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For the nearly 19 years I have been flying with my customers, several pilots have stood out and made an impression.

I will go back in to the archives of my mind and with time, I will cover others I have flown with.

What I will say however is that it is an unfortunate fact that more, way more than half of the pilots of experience well across the board have left me somewhat to very concerned about their abilities and decision making skills. I have flown with some that have logged over 3,000 hours that hardly knew the basics of stick and rudder. I have flown with some that had relatively low time that were excellent pilots curiously.

I often ask myself if I have acquired some kind of god complex that looks down at others flying, but I can honestly say that I take so seriously the safety of my Mooneyland people and their families in which I have met many, that I tend to look at them all as relatives and I care when they make mistakes or are otherwise lacking in some of their skills and capabilities. No god complex here. I can verify that by the fact that when I do fly with a pilot who shows me some talent in the cockpit, I am overjoyed at that fact.

Now some of you may rightfully ask; "just who the hell are you zephro that you can critique others' flying abilities? And that is a legitimate question, one that I have had to put in much soul searching in the past to even think that I am qualified for such an opinion. Those of you reading this article no doubt have your God-given talents in life. We all do, and some of us have a special knack for some things over others. Recognizing that fact is not vanity unless we credit ourselves for that talent. WAY back in 1971 I realized that there was no reason I couldn't learn how to fly, so it was time to stop daydreaming about it and to stop looking up at planes and wishing, but to join the public Air Force and drive some of those bad-boy flying machines myself!

Paramount Pictures had transferred me to the Kansas City branch to help run that office back then. I was single, lonely, and had nothing to do in KC but watch the grass grow and Bowling for Dollars on TV. Not the greatest life for a young virile "Hot Shot" from LA, so I decided to do something that ended up changing my life as well as my life's aspirations. I got up the nerve by taking an ad from my Flying Magazine that read: FLY THE CESSNA YOURSELF on a one time $5.00 introductory flight at your local airport! Five bucks?! Can't go wrong with that (if I survive)...gulp!

I was so damned scared of heights that butterflies for two days were floating within my system, but determined to let it happen to spite my boss's, friends, and relatives warning that those "little planes" kill my then narrow ass warnings. ;o)

Saturday morning arrived along with a beautiful Kansas City day (no tornado's in sight) and off I went to OJC; Johnson County Airport. There I met a young but serious flight instructor by the name of Charles Calkins. (Charlie went on eventually to fly for Frontier Airlines before I lost track of him).

Below; I have scanned my log books. As you can see, the original log book given free by Cessna with the $5.00 intro flight, shows my first logged page which is a bit hard to read due to scanner faults, but legible. Charlie goofed up by entering the Piper Cherokee first, but in actuality, the Cessna 150 entry should have been entered first. (my first indication of flight related errors that exist in us all). To further the confusion, the dates were transposed as well. I flew in that damned Cessna 150 box kite first and once I had compared that main gear wheel sticking out in my full downward view of the ground which gave me a reality check comparison of how high off mother earth I actually was, scared the crap out of me! I asked Charlie what else he had when he showed me N3908K, a '60's bare-bones equipped Piper Cherokee 140. In flight the next day I once again looked straight down and saw only the aluminum wing supporting me and we were in business!

Note that Charlie soloed me in 6.4 hours of flight! ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR DAMNED MIND CHARLIE?!! I'M NOT FLYING BY MYSELF YET....I'M NOT READY!! ARE YOU NUTS?!!!!! Charlie told me that I was ready to solo 2 hours earlier because I took to flying like a duck to water unlike anyone he had ever seen and I was simply ready; more than ready! Well he knew that, but did that chunk of flying aluminum and me know that I was ready???? Charlie laughed and told me to give him 3 takeoffs and landings to a complete stop and then taxi back along with the warning of not to be surprised when the plane leaves the ground quicker and climbs better without him in the plane. Believe it or not, my main concern was not so much the flying as it was trying to understand the controller who spoke quickly and seemingly in short hand. WHAT IF I MESS UP??!!! Charlie got out of the plane and then told me to lock the door and request taxi to the active. ACTIVE WHAT?! RUNWAY; ZEPHRO! Well, I'm not sure if anyone saw the rudders move like never before as I taxied out, but my feet were so shaking on those pedals I'm sure the rudder was moving violently to and fro. My seatbelt was so tight I could hardly breathe!

