly a Mooney.

awesome )))

Where are you based? I’m in the process of purchasing a m20k 231 and out of Granville, NY.

isn't that a bit rough on the fuel seams landing on unimproved strips

Taylorcraft's also have a bad rep among some, for "floating, being hard to land", same deal as the Mooney, you just have to slow them down!

I don’t bother with the flaps (lift is long gone) but elevator full back provides a lot of aerodynamic braking. Nice job!

Where are you based in W PA? I am at FWQ

Do you ever use flaps on short/soft field takeoff?

Great flying! Question - it looks like you extend the gear quite late. Is there a specific reason for that?

I've landed my F model on the beach in Mexico.

I bought my Mooney from an owner who operated off a turf runway. I ended up having to do a COMPLETE reseal at major cost / sacrifice! The donuts are harsh on the tanks. Even if the prop clearance is 9" are you willing to risk hitting that divot and then needing to apply power and sucking up rocks? Mooney's weren't designed with the general intent of grass/turf/raw runways

Did you buy this from Jerry M?? I flew this plane with him when he lived up in Ohio!

Remember that day, I had about 10 hours of fly time, and I was flying the school plane, that rocket 152, and landed on this dirt road behind my house, I live on Sinaloa México,and wanted to take my girlfriend and a niece for a ride. I had landed and taken off from there, to practice short landings, and never had a problem Well, picked up my passengers, and started running down the road,at the end, there's this little creek, and this thing wouldn't go any faster than 45, I was thinking it would act like when I was by myself, but with the two extra people, it wouldn't move I couldn't stop, and since I apply the flaps until just before going up, I applied full flaps, it jumped into the air, made it across the creek, and started going down, on the other side, but it never touched the ground, but there were power lines on the other side, and I had to go under them Some how, this thing went up at around 45 mph, so I kept practicing it, and made it every time. But that time, it sure scared the hell out of me, and almost gut those girls killed. Never told them a thing, though, they said it had been an awesome ride. Since I am a dear devil, they thought it was something just to scare them. I was always doing crazy stuff, lucky never killed myself Now, I do crop spraying, which I love, and got pretty good at landing in short strips, but I do dive landing, which was also pretty scary at first, but now I do it with my eyes closed.

Why the loud music driwning-out your voice?

if you get out to Arizona hit me up and let's fly

Nicely done! Even a fully loaded 201 , with smooth air , 65kts on short final - no float. If runway is a bit soft , rough or undulating , keep some back yoke in to minimize load on short coupled nosewheel . If badly unbalanced (slip/skid) at stall , the mooney will spin , l've heard 1500ft for recovery! Never tried it. However , keep habit of balanced , skid ball centred flight, mooneys are a pussy cat to stall

How much would it be with 4 occupants and full fuel ?

0:30 Because that plane is in pieces i have no doubts that it can land very short. Too short, in fact. But takeoff... well...

I actually have twice as much prop clearance on M20E than my hangar mate has on his 182. The biggest problem I see with rough runways is what they're going to do to my wet tanks. I'm not using bladders. Of course it's only a question of when, not if the next re-seal is going to happen. But I'm hoping to push it off to the next owner :-)

At 5:15 you say you're departing three-two when you're actually departing three-six.

He said "departing runway 32"?! Uhhh, nope.

You ought to stop by KPJC.

The fatal Mooney crash took place at the airport I fly out of. The pilot hadn't flown at all in 8 months and didn't fly a Mooney in over 10 months.

Nice job, check out my short field "Best short field landing ever at Block Island in my Mooney M20" fun stuff...