Reading that checklist over and over finally brought over the speaker that dreaded question: 78 kilo, what are your intentions? My thoughts: (uh, to go home back to bed?) My answer: Ready for Takeoff...... I was then cleared to go!

Throttle full forward, mixture rich (check oil pressure, check oil pressure) dammit, it was green! So off I went. I think I rotated at about 85 mph just to be safe; (so I cheated) and as I lifted off, I felt the rumble of the way too fast wheels bitching at me, and then it happened! The door latch on top of the door wasn't latched and I could see out and hear the wind noise! I knew for a certainty a crash was imminent. Well, not only did I nurse the plane around the pattern, but I nailed my speeds and altitude, and for some strange reason, I heard and understood EVERYTHING that controller had to say for the very first time. That landing was not bad either! With the door properly latched this time, I did two more with a new sense of confidence on the other two circuits around the pattern. Who's the bad-ass now? I was smiling and patting myself on the back all at once.

This is the on end view of my 4 filled up log books today which does not include the log entries I have on computer and disk since the year 2000, so the last seven years of flying are not in these books, and there's been a bunch since then, about another 1,000 hours or more I'd say. I just have to check. I'm a bit lax in that department, and many flights previous to 2000 and since did not make it in to my logs, so the 5,000 logged Mooney hours alone hardly reflect that which is accurate. Within the above pages are flights in most other brands of planes in addition to the Mooney hours, at about 490 TTPIC, my instrument rating followed later by my Multi, and Multi Instrument. But, it is within the page covers of my flight book from the beginning to current, some of the most adventuring and interesting flights the memory of which will accompany me to my grave and hopefully beyond. My only regret is that I cannot transfer those memories and experience to my children. They have to do that duplication part on their own I'm afraid. For instance? Have you ever seen, let alone flown through a perfect circle rainbow that appeared to be a bubble? Have you ever seen your image against the tops of a cumulous cloud that reflected like a mirror? Have you ever been so loaded with ice that you were ready to kiss the blacktop on arrival at your destination? What about getting taken hold of by a thunderstorm that was so violent that it stretched the rivets along the spar and on the top of the fuselage that they had to be re-struck? What about seeing the welcome sight of the runway numbers after six complete engine failures in flight? Reading the "Ray Ban" insignia of sun glasses as another plane passed so close you thought you were dead? Hitting a tree with your outboard wing going around because of a deer? All that and more coupled with the thousands of hours of uneventful, satisfying, and wondrous aspects of flight! Hey, they ain't nothin' that can compare with the satisfaction of a life time of knowing you did a good job flying through thick and thin, adverse and piece of cake flights combined!

I could go on and on, but the impact of being part of an elite few privileged group of individuals known as "PILOTS", weighed heavily on my reflection of accomplishments I have made in my life. I cannot imagine anything I could ever do that was anywhere near as rewarding!

Now, back to reality now that my humble credentials have been revealed; YOUR FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR!!!!! Yep, the guy you paid hour after hour to teach you how to fly. What student is smarter than his teacher? Not many, so you are at the mercy of the knowledge of that instructor you chose. When you chose that particular instructor, you had little to go on, didn't you? You had to rely on his presentation but more likely, he who was convenient or available. Well, I'm here to tell you that the many instructors I have flown with lack themselves in talent and by far the majority are only there to build cheap and easy time toward their main goal of flying which is normally not to be an instructor. Like any teacher and instructor, there are good ones, but the really GOOD ones are rare, and there are of course those who have no business teaching anyone to fly! I sell airplanes to many people who are inexperienced let alone even have a complex sign off, so I try to fly with their instructors as well in order to teach them the idiosyncrasies  of flying a complex machine like a Mooney compared to the Cessna 150 they are so used to in hopes what I show them, they will revert back to you. The good ones will pay attention while the haughty know-it-all ones will not pay attention and learn. The majority I have flown with lay in the latter category. I know of several who have allowed his student to land their new Mooney gear up and that includes the most recent one who was endorsed by the FAA to give instruction to those who sign up for a good checkout and wringing out at air shows! A click on my article on "Speed Brakes" will prove that so.

The bottom line my flying cohorts, is that it is UP TO YOU to figure out if you actually know what you are doing in that cockpit or not! Some folks do not possess the capacity to know exactly how they are doing and just plug along because some inexperienced flight instructor signed a paper that said you were competent. Soul search yourself at the least, and for the rest of you, find a flight instructor who is not simply in it to build time, but has experience in all phases of flight and most particular, Mooney experience if possible. That is where I come in most of the time. I like to fly with my Mooneyland people in order to wring them out in their chosen model and I feel at this point that I am damned qualified to do so, even though I have resisted the tug toward getting an instructor rating which has more to do with the liability of selling someone a plane and then signing them off as safe in it, so my name will never appear in the logs of the uncounted people/customers I fly with or have flown with.

I am not in that right seat to be their friend nor hero. I am there to make them sweat under pressure, so much so that there is a countable percentage of customers that have gotten pissed at me and even some I never hear from again! Dummies! Why is it that only I know that when the chips are down, the "zef" may not be there to bail you out? I WANT ALL OF MY PEOPLE to be able to MULTI TASK especially under pressure and I can get frustrated when I see that no matter what, some of them will never learn that. All too often I find that if I tell him to press the push to talk and communicate with the controller with his left hand and mouth, to be able to make power and/or radio changes as well as altitude and attitude changes with the other hand at the same time! Not often, but at times had I not been able to multi task and do it with lightening speed, I may not have been here to counsel you! This ain't about popularity and buddy buddy stuff. Flying at times is very serious business and when called upon, you had better be ready to be the best of the best even though most flights are relatively uneventful, there will always be that one lurking around the corner ready to bite you in the ass when you least expect it.

For those of you who aren't very teachable and take an iron handed old fart in the right seat to task, let me know in advance so I don't waste my precious time left on this earth to attempt to beat some flying sense in to you, and keep in mind that at no time have I ever charged one of my customers for the time I fly with them, and I have had to fly up to six days with at least one to get him up to speed! So if you have yet to fly with me, expect me to make you sweat if I think you need that. This is no popularity contest when lives are even remotely at stake!

AND THEN...... there are those I fly with on occasion that pleasantly surprise me, so much so that I can keep my big Italian mouth shut for most of the flight and enjoy the fact that they actually know something about what they are doing! Rare indeed, but my recent trip back East in order to fly with a multi time customer I've not prior had the pleasure to fly with, which leads us to our first recorded Flying Impressions subject:

TOM LEONARD

FROM HIS 201.......................................................................TO HIS OVATION 3............................................TO HIS NEW ACCLAIM in 3 ea$y $teps!

And do you know what? Tom says that there are some things he misses about his trusty 201!

Tom is one of those guys that is gregarious and easy to get to know as he makes you feel like an old buddy from the first time you speak with him. I sold Tom a '79 Mooney 201 he asked me to locate for him some years back. What I didn't know what that after the sale, he would take me more literally than anyone ever in my invitation to technically support him after the sale. For months if not years after the sale, Tom would call or email me up to five times a day which made me wonder if he had a life at all at times. We would talk sometimes for hours and he felt no concern about calling me evenings, holidays, or when-ever. I didn't mind at all most of the time because Tom has a gift of gab that would nearly always make you feel that you were being entertained which I was most of the time.

Tom resides in the Richmond Virginia area and to spite our trying hard, we couldn't get together due to weather on one end or the other to get to meet him and fly with him, so we decided that I would leave his 201 in Kentucky where I had to pick an F model up, and he would get there eventually with his instructor to fly it back to Virginia once the WX cleared.

Now Tom had some flying experience including a 310 twin Cessna and he once owned his own chopper, but he came off on the phone as relatively insecure when flying by himself, so he used instructors quite a bit.

Tom is the part owner of one of the largest and finest super market chains in the Northeast, and the proprietor of a "Fresh" grocery store he started from the dirt of the land in the Richmond area of Virginia. (see www.tomleonards.com).

Needless to say, Tom is not hurting for money although even many wealthy people are asset rich and cash poor, but I have met people with serious money before while I was in the motion picture business mostly, and without the knowledge of knowing what Tom is in to secularly, you'd think he was just one of the guys and you'd be as proud to call him a friend and buddy as I am. Enough of the syrup and let's get down to business....

After Tom had owned and flown his 201 for some time, he had asked me to locate a good and safe two-seater for his son TJ to fly and learn in. I'm no Cessna 150 fan although that box kite should be credited with teaching the majority of fliers how to, but it's not the plane for me. We discussed Piper "Trauma-Hawks", Grumman TR2 series, even some 4 seat but 2 place birds like the Cherokee 140, but we ended up with a cute little Beech Skipper which they still own but don't fly much because TJ has made his old man and me proud by enrolling in a flight school in St. Louis to get serious about a flying career. We wish him well.

Tom was eventually ready to go up in class to something faster, so we spent countless hours exploring and investigating twin Aerostar's, 310's, Barons, etc. He had me running ragged and spending my time (on my own doing) researching what may be the best upgrade for Tom, and we got close to buying several, but always he would change his mind for one reason or another, so many times that I began to feel that he was just in need of a life or is just a Mooneyland wanna-be or some such thing that I gave up taking him seriously. (my mistake). He sold his 201 on his own and went to Premier Mooney in Florida and purchased a near new Mooney Ovation 2 complete with all Garmin and AIR CONDITIONING!!! I was miffed but it turned out to be my own doing. I bring this out because I want to impress on you that I have no reason to brag about Tom simply because I sold him an expensive Ovation which I did not!

I admit that I was a bit cold to Tom for awhile; human nature and all, but Tom being this really great guy whom I even had cooked for when he came out for the Skipper with his son (prior to the Ovation purchase) I realized that no matter what, I had feelings for the guy.

It was less than two weeks prior to the writing of this article that I had to go and present a Mooney 231 to a previous E model customer/doctor in the Catskills of New York that I had decided to leave early in order to visit my friend Tom on the way and fly with him which in my mind was long overdue. I had been previously concerned about Tom's flying ability only based on the telephone conversations we had had, and knowing that he had spent an inordinate amount of time with instructors so far as his instrument flying was concerned, so I logically drew the conclusion that Tom was just another one of those guys with too much money and not enough flying brains and he seemed to show that he agreed without ever having to say different.

After Tom had introduced me to his lovely wife Karen and tucked me safely in the nice bedroom he lent me at his home, we went to the airport so that I could see and fly in his new Ovation 2. Gorgeous does not even begin to describe that bird! It was perfect to spite that it had 400 of someone else's inexperienced hours on it prior to his purchase, and the original owner sold it because he scared himself half to death in the plane and went back to Cessna 172's the uninformed schmuck!

Before our Flight (gulp)

During the Flight (business is business when called for)

Now knowing I would enjoy the flight, and Tom is the type that can be distracted but only when it is safe to do so and the job at hand is well in hand.

Watching Tom's skillful application and coordination of information gathering between the Garmin 530 and the Garmin 430 interaction. Hell, he was so good a pilot that I didn't even pull my famous distract him while I pull the gear circuit breaker routine that rarely pans out with the pilot knowing his gear wasn't down (unfortunately). I knew that Tom wouldn't fall for that as he checked and re-checked which made my heart glad!

Bottom line is that Tom did a very skillful job of operating his Ovation from start to finish, even though we had some fun on the landing due to the pressure he was under with me filming it and all. (See the U Tube clip on the main page of his landing). I admit that with all of my experience in flying with others, Tom impressed the hell out of me. Why? In part due to the surprise I had seeing him in action, but mostly because he knew what the heck he was doing the whole time and not once did he need to or asked to tap in to my Mooney experience. He just didn't need to. I know a good "AVIATOR" by how they are able to interact and multi task with the plane. I would know if they didn't have good traffic scanning habits, I would know that if I distracted them as I did to Tom without him realizing it, that nothing was allowed to go to pot simply because of a distraction. I have a cardinal rule in flight that on the approach, EVERYONE HAS TO SHUT UP! With that in mind, I tried to distract his approach on short final by saying: "a little fast", but he was on it and landing at the proper speed and didn't need me to point it out. He worked that radio package like a GEEK with a video game, but not once did that prevent him from properly operating his machine all at the same time. I know that it sounds simple, but I am belaboring the point perhaps to a fault, that few I have flown with can fly like that, and as it turns out, all of that time Tom had flown with an instructor was not for flying skills so much as it was to help insure that he fully understands his systems and radio equipment so well that he would never place any of his passengers in jeopardy with inattentiveness, complacency, nor inexperience. I didn't ask Tom to do this, but I am confident that if he placed blinders on, he could reach for anything he wanted to touch and adjust. CAN YOU DO THAT?!

My hat is off to Tom Leonard. We need more pilots just like him.

God's speed old buddy!

More coming soon! Feedback, advice, thumbs up or down on this article as well as the others always appreciated.

zef

Groucho!

Why you O2 sucker! ;o)

 "OH! VATION" sticker added by me in photo only.

NEWS FLASH! Tom traded his Ovation 3 in for a brand new (practically) 2007 Mooney Alliance!

Some guys have all the luck! ;o) atta boy Tom! N233KnoTs!

All glass baby!                                                                     Tom was just tracked at 17,000' on FlightAware doing 238 kts from FLA to VA!

NOTE: Tom will be staying with me in April 2008 while he attends Mooney flying school here in San Antonio. After leaving here, Tom and Annette stopped off at Branson Missouri and met Mickey Gilley. Mickey wanted to see Tom's new Acclaim but especially the new Glass Panel. Mickey owns a red Baron also pictured below:

Left to right: Zef, Liana, Tom, Annette, and Chuck; (expert Mooney instructor)      Tom and Mickey Gilley in Tom's new Acclaim

Mickey giving Tom's "squeeze" a squeeze                                                                 Tom and Mickey with Mickey's Red Baron. How cool is that?!

Sucking 02 at 17,000'                                                     Mickey giving Tom's Fresh store a plug. Tom says that Mickey is every bit as nice as he seems.

News Flash! See Tom on page 11 of the AOPA Magazine July '08 issue!

What does $1.1 Million in pre-owned Mooney's look like?

See the Mooney Acclaim in flight at 8,000 feet:

From: Richard Zephro [mailto:mooneyland@gvtc.com]
Sent: Sunday, June 29, 2008 9:37 AM
To: 'Tom Leonard'

 Hey Tom, did you know your kisser is plastered all over page 11 of the July issue of AOPA magazine? You look great!

zef

Reply:

If it wasn’t for you Richard ….. The time you spent (countless hours with me on the phone) I wouldn’t be nearly the pilot I am today. You encouraged me to get better and practice every chance I could! You taught me THE BASICS that have applied from the first 201 you sold me to my New Acclaim. Thank you Richard, you are the expert of experts and have become a great friend. Tom Leonard

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                                                                     Another Happy MOONEYLAND Customer: Jake and Kat Jacobs

Go for documentation us on your site.   You sold us the plane in late 99 some 1900+ flying hours, 49 states and a lot of fun ago.  Making plans for OSH-Kat plans to camp out there with me-we have done LAL a couple of times.  Hope all is well with you and yours/Cheers/Jake

Jake & Kat Jacobs "Mooneylanders"

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